poet, interviewer, musician, traveler
Walt Whitman was born on this day in 1819. For more information about Walt and his work, visit the Walt Whitman Archive.
Speaking of the Whitman Archive, the NEH has offered the Archive a $500,000 challenge grant. To help them meet the challenge, please donate some money to the Archive. Thanks!
Comments closedJohn Nichols of The Nation has written a nice piece on Whitman and war. It includes a lovely funeral poem by Whitman. You can read it at thenation.com.
Comments closed
A few years ago, when I was station manager and drive-time host at Jazz90.1, I wrote a couple reviews for All About Jazz, the Web’s most visited jazz site.
Today, AAJ published my review of Claudia Acuna’s recent appaearance in Rochester.
Happily, this marks the start of my increased involvement with AAJ. Starting today, I’ll be writing CD and concert reviews, and doing some interviews for AAJ. In addition, I’ll be their correspondent at this year’s Rochester International Jazz Festival.
I’m thrilled to be working with All About Jazz, and I recommend to all you jazzheads that you make AAJ a regular part of your day.
Comments closedIt’s going to take me a long time — maybe forever — to really come to grips with what yesterday meant to me. When I hatched this crazy plan last year, I wasn’t even sure I could make it happen. Then Connie Bodner stepped in, and it suddenly became possible, if not probable.
Then it was yesterday. Months of planning, literally thousands of e-mail messages, hundreds of phone calls. Dozens of readers, dozens of dinner guests, dozens of staff members, one actor. Could we really expect it to come off well?
When I finally sit down and write the story of my life, 21 May 2006 will be one of the high points. It was better than I ever could have hoped. The diversity of voices. The passion of the readers. The flow of emotion throughout the afternoon. Hail. Rain. Wind. Sunshine. (In late May!)
Then came the end of the reading. Wade Norwood was the final reader. He finished the last line — I stop some where waiting for you — and started down the stairs from the lectern. As his foot hit the first step, a wave crashed through the church. The audience of readers and listeners erupted with cheers, applause, and more than a few moist eyes, including my own. This wave of sound and emotion and joy and completion just kept building and building. It was almost too much to believe. (My hands are shaking right now as I type this.)
We took no photos, made no recordings. The event passed into the air. The sound waves are even now heading out across the solar system as almost imperceptible disturbances of whatever it is that makes up the cosmos.
I’m still awestruck at the experience. I feel so lucky to have been there, and to have been surrounded by such wonderful people. I have a debt to that room that I can’t repay.
Comments closedIt’s finally here! CELEBRATING WHITMAN: AMERICA’S POET, is today (Sunday) at 2 p.m. at Genesee Country Village & Museum. We begin by reading “Song of Myself” from 2-5 p.m., followed by a 19th century dinner at 5 p.m. and Will Stutts as Walt Whitman at 6 p.m. Please come to the reading and be part of this special event.
SHOW-ONLY TICKETS: The dinner is sold out, but you can get a show-only ticket for $20. Just come to the Education Center (next to the main entrance of Genesee Country Village) before 6 p.m. See you there!
Comments closedYesterday at the WHEC studios, I came face to face — literally — with my new status as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, but I wasn’t prepared for the full reality.
My interview took place on a small set on the side of the main soundstage — two chairs, a fake bookshelf and plant. The disconcerting part of it was that when you looked at the camera, you were also looking at a monitor under it. Holy canoli, Batman. I’m huge!
When Jen and I got married, I weighed about 155 or 160. That was 10 years ago. I now weigh about 195 or so. That’s right, dear reader, 40 pounds in 10 years. Add a few ounces from the TV, and it looked like the anchor was interviewing Dom DeLuise.
The real horror was yet to come, though. When I got home, I watched the show on tape. May I just say that it was the most terrifying experience of the week?
But as the old saw goes, when life gives you lemons, make hay while the bird is in the hand. I had a vague plan to diet and excercise, but yesterday’s TV gig has scared the bejeezus out of me. It’s time to get serious about taking off several million pounds. I’ll keep you posted.
Comments closedIf 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.
Comments closedAs 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!
Comments closed
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.
Comments closed
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.
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!
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.
Comments closedI’m writing this post from my cousin Lynne’s house in Albany, NY. Jen and the boys and I came here yesterday on the Maple Leaf — an Amtrak train that runs from Toronto to NYC. Round-trip tickets for all four of us (John was free), cost about $130. And let me tell you, it was worth every penny.
The trip from Rochester to Albany took about 4 1/2 hours, just a bit longer than it takes in a car if you don’t stop. The big difference, though, was in the whole vibe of the trip. It was really family friendly — a roomy train with lots of space that allowed all of us to move around, cuddle, and talk to one another. If you’re traveling with a baby, you can’t beat it. John fell asleep at about 1 p.m. (an hour before we got on the train), and didn’t wake up until my cousin picked us up at the Albany station. Not bad at all.
Bernie was so excited he could hardly stand it. He loves his cousins Jack and Grace, so the whole concept of the trip was thrilling. Add the train on top of that, and you’ve got one very happy boy!
Train travel in the U.S. is certainly way behind train travel in Japan, unless you live in the NYC-Boston corridor. But it’s out there, and worth a little investigation if you’re thinking of taking a trip. Leave the driving to someone else, and stretch out with a book as you glide down the tracks. It’s a heck of a way to travel.
Comments closedYou can visit this link for more information on the Walt Whitman event I’m producing with Connie Bodner. PLEASE NOTE: You must reserve your tickets for the dinner/show portion of the event by Monday, May 1!
Comments closedTonight I went with a friend to see a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ wonderful Symphony No. 1: A Sea Symphony. It was performed by the Eastman-Rochester Chorus, the Eastman Chorale, and the Eastman Philharmonia. I went to see it because the text of the symphony is by Walt Whitman. I’d never heard the piece, but as soon as I got home, I picked up a copy. If you’d like to get one, here are two links:
Amazon.com
Sea Symphony
iTunes
Sea Symphony