Grr, Arggh

[ellenkushner]

My hard drive is dead. At least it waited til I returned from WFC, which was splendid, and I was going to post a long and perky report on it, but anxiety and despair have swallowed it right up - that, and the lack of the cool program I had installed which allowed me to make links with the click of a button, and is not on Delia's machine (which she is being *extremely* decent about letting me borrow every few hours when beads of Communication Withdrawal sweat start on my brow...). Anyway, if I saw you at WFC, it was good to see you there!

Meanwhile, I wanted to let local folks know about a very appealing FREE concert this Sunday:

Nov 13 Arlington MA Music and Stories of the Irish and Jewish Immigration Experience
Arlington Town Hall - 730 Massachusetts Ave.
Free and open to the public. 2:00-4:00 PM
Robbie O'Connell and A Besere Velt (A Better World):
Yiddish Community Chorus of the Workmen's Circle
For information call the Workmen's Circle at 617-566-6281

I am a huge Robbie O'Connell fan - as a songwriter he is second to none*, and his live performances are warm and lovely.

*for instance:

Dear Mr Galileo please forgive the long delay-o
You see we've been quite busy trying to settle an old schism
And of late we've had financial and other matters consequential
That demanded prompt attention though it was our best intention
To have let you know much sooner before the recent bout of rumours
That we fear we were too hasty with your excommunication

and

Two Nations

My name's James Michael Ryan and in Southie I was born.
Named after that great man who once made Boston town his own.
My father came from Kerry and my mother from Mayo,
And I longed to see the land they left so many years ago.

My father always told me that he'd take me there some day,
But I was only seventeen on the night he passed away.
He took one bullet in the leg and another in the jaw,
Killed in the line of duty, in the service of the law.
. . . .
See the entire lyrics and more at
http://www.robbieoconnell.com/songbook/index.html

Comments

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

heavens. I'm really wanting to go to that concert. I'm not sure if it'll happen, because my brother's visiting home for the weekend. but thanks for telling us!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

It was awfully good. Robbie was wonderful, as always, but the Workmen's Circle folks were even more than I'd expected - they wove their (very nice)singing with personal stories from their families' immigrant experiences - kind of like "Sound & Spirit"! We thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did the 5th & 7th graders we brought with us. The program will be repeated (along with an Asian component) in a few weeks in Brookline - see
http://www.robbieoconnell.com/calendar.html

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

ooh, thanks!
and you brought kids! that is wonderful. ^_^

Your Hard Drive

[(Anonymous)]

Ellen, I'm sure you backed up your computer recently, but if you need to recover important files from that disk that weren't backed up, you can go to Drive Savers. http://drivesavers.com/. They can do the job, but they aren't cheap. It may be worth a shot.
West

Re: Your Hard Drive

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Thanks, West! The computer's under extended warrantee, so the guys who are replacing the hard drive will also (for an additional fee - not cheap, as you say!) try to recover the rest of my files when they install the new hard drive. I had backed up my word files and some mail, but not all - it would not be a tragedy if they can't retrieve the rest, but it will be very sad (and time-consuming!). Do you think if my guys can't retrieve, Drive Savers could do better?