And Back Again
August 30, 2006
What an amazing vacation. Wow. I'm sorry if you have been doing something less enjoyable than I for the past 22 days. First stop was my family's house on Cape Cod. Just about the entire Taylor clan made it and it was great to see some family members I almost never get to see. The Cape is a very relaxing place to be; something about the air there is fresher than what we breathe most of the time in New York (see toxic lungs at Bodies exhibit August 7). Spending time in that air and with my family is essential for my goodness.
Alaina and I then went over to England and France to visit her dad's side of the family. We boarded a plane at Newark (sans liquide) and debarked it seven hours later in Bristol, England. Alaina's grandparents, G and Grand live in a tiny village called Sydling St. Nicholas in the Southwest of the Kingdom and are celebrating 60 YEARS OF MARRIAGE! An incredible feat, yet seemingly so easy for this amazing couple. Truly an inspiration of Love. We met up with her uncle and his family and wandered the hillsides, ate wonderful food and enjoyed the company. Then we boarded another plane in Bournemouth and debarked it 90 minutes later in Girona, Spain, where we rented a car and drove to the family's house in Borde Neuve, France. Nestled among the valleys of vineyards in the mountains of the Pyrenees, it is absolutely one of the more beautiful regions on this planet. Tres belle. We ate more amazing food and drank amazing wine. We even helped with a vendage, the picking of the grapes.
Supergood. I am so grateful that I have been included in this family and born into my own. Thank you to Alaina, the Bucklands and the Taylors. I Love You!
As awesome as that vacation was, I am always happy to return home. Our cats missed us (I think) and we our friends. Schedules and commitments await, but home is home.
Around the Country in 60 days
August 8, 2006
And finally, US is back in the archives. Our whole trip, from Newton Highlands, MA to Westfield, NJ is online and ready to roll. It has been a great experience for me to relive this trip. Alaina and I saw amazing spaces and wonderful friends, spent two incredible months together and learned a little bit about LOVE. We were fortunate to have such an opportunity and owe a lot of gratitude to our friends and families, who took us in along the way and made this journey possible. And if your part in this did not consist of having housed us then, we thank you also for watching it now.
P.S. Now I'm really going on vacation. Bye.
Bodies
August 7, 2006
Ever wondered what you'd look like without skin? If you are curious, go see the Bodies Exhibit at South Street Seaport (or one of six other locations around the country). Human cadavres are displayed in various states of dissection, from muscles to arteries to the all important nervous system, every part of the body underneath the epidermis is examined in a very enlightening way. Most specimens are relatively healthy (though dead) people, but some are, shall we say, not healthy. The tar-black smoker's lung was an eye opener, next to the "healthy" lung, somewhat blackened from just breathing our toxic air. The cross-sections of brains with strokes was also depressingly interesting: normal brain matter surrounding dead-black interior. It really just makes you think about how valuable the organs really are. What are we without our thoughts? How does it all work so well together? And the big one that just kept coming back to me: How did this all evolve from one cell-life forms? It's taken 13 billion or so years or humans to develop this complex anatomy, as well as our limited understanding of it, and I can't help but be completely awed by it. While I choose to believe in evolution over creationism, seeing the beautiful design within us, I begin to grasp a greater pupose for our species; a purpose that many humans on this earth call God.
It's vacation time. I'm going to do some travelling with Alaina for the next few weeks, to Cape Cod, England and France, which I am very excited about. Unfortunately this means that I won't be able to add anything to this blog for a while. Stay calm. I'll be back in September. Lots of Love to all of you. Be Good.
Buster and Bill
August 3, 2006
Bill Frisell, along with my two favorite Frisellian sidekicks, Tony Sherr on Bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums, played an amazing show at the Prospect Park bandshell tonight. They played a soundtrack to several silent films, some by artist Jim Woodring, and some to old 1920's silent films starring Buster Keaton. I have never seen such high quality silent film footage with such beautiful muisc. It is rivaled only by the show I saw last week at the Bandshell, Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet playing along with 1931's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. This is one of my all-time favotite concert experiences: I saw them about five years ago play this same show in Boston at the Beacon Theatre. Maybe my most memorable show ever. And last week I was so excited to see it again, but almost as soon as they put the film on, it began to thunder, and at first it was exciting because, you know, Dracula and lightning are perfect, but after about six minutes the lightning was basically right overhead and they stopped the show. Very disappointing, and I was sure we were going to have a similar situation tonight when it started to rain just minutes before the show. But it passed, and the Bill Frisell Trio played an amazing set of music to some films that really surprised me in their power. Those early movies have a very focused energy that is truly tapped with a great soundtrack. They are funny, sad, sweet and beautiful--just like life--and manage to say a whole lot without one word.
Here is the July blog.