Kate Callahan at West Hartford Yoga

There are moments in ones life when a single act, a single coincidence, a small bit of serendipity can be seen to profoundly change the course of the future. If one is wise, one can look back and recognize these in the rear view mirror. If one is in tune to the grander cosmic consciousness, one can become aware of these moments in the present.

I had one such moment back in 2005. I was a bit adrift - having completed my Big Life Project, and looking for the next thing.  My then partner, Zippy, and I were bike-riding through the industrial back roads of Hartford, West Hartford, and Newington, and I stumbled across a small building on Jansen Court - West Hartford Yoga. I was never particularly drawn to yoga; although several friends had suggested it over the years. And I had seen ads for West Hartford Yoga in the Hartford Advocate and other publications; but I had assumed it was somewhere over by the center, and way too toney for me.  But here's this little building, a shack really, that was closed but seemed very approachable.

I picked up two pieces of paper that afternoon. First, a brochure for The Enlightenment Intensive (led by Shankara Newton) - I was drawn to a quote from the gnostic Gospel of Thomas (I had been reading Elaine Pagels) and eventually I made my way to an Intensive (well, to be honest, six) led by Shankara and others. The other piece of paper I picked up that day was the West Hartford Yoga brochure and schedule. And I noticed an Intro to Yoga series led by Kate Callahan.

Now, I had run into Kate in the acoustic music world - I think Colin McEnroe had her on his afternoon show on WTIC 1080; and I had gone to see her at the Pine Loft Cafe in Berlin. Her beautiful spirit and gentleness was enough to get me to my first yoga class.

Kate did not end up completing the series; she had to step back and my friend Carissa picked it up. But I did not need more than one practice to get it - I was hooked. So in a  lot of ways - my yoga practice, my community, my spiritual growth, the many teachers, friends, and students I have encountered, and the many lives I have touched, are rooted in the seed planted by Kate.

So yeah, I was there last night when Kate and Friends played a special concert at West Hartford Yoga, now relocated to new digs on Brook Street.

Kate was joined by others. First, singers Cynthia Wolcott and Michelle Begley (also on drums), who were truly amazing. Cynthia and Michelle provided delicate and supportive harmonies for many of Kate's songs - not so much backing up as supporting and lifting Kate with each harmony. Kate's originals, so often reflective of her spiritual journey with themes of spirit, soul, choices, blessing, and struggle, were perfectly suited the beautiful yoga studio. But as wonderful as her originals were fleshed out with harmony, the trio really shined when then sang in more traditional choral harmony - CSN's "Helplessy Hoping" and the Wailin' Jennys "One Voice" were particularly powerful and beautiful. Here's a video of the latter:


 In addition to Cynthia and Michelle, Kate was joined by WHY fixture (and Little Ugly starlet) Kaia Pazdersky on violin, and percussionist Damon Honeycut, who was Kate's musical partner many years back. So it was a homecoming on multiple fronts. 

It was such a beautiful evening of music. The room was filled with family, friends, and fans, many of whom have known Kate or shared her journey over many years. The music was exceptional (Kate has recently invested in a great sound system, run well by her beloved David) which saved me from being the audio engineer.  I sat between my Kirtan friends Sharon and Virginia - and just soaked in the music. 

Telling Stories in Connecticut

Seems like spoken word performance / story telling is all the rage in these parts.

I attended the inaugural "The Mouth" at the Mark Twain House this past month; anything carrying Chion Wolf's imprimateur has got to be good. (and it was....) You can keep up with "The Mouth" on Facebook.

A quick web search also uncovered The Connecticut Storytelling Center, which hosts an annual Connecticut Story Telling Festival at Connecticut College, April 26-27.

In addition, there's a weekly Urban Storytellers series at MCC on Main, Manchester.  This is a great space (and not just because my beloved Guinea Pigs have a gig coming up, March 22.

And a last minute addition, the ongoing Other People's Stories series, held irregularly at La Paloma Sabanera in Hartford. 

Finally, the twitter reveals a new series, Speak Up, to be held at Real Art Ways. The inaugural date for this event is Saturday. May 4, at 7:00 pm.

I'm a big fan of The Moth and Snap Judgement - so hopefully these things will do well. The quality of stories told at The Mouth was just steller, IMHO, so hopefully that is a harbinger of some good talent in the area.

American Veda, April 12-14 at Wisdom House

Long before the Beatles met the Maharishi and the practice of yoga became a lifestyle choice, the spirituality of India influenced Western culture and thought. It already had made its way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson and forever changed how artists, intellectuals and scientists viewed our world, our minds and our bodies.

This dynamic program, “American Veda” presented by author, spiritual counselor, and meditation teacher Philip Goldberg of Los Angeles, CA will explore this spiritual legacy with the help of videos of leading historical figures. Participants will experience spiritual practices they can take home with them to enrich their spiritual lives. This workshop will take place from April 12-14 and is for anyone intrigued by or interested in Vedic wisdom.

For fees and further information please call: (860)567-3163, email programs@wisdomhouse.org or visit: www.wisdomhouse.org/program/calendar.html

Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center is an interfaith center which presents programs in spirituality, education and the arts and offers hospitality to the not-for-profit community. The center is rooted in Judaeo-Christian Wisdom tradition which supports the center’s commitment to sustainability and concern for contemporary issues. The Center is a ministry of the Daughters of Wisdom.

Justice O'Conner on Fresh Air: Meh

I listened to Terri Gross interviewing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor yesterday on Fresh Air. Justice O'Connor is making the rounds to support her book "Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court"

While Justice O'Connor's place in history as the first woman supreme court justice is secure, I found the interview to be mostly unsatisfying. Not sure if it's age or personality or what - but Terri was pulling teeth trying to get anything out of Justice O' Connor. There were some interesting bits about restrooms (it always seems to come down to the bathroom for all sorts of social movements), but there were so many opportunities to expound and expand upon historical cases, current issues, the dynamics of a court that has been quite polarized that Justice O'Connor just refused to entertain, could not or would not recount.

Why? She seemed as if she were still in "don't let anything slip out" mode required during the vetting and approval process for the court. Maybe she's got a "circle the wagons" attitude regarding the court. Or perhaps there is a political bias here, with the reliably liberal Ms. Gross (although she is an amazing, unbiased interviewer) pushing Justice O'Connor into a taciturn corner. 

I was particularly cranky when Terri, broaching the period on the court when Justice O'Connor was arguably the swing vote, was reproached - Justice O'Connor's take on the phrase "swing vote" was that she "swung back and forth" and she most adamantly did not do that. Terri tried (mostly in vain) to explain the concept and draw her out before moving on. Are the justices (or specifically, this justice) so out of touch that such a fundamental concept of the intersection of politics and law on the Supreme Court is lost to her?

Compare and contrast to Terri's 2010 interview with Justice Stephen Breyer - which I still recall, several years later, as engaging, informative, and forthright in terms of opinion and historical perspective.

 

Life Hack: Electric Heat and Digital Thermostats

When I purchased my condo in the lovely city of New Britain, one of my big concerns was the heating system - specifically, electric baseboard heat. I've been living with gas heat for years - hot water baseboard in Waterbury, forced air in Hartford. I was concerned about comfort, of course, but mostly I've heard much about the high cost of electric heat.

Balancing the cost issues, electric heat brings one big  benefit - it's inherently zoned. Which means, instead of one thermostat for the whole condo, or at best two (upstairs / downstairs) I have seven thermostats in the place: living room, kitchen, master bedroom, spare bedroom (my yoga room), two bathrooms, and the basement. So there's a lot of possibility for fine tuning the heat - to heat just the spaces I commonly use, and perhaps save some money.

When I moved in, all of the thermostats in the place were old-school electro-mechanical devices. There was no visible thermostat or feedback, the rotary dial was exceptionally coarse (with a resolution of 10ºF) , the calibration was highly suspect, and the heat control was simply ON / OFF. If the temperature dropped below a set point, the device turned on 100%, the space heated, and the device eventually turned off.

So my first thought was: Digital Thermostat. I found these Honeywell Thermostats at Lowes for about $25 a shot (cheap!) and replaced five of the seven thermostats (I left the bathroom thermostats in place, they are permanently switched off).

An aphorism I picked up in the corporate quality world was "If you measure something, it gets better" and the digital thermostats have a thermometer on them. So instead of simply "feeling cold" I can look and see the actual temperature. It's amazing how much things like my own health / energy / activity, as well as the ambient humidity and outdoor light level, affects my perception of temperature. So with a digital thermostat, I can now see that the room temp is 65 F (my usual occupied setting) and put on a sweater or sweatshirt. I think a lot of "heat creep" in electric systems comes from this lack of feedback.

In addition, the digital thermostats have a much finer resolution (1ºF) which means even if I decide to "crank the heat" I can restrict that to a few degrees. Finally, the digital thermostats use proportionate triac controls - which means that the heat is not simply ON / OFF, but appears to have four setting: ON / LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH. So as the temperature drops, the heat turns on LOW - and if that's enough to warm the space, it never gets past that. So the heat is a lot more even and therefore comfortable.

The electrical installation was pretty simple - easier than changing a light switch IMHO. The only complexity is that the older thermostats are DPST (Double Pole, Single Throw) - which is to say they break both lines (in my case, the heat is 240 VAC, two hot lines). The digital device is SPST - so one of the lines needs to be connected directly.

Now, simply adding digital thermostats still leaves a lot of room for energy waste - if I forget to turn the thermostats down. In addition, when I turn the thermostats down at night, I wake to a cold home. So I added programmable thermostats to key areas: the living room, the master bedroom, and the basement (where I have my office). This device is a bit more expensive: $50 at Loews. It has the same general functions as the digital thermostat, but adds a programmable function. This particular device permits four different timed settings (typically WAKE / LEAVE / RETURN / SLEEP) and can be programmed differently for weekdays (Mon-Fri) and weekends (Sat-Sun).

So I drop the house down to 58ºF at night (I tend to like a cool house to sleep; flannel sheets, blankets, and a bed dog keep me warm) and just prior to my normal wake-up, I heat the house up to 65ºF. During the day, I drop things down to 62ºF (I'm either in the basement working, teaching yoga, or out and about). I pop it back to 65ºF in the late afternoon, and back down at bed time. If I want it a little warmer, or happen to be hanging in the living spaces during the day, I bump the thermostat up confident that it will reset at the next timed change.

In hindsite, I'm retrofitting all the digital thermostats with programmable ones - I often leave the kitchen up at 65ºF by accident, and on more than one occasion, I've heated up the yoga room to 80ºF (for a warmer practice) and left it on for a day or more. So now the yoga room is permanently set to 55ºF and if I accidentally leave the temperature up, it will reset within a few hours. I'm transferring the old digital thermostats to the bathrooms.

Does it work? I think so. My electric bills (which include dryer, hot water, and range, as well as lights and heat) range from $80 (summer) to $250 (winter) - which is not too bad, especially considering there is no gas or oil bill coming. The total retrofit costs ($250 to go 100% programmable digital) - minimal really and I'm guessing the energy savings have covered that in a single heating season. And with electric heat, I do not need to maintain (and consider replacing) a much more finicky gas or oil furnace, fan, pumps, etc.   

The downside - need to program the thermostats (not really that difficult, as compared to the timer on my front door light) and maintain the clocks (daylight savings time). But so far no real issues with power outages causing resets - I guess these things have some internal capacitor or battery backup, or store the program in non-volatile memory.  

Camp Camp: Best Time Ever

I've headed north near the end of the summer the past two years for a week in the Maine woods at Camp Camp: A summer camp for GLBT adults.


I never had the opportunity (or sentence) of spending a week at summer camp - the closest I got was day camp through the local YMCA or churches. I was a kind of quiet, bookish, and therefore bullied, stick close to the walls kind of kid. Camp as a kid was akin to torture; and my parents were wise enough to recognize that it was not a good fit. And yet, everything that happens at camp - sports, crafts, campfires, music, swimming, nature - are some of my favorite things.

Camp Camp's motto is "Best Time Ever!" - but a secondary one might be "It's never too late to have a happy childhood!" If you are interested, follow the links. There are often opportunities to work off part of your fees - I teach yoga at camp, if you have a skill or craft that might be valuable at camp (or are simply willing to wash dishes!) it is surpisingly affordable. And, if you are (or have, or know of) a younger person (8 - 15) dealing with the trans, try Camp Aranutiq

Yoga Studios: Open to Everyone

A friend passed along this link via Facebook, from the Moonlitmoth blog: yoga and social justice.

Yoga Studios: Open to Everyone

It's a good read, thought provoking. I thought I'd do a little self examination of some of her recommendations / suggestions with regard to my own home studio.

Offer by-donation classes: I'll give us partial credit here. While we've never had a strictly "by donation" class, we do host a monthly "Free Intro to Yoga" class, we've had a weekly "Community Yoga" class ($6 suggested donation, all proceeds to charity), and we host a dozen $6 classes during the week.

We also offer work-study positions - cover a 4-5 hour shift per week and you get unlimited yoga. It's an awesome deal for a student, un or underemployed, etc. - I did work-study myself for a while before I started teaching. So, lots of low cost / no cost options.

Make your studio an LGBTQ safe space: Again, partial credit. We're not flying the rainbow flag, and not a lot of queer signifiers on the doors / windows. To be fair, there are *no* signifiers (yogic, political, etc.) on the doors / windows - more of an aesthetic choice, I think. On the other hand, the lot is filled with queerish bumper stickers, there are a number of out teachers / staff / work-study and visible relationships. I suspect we're also the only studio in the state with a trans teacher on staff ::she said, whistling and looking around innocently::

The studio makes generous donations (financial and items for silent auctions / raffles) to many of the local GLBT causes (CT Aids Oscar Night, G/L Film Fest are two I am aware of) which raises the LGBTQ footprint.

We fall down on the bathrooms - our changing areas are non-gendered, curtained off spaces - but we've only got two gendered bathrooms. I lobbied, hard, to take part of the three-stall women's room and make it a non-gendered, accessible bath / shower (would have also taken some of the load off the single men's room stall, which gets a bit of a line at times). Did not happen.

Multi-language posters/teachers: No points for this one. We're English only. Not sure how much of an audience there is for other languages, but we're certainly not chasing ESL populations. Interestingly, we do get a number of hearing impaired students, and we're talking about offering a sign language interpreted class.

Celebrate fat bodies and body diversity: Partial credit here. There's a lot of talk about healthy eating and nutrition - and I can see that getting a bit oppressive to some. On the other hand, several teachers fall outside of the "Size 2 yoga bod" - we've got diversity in size and in age on the staff. And the style of yoga at the studio is very diverse - ranging from restorative, gentle, yin, all levels, hot, power, pre-natal, post-natal, kids, tweens. There are a lot of options.

We did try to offer a "Yoga for Larger Bodies" class - and just not enough interest to make it fly - but hopefully that population can find a home in other classes. I know my classes are always modification and prop friendly!

Offer meditation classes: Double credit here. We've held a weekly meditation class since the studio has opened. And it's free. We also offer workshops in mindfulness, pranayama, savasana, yogic wisdom.

Make your studio accessible to people with non-normative physical abilities: This is a hard one. The main studio entrance has stairs - we've got an accessible ramp into the back of the studio (unfortunately, passing through our main studio) and we've got a portable ramp we can put out front. But we're really not set up for special needs yoga (chair yoga, etc.) in terms of teachers, facilities, etc.  Our restrooms and showers are ADA compliant however, and once inside the studio, it's all on one floor.

Offer trauma sensitive classes: Again, a tough one. I'd like to think that I and my fellow teachers are sensitive to trauma, that our intuitive skills are honed enough to recognize an issue and to work compassionately. But we could do better. It really comes down to the teacher - some teachers have a bit more loud, assertive teaching style, others are a lot more low key. But we don't offer special classes designed specifically for trauma survivors - no.

Don’t set up in a gentrified neighbourhood: Well, we're in toney West Hartford, and since that's embedded in the name / branding of the studio, it's hard to move out of town. On the other hand, we've always been in the least trendy, most industrial corner of the town. I'll give us partial credit here. In addition, the studio has been working with a local organization (with financial assistance and teachers) to bring yoga to underserved communities

Offer YTT scholarships: A significant number of teacher trainees receive assistance, either through work-study slots, outright assistance, or agreement to work with under-served communities once they graduate.

One big problem that we face is success. We're the biggest studio in the area, and we've got two studios that are larger than most. But with the larger studio comes higher overhead - so there is a need to put yogis on the mat for every available class time. A class that draws 5-6 people, regardless of focus, is not going to last. As a result, a lot of specialty classes (larger body, trauma, glbt, chair, ESL, etc.) never get off the ground, or are offered and fail, because the population just is not there to support that. I personally feel that our studio vibe is safe and flexible enough that folks who might otherwise fit into such specialty classes often opt for a regular class - find a teacher or class that works for them.  Alternately, I know many of our teachers (and training grads) teach specialty classes in the community.

A smaller studio, with a lower overhead and smaller studio, might find it easier to make niche classes work.

So - all in all, I think we're doing reasonably well. We could always do better. And this article was a good chance to step back take a look.

Midnight Radio

Woke early this morning; a fortuitous opportunity to listen to a friend DJ on WWUH 91.3. You can follow her on twitter (and witness our shameless "we're the only ones up at this time" lovefest on twitter @punkrockcabaret and @scenicroot)

Reminds me of other days. During ballooning season, I'd stumble across her show while getting dressed, and heading to the early morning launch site. And back in high school, working the 11-7 "close open" shift at McD's (when McD's actually closed) I'd listen Boston's progressive rock WBCN. I love that in these days of iTunes and Pandora and Spotify, someone is out there sharing music the old fashioned way - over the air.

Ellis Paul: The Day After Everything Changed

Ellis Paul is coming through - visiting nearby Northampton for an evening at the Iron Horse, Saturday, March 2nd.

I've been listening to Ellis' 2010 release The Day After Everything Changed, with many tracks co-written by Ellis and Kristian Bush (1/2 of the duo Sugarland) - it's been an interesting listen.



The album has a good kick to it - with the opening tracks punched up with the combination of power, instrumentation, and production that would feel right at home on the local country station. Annalee, a bit sparse in the Youtube clip above, rocks out on the album with a full band. And yet, woven in through the power country are plenty of quieter, more accessible tracks. Dragonfly, Waking Up To Me and Once Upon a Summertime feel much more personal, sweet and a little painful. The piano in Once Upon a Summertime was particularly winsome - hearkening back to classic Jackson Brown; I suspect the long past summer Ellis is singing of was a summer from my own high school days.  

I smiled through River Road, as snippets of the imagery and language of Springsteen's Thunder Road sneaks into a song (...would you like to know how it feels? To trade your wings in on some wheels...) that is less desperate, and more joyful than Springsteen's ode to a summer's drive into a risky unknown, and more at peace with the ride. Bruce's screen door slams; Ellis's screen door is a window into his love's eyes. It's not "do or die" for Ellis (and co-writer Kristian), it's a happy ride on a summer's evening, with a rolling banjo laying low in the mix.

Other songs charmed. An uptempo, nearly rockabilly version of Walking After Midnight morphs into Sam Baker's Change without missing a beat. The Cotton's Burning brought to mind The Band's Night They Drove Old Dixie Down with a bit more funk. Paper Dolls, banged out on a piano that feels like it's been sitting in the back of a bar for years, soaking in the loneliness and ever so slightly out of tune - as Kristian Bush folds in a countermelody and harmonies. And the closing track, Nothing Left to Take, brings it all back home - just a singer with his guitar - sitting down at a microphone at any coffeehouse, open mike, or rural bar on folk night. Beautiful, simple, and powerful.

It might be a chilly late winter in terms of temperature here in New England, but I suspect that the Ellis Paul Band is going to bring a balmy summer warmth to the Iron Horse next weekend. Definitely worth a ride up I-91.  

Ellis has been keeping the folk tradition alive for a lot of years; I've caught him at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival many times over the past many years. If you know the year Ellis Paul stepped up to the Falcon Ridge showcase stage (and walked away with one of the coveted Most Wanted spots for the following year), drop me an email. First one with the right answer wins a copy of The Day After Everything Changed...

Last Night's Dream

A long and fairly exhausting weekend left me with a vivid dream last night. In the dream, I was in a new apartment in a big city (presumably NYC). It was a 1 bedroom, but was spacious - with a rather large and ornately furnished living room, a semi hidden dining area and big kitchen, there was a big bathtub (more of a small pool) in the living room.

Seemed like an artist lived there previously, I kept finding small pieces, postcards, signs in the place. I recall thinking that it was amazing that it was so affordable ($700) for just Elo and I, that I ought to have friends come stay over, that Elo would have to get used to going out in the city.

And the odd part, when I found the kitchen, there was a meal all cooked - as if the previous tenants had left in a rush.

One of those dreams that will sit with me all day....

Music and Arts Update

There's a bunch of music, social and arts events coming up on my personal horizon:

• February 21 - Little Ugly and Paper Hill Casket Company at Black Eyed Sally's
• February 22 - The Inaugural Mouth at Mark Twain House
• February 23 - CT Lighter Than Air Society Annual Dinner (postponed due to the Blizzard)
• February 24 - Oscar Night Hartford at Mark Twain House
• March 2 - Ellis Paul up at the Iron Horse 
• March 7 - CT Forum / A Meaningful Life
• March 8 - Guinea Pigs gig at the CT Audubon Society, Glastonbury (come!) 
• March 9 - Kate Callahan and Friends at West Hartford Yoga

Hold my calls....

Blogger App for iPad

This could be trouble. Just saying.

I have not blogged from bed in many years.....

Why I Love Southwest Airlines

As if the fares, free checked bags, flights that leave on time, cheery attendants, and as  egalitarian a seating policy as one might hope for we're not enough....Southwest now offers WIFI on many flights. 

All four segments this trip had wifi, for a very reasonable $8 per day (not per segment) - permitting me to get some work done, listen to a streaming radio show, and muck around on social media. I am impressed and thrilled. 

Plus, the flight tracker (which is free!) so I can watch our progress across the country.

Community Project

They are plowing the apartment building across the street; with a bit of a community effort.

Our recently plowed parking lot is the holding area / overflow for the apartment complex while they clear the lot. Can't complain, the apartment complex plow dude took care of us after he got the main area of his parking lot opened up and while he waited for the residents to come move cars.

New Britain Plow Update

Still no sign of a city plow, since early this morning when a plow came through just to make a path for emergency vehicles....here's a street by street neighborhood update as of 2:00 pm on Sunday 2/10.

Roosevelt St looking north from Edgewood

Edgewood Ave, looking east from Roosevelt

Kennedy Drive, looking North from Edgewood. Nary a tire tread, but someone with a snow blower cut a walking path

Benson Street, looking north from Edgewood

Fulton Street is driveable (with caution), single lane

Hudson Place, looking east from Fulton. Not plowed, sorry Dattco....

Astor Place, looking east from Fulton. Suspect someone on the (dead-end) street had a plow truck.

Parker Control Systems on Edgewood. Lot is nice and clear, has been since yesterday.

New Britain Neighborhood Update

Here's the present state of the roads in my New Britain neighborhood:

 

Fulton Street has been nominally plowed with a single lane. Someone ran a plow down Edgewood (and backed it up) - limited access and not really what I'd call plowed. Fulton, Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Crescent have not been touched. 

I walked the dog up Edgewood and all the way up Fulton - folks are digging out. While the snow plow owners were pretty quick to get out and clean up, it was pretty amazing to see the shovelers also doing a decent job of digging out. 

No sign of street plow today, nor anyone to clean up our condo lot, although there are signs of life - a pickup did a first pass on the apartment lot across the street.

I suspect today will be a day of waiting - and hoping that those with transportation do not get out and about too early. Already there's a pickup parked on the street (visiting? resident who parked off site and came back?) that was in the way of the lot plow dude, and will obstruct the town plows if they show.  And another dude rolled through in a Pontiac Sunfire (a shitbox in any weather, but particularly unsuited for the snow) and got stuck on Edgewood Ave - five of us out cleaning up pushed him out.

Life Hack: Rebate Division

I recently received a rebate from Pep Boys for some things I bought over the holidays. In the past, the rebate shows up as a check, which I eventually deposited into my account. But this time (and more frequently, of late) rebates are coming in the form of a debit card.

Now, these things are kind of annoying. They are rarely sufficient to buy much (in this case, $10), and it's a hassle to pay for something with multiple cards, card / cash, etc. On more than one occasion, I put the card in a pile with my unused gift cards, and promptly forgot about it. Or I rang up a small purchase, and left a buck or two on the card. In either case, the card expires, I lose my money.

But now, I have a new Square account / swiper. I simply charged myself $10 and ran it through my Square account - and within a day, $9.72 was deposited in my bank account. The small Square fee (in this case, 28 cents) is less than the gas it would cost to run down to a bank or ATM, less than a first class stamp. And I can dispose of the card promptly.

Knife Fight

Having just plowed through seven seasons of The West Wing (my January binge), I was delighted to see Rob Lowe featured as a political consultant in the upcoming film Knife Fight.



West Wing's Richard Schiff has a supporting role, juicing up the West Wing vibe.

Coming to Real Art Ways March 10th for a short run. I plan to catch it....

Oscar Nominated Short Films

Stole away for the evening tonight, to watch the Oscar Nominated Short Films - Live Action and Animation - over at Real Art Ways. The Live Action and Animated films are playing now through Feb 14th, the Documentary films arrive Feb 15th. Click through to find out more about the films and see the trailers.

First off, apologies to Real Art Ways. My membership expired in September - and I have just tarried on signing back up. I wrote a check out and everything, but figured I'd drop it off the next time I was there. And I've been horribly anti-social (and also a big underfunded) since then; this was my first foray back in months. But I'm back on the member roles and hope to show up in the real world occasionally as we start to move towards spring.

Now, on to the films. First, up, the Animated Shorts, in order of viewing:

Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" - Maggie Simpson attends the Ayn Rand Daycare Center, where she finds a caterpillar and faces off against her nemesis.

I'm a huge Simpsons fan, have been for years, and the creative team has kept me amused for over two decades. But I just do not get this (or any other animated franchise) in this category. Yeah, cute story, yeah, nice to see an underused character fleshed out, yeah nice to see the show animated in a bit more detail and texture. But....not really what I want to see. 

Adam and Dog - A playful dog exploring the newly created world comes upon the first man.

OK, maybe it's the dog owner in me, maybe watching the Genesis story from a different perspective and fleshed out, made human, was enough. But I was sobbing. Beautiful old-school animation, sweet, substantial. My vote for the Oscar, hands down. 

Fresh Guacamole- An unseen cook uses a series of unusual ingredients to prepare a bowl of guacamole.

Totally charming, very short (2 minutes) and a little bit of a one joke wonder that sustains and amuses for the lentgh of the short.

Head over Heels - The emotional distance between a long-married husband and wife has resulted in an unusual living arrangement.

Very sweet, and little weepy, done with puppets. It has a little bit of the cleverness of last year's winner
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, although a bit less magical. I liked it, did not love it.

Paperman - A young man working in an office tries desperately to attract the attention of a girl in the building across the street.

Very clever animation and story, and aiming for the same turf as Mossis Lessmore. But a little too perfect and Disneyfied for my taste. Suffers a bit too much from "me too" flying paper, sweet romance, wind all hearken back to last year's winner.  

Between the films, there were some bits by Morris Lessmore's William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg who were funny, smart, and magnanimous in telling their story. Nicely done!
 
Now, on to the Live Action films, again, in order of viewing:

Death of a Shadow - A soldier attempts to ransom his soul from Death and return to the girl he loves.

Beautiful, creepy, dark, romantic, steam-punk. All of this and more. It was a really engaging, creative, beautiful film. Not my favorite, but the competition was fierce in this category.

Henry - Henry, an elderly concert pianist, undergoes a series of confusing experiences as he searches for his wife.

And...more tears. Having a friend's mother struggle with Alzheimer's, this film was especially poignant. Again, not my fave, but a real winner. 

Buzkashi Boys - Two boys in Afghanistan, a blacksmith's son and an orphan living on the streets, dream of winning a popular and fierce polo match.

This one gets my vote for the Oscar, in a very strong field. The Kabul cinematography is stark, gorgeous, and so very sad - shot amidst burned out buildings, palaces, and rubble. The story is amazingly simple and yet so well told. I am sure there was a lot of money behind this (including the US Dept of State) and it shows - normally I'd discount that but for this one time, it does not matter. There is no sign of ongoing war here - just the charred remains of decades of war, poverty, and a beautiful, up close and personal, and so very sad story set in that backdrop.

Curfew - A young man on the verge of committing suicide receives a call from his sister asking him to babysit his niece.

Like Paperman, this film has a similar vibe to last year's winner (in this case, God of Love) - albeit darker. It was very sweet, had it's whimsical moments, and a precocious and lovely child actress. It all worked, totally worth the watch - just not my winner.

Asad - A boy from a poor Somali village must decide between piracy and life as a fisherman.

And...this must be the year of putting boys in ravaged landscapes and telling a story. The heart of this film is in the right place (almost all the actors are Samoli refugees or asylum seekers) and the story has it's moments. But the darkness and horror are neither fully explored nor completely redeemed. The ending / resolution seemed a little off - fantastic, impractical, unsatisfying. Tore at my heart strings, but something lacking in the storycraft here.


As with the Animated Shorts film, the between film patter was handled by last year's winner, Luke Methany. Not as effective - partly because there was just him, with no partner or foil to bounce memories off. And partly because, dark horse that God of Love was, he's not quite as seasoned as Mssrs. Joyce and Oldenburg - so a bit more of the "gee whiz, I won" and a bit less of the "we've been at this for 15 years, we've done a lot of grunt work, so keep hold of your dreams no matter what" that made the Animated segments work so well.

Reblog

So my last blog post was Dec 2012; on the day of the tragic Newtown shooting. Much has happened since.

I've been pretty quiet - a combination of seasonal blahs (winter and holiday), busy work life (especially since the first of the year), and just that slow, sad erosion of the blogosphere in favor of social media platforms. Facebook, yes. Twitter, just a bit. But my poor, unattended blog - not much.

Hope to correct that. I'm feeling a bit more like writing, I need to get my creative, social, and cultural mojo engaged, and I'm overdue for a commitment. 

I Know the Whole Truth There is Horrible

It's everybodies worst nightmare. And my heart and thoughts go out to the families - of the lost children, the lost teachers, and everyone impacted by these murders - students, teachers, family, first responders.

But I'm not going to blog about it, editorialize, memorialize. There is enough pain in the world. I'm just sitting with it.

Neil Young: Still Rocking

Way back in 2006, I saw Jonathon Demme's Neil Young biopic Heart of Gold. I blogged about it back then:

I thought how blessed Neil Young was to go toe to toe with mortality, to survive, and to be wise enough to throw his own goodbye party / concert and to film it. May we all be so fortunate.

Little did I know that Neil Young would survive his aneurysm survey, and keep right on rocking. And I was fortunate enough to see him as he came through Bridgeport (Webster Arena) last evening.

Now, Neil Young and I go way back. I thing I wore the grooves down on my Life Rust album (remember double albums?). I owned an erratic sampling of his works on album and cassette: his self titled first, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, American Star and Bars, Re*actor, Trans, Landing on Water, Freedom.  And when I made the jump to CD, I've picked up a bit over the years: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Rust Never Sleeps, Decade, Life Rust, Sleeps with Angels, Mirror Ball, Ragged Glory. Not canonical by any means, but a good sampling.

And as an angry young rocker, Neil Young was an icon. Needle and the Damage Done was part of the walking D acoustic trilogy (also, Willin' by Lowell George and Friend of the Devil by the Grateful Dead). A guitar, and amp, and the right effects pedal, and one could blast out the riffs to Hey Hey, My My. Every band I've ever played in had some Neil Young in the set list - Powderfinger, Hey Hey My My, Like a Hurricane. Even today, the Guinea Pigs play Cinnamon Girl.  Neil Young's music is nothing if not messy, emotional, heartfelt.

First thought: Is that the set from Rust Never Sleeps? Indeed it was. No idea if Crazy Horse gigs have had this set all along, but dude - that album came out in 1979, the year I graduated from high school. And yet, here it still is, 30+ years later.  It was both reassuring (some things never change....they stay the way they are....) and kind of sad.

Similarly, the intro to Needle  and the Damage Done (with the lightning graphics and sound, and the Woodstock "please get off those towers...no rain" recording) was straight out of Live Rust. For someone who often obstinantly refuses to play the greatest hits (the folks behind us were kvetching about previous concerts where he did nothing old or classic), Mr Young is awfully faithful to the past.

And there were Greatest Hits - Mr. Soul, Hey Hey My My, Cinnamon Girl, Powderfinger, Needle and the Damage Done were all woven into newer material. It felt a little polarized - old FM classics or brand new material. Not a lot of middle ground, mining the many albums of material out there.

I was struck by a certain level of goofiness, bordering on surrealism, that infused the concert. The big amps and microphone, and the video monitors (trimmed out to look like 60's TV sets hung in the arena) reminded me of a bunch of kids playing in the basement - Neil and the band (with the exception of the keyboard player) hugged the center of the stage, facing inward towards each other as if avoiding eye contact with the audience. This was their fun time playing, and we got to watch and listen, if we dared.

Their set opened with the National Anthem (dude, you are Canadian, right?) complete with flag unfurled behind the band - serious or making fun? Hard to say. During one song, an old pump organ was rolled out on stage, and when the short organ instrumental rolled around (played by the keyboardist on a more modern instrument) the old pump organ was spotlit, unplayed. At one point, the roadies crumpled papers and bags in front of a fan, blowing across the stage for no real reason other than perhaps the joy of watching things blow across the stage. You get the feeling that maybe back in '75, someone decided to screw with Neil and send stuff blowing across the stage via a cooling fan, and they decided to keep the bit. There was a lot of that going on. Like some weirdly serious, weirdly comic ritual that has evolved over 40 years - nobody knows why they are doing all these things, they made sense once upon a time.

Me at 51 is a far different person than me at 18. I grew tired of the endless guitar riffing, and the prolonged (10 minutes maybe?) of messing around with feedback and sonic blasting.  I wanted a little more song and a little less riffing. But, 35 years down the road Neil Young is still rocking it out. He was up there amusing himself in 79, and he's still up there amusing himself today. We can choose to come along.

The second song in was the anthem Powderfinger - and it was like I was scratching a 35 year old itch to hear the song played live, after playing it so often in my own basement rock past. It did not disappoint.

Jonathon Demme has a follow-up film (Journeys) - part of an accidental Trilogy - and I need to see that. 2006's Heart of Gold was amazingly moving. But for now, I'll let the ears ring and the energy settle. Glad I finally got to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Private Sector vs. Public Sector

So I got a letter a few weeks back from TaxServ Capital Services. The gist of it was that I owed some back property taxes on my cars, stemming from the time I lived in Hartford. It basically amounted to one half tax year ($240), plus minor amounts $25 for other years - although by the time interest and fees were tacked on it was $400.

I paid up, not happily, but without rancor. I owed the taxes, the bills probably got lost in the mail forwarding / moving process when I relocated to New Britain. No idea why I underpaid two years of bills $12 (perhaps late fees or interest or something). I'm happy enough to be free and clear - that sort of thing tends to catch up with you at registration time, which usually involves a trip down to City Hall (where they have odd rules like cash only and even odder business hours) to make things right. So here's my credit card number, I'm all set, right?

But it struck me that this was clearly a place where the local tax collector (looking at you, City of Hartford) had not the interest, time, aptitude, or motivation to go out and get this money. And some wizard in the private sector figured out how to make it work, collect debts that Hartford probably had tossed into the uncollectable bin, and make a few bucks on it. I not a scofflaw, the tax bills just got lost in the shuffle.

Stuff like this reminds me that not EVERYTHING the Republicans stand for is bogus. I'd love to see a political movement that is socially liberal and fiscally moderate / conservative. Northeast Republicans used to hold that ground - perhaps these days the Democratic Leadership Council (which both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both play nice with) are seeking the same ground.

Hurricane Sandy

I know the mess is still happening - and thoughts go out to those on the CT coastline, to the folks in New York City, and those who remain without power.

Sandy was a lot like last year's Irene for me - never lost power then or now, never lost cable / internet. The UPS kicked on a few times due to sags / instability but otherwise, no problems. The upside of living in / near a city.

I have to believe that this is going to help out President Obama. Even though he'll have to suspend his campaign, and turnout in the northeast states (mostly safely in Obama's pocket anyway) will be impacted, he'll have a week of lookign and acting presidential (don't blow it!)

And after an event like this, I would think that the candidate who accepts the concept of global warming and climate change, and who supports the federal role in emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and things like strong building and zoning regulations might have a bit of a leg up.

But we shall see. In the meantime, stay safe everyone!

Springsteen in Hartford

Made my occasional pilgrimage to see the high priest of Rock N' Roll, Mr. Bruce Springsteen, last night at the XL Center. I went with Robert and Kristen (my frequent Bruce companions) and Robert's daughter Devon, for her first arena show and her first Springsteen show.

Anne Haines did us the solid of recording the set list; I've been a twitter follower of hers for a while (and have been keeping up with the tour as a result) - wonderful to have the list in front of me as I recall the show.

Mostly, it felt a little like hanging out with old friends who kept pulling oldies but goodies out of theur hats and giving them a whirl. Songs I never expected to hear live again included Held Up Without a Gun (the opener), Spirits in the Night, Incident on 57th Street (a request), For You (a request, solo on piano). Lot of stuff from Wrecking Ball, a whole lot from The River, and a healthy dose of the classics - Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Born to Run. No Rosalita, no Jungleland, no Thunder Road.

I think my favorite song pairing was Point Blank and Because the Night - I go back far enough to remember when Point Blank was unrecorded and Because the Night's Patti Smith bona fides made it a real treat (although I kind of would prefer her take on it, I'm liking it a little darker)

I only cried a few times - Wrecking Ball (that whole coming to the end of the road thing), the Rising (with it's 9-11 imagery and energy), and Land of Hope and Dreams (gotta love a little come to Jesus revival moment!)

I was surprised that Bruce said not a word about the election - not even a "get out and vote" message - maybe he knew that with the aging frat boys in the house, the hall might go for Romney. He did plug Foodshare Hartford, though, so I will too!

Not much else to say. Was an awesome show, as they all are. We were in some reasonably bad seats - halfway up the second level on the side. Sometimes ludicrously bad seats (behind stage, or last row, all the way back) are more fun.Once upon a time Bruce could take an arena down int silence with just a gesture - but there were a lot of not-so-true-believers in the house (the couple next to me sat through most of the show and left after Born to Run) - so there was a lot of chit-chat through the quiet songs (come on dudes, it's Bruce and a piano playing For You - when are you ever gonna hear that?).

There was a nice tribute to Clarence (mostly) and Danny (a bit) in the middle of 10th Avenue Freeze Out that was very sweet, and Clarence's nephew Jake Clemons did an amazing job of filling his late Uncle's shoes - both technically and energetically.

Mostly though, I am thankful that my self-employed lifestyle means I could sleep in a bit today - unlike my fellow travelers (teacher, student, and corporate gig). Need to gargle a bit before I teach today - my throat is a bit raw from the singing, the yelling, the beers, and the hours.

Thanks, Obamacare

I have a high deductible, HSA based health insurance plan; it really does not pay for much. But the other day I received this letter - women's health coverage is increasing significantly. And even though I'm not going to need most of these services, getting coverage for an annual trip to the gyno is a good benefit. (Not to mention the colonoscopy that got covered 100% in the past year, also thanks to the Affordable Care Act).

But for other women, women who are in their reproductive years and considering having kids, this is great news.

Thanks, President Obama. One more reason I am voting Dem in 2012.

************************************************************

As a result of the Health Care Reform law (Jude notes - aka "Obamacare), the following preventive services are included in your plan. Preventive services are covered with no cost share when provided by a network provider. No cost share means that your deductible, coinsurance and/or copay do not apply to these services.
• Well-woman visits (this includes prenatal visits)
• Screening for gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy)
• Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing
• Counseling for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
• Counseling and screening for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• Screening and counseling for interpersonal and domestic violence
• Breastfeeding support, supplies and counseling
• Contraceptive methods and counseling (when prescribed by a physician)

Some of these services are already benefits under your plan. These changes go into effect on January 1, 2013.

50,000

It was a "back of the envelope" estimate of the number of dead on Sept 11, 2001. I'm an engineer, so that sort of calculation comes naturally.

I was out in Chicago that week; and watched the towers fall from the floor of the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. Somewhere that morning I heard the total occupancy of the towers, and based on where the planes struck, the time the towers remained standing, and the number of first responders, media, and onlookers, that was the number I imagined I had just watched perish as the buildings collapsed.

A lot of things went right that day. The World Trade Center occupants and safety personnel had a test run back in 1993, and folks remembered and kept their heads. The terrorist attacks came early in the day before the offices filled. The towers stood long enough for many to escape. The buildings pancaked in on themselves, containing the damage to the World Trade Center footprint. When all was said and done, 3000 had perished - a horrific number, to be sure, but I never quite forgot my initial estimate. And so I walked away thinking "it could have been so much worse".

In the ten years since that tragic day, we've witnessed a lot of mass casualty events:

2010 Haitian Earthquake - 300,000
2008 Sichuan Earthquake - 68,000
2005 Kashmir Earthquake - 79,000
2004 Indonesian Tsunami - 230,000

Yet those things happened far away, the World Trade Center was right here - on the skyline, in our collective and recent experience, our friends and neighbors. And the attacks were not arbitrary acts of nature, of chance, of misfortune - they were deliberate, targeted acts.

Perhaps my initial calculation tempered the shock and grief, for me. I mourned the 3000 dead, but I also felt deep gratitude for the 47,000 I had imagined to be dead who remained alive. And in the subsequent years, I have carried that sense of proportion with me as I watched my government and country respond in terms of security, privacy, military actions, torture. I don't think it was wrong to seek retribution and justice. But I wish we had a more intelligent, more thoughtful, and more patient government at the time.

Revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold. How much sweeter would it have been to track down and dispatch Osama Bin Laden had we not added nearly 6,000 dead, 40,000 wounded, to the pricetag. The terrorists could not have scripted out a better response to the attacks in terms of American costs - loss of life, loss of capital, loss of world reputation, loss of rights and freedoms, distraction from global and national issues.

So, on this 10th anniversary, I mourn the loss of those who suffered and died ten years ago. And I mourn the effects of the resulting 10 years on my country.

Not a very popular posting, I am sure.

I Am the 53%

Mitt Romney got caught on video a while back, at a fund-raising dinner in Tampa. Mother Jones recently released that video, and it does not reflect well on the former Massachusetts Governor.

The content itself is not all that controversial. 47% of Americans pay no income taxes, and those folks are not going to respond to Romney's sales pitch of lowering taxes. So he's going for the folks who do pay taxes. And I'm open minded enough to understand that when Romney says "[M]y job is not to worry about those people.", he's talking about getting their votes, not their lives. 

But it was the surrounding opinion - wholly not needed to make a point but probably reflecting Romney's personal feelings, that are damning. 

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

"[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Mighty big brush you are tarring a huge swatch of the American populus there, Mr. Romney. And a lot of "those people" are your base - senior citizens, military personnel,  the working poor.

It's not the politics I find objectionable - I do not agree, and feel there is amble evidence that Romney's policies and monetary philosophy are bankrupt. But on top of all that - Romney appears to be too dumb, too inept, too incompetent to be president. Who, running for president and knowing that every moment may be caught on video or audio tape, says these things? If Romney's main claim to the office is his executive experience and competence, he's demonstrating, over and over, that he's not qualified.

OK, I'll fess up. I pay income taxes. I am self employed, I'm not wealthy by any standard. But despite my best efforts to optimize expenses and deductions, my mortgage deduction, etc. I write a check every year for Federal income tax on top of my Social Security and Medicare dues. I am, therefore, part of the 53%. And I'm voting Obama.

Checked Off

I'm coming off a rather remarkable period of productivity - checking items off my "to do" list that go back months, if not years. I moved into my present digs three years ago October, and at that time I pretty much threw my office into boxes and moved it into the basement. Not much got organized below grade....ever. Until now. So here's the canonical list of my September cleaning and organizing.

• Purchased and hung a wall rack to store speaker and mic stands
• Consolidated and organized PA system cables, mics, accessories
• Permanently mounted 2x track lights and associated dimmer switches. 
• Removed most of the wire that once supported a suspended ceiling in the basement
• Removed all remaining ceiling tiles (stuffed above walls, etc.) that carried some cigar / smoke odor
• Cleaned and organized desk, two tables, four shelving units, and one printer station
• Cleaned and organized the under stair crawlspace
• Installed hangers for XC skis and got those off the floor
• Purged several boxes full of paper, magazines, etc. (four more to go)
• Cleaned out and organized all desk drawers
• Installed a perf board to hang tools, and organized same
• Installed a wooden shelf to store chemicals, paint, etc. 
• Vacuumed office area
• Reorganized and consolidated all electrical and mechanical household supplies
• Purchased and installed a new label printer (the old one ate a label and died)
• Took several boxes of old electronics and cables to Green Monster
• Installed a pencil sharpener that has been lying around forever

And above grade, things were also pretty busy:

• Removed bedroom A/C unit
• Removed, cleaned, and stored bedroom and yoga room fans
• Installed track and hangers for guitar, bouzouki, and bass in bedroom
• Organized guitar supplies (cables, strings, tuners, switches, etc.)
• Cleaned and vacuumed living room
• Vacuumed stairs (two sets)
• Cleaned top of fridge and put everything there-on away
• Cleaned both bathrooms
• Purchased luggage tags and laminated business cards for luggage and tool kit ID

Not 100% sure of what is behind all this productivity, but a bunch of things factor in: 

• I love the cooler late summer / early fall weather
• Fall is a good time to transition / make changes
• My 11 days without a car got me cleaning to start with (nothing else to do)
• My 11 days without a car had me cooking in more, eating healthier (higher energy)
• Once I got the car back, hitting retail shops to pick up supplies and hardware seemed like a privilege
• I have a bit of romance in my life. It just does a body and spirit good

I can only hope that this spurt of energy and drive to get things done continues - I really like it, and I am truly enjoying my much more livable and pleasant work and living spaces! 

Hartford Stage - Age Discrimination Fail

So Hartford Stage is marketing to the young.

Stage Pass

Introducing a $38 Unlimited Season Pass!

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

An unlimited season pass to Hartford Stage’s 2012/13 season. If you are
18–27 years old and love theatre, Stage Pass is definitely for you. Purchase a Stage Pass for only $38 – yup, that’s it – and get into every Mainstage production at Hartford Stage for the 2012/13 season. That’s basically what you would spend going to the movies twice, and just think how sophisticated you’ll sound when you tell your friends and family you are “going to the theatre tonight.” Speaking of friends, want to bring a friend when you use your Stage Pass? Go ahead and do it! Purchase up to 3 companion tickets for only $20 each.

 I'd slap a big old Facebook "Like" on that if I were not, well, 51, and therefore ineligible.  FWIW, I love the theater, and I'm not really able to afford Hartford Stage except on special occasion.

Apparently, offering a special to a particular age (and by default, not offering it to those outside of that age) is legal and socially acceptable (of course it is, look at all the senior discounts out there). But imagine if this special offer were limited to people of a certain race ("If you are white and like the theater....") or religion ("If you are non-christian, come on down...."

I get that they want to bring a younger crowd in the door, but jeez, there are ways to do that (how about targeting the offer via youth-heavy conduits such as QR Codes, twitter, handing out physical coupons at particular events) - instead of blatant age targeting (and flipping the coin over, de facto discrimination).

Instead, I'm vaguely resentful that Hartford Stage is not offering me this particular special. 

Car Troubles

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I lost use of my car for 11 days. Here's the blow-by-blow.

My Check Engine light has been lit for, well, months. No excuses there - I needed to get it in, but the time and money never coincided, and the car continued to run. A bit roughly, but it never conked out, never stranded me. I assumed it was a bad spark pug or something.

So when I got some money and the end of the summer rolled around, I took it in. I've been meaning to find a regular, independent mechanic and garage, but never got that sorted out. So, needing to get the brakes checked out, and having had the brakes done in the past (with a lifetime warranty) at Pep Boys, I took it there. Mistake #1.

I took the car in late in the day on Wednesday. Waited around for it - by diner time, they had gotten stuck (Cylinder #3 was not firing and had low compression) and were dialoging with a national specialist. They took me home, and I started figuring out options. Thursday morning the diagnosis came in - bad ECM (computer). Bad computer = big money ($1200) but what are you going to do. The problem was, with Saturn out of bizness, parts were not easy to come by, and the Pep Boys folks could not program (or "flash") the computer. So I'd have to wait over the Labor Day weekend. They hustled to get a computer on Friday, but when they replaced it, the new one was dead out of the box. So I waited until Tuesday.

Tuesday, the call came - the computer was replaced. The problem was still there. Upon further inspection, it turns out that here was a bent valve, it had damaged the #3 spark plug, coil, and head. They *said* that had damaged the computer (I remain dubious, think they were just throwing parts at it, and one of the parts they threw was the computer). Nevertheless - big job. To make a long story short, they ended up remachining the head,  which took until Saturday). $2900 later, my car runs great.

I'm going to write a couple of letters. Pep Boys gets a letter- both for the length of repair (11 days? really?) and the computer (which as I noted, I do not feel was bad). And Saturn / GM gets a letter, since th Pep Boys folks feel (based on the engine head damage) that the net valve may have been there from the get go (the car has 80K on it, but never really ran smoothly,  and the first tank of gas post repair got 4 MPG more than any previous tankful, and I monitor that fairly closely)

While the car was out of commission, I ended up riding my bike a bit - mostly back and froth to the studio (15 miles round trip). But I only rode up to teach (15 miles bike ride PLUS a hot / power practice would have been too much) so my own practice, as well as my social life, suffered.

On the up side, being home alone gave me the time to clean - and that has precipitated an amazing life change here, to be blogged next!
 

Love That Dirty Water

One of the off-shoots of Camp Camp 2012 is that I met someone.

Won't go into too much detail, other than she is my age, is a lovely amalgam of goofball, sweetie, and hottie, and lives along the Boston greenway. And so my energy is drawn back to Boston, after many years. There is a largish camp enclave in Boston, and I think I'll end up visiting this coming year.

Kind of weird - I've lived in Connecticut my entire adult life - since graduating in college in '83. Yet Massachusetts was where I came of age - learned to drive, went to ball games and concerts, took the T. I have a certain familiarity and fondness for Beantown.

So when I drove up for a visit last weekend, it was all familiar, comfortable. And although I drove through more rotaries in one car trip than I have in the past calendar year en route to West Roxbury. It was altogether familiar.

We took two laps around Jamaica Pond, which was beautiful and fun - sort of like the WH Reservoirs in energy but embedded in the city - not reserved for the suburban crowd.

I miss having a queer community. I miss having friends who might drop by and visit, or who might call up for dinner, music, a movie, or a night on the couch watching TV. And finally, with my mom getting older, and we siblings starting to face our own mortality, the prospect of moving back to the Boston area seems a lot less like an unreasonable than it might have in the recent past.

I do not move around a lot - I've been in CT nearly 30 years and have lived in just three homes over the past 25 years. So the idea of picking up and moving is a lot to wrap my mind around.

But, if one intends to turn an aircraft carrier, one starts planning for that a long time before one makes the turn. let's just say I am thinking about it....

Democratic National Convention

I must admit to having fallen in love with the Obama Administration and the DNC this past month.

I watched a bit of the RNC - know your enemy, and all - and was unimpressed by the whole thing. I actually have attended the RNC back in the GWB era, in Philadelphia (I was back-up sound engineer for pseudo.com that was live streaming the convention) . Anyway, RNC was kind of bland - speakers not all that energizing, message muddled, even if I disagree I can appreciate a good show. Not happening in Tampa.

The DNC, however, had me hooked. Michelle Obama was amazing, and so many of the speakers that first night were energizing, passionate, engaged and informative. Contrast to the DNC of the past, where the party was so intent on pandering to the middle that they lost the passion of the left. It was a wonderful change, IMHO, and I ended up online Tuesday night to throw in some bucks (via Trans United for Obama) and buy some swag (a campaign kit and a shirt, neither of which has shown up yet). Then Bill Clinton on Day #2. I hang on until the end, and was entranced. I'd vote for him again.....

Finally, the president himself. Older, greyer, a little less passionate and little more careful, but still my guy.

I'm feeling good about the presidential election this year. Romney is another one of those "next in line" Republicans - I remain convinced that his religion and his moderate history in MA is keeping the red meat conservatives from getting behind him. And his pandering to the right will keep the moderates and independents away.

My two cents on the economy - I am an engineer, so it's hard not to look at the problems of the past few years as being analogous to an underdamped control system. The monetary policy and the regulatory environment resulted in the gain (especially on the housing market) as being too high - so prices rose too fast and hit the rail - and the system crashed. The present economic policy - perhaps a bit cautious and conservative, is still resulting in slow and steady growth, and a gradual recovery. The last thing we need is to return to the policies of the past, set a fire under the housing market and reignite the underdamped control loop. 

Yes, unemployment is high, and that sucks. But I'll be honest - I've never been that impressed with the 9-to-5, corporate america crowd. It's my freelancer, techno-ninja history and experience perhaps (and my lean to the bone lifestyle), but it seems like a lot of the folks working in corporate america are filling out suits and holding a spot in the daily meeting. A lot of waste in the system. So not too sure those jobs are (or should) be coming back all that quickly.

Long Overdue

Rainy Saturday morning, and a long overdue blog update.

The end of summer was a busy time - I spent a week on a Hillside in New York at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival; my annual musical retreat among a family I have known for 20 years. In addition, I spent a week in Maine for my second visit to Camp Camp - a GLBT adult summer camp which, truth be told, has stolen me heart and spirit. I am sure I will be back.

In addition, I spent a few days in Missouri at a customer site, and a week in Tulsa at another customer facility. And finally, I had an 11 day car fast - took my vehicle in for a long overdue tune-up (check engine light) and it took 11 days and $2900 to set it right (bad computer, bad head, destroyed cylinder)

So it's been a bit of a crazy few months, and one very bad blogger. This morning - I'm going to post a bunch of things - catch up a bit. And then see where we go from there.

Happy is What Happens....

My friend Amy has a saying, "Top Ten Day". When the weather is perfect, the company is great, the venue or event is amazing, when the food is delightful. Amy let's us know - this is a "Top Ten Day". Of course, Amy is so generous of spirit and delightfully optimistic that she probably racks up 20 or 30 Top Ten Days per year. But that's another story.

Yesterday, driving out to the Coventry Regional Farmer's Market, I had my own moment of thankfulness and awareness. The day had not yet turned steamy, so the windows were open, and the bright sun filtered through the canopy of leaves on the windy country road. I had my musical instruments and amps in the car; a cooler of water on ice, and a large tarp to use as a sun screen. I was en route to spending three hours doing something I love - playing music - with some wonderful people and musicians, my beloved Guinea Pigs. And I was headed out to support a farmer's market where local farmer's were selling their produce, grown with sweat and love, to people who appreciate fresh, local, and healthy food.

And as I was driving along the road, enjoying those sites, sounds, and smells before me and contemplating the day ahead, the realization or awareness suddenly emerged that I was happy. For those who have done Enlightenment Intensive work, it was like a tiny little Direct Experience. My life was not blown wide open, but there was a little slice of divine awareness there, and it colored the rest of the day with thankfulness, joy, and delight.

Falcon Ridge Folk Fest - Emerging Artist Showcase

Each year, the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest hosts an Emerging Artist Showcase - 24 new (to the fest, anyway) artists who get 15 minutes on the main stage. For many fans, it's a highlight of the festival - they plant themselves out front, make copious notes and comments in their programs, and carefully submit their votes for the three artists to return in 2013 for the "Most Wanted Song Swap" - back to the main stage for a featured set! It's the sort of opportunity that can make an artist or performer - big deal!

The 2012 Most Wanted returnees: Blair Bodine, ilyAIMY, Louise Mosrie, and Pesky J Nixon (think there was a tie, so four artists) - will all be back. I'm busy updating the performer merchandise master spreadsheet (a juggernaut that makes tracking sales and checking artists in and out simple), so they all return from 2011. In addition, here are 2012's Emerging Artists, in alphabetical order:

1 - Brad Cole / Chicago IL
2 - Burning Bridget Cleary / Philadelphia PA
3 - cary cooper / Dallas TX
4 - Chris Kokesh / Portland OR
5 - Dan Charness / NYC
6 - Gathering Time / Long Island NY
7 - Heather Maloney Band / Northampton MA
8 - Honor Finnegan / NYC
9 - Jarrod Dickenson / Brooklyn NY
10 - Jim Hayes / Ringwood NJ
11 - Jon Brooks / King City Ont
12 - Julie Christensen / Ojai CA
13 - Kate Klim / Nashville TN
14 - Kevin Neidig / Etters PA
15 - Miles to Dayton / Long Island NY
16 - Poor Old Shine / Storrs CT
17 - Rebecca Pronsky / Brooklyn NY
18 - Ryan Tennis / Philadelphia PA
19 - Sarah Blacker / Cambridge MA
20 - Sorcha / Portland ME
21 - Steve Chizmadia / Peekskill NY
22 - Sweet Talk Radio / LA CA
23 - The Marrieds / London Ont
24 - The YaYas / Mohegan Lake NY

Last year, I decided to download as many of the Emerging Artist's newest albums as I could find on eMusic.com (a significant financial commitment, to be sure, but about 1/2 the price of iTunes). Did not do too bad this year - found 20 of the 24 artists. The artists in bold font above are now sitting on my iPad. Will listen to them throughout the next few weeks, then they will shuffle during pre-fest set-up in the merch trailer / tent. It's always nice to have a bit of an idea what the emerging artists sound like; it can make an emerging artist's day when the merch person says "hey, I like your stuff!" when they check in. Or better still, if they wander in and catch their own music in the trailer!

Bridge Street Live

Quickie post. I finally made it up to 41 Bridge Street / Bridge Street Live in Collinsville. Zippy (remember him? we're still friends though we no longer cohabitate) wanted to see the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars, and since he's not great at night driving, I volunteered to tag along. He takes care of my dog, Elo, when I travel, so it's a good trade.

First off, Bridge Street Live. What a lovely space to see live music! Cabaret seating (last night, anyway, I imagine they change it up for different shows), efficient bar service with drinks and munchies, a great stage with pro sound and lights. It was everything one wants in a concert venue. And clean - even the rest rooms were spotless and new. Much has been made of the Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk (and with good reason, they have great music coming through) - but this place has better seating, and is a heck of a lot closer. Although they seem to be a bit more eclectic / blues in their booking, I see faves such as John Gorka, Patty Larkin, NRBQ, Ellis Paul, and Chris Smither on the calendar. Highly recommended!

The Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars - not someone I would usually seek out, but Zippy is wonderfully eclectic in his tastes, and the group was a winner. Engaging, dancing, uplifting - the sound bounced somewhere between reggae inflected and the music that Paul Simon brought to the public eye with Graceland. I was particularly struck by the  guitarist who played his left-handed Gibson SG strung upside down (not a right handed guitar, the knobs were in the right place, although one can imagine he learned to play a right handed guitar upside down). The resulting sound was so characteristic to African music that I have to wonder if playing a guitar strung this way is common or customary in Africa.