Thursday night – light of this world

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Gotta make an excuse tonight..my laptop wireless doesn’t seem to be working so i can’t upload my pictures of tonight.. besides it’s almost 1:30 and I just got home.. Two concerts in a row make John a sleepy boy.. plus I have a little hedonism guilt.. Diane and Max have been down in Endicott all week helping Diane’s folks recover from the flooding at their house.. and i’m going to see music… hmmmmm

Still.. i really did enjoy the evening.. first was the MMU High School Open house.. surprisingly yummy lasagna in the caf.. then meetings with all gabes teachers. It was so much fun sitting in those desks and seeing the school through our kids perspective. I really like Gabe’s teachers… and it looks like he has soem interesting stuff coming this year..

as soon as I was done there.. I dashed to Higher ground.. I got thee just in time for the 2nd set of Jorma Kakaunen.. One of my favorite musicions of all time. He was the lead guitar in the bands jefferson airplane and hot tuna.. and has toured on his own or in pieces of those bands for more than 40 years. He just passed his 70th birthday and is still playing strong.. (and has a 5 year old kid to prove it 🙂

Tonight Jorma played an acoustic set with just his friendly mandolin player Barry .. who’s birthday was today.. It was great old stuff.. very mellow and reflective… He played a great version of Rev Gary Davis’ “Light of this World” in honor of bluegrass great Wade Mainer who died today at age 104.

(ps.. this vid isn’t from tonight.. but i found it online.. it’s recent and similar to tonight’s rendition)

I know this is supposed to be a religious song.. but I think it can be read as an inspirational message to everyone.. to be that light..

Jorma finished up his quiet set and the 100 or so of us grey beards shuffled out of the smaller room at higher ground.. Friend George and I thn ducked into the bigger room where Umfry McGee was just getting into their second set.. it was amazing.. I didn’t know what to expect.. but I reallllly dug it.. loud strong jam band stuff with great lights.. The energy was twice the other room and the average age was half.. a nice counterpoint

ok.. enough counterpoint.. my light of the world needs to turn off for the night hope yours is burning bright !

nite all, note sam
-me

ps. finally got internet back.. here are the pics from that very full day

 

At the school

At the jorma show

At the Umfry’s show

 

Wednesday night – uncomplicated joy

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uncomplicated joy ,, that s the best way I can describe a Phish show..

 

thousands of people gathered together jsut to have fun, hear good music and dance. There’s just nothing like it. Surfing through the crowd tonight and seeing so many freinds.. and so many strangers.. so many smiling faces. It is good for my soul.

 

what really fed my soul was that the whole event was a benefit.. every penny wis goign to help vermonters hurt in last weeks flooding.

I’m so proud of the band (thanks guys !) ,so proud of the state.. and and so proud of the fans.. of which I’m now a true member.. i don’t ever want to miss an east coaast phish show..

 

 

 

too sleepy too write more.. more details tomorrow

nite all, nite sam !

-me

Tuesday night – more tango

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It’s hot , I’m tired and I had a frustrating day..  And the two chips I’m trying to program to talk to each other refuse to talk..

I’ve just had it for today Is that Ok to say ?

 

Rather than spoil anyone elses mood, I offer re-runs courtesy of my freind the Guarin’s.. Diane G> just snet me a few pics from when we serendipitously ran into them in a small store in the Boca section of Bueans Aiires afew weeks back.. I figure folsk would enjoy the tango pictures with Gabe..

Hey.. lookign at those pics even made me feel better…

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

Monday night – Fail fast

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Greetings from bachelor towers… Gabe and I are holding down the fort while Diane is down in Endicott helping her folks recover from the floods of tropical storm Lee. She has been telling me about the same kind of random acts of kindness and help happening there as they did here after Irene. Yesterday a group of folks from a nearby church showed up at my inlaw’s house to help them pull all the wet stuff (paneling, carpet, framing) out of the basement.. It’s great to see how people help out when times are tough.. Great counterpoint ,, no make that reinforcement.. to the messages of 9/11 we’ve been integrating this past week.
Life is near normal for most of us in Richmond. I love this time of year… cool nights.. warm days.. crickets.. I get really spacey.. It’s hard to focus on anything,,, especially work. Today work was pretty interesting though.. we had a customer come in to visit us from China..
He gave a very inspiring talk. He is an impressive guy.. and he runs an impressive company. They have great technology, great skills.. a great team.. but the thing that stuck with me most about his talk was a point he made about the culture of innovation in the far east right now. He said that they had learned to ‘fail fast’. Not that they relished failure.. it’s that thye aren’t afraid of taking a risk and failing.. they just want to do it quickly so they can move on to the next success. They have such a collective optimism right now that each failure presents and opportunity to move on to the next success.. I don’t mean that in the greeting card sense …(eg. if first you don’t succeed …) .. but in the pragmatic sense that in an environment with so much opportunity.. the odds are with you…

This is a good thing to ponder as I think about what I want to be when I grow up

night folks, nite sam
-me