LawrMaur

Musician in the streets of Jaipur Struggling with feelings of doubt or low self-esteem? I have just the place for you. After settling into a picturesque, bougainvillea-festooned Maharaja's estate in this small town of Karauli, not far from Agra, India, our group of 10... Brits, Americans, Aussies and we Canucks... wandered out the front gates of the palace, clambered aboard flatbed carts attached by long wooden poles to large camel-toned... you guessed it... camels. Two carts, two camels, 5 pale-white tourists per flatbed and we were off. The mid-afternoon sun settled over us warmly as the camels began slowly trodding forward into the narrow streets of the town. Sitting immediately behind the behind of the camel, its rump muscles shifting smoothly up and down like pistons, I'm a bit surprised there isn't a stronger animal scent ... read more

Hi ... I've just posted a new blog entry at the following link: https://lwgsummerland.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/the-dog-days-of-nicaragua/ https://lwgsummerland.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/the-dog-days-of-nicaragua/ See you there!!!... read more

There is mystery and music and intrigue for me in the names Fez and Marrakech. They sound exotic and foreign and romantic. Maybe even a touch dangerous or threatening. I feel some excitement at the thought of seeing, feeling, hearing, even tasting the experience of locales that have only been names until now. Both of these Moroccan cities have been immortalized in popular songs of my era: "The Fez" by Steely Dan in the 1970's which is actually using fez as a slang term for condom, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash 1969 song "Marrakech Express", written by Graham Nash after a 1966 train ride from Casabla... read more

Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." Last words -- Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson ..................................... December 12, 1862 — Fredericksburg, Virginia The morning air is chill, but not freezing, thank God. I’m wearing the standard blue woollen Union army uniform, my McClellan cap or kepi sitting low over my brow, a long-barrelled musket held tight in my nervously-sweaty hands. There’s a frighteningly long straight line of my Illinois friends and neighbours on either side of me, with whom I’ve marched through many dark, cold nights. We are McClelland’s Dragoons, Company A, come from the farms just outside Chicago. There were times on this march to Fredericksburg when freezing rain made the chill run so deep into my core that I sh... read more

Nashville Sept 19 ... On the Road Again... At 4 foot 10 in. height, Little Jimmy Dickens shuffled into the spotlights of the Grand Ole Opry stage in his blue rhinestone-bejeweled outfit, towering cowboy hat stuck high on his head stretching his stature well above 5 feet tall. In the heady days of years earlier he would stride out with a big electric smile and a guitar strapped around his neck to stand small at the microphone in the famed oak-wood circle at centre stage. For decades, Little Jim... read more