Sunny Sings the Blues — Sunny and Her Joy Boys

 

Aurora and I saw Sunny Killoran with her group Sunny and Her Joy Boys at the Ecotarium in Worcester last Friday evening. The group was founded by Duke Robillard, a guitarist who I had not heard of before but I’m glad I know about him now. He apparently has a wide following and is the soul of the group (or so it seemed to me). The band was wonderful and Duke’s playing is great. The sound of the Joy Boys is like that of D’jango Reinhardt, the Gypsy Guitarist of the thirties.  Paul Kolesikow played rhythm  guitar and Jesse Williams was on standup bass so the group swung continuously in the same mode as D’jango’s group did. Billy Novick played alto sax and clarinet. Billy has a sweet sound and harmonized well with Sunny’s brilliant vocals — his solos made us want to hear more. What a fine group — all that was missing was  Stéphane Grappelli’s violin!

 Sunny really sang the blues! She sang some Billy Holiday numbers and channeled Billy beautifully. Her voice is gorgeous and well trained, and/but she sings with lots of feeling; her phrasing is exquisite. Light when the song is light and deeper, more emotional when the song and lyrics call for it. I loved all the songs she sang but “You’re my Trill” and ‘Travelin’ All alone” are favorites. The band swung in a relaxed yet vibrant way, as if the entire affair was effortless. What a treat to hear those great songs performed so well. We are looking forward to another evening of Sunny’s music very soon.

We bought the debut CD of Sunny and Her Joy Boys and have played it a lot already. Go to their web page for details.

 http://www.myspace.com/dukerobillardpresentssunnyandherjoyboys

 

Shepard Fairey and the ICA — Appropriate This!

 

First of all Shepard Fairey’s exhibit at the ICA Boston is stunning visually, impressive politically and I want to see it again. Fairey is an artist of the streets who made it to the legit museum and gallery world. He  graphically shows us how confused we are. Guns and roses, life and death, love and hate  etc.

His arrest  on the way to his own opening over an old graffiti rap was stupid and put Boston in a bad light. The local cops apparently didn’t know that their acions would be picked up around the world and that they would seem odd to most people who care about art. Sure private property needs to be protected but Fairey’s deal is that he can appropriate private property, use it to communicate his own, highly worthwhile message and he seems to expect to usually get away with it (”art is what you can get away with” saith the Warhol).

Well, I get it. His street work is clever and intriguing so I guess if he doesn’t tag my house I’m ok with his methods ;>) Or to put it another way, urban public spaces are usually enhanced by graffiti of this caliber. I guess. Its a matter of taste and will always be controversial. 

Yeah but wait a minute — something strange happened on my way to the museum — Because I asked I was told that no photography of Shepard Fairey’s work would be permitted. In other words I couldn’t appropriate his stuff for, say my blog or even just to show my friends. Yet the brochure handed out at he museum said — “Know the words” — and the first word is “Appropriate!” Yep, that’s what Shepard does, but he doesn’t want any appropriations of his stuff. Is that fair or or does it even make sense?

So I only took one sneaky photo (see below). Also took some legit ones of the building and surroundings - shots of the architecture are ok according to the young man in black who sold us our tickets. (He was in black so he must be hip..)

It would be ironic to be arrested or kicked out for taking photos of Shepard Fairey’s work (which mostly have appropriated photos and other stuff in them) — know what I mean? What do you think?

(BTW — I pulled the ‘Obey’ tag from a random place on the internet. It is available world wide for your appropriation and delight!)

“No Madam, it took my whole life!”

What has your life prepared you for?

For Philippe Petit his life prepared him for the wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York. 

Sully Sullenberger’s life prepared him to land a airliner safely in the Hudson River saving the lives of 155 people.

A favorite story about Picasso  sums this idea up very well. 

Picasso was sitting at a table outside a Paris cafe. A woman came up to him and asked him to draw something for her on a napkin. He complied, doodling as only he could. After he quickly finished he requested the French equivalent  of $5,000. Agast the woman said — “but it only took you 2 minutes!” Smiling, the great man replied — “no Madam, it took me my whole life.”

What has your life prepared you to do?  Can you say it out loud? Do you think it is nothing important? If so I suspect you are wrong. I think there is something you are very well qualified to do, something quite important. Part of your qualification to do this is the life you have lived so far.

Do you know what it is? Tell me about it if you can.

Note to President Obama

President Obama, don't allow CEOs to treat people like dead wood!

First of all congratulations! Truly a mission accomplished and job well done. You have undeferred the dreams of many.

But I am concerned about your stimulus package and approach to big business. So here goes:

You met the other day with some CEOs of large companies and said afterward, “These are the guys who make things.” I wonder if this is a good attitude to take re: CEOs. For the most part what  CEOs try to make is good numbers in the current quarter. This has been true for a long time and is still true in this crisis. Nothing wrong with this unless it detracts from the design and production of the goods and services that the company is charged with making and/or if it detracts from making the investments in the future that company should be making. And sometimes — often — it does.

So here is my concern: please do not support companies who will take bailout money and still layoff people that they could afford to keep. US companies have long treated people as a disposable resource. Many companies do not try to keep people as an investment during hard times, instead they look for times when layoffs appear to be justified. Then they get rid of lots of people knowing they can rehire when they need to.

I know you are aware that CEOs also work very hard to protect their incomes and have gotten very good at it. In many cases the millions paid to top executives could have been used to avoid many layoffs. This attitude toward personal wealth and luxury as a necessity for top executives is a cancerous growth that has long ago metastasized.

So please question the CEOs you meet with closely: ask them if they are doing everything they can to keep as many people as possible. Ask them how important avoiding layoffs is to them. If they can’t answer you looking directly into your eyes, question them further (do it any way, many of them are excellent liars). I believe any bailout money should be given on two conditions: 1, executive pay will be reasonable and under control — no golden parachutes,  and 2, that avoiding layoffs will be a top priority.

Watch out for companies who say they must lay people off. Some of them are taking advantage of a bad situation. In an economy where people expect bad news most people are not surprised to hear of layoffs or when they are laid off themselves. There are CEOs and other executives who are quite capable of taking advantage of this situation so, President Obama –

Please be aware and awake!

Many thanks for your hard work and your honest, intelligent approach to government. You are a blessing to the nation and world.

Frank Winters

Men on Wires

I recently watched the movie about Philippe Petit’s miraculous tight rope walk between the Twin Towers of New York in 1974. The movie is wonderful, telling the story of Phillippe’s friends and their preparation as well as the actual walk — 45 minutes long in which he danced and cavorted 110 stories above lower Manhattan. An awe inspiring impossibility that came true. The Frenchness of Phillippe and the honesty of his approach to life shines through.  Its a pity that no motion pictures where made of the walk but the stills are glorious.

(Image obtained from Wikipedia.)

When asked — over and over again — why he did it, he replied “there is no why. He reminds me of another favorite Frenchman of mine Henri Cartier-Bresson who said he was an anarchist. Him who found order everywhere he looked. But it was an aesthetic he said and perhaps a way of life. I think its the same for Phillippe.

A few days after I watched the movie a brilliant pilot  –  Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger –  landed his plane in the Hudson river and all 155 on board lived to tell the tale.

So a question presented itself — are these two events linked in some way? Aren’t they both impossibilities? Don’t they defy the same laws of nature — gravity, chance, probabilities? Which is more impossible? Which required more skill? Which is more anarchistic?

What do you think?

The Ship Has Come In

In 1963 Martin Luther King had a dream at the other end of the mall in Washington.  Now it seems that his dream has come true.Obama was judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin. Right here in America.

At the same March on Washington, Bob Dylan sung of the future as well. Listen to “When the Ship Comes In” and see if you agree that it has.

Dare to Dream

 

 

Poster created for Mrs Winters 4th grade class. (Photo from US Senate web site, used with permission.)

I think today and tomorrow are the days of Dare to Dream. Barack answered Dr. Kings call from the mountain top. I am very please to have lived to see the day.

The kids in my wife’s class will sign the back of the poster (its 24″ by 36″ mounted on a 32″ by 40″ board) and we will mail it to President Obama.

Winter walk, no dog

Winter cold seduces. If you fall on the ice you go down in cold onto cold. The texture of everything is cold. I walked down to the lake yesterday. Put things on my boots to prevent falling. Took camera. Heavy coat, scarf, gloves.

No dog, though.

Lad died last September. Seems like a hole in my life now. I haven’t written about him because it is hard to do. He was my friend and companion for 15 years. Especially  on walks. 

In the cold Lad would sometimes complain because of ice in between his toes. Too cold. We’d go back early. In the last couple of years he didn’t want to walk very far, but he always wanted to walk. Even if he would turn around in ten minutes he was excited at the start. 

Lad was 15 years and 3 months old when he died. He never gave us any problems and wasn’t very sick until the weekend before the monday when he dies at home in his bed. Just had trouble breathing for a while and then passed away. 

Now I walk without my dog. Thing is when we got him it was for Maria but also to help me get out for exercise more often. For most of his life he did a good job helping me and loving Maria. He was gentle and smart. Sensitive and aware of what his humans were up to. He wanted to understand and usually it seemed he did.

He hated to be put in the kennel. So when we got the Colby Pet Service to come and take care of him in our home, he seemed to know immediately that this time when we left him it would be different. He didn’t try to come with us in the car that first time, but just waited for Dave to come and take care of him. Dave had visited once to meet him and see our home. So when we left instead of complaining and trying to come with us he just sat in the chair that was his and waited. When Dave got there he said later that it was almost as if Lad expected him. I’m certain that he knew what was up and did expect Dave to come around to see him.

Here is one of my favorite photos of Lad. He is scruffy because we are out in conservation land and he has gotten into some mud, but I love the inquisitive look as if to say — so, are you coming? Where we going next?

 

Are you coming?

Lad and I had different interests in the woods. He couldn’t see the landscape, I couldn’t smell the forest floor as he did. But together we covered it all pretty well. Of course if there was a coyote or turkey nearby he would notice way before me. 

Now when I go into the woods I feel as if I’m half a person. Getting another dog may be what we do later, Now its too soon and we need the extra space so to speak. We still may change houses in the next couple of years (but it seems unlikely in this market) and getting a new dog integrated and up and running will take time and energy. So for now — no dog.

But I don’t know if I can stand it.

Election Day – Whitman, Turkel and America

Studs Turkel died at 96 recently. Larry Galizio - http://www.blueoregon.com/– is quoted in the Globe today saying: “It is perhaps ironic that we lost Studs when a faux-populist figure such as “Joe-the Plumber” is cynically trotted out to represent the salt-of-the-earth America. For Studs Terkel’s work was largely about interviewing ‘average people’ and mining their extraordinary experiences during times of great triumph and tragedy.”

Very well said.

On the same page in the Globe is an article entitled “A poem for Election Day” written by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Most of the article is Walt Whitman’s poem Election Day, November 1884. Whitman makes the point that to him the election process is America’s most powerful and spectacular show — greater than all our natural wonders.

Here is the poem:

A Poem for Election Day

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and
show,
‘Twould not be you, Niagara–nor you, ye limitless prairies–nor
your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite–nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic
geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon’s white cones–nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes–nor
Mississippi’s stream:
–This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name–the still
small voice vibrating–America’s choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen–the act itself the main, the
quadriennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous’d–sea-board and inland–
Texas to Maine–the Prairie States–Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West–the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling–(a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome’s wars of old, or modern Napoleon’s:) the
peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity–welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
–Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify–while the heart
pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell’d Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Lincoln’s sails.

---

Turkel and Whitman typify what makes us American. But so do Donald Trump and J.P. Morgan.

Today we get to choose between two extremes, I think. Some say the two are much closer than that. But in this election I think not. I think we are really getting a choice. Our nation needs to recapture the soul that Whitman and Turkel reflected so well. I hope and pray that we do.

Vote, vote, vote!!! Be part of our most spectacular show!

Financial Crisis Reveals That Greed is Not Good

Who has been the freak of Wall Street? You and me?

Now we are getting somewhere!

The excrement has finally hit the fan!

We are victims of our collective naiveté, gullibility and willingness to off load responsibility for our future. Conservative financial thinkers have long lauded the trickle down theory: if the top people get filthy rich the rest of us will share in the wealth the way the pariahs of ancient Rome did (wild dogs at the garbage dumps).

We believed this. So we put up with ridiculous schemes and bought securities that couldn’t be explained and weren’t based on anything of real value. You see it wasn’t just Wall Street greed that led to the mess we are in it was Main Street greed as well.

So what are we to do? I think and hope it’s simple — stop investing in stuff you don’t understand (Peter Lynch said it best years ago) stop believing in Wall Street magic and stop looking for a quick or extra special buck.

All of us need to face reality — everyday and in every aspect of our lives.

I watched the News Hour with Jim Lehrer last night. He had two ‘financial advisers’ on the show. They were in a panic because the trite ‘wisdom’ they dole out on a regular basis didn’t sound good to them anymore. Here is what I wrote in an email to the show:

“After listening to four very reasonable politicians (there were 4 members of Congress on earlier), I was stunned tonight to hear the panic stricken ‘advisers” speak to the issues facing individuals during our current crisis.

One said he hesitated to write a column about the wisdom of long term investments in the market. The other warned against putting money in the market unless you don’t need it for ten or fifteen years.

What nonsense!

The primary concern of individual investors aught to be the quality of what they buy for investment purposes. The garbage masquerading as blue chip securities created by Wall Street is at the root cause of the crisis. Investors need to know what they are buying and need to be working with conservative, honest and trust worthy institutions.

The last thing we need now is to listen to advisers who panic when their tired ‘wisdom’ fails to comfort even themselves.”

The investment industry has for a long time been populated by ‘experts’ who become so by taking a 3 week course in how to sell securities to those even more uninformed than themselves. The industry includes smart people who invent securities based on an offset from vague and almost indescribable assets. Most successful Wall Street workers — those who make $500K and up in a bad year — don’t make investments they make bets. Listen to them and you will hear them say so themselves.

Now we have a treasury Secretary who was CEO of Goldman Sacks, an engine of strange investments if there ever was one. He wants to bail his buddies out. ‘No!’ was the answer and I thank  our representative form of government for that. (One Congressman said his constituents were mixed on the issue — some said no while others said hell no!)

While I don’t oppose all government help on this crisis I want it to be applied where it will do the most good. None of the derivatives, concocted by Wall Street to attract money for worthless assets, should be bought by the government. Rather an agency designed to keep people in their homes should be set up. But not everyone can stay in the home they recently bought because some folks were foolish enough to spent way above their ability to pay. Greed and foolishness has been in evidence at every end of the economic spectrum and it must not be encouraged any longer. Greed is not good, not matter how many times the “Masters of the Universe” say it is.

What do you think? Am I just letting off steam? Or are we finally getting somewhere?