Ive been somewhat slowly adding stores at Cafe Press and they now number 15 shops, each with it’s own design. All, of course, from the ‘art work of Stephen Brooke.’ Lately, we’ve been adding some of the paintings, making them available on prints, posters, cards. All the current shops can be reached via the Emporium Cafe Press page.

Life remains on hiatus, as far as performing or recording goes. My time is simply taken up by the requirements of being a caregiver. Eventually, all things change. Or so I’ve heard. My online time varies, as things go in ‘real’ life. I have a page on Facebook now (under the name insolentlad — or just search Stephen Brooke) but haven’t been able to keep up with it the last week or so. Same with the blogs and so on. I suppose it’s not that I haven’t time to visit them, it’s just that the grind of everyday cares leaves me with little to say.

I’m a lot closer to having the studio ready for use, here at Peanut Road, but my current role as a caregiver (very much a 24/7 job) means that I’m not going to be opening it to the general public for a while (maybe for friends, though). The ‘control room’ — what I like to refer to as the ’salon’ since the piano and other instruments are in there — is pretty much done, now that I have up a ceiling of acoustic tiles. There will be some more acoustic treatment in time, but the sound is okay now. It’s a decent sized room at 22′ by 14′.

And the whole house (a farm house built in 1940) is spacious enough to spread out into other rooms for recording and/or making music (hope to eventually have house concerts and get-togethers here). It may be a long time, however, before I can convert the carport into my main tracking room. I’ll have a 26′ by 22′ space when (if?) I get that done. Good high ceilings, too.

Now if I could only get the plumbing to be dependable…

We have completely revised our stores at Cafe Press, opting to move away from the one-in-all premium shop we’ve operated for the past couple years and go with multiple shops linked to our own Emporium. We feel this will better serve both our needs and those of our customers — the money we save is reflected in lower prices on the products.

Something had to give. Between being a 24/7 caregiver for my mother and several more pressing projects, there was no longer the time (nor funds) for continuing to publish Peripheral Vision Magazine. It is therefore on — at the least — long term hiatus.

But probably gone forever. I’ve given up the domain name; if I should find the time and desire to attempt a magazine again someday, it may well differ in title and purpose.  I thank all who read or submitted work; I’ll keep the first two issues available on my site for download.

Welcome all to my new news blog-thingy. If I can get this Word Press set-up working properly (I’ve done it in the past so I reckon I can again), I’ll be posting bits of Indolent, er, Insolent Lad news here, have a list of events, some links, maybe even a calendar. More later,

Stephen Brooke, til