On the Waterfront
Steaming
Strolling
I feel like I walked a hundred miles today.
Oak Park
Life is good. I can strongly recommend the Carleton in Oak Park, IL. Not only is it a fine hotel with a fine wireless network, but it’s also inexpensive and within half a block of the el and a really fine Whole Foods store. And the rates are positively a steal.
Continuing on the musical track of late, I was thrilled that the encore of the Steve Wynn show I couldn’t attend last night is already uploaded as an mp3. I’ll mirror it here, for a while, since Steve seemed interested in getting it out there. It’s a cover of The Calvary Cross (original written by Richard and Linda Thompson) featuring Rick Rizzo of Eleventh Dream Day. I’m sorry I missed it.
I’m really torn about what to do for the rest of my time here. Though I’m here for the CCCCs, the SPE conference is occurring at the same time only a few blocks away. I’m actually more interested in most of the main speakers for the SPE, especially Barbara Stafford.
Wonderchicken?
Spotted along the highway in Wisconsin— a wonderchicken? Seems a bit stern
400 Bar
The opening guy (I forgot his name) from the 400 Bar last night. I didn't shoot the main event.
Though it made it hard to get up to drive to Chicago, I had to go to the 400 Bar to see Steve Wynn last night. I’ve always seemed to miss seeing him along the way. One Danny and Dusty show in 85 was all I managed. In the 90s while I was in California, he was playing Europe. When I moved to Arkansas, he started playing California again (at least infrequently). Finally, he played in a place I could get to. In fact, he’s playing in Chicago tonight—though I can’t make that show and get to the workshop tomorrow in time. When I was younger, I would have tried anyway. I’m getting too conservative, I suppose. It’s different when you’re supposed to be smart, not just present.
But the show was really worth it. The band hit a certain level on the third song (“Death Valley Rain,” as I recall) that most bands can’t reach until the end of their set. Once the level was struck, they stayed there. Linda Pitmon ranks among the best drummers I’ve ever seen. Too bad this band has just never seemed to reach a broad audience in the US. It’s their loss. And they even played the song I mentioned a few days ago, “The Deep End”
My father
My father in 1943. He was 18 years old.
One Hit Wonder
Samuel Palmer, "Early Morning" (1825)
A Tree-Hugger Ahead of His Time
Palmer's sepias take us deep into the mysterious harmony of the natural world. Animals and humans are often present — note the hyperalert rabbit and half-hidden villagers in the resplendent "Early Morning" — and houses and barns crop up in the distance. But the main character is nature, in its wholeness and divineness, measured out in slightly stiff renderings of effulgently leafy bushes, glimmering birches, massive oaks and gnarly rocks, and in occasional moments of breathtaking ambiguity.
