Entering The Noosphere...

Return from Toddstock

2008-06-30T23:05:00.002-04:00

Much time and little posting has gone by. We made it to Toddstock (I really don't like the name...) and lived to tell about it. What an amazing experience. My wife Deb has done a great job blogging about some of the details. I'll probably get to some of those shortly. But the overall experience was one of peaceful recognition. It is rare I can be in the midst of people who share my interests and passion. Most of my interests are musical. And Todd Rundgren's music has been at the forefront of my musical interestsfor many years.

I believe a great poet/songwriter paves the way for others by helping them articulate and discover those things of value, and by reflecting their own ideas for others to catch. Nowhere was this reflection more apparent than at Toddstock. So many people described the event in "spiritual" terms. I'm one who doesn't place much value on spiritual or supernatural realms or dimensions. But I do put a lot of stock in how we seem to have archetypal behaviors that drive us and link us together. And I'm fascinated by how heroes can motivate us to become more of our true selves. I think Toddstock was an event that helped many of us interpret our place in the world, thruough the eyes of one who's music and lyrics have profoundly moved us over the years. I can't count how many people said that Todd's music had changed their lives. I've heard the same language in religious circles - very interesting parallels. I know lyrics like "Beat our swords into plowshares on the anvil of a pure heart" and "How can I change the world if I can't change myself" have made indelible marks on my psyche. And most every person there had similar stories to tell.

In spite of our time in paradise, I'm glad to be back in our own world, pursuing those things that make life full. At this stage of life, the familiar has great value. But I am reinforced by the personal insights of the time in Kauai, and the sense of peace I have drawn from being among people who "get what I get".

We're Going To Todd Rungren's Birthday Party

2008-05-09T19:29:00.005-04:00

You can't be around me for long without knowing that I'm a major Todd Rundgren fan. I don't usually go for the "fan" label or get all excited over celebrities. But Todd has been one of the few musicians that has held my interest over the years. His "No World Order" CD is one my desert island list, so is in my top 4 all time favorites. There were some periods where I listened to it daily, just to pick up all the meaning, layers and musical nuances. It is a brilliant work. He has written some of my favorite all-time songs - among them "Hello, It's Me", "Just One Victory", "Love Is The Answer". And he has constantly pushed the technology envelope - interactive concerts, interactive CDs, computer graphics, direct connection with his audience via the Internet (Patronet). Perhaps one reason he isn't more widely known is that he's been far ahead of his time in terms of technology and presentation. I admire the heck out of the guy.

So imagine my surprise last Thursday when my trusty RSS reader pulled this heading from Roger Lindner's most excellent Todd Rundgren fan site:

Celebrate Todd's 60th

The link led to a bona fide invitation for friends and fans to join Todd and Michele for a birthday week celebration at their home on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Never in a million years would I have imagined my favorite musician would do such a wild, crazy thing. How could we not go?? So Deb and I will be heading back to Kauai in mid-June to celebrate Hawaiian style. We'll be camping at their newly constructed (still under construction apparently) home on the North Shore area. Apparently they have had smaller scale camping parties previously - having owned this property for 15 years. And the invitation assures us camping Rundgren style is more like summer camp than rustic camping - real showers and bathrooms, 24 hour kitchens, keg service, etc. The week will culminate with a concert to introduce his latest CD release - an "arena rock" flavored recording.

So am I excited? This video clip says it all - "I'm too excited to sleep..."

The Joseph Arthur of the Month club

2008-04-19T12:08:00.006-04:00

(I seem to begin a lot of posts these days with "sorry for the dormancy on this site". Life has been busy, and several post continue to brew in my mind, just haven't settled down enough to write them. So here come a few, I hope).

Joseph Arthur has been (and continues to be) my favorite musician of for the past several years, ever since reading about him on Bob Carlton's most excellent blog. I love (and probably have quoted) Arthur's description of his own music and visual projects - "someone struggling to heal over experimental folk-rock". His prolific output and constantly growing vision sometimes require some focus on the part of the listener to handle the shifts, but all in all his material is very satisfying and worth the effort.

So it is with great joy that I have purchased his two most recent releases - Could We Survive and Crazy Rain. These are two out of four planned EP releases being released mid-month between March and June. Both show more of a return to the production and songwriting approach of Our Shadows Will Remain, the first JA release I listened to. That album is on my desert island list, and I can't see anything supplanting it. It is one of the few recordings that grabbed me from the first listen and hasn't let go. So my standard for new JA releases is pretty high.

The two EPs thus far are much more of a return to the compositional and production approaches of Our Shadows Will Remain, with a palette of drum machine loops, layered guitars and vocals, as well as suprising anolog textures of unknown origin. Could We Survive is a bit more mellow and lyrical in approach, while Crazy Rain has more of a grunge/low-fi texture in several of the songs. My favorite tune to this point is probably Crazy Rain's "Dream of the Eternal Life", but I find most of the tunes especialy on Could We Survive hold up very well to repeat listens and analyses.

Can't wait for my next two Joseph Arthur of the Month installments in May and June. And word is he will have a full-length release in August. It's a good year.

Current Projects #2 - Creativa

2008-02-09T14:43:00.001-05:00

I've posted announcements for our monthy creative "Free Slam" event in the past, and we've continued to have a great time getting to know and hear/watch/experience the creative types in our own back yard. We've realized we needed to make sure the event title communicated the scope of what is and will take place. We spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon last month brainstorming (interleaved with talking politics) and - enter Creativa!

The multitalented Cortney Haley has been hard at work creating the Creativa web site, with all the bells and whistles. The logo started with some designs from Jeff Nabors, and Cortney morphed them into the current design.

We gather the last Saturday of every month at Tanze Performing Arts Studio, 1044 Symmes Road, in Fairfield (Ohio, that is). Creativity in all its forms is honored - spoken word, music, visual arts, dance, video, whatever.

Check out Cortney's Creativa video - and stick around for the chicken at the end...

Current Projects #1 - R~U~Us and Bekka Live

2008-02-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Not a lot of blog posts lately, I know. The day job has been taking a lot of time/focus, and we also have a couple of creative projects under way. Most immediately, Monday night (Feb 11) is the debut of our new band, R~U~Us. We've been playing together for a while in various incarnations, but this round is our first public appearance with a name and new goal. This first gig is in support of our most excellent vocalist and songwriter Bekka Eaton. Her day job is as a theater prof at Miami University, and she has been asked to present some of her original music and creative material at the new Miami Hamilton Downtown storefront. So we've been working feverishly for the last couple of months - arranging and learning these challenging, atypical (in a very good way) tunes. I worked with Bekka on a larger production of her original material - entitled Bekkaland - a couple of years ago. It was one of the first events presented at our new local community arts center. This iteration is a smaller scale, more intimate experience, and the kickoff for our group of motley musicians - Deb, Bekka, Janet, Steve, Yvan and myself. We hope to play out and about perhaps a couple of times a month at most. Not a heavy commitment, but enough to keep us learning interesting music. One of the more enjoyable new experiences for me in this project has been writing cello parts for Janet. I know enough music theory to be dangerous, but typically don't use written music much these days. So it's been a healthy challenge to get back into that realm, with the able assistance of Sonar and a few other computer music applications.

Come see/hear us, ya hear!

I've been book memed

2008-02-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

Julie apologized for including me - it's OK - mines a low traffic blog, so I don't get many of these. And books are one of my two favorite topics. So the meme instructoins are:

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

Good thing there was a page limit - most books close at hand were software manuals - those books men never read - and I didn't include the index, so it kept the count low. At any rate, the closest real book was "That Distant Land", a collection of Wendell Berry short stories set in Port William. (I've posted about these stories several times.)

Page 123 happens to be the last page of the short story "Watch with Me":

"Let's go eat!"

"Oh, that was a meal that was a joy to set on the table!" Mis Minnie said. She and her nephew, Sam Hanks, had been telling Granny and me the story of Nightlife's spell and his long ramble through the woods.

And I will tag Deb, Jeff, Brian, Tammy Jo, and (crossing over to MySpace divide...) Randy.

U2 3D = amazing!

2008-01-27T20:47:00.000-05:00

I visited the nearby multiplex this afternoon with some friends to take in the film U2 3D. The Springdale Showcase Cinema happens to be the only theater in Ohio showing the film during it's prerelease dates (wider release occurs in mid-February). And it's only a few minutes from home - lucky me! This is a truly amazing feat of technology. I'll have to say it started off a bit slow. And I'm not completely sold yet on 3D movie technology. Thus far it seems to have more a series of layers rather than a continuous 3D feel. But the audio and computer graphics made up for any technical shortcomings. I especially enjoyed the stage background LCD screen matrices, and the film included computer graphic representations of many of these themes layered on top of the performances - it was amazing, especially due to the simplicity of many of the "drawings". They often merged the 3D graphics with the actual onstage backgrounds. The song reporitoire was well chosen. And as I mentioned, the audio quality was excellent (except for some of Bono's speaking parts.) My favorite moment was when during a closeup on Bono they dropped out all the reverb, giving me the sense he was singing directly in front of me. As the camera shot moved back, the reverb was gradually added back in until the "normal" ambiance was present.

Sweeney Todd

2007-12-28T10:03:00.000-05:00

Deb and I had seen the stage production of "Sweeney Todd" several times, but it has been a good while since the last viewing. Still I consider it one of the most fascinating, even courageous musicals ever written. Who would have thought such a story would capture musical theater audiences. So we were anxiously awaiting Tim Burton's big screen production. Still I must say I had a bit of an "approach/avoidance" think going, after hearing about the blood and gore and knowing how dark Tim Burton can get. (Danny Devito's role of The Penguin in "Batman Returns" still creeps me out.)

After a delightful sushi lunch with our friends Jeff and Cyndi, we ventured into the local cinema to take in the flick. And it was rather mesmerizing, I must say. I've appreciated Johnny Depp in many rolls, but can't say I've been a huge fan - now I am. He was fantastic in the title role - I thought his speaking and singing voice captured the part perfectly. The singing voices of some of the other cast - Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman - were less notable, but these were the only weak links in an otherwise amazing film. The blood did flow, and I turned my head a couple of times. But the film adaptation gave more depth to the characters, and made the story that much fuller of possibilities and tragedies. I actually didn't recall the specifics of the ending, so there were still elements of suspense up until the final frame.

Deb and I both picked up on one element that hadn't been predominant in the stage productions - how we consume one another metaphorically. The film in conjunction with the sad assassination of Benazir Bhutto were sobering reminders of how far we still have to go as a human race.

My favorite Christmas present

2007-12-26T11:56:00.000-05:00

If you look at my iTunes collection, classical music reins down at the bottom of the ranking, along with heavy metal rock. Opera is non-existent in my collection. I did spend my first two years of college as a voice major, and had to sing my share of arias in stride, but haven't touched the stuff since changing my major to psychology. The closest I come in my own musical collection is in the guest appearances of Luciano Pavoratti with U2 and Elton John. So I'm still mystified as to my own visceral reaction when I first heard Paul Potts via a YouTube clip several months back. Even pasting the clip into my blog this morning, I'm still moved to the same tears, even without watching the "Britains got talent" audience and judges doing the same. It is certainly the rags to riches story of the year in my opinion. (He was barely making it as a cell phone salesman with some recent health problems at the time he came into the limelight.) Visiting his blog on the website, it is amazing how many people have had a similar reaction to my own when hearing him for the first time.

When I first saw the clip, I immediately distributed it via email Like many things in life, I tend to forget about them in the midst of the daily living routine. I had seen references to Paul's first CD being released, but just never got around to picking it up (or more likely downloading it). My dear wife remembered, so my favorite gift of the year is Paul's CD "One Voice". I put it in the player and Deb and I both just sat on the couch and listened to the whole thing, speaking very little except to comment on arrangements or linguistics.

In reality, the album probably blends the classical and pop genres, perhaps in the way Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli have done. (I say probably, because neither of them are in my collection ). The highlights are "Nessun Dorma" and "Con Te Partiro (Time To Say Goodbye)", but the album also has a mix of some popular songs done in an "aria" style. For a couple of these - songs I could normally live without hearing again in my life such as My Way and You Raise Me Up (the latter from too many wedding gigs) - Paul and the producers had the good taste (IMHO) to perform them in Italian, so that the music is the focal point. He also performs "Cavatina", a song I've considered one of the most beautiful ever written since hearing it in the soundtrack to The Deer Hunter back in the 1970s.

So I'm thankful this year for my Paul Potts CD, which will always remind me of the surprising beauty that can emerge from chaos. It makes me think of the title/opening line of an old hymn I've heard only a few times in life - "Sometimes a Light Surprises".

Holiday Slam

2007-12-23T09:58:00.000-05:00

Coming up this Saturday, December 29th. Come hear the words and music flow...

FreeSlam with smoked turkey

2007-11-10T13:18:00.000-05:00

Yet time for another slam - this time with potluck starting at 6:30. Gonna fire up the backyard smoker and smoke some turkeys this year. Should be a tasty alternative even to regular turkey.

We had some great artists - musicians, poets, painters - last month - many connections are being made. Come join us as the Thanksgiving weekend winds down.

October Free Slam

2007-10-14T19:13:00.000-04:00

Come one, come all - October 27 is the date. We plan to continue these on the last Saturday of every month. You can find Tanze directions here.

New widgets and features

2007-10-13T14:10:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted anything new for a couple of weeks, but my blog has been changing nonetheless. I spend as much time thinking about my sidebar as I do the actual content of postings, and over the past month or so I've been tweaking the sidebars to make use of tools that provide a more "seamless"way for me to track my activities. Specifically:

LibraryThing is an amazing site for avid readers like me. I'm using it to populate my "currently reading" and "desert island" book lists in the sidebar. All I need to do is add books to my personal library (up to 200 titles are free, beyond that you can pay - with $25 being enough for a lifetime/unlimited subscription). Then I tag them as either "current" or "desert island". When I'm finished reading something in the current list, I just remove the tag. The wonderful thing about LibraryThing is the ability to find other readers with similar tastes, locate reviews, participate in forums where the titles are mentioned, search for more info on authors, etc. My LibrayThing library is located here.
LastFM is a similar site for music, but especially excels in tracking and reporting listening in real time. I removed my "currently listening to" category, and replaced it with two LastFM widgets. The first one reports individual songs I've listened to recently, either from within iTunes or on my iPod. (I believe it will also integrate with WinAmp and other players). The second is the "artist quilt", which keeps track of my listening habits over time and generates a clickable patchwork image of those artists. LastFM gives many options for generating widgets within different categories. My next step is to replace the "desert island" music list with info from LastFM. My profile is here.

Along with these changes, I've also enabled Snapshot previews, which brings up an image of the website associated with various links. This morning I did some tuning to eliminate links to things like photos and sidebar sites, so the Snapshot usage is now cleaner. And all of this becomes very easy to manage due to Blogger's new layout scheme which makes it much easier to add widgets and other content via drag and drop features. I had briefly considered trying a pay blogging service, but with the layout manager features, I see no need to move.

Teilhard revisited

2007-09-28T09:59:00.001-04:00

Teilhard de Chardin continues to be a primary influence in the development of my own world/universe viewpoint. I was fishing for some Teilhard quotes the other day and ran across an interview with physicist and mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme. Deb and I heard Dr. Swimme speak at the 2005 Teilhard convocation in New York, and I also recall reading an earlier version of this article. It is a good introduction to Teilhardian thought and the effect it can have in the development of any world view. A good reminder for me of my initial encounters with de Chardin's writings.

http://www.wie.org/j34/swimme2.asp

The Narcissism of Fundamentalism

2007-09-27T07:59:00.000-04:00

Not sure what precipitated this thought, but it struck me this morning that fundamentalism of any ilk is essentially a narcissistic phenomenon. At the core, fundamentalists seem profoundly uncomfortable with anyone being or believing differently, and are willing to fight for that conformity to their ideal. That such ideals are often attributed to divine revelation or other subjective sources is almost secondary.

Not much time to develop this right now - feel free to share some thoughts/reactions and perhaps I will expand on this later.

Joe Zawinul, 1932-2007

2007-09-12T12:15:00.000-04:00

One of the world's greatest musicians (IMHO) died yesterday at the age of 75. Joe Zawinul was a pioneer in the jazz and especially jazz fusion (no - not smooth jazz...) world. He played on early electric Miles Davis sessions that set the stage for the whole fusion movement. He founded Weather Report, which remains my all-time favorite band of any genre, even 20 years after they disbanded. In conjunction with Wayne Shorter they produced what I consider the two most beautiful songs every written/recorded - namely "Blackthorn Rose" (on Mysterious Traveler) and "A Remark You Made" (on Heavy Weather). Probably his best known song was "Birdland".

His keyboard abilities were singular and astounding. Recently while watching some archived concert footage from the late 70s, it was amazing that a 5 piece band - keyboards, sax, bass, and two percussionists - could generate the quantity and quality of sound using the tools available in that day. I would dare anyone to listen to any album beyond their first and identify the era - the recordings are flawless and timeless. Zawinul was a master of multiple genres of keyboard music - classical, traditional jazz, funk, contemporary jazz, anything. He even inverted the keyboard note order on one of his Arp 2600 synthesizers - so that the ascending musical scale was played right to left. Said it gave him "more ideas" to work with. Like he needed them.

His compositions were more like tone poems - strong attention to melody, but equal attention to sonic inventiveness and surprise. He didn't write too many melodies that one would easily sing in the shower (besides Birdland, perhaps). My "currently listening to" list has had his most recent release - "Brown Street" - in place for a couple of months. It is a phenomenal blend of his keyboard pyrotechnics in a big band setting. I'm not usually a big band music fan, but this set of music is an exception. Anyone that can sit still through the "Badia/BoogieWoogie Waltz" medley needs to have a full physical exam.

Zawinul remained active musically with his band Zawinul Syndicate until he was hospitalized in mid-August with a rare skin cancer. His web site tribute says it best:

Joe Zawinul was born in Earth time on 07 July 1932 and was born in Eternity
time on 11 September, 2007. He, and his music, will continue to
inspire!

My Hometown

2007-09-04T21:07:00.000-04:00

Even though I've been in Cincinnati since high school, I still consider Harriman, Tennessee my “home town”. I was born there in 1956, and lived there until 1970. In recent months I've been increasingly aware how that town continues to influence me at conscious and subconscious levels. Many of these influences have no “good” or “bad” label attached to them – they just are filters applied to my perceptions, mental images, and expectations. For example when I read a book who's scenes remotely have parallel environments, my first involuntary inclination is to place those scenes in the neighborhoods or wildernesses of that area. When I go hiking, my standard against which I measure the current trail is usually one of my childhood hiking experiences. Indeed, when we bought our home in Fairfield we first fell in love with the sense of “living in the mountains” that the location gave us, and Deb has continued to say that you can't get the mountains out of the man.

No one has a “perfect” childhood. My own was largely colored by the “life in the fishbowl” sense I had as the son of one of Harriman's more prominent ministers in one of the more prominent churches. (Harriman had around 10,000 people, and 27 Baptist churches alone! You couldn't get away from church no matter where you went.) When you combine this fishbowl with my natural introverted temperament and religious beliefs that at an early age (10 or so) tended more toward atheism, you had the recipe for a somewhat isolated childhood. But I never doubted the unconditional love of my parents, a great gift that should never be taken for granted.

In addition to family and a few friends, the strongest images I have from those years are of the home and neighborhood where we lived for most of those years. We always lived in a home owned by the church where my father was employed. When I was 4 years old, the church was given an enormous house (4700+ sq feet I have recently learned) by one of the prominent lawyers in town. He had built a new home high on the ridge that overlooked the town – a place where we often visited. I don't know any of the background or motives for this gift – all I know is that this house and neighborhood have played a huge part in my life. My love of books and reading began here, and I was only 3 blocks from the local public library funded partly by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. (We actually walked places “back then”.) I delivered newspapers and had several other door-to-door “business ventures” throughout the neighborhood. And I was free to roam the town business district as I wanted – spending my hard-earned money on records, photo supplies, and other hobby gear. The house itself had enormous rooms, including my own bedroom with a walk-in closet big enough to play in. And the multi-level basement provided the perfect environment for my increasing scientific curiosity. I was able to lay out my chemistry sets, microscopes, and electronic kits without worrying about leaving a mess around the house. The huge, terraced and partially walled yard was also a place of many childhood "adventures".

Fast forward to this Labor Day weekend. Deb and I visited East Tennessee, and I felt some strong urges to visit Harriman. In particular I wanted to walk around the old neighborhood and take some photos. It had been 10-12 years since we had visited Harriman. The last I knew our home on Walden Avenue had been turned into a multi-family dwelling of some sort, and many houses in the neighborhood had been in some stages of decline and abandonment. I don't recall being inside this home since we moved some 37 years ago.

Not wanting to alarm anyone, I decided before snooping around the yard that I would at least ring the bell and tell whoever answered why I was taking pictures. Answering the door was someone clearly without the expected southern accent. To make an already long story somewhat shorter, turns out the current residents, Michael and Donna, had grown tired of living in Florida, began traveling through the southeast (at least North Carolina and Tennessee), arrived in Harriman, and stopped their search when they found this house. They are two years into the task of restoring/reviving this home to the spirit of it's 1923 origin. Michael is a nuclear systems analyst and Donna is a professional photographer, and Harriman has become home to them. It was amazing to see a place as familiar as Harriman and this house through the eyes of newcomers who had chosen to be there, versus those of us who's birth had placed us there.

We spent the better part of an hour touring the house, with them showing the updates they had made, and asking me what it had been like when I had lived there. They had discovered the race car wallpaper under some other layers of paper in my old bedroom. Michael is a Maserati collector - in fact, is president of the North American Chapter of The Maserati Club, and is building a garage in the huge back yard to house his collection - so he seemed especially excited to have found the wallpaper. And I enjoyed showing Deb around. I had told her many tales about this house, and she agreed that I had not exaggerated its size and character. The house is just on the edge of the “Cornstalk Heights Historic District”, which has facilitated placing as many as 150 homes and buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places. There are still a number of empty homes in this tree-lined district, but apparently a number of local and out-of-state residents have decided to call it home and dedicated themselves to the long process of revitalization.

At age 14, I couldn't wait to leave Harriman behind. “Bigger is better”, the appeal of cultural opportunities and educational options were already taking hold of me. At age 51, I can't seem to detach myself from that town, and indeed don't really want to. I am fascinated by the general growth and development that occurs during early years among all of us – even more so as my own patterns and influences become clearer to me.

The rear view.

A nearby house where some childhood friends used to live.

Weekend getaway

2007-09-04T18:32:00.000-04:00

Deb and I spent the weekend in Tennessee, visiting several new and familiar areas. We stayed at Wildwood Lodge near the Big South Fork National Recreation Area. Awesome hosts, grounds, and breakfasts. We also visited my hometown of Harriman, Tennessee - I'll have more comments on that visit in a separate post.

Here are a couple of memorable photos. The green guy on the window really wanted inside - and gave us a great view through the window. Sorry, double occupancy room only.

The area did not have many choices for dining - in fact, the most popular spot seemed to be the "Hanging Hog Bar-B-Que" restaurant, a concrete block building with a double wide mobile home attached as the dining area. Fine cuisine indeed. (The Bar-B-Que was quite good, and we know Bar-B-Que!)

Free Slam photos

2007-08-30T13:55:00.000-04:00

Gregg Brekke took some wonderful photos at the Free Slam event we held on August 26th. It was jointly sponsored by Tanze and Nexus Church, and sprang from Bekka and Randy's gifts and visions. Gonna try to do another very soon. The full slideshow can be seen here.

Ken Medema in Concert

2007-08-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

Sunday afternoon Deb and I traveled to "inner city" Indianapolis to participate in a Ken Medema concert. I use the word "participate", although we were just a part of the audience. But there is no way to attend a Medema concert without becoming a participant.

Where to begin...I've been a huge fan/follower of Ken's music and approach to performance since my college days in the mid 1970s. It had been probably 8 years since we last attended a concert - he doesn't tend to get close to our area often (hopefully something we can remedy). Ken has always moved mostly in church-related spheres, yet he has transcended the narrow categories that most musicians of that "genre" fall into. Deb asked me the week before why I was so drawn to his music, when I tend to not give a lot of room to corporate "spiritual" talk. (I believe spiritual experiences and opinions are so subjective that most attempts to normalize people around them tend to divide rather than unite.) I retorted that Ken's compositions rarely mention God in overt ways - they tend to talk more about relationships, community, dreams, heroes, pain, healing, work, and play - very tangible, relevant things in my opinion. About 3/4 of the way through the concert, I leaned over and pointed out to her that he had only mentioned Jesus once, in a song retelling the biblical story of Zaccheus. He has composed e a number of songs that retell similar stories, but they don't tend to be my favorites from his reporitoire. And they always pull a new dimension/perspective from those stories. You don't have to say Jesus/God over and over ad nauseum in order to speak to and call out the image of God that is in all of us.

Musically Ken is a phenomenon. He has been blind since birth - I believe only seeing some shapes and degrees of light/dark. Yet he moves on stage between the piano, synthesizers, and drum machines like he has eyes in the back of his head and on the ends of his fingers. His keyboard performances are virtuoso level technically, and he constantly merges varied musical styles into his compositions - jumping from classical to modern jazz to rock to world music motifs within the same song. On Sunday I especially enjoyed hearing how some familiar songs - especially "Color Outside the Lines" and "Bound Together" - had morphed over time to include new stylistic and lyrical aspects. I could go on and on about the musicianship at work here - suffice it to say I'm glad Ken lets us all into the musical ideas that are in his head.

A special treat on Sunday was to hear his road manager, sound engineer, and visual navigator (she has a seeing-ey dog t-shirt that says "Don't bother me, I'm working...) Beverly Vander Molen perform on the 60-rank pipe organ that had been installed at Broadway United Methodist Church just a few years back. They played together on "We'll Walk No Longer" which does some great rhythmic morphing throughout it's course. Wish we could have spent a little more time around Broadway church as well - a very unique mix of high-church architecture and community focus - at least those were my impressions.

Speaking to the audience experience, Ken makes eye/heart contact through body language, vocal nuances, and constant attempts to encourage the audience to participate in his songs - singing along, completing sentences, and many other seemingly spontaneous actions. His academic training was in music therapy, and this element has continued to fuel his compositions and performances. No where is this more evident than during the segments where he invites members of the audience to tell personal stories and he responds with instant compositions. This past Sunday the two standout compositions were in response to an elderly woman talking about her work for the past 15 years with HIV/AIDS patients and a man sharing experience of he and his partner adopting a young girl with a horrific past. Both of these songs were "final quality", rather than just doodling. Many songs on his recordings start out as responses to stories, speeches, and events. (Ken will write/record personal songs upon request - for any occasion, person, subject - see details here.)

To my knowledge no one else does what Ken Medema does. That's a real shame - I wish it could be cloned or bottled so that communities all over could experience the dynamics and interactivity on a consistent basis. Short of that, he certainly provides a model and approach that many of us can learn from as we explore how to relate to ourselves and each other within our families, communities, churches, and world.

Deb and I were able to spend some time with Ken and Beverly back in July while he worked on his new recording project in Louisville. I'm listening some of those tracks as I post, and can't wait for the release in September. I'll post more about that release when it becomes official - let's just say it's as great as I would hope/expect from this musical phenomenon.

Great music this weekend

2007-08-17T20:13:00.001-04:00

Saturday night we are going to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Fraze Pavilion in Dayton. They are definitely one of the most innovative groups in music - and have been since I first started listening to them back in the 80s. Their current incarnation marries banjo acrobatics, "Roland Kirk-esq" sax stylings, and the innovative musical hijinks of the Wooten Brothers rhythm section.

Sunday we are heading to Indianapolis to experience a Ken Medema concert. He is one of my musical idols, and we use a lot of his material at our church. In addition to being a formidable pianist/producer/arranger, he has an amazing ability to listen to stories and immediately improvise really good songs about the story. He's frequently asked to do this to summaries/solidify speeches by fairly well known folks - Desmond Tutu, Lynn Redgrave, Jim Wallis, and Brian McLaren among others. I've known Ken since my college days in the 70s, and he's gotten better with time. Deb and I spent a few days with him in Louisville back in July, enjoying watching his next recording come to life. It should be released soon.

More comments and hopefully pictures after the weekend.

More Wendell Berry books

2007-08-17T20:03:00.001-04:00

After reading Jayber Crow, I ordered more Wendell Berry books in the Port William series. So those will start showing up in the current list at the right. I opted to order used copies of the hardback versions (through Amazon merchants) where possible, since hardbacks are so much better in quality and longevity, as well as being easier to read leisurely. Jayber Crow was such an earthy tale, it almost felt as if I should search the highways and byways for old book stores (which probably don't exist anymore) rather than ordering copies via the Internet.

I plan to read the collection of novels and short stories in chronological order when possible. That Distant Land is a collection of 23 short stories and contains the beginnings of the saga, circa 1888. And I've been spending a little time at this web site, which is a hub for online information about Berry.

Free Slam

2007-08-11T21:49:00.001-04:00

Click on the image for more details. (And doesn't Jeff do great work!)

Desert Island Lists

2007-08-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

When I first started blogging, and restarted blogging a few weeks back, the most important task was to attend to my music and book lists. Making sure these lists are available was more important than actual blog entries - kind of like when I make sure the stereo is set up first in a new residence - then I can get on with the work at hand.

I've always loved the notion of "desert island" lists, even though it's unlikely that I'll be appearing in Castaway any time soon. But for some reason I am drawn to books and music that I know have more to offer than one reading or a few listenings will yield. When I was writing computer games for a living, an industry/consumer publication (I don't recall which one) asked some game developers what one game they would want if stranded on a desert island. One developer said "Visual C++", which was the programming language and tool most widely used at that time for developing new games. I thought it was a profound answer. I'll take the one thing that is renewable, able to be looked at freshly each day - the one that has enough raw material for a lifetime.

So perhaps I'll take the opportunity to occasionally write about items on my list. In fact, why not start now. I'll pick an easy one from the book list - Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. This is probably the most entertaining book I have ever read. It was sheer fun from start to finish - sort of a combination of computer hacking and swashbuckling adventure spanning a 60 year timespan. The computer episodes were detailed enough to seem authentic and challenging if you are a true tech lover like I am. And the adventure segments were highly imaginative, yet totally believable. I still carry strong images of two particular themes/scenes- a daring Japanese POW escape from a Pacific island via tunnel, and a running thread where a familiarity with pipe organ mechanics leads to mastery of various computing and decoding devices. The book is over 900 pages long, and I nearly read it in one long sitting!

Currently Reading - Jayber Crow, Part 2

2007-08-10T20:44:00.001-04:00

I finished this beautiful book a few days ago. It still creeps into my thoughts and actions, calling me to slow down and not be so dependent on external stimuli for wellbeing and survival. I will be reflecting on this one for a long time. And I'll be searching for more books by Wendell Berry. It will probably make it to the desert island list shortly.

Currently Reading - Jayber Crow

2007-08-04T10:48:00.000-04:00

I've heard the name Wendell Berry referenced in numerous places over the past few years - primarily in conversations and writings dealing with sustainable practices and the connection with spirituality. But I had not read any of his works other than portions of online essays, until I ran across Jayber Crow on my local library shelf.

The full title is "Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, as Written By Himself" - whew. This is one of the most lovingly written books I have read. No other words describe the prose here. Every page - nearly every paragraph - is quotable, as Jayber describes life in the Kentucky River valley. When reading fiction, I'm usually drawn to mystery and intrigue, with complex twists and turns. This book is the opposite, but I don't want to put it down. I'm only halfway through, so will post more when completed. But I had to point it out. From researching more on Berry's writings, it appears he has written seven other books based on the Port William community, and uses it as a prototype for what works and what doesn't in societies we build and evolve. Growing up in a small southern town as I did, many of the characters come alive with faces from my childhood. But the images go beyond nostalgia, into a realm of evaluating those things in my life that have worked and have not, even as Jayber looks back over his life span. This is just a beautiful book

Here are a few phrases from the section I'm currently reading:

The local foul-mouthed church janitor talking about his proper wife...

the madam goes around committing virtue left and right

When describing a late-night encounter where he stoically and wordlessly sat with a grief-stricken father who was dealing with the loss of his son in WW2:

After a while, though the grief did not go away from us, it grew quiet. What had seemed a storm wailing through the entire darkness seemed to come in at the last and lie down.

I feel that I could find worthwhile quotes in this book as easily as the old game where one opens a book (phone book, bible, whatever) to a random page and points their finger at a random spot. It is rich in wisdom and humor, and transcends the local community to provide universal ideas.

Adler and Hearne Concert

2007-07-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday evening close to 30 folks joined together for an "enhanced house concert" with our friends Lynn Adler and Lindy Hearne from Texas. Lynn and I have been close friends since we attended college together back in the 70s. We worked on numerous musical projects together during college years, and our friendship has stood the test of time since those days. She and Lindy did a house concert a couple of years ago at our place, and they decided to do another northern tour to beat the Texas heat for a short while. Their final destination was northwest Michigan!

The concert was a wonderful blend of humor, creativity, and direct communication with the audience. This time we held the concert at Tanze Performing Arts Studio. Susan Moser was gracious to let us use the space, and it was perfect for the event. Everyone walked away with one or more songs on their mind. My favorite from two years ago is still my favorite this time around - "You Pierce Me", a story of love within the Goth/pierced community. (Why, I don't know - I'm neither Goth nor pierced...).

Here are some pics of the event, straight from Lindy's new camera. Later in the evening, as we drank martinis at home, Lindy entertained us all with photo mashup slideshows of ourselves from back in the 70s - lots of bell bottoms, polyester, and puffy hair! Sorry I don't have any of those shots - NOT!

Must Not See TV

2007-07-31T20:27:00.001-04:00

One of the networks used "Must See TV" as their motto several years back. This derivative fits a new show that we had high hopes for. Saving Grace features Holly Hunter, who tends to be entertaining and surprising in most roles. I don't recall the first film I saw her in, but she is one of the actors that draws my attention to a project. We gave the TNT show a couple of weeks to sink in, but in spite of positive critical reviews, it just doesn't work for me. I didn't expect the "angels among" us story element added to the usual crime drama fare. This time, the angel is a tobacco-chewing southerner with bad teeth and hair. The net result reminds me of a really bad church play with sex and violence. Sure, Hunter's character is supposed to be impulsive and unstable, but she's mostly just incoherent. The show is so disconnected that by the end of last night's episode I could barely remember the particular crime that was supposedly consuming the main characters. Nuff said...don't bother with it...

End of a frisbee era

2007-07-31T20:17:00.000-04:00

Our 7-year old red tri-color Australian Shepherd, Rudy (on the right), has been an incredible Frisbee dog over the years. He never seems to tire of catching it and giving 110%. I've seen him do mid-air 360 degree turns a couple of times. We noticed a few times this summer that moderate amounts of exercise (especially when company had been over swimming and playing with him) resulted in limping the day after. Deb took him to the vet today, and the X-ray showed fairly severe hip dysplasia at work. The doctor said surgery wasn't called for yet, but he did prescribe Rymadil for arthritis, and said his frisbee-catching days are probably over. So we are sad - it was a wonder to watch him catch, and to see how intensely focused he would become when waiting for the next throw.

Technology-assisted reading

2007-07-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

So I was reading Stalin's Ghost recently. All of Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko novels feature Russian culture and characters. I was curious about the lay of the land in an area called Tver. Well, I have Google Earth, don't I? So I started it up, hoping to just find a map and some satellite images. The image was full of blue dots. Clicking on one, I discovered user-uploaded photos - each dot connected to a unique view within the town - many along the river that played an important role in the novel. The images were served via Panoramio - many from a user nicknamed Rush. So I looked in my own back yard of Fairfield, Ohio, and found lots of photos from our area, including shots of the park we frequent. What an amazing way to connect with others within my own community and the world. And what a great way to read a book!

Still I do love technology!

(If you've watched the film "Napoleon Dynamite" and didn't stay past the credits, you've missed this line in Kip's hilarious wedding song.)

2007-07-29T21:18:00.000-04:00

So what's been happening on this end during the blog silence? Let me think...here's a few...

Deb and I have been a part of a new church startup - Nexus Church - affiliated with the United Church of Christ denomination. We meet on Sunday mornings at Tanze Performing Arts Studio in Fairfield. It's an interesting experience - first time we've been connected to a new church. Got some very creative people in the community, and I'm challenged with directing the music and band. We use very little church-based music - preferring stuff from folks like Joseph Arthur, Todd Rundgren, Van Morrison, Depeche Mode, and many others. My friends Yvan (percussion) and Steve (bass) make up the core of the band, with Steve's wife Janet often playinig cello. We are still finding our identity as a "progressive" community of folks who connect with the Christian story to varying degrees. Several folks bring their creative visual abilities to the table - check out Jeff and Cortney.

Early in the year I hooked up with a great local guitarist named Gary King. He had a new CD worth of original jazz/rock fusion music and was hoping to put a band together to play out in support of the CD. We later found David Yates and Kevin Ross and had our quartet in place. But after a few months rehearsal and great creative juices, Gary's wife had a sudden job transfer. So our group was short-lived - Gary and family have been consumed with the task of moving this summer. We hope to figure out some ways to continue our project remotely once things settle down. Advances in software in the past few years will at least allow us to record while living in different areas. Meanwhile, you can catch Gary's latest CD, "A Life of Its Own" at CD Baby or listen to tracks on his MySpace page. Well worth your while if you are into fusion music. Pretty accessible even if you are not into that style.

Deb and I traveled to Greece, Italy, and Turkey back in October - been a goal for many years. You can catch our pics here. A map of the area we covered along with photos linked to locations can be found here.

Blogging Redux

2007-07-29T20:52:00.000-04:00

Gonna try to resurrect this blog - it's been a long time. I don't find time to post as often as I'd like, but have found some tools recently that help keep track of things that are important to me - primarily books and music. For current book lists, etc., LibraryThing seems to have most of what I want:

Ability to easily update current reading sidebar
Link with others who like the same books
Multiple editions supported, with lots of cover options.

For music lists, I'm trying out Listal. So far, so good. I'll try to be more consistent, so hope you'll stop by occasionally, or hook me into your favorite blog reader. I personally use GoogleReader.

Mike Hauenstein

2006-10-22T11:15:00.000-04:00

My blog has been dormant for too long. I have some posts in mind, but they are all overshadowed right now by the passing of our friend Mike Hauenstein at age 27. My wife Deb went to high school with his mother Debbie, and I've gotten to be good friends with his father Tom via our musical interests. Debbie and Tom are some of the most compassionate, giving people we know. Mike's cancer surfaced about 3 years ago - a rare form that produced numerous tumors throughout his body. Mike fought against it using any means they could find - chemo, radiation, diet, physical therapy. The doctor's initial prognosis was poor, and he did outlive their expectations due to his courage and the love and care of his family. The last couple of months had been rough, but things took an especially serious turn early this past week and Mike passed away early Friday morning.

All our love and tears go to Debbie andTom, Ann (his wife), Tyler (his son) and Sara (his sister). He left a huge legacy in his blog, entitled "My Fight to LiveStronger". It allowed people from all over the world to walk with him, share advice from firsthand experiences, and share prayers. The link will stay on my blog for a good while. We will miss him.

Good news/bad news - all in perspective

2006-07-21T08:56:00.000-04:00

Good news - I was elated to receive an email letting me know that Joseph Arthur would be at the 20th Century Theater in Cincinnati on October 3rd. His CDs are still on the top of my listening list (it's not just gathering dust in the sidebar ), and I've played a number of times at the art deco 20th Century. Arthur is an amazing artist, and his live performances get rave reviews for his use of looping and found sounds to create textures and layers as a one man band. Just up my alley.

Bad news - I can't go :-(

Perspective - we'll be on a Mediterranean cruise at the time. And I guess I'll just have to settle for local shows with Steely Dan/Michael McDonald, Cirque du Soleil, and the Blue Man Group in September and October. I'll still be looking to find one of Arthur's shows that I can attend within driving distance.

United by the Net

2006-06-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday evening Deb and I had a wonderful time getting to know some folks who have met and been assembling "virtually" for a while via the internet. Several of us live in Cincinnati, and we've gathered once for happy hour at Applebees. We all share a fascination/obsession with notions of God and spirituality, and have often found ourselves outside the orthodox thinking of mainstream Christian expressions.

Julie Bogart has some details on the formation of this motley crew on her blog, but we are currently all subscribed to a Yahoo group entitled "Pomoxian" for "Postmodern Christians". Dave Blakeslee is the founder of this virtual group (circa 2002), and he and his wife Julie were in southern Ohio for a wedding, so the Bogarts (Jon and Julie) hosted a real-life gathering, which also included Brian and Tywana Smith. Deb and I had met Brian through the area Emergent Cohort, and he shared our enjoyment of all things theological.

Although most of us spent former years in fairly conservative or moderate religious groups/denominations, our individual past experiences are not that similar. But we do find ourselves presently at a similar place in life where we still are seeking to be the best we can, and believe that spirituality and God have something to do with that. We just can't express things in the same fashion as we once could, and are much more open to other ways of experiencing God.

Conversations flowed freely and honestly, as if we had known each other for years. We plan to continue our conversations online and in person whenever possible, providing a safe yet challenging environment in which to work out our faith and lives with fear, trembling, hope, and joy.

The Blue Man Group is Touring!!

2006-06-25T22:14:00.000-04:00

A good portion of my DVD collection is dedicated to music - documentaries and concerts. By far the most played DVD in my collection is "Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour Live". Deb and I went to Las Vegas a few years back, largely to take in a couple of Cirque du Soleil shows. On the spur of the moment, we also decided to see Blue Man Group. Cirque du Solel was fantastic, but I was even more captivated by these blue men. It was a communication experience, with the voiceless men allowing the audience to vicariously experience the event through their eyes and senses. I immediately bought the DVD, and found it more immersive than even the stage show. I'm still unpacking why, but I'm convinced there are important lessons for communicators - churches, organizations, artists - to learn by experiencing their show. "The Complex" is all about deconstructing our experience of attending a rock concert - examining the physical actions, mental games, etc. And the music is downright tribal and exhilarating.

So I was excited to see in the local newspaper this weekend that the Blue Man Group is touring this fall, and will be hitting Cincinnati on October 8th. Tickets go on sale July 31. This will be the show of the season as far as I'm concerned (even though we also have tickets for Steely Dan/Michael McDonald and Cirque du Soleil). The fall tour is titled "How To Be a Megastar - Tour 2.0". Highly recommended!

Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason

2006-06-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

I've been a moderate Bill Moyers fan for many years. Most probably it is partially connected with growing up in the south and appreciating that intelligent commentary and reporting can come through a southern accent. So I was excited to see info about his newest PBS series, "Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason". Moyers took advantage of the PEN ((poets, playwrights, essayists, editors, and novelists) World Voices Festival 2006 gathering to interview contemporary writers on issues of faith and reason (the actual topic of this years festival).

An interview with Moyers appeard this past week in the San Francisco Chronicle, and he discusses the background of the series. Several quotes in the interview appealed to (and apply to) me:

"I practice what the Italian philosopher [Antonio] Gramsci called 'the pessimism of the mind' and 'the optimism of the will'. As a journalist, my job is to see the world as it is, without whitewash or illusion. But as a husband, father, grandfather and citizen, I don't know how to be in the world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to help bring it about."

Speaking of his famous series "The Power of the Myth" and Joseph Campbell, he says:

"What [it] did for me, David, was to awaken me fully to the power of metaphors. 'Change the metaphors,' Campbell told me, 'and you can change the world.' "

I consider myself a "metaphor-driven" person. With a strongly intuitive temperment, I'm more often than not motiviated by inner or hidden meanings and metaphors rather than hard facts or single events.

The DVR will definitely be set for this series. It begins June 23 on PBS. You can find out when it can be viewed in your area here.

Brangelena Baby Pics

2006-06-10T11:29:00.000-04:00

So I havn't posted for a month, and here's what I pick to post on - what gives???

I've just been struck by how "right" it seems for the lucky parents to secure 4 million plus for African charities by taking advantage of the general public's appetite for vicarious living. It's almost Robin Hood-like - a great one-off approach for redistribution of wealth.

New music

2006-05-10T00:11:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long absence - life has been full and busy. (In fact this post has been in an incomplete draft format for a week now.)

Well, one release is brand new and the other two are new to me. My musical tastes are all over the map, but I'm much more inclined to listen to songwriter types than I have been in the past - as long as the arrangements and production are interesting and creative. Hence, I'm still listening a lot to Joseph Arthur - just trying to decide which of his most recent releases to put on my Desert Island list. I'm not sure I've listened to any other musician quite as consistently for a long period of time - perhaps Astor Piazzolla and Todd Rundgren at various points in time. I'm slowly putting together a YouTube video list that I'll post soon.

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris have been working on material for the last seven years, in between other projects. Their new release, All The Roadrunning, is just plain wonderful. I really started getting into Knopfler after Dire Straits had disbanded - especially when his solo release Golden Heart came out. Last summer we were able to see him at the Fraze pavilion in Dayton, and his band was basically Dire Straits minus one plus Matt Rollings, one of my favorite piano players. At any rate, the songwriting, arrangements, and performances are first rate on this duo release.

My appetite for some music from Leonard Cohen was whetted recently when I added several Jennifer Warnes CDs to my iPod. Famous Blue Raincoat is from back in the 1980s and is a tribute to Cohen - after spending several years as one of his backup singers. (It is also still recognized as one of the best produced/arranged/engineered recordings to date.) So for my dose of Cohen, I chose his first post-Zen monastery release, 2001's Ten New Songs. I'll say at the outset that I enjoy music that blends electronic and acoustic sounds. This release does a good (not great) job at that, primarily at the hands of producer/arranger/singer Sharon Robinson. It's a pretty mellow collection. I really like the smooth textures of her background vocals juxtaposed with Cohen's gruff voice. "The Land of Plenty" is my favorite tune on the set.

Finally, I needed quick, legal access to some songs in prepping an informal "band" for a party this past weekend. So I decided to take advantage of the free trial at eMusic.com. eMusic claims to be the largest online distributor of independent music, so in only one case was I able to find the original artist performance ("Blister In The Sun" by the Violent Femmes). But I still had 21 free songs, so I started looking through for items on my wish list. My first find was Buddy Miller's 2004 release, Universal United House of Prayer. Miller has long been Emmylou Harris' guitarist/band leader, and I've seen him in concert with her and on his own. I'm not a huge fan, but that's partially because I'm not into roots rock as much as I used to be. But several people have recommended this release to me, and the price was right. This is a driving collection of tunes, and the icing on the cake is the soulful vocals of Regina & Ann McCrary, daughters of one of the founders of the Fairfield Four gospel group. My musical favorites are the extended and timely version of Bob Dylan "With God On Our Side" and the opener "Worry Too Much".

Crawfish and Jazzfest

2006-05-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

Still running short on time for thoughtful posts on New Orleans, etc. - it's a gorgeous day outside and I have many spring chores and some music projects queued up. But here's the last of my Louisiana photos - lunch on Monday.

Before

After

I'm so glad we have Pappadeaux's in Cincinnati to handle my Cajun food addiction in between visits :-)

Also, MSN is netcasting music and interviews from Jazzfest. There's a great interview with Edge on the musical instruments program he and others set up for displaced musicians. Also a clip of him doing a New Orleans version of "Vertigo" with the New Birth Brass Band. I couldn't get the link from the Jazzfest web site to play the videos, but this link works well.

New Orleans post edits

2006-05-02T23:20:00.000-04:00

I cleaned up the titles and bad character translations for my cellphone posts from Louisiana. I couldn't give the picture emails a unique title. Now they will make a bit more sense in the archives.

I hope to post some New Orleans reflections in a couple of days. We had a great trip - a really educational experience, and relaxing as well.

Yvan's Extended Family

2006-04-30T20:35:00.000-04:00

This one is for Martine and Gini. Within the first block of the festival in Lafayette we ran into the Fruges`, who were part of the Cajun club and host family network for Belgian teachers in southwest Louisiana back in the mid 1980s. They had visited Cincinnati in 1998 for Yvan's daugher Gini's high school graduation. Beautiful people!

Festival International de Louisiane

2006-04-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

Moroccan roll in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Jazz Fest Cameo Appearances

2006-04-30T01:50:00.000-04:00

Based on weather reports we went back to New Orleans today. Good decision. Jazz Fest surprises included Edge jamming with Dave Matthews and Terrance Blanchard playing the Miles Davis part on "TuTu" with Herbie Hancock!

Friday at Jazz Fest

2006-04-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

Bob Dylan at Jazz Fest - not quite 3 feet away like last night, but a great performance. Also Yerba Buena was awesome - Gypsy Latin music.

Breakfast In New Orleans...

2006-04-28T21:11:00.000-04:00

(...dinner in Timbuktu - with apologies to Bruce Cockburn)

Breakfast of the gods! Beignets and chickory coffee at the Cafe du Monde - Cafe of the World.

Hanging out with Bob Dylan!

2006-04-28T00:56:00.000-04:00

Thursday night in New Orleans - went straight from the airport to Mullates' post-Katrina grand reopening featuring Beausoleil (pictured). Bob Dylan walked in and stood right next to us! We were too surprised/polite to speak to him. If i had spoken to him, I would have asked "When is Chronicles Vol 2 coming out?"

Louisiana bound - music and more music

2006-04-26T22:42:00.000-04:00

I'm packing tonight for a long weekend getaway to Louisiana. My friend (and former bandmate) Yvan and I are heading to New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, then on to Lafayette for the Festival International de Louisiane . Yvan and his family lived in Louisiana (Lake Charles) for about ten years, teaching primarily in French immersion programs within the public school system. He tries to get back for the festivals each year, and this year I decided to take him up on his invitation. Should be a musical adventure. We plan to hear Bob Dylan, Keb' Mo', Ani DiFranco, and others on Friday. If we hang around New Orleans on Saturday, we might catch the Dave Matthews Band and Herbie Hancock.

I'm sure there will be some sobering sights as well, due to the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.

Testing out blogging from my phone

2006-04-25T13:16:00.000-04:00

Check out Josh in the "30-hour famine" t-shirt at the buffet - talk about disonnance :=)

I'm going to Louisiana soon for some music events, and just configuring and trying out this blogger feature before I go.

Preoccupied

2006-04-25T00:27:00.000-04:00

My wife keeps bugging me to post something on my blog. But I've been a bit preoccupied with a new musical toy - a Yamaha Motif ES7 workstation. I've been shopping around for at least 6-8 months, comparing what's available and what's anticipated. And the Motif just kept bubbling to the top of the stack. So I've got a bit of a learning curve ahead in order to scratch the surface of it's capabilities. I've played in bands of all sorts for many years, and mostly enjoyed doing arranging and performing of other people's music, as well as exploring new musical genres. But lately I've been having the urge to create some original music. Not sure what shape it will take, but I've already gotten some good frameworks down after only having this keyboard a few days. The Motif has some amazing sounds and tools. It is also the best option for interfacing with computer-based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software. What would normally take 16 audio/midi cables can be connected with a single firewire cable via Yamaha's mLan protocol.

I'll have some less self-indulgent content in a day or two. Julie has some interesting comments on Karen Armstrong's appearance at Xavier that I'd like to respond to. Also Deb and I have been inspired by some of Joan Chittister's on-line writings, and I'd like to pass those on.

2006-04-19T19:38:00.000-04:00

Another tag from Tammy Jo. This one seems a bit like a test...without a perfect score. Actually after filling it in, it's almost like a verbal rorschach test...what's the first thing that comes to my mind by:

I AM: what I am (thanks to Popeye and Joseph Arthur)
I WANT: more time
I WISH: I could be healthier (lose weight mainly)
I HATE: my laziness
I LOVE: my wife, house, and life
I MISS: my mom and dad
I FEAR: dying (not death)
I HEAR: panting dogs, chirping birds
I WONDER: what God is like
I REGRET: wasted years
I AM NOT: too old to be young
I DANCE: much too infrequently
I SING: almost all the time (usually internally)
I CRY: when "love comes to town"
I AM NOT ALWAYS: patient
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: music and food
I WRITE: because I can
I CONFUSE: those around me
I NEED: focus
I SHOULD: exercise regularly
I START: lots of books
I FINISH: fewer books

Religions and Truth

2006-04-16T23:42:00.000-04:00

So now that "holy week" is over within my faith community, I'm going to try to find time and words for a few posts that have been brewing in my mind for a week or so. They are a bit broad in scope, so might have to be split up a bit. You can tell by the title of this one that I have all the answers - aren't you glad you stopped by?

I recently read "The Heart of Christianity", by Marcus Borg. The author has been (not sure if currently) a member of the controversial "Jesus Seminar", and an outspoken advocate for allowing our views of the world to influence our approaches and beliefs surrounding spirituality. I found a lot I agreed with in this volume. I found myself immediately rereading a few chapters, because I needed the first readings often to challenge my preconceived notions of certain terms like "born again" and "salvation" - terms that in many ways have lost their meaning to me. At least they had lost the meaning I attached to them growing up in a Christian subculture - a subculture that I left for many years.

I especially liked Borg's equating being "born again" with the natural process that we each need to go through when moving from the self-centered nature of a child to the (hopefully) less self-absorbed nature of an adult. My "takeaway" was that the experience of religious faith had the goal and potential in the past of providing a framework for this natural life process within communities that shared religion and culture - even though the reality of many religious settings has been far from successful in this regard. Our natural rites of passage that carry us to adulthood are best experienced within a caring community. And in spite of all the blemishes and distortions, I think the church could fill this role for those with or without "traditional" family structures. (Unfortunately, finding such churches is far from easy.)

Borg continually returned to his version of a statement that I've heard from many lips in the past few years - "all religions are the same", or "all religions lead to the truth". I usually rebel against this blanket statement. My version would be "all religions are similar in that they probably have some mixture of truth and distortions". And I'm certain I allow the fundamentalists of various religions to magnify my naturally cynical view - they are indeed (and unfortunately) the loudest voices.

In Borg's case, he chose to say that the purpose of all the "major" religions was to mediate the sacred, and provide "sacremental" access to the mystery of God. I do believe he tried too hard at times to not offend any religious traditions, and also tried to "overload" the word "true", just has he attempted to overload the term "born again". So I would balance his emphasis on the natural growth process with a (hopefully) healthy cynicism about any specific religion having a corner on or understanding of all the truth.

I have certainly found more than enough truth to last a lifetime within my own faith community of Christianity. It has little to do with doctrinal certainty, and much to do with a realistic sense of hope that can fuel my time on earth. And hopefully there is something more after that. I'd be very interested in learning more about how other faith communities or religious orientations have nurtured this "natural" growth in their constituents. Any experiences to share or sources to recommend? Do you agree or disagree? Or am I talking in circles?

PoMoXian: "Touched or Tickled?" - Tagged!

2006-04-15T14:37:00.000-04:00

PoMoXian: "Touched or Tickled?" - Tagged!

Dave linked to my Friday Fives tag on performing arts concerts. The dude has had an interesting life indeed - and he made it thru alive!

This post is partly to experiment with/demonstrate how the "links to this post" feature works in Blogger. It's a bit backwards from what I expected - seems like the goal is to create a new post that is linked to a post on another blog, rather than linking an existing post via the comments - which I would prefer. Anyone know of other tools for trackbacks, etc?

Company

2006-04-13T13:08:00.000-04:00

Deb and I journeyed up Mt. Adams last night to take in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production of "Company". I'm not necessarily a big musical fan - I prefer to keep my theater experiences segmented into plays and concerts. But the word on the street about this production had me intrigued. The actors performed quadruple duty. In addition to the normal singing/dancing/acting roles, all instrumental accompaniment was provided by the cast members. I had to see what this group of overachievers was capable of doing.

And the show did not disappoint. While none of the instumental performances were in the "virtuoso" category, the "orchestra" sound was solid and well balanced. Each cast member except for the lead male role had a rotating stool at the back of the stage upon which they perched when not involved in an acting/singing role in a particular scene. And most of the (12+) cast members were multi-instrumentalists. The choreography of the show included using the instruments as props and foundational elements. If there was anything negative about the show, it was that my fascination with the instrument integration (what will they play next) probably distracted me from paying attention to the finer details of the story. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Director John Doyle had already used this approach with "Sweeny Todd", another Sondheim musical (and one of my favorites in the musical genre). I was intrigued to read the story of how this approach was taken as much due to economic necessity as to artistic expression. (He first used this approach in economically depressed Liverpool, England). It has obviously caught on, as the current production is Broadway bound in the fall.

It's been a busy week - Company, improv rehearsals (yes, they do rehearse...), taxes. I hope to have some more thought provoking posts over the weekend. I have a few religion topics mulling around in my head.

Housekeeping

2006-04-10T20:19:00.000-04:00

Still getting the basics of my blog together. I finally put my Blogroll together - see links on the sidebar.

Also added a new release to "Currently Listening To" - Lunatico by the Gotan Project. Tango meets club/house/hip-hop. I loved their 2003 release Revencha Del Tango.

I have a few new books on the shelf - just need to decide what to dig into next.

Tag, I'm it - Friday Fives

2006-04-07T09:38:00.000-04:00

The RevGalsBlogPals have a FridayFives tradition, and today the subject is "name five experiences of the performing arts that have touched or tickled you". TammyJo tagged me, and I love this topic, so here goes. Update - I had to go with 6 - had several in mind and forgot an important one when I originally posted, and I can't see removing anything. I guess I won't get to play the game anymore...

Touched - Todd Rundgren's "No World Order" tour (circa 1993-1994). I didn't see this in person, but have several videos from these shows. It epitomized the integration of technology, arts, and audience immersion in a performance setting.
Touched - The Blue Man Group. Deb and I saw them in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. A major purpose of our trip was to catch Cirque du Soleil, and seeing the blue dudes was a last-minute decision. I found myself more excited about that show than Cirque - perhaps because of the surprise element, certainly because of the tribal rock beats, which I love, and definitely because of how the mute blue men take on our personas - self-discovery, awe, jealousy/competition, creativity, etc. etc. etc. I immediately bought the DVD "The Complex Rock Tour Live", from their summer arena tours a few years back, and have enjoyed it even more than the live show - highly recommended (and cheap!).
Touched - Civic Music Series in Harriman, Tennessee. My parents took me to these shows consistently - some pretty sophisticated music/performances for our small Tennessee town. It transformed the well-worn high school auditorium into a venue for opening my preteen eyes to the wonders and diversity of music. I can't remember a specific show, just the general impact they all had on me.
Touched - Mark O'Connor with Doc and Merle Watson at Parrish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton (Ohio). O'Connor is probably the most incredible musician I have seen in my entire life. This particular concert was in the mid/late 80s when he was only 19 and was a "sideman" for Doc. He apologetically thanked Doc for letting him play a solo, then proceeded to transport the entire audience to Heaven and back while playing a medley of "Midnight on the Water" and "Bonaparte's Retreat". (Thanks to Howard Epstein for bringing this and many other fine concerts within 5 minutes of my house. I've truly seen some of the best concerts in my life in this auditorium - Michael Hedges, Liz Story, Charlie Hayden, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Arlo Guthrie, Los Lobos, Mark O'Connor solo, and many more)
Touched - "Jazzdance by Danny Buraczeski", sponsored by Cincinnati's Contemporary Dance Theater. Deb and I happened to take in this performance the weekend some of my own spiritual convergences were underway (largely involuntary). This show featured dance to music from Astor Piazzolla, my favorite composer, as well as classical, jazz, and blues influences. The combination of movement and music reached me at a deep level that I'm still unpacking. I wept after coming home from this performance. Sheer beauty and transcendence.
Touched - Any time I hear Ken Medema. I've been a huge fan since first experiencing his unique musical and story-telling abilities in college days. He manages to cut to the heart of crucial life issues in ways that have you laughing as often as crying, but leave a lasting impression. He's also one of the best keyboard performers and improvisers on earth. I've seen probably 8 of his concerts, and each one is unique - he usually composes several songs right on the spot, and they are keepers.

I tried thinking of something in the "tickled" category, but I can't come up with any - I must have a gift of repressing painful memories :-)

Now it's your turn...name five experiences of the performing arts that have touched or tickled you. Post on your blog and link back to here.

Dave - here is his post (testing the link to post feature)

Julie

Bryan

Jeff

Aaron

Live at the Improv

2006-04-04T22:43:00.000-04:00

Improvisation is definitely one of the things I love most about life on earth. Jazz improv is just about the most amazing thing ever conceived. My favorite movies are the Christopher Guest mocumentaries like "Waiting for Guffman" and "This Is Spinal Tap", which have very little in terms of scripts and plot directions. Life is an improvisational experience, if you ask me. So I ran into my friend Bekka Eaton at the grocery store on Sunday night. Bekka is a wonderful actor/musician/director - formerly with of The Second City troupe, The Daves, and film/TV work, and now back home in Fairfield and Assistant Professor of Theater at Miami Hamilton. She asked me to do the Paul Shaffer piano thing (sorry, I'm not shaving my head) for an improv show she is directing/producing next weekend. So I spent this evening with her troupe of college and community folks figuring out how to plan for improv -kind of an oxymoron if you ask me. We had lots of laughts together and I think it's going to be great fun. If you like "Whose Line Is It Anyway", you should enjoy this evening. Who knows, even Big Red might show up.

The show is entitled "Improv-Ing Our Lives" and will be in the Studio Theater (Phelps room 307 - same building where the most excellend Parrish Auditorium is located) April 13, 14, and 15 at 7:30PM. Details are here, except the link erroneously says two nights only - trust me, it's all three nights.

Hustle and Flow

2006-04-04T12:28:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I watched "Hustle and Flow", featuring the Oscar-nominated performance from Terrence Howard and the Oscar-winning song of the year, "It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp" (my favorite Oscar comment from Jon Stewart - "For anyone keeping record, Martin Scorsese, zero Oscars. For Three 6 Mafia, one.") The movie also paired "Crash" castmates Howard and Ludacris for a tense scene.

I enjoy rap and hip-hop music for the most part, except for the profanity-laden stuff (well, that reduces the field considerably, I guess.) So I enjoyed that aspect of the film. But the main impact of this film was the way it transported me into the life and especially the household of Djay (Howard). These scenes, and in many ways the entire movie, felt like a stage play in a cramped theater. I'm not a claustrophobic person, but that's the operative word for the lingering sense of this film. It is set in Memphis during a long hot summer, and pimp Djay along with his crib sweltered in this environment. The effect of heat and drugs deadened them to most attempts at civility, except for a few soliloquies from Djay on the meaning of life, God, and their place in the world. Rage was the main tool in their relational arsenal. Music became their escape and salvation, even thought the ultimate path of musical "success" veered from the path Djay layed out. I have volunteered in inner city settings for some years, but I don't believe I ever felt transported into the home setting like I did watching this film. That impression will linger and hopefully will impact my work in the future.

The theme song continued to stick in my head for a couple of days as well. But I noticed it slowly mutated. Influenced by a well-known song from Annie (why, I do not know...) it became "It's A Hard-knocked Life For A Pimp" :-)

I realized this morning that I probably need to have a films section in the sidebar. And I'm also looking for solar power for my iPod - to support the "Desert Island" media requirements if ever needed :-) I'll try to get the film section and a blog roll in place within the next few days.

Religious Satire

2006-04-01T15:24:00.000-05:00

My usual monthly ration of religious satire comes from LarkNews - should be an April issue any day now. However, the April fools issue of the SojoMail newsletter from Sojourners will really give Larknews a run for their money this month.

Music - Joseph Arthur

2006-04-01T15:02:00.000-05:00

Music is a major (and hopefully healthy) obsession of mine. It always has been. I watch concerts like many watch sporting events. Improvisational jazz is just about the most exciting thing in the world. Consequently, much of my life has been spent playing and listening to music. I've become rather picky in my "old age", and it's rare for new music to come along and knock my socks off. So after a long dry spell, I have a new musical obsession in the works of Joseph Arthur.

He's not new on the scene. About the time I found a reference to him on Bob Carlton's most excellent blog, "The Corner", I discovered his music had been in the episode of Grey's Anatomy we had watched recently. Bob's reference was to the digital EP release of 5 different mixes of Arthur's song, "In The Sun" on iTunes. All funds from this release go to Gulf state Hurricane Relief. Also apparently Joseph has a tune in "Shrek 2", (which I have not seen). He was "discovered" by Peter Gabriel and Lou Reed, and his first three releases were on Gabriel's Real World label. So I'm hardly the only one who likes his stuff.

You can easily sample his music by going to his home page - http://www.josepharthur.com/. The embedded music player plays 3 full songs from his latest release, "Our Shadows Will Remain". I've passed this on to some folks over the past month, and had about 50/50 response between those who like him and those who don't get into him. Obviously I'm in the former group. His self-described role is "someone struggling to heal over experimental folk-rock". I'm not sure that I can isolate a single aspect of his music that appeals to me the most. He certainly blends acoustic, electric, and electronic sound sources effectly. His songs contains some of the freshest hooks and sonic/melodic surprises in my recent memory. And his lyrics simultaneously puzzle, challenge, inflict guilt, inflict hope, and generate joy in the midst of this multifaceted existence of ours.

I've acquired all four of his full-length releases (he also has a couple of EP and vinyl releases), and my favorites are the two recent ones - "Our Shadows Will Remain" and "Redemptions Son". I'm certain one or both of these will soon make it to my desert island list (in the sidebar). From what I've gathered through articles and a couple of video downloads, his live solo concerts are unique, in that he creates paintings during each show. (His latest release contains a 36 page booklet of his art work - assuming you don't download it...) Through the use of a variety of guitar pedals and digital effects, he creates percussion and musical loops on the fly, and adds layers of his own vocals dynamically. So each song performance becomes effectively a new orchestration. (He also sells CDs of his concerts after the show and via his web site).

I could go on and on, but it is best to just give a listen and check out his lyrics for yourself. Let me know what you thing.

First post

2006-03-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

Better late to the party than never. Some folks have been bugging me to blog, and I've had the itch for a while. Just hadn't found the time to get things set up. When I've moved into a new apartment or house in the past, the first things that always get set up are the stereo system and bookcases. Why should my blog be any different. So I had to get the book and music lists hooked in...they are important.

I still remember my first time...first time using a web browser, that is. I've been a library nut since my early years. Spent many preteen hours in the Cumberland Mountains community of Harriman, Tennessee (population 8000) public library - one of the almost 3000 "Carnegie Libraries" built by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My reading appetite was so voracious I had to lobby for an adult library card at around age 9. One of the first books I read after getting it was Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood". They also had an unusual record collection, at least for the time - I first heard The Jefferson Airplane and Miles Davis courtesy of my small town library.

So the first time I took Netscape's predecessor Mosaic for a spin - probably around 1992 - I thought I had rediscovered the library. I even began to favor a text-based browser called Lynx because of it's speed and ability to easily bypass distracting images. And even though I've been making my living developing software for over 20 years, I'm still like a kid in a candy store when it comes to using the internet. To think that all these resources are now at my fingertips - incredible. (One of my favorite recent offerings is being able to checkout secure audio books from my local libraries and download them to my MP3 player. This certainly makes the drive to and from work more pleasurable.)

About 5 years ago I began reading the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit priest/paleontologist/philosopher/theologian. Since I grew up as a minister's son, spirituality was always something to reckon with one way or the other. My life had been a mixture of belief and atheism - the first atheistic phase began at around age 11. My "belief" periods had always been tinged with a notion that things still didn't make enough sense for me to really buy into at least the more conservative to moderate expressions of faith that reflected my upbringing and environment. I had run across exceprts of de Chardin's writings, but the impetus to bein reading him in depth came via Wired Magaine's December 2002 issue on Science + Religion. (The crucifix image above is the cover art for that issue, and was created by Kenn Brown of Mondolithic Studios.) Through the writings of Teilhard, I finally found a grammer for spirituality that respected all the things I did believe in - science, hope, love - and integrated it with the faith of my childhood and culture. While I'm still usually at odds with the "popular" expressions of faith and belief, at the core I now have sufficient faith in God and the world to at least provide an energy and a hope for the future.

Teilhard advanced the notion of the "noosphere" (pronounced no-sphere), which represented the third sphere or envelope of the earth. The geosphere contains the inorganic foundational material of the planet. The biosphere contains the organic substances and organizms required for (hopefully) self-sustaining life forms. This third envelope - the noosphere - was for Teilhard representative of the connections that were inevitably and inescapably required (he was a strong evolutionist) for humankind to connect and communicate across cultural and geographic boundaries. As the complexity of the human condition increased, there was a need for an interdependency of thought, just as there were symboitic physical relationships required at every level of physical existence. Teilhard wrote mostly in the early part of the 20th century. His writings were censored from publication by the Roman Catholic church during his lifetime, so the first appeared a few years after his death in 1955. He barely knew of the existense of primative computers, but his vision certainly anticipated this self-organizing system we now know as the World Wide Web.

So it is important for me at many levels to make time for a blog. It fulfills social, spiritual, and creative needs. Most of my posts will deal with music, books, spirituality, and science, since those are the places where my head usually lives. I hope you will bookmark this place and come back to visit often. I'll do my best to keep things interesting.