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Tue, 06 Jan 2009
books and movies while recovering
I had a rotator-cuff repair on November 19. I thought I would read lots of books and transcribe music while recovering. Wrong. It was just too uncomfortable to do anything but watch movies. Here’s a partial list of of the few books I (re)read and the many movies I watched, particularly the last two weeks of the year when I was off work. I didn’t really “pick” the movies—I just selected them from what was on cable (with no commericials) at a particular hour. A note on the rating system (* to *****, * being lowest): these are not objective ratings. They are completely relative to what interests me or strikes me in some way. A ’*’ definitely means uninteresting. But a ’**’ can mean it’s good but not particurlarly compelling to me. Note, nothing received a 5-star rating in what follows - in other words, nothing really knocked me out (maybe because I was in pain). But I did find a number of 4-stars, some of which I had read or seen before and enjoyed the second time around too. books
movies
Hi Grandpa. I just arrived. It was a rough time for me but my Mom was
great and did a wonderful job of bringing me into the world. I weigh 7
pounds 1 ounce and am super healthy. I can't wait to meet you. Here
are some pictures my Dad took when he first meet me a couple of hours
ago. I hope you like them and he said to call tomorrow when you get
some time.
From Jasmine the next day:
Hello Everyone. Yesterday was the big day. Bruce and I arrived at
the hospital at 5 a.m. on Friday and spent the day in labor. Gwyneth
made her way into the world at 4:55 pm. Not too bad of a day. She
weighed in at 7 pounds 1 ounce and she is nearly 20 inches long at 19
3/4. Our new little family is doing well as we actually got some sleep
during last night. We should be leaving the hospital first thing
Sunday morning.
Phillip, Kate and me at peace rally
John, Geoff and me - final summer gig at Green Street
Geoff, Joe and I play at Bukowski CD release party
These photos taken by Flavia:
These photos taken by Sherm Clow:
Thursday, Friday Flavia and I spent March 15-21 in Buenos Aires. Here's are "trip report." crossing the Andes On the bus from the airport to our hotel we see posters for an International Jazz Festival at Ateneo starting on Sunday. Unfortunately, the two artists I’d want to hear the most, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Eddie Gómez happen on the days after our scheduled return. But I planned to hear Jacques Morelenbaum Cello Zamba Trio on Monday and Terence Blanchard Quintet on Tuesday, but Tango took over. Flavia’s nephew, Ulises, and his wife, Jorgelina, met us at our hotel (the Columbia Palace) to tell us the hotel lost our reservation. But Ulises and Jorgelina were able to get us a room at their hotel, the Hotel A&B International. The only room available the first night was a real hellhole that smelled of mildew and had a combined shower sink toliet room, a bed and a window to the hallway. The next day we were able to upgrade to a very nice room (number 108) for 185 pesos/night (about $65 US). The owner, Virginia, was very helpful. Ask for her if you stay there. The hotel is located at Montevideo 248 (a block away from Corrientes Avenue, 5 blocks from the obelisk. We spent Thursday and Friday walking around the city seeing sites and being bitten by mosquitoes. There are 120 cases of dengue in Buenos Aires, ostensibly in people who were bitten by mosquitoes in Uruguay while traveling. Ulises and Jorgelina introduced us to a great restaurant they discovered: Chiquilin. This place is great! We tried eating other places, but we always ended up back here for dinner. The food and service were just oo good to miss. It was here I discovered chimichurri under Ulises guidance—a sauce that ranks up there with Chileno pebre for me. Criolla is another typical sauce, but I got stuck on chimichurri. (By-the-way, in Argentina, “ll” is pronounced “ss”, so criolla is pronounced CREE-OH-SHA - instead of CREE-OH-YA). Our feasts generally totalled to 220 pesos, or about $70+ bucks - what a deal. I maybe drink 2 glasses of wine a month at the most, but I drank 3 to 4 glasses of wine each night with dinner (which always started at 11pm) and felt completely fine the next day. Maybe it was the great Argentinian malbec. My favorite was Finca La Linda Malbec. But other malbecs, Nieto Senetinner, Trumpeter, Alamos (Catena Zapata), were also great. I think I have found another wine to drink (besides my standard Rosenblum Zinfandel). Ulises is completing a Ph.D., in Computer Science at Aberdeen in Scotland, writing his thesis on search, specializing in librarianship and query construction. That got us to talking about hard to understand phrases. He pointed out the Scots phrase “fit fit fits fit fit”—meaning “which shoe fits which foot?” Try getting a computer to parse that with general rules! (For more of these see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_homophonous_phrases.) Saturday On Saturday Puvan, a friend of Ulises and Jorgelina, from Malaysia, living in Aberdeen, met up with us. He, Ulises and I went to El Ateneo bookstore located in the previous “The Grand Spledid” theatre (as much as I love bookstore, it’s a shame this is still not functioning as a theater). An English language teacher with many of her adolescent students approached me in the bookstore to ask if I would speak in English with them, which I did for about 30 minutes. I happened to be sitting on the floor at the time they approached me (to more easily check out the bottom shelves in the poetry section). I stayed on the floor the whole time while they talked down to me. It was a large circle standing around me. Others started joining too, to see what the action was all about—they thought I was someone famous! I purchased a Spanish language editions of César Vallejo’s Nómina de Huesos y Otros Poemas and Raúl González Tuñón’s Demanda contra el olvido. I “read” these at night in the hotel, remembering reading Clayton Eshleman’s translation of Vallejo as Payroll of Bones. Later we joined up with Jorgelina and Flavia and went on a bus tour around the city. I would not recommend it since you spend too much time in traffic (maybe on a Sunday - if it runs - but on Sunday you want to be elsewhere—see below). On the tour the woman guide spoke in Spanish and English. She said “si” continuously like many people use “a” as a filler. When she did the English version of her guiding she said “yes”. It got to be pretty humorous. Less humorous was the many many time she pointed out the Hotel Hilton from all angles - who cares! When the tour stopped at Plaza de Mayo our guide neglected to mention the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (not unlike the guides at Neruda’s Isla Negra home—now a museum—neglected to mention any connection between his death on September 23, 1973 and the coup in Chile on September 11, 1973). The best part of the tour was the stop at Caminito in the poor barrio of La Boca. The best artisans I saw while in Argentina were here (I bought a leather purse for my daughter Jasmine). This is the first place I saw dancers dancing tango in the street for tips (like musicians who play for tips). Our guide was helpful in pointing out that the Rio de la Plata is the most polluted river in the world (it supplies Buenos Aires with its drinking water, which I did drink from the tap at the hotel). On Satursday night we had great seats ($25 US) for Tanguera at the Teatro Nacional of Buenos Aires—a musical with no words, describes the history tango dancing from its beginning with European immigrants, through brothels to the modern stage. It featured Tango legend Maria Nieves. Very good show except for the canned music. After the show we went to Chiquilin for dinner starting at 11pm. Sunday On Sunday we took a taxi back to Caminito to shop at the artisan booths in la feria and have lunch while watching the tango dancers on the street. At lunch, the first tango couple were fun to watch on the sidewalk while having lunch. They were followed by a cheesey tango singer, Gerardo Peyrano. Flavia purchased on of his CDs for her mom (but her mom, who has taste, did not like it). Worse, while doing the CD transaction he stood at our table, blocking my view of the next couple dancing tango, who, for us, turned out to have the most striking woman dancer we saw while in Argentina. After Caminito we went to San Telmo where they close one of the street’s on Sunday. It is here that we finally heard live tango music (as well as other music and more street dancers). One of the tango bands, Orquesta Típica Imperial, had a violinist who played left-handed—never saw that before. The same “walking in the wind” statue people we saw in Valparaiso last year were on the street in San Telmo. We then went back to our hotel to freshen up before walking to a theater on Corrientes to see the musical Drácula, Jorgelina’s favorite (and in which she sang in 3 different productions in school). I didn’t understand the words, but, with the Spanish speakers help, I was able to get the story. The live orchestra was a pleasure to hear—reminded me of my days in the Pioneer Memorial Theater pit. After the show we tried to eat somewhere else but ended up back at Chiquilin for dinner starting at 11pm. Monday Monday was a shopping day. At an exchange rate of about 3 pesos to the dollar, you can’t pass it up. In the evening, Puvan and I were going to go see Jacques Morelenbaum at the jazz festival but broken ticket machines had us having dinner with everyone at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest coffee shop in Argentina. Once there we discovered they had two different live tango shows (with live music) going on simultaneously—one in the basement and one in a room to the side of the main floor. We were able to get tickets for the basement show. It was a variety of comedy, tango, and music performance. The second half of the show after intermission started with two men playing bombos. Next they performed with boleadoras—kind of like tap dancing but with the added rhythm and skill of the sound and site of the bolas. The live band consisted of acoustic bass, baby grand piano and bandoneón. The bass uses the bow more than pizzacato in this music. After the show, while people were leaving, I went up to the edge of the stage and, with Flavia’s help, talked to the bass player, to let him know I liked his playing and to ask for the names of good modern jazz clubs. He said he didn’t know but that the piano player was a jazz maestro, and brought him into the chat. The piano player, Juan Johermida (juanjohermidapianohotmail.com) recommended Notorious. He also said that there used to be more jazz clubs but they have been closing. He asked if I played and when I said yes he immediately invited me to play a tune with him. He suggested Victor Young’s “Beautiful Love,” which I don’t know, so I countered with Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunesia.” He didn’t say another word. He just sat down at the piano and started vamping the intro (well and with good time) before the bassist even offered me his bass. I started playing the great Tunesia bass line but immediately had to adjust - the strings were too high, the endpin too low, and the end of the fingerboard was covered in rosin so my fingers were sticking together. So I implied the bass line. But it sounded good on the bass player’s fat bass. We made it through the head then he indicated for me to solo. I was only about 16 bars into a solo when the stage manager made us quit so they could start the next show. But it seems I have made a new musician friend. He’s leaving in a few days to play in Alaska. If I come to Argentina again, you can bet I’ll look him up. After the show we walked back to Chiquilin for another late dinner. We’re regulars now. They treated us great the first time—but now it’s even better, with waiters that served us the night before coming to shake our hands and help, even though we are not in their section. Tuesday On Tuesday Jorgelina, Ulises and Puvan checked out. We accompanied them to the bus station to say goodbye as they head to Rosario (Ulises and Jorgelina’s home town) where they will be attending a wedding. Then Flavia and I took a train to Tigre, a city on the delta of the Paraná river. Once in Tigre we went on a 2 hour rio tur. The leisurely boat cruise was a nice change of pace after hectic Buenos Aires. After the cruise Flavia explored the casino while I walked in the middle of town and had a bite to eat. We took the train back to Argentina, rested for a hour, then went back to Cafe Tortoni for dinner and a last tango show (with live music). Wednesday On Wednesday we got up late, ate then checked out of the hotel. We still had several hours left. At first we split up, me heading to bookstores and Flavia to shoestores. I went to Kel, an English language bookstore. The store was packed—2 long lines, one with numbered tickets to pick up special orders, the other to pay. I hoped to find contemporary Argentinian writers translated into English (hopefully with facing Spanish). Unfortunately all they had was Borges. I did end up by Latin American Stories edited by Carlos Fuentes and Julio Ortega—a collection of short stories from Spanish authors (and about 4 Argentinos). The little I read so far suggests the translations are hasty (misspelling, incorrect punctuation, awkward feeling). I also spent some time sitting in a plaza, writing a poem and watching the dog walkers. on our walk the trees Flavia and I hooked up for lunch at, you guessed it, Chiquilin. After lunch we went to a music instrument store where she played an incredibly inexpensive ($300 US) electric violin while I played an acoustic bass guitar. We ended up buying the violin. And that was it. A 40 minute ride to the airport. 2.5 hours of airport hassle (and we needed every minute of it), a 2 hour flight to Santiago, a 2 hour drive to Reñaca (via Quilpue to pick up my bass) and our apartment in Cochoa. Exhausted but happy. Here’s a link to all the pictures we took in Argentina. The only thing I had hoped to do (besides the jazz clubs and festival) was go to listen and buy some CDs of artists recommended by Ulises. For the record, here are his recommendations (for next time):
John Flanders, Geoff Miller, Harold Carr recording
On Feb 2, 2007 John Flanders (tenor and soprano sax), Geoff Miller (guitar) and myself (bass) recorded at Jo-Ann Wong's beautiful home. Sherm Clow did the engineering. Here are some tracks and pictures from the session. I'll add more in the future.
Saturday, January 27, 2007 — upright locked position I am
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — morning in bed
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — coal white light
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — photo facing a forest
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — sounds from cole bare where stare there air
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — white train on its rail smoothly
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — bass seller From Wilhelm: Michael Olivola (and his wife).
Sunday, January 28, 2007 — music at Andrew’s Sunday morning lying around reading while Flavia and Venus laugh in the front room and Chiara makes a great breakfast. We drive to Napa and tour Copia. Then we have a light dinner at a deli in downtown Napa before splitting up—me to Andrew’s in Oakland to play music—them back to Sonoma to have dinner with Venus’ family (Flavia’s ex). I arrive in Oakland after an hour drive. Andrew and I hug and head upstairs to his studio where I get out my bass that is stored at his house. I was planning on selling it, but the minute I took it out of its case I changed my mind—the wood is too beautiful. I warm up while Andrew sets up his recording gear and saxophones and flutes. A bit later Debra Craig (drums) and Terry Rolerie (guitar) arrive. We improvise then take a dark chocolate, blood orange and cake break. Then improvise again. Terry is a very quiet electric guitar player (and avid bike rider) and Debra is a sensitive drummer. Lucky for me—I played without an amp. Driving home I found a station with some great solo piano—kind of an update minimilist Eric Satie. The show was Heart of Space playing Hans Otte’s The Book of Sounds. I just caught the tailend at 10:50pm. PT. At that time it was just single piano notes, one after another, no chords. But the choice of intervals and sequence were beautiful. I’ve gotta get that work.
Monday, January 29, 2007 — her body where she lives
Monday, January 29, 2007 — Chilean Embassey San Francisco We said goodbye to Venus and Chiara and drove to San Francisco. Flavia had an appointment at the Chilean Embassey to get her passport renewed. While she took care of her business I went to Rasputin Music and picked up some CDs. In particular, one I’ve been looking for: Thelonius’ Monk’s Greatest Hits. The exact versions of the tunes on this CD made me realize just how much Monk was a percussionist (in a different way from McCoy Tyner). I want to transcribe some of his approaches to his melodies and solos and arrange them for bass. Then I went a block away to Cody’s (the San Francisco branch - unfortunately the Berkeley branch closed down recently) and picked up Craig Dworkin’s Strand (I figured I should learn a little about the author’s work who lives and works so close by). Flavia and I then hooked up and drove to Berkeley and had lunch at La Note on Shattuck. After lunch we walked a few doors down to Pegasus Books where I picked up Bob Perelman’s iflife. We drove to the airport (several hours early for a change) and enjoyed reading all our new books waiting for the plane and flying back to Salt Lake. Sat, 09 Sep 2006
poetry at Sanders
painting, performance, party, porch, picnic
On Friday we went to Michael Lucarelli's art opening "lyrical meditations, " followed by attending the John Flander's and Double Helix concert at Westminster (the inaugural performance for the series that we will play with Red Rock Rondo in May 2006). After the concert we went to Michael and Shayla's birthday party. The next morning we spent the morning on the porch and in the garden, followed by a hike to Dog Lake from MillCreek Canyon with Phillip and Charlotte. defined horizon 1
The UK Terror plot: what's really going on?
I have been reading very carefully through all the Sunday newspapers to try and analyse the truth from all the scores of pages claiming to detail the so-called bomb plot. Unlike the great herd of so-called security experts doing the media analysis, I have the advantage of having had the very highest security clearances myself, having done a huge amount of professional intelligence analysis, and having been inside the spin machine. So this, I believe, is the true story. None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time. Mon, 14 Aug 2006
Flavia, Harold and Coco "in Utah this week"
On July 21, 2006 Kim Burgess interviewed us for an article on our home that appeared in the August 3, 2006 issue of "in Utah this week" magazine. The original online edition of the article (different from the print edition) can be found here. (The following is a stripped down copy of the online version---which is different from the print edition---in case the original link disappears.) HAPPY COINCIDENCE GUIDES COUPLE TO DREAM HOME Home Tour by Kim Burgess Synchronicity is not only the name of a great Police song, but a real-life experience that sometimes guides people to exactly what they need.
If you don't believe me, ask Harold Carr and Flavia Cervino-Wood. Two
years ago, the couple were looking to expand from a 980 square-foot
house to something bigger. They searched Emigration Canyon, but
decided they were too far from nightlife and high-speed
Internet. Luckily, the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter
aligned with Mars. On a casual drive, Cervino-Wood spotted a lovely old bungalow and was immediately drawn to it. Ironically, it was the same home that Carr had admired for years on bike rides. "I would look up and see the porch and think that it looked great," Carr said. more ... Fri, 11 Aug 2006
Red Rock Rondo recording at Herc's
We, Red Rock Rondo, did a test recording at Herc's today. Unfortunately, some band members had allergic reactions to Herc's dog, so, no matter how the recording turns out, looks like we won't be doing more here.
Milton Voigt, March 19, 1924 - July 29, 2006
Milton Voigt died July 29, 2006 in Salt Lake City of causes incident to age. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1924 to Ester Bartelt and Arthur William Voigt. In World War II he was a navigator-bombardier in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He attended The University of Wisconsin—Madison (Ph.B., 1948), The University of California—Berkeley (M.A., 1950) and The University of Minnesota (Ph.D., 1960). He taught at The University of Idaho and The University of Kentucky before coming to The University of Utah in 1960, where he taught English literature and History of Ideas for 32 years and served as Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences (until its division into separate colleges in 1970) and as Chairman of the Department of English (1971 to 1975). He was the author of one book Swift and The Twentieth Century (1964) and other studies of the eighteenth century satirist, Jonathan Swift. He married Leta Jean Slack in 1947, with whom he had three sons, John Gregory (Northport, FL), James Lewis (Kalamazoo, MI) and Andrew Charles (Oakland, CA). He is survived by his sons and six grandchildren, Nicholas (Madison, WI), John and Zachery (St. Louis), Janna, Jesse and Evan (Kalamazoo) and by daughters-in-law Rebecca (Kalamazoo) and Lisette (Northport), by sister, Beatrice Manskee (Milwaukee) and special friend, Beth Burdett (Salt Lake City). He was a lay reader at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and served on the boards of several organizations including The Utah ACLU, The Salt Lake Chamber Music Society, and The Friends of the Children’s Center. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to The Salt Lake Chamber Music Society, P.O. Box 58825, SLC, UT 84158-0825. A memorial will be held on Friday, August 4, 6pm - 8pm at Fort Douglas Post Chapel, 120 South Ft Douglas Blvd (around 2100 east). Friends and family will also gather at his home at 1376 East Princeton Avenue (1290 South), Salt Lake City after the memorial. Condolences may be sent to miltonvoigt@gmail.com death & rain Ten (Possible) Reasons for the Sadness of ThoughtMy brother-in-law, Guillermo Antonio Cerviño-Wood, recommended George Steiner’s Ten (Possible) Reasons for the Sadness of Thought. I found his essay of that title (originally published in Salmagundi) here and here. I can’t say I like Steiner’s writing. It seems unnecessarily convoluted. Plus, all his points were made earlier by Bataille and Bataille’s writing is much better, even in English translation. He even uses some of Bataille’s phrases (e.g., “sadness unto death,” “laid bare”). But I did take the time to read and summarize the article.
the 4th of July men
for/by Phillip Bimstein
Hiking the House Range with Phillip
I "Letting this indifferent difference come to presence." ---Maurice Blanchot, Awaiting Oblivion
No sentences make the mountain. Only sweat. Or windy silence.
Today, no movement, nor waiting. Instead, open to rock,
A kind of forgetting to get there---not to be practiced
Closer at hand, Notch south, Swasey north,
Jets pass overhead. Their absence signifies unknown news.
At night, our galaxy rising like clouds over the east horizon.
A coincidence between place & attention. Again, back
Blooming yarrow whose stalks portend the beginning of an
Vast is a word. Empty another. An emptiness filled with
Clouds & contrails break the blue. Jets "Keeping watch over that which is not watched over." ---Maurice Blanchot, Awaiting Oblivion
The difference between memory & mountain. The temperature
The attraction of expanse---a kind of gravity
The portion of space causing time to reappear---suspended
Four fragments further along a future far from here---a place
Slowly the desert disappears
Morning---Venus---moon. blue haiku performed Phillip's new piece lockdown at the Genesis Youth Corrections Facility at the prison complex at the point-of-the-mountain.
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