Dave Alvin’s Folly show, redux

Posted on by
Reply

Another great thing about 11-11-11 is it’s the birthday of Blasters’ alum and rockin’ blues man Dave Alvin. His latest album — “Eleven Eleven” — is his 11th and has 11 songs on it. I had the pleasure of catching him at the Folly this summer, and of trying to capture some of the flavor and feeling of that show with these. The YouTube clip is from the same tour. And these are followed by a couple of other concert batches — for a Sarah Jarosz show and the Concert for Bangladesh.

From July 9

Dave Alvin hits town
It’s American music
Rock, rhythm, and blues

He writes those stories
So real — of love, death, heartbreak
Of people he’s known

He sings those stories
Cigarettes-for-breakfast voice
And beer for dessert

He plays those stories
Electric and acoustic
With scorpion’s sting

You can taste the dust
See the waves of heat rise up
As he spins those tales

Waves of emotion
Build and crash — great work by Dave
And his three band-mates:

Silver-haired shaman
Of slide; Telecaster set
To “telepathic”

Bass man slick and tall
He could’ve been a Blaster
30 years ago

Powerhouse drummer
All the little touches, too
Like tick-tock woodblock

They rocked the Folly
KC’s century-plus gem
Right place, righteous act

It all added up
To one whale of a show on
A hot July night

“40, 69, 30 years ago” haiku, redux

Posted on by
Reply

Another concert batch of sorts, for the 40th anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh. It also was Jerry Garcia’s birthday and the 30th anniversary of MTV.

From Aug. 1, 2011

August 1, a day
To recall a great concert,
Grateful guitarist

Harrison, Clapton
Ringo, Dylan and others
Joined Ravi Shankar

For Bangladesh, they
Rocked Madison Square Garden
Put on two good shows

“Because I was asked
“By a friend if I would help”
Is how George put it

Spiritual songs
And spirited music played
For 40,000

Guitars gently wept
Lyrics didn’t come easy
As Ringo found out

But Leon Russell
Blew the roof off the garden,
Dylan cast his spell

Billy Preston sang
“That’s the Way God Planned It,” and
Maybe he was right

40 years ago
Aid was slow to reach the poor
But hearts were lifted

40 years ago
They said help is on the way
Let’s say it again

And let’s remember
Jerry Garcia, who would
Have been 69

Trouble followed him
All of his life, but still he
Left a legacy

As a kid he lost
Part of a finger and then
He lost his father

Learned the piano,
Banjo, guitar, pedal steel
He was on his way

Smoked marijuana
As a teen in San Fran’s hills
Music, drugs, Jerry

String along, strung out
Artist, musician, oozing
Creativity

By one count the Dead
Played two thousand, three hundred
And fourteen concerts

It couldn’t have been
Easy amid the chaos
That was Jerry’s life

Three wives and four kids,
Diabetes, heroin
— But always music

Pass the methadone
And the Cherry Garcia
What a long strange trip

Let’s shed a tear, play
Some Dead, remember a soul
Who left us too soon

Something else that died
Too soon: MTV, first aired
30 years ago

Music video
Rightfully was all the rage
MTV led way

But somehow nonsense
And unreal realities
Slowly replaced tunes

And without the M
It’s just another channel
Just, you know, TV

Sarah Jarosz, SHEL concert, redux

Posted on by
Reply

One of the best shows I’ve ever seen was a little gig this year at the Record Bar. Having a front and center seat didn’t hurt. If you don’t know Sarah Jarosz and her two CDs, you should. The SHEL sisters are wonderful and charming, and they have a couple of EPs out and some good YouTube videos. Here’s the show recap.

From Aug. 3

Strings zing, voices blend
Some kind of magic happens
At the Record Bar

SHEL opens the show
Four sisters, classically trained,
Mini symphony

Mandolin, keyboards
Violin, djembe come
Alive in their hands

Heavenly voices
One, two, sometimes three join in
Divine harmonies

Pre-Raphaelite
Faces, hair tossing, tumbling
Bodies sway, step, stamp

Sisters play as one
Yet as different as their shoes
Boots, Keds, black slip-ons

Sometimes close my eyes
To focus on the music
Pure sound surrounds me

Songs so creative,
At turns intricate, simple,
Bewitching, playful

So much joy in just
Listening, soaking it up
They stopped all too soon

Sarah Jarosz takes
The stage with her two side men
Anticipating

“Tell Me True” opens
Heart’s deepest questions laid bare
Intoxicating

“Run Away” beckons
Who wouldn’t follow her down
Unabashedly?

Storm-cloud eyebrows brood
Over face fresh yet knowing
A door to the muse

“My Muse” envelops
Taps creativity’s vein
Oh so languidly

“Gypsy” sketches scene
Filled with everyday mystery
Tear jerking details

Banjo, mandolin,
Guitar– she’s master, mistress
All encompassing

Alex, violin
Caressing, cajoling sounds
Soothing, spine tingling

Nathaniel, cello
One with its strings, body, bow
Fused, he can’t refuse

Their instrumentals
Have a language all their own
Past understanding

Glances exchanged, eyes
To brains, back to fingertips
Synapses in synch

Notes step gingerly
Then parts pace purposefully
Gaining momentum

Break free to gallop
Fearless into the unknown
Into the dark night

Songs up in her head
KC blessed with them tonight
They stopped all too soon

Math Awareness Month, redux

Posted on by
Reply

The collection of placeholders and zeros on stage for the Republican “debate” last night reminded me of these. I think they came in two groups during April, which is Math Awareness Month.

April, 2011

Math Awareness Month
Guess I could use some of that
Life’s not adding up

Math Awareness Month
If I could subtract my stress
Joy would multiply

Math Awareness Month
Division in our ranks might
Be a good thing now

Math Awareness Month
Used to know this stuff, but now
My brain’s a null set

Math Awareness Month
My checkbook balance beckons
Time to go figure

Math Awareness Month
Budget is fit when I get
My figures in shape

Math Awareness Month
Reminds us that trig jokes are
First sine of madness

Math Awareness Month
Will my kid’s trig instructor
Cosine for a loan?

I dig trig because
Every day I seem to go
Off on a tangent

Math Awareness Month
Makes me admit my haiku
Are derivative

But I wish I had
A good proof to demonstrate
That they’re integral

And pray I can raise
Poetic coefficient
To higher power

Math Awareness Month
Don’t let the geeks fool you they’re
Trying to get sum

Which are the math trees
In the grove of academe?
The ones with square roots

Angling Elvis tells
Pythagoras: You’re so squared
(Baby, I don’t care)

Life is just one big
Variable equation
Solve it day by day

“Silence is golden, mean,” redux

Posted on by
Reply

The math-challenged GOP presidential field reminded me of a famed mathematician, a pioneer of probability theory along with Pascal, who also had the good sense to keep things to himself once in a while.

Pierre de Fermat, born Aug. 17, 1601

Pierre de Fermat
We salute you. Proof it’s good
To blow some things off

“Pierre de Fermat”
That’s French for “Big math tease” or
“Guess my solution”

You helped develop
All sorts of math, theory of
Probability

But you’re remembered
For what you didn’t produce,
A proof others chased

Scribbled in margin,
In Latin no less, you had
A killer math proof

No room to explain,
You explained, then never did
Explain it — ever

Math geeks went bonkers
For centuries until one
At last cracked the code

But Brit Andrew Wiles
Used techniques you couldn’t have.
Was his proof the same?

Jeez, Pierre, guess we’ll
Never know, but your silence
Guaranteed your fame

“Bees in my bonnet” haiku, redux

Posted on by
Reply

We’re getting new software at work, so I’m in a crabby mood. What better time to revisit haiku about some of my pet language peeves? And why is it so many of us write as if we majored in English — as a second language? With the dates they appeared, in 2011.

March 2

Business buzzwords kill
Clear thought, communication,
Creativity

Business buzzwords kill:
Misusing “actionable”
Ought to get you sued

Business buzzwords kill:
Write “be pro-active” and you
Use no action verb

Business buzzwords kill:
You want to “incentivize”?
Let’s damn your “-ize” first

March 3

Business buzzwords kill:
Don’t write as if Staples had
A sale on hyphens

Business buzzwords kill:
“Client-centric”? What’s that mean?
Just put their needs first

Business buzzwords kill:
“Customer-oriented”?
In China, maybe

Business buzzwords kill:
“Patient-focused”? How about
Helping me get well?

March 4

Business buzzwords kill:
Don’t try to sound important
Just be clear instead

Business buzzwords kill:
Do you use Latinate words
In lieu of English?

Business buzzwords kill,
Or: “Speak in a dead language,
“You Latin lover!”

Business buzzwords kill:
Will someone please help the word
“Facilitator”?

Business buzzwords kill:
Synergy’s a favorite sin
Against plain English

Business buzzwords kill.
Synergy: When fuzzy thought
Meets fuzzy language

Business buzzwords kill:
“Back in the day”? Do you mean
This morning’s meeting?

Business buzzwords kill:
And don’t mix up “strategy”
And “tactic,” OK?

March 7

Business buzzwords kill:
Don’t baffle ’em with BS
Just do some good work

Business buzzwords kill:
“Provide solutions”? I don’t
Have a math problem!

Business buzzwords kill:
Does a Teflon exec have
A non-stick skill set?

Business buzzwords kill!
Core competencies, you know:
That’s what you do best

Business buzzwords kill:
I’d rather feel the Earth move
Than paradigms shift

Business buzzwords kill:
Paradigms? Is that about
My 20-cents’ worth?

Business buzzwords kill:
Paradise? A memo with
All paradigms lost

March 8

Business buzzwords kill:
End torture now! Starting with
The English language

Business buzzwords kill:
Is your “core competency”
Abusing English?

Business buzzwords kill:
Writers’ shift to “transition”
As a verb? Bad move

Business buzzwords kill:
Use “leverage” as a verb;
Write on borrowed time

Business buzzwords kill:
De-leverage your use of
Good nouns as bad verbs

Business buzzwords kill:
How to measure the rampant
Misuse of “metric”?

Business buzzwords kill:
And what measure tells us when
“Cutting edge” grew dull?

Business buzzwords kill:
Writers who can’t kick buzzwords
Really should buzz off

A little one-two punch

Posted on by
1

First Tuesday haiku:

Elected this date:
JFK, Sonny Bono
Ah, democracy

“Answering a different bell” haiku:

Goodnight, Smokin’ Joe
Even the champions can’t duck
That last big left hook

Nov. 7: Two women with great chemistry

Posted on by
Reply

Marie Curie born,
Joni Mitchell, too: This day’s
Radio active

Brilliant but modest
Madame Curie coined the term
Radioactive

Won Nobel prizes
Both physics and chemistry
Nobody else has

There was nothing half
About her life, discovered,
Named two elements

Radium research,
Isolating isotopes
Saved lives, cut hers short

Her legacy lives
Her dedication inspires
Google her — you’ll see

Joni Mitchell turns
68 today, complete
Artistic package

Songwriter deluxe
“Both Sides Now,” “Woodstock”
Were hits for others

Her albums scored, too
Overflowing with romance,
Poetry, protest

Lilting melodies
Lyrics playful and painful
Confide and confess

You could do much worse
Than “Blue,” but it’s really hard
To do much better

Joni pushed the sound
Branched into jazz though some folks
Hissed her “Summer Lawns”

Distinct guitar sound
Forged when polio forced her
To chord differently

A fine painter, too
As her album covers show
Yeah, the whole package

Joni says she’s through
Except for painting a bit
Sure, we all decay

Like those isotopes,
Though, her music, influence
Will glow on and on

Haiku saving time

Posted on by
1

Don’t forget to switch your clocks tonight. And these are followed on the blog by re-posts from June 21st, the day with the most daylight, and with a nighttime suite I wrote back in February about things that happen, however cliched, in the wee small hours.

Spring forward, fall back
Big deal! I do that most days
Turning off alarm

1895
Bright idea first came to
George Vernon Hudson

Entmologist,
Astronomer bugged by waste
Of all that daylight

Lived in New Zealand
So there was one huge problem:
Sheep didn’t get it

William Willett golfed,
Had same thought, 1905,
To extend tee times

Germans made the switch
1916 to save coal
During World War I

Brits then the U.S.
Followed, pretty soon nations
All around tried it

Farmers don’t dig it
But sporting goods stores sure do
Maybe it’s a wash

I love the daylight
But the nighttime’s the right time
For some things, nudge, nudge

So, if I post this
1:15 a.m., will you
Get to read it twice?

Spring forward, fall back
We’re fooling Mother Nature!
No, fooling ourselves

The light that matters
It shines 24/7
In your heart, your eyes

Longest day haiku, redux

Posted on by
Reply

On the cusp of the Daylight Saving Time switch-over, here are some for the longest day of the year.

From June 21, 2011

Daylight, each day’s gift
To walk in the sun and feel
Its warmth on our skin

Daylight, each day’s chance
To go around again, flip
The next page of life

Daylight, each day’s spin
Revolutionary yet
Too subtle to feel

Daylight, each day’s breath
In and out, the dance of life
The rhythm of hearts

Daylight, each day’s lick
Of ice cream, sip of red wine
What pleasures beckon?

Daylight, each day’s tricks
Of solid, shadow and smoke
Memory’s missteps

Daylight, each day’s bits
Of grit, soil, salt and sweat
Elementary

Daylight, each day’s gold
To be measured and burnished
Squeeze every last ounce

Daylight and with age
It dawns on us to cherish
Each wrinkle in time

Daylight, and today
A few extra ticks, just like
My last camping trip

Daylight, yes today
We get a few seconds more
— To be spent beaming