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Email from Romania

02008-06-29 | Uncategorized

I’m 22 years old and I’m from Romania. I admire your work and have been listening to your music for over 7 years.

I’ve never bought your music, I downloaded your albums from torrents, peer-to-peer, direct-connect or rapidshare.

My promise is that I’ll begin buying your records with the first paycheck or money I’ll make on my own. It’s probably no comfort for you to know but I feel awkward about enjoying your music and not expressing my gratitude in some way and yearn to relief myself from this feeling.

Nice letter. Thank you.

Crab Cake On Back Order

02008-06-29 | Uncategorized

Your Crab Cake May Be Permanently On Back Order : TreeHugger
Maryland and Virginia’s U.S. senators say there’s no time to waste in declaring the decline of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs a federal disaster…In a letter to federal authorities, the senators argue for a declaration that would provide about $20 million in federal aid to watermen and seafood processors hurt by the crab’s decline…The letter was sent yesterday to Department of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland and John W. Warner and Jim Webb of Virginia point out that blue crab stocks in the estuary are down about 70 percent from 1990.

Stocks down by 70% since 1990? Seems like irresponsible resource management to me. Hm, anybody remember this movie?

Stevo and I arrive at the Phoenix studio of Channel 3 at 0730. Told him how interesting it is not to drink any coffee when going to an early morning TV show. Most people were buzzing with energy, while we just sat there. He agreed that it was interesting. Like being in a different time zone, where the air is thicker and movement slower compared to everyone around.

We did cheer the news meteorologist, because that’s a hard job in Arizona or California… we were reminded of the scene in “LA Story”, where the Steve Martin weatherman character pre-records a few days of announcing 70 degrees and perfect weather, only to have a storm hit during that time…

Stevo and I performed four pieces, two of which were short bumpers, La Luna and Streetlight, a main piece – an abbreviated Three Days Without You – and Snakecharmer for the credits/ending.

Afterwards Stevo and the rest left on the bus, while I sat in front of the TV studio waiting on a friend – like last year. He took me to a nice little cafe for a little breakfast and coffee.

Noon – Celebrity Theatre. Tonight’s performance will be in the round, meaning that the stage will rotate. Haven’t experienced that since we performed here with Basha in 1990. During soundcheck the stage began rotating, so we could get used to the experience. The movement was very smooth, except for the moment, every 7½ minutes or so, when the stage reversed direction. The sensation was particularly interesting when experienced with one’s eyes closed. Trippy.

Photo by Stevo:

Read in Basho’s Journey, a book of the great Japanese poet’s prose, – essentially a translation of his diaries/travel journals:

Then we landed on the opposite shore where the old cherry tree remains as a memento to priest Saigyo, who wrote of fishermen “rowing over blossoms”.

(((Immediately reminded me of this.)))

Looked up the poem:

The cherry trees
of Kisagata are buried
under the waves
as fishermen row their boats,
over waves of blossoms

After a storm or flood?

Imagined a convention where people wore poetic tags instead of name-tags, like “Rowing over Waves of Blossoms” or “Snowflake landing on a Butterfly” – would say much more about a person than name or title…

I was happy with the evening’s performance. The band sounded more sure-footed and stronger. (((hello! It was only the second performance!))) I had a major mistake in Firelight, but we moved through that and onward. Audience very nice. A good evening. Afterwards sake with friends in the parking lot, celebrating Jon’s birthday.