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In Praise of Independent Coffee Houses

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Dolores emailed me this morning to say that our neighborhood coffee house here in Silver Spring – Kefa Cafe – was having a customer appreciation day with free food.  Candice and I had been looking for a time to have a coffee together, so we braved the remnants of Hanna that are making their presence felt in Washington today and enjoyed our coffee, pastries, and good company.

There’s a nice post on Kefa on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s This Place Matters site where Dolores tells why this is her Third Place in Silver Spring.  Run by two sisters since 1996, it is a great place to hang out, enjoy good food, and meet interesting people.  Candice and I shared our table today with two middle age guys who just returned from their weekly basketball game at a local gym…a tradition they’ve continued for 20 years.

Support that special independent coffee house in your town.  Like all unique and special places, they are going too fast.

More to come…

DJB

How do those bluegrass guys (and gals) play so fast? The true story!

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(NOTE from 2021: Since I wrote this post way back in 2008, the website referenced is no longer active. Nonetheless, since it saw some recent traffic, I decided to keep it here as I think you can get the gist of the report from this now-departed Onion-like online site.)

Thanks to a heads up from The Bluegrass Blog, I was introduced to the perfect post-convention antidote that puts all the postings from The Daily Kos (or insert your favorite right-wing blog) in perspective.

Want to know how all those bluegrass phenoms play so darn fast?  Steroids!  Check out this stunning revelation from the incredibly funny Bluegrass Intelligencer which reports on the government-funded study to uncover rampant performance enhancing drug use among all the major bluegrass bands, including Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder (see photo at top).  As one “fan” put it,

“I mean, when you go to a festival and you see Cody Kilby playing those guitar solos with Kentucky Thunder, you know that it’s not naturally possible, yet everyone just looks the other way,” said Thom Thoreau, bluegrass fan.

The Intelligencer does include some balance in the story, however, by quoting another fan as saying that he actually thinks performance-detracting drugs are a bigger problem, noting that at many festivals the bands are either “drunk or high a lot of the time, especially in the second set.”

For those of you who like your humor along the lines of the Daily Show or The Onion and know a little about bluegrass and acoustic music (or just pop culture references) you’ll get a kick out of the Intelligencer.  The editor’s note under the headline about the Chris Thile/Dolly Parton Scandal which says,

“It has recently been called to our attention that no part of this article is even barely true”

applies to every single article.  (So a disclaimer — Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder DO NOT to my knowledge use performance enhancing drugs!)  Enjoy, get a few laughs, and then read your political blogs with more of a sense of humor. 

More to come…

DJB

Montpelier’s Restoration and the Importance of James Madison

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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

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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 is a librarian at Andrew’s school, but in the evenings and on the weekends he’s a first rate singer-songerwriter and – as you can gather from the above – he plays a mean blues harp.  (As the son of a librarian who loved to sing, I’m partial to this work/life combination.)  If you’re around Old Town next week, check Tom out.

More to come…

DJB

Baseball and Bluegrass

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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

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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 neighborhoods.  While 16th begins at Lafayette Square across from the White House, the section I know best runs from P Street up to the circle at Eastern Avenue in Silver Spring.

On a beautiful, sunny Labor Day, Kris Kristofferson’s This Old Road  came on my iPod as I was driving home.  It focused my thinking on the beauty of the architecture mixed with the landscaping of Meridian Hill Park and Rock Creek.  I admired the trim Tudor mansions of the Gold Coast – home for decades to many of Washington’s most affluent and accomplished African Americans.  I enjoyed the life and diversity of the street, and thought of our various friends who live just off 16th and the joy they bring to our lives.  I reflected on the ups and downs of this street – and its residents – both in the past and still today.

Kristofferson’s lyrics mix love and regret at the thought of growing old, but this album comes to the conclusion that life has been a rich mix worth living.  As I looked at 16th Street today through the unhurried eyes of a holiday drive, I imagine that there’s love and regret here as well – but that this beautiful street has much more for all of us in its future.

Look at that old photograph
Is it really you
Smiling like a baby full of dreams

Smiling ain’t so easy now
Some are coming true
Nothing’s simple as it seems

But I guess you count your blessings with the problems
That you’re dealing with today
Like the changing of the seasons

Chorus:
Ain’t you come a long way
Ain’t you come a long way
Ain’t you come a long way down
This old road

More to come…

DJB

Scoring a Walk Off

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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 is exciting because you’re always playing in the home team’s stadium when a walk off occurs.  The home crowd goes wild.  What could be better?!

In many football overtime scenarios, the rules are increasingly tortured to try and get someone to score and end the game (e.g., each team gets the ball on its opponents 40 yard line; after several series you are forced to go for a two-point conversion; who can keep up with the difference between overtime rules in college and professional football).  And don’t get me started on basketball.  Ever since the NBA inserted that silly rule which allows a team to get the ball at half-court in the final minutes of a game, you have endings where teams (i.e., Lakers) steal victory after their opponents (i.e., Spurs) hit what should have been the winning shot because they are not forced to advance the ball the full 90 feet in the final .4 seconds left in the game (hello Derek Fisher).  That’s not basketball…at least as Dr. Naismith imagined it.

Saturday was a beautiful night for baseball at Nationals Stadium, and Dolores and Jamie had invited Candice and me to join them to watch the Nats vs. the Braves.  The seats are great (you can see the perspective from the shot above), Teddy (see right) lost the President’s Race again to go 0-for-his-career, and the crowd was swaying to the sounds from 70s night (reminds me of why I stopped listening to rock and pop music in the 70s…but that’s another story).  I brought along my scorebook, because as historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told Claire and me during a book-signing, “There’s no better way to understand the game.”  And it was an offensive show, with the Braves jumping off to a 4-0 lead, and then the Nats clawing back.  At the end of 9 innings, the score was tied 8-8, the game was already at 3 1/2 hours, and some had to leave for early morning drives to see family or other adult obligations.

But one of the great things about having teenagers is that you no longer have a baby-sitter at home, and one of the advantages of scoring the game is you want to see the thing through.  So there we were, as 11 p.m. neared, when the bottom of the 10th came around.  In the 9th I had said that Elijah Dukes was going to hit a walk-off, while Dolores opined that it would be fun to see a “walk-off walk.”  Well, that didn’t happen in the 9th.  But by looking at my scorebook today, I can remember that in the home half of the 10th, the inning started when Braves pitcher Vladimir Nunez (where is he from!) started by walking leadoff hitter Anderson Hernandez, who then advances to second on a passed ball.  The second batter, Christian Guzman (or GUZZZZZZZZZMAN as the Nats announcer intones) gets a single and suddenly we have men on first and third with no one out.  We CAN’T lose (can we?).  The crowd boos as the Braves play this right and intentionally walk Nat’s #3 hitter and rising star Ryan Zimmerman, who has already gone 3-5.  The bases are loaded with no one out.  I say to Candice, “Lastings Milledge has to do anything but strike out and we’re in great shape.”  So with the infield and outfield in tight, he strikes out.  All of a sudden, the infield backs up, and a double play means we play more free baseball (as Skip Carey liked to call it).  Groan. 

The #5 hitter Ronnie Belliard comes up and we look like winners.  Belliard is batting almost .400 for August and he rips one to left center.  But the outfield is in close, and the Braves catch the liner, whip the ball back in, and hold Hernandez at third.  The fans left around us scream that he should have tested the outfield arm, but I’m not so sure.

So, it all comes down to…Elijah Dukes!  The Nats right fielder has started hitting since coming off the DL with an injury and he just is built like a hitter.  Nunez works him very carefully.  After fouling off some pitches, we find our selves at a 3-2 count, with two out and the bases loaded.  Dukes wiggles his bat, steps in – and watches Nunez fire a ball outside for ball four – and a walk off walk!  Unbelievable!!  Dukes dances down to first base where he’s slapped and congratulated by teammates.  Hernandez stomps on home plate with the winning run, and the fans scream and go home happy.  The most exciting moment in sports indeed!

More to come…

DJB

An end-of-summer farewell to the pool

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The first thing to know is that I’m not a very good swimmer.  The second thing that’s important to know is that I love our neighborhood pool. 

And here at Labor Day weekend, I’m sad to see it close for a host of reasons.

We were so pleased when we moved to Silver Spring early in 2000 to find several nearby pools that are part of Montgomery County’s wonderful network of neighborhood pools.  Candice, with her usual thoroughness, visited them all in the hopes of finding the one that was right for us.  We had vague thoughts of Andrew and Claire joining a swim team, but we really didn’t know what that meant and it really didn’t play much of a role in our decision.  In the end, we settled on Franklin Knolls, which was an older pool, nestled in a grove of trees at the end of a dead-end street, that just struck us as having a family – yet slightly funky – feel that would fit us.

The pool was family oriented and Andrew and Claire immediately found friends.  We learned about the Gator swim team and became more involved with each passing year.  The funky factor results from the great mix of diverse people from very interesting backgrounds along with the fact that our pool isn’t “regulation” length so all our swim meets – even our home meets – are at the other team’s pool. 

Why am I sad to see the pool close?  Not just because it signals summer’s end is near. I’ll miss the pace of life that comes with the pool — and the wonderful relationships that pace fosters.

Franklin Knolls is pretty much our life for the first half of summer.  Every day before work I’d drop Andrew and Claire off at Franklin Knolls between 6:30 and 7 a.m. for swim team practice.  (They begin with an hour of “dry lands” exercise before hitting the pool.)  In the evenings I’d often come home to greet Candice and the twins coming in from a full day with friends.  We’d enjoy “No Cook Fridays” and the annual Crab Feast.  After taking in the delightful July 4th parade in Takoma Park — a Brown family tradition (see the picture of the stilt walker who mugged for the camera as she went by) — we spent most of the rest of the afternoon at Franklin Knolls eating hamburgers, lounging, talking with old friends, and meeting new ones. 

Swim team has also been one of the great traditions of summer for us for seven years.  We like the competition and the exercise for the kids, but we love the kids and their parents.  The Franklin Knolls Gators are a good team but not at the top of the league, so that means we end up competing in divisions in the C – G range.  That fits us fine, because the parents — not to mention the swimmers — are WAY too competitive when you get in the A or B divisions. 

Candice is the Assistant Clerk of Course, so she knows every child on the swim team.  This year I took on some more administrative responsibilities.  (As Assistant Treasurer I now get to carry around a Franklin Knolls debit card in case we need a hot dog run for the after-meet cookout).  I also sign up to time when I can, but mostly I just enjoy the meets — cheering on all the kids, drinking coffee at our 7 a.m. meet-ups at the parking lot on Saturday morning (remember, we ALWAYS have to travel), and watching the occasional phenom blow everyone out of the water (such as the 12-year-old on another team this year who was beating our strong 15-18 year olds). (UPDATE: One of the phenoms we saw was Katie Ledecky…well before she become one of the world’s most decorated Olympic champions. It was pretty clear she was something special.)

The end of swim season brings the wonderful team banquet where you eat mediocre country club food, listen to the coaches say something nice about every swimmer, and occasionally get inspired as when a kid who will never win a race gets a standing ovation when the coaches give him the spirit award.  Franklin Knolls has had a nice tradition since we’ve been involved of hiring its coaches from within.  Andrew and Claire have been blessed to have some great role models — just a few years older — who take off from their studies at Stanford, Brown, the University of Maryland, and other schools to return to the pool where they once competed and coach our kids during the summer. 

You don’t dare schedule a trip during swim season, so many families leave town immediately following the banquet for vacations…and we follow that timetable as well.  Because of that rhythm, the pool changes character for us in August.  We still drop by on the occasional day for a swim or picnic.  Andrew has been working the front desk for a couple of years, so he’s connected more than the rest of us this month.  And with many schools now back in session, we joked that Andrew was “paid to study” as he’d held down the front desk this week and did his summer reading while keeping an eye out for the handful of moms and pre-schoolers who still took advantage of the last days of August.

Labor Day means we all head back to school and work, and Franklin Knolls closes up for the year.  We’ve developed such friendships over the years that we’ll see many of our pool families during the school year.  But it just isn’t the same as sitting around the picnic tables at Franklin Knolls on a lazy Saturday afternoon with all the time in the world.  Here’s to summer and memories!

More to come…

DJB