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Watching the Grammy’s Part II

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After closing out last night’s More to Come… post on the Grammy’s, I caught the final award for album of the year, which went to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for Rising Sand.  There is some justice when a rock icon who never won a Grammy with Led Zeppelin suddenly wins five when he teams up with – as the Washington Post’s J. Freedom du Lac termed her – “bluegrass goddess” Krauss.

I loved it when Plant – that Led Zeppelin screamer – thanked old time musicians Mike Seeger and Norman Blake, along with bluegrass fiddler extraordinaire Stuart Duncan and the wonderful independent roots record company Rounder Records in his acceptance speech.  We haven’t heard names like that from the Grammy stage since O Brother swept the awards show.  Woo hoo!

More to come…

DJB

Watching the Grammy’s

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Andrew and I have been watching the Grammy Awards show together…a little father/son bonding.  He’s helping me understand the genius of Radiohead and I’m helping him understand why Paul McCartney was such a seminal bassist in pop/rock music.  Seems like a fair trade to me.

Of course, the categories I care about never get face time in prime time.  Wouldn’t you have loved to see Dr. John sing from his Grammy award winning City That Care Forgot album?  I know that they had to bring out Lil Wayne for the masses as part of their New Orleans tribute, and it was good to see Allen Toussaint, so I’ll take what I can.  Thank God some people still care about New Orleans. 

In the Bluegrass category, Ricky Skaggs won for the terrific Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass, while banjo player Bela Fleck won best pop instrumental album.  (Isn’t this the category that would have included Walk Don’t Run and other pop instrumental classics?  That’ll teach all those folks who make banjo jokes!)

In the folk category, I’m always glad to see Pete Seeger get recognition (for his album At 89) but I’m sorry Kathy Mattea didn’t win for the beautiful album Coal – a wonderful tribute to coal miners, their families, and the land where they live and work.  It has three of my all-time favorite songs (not just coal mining songs):  Jean Ritchie’s The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore, Darrell Scott’s You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive, and Merle Travis’ Dark as a Dungeon.  I remember listening to Guy Clark at a songwriting workshop in the Shenandoah Valley many years ago.  The title of the workshop was “Songs I Wish I’d Written” and Guy sang Dark as a Dungeon.  Great choice.

Time to go to bed.  These shows go on forever.

More to come…

DJB

How Does One Dress for a Swim Meet?

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It is the time of year for the big end of swim season meets, where every swim team in the Mid-Atlantic states (or maybe it just seems that way) comes together for a giant swim team mash up.   This meet began at 8 a.m. and is being held at George Mason University – which I call commuter hell.  The entire campus is ringed by parking lots the size of Rhode Island.

Because there are so many teams, the warm-ups began on Thursday afternoon…or at least it seemed that way.  Claire’s team bus left school at 6 a.m.; Andrew had to be in the pool at 6:30 a.m.  Lilly and I were up at 4:45 to take care of Lilly’s business and to get this show on the road.

Well, it is cold at 4:45 in February so you have to bundle up and dress accordingly.  But at 9:34 with a “Natatorium” full of enthused parents and high schoolers, the place is heating up.  Now I wish I had my summer swim meet outfit of t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.

Sitting here in the Jim McKay Natatorium (do you hear the Wide World of Sports theme song in your head?), I got to wondering about the origin of the word natatorium.  So I did what any self-respecting blogger does…I looked at Wikipedia. 

A natatorium is, strictly speaking, a structurally separate building containing a swimming pool. In Latin, a cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building; thus, the sense was much as now although it is sometimes also used to refer to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building (e.g. a pool in a school or a fitness club).[1] It is usually taken for granted that it will also house locker rooms, and perhaps capacity for allied activities, such as a diving tank, facilities for water polo, and so forth. Many colleges and universitieshave natatoria.

But after getting my Latin lesson for the day, I really loved the fact that Wikipedia then highlighted a National Trust 11 Most Endangered Historic Places site:

The Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium in Honolulu, Hawaii is believed to be the largest salt-water natatorium in the world.  Although the pool was closed in 1980 due to health concerns, the structure remains a feature on the eastern end of Waikiki in the shadow of Diamond Head. The natatorium was included in the National Trust for Historic Preservation‘s 1995 list of most endangered historic sites in the U.S.

Cool.  Well, Claire’s getting ready to swim the 100 Free.  Off to cheer!

More to come…

DJB

Shuffling Off to…the Swim Meet

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Today I took some time off to serve as a timer at the swim meet for Andrew’s school.  I do this every now and then to make sure I connect with that part of Andrew’s life during the school year, and because every parent needs to volunteer to make these meets work.  It was great fun and Andrew dropped time in all his races.  I even got to time him in the 500, when he beat his personal best.  What fun.

But this post isn’t about swim meets and getting your pants wet (which I did .  Those high school boys come in hard for the touch at the end.)  Nope, this post is about why I love the Shuffle feature on the iPod.

I have about 3,500 songs or so on my iPod.  About 2,400 of them are in one playlist that I call “Americana.”  That’s where I dump in all my albums and iTunes purchases that have anything to do with bluegrass, acoustic music, country rock, Americana, blues, you name it.  I can go for weeks listening to that playlist and not hear the same song twice.  By comparison my rock, jazz, and new age playlists are much smaller in number.

And I always keep my playlist set on shuffle.  That way the iPod decides what I listen to next.  On occasion I’ll get a bunch of tunes in a row that make me wonder why I ever chose this music.  But then there are nights like tonight when I’m driving to and from the meet.  You hit a stretch of songs and realize how wonderful it is to remember old tunes and be surprised by ones you don’t really know that well.

Steven Levy even wrote a book in 2006 about the wonderfulness of the iPod and its shuffle feature called The Perfect Thing:  How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness.   He goes a bit overboard in effusive praise of all things Apple (not to mention Steve Jobs), but I do connect with him on the wonderful randomness of iPod’s shuffle feature.

So as I head out, the first song up is:

  • Rock, Salt and Nails by the original J.D. Crowe and the New South.  This is the 1970s band that featured youngsters Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, and Ricky Skaggs.   I’ve always loved this song.  It is a modern tune, but it sounds like it was written a hundred years ago.  Thanks to Cracker Barrel Records for reissuing this classic album on CD.
  • Then I get a live version of You Don’t Have to Move That Mountain from Nickel Creek’s Reasons Why album.   Toward the end of this version Chris Thile has a little mandolin break that shows the craziness and inventiveness of this guy’s mind.  He doesn’t play a lot of notes (I know that will surprise Thile fans) but its the notes he plays that are such fun to listen to.
  • Next I get a couple of electric guitar heavy tunes from The Waybacks, a favorite of mine from San Francisco (Good God, James Nash can play), and Cross Canadian Ragweed, an alt-country band whose album I bought on a whim while visiting the wonderful Lone Star Music store in historic Gruene, Texas last year.
  • Then Patty Griffin’s Kite came on.  This was another CD I bought on a whim after hearing it played over the store’s speakers while shopping at the neighborhood Barnes and Noble.  I’ve since fallen in love with Patty Griffin.  (Shush…don’t tell my wife.)
  • Alison Brown followed with The Devil Went Down, a nice banjo tune from Fair Weather.    I love Alison Brown but every time I hear her I feel a little sorry for her parents.  She’s a Harvard grad with a MBA, and I think about all the money that went to those institutions of higher learning to turn out…a world class banjo player!  But then I think, jeez she’s doing what she loves (what parent doesn’t want that for their child) and she used that MBA to start her own successful record company.  So the feeling quickly passes.
  • Then my little mini-tour ends with three live performances.  The first was Ain’t That Peculiar by the New Grass Revival, with John Cowan doing his best Marvin Gaye impersonation.  That was followed by Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives (best band name ever) with a terrific banjo/mandolin duet from their acoustic/bluegrass album recorded at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.  And in a quirk of fate that only the iPod shuffle can produce, that was followed immediately by Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder playing Shady Grove at breakneck speed live at…the Ryman Auditorium.  Andrew was with me for this part of the ride and he said, “What are the odds, out of 2,385 songs, that you’d get two in a row live from the Ryman?”

The Ryman…Mother Church of Country Music.   With my playlist, those odds are actually pretty good.

And you knew this was leading up to a video.  I couldn’t find Ricky Skaggs playing Shady Grove on You Tube (even though this was from a PBS special), but I did dig out this fabulous video of Skaggs and his band playing at the Ryman with The Chieftains, as they blend folk and bluegrass (Cindy and Cotton Eyed Joe) with several Irish tunes.  This one performance is like the randomness of my musical tastes.  Stay with it to the end to catch some great dancing by members of the band.

Enjoy!

More to come…

DJB

 

Beyond Crestfallen

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Norman Chad, an Arizona Cardinals fan writing in his regular Couch Slouch column in today’s Washington Post, has a funny time line on the interminable Super Bowl pre-game show.   But the humor turns LOL funny as he talks about his Team of Destiny and gets to the winning catch:

9:27:  Warner to Larry Fitzgerald makes it 20-14.  Destiny’s knocking at the door!

9:48:  Warner to Fitzgerald again gives Arizona its first lead, 23-20.  Guess who’s coming to dinner?  Destiny!  I can’t control my breathing.

10:00:  Did Santonio Holmes really catch that?  Yes.  I am beyond crestfallen, I am crestcomatose.

Crestcomatose.  Now that’s a great description for a die-hard fan’s reaction to losing.

More to come…

DJB

Food Groups of the Apocalypse

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Sometimes you read a line that makes you laugh out loud AND hits you in the gut at the same time.  Writing in today’s New York Times, columnist Frank Rich had one for me.  After recounting the recent job losses and drop in new-home sales, he writes:

What are Americans still buying?  Big Macs, Campbell’s soup, Hershey’s chocolate, and Spam – the four food groups of the apocalypse.

Great line, unfortunately.

More to come…

DJB

Pitchers and Catchers Report in 14 Days

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On the weekend of the Super Hype Bowl, the Washington Nationals web site notes that we’re 14 Days and 13 Hours (as of this posting) until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

To celebrate, let’s check out question #1413 from Obsessed With Baseball.

Which one of these Hall of Fame pitchers did NOT reach 300 career wins?

A.  Mickey Welch  B.  Early Wynn  C. Robin Roberts  D. Kid Nichols

And the answer is….C.  Robin Roberts

Spring is around the corner.

More to come…

DJB

President Obama Mocks DC Residents’ Response to Winter

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The blog DCist has a great post today with a video of President Obama mocking the people of Washington about their response to the weather.  His girls couldn’t believe that school was closed today (which was true for Andrew and Claire’s schools, which are just down the street from Sidwell).  One of the girl’s said that in Chicago they would have gone out for recess in this weather.

The DCist response is perfect:

President Barack Obama basically called District residents a bunch of wusses when it comes to dealing with snow and ice. We’d be offended if he wasn’t, you know, totally, absolutely correct.

Sad but true.  Watch the video…it is funny.

More to come…

DJB

My New Favorite Off-Season Sport

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I just realized that I have a new favorite sport for the off-season (i.e., the non-baseball months of the year).  Hockey.  Yes, hockey.  I’m choosing to watch hockey games on television instead of basketball (especially given that interminable season that is pro basketball).

And I’m hooked thanks to the Washington Capitals and their superstar Alex Ovechkin, the Great Eight.  (Ovechkin wears #8 on his jersey.)  He’s a terrific talent – fast and strong with a wicked shot – and he has the teammates to support him.

A friend of mine from New Orleans once said Southerners had learned to like hockey because it was the closest legalized sport to cock fighting.  A good line, but the fighting is not what I find intriguing about the sport.   I just watched a game between the top two teams in the Eastern Division of the NHL:  the Capitals and the Boston Bruins.  Although this is just after the All-Star break in the middle of the NHL season, these two teams played at a speed and skill level that was breath-taking.  Incredible puck handling, stop-on-a-dime turns, unbelievable stops by both goalies…this game had all the drama of playoff hockey.  As befitted such a well-played contest between the top two teams, the game went into overtime.  Ovechkin just missed a game winner due to a great stop by Thomas in the Boston goal, and in the ensuing rush up the ice the Capitols took a penalty.  On a bad bounce the Bruins with the power play won in overtime.  Nonetheless, it was a great game no matter your team.

Thomas Boswell, the baseball-loving columnist for the Washington Post, recently wrote a column that explains the appeal of this Capital team.  It ends with:

Sometimes, over the years, the Caps have been sportswriter spinach and fan repellent. And sometimes, they’ve been fun. But they’ve never been a thrill, never been the best show in town, never been the team whose tickets you gave to your family for Christmas. Until now.

It’s a strange new place we find ourselves, to be sure. But we can probably learn to enjoy it.

It is indeed a thrill that I’m enjoying a great deal.

More to come…

DJB

Exploring LA

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Storer House

Having been in Los Angeles the last four days for work-related meetings, I haven’t had an opportunity to post More to Come…updates.  But I have had time to explore parts of the city with colleagues involved in historic preservation.  As is always true when I’m in Los Angeles, I learned more and more about this city’s many wonderful historic places. 

Our meetings were in Santa Monica, and I took some time to visit the historic pier and to sample a nice Spanish restaurant in their funky Main Street – which is more like a neighborhood commercial center these days.  Don’t think I spent hours on a sunny beach – it was cool, rainy at times, and in the 50s.

But on Saturday, when we spent 8 hours touring around town, the weather gods cooperated.  While the temperature stayed in the 50s, the rain gave way to partly cloudy skies. 

We began our tour on bus and went through a number of neighborhoods off Wilshire Boulevard, before we ended up downtown.  It was my first chance to see Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Although viewed only from the bus,Disney Concert Hall one could quickly see why this new building has captured the imagination of architecture critics and the public alike, and is becoming a major gathering space in a city that doesn’t have many public spaces.  The photo at the right doesn’t do the building justice, but there are many online views for those who want to explore further.

Our tour then led us to Little Tokyo, where we began with a walking tour.  The preservation issues here are difficult, as many of the Japanese Americans who once were confined to this part of the city have now dispersed.  We did visit a family-owned candy shop where they’ve been selling traditional Japanese confections for over 100 years.  And the street art was used to help tell the story…such as the note that in 1890 there were approximately 40 Japanese in Los Angeles.  By 1930, 35,000 Japanese in Los Angeles live within a 3-mile radius of the corner where we stood.  The Japanese American National Museum was another surprise.  We were all deeply moved by the exhibit on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  Stepping inside of one of the barracks rescued from a western internment camp made the experience very present.

Leaving the museum, we toured other neighborhoods, passed the Hollywood stars walk of fame, and ended up at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Storer House for a tour and cocktails.  (See photo at the top of the post and those following.)  One of four textile block houses of Wright’s in LA, the Storer House is not generally open to the public but we were able to visit throughout the house.  The spaces were wonderful and pure Wright.  Very intimate and private bedrooms were adjacent to two large family spaces on the main floors.  The view of LA from the rooftop was beautiful.

 A wonderful evening…but the plane is getting ready to board. 

More to come…

DJB

Storer Housestorer-house-5-0109