"Don't brood too much on the superiority of the unseen to the seen. It's true, but to brood on it is mediaeval. Our business is not to contrast the two, but to reconcile them."
So I had something totally different planned for this week's music post, but then last night, as I was knitting my first mitten, I watched some of Pete Seeger on PBS' American Masters, and I was completely inspired! He mobilized people on issues like civil rights, the Vietnam War and cleaning the Hudson River, just by singing about them with conviction. Where is our Pete Seeger?
So I had a very laid back weekend. After a full week of work, finally, I needed the downtime to catch up on my blog reading and podcast listening. I was supposed to go to a few jazz shows with Charlie, but none of them quite worked out. I did make some granola and some peppermint biscotti. I also did someChristmasshopping in Hamden. While there, I picked up some free yarn to make mittens for kids in Baltimore City. It's always good to be working on an actual project.
Friday night was unexciting in that I went clothes shopping, but exciting in that the new clothes are for the job I am starting tomorrow! The job is unexciting in that it is a temporary secretary's assistant position in my uncle's law office, but exciting in that it is a job!
Saturday morning Charlie accompanied Rhonda at the Station North Arts Cafe jazz brunch. The place is adorable, the food is delicious and they sounded great. In the afternoon it snowed! Then in the evening Charlie and I saw Billy Bang, a crazy good jazz violinist, at An die Musik. The bass player's solo was sick!
Today was a holiday craft fair day. Mom, Susan and I first hit up the Out of Hand Craft Show in Homeland. The highlight there was photographer Katherine Drew Dillard. We followed that up with lunch at the hot chocolate place. The highlight there was the Mayan hot chocolate. Then Mom and I checked out the Squidfire Art Mart at the Lyric. I'm always a big fan of Cotton Monsters (I went to high school with Jenny) and Red Prairie Press, but other highlights included:
I think this site is the best of the bunch. They are done as part of a French music blog and a lot of them are filmed by Vincent Moon, who seems to be pretty cool. The ones of Andrew Bird are of course my favorites, but I've been awed by every single one I've watched. It will take some time to get through them all, but other highlights are Fleet Foxes and Tunng.
It was difficult not to put up their Andrew Bird as well, but I restrained myself. I'm excited about Beach House, though, because this video is gorgeous, they're from Baltimore and guitarist Alex Scally is an '04 Obie (I took his Bob Dylan exco). These are mostly shot in Sydney.
I love the way this is shot, but the quality is so much better on the actual site than on youtube, so you should watch it there. I also highly recommend I'm From Barcelona. These are all shot in Vienna.
So I missed this week's Monday = Music (but let's be honest, no one is reading this, so it doesn't really matter), and to make up for it this week's Wednesday = Words is music related.
Since I have so much time on my hands right now, I thought I'd try this blogging thing again. I wonder if anyone will notice.
Anyway, for awhile now I've been thinking that it would be cool to be in a band as a tap dancing percussionist, so while I can't say that I love the music of Tilly and the Wall, I have to love that they are putting this super cool idea in action.
"Don't brood too much on the superiority of the unseen to the seen. It's true, but to brood on it is mediaeval. Our business is not to contrast the two, but to reconcile them."
-Howards End, E.M. Forster