Jonesing for the impending release of the third item in the Groundtruther trilogy, I decided to pick up Hunter & Previte's earlier collaboration. Here, they hang back a little farther from the 'edge', but there is still plenty to hold one's interest. It's hard to believe there are only two musicians playing live, Hunter with his eight-string guitar weaving bass lines and melody together in his inimitable way and Previte laying the foundation on his acoustic kit + electronic drums + sampler.

Out there awaiting a listen is also Previte's Coalition of the Willing, which includes Hunter, Sex Mob's Steve Bernstein, and features Stanton Moore, Les Claypool, and Skerik, among others.

Posted by ksmoker at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Setting
Outdoors on the quad of a historically Catholic college campus. The quad is surrounded by vaguely gothic, tan brick buildings. The grass is green the sun is shining. Birds chirp. College students walk to and fro across the quad.

Time
Mid-April. A warm, sunny morning.

Characters
Father Joe - Director of Campus Ministry--think of him as the abbot.
Ben - Highly inquisitive five-year-old boy.
Kari - Mother of Ben. Enjoys letting Ben speak for himself.

Act I, Scene I
(At a picnic table Kari and Ben sit and share a snack of grapes that they had picked up from a buffet table inside one of the buildings. Father Joe emerges on a balcony above and lights a cigar. After some time, Ben takes notice of Father Joe and waves. Father Joe waves back.)

Ben (shouting): What are you doing up there?

Father Joe (exhales a plume of smoke): Looking around. What are you doing?

Ben (still shouting): I'm eating these grapes.

(Ben waves a bunch of grapes in the air. Squirrels scramble after the grapes that have been shaken free and sent rolling down the footpath.)

Father Joe: Grapes? That's great, those are really good for you.

Ben: Where do you get these grapes?

Father Joe: From my grape tree.

Ben: Where is your grape tree?

Father Joe: Next to the spaghetti tree.

Ben: Where's your pasghetti tree?

Father Joe: The pasghetti tree is next to my sausage tree.

Ben: Where's the sausage tree?

Father Joe: Next to my meatball tree.

(Pause. Ben considers his options.)

Ben: How did you get up there?

Father Joe: I threw a rope over the rail here and climbed up.

Ben (eyes widen): Where's the rope?

Father Joe: I put it away. Over there.

(Father Joe points to bell tower on opposite side of the quad. Ben squints in the general direction of the bell tower.)

Ben: Well...how are you going to get down?

Father Joe: Through this door here behind me.

Ben (undaunted): What if someone locks it?

(Father Joe pulls out a heavy, jangling keyring and holds it up for Ben to see.)

Father Joe : I'll use one of these to open it.

Ben (losing interest): Okay, I have to go now. Do a good job!

(Ben and Kari gather the grape stems, wave goodbye. Father Joe waves and watches as they exit stage left.)

Posted by ksmoker at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Only way I could be more proud of this picture would be if Ben and I had been sending each other IMs at the time.

Posted by ksmoker at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Actually, there's always high-quality jazz going on here, but we're getting an injection at near lethal dosages this June with the 2007 RIJF. There are more bands, more venues, and probably a bigger crowd. I plan to spend some of the holiday weekend perusing the artist lineup, but in the meantime, make sure to go check out the Jazz@Rochester blog for the inside scoop.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This book has literally been on my nightstand and has been part of my regular reading routine since I received it as a Christmas present. In 2005. It's not that it's boring or bad, quite the contrary. It's just that I seem to be slipping into my father's habit of reading just before bedtime, which consists of spending five minutes trying to figure out where I left off and then re-reading the last three pages of the five total that I had read the night before while nodding off.

This book is fascinating, though; otherwise, it wouldn't have lasted so long on the nightstand. We all know the story of Lincoln: born in a log cabin, self-educated country lawyer rises to the presidency, captains the country through the Civil War, assassinated in Ford's Theatre. Somewhere in that narrative, we are supposed to also learn of his greatness as a moral leader.

Regarding Lincoln's moral fiber, there was some doubt among Lincoln's more ardent contemporaries concerning his position on slavery and race; however, a careful study shows that, whatever his personal attitudes, he was clearly on the side of ending slavery. Where Lincoln was unique and what made him truly great was his political skill. Yes, above all, Lincoln was a consumate politician, with all (maybe more) of the personal ambition and thirst for power typical of that profession. One of Lincoln's famous quotations spells out his particular form of ambition, when at age 23 he was campaigning for the Illinois General Assembly:

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin uses this as the theme of her book as she describes how Lincoln was able to gather and manage a cabinet composed of his chief political rivals. All of these men were likely the most talented for their positions, but they were also the most willful, ambitious, and contentious collection of egos ever assembled into one team (except for maybe the '03-'04 Lakers). Lincoln did not just keep these competing egos in check--sometimes using almost Machiavellian behind-the-scenes machinations--he also provided a common direction and purpose for the cabinet and the country. It was Lincoln's ambition, his drive for making himself worthy of our esteem, that was the true source of his enduring political and moral legacy.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)