Sorry for the last-minute announcement, but if anyone is interested and in Western Massachusetts (should you be so lucky), I’ll be presenting an hour long lecture on “Lyrics, Letters, and the Forgotten Lives of Ben Irving” today at 4pm at the Kimball Farms auditorium in Lenox. This is a special presentation of the work I’ve been doing to archive my great-grandfather’s musical and sales career(s) that sent him across all 48 American states and several Mexican ones (plus a few Canadian provinces) during the Jazz Age and Great Depression. I presented a truncated version of it at Pecha Kucha Night Knoxville last week. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to present this extended version in the Knoxville area sometime soon, but for now, I’m very excited to present this long version for the first time with the special bonus of having Irving’s daughter (my grandmother) in the audience.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the end of the semester!