One of the odd/cool things about my life these days is the juxtapositions. I will see someone I know online linking to the incredibly cool or important thing that they’ve just read and I will follow the link to find out that said thing was written by someone else I know, often a friend.
I’ve come to think of it as the Inkling’s Effect. When I was younger, I was baffled about the degree to which all these cool people who DO THINGS seem to know each other (e.g. Lewis and Tolkein in the Inklings). It seemed a powerful coincidence. As the years have gone by, it’s become obvious to me that there is no coincidence involved. People who DO THINGS are naturally drawn together by, well, doing things. What would be strange is if they didn’t know each other.
The older I get, the more cool people who DO THINGS I meet, and the more I find myself encouraging and mentoring people who want to DO THINGS.
If you’re looking for excellent Irish music at an unbeatable price, let me point you at four albums now available on a free/pay what you want basis (with any proceeds going to charity) all from my late friend Michael Matheny’s trio, Gallowglass.
His remaining bandmates Ken Larson and Lojo Russo are also old friend of mine and they played a final memorial show for him Saturday September 29th with Ray Yates sitting in for Mike, and a whole tribe of guest musicians along to play an old friend out. They did him up proud. They also announced that they were making the whole Gallowglass catalog available free with any money that anyone wanted to donate for the downloads going to Mike’s favorite charities, greyhound and cancer research.