Author: DJB

Montpelier’s Restoration and the Importance of James Madison

Published by

Many of you know that the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Montpelier Foundation have undertaken a complete restoration of Montpelier, the historic home of James Madison in Orange, Virginia.  The home will be opened Wednesday, September 17th, after a five-year restoration.  Preservation magazine has a terrific story on this work in the September/October 2008 issue.  The Father of the Constitution’s house will be reopened – appropriately enough – on Constitution Day.  The opening also comes three days after the extension for yet another year of the national state of emergency first declared on September 14, 2001. Madison – one of our most underappreciated Founding Fathers – is still very relevant today.  To see Madison’s warnings about “experiments with our liberties” read his Memorial and Remonstrance.  More to come… DJB

Tom Dews Concert

Published by

My friend Tom Dews has a concert coming up this month at the historic Athenaeum in Alexandria, Virginia.  This is a nice venue in the heart of Old Town.  Tom’s concert is set for next Thursday, September 11th, at 7 p.m.  Tickets are $10/person and The Athenaeum is located at 201 Prince Street. If you aren’t familiar with Tom’s music, let me quote from the website: Tom Dews soaked up roots rhythms and fished the great rivers of the southeast growing up in south Georgia and central Florida. After sojourns in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, he resides in Northern Virginia, still churning out his brand of original guitar with simultaneous harmonica and vocals from a lived-in and karma-buffeted voice. His three CDs, EPIPHANIES & EPITAPHS, BUTTONS BALLADS BLUES, and the new DRIVING DREAMS are available at CDBaby.com. Dews holds an endorsement from the M. Hohner Co. for harmonica studio work, and has contributed as a sideman to the work of a number of other artists. Hear Tom Dews @ tomdews.com For his day job, Tom …

Baseball and Bluegrass

Published by

Oh my!  Major League Baseball has finally caught up with the key themes of More to Come…(a blog for family and friends about acoustic music, baseball, places that matter, and other random topics) with the post on MLB.com entitled Bound by Baseball and Bluegrass.  This is an article on the new Gibson Brothers CD Iron and Diamonds.  Who knew we were so cutting edge here at More to Come… DJB

Driving On 16th Street

Published by

I love 16th Street, NW in Washington.  A drive today reminded me why. Most of my commutes between work and home take place on the Metro.  But since we moved to Silver Spring in 2000 – just a couple of blocks over the DC line and two streets over from 16th – I’ve driven up and down this main north/south thoroughfare countless times to get to and from my office on Dupont Circle or to drive the children to or from school. Today is Labor Day, and I needed to run into the office early this morning for a short errand.  So I took 16th Street with the luxury of driving slowly so I could soak up the character of this special place. Wikipedia will give you the basics of the street’s history.  Part of the original plan of Washington, it was an early location for both embassies and churches.  Most of the embassies have left, but one of the charms of the street is the beautiful church and institutional architecture that’s interspersed throughout the …

Scoring a Walk Off

Published by

Walk Offs.  The name is pretty descriptive.  One pitch and the game is over.  And last night, I had the chance to see one in person.  From my perspective, nothing in sports is so exciting.  You may ask, “What’s the difference in a walk off in baseball and a sudden death touchdown or field goal in football, when the last score wins it all?”  (I recall Curt Gowdy liked to rename these extra periods “Sudden Victory” in place of “Sudden Death.”)  What about the last second shot in basketball? Here’s why…in baseball, the walk off comes as part of the normal course of the game.  Baseball is famous for not having a clock.  This infuriates some when it is 11 p.m. and you have babysitters at home or an early morning alarm clock is on the horizon for work.  But there is no sudden death (or sudden victory) in baseball.  When you win with a walk off, it means that the home team has won in the course of the normal rules of the game.  It …

Jon Stewart Is the Dean of Convention Anchors

Published by

As the Democratic convention comes to a close, I found this article from the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle to be right on target.  It is a telling media milepost as political convention TV coverage unfolds over the next two weeks: Jon Stewart is now the dean of commercial network political convention anchors. The old guard is either retired, deceased or disgraced. For the past two nights, Stewart’s show – The Daily Show – has brilliantly skewered the cable news from the left (MSNBC) and right (Fox News).  Thanks to my colleague and friend Melita Juresa for sharing this article. More to come… DJB

Irish Band Solas Plays in Arlington This Week – Recommended!

Published by

One of the great Irish bands of the past decade will be playing twice in Arlington, Virginia this weekend.  The band is Solas and since the late 1990s they have been hailed as the best Irish band to ever emerge from the United States.  I agree.  Led by the terrific Seamus Egen, they exhibit superb musicianship that is infectious, and their new album also includes duet work with the Canadian band The Duhks.  Solas will play at a CD-release party on Friday evening, and then will follow that the next day with a concert as part of Planet Arlington’s World Music Festival. Solas is a great live band – which you can see in Arlington and (for those outside Washington) on the joint CD/DVD album SOLAS:  Reunion – A Decade of Solas.   A great concert and a great band.  More to come… DJB

Three Cups of Tea

Published by

Those who receive emails from my father know that I could fill up a blog by just passing along the great material he sends my way. As I watched the political convention tonight, I thought that a recent book recommendation from my father was worth passing along. So, this posting is from Tom Brown: Last week I read Three Cups of Tea, One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penquin).  I had the good fortune to hear the author, Greg Mortenson, this past Saturday night at the local Friends of the Linebaugh Libray meeting.  In addition, Brian Lamb interviewed him recently on C-Span. What Greg has done is build schools, primarily for girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The hard cover edition had in the title “. . . one man’s mission to fight terrorism and build nations one school at a time.”  He objected to the “fighting terrorism” but the published thought it needed that to sell.  It didn’t. So he got his way in …