"The portal of God is nonexistence."

- Chuang Tzu

Truing up the end blocks on a dulcimer so they can receive the end caps later on.

It takes a little longer doing this by hand, but why let a machine have all the fun!

Every time I do this, I am reminded why most dulcimer makers don't use binding, but binding is one of the few fancy things I like to add to my dulcimers.

I think of the binding highlighting the shape of the dulcimer somewhat like putting a frame around a painting. The binding also helps prevent the edges of the soundboard from getting banged up, so it is also functional.

Current events brought this to mind:

"The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images."

- Guy Debord - "Society of The Spectacle" (1967).

"The work of art of the future will be the construction of a passionate life."

- Raoul Vaneigem

"You cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power, and it issues the coins itself."

Ursula K. Le Guin - "The Dispossessed"

Things are getting worse.

ICE is abducting people and forcing them to attend screenings of "Melania."

Only joking.

Or am I?