Recalling The Best of All Possible Worlds!

As an undergraduate student in my first semester in college, I had little understanding of the far reaching impact even the most random of breadth component courses could would have on my life. In restropect, and given the twenty(!) years that have since passed, I can reflect on my wonderful good fortune of having taken Introduction to World Literature.

This afternoon as I was sitting in my classroom doing some reading and listening to the local public radio station, the song "The Best of All Possible Worlds" from the Broadway production of Candide came on, and I  was again reminded of that class. Taught by the kindly Peter Marchant, Intro to World Lit introduced me to so much I might otherwise had never been exposed to: Mishima, ballroom dancing, Dostoevsky and Voltaire; which is why I've posted the video above.

It is with great frequency that I preface any number of comments in class with a sing-songy "In the best of all possible worlds..." in an attempt to mimic the tune from the song, part of  Leonard Bernstein composed operetta in two parts based on Voltaire's Candide. An important (though sarcastically supported) component of which is maintaining an optimistic outlook in the face of life's trials and tribulations. I recall being so taken with the story, and especially, I suppose, the small piece of music shared in class (held in the basement of old Hartwell Hall) that I walked to the record store in town to purchase the music on LP.

It was wonderful to hear the old song again, and not just filtered through the years since having listened to the record many moons ago--in the best of all possible worlds it is now available on CD (still not that modern but at least more hip than cassette tapes)...

Turntable: The Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band

In the aftermath of the terrible natural disaster unfolding over the past few days, I thought it might be appropriate to recommend to you one of the great contributions made by the people of the deep south. One of the most inherently American music forms lives and breathes in Lousiana and Mississippi and is the American souths cultural gift to the world--cajun music.

There are many great performers that deserve a listen (Beausoliel, Buckwheat Zydeco, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to name a very few), I would like to suggest a family band with connections to the long history of cajun music. A stripped down trio, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band are husband and wife musicians Marc Savoy and Ann Allen, and legendary Beausoleil founder Michael Doucet.

The Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band has released a number of records available on CD, but the one I've been listening to the last few days is Sam's Big Rooster. BarnesandNoble.com reviewer Bob Gottlieb describes the disc as "A true tour de force that will leave you dancing, grinning, and marveling at the joy transmitted in the music."

As you offer prayer, financial contributions or personal assistance to the victims of hurricane Katrina, take a moment to listen to this sample of southern culture. I'm no musicologist, so I will let the music speak for itself. One can only hope that eventually things will return to a level of normalcy and the music of the south will rise again.

Click to purchase the CD online through Barnes and Noble

Newsflash: MCA Stayin' Strong

"If others disrespect me or give me flack,
I'll stop and think before I react.
Knowing that they're going through insecure stages,
I'll take the opportunity to exercise patience.
I'll see it as a chance to help the other person,
Nip it in the bud before it can worsen."
~from "Bodhisattva Vow," by the Beastie Boys

Yesterday's "entertainment" news included the revelation that Adam Yauch (aka "MCA") of the Beatsie Boys he is being treated for a cancerous tumor in a salivary gland. The announcement was made by Yauch on Youtube via a video statement to fans.

“The good news is that they did scans of my whole body and it’s only localized in this one area and it’s not in a place that affects my voice,” Yauch says. “So, that’s nice. That’s convenient.”

The cancer is in his left parotid gland and “also in a lymph node right in that area,” he says. Yauch will likely undergo surgery next week and radiation treatments afterward, he says.

As well as being a musician, movie producer and director, MCA (a practicing Buddhist)is also actively involved with the Free Tibet movement, an organisation created to put pressure on the People's Republic of China to respect human rights in Tibet. Funds for the cause were also generated from the royalties to Buddhist-inspired Beasties tracks like "Bodhisattva Vow," a fan video of which is posted above.

Best wishes, MCA.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Folk Like Me Like Folk

Earl Scruggs. John Denver. Woody Guthrie. Bearfoot. Alison Krauss and Union Station. Bob Dylan.

I have come to the conclusion lately that if there is a "brand" of music which appeals to my individual sense of person hood, it is American Folk or bluegrass or Americana... call the broader genre what you will.

Just what a kid who grew up (and still lives in) a decidedly urban part of upstate New York might have to do with American folk music (other than the beyond obvious fact that New York is in the Unites States--DUH!),I don't know, but I sure do like the feeling that the acoustic sound shares with me. In search of expanding my limited repertoire of folk sounds, I recentyl returned to a previous "dsicovery," Folk Alley online a few days ago. It is one of those sites, which most of us online have, that has been long bookmarked but little loaded on my desktop.

Yesterday, while sitting at my keyboard, I finally got around to signing in and listening... my experience, like most I suppose, with American folk music has been limited to my travels across country and flipping through radio stations late at night. It is during these times (passing early in the morning through Virginia, Tennessee, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio) that I have come across regional songs played in a manner that feels purely American to me.

Feel free to check out that vibe of which I speak by heading over to Folk Alley by simply clicking on the button to the left of the blog... this ain't no paid advertisement just a suggestion for expanding our general consciousness of American sound...

Olfactory Garden of Delights

"Drowning here in Summer's Cauldron,
Under mats of flower lava,
Please don't pull me out this is how I would want to go.
Breathing in the boiling butter,
Fruit of sweating golden Inca,
Please don't heed my shout I'm relax in the undertow."~XTC

Run: 6.3 miles in :49:49 min. @ 5:15 a.m.
Weather: Cloudy, 52°F, 97% Humidity, Wind: From SW at 6 mph; feels like 52°F.
Pace: 7:52 min/mile
Course: Castaway's Ritzy 6-mile Run found on USATF Map It!

Running in the humid pre-dawn air I am pleasantly surprised at the melange of smells I am presented with: cedar mulch, lilac, damp grass... and a faint hint of Fruit Loops?

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

World Water Day 2009

You may have missed it, but Sunday, March 22 was World Water Day. The day, designated by the United Nations, is intended to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

The theme for World Water Day 2009 is "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities". "Special focus will be placed on transboundary waters. Nurturing the opportunities for cooperation in transboundary water management can help build mutual respect, understanding and trust among countries and promote peace, security and sustainable economic growth."

More than 1 billion people on the planet don't have access to clean drinking water. Non-profit group charity: water funds clean water solutions like shallow wells, deep wells, rainwater harvesting systems, and spring protections to provide people in need with clean and safe drinking water.

The video posted above, prepared by charity: water to promote World Water Day, features the well-drilling work funded by the organization in the Central African Republic. It was directed by Simon Willows, and includes the track "Time Bomb" by Beck.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Music Monday: Koyaanisqatsi

"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."~Translation of the Hopi Prophecies Sung in KOYAANISQATSI

...and now for something a little different. Though this is my "official" Music Monday post, I am sharing a trailer for a film for which the music is key, Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance.

I am probably something of an oddball when it comes to the way I run recreationally, as I don't wear an i-pod or MP3 player while on the roads or trails. When I first started exercising again a little over four(!) years ago, I did for a short time, listen to an inexpensive MP3 player, but now find the "noise" a little distracting. That's not to say I don't "like" music, in fact (as evidenced I hope by my previous Music Monday posts), I like to think I appreciate "good" music more now than in the past.

To me, the musical sound scape invites us to search all of its corners, and I particularly enjoy traveling to those islands that sing/celebrate in tones and languages which I can't comprehend linguistically or intellectually, but can feel deep in my bones. I don't know much about the technical-nature of music, have never played an instrument, and being unable carry a proper tune, but I do enjoy being moved by sound.

As a youth growing up on the nicer side of urban Amercia, my friends and I listened to KRS-1, Public Enemy, Nirvana, AC/DC... the normal mix of urban and punk(-ish) tunes. One afternoon, while in undergraduate school, I was thumbing through the used albums(!), and came across a dark cover with light gray digital markings and a single bright red word splashed across the front: Koyaanisqatsi. Just below the title in small white, crisp print were the words "Music by Philip Glass."

Late at night, when I close my eyes, sometimes I still hear Albert DeRuiter's baritone (monotone?) chant from the title track of Philip Glass' soundtrack, which is clearly audible in the trailer above...

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Music Monday: The Ghost of Tom Joad

"The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad."~Bruce Springsteen

This past weekend, Roxiticus DH wrote a very timely post about how members of her on-line community are working together to stop the potential closure of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

It is not ironic that Bruce Springsteen is also involved in the campaign to save the FoodBank. Springsteen has always been a working class troubadour (in my eyes, anyway) despite his clear affluence, he has worked to turn this personal wealth into influence.

More ironically, back in 1995, Springsteen recorded The Ghost of Tom Joad, a song in which (I think) he raises John Steinbeck's literary "hero" of the Great Depression as a way of giving insight to some of the financial problems the working (as well as unemployed) men and women have always faced. Of course, as a quick look at the news will tell you, folks face these challenges now in greater numbers than (almost) ever before. (The link above is to a version recorded in 2008 with Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine.)

Feel free to either follow the links through Roxie's to help out New Jersey, or if possible, lend a lend (or a buck or two) to the needy in your community...

Unconditional Love

"We can't all speak at once, but we can all sing at once..."

While listening to Folk Alley this afternoon, I came across a beautiful collaboration between Dan Zanes and the Children of Agape Choir. The a capella music was beautiful. It reminded me of the days spent in college listening to the cassette tape recording of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a tape I have fortunately found since in CD form. Not surprisingly, the Children of Agape Choir is also from South Africa and the music is equally as beautiful.

After digging around Youtube for some more songs, I came across a movie trailer above for a documentary from HBO Films about the choir entitled We Are Together: The Children of Agape Choir. Filmed over the course of three years, the film focuses on Slindile Moya's family, including an older brother who lives at home and has the HIV virus, as well as other residents of the orphanage who are members of the choir and have lost parents as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic..

Ten years ago, amid the rapid increase in HIV infection, Zodwa Mqadi, called "Grandma" by the children, founded the Agape Child Care Center to house and educate orphaned children. ("Agape" is Greek for "unconditional love.") Despite a lack of funding, Grandma provides a home to children, where they overcome difficult situations with help from their friends and their love of music and rhythm. She decides to bring the music of the children's remarkable a capella choir to the world, aiming to inspire contributions to expand Agape and help more children. (From the HBO Film's site)

Powerful stuff...

Folk Like Me Like Folk

Earl Scruggs. John Denver. Woody Guthrie. Bearfoot. Alison Krauss and Union Station. Bob Dylan.

I have come to the conclusion lately that if there is a "brand" of music which appeals to my individual sense of person hood, it is American Folk or bluegrass or Americana... call the broader "it" what you will.

Just what a kid who grew up (and still lives in) a decidedly urban part of upstate New York might have to do with American folk music (other than the beyond obvious fact that New York is in the Unites States--DUH!),I don't know, but I sure do like the feeling that the acoustic sound shares with me. In search of expanding my limited repertoire of folk sounds, I came across Folk Alley online one day. It is one of those sites, which most of us online have, that has been long bookmarked but little loaded on my desktop.

Yesterday, while sitting at my keyboard, I finally got around to signing in and listening... my experience, like most I suppose, with American folk music has been limited to my travels across country and flipping through radio stations late at night. It is during these times (passing early in the morning through Virginia, Tennessee, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio) that I have come across regional songs played in a manner that feels purely American to me.

Feel free to check out that vibe of which I speak by heading over to Folk Alley by simply clicking on the button to the left of the blog... this ain't no paid advertisement just a suggestion for expanding our general consciousness of American sound...

Rocky Mountain Bye

"To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean,
To ride on the crest of a wild raging storm.
To work in the service of life and the living,
In search of the answers to questions unknown.
To be part of the movement and part of the growing,
Part of beginning to understand..."

I had not given it much thought until two days ago, but tomorrow (October 12) is the eleventh anniversary of John Denver's passing. I vaguely remember being around seventeen years old and purchasing a vinyl copy of one of Denver's many "Greatest Hits," due primarily to the fact that I enjoyed the song "Calypso," from which the lyrics above are excerpted.

Nearly two year's ago, I bought yet another Greatest Hits collection, this time on compact disc, due to the inclusion of both "Annie's Song" and "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." Though I am neither a country boy, or old enough to really remember Denver's hay day, his music and causes have been part of my general consciousness for nearly twenty-one years. Plus, my wife's name is Annie, too, and the sentiments expressed in his song--written after an argument with his then wife, Annie--invoke the feelings I have for my Annie.

It's likely that you may very well come across some sort of tribute for John on this anniversary, and when you do, try and not recognize at least one or two of his songs... well, if you enjoy the "out of doors," anyway, as his music and spirit seem to permeate much of this facet of American culture.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Simple Gifts: Back to School

Each September as I prepare my binders, books, and folders for transport to my classroom, I'll go through my CD carrier (I guess I'm "old school"--no MP3 player or iPod!) and pick some music to bring with me.

The first few days back to work are often filled with meetings and planning time during which I select the school year's introductory activities and reading selections that I will be employed, in part, use to start the year off on the right foot. Selecting music-to-plan-by is an important part of this process for me. I thought I'd take a moment to share one of the CDs, I slipped into the CD carrier sleeve for planning purpose this morning...

The compact disc Simple Gifts: Shaker Chants and Spirituals, with music selected by Joel Cohen, is one of two collections of Shaker traditional songs I own. One of my favorite discs, it also includes probably my favorite piece of music, the song Simple Gifts. Composed in 1848 by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett as an easy-to-learn tune for Shaker worship--extolling the virtues of a simple life--has become one of America's most popular all-purpose melodies. I've always found it interesting that it was originally intended as a dancing song.

SIMPLE GIFTS

'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free.
'Tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be.
And when we find ourselves
in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley
of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend
we shall not be ashamed.
To turn, turn
will be our delight,
'Till by turning, turning
we come round right.

In my mind, an almost perfect marriage of lyric and tune that always makes my heart happy with its message of delighting in life's simpler joys--like, for me, the opportunity each year to do the work I so enjoy.

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Movin' On

Run: 5 miles in :36:49 min. @ 5:35 a.m.
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 71°F, 82% Humidity, Wind: From SW @ 8 mph; feels like 71°F.
Training Plan Suggested Mileage: 4 miles
Average Mile Page: 7:27 min./mi.
Course: Out and about!

"Every day you'll see the dust (Too much, the Magic Bus)
As I drive my baby in my Magic Bus (Too much, the Magic Bus)"~ The Who

The next phase of summer training began this morning with my waking up very early in order to run prior to getting ready for work at summer school. While it might appear easier to simply find the time to train in between my daytime teaching and evening coaching course work, given the heat and humidity forecast for today, coupled with the understanding that I know I will require a nap during this middle time, few realistic options remain available. In the spirit of "showing what I can do rather than complaining about what I can't," taking on an early morning running plan, at least a few times weekly, makes the most sense.

In other sort-of-related news, I have signed up for a bus to get to this Sunday's Utica Boilermaker. The past three times I have run the race, I have taken two different approaches to getting to the largest 15k in the United States: 1) drive myself ridiculously early in the morning to earn a parking spot, or 2) spend the night before in a flea bag hotel. While both of those options are not entirely undesirable, this year I have decide to join my fellow GRTC members on the "party bus" to Utica. This primary difference in taking this transport option is that I'll have to stay for the after race party rather than sneak out of Dodge immediately after crossing the finish.

The only thing I'm sure of is that though the bus will not be driving both my "baby" will not and I, it should prove more cost effective and energy efficient... and, ultimately, easier than driving all that way myself.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Come Back, Chuck D

"I don't claim to be a preacher
Not paid to be a teacher
But I'm grown
I try to be a leader to the bone
Never could follow a man
Wit' a bottle
He's a baby wit' a beard
Not a feared role model
And they ask me where I got it
I get it from my pops
Wit' a man in the house
All the bullshit stops.~"Rebirth", Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black (1991)

In my eighth grade Language Arts class this afternoon my students and I were looking at a few selections of poetry which were created as the result of one groups dissatisfaction with the status quo. The obvious touchstone illustration for most students had seen or heard about was the music and poetry of the 1960s. Granted most of them were born in 1992, so there connection with it is surrealistic, based only on movies, television and consists primarily pf stereotypes of hippies as perpetuated by the media. The example does at least create a bridge of sorts to the past, a bridge I know that my Humanities teaching partner will likely attempt to further solidify for the with some select protest song lyrics.

I, however, am a product of the late 1980s/early 1990s (I graduated from high school in 1987, undergraduate school in 1991), and as a throw away comment I asked students if they had heard of Public Enemy. While most had not heard of the band, once I began rattling off the names of the members of the group, they all immediately recognized Flava Flav from his cartoonish VH1 persona. I remember a different Flava, though, one who, along with Chuck D and Terminator X chronicled the plight of black America, and even more powerfully, extolled the virtues of education and knowing your history.

We (white, black and purple people) could really use Chuck D now…

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

We Could Find Some New Energy...

This afternoon after my wife returned from work we had a few minutes with no one home but the two of us and we laid down together on our bed to talk about the day. As I was prattling on about one thing or another, our dog jumped up on the bed and sprawled across my chest and legs. All forty-plus pounds of her just laying on me looking at me.

I didn't need to be reminded how good it felt to be pressed against, not in a weird-way, but in a physical closeness that shows you are cared about. My wife placed her arm around me and I was more than doubly-blessed…

The video below is for the song "The Year of the Rat" by Badly Drawn Boy. A few years ago when I was working in the inner city at a school that was about to have its charter revoked, this song made me happy in the mornings. I think you'll see why...



Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Random Reflections: "The Golden Path"

"I did not believe in a heaven and hell world in opposites kind of reality..."

As a long-time fan of both Frank Herbert's original Dune series of books, as well as the music of the Chemical Brothers, I was jazzed when I first heard this synergistic tune many moons ago. I was equally delighted to be reminded of it while trolling Youtube this morning.

I'm not sure how intentional the relationship between the two pieces (music and novel) is, (and it may all just be in my personal approach to the material in reposnse to the song's title), but given my interest in the Dune-iverse, it's hard not to consider the literary "Golden Path" as suggested by the God Emperor of Dune...

Wow, it's true. My students are right, I am a nerd!

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

A Slack-tacular Thursday!

5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8...



Despite my earlier excitement this week about having put myself back on track with a more formal training regiment, these past few days, not so much. I reckon I could have made time tonight or last night to hit the roads, but it just wasn't in me. It's been a busy few days with school work and school activities for my own children, so the thing that had to give got up and "gave."

Tomorrow is a scheduled "recovery day," followed by the possibility of a Saturday 10k, with a snowshoe half marathon on the docket for Sunday. I may take the opportunity tomorrow afternoon to run a few miles and see how it goes. I suspect that the extra day off will help with the Morton's toe and overall recovery... the only sure thing is that I'll be lacing up either snowshoes or trail shoes to rock out 12.3 miles Sunday.

Be honest, the Go! Team song above makes everything, even a slackeresque few days of training, just a little bit sweeter, doesn't it?

Break it down, yo!

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Listen and "Let It Out"

Do you want to lay your head on my shoulder?
I don't mind if you cry,
Sometimes we all just need to let it out.
Just let your tears run down my arm,
So I could keep them in a blue jar.
We'll drink them later so just let it out,
Let it out...

I really don't listen to music that often on the radio anymore and I don't have an i-thing-a-ma-bob, so oddly the primary way I come across music is through what I catch on commercials, movies and television. Occasionally my son will come over with a CD he's burned, and I'll hear something "new" that way, too.

While watching Reba this afternoon, my daughter and I caught the Kleenex commercial below, and both wondered aloud "who sings that song?" A quick "Google" later and I had found that the tune is courtesy of a band called Starrfadu.



This commercial seems to me a pretty-near-perfect synthesis of music, mood and message... the message being (other than "BUY KLEENEX"), that listening is important... VERY important and cathartic!

Embrassez votre été invincible!

Music Mantra

Run: 9.2 miles in approximately 1:18:00 min. @ 6:08 p.m.

Pace: roughly 8:31 min./per mile avg.
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, 56°F, 72% Humidity, Winds: From NW @ 6 mph; feels like 56°F
Course: a slight variation of the Hart Highland 8.16 route (loop, mixed flat & hills, roads) I found on USATF’s Map It!

Comes the morning
When I can feel
That there's nothing left to be concealed
Moving on a scene surreal
No, my heart will never
Will never be far from here.~"No Ceiling" by Eddie Vedder

Probably the slowest paced run I've done since... well, since I began keeping track. In many ways it was a conscious effort on my part to s-l-o-w down, and without a timepiece, it wasn't until about seven miles in that the increasing number of headlights on the road and diminishing amount of traffic gave me a clear indication that perhaps it was a tad later than I had thought.

During my run, three thoughts took turns floating in and out of my mind: 1) "relax and pace yourself," 2) "I am here, breathe one, breathe two, I am moving, breathe one, breathe two..., and thirdly, the lyrics at the top of this post from the new Eddie Vedder solo cd, a soundtrack to the movie Into the Wild, which I have been listening to quite a bit recently.

In two days, my training plan calls for me to run 22 miles, followed by 10 the next day. Saturday's run will be the longest to date and I am going to attempt to use what I did today--less of an emphasis on speed at a slow, even pace--all with a song in my head...

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Music, Me and Phillip Glass

"Music is the universal language of mankind."~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I am probably something of an oddball when it comes to the way I train (among other things) as I don't wear an i-pod or MP3 player while running. When I first started exercising again a little over three years ago, I did for a short time, listen to an inexpensive MP3 player, but now find the "noise" a little distracting. That's not to say I don't "like" music, in fact, I like to think I appreciate "good" music more now than in the past. As suggested by Longefellow, music is, after all, the most common language humanity shares.

The musical sound scape invites us to search all of its corners, and I particularly enjoy travelling to those islands that sing/celebrate in tones and languages which I can't comprehend linguistically or intellectually, but can feel deep in my bones. I don't know much about the technicality of music, have never played an instrument, and can't carry a tune, but I like to be moved by sound...

As a kid growing up in the city, my friends and I listened to KRS-1, Public Enemy, Nirvana, AC/DC... the normal mix of urban and punk(-ish) tunes. One afternoon, while in undergraduate school, I was thumbing through the used albums(!), and came across a dark cover with light gray digital markings and a single bright red word splashed across the front: Koyaanisqatsi. Just below the title in small white, crisp print were the words "Music by Philip Glass."

Late at night, when I close my eyes, sometimes I still hear Albert DeRuiter's baritone (monotone?) chant from the title track of Philip Glass' soundtrack to the film Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance. Back in the day, I did not know what an "arthouse" was, and lacking the bravery to seek one out alone, I did not actually see the film for which the music was written until almost 10 years later... though I enjoyed the music.

Years later when I went to see the movie Kundun (1997), the music was unmistakeably similar to the record of my college days. Again, "music by Philip Glass". Checking the liner notes to the Kundan soundtrack, I learned that Glass is a practicing Buddhist. With this knowledge, my understanding of the simple, almost atonal sounds of both records connected with me on yet another level.

For a unique musical experience, I would like to suggest that you seek out either Koyaanisqatsi or Kundun both soundtracks composed by Phillip Glass.

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!