On any given Christmas, one can be certain there will be at least three garanteed items to eat: turkey, tarte au sucre (French-Canadian sugar pie) and cookies, the latter from which springs the theme of this final post of 2017.

It has been a year of big changes, particularly as I retired from the day job and could now devote myself more to music. Although the Cats have not played as often as I’d like, I have personally never been busier, with vocal lessons (I hope it shows!), recording (more on that later) and the Songwriters’ Circle, all of which are progressing in my view at least as well as I’d hoped.

So, why cookies? As it turns out, my family decided that we would do a Secret Santa style gift exchange to keep costs in line and take some of the stress out of gift buying. Youngest daughter Betsy chose to make her gift, and applied the skills she has acquired over years in the baking business, and particularly her nearly 18 months at Biscuiteers in London UK, where she worked as a bespoke icer (yup, that’s a real job). She made from scratch the musically-themed (+ Batman and sports) cookies pictured below for her sister Lucy‘s (another talented artist mentioned in a previous post) partner Omar, frontman for the Lonely Hearts/Alright Alright, also covered in a previous post. In fact, artistic talent seems to run well in the family as #1 son Sam is an accomplished installation artist, illustrator, and doing a great job picking up the ukulele. Mrs. Félix & the Cats is no slouch either.

Other Treats

I treated myself to a new piece of gear this Christmas. As I’ve been getting into recording more and more, some of the limitations of working in a virtual interface have become evident, and the need for a tactile interface more greatly felt. The PreSonus Faderport (bottom right) does a nice job of helping automate track levels, and I look forward to putting it through its paces working on the recordings good pal Sal Indigo made at ManCave Studio over the last few weeks. I hope to post some of these, once they’re done and I have Sal’s go ahead. Maybe a few other friends will take me up on the offer to record here as well, so I can continue to learn about the process. Call me!

What’s Next?

The ABC Songwriter’s Circle is on a break until January 16, so this is a good chance to catch other artists perform, perhaps recruiting future guests for the songcircle while I’m at it. There is a show at the Linsmore this Tuesday featuring Amber & Alex (Durette and Matthew, respectively; she co-host of the Legends Thursday Night Open Mic, and he a regular, plus special guest at a previous songcircle), Houndbelly (the duo version—Susanne Maziarz and Steve Koller—of 3 Minutes to Forever, one of my fave bands), and first-timers at the Linsmore The Mysterlees.

Friday evening, I hope to catch former co-worker and talent Leanna Yamada at Relish for her birthday show at 7:30. It will be great to catch up as it’s been a while. I hope to have Leanna guest at the ABC later in the new year; fingers crossed.

In conclusion, I’d like to wish you, dear reader, all the best for a Happy New Year! May it be healthy and satisfying in every way. They might even impeach Trump.

Be well!