smokerblog

Arvo Pärt

I've been listening to some "minimalist" music lately, Arvo Pärt, specifically. I've always loved Barber's Adagio for Strings and Pärt's music reminds me of that. It's very haunting and sad, beautiful in a way that almost hurts. I was turned on to Pärt (also The Bad Plus, Rachel Podger and others) by All Songs Considered. If you're interested in expanding your musical horizons (in any direction), you should check out ASC.

Memorial Day Wrap-Up

Kari and I had a good Memorial Day weekend. We got to see Caleb and Noah take part in Memorial Day services in Genesee and Ulysses. They sure looked spiffy in their pee-wee t-ball uniforms! In Ulysses they had a parade where they threw candy to the crowd. Noah promised Emmy that he would throw "handfuls" of candy in her direction only if she promised to share. As we followed the parade up the hill to the cemetery, Emily cleaned up every piece of candy along the way.

On Sunday, Robb and Theresa Cowburn stopped by my parents house and we had a nice long visit. Then I got to see some people at the Ulysses service on Monday that I haven't seen in a long time, including Buddy and Roxie Watson. Everyone looks really good, basically the same as I remember from high school--although, I'll bet we'd all have a good laugh looking at our high school yearbook pictures. I'm sure they are in such good shape from chasing their beautiful (and energetic!) kids around.

In other news, the closing process is continuing on the new house Mom and Dad are buying. It's on School Street right across the road from Richards'. They expect to close sometime in late June or July.

Househunting & Wiliam Gibson

Mom and Dad are in the process of buying a house in Genesee for Kay and the kids. The offer's been accepted, but we don't really know many details yet. I'm sure we'll find out more this weekend. We're looking forward to the long weekend. Hopefully the weather will support some picnicking.

I just read an interesting blog entry by William Gibson, the science fiction writer (hey, it was my lunch break). It was a talk given at the Directors Guild of America's Digital Day on May 17 about how technology influences culture. In it he discusses prehistoric man, the development of mass media, the current turmoil in the music industry and what it all means for the future of film (among other things). Good stuff.

Rain, a Party and a Cup of Chai

Rochester spring is in full swing. Tulips are blooming, daffodils are almost finished blooming and the lilacs are just getting started. We had a day of sun, rain, more sun w/ blue skies, torrential thunderstorm, then more sun. Between 2:45 and 3:15 the temperature probably dropped at least 10 degrees.

It was quite a social weekend we had too. Last night Mike and Vivi hosted a cookout. Mike went to the trouble of having a fence installed in his backyard in time for the party so that all of his dog-loving friends could bring their dogs along. Unfortunately, hardly anyone brought their dog. I think everyone else had the same thought we did: we wanted to focus on conversation (mostly about our dogs) and mingling instead of having the constant distraction of having to yell at the dogs to behave. Kari and I met a lot of nice people, talked about our dogs, ate some good picnic food and had a lot of fun in general.

This afternoon, we went to see A Mighty Wind, basically a folk music version of This is Spinal Tap. Hi-larious! We met Seth and Chris and George and Michele at the Little then went to Spot Coffee for dinner and a cup of coffee as big as your head.