Updates and News: MAY 2026
Pics are from my recent trip to Scotland: Oban
May 18, 2026 Update: I leave this morning to visit the sites related to the Spanish Civil War for the new Substack Series, "Echos of Guernica". I plan to visit Torrelavega, Bilbao (Guernica), Miranda de Ebro, Madrid (2 sites) and Avila. The series is not a history piece but will use the Spanish Civil war as a backdrop for thoughts about wars of ideology. I want to compare the circumstances leading to the war in Spain to circumstances that exist today in the United States. There will be seven articles with pictures and a few short videos.
I start writing in June.
Substack
I Two new articles are now up on my Substack Page:
"I'm Supposed to Talk to You" ~ a story about an encounter I had while on the
Isle of Iona last month (March 2026)
"The Wolf in the River" ~ a local story from here in our village...
II I have three more articles to publish to finish the "Precursor" series. I'm working on them
now and plan to have all three up during the month of May.
Moonlight over the pier
The Ferry Boat Docks
A Piper on the harbor strand
The Columba Hotel
Music
I "Two Preludes"
The re-make is published. It was recorded at Mason in December last year and the visuals are
from the Aller river here in our village.
II "Along the San Isidro"
I've had a minor breakthrough in how I plan to do the voicing. The piece is inspired by the
cowbells I heard as I took my walks along the river. I recently had the idea to do all the melodic
lines in the style of Zulu choral music ("call and response"), with South African percussions.
III I plan to have "In the Jemez" up next month (June) and then will turn my attention back to the
composition revisions for "Rowboats of Sligo"
The town of Oban along the bay,
looking from the docks toward
the Columba hotel.
Travel Update
My only travel plans that are set right now are to make a trip through Spain collecting images for a series of new Substack articles. Read more in the new page here on the website: "Guernica"
Oban Bay
A Shoutout to Nuria:
I first hired Nuria Dieguez to teach me more about Digital Audio Workspaces (they used to be called "Sequencers") used by musical artists to compose and record. We started with Reaper, although I had been struggling with Cubase for years prior. Her kind patience and talent together with her technical knowledge have been invaluable to me. I actually was considering giving up on anything related to digital technology for music when we started working together. Now, over a year later, I'm looking forward to her technical help on anything I do. We transitioned back to Cubase about four months ago...
In addition to being a skilled sound engineer and a joy to work with, she is a musician / composer and also devotes her talent to music as therapy.
