Walt Whitman and I on the news

Posted 16 May, 2006 in Literature, Radio, Rochester, TV

If you have a time machine, you can watch me earlier today on News10 NBC here in Rochester, talking about the Whitman event.

If you have a radio or computer, you can hear me tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3:30 p.m. on Jack Mindy’s show on Jazz90.1. The station is at 90.1 FM, or on the Internet.

Wal-Mart: Always Organic. Always.

Posted 12 May, 2006 in Politics & Activism

As I’ve mentioned before, I serve on the board of Abundance Cooperative Market, Rochester’s only shareholder-owned natural food store. The natural and organic food market is really growing. How can you tell? Wal-MArt wants a piece of the action. Oy!

That ol’ Acuna magic

Posted 11 May, 2006 in All About Jazz Articles, Jazz, Music, Rochester

Sigh.

That’s what I’m left with as far as words go. I just spent the evening listening to one of my favorite singers in the world, the delightful Claudia Acuna. She did two sets at the Lodge at Woodcliff, and it was one of those nights that ended too soon.

I walked into the club more than 30 minutes early, but there were no tables. As I was looking for a single seat, I bumped into Pete McCrossen, the general manager of the hotel. I’ve known Pete for several years, ever since he started the current jazz series at Woodcliff, back when I was at Jazz90.1. Pete’s a stand-up guy who loves the music, and who brings in amazing A-list artists and presents them for free (!) at his hotel.

Pete graciously invited me to join he and his wife at their table. The three of us had a nice chat — Pete’s been on the Rochester scene for a long time, and he has lots of good stories. The three of us watched the first set, which was almost all new music that has yet to find its way onto an album. The new band is really hip. It features Claudia’s longtime musical soulmate Jason Lindner on piano and keyboard, Juancho Herrera on guitar, YaYo Serka on drums, and Omar Avital on bass. (Keepin’ it real, I have to say that her band with John Benitez and Gene Jackson was the bomb, and pretty hard to top, but this band is wonderful in its own right.)

After the first set, Gap Mangione came and sat down at our table, followed shortly by Claudia. The five of us swapped stories and jokes and just generally had a blast. I always enjoy hanging with Gap because he’s seen it all and is happy to take the time to tell you about it. During the break, I asked Claudia if the band could play “Esta Tarde Vi Llover,” one of my favorite tunes from her MaxJazz album Luna. I told her not to worry if they don’t play that tune anymore, and I got the sense that they probably don’t.

The second set kicked off, and tune #2 was … “Esta Tarde Vi Llover.” And it blew the doors off the place, evolving into a jam that lifted everyone in the room about an inch off the ground. The whole second set was that way — including a creative version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and another great tune from Luna called “Historias,” which ended the set. A little more chatting with Claudia and the McCrossens, and it was time for me to head home, elated and enchanted.

UPDATE: Check out my review of the show at All About Jazz.

Claudia Acuna at Woodcliff

Posted 8 May, 2006 in Jazz, Music, Rochester

Don’t forget to keep some space in your schedule on Wednesday or Thursday evening. Vocalist Claudia Acuna will be performing at the Lodge at Woodlcliff from 7:30-10:30 p.m. both nights. Direction to the Lodge are at woodclifflodge.com.

Whitman event – tickets still available!

Posted 3 May, 2006 in Literature, Rochester

Celebrating Whitman: America’s Poet is looking like a success, but we still need some more folks to buy tickets for the dinner and show. Click on the event title at the beginning of this paragraph for more information on how to get tickets. And remember, the reading begins at 2 p.m. That’s free with museum admission. The dinner/show begins at 5 p.m. It’s $30 for a single ticket, or $55 for a couple for dinner and a live one-man show. Not bad at all!

Musings on Douglas Adams and the Palm Pilot

Posted 3 May, 2006 in Literature, Random Musings

I’ve been reading Douglas Adams’s book The Salmon Of Doubt (Amazon.com), in which he’s pretty effusive about his passion for technology. That’s got me jazzed about tecnology, too, so I’m writing this entry on my Palm. My only problem with this little gadget is that its Wi-Fi is shot, which renders it a lot less cool than it was. Getting it fixed sounds like the obvius solution — but that means being without my calendar and contacts for however long the repair takes. In a job like mine, that’s like being without my brain. Maybe a better way to say that is that with a brain like mine, losing this little zappy is like giving myself a lobotomy.

I really love Douglas Adams. When I was in high school — or maybe junior high — in the 80′s, I discovered the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books. Around that same time, my friend Steve Davis leant me a cassette tape of the HHGTTG radio series. In fact, this series of tapes has now become like the Holy Grail. The history of HHGTTG in all its forms is hard to trace — from radio to books to LPs to TV to CDs to a movie to radio again. Or something like that. Anyway, somewhere in there they re-recorded the radio series. I think they did that to switch some bits so’d they’d be more like the book. I’m still not sure whether they redid the whole serires or just parts of it, but I think that first version I heard on cassette as a teenager is still the funniest version. I guess there’s nothing for it but to check on eBay. Maybe that’s an appropriately futuristic way to find something by Douglas Adams.

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