Summer is Ready.

Here comes the sun.  The weather is shaping up nicely and I would like to go swimming. So. Here's the deal.

I have been cultivating my fondness for the wonderful Built to Spill this past year, and some weeks ago, I remarked, "Gee-- it sure would be nice to see this band play live."  And then the next morning, because fortune decided to smile upon me, I opened up the City Pages to the First Avenue schedule-ad, and guess who is scheduled for July 22?  Yes, indeed it is Built to Spill.  I am going, I am excited.

Also in the upcoming concert queue is one Ramblin' Jack Elliott.  There's a good chance I am going to see him play at the Cedar very soon.

I've been on a ridiculous Donovan kick lately, decades late to the party or not.  He just recently turned 64 years and released through his website a new single. (http://www.donovan.ie/).  He's got a new album coming out you know, Ritual Groove.  Whether it is going to come out within the summer or not, I think he'll be getting heavy rotations on my record player all summer long.

Speaking of new material.  My first musical love, Sawao Yamanaka, has finally gone along and created a solo album.  I will say, I am excited for him!  His album is called Discharge and the song 'Dawn Speech' is up and playing already.  What can we say about it?  It's different, it's Sawao trying to sound mellow, or something.  Still, it's nice to see him and Yoko together again.  I'm curious to hear more cuts from the record.

The Arcade Fire, too, have a new album due for August as well, titled The Suburbs. I doubt it has any correlation to the Minnesota band The Suburbs, but either way I am looking forward to hearing new Arcade Fire tunes.

Summer music is always integral to the season.  I will be digging out the required summer records soon, a comprehensive list of which I plan to compile in the near future.  Rock music friendships, yes yes.

Festival of Nations

Today I visited the 2010 Festival of Nations over in St. Paul and had a nice crowded time. As always, there were hordes of people there, which gets on my nerves in trying to walk but also is nice in seeing such diversity.

Largely, the bazaar and cafe are where it's at. So of course, I spent a lot of time looking around at all the little buyables that are supposedly representative of their respective country (which, in many cases, aren't, but likewise in many are-- the Matryoshkas, for example). I ended up at the Tibet stand, where I bought a cute little knit hat (although summer is on its way) and a beaded bracelet. There I spoke to an older fellow from Tibet from whom I got the sense that he'd really like to go back but "(sigh)" he really cannot, "because China."  He was really a kind old man and pressed my hand warmly before I left, and I was happy to have spoken to an interesting person.

Speaking of interesting persons, I continued ambling along through the stands, and I spotted a blanketed instrument obviously of Indian origin.  I didn't know what it was, so I sort of stood and stared until the women took notice, then I asked them.  As it turns out, it's a veena, the ancient cousin of the sitar, and the national instrument of India.  They are 2000 years old and have a nice unique sound.  The woman who led the troupe of veena players and others was one Ms. Nirmala Rajasekar, who coincidentally was going to be playing that day a small set, so I went to watch her.  She was quite friendly, and really quite good, and reassured me that sitar "really isn't that complicated."  I'll take her word for it..

Revival...

Now, I don't quite know just where I've been, but I plan now to revive my electronic rambling archive.
So what shall I say today? Well, there's so terribly much I don't exactly know with what to begin, or where. Perhaps I will just coo about the Sarangi.

I met it for the very first time some weeks ago. I had never seen anything like it. There's some zillion sympathetic strings, and it had quite the sound to it. And it is so slippery-slidey, the way you sidle up to those gut strings. So neat. More later, I will come back in time.

Monsieur Sitar

My newest buddy-thing. He's very complicated, but I love him.

Hopefully we will become good friends in due time...

Fragments and Droplets of Wonderfulness.

Swingsets :: Grandparents :: Old family photographs :: Ginkgo trees :: Shared deep thought :: The package waiting for you in the mail when you return :: Sitting in trees on windy days :: Spinning for a long time :: Suliko :: Books, especially with characters that are you :: You :: Wonderful, wonderful kind people :: Strawberry freezer jam on homemade bread :: Psychedelia and it beautiful music :: Joe :: A stream of water running over hands :: Connections with people, especially strangers :: Feelings of things :: A good fountain pen :: Papers of different types :: Librarys :: Old things :: Crackles and pops on records :: Rainy stormies :: Bicycles :: Newspaper :: Fruit :: The jarring and beautifully ethereal singing of Julian :: Being with Julian and Co. while he sings :: Bananas :: Finding the first music you really really love :: Soft broken in jersey knit fabric :: Closed eyes :: Relaxing your entire self into a soft bed :: Hot oatmeal with milk :: Brilliant colors in leaves and skies :: Lying in some grassy sunshine :: so many things...

Out of the Archives

I am beginning a great effort this summer to copy all my grandparents' old photos into digital. The idea began this year while searching for a single photo of my great-grandfather Antonio, when I was shown album after album after album of wonderful old photos of my predecessors, most of whom I never got to meet! To me, it's some sort of trove; hundreds of fading, black-and-whites that show the people who've put me here. It's both an aesthetic pleasure as well as a historical one. It's all there, but it's vulnerable, too. I wouldn't want some freak accident (volcanic eruption, alien invasion, return of the super-ape) to go and ruin them all. And so begins my quest...

Stuff.

The school year ended yesterday for me, and in all the hubbub I managed to finish one last art project. The Music Tapes show of February had affected me so wonderfully, I thought I would make some Music Tapes-inspired bits. I suppose you could call them "jewelry," but I guess when I was making them I wasn't really thinking jewelry as much as little metal bits. Also, they make a chiming sound when you have them all together on strings (perfect).