About

Welcome! My name is Bruce. You can call me that or whatever. The gravatar is my goat Billy, one of the few people who understands me.

When I was born my parents ran a pub in the provincial New Zealand town of Whanganui. We then moved onto cattle, sheep, and dairy farms.

I taught Music and Drama for a year or two or more – thirty to be precise. Part of my life was spent in North America – a lasting and wonderful influence. I have written over 60 plays and directed lots of theatre. For a time I was librarian at an isolated country school with students aged 4 to 18. I loved it, but the Head Master was a total prick so I told him to shove it. (I put that nicely).

These days I live just out of Stratford (a little town in a bump that sticks out half way up to the left of New Zealand’s North Island). I’m next to a volcano (Mount Taranaki) that hasn’t erupted since 1795ish and is well overdue.

The area I live in is rural and green and populated only by sheep, cows, and horses – the type of environment I like. Now and again I drive the 11-minute trip into town.

I work from home formatting chemical safety documents prior to their being translated into numerous languages. I also teach piano and pipe organ to anyone who is talented but can’t afford a teacher as good as me.

I am interested in gardening, playing keyboard music, learning and creating computer stuff, writing, composing, cooking (not very good at it – they call me “the master of the bland”), making pickles (chutneys, sauces, jams, jellies, preserves, that sort of thing), photography…

Below are some pictures to prove that pigeons can age one dramatically. See if you can pick the Cloven Ruminant. Hint: he’s digesting the news.

60 thoughts on “About”

  1. umashankar

    Bruce, you are a bend in the monotonous expanse of the time-space continuum. Lives don’t get as picturesque (or picaresque?) as that anymore. You are the last of the Huckleberry Finns. And yet, you have the staying power of an Everest.

    Liked by 8 people

    Reply ↓
    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      You have me giggling in my abode, thank you! Sometimes I think you, me, and a couple of others, are the only ones on WordPress? Anyway – Everest is slowly sinking into the sea (I think). Thanks again for the comment – I giggle graciously, nervously, and appreciatively!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
      1. umashankar

        I may be wrong Bruce, but just about everything on WordPress is busy publishing a book, or at least purporting to do that. The next two books I am planning to swim through are Second-Hand Time and A Passing Shower. You can trust me on that as surely as the sinking of Everest.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply ↓
      1. umashankar

        I am getting tangled with the characters. Mercifully, Yvonne keeps pruning them ruthlessly (except the time she made a Lazarus of Vivienne). It’s been a cruel story so far.

        That windy poem reminds me of the abysmal hopelessness of attempting to translate poems complete with the nuances of a language and consciousness seeped in the notions and the culture, add to that the syntactic impossibilities. Since you might not read the original, just let me know how phony it sounds. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓
        1. Bruce Goodman Post author

          It doesn’t sound phony – but I shall look at that. There is one word I thought was “wrong-phoney” but I shall review all in greater detail once I have finished cooking the dinner! The post-modern novel you’re reading is intentionally confusing – which is perhaps its Achilles’ Heel – sort of scrambled eggs. Hopefully, getting muddled doesn’t matter in the long run!

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply ↓
  3. umashankar

    I trust the structure of the novel mirrors the lifelong flux and uncertainty souping up Yvonne’s mind. But it may be too early to say that. Thanks for busting the phoney thing! 😊

    Like

    Reply ↓

  4. Pingback: A Passing Shower —A Review | One Grain Amongst the Storm

      1. frejatravels

        Yes, it is a very tiny country and right at the other north of the world compare with NZ where right at the South of the world:)

        Denmark is not too bad, plenty of castles if you like it, but not much nature like NZ which I miss soo much.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply ↓

  9. Pingback: 11/02 – 17/02 incl. The Bear Attack, Lou Reed & Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll | Observation Blogger

  10. Pingback: 18/02 – 24/02 incl. Intermittent Fasting, Bret Easton Ellis, The Go-Betweens and Cucumbers | Observation Blogger

    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      You might hear criticisms from “foreigners”- but I sometimes tell this story: I was driving along a road in North Carolina following a pickup that had two teenage boys sitting on the back. A funeral cortege (hearse and cars following)passed going the other way. The boys took off their caps. Only in America!

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply ↓
      1. badfinger20

        Especially in the south. I had a friend from New York visited me in Nashville and he was riding with me…a funeral procession was coming in the opposite direction…I pulled over on the side of the road and stopped…he didn’t understand why I did that.
        I told him you just do.

        Liked by 4 people

        Reply ↓
        1. Bruce Goodman Post author

          Yes – in USA if you’re good at something everyone gets excited and gets behind you. It’s very affirming. In New Zealand if you’re good at something everyone will try to cut the tall poppy down.

          Liked by 2 people

          Reply ↓
  14. inese

    I haven’t commented on the About, only ‘liked’. So I can leave a comment now. I have read hundreds of your stories and played your music. Cannot testify about the cooking though, but I am sure it is as good as everything else. Thank you for the generous sharing of your talents, dear friend from NZ!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
  15. Timothy Price

    I finally had time to come over and check out your blog. You’ve led an interesting life. We had billy goats when I was a kid. They are fun and ornery. You taught pipe organ? There is not a lot of pipe organists around these days. We heard a wonderful recital by Henco De Berg playing Notre Dame’s pipe organ in 2013. I like your music. I listened to several pieces. That’s really cool, maybe hot, that you live next to a volcano. We have the Valles Caldera 50 miles (80Km) north of where we live. It’s an old volcano that blew it’s top about one and a quarter million years ago leaving a 13-mile (22Km) wide caldera at an altitude of 11,253-foot (3,430 m) above sea level. We also have three small volcanos on the west side of Albuquerque. Fortunately, our volcanoes are not expected to erupt anytime soon, however, there is a resurgent dome in the Valles Caldera. I am happy I finally made over to check things out.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
    1. Bruce Post author

      Thanks Timothy – and welcome! I too have been poking around your blog getting to know you! My partner lived in Albuquerque for ten years (before we met) so I feel like I know some of the streets!

      Like

      Reply ↓
      1. Timothy Price

        You have some familiarity with the area then. I live north of Albuquerque in Corrales. Our neighbors moved to New Zealand 6 or 7 years ago. How did you meet a former Burqueño?

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓

  18. Pingback: I’m Convinced & A Herb Thinks I’m Special Award – Prudentia Sit

  19. Pingback: The Aliens Who Live In Our Walls – Prudentia Sit

  22. Pingback: 9/05/22 – 15/05/22 Bivol shocks Canelo, Teaching a future PM & If all Humans Die | Observation Blogger

  25. Anonymous

    Hello Bruce,

    You may or may not remember me but I am sure the surname will mean something to you. We were in touch um … probably 20 years ago in relation to the Jolly and Logan family history which I have been pursuing on and off – when my health allows – ever since. I was intrigued to say the least when I saw on your ‘stagebarn’ pages that you had made a connection with the parentage of Samuel Logan and James Plumptre. I managed to obtain a copy of the book that printed some of Plumptre’s journals when making his travels to Scotland etc around 1799 (James Plumptre’s Britain – The Journals of a Tourist in the 1790s). Not surprisingly there was no great admission of course within the book however he certainly travelled the area that anecdotally Elizabeth may have been. Also, the editor, Ian Ousby, stated that the book was selective in what entries of the journal were included.

    So I was very very intrigued as to how you made the connection as he does seem to have a lot going to make him the ideal candidate.

    If he was the father of Samuel then I am glad that the early Samuel and his offspring seemed to have inherited his smarts but not his very weak jaw line – based on the image of him on the dust jacket.

    Anyhow, very much hoping to hear back from you if and when you have time.

    Best wishes,

    Anne Logan
    Melbourne, Australia
    Some info on the Logans of Cambridge: https://annielogan.com/blog/research-on-the-logan-family-by-tony-atienza/

    Like

    Reply ↓
    1. Bruce Goodman Post author

      Hi Anne – great to hear from you! Yes – I well remember our collaboration!

      This is a very brief answer, but just give me a few days as I seem to be
      busy as anything! But I just wanted to assure you that I got your
      message and shall reply!

      To be honest I have not done much on the Logan/Scrimshaw line in the
      last few years – so don’t expect too many gigantic revelations!

      I shall return…

      Regards

      Bruce

      Like

      Reply ↓

Please feel free to spout, tout, flout, sprout, pout, or simply say something sensible