One the 4-station statues in the atrium
Monday, May 31, 2010
Swastika explanation
Basically says: "hitler made 'em bad. We had them waay before him. Not getting rid of them just cuz Hitler sucked."
West Baden Springs
Just one more shot of the stunning dome at West Baden Springs, in French Lick, IN, built in 1902.
The Chicken
Not my mom — "the chicken" is what we call this patented pose, designed to camouflage a weak or saggy neck. Classic family photo humor.
"Front desk,, may I help you?"
Nothing quite says "luxury" like a phone by the crapper. (West Baden Springs)
Pluto Water
Revisiting one of my favorite childhood memories, French Lick, Indiana, where my brother and I once roamed freely and unsupervised, pretending that we were in a James Bond movie … or The Shining. This is the sulphur water spring — called Pluto Water — that was once big business as … a laxative.
Mother and her oldest son
Maybe my new favorite photo of me and my mom, whose birthday is today. Love you, Mom. (West Baden Springs, 2010)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Olive —
Olive gets the shaft on photos a lot due to A. Being a bit cantankerous about cameras and B. Mr. Mustard being unfairly over-cute.
Phil's bday
"Coconut cake for everybody! OK — coconut cake for the half of the people who like it!" Lucy explains: "it's my dad's birthday, and I like coconut cake."
Friday, May 21, 2010
Drum Line at Campsie —
An invigorating backyard March Madness Marching Band session pays back for all the crappy Gangsta hiphop our neighborhood has been subjected to.
Reconsidering The Mangy One
I like traipsing through my musical past and trying to make sense of it.
Some people are almost reflexively embarrassed by their childhood records, others cling to them unyieldingly. I prefer to walk a middle road. There's some good stuff in there. I like finding it. And I'm fine to get rid of that which no longer holds up.
A good example is Chuck Mangione. Often ill-remembered for his exceedingly eccentric fashion sense, and the schlock classic "Feels So Good," (let's see you get a Top 10 instrumental hit record — twice), Chuck was the inspiration to many marching band-types — to what must have been the utter delight of music teachers everywhere.
Simultaneously pedagogical and flamboyant, Chuck (we trumpet players always called him by his first name, in a nerdly zeal) managed to straddle that once-precarious chasm between rock and roll and the "serious" music that our teachers and parents seemed to prefer that we embrace. He did it by using conservatory-trained music nerds to play this ecstatic, um, burning Spanish jazz-rock-fusion thing that I have not really heard elsewhere to this day.
Not that I want to, mind you.
In this case of reappraisal, I am happy to put the needle down on songs like "Echano" or "Bellavia," and I don't need much more than that — partially because his records seem notoriously uneven, in retrospect. But several of them — Children of Sanchez and Chase the Clouds Away, in particular — contain remarkable material.*
At their best, his compositions (and ensembles) were careening and awesome — or they "burned," as we liked to say. And 20 years later, I can see how those recordings would excite the ears of a technique-obsessed teen, otherwise focused on Rush and British heavy metal.
And the funny juncture of all this is that, 25 years after quitting marching band — for all the dorks and nerds — I'm in one again.
Last night, we were having percussion practice and I cracked a "CoS" (pronounced "coz," in case you wanna get even nerdier) joke and nobody got it.
I went into a mock fury: "…You people call yourselves 'band nerds?!' And you don't know Children of Sanchez?!? I can't work under these conditions."
Finally, our leader, the magnificent Tripp Bratton showed up, and not only did he fully get it, he told this story:
Years ago, he was playing in some drum line in Cincinnati, and they had been performing CoS. By coincidence, Mangione was in town for his sister's wedding, and had heard tell of it — and he hunted them down, and got them to perform at his sister's wedding. Tripp's recollection: "He's short. Really short."
• • •
As I get older, I love to reconsider music. I'm fortunate to have a facility for keeping up with the "hip new thing," and also enjoy honestly reappraising the music of my childhood. I still have some of those records, but they have been mercilessly culled over the years. I like to think that I won't keep (too many) things for purely sentimental value. It has to have genuine merit.
And those couple of Chuck Mangione records that I still have are in no danger of being discarded. They hold up pretty damned well.
As I final note, the monkey business about Children of Sanchez set me thinking about how it was — as I had always known — actually the soundtrack of a movie, directed by Hall Bartlett (a kind of iconoclast-sentimentalist who also did Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a bizarre and polarizing film best discussed another time). Of course, in the 80's, living in a small Kentucky town, our chances of seeing this film (to say nothing of potentially liking it) were pretty much none-to-zero.
What's neat is that, in this Internet age, I can find the movie Children of Sanchez.
And I think I'll watch it — just to see how this music that formed a portion of my life for decades was intended to be presented. Maybe it won't suck. But it's okay, if it does. It won't subtract from the goodness that I've gleaned from the short man in the funny hat with the weird horn.
Thanks, Chuck.
*I wish I could find a copy of Alive!, the limber, hard bop 1972 quartet record (with Tony Levin, as I recall) that kind of pre-dates "the Chuck sound." Last I checked it seemed to be totally out of print. Oh, goodie — here it is. Thanks, Internet!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Lucy on Trivial Thursdays
I think the very best editions of my radio show are those featuring my wife, "Special Agent Lucy."
Lucy on Trivial Thursdays
I think the very best editions of my radio show are those featuring my wife, "Special Agent Lucy."
All the way from Hong Kong
An eBay auction item that I did a "Hail Mary" on. Received it in 8 days. To mild surprise. I was prepared to eat it, if need be.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Fruit fly fraps
I learned this trick on — that's right — the INTERNET. Look it up. Vinegar, a jar, and a paper cone. Fruit flies love it... To death. Doing some variations to see if I can up the death count.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
» Ted Turner helps Bluegrass Conservancy celebrate The Bluegrass and Beyond
I had the great delight recently of photographing an event for the Bluegrass Conservancy where I got to see some of the Big Guns of land conservation, and hear their pitch to other area landowners. I'll tell you this: I would have signed my acres right over (were I to have any) after hearing Libby Jones speak.
Here's what the Herald Leader's Tom Eblen had to say: (excerpt)
"Atlanta media mogul Ted Turner was in Woodford County tonight to help the Bluegrass Conservancy celebrate the milestone of putting 10,356 acres of the region’s land under conservation easements.
Turner, the founder of Cable News Network, attended a reception to honor the more than 50 landowners who have volunteered to permanently protect their farmland with conservation easements, and a dozen or so others who are thinking about it. The reception was at Woodburn Farm on Old Frankfort Pike near Midway, one of the Bluegrass’ grandest antebellum mansions."
(and thanks to Tom for including two of my photos in his post)
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tasting: Gran Centenario Anejo tequila
Highland anejo tequila aged three years. I'm not a great taster, but I wouldn't kick this stuff off my shelf, that's for sure. In fact, it's crazy delicious...
Sunday, May 16, 2010
MMMB REHEARSAL
Learning original chamber music from an actual composer — our dazzlingly talented yet utterly down-to-earth leader Tripp Bratton — is a simultaneous exercise in patience, humility, concentration, and, best of all, accomplishment.
MMMB scheduling
Often overlooked is the Herculean task of syncronizing schedules of dozens of people tbefore MMMB agrees to gig offers.
Love, MMMB
Our quad-whiz ponders Tripp's arrangements. Learning original chamber music from an actual composer — our dazzlingly talented yet utterly down-to-earth leader Tripp Bratton — is a simultaneous exercise in patience, humility, concentration, and, best of all, accomplishment.
MMMB frenchies
Learning original chamber music from an actual composer — our dazzlingly talented yet utterly down-to-earth leader Tripp Bratton — is a simultaneous exercise in patience, humility, concentration, and, best of all, accomplishment.
MMMB rehearsal
Learning original chamber music from an actual composer — our dazzlingly talented yet utterly down-to-earth leader Tripp Bratton — is a simultaneous exercise in patience, humility, concentration, and, best of all, accomplishment.
MMMB rehearsal
Learning original chamber music from an actual composer — our dazzlingly talented yet utterly down-to-earth leader Tripp Bratton — is a simultaneous exercise in patience, humility, concentration, and, best of all, accomplishment.
MAD NYC
A visit to New York's Museum of Art and Design over Thanksgiving was barely enough to stifle my newfound thrill at having just discovered TiltShiftGen, one of my consistently favored iPhone photo apps, even now. This was literally one of the 1st photos that I took using it.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Moveable Feast's New Home
A great triumph is in the making for Lexington's Moveable Feast, as they prepare to move into a new homebase facility.
I've documented it along the way, and here are some photos from last week's painting party.
It's a great privilege to be asked to document their progress, and I wish them the greatest of successes, beyond those they've had over all their years of service to Lexington. :-)
Lucy will be your driver
Lucy and I had the most fun recently doing a photoshoot for two couples going to Prom. It was soo sweet.
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