Thoughts from Shakespeare: Art and Order

In the playbill from the Shakespeare theatre, there were director's notes for each play being performed this season. The notes for "The Winter's Tale" caught my interest. I thought they were well written.

The notes began with a quote from T.S. Eliot, from his Poetry and Drama, 1951: "It is a function of all art to give us some perception of an order in life."

The director went on to say of both "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest", two of Shakespeare's very late works:

"Out of the dangerous chaos [that is] human experience, both plays find a redeeming shape ... in the case of The Winter's Tale, the play is suffused by a sense of time and the great cycles that loom over our fleeting journey here on earth: the change of the seasons, youth and age, birth and death - endless growth, decay and regeneration.

"But for all its cyclical rigor, time is also the balm that allows for forgiveness, reconciliation and redemption. Thus, the remorseless calendar is checked by the momentary and the personal, reminding us again of the unlikely miracle of our own brief consciousness."



Well put, Herr Direktor. Art can lend order to the chaos of life which it often portrays, just as time can heal the wounds of life which it often inflicts.

Thoughts from Shakespeare: Love and Madness

It might be a day or two before I put my post together on the quiet (but fun) long weekend just completed in Spring Green. So until then, just some thoughts that are spillovers from seeing two Shakespeare plays while there: "The Winter's Tale", and "Comedy of Errors". One post today, and one tomorrow.



Not long ago I saw a quote by Nietzsche, which I like:

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

----- Friedrich Nietzsche

I can't help but think that Nietzsche may have been aware of this quote by Pascal from some 250 years prior:

"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know."

----- Blaise Pascal

And this weekend I became aware of another quote that predates Pascal, namely Shakespeare, which Nietszche may have known:

"Love is merely a madness."

----- Rosalind: As You Like It, III, ii.

Seems to me that Nietzsche makes a synthesis of Pascal and Shakespeare in his quote, and I think it's this:

In love, reason and madness meet, and take up residence together in the heart. :) The result is at once sensible and crazy, wise and foolish.

I don't know that I could describe it better.

Back in the kitchen again..

...he sings, as he chops onion and crushes spices.

It had been awhile since it was my turn to prepare dinner. And as of Wednesday, I'll again be doing it more often, since there is a second breadwinner in the house now. :)

D just started a part-time job at a local accounting practice in town. Just two days a week (M/W) for the summer, 3 days (M/W/F) in Fall while she finishes school, and then full-time beginning with next tax season. And it's not far away, either. A couple of miles down the street. Keep lowering that carbon footprint, you know...

So for now, it's fun to produce the occasional culinary masterpiece. :) Except when I throw some chopped onion in a saucepan of hot oil, and it splatters, catches fire, and I have two-foot high flames to put out! Yikes! I think I've lost my touch around pots and pans. But a little windex took the sooty residue right off the microwave, so it's all good. And the sauce! Ohhh. What's a little singeing of arm hair compared to that flavor?

It was something I clipped out of the paper: pan-fried salmon smothered in a sauce made with green olives, capers, pearl onions, tomatoes, oregano, thyme, basil, garlic, yellow onion, etc, etc... mmmm. Marvelous. Add the season's first fresh green beans from the farmer's market, with butter and a little salt, and - perfection.

So like I said, it's fun now. Two days a week. Maybe even three. But more? I don't know about that.

But I can think about that later. Right now, it's time to head SE again to an old favorite spot: a quaint little community with an outdoor Shakespeare theatre, for a couple of shows and a long weekend in a familiar B&B. Nice.

Happy Birthday, U-S-A. Thanks for the long weekend!

Kosher Reggae

AKA Matisyahu, Hasidic Jew and... hip-hop entertainer.

Yeah, I know. Those things don't sound like they should go together. But that's just a misinterpretation, I think,



of what Hasidic Judaism is about. Not that I know first hand or anything, you understand. I don't.

I suppose it's the stereotype that goes along with the black coats, top hats, sidelocks, tallits (prayer shawls), and the tendency to cluster in orthodox neighborhoods.

This guy, though, has certainly broken the mold. He is not afraid to mingle with "the world", and occasionally touch "the unclean thing", while he spreads a positive message of God's love for the world.

Hm. Sounds like a certain rabbi from Galilee that I've read about before. ;)

His biggest song to date is "Jerusalem", which is a terrific blend of reggae, rap, and the Psalms (esp 137). Another one I like is "Chop Em Down", which contains allusions to John the Baptist's preaching in Matt. 3:10.

But lately he is branching out and is guesting on other people's albums, ranging from The Crystal Method to The Easy Star All-Stars (who put out reggae covers of Radiohead's "OK Computer" and The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper.")

He even put out an album that serves as a hip-hop soundtrack to a Passover Seder (the CD looks like a round piece of matzoh. Hilarious.) Anyway, he's one of the few purveyors of positive hip-hop these days. Reggae has pretty much always espoused a lot of positive values, and belief in God, but that is sure not what rap's been known for.

So when he came to town... I just had to go. He played at "the club that Prince built", First Avenue, and the place rocked. The audience was enthusiastic and appreciative, albeit smaller than usual. There was plenty of space to move around, unlike the sold-out shows (ex: Fleet Foxes on 8/9, to which SQ and I will be going) where you are cheek-by-jowl with other patrons.

This crowd was pretty much mid-late twenties; not a lot of students, not a lot of thirties and up, either. Kind of a morally conservative bunch, too, I think - at least judging from the way the girls were dressed (which is the best barometer I know), and the lack of drunkenness and public groping. :) Maybe it was the music, or the worldview of the artist, I don't know. But it had the feel of a Christian concert, at least in the social dynamics of the crowd.

The opener, Dub Trio, was nothing special musically. They were pretty much three guys drawn from Matisyahu's band, who played 45 minutes of hard rock instrumentals. The bassist managed to find the resonant frequency of the entire hall, though, and cranked it up. The whole place shook, and I could even feel the hair on my arms vibrating. That, um... was kind of cool. :)

When it was time for the main act, he came out with his head covered as an observant orthodox Jew should. Except he used a hoodie. I'm not sure that counts. ;) But then, underneath, he had the yarmulke on, so I think the hoodie was just for effect. Made him look like a bearded Eminem. But taller. And calmer. Okay... not so much Eminem, then. Maybe he was just chilly.








He has a new CD coming out next month, but I found a good dub version of his latest CD, "Youth", on the merch table for $10. It's good, too. But it made me ask again just exactly what the word DUB means (in the music world, anyway.) According to urbandictionary.com it's this: The art of making a remix, especially a reggae song, in which the lyrics are all or partially removed and the focus is placed on the drum track and the bass. Okay, that describes it. I like that style of reggae. Stripped down to the essence. Nice.

In between, I got some reading done in Moltmann. Beer helps that. The guy is German, after all. :) Except I had to read by cell phone light, as I managed to find a seat in a dark corner, and didn't want to give up a place to sit just to read theology.

But before I left for the night, there was something else going on that I just had to investigate.

I love drum & bass (it's like the music I run to), and the VIP room is a great space off to the side of the stage, sound-proofed, but with glass to see the main show. There were a dozen or so kids in there who were, high school, early college? all moving to this music, some wildly, some subtly, some with light sticks.




After about 5 minutes of watching, the DJ weaved in a new song, and I couldn't help myself. :) Yeah, yeah, I know; at my age decorum should rule the day. But darn it, this music is too infectious, and the kids were cool with it.

Nice way to work off a little beer.

Publish, or...

... well, not perish. Not even "Publish or Bust". More like ...AND bust. It's not like I have a positive cashflow from self-publishing. Not even close, in fact.

But cost notwithstanding, it's an internal drive that I need to satisfy. (Getting "the word" out, I mean. That is, out of my head and into the heads of others.) This blog certainly takes the edge off that drive, but now and then an idea is well enough received among friends & family (and maybe more), that I feel a need to get the idea into a more tangible form than is possible in the virtual world.

So after winning a local poetry slam competition a while back, I decided that now was the time to put that idea in print, too. It's a children's book (Dr. Suess style) about the geriatric set, lovingly illustrated by J1, who was the audience for a lot of my silliness when she was growing up. She had been working on the artwork for a while, but the poetry contest pushed me over the top with the project. Tomorrow I head for the printer to talk about setup of text and images, paper style, etc.

This will be book number three for me. The first (another "children's" book) was not for sale, and this one won't be either - it's just for gifts. The middle one (a poetry collection), published on Amazon Kindle, has actually sold some copies. Amazing. And if anyone ever found a hard copy of that one floating around, it would either be a forgery... or ha - priceless. ;)

Maybe someday I'll do what columnists do: publish a book derived from their columns. In this space right here, I certainly have enough material. And I suppose just about as many people will want to read that, too.

Gypsy Mania On The River

Well, it may not have been Milwaukee's Summerfest, but still, what a great evening. :) Clear summer night last night, not too warm, enough breeze to keep bugs away.

Add to that a picturesque setting in someplace new and interesting, decent food and great music, well-behaved relatively sober people, and a special occasion to celebrate (not to mention the good feeling of just having finished up some needed yardwork and my second summer school paper), and it all adds up to a swell time.

St. Anthony Main is a dining and entertainment complex in a refurbished old mattress factory,



right on the Mississippi river by an old hydroelectric dam and a city park built out into the river called "Water Power Park."








Xcel Energy (formerly NSP or Northern States Power) reclaimed a bunch of the land once used for a power plant, and made it into a riverfront walking park. Really very nice. They must still make power there too, because the substation and high-power lines were certainly visible.


But back across the cobblestone street where the horse and buggy stood ready to give carriage rides, St. Anthony Main had sidewalk (patio, really) cafe' dining opportunities



and a courtyard in which they had free live music going. This is an all-summer-long thing, apparently. This one went well enough, maybe we'll go back... even without the special occasion. :)

The band du jour was one we'd heard before in a neighboring nightclub, Vic's. It's Gypsy Mania, and they do "hot club" swing, a'la Django Reinhart & Stephane Grappelli. Missed their CD release party earlier in the month due to that driving vacation I'll eventually get back to telling you more about. But I picked one up last night, and they all signed it for me. An honor to be asked, they said. :)



So again, a very pleasant couple of hours spent at a neat local night spot by a lovely local natural resource, listening to talented local musicians. I do like this area. There really is a lot to enjoy without going far and spending much.



Oh, before I go, a couple of odds and ends. This picture for one. I'm not sure what struck me about it now, but here it is anyway. If you figure out why, let me know. ;)



And the other thing is.. the prior post was my 1,000th on this blog. One thousand and one, now. Yikes! Do I really talk that much?

Don't answer that.

Preach it, brother!

Okay, then... if you insist... I will. :)

The pastor at EnCompass church will be taking some time off in August, and a few of us from the congregation are going to take turns filling his "pulpit" (which is actually just a bar stool and a music stand, but you get the general idea..)

I get to lead off on August 2, and also get to pretty much pick my own topic, within the loose confines of a general series of how each of us relate to God. So, I thought "hey! why not make use of my summer school course?"

Hey, indeed. The pastor and the Sunday morning program person bought the idea, so in about a month yours truly will be waxing eloquent (maybe...) on the topic of God as a relational being, and what that implies about change in an unchanging God.

Now if I can just get my prof to let me substitute prepping for (and preaching) a sermon, in place of that last comprehensive research paper, I'll be golden. :)

Of course, there's the small matter of what the heck I'll actually say.

Drafting in Blogger

My Summer School course is now in full swing, I guess, as I have just finished the rough draft of my first (of 6) papers on the first (of 5) books. Hopefully, that one goes in to the prof tonight, and the second one by, oh... Tuesday?

From there on they'll come a little less frequently. The first two books I've read; the next three I haven't. And what's more, I read the first two several months ago. The cool part is, though, that I had already written about both... right here in this little ol' blog spot. :)

Richard Sanders "The God Who Risks", here. And here.

Jung Young Lee "The Trinity In Asian Perspective", here. And here. And here.

That is one of the benefits of doing posts immediately on topics that strike me as profound enough to write about. Now, all I really have to do is go back to my earlier thoughts, and put them into the more formal structure of a research paper. Easy! :)

So for those of you that are not really all that interested in my theological musings, hey, there's a purpose for it. Capture those thoughts while they're fresh!

Oh, and... expect more blog posts on the other texts as I get to them. Some of them might actually be interesting. Really.

Handling Intimacy in a Public Setting

Um.... what do you mean by this, now? Is this going to be a blog post full of double entendres? One that appeals to the prurient interest of certain people and offends the delicate sensibilities of others?

Noooo. Not me. I never do that. :)



It's really just an observation (which is most of what I do on here, anyway.. experience life and make observations about it) of how different performers handle the intimacy of a small club like the Dakota. Over the last year or two I've seen several great jazz performers (some of whom I've also seen in a larger concert hall setting), and they really do exhibit differences in how they handle being literally within arm's reach of the audience.



Last night it was Karrin Allyson. Her CD, Collage, was one of the first jazz vocal recordings I bought in that format (many more on tape or vinyl, mind you), way back in 1996. I liked her voice back then on that collection of standards, but she has really developed as a vocal stylist since, and I picked up two newer ones (Imagina and From Paris To Rio) recently that showcase her facility with French and Portuguese. And last night she proved she could also grind out the blues effectively, so now a few more of her CDs are on request at the local library. :) Man, she's good!



I'm not sure she is real comfortable playing such a small house as the Dakota. Seems to me she coped with it by featuring her band members on solos (and they were fabulous, so it worked), and by interacting with people she knew in the audience (family and musicians she's worked with). She even dragged a couple of them up on stage to help her out.



Other performers have been more stiff and removed from the audience, and still others have made you feel like you were sitting in their living room looking through a family photo album as they told you stories. The ones who could handle being intimate with the small audience (like John Pizzarelli) really put on the superior show.

The ones who were more comfortable in an arena or large hall (like The Manhattan Transfer) were great performers, too, but.. you didn't feel like you got to know them. Give me someone who really knows how to romance a crowd, and I'll forgive slips in musicianship. Put distance between yourself and your audience, and I expect perfection as compensation. Luckily for me, even the stiff performers at the Dakota are that good. Love this place. :)

Hm. Can't resist one more spur-of-the-moment observation. Isn't it like this in intimate relationships, too? I mean, romance me, drop your guard and be intimate with me, and I'll naturally overlook all kinds of flaws. But be cool, distant and aloof, and man, you gotta be pretty much flaw-less for love to work. And sometimes, that's exactly how it goes. Either way.

Hm. Sounds like a topic for another time and place. :)

Vegelyzing

New word alert!

I think this SHOULD be a word, at least. It refers to the evangelizing (or proselytizing, take your pick) of the carnivore/omnivore community by the vegetarian/vegan community.

Ran smack into it in Asheville, NC, a mountain community that is sort of like the Seattle of the Appalachians, very left-leaning and culturally post-modern, populated with both aging hippies and young hipsters (along with the usual entourage of opportunists that accompany both.)



I picked up a copy of PeTA's "Vegetarian Starter Kit" in one of those curbside bins full of free papers. You know the kind. They range from "Street People's Weekly" to "Bait & Switch Real Estate Listings" to "Escorts At Your Fingertips".

It's actually a nice little 24-page 8.5 x 11 glossy publication that boasts "FREE Recipes Inside", and carries the slogan "Everything you need to eat right for your health, for animals, and for the Earth."
I love how Earth is capitalized. It's sort of like the way God is capitalized by some people, I guess. Perhaps Capitalization sort of reveals your Worldview. Some people's worldview excludes belief in capital letters altogether. :)

Beyond the food facts and recipes (which are pretty decent), it's full of important celebrity endorsements, ranging from Joaquin Phoenix (wait, isn't he dead? No, that's River. Ah, I can't keep them straight.) to Alec Baldwin (are you kidding me? He's a role model for anything?) to the Dalai Lama (who has a heck of a sense of humor, and is a pretty cool guy.)

But I digress. This is supposed to be another installment in the travelogue series of what I did on my summer vacation. So, back to Asheville. You could tell that it was a hipster kind of place by one look in the local book dealer's window.



Yeah. I get this place. ;)

So, besides being the home of the Biltmore (Vanderbilt's 250-room French mansion),



it was a neat-looking little town. Lots of art-deco-era buildings, street buskers and cool stores.







It's just... too enamored with itself and its über-hipness.

I'd settle for Boone, a little college town about two hours north.

It's just as hip as Asheville, but not nearly as pretentious.

HVAC, ASAP!

At 1:45 this afternoon, my outdoor thermometer read 99.3 degrees.

And last night the air conditioner stopped working (in both home and office.) Aargh. Nice timing. Sort of like being on vacation when your boss quits. Not when you want that to happen.

So, an HVAC guy is coming over (soon, I hope) to look at the thing. God willing, it's a quick fix, and not a total replacement.

Here I thought that leaving the oppressive heat of the Carolina low country would be a relief. Ha. It was actually preparation!

And like a true diehard, I went to the indoor track (cooler, but still 70+) and ran at noon (shorter than normal due to the two-week vacation layoff), knowing I would come home to a sweatbox. Yuk.
But darn it, life can't grind to a halt because of a hot spell, right?

Right?

Where IS that a/c guy anyway?



P.S. Heard a great new song today by Regina Spektor from her new album "Far". It's called "Laughing With", and it's pretty profound coming from a girl that sings an aria about a lost wallet and Blockbuster card.

3,750 Miles

Wow. Long trip.

Great trip! :)

I've got lots to share about it, beyond that which I already have, but it will have to wait until I have time. I have two weeks of work emails to crawl out from under, a new (old) boss to (re)orient to what I do, two papers to write for my summer school course, yada, yada.

For the time being, here is a photo-recap of hotels from here to NC and back, a pictorial story told through amenities (and any other distinctive features that a $60/night room be able to muster up.)

Oh, and in case one of the pictures is hard to make out, it is the logo for a Tempurpedic mattress. Yeah, the real kind. It's time to replace the 12-year-old Select Comfort mattress currently in use, and it seemed like a hassle-free way to try out a new (and expensive) kind. And the verdict? Well, it's the only mattress that produced a pain-free morning-after. That says a lot. :)

En route

... homeward bound.

Today will be the last of the mountain driving, going through four states in about 2 hours! This part of the Appalachians is where NC, TN, VA and KY all overlap like the fingers of folded hands. I fully expect more trailers, more biscuit places and more pottery shops. :)

Tomorrow, the nose of the car heads on a steady NW course through the flatlands, arriving home just in time for 90 degree weather. Yikes! I thought it was supposed to be cooler by the Great Lakes.

Give me the Blue Ridge, baby. It's nice up here at 3100 feet.

Gourmet dining... in a barn?

Well, yesterday we certainly went from one extreme to another.

Breakfast at the Waffle House across the road from the hotel. Mmm, mmm, mighty good. And cheap. The food, I mean. I really can't comment on the wait staff in those same areas. Although I could venture a guess.



The cheesy eggs were perfect, as were the grits with butter & salt. Bacon crisped (with a flat iron on the griddle), and one real nice biscuit, yes sir. I had them hold the raisin toast in favor of the biscuit.



Lunch, however, was another matter. Not the Waffle House, but the Biltmore House. Yikes!



And even though the restaurant was where they used to keep the horses back in the day, the place cleaned up pretty nice.



And the food was also mmm, mmm, mighty good. But, um... not cheap. Salad topped with flank steak and grilled peaches, chunks of white cheddar, and fried onions. Marvelous.

As before, the drive up the mountain and along the Blue Ridge Parkway found the temperature dropping about 5 degrees for every 1,000 feet gain in altitude. I'll take something right about 3,500 ft., I think. Just right.