pt at large

Changing Of The Guard: 8:05 PM - 9:03 PM

June 26, 2020

Changing Of The Guard: 8:05 PM - 9:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8:05 PM - Waxing crescent moon...

8:10 PM My perch in the front row...

8:12 PM no movement,  no sound... porch sitting... a centering meditative experience, undisturbed, deeply satisfying, a sound/no sound environment, trees breathe, leaves flutter with the sibilant rush of a lover's silk robe slipping willfully from shoulders, draping in slow motion to the floor.

8:25 PM except from Fred Robin, frequent visitor and earthworm miner who visits every day...cocks his head  in a silent salute as I quietly greet him then goes about his foraging. Fred the kingdoms spokesman for the evening, a foraging robin becomes a winged zen master showing me the way of the universe.

8:54 PM  Arturo Ui stationed  behind me never misses activity outside his door....

9:02 PM absorbing the enveloping evening in a silence beyond all comprehension. Jupiter, mute and massive, shuffles into its slippers, surveys us from a safe distance.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Don Lemon: Anchor, Bridge

June 22, 2020

Don Lemon: CNN Anchor, Bridge

Don Lemon is paving the way every night to expand the conversation about racism in America. He is thoughtful, presents his authentic self every night, and differentiates his opinions from the news clearly.

He’s deceptively good at tackling the heretofore third-rail subject of racism, touchy to explore even with a CNN audience. Low key before the George Floyd murder, he registers the event with sense of the now, recognizing that this is the time to open up the talk and that he is going to use his platform to do it.

I can think of no other highly visible black man in the media constellation who has the credibility, sensibility, and a smoldering repugnance at a nearly profane sense of systemic racial injustice regarding black men in particular.

George Floyd's murder in plain daylight, captured on video, lit a fuse in the national psyche. Lemon lets it burn. But in a way that he intends, figuratively speaking, to cause as much imploding as exploding. When white folks begin to notice then come to grips with entitlement and privilege that comes with their skin color and begin to notice it without feeling called out that’s quite a feat.

Lemon is doing that. When he launched a podcast titled "Silence Is Not An Option," he put his words into action.

Excerpt from "Silence Is Not An Option"

I know that this issue, like this country, isn't just black and white — we're all impacted by this, and we all have work to do. Listening to this podcast won't wash away your sins, and you won't get a certificate at the end. You may still say the wrong thing — hell, I am sure at some point I'm gonna say the wrong thing — but silence is not an option. We've got to talk about this and find some concrete steps forward, together.

The stone he’s cast into the pool of race consciousness is making a ripple on shores heretofore unlapped . A news anchor, yes. And a bridge to a national consciousness about race.

 

Regular Sex: Mature and Often

June 23, 2020

What makes your skin feel more supple and makes you appear five to seven years younger? No, not Oil of Olay… SEX !

That high-pitched sound of bed springs creaking in senior living communities across America is because residents just read this comment by Dr. David Weeks on the bulletin board of their recreation center. Weeks says people formerly called elderly can “shave between five and seven years” off their appearance by having regular sex. The more orgasms the better. Let endorphins rage.

Those endorphins are leeetle miracle workers, he says.  They can act as a natural pain-killer, reduce anxiety, boost circulation and release a human growth hormone that makes the skin more elastic. Forget ibuprofen. Break out the Viagra.

"Sexual satisfaction is a major contributor to quality of life, ranking at least as high as spiritual or religious commitment …” he added. That finally answers the question of why people experiencing orgasms so often shout, “Oh, god!”

“….more positive attitudes towards mature sex should be vigorously promoted," he said.  I guess that means I’d been having immature sex until I was eligible for my AARP card. I wonder how mature sex is different. Well, I haven’t used the trapeze lately, maybe that’s a sign I’m having mature sex.

Here’s the interactive part of this post. We should be able to create a top ten list of signs of mature sex. Here’s a starter list.  Feel free to weigh in.

•You can wait till you get to the bedroom before you start.
•You haven’t had sex in a car in a few years.
•You have sex with your socks on.
•You wonder whether you DVRd your favorite TV show while you’re having sex.

OK, readers, your turn to add to the list. You don’t necessarily have to be of AARP age to add your comment…

George Floyd: Watertown Vigil In Solidarity for Justice

June 2, 2020

Today’s Watertown, MA, vigil wasn’t heralded on CNN or Fox News but it happened where it needs it most, to wake up white citizens in  every day places like Watertown, MA, all over the  country. It was sparked by what we saw on the gut wrenching video of George Floyd being murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis last week.

35,954 people, not counting children, live in the 4.2 square miles of the city  eight miles from Boston.

This message showed up on my neighborhood list serv.

The vigil tonight will be held on "The Delta," the green space in the middle of Watertown Square. If many people come, we may spread out to the street corners.

Word spread. So did the crowd.

An inter-generational swath of them showed up at 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM to fill "The Delta," the grassy area in the middle of Watertown Square, the nexus of the city, and spill onto every adjacent sidewalks and street corner. I wouldn’t describe Watertown as a hotbed of activism. Tonight it was a city with a conscience. We held hands with small towns across the land.

The video showing George Floyd's murder was a defibrillator. It shocked us into taking a step to address racial bias and institutional injustice against people of color. What began as a visceral reaction to gross inhumanity has to continue with pressure to change culture across the board.

For me, I confronted my own conscience.I have always voted for justice. This was a moment to stand up for it. We joined hands with everyday people in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Syria, New Zealand and hundreds other places around the globe, revulsed from watching the video of a black man murdered in broad daylight by a white police officer.

The white people here might fear that the police might ticket us for speeding. Black men and women fear that police might ticket them because of their color. White privilege is hard to acknowledge. I haven't thought much about it because I don't have to. I understand it better today.

The Watertown Police Department  just issued this document describing guidelines for "use of force."

And this: "On behalf of the WPD Chief Lawn would like to thank all who attended the peaceful vigil last night. Chief Lawn attended & was impressed by the over 500 people . We are proud of Watertown and our community’s commitment to advocate for social justice. Thank You!!!" @watertowngov

Watertown's citizens read the tweet. A thank you from the Chief is good. I have had no personal experience to the contrary but Watertown's adherence to live up to the "use of force" guidelines will be essential. They will certainly be held to the guidelines they stand for.

The governor of Minnesota said, "We have only one chance to get it right."

The hard work has begun.

This story in the Huffington Post helps me figure out ways to keep it going.

People walked into Watertown Square from every quarter in the city. From 5:30 PM until 6:30 PM, the area swelled with people who needed to stand up for justice...

Three generations...

SAY THEIR NAMES...every sidewalk and median strips was occupied by protesters bearing homemade messages with messages they wanted to express

 
At every traffic light change, drivers of passenger cars, UPS and Postal Service trucks and 18-wheelers leaned in their car horns.


High school kids made very specific signs...

 
.

Everyone wearing masks. Social distancing observed better in some groups than others.

 
Critical: We need to take action with votes and voices.

Protesters raise signs, drivers lean on horns to demonstrate support

 

What will this boy remember about this? How has his mom explained it? The governor of Minnesota said, "We only have one chance to get this right."

Scores of home made signs...

to send a message to the political system and to each other.

At 6:20 PM, the entire square suddenly became quiet. I look around. Everyone is kneeling.

Everyone is kneeling. I had no idea this was in the plan. No one utters a word. Everyone is processing why they are here, what the moment calls for.

We are aware of the momentous disquiet across the land, that we are part of a movement for change. It's up to us to do more than kneel.

 

The hard work begins now. How will parents talk to their kids about this? What kind of conversations will begin between the teenagers present? What steps do I take?

This story in the Huffington Post helped me figure out where to start. This post is a start.

6:35 PM...heading home. It is up to me and everyone in this crowd to put our shoulders to the wheels of justice.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G8j2TxTXEA

Watertown Square, all ages vigil gathers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TJ0qNXp0s8&list=TLPQMDYwNjIwMjC1VjDgTqGOrg&index=1

Crowd stand in solidarity, most holding home made signs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDHvnayUwkQ

Every corner filling up with over 500 people standing for justice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpNj-iiHKBI

6:21 PM

One minute later, a powerful 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the time frame a Minneapolis policeman kept his knee on the throat of George Floyd, killing him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liQPu_oSSI8

Kneeling at 6:22 PM

 

 

Midnight Ramble Series - May 21, 2020

May 21, 2020

2:00 AM

These midnight rambles have evolved from a substitute for exercise at my health club into a walking form of contemplation, meditation, and sheer wonder at the contrasts all around me, light and shadow, emptiness and density, deep silence spliced with the rustling of the wind through tree branches overhead.

I can feel it. Every night, like coming upon an old friend, it wraps around me in the first moments I pull the front door closed and walk into the zen like territory of sound/no sound. 

The smell of budding trees, lilacs and primrose, the earth coming to life in the spring unmitigated by pollution of any sort, awaits me. I have been sucked into this eddy of silence and fragrance, addicted to and embraced by the sum of all of it.

In the nine weeks since I began rambling in the middle of March, the earthly shutdown has acted like a massive physic for the cosmos. Reminded me of a science experiment my sixth grade teacher demonstrated. She poured dirt into a large beaker of water and stirred it up. You know what happened in the next hour. 

The canopy overhead looks like a blue/purple blanket onto which a mighty force has arranged the cosmos. Like me, it takes a ramble every night. Each of us has  our own neighborhood. Mine varies according to my whim. The constellations plot their well worn paths every night.

"Look for Venus tonight!" a friend texted me. What I saw blew me away.

I downloaded a couple of apps. Rambling at about 2 AM last night (this morning) I see a brilliant star, high overhead. Open the "Sky Guide app", point my iPhone overhead. JUPITER!  I first spotted the planet low in the southern sky around midnight two weeks ago, outwattaging every other body around it. Tonight two hours later, it looks like a beacon in a sea of lesser stars and planets.

https://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/ch1.htm

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are a celestial halo, giggling and pointing fingers at grain-of-sand-me staring at them through my phone as I slow march past Victory Field along the yellow traffic lane in the middle of Orchard Street.

The Greeks,Romans, Hindus have told Ursa Major, Ursa  Minor creation stories for eons. Runaway slaves used the Little Dipper's handle, aka the North Star, to guide them to freedom. Little did their owners realize "Follow The Drinking Gourd" was a celestial road map from sun down to sunset.

 

 

 

Below...Jupiter rising in the southwestern sky

The smaller 'star' to the left of Jupiter...SATURN! It turns out that May is the best month to get this view of the  duo.

 

The smaller 'star' to the left of Jupiter...Saturn!

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.... 2 AM...rambling

 

 

A Visit to the Dentist, Mitigation Reigns

May 20, 2020

I'm nervous when I shop at my local Stop & Shop. Imagine how I feel when I had to visit my dentist. On March 20, my two upper incisors needed to be capped. Custom ceramic replacements were scheduled for March 5. The pandemic changed that.

My dentist opened for business last week. In full mitigation mode. One patient at a time. I begin to feel relaxed when I see the plexiglass barrier at the receptionist's window. And her mask. And the gloves, mask, hair covering on his assistant who ushers me into the room with all the paraphernalia of the trade.

The doc enters ten minutes later, sits down, we talk. He's relaxed. And reads my mind. "I shower and change scrubs between every patient. I'm taking care of both of us." His assistant, wearing a plexiglass shield over her masked face, stands behind me in a corner.

I'm relaxed. He examines the temporary caps on the incisors.

"Your gums are a little soft. I want the gums to be firm when I install your new ceramic crowns to get the best fit. But take a look. I think the color matches your own enamel,"  showing me my new pearly whites.

Five minutes later, I've purchased an Oral-B Genius Professional Exclusive Rechargeable Toothbrush made by Braun. "I add $10 to my cost," he says, "I offer them so you have the best chance to keep your gums healthy. Reschedule for two weeks. Call us if you have any questions about using the toothbrush."

Back to the receptionist's alcove. Slide my credit card under the plexiglass. She wipes down the pen I'm about to use with a sanitary wipe. Same to my credit card when she returns it. His assistant brings me a clean new fabric bag with the new toothbrush.

I'm coming back in two weeks. Hopefully with firm pink gums. And a dose of confidence that I'm being cared for by a very highly motivated team of professionals aggressively managing and mitigating.

The one thing that overrides everything?

Trust.

The Miles Davis Tadd Dameron Quintet in Paris Festival International de Jazz May 1949

May 19, 2020 P.E.

"I haven’t played this in years. In perfect condition. Ecstasy!"...

says my dear friend. I've been swapping stories and adventures with him since he moved across the street from me as we entered our first year at South Junior High School.  We've been on the same wave length since Elvis, Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider, Little Richard,the  Boys Club Friday night dances, the list goes on...

 

Friendship matters. Thick and thin. We're in the thick part. Past, present, future swirl around like the disco ball at the Boys Club dances, casting bright beams, illuminating memories long forgotten but ready to comfort with the power of shared recollection. Where would my psyche be without these connections during isolation? When I listen, cascades of memories from a less complicated time flood in surges, an inchoate tumble of laughter and melancholy roll over well worn milestones. Opportunities taken, opportunities lost are matters of fact. Recalibrating and reimagining are in order. My timeline is limited. Not so my imagination.

 

So here I am with Miles...

 

Listening now, music only, no video but who cares. I can smell the smoke filled room, see the band through the haze as I squeeze into a wrought iron chair at a tiny deuce crammed in with a bunch of people who appreciate what they’re hearing. Bebop must have just been bolting from the gate. Incandescent energy of a live concert…the riffs at the 29 minute mark start with the known then plunge into spontaneous reverie, sort of a stepping stone from tradition to new territory that the French, god bless them, really understood for what it was.

 

Check the credits at the end.

This brought me back, way back.

Later

Swallowed whole into the belly of youtube, I hear Miles Davis - February 1955 at the Hi-Hat Club, Boston, on the corner of Columbus and Mass Ave.

And a treasure trove of Bill Evans

 

Isolating with giants of jazz...

 

Mother’s Day with Irma Thomas, WWOZ, May 10, 2020

May 10, 2020

Mother’s Day with Irma Thomas, WWOZ, 12 PM - 2 PM

Today would have been Irma's 37th (yes, 37th) annual Mother's Day performance at the Audubon Zoo.  New Orleans does not give up its sense of tradition for anything, a pandemic included.

The two-hour program that Thomas usually performs is being broadcast on flagship radio station WWOZ....a virtual feat that uses a fabulously curated collection of her songs over the years. 

Just as WWOZ did with Jazz Festing in Place, the radio station today is one giant PSA sending love to moms and thousands of listeners sheltering in place. I have watched Irma light a place on fire.

Sadly, my internet is down until 1:15 PM… then

...finally Thomas's still poignant “Cold Cold Rain” (Katrina) pours down from the ionosphere and here’s the Mother’s Day Salute by Irma Thomas, The Soul Queen of New Orleans. If New Orleans has an earth mother, it has to be Miss Irma.

 "You Can Have My Husband but Please Don’t Mess With My Man” 2011 continues the set that spans from resilience to rejoicing. “Can’t Break Away From You,” 2011, “Time On My Side,” a proclamation of female resilience charged with comeuppance for an inattentive lover, I am listening to one in-charge woman. #metoo, meet Ms. Irma Thomas.

Listen to that cackle at the end of “I Wish Someone Would Care About Me.” Right about now I am throwing bouquets to the engineers and producers who integrated pace and style of this salute as mightily as the Mississippi River threads its way around the city.

Here comes “I Done Got Over It.” When the Queen says, “This is the audience participation part, we’re gonna have an indoor second line. We celebrate everything in New Orleans with a second line, births, deaths, weddings, funerals, when a pregnancy test comes back negative! Get out your hankies, shake your tail feathers (cackles)” the audience needs no encouragement.

“Iko Iko,” another New Orleans anthem.

I can’t stand it. I’m bounding down the stairs, JBL Flip speaker blaring in hand. Out the front door to dance in the sunlight on my front porch. Someone in the audience shouts, “We love you, Irma!”

“So do I! Happy Mother’s Day Miss Irma!”

Photo top PT, bottom courtesy of WWOZ

Irma Thomas at the Regatta Bar, Cambridge, MA April 9, 2009

Midnight Ramble Series - May 7, 2020 - Photos

May 7, 2020 Midnight Ramble

Walking from residential neighborhoods to the middle of a ghost town to post a letter.

The Flower Moon , the last supermoon of 2020, begins to bloom...

A sign of the times...

Mount Auburn Street 100 yards from Watertown Square heading east...would get arrested if tried this BP (before Pandemic)

Walking the line...

Empty bus on midnight run...

A verified midnight ramble!

Amazing colors at midnight...

Luminous golden glows pour like rivers from mute homes that stare at me as I walk past in the silence.

Photos by  Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Midnight Ramble Series - May 7, 2020

May 7, 2020

In response to Governor Baker's updated public gathering ban, my health club closed on March 16. A gym rat for decades, I needed to feel the burn. Or at least a simmer.  On March 20, I began walking. Which heretofore I have hated. Pound out a steady rhythm on an elliptical machine till I break a sweat. Love it.

Walk around the quarter mile track a quarter mile from my home? No way. Until March 20. The state is in a shelter in place mandate. If you're not an essential worker, stay home. Markets, pharmacies, liquor stores are open. Everything else closed. No cars moving on the streets. The skies hushed with no air traffic.

Around midnight March 20, my will to exercise told my ideas about walking to...well, take a walk. I donned a parka, headed out for parts unknown. That first midnight ramble has become a habit as steady as my commitment to show up at my health club.

Mitigation at that date: wash hands, do not congregate in groups of more than 10. No mention of masks yet.

The idea to walk at midnight wasn't a plan, a strategy to keep away from contact with others. I was wide awake. I  really wanted to stay in shape.  I actually thought that there was a possibility that I could resume dancing before too long (a delusion no doubt, we all have ways of dealing with a crisis) and I was going to be up for it physically.

What happened stunned me. I could not hear a thing. Anywhere. Not a single car. Not a single person on the streets. Nothing moved. Lights glowed from living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms. I stopped in my tracks several times trying to arrange this in my head. Many homes were dark, inhabitants asleep. Clearly there was activity in others but not even muffled sounds from the TVs flickering inside. I was walking through the set of a science fiction movie.

The total silence, sounds of human activity, of any kind, totally inaudible. The deep silence unnerved me.

After six weeks now, I still choose to ramble at midnight. In a way I haven't yet grasped, the silence comforts me.

The part of the ramble I like most - I walk straight down the middle of the street right on the yellow line not a car to impede me. Sort of a heady disregard for normal rule of law in a time so much has changed. Walk in the middle of the road? Every step I take reminds me I'm living in a global moment in history in which the outcome is unknown. For me, too.

Luminous golden glows pour like rivers from mute homes that stare at me as I walk past in the silence. In an hour, I'll be back in my own living room, the warm glow one of many pouring onto my steely silent street.

PHOTO ESSAY NEXT PAGE

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Jazz Festing in Place...the home stretch

May 2, 2020 6 PM EST

To WWOZ...

After listening to Detroit Brooks sing (more or less) a favorite song E La Bas and then the Bruce (as in Springstein, 2006, 7 months after the storm) inspired set..I’m blessing the 'hood with music of New Orleans. The now amplified speakers will probably levitate when the Neville Brothers take off right now. I bow to your people who created these six days of music with an alchemy of intentional solace, grace, and joy…an accomplishment that in my mind equals the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes.

Guarding the groove in the ‘hood.

Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

PS. Those speakers did virtually levitate. The Neville Brothers had the honor of closing Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1980. That honor had been lovingly given to Professor Longhair from 1971 till 1979. "Fess," born in 1918, died on January 1980 before the next Jazz Fest. Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd to this day is revered for his impact on New Orleans music. The Neville Brothers are equal to the honor.

 

 

 

 

Jazz Festing in Place: First Take, Friday May 1, 2020

Right from the pages of unedited running commentary of Friday, May 1, 2020.

FRIDAY MAY 1

12:30 PM Catch last part Michael White 2011 performance

All day long, WWOZ delivers vignettes and back stories, wonderful windows spilling sunlight into corners of Jazz Fest we’ve never known about. These need to be archived, will do my best to find them or ask WWOZ to add them to the website.

Jazz Fesstoid: Louis Armstrong 2001 was his 100th birthday celebration. Louis never played at Jazz and Heritage Fest, he had been invited in 1971 but was recovering from a heart attack at home in NYC and died months later.

Samantha Fish vocals then Roy Hargrove 2007

Jazz Fesstoid: Jazz fest poster history, first was b/w poster given out free and posted around the city.
now silk screen posters and collectibles prices up to thousands of dollars as revenue to support Jazz Fest, see then at www.art4now.com says Lena Prima of WWOZ
https://art4now.com/collections/jazz-fest-posters/products/jf-13

Big Frieda’s gospel roots at 1 PM rock n gospel, hip hop meets revival meeting.

1:25 PM Aaron Neville, Charles Neville in Blues Tent 2014.
Aaron sings Summertime, a classic, how such a burly man can croon with such high frequency is a stunning contradiction,1966 song that made the Longshoreman into a household name, “Tell It Like It Is,” delivered with heartfelt pain, his bluesy falsetto floating over the tent, Neville sing talking a roman candle of scales up and down the all time doo woppy shimmering rendition and as if this isn’t enough poured into your emotional pool then the same stunning emotive octane on turbocharge cover of “Amazing Grace”.That tent is floating and has taken every damn person inside it half way to heaven.

Neville’s voice up and down the scales has traveled with more range than a camel through the Sahara, a thing of inestimable beauty, “Let’s Get Together” closes it out. During three songs with absolutely no warning, I weep. Joy? Deeply buried emotions of past? Dreams of my future? I don’t know. And I don’t care right now. I’m sitting at my desk, listening to music that creeps up on me with the power of a religious experience. Blues, gospel? A fine line Neville through which Neville’s voice flows as if it is a permeable membrane.
Lord have mercy.

Little Freddie King in the Blues Tent 2018 seems like just yesterday as I sit in isolation.

2:15 PM New Orleans trademark rambunctious “Get Together” second line by TCB Brass Band. If that don’t get people steppin’ up, kerchiefs, parasols, arms waving like sheaves of wheat, i don’t know what all will.

Gambling addiction PSA by WWOZ

2018 Paul Sanchez Rolling Road Show on Gentilly Stage
tribute to Alan Toussaint, “Louisiana” , ok everybody knows this gentleman legend, can sing the refrains from “Mother In Law” easy as the national anthem (to some may be more relevant) and another song in memory of Arthur Robinson, “My Name is Mr. Okra” , in honor of this particular street vendor and street vendors of fresh fruit and vegetables who used to walk neighborhood streets. People would come out their doors when they heard the vendor’s singsong voice proclaiming what was in his cart that day. Get a side order of Mr. Okra, value you could not afford but got gratis with your bag of fresh produce.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/eat-drink/article_1a603a92-20fd-5b59-9bdd-07b7f41c5026.html
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ezq8a4/meet-the-last-singing-vegetable-vendor-of-new-orleans
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/17/586575973/goodbye-mr-okra-new-orleans-remembers-its-singing-vegetable-vendor

Chris Joseph record producer Lafayette LA up next

From time to time the upbeat voice of WWOZ general manager Beth Arroyo Utterback, best i can remember “ Glad you’re tuned in and enjoying Jazz Festing in Place. WWOZ is a community and public radio station. We rely on listener support from generous people just like you. We’ve been broadcasting Jazz Fest for nearly 40 years. Join us and become a member.”

Next, Ruthie Foster, Blues Tent 2018 reliable as always. “Back to the Blues” to prove it. Then a
Mississippi John Hurt cover, “Richland Woman Blues,” complete with banjo strumming, can’t make out the title but no trouble grooving in my chair with a terrific little percussion brushes riff, this song rocks, quite an upbeat addition to the tent.
https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2017-03-31/ruthie-foster-joy-comes-back/

John Mooney 1998 House of Blues Stage, My Creole Belle, uptempo om pa pa do pah slide guitar rollin drum kit ratatat bass thrummin rollercoaster.
“Walkin On Sacred Ground” upbeat gotta get up and dance number propulsive drum pounds the beat guitar slide sirens underpin with slinky sinewy slide riffs not gonna sit down any time soon, whoa baby!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Y05TR30wk

I bow in gratitude for whoever it is who picked out all these songs/performances from almost 40 years and thousands of performances then arranged them in a satisfying order to entertain us for in same hours Jazz Fest take place every year.

What the heck follows Mooney?
Then a recipe from an African American kitchen from a WWOZ presenter/chef!
This whole shebang’s mega sponsor is Shell followed by big time local companies and individuals.

Congo Square Stage 2002 Wynton Marsalis starts w Pedro’s Getaway, a very modern jazz arrangement, another facet of New Orleans quilt of music heritage, way different from anything that’s been played for the past five hours. Not danceable groove, has a groove and of course Wynton’s trumpet takes the lead followed by piano, saxophone solos in quick succession and Wynton making sounds on trumpet you’ve never heard from a brass instrument before but since this is New Orleans, should not surprise you in the least. This sounds right out of a Blue Note stage in NYC.

Jazz Fesstoid: paraphrased bc i can’t write fast enough. Spring of 1970 George Wein has idea to showcase New Orleans music and heritage. First one was held on steamboat President on Mississippi River, with Pete Fountain as honorary captain. Wein needed help so asked young Alison Minor and Quint Davis, who were knowledgeable and had reverence for the music and culture, to help him promote the fair. He knew that New Orleans future depended on the unique talents of its musicians. They lined up 100 musicians that many had never heard of and set up stages on what was then Beauregard Square now Congo Square. Every day Big Chief Bo Dollis led Mardi Gras Indians through the square in big second line parade.There was a gospel tent with musicians no one had heard of. One day Mahalia Jackson who was performing at the Municipal Auditorium, heard the second line parade and came out, ended up singing A Closer Walk With Thee. What would you give to have witnessed that! The first fair made no money. Wein planned a second one even though its success was an unknown quantity. Over time it grew, moved to The Fairgrounds Race Track 140 acres. Wein, Davis, and Minor’s vision to show the unique musical heritage of New Orleans now almost 40 years for all to see in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Papa Grows Funk: as advertised.

Jazz Fesstoid: Cajun singer Louis Michot of The Lost Bayou Ramblers talks about the introduction of Louisiana rural music from Cajun and Creole performers generally unknown to city dwellers in the 1970s. No way can i write fast enough. This needs to be archived too. By the 1980s the best cajun and creole musicians began to play at Jazz Fest.
https://kreolmagazine.com/music-entertainment/musicians/louis-michot-a-true-creole-musician/#.Xqzb6i_Mxgc

5:15 pm Blind Boys of Alabama Blues Tent 2018 How these guys in their various incarnations can be so damn good is quite a miracle in one way but the fact is that the kind of music they sing whether a cappella or with a churchy organ and percussion is uplifting, spiritual and that, my friends, is never out of date.
They get into a souped up gospel song and you can feel that tent rock, hell i feel it a couple thousand miles away. A version of Stand By Me gets them off the ground then they slow the train down with a rhythm n bluesy song that shows me the well beaten path between music of the black church and rhythm n blues I used to hear on juke boxes back in the 1960s and still knocking me out in 2020.

The final notes of this song are delivered by what i imagine is a host of gray haired angels stationed at the Pearly Gates. You say ‘Amen’ and you get admitted. Could not pick up the title but the feel of it will be seared in my memory for a long long time.
Next “I Saw The Light” The first three songs were a dazzling combination of gospel that shifted into rhythm n blues styling that showed the straight line from white washed clapboard churches to popular music.

5:34 GREAT story about Professor Longhair, WWOZ needs to put these little stories on their web site. Think i missed the beginning.
5:40 pm story
Jazz Festoid: in 1971 George Wein wanted to go to a practice of Mardi Gras Indians along with Alison Minor and Quint Davis. Sitting somewhere to wait, Wein hears a song on radio, says who is that? Professor Longhair , the two young guides say.
Find him, Wein says. Longhair had performed from 1940s to 1960s but his star had faded.
They found him in plain sight working as a janitor at a record store. The second year 1971 Jazz Fest outdoors April 21, 1971, Longhair agree to play. No one knew who the heck Prof Longhair was. In Congo Square he’s set to play. Well that stage was a small platform set up a a foot or so from the ground. Jazz Fest was still more of an idea about to be born than a rolling well oiled production. First day Fess shows up wearing a blue short sleeve shirt. Probably surprised by the enthusiasm, he shows up the next day wearing a suit. Lord knows where he got it.
Long story short, the crowd loved him. Look up his songs. “Tipitina” for example. Fess was the festival’s closing act from 1971 till 1979. All in the way of embracing your heritage says WWOZ Kyle Roussel (not at all sure of that). 1918-1980 https://www.discogs.com/artist/18394-Professor-Longhair

in April 1974 Professor Longhair’s story burned down, everything he owned except the clothes on his back gone. New Orleans takes care of its own. A benefit for the man was held in a warehouse to raise money for new home rebuild.The tapes of that show have never been heard. Tonight is the night they see daylight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-lsiDJWMsQ

Great raw performance with remarks about Professor and musicians having fun. I think it was Earl King who introduces the man who wrote Mother in Law, The Fortune Teller, Sittin’ in Ya Ya, no other than Alan Toussaint (1938-2015)
36 year old Toussaint sings “Why Cant You Come Home” a little off key, maybe more practiced as a composer not performer. The with the host doing great job of pushing the band, firing up the audience, to give Toussaint a little love. Next song Earl King sings Toussaint’s “Fortune Teller.”

You can feel the make it up as you go along vibe of the night. People probably straggling in little by little, no one knows yet how it’s gonna work out, King is making a super effort to charge up the audience who by now have woke up and are screaming for more. This tape is totally unedited. All of it. Pauses and all . A masterpiece of history The Wild Magnolias are next.
Next The Wild Magnoiia’s. New Orleans audiences have always known that they’re part of the show, that it’s their job to send energy back to the stage and the more they send the more they get back from the performers.

The Meters Hey Pokey Way! Wow. This song might be in the curriculum of the public schools in New Orleans. The choruses come back and forth like the waves in a swimming pool after a good time Charlie plunged in with a cannonball.

Next Earl King so I have no idea who the MC is.
with Dr John and Earl King
THEN PROFESSOR LONGHAIR HIMSELF in a mighty upbeat original of his, “Big Chief,” his trademark whistle solo and all. How the heck does he whistle like that and rock that piano. The house band, probably the best musicians in town.
Thank you, Thank you, Fess modestly says.
Then with that voice that no one can imitate, that can bump up and down an octave when you’re not expecting it, sort of like a New Orleans yodel. A rocking swing tempo “Since My Baby” ??
Those long fingers pound out another solo sliding up and down the keyboard like a seal surfs a roller. With guitar hitting as many notes as Fess can play. His modest thank you again non plussed that the audience is in full voiced adulation, cheers, screams, lustily.
Now what? Whoa! Fess comes up with a Longhaired version of something that ends up as Stagger Lee!
Lost connection for a minute. Miss the last minutes! Geez!!
about 7 PM end of today’s Jazz Festing in Person.
credits.

Personal opinion: the man made up his own lyrics or what can be called lyrics which were actually riffing with sounds he heard in his brain and channeled into his mouth. You’ve heard of the harmonica being called a mouth organ? Well The Professor’s mouth was his primary organ that he channeled through his fingers to make sounds emerging from a pre-conscious brain in spontaneous warblings with an infectious Afro-Caribbean beat. With a distinct element of joy, the kind of joy that may only be attained after suffering of equal magnitude. Many of us can relate to that with some degree of personal experience but I think it informs black music in a way that beyond the racial experience of a white middle class guy like me.

Fess is an unrefined version of Fats Waller, with the bedrock vein of joy marbled through everything he invents. Listen to it when you need a lift without the benefit of drugs or alcohol.
You don’t buy it? Listen to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-lsiDJWMsQ
then go back to Fess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkGjDbKauVo

and the best story about Professor Longhair, Roeland Henry Byrd that I"ve ever read. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-still-burning-piano-genius-of-professor-longhair

WWOZ: Paul T. Guardian of the Groove!

Oh my...WWOZ's features pt at large today...

 

 

 

 

Social Distancing At Close Quarters

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Social Distancing At Close Quarters

Dr. Wendy Walsh psychologist Saturday, April 25 on CNN at about 2:45 PM In a weekly segment hosted by CNN anchor Frederica Whitfield.

Whitfield asks Walsh to respond to a viewer question. "We are a couple living in a small apartment. How can we maintain distance and avoid conflict in our small space?"

Dr. Wendy Walsh’s Answer

“There are two kinds of distance,” she says,”physical distance and emotional distance.”

“When emotions are running high we should not judge our partners by their coping ability. With this kind of stress, everyone has a certain neuro-chemistry that wires them to respond in a certain way when dealing with stress. So don’t go into this thinking I’m going to leave this person because they cannot endure the stress. Instead focus on forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness.”

“Ask yourself every day what can I do to catch them doing something good and verbalize that. Because you want to water what you want to grow. Otherwise it inspires criticism and when you complement your partner it reminds your brain of why you fell in love with him/her in the first place.”

“Regarding physical distance, you need to talk about this especially in a small apartment. This is your corner, this is my corner, during these hours. Let’s make a game strategy for this team. Always think about it In times of conflict. If this relationship wins, then you both win.”

Walsh's advice about emotional distance can apply to everyone in the house/apartment. Making a team effort could quite possibly keep the team in the winning column by the time the period of isolation is over.

PS April 8, 2020 Corona Disease Guidance from City of Boston

WWOZ FM: Jazz and Heritage Festival Savior Part 2

April 25, 2020

More great responses from WWOZ radio hosts. Their answers lead to travels down memory lane.

Email to Brice White, DJ of Block Party

Brice, I'm loving listening to Jazz Festing in Place up here in the Boston area, just became a member of WWOZ last night.
Great opening Cajun song tonite, My Far Away Pal? on Crazy Cajun label.
(could not find) so the question...is there going be a set list of your show
tonight.
I tried checking "Last 100 songs" no luck but I sure do love listening to
New Orleans music, the original melting pot of American music.

From a fellow sheltering in place citizen:)

Two hours later...

Thanks for listening and supporting! Normally I post my playlist. I'll look for a way to do it since things are different now and I prerecorded. That track was My Far Away Cow by Abel on Crazy Cajun, it was a Dan Penn tune!

Take care!

Brice

 

Two hours later...

THIS started out as a thank you note until i got down the Dan Penn rabbit hole after reading your reply.

Thank you, Brice!
That was the most unusual Cajun song I ever heard so wanted to track it down and you did it with attribution to the writer as well.
RE playlist, I don’t want to give you more work to do, you’re doing enough to supply us with vintage music from your own collection . I appreciate you’re curating from your stacks of 45 rpms at home, possibly a silver lining to organize them, likely would never have happened in normal times.

I haven’t seen a 45 rpm for ages but that’s where I got my introduction to rock n roll…at Sammy Vincent’s in Pittsfield MA. That was the place to go for a bunch of us high schoolers after school. We were allowed to thumb through the disks in two large bins, take one out and play it on one of several small turntables and buy the ones we liked. Lots of cross pollination as we listened to choices we made. We knew about Elvis but it might have been the first time i heard “Tutti Fruiti”  and  then “Be Bop A Lula” by Gene Vincent.

While writing this, I discovered that the ‘fight song’ the high school football captain sang to an auditorium full of teenagers was actually a lift from Lionel Hampton’s Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop…  thus ”Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop, Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop, we’re gonna win this game tomorrow!” So it’s only taken me 50 years and a pandemic to suss this out!

WWOZ is coming to the rescue by re-imagining how to host Jazz Fest. I spent most of my afternoon looking our the window and playing Festing in Place. I’ve sent a blog post to my friends encouraging them to tune in. Who knows, they might be dancing around their kitchen tables just like me by the time Festing in Place is over.

I got a response to a query to WWOZ yesterday from Dave Akers, way cool.  I became a dues paying member as I was listening to my first day of Festing in Place. WWOZ is the best!

Keep on keepin’ on!
Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

PS
This link has the Dan Abel 1966 song on it. Upon second listen, it’s a double entendre isn’t it, I don’t believe he’s talkin’ about Bossy the cow... , this was an eye opener and written by a guy from Alabama…love the line "since that day there’s been an extra large Milky Way"
https://www.discogs.com/Abel-My-Far-Away-Cow/release/8745805

and this site sold the 45rpm that has that song in your pile of 45 rpms for $206 in 2012!
https://www.popsike.com/DAN-PENN-ABEL-CRAZY-CAJUN-45-MY-FAR-AWAY-COW/260924418779.html

MORE!
I just discovered this guy Dan Penn is a major hit machine! I was gobsmacked to see the list of his songs familiar to anyone who has listened to radio for the past 50 years, hits recorded by luminaries from several genres.
https://www.tablyrics.com/artist-dan-penn-chords-lyrics
Serious credentials! this list is crazy good! 117 songs composed!

Dan Penn's Lyrics & Chords from the same site.
Wallace Daniel Pennington (16 November 1941 -) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" & "Do Right Woman" (with Chips Moman) and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby" (with Spooner Oldham). Penn has also produced hits such as "The Letter" by The Box Tops, amongst others. Though he is considered to be one of the great white soul singers, Penn has a meagre recorded output, preferring the relative anonymity of songwriting & producing.

Finally this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Penn

You are making the most out of a crisis by giving your audience the gift of your personal vault of 45 rpms!

Thanks again!
PT

 

 

 

 

WWOZ FM: Jazz and Heritage Festival Savior Part 1

April 24, 2020

To: <[email protected]>

In Boston (Watertown to be precise), loving listening to Jazzfesting In Place, brilliant gift to music lovers worldwide. If there was ever a time I needed it, this is the time, a respite from important news I need to know but… I need  music to balance frame of mind and remind me of the palliative pleasure of listening to music in times when i can’t leave the house in the time of stay at home mandate, let alone listen to it and support it in live performances..or to go out dancing. As much as I dearly miss all this I value my life and the lives of those I walk by even more.
Sooo, i hope you can answer this question.

Listening to a Patricia Boutté backed by Paul Longstreth funky rolling classic New Orleans take on a traditional song as I write this and I am  boogying along in my chair in front of my desktop.
QUESTION what was the title of this song Patricia sang just before her “Bourbon Street Parade”?

Many many thanks from a grateful listener
Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
PS
have visited New Orleans and SW Louisiana for years, one muddy weekend at Jazz Fest as well.
Just contributed to WWOZ at Saxophone level $100. I am right on key with y’all:)

April 25, 2020

Paul - thanks for reaching out!  And for your very generous support.  It's because of music lovers like you that we can keep doing what we do!

 

The Tricia Boutte cover song you're looking for was "Dreamland," originally a classic 1966 reggae track by Bunny Wailer, but now given a New Orleans feel.  Her version of the track is on a CD called "Oh New Orleans Here I Come."   It was a great set, wasn't it? 

 

I hope you can keep listening, and that you stay safe

 

Dave A

Dave Ankers

Director of Content

WWOZ 90.7 FM New Orleans and wwoz.org

April 25, 2020

Hey Dave!

Thanks for your reply, another reason to love WWOZ. 

 

There are no known counterparts anywhere in the world to New Orleans music, food, people, and radio stations. Anyone with a beating heart will tell you that after a visit to New Orleans where you keep your eyes and ears open, talk to folks on the street cars, get used to being called “Baby” by  women and men who you’ve known all of ten seconds, smell the food, and feel a vibe that hums just at the bottom threshold of hearing and resonates in your heart like a tuning fork every time i visit. My Lafayette friends took me to the Krewe du Vieux parade into Frenchmen Street in 2019. I still have an Abita Beer bottlecap with image of Brett Kavanaugh inside w caption “I still like beer.” You get the picture.

 

I tuned in during Tricia Boutées set.

"Hey Siri, What’s the name of this song, I asked.She was stumped. I suppose i shoulda known better than to ask.

Trust me, after watching a few hours of news, I am so ready to tune in to Jazzfest in Place, a brilliant idea. You rose from the debris to stage Mardi Gras in 2005. You figured out a way to gift it to the world this week during the time of the virus.

 

It appears that you all dove into the archives of thousands of performances and cherry picked the ones that would give us the medicine we need in the time of the virus. What a mammoth undertaking. In truth, you could probably thrown darts at the list and come up with winners because the depth of New Orleans talent is deeper than Stellwagon Bank off the shores of Boston. And bravo that you pick New Orleans musicians and singers not headliners from ‘out of town’. I’m throwing a bouquet to Boutée and Thomas and Cleary and Barker and Ball and Richard and the Nevilles, each and every one will make my stay in place at home life richer not to mention give me a workout. You ever see a man second lining around his kitchen table? No? Well, you ain’t been lookin at me. Parasol and all, baby.

 

It is a pleasure to support a station so tuned in to the psyches of of New Orleans and New Orleanians at heart.

 

Thanks again, Dave. I’ll be listening.  Next to a face mask and washing my hands, this is the best way to stay safe, sound, and find joy at the same time. No small accomplishment.

 

2010 - my first Jazz Fest. I haven’t been the same man since.

https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2010/05/the-41st-annual-new-orleans-jazz-and-heritage-festival-part-2.html

 

Thanks again, Dave

Onward…with a beat!

 

Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

"Jazz Festing in Place" April 23 – 26 and April 30 – May 3

A BRILLIANT WORK AROUND...NEW ORLEANS FIGURES OUT HOW TO KEEP ITS CROWN JEWEL SHINING IN THE TIME OF A PANDEMIC!

"Jazz Festing in Place" April 23 – 26 and April 30 – May 3

With over 130 festivals a year in New Orleans, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is the colossus of them all - "One of the world's greatest cultural celebrations. The annual springtime event spanning 10 days, with thousands of musicians playing on 12 stages and attracts almost 500,000 culture-crazed fans from around the world."

What does Jazz Fest mean to New Orleans? In 2001, favorite son Louis Armstrong's 100th birthday, 650,000 people packed the 145 acre Fair Grounds Race for one weekend of the celebration of music and culture.

In 2006, the festival was held 6 months after Katrina devastated the city. No Jazz Fest? No way! Tradition holds New Orleans together like a roux holds together gumbo.

A plague in 2020? Jazz Fest was cancelled. But...

WWOZ FM, the umbilical cord to New Orleans music on the air waves, created Jazz Festing In Place, two weekends of curated performances from way back. Put a camp chair in your living room, soak some red beans, boil the rice, put on your dance shoes when the spirit moves you. Jazz Festing In Place happens in the exact hours the two weekend festival would have gone down. Hallelujah.

Friday, April 24 4 PM...at home

After a few hours of counter-balancing the voices of CNN and Fox News, I was worn down.

Chloroquine may or may not be a palliative to treat Covid-19.  But music...oh baby, in a nanosecond, my psyche is on a chariot ride to exuberant cosmic heights. Jazz Festing Online is on the radio runway. Fasten safety belt. In seconds, I'm lifting off, circling the earth in my own Jazzfest skywriter.

I'm flying on Air WWOZ and Jazz Festing In Place...Online!

https://www.wwoz.org/listen/player/

New Orleans' bid to keep the juice of Jazz Fest, the most enduring gift that city gives to its residents and people from all over the world, is alive and well.

This is the lineup that was to be...

https://www.neworleans.com/event/new-orleans-jazz-%26-heritage-festival-(cancelled)/3197/ (lists big name artists; for my money, the scores of local bands/musicians that play are why I came in 2010).

This is the brilliant Plan B, cherry picked rock the house performances from as far back as 1977, online and in the same time slots as they would have been at the Fairgrounds Race Track. New Orleans is arguably the well from which American music was drawn. The set that closed Friday's Festing In Place was Fats Domino's  2001 performance. The Fat Man from the Lower 9th ward was in great form.

https://www.wwoz.org/640011-jazz-festing-place-cubes

Reproducing the energy of Jazz Fest on the radio is a daunting task but these performances taped live, dang, you can hear the crowd's unabashed shouts and cheers to performers on the outdoor stages. The energy came in waves from people in camp chairs, or sprawled on blankets, umbrellas popped up to ward off rain or the beating sun. From the heavens, it must look like a carpet of mushrooms topped with rainbow sprinkles.

Jazz Fest has always been an interactive experience. Now we just recreate it virtually, listening in our living rooms, kitchens and porches as we shelter in place. Interactive with distance!

Today, late Friday, I tuned in to listen to Patricia Boutté, backed by Paul Longstreth, with a funky rolling classic New Orleans take on a traditional song as I write this and boogying along right in my chair in front of my desktop. Boutté follows with the ultra classic "Bourbon Street Parade" written by drummer Paul Barbarin in 1949.  Followed by her cover of  "Going to the Mardi Gras" , originally recorded by Professor Longhair in 1959, a monumental figure in New Orleans history. By the way, here's his recording of "Tipitina," whose rolling rumba style is so totally New Orleans.

NOTE: Reason I love WWOZ: Siri couldn't figure out the name of Patricia Boutée's first song so I shot an email to the station. A few  hours later..."The Tricia Boutte cover song you're looking for was "Dreamland," originally a classic 1966 reggae track by Bunny Wailer, but now given a New Orleans feel.  Her version of the track is on a CD called "Oh New Orleans Here I Come."   It was a great set, wasn't it?" From Dave Ankers, Director of Content, WWOZ 90.7 FM New Orleans and wwoz.org  

How cool was that!

Boutée's rambunctious energy is followed by Kenny Neal's slow groove "How Time Slips Away," recorded at 2018 Jazz Fest. It is so eerily perfect for life in the time of pandemic. Time is indeed slipping away, but not in a way we ever imagined.

Friday's Jazz Festing in Place ends with Irma Thomas, The Soul Queen of New Orleans, 2006 set. It was the first Jazz fest since Katrina ruined New Orleans in August 2005. The city still smelled like mud that day. Irma kicked it off with my favorite, "It's Raining In My Heart." New Orleans audiences, especially at Jazz Fest, take it as an obligation to shout out to the singers. Irma stokes that fire, calls out, "We're still here!" You can imagine the response.

By this time her set closes, I'm dancing in the kitchen, grateful for the gift of music and its power to heal. An odd piece of synchronicity. Katrina's shadow still hovered over New Orleans, bruised and perhaps broken and caked with mud, in 2006.

The Covid-19 virus is killing us in 2020. We're in a mandate to stay home. Unprecedented. A nightmare with a death toll. On that day in April, Irma delivered the sermon, a lesson in survival and resilience and succor. New Orleans needed it then. We can use that same sermon today.

"Put your handkerchiefs in the air," she shouts, a signal she's ending her show and the day at the mandatory 7 PM closing time.

Here comes "Iko Iko." You know damn well the crowd was shakin' what the maker gave 'em and second lining on what is left of the grass on the infield of the New Orleans Fairground and Racetrack. New Orleans survived Katrina. Covid-19 is another order of magnitude.

 

"March the Ninth Twenty Twenty" : A Poem by Mariangela Gualtieri, Italy

March 23, 2020

“March the Ninth Twenty Twenty”

A day in the midst of a pandemic...
A Poem by Mariangela Gualtieri, trans. by Lucy Rand and Clarissa Botsford

From Edizione Black Coffee written in Italian *
https://lithub.com/march-the-ninth-twenty-twenty/

Published on March 23, the poem

The poet's sentiment resonated with me. I spent time in Rome in June 2018 and in Rome, Castelfiorentino, Florence, Siena, and Bologna in 2019. I've walked the streets, been seduced by the architecture, colors, cobbled streets, sounds the expressive Italian language, a linguistic Tarantella echoing in my ears. I swear I've been on the same street as the photo accompanying Mariangela's poem. I worry about the health of the people I met in my hotel, restaurants  and shops I visited.

The poem speaks truth across continents and oceans. It was true for Mariangela Gualtieri the day she wrote it. It is true for me as I read it.

The poet's two words "I think" in the final stanza, are aspirational. It remains to be seen if, in the words of the poet, "Our hand will be more delicate in the doing of life now that we know how sad it is to stand one meter apart."

“March the Ninth Twenty Twenty”

I’m telling you this
we needed to stop.
We knew. We all felt it
that it was too furious,
our frenzy. Being inside of things.
Outside of our selves.
Squeeze every hour – make it yield.

We needed to stop
and we couldn’t.
We needed to do it together.
Slow down the race.
But we couldn’t.
There was no human force
that could hold us back.

And since this
was for all of us a tacit wish
like an unconscious will –
perhaps our species has obeyed
loosened the bonds that protect
our seed. Opened
the innermost cracks
and let it in.
Perhaps this is why there was a leap
in the species – from the bat to us.
Something in us wanted to be opened.
Perhaps, I don’t know.

Now we are at home.

It is extraordinary what is happening.
And there is gold, I believe, in this strange time.
Perhaps there are gifts.
Nuggets of gold for us. If we help one another.
There is a very strong call
of the species now and as a species
we must each see ourselves. A common fate
holds us here. We knew it. But not well enough.
Either all of us, or no one.

The earth is powerful. Truly alive
I feel it thinking a thought
that we do not know.
And with what’s happening now? Let us consider
whether the earth is not what’s moving.
Whether the law that rules
the entire universe, whether what’s happening, I wonder,
isn’t the full expression of that law
that governs us too – just like
every star – every particle of the cosmos.

Whether the dark matter was this
being bound together in an ardor
for life, with the sweep of death that comes
to rebalance every species.
Keep it within its dimensions, in its place,
going in the right direction. It is not us
who made heaven.

An imposing voice, without words
tells us to stay home now, like children
who are in trouble and don’t know why,
and won’t get kisses, won’t be hugged.
Each within a suspension
that takes us back, perhaps to the slowness
of ancient ancestors, of mothers.

Look more at the sky,
daub a dead man ochre. Bake bread
for the first time. Look intently at a face. Sing
a child softly to sleep. For the first time
hold someone else’s hand tight
feel the strength of the agreement. That we are together.
A single organism. The whole species
we carry within us. We are saving it inside us.

To that grasp of a palm
in another person’s palm
to that simple act that we are now forbidden –
we will return with expanded awareness.
We’ll be here, more attentive, I think. Our hand
will be more delicate in the doing of life.
Now that we know how sad it is
to stand one meter apart.

My friends at La Dispenza del Podere in Rome

Bologna - Centro Storico

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

Gambit - Subscribe for New Orleans Food, Culture, and Life

"Would you email me quote about what Gambit means to you?" publisher Jeanne Foster asked me after I subscribed recently (her email under the story).

The Gambit provides exactly what it promises - news, events calendar, film, music, food, drink, lifestyle, design/decor, free  and fun stuff, info for tickets to just about everything going on in the city (during the pandemic hardly anything).

My response...

Hello Jeanne, 

In response to your request, I started sending you a quote about what the Gambit means to me and this is what happened as I thought about it.

Especially now, I want to feel the energy of New Orleans and its people.

In 2008, I asked a girlfriend, born and raised in Baton Rouge, to take me there for a long weekend. “Honey, if we go, we’re not going for a few days, we’re going for two weeks!” Sort of like the analog to Me and Bobby McGee but instead of singing every song that we knew to that trucker, she took me to every good place that she knew from Tipitina’s to a favorite restaurant in Lake Charles to Phil Brady’s and her sisters' homes in Baton Rouge to the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette and the reknowned Whiskey River Landing (that sadly closed in August 2018) in Henderson. I've written about all of these places.

“I haven’t been the same man since,” I’ve joked with her. It’s no understatement. That the trip changed the course of my life (subject for another story). I’ve visited NOLA and SW Louisiana scores of time since then. 

I’ve seen the struggle New Orleans has been going through since the storm. I have a sense of what is  being lost as New Orleans gets to its new normal. The forces of the tourist industry aiming to make New Orleans a tourist destination and the struggle of neighborhoods like the Marigny and Tremé losing the battle with gentrification and resulting dislocation of generations of the people who represent the core of New Orleans spirit, have consequences.

So what keeps holding it together? Music and everything associated with it, musicians, second lines, the recharging value until recently of Satchmo Summerfest (that I’ve witnessed several times) and French Quarter Festival (which i have not witnessed…yet) and the street performers and buskers of just about every type that are like cultural musical fairy dust sprinkled over street corners in the  French Quarter day and night. And in spite of the harshness of trying to make a living with limited resources, the unfailing open hearted friendliness of everyday people I encounter on street trolleys, casual conversations with taxi drivers or hotel workers or on street  corners in the French Quarter or buskers on Frenchmen Street, represent New Orleans in style and substance.

What else? The still strong bond that keep families together through thick and thin, held together by food, music, love, and fish fries and crawfish boils in back yards or sidewalks that have been going on for as long as anyone can remember. All of it is elusive to define but like the smell of frying catfish and wafts of aromatic smoke from the grill and the smell of your clothes after you’ve spent a few hours hanging out on a stoop or your camp chair or maybe even the couch that someone drug out of their living room and plunked on the sidewalk for the occasion...that's the spirit of New Orleans

My friends from Lafayette took me to the Krewe de Vieux Mardi Gras parade in the French Quarter in 2019, the most recent visit. I don't have to tell you about the wonderfully outrageous creative decidedly non politically correct satire - and the throws to match - floating around the corner and on to Frenchmen Street.

Full of contradictions, New Orleans has the nation’s highest official poverty rate (18.6%) among the 50 largest metropolitan areas  according to the 2017 census. Admittedly I see only part of the city and base everything I’m saying on my limited experience. What if it were possible to determine richness in terms of spirit or attitude or determination to keep on keeping on despite income? I don’t know. I don’t want to be Pollyanna-ish about it to diminish its effect on New Orleanians. I guess what I’m thinking is that there’s a difference between poverty in dollars and poverty in spirit.

The New Orleans in my limited experience is rich in spirit.

I never tire of telling friends about New Orleans and SW Louisiana.

Jeanne this was my first impression of New Orleans on our trip August 6, 2008

https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2008/08/bourbon-street-to-jackson-square-the-many-faces-of-new-orleans-french-quarter.html

I intended to send you a short response to why I read Gambit. Not possible. Every time I read that story in the link, I get a  flashback to a memory impressed like a watermark on my Yankee psyche. It makes me happy, no small achievement these days, and pine for the day I can return.

Writing this response was great therapy in this time of pandemic, staying indoors as per the state orders didn’t mean i was prohibited from takin’ ride down to New Orleans. 

Be safe

My heart goes out to Louisianans suffering from COVID-19

Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

xxxxx

           Dear Gambit Community,

I wanted to send a note, thanking you for becoming a Gambit Community Member and  /or Adopting-a-Small Business.  My inbox is always open to your ideas on what you would like to see in Gambit (in print and online), I take your feedback to heart.

 

GAMBIT has been a staple in many New Orleanians’ lives for almost 40 years, and I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to work alongside talented journalists, creative designers and brilliant marketing professionals to bring journalism and entertainment news to our readers for more than 18 of those years.

 

This month we are trying to reach 1,000 new members, please help us share this campaign on social media and invite your friends and family to support local journalism too.

 

Also, if you would like to email me a quote on what Gambit means to you, I would love to publish it in an upcoming edition.

 

Thank you again for your support and stay safe,

 

 Jeanne

Jeanne Exnicios Foster

Publisher

Gambit 

xxxx

RESPONDING TO THIS REQUEST below, this my mini campaign to support New Orleans by suggesting you get a splash of New Orleans goings on  and support journalism in the time of pandemic. Journalism was on shaky ground even before the pandemic. If you'd like to support one of the main outlets trumpeting the range of the city's goings on and the spirit infused in it, consider signing up to become a Community Reader for $5.00/month. That's what I did.

What Day Is It?

It's taken me three weeks to get used to feeling unmoored to daily schedule. I have to check my iPhone to figure out what day of the week it is. I can tell if it's day or night, refine that to morning or afternoon by looking outside. I need a schedule or I feel like I'm trying to hold water in my hands. I tune into Governor Andrew "FDR" Cuomo every morning for a dose of facts from a man with command of them, a sense of empathy aimed at New Yorkers, the elderly, the entire medical community, neighboring Governors of New Jersey and Connecticut,  the Federal government when applicable, and clearly separates the facts from his opinion. The whole country tunes in for his daily fireside chat.

I need a sense of structure and routine each day to counter a world out of control just outside my door...so, I ...

• play whatever appeals to me from a pile of CDs I haven't listened to in ages... classical (Claude Debussy's "Images 1894, Series I, II),Glenn Gould's "Back Goldberg Variations" recorded in 1955); Jazz (The Modern Jazz Quartet (Lonely Woman 1987), Bill Evans "Conversations With Myself" 1963); Django Reinhart (Jazz Masters 38); Opera (Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheoghiu "Duets and Arias").

• reconcile months and months of my checkbook

• finish at least one household task on my long to do list

• look out the window

• let a day go by doing not much of anything

• improvise the day's meals with an ever diminishing supply of food in cupboard, fridge and freezer

• learn how to order groceries online (still feels so strange)

• get lost in youtube rabbit holes

• download Zoom to talk with a bunch of friends, make sure i shave and have a decent backdrop for the session

• wash my hands

• worry about running out of toilet paper

• get over feeling like a Martian on the rare times I go to the market and wear my mask

• steer clear of others in the one way aisles in the market

• obsessively worry about how to wipe down every damn thing from the grocery store

• have a staging area just inside the door before taking anything inside

• appreciate silence

• take a walk every night around midnight

MIDNIGHT RAMBLES: Not a sound outside, nothing, no cars, no people, the silence is unsettling and eerie.

 

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

The Pandemic: You Gotta Have Heart

April 5, 2020

As far back as The Plague of 1348, art was created in some form or another to counter grim reality.  Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron, with ten stories that ranged from witty to bawdy,during the plague in Italy. Any way to keep the plague at bay. Today we're emailing friends, long lost or near and dear. It's diversion, but more important, it's gathering our friends around a figurative communal campfire.

In the Art vs Virus department, my neighbors are putting up a fight. As the song goes, "You Gotta Have Heart."

They're displaying teddy bears and rainbows in their windows. We need to be amused, consoled, but more than anything, feel a sense of community.  Just the search for something to display made me feel good...ended up hanging Mardi Gras beads on my front porch and displaying a goofy puppet of Santa Claus in the front window. I was in my '"we're all in this together" mode.

Taking a page from Boston's Sidewalk Sam of yore, my neighbor ordered a bucket of chalk and drew radiant rainbow hearts on every section. Aside from a trip to the grocery or drug store, a walk around the neighborhood is one of our only options in the Stay Home reality. That sidewalk was the show for several days. It took two days of rain to erase the chalk. The joy I felt after seeing of those knockout colors and the memory of watching her create the mini masterpiece with her son? It's still there.

Break out the chalk...

   

With a little help from her son...

   

and teaching moments..."I need the yellow chalk now, can you find a piece?"
 

my neighbor lights up the sidewalk...

Use what makes you feel good...for me, Mardi Gras beads I've collected from numerous Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans and Lafayette and a "throw" from (Krewe de Vieux) 2019 Mardi Gras parade on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans; and a goofy puppet of Santa Claus!

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Venus and Trump

During my midnight rambles up the hills in my neighborhood, I walk right up the middle of Palfrey Street.  The Stay at home mandate = no cars = less pollution overhead. Watertown is right under jet flyway routes leaving Logan Airport. Not now.

I have never seen Venus this bright in the evening sky.

Why such a clear sky?

The Editorial Board of the Boston Globe shed light on the subject.  Virus or no virus, we’re all in it together as far as the environment is concerned.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Boston Globe Editorial: April 8, 2020

Trump’s team finds new ways to harm our health

Polluters already were enjoying a reduction in enforcement, but the administration keeps on giving. Lawmakers should keep pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency.

Even as the White House bungles its response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration is endangering public health in other ways — by eliminating or undermining protection of our air and water.

It’s bad enough that this is happening during a pandemic outbreak of a respiratory illness, given that air pollution worsens lung disease in general and appears to be having the same effect with COVID-19. But the effects of various rollbacks in pollution standards could linger long after this crisis subsides.

During his time in office, Trump has ransacked the environment so vigorously that advisory boards appointed by his own administration have criticized the administration’s disregard for scientific evidence in its approach to regulating pollution. Last week, the White House finalized a plan to cut vehicle gas-mileage requirements to a degree that was even more extreme than the deregulation sought by several automakers. And yet Trump and Andrew Wheeler, the former coal lobbyist who heads the Environmental Protection Agency, keep finding new ways to give industry a pass when it comes to contaminating the environment.

On March 26, the EPA announced that it will refrain from requiring companies, including oil refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities, to monitor and report their discharges of hazardous material if those companies can show that the coronavirus got in the way of such work. As a result, companies that were already enjoying a reduction in the enforcement of pollution rules under Trump now have a new excuse for avoiding responsible stewardship of the air and water. The public is left to hope and pray that companies don’t exploit this moment and instead continue to uphold their obligations to avoid poisoning communities.

Companies that release hazardous pollutants may be keeping many employees home to slow the spread of the virus. But if the facilities are still staffed enough to operate as normal with employees on production lines — as many power plants and petrochemical facilities are — they should be able to keep looking for leaks, testing emissions, and reporting discharges, says Eric Schaeffer, who formerly directed civil enforcement at the EPA and now heads the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group.

Schaeffer argues that the EPA didn’t have to deviate so far from the process it usually follows when natural disasters or pipeline breaks force companies out of compliance with environmental rules: The agency writes specific, short-term waivers. But this EPA didn’t put a time limit on its COVID-19 policy. Companies are instead urged to “return to compliance as quickly as possible.”

Perhaps it seems there’s some margin for environmental error now, with overall air pollution way down as stay-at-home advisories keep people out of their cars. But that’s not true for the employees and neighbors of big industrial facilities. “If you’re living next to a smelter, or a metal-finishing operation, or a refinery, it’s business as usual for them. They could be putting out stuff that’s pretty nasty,” Schaeffer says. And those toxins are very likely to go undetected if the companies stop monitoring what they’re putting into the air and water. “The problem with most pollutants is that they don’t have color, they don’t have taste, they don’t have sound,” he says.

To put it another way: If industrial facilities can’t say whether they’re operating safely, maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to operate at all.

RELATED: Editorial: Don't let Trump poison the air

Overturning some of Trump’s most damaging environmental policies, especially ones related to global warming, will require voters to throw him out of office. But it’s still worth trying to persuade the administration to rethink the pollution-monitoring holiday and other unhealthy policies it’s formulating. Six senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, asked the EPA last week to halt “several proposals that would likely have a negative impact on air quality and public health.” These proposals cover, among other things, the allowable amounts of mercury, methane, and coal ash in the environment.

Such requests could make a difference, even now.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the EPA was in a hurry to sharply reduce the influence of public-health studies on environmental regulations. Wheeler has been claiming, disingenuously, that epidemiological research is insufficiently transparent unless its raw data, including individual medical records, are publicly released. Wheeler and his Republican allies know full well that releasing such data could be unethical or illegal, and their real goal is to discredit the studies.

In March, the EPA opened up a relatively brief 30-day window for public comment on this insidious proposal; nearly 24,000 comments have come in. But in light of the disruption caused by COVID-19, critics asked for more time to respond and the EPA extended the comment period to May. Anyone concerned about the intimate connection between the environment and our health should be sure to weigh in.

In the meantime, Congress should keep the heat on the EPA to continue enforcing the nation’s pollution rules amid the pandemic. Public health depends on it.

Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. /iPhone 11 Pro

Hilary Sallick Poetry: Asking The Form

 Hilary Sallick’s web site is one of the cleanest, most seamless, easily navigated, and transparently spirited that I have seen in a long time. Then there’s the matter of content, graphic and literary, and how it is demonstrated.  In her new collection, Asking The Form, her concept of using audio clips to read her poems embedded in the site is brilliant. How often do you get a sense of content and the author in the same moment? The result makes an indelible impression that, like the puffy parachutes of a milkweed pod, can float in your memory for a languorously long time.

The photographs of her on the site evoke an image, a notion, of the woman behind the stanzas, from whom the words were created, formed, rewritten, reformed and finally hammered into print. A friend recommended her previous collection, Winter Roses, a collection of poems and  vignettes that capture mystery and wonder. Most are constructed like an artist's still life, a moment in time to be savored. It's unusual for vignettes to be included in a work of poetry but Sallick's vignettes have the same balance of opacity and specificity as her poems.

The three poems from her new collection, Asking The Form, are reproduced on her web site, with the benefit of her reading them aloud. Her poetry is more about flow, mood, and reflective observation than meter, rhyme, and stanzaic structure.

Writers like Sallick elevate events so ordinary in our own lives that we don't register them. After reading Winter Roses, I was more conscious of the mini dramas occurring all around me, in the street, cafés, and subways. For Sallick, they are her palette. The colors she chooses give us a glimmer of the woman forging the words.

The book cover, Paul Cézanne's portrait of Gustave Geffroy, a subject of one of her poems, is a metaphor for her own style. As in Cézanne's portrait, the viewer/reader is left to fill in unfinished or suggested elements with their own experience.

As a teacher, artist, poet, woman, human being with the antennae to absorb her surroundings, she transforms uniquely personal experience into moments that readers can relate to, and feel resonate internally like a tuning fork, with moments we’ve experienced ourselves.

Such is poetry, the compact art form that, in a few stanzas, can illuminate, resonate, uplift, affirm, and manage to be mysterious and comprehensible all in the same layered moment.

 

Andrew Cuomo: Let’s ‘Kick Coronavirus’s Ass’

Andrew Cuomo: Let’s ‘Kick Coronavirus’s Ass’

There's a reason Maureen Dowd had won a Pulitzer Prize: Here she is writing in the New York Times about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/sunday/cuomo-new-york-coronavirus.html?smid=em-share

My unedited response a minute after reading it.

I laughed, i cried. Since the first time I saw him do a briefing in early March, I tune into TV around noon every day to watch, to listen to him minister to the country with FACTS, a command of numbers and what they mean and portend, pride for his state and its willingness to take on his proposals to collectively manage the unthinkable and flashes of humor that defuse tension.

His personal stories about mother or his “Cara is that true?” questions to his 22 yo daughter sitting at the rear of the room show a mix of paternal pride and his ability to have a big tent mind-set to collect facts from all quarters and put them to work in policies. I guess what that’s the kind of positive bullying that Maureen Dowd talks about.

Her reporting on Cuomo, mixing anecdotes, quotes, reporting about his bullying ways, with references to his father who he sounds and talks so much like, made her comparisons to Trump factual and not polemic. No question that the governor is a driven man but I like the road he’s driving down.

Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote, “There is no road…walking makes the road.”  That’s Cuomo. He’s walking the walk.

NOTE

You can watch his press briefings on youtube

Louisiana: New Orleans to Lafayette in Crisis

Dispatches In A Time Of A Keep Your Distance Stay Home Pandemic

March 29, 2020

Louisiana, especially New Orleans, is getting crushed by  COVID-19. I was introduced to New Orleans and southwest Louisiana in 2009. The experience changed my life. Check the "Louisiana" archives on this page.

My born-and-bred Baton Rouge guide loved knew just about every good place to eat, dance, and see some history every mile down I-10 from New Orleans to Lafayette. She taught me how to pronounce words a Yankee would never ever get right if he said them like they were spelled (or could pronounce in the first place). I learned how to dance to Cajun and zydeco music, tasted exotic (to me) foods boudin, gumbo, jambalaya, alligator, shrimp grits and gravy,po'boys (dressed!), andouille, crawfish étoufée, muffuletta for starters.

From 2009 till last February, I've met some of the friendliest, most welcoming people on the planet. I've visited Lafayette scores of times since my first visit in 2009. It was named the happiest city in the USA in 2014. Based on my most recent visit with dear friends in February, that hasn't changed much.

Last Saturday, I sat in front of my computer and tuned into a Zoom party organized to give all of us required to stay indoors a lift and put some money in a tip jar for the Lafayette musicians whose performance fans from southwest Louisiana, both coasts and lord knows where else watched.

Like everyone else, I've been watching the COVID-19 numbers in Louisiana getting larger and larger. I am praying all my friends are safe and stay healthy.

A few days ago, I sent this image with the note, "To all my Louisiana friends...sending positive energy and luminous love your way..."

We can't have dinners or dance together but there's comfort in staying connected with Zoom and Skype and text until we get to the other side of this.

 

 

Robin Redbreast Chirps..."Play Ball!"

Robin Redbreast Chirps..."Play Ball!"

Dispatches In A Time Of A Keep Your Distance Stay Home Pandemic

March 28, 2020

Chirrup, chirrup...

The gate to the track was locked. I headed for home.

I stopped in my tracks when I heard that familiar chirp. A flood of memories ensued. Since I was a kid, seeing, and especially hearing, robins had been a sure sign that Spring had arrived.

Time to take my trusty leather Rawlings baseball glove out of the closet, oil it up, put a baseball in the glove's 'pocket' and stuff it under the mattress to form the shape I wanted. No matter that playing in the field across the street a couple of weeks after the snow finally melted meant wear an extra layer of sweater and sacrifice a pair of sneakers for the next couple of weeks, mud season. The field was still squishy, the grass hadn't even begun to green up. The leather baseball we agreed to sacrifice felt like a shotput by the time a game was finished. Nevermind that in early Saturday morning games you could see your breath. We were playing baseball!

As the years passed, the field appeared to get smaller as we got bigger. Hitting a homer was no longer a prodigious feat but watching the ball carry across the street and into the woods was still a major satisfaction

Standing in front of that locked gate, it was comforting to let the childhood memory envelop me. I felt the contours of the glove on my hand, the camaraderie of boys immersed in play, the smell of the soaked grass underfoot…a wonderful time travel moment, consoling and momentarily freeing from the exigencies of life in this moment in time.

Today, the threat of COVID-19 has closed every park in town. The robins thank god are not under order to stay in their nests. A few chirps was all it took to take me back to a simpler time, when all I had to worry about was being on time for dinner and keeping my beloved baseball glove oiled and ready.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/baseballs-glove-man-77865726/

Sign Of The Times

March 24, 2020

State and local lockdown...unprecedented measures, themes of science fiction become reality.

Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Puccini in a Tshirt

Dispatches In A Time Of A Keep Your Distance Stay Home Pandemic

March 24, 2020

One of my favorite tenors, Roberto Alagna, in jeans and T shirt,in rehearsal with with wife Aleksandra Kurzak, sing "Vogliatemi bene" for Puccini's Madam Butterfly..totally blew me away, watching the singers and orchestra, dressed more like Saturday afternoon in the back yard, sing and play some serious stuff.Their was nothing held back in the singing or orchestra and an occasional outburst of playfulness, some mugging by the two stars, that was amazingly refreshing.

I'm playing the chorus...opera in a T shirt and jeans...a mind boggling way to see how art is created.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tpVBbZtak8

and in concert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCx9dMn6pE

LitHub: A Literary Lifeline In A Time of Pandemic

Dispatches In A Time Of A Keep Your Distance Stay Home Pandemic :LitHub - A Literary Lifeline In A Time of Pandemic

March 22, 2020

State of mind...

Desperate is not the right word but it's in the ballpark playing left field with pandemic in center and stay at home in right. Reminds me of Abbot and Costello's Who's On First. For me, a sense of humor these days is a necessity to balance anxiety, fear, and walking in the dark. So is music, subject for another day.

Today's life ring for the waters I'm bobbing around in...literature. If reading is one of your things, LitHub is a godsend. Sign up and you  get an email with links to several stories a day. You can cherry pick ones that look appealing or just click into unknown territory.

Another cool thing. Every email starts with an image captioned TODAY and a piece of literary trivia.

I need information and balance. A dose of fear, anxiety, and social responsibility keeps me 6 feet away from anyone else on my daily walks. To be honest, I wouldn't have latched on so appreciatively to this literary link in non pandemic times. I embrace this link and literature today more than I probably should have in my years at St. Michael's college.

If you're of a certain age, required to grasp the cultural references, here's a start that might perk you up.

Go to https://lithub.com/  , scroll down right side column to SUBSCRIBE TO THE LITHUB DAILY, ENTER YOUR EMAIL

I spent two weeks in Rome,Tuscany, Milan in July, before the contagion. When I saw this photo for the poem on the March 23 Lit Hub, I knew where it was from.

 

A Virtual Dance Party...Boston to Lafayette

March 20, 2020

COVID-19 has closed down gatherings of more than 5, 10, 25  depending on your source. No contact closer than 6 feet, stay close to home. For sure, no public dancing.

I needed a dance fix.

8:00 PM
Text my friends Bernard and Rubia in Lafayette. 
“Put on your dancing shoes, The Revelers are in the CD rack, we’re gonna have a party in our kitchens!”

“Call us in 15, we’re finishing dinner.”

8:15 PM
Sent them a set list of 4 songs. A brief phone conversation about logistics ensues. "We’re going to connect a cell phone to a little boom box on the counter," they say. They are all in.

8:20 PM
Crank up the volume on the speakers in my kitchen.
Dial Lafayette on my cell phone.
Cue up the music… whoop and holler dancing around the stools around my kitchen table as if they were other dancers crammed into the tiny dance floor at The Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette. I'm in the moment in my own alternate reality, feel the energy of the crowd, imagine the band on the stage about two feet above the dance floor, the musicians taking turns with their solos and me and my imaginary smiling dance partner in synch, styling away with spontaneously invented moves that draw smiles from the other dancers.
I can hear Bernard and Rubia doing the same thing together in their kitchen.

Our little fais do do finishes with a waltz, often a way the band in a Cajun dance hall ends an evening.

The best dance in Lafayette that night…maybe in all of southwest Louisiana and probably the only one!

Facetime, Zoom, Skype…we’re gonna get creative. We’re not going to miss a beat.
Danses virtuelles, la vague du futur

Based in Lafayette, this band has a national following. These top notch musicians play a mix of Cajun, Zydeco, swamp pop, covers and original material in one of the most musically alive cities in America.

PS

Asked Bernard to tell band members he knows what we just did... could be a wave of the future!

Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

The Back Bay Chorale: The Golden Age of Brass Concert

COVID-19 is a game changer, the world’s pace of life is changing daily. If you’re a music lover as I am, showing up for live concerts and shows is now a no-no.Tonight’s concert is the last one I will attend for a while. My devices are ready to fill the gap. I’ll play my favorites on my phone, laptop, listen to my favorite radio stations, and dance in my kitchen. Music is another game changer, but the best kind for me, a mood enhancer, a psychic salve. I can get lost in song. And I don’t have to wash my hands after listening.

The Back Bay Chorale: The Golden Age of Brass

Saturday March 7, 2020, 8 PM
The Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

A special night for singers, musicians, the crowd, and director Scott Allen Jarrett -A Rich Program Delivers A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

This was no ordinary evening of cultural entertainment. The tide of COVID-19 was rolling in to Boston. The public was skittish. Whether patrons would attend or not was in question. In the days preceding, several public events had been cancelled. When we arrived at 7:15 PM, about fifty people were rattling around in the pews of the historic Emmanuel Church. That’s about 500 people short of its capacity. Not encouraging.

You could see the relief on their faces at precisely 8 PM when the performers filed onto the stage. About 300 patrons awaited them. The loyalists in the pews knew the score, not the one on the pages of the performers' song books but the chance that this would have been a major (but understandable, considering the circumstances) disappointment for the 110 singers in the chorale, plus the six soloists, and the six musicians with period style instruments in hand, if the audience had stayed home.

The reception was not lost on esteemed conductor Scott Allen Jarrett. Visibly moved, he stepped down into the aisle on level with the first row, hands clasped, and delivered his own solo of heartfelt gratitude. Ardent supporters had showed up for the Chorale. He was aware that tonight there could have been more people on the stage than in the audience. It was a poignant moment.

In another departure, Jarrett took the time to give us a tutorial on tonight's program, "The Golden Age of Brass" that featured the music of Giovanni Gabrielli (1553-1612), Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672).

“The late 17th century composers wrote some of the richest pieces in the canon. I love their work. They added new techniques to older tradition to enrich choral singing, they are not played as often as they deserve to be and we’re thrilled to perform them for you tonight.” Their collective creativity introduced contrapuntal technique and fused Italian and north German musical and concerto styles.

I am familiar with the Italian names Monteverdi and Gabrielli thanks to my Saint Michael's College professor Dr. William Tortolano  The Germans Schütz and Schein not so much. They all made stirring polyphonic music. (By the way, Dr. Tortolano, at 90, "still practices on the organ at Saint Michael's when the priests are not looking!")

Sitting in a semi-circular pocket in the midst of the chorus was the early instrument sextet, Dark Horse Consort. The sextet plays three sackbuts (early trombones), two cornetti (early trumpets), keyboard and a strange looking theorbo (a plucked string instrument of the lute family). The small grouping of brass and strings was calibrated to undergird the chorale and soloists with just enough instrumentation to be heard, not overwhelm, and add a soft brass layer to the chorale. The aptly named cornetti were so small they looked like a children’s instrument (but certainly didn't sound like ones).

Add the 110 member chorus, three female and three male soloists who could blow out candles on a birthday cake at ten paces and you got a glorious sound that filled the acoustically perfect Emmanuel Church with music that was divine.

Choral, even classical music, are becoming less played and performed as a host of rich popular music takes over the airwaves. It took my ears a few minutes to become accustomed to it. Soon, I felt myself settling into the warm curve of the 150 year old sturdy burnished oak pew in the venerable church. I was transported into a world of long ago when the sounds of voices in harmony and a few brass and stringed instruments could transport you a little closer to a world you imagined you would some day inhabit.

 Ready to perform...

As the chorale settles into their places, conductor Scott Allen Jarrett delivers an impromptu heartfelt thanks to the audience for showing up...

and an explanation of why tonight's music is special to him and why it was chosen...

A standing ovation...Well done!

Artistic Consultant Justin Blackwell and Artistic Director Scott Allen Jarrett

Stained glass window, back of church, behind the pews

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Sonny Landreth Slides Into Somerville

Sonny Landreth
February 25, 2020
Once, a theater space in Somerville, MA

Sonny Landreth… you not going to see a more spectacular display of slide guitar virtuosity for a long time.

The silver bottleneck on his pinky flashed as fleetingly as a shooting star as he nimbly rode it up and down every inch of the guitar’s neck, caressing, thrashing, plucking every inch with jaw dropping riffs, his hands inches apart from the bottom of the neck of his Resonator and the throat of the guitar body. Mesmerizing.

The blues he played in the first half of his set was lyrically drop dead beautiful and played with the atmospherics that few players can emulate. Not much body language, the man just sat there, whaled away with alternating finger fast slides and achingly slow holds to caress one note. Gasps were audible, some of them mine. His percussionist and rhythm guitar player were on stage but all eyes were on Sonny.

Long gray hair flowing straight down to his shoulders, faded shirt and jeans, he looked more like a geek at the back of a computer store. When he sat on a wooden chair and made that guitar sound like the sound track to a rocket to heaven or a slow decent into the blue room in hell, the rest of the outside world simply disappeared from consciousness. For many, he ascended a throne for the next 45 minutes.

Sonny got into an instrumental run for the second half of his set. As brilliantly as he played, my ears got used to the unremitting genius of his playing and longed for another killer blues song to complement his playing. The full house at Once Theater in Somerville didn’t seem to mind.

You’re gonna have to go some to find virtuoso slide guitar playing like this. In the spirit of Mardi Gras, which was today, he played a zippy Zydeco song with so much zap that a few couples found enough space to dance in the corner.

He’s on the road with Long Tall Marcia Ball. There, my friends, is a double bill of Louisiana music that has more energy than a bomb hurricane.

Photo, videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Amy Kucharik Lights Up The Burren Backroom Concert Series

The Burren

247 Elm St, Somerville, MA 02144

February 20, 2020

Give Amy Kucharik a couple of spoons and a wooden box top and she could entertain a crowd in front of a WalMart in Anyplace, USA. Give her a ukulele and a few talented musicians and she can, and did, entertain a full house in The Back Room at The Burren in Somerville tonight.

Singer/songwriter is a feeble way to think about what she does. She's a master of the ukulele for starters. "I like to learn new things," she says as she picks up a guitar, adjusts the capo to set it in ukelele range and sings one of her original songs. That's after she's accompanied herself with a harmonica and some righteous foot stomping. And what you have to hear to believe, a kind of humming she calls mouth harping that sounds like a trumpet with a kazoo for a mouthpiece. Your jaw will drop the first time you hear this. Delightful.

The woman loves music that tells stories. She pitches them to us with a bit of their history, a personal anecdote, a bit of philosophizing, and natural sense of humor (some delightfully at her own expense). Several songs are from her 2018 album "Until The Words Are Gone" (original songs) and a few from her 2014 "Cunning Folk" album (more original songs!).

A nod from Amy, and Shazam!  ...her regular crew of sax, keyboard, and standup bass players tattoo the song's intent, from lyrical to raucous, in a six lane highway spanning blues, punchy 1920s/30s ragtime  jazz, folk, pop, and country, with show-stopping energy that elicit spontaneous applause from us, and grins from her band mates.

The Amy Kucharik partisans in the crowd were treated to Amy at her best, haunting, jaunty, and humorous...this is why you come to hear live music.

A light - hearted moment, one of many tonight...

Jeremy Valadez - saxophone; Michael Valdez - keys; Greg Toro - upright bass; Leo Ciarametaro - drums, all of 'em on an intuitive roll with solo after solo built on what each has just heard. On both sides of the stage, we know something special is happening.

Down Hearted Blues, a 1922 classic written by Alberta Hunter and Lovie Austin - Amy sings and plays, the band kills it with inspired solos, note Amy's inventive 'mouth harp" at around the 4 minute mark.

Knock down blues....oh, my...blues dancers and listeners delight, Amy and the band are in a serious groove covering Lil Green's 1940 "Romance In the Dark," written by Big Bill Broonzy, revered for its smoky hues and covered by scores of artists. You'd have to go some to find a cover that does it more justice. .

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

The Burren Backroom Series is hosted by WUMB. FM, Boston, tonight's MC Perry Persoff.

 

Arianna Huffington's Time to Thrive

Ten minutes well worth your time... it made me late to pick up dinner as I listened to the last few minutes of the radio program.

 

I recognized the sound of the woman's voice, the accent, and couldn't identify who it belonged to. Next day, I found a link to the program on the internet thanks to a helpful woman at WGBH radio.

 

https://mastersofscale.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/mos-episode-transcript_-arianna-huffington.pdf

 

The topic is entrepreneurship. As a retired elementary school teacher, it would seem to have little to do with me...except it turns out to it have everything to do with how I organize my life, manage time, and sensibly carve out a sense of well being on a daily basis.

 

Reid Hoffman’s questions and Arianna Huffington’s responses in the transcript are fascinating. It took a life crisis to inspire Huffington to leave Huffington Post and launch Thrive Global in 2016. A research wonk, she found that 75% of healthcare causes and healthcare problems are stress-related and preventable. 

 

Wellness, enough sleep, corporate culture...would never appear in the same sentence before Thrive came along.

 

"Thrive is about only one thing (this Forbes interview explains Huffington's philosophy of managing performance using micro-steps): How do we build our best lives? How do we achieve everything we want without burnout and stress, bringing together ancient wisdom, the latest science, and new role models? " And all do-able since they're micro steps to build habits to reduce stress, improve well-being and maximize productivity." Her own bout with burn-out inspired the vision.

 

I’ve taken her last comment (below) to heart. It has changed my life (ok, a little hyperbole but not far from the truth). Her earlier comment about “prioritize” is a close second.

HUFFINGTON:​​ And wake up in the morning and have a minute, that's another micro step. Take a minute to remember what you are grateful for, set your intention for the day before you go to your phone. Over 70% of people sleep with their phones. The first thing they do is go to their phone. If you think of it, our phone is everybody else's agenda for us. Our bodies are flooded with the cortisol stress hormone before we have even gotten out of bed. These are small changes, small microscopic changes that can have a huge impact. That's what is so wonderful. That's why I'm so optimistic. These are not huge changes. We are not asking people to leave their jobs or move to a Caribbean island."

I guess the last sentence is optional.

The Statue of Liberty: A Closer Look

December 12, 2019

The torch, the crown, the Greco-Roman stylized robe flowing gracefully from Lady Liberty's broad shoulders to her perfectly formed feet, we all know what she represents.  Her powerful arms bearing the torch seem to illuminate the path to a land of possibilities. For over 100 years, the popular narrative is that the Lady is welcoming the "poor huddled masses." Wrong.

Those immigrants may have been immigrating from countries with monarchies, iron clad social strata, and bleak penniless futures. Surely, their eyes were on the Lady, regal, resolute, representing the end and the beginning of their journey...but what about those chains and broken shackles around her beautifully formed toes.

...a Washington Post May, 2019 story  upended just about every idea I had about the The Statue of Liberty. The purpose of the monument, originally developed in France, was to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States, not, as I have believed for years, to welcome the arrival of immigrants.

What happened? Why? Will the original purpose be restored?

The monument was imagined in 1865 by Édouard de Laboulaye , a Frenchman passionate about the cause of freedom. He was an abolitionist, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, and a scholar of the U.S. Constitution. The French Revolution had torn through his country 65 years before that. The emancipation of slaves in America and freedom as a universal right rang a bell for him. He gave epic speeches about freedom and by 1867 floated the idea of creating a commemorative gift that would celebrate importance of the liberation of slaves in America.

The French artist Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi  had proposed a statue resembling Lady Liberty for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. His idea was rejected.  Bartholdi recalled that Édouard de Laboulaye had proposed in 1865 that a monument representing freedom and democracy be created for the United States. Thus began a 16-year campaign of fund-raising and politicking by these two enterprising Frenchmen.

By 1884 Bartholdi had completed the statue in France. In 1886 he oversaw the statue's reassembly on Bedloe's Island, an outcropping in New York harbor that he saw on one of his fund raising trips to America and immediately envisioned as its placement (6 years before the nearby Ellis Island became a gateway to America).

Immediately after the statue's dedication, the Black Press pushed back. Racism, discrimination, and segregation persisted.  The two Frenchmen's ideal was heartfelt, perhaps propelled by projected wishes for an end of the monarchy in their own country. For African-Americans, it was a bitter pill to swallow. Still is.

The new Statue of Liberty Museum in New York harbor will surprise, shock is not too strong a word, most visitors. Forget the plaque with the Emma Lazarus poem — “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — added until 17 years later, in 1903.

The 305-foot statue's original purpose was to celebrate the end of slavery.

In an early model of the statue by the French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi from 1870, Lady Liberty is depicted holding broken chains in her left hand, a clear reference to emancipation. Bartholdi based the statue on the Roman goddess Libertas, who is usually depicted wearing a Phrygian cap, traditionally worn by freed Roman slaves.

In Bartholdi’s final model, the broken chains in the statue’s hand were replaced with a tablet that represented the rule of law. Bartholdi placed the broken shackle and chains beneath Lady Liberty’s feet, making it nearly impossible for visitors to see at most angles.

Above and below: pull-quotes in italics from a May, 2019  New York Times story:

The museum doesn’t shy away from the fact that this symbol of “universal liberty” was far from a reality for people of color and women during the late 19th century and for decades afterward.

That point is highlighted by a quote taken from the African-American-owned Cleveland Gazette, which wrote one month after the statue’s opening, “Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the ‘liberty’ of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and industrious colored man in the South to earn a respectable living for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed.” It also quotes a suffragist pointing out the inconsistency of using a female figure as the face.

The Statue of Liberty...The American Myth or The American Dream?

I had to revise the narrative I've believed for years.

How about you? Pass the story along, the timing is perfect.

xxxxxxx

Photo courtesy of Statue of Liberty Museum

https://libertyellisfoundation.org/statueoflibertymuseum/gallery.html

 

Dennis Stroughmatt: "The Key's In The Mailbox" - A Tribute to Tony Booth

November 27, 2019

“I loved your rendition of ‘Together Again,’ says I to Dennis Stroughmatt.

“You might like this collection of Tony Booth songs I just recorded,” says he.

Looking for a CD to play while boiling water for a pasta dinner, I saw Stroughmatt's face on the cover and without reading the title, racked it into the CD player.

Stroughmatt’s annual show with his band Creole Stomp at The German Club in Pawtucket, RI, draws a full house for his stellar interpretations of old time Louisiana Cajun and Canadian French ballads, waltzes, and frisky two steps.

The man’s a scholar of French Creole music, has been honored at the Kennedy Center, and is as good as it gets for listening and dancing to French Creole music with a vein of the Missouri Ozarks embedded inside it. What I heard on "The Key's In The Mailbox: A Tribute to Tony Booth" blew me away...14 of the most indelible western swing/honky tonk songs you're likely to hear on one album.

Dennis’s stratospheric baritone with its evocative vibrato illuminates every song in his catalog. And here he is in full Ray Price mode…deep country  and a long way from Louisiana.

Stroughmatt’s diaphragm must be made of Kevlar. His clear, resonant register lights a fuse to the lovelorn lyrics that, with his traditional phrasing, shows why old time country music, classic short stories of love and loss, has stood the test of time.

His clarion voice has an edge that would cut through the crowd chatter in any dusty Texas roadhouse then draw them to the dance floor. The baritone that he unleashes with this CD, “The Key’s In The Mailbox A Tribute to Tony Booth,” has the energy of his cajun/creole catalog but more evocative and downright Texas. Forget Price. This is pure Stroughmatt.

Chances are you’ve never heard of Dennis Stroughmatt and, unless you’re a die hard country music fan, of Tony Booth. Tony Booth’s albums were on permanent rotation on Stroughmatt’s father’s turntable when Dennis was a teenager. Booth topped the charts with a slew of hits in the early 1970s. He faded from the charts but he's still belting them out.

Dennis, fiddle in hand, reprises Tony Booth songs that mesmerized him when he was a kid. Tribute? Sort of. More like a gift to a boyhood hero. Stroughmatt picks 14 songs from the Booth archives and kills them. Each one is just under three minutes long, perfect for three-for-a-quarter in a juke box back in the day, and pull on your heart strings and make you yearn to find the nearest hardwood dance floor. There’s probably a verse in every song that you’ve lived yourself.

“Apartment No. 9,” “The Keys In The Mailbox,” Happy Hour,” “Second Fiddle,” I’ve Carried This Torch,” “He Don’t Deserve You Any More,” “Would You Settle For Roses,” Under Your Spell Again,” Cinderella,” …do you need to be told we’re talking heartache? The searing power of his voice reveals hurt and longing.  Its shimmering vibrancy tells you that no matter how strong the winds, the singer is going to weather the storm.

This is a CD of full-boil country swing Texas two-step honky tonk music that you're likely to wear out like Dennis's father wore out that first Tony Booth 33 rpm record back in the 1970s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwXBdnWvWDM

"The Key's In The Mailbox Come On In"...Tony Booth's version of this song got worn out on the Stroughmatt family's record player in the early 1970s...Dennis Stroughmatt does it proud in his tribute to Tony Booth today.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Margaritaville: Where It's Always 5 o'clock

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville
500 Duval Street
Key West, FL 33040
October 23, 2019

I doubt there’s anyone in America who hasn’t heard the song “Wastin’ Away in Margaritaville."  The real deal, Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, is the Queen Bee of Duval Street and a hive of activity from morn till night.  Ol’ Jimmy has parlayed that song into an empire.

Whether they arrived by car or plane or stepped off a humongous cruise ship, the place is humming with tourists. There’s probably not a local in the joint except for the staff.  

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere,” to quote a line from one of Jimmy’s songs…translate, it’s time for a drink. You might not find your lost shaker of salt, but, as I can tell you from experience, you can toss down a first rate Margarita and a ridiculously fabulous burger from a menu that’s easy on the wallet.

2:13 PM, patrons from 28 to 78 are blissfully marinating on island time and the laid back sound trop rock, the kind of music that made Jimmy a millionaire. The only thing missing here at 500 Duval Street is sand and the smell of Coppertone.

Sooner or later, or maybe never, the patrons will find their way to the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy or the Harry S. Truman Little White House or the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum or the wondrous sites in Old Town Key West.

There are some hidden gems and seriously outlandish outposts among the scores of bars on this tiny island.  

Margaritaville is not Cheers, but everybody knows its name.

Hard to walk past 500 Duval Street without hankering for a margarita...

in Jimmy Buffett's place...

for an iconic drink rimmed with salt...

or a first rate cheeseburger...

with Jimmy or the house parrot looking over your shoulder...

and people from all walks of life...

enjoying the food...

and since this is the annual Fantasy Fest time, body paint artists just inside the door here and in stores up and down the street, are busy all day long

and a sense of humor reigns supreme...

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Songs Of Our Native Daughters: Attuned to history

Songs of Our Native Daughters


Featuring Rhiannon Giddens,(banjo, fiddle, vocals), Amythyst Kiah (guitar, vocals), Leyla McCalla (banjo, cello, vocals), Allison Russell (banjo, clarinet, vocals)


Tonight: Jason Sypher (standup bass), Jamie Dick (drums), Francesco Turrisi (piano, accordion)
Anderson Hall
, 205 South Main Street, Wolfeboro, NH


July 27, 2019

Pride and pain. These daughters don’t let you forget for one minute the pride and pain of the female black experience. In the pride department, they make damn sure you realize that the banjo, that many think of as the quintessential American instrument, is a descendant of gourd fashioned into a string instrument used by Africans long before the painful ascent of slavery. And the fact that their female ancestors endured beatings, rape, separations from kin, and survived, endured, and passed their resilience along to their daughters. The CD of the same name is a statement album. So was this show tonight.

Their set at Anderson Hall was electrifying. The songs, largely from their album "Songs of our Native Daughters", mine historic sources and define the group’s mission to reclaim, actually rejoice in, the stories of their forebears. The four musicians collaborated to work on songs whose lyrics are often third rail subject matter they sourced from troves of archives.

Even the most jolting of them, "Mama’s Cryin’ Long", reinforces strength and resolve. I don’t know how they managed to stitch together such gut-wrenching material in a way that levitates rather than depresses. They’re aiming for an emotional kick to wake you up, to open your white mind/heart to history that matters to them and they want, no, need, you to know about it.

The singing tonight is democratically shared, sometimes solo, often accompanied by one or many others and always with emotional grit. Their personal chemistry, forged over 12 days of composing in a cabin outside Lafayette, LA, as they created their album, bubbles, floats, and penetrates the hall. Voices? Distinct, passionate, charged with the particles of interpretation of historic sources that resonate inside their individual souls. The instruments in their hands are extensions of their inner spirits. When Leyla McCalla switches to cello, (3 minute mark at Newport Folk Festival the day after this show, 7-28-19), it brings an odd but effective European mix to the sound.

The women haven’t chosen popular chestnuts to sing. They’ve delved into 17th, 18th, and 19th century sources. In the spirit of singer songwriters the world over, they’ve re-interpreted old songs or created new songs from the original sources, and filtered them through personal experience. Tonight they’ve given this 98% white audience way up in Wolfeboro, NH, a window into history from a lens rarely so completely focused on their point of view. If there's a note on the music scale between affirmative and righteous, these women are singing in that key all night long.

When they charge into the joyous finale, "Up Above My Head, I Hear Music In The Air," they loosen up in an explosion of dance with Allison Russell swaying in her own mighty cloud of joy.

Foot stomping, hand clapping, banjo plucking, all had the ring of a front porch in the rural south or before that of a clearing in sub-Saharan Africa.

Music is the most soulful way to unearth and honor our various ethnic histories. "Songs Of Our Native Daughters" is a gem in that tradition.

Bringing down the spirit...

Standing ovation...

"Polly Ann's Hammer"...you may have heard of her husband, John Henry. The group's joyful creative energy feels like its shot from a cannon primed with pride, pain, sorrow and commitment. They want the songs to make this mostly white audience not just tap our feet but to see though the window of history from which the lyrics were born. History has always been taught through music. These daughters make sure we get the point.

"Black Myself"

Grand Finale: "Up Above My Head, I Hear Music In The Air," popularized by legendary singer/guitar player Sister Rosetta Tharpe in 1947...gospel leaning toward early rock 'n roll, Rhiannon Giddens, Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla, and Amythyst Kiah are clearly the metaphorical daughters of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose story so clearly represents the strength and resolve of the women they are channeling tonight.

Up above our heads, I can feel the spirits of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Polly Ann Henry, and countless nameless heroines of the women on stage joining hands and shouting jubilant hallelujahs to their sisters on stage below.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/23/white-people-are-so-fragile-bless-em-rhiannon-giddens-banjo-warrior-cambridge-folk-festival

 

Photos, videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

25th Annual Ride for ALS: Part 3 Photos, Videos

25th Annual Fund Raising Bike Ride for ALS

Ride to Defeat ALS, September 22, 2019

The Longfellow Health Club,  524 Boston Post Rd, Wayland, MA 01778

"I Ride For Nanna"...

This pretty much summarizes the spirit of the day. Every one of the 305 riders carried the name of someone with ALS in their hearts or written on their bibs.Whether they rode the 70 mile ride (7 AM), the 50 mile ride (8:30 AM), the 25 mile ride (10 AM) or the 10 mile Family Ride (11 AM), they rode with purpose and the intent to end the scourge of ALS.  ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease, was identified in 1869. We have found cures for cancer. ALS...not yet.

An 'orphan disease' is defined as a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people nationwide. Approximately 5000 men and women are diagnosed with ALS every year. In 2018, an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the United States. It doesn’t take much math to see why ALS is considered an “orphan disease” and offers drug companies less incentive to fund research. Trust me, the researchers digging in to find a cure are as relentless as the disease in their work.

Despite the nature of this brutal disease that renders the body incapable of voluntary movement and eventually ability to speak, eat, move, and even breathe, the mood today was incongruously celebratory.

Out of the 365 days of the year, this was one day in which people dealing with ALS could smile, feel good, have a lighter heart precisely because of a manifest sense of togetherness and commonality of purpose, a tribe on the warpath to defeat ALS, here to raise money to find a cure and support the MA Chapter programs to care for their Nana’s, neighbors, fathers, mothers, colleagues...the list goes on.  The money raised today has a number. The spirits raised today is incalculable. The Ride to Defeat ALS puts the rubber on the road and galvanizes hope and action with this one day fund raiser.

Registration and Participant Center FAQs

Before, during, after...everything you need to know about the day's rides, plus fees and fund raising requirement FAQs here.

The 10 mile family ride assembles at 11 AM...

25th Anniversary Ride!

Mission accomplished for this day... researchers and care-givers resume their work tomorrow.

Carol Ranson, Myke Farricker, DJ Mr. Jonathan

Myke Farricker and a contingent of Rude Boys who rode in memory of  Pete "Wheels" Farricker

The 10 mile ride is sent on their way...

Team Hope...

Team Hope members in their blue shirts were all over the place today. So were AppleFriends4ALS, Team Roy, Dalpe's Victory Crusaders, Spirit Team, Wheels for Welchie, Mitch's Marauders, Johnny's Reply, Biogen Rolling Clones, and George's Team and a score more.

Special Events Coordinator and Myke Farricker (co-owner of The Longfellow Health Club) after sending off the 10 Mile ride

The Rude Boys raised $10,000 in honor of Pete "Wheels" Farricker, a member of the world champion Ultimate Frisbee Team

Ride founders Paul Tamburello and Myke Farricker with Special Events Coordinator Ashley Corbin

MA Chapter E.D. John Hedstrom, Special Events Coordinator Ashley Corbin

A hug from Dad...

Channel 5 Cindy Fitzgibbon, today's MC, opens the program

Food and beverages tent busy all day long

Motorcycles! A NEW 40 Mile motorcycle route that will leave from the Longfellow Health Club at 10:30 AM, and should take about 1 hour and 15 minutes to ride.

Revved up and ready to ride...a great new tradition to add horsepower to the anniversary ride...they'll be back again next year.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

25th Anniversary Ride for ALS: Notes From A Founder

The great grandmother (and first) of all bike ride fund raising events in the country...maybe even the world, for the ALS cause!

September 22, 2019 - 25th Anniversary Ride To Defeat ALS - 305 riders, 48 teams, about a dozen motorcycle riders (yes motorcycles!)  raised over $270,000 (and still counting) for research and for support services provided by the MA Chapter ALS Association

Months of planning and organizing rolled out perfectly under a sunny cloudless blue sky …Ashley Corbin's program script knitted together everything that sets this event apart, the deep sense of commitment to finding a cure, the involvement of people who have a direct stake in finding it - patients, their families and caregivers - and volunteers who want to be part of such a one of a kind event. Positively healing, nurturing, community building and soul-settling just by being there.

The beginning of the story...The first "A Positive Spin for ALS," a solo ride from Plymouth Rock to Provincetown, MA, happened in 1995,  created by Paul Tamburello. It later merged into the participatory event "Ride to Defeat ALS" staged from The Longfellow Health Club in Wayland, MA. It has raised over 2 million dollars for the ALS cause since 1995. A pretty good number considering approximately 5000 cases a year are diagnosed compared to an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer that were diagnosed in the United States in 2018.

ALS organizations have come a long way since 1995, are better equipped to support men and women diagnosed with ALS, closer to a cure but not there yet. Yesterday was a flawlessly organized milestone, the 25th Anniversary Ride for the ALS, descended from  A Positive Spin for ALS,  the first and longest running bike ride find raiser in the USA for the ALS cause. 

This anniversary year, we resumed the "Roll Call of Honorary Riders," a feature of the original A Positive Spin for ALS. Myke Farricker co-owner of The Longfellow Health Clubs (and one of the founders of the fund raising bike ride with which Paul Tamburello merged his Positive Spin for ALS0 and I read the names of the men and women for whom todays bikers raised money and rode one of the four routes . Somber, reflective, celebratory all at once, it is what a musician friend of mine refers to as "Calling down the spirits."

 

The Rude Boys contingent reminds us every year of the the legacy of Pete “Wheels”  Farricker, their friend and teammate whose character so indelibly impacted the sport of Ultimate Frisbee that the organization created the Farricker Spirit Award ("The Farricker Spirit Award is given to the player in the men's division of the USA Ultimate's National Championship Series adjudged to have exhibited personal responsibility, integrity, and fairness combined with a high standard of playing ability.") They've come from near and far. If one of them couldn't get here, they rode a route somewhere else in Pete's honor.

 

I’m grateful for my friendship with Myke Farricker that began years ago when we met at a personal growth seminar and restarted when the Longfellow Club hosted a fund raising ride for ALS.

 

I thank the stars that Ashley Corbin took over the ride in 2016. Myke recalled that the number of riders and contributions  rose significantly every year since she took over. Numbers aren’t everything. How about adding having an open heart, being approachable, a good listener, being a certifiable inside and out of the box thinker with a well of energy deeper than Poland Springs. That begins to explain Ashley Corbin.

 

Vignettes from the day: 

+++

Small world connection - Steve Kowalski. a recently diagnosed man who works for Apple. I told him that my school system, Brookline, MA, was an early adopter of computer technology, and that in around 1986, my school, The Pierce School, received a lab full of Apple IIe desktops. My job was to learn how to use them then teach my fourth graders how to use them. His response floored me.

 

“I was involved in the rollout of that computer,” he says, then says, “Do you know Jane Manzelli?” 

 

“Yes! She was a motivating force promoting computer technology, gave us in-service workshops, told us this was the wave of the future, and she was right. She also lived in Watertown a half mile away from me.”

 

“I worked with her to get those computers into your system!” Steve says.

 

When I give him my email address so he can send me a confirmation for my donation that Apple will match, he smiles when he sees my Apple email address. Amazing...You could have knocked me over with a feather.

 

Steve tells me that in order to be doubled, I need to write the check to him and he will send to Apple. “You won’t be able to claim your contribution as a deduction since you’re making it out for me but it will be doubled,” Steve says.

 

In honor of the 25th anniversary, I donated $100 for each year of the ride. Whatever deduction I might gain was dwarfed by the fact that Apple would match the funds employee Steve Kowalski made to this fund raiser.  Steve's team (AppleFriends4ALS) received the "Most Spirited Team Award."

 

This out of the blue connection was stunning, right out the theory of six degrees of separation.

 +++

Doug McIlvaine, recently diagnosed, was the bravest speaker today. He started shaky and like an engine pulling a heavy load, picked up speed. I watched in awe and admiration as he gained momentum and purpose telling us how he wanted to live his life after being diagnosed and finished by hammering home the theme of hope (his Team Hope was everywhere today). Today we matched Hope with action. The positive effect of his message was not lost on anyone today.

+++

Roland’s wife Sandy ( on the Honorary Rider list) died May 2, a little over 4 months ago. Their son Austin borrowed a bike to ride in last year's event. He got the cycling bug, bought his own bike and rode today. A very together young man, he said his dad was waffling about coming to the ride, that he encouraged him to come. Roland not only showed up but did the 25 mile ride. Good medicine for both of them. Austin tells me how he and his dad cared for Sandy, managed the feeding tube, daily suction of saliva from her mouth, and the support, equipment, and advice  from MA Chapter ALS Association. There was alot of love between father and son as sometimes their roles reversed. And hundreds of very brave people taking part in the Ride to Defeat ALS.

 +++

Larry Shaps, whose brother has ALS, tells me about the book “Chicken Soup For The Soul” by Joan London , The Caregiver Edition.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13259702-chicken-soup-for-the-soul

 

Larry talked at length and with gratitude for the support from MA Chapter ALS Association for equipment, resources to manage the disease,  and the comfort of human connections when they needed it.  Scores of people here today got love and support from the MA chapter. That and the inclusive community nature of the event are what drives them here.

 +++

Music...from morning right to the finale. Mr. Jonathan Is My DJ is a whiz at reading a crowd. The guy has a library in his laptop that could fuel a two week party. He picks music that's keeps the mood festive and upbeat in just the right balance.

 

“We’re singing this for Ash…” Devri an Irish/Country/ Western Swing band with energy to spare sings…”500 Miles,”released in 1988 by The Proclaimers, a Scottish band composed of identical twin brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid (born 5 March 1962, in Leith) “We de do it at a faster pace than the original” says Declan. leader of the band, after the song finished and boy oh boy they rock it with fierce foot stompin’ energy.

+++

Motorcycles

That was the coolest new wrinkle in the 25th ride. A bunch of motorcycle dudes and gals all decked out in their gear, they were an imposing sight at last year's ride. I asked  one of them what the connection was and learned a friend was riding for a motorcycle buddy diagnosed with ALS. Ashley Corbin connected with them. "Ride on your motorcyles!"  It makes so much sense. It invites this tight community to do something that gives the public a kinder and more gentle outlook on them as a group often stereotyped negatively.

 

+++

A contingent of Rude Boys (and Girls)

This group of former Ultimate Frisbee champions contributes $10,000 every year to the ride in Pete's name. They have become one of the signature teams and contributors of this ride. The way they bond as a community, attack the ride in their own in imitable style, is a testament to Pete’s charisma, sportsmanship, and spirit and it's effect on everyone who played with or against him in his career of playing Ultimate Frisbee...that would include these Rude Boys  who unfailingly bring the spirit with them every time they take to the road in Pete’s honor. How much of an impact did Pete have on the game? How about the USA Ultimate, The United States National Governing Body for the Sport of Ultimate creating a Spirit of the Game Award in 2002: Farricker Spirit Award is given to the player in the men's division of the USA Ultimate's National Championship Series adjudged to have exhibited personal responsibility, integrity, and fairness combined with a high standard of playing ability.

+++

More Pete

One more thing from the website link above: About Peter Farricker

Peter "Wheels" Farricker was a person of spirit — teammate, friend, brother, son, husband and father. He was swift, clever, funny, smart, kind, and he attracted people with an ease and calmness many admired. Fair on the field, he was strong in skill, superior outside the lines. He was champion in many ways. Taken seriously without being overly serious, loved by many, he was and is for many of us a model of what we hope we can be.

 ++++

The Domino effect

Pete would  appreciate that that there were dozens of riders and men and women on Sunday who, like  him,  exemplified spirit and courage. It was inspiring...the beauty of it is that it rubbed off on anyone who witnessed it.

Photo courtesy of Jarvis Chen

Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

25th Annual Ride for ALS: Routes, Details

2019 Route Descriptions

70 Mile Route  - 6:00 am Check in- 7:00 am Start
50 Mile Route  - 7:30 am Check in- 8:30 am Start
25 Mile Route  - 9:00 am Check in- 10:00 am Start
10 Mile Route   -10:00am Check in- 11:00 am Start

All rides will start and finish at the premier racquet and fitness facility, The Longfellow Club, and ride through the scenic suburbs of Boston.

The 70-Mile Ride | 7:00 AM Start

Riders will journey through “The Crossroads of New England”.  These riders will be riding a combination of the 50 and 25 mile route and get a tour of the scenic Metro-West region.

Riders on the route are fully-supported by the Safety Team, SAG Team, and rest stops strategically located throughout the routes.

The 50-Mile Ride | 8:30 AM Start

Riders will start their ride through the peaceful open spaces of Wayland and ride through the charming Village of Sudbury.  Riders will be thrilled to arrive in the “outdoor lovers’ paradise” of Hudson with its’ scenic New England charm.  As they continue to cycle, riders will be treated to the picturesque community of Bolton and then onto the beautiful sights of the small community of Stow which boasts several apple orchards.  After breezing through the forests of Acton, the riders will then embark upon the “natural world of beauty” in Concord and finish back at the Longfellow Club in Wayland.

Riders on the route are fully-supported by the Safety Team, SAG Team, and rest stops located every 4-10 miles.

The 25-Mile Ride | 10:00 AM Start

Riders will start their ride through the semi-rural setting of Wayland and ride through the open spaces of forests, marshes and fields which surround the river.  They will then go through Sudbury’s charming village taking in the picturesque atmosphere of wildlife and conservation land.  Riders will have a quick spin through Concord’s natural world of beauty and then back through Sudbury and to the finish at the Longfellow Club.

Riders on the route are fully-supported by the Safety Team, SAG Team, and rest stops located every 4-10 miles.

The 10 Mile Family Ride | 11:00 AM Start

Riders will start their ride through the semi-rural setting of Wayland and ride the peaceful open spaces to Sudbury.  Here they will enjoy the beauty of this charming historic mill village and serene neighborhoods.  The ride will bring them back to the Longfellow Club

Riders on the route are fully-supported by the Safety Team and SAG Team.

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Before the Ride

Safety Training
The strength and endurance required to complete a ride will vary depending on your fitness level.  To train, start with a length of time that you are comfortable with, then work your way up gradually to just below the miles you have committed.  Consider cross-training in your training plan to decrease injury while building muscular strength and cardiovascular fitness.

Experimenting with cycling gear, nutrition and hydration is an essential part of training.  Use trial and error to figure out how your body reacts to specific gear, fluids and snacks during exercise. Always, listen to your body. Drink when you are thirsty. Eat when you are hungry. Stop and rest when you are tired. Make sure you have adequate sleep. Eat small amounts of carbohydrates every hour during exercise to maintain your blood sugar and provide your muscles with a source of fuel.  Alternate between water and sports drink. This combination of beverages will help replace the nutrients your body is using and may prevent dehydration or mineral imbalances that are common during endurance activities. 

Fundraising
We have many online tools to help you get to your goal! Click here to access the 2018 Rider Packet or e-mail [email protected] to learn more!

Chapter Communications
Make sure to check your email and our Facebook page to stay up to date on the latest news!

During the Ride

Check-In
You’ll need to stop by the check-in area to pick it your registration packet the morning of the event. Your packet includes a goodie bag with cool stuff from sponsors, a Ride t-shirt, rider number bib. You must meet the $250 fundraising minimum before you can Ride. You must check back in with the registration volunteers to let us know you have returned to the Longfellow Club safely. 

Jersey Orders
If you've raised $500 by the morning of the event, you can order your jersey at the Jersey Order table. If you're not sure what size to order, please try on one of the samples. (If you have not raised the $500, you will have 4 weeks after the event to meet the minimum. We will contact you about your size.)

Day-of Registration
If you are registering on event day, you will be required to pay the registration fee, $75, and the $250 fundraising minimum.

Meals
Each rest stop will be stocked with goodies to keep you going! Lunch will be served, starting at 12 PM, until the last rider gets back to the Longfellow Club.

Route Markings & Maps
The routes will be marked in a color corresponding to the distance you are riding. It will be posted on this site and also reviewed before each wave of riders departs. Maps (aka cue sheets) will be available for download through the Participant Center and will also be at the maps table next to check-in and at the start line.

Safety Team
We will have a SAG vehicle prepared to pick you up along the route, should you have any bike maintenance or medical issues. We will have medical personnel and bike maintenance volunteers at the Longfellow Club in case you need immediate medical attention or need simple bike maintance. Please make sure you pick up the cue sheet at the registration table with the cell phone number to call in case of emergencies. 

Rest Stops
Rest stops are located every 4-10 miles. The route maps will show the distance to each rest stop. Each rest stop will have water, gatorade, and snacks to keep you hydrated and fueled to continue on your ride. 

Finish Line
Once you cross the finish line, there will be plenty of food, music, and activities for the family. 

25th Annual Ride for ALS: Part 1

2019 RIDE PROGRAM

Sunday, September 22, 2019
Longfellow Tennis and Health Club
Wayland, MA

The great grandmother (and first) of all bike ride fund raising events in the country...maybe even the world, for the ALS cause!

12:15 PM –
John Hedstrom, MA Chapter ALS Association E.D.:

"Welcome to the 2019 Ride to Defeat ALS – and it’s the 25th anniversary of the ride! It’s great to see so many people gathered here today to raise awareness, for ALS, and to raise funds to support our cutting-edge research, vital patient care services and critical advocacy work at both the state and federal levels."

John introduces Cindy Fitzgibbon

"Back for her 3rd year as our Emcee is Cindy Fitzgibbon of NewsCenter 5's EyeOpener and Midday Meteorologist. Fitzgibbon is active in the Natick community where she lives with her husband and two boys.
It is my pleasure to introduce Cindy Fitzgibbon, Channel 5 Meteorologist, who will serve as our MC today."

Cindy Fitzgibbon:

"We’re not only here to show our support for those with ALS and their families, but we’re also here to raise essential funds that help the ALS Association provide support and services right here in the Massachusetts. Your fundraising dollars support things like home visits for newly diagnosed patients, support groups, insurance and benefits counseling, medical equipment loaners and funding the Curt and Shonda Shilling Certified Treatment Center of Excellence in Burlington."

"Last year, we introduced a new program called our Quality of Life Grants program. Grants of $500 per patient are awarded for items such as generators, DME Repairs, personal emergency response systems, hospital beds and transportation. With this program, we have been able to assist more than 40 families, to offset some of the extreme cost of care. We have seen the importance of giving support to children who have a loved one affected by ALS with our involvement for the past 4 years with the Hope Loves Company camp. To continue the outreach of support for kids, we have added a Y Cares Program to our fall symposium which will provide them with education about ALS. Our Technology Integration Specialist, Elisabeth Dolloff has increased the technology and communication program for the chapter exponentially. We have more communication devices and equipment than ever, and she has worked diligently this past year to help set up a program to provide specialized equipment and resources for those with ALS to be able to do voice banking, which allows them to have their own voice linked to technology."

"These are real-life services which help our neighbors, friends, and family and they would not be possible without your help. Thank you to all of you who raised funds for today’s Ride!"

"We would now like to take a moment to personally recognize today’s top fundraisers and top teams. A huge thank you to each and every one of you for your dedication and extraordinary efforts to help us further our mission!"

Special Events Coordinator Ashley Corbin presents awards as Cindy reads the names.

"Top Fundraiser: Geoff Marchant

If the team captain for the following teams could come forward and collect the prizes for your team:

Top Fundraising Team: Team Hope
Rookie Team of the Year: Team Hope OR Johnny’s Reply TBD
Most Spirted Team: AppleFriends4ALS

Congratulations! Give yourself a much-deserved round of applause!"

"The Massachusetts Chapter staff is made up of a group of dedicated people who worked tirelessly, and show tremendous commitment to the advancement of the mission of The ALS Association."

"Let’s meet the staff. Please wave when I introduce you:
John Hedstrom, Executive Director
David Bodah, Deputy Executive Director
Ashley Vellante, Special Events Manager
Loretta Lane, Communications and Advocacy Manager
Shannon Sullivan, Care Services Manager
Eileen Garry, Care Services Coordinator
John Adebayo, Care Services Coordinator
Elisabeth Dolloff- Speech and Language Pathologist and AAC Specialist
Heidi Henderson, Finance Manager

And last but not least…the person responsible for organizing this spectacular event -

Ashley Corbin, Special Events Manager"

"We are grateful to the many businesses that have supported our ride this year by becoming a corporate sponsor."

"A huge thank you to our 2019 Corporate Sponsors Victory HVAC, Village Bank, AASP-MA, Environmental Chemical, The Longfellow Health Club and Franks Spoke N Wheel. Our Ride Route Sponsors and Partners: Zarb Corporation, Accurate Graphics, High5Em, Castle Island Brewery, Mobility Works, Assabet River Bicycles, Atkinson Pool, Cultivate Care Farm, and Lincoln Sudbury High School."

"Special thanks to our lunch sponsors: Blue Ribbon BBQ, Jose’s Mexican Restaurant, and Crosby Marketplace.

We would also like to thank our in-kind sponsors for their generous donations to the event.

A couple of housekeeping reminders, - be sure to stop by the Tribute Wall to add a note or photo to share why you rode today. Also, if you haven’t already done so, make you sure you get a Ride Team picture with our excellent professional photographer, Jarvis Chen. Jarvis give a wave so people know who you are!"

Cindy introduces Patient Speaker Doug McIlavaine

"Our next speaker is here with his new ride team, Team Hope, who have been a huge part of the ride this year. He was diagnosed with ALS earlier this year and is here today to share his story with you. Please join me in welcoming Doug McIlavaine."

Doug shares his story. (5 minutes)
Back to Cindy

"Thank you Doug for your courage and sharing your story with us."

"A special recognition today is to a couple of important people, who without them, there would not be a Ride to Defeat ALS. Paul Tamburello started the ride 25 years ago, and  teamed up with Myke Farricker in 2002. Their original “Positive Spin for ALS” was the first bikeathon in the country dedicated to raising money for research and services for those with ALS. Myke graciously hosts us every year here at the Longfellow Health Club and goes above and beyond to support the event. We would like to invite both of them up here, and Paul is going to share some important history of the Ride."

Paul Tamburello speaks:
"Welcome to the great grandmother of all ALS Fund Raising Bike Rides…!
Every one of us here today has someone riding on our shoulders. 

They’re our Honorary Riders, with us in spirit or in person."

"A little history: In my appeal letters before my solo rides from Plymouth Rock to Provincetown, I included an insert with a return envelope that said, “I will place the names of all contributors in my bike bag when I wheel to Provincetown. Whether you wish to contribute or not, if you know the names of any ALS patients, past or present, whom you want to “ride” with me, please send their names to me. I will be honored with their company.”

Every name got packed into my bike bag on the handlebars. To commemorate and to celebrate the spirit of the Honorary Riders, Myke Farricker, Susan Lyman of Provincetown, and I stood on the jetty at the end of Route 6A to read the names of those men and women in what we called a “Roll Call of Honorary Riders.”

Names matter.

We’re about to reintroduce that powerful tradition today. In the words of a musician friend, “We’re calling down the spirit.”

Before we begin, I have to tell you one story. Scrawled on the insert returned to me before the 1999 Positive Spin for ALS was this note…”Bring Sally for the ride, she’d love it. Smoking Section, though. TEE HEE” in caps.

I called the sender and told him that until this year my bike bag had been a “Smoke Free” zone, but after receiving his letter, I opened a Smoking Section and sat his mom, “Smokin’ Sally,” smack in the middle of it. We both laughed at the image. I’m sure everyone in this crowd knows living with ALS doesn’t mean living without laughter.  Honorary riders, get ready!"

Myke Farricker (co-owner of The Longfellow Club) and Paul read the names. See list below...We thank each of you riders for being here today, and for riding in honor of your loved ones.

Back to Cindy

"We now have a few special awards we would like to present to some teams who have been an extensive part of our Ride.
Could we have a team captain from each of the following teams: Inker’s/Cathy’s Team, Spirit Team, George’s Team and Team Roy. You are being recognized today for your annual participation in the ride for 10 plus years!
Could we also have a team captain from each of the following teams: Boston Aussie’s, Dave Z’s Antiques, Hudson Outbacks, Team BuLL, Team Beson, Mitch’s Marauders, Shelley’s Heroes and Team Mrs. B – all of you have been part of the ride for 5 plus years. Let’s give a huge round of applause to these teams for their amazing dedication!

Now let’s celebrate all that has been accomplished here today and for the past 25 years – enjoy your lunch and stick around for the band!"

Note: DJ Mr. Jonathan was busy spinning upbeat music all morning long as teams assembled, rode, and returned to The Longfellow Club in Wayland. The band Devri treated the crowd to more upbeat music when the speaking program ended. Lots of positive energy all day long.

HONORARY RIDERS

 

25th Anniversary Ride for ALS: Part 2: Message from the Special Events Coordinator

September 22, 2019

The great grandmother (and first) of all bike ride fund raising events in the country...maybe even the world, for the ALS cause!

Message from Special Events Coordinator Ashley Corbin...

"It is hard to begin to find the words to express the genuine appreciation and thankfulness that we have for each of you who participated in our 2019 Ride to Defeat ALS. Yesterday was an incredible day from start to finish and each of you who were with us yesterday - whether you were a rider, volunteer, family member or part of someone's cheer squad, you all made the day the most memorable ride that we have ever had!! It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, and see the hugs that were given out as if it was a large family reunion - and that is what we are, we are a family in this fight together!! The bar was set high for this year, and you all took on that goal and did an incredible job making this event a huge success!! With our 48 teams, and a total of 305 riders, you all not only reached the $260,000 goal but went over the goal at $270,000 and counting!! 

The amount of love, encouragement and hope was present in every part of the day, and we have all of you to thank for being there and pouring your hearts in to this ride. The sun was shining down on our celebration of 25 years of riding to end ALS, and we cherish the memories we shared with all of you yesterday, and we look forward to many more in the future!! We would also like to thank our wonderful photographer Jarvis for capturing the day for us - here is the link to his photos from this year! 2019 Ride to Defeat ALS

From the bottom of my heart, and from all off us at the MA ALS Association - THANK YOU!!!! 

Love, Ashley Corbin and MA ALS Association Staff

Photo courtesy of Jarvis Chen

Mr. Rogers: A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

July 24, 2019

Stop what you're doing. Set aside ten minutes to read a story about Fred Rogers that will change your life for a few minutes or maybe forever. The stop and set aside ten minutes is not negotiable. You might start skimming the story. Sorry. Not possible. By the fourth paragraph you'll be hooked by a story that grabs you by the lapels and lets go only after the final word. Stories like this just don't come around that often.

The story about Fred Rogers made me laugh out loud, cry, sob, think of life in ways in which I've forgotten register it. A tour of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood from its birth to its place in heaven...the story  will remind you of all that is important in life.

The innate ability of this man to connect deeply, intuitively, intentionally, with men, women, children, strangers, his TV audience... a rare gift - that's Mr. Rogers. Never overt, the power of prayer, simple, unadorned, unaffected, and a well of empathy deeper than the ocean, motivated him. So did grace, found in every corner of the man's life and neighborhood.

Mr. Rogers' story unearthed the entrance to my own rabbit hole of memories, over time buried with the turf of life, illuminated nooks and touched chords, like the ones Mr. Rogers played on his piano, and practically ordered me, with a need that took me by surprise and fullness of heart, to sing along.

The story by Tom Junod, a journalist who slowly, with an initial bit of skepticism, found his way into Mr. Rogers Neighborhood as he shadowed the man over time in 1998 and updated in 2017 is the most deeply realized story you'll read in a long, long, time.

Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers in a "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood", a film based on Tom Junod's story, will be released in late 2019...Hanks, who can convey the natural grace of Fred Rogers with the ease of, well, Mr. Rogers himself, and right around Thanksgiving...how perfect.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27134/can-you-say-hero-esq1198/

 

Block Party: THE VIDEOS: A Touch of New Orleans on Pearl Street

Saturday, May 18, 2019

https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2019/05/block-party-a-touch-of-new-orleans-on-pearl-street.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2019/05/block-party-a-touch-of-new-orleans-on-pearl-street.html

 

Block Party: A Touch of New Orleans on Pearl Street

Saturday, May 18, 2019, Watertown, MA

4:30 PM – 8:30 PM

The Hawthorne/Oliver/Palfrey/Pearl Street Neighborhood Block Party was a Saturday afternoon blockbuster in all the right ways.

This was the great grandmother of all block parties. All the right stuff: high-grade potluck food, both sweet and savory, covered the tables set up on Pearl Street (closed to traffic between Fayette and Palfrey). The desserts donated by resident Nobuko Maruyama from her bakery Koko were a big hit.

Little kids were playing games and drawing on the pavement with huge stubby pieces of chalk, while their parents were chilling alongside them. And neighbors cheerfully chatted on this, the most gloriously sunny and warm spring day of the year after a brutally cold, rainy,  blustery stretch of days since Spring officially began on March 20.

I had no idea what was in store for us later in the afternoon when it rolled from a sedate gathering to a rollicking Second Line street dance to the hot-as-boiled-crawfish sounds of The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Club of Somerville, MA… but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

On the social side of things…

Libby Shaw, President of “Trees for Watertown,” the thriving, green, non-profit organization founded by my Oliver Street neighbor, the late Adelaide Sproul, delivered an update of the organization's work. Another neighbor, David Meshoulam, Director of Teens for Trees, recognized teens who volunteer for the program. I don’t have to tell you what an investment it is for the kids of Watertown to become stakeholders in the organization.

The organizers asked us to bring non-perishable items for the Watertown Food Pantry…we did.

 At 5:15 PM Neighbor Richard Herman stepped up to the mic, banjo in hand, playing sing-alongs for the kids, joined by Carole Tierney on the accordion.

At 6:00 PM  The Great Hawthorne/Oliver/Palfrey/Pearl Street block party is cruising right along. A bunch of festively dressed men and women walk up the street. Is that a tuba? No, two tubas! And they’re breaking out trombones, saxophones, and a big ‘ol bass drum emblazoned with “Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Club” on its side.

Whoa, Mama! Am I dreaming? A brass band...on Pearl Street?

They bolt out of the gate with a New Orleans rolling thunder brass band classic “Do Whatcha Wanna” and are airborne for the next hour. My neighbors do what any self-respecting New Orleaneans would do...they break out their second line moves.  

If I close my eyes, I could be standing in front St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square where brass bands play with joyful abandon from morn till night. This band is out of the same mold. They got swagger! Directed by the spirited sax player, trombone, saxophones and trumpets blast full-tilt funky brass band solos. Bass and snare drums pound out rhythms that translate immediately to the feet of everyone within earshot. 

Swingin', swayin' and occasionally singin', the band is having fun. I am in a delicious near out-of-body experience,  reveling in the midst of authentic, honest-to-goodness brass band playing and second-line style dancing I usually travel thousands of miles to New Orleans to savor. I AM A FIVE-MINUTE WALK FROM MY HOUSE!!! 

My neighbors - people I see walking their dogs, pushing their kids up the street in carriages, gardening - become transformed and are stylin’ with improvised moves I see in the Tremé or the Marigny or at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I REPEAT…FIVE MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE!

New Orleans music, brass bands and all, is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic gumbo that combines music played and sung by slaves in Congo Square in the late 1800s with European military band music, rhythms from Cuba and the Caribbean, and music made by black and white musicians from way before Louis Armstrong till today. There is no music on earth quite like it.

Music, second-line dancing, and food are the H the 2 and the O of New Orleans culture. When you hear a brass band, you know there’s a funeral, a wedding, or a spontaneous ignition of joy coming down the street.

As of today, I'll have to add a Watertown neighborhood block party to that list.

Big props to the Watertown Community Foundation for covering some of the costs and to our block party hosts: Eileen Ryan, Heather Caldwell, Lisa Cole, and David Meshoulam. Their brilliant idea to invite The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Club Brass Band helped us reconnect after a long winter and listen and dance to the uplifting music of a brass band…social aid and pleasure indeed!

Photos by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

Video above by Dan Usher

 

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Pizza Roma: Pizza Parlor, Mood Elevator

A first time visit for a slice of pizza on the day before Easter inspired this story…local owner-operated places like this and people like Tony are getting scarce, if you’ve got ones around you, give them some love.

 

Pizza Roma

212 Waverly Avenue

Watertown, MA

April 20, 2019...the day before Easter Sunday

 

Fabulous pizza but the floorshow is da bomb. No sooner do you walk into the shoebox size pizza parlor and the chatter begins.
 
Joe is happy doing two things: making pizza and regaling customers with stories, boasts, and wise cracks. We’re in a chapel in which soft dough is communion and a huge steel oven is the chalice that will consecrate it before serving it to us.  Father Tony is our pastor on this day before Easter.
 
It’s not on a scale with the miracle of the loaves and fishes but Father Joe can replicate making a perfect pizza all day long. He cuts a rectangular hunk from a mound of dough on his podium and within minutes a transformation on the order of water into wine transpires right in front of my eyes. He knows the tactile geography of a round of dough like a man knows the contours of his lover’s body. His palms and stubby fingers shape, smooth, stretch, and pat the yielding dough into a perfect thin circle with pride, self-satisfaction, and well, a with the devotion of a man of the cloth forming a sacrament from flour, water and eggs.
 
He’s standing just inside the entrance in front of the window on Waverly Avenue in Watertown, MA, piled high with pizza boxes soon to be filled and handed to customers who call ahead or come to sit down and enjoy the show while they wait. He notices everything and everybody.
 
“I used to live nearby and moved to Waltham,” says the young woman sitting on one of the six stools arranged against the wall of the place with a wingspan of about ten feet. “I miss the place and I brought my boyfriend here to taste this wonderful pepperoni pizza we’re taking home.”
 
On the left as soon as you walk in is Joe with every topping for a pizza in trays an arms length in front of him. The huge oven and the trusty wooden paddle to insert and remove perfectly cooked thin crust pizzas is right behind him. I would bet money that Joe could make a margarita pizza blindfolded.
 
Every move he makes is done with the economy of movement of a man who’s done it thousands of times. The bonus is that he can sing, joke, tell a story, pose for a photo, and talk to the customers without missing a beat while making a perfect pizza in the process.
 
The man is a born showman. Proud of his artisan-ship, he has more anecdotes than boxes of pizza piled up in the window, and is waiting for the perfect time to regale you with some inspired antic. He was born to do this. You walk out of Roma Pizza feeling better, in a better mood, than when you walked in. Aside from the guy the woman from Waltham brought in, I appear to be the only first-time customer.
 
It is impossible to be here without him engaging you.  This is his stage. We are the paying audience. But we’re getting way more than we’re paying for. I would pay a cover charge to just sit down for half an hour and witness the zany unpredictable interactions that are bound to happen.
 
Aside from everything else this might be the safest store in Watertown. It’s not unusual to see one of Watertown’s finest pop in for a slice or a sub or a good laugh on a day when he could use Tony’s banter to ease a day of tension from being with people who are a light year away from knowing what it’s like to be in Tony’s open-hearted universe.

Irrepressible Joe...

Spaghetti and Meatball..."He calls me Meatball, I'm short and round. I call him Spaghetti, he's like a piece of linguini!" says Joe.

what a team

In a matter of minutes one of the orbs of dough in the pan at Joe's left is transformed into a smooth thin perfect circle of dough waiting to be topped with fresh ingredients...

 

for example, this pepperoni pizza these customers came all the way from Waltham to take home.

212 Waverley Avenue, Watertown, MA...Pizza Roma!


The tiniest of all seven storefronts along a short block of stores at the corner of Orchard and Waverly Streets in Watertown.

 

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Notre Dame In Tears

April 15, 2019

Gone..."the forest" of oak timbers that framed the  east end of the 850-year-old cathedral, the spire, the conical lead-lined roof, and lord knows how much of the interior paintings, relics, statuary, stained glass, in a fire that brought Paris and much of the world to its knees in sorrow.

Notre Dame...is it necessary to add "of Paris"? There is only one. If you've seen it, felt its history drape over your shoulders as you entered its cavernous Gothic interior, smelled the pungent aroma of incense and burning wax candles, often visible in the haze of a technicolor shaft of daylight slanting through the nave, you never forget it.  And how, you wondered, is it possible to feel so close to an almighty spirit in a church that can hold 6000...and learn that what are called flying buttresses along its exterior walls were necessary architectural devices to keep them from collapsing from the weight above. Where to look? At the vaulted ceiling a mile overhead? At the enormous pillars the size of sequoia trees that shoulder the weight. At the fierce faced gargoyles? And be overcome by a sense of serenity in the midst of the thousands of others who are in the massive cocoon with you. The tops of the two towers on the west end are barely visible behind the transept and the spire in the photo above.

The Notre Dame east end on the Isle de la Cité...April in Paris 2007...grace and symmetry, gravitas and grandeur, artistic architecture with the dual pulls of gravity and the celestial.

The most iconic view of Notre Dame are the massive twin Gothic towers (pictured in photos at bottom) that front the west end facade on the Isle de la Cité, a small island on The Seine River in the middle of Paris. The the apse at the east end (above) behind the two towers with its conical roof, intricate carvings and graceful flying buttresses steal the show. So impressive is the intricate stone work, statuary, graceful curves coaxed from limestone by the chisels of artisans for over nearly 200 years (1163-1345). The top of one the twin Gothic bell towers is barely visible behind the spire.

Prayers echo through the cathedral, rise like the wafts of incense drifting heavenward toward the vaulted ceiling.

Towering marble columns...

Ancient wooden pews worn smooth by constant use over centuries, with small chapels at each side of the center nave.

The radiating spokes of the South Rose Stained Glass Window, installed around 1260, 12.9 meters in diameter, 84 panes of  glass. One of the best examples of European stained glass construction ...the smoke of incense that day is benign, yesterday's conflagration, a savage accident. What has survived?

Has she survived?

A place of solace and individual contemplation, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of votive candles burn day and night, each one symbolizing a prayer...reports are that many of the votive candles were still burning after the fire in the cathedral was extinguished...think about that.

Entering the cathedral, I immediately felt safe and removed from the hubub of the outside world. If I had x-ray vision, surely I could see Heaven hovering just over the vaulted ceiling.

Alone, if not with God then with your spiritual core, and in the arms of a universal embrace in which religious affiliation is second to affiliation with your fellow human beings. An overwhelming sense of tranquility settles over my conscious state, a sense of peace beyond understanding.

Notre Dame, considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, is the jewel of Paris, rising majestically on the Isle de la Cité, the Seine River the aqueous ring in which it is set. Its innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttress, enormous radiating stained glass windows and carved limestone has the stature of one of the architectural wonders of the world. 

The iconic view of one of the most famous Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

Notre Dame on the Isle de la Cité in the heart of Paris. The two 69 meter towers are visible behind the apse and 750-ton  295 foot-tall spire which sat over the transept and altar of the cathedral. Pont Saint Louis Bridge. The Palais de Justice, the French Supreme Court, is to the right.

Pont de la Tournelle with Notre Dame in background. 13 million visitors a year to this medieval cathedral...averaging 30,000 visitors a day!

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. April in Paris 2007. https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2007/04/pt_in_pareean_a.html This sad news may bring more posts from Paris before this rueful day.

Unbearable loss...a test for Parisians and for all who have memories of "Our Lady".

Getty Images

 

Hemingway, Cuba, and Boston Connections In The News

April 12, 2019

San Francisco de Paula

Finca Vigía in the news...

The $1.2 million dollar conservation center built by the Boston-based Finca Vigía Foundation intended to preserve the legacy of Ernest Hemingway opened last week on the grounds of Finca Vigía, the Cuban villa on the outskirts of Havana where the novelist lived from 1939 to 1960.

https://www.wpi.edu/news/restoring-finca-vigia-hemingway-s-home-havana

The Finca Vigía Foundation was founded in 2002 by Jenny and Frank Phillips and Congressman James McGovern (MA). The late Jenny Phillips is the grandaugher of Ernest Hemingway's editor and longtime friend Maxwell Perkings. Board of Directors member Bob Vila, a Cuban-American, is well known as host of the home improvement TV program "This Old House."

https://fincafoundation.org/preservation-effort-makes-hemingways-cuba-home-look-like-he-never-left/

May 1960, only time the men met, Fidel scored first prize and won a silver trophy at Hemingway's annual marlin fishing contest.

http://www.cuba-hemingway.net/en/ernestfidel.asp

 

 

Hemingway, Cuba, Boston, and The Old Man and The Sea

Hemingway, Cuba, Boston and The Old Man and The Sea
Hemingway Museum, "Finca Vigía"
San Francisco de Paula
12 miles from Havana
April 7, 2019

Cuba and Ernest Hemingway. Just about everyone knows the names and has opinions about them. Few know about Finca Vigía, one of the man’s favorite refuges 12 miles outside Havana. 

It had everything that mattered to Papa…it was close to the sea, far enough from Havana for him to relax on his own terms, large enough to host parties with literati and movie stars with names like Ava Gardner, located on a rise that offered a panoramic view of Havana, and close enough to El Floridita , his favorite watering hole in Havana, where Constantino Ribalaigua would be waiting, shaker in hand, ready to mix a "Papa Doble." 

The main home, guest quarters, outdoor pool, his dry-docked yacht “Pilar,” have been an international tourist attraction for years.  Although Hemingway’s home on twelve-acre site is called a museum it’s the only museum I’ve ever been to that you can’t get inside. 

Along with other tourists piling out of tour buses on my visit in 2015, I walked around the back of the sprawling house gawking into windows and felt like an extra on the set of the TV series called  “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”  I don’t know why a bathroom or living room once occupied by a larger than life character becomes a tourist attraction but there I was getting in position to photograph the orderly interior through the windows, closed to keep the interior climate controlled and the public from rummaging through the man's library, closets, and desk drawers.

Ernest Hemingway was a brand way before the term became fashionable. His handsome mustachioed face was on a black and white cover of the September 1, 1952 Life Magazine, the gold standard of the American Dream in the 1940s and 1950s. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He often wintered at Finca Vigía (Lookout Farm). Between 1939 and 1961, Hemingway spent more time in Cuba than in any other place on earth. 

Peering inside those windows, walking around the Pilar and the empty pool, I conjure the magic and mystique of the man whose books I read as a college student. I imagine the musty scent of those books that line the shelves and the hands that leafed through them. The artifacts in the house, all in a state as if he’d just left for an afternoon of banging down his favorite daiquiris at El Floridita, are vaguely connecting with an experience that began after my youthful reading of 'A Farewell To Arms' then later 'The Old Man And The Sea'.

The lookout tower, a few steps from Hemingway’s house, is open to the public. The one room at the top is a perfect Hemingway scene…ancient Corona typewriter, a telescope, bookshelves, and portrait of Hemingway on safari in Africa are juice enough to imagine the man, cigar clenched between teeth, clattering away on the vintage typewriter and taking occasional breaks to peer through that telescope to see the weather in Havana. I'm standing in a tourist attraction that feels more like a shrine. A sense of reverence seems to float over the site like the smoke from one of Papa’s cigars.

Cuba is changing and by Cuban standards, changing fast. The economic reforms begun in 2012 ended the days of everyone being equally poor and have begun an inevitable era in which people with capital can become a class of unequally rich. Tourism, an undeniable change agent, generated over 4.5 million arrivals in 2017, and is one of the main sources of revenue for the island.

I signed onto a Road Scholars trip to Cuba in 2015. Like others on the trip, I wanted to see Cuba before it might end up being gobbled up by Starbucks, Wal-Mart, become a consumer economy, and, for better or worse, lose what we thought to be its unspoiled Buena Vista Social Club ethos. 
(NOTE: as of January 15, 2015, “Educational Activities” is one of the 12 categories in which Americans can visit Cuba without prior permission of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control)

Cuba has a rich cultural history but is not overly sentimental about it. Over the years, the architectural splendor of the homes along Havana’s north facing Malecón have been allowed to slide into elegant decay, unoccupied and crumbling from the effects of the Atlantic Ocean. Time, benign neglect, and tropical conditions took a similar toll on the buildings and grounds that comprise the Hemingway Museum. A recently found letter confirms that Mary Hemingway intended Finca Vigía, which became the property of the Cuban government after the revolution, to be a gift to the people of Cuba in memory of her husband.

In 2001, a near miraculous set of circumstances led to a collaboration between the Boston-based Finca Vigia Foundation and the Cuban group Consejo Nacional de Patrimnio Cultura. Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern, who forged a positive relationship with Fidel Castro in 2002, facilitated the inter-government restoration that saved the property from ruin. The Finca Vigia Foundation painstakingly and respectfully restored the interior and its contents, and intends to open a paper conservation center on the property to preserve Hemingway’s personal papers, manuscripts, and his 9000 book library. It helped that Fidel was a Hemingway fan, especially after reading 'For Whom The Bell Tolls,' with its sympathy for the loyalists’ failed resistance to Francisco Franco’s fascist Spanish regime. 

Cuban and American preservation specialists, architects, engineers, restored Finca Vigia to look exactly like it did the day Hemingway walked away from it in 1960…and that’s the attraction I saw that day in 2015, totally unaware of its transformation.

Cuba’s history in the 2000s, the revolution that unseated a brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista and the U.S. embargo that followed the Castro years, is complex. Whether the socialist state of the Castro years was a sociological net plus or minus is going to be debated as the future unfolds. Nevertheless, with its mix of Spanish and African roots, Cuba is still the least commercialized island in the Caribbean. 

Hemingway wrote “The Old Man And The Sea” at Finca Vigia. Many believe that Gregorio Fuentes, the first mate on Hemingway’s boat Pilar that was moored in nearby Cojimar was an inspiration for the Old Man. 

World photographer Keith Cardwell’s photo of Gregorio Fuentes was recently gifted to me by a friend of Cardwell’s.  Cardwell’s book Cuba, The Buena Vista Years, 15 years in the making, shows the island, its everyday people, leaders, and way of life in poignant black and white photographs. His photo of Gregorio Fuentes is one of them. Perhaps my parlor is now the northernmost outpost of the Hemingway Museum.

Photo essay...

The main house at Finca Vigía, "Lookout Farm," built on a hill in San Francisco de Paula in 1886 . Hemingway spent time there between 1939 and 1960. The twelve acre property contains a guest house, a lookout tower, swimming pool that Hemingway used daily, and his dry-docked boat Pilar.

The master bedrooom and guest room. Evidence of Hemingway's pride in his hunting is in nearly every room in the  house. With its cream-colored walls, buffed floors, and handsome wood furniture, the low profile, single floor home has an aura of spare elegance and modernity.

 

Hemingway's study and library. The home has 9000 books crammed in shelves in every room including the bathroom...

along with works of art and trophies from his safaris in Africa and the American west.

Hemingway obsessively recorded his weight and blood pressure on the bathroom wall...

and that inspired this photo of me and our extraordinarily knowledgeable Cuban guide, Yohandra (“Jo”) imagining adding our heights to Hemingway's bathroom wall.

A former garage, then guest house and now office; the in-ground pool in which Ava Gardner is said to have skinny-dipped; Hemingway's boat "Pilar" now refurbished, sits in a cradle next to the pool. Pilar is the name of a heroic character in "For Whom The Bell Tolls" ; also the nickname of Pauline, one of Hemingway's four wives.

Here the elegant yacht sits, with varnished brightwork and meticulous detailing, its finely chiseled prow pointing toward the sea, as if waiting for Papa to come aboard for a day of fishing for marlins.Were it not for the Finca Vigía Foundation, Pilar may have been lost to dry rot and decay. Pilar was restored with technical advice from a consultant from Mystic Seaport and lovingly rebuilt by Cuban boat builders who removed plants and termite nests before restoring and added temperature and humidity gauges in the galley to monitor data when they finished.

 

The captain's chair in which Papa fished for marlin. Even when officials arrive for a viewing, NO ONE is allowed to sit in Papa's chair.

The lookout tower was built by Hemingway's fourth wife. On the third top level sits a typewriter, desk, a chaise-lounge, a painting of Hemingway posing cheerfully next to a kill on safari, a telescope, and of course, more  books. It is said that the man had a hard time throwing things away, certainly was the case with books.

He and his guests certainly enjoyed the glorious vista from the top of the "Lookout," with Havana on the horizon.

Tourists of all ages have reasons to visit and arrive by taxi and tour buses ...

and can relax in the shade of banyans, bamboo and celiba trees outside the house.

Next to the entry gate, remnants of a  small baseball diamond on which Papa, his sons, and neighborhood boys played the sport that has captivated Cuban boys for nearly a century...stay tuned for a story about Hemingway pitching to neighborhood kids on this lawn just inside the gate.

Keith Cardwell's photo of Gregorio Fuentes, the first mate on El Pilar, who is said to be the man who inspired Hemingway's "Old Man And The Sea." When Hemingway left, he entrusted Pilar to Gregorio. When Gregorio Fuentes died he left the boat to the people of Cuba. The vessel was lovingly restored as part of the Finca Vigía Foundation.

Photos,with the exception of the photo of the three-story lookout, by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2015/11/cuba-chronicles-cigars-and-rum.html