Faux Festival

Last month, at the recommendation of my friend, I set up a myspace page not thinking anything much would come of it. Then, last week, I got a friend request from a fellow named Bill who does folk music with his wife all over the state of Florida. He mentioned a festival happening in a few days that they were going to play at. Well, I went yesterday to the Florida Faux Festival. I learned that The Florida Folk Festival normally happens Memorial Day Weekend up in White Springs and has been going on since 1953. Alas, this year the smoke from brush fires caused the festival to be cancelled at the last minute. Actually, it has now been rescheduled for November. A folky named Stu Hall organized a sort of alternate festival in Orlando in only three days time. It wasn't to exactly replace the historic festival and would not be nearly so large, so it was called the "Faux" festival. I spent the day there yesterday and discovered that a whole world of folk music goes on all over Florida. There is a state organization and several regional ones, including central Florida, dedicated to folk music. I got hold of one of their publications that lists dozens of folk gatherings at many different kinds of places, a good many right here in the Orlando area.

I heard and met some wonderful musicians who are passionate about it. I have been doing my thing in a vacuum for so long I was quite amazed that so many of these people existed. Looking around at the audience during some of the performances I noticed that most of the folks were at least my age and many older. Children of the '60s and '70s. They say that, all other things being equal, your favorite music is whatever was on the radio when you were in high school. And for these people, that was the golden era of folk music - of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, James Taylor, Joni Mitchel, Carol King, John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Crosby Stills and Nash, and on and on. Was it folk music then or pop? The two were the same because folk music was such a popular form. The evolution moved toward rock and on to other forms but some of us are still stuck in the '70s. There are a lot more of us than I thought. And it looks like there's a good chance I might get connected with some of them and we'll share some music. Maybe there really is an audience besides people who just want to drink and dance. There was a lot of intense listening going on yesterday. And some wonderful sounds and stories.

quiet blog

Been working a good bit lately. Lots of set up and strike work at the huge Orange County, FL convention center. And lots of walking on the hard concrete floors. My feet ache. More tomorrow. Been trying to get back to recording. I have a backlog of new songs to get down. But I've been fiddling and twiddling with my guitar rig. Replaced a damaged pot in a preamp. L.R. Baggs sent me the replacement for free. Great company. Modified the same unit with an on/off switch so I don't have to pull the input cable out to turn it off. And some more stuff to let me control more with my feet. One just can't ever seem to have too many foot switches. Now I just need some more gigs to use it all for. Oh yeah. One more thing. I've been watching a couple of guitar training videos about DADGAD. I'm starting to get it. What a whole new world of great sounds. I may never come back.

Night is Stealing

Night is stealing on
the day's long gone
but I can't get me into bed

I keep going on
try to catch the song
slowly swirling in my head

It can't wait until tomorrow
then it will be gone
never to appear again

I have to chase it now

run it down somehow
the fleeting to contain

Stopping by Woods on a Sultry Evening

An ode to the fast approaching Florida summer:

stopping by woods on a sultry evening
twinkling lights on a ship that's leaving
thick the jungle, foliage weaving
soggy shores and pavement steaming

in the snow so far away
they hear the call to come and play
to sun and sand they make their way
then wait in lines and walk all day

CHORUS:
hot the nights and hotter days
sticky air and burning rays
melanoma threatening but
for lotion scented coconut

wear out the plastic card that pays
the irritating parking fee
heavy atmosphere that lays
a blanket of humidity

for weeks or months the snowbirds stay
and often do get in the way
the locals gripe and grind their axes
but, hey, those folks pay our state taxes!

(Chorus again)

A gator glides up to say "hi"
your swim suit will never dry
come on kids! bring ma and pa!
welcome to Florida!

Back in the Saddle

This morning I did something I haven't had opportunity to do in several years. My old pal Warren called me up early last week and asked if I could play guitar at his church Sunday. I went to the rehearsal Wednesday and this morning played three services. All came together very well and I really enjoyed playing in church again. Warren wants to get their talent pool a bit deeper so players can rotate and only have to play once a month or so. That would suit me just fine. I had been hoping such an opportunity would come along again. Worship is just never better for me than with a guitar in my hands.

consumer alert

A quote for the day from Dave Barry:

"I would estimate that 58 percent of all serious household accidents result from consumers assaulting packaging designed to improve consumer safety."

A Convenient Lie

Well, as I've always cynically said like so many others, if you want to know what's going on, follow the money. And the whole global warming religion is about a whole big pile o' money. People who want to get or keep a piece of the pie are trying to control what you think. The scientific community is NOT unanimous about global warming but the economics of research funding are tending to silence the voices of the dissenters and as is all too often the case, politics is riding roughshod all over the scientific method and truth in general. In any case, we haven't been getting the other side of the story for which to me the evidence is far more compelling.

I've wondered if we even have temperature records old enough to have any meaning at all for plotting trends. One may have to look back far before recorded history to really make sense of it all. But it would seem that the data we do have when taken together objectively does show trends that if anything run completely opposite to global warming theory.

With all the hysteria about global warming I have been wondering why we have not heard one peep out of the media with regard to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by volcanoes as compared to cars and factories. That fact alone has made me think that the media and the masses really have little interest in reality, but rather only in a predetermined agenda. Tonight I watched a British documentary called "The Great Global Warming Swindle." (You can watch a video stream of it at the link. It's worth an hour and fourteen minutes of your time to be informed.) It DOES talk about volcanoes which, as I suspected, put out more C02 than all human activity. What I didn't know is that animals and bacteria account for a whole lot more than that - 150 gigatons per year compared to 6.5 gigatons from all human sources. But wait, dying and rotting vegatation accounts for more than that and all of the above combined is a small fraction of the real culprit of C02 production: the oceans. And speaking of the oceans, the documentary explains the temperature memory effect of the deep oceans being in the magnitude of hundreds to thousands of years. Things the oceans are doing today are the result of things that happened long before the industrial revolution and perhaps before the planet was even populated by humanity. And all of the above is trumped by the real controller of our climate; something that has the power to dry up the oceans if not for our precise placement in space: the sun. Duh! Remember that graphic from your science textbook showing how many earths would fit inside the sun? If the earth is a marshmallow, our influence on it's climate is a few specks of dirt and the sun is the campfire. We think far too highly of our influence. If every human made all the radical lifestyle changes the naysayers would like to see happen, if we stopped operating every car and truck, if we shut down the power plants, I don't think the earth would hiccup one way or the other. The only real change would be a redistribution of wealth and power among various groups of humans, which I believe is what this is really all about.

The insidious thing about untruth is that it can taint large quantities of truth and use it in the service of it's deceitful agenda. Al Gore's film uses a beautifully produced graphic to show the relationship between C02 volume and global temperature. The relationship is there. It is true. What Al fails to tell us, or perhaps he didn't know, is that the cause/effect relationship is the reverse of what he infers. The fact is that C02 level has followed temperature level. It has consistently lagged behind. It is a result of climate change, not the cause of it. Though possibly (but not necessarily) well-intentioned, It would seem that our ex-vice-president is either not very thorough or not all that terribly smart or a liar. But hey, everybody wants to believe the guy who created the internet, right?

I believe we should be good stewards of what we have been given. I don't throw gum wrappers on the ground. I think it's wrong to litter. It's reprehensible to be wantonly wasteful. But I also believe the earth is to serve mankind, not the other way around. "The Great Global Warming Swindle" points to the biggest losers if Al's believers get their way: the third world. The worst pollution that kills the most people is cooking fire smoke inside the dwellings of those who have no electricity. One third of the world's population would be a whole lot healthier if they had a power plant nearby.

So, Mr. Gore, "the debate is over," eh? You might read a bit from someone who is actually a thinking person. Andrew Marshall is a 19 year old university student. Take a look at what he has written and compiled here. The conclusion of his very thorough treatise includes this:

"It seems worrisome that politicians are all too eager to grab onto this man-made myth of global warming in order to make us afraid and guilty. Guilty enough to want to change it, and afraid enough to give up our freedoms and undergo massive financial expenses in order to do so. So this lie, being pushed by big money and big governments, is a convenient lie for those who want to exert control and collect money. However, it’s inconvenient for the mass amount of people who are already experiencing the problems of a widening wage-gap and fading middle class."

The rich always want to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class. After all, we're just too stupid to know any better.

Gig 1

Well, I finally did it. I played a gig by myself doing folk music and other throwbacks from the 70's. And I'm mostly feeling good about the way it went. I prepared a set list but ended up mixing it up a good bit depending on what was going on and how many folks were around at the moment. Also, I thought the coffee shop was open until 11:00 but in fact it closed at 10:00, so some songs I was saving for the end never happened. My friend Kirk who told me about the place stopped in for a while after his evening responsibilities. Another friend, Mike, came too. I was really appreciative of the support from those guys. When nobody was left except Mike and while Jake and Sam were cleaning up, I cranked the amp way up and for a big finish did Bread's "Guitar Man" complete with close to note-for-note solos over top of the Jam Man looping away. It was a good thing to end on, though not quite what I had planned.

I got some good feedback from the guys there about what they thought worked well for their context and what didn't. And I got $7 in my tip jar! The first money I've ever earned in my life playing guitar! Almost enough to pay for 1/2 a set of strings! Looks like its going to take a lot of gigs to break even on my gear. Good thing I'm not in it for the money.

So here's the set list as best as I remember. I know the order isn't quite accurate, but pretty close:

5/5/07 House Blend Cafe, Ocoee, Florida

LONGING (instrumental with looper)
DELAYED REACTION (instrumental with looper)
YOUR EYES (w/tracks)
TIME OF YOUR LIFE (w/tracks)
JUST YOU AND ME (w/tracks)
BORDERLINE (w/tracks)
WAIT OF THE WORLD (w/tracks)
HEART OF GOLD (with harmonica)
TAKES A LITTLE TIME (with harmonica)
YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND
MEMORIES (w/tracks)
BROKEN FEATHERS
DAYLIGHT AGAIN
SPOON RIVER
STILL CAN'T SAY GOODBYE
GLIMMER
LULABY
MAKE LOVE STAY
CAT'S IN THE CRADLE
EVERYTHING I OWN
AUBRY
FIELDS OF GOLD
CRY A RIVER
TO AUTUMN
MISSING YOU
GUITAR MAN

Relativity

On April 10^th I happened to hear the Star Date radio spot. They often have some interesting astronomical tidbit of popular interest to share. On that particular day the moon was in the position of it's orbit where it crosses the orbit of the earth around the sun, this time in front. They started out saying we were heading toward the moon, which for a moment in time was true, though by the time we got to that point in space, about three and a half hours later, the moon would be out of the way. Long gone in one way of thinking, though actually no further away nor closer to the earth than ever.

The piece went on to say that the earth (and the moon with it) moves around the sun at about 66,000 miles per hour. “But that's just one of our planet’s many motions through space.” Our entire solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at about 500,000 miles per hour. And one revolution takes about 200 million years or would have if all is actually that old. But wait, the Milky Way is moving toward the Andromeda galaxy. And both together are moving toward “a dense cluster of hundreds of galaxies called the Great Attractor.” And all of the above may together be moving somewhere else in a way we aren't able to perceive. So what direction are we really going? And how fast? The relative movements are so complicated that it may be impossible to calculate. In any case both the vector and the velocity are constantly changing as the various types of motion interact with one another.

Our feelings and relationships are similarly relative. They are added and subtracted and multiplied and divided among each other and the vectors are constantly combined. What we like, what annoys, what is pleasant and what is painful all tend to be relative to something else. A horrible tragedy to one person is a relief to another. A thing of no consideration one day is a thing of great value another in the context of contrast with something else. Our loves and hates and the intensity of them is mainly due to how they relate to some other previous experience. The same circumstance or relationship that is just fine to one person may be intolerable to another.

How to sort it out? Who can do it? Nothing stands alone. Everything has a context and that context is inside another context which is inside another.

Our perspectives make things that are the same appear different. A jet plane going 500 miles per hour at 100 feet appears to be moving extremely fast to those in it and those observing on the ground. The same jet going the same speed at 30,000 feet appears to be barely moving.

How in the world can anyone agree on anything? Our basis for knowing seems to have more variables than is possible to calculate. I suppose this is why finding common ground for thinking and understanding is so precious. And when we find in another person a perspective and a mindset that is similar to our own it is very attractive. There's a little bit of peace amid the confusion. So birds of a feather flock together. We just have no idea what direction we are really going or how fast we are going there except as it simply relates to something that is very close to us. That is at the same time truth on one local level and an illusion on a broader one.

The fact that the unfathomable complexity of the system exists and the fact that the immutable laws of entropy exist points me to the inescapable conclusion that an intelligent designer exists who encompasses all. In that I find the only possible link to sanity beyond willingly accepting the illusion. Faith in the Uncaused Cause is the only way to navigate the chaos.

The Economy of Pain

Lately I've been thinking about the value of pain. It seems to me there is an economy of which it is a central element.

Way back when I was a sophomore in high school, I made a new friend whose father had died the year before. One time he happened to be telling me about his relationship to a young lady, a mutual friend I had become acquainted with at about the same time. She had been close to him throughout the previous several years and walked with him through his loss and grief. They were friends with no romantic interest and had never dated as far as I ever knew. But I observed a closeness between them; a tenderness that I knew was very special. He told me “We've been through a lot together.” At that moment I dialed into something about shared pain. It can yield a depth of relationship that is precious. I found myself longing to be bonded to friends with that kind of closeness. I've likened it many times to the war veterans who meet years later for reunions. They survived something horrible together and though they would never wish the experience on anyone, when they sit together quietly drinking coffee, a scene that any observer would pass and think absolutely nothing of, they share a connection and understanding that is deep and rich and unsharable with anyone who had not been there back in the day. Shared pain welds a bond between souls that is of extremely high value.

Pain yields appreciation. Through contrast the relief at the end of it or any good situation that comes along after it is made all the more sweet. A thing I might have taken for granted that may have indeed been completely wasted on me causes my heart to well up in gratitude when I know what it was to be without it, to have known the wanting, to have been hungry and destitute. So pain can be viewed like a savings account. The bitterness of it contains the promise of future sweetness in comparative proportion.

Like money, pain has transferable value. A painful experience doesn't necessarily have to be shared at the same place and time to yield connection. A mother who lost a baby years before can empathize with a mother who has just gone through such a loss and provide comfort that nobody else can. The threshold between being alone and not can be crossed using the currency of pain earned at an earlier time.

It seems masochistic sometimes when certain situations or music or whatever cause me to feel my pain in an intensely amplified way that I would allow myself to be exposed to such. One might counsel another to stay away. But I find myself wanting to expose my chest and let it hammer on my heart. I more often than not embrace it and let it pummel me. Somehow it makes me feel like I'm still alive and human. I sense the value in it though I so desperately wish it wasn't there and would go away.

I remember when I got the shocking news that my father had died suddenly. I was in Detroit and immediately got in my vehicle and drove home to Chicago. During the hours of that night alone on the freeway I made a decision to not fight the grief but let it have it's way with me. I embraced it. I wept and sobbed and swam in the loss. I believe I grieved well and got to a healthier, more stable place and much sooner than I would have otherwise.

So I acknowledge the currency of pain. I don't like the earning of it. It is a bitter wage. It often feels wanton, out of control, very arbitrary and unfair. I hate it, struggle against it, and want it to be over. But I trust that it is not a waste. It has lasting value. I trust that one day I will look back with the conviction that I would not have traded it for anything in the world.

Booked

Well, after many months of thinking about it, preparing my rig, and putting out feelers, I finally have a gig booked for playing my guitar. A friend of mine put me on to a little coffee shop in Ocoee called House Blend Cafe. I'm going to be playing there this Saturday night (5/5/07) starting at 8:00 pm.

houseblendcafe.com

oops, this link was bad. I just fixed it.

Busy Week

Last week I did two overlapping jobs in an eight day stretch. The first was a corporate show and I did 30 hours in four days. The second was so many hours I lost track. It was interviews and documentary footage for a set of videos on high school evangelistic ministry. The client was the guy who started and directed Student Venture, the high school ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ for many years. We were shooting stories surrounding a campus ministry at a high school that has been remarkably effective with some really unusual stories.

We ran two cameras most of the time and the interviews went on for hours at a time. That kind of thing really burns through the tape. We shot 46 hours of tape in seven days. It was brutal. That is a record for any shoot I've ever had anything to do with. Long runs at interviews were interspersed by relentless running from setup to setup doing b-roll material. Our client really got the bang for his buck squeezing so much into every day.

A young man prayed to receive Christ right in front of my rolling camera. That was quite an experience. It happened to me once before in 1989 in Manila. We interviewed an atheist and a recently converted atheist and a slew of kids with interesting testimonies. I shot some cool car to car footage out of the back of my convertible. We did some crazy stuff in restaurants, a grocery store, and all around a high school. We did basketball, volleyball, soccer, wrestling, and a bunch of general horsing around and lots of reality style bites of life following people around walking and talking, eating, waking up, doing chores, fixing a car engine.

It was very hard work, but a lot of good things are going to come out of it. It will be some time before editing is even started on this material but the plan is that it will find it's way into a number of different finished products eventually.

A really crazy thing happened as we were interviewing a high school principal in his office. He was interrupted by the police showing up needing to talk to him. We later found out that they were there to arrest a student who had been calling people at the school leaving death threats. They found that he had made a list of 125 people he wanted to kill. It's an absolutely insane time we live in. The need for outreach like this one on campuses has never been greater.

The young staff guy who is the point man for the ministry at that school is a man of very deep qualities. I admire him a lot. The very last night of the shoot we made a personal connection. He invited me to his church. There just might be a new close friend there.

Extrusion

Most of us have experience with extrusion thanks to Play-Doh. If your parents sprung for the deluxe kit your supply of the stuff came with a little plastic plunger device. You stuffed the chamber full of your favorite color of Play-Doh, pushed the plunger down, and out squirted a line of Doh with the cross section of a star or an I-beam or a dowel. The shape of the extrusion is defined by the shape of the hole in the “die” through which the raw material is squeezed. That little machine probably launched the careers of many a factory process engineer. Many useful things are made in a similar way out of food, plastic, and metal. Snack food and pasta can be made into interesting shapes. Plastic and copper pipe are made this way as is aluminum framework for storm doors and screen rooms, sailboat masts, and all kinds of bracketry. Countless parts and pieces that add structural strength and convenience and sometimes even beauty to our lives are made possible by extrusion.

I was thinking about brokenness. I've come to the place of belief that it seems everyone who follows after God for any length of time eventually comes to: only broken vessels can really be used. I think it has to do with the fact that God created humans with the capability of moral choice that we must become broken to be of any use. Of course this is counterintuitive, but completely fitting with God's high value of humility and abhorrence with pride that is the huge theme throughout all of the Bible. Broken hearts, broken souls, and broken lives have cracks and fissures and holes. It is through these holes that the raw material of love is squeezed into useful forms. It's interesting that in industry the hole is in a “die.” Like that particular part of the apparatus must die to itself. It's own structural integrity must be compromised by the hole in the middle of it in order for the transformed raw material to flow through it.