pt at large

Altos de Chavón: Design School, Architectural Gem, Cultural Touchstone

A photo essay that chronologically follows a 5-Star guided tour of the Altos de Chavón campus in La Romana, D.R., by Stephen D. Kaplan, director of the Altos de Chavón School of Design located there. Kaplan's association with Altos de Chavón dates back to its creation in 1981.

The visit was initiated when Arlene Alvarez, Director of the Altos de Chavón Regional Museum of Archeology, invited Katherine Jones, Director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the Harvard University Extension School, to view the museum on the school's campus in La Romana, D.R. 

This is a world class oasis of culture, history, education and luxury in La Romana at the eastern end of the Dominican Republic.

Entrance to Casa de Campo, a replica 16th century Mediterranean village on spacious grounds in La Romana on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic. An architectural gem, the property contains privately owned villas, restaurants, boutiques featuring clothing and jewelry, and an amphitheater seating 5000 people!

The crowning jewel is the Altos de Chavón School of Design with an enrollment of 125 students from across the world and a renowned Artists in Residence Program that deepens the school's academic offerings.

The Museo Arqueológico Regional, rich with displays describing the island's prehistoric culture and artifacts of its indigenous inhabitants, is centered in the midst of the village. Its outreach program for school children is robust and, in fact, offers inspiration to the youngsters as well as to the students of the School of Design

Security checkpoints leading to Altos de Chavón School of Design and surrounding villas.

The School of Design offers instruction in Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Digital Design, Interior Design, Photography and Fashion, with a teaching staff steeped in experience, dedicated to academic excellence and nurturing a hotbed of young creative talent. The architectural ambience is breathtaking.

Under the leadership of Museum Director Arlene Alvarez, the Museo Arqueológico Regional has an aggressive outreach program to introduce students to their island's historic heritage.

Students welcomed to the museum by their guide. Their teachers have been given pre-visit information that provides them with context for what they and their students are about to see.

A future post will describe the mission of the Museo Aqueológico Regional.

Calle di Las Piedras (Street of the Stones). This replica of a 16th century Mediterranean village is a stunning work of art all by itself. Dominican architect Jose Antonio Caro and Italian master designer and cinematographer Roberto Coppa planned the village stone by stone. Variations of texture, color, shape, architectural design  produce an inspiring environment and source of creative energy for the School of Design and a sense of history surrounding the museum. Every detail of Altos de Chavón was handcrafted by local artisans.

 

Commercial enterprises for villa owners and tourists on the Casa de Campo.

 

To achieve the look of antiquity, cinematographer Roberto Coppa and architect José Antonio Caro created buildings with bricked up windows to make them appear abandoned.

Breakfast Club! Director Stephen Kaplan invites several students to join him for breakfast once a week. The interaction between staff, artists in residence and teachers creates a sense of community and adds a jolt of vitality to the program.

Since the village is also a tourist destination, some areas are for students only. The school takes security seriously.

The academic setting includes a set of nine classrooms, many of which we toured, student lounge (not visited), library, computer lab and sculpture studio, as well as administrative offices. The school enrollment: approximately 125 students in 40 units furnished with capacity of 2 to 5 students in each one.

Disciplines taught: Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Digital Design, Interior Design, Photography and Fashion, with a teaching staff dedicated to academic excellence in the world of art and design.

Mark Lineweaver (left, chatting with Kaplan) has just concluded an art class as we enter. Invited to be an Artist in Residence of the Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation in 1993, he has taught there ever since. LINKS

Lineweaver has tasked his students in his drawing class to explore contrasts in light.

Class dismissed.

Christina Sanchez-Kozyreva, Maria Inéz Rodriguez, and Yan Xing are some of the current artists in residence.

A new screening room is nearly complete, the latest addition to the school, will add a dimension of digital visual arts to the school.

Katherine Jones, Director of the Museum Studies Program at the Harvard University Extension School, was invited to the tour the school and the museum's collection by Arlene Alvarez, the Museo Arqueológico Regional Director. Director Stephen Kaplan has been associated with the school since 1981.

Student residences. The School of Design maintains two beautiful buildings that house approximately 125 students in 40 units furnished with capacity of 2 to 5 students in each one.

Installation created by students uses traditional straw brooms used by indigenous people. 

Jones, the master painter Rafael Salomon of the maintenance staff, Kaplan, Alvarez.

Believe it or not, these are watercolor portraits.

Proud artist, self portrait by Haitian student Maiker Avila Lopez.

This is the only class we saw in action during our tour. Artist Elsa Cáceres (black slacks, chatting with Harvard Museum Studies Program Director Katherine Jones; students are drawing an object that appealed to them in a visit to the Museo Arqueológico earlier in the day.

Confluence of technology and good old fashioned hand produced art...

as students capture photos of objects that interested them on iPhones then draw the objects in class...

and are thoroughly engaged...from iPhones to paper then who knows... digitized, instagrammed, hologrammed, redrawn?

Thank you, Elsa Cáceres...from Stephen Kaplan, Arlene Alvarez and Katherine Jones!

School of Design Library contains 12,000 volumes.

Arlene Alvarez and librarian Diogenes Alcala.

 

Kaplan explains that the library includes rare volumes with hand drawn frontispieces and an ancient map (shown here) of the Dominican Republic.

Stacks and rows...12,000 volumes packed into this compact library.

Continuing a Five Star Tour through meticulously managed environment by Director Stephen Kaplan.

Sculpture studio: this bust has been created over a wire armature.

Art seems to grow out of the ground here. The synergy between earth and art is ever-present.

A discotheque and karaoke joint...even artists, maybe especially artists, need a place to blow off steam.

Admiring the construction of the beautiful archway interrupted by the blonde giving me the eye on the way through the campus.

 

 
Ceramics studio flooded with natural light from above; three  directors - Arlene Alvarez, director of the ceramics program Damar Castaño, Katherine Jones

 

From this piece of clay...to this vase.

"The potter is an extension of the clay," says Director Stephen Kaplan.

 

glazing and paint...inspiration awaits; a reproduction of a Taino bowl

Electric kiln (above), gas kiln with massive door ready to be shut tight during firing ( background); director of the ceramics program, Damar Castaño.

 

Stonework and flora merge to create a step back in time.

Close up views of the stonework, all done by local craftsmen, in this recreated 16th century Mediterranean village are just as arresting as the art work in the art gallery on the grounds. The distinction between artisan and artist is quite porous. Stonemasons are probably the most under-appreciated artists of all.

 

Arresting views everywhere reinforce the creative endeavors of the students in The School of Design...

including the walkways!

The hefty iron handles (and perhaps the chains) on this gate were forged by hand by local artisans.

Hail, Caesar! A big surprise in this small scale village - a 5000-seat amphitheater with a grand view of the Altos de Chavón River.

Who knew that the amphitheater in this little village is a major venue for musicians and singers. Jennifer Lopez was scheduled to perform here later in the month. If people in the Dominican Republic had never heard of Altos de Chavón in La Romana, they will soon!

So many design elements so well maintained...

and such a vibrant community of students...

eager to learn.

 

The silk screen printing studio...Arlene Alvarez and head of the silk screen lab.

 

The smell of fresh ink is like perfume to aspiring silk screen artists...

preparing screens for the next layer of paint.

 

Classrooms for fabric and design

Shopping al fresco...

 

with a reminder that this is an international destination.

And in case you forget you're in a Caribbean island with a deep connection with music, here's a band in the main plaza.

 

Martha Victoria, Funding Office; Carmen Lorente, Director of Special Programs; Arlene Alvarez, Director of Museo Arqqueologico; Stephen Kaplan, Director of Altos de Chavón in La Romana, D.R.; Katherine Jones, Director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the Harvard University Extension School.

View of the Altos de Chavón River from the terrace above.

  

 

Directors Stephen Kaplan, Katherine Jones and pt at large; well-rounded students need a well-rounded social life!

 

Self-portraits show the range of students in the School of Design.

 

Hallways and offices are filled with artwork.

Artwork in one of the galleries...

and in one respect, the village of Altos de Chavón is one huge piece of art.

Charles Bludhorn, the man behind the creation of the village and the school, is worthy of a Hollywood documentary. Bludhorn was president of Gulf & Western, the company that owned a huge chunk of land in the Dominican Republic, and popularized it as a tourist destination, and advocated for island's inhabitants, including certainty that local students had equal access to the prestigious School of Design. Oh, he also owned Paramount Pictures, whose artists helped create the village of Altos de Chavón.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. 

Cuba Chronicles: Buena Vista Social Club Reincarnated - The Videos

The Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. "Chan Chan", the opening number of the revue that will feature singers, dancers, musicians, ensemble and solo,  and often involve the audience. OK it's a little touristy but lighthearted and a ton of fun. Compay Segundo, one of the original members of the Buena Vista Social Club movie, performed Chan Chan in Paris in 1999! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q61JRKpWg-s

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15.  At the 1:29 mark the voluptuous singer walks into the audience and begins to dance with a surprised patron - and keeps right on singing! -much to the delight of the audience, while musicians and dancers perform on stage. Everybody gets involved in the show!

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. Everybody gets involved!

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. An 80-year-young singer shows that perhaps music is the fountain of youth! Music on this island is a language all its own and personifies the spirit of the people and the country.

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. A feisty drag queen takes to the runway.

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15.  A vocalist performs a lovely ballad, accompanied by the troupe behind him on stage. The entertainers are giving us a big time Cuban revue, with an ever changing variety of singing, dancing, musicianship.

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. This drummer has to be the crown, and perhaps clown,  prince of percussion in Havana...you'll see...

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. I didn't manage to film the funniest part of his act but this drummer was a showman extraordinaire... a born showboat.

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. "Is anyone here from Mexico?" the MC asks. Lots of fun ensues when a Mexican fellow steps up on the stage.

Buena Vista Social Club, aka Café Taberna, Havana, 9/30/15. The MC makes sure we all get into the act...and we love it.  In a few minutes, we'll all be on stage!

Videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Cuba Chronicles: Buena Vista Social Club Reincarnated

Buena Vista Social Club: Incarnation at Café Taberna in Havana

September 30, 2015

The Buena Vista Social Club…everyone on the Road Scholar tour knew about an iconic collection of music made famous by the album produced by Ry Cooder. Produced on the fly in 1997, it hit the shores of America like a tsunami with the quintessential and definitive beat of pre-revolutionary Cuba.

For a few years, songs from the album got airplay on an amazing array of radio stations. If you weren’t aware of it by then, you got under its spell in 1999 with the release of the documentary film of the same name. For months, the lyrical, playful, nearly mystical arrangement of reeds, strings, piano and percussion dominated my inner airwaves. Check this out. http://www.buenavistasocialclub.com/video/

Most of the original artists have passed away but there is indeed a place called The Buena Vista Social Club in Havana. As our bus headed back to the Melia Cohiba Hotel after a full day of touring, our unflappable group leader Carole Cloonan reminded us it was our first night with no planned itinerary, that we were on our own.

From the back of the bus comes, “How about we go to the Buena Vista Social Club!”

What happened next is now legend amongst us. Cloonan pauses. Moments of silence as we rumble down the Malécon, the 100-year-old seawall to our right, and crumbling, still colorful, mostly abandoned residences on the other.

“Well…it’s not included in the tour…but I suppose we could consider it educational…” She pauses again. “If you can be in the lobby ready to go at 6:30, we’ll board the bus and go to the show.” The cheers that erupted made a busload of AARPers sound like a bunch of excited teenagers.

Thirty minutes after we returned from nine hours of touring, there we were ready to go.

The original Buena Vista Social Club was widely known for it’s music and closed in the 1940s. These days, the Café Taberna markets itself by that name, doing its best to trade on the aura of the original club. After I learned of this reincarnation, I couldn’t have cared less. We were treated to a full blown Cuban music club revue. If it got a little touristy, who cared. Certainly not the hundred or so spectators from South America and Europe (and one couple from India with a woman wearing a traditional sari) and us, the only Americans in the joint.

After climbing a set of stairs, we walk into a modest sized room with a stage runway that projects into the middle of the room and is surrounded by tables filled with diners who’ve paid 35 CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso, equivalent today of about 35 USD) for dinner, drinks and the floor show. I've dreamed about breathing the air and feeling the weight of Cuban history inside such a place for years. Just sitting down in the high backed wooden chair, taking in the sight of the ruby red curtains and anticipating the show, I barely hold back tears of joy. It's not the only time it happens in the next 7 days.

I have no idea who the performers were. I do know we were entertained in grand Cuban style. Musicians, dancers, singers, an MC with a flair for the dramatic, even a drag queen with a deep voice and saucy dance moves. A few minutes in, I was transported back to the aura of the original club and happy as hell.

In the coming years, Cubans will have the first chance in their history to create their own destiny from the grass roots to the head of the government. The spirit of the people seems bound to the rhythms and words of their music, a nearly sacred art form impervious to politics. Perhaps its spirit will help Cubans resolve to remain free of outside influence and chart their own future.

 
Dinner is served on the second floor of a surprisingly intimate space; the runway in the middle of the room will soon be filled with performers...

a singer steps off the end of the runway to dance with an unsuspecting, but delighted, patron; the energy level is high.

Solo singers often parade down the stage with a range of saucy songs and traditional ballads; at the end of the show, the ensemble asks the audience to step up to the stage - in minutes a conga line starts at the stage and snakes around the room.

 Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

VIDEOS

UPDATE: Video from 1997 with several members of the original Buena Vista Social Club movie, featuring Compay Segundo, an absolute JOY to watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIzUc9t7oS8

 

Cuba Chronicles: The Perlis of Post Castro Cuba

An ongoing chapter that will post links to stories deliberating the cultural consequences of the impact of tourism, especially American, on Cuban culture.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/columns/2016/11/26/fidel-castro-footprints/LLk3BHpDa4HW0pf9emzNTI/story.html

Why Fidel Castro mattered. The last paragraph is sums up 50 years of Cuban history. "Fidel Castro mattered for the world and for his people. For some, he was a demon; for others, a hero. He once compared himself to Don Quixote, righting wrongs, fighting against giants. Some of those giants, for him as for Don Quixote, were imaginary. Many of those efforts led to senseless death and cruelty. Many of those endeavors also stopped South African apartheid and sent health care personnel to serve without charge in Haiti. He mattered above all because it is difficult to render a single, simple assessment of his worth as a human being."

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/graphics/2015/07/cuba-on-the-cusp/

A MUST READ: "Cuba has spent more than five decades largely isolated from America, yet unable to escape its shadow. Cubans freely admit that the ideology and economic constraints of the past 50 years have left the socialist country with a fractured economy. At the same time, they’re fiercely proud of their gains in education and health care, and are determined to safeguard the soul of the country they love. This rare moment of transition, as diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States resume, provides an opportunity to see old and new Cuba, past and future, through the same lens."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/05/20/vin-diesel-chanel-spark-fast-and-furious-debate-cuba/HJKLYazNJW5LImaYgSALAO/story.html

Mixed emotions about who will benefit from increased tourism

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=122290

"HAVANA TIMES — Fifty years after it was implemented to protect refugees who were escaping the Communist regime, the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) has been subject to serious questioning and its permanence could be on the table as a result of immigration restrictions that president-elect Donald Trump promised during his campaign." A detailed commentary.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fidel-castro-apologists-is-your-position-principled_us_583de476e4b048862d73fbd0

"As the son of Cuban immigrants it is nearly impossible to avoid having a visceral reaction to all of the reports and articles being released in the wake of Fidel Castro’s death. Admittedly I have tried to avoid reading anything that would appear even remotely objective on the subject. Although I take pride in working hard to understand perspectives that differ from mine, it is simply impossible for me to accept that there can be anything but repulsion for a man that by all accounts ended the lives of thousands of his own citizens." A detailed denouncement of Fidel's reign.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/11/26/boston-area-cubans-remember-castro-with-mixed-and-complex-emotions/pKUDFjJbiDBdlOIBtouqyH/story.html

"A bottle of sparkling cider had waited for two decades at El Oriental de Cuba restaurant in Jamaica Plain for the day Fidel Castro would be no more. Saturday, the cork finally popped." Exiled Cubans rejoice.

http://translatingcuba.com/recipe-for-forgetting-fidel-castro-14ymedio-yoani-sanchez/

http://www.reuters.com/article/cuba-economy-idUSL2N17P0KJ

Analysis of evolving Cuban economy (April 2016) Excerpt below.

"The new food rules will make some items more accessible to more Cubans, reducing some prices at hard currency stores by around 20 percent, including for chicken products, hamburger meat and cooking oil. At peso stores, rice and chickpeas will become cheaper.

Local residents welcomed the measure but said it was not nearly enough."

"It is good they reduced prices a little, but this measure does not completely meet the needs of a large segment of the population,", said Migdalia Calderon, a retiree from the the education ministry with a pension of 280 pesos a month, equivalent to just under $12.00."

Government attempt to lower food prices.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/12/08/cuba-surge-tourism-keeps-food-off-residents-plates/GTMCgzKaMhPVPi3wpPAxtJ/story.html
Distressing fallout from increased tourism in past few months...excerpt

'But the record arrival of nearly 3.5 million visitors to Cuba last year has caused a surging demand for food, causing ripple effects that are upsetting the very promise of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

Tourists are quite literally eating Cuba’s lunch. Thanks in part to the US embargo, but also to poor planning by the island’s government, goods that Cubans have long relied on are going to well-heeled tourists and the hundreds of private restaurants that cater to them, leading to soaring prices and empty shelves.

Without supplies to match the increased appetite, some foods have become so expensive that even basic staples are becoming unaffordable for regular Cubans.'

to be updated as stories emerge.

pt

Cuba Chronicles: The-Merger,Three Artists, An Artistic Brain Trust

The-Merger
Ave 31 # 6602 e/ 66 y 66a.
Playa. Ciudad Habana. Cuba
September 30, 2015

You probably have to travel all the way to Havana to find a gallery like this. Three artists actually put their individual egos on the back burner and put the production of fine art bubbling vigorously on the front burner. They began collaborating in 2009, found that the resulting work was pretty damn good by their standards and those of the discerning public and they stuck with the program.  

Sculpture is their main medium but they play with watercolor, acrylic on canvas, gouache, drawings, silkscreen, tapestry and photography before committing a piece to black steel, stainless steel, bronze, aluminum, fiberglass, translucent silicone,  glass, marble, and wood. That’s quite a vortex of creativity at this small studio at Avenue 31, also known as The Vedado.

The three musketeers in the collective are Alain Pino Hernandez, Mario Miguel González Fernández, and Niels Molerio Luis, all in their mid 40s. Hernandez graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana; Mario Fernandez and Niels Molerio are self-taught. Art is supported in Cuba. In 1959, printmaking became a subject in the art education system, becoming an independent specialty later. The legacy probably benefitted Fernandez and Molerio. Their sculptures are signed as “The-Merger” with their three names inscribed. The public knows who they are. Pretty amazing.

The Merger artists have permission to travel abroad, says our Cuban guide Yohandra “Jo” Perez. They have exhibited all over the world and are part of permanent collections in America. Their works in progress show a voracious appetite for subject matter, style, and materials to play with.

The arts are a big deal in Cuba. For example, men can now aspire to become members of the ballet. If a young child has a special aptitude for art, his/her parents can have the child apply for art school in elementary school. They are given an aptitude test and if they pass they may enter. In addition to learning art, they also learn math, science and other basic subjects but their focus is on art.

The same thing applies to other disciplines, our guide says – music for example. Students in the music program study the basics of music, along with the core subjects, in high school they study classical and jazz and learn to improvise. At the University of Havana they continue. The days are long and demanding and some students drop out. Students may be in an arts program from the age of six years old to 17 years old.

As in galleries the world over, interpreting the art is often a personal voyage but there’s no denying the beauty of the sculpture we see (only a portion of their output).

I realize later that the inspiration for their out-of-the-box creativity comes from every Cuban’s experience of having to make do with what they have. From scarcity, they have become resilient and resourceful. When something breaks, whether a car part or washing machine or bicycle, there are no hardware stores to buy replacements. They fabricate something that will do the job. And it works

As with the Casa de Abuelos and Muraleandro we will visit later in our tour, they often do it as a community.

The way these three artists create is a reflection of how Cubans live their lives. I suppose you could call it an elegant socio-political statement. 

The range of media shows the artists' resolve to stretch their artistic boundaries.

Work is carefully placed inside - and in the small courtyard outside.

 
Even jewelry is part of the work; gallery director Sandra Hav explains how work is done.

 
Stainless steel, bronze, aluminum, fiberglass, translucent silicone, glass, marble...these artists love to mix it up.

and the finished product, as in the tool above, reflects Cuban need to re-purpose and reinvent.

 
"Revolución": The stainless steel and quartz glass sculpture was the show stopper for me - an ingenious metaphor using a common tool  to show how the revolution cut two ways in Cuba, liberated them from one form of government and subjected them to another.

Black and white photos of Revolución in The-Merger catalogue.

Thank you, gallery director Sandra Hav!

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Cuba Chronicles: Lunch at Paladar Carbon with a side of history

Al Carbón, a paladar in Old Havana, and The Granma, the small yacht that helped launch a revolution
Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside"
Thursday, October 1, 2015 Day 4 of tour

The death of Fidel Castro, November 26, 2016 at age 90, propels me to resume my Cuban Chronicles.  Two views about Castro that I think are fair based on my limited experience in Cuba - first and second. A video with this Reuters story compares the gap between two generations of Cubans.

Cuba's future is uncertain but the people we met appeared to be accustomed to a way of life in which self-reliance, resourcefulness, and government safety nets, including medical care, offered a level of constancy and predictability to daily life. First 8 posts about Cuba begin HERE.

Today's activities: Morning lecture in our hotel, the Meliá Cohiba, from music professor Alberto Faya, tour Plaza de la Catedral, tour El Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana, tour Plaza de Armas, lunch at the paladar Al Carbón in Old Havana, tour Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, tour the "hot corner" in Havana's Parque Central, visit La Floridita, finish with a fabulous night at the Buena Vista Social Club.

pt at large reviews: Plaza de la Catedral, El Taller Experimenta de Gráfica de la Habana, Habana Parque Central.

After a 9 AM lecture and slide show detailing the history of Cuban music, a tour of the Plaza de la Catedral, the Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana, and Plaza de Armas, the  cheerful band of Road Scholars enjoy lunch at the paladar Al Carbón in Old Havana. The original restaurant was an intimate little space in a dining room on the second floor of a home around the corner. Food at the old paladar was like food at a B&B but uniquely Cuban in taste and preparation.

Piece entitled “The prophecy’s triumph” by young and versatile artist Jesús Lara Sotelo. This work was unveiled on August 13, 2010 during the gala “For a truthful friend,” held at the Jose Marti Culture Society, main venue on the occasion of the Commander’s birthday.It hangs in the Museum of the Revolution across the street from the restaurant.

The restaurant today, says our cool Road Scholar group leader Carole Cloonan, is one of the finest upscale restaurants around, and still operated by the same family. The family's 29-year-old son has spent three years at the University of Havana learning how to become a chef. A handsome lad, he talks with pride about the food he’s been helping prepare since he was a kid in their home.

Paladars, illegal until 1993, were allowed when the government made economic reforms to ease the food shortages that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union beginning in 1990. Cuba suffered scarcity of food to a degree they’d never known. Cuba’s oil for sugar trade with the USSR dissolved like so much sugar in hot Cuban coffee. Fidel Castro called it Cuba’s Special Period.

The country lost approximately 80% of its imports, 80% of its exports. Food and medicine imports stopped or severely slowed. Perhaps most immediately impactful, however, was the loss of nearly all of the oil imports sent by the USSR; Cuba's oil imports dropped to 10% of pre-1990 amounts.

Transportation, industrial and agricultural systems, anything that relied on oil and supported food production, collapsed. Persistent hunger, food rationing, and malnutrition, became facts of life. The young woman who would give us a tour of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes after lunch would tell us stories of stressful hardship she witnessed as a child.

To have endured those years of scarcity and, rather than revolt, endure with resolve and ingenuity, gives an idea of how the Cuban people may make their way through the post-Castro era.

An excerpt from Cuba's Special Period "Cuba: Between Reform & Revolution" by Louis A. Pérez, Jr.

All through the early 1990s Cuba faced unprecedented difficulties. Commercial relations with the former socialist bloc had all but ceased. Cubans found themselves increasingly isolated and beleaguered, faced with dwindling aid, decreasing foreign exchange reserves and diminishing resources, confronting the necessity to ration scarce goods and reduce declining services. Most of all it became increasingly difficult to go about normally in one's daily life, where so much of one's time and energy were expended in what otherwise and elsewhere were routine household errands and ordinary family chores, where days were frequently filled with unrelieved hardship and adversity in the pursuit of even the most minimum needs of everyday life, day after day: hours on line at the local grocery store, hours waiting for public transportation, hours without electrical power. Vast amounts of ingenuity were applied simply to meet ordinary and commonplace needs-to resolver and inventar became the operative verbs of a people seeking ways to make do and get by.

A country that survives this near decade of intense economic hardship has to be a tribute to the character of its people and the steadfastness of their leader Fidel Castro.

As usual, we start lunch with mojitos and dig in to the specials of the day (I have no notes about the food but remember leaving with my taste buds smiling).

As we approached Al Carbón, our fabulous Cuban guide Yohandra “Jo” Perez, pointed out the Granma, the boat that took Fidel and his revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba in 1956, in a small park next to the Museum of the Revolution across the street.

Between courses, I zip across the street. Gates surround the park. It takes a few minutes to figure out that the only way to enter is through the doors of The Museum of the Revolution around the corner (which is where I take a photo of the portrait of Fidel Castro).

I check out the exhibits and scoot back in time for dessert. It feels like I’ve visited a holy shrine.  Every country has places like this in which the narrative of history, culture, and national identity intersect. Compared to America's historic sites of that mark our fight for independence, this one is quite modest but makes its point with artifacts from its own revolution and its tenacity to hold onto it during the American attempt to overthrow it at the Bay of Pigs.

Old Havana neighborhood; entrance to Al Carbón - photo R door across from blue sedan. Like Americans, Cubans watch a ton of TV. A favorite in the 1990s was a Brazilian soap opera in which the heroine operated a chain of restaurants named Paladar (Spanish for plate). Cuban popular culture used the word to describe the new restaurants that opened. There are scores of such restaurants in Havana today.

Al Carbón, a well-known paladar in Old Havana. The Road Scholars enjoy lunch; the owner's son explains the menu.

The Museum of the Revolution and the Granma Park is across the street from the Al Carbón paladar.

 
The Granma in its final berth in an airtight enclosure. In Mexico in 1956, Fidel and Raul Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevarra and Camilo Cienfuegos, all leaders of the revolution, loaded the Granma, whose maximum capacity was 25, with 82 men and supplies, endured engine problems and high seas and miraculously reached the Cuban shore near Santiago 1500 miles away. After two years of insurgencies, Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in Havana.

Relics from the thwarted and disastrous American Bay of Pigs attack in 1961: a Soviet tank that fired on the mercenaries ships; remains of a B-26 US bomber shot down in 1961; a launch used to carry mercenaries from the mother ship to the shore of the Bay of Pigs. The Museum of the Revolution (photo at R) was formerly the Presidential Palace for Cuban presidents up to and including Fulgencio Batista.

    
It is amazing that this small island nation could retain its sovereignty by remaining out of the  immense political gravitational pull of the United States and the USSR for over fifty years. Raul Castro steps down from office in 2018; elections follow. Cuba's future will be decided by Cubans. How will the island's rejection of foreign interests fare? The world awaits the answer.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Fantasy Fest 2016: Masquerade March Daylight till Dusk

Fantasy Fest  Friday October 21 - Sunday October 30, 2016
Key West, FL aka “The Conch Republic”
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Masquerade March Daylight till Dusk And Then Some

For an event that begins at the Key West cemetery on Frances Street, the Masquerade March is as lively a march as you'll ever see. It takes its sweet time winding through Old Town at 5 PM. By the time dusk descends at about 7 PM, thousands of locals and out of towners will sashay, prance, amble and preen their way to Duval Street. Food and merchandise vendors line the street (closed all day to traffic). Every café and restaurant is jammed.

Masquerade March has to be the most glorious off-beat, costumed and flesh flashing promenade known north of the equator.

This year's theme is “Political Voodoo & Ballot Box Barbarians" but, as usual, marchers by the thousands are in no way shape or form bound to adhere to such limitations when it comes to masking.

As you see...

posing for photo opps...

Republican Party, Democratic Party? Not at Fantasy Fest...how about Cocktail Party...

celebrating from above or below...

with self-described "Friar F_ck and Nun Tonight" and others...red white and blue, or,what the heck, just red...

from perambulators to gladiators ...

marching leisurely through residential streets...

wearing smiles and costumes all the way down Fleming Street...
 

passing bemused residents and spectators...

 
exuberantly, creatively...

from Star Trek to hanging Chads to trailer trash...

tens of thousands of photos are taken as thousands of marchers take two routes from the cemetery to Duval Street...

and a huge chunk of the city's 25,000 residents and thousands of others appear to be marching or spectating...

and, being in Key West, no one is in any particular hurry...

 
marching from the Key West Cemetery...



all the way to Duval Street until dusk at 7PM...and then marinates there for several hours...

where not everyone agrees with the spirit of the festival, but when the year's theme is "Political Voodoo and Ballot Box Barbarians" and you're decked out in red white and blue, you're merely expressing your rights in the Conch Republic.

And the fun keeps rolling...

 
 

until the body paint, or the celebrants, begin to fade.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

Fantasy Fest 2016: Sidewalks Open for Fantasy Zone, Oh Boy....

Fantasy Fest 2016
Key West, FL aka “The Conch Republic”
Thursday night, October 27, 2016
Fantasy Zone opens up on Duval Street sidewalks

Here you have it. The free-wheeling, extroverted, playful, expressive, indulgent, non-judgemental extremes (it it's possible to use that word when discussing Key West) during Fantasy Fest: two bodacious body paint artists and a pair of middle-aged middle Americans (posing with your intrepid reporter), all having a ton of fun and equally fabulous in their quasi birthday suits. 

May as well add Body Image Sanctuary to the term "Conch Republic." Smiles, not hours spent in the gym, are the only requisites in the street. The acres of bare flesh and hundreds of wildly colorful costumes and the acceptant bemusement of the clothed spectators, sprinkle the town with Peter Pan's light-hearted pixie dust that the outside world, with all its political and social toxicity, cannot penetrate.

Got to love the comparison...in Key West, where some things just don't matter as much as they do everywhere else.

Laughter, not leering, is what's going on here. The sex we're accustomed to in film and certainly on the internet, ain't going on here. What is here is people having a whale of a time, given permission to play in a way not possible anywhere else in the continental United States of America. Sustained levity reigns supreme.

Everyone's having fun...

 

since Fantasy Fest is a natural mood enhancer...

fore and aft...

where Johnsons and Elvis live on...

and themes of 'Political Voodoo and Ballot Box Barbarians' live side by side with togas, Indian princesses and  whatever other costumes celebrants can dream up...

 

and every year some guy comes up with a supreme idea to have fun...

"OK, Ladies, climb up on the bar!" the DJ at The Lazy Gecko shouts...presto, there they go...

 
and outside everyone's taking in the spectacle or photographing it...

and smiling or making a politician the butt of a joke...

and SuperWomen and Super Body Paint artists roam the street...

in paint or tux and feathers...

where high flying roller skaters command attention from aliens..

and others thinking what the hell, or Hail Caesar...

jello and vodka shots, yummmm, protesters and preeners...

and Duval Street, liberated from customary norms and conventions, blooms heartily in the spirit of Fantasy Fest.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Fantasy Fest 2016: The Annual 10 Day "Party in Paradise for Adults"

Dear Readers,
Way back in 1978, an intrepid member of the Tourist Development Association in Key West had an idea as he walked Duval Street on Halloween Day.

The weather was gorgeous, the sky blue, but the town’s hotels but restaurants were in a moribund “off season’ mode. Key West has always been known for its laid back vibe.

Why not throw a carnival or some kind of festival that will draw fun-loving people like a magnet and energize every business in town. 1979 - Key West advertised its first masking and costuming celebration, called it Fantasy Fest, and made sure it lived up to its name and fit right in with the little islands slightly off kilter and eccentric sensibilities.

People came in droves. As of 2016, it draws tens of thousands of revelers and is the biggest week in Key West’s season.  Everybody wins.

Note: costumes may be outrageously funny and outrageously skimpy. There are rules that govern the event, everyone follows them. The sense of fun, naughty and/or wacky, is pervasive. CNN and Fox News takes a back seat while you’re in Fantasy Fest’s orbit. It’s the most sustained period of light-hearted, all ages revelry I’ve ever experienced.

Fantasy Fest 2016
Key West, FL aka “The Conch Republic”
Thursday, October 27, 2016

“On Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29, 2016, portions of Duval Street and adjoining side streets will be designated as a Fantasy Zone.”  And that, dear readers, is where Key West becomes an alternate universe.

Fantasy Fest in Key West is a Disneyland for fun-loving people with an exhibitionist streak. And boy oh boy do they ever take advantage of it. And so do visitors who want to witness the fun and walk among the celebrants.

The organizers of Fantasy Fest call the annual 10 day party in Paradise for adults  “Florida's premier masking and costuming celebration.” If understatement is possible here in the southernmost point in the continental  USA, this qualifies.

Every year’s fest has a theme. This year’s is “Political Voodoo & Ballot Box Barbarians.” After walking down Duval Street, it’s clear that some have been planning their appearance since the theme was announced.  Elaborate, creative costumes are show-stoppers.

Then there’s body painting. If you’ve never seen a woman decked out in body paint and a tiny something-or-other covering her lower bits, you’ll be forgiven for doing a double take. It’s sort of counter intuitive but the atmosphere is as far from walking around an R-rated movie as "Toy Story" is from "Keeping Up With The Kardashians." You won’t confuse this with college vacation week in Fort Lauderdale. Everybody behaves.

Maybe it’s the tropical weather, or the turquoise waters surrounding the small island, or the fact that this is the home of “Margaritaville” and a former playground for Ernest Hemingway, but the vibe envelopes you with a wink as soon as you walk off the plane and see the sign “Welcome to the Conch Republic” painted across the roof of the tiny Key West airport terminal.

Since its founding in 1978, there’s a clearly stated Code of Conduct for Fantasy Fest. Total nudity is illegal, men have to cover their privates. Painted female breasts are allowed. A tide of liberated breasts of every imaginable shape and size with painted with exotic designs is on display in the Fantasy Zone.

Every time I see a group of people who’ve congregated on Duval Street (which is closed to traffic Friday and Saturday), I know there’s a man, woman, couple, or group with spectacular costumes or lack thereof posing for photos in the middle of it. Spectators, clothed or costumed, hand their cameras or phones to friends or total strangers so they can pose with the glamorati. If pixels could be translated into miles, Fantasy Fest would easily reach Pluto.

If everyone else in America thought like these revelers, glamour magazines would go out of business. For every lean and toned participant whose body fat numbers are minuscule, there are a dozen who haven’t seen the inside of a gym in years…or ever.  Nobody gives a damn. This is as egalitarian a celebration of body image as exists on earth.

Six-pack abs and buff smooth butts are seriously outnumbered by people whose bodies might remind you of ones belonging to your mailman or local librarian. Aside from a beach in the south of France where people are comfortable in their own skins, there’s no place like this on earth. If I were a psychiatrist who had a patient with a body issue, I’d write them a two-day prescription to Fantasy Fest.

College kids and people who are their grandparents’ age mingle with ease. The Conch Republic is a pretty laid back place to begin with. If you’re here this week, you’re in an alternate universe that pretty much puts up a deflector shield worthy of an Imperial class Star Destroyer to ward off lewd behavior and allow frolicking.

The Masquerade March from the Key West cemetery to Duval Street tomorrow afternoon will draw thousands of marchers. What ensues will be the wildest collection of wacky, skimpy to elaborate costumes worn by individuals, couples, and groups. I will be in the midst of it… as spirited a party in motion as you’ll find north of the equator.

Thursday: Duval Street is open to vehicular traffic. The sidewalk?  Free range costumerie and fantasy.

Let the people watching begin... dinner at Caroline's on Duval Street at a street side table...celebrants are more than happy to smile for the camera...

 

 

the fun has barely begun...the woman in pink is a breast cancer survivor...

 

and early evening strolling is beginning to roll...

no costume, no problem, remove shirt, apply pasties; rain forecast, no problem, don transparent slicker...
  

and everyone is more than happy to pose for the camera.

Have you ever seen happier near-naked people?
 

Spectators and participants side by side... The Conch Republic and The Rest of the World!

Coming next - a post dinner Thursday night walkabout, then...The Masquerade March on Friday.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Louisiana Flood of 2016: Historic, Unprecedented, Catastrophic

August 29, 2016

The Flood of 2016 (photo of Lafayette, LA, from the air August 20, 2016)

I returned last night after a week volunteering with Our Savior's Church, a non-denominational church in Lafayette, LA, gutting houses damaged by what is now called The Flood of 2016. Areas of some parishes (counties) are still under water.

Chances are you don’t know much about this under-reported disaster.

What happened?

• From August 11 to August 13 a massive weather system dropped the equivalent of 7.1trillion gallons of water over Louisiana from Baton Rouge to Lafayette.
• Over 146,000 homes were damaged or ruined.
• At least 30,000 people were rescued from cars and homes by local law enforcement and volunteers (informally known as the Cajun Navy) manning boats over the flooded areas.
• More than 11,000 were forced into state-operated shelters.
• In one of the 20 parishes (counties) affected, it is estimated that 75% of homes were “a total loss”.
• Thirteen died in the flooding.
• 1,400 pets have since been rescued from the deluge
• Because many of the areas that flooded were not in "high flood risk areas", the majority of homeowners affected by the flood did not have flood insurance.
• As of August 19, losses were estimated at $20.7 billion

Virtually every aspect of life in 20 parishes has been affected: agriculture, schools, police and fire departments, commerce and businesses, roads and highways, public transit, hospitals, government offices and services. Thousands are hurting, displaced, have no place to live, and still in shock.

Why did I go?   

Lafayette is one of the most unique cultural areas I've experienced. I love to dance. The music is exceptionally diverse and exceptionally well-played by musicians who, for the most part, were born and raised here. The grub is a foodie's dream. For a dancer, Lafayette and surrounding cities and towns are paradise.

But what sets it apart from anywhere else I've ever visited is the people who live here. They are friendly, outgoing, proud of their heritage, and over the eight years I've visited, have made a Yankee like me feel welcome, introduced me to their friends, and invited me to their barbecues. That's just the way they are.

They may not share the same politics with each other or me, but when someone needs help, they show up.

I wanted to give something back to this special place and these special people that have given me so much.

As I worked with crews from Our Savior Church, I saw the faces of men and women whose material lives are now on the roadside in front of their homes in a mountainous pile of debris dragged outside their gutted homes.

Time is of the essence. Mold is the enemy. When moisture remains inside a home, mold begins growing within 24-48 hours. When our crew chiefs detected water/moisture in or behind sheet rock, insulation, ceiling and floor moldings, floor coverings, wall coverings, furniture, kitchen cabinets and counters, and bathroom vanities, we tore them out.

The week I worked was the last one in which we could enter with only an N-95 approved face-mask that filters out mold spores. The home we gutted on Thursday and Friday August 25, 26 had visible mold growing inside. Our crew chief said homes that had not been gutted and aired out would be overcome by mold and have to be quarantined. Work done after that needs to be done by people wearing Hazmat suits and respirators.

As for me, considering I found a link to Our Savior's Church in Lafayette after searching for hours online, and that it offered me a perfect opportunity to volunteer with them,  it’s probably not an exaggeration to say there were a few small miracles involved. This church was one of the best organized, well-led organizations leading the charge to support an entire parish in crisis. I’ll get to that in the next post.

 Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Satchmo Summerfest: Jackson Square, August 5, 2016

Getting ready for this year's Satchmo Summerfest with posts from the archives, written but for some reason, never posted!

Satchmo Summerfest: Jackson Square, August 5, 2016

With the reconstruction going on at the former U.S. Mint, home of the previous Satchmo Summerfest, the French Quarter Festivals Inc. had to get creative and fit the whole shebang into Jackson Square.

16th Annual Satchmo Summerfest, August 5-7. 2016

12 PM Friday, August 5, 2016
Red Beans and Rice Stage, the Preservation Hall Brass Band.
This is the most widely known and popular traditional jazz band in New Orleans. As with brass bands, the rumble of the bass drum and the oomph of the tuba laid a foundation for the harmony of the trombone, trumpet, clarinet, banjo, and saxophone.

The 2016 Satchmo Summerfest has officially begun. Along with their own catalog, every band today will play songs made popular by Louis Armstrong. The last song of the Preservation Hall Brass Band is a salute to the legacy of Louis Armstrong with the unique flavor, often imitated but never quite matched - quite the same way as it is played in the bars, parks, and dance halls from Frenchmen Street to out-of-the-way places all over town.

1 PM Chop Suey Stage: Miss Sophie Lee, popular singer at The Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street accompanied by piano, guitar, piano and bass serves up a wonderfully tapas of traditional songs.

"That's When The Heartache Begins," slow tempo; "Blue Skies," up-tempo, with a great guitar solo, remind me that the guitar and banjo have status in traditional New Orleans music. The whole set features the usual tight New Orleans arrangement.

"Why Must You Be Mean to Me," slow swing with a gentle sexy roll to it. Sophie introduces the band. During the entire day I cannot write fast enough to remember the names and instruments of musicians.

"I Will Love You" followed by "I'm Just Found" followed by an upbeat "A-Tisket A-Tasket". By the time she gets to an upbeat "When You're Smiling,” we are all smiling and sweating and feeling the Louis Armstrong vibe.

Next, an upbeat "It Don't Mean a Thing.” No drum set on the stage, the standup bass, deep and resonant, sustains the beat. The sound system for this act and all similar bands is just the right volume, no need for your plugs and the standup bass and guitar do a great job of pulsing the beat.

A taped announcement by trumpeter Leroy Jones acknowledges a long list of sponsors, takes two minutes to read. The weekend is supported by organizations of all stripes all over town.

About 26,000 attended from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.
http://www.nola.com/festivals/index.ssf/2016/08/satchmo_summerfest_2016_attend.html

1:45 PM Red Beans and Rice Stage, Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

When you get near New Orleans brass bands you don't just hear them, you feel them right down to the marrow in your bones. I could feel The Dirty Dozen Brass Band all the way across Jackson Square as I entered the park. Trumpets are king down here but those big ass bass and snare drums and tubas are alpha instruments. Trumpets feed off them. Brass bands down here don't feel they're doing their job unless they see you dancing.

"Get up, you're in New Orleans!" The leader says to the crowd, many of whom are sitting on the grass or in camp chairs, as he peers from the stage. It's 90°F and the humidity is so high that when you walk if feels like you're wading through a bathtub. No matter, this guy wants us to get up and shake our booties. All of a sudden, we are in a call and response mode and for all the world we could be testifying at a Sunday morning church service.

"Say Satchmo," he shouts over the ratatatat of the drums and peals of trumpets. "This is New Orleans! We make music in the hot! We make food in the hot! We make you know what in the hot!" Not long after that the music inexplicably stops – there's a call for a doctor, a musician has collapsed.

After a brief pause, the leader says, “Kurt has been with us since he was 16, it's 100° out there, make sure you all drink water.” Kurt was dehydrated, we are urged to keep ourselves hydrated.

2:45 PM Chop Suey Stage, The Tornado Brass Band

“The Rebirth Brass Band can blow the shingles off of a house, “ says the leader with chuckle. "We call this the quiet band," he says as a way of introduction.

Their songs included smooth versions of “Wonderful World,” “You Are My Sunshine.”\

When it comes to "When the Saints Go Marching In" this band is not so quiet. The repartee between the band members between numbers is hilarious, sometimes even during the songs. This kind of banter is one of the endearing things about music in this town, at least between traditional bands like the Tornados.

3 PM Bill Summers and the Jazz Salsa Band, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage

An Afro-Caribbean Latin funk band switches genres with great elan. They finish with "Caravan" and Carlos Santana’s "Jingoloba." The African call and response chants incorporated into the music gave the performance a resonance that must have been familiar to many in the audience.

4:45 PM The Shotgun Jazz Band at the Chop Suey Stage. OOPS NO PHOTOS!

If Odetta sang this kind of music she might sound like band leader Marla Dixon. In a city with hundreds of female singers, Dixon has a style all her own. Dixon on trumpet is accompanied by trombone, clarinet, banjo, bass. “Breathe,” easy swing tempo; "I'll Take You Home Cathleen" an old Irish reel that has been around a long time and this kind of genre jumping is one of the reasons Dixon is in a league of her own.

“How about some blues?” Dixon asks rhetorically, “I think it was by Tampa Red,” and indeed it was - along comes "When Things Go Wrong It Hurts Me Too" recorded in 1940. Old time lyrics, it swings low and hard and Dixon’s got the lip to torch these songs into embers. If this did not get your hips moving you might be dead. I can probably say that for most of the music I heard today. There is no linear set list, Dixon glances down at a list then takes a stab.

Along comes ‘In the Gloaming” Stand up bass player Tyler Thompson sings "My Old Kentucky Home." “We might be running a little late, I think it will be OK, they probably already cut the check."

Next, an awesome sax solo (I wish I could remember the song), the bass player and the banjo player hold the baseline and underpin the beat. Next, "Shake It and Break It," the original version, Dixon says. She directs, solos, and signals the end with a wave of her hand. Next, "Whenever You're Lonesome, Telephone Me." With that, she concludes by thanking Louis Armstrong, the sponsors, and us in the audience. She’s the bomb.

5:30 PM The Soul Rebels, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage

 

Cross a New Orleans traditional brass band with a side of funk and you get the Soul Rebels. By now we’re bathing in a blanket of humidity at about the same temperature as our own bodies. All day long people have found respite in the shade - one of the positive assets so Jackson Square is that there are plenty of trees under which to get it. Complaining about the heat would be downright un-New Orleanian...that's only for tourists

Spectators fan themselves the old fashioned way As they stand around the stage or sit in the ubiquitous camp chairs or spread out on blankets all over the park. My hands are so wet with perspiration that ink is smeared all over my notebook.

Can you imagine this?  A brass band like The Soul Rebels can sing a song like "sweet dreams are made of this" and that by the end of the song, the bandleader as us all singing along. It is beyond me how the band can switch gears and tempo and play as tight as they do – brass, reeds, percussion. The bandleader flashes his hand with different number of fingers, sort of like a quarterback, and a band sees what he wants and who is going to solo and when the song is going to end. Musicians have a language all their own, including sign language.

6:45 PM Chop Suey Stage, The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band


Talk about making a homage to Louis, "Muskrat Ramble," "is a peach of a rendition.

Who are these guys? Here comes "Down the Mississippi to New Orleans" in four-time?

Yolanda Winter begins to solo, totally awesome. She introduces "Shine," the lyrics are important, the bandleader said it was one of Louis' favorite songs. Louis was ahead of his time with this not so subtle song about his skin color, one that he certainly felt and certainly lived.

This band is having fun, they joke around when they mess up an introduction, The leader says "We haven't worked together for a week. It's a good thing you can't hear what we're saying appear off mic!”
Bandleader says they're going to play a Louis Armstrong classic but with a different groove and play "What a Wonderful World" with a Rumba beat…really fetching.

“The next song is one of my favorites, my grandfather wrote it,” says the leader and here comes "Why Don't You Go down to New Orleans" upbeat almost with a waltz beat.

Wonders never cease around here.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Summer in New Orleans: Flash Floods, Thunder and Lightning

Thursday August 4, 2016
Inside Deja Vu Bar and Grill at the corner of Dauphine and Conti when all hell breaks loose from on high.

3 PM Fabulous mid-afternoon breakfast at Deja Vu Bar and Grill just finishing when a crack of serious thunder shook the place...sounded like a ton of ice cubes heaved into a humongous empty oil drum. I was the only one that flinched. The regulars at the bar kept on their chatter as the sky blackened and rain fell in torrents. Zigzaggy bolts of lightning followed by foundation-shuddering thunder commenced like a furious parade from on high. 

Within 45 minutes the street flooded then drained as the storm spent itself. People on the street scrambled for cover or ducked under storefront entryways to keep from getting soaked, which would have happened in five seconds flat. My cell phone buzzed with an ominous weather alert, later I learned a tornado funnel was sighted over the city. This is normal New Orleans summer weather these days.

Lightning, thunder, then rain cascades in sheets.

Traffic comes to a standstill...

 
as streets flood.

  
After thirty minutes of steady downpours, the rain abates to enough for pedestrians to make a break for it.

These two New Orleanians saw me taking photos from the window in Deja Vu where I just finished eating. Their response is pure New Orleans.

Funnel cloud over New Orleans...page 1 Metro section of The New Orleans Advocate, August 4, 2016.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

The Candlelight Lounge: The Denver Jazz Club Youth All-Stars Meet the Tremé Brass Band

The Candlelight Lounge, Leona Grandison, Proprietor.
925 North Robertson Street
New Orleans, LA
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
9:30 PM

I was flabbergasted. The high school kids have never played the tunes they are playing right now with the Tremé Brass Band... and here they are playing the daylights out of them. As it turns out, the kids and the band are all talking the same language.

The Denver Jazz Club Youth All-Stars From Centennial, Colorado were pumped. On their one week tour, they’ve played on a riverboat, at The Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street, The Bombay Club in the French Quarter, and at the Café Beignet on Bourbon Street. I watch them shake off performance nerves and let it all hang out as they absorb the infectious seamless creativity of the veterans around them.

Dr. Ed Cannava, their director/manager, sits at the bar clapping time, nodding, smiling like a proud papa as his kids hold their own with the regulars as they dig into songs that his All Stars have never played before.

Benny Jones, Sr. leader and founder of the Tremé Brass Band, has a vague recollection that they got connected on Facebook.  The Tremé Brass Band plays a regular gig here Wednesday nights. It’s 90 degrees outside and the humidity is thicker than the cigarette smoke outside the front door. A box fan stirs the hothouse air inside. Pretty soon the place will get hotter and no one will give a damn.

What gives?

At the end of the first set, Jon Gross, tuba player with the Tremé Brass Band, explains what I’ve just witnessed.

“The kids (All Stars) practiced the first four songs as part of the repertoire they would play tonight. The rest of the songs were from the Tremé band repertoire.”

Fine, but I’m asking Jon how can these kids sound so great, playing ensemble and solos with vigor, style, and exuberance back and forth with one of the best brass bands on the planet.

“Music is like a language,” Jon says. “I was trained in classical music, learned to read it and interpret it. But when I began playing this kind of music I had to learn to listen.  It’s like a dialogue and works out best when everyone has a say.”

With the kids playing the front line and the Tremé band behind them, the set opens with the All Stars playing “Panama,” published in 1912 and played by everyone from Kid Ory to contemporary brass bands. “Happy Feet Blues,” written in 1989 by Wynton Marsalis, is followed by “Bourbon Street Parade,” made famous by New Orleans drummer Paul Barbarin in 1955, and “Sweet Georgia Brown,” first recorded in 1925, all up-tempo and razzmatazz. A perfect example of the range of brass band repertoire.

Tremé tenor saxophone player John Gilbert and trumpeter Mario Abney are in the front line trading solos with the All Stars with Tremé’s bass drum, tuba, and two snare drums right behind them.

I am witnessing a great conversation.

Here we have amateurs and professionals, Creoles and high school kids, making a fabulous New Orleans racket…joyful, upbeat, creative, insanely happy-making, mood enhancing and, when you think about it, and interactive form of meditation an old-time religion. There is absolutely nothing else like it on this good earth.

Just look at the smiles on these kids' faces after they dig down and wail out solos that pour everything they learned in the classroom, combine it with their own chops and quite possibly pieces of their souls that have never been tapped and now find release in this ramshackle bar in the back reaches of the Tremé neighborhood.

Leader Benny Jones, Sr., who turns 74 this week, is one of the founders of the Rebirth Brass Band and a distinguished member of several others. Benny is an unassuming and proud man, born and raised a few streets away, and one of the few precious living links remaining between the rich musical culture of the Tremé and New Orleans itself.

To have these high school kids sweat and play with Benny should sear into their memory where this music came from, who it came from, and the sometimes dark history in which it was created and now continues to flourish.

“Listen to birds,” Jon Gross tells me. “They have a language, they’re all different and they understand each other…this music is like that.”

Tonight is a perfect example and a lesson for me in how to listen to some of the most spirited conversations in the music universe.

+++++++
The Denver Jazz Club Youth All-Stars
Ellington Jenkins - clarinet
Alex Preston - tenor sax
Brent Ingle - trumpet
Gabby Aragon - trombone
Mika Smith - banjo
Ben Thompson - accordion (usually plays piano)
Director/Manager Dr. Ed Cannava says all the members sing except for Alex the saxophone player.

Tremé Brass Band tonight
Benny Jones, Sr. – snare drum
Anthony Bennett – bass
Aron Lambert – snare
John Gilbert – tenor sax
Mario Abney – trumpet
James Williams – trumpet
Jon Gross – tuba/sousaphone

First set list
“Panama,” published in 1912 and played by everyone from Kid Ory to contemporary brass bands.
“Happy Feet Blues,” written in 1989 by Wynton Marsalis
“Bourbon Street Parade,” made famous by New Orleans drummer Paul Barbarin in 1955 – a staple of New Orleans musical repertoire of all kinds of bands.
“Sweet Georgia Brown,” first recorded in 1925

“My Bucket Has a Hole In It”, which may go all the way back to Buddy Bolden around 1900 and made popular by Hank Williams in 1949 - interesting that Williams probably learned the song from a black street singer who taught him to play guitar.

“Bourbon Street Parade” composed by Paul Barbarin in 1955.

I couldn’t identify the rest of the set titles. I only know that they levitated the place.

 

   

Tremé sax player John Gilbert and trumpeter Mario Abney play in the front line with the All Stars.
  

Benny Jones, Sr. directs solos for "My Bucket Has A Hole In It" ..the ensemble figures it all out after that.

 
John Gilbert sings vocals on "Bourbon Street Parade" and the All-Stars put their chops on parade.

 

Tremé back line of snare, tuba, bass drum and Benny Jones, Sr. on snare keep perfect time all night long.

 
Dr. Ed Cannava loves what he's seeing; the All-Stars dig into every solo they get.

One big time brass band finale...

 
rocks The Candlelight Lounge.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Deja Vu Bar and Grill: Local Patrons, Local Flavor

Deja Vu Bar and Grill
400 Dauphine Street at the corner of Conti
New Orleans, LA 70112

August 3, 2015, 7:30 PM

What a find! A fabulous dive bar, neighborhood hangout, and food emporium that serves comfort food any damn time you feel like it. The concierge at my hotel across the street hesitated to tell me about it. Other places she recommended nearby have fancier décor, more lavish menus, and prices to match. I made a beeline for the place.

It’s not glitzy. The paint around the front door is worn thin, the brass door plate is in need of polish but once you get inside, you’re in a genuine piece of the French Quarter.  The jukebox bounces between funk, rock, ballads, some decent rap and a tad of classic country. The rest of the soundscape is filled with hearty laughter by a couple of guys at the bar and three women and a man having an animated talk about the travails of the day over their drinks. Couples in the booths, dressed casually T-shirts and shorts, act like they’ve been here before.

A bunch of sturdy red straight back chairs and tan and black topped tables for two and four fill the center, three fire engine red booths line the other wall. Framed posters of Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt and Fats Domino cover the walls. The place is totally unpretentious. It could be a neighborhood diner and watering hole anywhere. If you look hard enough, there are handfuls of these small hangouts all over the French Quarter.

 “You doin’ OK, hon?” the tall waitress with the tattooed arms asks me as I check the menu, which I think tops out around $15.

My $8.99 bowl of seafood gumbo, served with a little island of rice in the center and a hunk of French bread, had just the right pinch of cayenne and pepper, and is loaded with shrimp, shreds of crab and crawfish and just enough okra to give it a velvety consistency.

The Deja Vu Bar and Grill is open 24 hours a day. It still bears some of the easy going attitude of one of its first iterations as a store front in the red light district in the 1850s. Honestly, I’ve walked right by that place dozens of time in previous visits. Now I’m hooked - and on the lookout for other gems like it. And I’ll be back.

 

Photos taken next day, August 4, 2016, make the place look less gritty but the local vibe is the same, welcoming and way down to earth - by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Satchmo Summerfest, New Orleans, August 2016 Preview

Satchmo Summerfest
Jackson Square
New Orleans
Thursday, August 5-Sunday August 7, 2016
http://fqfi.org/satchmo

The annual Satchmo Summerfest is a four-day celebration of the life and music of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901-1971), the favorite son of his hometown New Orleans.  As far as I’m concerned, there ain’t no better place to spend the first week in August. Louis, with his inventive solos and then his trademark gravely voice, began making his mark in the 1920s and remained a beloved icon until the 1960s.

No need to look for headliners with national name recognition at this festival. There are scores of fabulous musicians in this town that can play the daylights out of the Armstrong catalogue and other music by composers and musicians that he inspired, everything from brass bands to jazz ensembles to soloists playing with a trio or quartet. I doubt there’s such a deep well of musical talent anywhere else in the world.

New Orleans is considered to be the cradle of Jazz but it’s a pretty big cradle. Back in the 1950s, black singers and bands began performing the kinds of music (called ‘race music’) that became the foundation of a huge chunk of American pop music embraced by white America beginning in the 1950s and still resonates today, but I digress.

The Armstrong catalogue is deep. If you want to make this a learning adventure or take a break from the music and dance tents, there are seminars given by a host of some of his most distinguished biographers and record producers. The fact that they’re held in air-conditioned comfort a few steps away is certainly a draw. I mean, we’re talkin’ New Orleans in deep summer when temps in the 80s are considered cool. I won’t even bring up the subject of humidity but the quality of music just neutralizes all of that.

Vendors sell food and drink, at really decent prices, that are staples of New Orleans life. This year’s Summerfest has moved from the old U. S. Mint to Jackson Square. I can’t wait to hear the bells in the Saint Louis Cathedral at the edge of the square while listening to the music, sort of like Louis is chiming in from his perch in his bandstand in heaven. Lord have mercy.

The event in 2001 began as a salute tribute to the centenary of Armstrong’s birth. My first visit was in 2010...wouldn't think of spending the first week in August anywhere else.

Satchmo Summerfest 2016

Satchmo Summerfest August 2016 Preview

 

Satchmo Summerfest
Jackson Square
New Orleans
Thursday, August 5-Sunday August 7, 2016
http://fqfi.org/satchmo

The annual Satchmo Summerfest is a four-day celebration of the life and music of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901-1971), the favorite son of his hometown New Orleans.  As far as I’m concerned, there ain’t no better place to spend the first week in August. Louis, with his inventive solos and then his trademark gravely voice, began making his mark in the 1920s and remained a beloved icon until the 1960s.

No need to look for headliners with national name recognition at this festival. There are scores of fabulous musicians in this town that can play the daylights out of the Armstrong catalogue and other music by composers and musicians that he inspired, everything from brass bands to jazz ensembles to soloists playing with a trio or quartet. I doubt there’s such a deep well of musical talent anywhere else in the world.

New Orleans is considered to be the cradle of Jazz but it’s a pretty big cradle. Back in the 1950s, black singers and bands began performing the kinds of music (called ‘race music’) that became the foundation of a huge chunk of American pop music embraced by white America beginning in the 1950s and still resonates today, but I digress.

The Armstrong catalogue is deep. If you want to make this a learning adventure or take a break from the music and dance tents, there are seminars given by a host of some of his most distinguished biographers and record producers. The fact that they’re held in air-conditioned comfort a few steps away is certainly a draw. I mean, we’re talkin’ New Orleans in deep summer when temps in the 80s are considered cool. I won’t even bring up the subject of humidity but the quality of music just neutralizes all of that.

Vendors sell food and drink, at really decent prices, that are staples of New Orleans life. This year’s Summerfest has moved from the old U. S. Mint to Jackson Square. I can’t wait to hear the bells in the Saint Louis Cathedral at the edge of the square while listening to the music, sort of like Louis is chiming in from his perch in his bandstand in heaven. Lord have mercy.

The event in 2001 began as a salute tribute to the centenary of Armstrong’s birth. My first visit was in 2010...wouldn't think of spending the first week in August anywhere else.

Satchmo Summerfest: Jackson Square, Friday, August 5, 2016

Getting ready for this year's Satchmo Summerfest with posts from the archives, written in 2016 but for some reason, never posted!

Satchmo Summerfest: Jackson Square, Friday, August 5, 2016

With the reconstruction going on at the former U.S. Mint, home of the previous Satchmo Summerfest, the French Quarter Festivals Inc. had to get creative and fit the whole shebang into Jackson Square.

16th Annual Satchmo Summerfest

12 PM Friday, August 5, 2016
Red Beans and Rice Stage, the Preservation Hall Brass Band.
This is the most widely known and popular traditional jazz band in New Orleans. As with brass bands, the rumble of the bass drum and the oomph of the tuba laid a foundation for the harmony of the trombone, trumpet, clarinet, banjo, and saxophone.

The 2016 Satchmo Summerfest has officially begun. Every band today will play songs made popular by Louis Armstrong. The last song of the Preservation Hall Brass Band is a salute to the legacy of Louis Armstrong with the unique flavor, often imitated but never quite matched - quite the same way as it is played in the bars, parks, and dancehalls from Frenchmen Street two out-of-the-way places all over town.

1 PM Chop Suey Stage: Miss Sophie Lee, popular singer at The Spotted Cat on Frenchman Street accompanied by piano, guitar, piano and bass serves up a wonderful tapas of traditional songs.

"That's When The Heartache Begins," slow tempo; "Blue
Skies," up-tempo, with a great guitar solo, remind me that the guitar and banjo have status in traditional New Orleans music. The whole set features the usual tight New Orleans arrangement.

"Why Must You Be Mean to Me," slow swing. Sophie introduces the band. During the entire day I cannot write fast enough to remember the names and instruments of musicians.
"I Will Love You" followed by "I'm Just Found" followed by an upbeat "A-Tisket A-Tasket". By the time she gets to an upbeat "When You're Smiling,” we are all smiling and sweating and feeling the Louis Armstrong vibe.

Next, an upbeat "It Don't Mean a Thing.” No drum set on the stage, the standup bass, deep and resonant, sustains the beat. The sound system for this act and all similar bands is just the right volume, no need for your plugs and the standup bass and guitar do a great job of pulsing the beat.

A taped announcement by trumpeter Leroy Jones acknowledges a long list of sponsors, takes two minutes to read. The weekend is supported by organizations of all stripes all over town.

About 26,000 attended from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.
http://www.nola.com/festivals/index.ssf/2016/08/satchmo_summerfest_2016_attend.html

1:45 PM Red Beans and Rice Stage, Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

When you get near New Orleans brass bands you don't just hear them, you feel them right down to the marrow in your bones. I could feel The Dirty Dozen Brass Band all the way across Jackson Square as I entered the park. Trumpets are king down here but those big ass bass and snare drums and tubas are alpha instruments. Trumpets feed off them. Brass bands down here don't feel they're doing their job unless they see you dancing.

"Get up, you're in New Orleans!" The leader says to the crowd, many of whom are sitting on the grass or in camp chairs, as he peers from the stage. It's 90°F and the humidity is so high that when you walk if feels like you're wading through a bathtub. No matter, this guy wants us to get up and shake our booties. All of a sudden, we are in a call and response mode and for all the world we could be testifying at a Sunday morning church service.

"Say Satchmo," he shouts over the ratatatat of the drums and pealsof trumpets. "This is New Orleans! We make music in the hot! We make food in the hot! We make you know what in the hot!" Not long after that the music inexplicably stops – there's a call for a doctor, a musician has collapsed. Later, the leader says, “Kurt has been with us since he was 16, it's 100° out there, make sure you all drink water.”

2:45 PM Chop Suey Stage, The Tornado Brass Band

“The Rebirth Brass Band can blow the shingles off of a house, “ says the leader with chuckle. "We call this the quiet band," he says as a way of introduction.

Their songs included smooth versions of “Wonderful World,” “You Are My Sunshine.”
When it comes to "When the Saints Go Marching In" this band is not so quiet. The repartee between the band members between numbers is hilarious sometimes even during the songs. This kind of banter is one of the endearing things about music in this town, at least between traditional bands like the Tornados.

3 PM Bill Summers and the JazzSalsa Band, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage

An Afro- Caribbean Latin funk band switches genres with great elan. They finish with "Caravan" and Carlos Santana’s "Jingoloba." The African call and response chants incorporated into the music gave the performance a resonance that must have been familiar to many in the audience.

4:45 PM The Shotgun Jazz Band at the Chop Suey Stage. OOPS NO PHOTOS!

If Odetta Sang is kind of music she might sound like band leader Marla Dixon. In a city with hundreds of female singers, Dixon has a style all her own. Dixon on trumpet is accompanied by trombone, clarinet, banjo, bass. “Breathe,” easy swing tempo; "I'll Take You Home Cathleen" an old Irish reel that has been around a long time and this kind of genre jumping is one of the reasons Dixon is in a league of her own.

“How about some blues?” Dixon asks rhetorically, “I think it was by Tampa Red,” and indeed it was. Old time lyrics, it swings low and hard and Dixon’s got the lip to torch these songs into embers. If this did not get your hips moving you might be dead. I can probably say that for most of the music I heard today. There is no linear set list, Dixon glances down at a list then takes a stab.

Along comes ‘In the Gloaming” Stand up bass player Tyler Thompson sings "My Old Kentucky Home." “We might be running a little late, I think it will be OK, they probably already cut the check."

Next, an awesome sax solo (I wish I could remember the song), the bass player and the banjo player hold the baseline and underpin the beat. Next, "Shake It and Break It," the original version, Dixon says. She directs solos and signals the end with a wave of her hand. Next, "Whenever You're Lonesome, Telephone Me." With that, she concludes by thanking Louis Armstrong, the sponsors, and us in the audience. She’s the bomb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VJzHT9nuk

5:30 PM The Soul Rebels, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage

 

Cross a New Orleans traditional brass band with a side of funk and you get the Soul rebels. By now we’re bathing in a blanket of humidity at about the same temperature as our own bodies. All day long people have found respite in the shade and one of the positive assets so Jackson Square is that there are plenty of trees under which to get it. A given in New Orleans is you just never hear them complaining about the heat.

Spectators fan themselves the old fashioned way As they stand around the stage or sit in the ubiquitous camp chairs or spread out on blankets all over the park. My hands are so wet with perspiration that ink is smeared all over my notebook.

Can you imagine a brass band like The Soul Rebels can sing a song like "sweet dreams are made of this" and that by the end of the song, the bandleader as us all singing along. It is beyond me how the band can switch gears and tempo and play as tight as they do – brass, reeds, percussion– The bandleader flashes his hand with different number of fingers, sort of like a quarterback, and a band sees what he wants and who is going to solo and when the song is going to end.

6:45 PM Chop Suey Stage, The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band


Talk about making a homage to Louis, "Muskrat Ramble," "is a peach of a rendition.

Who are these guys? Here comes "Down the Mississippi to New Orleans" in four-time?
Yolanda Winter begins to solo, totally awesome. She introduces "Shine," the lyrics are important, the bandleader said it was one of Lewis favorite songs. Louis was ahead of his time with this not so subtle song about his skin color, one that he certainly felt and certainly lived.

This band is having fun, they joke around when they mess up an introduction, The leader says "We haven't worked together for a week. It's a good thing you can't hear what we're saying appear off mic!”
Bandleader says they're going to play a Louis Armstrong classic but with a different groove and play "What a Wonderful World" with a Rumba beat…really fetching.
“The next song is one of my favorites, my grandfather wrote it,” says the leader and here comes "Why Don't You Go down to New Orleans" upbeat almost with a waltz beat.

Wonders never cease around here.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Satchmo Summerfest: Jackson Square, Friday, August 5, 2016

Getting ready for this year's Satchmo Summerfest with posts from the archives, written in 2016 but for some reason, never posted!

Satchmo Summerfest: Jackson Square, Friday, August 5, 2016

With the reconstruction going on at the former U.S. Mint, home of the previous Satchmo Summerfest, the French Quarter Festivals Inc. had to get creative and fit the whole shebang into Jackson Square.

16th Annual Satchmo Summerfest

12 PM Friday, August 5, 2016
Red Beans and Rice Stage, the Preservation Hall Brass Band.
This is the most widely known and popular traditional jazz band in New Orleans. As with brass bands, the rumble of the bass drum and the oomph of the tuba laid a foundation for the harmony of the trombone, trumpet, clarinet, banjo, and saxophone.

The 2016 Satchmo Summerfest has officially begun. Every band today will play songs made popular by Louis Armstrong. The last song of the Preservation Hall Brass Band is a salute to the legacy of Louis Armstrong with the unique flavor, often imitated but never quite matched - quite the same way as it is played in the bars, parks, and dancehalls from Frenchmen Street two out-of-the-way places all over town.

1 PM Chop Suey Stage: Miss Sophie Lee, popular singer at The Spotted Cat on Frenchman Street accompanied by piano, guitar, piano and bass serves up a wonderfully tapas of traditional songs.

"That's When The Heartache Begins," slow tempo; "Blue
Skies," up-tempo, with a great guitar solo, remind me that the guitar and banjo have status in traditional New Orleans music. The whole set features the usual tight New Orleans arrangement.

"Why Must You Be Mean to Me," slow swing. Sophie introduces the band. During the entire day I cannot write fast enough to remember the names and instruments of musicians.
"I Will Love You" followed by "I'm Just Found" followed by an upbeat "A-Tisket A-Tasket". By the time she gets to an upbeat "When You're Smiling,” we are all smiling and sweating and feeling the Louis Armstrong vibe.

Next, an upbeat "It Don't Mean a Thing.” No drum set on the stage, the standup bass, deep and resonant, sustains the beat. The sound system for this act and all similar bands is just the right volume, no need for your plugs and the standup bass and guitar do a great job of pulsing the beat.

A taped announcement by trumpeter Leroy Jones acknowledges a long list of sponsors, takes two minutes to read. The weekend is supported by organizations of all stripes all over town.

About 26,000 attended from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.
http://www.nola.com/festivals/index.ssf/2016/08/satchmo_summerfest_2016_attend.html

1:45 PM Red Beans and Rice Stage, Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

When you get near New Orleans brass bands you don't just hear them, you feel them right down to the marrow in your bones. I could feel The Dirty Dozen Brass Band all the way across Jackson Square as I entered the park. Trumpets are king down here but those big ass bass and snare drums and tubas are alpha instruments. Trumpets feed off them. Brass bands down here don't feel they're doing their job unless they see you dancing.

"Get up, you're in New Orleans!" The leader says to the crowd, many of whom are sitting on the grass or in camp chairs, as he peers from the stage. It's 90°F and the humidity is so high that when you walk if feels like you're wading through a bathtub. No matter, this guy wants us to get up and shake our booties. All of a sudden, we are in a call and response mode and for all the world we could be testifying at a Sunday morning church service.

"Say Satchmo," he shouts over the ratatatat of the drums and pealsof trumpets. "This is New Orleans! We make music in the hot! We make food in the hot! We make you know what in the hot!" Not long after that the music inexplicably stops – there's a call for a doctor, a musician has collapsed. Later, the leader says, “Kurt has been with us since he was 16, it's 100° out there, make sure you all drink water.”

2:45 PM Chop Suey Stage, The Tornado Brass Band

“The Rebirth Brass Band can blow the shingles off of a house, “ says the leader with chuckle. "We call this the quiet band," he says as a way of introduction.

Their songs included smooth versions of “Wonderful World,” “You Are My Sunshine.”
When it comes to "When the Saints Go Marching In" this band is not so quiet. The repartee between the band members between numbers is hilarious sometimes even during the songs. This kind of banter is one of the endearing things about music in this town, at least between traditional bands like the Tornados.

3 PM Bill Summers and the JazzSalsa Band, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage

An Afro- Caribbean Latin funk band switches genres with great elan. They finish with "Caravan" and Carlos Santana’s "Jingoloba." The African call and response chants incorporated into the music gave the performance a resonance that must have been familiar to many in the audience.

4:45 PM The Shotgun Jazz Band at the Chop Suey Stage. OOPS NO PHOTOS!

If Odetta Sang is kind of music she might sound like band leader Marla Dixon. In a city with hundreds of female singers, Dixon has a style all her own. Dixon on trumpet is accompanied by trombone, clarinet, banjo, bass. “Breathe,” easy swing tempo; "I'll Take You Home Cathleen" an old Irish reel that has been around a long time and this kind of genre jumping is one of the reasons Dixon is in a league of her own.

“How about some blues?” Dixon asks rhetorically, “I think it was by Tampa Red,” and indeed it was. Old time lyrics, it swings low and hard and Dixon’s got the lip to torch these songs into embers. If this did not get your hips moving you might be dead. I can probably say that for most of the music I heard today. There is no linear set list, Dixon glances down at a list then takes a stab.

Along comes ‘In the Gloaming” Stand up bass player Tyler Thompson sings "My Old Kentucky Home." “We might be running a little late, I think it will be OK, they probably already cut the check."

Next, an awesome sax solo (I wish I could remember the song), the bass player and the banjo player hold the baseline and underpin the beat. Next, "Shake It and Break It," the original version, Dixon says. She directs solos and signals the end with a wave of her hand. Next, "Whenever You're Lonesome, Telephone Me." With that, she concludes by thanking Louis Armstrong, the sponsors, and us in the audience. She’s the bomb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VJzHT9nuk

5:30 PM The Soul Rebels, Red Beans and Ricely Yours Stage

 

Cross a New Orleans traditional brass band with a side of funk and you get the Soul rebels. By now we’re bathing in a blanket of humidity at about the same temperature as our own bodies. All day long people have found respite in the shade and one of the positive assets so Jackson Square is that there are plenty of trees under which to get it. A given in New Orleans is you just never hear them complaining about the heat.

Spectators fan themselves the old fashioned way As they stand around the stage or sit in the ubiquitous camp chairs or spread out on blankets all over the park. My hands are so wet with perspiration that ink is smeared all over my notebook.

Can you imagine a brass band like The Soul Rebels can sing a song like "sweet dreams are made of this" and that by the end of the song, the bandleader as us all singing along. It is beyond me how the band can switch gears and tempo and play as tight as they do – brass, reeds, percussion– The bandleader flashes his hand with different number of fingers, sort of like a quarterback, and a band sees what he wants and who is going to solo and when the song is going to end.

6:45 PM Chop Suey Stage, The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band


Talk about making a homage to Louis, "Muskrat Ramble," "is a peach of a rendition.

Who are these guys? Here comes "Down the Mississippi to New Orleans" in four-time?
Yolanda Winter begins to solo, totally awesome. She introduces "Shine," the lyrics are important, the bandleader said it was one of Lewis favorite songs. Louis was ahead of his time with this not so subtle song about his skin color, one that he certainly felt and certainly lived.

This band is having fun, they joke around when they mess up an introduction, The leader says "We haven't worked together for a week. It's a good thing you can't hear what we're saying appear off mic!”
Bandleader says they're going to play a Louis Armstrong classic but with a different groove and play "What a Wonderful World" with a Rumba beat…really fetching.
“The next song is one of my favorites, my grandfather wrote it,” says the leader and here comes "Why Don't You Go down to New Orleans" upbeat almost with a waltz beat.

Wonders never cease around here.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Prep for the 55th Annual Westport Friends Used Book Fair: Part 2

Westport Friends Meeting House 
938 Main Road
Westport, MA
July 9, 2016

Exciting news update on Wednesday, July 6, 2016:

2,000 records, LPs and 45s, were recently donated by the estate of a local record collector. The records from the collector are in reported to be in "good" to "very good" condition. Some of the LPs have plastic covers over them. The vast majority of 45's have paper sleeves. The Book Fair has also received another 1000 from other donors.

A volunteer who viewed some of them recalls seeing categories of country, pop, early rock ‘n roll, and a big collection of Sonny and Cher. Undoubtedly there are other categories. They will be sold in the Macomber Community House next to the tents and the Meeting House. This sounds like a once in a lifetime chance for vinyl record buffs to add to their collections.

 

Wednesday, July 6, tables are hauled from storage and arranged under the tents. Transformations by the hour with efficient teamwork from year's of experience setting up for the big day.

 

A seeming miracle: from these boxes and poles hauled up from the bunker under the Community Building, volunteers figure out how to erect this tent...logical minds and great teamwork!

 
Melinda Marsello does last minute pricing...books are still arriving! "Often when I open the cover to price a book, there's one already written in. People keep donating their books back to us and pick up new choices this year."

 

Melinda Marsello explains the secret of why the Friends Meeting Used Book Fair has a consistently and reliably outstanding collection of books for sale (Her husband Greg, Book Fair Steering Committee Clerk, is " a ruthless culler!, a guarantee that books that make the cut are salable and will find a new home and boost the coffers of the Westport Friends Meeting for maintaining the meeting house and grounds for the next year.). It's why book lovers claim it's the best used book fair in the land

 

Paperbacks - 25 cents each and 6 for $1.00 are loaded onto the benches in the Meeting House. Unsold books will be stacked onto the tables under the tents at the end of the day. The weekly Friends Meeting takes place at 10 AM the next day, July 10, 2016!
 

Books still arriving on July 7; Reuse/Recyle bin - all books not selected to sell are taken by this company which finds other resellers or recycles the books; hundreds of paper bags for shoppers who will need them, having found way more books than they planned to buy. With prices like these, it happens every year.

 Photos and video by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Prep for the 55th Annual Westport Friends Used Book Fair: Part 1

Westport Friends 55th Annual Used Book Fair
938 Main Road
Westport, MA
July 7, 2016

The 55th Annual Westport Friends Used Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 11 AM sharp. The sale operates from dawn to dusk until July 17 but Saturday's the day you want to show up. It's a lalapalooza of a sale, the largest in New England, perhaps the country. Book lovers have been known to plan their vacations around this event.

When up to 30,000 books are donated from the day after this year's book fair ends until the week before the next book fair begins, always on the second Saturday of July, you've got to have a righteously organized system to sort, price and store the books.

Volunteers meet all year long to get the job done. Several days before the book fair opens, two yellow and white tents are hoisted, tables are arranged with signs over them designating categories of books that are stacked under them. Saturday morning at 7 AM, volunteers haul thousands of books to the tents, stack and organize them, a herculean effort.

The Friends Meeting House gets loaded wall to wall with paperbacks the day before. "Higher Value Books" and other non-book items (toys, games, DVDs, even ancient VCR cassettes) for sale are set up in the Community House on Friday. Nothing is sold until Saturday.

A small tent filled with children's books opens for kids at 10:45 AM. Prices average 25 cents, sometimes 6 for a dollar...obviously a fabulous place to replenish a kid's collection.

Volunteer Tristan Peirce explains the annual intake/sorting/pricing process. (Note: the address of the fair is incorrectly stated in the video - it's 938 Main Road, Westport, MA).

 

The pt at large story recounting the 50th Annual Westport Friends Used Book Fair is here
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2011/07/westport-quakers-awesome-50th-annual-used-book-fair-.html
and another one here
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2013/07/westport-friends-quaker-2013-52nd-annual-used-book-fair.html

You won't want to miss this! (Photos from 2015 Used Book Fair)

Waiting for the 11AM opening whistle to blow; collecting books by the armload.

Huge selection of children's books and paperbacks in the Meeting House, many at 6 for $1.00...such a deal!


Cashing out; examining the haul.

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

2016 Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues and Crawfish Festival

Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues and Crawfish Festival - 15th Annual
May 5-9, 2016
Spanish Landing Park (across from San Diego Airport)
San Diego, CA

Gator By The Bay never disappoints.

We’re talking San Diego in May. Sunny, 70s, low humidity, breeze blowing on shore from San Diego Bay. Beats Boston’s bone chilling March and beginning of April.

We’re talking about the promoters of this event who know how to sniff out talent from the big names to fabulous bands that no one outside San Diego has ever heard of. Thousands of people fork over $35 just to spend the day in camp chairs or on hay bales strategically placed around three of the four stages just to listen.

We’re talking about a Mother’s Day dance mecca so good that a legion of moms spend it right here. The hell with the flowers. Give them a good six or eight beat count and they will feel the love whether their spouses or kids are here or not.

We’re talking dancers who pencil in next year’s Gator By The Bay weekend the day after they return home from this one. Why? Swing, Rock 'n Roll, Rockabilly, Country, Zydeco, Cajun, Blues, Americana, New Orleans funk, Latin, and, I kid you not, Gypsy Alt that feels like you’ve just discovered a gypsy caravan at a roadside stand…that’s why.

We’re talking food. A hundred yard stretch in the middle of the park with the smoke and smell of Louisiana food that will fuel you up for hours of dancing. And sweet stuff, as in Funnel Cakes, pecan pie, and hot powdery beignets that remind you of Café du Monde. Judging by the lines, a huge contingent has come here to feast on po’boys, sweet potato fries, red beans and rice; jambalaya; seafood, chicken and gator gumbo, shrimp or crawfish étouffée, boudin and andouille sausage; fried catfish, hush puppies, corn on the cob and more.

We’re talking sprawling grassy areas sprinkled with young families with kids in tow, couples, jugglers, hula hoopers and picnickers lounging on blankets and beach chairs.

We’re talking about a Monet blue view of San Diego Marina dotted with sailboats moored and afloat.

We’re talking dance fiends who think nothing of getting on a plane or taking a half day’s drive or more to spend time with others for whom music and dancing are like meditation, yoga,  and flirty foreplay wrapped into one glorious grand ol’ time which fits the event slogan: “If you’re smiling, you’re doing it right.”

Fatigue sets in after six hours of dancing on Saturday. It’s 6:00 PM. Two hours to go. My legs say, “Pack it in, PT.” A band at one of the four stages launches a slinky blues song. A woman standing next to me extends her hand. An endorphin afterburner kicks in. The Gator By The Bay has swallowed me whole.

+++++++++ Photo section

Spanish Landing Park, a sliver of parkland between one of the marinas in San Diego Bay and the San Diego Airport right behind it. The Festival Stage pavilion and the Mardi Gras Stage pavilion. Two smaller stages, the Fountain Stage and the Bourbon Stage, each with a dance area, are between these two pavilions.

Impromptu dancing may break out anywhere.

Recreation, relaxation, and playtime for one and all.

 A walk from the east end to the west end of the park, shimmering water of the marina in sight the whole way.

   
Bayou Grove tent where musicians talk about their craft; the Festival Stage during a quiet moment.

 

Fill up your plate then find a cool place to sit down and enjoy it...walk along the row of vendor tents.
 
View of San Diego skyline, San Diego Bay, Coronado Island,  from 11th floor of the Sheraton Marina Hotel - note the USS Gerald R. Ford, the newest super-carrier in the US Navy fleet, docked at Coronado Island.

 Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

 

Louisiana Mardi Gras 2016: Moments At Tee Mamou Iota Mardi Gras

Tee Mamou Iota Mardi Gras
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Iota, LA

 

Head down Duson Avenue, camp chairs and supplies in  tow, toward the dance stage, already rockin' at 10:30 AM, in the shadow of the giant water tower in Iota, LA. Host Bernard Ussher says only three other places celebrate Mardi Gras on the scale of southwest Louisiana -  Mobile, Alabama,  Rio de Janeiro, and Venice. 


Buy tickets at a buck apiece for hot fresh beignets, syrup pies, home made cookies and cracklins, The beignets are to die for. Cracklins are an acquired taste. The syrup pies have been sold out for an hour...got to get here earlier next year!

Stroll down Duson Avenue to the American Legion Hall a hundred yards from the dance stage, listen to teenagers play Cajun music under watchful eyes of veterans, line up for red beans and rice, shrimp etoufée or jambalaya cooked by local residents. This is the best place for lunch today. Local people come here for lunch and the day's entertainment. Don't miss it.


Norma from New Orleans practically danced herself from the door to the other end of the room when she entered. A Cajun waltz can do that to you...had to dance with her; chat with two sisters and friends from DeRidder, Louisiana. They are amazed I have come here to this little town in the middle of nowhere for Mardi Gras.

You never know who'll sit next to your crowd. "I sang for six years as the featured vocalist with Buddy Morrow’s Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, lots of time in Boston," says Leif Pedersen after learning I'm from Boston. "I'll be showing my Swamp Kids children's books at the Festival Acadiens et Creole with Candace Alexander of Fleur de Lis art. Children finish their Mardi Gras song.

The children have just finished their Mardi Gras song. Some adults have come on stage to join them as the band plays on. I'm right behind them to take some photos. "Would you like to dance?" I look down to see a little girl with her hands extended, I reach down and we have a lovely miniature Cajun waltz. It feels like I'm connecting with generations of her forbears. "What's your name?" "Emily" "Thank you, Emily!" She gives me a hug. I kneel beside her for a photo. I am at big sap. I have had my my share of fabulous dances with the big girls, the women. This little waltz with Emily tops the list.

Showing off prize catches; hugs for a job well done; photo opp...

teenagers barrage me with questions after I take their picture – Are we going to be on TV? Are you a reporter? Did you come in a bus? (I hadn't realized it but there are actually bus tours that have taken tourists to this event). They see a guy with a camera and a notebook and, even though he is wearing a green wig and tattered Mardi Gras pants, they think they might have a moment on the evening news. Do you all go to school here? Yes. Do you like to dance? Yes! With lots of giggles

Dig into your pockets, pardner, Mardi Gras's not over; time to reflect and relax.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. Thanks to Bernard Ussher for photo of me and Emily

 

 

Chile 2016: Classic Wraparound Birthday Party Photo Album

January 9, 2016
Nogales, Chile
Chilefarms, home of Ricardo Ceriani and Susaan Straus

 Ricardo Ceriani's 61st Birthday party. Uncles, aunts, cousins, neices, nephews, everyone here related by blood or marriage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See you next year...

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Chile 2016: Classic Wraparound Birthday Party

January 9, 2016
Nogales, Chile
Chilefarms, home of Ricardo Ceriani and Susaan Straus

Remember those old European movies in which a family celebrates a momentous occasion? It's always a warm sunny day, generations gather – grandparents to toddlers –  home-made food is heaped in bowls and spread onto plates, everyone eats dinner at one long table, glasses clink, toasts are shouted out, family tensions are neutralized by red wine and a general sense of goodwill. if it's a birthday, songs are sung and magnificent cakes are served.

Transfer this scene to Nogales, Chile, on January 9, 2016, one of the early days of summer in the southern hemisphere and you have the setting for Ricardo Ceriani’s entry into the sixth decade of his life.

Everyone is related by blood or marriage. Some have come from the next town, Quillota, and Ricardo's brother, his wife and daughter, from as far away as Montréal. Starting at 11:45 AM, the guest list gathers steam like a locomotive chugging downhill until by 3 PM 26 people gathered in pods around the farm house’s wraparound porch, the grassy front yard, and the inviting pool behind the house. About eight hours later, most will consider calling it a day.

When the teenagers in the group are having a great time, you know this is one hell of a party. They gleefully play with their toddler cousins, cavort in the pool, and hug their uncles and aunts. The smart phones are generally holstered. And calls go unanswered. That goes for the adults too.

No one is here on this Saturday who hasn't planned on making a day of it. Presents are not expected or required. The biggest gift they are giving Ricardo and each other is their presence. Complete and undivided. 

The setting would make a cinematographer drool. The foothills of the Andes to the east, the coastal range that spills into the Pacific to the West, orange groves and cornfields, barns and stables visible from this farmhouse perched on a sturdy hill in the midst of its 50 acres of land.

The party begins to wind down at 8 PM. Each goodbye last about 45 minutes, perhaps a universal event on occasions like these. By dusk at 9 PM the dust from the last car rolling down the driveway has settled.

Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Photo page to follow

 

 

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

A slew of other photos at http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2016/01/chile-2016-classic-wraparound-birthday-party-photo-album.html#comments

Cuba Chronicles: La Plaza de la Catedral

October 1, 2015 rolling along with the Road Scholars

La Plaza de la Catedral

Like every country with a few hundred years under its belt, Cuba has its share of public squares. The venerable Plaza de la Catedral is one of the five main squares in Old Havana, presided over by the church built in 1727. Its vaulted ceilings, massive marble columns and rows of worn wooden pews are the dressing for a modest sized neo-classic style altar adorned with paintings and metalwork by Italian masters Bianchini and Giuseppe Perovani.

 

"Did you notice anything about the shape of the chandelier?" asks Jo. “It was the shape of a Guadalupe gown,” she says (I had no idea what a Guadalupe gown was until I googled it, guys don't know this stuff!). “The church is not very ornate, not much gold or wood because it was too close to the ocean. The entire area was swampland and was 11 km away from the nearest river which connected to this area by a canal in that ended here.”

In the past decades, relations with the Catholic church have softened. Visits by a pope are a big deal. The recent visit by Pope Francis recent eight day tour in September 2015 drew huge crowds.

The cathedral was such a grand edifice that it inspired those with ambition and money to build grand mansions around the spacious plaza. Today, it’s the site of the Museo del Arte Colonial and, of course, several restaurants in the re-purposed mansions with seating under the porticos. The Palacio del Conde Lombillo has a great life sized statue of Antonio Gades, a famous flamenco dancer. In Cuba, dancers reputations usually exceed the stature of saints.

 
The whole plaza/square is amazingly un-commercial. Although there are small (some the size of a narrow living room) stores on the streets surrounding it, the place has probably dressed this way for decades. Chain stores? Franchise businesses? Any kind of large store? Nope.

Some call it an advantage, some a disadvantage, but because Cubans don’t have what you would call disposable income, the economy does not require them to buy stuff in order to stay healthy. Cubans would be either aghast or jealous of the amount of stuff most Americans have in their homes.

For one week, I am not bombarded with advertising in magazines, billboards, neon lights, advertising “SALE!” or some new digital product. I don’t miss it one tiny bit. Neither will I miss having my iPhone filling with email and texts. I love my friends but for eight days, they might as well be on the moon. That said, probably one of the things highest on a Cuban wish list is internet access.

“The area around here used to be poor but with tourism the area is safer," Jo says. In fact, the violent crime rate in Havana is extremely low.

She shows us a building being renovated, people still live there during renovations.

If I recollect accurately, Jo said that people can own only one house and had to give the rest away after the revolution, even if to a son or a daughter or relative. A person owns the house but does not own the land it is on, that belongs to the government.

She says that if the government takes down a building for renovation or some other reason, it must give the former owners a new place to live. Usually the owners can return to their homes after restoration but sometimes they’re relocated to the outskirts of Havana since Havana is built out already. The Cuban laws about land and ownership are to me very complicated. To Cubans they either make sense or are accepted as commonplace.

 
Anywhere there are crowds of tourists, there will be entertainers and vendors. This fellow is a traveling circus act with two small dogs and a bag full of props (including a pair of goofy false teeth) on his bicycle… and is a pro at working a crowd. The dogs appears to carry on a conversation with their owner and, of course, dance “en paw,” to get our attention…and earn a few pesos in the process.

 

Tourism is one of the three main sources of revenue Jo tells us that tourism is one of the three main sources of revenue in Cuba (other two were written in my lost notebook!)

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Margarita European Inn: Evanston's Boutique Hotel

The Margarita European Inn
1566 Oak Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201
December 8, 2015

Exquisite, charming, historic. Forget the high-end cookie cutter Hiltons in the area, this is the place to rest your weary bones any time you visit Evanston, just north of Chicago. The place certainly fits the ‘boutique’ appellation but with all the positive connotations.

The lobby and its “Grand Parlor” is a knockout, magnificently appointed with furniture and antiques collected from around the world. It has the kind of ambiance that invites you first to gawk then to walk right in and make yourself comfortable. The Margarita European Inn exudes old-world elegance without pretension and wears its ninety-year history like a well-loved robe.

If you feel like luxuriating in more intimate quarters, head for the compact wood-paneled English library, sink into one of the armchairs and imagine spending an hour sipping port and admiring the oriental rug at your feet or the one of a kind furnishings around you.

The Grand Parlor has furniture strategically arranged so couples, small groups, and solo travelers can easily find a place to eat.

Two characters you’re likely to meet, Kathryn the general manager and Philippe the pastry chef, each add to your reason to want to return. Kathryn knows every little stitch of the hotel’s history and probably some of its secrets, the former that she’ll tell you in rich detail, and the latter that will go with her to the grave. Questions about transportation, places to eat, find a good cup of coffee (a short walk)? Fire away. She’ll tell you not to miss the Greek yogurt at the breakfast buffet, “ the richest you’ve ever tasted,” and she’s right.

In a French accent as thick as the incredible Greek yogurt on the breakfast buffet, pastry chef Philippe tells me he was born in Belfort, just outside Alsace Lorraine, and learned his trade as a 14-year-old apprentice. He loves to see guests feast upon his delicious brioche, beignets, croissants, pastries, and petite breakfast sandwiches of ham/cheese or turkey/cheese. The coffee, from a local roaster, is first rate.

During the busy summer season, he reloads the buffet a couple of times, happy to see guests pocket goodies to fortify themselves as they tour. Philippe arrives at 4:30 AM each day to make the dough, bake the goodies and have everything ready by 7 AM when he brings it up from his kitchen in the hotel. Oh, and he's also a pastry chef at DePaul University.

View into the Grand Parlor from the lobby.

My room with a king-sized bed on the fifth floor overlooking Oak Avenue was tastefully appointed. Designed for occupancy in the 1920s, rooms don't have as much space to spread out as more modern hotels The bathroom is updated but retains some of the tiled charm and elegant sink faucet/bowl of a hotel nearing the century mark.

About that sumptuous ‘grand parlor.’ The 46 room Margarita Club for working women was built in 1927 to provide apartments and respectability for young professional women who wanted to live on their own. This was Chicago in the midst of the Roaring Twenties when living alone would practically be a billboard declaring “Wayward Woman.”  

The namesake Margarita was the first female resident of Evanston, Margaret O’Leary (1801-1900), and a big wheel in the Evanston community for most of her life. Her son Father David O’Leary and his sister Margaret O’Leary Lynch bought the land and built the Margarita Club in her honor. The grand parlor was big enough to accommodate residents for tea and socializing.

The proud history of this little one-of-a-kind hotel.

The hotel is practically a museum for early 20th century furniture, tapestries, rugs, artwork, vases, lamps and objets d’art. The fascinating collection of furnishings was donated by a generous socialite who chose them on her travels around the world.

There are great bakeries and coffee shops within a ten-minute walk. The Margarita, a refreshing alternative to contemporary hotel offerings, is a swell place to stay. If all the above isn’t enough to tempt you, the original 1927 Otis Elevator with its cage style doors in perfect operating condition is a hoot to ride, a piece of Americana that takes you right back to the day the Margarita opened its doors.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. with his iPhone5

Travel tip: The Chicago Transit Authority Bus 250 at the corner of Davis and Oak Avenue, three minute walk from the Margarita, will take you directly to O'Hare Airport in about 50 minutes - for $3.00! Take the 250 from O'Hare to Evanston, too!
 

Cuba Chronicles: An All-Star Cuban Pitcher and the Hot Corner

Rolando Macías, All-Star Cuban Pitcher
Guest Speaker at lunch at Restaurant/Paladar La Moraleja
Calle 25 n.454 e/J e I, Vedado, Havana, Cuba
October 2, 2015 on the road with Road Scholars

Late breaking development: Tampa Bay to Play in Cuba for Obama and Castro March 21, 22, 2016

Some of the best baseball players we’ve never heard of play in Cuba. Our Cuban guide Yohandra (Jo) has told us several times, with pride, that the Cuban baseball team is a perennial winner of the Baseball World Cup. Of the 15 teams that have competed over the years, Cuba has won 15 Gold Medals. The next highest? The USA with 4. Ironically, America introduced Cuba to baseball in the 1860s.

 

The guest speaker at today’s lunch is Rolando Macías. A little stout now, the 5’10” 74 year-old with the strong shoulders and big biceps still looks like he could throw some heat.

Rolando Macías started to play baseball at 12 years old. At 15, major-league scouts took notice. He played in the Cuban leagues for 15 years, his record was 100 wins and 67 losses between 1958 and 1979.  He once won 31 games in a row, pretty remarkable in any country.

An All-Star by any standard, Rolando played in the Pan-American games and the World Cup. “My best pitches were a sinker and a screwball,” our interpreter Jo relays to us.

Rolando Macías Rodrigues was a winner and a coveted prospect that US scouts tried unsuccessfully to land.

At age 18, he was offered a contract by the Cincinnati Reds. In 1967, the New York Giants came calling and in 1969 the Brooklyn Dodgers. He declined them all. Macías retired in 1978,  began to mentor young players in 1990, coached a Cuban team in 1997, coached in Italy in 1999 and Venezuela in 2003. In 2006, an automobile accident ended his coaching career. “I still do some advising,” he says, as Jo continues to translate.

Why decline the offers? “In 1958, the contract wasn't good enough. In 1969, I wanted to stay with my wife and children.” In 1967 he said that he felt like part of the revolution and wanted to stay in his home country.

"Cuban teams were the best in the Caribbean - always,"  Macías says with conviction. He said that after Cuba went under the embargo in 1959, players from the Dominican Republic became more popular. I’m not sure where he gets his information but I believe him when he says, “Fifty players from Cuba may be drafted for USA teams next year.”

To Jo’s extreme distress, the sport of soccer is making inroads in Cuba.  The World Cup men’s and women’s championship games have been popular the world over, apparently in Cuba as well.

“Nooo!” she exclaimed when we rolled past athletic fields and saw kids kicking a white soccer ball around. “We have the best baseball teams, we win the World Cup all the time, they should be playing baseball!” In more calm moments, she considers the fact that playing baseball requires gloves, bats, and balls and they all cost money. For soccer, one ball is good for dozens of kids to play with.

(For one young man's cross cultural journey to connect with his family history and to donate baseball equipment to young players see the film HAVANA CURVEBALL by Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider)

In the past month, there’s been talk of American and National League teams coming to play exhibition games in Cuba. If Cuban players are offered contracts in the future, they will be much better than the ones Rolando Macías rejected.

Jo says that Cubans are proud of their athletes like Yasiel Puig and Yoenis Cespedes, even though they defected from Cuba.

Yasiel Puig Valdés is a Cuban professional baseball right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Puig played for the Cuban national baseball team in the 2008 World Junior Baseball Championship, winning a bronze medal. The 25 year-old outfielder made 4.5 million dollars in 2015. In later research, I find that in addition to Puig, who plays for the Dodgers, José Abreu, who plays for the White Sox, and Kendrys Morales, who plays for the Royals, all got their start with Macias. There are 16 Macias protégés currently playing in the minor leagues.

Yoenis Céspedes Milanés is a Cuban professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets. He made 3.73 million dollars in 2015.

When this happens, the athletic fields will again be alive with kids playing baseball.

 

Rolando Macias, bottom left of page 2; Rolando's fancy autograph

Rolando Macias's many honors

Parque Central and the famous "Hot Corner"

Parque Central in Havana a block from the Capitolio Building is good for the usual themes in Havana: people watching, admiring vintage American cars, finding a shady spot to relax for a few minutes

“See those men around the benches over there,” Jo says. That spot is called ‘The Hot Corner’. They are former baseball players. They hang around the benches and argue baseball all day long.” It is said that this is one of the only places where Cubans can say whatever they want, as long as it’s about baseball.

My guess is that the conversations are going to heat up this year when professional teams from the USA play exhibition games here.

The Estadio Latinoamericao was built in 1946. In 1971 it was renovated, increasing its capacity from 31,000 to 55,000. Like tickets to the ballet, Jo says that ticket prices are affordable for everyone. Outsiders have differing opinions about Cuba's politics but regarding this,  I wish tickets for American ballet and sports events were as affordable as they are in Havana.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. reporting from Road Scholar trip to Cuba

 

Cuba Chronicles: Cigars and Rum

“Cuba Today: People and Society—Havana and the Countryside” (#20610)
September 28-October 6, 2015

On The Road With The Road Scholars

Politics aside, mention Cuba and two items come to mind: cigars and rum. No right-minded tour of Havana would be complete without visiting a rum and cigar emporium. As of January 2015, American tourists can bring back $400 worth of merchandise, which may include up to $100 worth of tobacco and alcohol products, for personal use only.

Fellow Road Scholars and I put a dent in the allocation Wednesday September 30. Cheers erupted in the bus when our fearless tour leader Carole Cloonan announced the stop.

I made two friends very happy when I picked up a few Montecristo and Cohiba Robusto cigars, requests made about ten seconds after learning I was heading for Havana. The Cohiba style was created in 1966 and is a favorite of Fidel’s.

Cuban cigars are hand rolled, have dozens of lengths, shapes, and ring sizes (the width of the cigar). Cigars also have a distinctive colorful paper band that is wrapped around each one with the logo of the cigar. Cuba's climate and soil make it ideal for growing tobacco leaves perfect for rolling into cigars and packing inside them. I’m way over my head when my cigar-smoking pal waxes on about the three components of cigars – the wrapper, binder and filler.

Columbus saw Cuban Indians smoking a form of cigars way back in 1492. Factories in Cuba began hand-rolling cigars in the late 1800s.  

How did the Montecristo cigar get its name?  Our Cuban tour guide Yohandra (“Jo”) explains. “In the old days, in order to keep the cigar makers engaged, the company hired someone to read to them while they rolled cigars. One of the stories being read was ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ and that is how that cigar got its name. Same thing with the Romeo and Juliet cigar.”

While it was rare to see anyone smoking a cigar (or even cigarettes) in Havana, every lunch and dinner we had was accompanied with a couple rounds of mojitos – Cuban white rum, sugar cane juice, lime juice, sparkling water, and mint…instant gratification.

Accounts that it was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite concoction at La Floridita in Havana are probably apocryphal. It doesn’t make a shot glass of difference to tourists who have flocked to La Floridita for an icy mojito or daiquiri and a photo opp with the bust of Papa in the corner seat at the bar.

Cuba in perspective: Cuba is the 136th largest export economy in the world. In 2013, Cuba exported $2.43B and imported $6.72B, resulting in a negative trade balance of $4.29B. The top exports of Cuba are Raw Sugar ($419M), Refined Petroleum ($356M), Rolled Tobacco ($306M). Habanos S.A. owns the trademarks of every brand of Cuban-made cigars and cigarettes in the countries they are exported to. The only nation to which Habanos S.A. doesn't sell cigars is the United States, which has had a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962. Before the revolution, Cuba was a one-crop economy, and 90 percent of the country's raw sugar and tobacco exports was exported to the US. There was no trickle down benefit to the populace.

Hard to say how Cuba will manage exporting cigars and rum to the United States if and when the embargo is lifted.  Not hard to say that the best place to sample either one is in Havana.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Decisions, decisions, decisions...a toast to our newly acquired mementos.

Dazzling stock pile of cigars of all kinds.

 
The "rings" for cigars were formerly printed on lithography presses like this ancient machine at El Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana. http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2015/11/cuba-chronicles-el-taller-experimental-de-grafica.html

  
La Floridita...a visit here is on the top ten places to visit in Havana for tourists from all over the world. We were the only Americans in the place. After a couple of mojitos or daiquiris everybody is in the mood to celebrate and world peace seems possible. And the little band just inside the door is a fabulous mood setter.

Note the book and eyeglasses on the counter and the photo of another famous Cuban on the wall. Also note the DAIQUIRI on the bar.

Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer who is said to have invented the rum based daiquiri during the Spanish-American War, is buried in this cemetery in Havana. After getting seated on the bus after our visit to the emporium, our tour guide Yohandra ("Jo") passes around a pint of fine white rum. It's empty by the time it gets back to the front of the bus – a record says tour leader Carole Cloonan. I think that was a compliment.

Cuba's reputation with rum is complex and dark. In the 1930s, the Mafia took control of the rum business. When Al Capone visited Havana, he camped out in two floors of the Hotel Sevilla Biltmore (photo above), owned by other mob bosses. The mafia's influence in Havana politics ceased after January 1, 1959 when the Revolution triumphed.

The Art Deco Bacardi building was completed in 1930 and was the largest building in Havana at the time.

The battle for control of Cuban rum production continues to this day. Bacardi and Havana Club were the two biggest rum makers in Cuba and friendly competitors when Fidel Castro took control. Castro regime confiscated the Bacardi family’s Cuban assets in October 1960.

Bacardi now makes Havana Club rum in Puerto Rico and sells it in 19 states. Because of the U.S.-Cuba trade embargo, Pernod Ricard of France, maker of  Havana Club rum of Cuba has not been able to sell its rum in the U.S. but markets the product in Cuba and elsewhere. If and when the embargo is lifted, Pernod Ricard will sell its rum to U. S. customers under the name "Havanista".

French drinks giant Pernod Ricard is poised to sell its Cuban-made rum in the United States once a 53-year-old trade embargo is lifted, going head-to-head with Cuban-founded Bacardi which dominates the world's biggest market.

Pernod's Havana Club will have to change its name to "Havanista" for U.S. customers, because Bacardi International, now Bermuda-based after its founders fled the communist island in the 1960s, has the U.S. rights to the "Havana Club" name.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Cuba Chronicles: El Taller Experimental de Grafica

October 1, 2015
Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside"

El Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana
Callejón del Chorro #62, Habana Vieja

The smell of ink and fresh paint fills your nostrils as soon as you walk into the gallery. If creative energy had form, it would be handing you a cup of coffee and saying, "Have a seat and look around."

A dozen young student/artists are up to their elbows in acrylic paint and ink. Intensely. Occasional chatter and bursts of laughter interrupt the silence as they follow their instincts, intuition, and training.

If the pope had dropped in during his visit to Havana last month, the young student artists might not have noticed unless his robes brushed against their paint trays. The paintings on dry paper and the monotypes they’re making on wet paper and acetate will soon be ready to be printed and tucked into their portfolios.

 

The 9 established artists who work here produce a prodigious number of lithographs, etchings, wood and linoleum cut prints. The artists pay the gallery a fee when they sell their work. Printmaking in Cuba dates back to the 1700s. Print making got a boost in the 1800s when the circular bands around cigars began to be printed on flat stones. To give you the idea of the status of art and artists, printmaking became a subject in the education system and an independent specialty in 1959.

When this workshop was created in 1962, some of the stones and presses that printed those cigar wrappings were brought here.  The "rings" that used to be wrapped around cigars were printed from designs made on stone and lithographed, are now done digitally. Nevertheless, the presses are still in use. Cuba feeds off its traditions in order to embrace its past and use it as a point of departure into the future.

The Galería del Grabado (Printmaking) upstairs has an astonishing variety of prints for sale. Trust me, when trade becomes easier, the value and recognition of Cuban art is going to go through the roof.

I smile when I think of what Che would think of this. When Orlando Suarez was looking for support to open a gallery in 1962, he got it from Che Guevara, then the Minister of Industry. The revolution realized the value of the arts to be a backbone of culture and national pride. It must be said that freedom of expression only goes so far in Cuba but here, on paper, the sky’s the limit.

Sold! A Road Scholar purchases a print made by Dairan Fernandez de la Fuente

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. rolling along with the Road Scholars

Cuba Chronicles: La Coppélia - The People's Ice Cream

La Coppélia
September 30, 2015
La Rampa Street in the Vedado District, Havana, Cuba
Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside"

America has Ben and Jerry…Cuba had Fidel and Celia~

It may not surprise you that Habaneros love ice cream. It will shock you who started the craze - the Maximum Leader himself, Fidel Castro!

He wanted to introduce Cubans to his love of the dairy product and put Celia Sánchez (May 9, 1920 – January 11, 1980), one of the first women to assemble a combat squad during the revolution in 1956, a confidante of Castro’s and appointed to Secretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in the 1960s, in charge of making it happen.

Oh, boy, did she ever. The La Coppelia building, constructed in 1966, is shaped like a flying saucer that can seat 1000 customers. The Havana Times reports that it serves 12 thousand clients during the week, a figure that can reach 15 thousand on Saturdays and Sundays.

There are mercifully no Wal-Mart’s in Cuba but this is the biggest ice cream store on the planet and probably the largest store in Cuba. It takes up a whole city block and is surrounded by ground cover and shaded by banyan trees. La Coppelia is to Havana what the Statue of Liberty is to America - a landmark to see for tourists and a beacon to the sweet tooth to just about every Cuban on the island.

Our Cuban guide Yohandra (Jo) Perez says that people wait in line for hours to get 4, 8, 12 scoops of ice cream for a few pesos. She says that La Coppelia was featured prominently in one of Cuba’s most popular films, “Strawberry and Chocolate.” With ice cream as a background, the film explored, in a sympathetic way, the Castro regime’s unfavorable attitude toward the gay community at the time (film set in 1979, made in 1990).

Jo says Cubans never know what flavors will be available. Today it was almond and vanilla. And rather than go inside, which might have taken the rest of the morning, our group leader Carole somehow got this tiny satellite shack just outside the La Coppélia park to open for us. I later learned that foreigners with CUC’s (Cuban Convertible Pesos) pay about four times what Cubans pay. It's worth it!

You don’t want to leave New York without having a bagel and cream cheese, or Philadelphia without trying a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.  In Havana, it’s a few scoops of ice cream at La Coppélia.

The name? Coppelia was Celia Sánchez’s favorite ballet. The logo, a red, white and blue line drawing of a ballerina’s chubby legs, red dance shoes and tutu, is as recognizable as a Dunkin’ Donuts sign. Dance and music are venerated art forms in Cuba. The Ballet Nacional de Cuba has produced some the world’s leading dancers.

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The Vedado district, home of La Coppélia (note Russian car). Our tourist group is served at an outside kiosk. Everyone else waits in long lines to get inside. This street, La Rampa, runs from the Malecòn (the road by the seafront) to Calle L, and passes by airline offices, cinemas, nightclubs and office buildings.


Two scoops, the custom is to put one cone atop the other. The ice cream is not as rich and flavorful as some premium US brands but it's sort of like hot dogs. They taste better when you eat them in the ball park. La Coppélia ice cream is sweet, cold and you're wolfing it down in Havana, an act of solidarity with ice cream lovers the world over. The well-known logo of a ballerina's legs, red toe shoes and tutu, behind me at the entrance to the park.

 

People at an eatery in the park. Uncomfortable custom: tourists are given a green light to buy ice cream at the front of the line and Cubans step aside for a few minutes. 

 

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. rolling along with the Road Scholars

 

Cuba Chronicles: A Visit to Casa de Abuelos La Milagrosa Senior Center

September 30, 2015
Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside"

Casa de Abuelos La Milagrosa Senior Center founded by Father Jesús María Lusarreta, Havana, Cuba

After meeting Father Jesús María Lusarreta, our group of Road Scholars walk to the Senior Center next door. A lively place, with seniors from the neighborhood and a handful of volunteers.

One way or another, connections are made.

The Road scholars bring postcards of home towns or photos of family to give to the seniors who hold onto them as if they were wafers of communion, pleased to have such a tactile and visual memento from the United States. Many of them trace their fingers over the pictures, and show them to anyone who walks by, a warm touching response.

Even though the language barrier is there, smiles, handshakes and exchanges of mementos breaks down barriers and makes the day special for the givers and the receivers. St. Vincent de Paul would indeed be happy to witness this exchange and the sense of community it created.

 

Dominoes is popular game in Cuba. VIDEO The seniors serenade the Road Scholars who, in turn, respond with a chorus of "You Are My Sunshine" (not recorded).

A retiree with a great story!

I sit with an alert fellow and gesture with my camera to ask if I can take his picture. He smiles and says yes. What happens next blows my mind. Yohandra "Jo" Perez comes to sit with us and acts as a translator for this incredible story. The man is 87 years old. When he was young he was raised by a priest, who later moved into the country to serve the men who were organizing the revolution. He built  a portable altar and took it around the Sierra Maestra Mountains to say Mass. One of his first congregants was Fidel Castro.

My new friend spent 35 years working in a factory that made cleaning materials including sponges. During that time, he wanted to join the priest, who had become a commander. The priest/commander told him to stay home. The factory worker made Molotov cocktails with the sponges from his work and sent them to the commander priest in the Sierra Maestra Mountains to be used in service of the revolution. 

Father Guillermo Sordinas Menendez was 30 years old when he joined and died when he was in his 40s.  Yolanda Portuondo has written a book about the priest. How amazing is that!
Yolanda Portuondo El Sacerdote Comandante Guillermo Sardiñas
http://www.abebooks.com/GUILLERMO-SARDIÑAS-SACERDOTE-COMANDANTE-Testimonio-Portuondo/7571466557/bd

  Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

Cuba Chronicles: Father Jesús María Lusarreta, Church Stalwart, Community Organizer

September 30, 2015
Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside"
La Milagrosa Catholic Church, Casa de Abuelos, Havana, Cuba

 

The visit to this church is my first clue that Havana is more than a city romanticized for its glorious past as a playground for the rich and famous. And it is one of several encounters that shape my experience of the city and its people.

The Road Scholar itinerary read, “Meet members of either a Senior Center or Down Syndrome Community Center to share conversation and perhaps exchange a song or two.”  It didn’t mention Father Jesús María Lusarreta, a shaker and mover in the mold of St. Vincent de Paul.

The tour bus pulls up to a well-maintained Catholic church in what appears to be a poor neighborhood. Down an alleyway and into a side entrance we go, passing a sign that reads Casa de Abuelos La Milagrosa. We sit quietly in the middle pews in the warm confines of the sparsely adorned interior.

In walks a short fellow with thinning white hair, a white shirt with a crucifix hanging from a lanyard around his neck and a pair of black reading glasses stuffed into his shirt pocket.

It takes five short minutes to understand how Father Jesús María Lusarreta has transformed his church into a charitable entity another fellow named Jesus would applaud.

The Casa de Abuelos La Milagrosa serves everyone from teenagers who are pregnant to seniors in need of company and a good meal. Lusaretta’s religious order, St Vincent de Paul, is dedicated to serving the poor and disadvantaged. The man is a vigorous example of the spirit of the order.  

He embodies a marvelous mixture of conviction, serenity, and a practical understanding of bureaucracies with just the right dash of charm and levity necessary to absorb the ironies and incongruities of navigating life in Cuba.

”God loves you whether you like him or not. He will always welcome you when you come back,“ he says, as our Cuban study guide Yohandra "Jo" Perez translates. The man isn’t interested in proselytizing. He’s here to serve the people in this neighborhood. I get the feeling that he’s welcomed back many a parishioner who’s left the fold for a time.

Charming and charismatic with a twinkle in his bright blue eyes, he’s a wonderful storyteller - humorous, empathic, a man born to do this kind of work. Just being in his company, even though listening to translation, I get the feeling I would go to war for him.

“I’ve been here for 25 years but I’m still not considered Cuban!” the Basque priest by way of Argentina says with a grin. I pegged Father Lusarreta at 65 years old. I’m stunned to learn he’s 78.

I find out later that he arrived in 1993 during the time Cuba was in the midst of its “special period” after Russia collapsed and its financial support of Cuba went with it. The country was close to the brink, food was scarce.

Never a country of abundance, it had to survive in years that were probably like the depression era in the United States. Coincidentally it was the year that Fidel Castro abolished thirty years of state mandated atheism and, being a practical politician, allowed the church to take on social welfare programs he knew the government could not.
 
In Cuba, the concept of family is nearly sacred, a social sacrament and tradition centuries old. In 1996, Lusarreta began a soup kitchen for elderly people that had no family to support them and pensions barely enough to squeak by. From about the number of people who attended the Last Supper, the number grew so large that they didn’t have enough food to serve the people who came.

I am astonished to learn later that, undaunted, Lusarreta wrote to Fidel Castro. Castro granted his program a regular subsidy. Say what you want about the leader’s politics, his decision here was Castro-style Cuban. It met people’s basic needs. Today other Spanish religious institutions also subsidize the program.

The beauty of the man’s work is how invested his parishioners are in the outreach and how enthusiastically they’ve embraced and enlarged the program.  As Jo, our Cuban guide (in photo with Lusarreta above) translates, we learn that the church has a day care center that serves 168 seniors. Many of them live alone. Here, they play dominoes and other games and enjoy the gift of each other’s company.

It gets better. Three social workers work here and live in the neighborhood. And 160 people volunteer to help, many between 6 and 8 PM after they finish work.

“People are living in dignified poverty. God is helping 107 seniors here. People in the neighborhood are vigilant and recommend people they think should come here. At this time 30 or 40 people are incapable of getting here so the church sends people to their houses to help them. Some people die lonely. This should not happen,” says the priest. And won’t as long as Lusarreta has anything to do with it.

We learn that the church organized a center across the street for people with Down Syndrome. It is Wednesday and today they are on a field trip so we don’t visit them.

Lusarreta didn’t mention it but I learn later that they distribute food and clothing to single-parent families in need, give job training for professions like hair dressing, cooking and carpentry. An online news story says that the center also offers medical and dental care, education programs, excursions, clothing, a laundry service and a hairdresser.

In a country known for bureaucratic inefficiencies and a tenuous relationship with the Catholic church, it’s seems like a miracle that this place could become such a powerful nexus of activist social work.

 Cuba's position toward religion has changed over time. The Catholic church was in the pocket of politicians who were deposed in 1959 and not sympathetic to the revolution. In 1978, three years after the Cuban (communist) government declared Cuba to be an atheist state, it allowed people to worship as they pleased. In 1992, it declared itself a secular state. Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Protestants, Africa-Cuban Senteria openly practice their religion.

A 2004 report indicated that 40–45% of the population was nominally Catholic but only 10% were active members. Parochial schools and other religious schools were abolished (and still are) after the Revolution. Fidel Castro's visit to meet the Pope in 1996, John Paul II's visit to Cuba two years later, and this year's visit to Havana by Pope Francis signaled significant thaws in the church/state relationship.

This charity-minded little church offers sustenance to the needy and a sense of community to its parishioners in a tightly knit neighborhood of people looking out for one another. If this is socialism, sign me up.

La Milagrosa means ‘the miraculous’. Pretty much true when you think that what’s going on here is a blend of religion and socialism that mix as well as the bread and the wine at Sunday mass.

Part 2 Next post:  Road Scholars visit the Senior Center on the second floor of the church.

 

 Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Cuba Chronicles: A Morning at the Market

September 30, 2015

Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside

Today's itinerary: two hours at a local outdoor market - groups are given an "allowance" similar to what an average Cuban has to spend on food; visit The Milagrosa Church and meet Father Jesús María Lusarreta; visit the church's outreach program in the Casa de Abuelos La Milagrosa (a senior center run by Father Lusarreta, a visionary priest); visit  La Coppelia ice cream stand on La Rampa in the Vedado district; meet a retired Cuban All-Star pitcher at lunch at La Moraleja Paladar; shop at a cigar and rum store; tour The-Merger, a thriving art gallery; and at 6:30 PM, by popular acclaim, bus to the Buena Vista Social Club for dinner and a spectacular floor show.

pt at large stories:Father Lusarreta and the Milagrosa Church; La Milagrosa Senior Center; ice cream at La Coppéllia; lunch with a retired Cuban All-Star pitcher; shop at a Cigar and Rum Store; tour The-Merger Art Studio; great dinner show at the one and only Buena Vista Social Club! (stories to follow for the last two)

A Havana neighborhood market

The farmer's market is a compact area, half the size of a football field, filled with vendors selling vegetables, onions, garlic, sweet peppers, yucca, papaya, sweet potatoes, cassava, and several fruits and vegetables I don't even recognize. The air sings with the chatter of vendors promoting their food, banter between vendors and buyers, with a good helping of joking between the vendors themselves. Each small group given an "allowance" to shop for basic fruits and vegetables, we learn how thrifty an average Cuban has to be while shopping.

It is 9:30 AM. The vendors are doing a brisk business.

 
The smell of newly turned-over soil hangs like an omnivorous cumulus cloud under the canopies covering the market. Vegetables and produce, some still coated with soil, lie in huge piles in front of each vendor. Some people line up at a small stall to pay a few pesos for plastic bags in which they fill their purchases.

 

The desire to eyeball the food and pick out your own produce is a universal sentiment.

  

   
As in the USA, many shoppers bring their own cloth bags. There are several of these kinds of farmers markets around Havana, this one is typical and very lively. Customers range in age from 20s to 70s. Their faces show the nearly universal heritage of Cubans of African and Spanish descent.

   

   
Today's lesson: Our group leader Carole Cloonan divides us into four groups, each in charge of buying certain types of fruits, vegetables, seasonings. Each group is allocated 60 pesos. The monthly pension of a retiree is about 240 pesos. The food we're able to purchase would require judicious daily rationing to last. The food we purchase will be donated to the church we'll visit later today.
 
There does not appear to be much bargaining, the price is the price. Several stalls display squash, papaya, yucca plants and large root vegetables cut in half to show their quality. Everything appears to be a few hours removed from the tree or the ground. No packaging,  no cellophane, no plastic wrappings or containers. This is shopping at Whole Foods Cuban style. Fresh food, set out on sturdy wooden tables, once removed from its source.

 
Jo says that Cubans do not like spicy foods but do like tasty foods. The favorite ingredients in Cuban cooking are garlic, onions, sweet peppers, which she calls "the three musketeers of Cuban cooking."

A fellow Road Scholar remembers that "the "farmers who raised the crops were young men serving their national service or mandatory military service. The people selling are hired to sell the crops and are not serving their required military time. Military service here is strictly that, there it sounds like they use military service as WPA... Not all markets have food grown by the military. There are markets that true farmers bring their produce. Rates are set by the government in the markets but the small vendors on the streets with the carts have no such constraints. They can charge whatever the market will bear. They purchase their products from either a farmer direct or from the central exchange and can then sell at whatever price they can get. If you remember most of the cart people had onions which is a staple in Cuban cooking."

 
Street vendor a few paces from the market selling onions and garlic

All the food in the market is organic. Yohandra says that farmers cannot afford pesticides.

Over the course of these posts, I'll try to get a better grip on the following:

• Each Cuban receives a monthly ration book for food staples. How much, how does it work? I don't know how it works in the market today. Later this week, we will visit one of the government stores at which citizens can pick up rice, beans, sugar.

• Currency: There are two legal currencies, the CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso) and the CUP (Cuban Peso). One CUC is approximately equivalent to $1.00. One CUC is equivalent to about 24 CUP. In the market today, we used CUPs, the local currency. Outside of market environments like this, tourists generally use CUCs. Trip advisor has a helpful explanation.

• Living expenses - housing, electricity, water - cheap and almost free are heavily subsidized by the government.

• The government provides free education and free health care. Students in urban secondary schools must spend at least seven weeks annually in rural labor.

• According to InterNations Worldwide, "As is the case with healthcare in Cuba, education is public and free for all citizens and literacy is at 99.8%." Life expectancy and literacy are the highest in Latin America and among the highest in the world.

• Fifteen facts about education in Cuba

UPDATE: I was surprised to read this May, 2015, story in the Havana Times that reads "Cuba: An Overweight Country"  Statistics from the Ministry of Health in 2011 show that 43% of Cubans are overweight. Reasons? Fresh fruits and vegetables that have high nutritional value are relatively costly. The food industry peddles low cost, high fat/high sugar alternative products, mostly "fast foods", that have low nutritional value, taste good and give the sensation of satiety. The comment section under this news story is anecdotal but revealing. According to the CDC, 34.9% of American adults are considered obese. Not the best statistic for Cuba to have higher than the USA.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

Cuba Chronicles: Touching down in Havana

September 29, 2015

The World Airways jet from Miami to Havana touches down at the José Marti International Airport at 2:30 PM. An hour later, I board a tour bus - the adventure with Road Scholars, “People and Society - Havana and the Countryside,” is underway in Havana.

NOTE: Our plane is the ONLY plane on the tarmac this afternoon. Point of reference: a total of 8,314 flights departed Miami in September this year with 859,028 passengers aboard.

American Airlines recently announced plans to fly to Havana. According to the Dallas Morning News, "U.S. and Cuban officials said they reached an agreement Wednesday — the day before the anniversary of detente between the two Cold War foes — to allow as many as 110 regular airline flights a day to the communist country. This year, U.S. travel to Cuba has risen more than 50 percent, and the island has seen an even bigger influx from other countries, overwhelming the country’s outdated tourist facilities. The airport in Cuba’s capital, Havana, can barely accommodate current demand, and nearly all hotels are booked well into next year."

The present José Marti International Airport is not built to manage such a dramatic influx of flights.

Havana is a city with the pace of an American city in the late 1950s. Sections of the city's once elegant architecture are crumbling but retain a haunted look of its heyday. More about that in future posts. If you come here to tour, get a feel for the people, the culture and the history, you'll do fine. If you need to check your email and post on Facebook or conduct business over the internet, you're not going to be happy. Given our rich tour schedule, I was happy.

Havana's future, with a possibly abrupt infusion of outside commercial interests and its effect on Cuban culture, is anyone's guess. The lesson: savor this week.

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More stories and photos coming soon. Some posts will be revised as I recall more information...would be more detailed if I hadn't lost my trusty notebook a few minutes before checking through customs at the Havana airport as I departed with my group of Road Scholars on October 6.

2:30 PM Group leader Carole Cloonan sets a robust pace and we’re off. For the next four hours, our tour bus drives through the heart of Havana as Yohandra "Jo" Perez  (photo below), our on-site Cuban guide, points out significant architectural and historic sites. Jo is a font of knowledge. She weaves together the woof and warp of Cuban history and culture with anecdotes that help explain everything from music to the education system, the housing and health systems, and the importance of family in Cuban life.

 
Think of Havana as Washington, D.C., Boston, and Philadelphia rolled into one. It’s the country’s capital city and is loaded with landmarks that speak to its history and is filled with statues and commemorative public squares that honor its heroes.

First stop - The José Marti Memorial (upper right) and the Plaza de la Revolución (below). Both were completed by President Fulgencio Battista in one of his last acts before he fled as Fidel Castro seized control of the government in 1959. Originally named Plaza Civica, it was renamed "Plaza de la Revolución" or Revolution Square.

José Marti (January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) is a national hero in Cuba. His writings and political activities railed against Spanish rule of the country and helped ignite the War for Cuban Independence in 1895. One of Marti's fears was that the United States would annex Cuba, again putting Cuba in the thrall of another country.

Verses from Marti's poem "Simple Verses"  are lyrics to the song "Guantanamera" that some consider the unofficial national anthem of Cuba. Pete Seeger sang a version of Guantanamera during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963. Progressive activist that he was, he intended it to be sung as a symbol of unity between the the USA and Cuba.

 
The Plaza de la Revolución is the 31st largest city square in the world. Pope Francis addressed the Cuban people here in September. Before he stepped down in 2008, Fidel Castro addressed as many as a million Cubans here many times.

Flanking the square opposite the Marti Memorial are the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Communications, emblazoned with metal portraits of men with heroic reputations who died in Cuba's fight for independence: Che Guevara with his quote "Hasta La Victoria Siempre" ("Until Everlasting Victory" and Camilo Cienfuegos with his quote "Vas bien, Fidel" ("You're doing fine, Fidel").  For a darker view of Che Guevara status as a hero, check here.

We roll past the Quinta de los Molinos (Botanical Garden of Havana and the Museum Maximo Gomez), then the Ministry of Energy and Mines then pass The Grand Lodge of  Cuba Freemasons on Avenue Salvador Allende. Several Cuban leaders are said to be Freemasons.

On to Calle Riena in Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a long avenue lined with colorful two and three story buildings. Many seem to have been rebuilt recently. "Jo" points out the porticos, covered walkways, supported by detailed columns, designed so people can shop and walk protected from sun and rain. (Note the Russian style cars.)

Change is in the air. Havana appears to be rejuvenating itself after years of neglect. Many of the cars are decades old, skillfully maintained and appear to run well. The area seems largely residential. Spanish style wrought iron balconies adorn most of the second and third floors.

 

The biggest surprise is the stately beauty of the Capitolio Nacional built in 1926 when Havana was flush with cash from the sugar trade (and, Jo says, money from the Mafia who smuggled rum from Cuba into the USA during Prohibition 1920-1933). It was modeled after the US Capitol Building and The Pantheon in Paris.

Formerly the seat of the Cuban Congress, since the revolution in 1959 it has housed the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the National Library of Science and Technology. Like scores of other buildings today in Havana, scaffolding is erected to refurbish it after years of neglect. With news of the re-opening of the U.S. Embassy, this seems to be an acknowledgement of things to come.

Home of the National Ballet of Cuba (Ballet Nacional de Cuba). The arts have standing in Cuba and it comes right from the top. In 1959, Fidel Castro gave the ballet school $200,000 with the charge to make the arts accessible to everyone. Cuban ballet dancers have the status of pop stars and are among the world's best. Competition to be accepted into the program is fierce. Tickets to the ballet are affordable, minuscule compared to US prices. Much of Havana's architecture is crumbling but the ballet company flourishes. Given Cubans love of dance, the fact that the ballet is wildly popular should surprise no one. Government funding continues to this day.

The school, now undergoing renovation, has outreach programs across the island and has been producing some of the best dancers in the world for decades. Days later in Matanzas, we will meet a teenage dancer who is taking rigorous training and has unsuccessfully applied twice to be accepted into the ballet school in Havana.

  

Roll past the Hasta La Victoria Park and through the tunnel under the entry channel to Havana harbor and  up to the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana, also known as "La Cabana" or “El Morro.” It has a terrific view of the sprawl of Havana. In 1762, the British took control of Havana by shelling it from this hillside. In 1763, Cuba was ceded to Spain in exchange for Florida territory in the Treaty of Paris. The Spanish king vowed to protect the seaway entry into Havana by constructing this fort and placed cannons control the harbor entrance.

View across the channel into Havana harbor from Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana. The castle gives us a breathtaking view of Havana and the Malecón, the five mile-long thoroughfare protected by a sturdy concrete seawall with the Atlantic Ocean lapping at its edge. The history of the city's architecture, smaller, shorter buildings to the left, taller. more modern buildings to the right.

 

Tourists from all over the world visit this landmark.I wonder what the view from here will look like ten years from now.

 
The Malecón, a five mile long roadway and seawall (photo L above), runs along the harbor across from the fort. Originally built to protect Havana from the sea, it's a popular evening destination for lovers, family gatherings, and fishermen who hope to hook a meal. And safe. Yohandra said that when she wanted to hang out there at night with friends as a teenager, her parents had no problem allowing her to go.

First glimpse of The Malecón (seawall barely visible on R of first photo: faded and crumbling elegance, reconstruction after years of neglect. Moisture from the sea erodes concrete over time.

On a walk from the Nacional Hotel de Cuba to the Melia Cohiba Hotel on the first night, I passed fishermen, teenagers in groups and pairs, and one multi generational group who'd piled food and drink on the seawall and were being serenaded by a man playing guitar. The temperature was in the mid seventies, a warm gentle breeze headed offshore. The fact that there are sizable potholes in the sidewalk and places where the sturdy cement of the wall is crumbling did nothing to dampen the spirits of one and all.

    
    

The fort, used by former President Fulgencio Batista then Che Guevara as a prison, has a bloody history of being used to torture and execute dissidents.

 

Cruelty to the native Indian population of Tainos, Arawaks and Siboney by the Spanish is acknowledged. Jo says the Indians preferred suicide to becoming slaves of the Spanish, who considered them beasts and treated them as such.

"Where are you from?" Dolores (above right photo) asks. When I say Boston, she says that José Marti, famed Cuban considered a patriarch, spent time in Boston raising money for the Cuban War of Independence in the late 1800s.
   
As in tourist destinations across the world, vendors ply their trade. I take some photos of a few friendly vendors, one of whom gives me a trinket with the Cuban colors on it. I offer to pay, he refuses. "What do you like about Cuba?" he asks. "It's the people like you who are very friendly," I answer...and that remains a constant during the entire trip.

Heading back to the Melia Cohiba, our great hotel on the Malecón, we pass the statue of General Máximo Gómez. Gómez was a general in Cuba's 1895 War for Independence from Spain, which led to the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Jo says that a photo of El Morro is in many a home of Cubans who left the  country, that it reminds them of home.

Informal dinner at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, built in 1940, renovated in 1992. The walls of one of its bars is covered with photos of celebrities who've stayed there over the decades...pretty impressive list. And a reminder that this island was a playground for the rich, the famous, and the Mob.

Today has gone by like a blur. I feel like a Cubano sandwich filled with names, numbers, facts, history, and anecdotes. Like my fellow Road Scholar travelers, I'm thinking this is gonna be great.

Meliá Cohiba (built by a Spanish company in 1994)...home base for the next six days.

UPDATE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
GUIDANCE REGARDING TRAVEL BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS RELATED TO CUBA

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

The Biltmore Estate: Architecture and Landscaping on a Spectacular Scale

The Biltmore Estate

Asheville, North Carolina
August 30, 2015

In terms of vision, there is big, then palatial, and then there’s the Biltmore Estate. Clue #1, a winding narrow one-way road to reach the Biltmore House takes ten minutes through manicured, thickly forested lands (another one-way road serves as the exit). Park the car in one of several parking lots then board a shuttle bus for a five-minute drive to the Estate grounds.

“Wow!” says I as the bus turns a corner and the Biltmore House comes into view. “Not an uncommon response,” says the driver.

The whole place is off the charts of any sense of scale I’ve ever experienced. As in my first view of the Taj Mahal, the word breath taking comes to mind. Overview of entire estate. Nearly a thousand visitors rattle around the grounds with room to spare.

The mansion’s footprint encompasses four acres. The 252 rooms include 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces on the first three floors. The place is filled with art, furniture for every room, plumbing fixtures, rugs, tapestries, books, and artifacts that George Vanderbilt chose on his trips to Europe. If photography was permitted in the house, you'd see examples.
http://www.biltmore.com/visit/biltmore-house-gardens/biltmore-house

To take a wide-angle 24 mm lens photograph of the entire estate, I needed to step back to the lovely fountain 250 yards away. The grounds of the estate cover 8000 acres (what’s left of the 87,000 acres of the estate that George Vanderbilt’s widow Elizabeth sold to the United States Forest Service for less than $5 an acre).

The whole shebang - estate, construction, landscaping - was created by three visionary men: George Vanderbilt (wealth), Frederick Law Olmsted (America’s foremost landscape architect), and Richard Morris Hunt (prominent New York architect who had previously built for the Vanderbilts). The construction and landscaping took place between 1889 and 1895. Railroad spurs were temporarily built to ferry materials to the site. Hunt had a woodworking factory and a brick kiln built on site. A work force of 1000 was hired as well as 60 stonemasons.

The finished basement is filled with a giant pool with dressing rooms, a bowling alley, laundry rooms with washing tubs and drying racks, several kitchens - including ones for baking, cooking, and preserving food - servants’ rooms, cold storage rooms, wine cellars, cutlery and china and glass storage rooms, a gymnasium, informal social gathering halls in which guests painted murals on the walls and the entire heating system. Remember, we're talking about four acres of space!

After research and travels abroad, Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Italian Garden. A sloping series of gardens with thousands of plants and flower varieties, it is anchored by a greenhouse at its base. In August, the area was a kaliedoscopic profusion of color.

Olmsted was a forerunner in the concept of forest management, clearing areas for viewing, to encourage healthy growth, or aesthetic reasons. The scale of the undertaking is mind boggling…we’re talking tens of thousands of acres when Vanderbilt first acquired the property.
http://www.biltmore.com/visit/biltmore-house-gardens/gardens-grounds

No matter how jaded or inexperienced a traveler you may be, a trip to this estate will impress, inspire, and bring out a sense of awe at the scale of the undertaking and the geniuses that created it.

 

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. (small photo of grounds outside Biltmore House courtesy of http://www.biltmore.com)

 

Boiled Peanuts With A Side of Appalachian Wisdom and A Dash of Pride

Tommy Yon and his tiny peanut shack, a retro fixture on US Route 74 in North Carolina. You want to meet a dying breed of country entrepreneurs and folk philosophers? Stop here.

Boiled peanuts? You’ve got to be kidding. Unless you’re south of the Mason Dixon line, chances are this sounds, well…nuts.

“Pull over!” she shouts. Born in Atlanta, she’d been obsessed with finding a bag of boiled peanuts, a childhood treat, since we drove north from the Atlanta International Airport. Being a Yankee, the only peanuts I ever knew about were the roasted ones you bought at the circus and the ballpark. Who the heck would boil them?

If we hadn’t taken a detour to drive through the Smoky Mountain National Forest, we would have never seen this little peanut outpost.

Driving on the winding two-lane road in the deep recesses of the park’s Nantahala Gorge, the tree canopy is so thick that sunlight pierces the forest in pencil like slivers. The Cherokee called this valley “The Land of the Noonday Sun.” The only moments the sun might pierce the canopy is when it’s directly overhead.

The Nantahala River roars alongside. No way a road could be constructed anywhere else in the rocky canyon with hills steeper than your average roller coaster ride. The Nantahala River is a magnet for kayakers and about a dozen rafting companies that rent rafts and offer raft rides down the rapids. It’s rated as Class II and III rapids, suitable for families. Its gnarly sections are challenging enough for the US Olympic Team to use for training.

Heading northeast to Asheville, North Carolina, on US 19/74, the road and the river part ways. I blink in the sunlight as the road climbs up to a four-lane highway. Miles and miles of forest perch on the shoulders of steep mountains like a bunch of Appalachian brothers standing side by side for a big family portrait.

But there in the middle of an uninhabited stretch of mountain highway was the sign in black and white hand painted letters. BOILED PNUTS.

Set in a clearing at the foot of a steep wooded hillside is an open-ended tumbledown shack surrounded by a few jalopies, trucks, a yellow kayak, and a small air-stream trailer. Old license plates, faded photographs and items that may have been useful once are tacked onto plywood walls. Two blackened stainless steel pots sit atop an old cast iron wood fired stove. All of it, including two ramshackle low-slung houses behind the shack, has seen better days. The whole scene could double as a movie set for Appalachia.

A minute after we entered, a friendly man, slight build, gray moustache, sporting a “Team Chevy” T shirt and baseball cap, makes his way inside from a shack behind the stand.

A few pleasantries are exchanged, money changes hands, a quart of boiled peanuts are purchased. The whole transaction could have taken five minutes, A few questions later it turned into an amazing story of American entrepreneurship.

Boiled peanuts are the treat but owner Tommy Yon is the show. Tommy has realized that he’s a brand, the kind of scrappy old time entrepreneur connected to mountain culture. He recognizes that tourists are intrigued with the lure of boiled peanuts, want to know how it’s done, something about the man who does it and he dishes it out. Before you know it, a conversation begins to boil like those peanuts he cooks up every day.

“Tommy Yon, Dutch and Irish,” he says. “How old do you think I am?”

“Sixty six,” says I.

“See this cash register? It was made in 1942, same year I was born,” he says with a twinkle in his eyes. “I’ve been boiling and selling peanuts for 34 years.”

Tommy is a bit of an institution.” I’ve made friends with people from all over the world, I get letters from them. Some of them find their way back here when they return.” No surprise. If he feels you’re interested, he connects with easy charm.

When he was a kid in the Florida Panhandle his uncle grew peanuts and Tommy helped him with deliveries. When he was nine, Tommy's uncle said take some peanuts into town and try to sell them. Between that and shining shoes, the kid got the feel for making enough money to make a living. Gives you an idea of how he would make his way through the world on his own terms for the rest of his life. He drove a big rig through these mountains for years.  

When he hit 35, he had a yearning to go back to his roots, legumes, actually, and made a go of selling boiled peanuts. He set up shop at a friend’s rafting company in the Nantalaha Gorge. Twenty-seven years later, he moved his business to the state highway a few miles north of the park. This is his last stop.

Tommy was married twice, has one son with his first wife (17 years) and two with his present wife (34 years). Tommy is one of those people who, between asking you questions, tells you little bits of his own history. "My wife likes to collect knick-knacks to sell here but my philosophy is if you can't eat it I won't sell it.” A small selection of jams, jellies, and honey, covered with fine dust from cars and trucks passing by, sit atop makeshift shelves.

"I'm worried about my wife," Tommy says, " She has colon cancer." I got some of my own problems, he says, feels like there is needles in my feet when I stand too long.”

"What brings you out this way?" he asks.

When we tell them we are heading for a wedding in Asheville and hope to listen to some music and do some dancing, Tommy says, “I used to play guitar and fiddle, got pretty good at it as a session musician, played some with Buck Owens and Marty Robbins. My name don't appear on the records as a session player but I was there." He holds out his weather-beaten hands, "I got carpal tunnel so I can't play no more."

   

A faded photo of Marty Robbins is pinned to the wall. And the photo of the man in the kayak? Tommy's son who won a silver medal winner by training on the Nantahala River.

"I put two boys through college selling these peanuts," he says with quiet pride. So much for stereotyping people around here. By now, my jaw is resting on my chest.

Tommy grows his own peanuts somewhere North Carolina but for the most part he buys raw peanuts in 50 pound bags, a few of which are piled next to two big blackened cast-iron pots over a black wood stove in back of the shack.

"I buy land as investment," he says. “One of my sons is living on some of that land now. Another one helps me out here. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep this up myself.” I can’t picture this man sitting in a rocking chair watching the traffic whiz by but that day will come.

Everything about Tommy is low-key. If President Obama had stopped at his little shack last week, Tommy might get around to telling you sooner or later with the same tone of voice in which he might talk about the weather.

When it comes to boiling peanuts, though, he's damn fervent about how it needs to be done. “You got to keep watch over them as they boil, add just enough salt to give them some tang and cook them in small batches,” he says. “No telling how long they've been around when you buy them in town,” he says, “and they won't taste so good.”

As we turn to leave, Tommy presses two CDs in my traveling companion’s hand. “You’ve been kind to me, and I’d like to give you these. I played some with Rob Mashburn. My name’s not on the list but I played guitar and fiddle with him sometimes. I think you’ll like them.”

I may forget the taste of those boiled peanuts but will never forget the feeling that we’d just been given a gift that Tommy wanted to pass on, a piece of the Carolina culture that courses through his veins.

Tommy is a perfect example of what happens when you make assumptions. All I expected was a five-minute stop to purchase a signature snack favored by people of South Carolina, Georgia, northern Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and to a lesser extent, North Carolina and Virginia. What I got was a chance to meet a man who has leveraged his self-reliance, resilience, and country wisdom into a life of amazing breadth and quiet success... a one-of-a-kind ambassador.

By the time I drove away, I started thinking of reasons to come back some day…soon.
++++++++++++++

The owner of this roadside stand, his philosophy, stories, pride in product, ability to connect with all sorts of visitors, makes it a memorable stop and a worthwhile destination if you're within range.

 
Tommy has some roasted and spicy peanuts but the ones you need to  pop in your mouth are a freshly boiled quart of peanuts like the ones below.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Boiled Peanuts With A Side of Appalachian Wisdom And A Dash Of Humility

Tommy Yon and his Peanut Palace, a retro fixture on US Route 74 in North Carolina. You want to meet a dying breed of country entrepreneurs and folk philosophers? Stop here.

STORY COMING SOON

 

   

 

 



Bag of warm boiled peanuts...dive in!

Westport Friends (Quaker)54th Annual Used Book Fair Extravaganza

Westport Friends (Quaker) 54th Annual Used Book Fair
938 Main Road, Westport, MA
July 11, 2015
11 AM - Sunset and for the next ten days or so...

The great- grandmother of all used book fairs…The Westport Friends (Quaker) Meeting created its first book fair in 1962 to raise money to put a new roof on the parsonage across the street from its Meeting House on Main Road.

As they were sorting books that had been donated, a student pastor walked up to the late Dr. Stewart Kirkaldy, a member of the organizing committee, who recalled in 2009 that “In a calm voice and with perfectly neutral expression, he handed me a book and said, ‘You may want to keep this one. It’s a first edition of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.’ “ http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2009/07/westport-friends-48th-annual-used-book-fair.html

The sale of that book alone took care of replacing the roof.  The enthusiasm of people who showed up to scoop up books spread over a dozen tables at 25 cents apiece was pretty impressive. From a one-time event, it’s grown like Topsy and is entering its 54th year.

On the second Saturday in July, over 20,000 used hard and soft cover books, all donated during the year, will be laid out on 40 tables under two yellow and white striped tents. Categories in fiction and non-fiction span the gamut from the esoteric to best sellers. An account of last year's proceedings http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2014/07/westport-friends-quaker-53rd-used-book-fair-loads-of-pulp-fiction-non-fiction.html

A behind the scenes video taken last December gives you an idea of how and where people  donate books, from a handful to a carton load.

 

Westport is a lovely destination for a Saturday in summer. Horseneck Beach, picturesque rural landscapes, miles of centuries old stone walls surrounding farm and woodlands, several small restaurants, the vaunted Back Eddy Restaurant, and the Westport Farmers' Market at Westport Town Farm  at 830 Drift Road Saturdays, 8:30 AM–1 PM are all within minutes of the book fair on Main Road.

If you’ve never been to the book fair, consider opening a new chapter in your browsing history. You won’t find a first edition of Moby Dick but you will find enough books to while away afternoons at the beach or keep the midnight oil burning for the rest of the year.

BEFORE: COLLECTING BOOK DONATIONS FOR 2015

 
   

AFTER: SECOND SATURDAY IN JULY, BOOK FAIR OPENS AT 11 AM ON THE DOT

DECEMBER 2014  VIDEO OF COLLECTION PROCESS

DECEMBER 2014 VIDEO 2 OF COLLECTION PROCESS

Photos and video by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

The High Line: A New York City Natural High

May 30, 2015

 

New York City has everything else. Why not add a Magic Carpet to the mix. When Scheherazade told the king about a Magic Carpet that flew through the sky in her tales of the Arabian Nights, she said that those who ride upon the carpet see things hidden to most eyes.

The High Line down in the west village is all of that. In a New York twist, the carpet remains stationary and you get to walk OVER Chelsea and the Meat Packing District. Thirty feet below, cars and trucks speed along the streets, entire neighborhoods are doing business as usual. There are a zillion tall buildings that offer great views. None of them match the sights you’ll see on The High Line.

Look over the edges of the trail at any angle and see gobsmaking panoramas of the breathing, ever evolving city and the sturdy brick facades of the now trendy neighborhoods below.

The elevated park is a 1.45-mile stretch of rail bed that went out of use in 1980. A bunch visionary urban planners and neighbors decided to re-purpose the rail bed as a green space and public park in 1999 when talk of demolition surfaced. The “Friends of the High Line” formed a non-profit conservancy that works with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to maintain this gem in what might be the most elevated open green space in the world. The “Friends” have clout. They raise 90% of the annual operating budget.

The High Line became bait for developers. Skyscrapers and condominiums are popping up like crocuses in spring. One after another in various stages of development is sprouting from the massive granite ledge Manhattan is built on. Architects with egos design towers to outshine their neighbors.  Condos with views of the Hudson River go for millions of dollars apiece. It gives me an idea of where all those one percenters are parking their dough.

   
Arts and crafts for kids and adults; Einstein's Theory, Part 2

Everybody’s happy. Developers are lining their pockets. City dwellers have on outdoor playground. The High Line trail runs north/south from West 34th Street about twenty-four blocks to Gansevoort Street and is nestled between 12th and 10th Avenues.

If you focus on the trail, you forget you’re in one of the biggest cities in the USA. Noise from below is muffled. On a warm sunny day like this, the perfectly blue sky overhead feels like it’s casting a benign private dome over the trail.

For the first time visitor, the thrill is like the unexpected turns in one of Scheherazade’s stories. There’s a surprise every few hundred feet: over two dozen flower beds on the sides of the trail are home to two hundred varieties of lush grass, perennials and bushes that reclaimed the rail beds in the years after they were abandoned. The High Line is a low key, high visibility model for sustainable practices in watering, composting, and pest controi.

Tree limbs lush with thick foliage from flowering trees hug the railings along the trail. A gentle water installation is a big time invitation to kids to splash and adults to soothe their feet. It feels like you can see clear across Manhattan’s famous grid of streets when from several vantage points. 

Glimpses of the Hudson River appear between high rises; coffee bars, food vendors and artists do a brisk business under a covered pavilion. Art installations  pop up at stubby viewing spurs and overlooks that jut out from the trail There are even public bathrooms at the end of the trail on Gansevoort Street in the heart of the Meat Packing District.

Walk the path over the High Line next time you're in NYC. You may not come up with as many as the 1001 tales Scheherazade told her king but you'll come up with enough of them to make you want to return for another walk along this Magic Carpet.

High Line before renewal.

Know Before You Go: Park Rules, Park Entrances

One rail bed is preserved in its natural state and runs parallel to another rail bed made into a pedestrian promenade in the section at W 34th Street; both photos show how the trail is elevated 30 feet from the street.

Some views of the Hudson River from the High Line.

Up and down 11th Avenue.

The exposed steel girders that underpin the rail bed are a draw for kids to play in; flora are magnets for  photographers.

pt on the High Line; flora on the trail. (photos courtesy D. G. Connor)

The 23rd Street Lawn and Seating Steps: the High Line is filled with  places to relax. A 4,900 square foot swath of turf practically begs you to sit down, nearby benches are great for people watching.

 

Condos sprout skyward within a few yards of the High Line trail.

A spur off the trail, a little amphitheater to watch the world go by below; painting al fresco.

The only covered area on the trail - coffee, food, artsy vendors do brisk business.

Communal basking; Einstein's Theory, Part 2

 

Ahhh, bathe feet in refreshing waters, gaze upon the grassy plantings and the Hudson River beyond.

“We came up from Maryland to visit our friends," says a woman surveying the view. "They brought us here before we go out to see ‘Woman In Gold’. This walkway has the energy of the Ocean City Boardwalk. It’s next to a great body of water but with trees, foliage, and unique views of the city instead of the beach. Fabulous.”

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello and his iPhone5 unless otherwise noted.

 

San Diego International Airport: Art and Architecture Take Off

May 7, 2015

What a piece of eye candy for the weary pilgrim. A light-suffused airport terminal that matches San Diego's vaunted sunny, temperate, clear-sky environment with refreshing art work and informative installations...from the two main terminals to the post-security area (which I didn't photograph because i couldn't return after deplaning), and the bathrooms!

This was a treat as I landed here for the annual Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues, and Crawfish Festival!

A shiny replica of Charles Lindberg's "Spirit of St. Louis" is suspended from the ceiling in Terminal 2. I first glimpsed it at eye level from the glass enclosed walkway overlooking the terminal as I left the security area after deplaning from Dallas Fort Worth. Once on the street level, great photo opp, the silvery aircraft at a jaunty angle overhead. Lindberg's plane was built by Ryan Airlines in San Diego. The Spirit of St Louis, the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane, was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_St._Louis

Display case on the street level contains a model of the plane's motor and other paraphernia from the flight.

   

Donna at the information booth sees me taking photos. "There's artwork all over the airport," she says. "if you want to take more photos, start right over there at the "Selfie" installation we just added recently. I can't believe how the artist made the clown's hair out all those balloons!"

Donna shows me a binder with photos and locations of the artwork."There's even some in the bathrooms!" she says. San Diego is aggresively arty!

 
Public buildings like this are getting hip to social media. Selfies are all the rage, why not give travelers a colorful and creative space to shoot pics- free advertising for "SAN", San Diego International Airport.

 
pt isn't the only one who wants in on the action

 
These murals,installations and displays adorn the walls of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, inlcluding entrances to the bathrooms!
   

Displays of student artwork, elaborate dioramas, and artifacts of San Diego history inform the attentive traveler.

 

 

Light pours into the terminals, bathing everything inside with a fresh invigorating glow.

 

Architects built high cantilevered ceilings to maximize the ever-changing daylight to bathe the interior.

Artwork outside the terminals

 

Who says that exterior concrete walls have to be plain exterior concrete walls?

This is urban architecture at its best: functional and aesthetically fabulous. The skyline of San Diego beckons.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. with a big thanks to Donna for showing me "the book" about airport art at San Diego International Airport.

Fantasy Fest 2009: Masquerade March, Cavorting to Duval Street

October 29,2009

Masquerade March devolves in early evening, replaced by cavorting on Duval Street.

"O, my dear sir! how shall I get spirits to tell you; you are undone, sir, and my poor lady's undone, and I am undone." Mrs. Honour says to Tom Jones in Henry Fielding's novel of the same name.

That about sums up the evening, except that everyone's a willing accomplice in the light hearted undoings.

 

Tarzan, Jane...and Cheetah!

Whether spectating or being spectated,the operative words are "Smile for the cameras."

Unless you're bad- asses...

Fantasy Fest lives up to its name and reputation - fantasies have no age or image restrictions. If you harbor any fantasies about taking your clothes off and parading down a main street in America, well...now you know where to activate it!

So much to see, a moveable feast of flesh and flashbulbs.

Does this look like Main Street on Halloween in your town? I didn't think so.

so many photo opps for the intrepid reporter...

 

 

  

Vampires,Firewomen,cavorters...

Permission granted!

Truth in advertising...

Bazoombas by the bra-full; I would love to apprentice to the body painters, an arty, creative bunch with a sense of humor, aesthetic sensibilities and exceedingly good perks.

The Glitterati and the Pashas...

 
Some come to do, others to be undone...as Henry Fielding might say...

What's not to love about Fantasy Fest. Once you get into the swing of it...

and why not shop for a pair of pasties?

Hands down (or out) the cleverest feel good idea of the night...

By 11 PM, the party hasn't lost steam...

Keep your eyes on the prize(s)!

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Gator By The Bay 2014: Photo Gallery

Gator By The Bay, Zydeco, Blues and Crawfish Festival
San Diego, CA

Where
Spanish Landing Park  on the shores of  San Diego Bay  across from the Lindberg Field at San Diego International Airport  on North Harbor Drive
When
Friday May 9:         4 PM - 10:30 PM
Saturday May 10:     11 AM - 8 PM
Sunday May 11:     11 AM – 7 PM 

Whether they came to dance or not, loads of people ended up on smaller dance floors at the Fountain Stage and the Bourbon Stage or the tented Mardi Gras Stage of Festival stages at the east and west ends of Spanish Landing Park.

Fountain and Bourbon Stages top; Mardi Gras Stage below

The demographic...

 

A pretty eclectic range in age, race, and lord knows what all....

Some of the cool bands...
 

Bandolero, Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums, Todd Day Wait Duo

Chubby Carrier and The Swamp Bayou Band, Chase Walker Blues Band, Horace Trahan and the New Ossun Express

 

Combo Liberdad with Jimmy Woodward, Billy Lee and The Swamp Critters, Balfa Toujours

Madame LeRoux and Krewe, Todo Mundo, Ladies Shoes Blues Review

Three Chord Justice, Billy Magee Blues Band,Sara Petite

Bayou Brothers, Chet and The Committee, Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Sue Palmer on the keys

pt sightings

With Horace Trahan and his New Ossun Express; the manager of Todo Mundo; and her friend who loves to dance.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sheepshearing Festival in Watertown,MA

26th Annual Sheepshearing Festival
Gore Estate, Watertown, MA
April 27, 2013

Late April - spring has sprung. You can smell it, the primordial cells in your DNA can sense it. Growing explosions of pale to brilliant green. You don’t know how much you've missed it, gone from nature's palette since early November.  The pagan in you perks up. You sense renewal, a resurrection of nature after the bleakness of winter.

April is sheep shearing season. Renewal for them, too, being fleeced of their thick tangled lanolin rich winter coat in late spring when temperatures moderate and the shearing wont stress them out. Enter the 26th Annual Sheep Shearing Festival at the Gore Estate in Watertown, MA.

Put together blissful weather when we can shed our own winter coats plus a festival featuring sheep, chickens, horses, a lama, and Australian sheep dogs and you have a huge magnet that has drawn every family for miles around. What a collection. Strollers, babes in arms, toddlers, teenagers doing their best to keep some distance from their parents, and a raft of interested adults eager to get outside in the sunshine. This feels like Disneyland without the rides. There are kids everywhere.

The festival features a boatload of choices: abundant food, crafts fair (88 vendors), Colonial reenactments, live music and Australian sheep dog demonstrations. The main attraction is the sheep shearing demonstrations, a lure for kids of all ages. Kevin Ford, the only professional shearer using the old technique of shearing by hand, is putting on a show.

An arm’s length away from those standing next to the rope enclosure, we smell the wooly sheep and the moist hay-strewn pen in which they nervously wait their turn and occasionally bleat their bewilderment. What a collection: ewes, rams and young sheep – lambs.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1G9lfhOevk

If you listen carefully, you can hear Kevin Ford's old black shearing blades click away as he patiently shears a sheep's entire coat in one  pass, sort of like peeling an apple with one continuous swirl around the sphere.

 

The Sheep Shearing Tent was a huge draw all day long. Note how pure white the inner wool is.

A child holds a handful of lanolin rich wool. I had to wipe my hands clean so I could pick up my camera after holding a chunk of the funky smelling wool.

How often does a city kid get this close to a bunch of real live sheep.

The sheep's outer coat is covered with everything you can imagine after a long winter but the inner side is as pure as the wind driven snow. See the difference in the video.

 

Kevin sharpens his shears then...time to find another customer to shear.

You wonder where the wool for your sweaters, socks, hats comes from?
 

All ages are fascinated by this old fashioned demonstration by an artisan of rare skill.

PHOTO AND VIDEO by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. MORE photos of the day to follow tomorrow...

 

 

Sheepshearing Festival in Watertown,MA Part 2

26th Annual Sheepshearing Festival
Gore Estate, Watertown, MA
April 27, 2013

"Gore Place, the Federal period, historic house and estate of Massachusetts Governor Christopher Gore, includes a small farm with sheep, goats and poultry. The elegantly furnished mansion has been called “the Monticello of the North” and architectural historians consider it to be the most significant Federal period mansion in New England."

 

The sheep, goats and chickens that live on the small working farm on the grounds had company. Horses from the Bolton 4H Club attracted attention. Actually, every animal or bird that was touchable was petted by every kid brave enough to stretch a hand over the fence.

 

Hmmm, what shall we do next? How about looking at the baby goats!

Take a good look, mom. Can you find the kid amongst the merchandise?

With 90 vendors setting up shop, there were artisinal crafts and enough inexpensive accessories to interest every taste.

Dave Kennard and his super smart border collies were a big hit on the other side of the spacious grounds of the Gore Estate.
 

Food vendors, need we say more?

Colonel Bailey's 2nd MA Regiment takes a break between recreating scenes at an 18th century militia encampment. Not sure if kissing the ladies is part of the re-enactment, but one chorus of "Yankee Doodle" is "Mind the music and the step,and with the girls be handy." Enough said.
 
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello,Jr.



 

How To Accept The Quirks of The Big Easy: Think "Special"

Precisely at 4:30 PM the airport shuttle deposits me in front of 1013 St. Ann Street, the Inn at St Ann Street official address. I ring the bell. No answer. I ring the bell and rap on the door. No response. I glance at a small note pasted to the door, whip out my cell phone and call the number on the note. Which turns out to be the St. Peter House 2 blocks away on the corner of St. Peter and Burgundy.

“Sir, you'll have to walk over here to register,” says the woman.

“It would have been helpful to know that in advance,” says I, and head for The Saint Peter Guest House.

“ I've been to New Orleans a dozen times in the past few years and this is the rockiest start I’ve ever had checking in,” is my version of saying hello to the concierge at the desk.

My mood does not improve after she informs me that the continental breakfast will be available here, two blocks away, and not in my own hotel.

“Is that the usual policy of the hotel?” I ask, doing my best to dislodge the righteous indignation welling up from my sorry self.

“Well, this has been a special day,” says the woman with a tone of forbearance for the irritated customer.

The concierge certainly is not responsible for other staff members not showing up and whatever is going on with the continental breakfast. Which, by the way, at the St. Peter house is served in a foyer the size of a large closet with two chairs and two small round tables.

Electronic keys in hand, towing my roll-aboard and carryall bag down Burgundy Street in the 90-degree heat, I get it.

The woman, who was supposed to be working at the Inn At St Ann’s this afternoon, could easily have boiled the pot by listing the number of things that went off the rails for her today, too, and had her scurrying back and forth between the two hotels.

Nope, just “This has been a special day,” she repeats with equanimity she may or may not be harboring at the moment and succeeds at defusing my chagrin.

I chuckle. I’ve arrived in the Big Easy.

Photos by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

 

Is anybody home? I dial for help. An adventure is in store.

 

Recently restored interior of the Inn At St. Ann's at 1013 St. Ann Street in the French Quarter

51st Annual Westport Friends Meeting (Quaker) Used Book Fair: Videos

Stories and other videos coming soon. Thanks to my pal Jon Alden who suggested taking video with my camera as well as snapping still shots.

Video 1

 

 10:55 AM July 14, 2012 Main Road, Westport, MA. The lull before the storm...book-lovers await the opening whistle. Books are generally marked at 10% of their list price and most of the hardcover and softcover books are in good to great condition. Shoppers will fill cartons with  Gutenberg treasure. Everyone will be happy. This is the Westport Friends main fund raiser of the year. Dr. Steward Kirkaldy, one of the prime movers of this fair from year one, recalls that the first fund raiser proceeds went to repair a leaky roof in the parsonage across the street!.

Video 2

 

10:57 AM July 14, 2012 Main Road, Westport, MA. The lull before the storm...book-lovers await the opening whistle. Books are generally marked at 10% of their list price and most of the hardcover and softcover books are in good to great condition. Shoppers will fill cartons with  Gutenberg treasure.

Video 3

 

10:59 AM July 14, 2012 Main Road, Westport, MA.
Greg Marsello, Book Fair Steering Committee Clerk, welcomes the crowd, explains location of each aspect of the fair - the fiction tent, the non-fiction tent, the Macomber Hall with DVDs, videos and CDs, the Meeting Hall filled with 6 for $1.00 books, the refreshment stand (as if anyone needed reminding). About five seconds after this video ends, young Tristan Peirce, "the hardest working volunteer of the year!" has the honor of blowing the whistle and the wild rumpus begins.

pt stories from 2011
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2011/07/50th-annual-westport-quaker-meeting-used-book-fair-a-mighty-sale-1.html
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2011/07/westport-quakers-awesome-50th-annual-used-book-fair-.html

Video 4

 

At precisely 11:00 AM, a shrill whistle pierces the air. Volunteer Tristan Peirce has done the honors. Other volunteers scurry to gather the yellow tape and red white and blue cordon around the two tents, fiction and non fiction, and, with whoops and hollers, the booklovers wade inside. Hard cover and soft cover booty, at least 20,000 books, stacked on tables with identifying genre signs will soon be picked over by discerning shoppers.
This is the Westport Friends Meeting (Quaker) annual fund raiser. The prices are ridiculously low, usually 10% of the original price. The Friends have priced them to SELL… it looks like the crowd is obliging.

 

The Acela Quiet Car: RIding the Rails in Serene Silence

June, 2012

Riding the rails is a throwback to the days when the railroad was the fastest way to get from here to there. It’s still one of the most convenient ways to get from Boston to New York City.

As the Acela Regional, destination Penn Station, slows to a halt at the Route 128 stop just outside Boston, a car labeled Quiet Car passes in front of me. I head for it. It turns out to be a heavenly halcyon surprise.

As the train pulls out of the station, a conductor gets on the intercom to spell out the rules of the road. First, no cell phone conversations. Yayyyy. And use headphones for your DVD player or music device. If the volume can be heard by others nearby, turn it down…or leave.

And no talking. Really. People just sit and read, or work silently on laptops or text away on their phones. If we weren’t rattling along at high rates of speed, you could have heard a piece of Kleenex fall on the floor. A conductor asked two chatty riders to take a conversation into the next car or desist. I loved it. So did everyone else. This is as close as a fifty-ton piece of railroad car can come to a spa.

A stroll back through the cars between the Quiet Car and the Café Car is a jarring reminder of how much auditory clutter we’re immersed in everywhere else in our lives.

Back in the arms of the Quiet Car, the low rumble of the train was a lullaby. I felt like I’d returned to the womb. I could feel myself relaxing, then rejoicing at the enforced serenity. Aside from the conductor reminding travelers to watch their step as they alight from the train’s next stop, the silence was golden. This is the next big thing in mass transit.

As I was having lunch in the Café Car, a conductor came on the air to say that the train would slow to a halt for a few minutes to allow another train to pass on the adjacent track. I joined the conductor, a trim fellow in his navy blue uniform and short-billed conductor cap, his silver ticket puncher dangling from his pocket, to view the rail bed a few feet away. By the time the train resumed its march, I’d learned a bunch of facts about the Acela train and you, my lucky readers, are the beneficiaries.

The old creosote soaked ties were ripped up, replaced by concrete ties in the 1970s.

The ties are crescent shaped, thicker at the ends where the rails exert the most force on them and thinner in the center where the force is less. This also saved money on the cost of concrete.

The ACELA can run 3% faster on concrete vs. wood ties since the concrete is more rigid.

The Acela Express is faster than the Acela Regional because it makes fewer stops and has two engines, one in front and one at the rear, to propel it.

The two engine Express can accelerate faster than Regional with one engine. Its top speed is 150 mph; the Regional top speed is 125 mph.

The Acela Express cars are coupled together more rigidly so they can tilt and travel at faster speeds around corners. The Acela Regional has old style freight car couplings that can be uncoupled in twenty minutes if there’s a problem with a car. If the Acela Express car has a problem, the whole train has to be taken off line to repair it because the interlinking couplings are so sophisticated in design.

The First Class car is usually the first behind the engine, followed by Business Class then the Quiet Car, then the other standard coach cars and the Café Car.

There is no extra charge for the Quiet Car. Don’t tell Amtrak but it’s a premium deal.

Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

NYC: Twelve Blocks Up Seventh Avenue

Emerge into the sunlight from the depths of Penn Station to the hustle and bustle of NYC. A fifteen minute walk up Seventh Avenue through Times Square to W46th Street, a tiny window into the city at work and play... the avenues are long concrete and glass canyons stretched out to the vanishing point, taxis, buses, and cars whiz and honk, pedestrians obey the walk signs - not to would invite a calamity.

Streams of people pass silent protestors, lovebirds...

Powwows to determine what to see next... a photo opp with a cartoon character

Amateur photographers are everywhere as are human billboards handing out promotional material, and guys trying to navigate their handtrucks through the crowds.

Enormous digital advertisements add to the razzmatazz of Times Square...

so does a spash of nudity...a topless guitar player smack in the middle of Times Square, none other than Sandy Kane, "Naked Cowgirl", "The Lady Gaga of Times Square." Even in NYC this sight was enough to make scores of passersby a little gaga.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Festival International de Louisiane: A Sample of Sunday's Bands

Festival International de Louisiane
Lafayette, Louisiana

Sunday Bands April 29, 2012

Canailles (Quebec- Québec Roots), Scene Malibu, Fais Do Do Stage

I didn’t think I could be surprised by anything after hearing the Middle East band Lamajamal and the Slavic Soul Party on Saturday but in the midst of the 1:30 PM Canaille show one of the guys yodels ("J'l'hais" from http://www.myspace.com/bellescanailles)! When they patter with the audience, their English has a heavy Quebecois accent and inventive syntax.  Canaille means "scoundrel" in French and these kids fit the bill with their ragtag blend of country blues cajun and a big shot of garage rock played with guitars, accordion, banjo, standup bass, percussion, washboards (and at least one kazoo!).

Most of their songs are originals.The girl lead singer has great pipes, and has one style that sounds like Grace Slick who swallowed sandpaper ("Becik"  http://www.myspace.com/bellescanailles). The eight musicians (self-taught no less, which may account for their eccentric style) began jamming together  by chance in a Montreal park in 2009. Their set still has the feel of spontaneity. The music is raw, full of twenty-something energy, feels like it could fly off the rails at any time and if it did, they'd laugh at the result.

Canaille VIDEO

Savoy Family Cajun Band (Louisiana- Traditional Cajun), Scene TV5 Monde Lafayette Stage
The Savoy Family Band - what a pile of talent on one stage. Marc and Ann Savoy should donate their DNA to the Smithsonian - their sons Wilson on keyboard and fiddle and Joel on fiddle  are immensely talented as are Marc on accordion (he builds them), Ann on guitar. Red Stick Rambler drummer Drew Simon is on percussion today. This is one of the royal families of Cajun music.

Marc's "Savoy Music Center" in nearby Eunice is considered holy ground by visitors from all over the planet. The brothers Wilson and Joel got into great fiddle duels that had Marc, usually pretty phlegmatic, whoop once or twice. This is the best kind of sibling rivalry. Listening to any of them tell anecdotes about a song they're about to sing is a treat. What's in store might be an old ballad they breathe new life into or a barn burner of a two step.

VIDEO
Dancing to the Savoy Family Band
The Savoy Family Band on stage

Chico Trujillo. (Chile – Cumbia/Punk/Ska/Chilean Folk), Scene Popeye International Stage

Today Chico Trujillo is working their magic at the biggest stage in town, Parc International, a permanent stage with a ton of paved space in front for people to dance and set up their camp chairs. Music and dancing happens so often around here that the city fathers and mothers realized it needed a public space in the middle of town to  accommodate it.

Today's music, like Friday night's, has a distinctive Latin flavor and the crowd is eating it up. The instrumental mix of trumpet, trombone, saxophones, drums, accordion, guitars, is a great platform for the singing. It may be in Spanish but scores of spectators have no trouble interpreting it in to dance moves. Judging by the size of the crowd, Chico Trujillo became a crowd favorite this weekend.Dancing to the Savoy Family Band

VIDEO: CHICO TRUJILLO

LeroyThomas and The Zydeco Roadrunners (Louisiana-Zydeco), Scene Chevron Heritage Stage

Five Louisiana acts perform at various stages today, the last day of the festival. Bands like the Savoy Family Band (Cajun), Andre Thierry (Zydeco), and Leroy Thomas (Zydeco) play for large crowds. The University of Louisiana/Lafayette Jazz Combo and the Destination Gospel Choir make happy music, too. Toward the end of Leroy Thomas's set, the last of the festival, Leroy steps up to the mic. Leroy's cousins are zydeco band leaders Geno Delafose and Keith Frank.

"I want to introduce one of the last living legends of zydeco. Along with Buckwheat Zydeco, my father, Leo "The Bull" Thomas are a couple of the only ones left."
Leo makes a statement standing still. His performance suits are electric pinks, royal blazing blues, and percussive purples and I mean from hat to shoes. So when Leo gets into his hit song, "Why You Gonna Make Me Cry?" dancers grab partners and dance anywhere they find room. He's earned his status as a living legend.
 

The Festival International de Louisiane was selected as Best World Music Festival in the 2012 About.com WorldMusic Reader's Choice Awards. The average attendance over the five day festival is 350,000. The fact that the festival is free, supported by the sale of festival pins and merchandise, and honors the region's Francophone roots, is a matter of great local pride. Spend just one afternoon or evening there and you'll feel it.

VIDEO: LEROY THOMAS

Photos and Videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Festival International de Louisiane: A World of Shopping, too!

Saturday April 28, 2012
Lafayette, Louisiana

If you wanted to shop till you drop while you weren't enjoying world class music, the Festival International de Louisiane obliged. Vendor space in both market areas was sold out.

The Marché des Arts featured arts and crafts chiefly from Louisiana: jewelry, sculpture, woodwork, photography, ceramics, original paintings and more.

The Marché du Monde featured African folk art, instruments and clothing; banana leaf art, baskets, seagrass hats, handbags, hammocks, purses, paintings, tapestries, dresses and a wild range of women's clothing and more.

Saturday afternoon, sunny, temps in the eighties, the vendor area was crawling with shoppers. I'm not sure how much they bought, but they were looking real hard.

  

 




   

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.