The Royce Files

 how dapper   Ah Halloween, that holiday that while growing up in the church was conveniently avoided and replaced by the likes of the Hallelujah Hoe Down or the Holy Ghost Weenie Roast. Good reasons no doubt since my birth All Hallows Eve has become more about the gore and scare and more recently a little bit of sexy. And Christians really wanted to avoid the big scare that Frank Peretti  painted in a lot of his books. I think my 'brethern and sistern' responded in reactionary ways and did not engage the culture or have a desire to influence it. However, I am not going to delve into the merits of why or why not you should recognize Halloween. Too long, too complicated and I don't have time. I desire to be neutral towards it. So disguises, sweets, meeting neigbors- I like. Scares, gore, witchcraft and their ilk- I do not like. Strangely enough, Martin Luther decided to begin an scholarly engagement  t...

Quetico landscape The following series is a narrative from my first canoeing trip back over a decade ago into the wilderness of the Quetico. In this final episode we hike an old logging road, are visited by rain showers, and head back home. We went hiking the next day on trail north of our island campsite. We canoed to a closest entry point for the trail. It was not close enough so we ended up bushwhacking through the forest and underbrush until the trail was spotted. During that foray we discovered a wooden boat hidden in the woods. I am not sure how far we hiked but it took up much of the day. The trail deteriorated at a marsh that was once a beaver colony. There we made instant pudding. Unfortunately I had no water, just a little lemonade. In substitute of the water I added Tang. It was a regrettable decision. Orange and chocolate do not taste pleasing together. We returned the same route only exploring a spur that went to another lake. Along the...

I caught the You Tube bug shortly after Google bought them. For me it pretty much replaced television since no service could satisfy my eclectic tastes. Then again I did not watch much television to begin with- I just didn't have the time. Well, the advent of You Tubism increased the viral video- the short incredibly absorbing video which made you want others to see.   A few years before- and maybe even earlier- Channel101 became the incubator for the new the short form webisode. One might even suggest the 48 hour film fest also gave rise to the sub-10 minute video. However I am not going to dwell on Channel101 and its sibling Channel 102 (although may have been rebranded as Channel101 NY) in New York. Read the backstory on the wiki page. These twins put out a slew of short forms almost once a month- some good and some not so good. As of late I have perferred the New York flavor's offerings although LA did have Yacht Rock, House of Cosbys, and the beginning of the ever...

 Guitarist Johnny McK. Former member of many nowhere bands.  A college mate of mine- Keith Pille- illustrated and wrote the Internet comic Nowhere Band up until it ended in Spring 2011. A one shot strip appeared one year ago today documenting the an incident that happened 5 years after the Awesome Boys sputtered out when Josh decided to leave the group to pursue writing. I followed the web comic a little. It had the working of a decent sit-com that would revolved around the indy and garage band scene. Probably would still work- so somebody call Dan Harmon. As legend has it- Keith and I were in a few bands together in college. Or at least that is what my memory is telling me. The first- Mr. Willie . Keith was on bass, I was on rhythm guitar, Dale on drums, a guy named Dan was lead guitar, and the indomitable played viola and threw peeps. The band did a few Velvet Underground covers and a few originals for their 1 and only performance at battle of the bands. I think...

Some of you would suspect that the blog is on hiatus. And you would be partially right although in an accidental kind of way. Numerous blog-worthy items have occurred since that last post . But on hiatus I am not. I just moved someplace where I do not have a regular internet connection. So I digress and will compress the items of note from previous weeks. Item 1: Return of the bike trip In August my Mostly Finnish Bride and I took a bicycling adventure which took us through the central part of Minnesota. It was mostly on rail to trail but was a scenic trip that took us through miles of landscape which perhaps inspired Garrison Keillor. You know I have yet to read anything from him that does not take its setting from that idyllic community someplace near St. Cloud or related to his life. It would be interesting if he could right a series of science fiction stories or maybe a treatise on deep sea exploration. I suspect it would either begin...