All the latest news poetry and pictures.

Happy Birthday Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit Happy Birthday Songs Website
While reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, I was inspired by the Bilbo and Frodo's huge birthday party to write a song, "Happy Birthday, Dear Hobbit & Friend." As it came together I realized that the song works just as well for anyone who loves the magic of Professor Tolkien's books. Thus, was born this wee web dedication to the birthdays of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Angel's Lament (a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Parody)
A parody of "How's It Gonna Be" by Third Eye Blind. This song is a howling tribute to Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and her once true vampiric love, Angel. Incidentally, this song was written before Angel was killed, and before he got his own TV series! I thought it would be the perfect parody since How's It Gonna Be includes an autoharp in their recording, and, of course, I play autoharp! I posted chords for Angel's Lament on the Brobdingnagian Bards website. It was recorded on Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales.

Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales (formerly Fairy Tales from Brobdingnag)
Fun Filk Muisc and Folk Songs

Kitty Cat (parody of Mari Mac)
Don't remember if I posted this one already. I started playing with this in my head after I sent you the joking list of songs last night for your new "Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers" album! I know it's pretty strange! Comes from 27 years of being an alcohol and drug counselor.

Live For Another Day
Breaking up is difficult. But learning to forgive one's self is even more difficult, and it's never easy to break the cycle, heal, and move on.

Marc's Poetry Blog

Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales
I just got done listening to the first three mixes from Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales, our forthcoming CD. They sound fantastic. All the research that Andrew's put into learning how to record and make great CD mixes is really paying off!

Cat Songs Pressing Down with Recent News
Aya! Seems now New York is jumping on the kitty bandwagon with a new article in CNN New York cafe caters to kitties. Seems MeowMix opened a new cafe that serves cats and humans.

CAT SONGS - New Cat CD Nearly Written
My cat songs are piling up. I already have well over the initial nine cat songs I had thought about using. Soon, I'm gonna have to filter through the songs and find the absolute best. Esp since I haven't even begun recording anything for my CD of cat songs for Irish music fans.

Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales (The Bard's Tales News)
Okay, not quite that big, but as we were contemplating the title, Fairy Tales from Brobdingnag, we hit a snare. "Brobdingnag" is a place in Jonathan Swift's novel, Gulliver's Travels. "Brobdingnagian" is an adjective in the dictionary meaning "big." By calling the CD Fairy Tales from Brobdingnag, we're effectively saying the CD is filled with fairy tales from this mystical land which is not the case.

Fairy Tales CD Update
Everyone has seemed quite interested in our CD progress so I thought I would provide an update. It now looks very promising that we will have it by DragonCon. No guarantees but very promising. Our current list of songs that we are trying to record is 23.

And the Eighth Album is Called... Fairy Tales from Brobdingnag
Whoa! The studio is going great. I drove back to Andrew's home studio last night to lay a final few tracks. Right now, we have recorded over twenty songs for this CD. I doubt they'll all fit on the CD, so this gives us room to pick the best performances for the final project.

Directory of Free Music Downloads
My directory of free music downloads is becoming every so much more popular. Yay!

Renaissance Festival Music
New CD store featuring music from Renaissance Festivals

Irish Songs & Lyrics
The Irish Songs & Celtic Lyrics directory continues to grow.

Celtic Harp Wedding Music
Looking for Celtic Harp Wedding Music for your celebration. Here are four CDs you might want to consider. Each touches a beautiful aspect of the Celtic music: