Short Hair, Tall Hair
Last night we were treated to see kd lang and Lyle Lovett play at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. Fantastic performances - kd can really belt out a tune, and the Large Band was flawless. Something I'd never seen at a concert, the auditorium provided a sign-language interpreter off to the side of the room, if only for the two hearing impaired women who sat in front of us. Once again Gene, our fiddler friend, took time to meet us after the show. He has a great knack for setting up a photo shoot under any available light using his camera's timer and necessary widgets found in pockets to act as a tripod. The results should follow in a few days. Lyle's is an eighteen piece band and a total of thirty-five people are on the road together to make the show happen, in four buses and a few giant trucks hauling gear. They only make money every sixth show. So its really a labor of love that he tours in this way.













Gene's self portrait group shot ...



  posted by John : 6:26 AM

 
Quit it
Its been four months now since I quit my personal bad habit: biting my fingernails. Did it with the help of regular manicures at the Hotel Tamanaco - I feel beholden to them to show up with nails worth curing - and an always handy pack of sugar-free gum. There have been times when I have to debug a pressing database issue at work that I shave a bit off my thumbnail before I catch myself, but I'm still calling this a done deal. Onward to other reals of reformation, overdue at age forty.

  posted by John : 7:48 AM

 
Out Wandering in Caracas
Here's a good way to save a parking spot. Yes, those are glass bottles.



  posted by John : 3:50 PM

 
The Prez goes to Albania
from a NY Times article

The future of Kosovo, a largely Albanian breakaway province of Serbia, is of paramount interest here; some Kosovars traveled to Tirana to join the crowd awaiting Mr. Bush. The United Nations Security Council is considering a plan for independence, but Russia objects. On Saturday in Rome, the president agreed there should be a deadline to end the United Nations talks, saying, “In terms of a deadline, there needs to be one, it needs to happen.”

But today, less than 24 hours later, Mr. Bush tried to backtrack when asked when that deadline might be.

“First of all, I don’t think I called for a deadline,” Mr. Bush said, during a press appearance with Prime Minister Berisha in the courtyard of a government ministry building. He was reminded that he had.

“I did?” he asked, sounding surprised. “What exactly did I say? I said ‘deadline’? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said.”

  posted by John : 7:09 AM

 
What is the lesson?
I like the concept of our minds being similar to creating a movie; that to a large extent we are responsible for creating our own experience of the world and ourselves. Camera-operator sets the shutter which determines how much light will be exposed, in creating thoughts. The editor decides which of these many competing thoughts will be dominant. One can continue with these roles, to explain how experience is personal ... one person will have a different movie from another person, in the same situation. If we want to make a good film, we'll put special emphasis on the writing, deciding where we want the story to go. But often circumstances come up that our outside the control of our own production. I'm thinking of the case of the five Uighur men, currently in limbo in Albania, who have been tossed around to different places around the world for several years now, care of the governments of China and the USA (NY Times article). Hopefully they will find themselves in a better place very soon. Regardless, they each continue production of their movies, each with their own tribute to the persistence of the human spirit.

  posted by John : 12:07 PM