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It’s a beautiful day for baseball

Published by DJB

(Editor’s Note: Before I begin this post, I want to wish my sister Debbie Brown Crocker a wonderful 60th birthday today. She’s the best. Period. Debbie has a wonderful spirit – just like our Mom – and holds the family together in ways large and small now that both our parents have passed away. Have a great day, Debbie. Love you – DJB. Now, back to the regularly scheduled entry into the More to Come… online journal.)

Just before the beginning of each Nationals baseball game, the announcer booms, “It’s a beautiful day for baseball.” It doesn’t matter if it is 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Or if you’ve just endured a 71 minute rain delay, as was the case last evening at the old ballpark. Our Nats take the “any day at the ballpark is a great day” approach to life. And hey, I’ll buy it.

Last evening, our home field announcer may have even known what he was talking about. After a severe thunderstorm (we had hail in Silver Spring), the air cleared out, the humidity dropped, a slight breeze kicked in, and…it was beautiful.

Oh, and we had a fantastic double rainbow to enjoy for about 15 minutes over the right field/first base stands.

See, even God is a baseball fan. She loves it and wanted to add her handiwork last evening.

I haven’t written much about the Nats this year, because – frankly – I haven’t wanted to jinx them. They snuck in a bit under the radar (if that’s possible for a team that has won its division two years out of the past four). The Cubs and Mets were all the rage. The Cubs are good, but wake me up when they win something. And hey, I told you last year that the Mets were going to rue the day (year) they burned out all those promising young arms. If you want the exact quote, here’s what I wrote during Game 1 of last year’s World Series:

Let me see, where have I heard, “This is a talented young team with a great pitching staff who will be good for a long, long time”? Oh yeah, that would be the Nationals. Be careful, Mets. Stuff happens.

But the Nats have played more consistently than the Cubs, and yes indeed stuff has happened to the Mets. No gloating…it was just as plain as the nose on your face.

Last evening was a perfect example of why the Nats are doing so well. Their #4 starter – Tanner Roark – just pitched 8-plus innings of 5-hit shutout baseball, and the bullpen did its job in the 9th. Daniel Murphy – the MVP of the first half in all of baseball in my opinion – is nursing a sore leg, so his replacement – Stephen Drew – only comes in and hits three doubles. Zimmerman is out (again) with an injury, and his replacement – Clint Robinson – is mashing the ball. Only a diving catch by the stellar Pirates outfield kept him from breaking open the game earlier in the evening. Danny Espinosa is finally playing the position he was made for, and his hitting and aggressiveness on the base paths have been something to behold. Anthony Rendon, who has been so-so this year, clobbered a home run. All-Star Wilson Ramos should start doing Lasik surgery commercials. If Bryce ever starts playing like BRYCE, watch out. Strasburg and Roark have stifled a red-hot Pirates team, and today they get to face Scherzer (just another National League All-Star). This is fun.

But remember, it is only July. Things can happen. Injuries definitely happen. (We’re only a Ramos trip to the DL to having José Lobatón – of the .191 batting average – behind the plate every day.) So I’ll enjoy what we have now, and see what happens.

Anyway, I have two games this week – one with Andrew to see the Dodgers. (We’re going to troll our Dodgers fan Claire during the game!)

It’s a beautiful day for baseball! Indeed!

Go Nats!

More to come…

DJB

Image: Last evening’s rainbow at Nats Stadium – proving it is a beautiful evening for basebal (photo by DJB)l

Red Wing Roots Music Festival 2016 (Or “Thank God for Sierra Hull”)

Published by DJB

Everybody experiences growing pains. Even music festivals.

2016 was the fourth year for the Red Wings Roots Music Festival held in the beautiful Natural Chimneys Park in Mt. Solon, Virginia. Hosted by the Steel Wheels, this regional Americana and roots music gathering in the Shenandoah Valley has been eclectic from the beginning, and not all the musical acts have been of the same quality. But the festival had maintained a nice balance between audiences that were there to party and have a good time and for those who came to listen to some of the country’s best acoustic musicians. (Chris Thile, Sam Bush, I’m With Her, Tim O’Brien, Jon Jorgenson, Claire Lynch, Sarah Jarosz, Del McCoury, and Darrell Scott all showed up over the first three years.)

But with the ominous warning on the front page of this year’s festival guide that there would be more “plugged in and turned up” bands, a shift was clearly underway. Friday’s lineup confirmed that approach…and the balance between the different audience shifted. Not for the better.

I can take electric guitars and drums with my roots music, but the result better be worth it. We arrived on Friday in time to catch the end of what appeared to be an energetic set from Front Country, with spirited vocals from Melody Walker. Our real goal was to hear the full set of mandolin phenom turned thoughtful adult musician Sierra Hull.

Sierra Hull at Red Wing 2016 — Sierra Hull with Justin Moses at Red Wing 2016

I’ve heard Hull play over the years at Merlefest, beginning in her mid-teens, and she always had the chops to play amazing bluegrass and traditional music. She was the first bluegrass musician to win a Presidential Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music. Her first album post-Berklee hinted at some new directions, but it wasn’t until the recently released Weighted Mind (produced by Bela Fleck) that she came into her own and broke away from the “I can play incredibly fast and clean bluegrass” camp.

At Red Wing on Friday, she and bassist Ethan Jodziewicz (recommended by no less a talent than Edgar Meyer) displayed her stripped down music, often featuring just the mandolin or octave mandolin and bass in songs and tunes both beautiful and complex. The duo was expanded on about a third of the set to include dobro and banjo player Justin Moses, which allowed Hull to showcase more of her traditional chops (on the tune “Bombshell” for instance, which closed out the set). Her “Black River” video is a great example of the direction of her new work.

Hull’s 75 minute set was the highlight on Friday, which was otherwise filled with forgettable music (with the exception of Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens). The biggest disappointment was The Steep Canyon Rangers, who have left their smartly crafted bluegrass songs to become a noisy party jam band. Too loud, too much smoke, too many flashing lights, too much dancing around the stage by the fiddle player. Please.

So expectations were low for Saturday. Thankfully, the musicians more than beat that low bar.

First up was Don Flemons. A founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Flemons was the consummate old-time entertainer in the style of Uncle Dave Macon and other pre-WWII acts. His work digs…

…deeply into ragtime, Piedmont blues, spirituals, southern folk music, string band music, jug band music, fife and drum music, and ballads idioms with showmanship and humor, reinterpreting the music to suit 21st century audiences.

He had the crowd in the palm of his hand after the first song and never let up.

Don Flemons at Red Wing 2016 — Don Flemons wows the crowd with his brand of old-time music

So that was a satisfying start to what ended up being a very nice day of music.

The next true revelation was Mipso, a North Carolina tradition-based band that writes and sings very smart songs with contemporary themes. Mipso’s four members – Jacob Sharp (mandolin), Joseph Terrell (guitar), Wood Robinson (bass), and Libby Rodenbough (fiddle) – sing beautiful harmonies around intricate tunes and rhythms.

In both theme and temperament, the (band’s recent) album finds an interplay between the sunrise and the twilight – a tug-of-war that’s itself an old-time tradition. From “Eliza,” a lively waltz-time romp, to “Bad Penny,” a surrealist dream sequence with an Abe Lincoln cameo, the album revels in the seesaw spectrum of experience and memory, where technicolor carnival hues blend with grown-up sadness and the whispers of ghosts. Mipso’s color palette, like its soundscape, is radically inclusive.

“We come from a place where traditional music is a living, changing thing,” fiddle player Libby Rodenbough said. “So we feel like having an ear for all kinds of stuff is not only true to ourselves, it’s a nod to the tradition.”

Take a listen to “Bad Penny” and you’ll get a feel for the dark Southern Americana where this band – playing music that sounds like the 1920s and 1930s but with themes as relevant as today’s headlines – resides. (And to keep the surreal vibe going, it is recorded in a Colorado canibas factory.)

The rest of the day’s music continued at this high level. Chris Smither combined wonderful fingerstyle guitar with well-written songs (and a beautiful cover of “Sitting on Top of the World”). Multi-instrumentalist Tony Furtado – supported by mandolinist extraordinaire Matt Flinner – had the crowd in awe of his instrumental talents, especially on slide guitar. And finally, the host for the festival – The Steel Wheels – put on their usual high energy show and added a few friends to the mix.

Hull and Moses — Sierra Hull and Justin Moses trade dobro and octave mandolin licks at Red Wing 2016

We headed out satisfied, thanks to Saturday’s wonderful music (and Sierra Hull’s beautiful set on Friday). Let’s hope that for the 5th Red Wing Roots Festival next July, we’ll see fewer plugged in bands and more of the incredibly talented acoustic musicians who have made this such a wonderful way to spend a summer weekend.

More to come…

DJB

Gratitude turns what we have into enough

Published by DJB

Among the institutions in our community of Silver Spring, few are beloved as much as a small coffee shop run by two sisters who left Ethiopia in the 1980s to escape violence and political upheaval. Lene and Abeba Tsegaye – with the help of their brother – established Kefa Café in 1996. In a recent Washington Post article celebrating the reopening of the shop after a fire, Lena said the two sisters,

“…wanted their independent coffee shop to be a place where people talked to each other, not just another cafe where people buried their noses in laptops.” There is no WiFi at Kefa, named for the southwestern Ethiopia province where, the 9th-century legend goes, a goat herder named Kaldi saw his animals become so energized after eating coffee beans they couldn’t sleep. “There is a history about coffee,” Abeba said. “It’s not just about getting caffeinated. People make big decisions around coffee.”

The title comes from a sign they recently posted in their window, in celebration of their 20^th anniversary in Silver Spring. I love that thought: Gratitude turns what we have into enough. These two sisters — who endured 200-mile treks across deserts and waist-high grass to escape political violence, entry into a new country as immigrants, and a fire that closed their shop for months — have taught so many of us who know them well or on just a casual basis about what gratitude really means.

They also posted another sign with a quote about gratitude from an inspirational writer:

“When we become more fully aware that our success is due in large measure to the loyalty, helpfulness, and encouragement we have received from others, our desire grows to pass on similar gifts. Gratitude spurs us on to prove ourselves worthy of what others have done for us. The spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer.”
Wilferd A. Peterson

Gratitude is more than simply saying thank you, but that’s a good place to start.

Abeba at Kefa Cafe — Abeba’s welcoming smile at Kefa Cafe

Thanks to Lene and Abeba for being you. Thanks for a country that welcomes others to its shores to share in its freedom and bounty. Thanks, as well, to each of you, dear readers, for your interest and support. Have a wonderful July 4th weekend.

More to come…

DJB

Image: Kefa Cafe in Silver Spring, MD

Acoustic music is alive and well

Published by DJB

“When you go to heaven and hear singing, it will sound like these three women.”

So opined Chris Thile after the Americana trio I’m With Her finished a short yet moving set in the first half of an incredible three hours of music last evening at the Kennedy Center. The concert hall’s acoustics were ringing all evening as the sold out crowd not only enjoyed the beautiful harmonies from I’m With Her’s Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan, but also the instrumental talents and music-making of mandolinist extraordinaire Thile and the Punch Brothers, along with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyers, virtuosi of the banjo and upright bass respectively.

The Kennedy’s Center policy against photography leaves me using old photos from other concerts, but that hardly matters. The music was the focus last evening.

Thile was invited to curate a four-day American Acoustic Music Festival, and Friday evening’s show was clearly the headliner. The Punch Brothers opened the first half of the show with a tight set capped by the raucous Rye Whiskey. I’m With Her followed, with a beautiful set of tunes with interwoven harmonies that belied the fact that this group hasn’t played together for much of this year. Finally Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyers closed out the first half of the show by demonstrating the musicality, technique, and compositional skills that made them the trailblazers they are in this genre. (And yes, there were jokes throughout the evening about first playing with people when they were eight.)

Bela Fleck, performing at Merlefest, 2012

The generous 90-minute second half featured collaborations among all the musicians, and that was when the magic was really made. Fleck joined the Punch Brothers to kick off that half with one of Bela’s tunes from the influential 1980s album Drive, featuring the first of numerous delicious twin banjo romps between Fleck and the incredible Noam Pikelny.

Virtually every tune in the second half was a highlight, beginning with Meyer and Fleck joining the Punch Brothers to play Blue Men of the Sahara, their composition from Strength in Numbers: The Telluride Sessions – an album that helped transform acoustic string music in the 1980s. O’Donovan and Jarousz took turns singing striking leads with the Punch Brothers. Fleck and Gabe Witcher played a wonderful banjo/fiddle duet in honor of Dr. Ralph Stanley – the last of the original triumvirate of bluegrass (Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs) – who passed away the night before. (That led Pikelny to quip that Stanley’s death led to the crash of the entire world economic order.)

Watkins, Jarosz, and O'Donovan — Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan at Red Wing Roots Music Festival on July 11, 2015

As the night came to a close, Sara Watkins led the entire crew in the first of several encores – John Hartford’s Long Hot Summer Days. Three tunes – and many more moments of high musicianship and amazing technique later – Chris Thile and his friends left everyone satisfied.

And I’ll leave you with a John Hiatt tune – Crossing Muddy Water – that was played last evening by I’m With Her. Enjoy!

More to come…

DJB

Observations from the road: The celebrity sighting edition

Published by DJB

I have been on the road forever it seems. So here are a few “Observations from the road…” posts which are – as always advertised – quirky and perhaps not ready for prime time. You’ve been warned.

Aoife O'Donovan at Red Wing — Aoife O’Donovan

Celebrity Stalking: True story. As I was walking through National Airport earlier this afternoon following a flight back from Chicago, I noticed two young ladies carrying cases for a guitar and mandolin. I had been focused on getting something for a late lunch before rushing to the office, but my brain did engage to the point where I said to myself, “That sure looked like Aoife O’Donovan – and I bet that was Sarah Jarosz with her.”

At this point you may be asking yourself, just who are Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz?

Well, for music lovers who veer away from the Taylor Swift variety of music, they are two-thirds of one of the most terrific — yet widely unheralded — music groups today: I’m With Her. (And no, they are not connected to the Hillary Clinton campaign. They’ve had the name for a couple of years.) Sara Watkins – known to most as the female fiddle player and singer in Nickel Creek – is the third member of the group, and they gave a terrific performance last year at the Red Wing Roots Music Festival.

I quickly turned into the celebrity stalker, following them down the escalator towards ground transportation. As they were headed into the women’s restroom (I’m not making this up), I called out “Ladies!” Aoife, who was trailing, turned back, and I caught up and said, “I’m so looking forward to your Kennedy Center concert tomorrow night.”

She smiled and asked if I was on her flight. I told her no, that I had just seen the two of them walking through the airport and wanted to let her know how much I enjoyed her music. We exchanged pleasantries for 30 seconds or so, then I turned to catch my cab. I refrained from saying that her “Oh Mama!” is the first song on my playlist about half the mornings when I listen to music while walking or exercising.

“When I was a barmaid you were my mead
When I was a brave knight you were my steed
When I was so lonesome I wanted to cry
you came to me in the night…

You cried oh mama sing me a love song
pour me some bourbon and lay me down low
and ooh baby my poor heart is breaking
I feel the ground shaking right under my feet just put me to sleep“

I’m With Her is playing with Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers, plus Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer on Friday evening at the Kennedy Center. I’ve had my tickets for weeks. Should be a terrific show.

The Humidity Tour (or perhaps The Whiskey Tour): In the past two weeks I’ve traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Houston, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois – with a couple of brief stints in Washington thrown in the middle. Just about every one of those cities experienced major thunderstorms or otherwise violent weather while I was there. One of my colleagues quipped that I was on “The Humidity Tour!” After about 145% humidity in Houston on Tuesday (only a slight exaggeration), I agree. Perhaps some band would like to take up that for the name of their next jaunt around the South.

I’ve also been fortunate to find a few good bourbon bars while on this tour. The best was probably Husk in Charleston (thanks to colleague Greg Kidwell for the recommendation). Edgar’s Proof and Provision at the Georgian Terrace Hotel (across from the Fox Theatre) in Atlanta wasn’t bad. And while Andrew and Candice made plans to take me to Jack Rose here in DC for Father’s Day, a freak power outage changed those plans. We’re scheduled to return on this coming Sunday, and with 2,687 bottles of whiskey on the wall, I can’t wait!

A Walk-Off for #20: While in Houston, I took advantage of an Astros home stand to visit number 20 of the 30 Major League Baseball ballparks in my quest to see them all. Minute Maid Park is a relatively new park in downtown Houston (and surprisingly urban in feel) with a retractable roof and excellent sightlines for baseball. (That roof was needed on Tuesday evening. Did I mention the humidity?)

Minute Maid Park – Now two-thirds of the way through my MLB ballparks quest!

The Astros were playing the LA Angels – the second time I’ve seen these two teams in the last three weeks. But where all the fireworks happened in the first inning in Anaheim (with back-to-back jacks by Trout and Pujols), this time the Astros waited until the bottom of the ninth to load the bases and then get a walk-off, two-run single. It was a great night of baseball, and now I’m two-thirds of the way through my bucket list of MLB ballparks.

To celebrate, let’s pour a bourbon and wrap this up with Aoife’s acoustic version of “Oh Mama!”

More to come…

DJB

Image: Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan at Red Wing 2015 by DJB

A Philly Family Weekend

Published by DJB

Julia and Barry Katz (photo credit: Becca Marsh from Facebook)

Candice, Claire, Andrew and I gathered this weekend in Philadelphia to celebrate the wedding of Julia Pentz and Barry Katz. It was a special time for us all.

Gathering with friends from our fifteen years when we lived in the Shenandoah Valley community of Staunton, Virginia (and with their children – who now live around the world) was a special treat. Candice and I remember when Julia was born. Over the years we have seen Julia and her parents at least once a year and we are delighted that she has found such a wonderful life partner in Barry. The setting at the Curtis Arboretum was beautiful, the new friends we made were delightful (good people attract good people), and the threat of summer thunderstorms never materialized.

We also had a great time getting acquainted with parts of the city. As I posted earlier, Candice and I arrived first and explored some of the Philadelphia food scene at Amada on Friday evening. By Saturday morning Claire had joined us as we wandered through the multitude of offerings at the Reading Terminal Market. Candice and I decided to take the “when in Rome” approach for lunch, and had a Philly Cheese Steak. Well, it was good going down…

Andrew showed up soon afterwards and we explored a bit more of the center city before getting ready for the early evening wedding.

Candice takes in Philadelphia’s Public Art

The Philly skyline, as seen from the top of our hotel

Claire and Andrew ready for the wedding

Julia’s parents – Lundy and Ellen Pentz – are Andrew’s godparents, so we used the occasion to take a picture of Andrew and all three of his godparents since John Lane (Andrew’s other godfather) was also celebrating with Julia and Barry last evening. The only other photo we have of the four of them together is from Andrew’s baptism, when he was a mere five months old!

Andrew with his godparents: Lundy, Ellen, and John (l to r)

Sunday brought a wonderful brunch, hosted by Barry’s parents, where we had the chance to spend more time with these terrific friends before we all scattered to the winds. Then – taking advantage of being in Philadelphia – we had a Dim Sum lunch in nearby Chinatown with poet – and dear friend – Neal Hall from our time at the American Academy in Rome. It was a delightful close to a beautiful weekend.

With Candice, Andrew, and Claire (clockwise from bottom left) as we wrapped up our time in Philadelphia

Thank you Julia, Barry, Ellen, and Lundy for including us in this special time in your lives. We love you all.

More to come…

DJB

The Value of Six

Published by DJB

Leonard Pitts, columnist for the Miami Herald, has written a sobering column this morning entitled “Trust me, you know someone who has been raped.”

“The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network says that one woman in every six has been the victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault. It’s an awesome, awful number. Think about it in terms of women you know. Think about Bonnie, Kadijah, Heather, Consuela, Sarah and Kim. One, two, three, four, five …

Six.

Maybe she’s never told you, so maybe you think it didn’t — couldn’t — have happened, not to one of your six. But the numbers are what the numbers are. Maryum, Stephanie, Yumiko, Keshia, Laurie … and Pam. One, two, three, four, five …

And six.

It’s not a big number. You were counting past it in kindergarten.”

Of course he’s right. We all know someone who has been the victim of sexual assault. And we all know people – from work, social circles, extended family, really anywhere – who have been raped and never talk about it.

Pitts begins his column writing about the case of Brock Turner, the Stanford University swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman, had his father plead for leniency in court because he didn’t want a steep penalty for “20 minutes of action,” and a judge – Aaron Persky – who granted that leniency in giving him six. Months. The final six from the column: according to RAINN, only six in a thousand sexual perpetrators end up in jail.

“If you are a woman, or a man who cares about women, you ought to seethe, and then you ought to do whatever you can to fix a culture that makes possible a Brock Turner — and an Aaron Persky.

Because, either way you look at it, the value of six is small — too small for safety, too small for solace.

And way too small for justice.”

More to come…

DJB

Fine Food in Philly

Published by DJB

Bar in Amada Restaurant, Philadelphia (photo credit: Amada restaurant)

The Browns are gathering in Philadelphia this weekend to celebrate the wedding of Julia – the daughter of our dear friends Ellen and Lundy Pentz – and Barry Katz. Claire arrives from the west coast late tonight, while Andrew arrives mid-day tomorrow, after recovering from the adrenaline rush of attending tonight’s Beyoncé concert in Baltimore. (Can we say “excited?!”)

That left Candice and me to our own devices today. Naturally, we found some fine Philadelphia food.

Julia and Barry had included Chef Jose Garces’ Amada restaurant in their list of recommended places to eat near the hotel. We checked out the web site and jumped on it. Here’s the site’s description of Chef Garces:

“Since opening Amada in Philadelphia in 2005, Chef Jose Garces has emerged as an enormous talent and one of the nation’s most gifted chefs and restaurateurs. Today, he is the owner and operator of more than a dozen restaurants across the country, plus a thriving event planning division and 40-acre Luna Farm. He is a 2009 winner of the James Beard Foundation’s prestigious “Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic” award and one of only a few chefs in the country to hold the coveted title of Iron Chef. “

We love new takes on traditional tapas, and Amada didn’t disappoint.

Berenjenas (Roasted Eggplant, Whipped Goat Cheese, Raisin Escabeche) at Amada

Candice and I are big fans of small plates, because when it comes to food we share just about everything. Tonight we sampled six of Amada’s tapas, including the delicious Berenjenas (roasted eggplant), octopus (with potatoes and chorizo), and Gambas Al Ajillo (or Garlic Shrimp).

Garlic shrimp

We felt very virtuous after walking ten blocks to-and-from the restaurant on a glorious summer evening. So virtuous, in fact, that we went to the “Bank and Bourbon” bar in our hotel for a nightcap!

Philly – located between the twin “mountains of conceit” that are New York and Washington – is often overlooked in the discussion of places to enjoy. But Amada’s reminded us once again that there is some fine food in Philly.

More to come…

DJB

Radical common sense

Published by DJB

“Radical common sense” is a term used by some preservationists to describe a mindset that values repair over replacement. Writing in the Fall 2015 issue of Architecture Boston, architects Jean Carroon, FAIA and Ben Carlson explore why this may be seen as radical. Carroon and Carlson note at the top of their article that “while reuse of water bottles and grocery bags is rapidly gaining ground, reuse of buildings and building components is not.”

The authors note that it is “almost always less expensive and easier to replace a whole building and almost any of its elements — doors, windows, light fixtures — than to repair and reuse. Replacement also can offer measurable and consistent quality with product certifications and warranties not available for repaired items. Theoretically, a new building can ensure “high performance” and significantly reduce the environmental impact of building operations while creating healthier spaces. What’s not to like?”

But if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And in the course of their essay, they make the case that in chasing new solutions, we have neglected the time-tested way towards sustainability. In the process humans have used more raw materials and created more waste in the past 50 years than in all previous history.

I like their closing paragraph:

“Radical common sense requires moving past our throwaway culture to a regenerative world that creatively and persistently embraces stewardship. The path to a healthy, sustainable world is complex and certainly not linear, and it may never be fully achieved. But we cannot consume our way to sustainability. We must flip this dangerous paradigm and place real economic and social value on what already exists and the stewardship required to maintain it.”

I believe it is time to put that radical common sense to use.

More to come…

DJB

Image: Rockland, Maine

The Age of Wonder

Published by DJB

During high school graduation ceremonies for Andrew, one of the speakers built her remarks around a relatively new work at the time that captured the love of knowledge and learning.

Five years later, I finally picked up Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder (first published in 2008). Sometimes it takes a while, but I try never to pass up a good book recommendation.

And I’m so glad I did. The Age of Wonder is a terrific work which looks at the growth of science in the Romantic Age. Holmes tackles this broad topic with a blend of history, biography, art, science, and philosophy. In 500 pages that seem to fly by, the reader follows the intertwined stories of such historical luminaries as astronomer William Herschel and his sister Caroline, botanist Joseph Banks, chemist Humphry Davy, and writers such as Mary Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Keats.

The book rightly received stellar reviews from the start, which I cannot top. “Flat-out fascinating,” “groundbreaking,” and “superlative” are just a few of the descriptions applied to this work. I can only add “amen” and “highly recommended.”

Holmes has said that he wrote this book because,

“The old, rigid debates and boundaries – science versus religion, science versus the arts, science versus traditional ethics – are no longer enough. We should be impatient with them. We need a wider, more generous, more imaginative perspective. Above all, perhaps, we need the three things that a scientific culture can sustain: the sense of individual wonder, the power of hope, and the vivid but questing belief in a future for the globe.”

I love that idea of a “wider, more generous, more imaginative perspective” built on wonder, the power of hope, and a belief for good. I am so thankful that Richard Holmes captured that idea and its foundation for today’s generation in this fascinating book.

More to come…

DJB

MORE TO COME…

Encounters, discoveries, and observations from the slow lane of life.

Latest Posts

It’s a beautiful day for baseball

Red Wing Roots Music Festival 2016 (Or “Thank God for Sierra Hull”)

Gratitude turns what we have into enough

Acoustic music is alive and well

Observations from the road: The celebrity sighting edition

A Philly Family Weekend

The Value of Six

Fine Food in Philly

Radical common sense

The Age of Wonder