pedestrian saga

It’s Kids Week on Jeopardy! and last night’s show featured some pretty smart kids who breezed through most of the questions (er, answers). (My favorite miss was the one about 1970s spiky hair and Sid Vicious – Alex was looking for punk rock – and the youngsters only managed "metallic" then "heavy metal" and then I believe "funk"!)

Yet did you notice that these precocious Americans really struggled to clear the foreign language category? The questions weren’t very difficult – at least three of the five involved basic Spanish. Surely a sign of the depressingly low status of foreign language study in our culture! Allow me some drama here because it’s an issue I take very much to heart. And lemme just say that Spanish is no longer a foreign language, folks – it’s here to stay.

Last week I decided to forgo my usual dose of Texas TV and to drink in some live music by a Texas legend instead. The whole experience was immensely satisfying!

Casual talk at Saturday’s backyard BBQ led to this serious spontaneity on Sunday. Libby’s keen last-minute hunt for tickets yielded perfect balcony seats (with no evil Ticketmaster fees – oh yeah), and so I joined the fine company of my neighbors for Willie Nelson & Friends at the Wiltern May 2.

The pre-show supper stop at famous Philippe’s was a sweet surprise (dig that coleslaw and Katherine at the counter – what style!) By far my greatest discovery of the night, however, was Lucinda Williams who performed the opening set. I had barely heard of her but now I’m tripping over myself to learn her music. I’m reading lots of adoring superlatives and descriptions of her as a female Neil Young or more Patti Smith than Patsy Cline, and I’m eager to discover for myself. Little did I know she was hiding behind the Tom Petty block in our (testosterone-steeped) CD collection. "Changed the Locks" is her song and sounded so right in her gravelly voice.

Mickey Raphael, the harmonica player in Willie Nelson’s band, joined Lucinda Williams for more than a few songs and provided excellent continuity between the two acts. This guy can really play - I found myself meditating on the strength and control of what must be his super-human lips! I meditated on musical muscle quite a lot that night – Lucinda Williams’ buff, guitar-pickin’ biceps, Bobbie Nelson’s nimble, ivory-tickling fingers…

While Willie Nelson at age 71 doesn’t have the visible muscle tone (that I’m sure he once had), he is very clearly going strong. The man played for at least 90 minutes straight, barely resting to introduce the songs that soon ran one right after the other seeming to gain momentum…and then he left and the house lights came up. No idle talk, no ritualized encores – not a one. It was genius. Amazing energy. Seemed SO effortless.

Here are some of the songs from the show that have been humming around in my head all week. The one concert review I found helped me put some of these in perspective, but really my education has just begun.

otherae

My Grammie sends me a little valentine every year, a simple card adorned in red ink with her unique curly handwriting. This February she sent one to Gordon too! I followed my Aunt Mary-like instincts to document the occasion photographically (but clearly without M’s technical prowess and efficiency – it has taken me 3 months to get the photos developed and to share them!)

cavecanem