Michael Perry's Blog, page 6

Sneezing Cow Mailing List

Howdy folks:

Social media platforms come and go and hiccup. The best way to get the first word about Mike’s new books and appearances is to be on our old-fashioned e-mailing list, which you can join here.

 

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Visiting Tom in Budapest

Thank you to reader Patrick, who sent me these photos from Budapest, with the following note:

Found you hanging out in Budapest.

This was in the Jewish Quarter it is owned by a Polish family that also has a used book store in Krakow. Lovely place, lovely people. Ps- Love your writing. Patrick, Freeman, Mo. Pop. 482

Apart from giving me a lift, Patrick’s photos and kind words struck a deeper memory chord than he might have realized. In the summer of 1989 I hiked and hitchhiked through 13 countries, including Hungary. While in Budapest, I wandered into a used bookstore and bought this book:

I read it over the remainder of my trip and it was always one of my favorites. That said, its been so long since I read it I only recall it in fragments. So now thanks to Patrick, I’m gonna get through it again.

Oh, and I have no idea if it was the same bookstore. That bit is likely lost to history.

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Tony Got it All in One Haul

 

Loading in for a speaking gig in Duluth. Zero degrees and windy, you don’t wanna make too many trips.

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Bill Fay Gone Away

Bill Fay has died. The first time I heard “The Healing Day” it wrecked me with its tenderness. I wrote a brief essay about it in the book Peaceful Persistence:

 

Lately I’ve been leaning pretty heavily on “The Healing Day,” a song by Bill Fay. It’s a gentle number. Somewhere between lullaby and hymn. Fay was 69 years old when the song was released, and it’s a good thing, because it’s a piece whose proper delivery requires some prior living. I’ve known some fine studio hands, and Auto-Tune’s a wonder, but you can’t chef up empathy.

Fay sings as if he’s smoothing a child’s brow. It’ll be okay, he sings, barely above his breath, his voice acknowledging the darkness all around even as he breathes his belief in the light. I hear it and think of the times I have sat on the edge of my own child’s mattress, doing my best to soothe the small creature when thin threads of dread hung above the bed. How many times do we hold our children close under the guise of comforting them when in fact we are clinging to them as if they were the last buoy in a cold sea?

“The Healing Day” lands on my ears as an unanswerable conundrum. The flat-footed, clear-eyed, windburned part of me knows no song so fragile, sung by a voice so frail, can withstand—let alone overcome—these hardhearted days. Or the vicious fools among us. You would do just as well to block a bulldozer by propping a blown glass ornament against the blade. And yet I accept the comfort of the song, because the comfort is real. It is ephemeral, but then in the big picture, so are bulldozers.

Every battleground, sings Fay, is a place for sheep to graze. Nine words acknowledging the damage we humans do ourselves, conveying the implication that some of us will not survive, or escape unscathed, but allowing that one day the blood and dirt will grow up in pasture. It is the perfect image; no animal grazes unless it feels safe. Forty years my dad raised sheep; Fay sings and I see them, flocked and cropping grass in the mist.

Last night in bed I read a pair of Wendell Berry profiles. Berry is 85 and still working his dozen acres. Less than before, but then he’s got plenty of labor banked. I found myself growing impatient with some of his insistences. Not because I think he’s wrong, but because I don’t see how enough of us can be Wendell Berry. Because I don’t see how a couple tending twelve Kentucky acres is a credible bulwark against—let’s go ahead and run the tracks off this metaphor—the bulldozer of consumer demand and simple venal greed. The disciples are outnumbered.

But there was something in Berry’s words that plucked a harmonic in my subconscious. It took me a bit, but after I snapped the bedside light off, it came to me: I was sensing the interplay between Berry’s words and Bill Fay’s music. Both men understand the battle is pitched against gentler folk, but peaceful persistence is its own reward. It isn’t a matter of winning, it is a matter of dignity. Be at peace with yourself, sings Bill Fay in another song, and at the edge of sleep I recite those words against the universe, hoping my children will hear them.

 

 

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The DeVILBISS

Walked into Mom and Dad’s the other day and got blasted into the past by the very sight of this blue beast. Fifty-some years and still spinnin’ mist. I’d hang my face over it until I had a dew-drop mustache. What can I say, we didn’t have a TV.

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Professional Level Absentmindedness

In my book Montaigne in Barn Boots, I wrote an entire chapter on absentmindedness. This morning when I finished writing at my treadmill desk, I was changing out of my running shoes and into my slip-ons when I thought of something and stopped to jot it down. Later, when I was walking back to the house, I looked down and this is what I saw:

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Rebroadcast: Great Midwest Book Group featuring Author Michael Perry

On February 11th, Mike joined the Great Midwest Book Group for a live book discussion of his novella, Forty Acres Deep. Unfortunately, the Zoom software maxed out at 100 attendees. Fortunately, the event was recorded! You can watch by clicking the link below and using the password provided.

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/yNaS2GwyoC7uuFI-ci8g5DN8mlUS5IjW3o1URneTQffM7VI8kyCoRiSbeuYgSDDP.qlmOKlejXmHbOJCn
Passcode: 4Hy7A*kV

If you want to see Mike in person, he has a couple shows coming up:

Stoughton Opera House
On February 20, 2025, Perry returns to the Stoughton Opera House. Show starts at 7:30 PM.Tickets are $20. If you can’t make it, there also is a streaming option on the ticketing page. Both in person and streaming tickets can be purchased here.

The Heyde Center
Join Mike Friday, Feb 28, 2025 7:30PM, at the Heyde Center (a stone’s throw away from the where his memoir Population: 485 takes place).

Tickets: $25 non-members, $20 members. Grab yours here.

See y’down the road,
Sneezing Cow Crew

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Long Sleeve T-Shirts Are Here!

Been a little chill in the air the last few mornings…will it last? Who knows. But why risk getting cold elbows?

Long sleeve “Sneezing Cow” and “Peaceful Persistence” T-shirts now in stock.

They come in 3 styles:

“Peaceful Persistence Olive“

 

“Peaceful Persistence Slate“

“Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow“

 

 

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Free Episode of Michael Perry’s Voice Mail Episode #250: Best In Show

Howdy, folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 250. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click here to listen.

In today’s episode I go from talking about snow to talking about a first responder call I just made to talking about the mockumentary “Best in Show,” then share an essay about dog shows, as if I know anything about that. And tell a funny story about me and my merchandise manager Tony.

Lots of dogs in this episode, so I went with some dog photos.

Also, this is Tony.

And here’s more info on the Zoom event. We’d love it if you joined in. I’ll be broadcasting live from the little room above the garage.

Thank you for listening,
Mike

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Telling the Story, Month by Month

I’ve done just enough scriptwriting and pitching and development to know filmmaking is a daunting, long-odds gig. Time will tell how things will evolve, but one thing is clear: Regional indie filmmaking seems set to have its day. And that’s a good thing, because stories long overlooked or mis-told are gonna get told.

I’ve seen it recently in Benjamin Cook’s The Best of Us, and now the “Year Project” by Nathan Deming is getting attention. Deming is a writer/director from Tomah, Wisconsin, and the “Year Project” is his 12 film cycle based on the months of the year set in the same small town in Wisconsin. Each film will focus on a different set of characters, sometimes overlapping with previous films, but all in their own stand alone story inspired by that month.

February is the second film in the series and is premiering throughout Wisconsin this upcoming month starting this Tuesday, January 28th in Stanley, WI. All the premieres are free. Click here to see if a premiere is close to your town.

Here is the trailer to February:

 

 

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