“Songs for a New World” on YouTube

“Hear My Song” by the RiffRaff Players, March 2009

Here are two back-of-the-room videos of “Flying Home” and “Hear My Song” from the RiffRaff Players production of “Songs for a New World” at the Tamarack theater this March 2009. Ed Trotta of Summit Stage Theater II in Bluefield shot the subsequent show, at the Room Upstairs in Princeton, W.Va., on two high-def cameras. But since none of us have a hi-def camera we have not yet seen it. Plus, we need someone with the mojo to edit a two-shoot video of a one-hour-and-15 minute show down to a fabulous, finished version. Advice welcome on that. Hope you like these.

“The River Won’t Flow” by the RiffRaff Players, March 2009.

A Visit to Gary Bowling’s House of Art

CLICK IMAGE OR HERE TO VIEW SLIDESHOW

In the midst of the economic gloom of Bluefield, W.Va., Gary Bowling’s House of Art is a trippy, eccentric, must-be-seen-to-be-believed, go-to place for art, music and culture. Here’s a four-minute audio slideshow story I did on the place for the Charleston Gazette, with more than 50 photos and an audio interview with the slightly cracked majordomo of the establishment.

Smoke This Way

> CLICK TO WATCH AUDIO SLIDESHOW

A “Third Place” refers to a gathering place in the community that is separate from our two usual social environments of the home and workplace. The Squire Tobacco Unlimited Shop in downtown Charleston, W.Va., is just such a place. The gregarious man who runs it, Charlie Morgan, used to be a Union Carbide engineer, then traveled to places like Saudi Arabia  to create data centers. Illness led to retirement and a return home to Charleston. He got turned on to cigars in the late ’90s. Now, he’s something of a smokey guru to cigar and pipe smokers in the area. His shop stocks more than 600 boxes of cigars, all hand-made and hand-rolled, plus pipes, tobaccos and lighters galore.

It’s a cozy place with stuffed sofas, a communal vibe and clouds of aromatic smoke hanging in the air. (Though if your sensibilities are easily bruised by Vargas-girl photography and politically incorrect portraiture — for us pinko-liberal types, that is — you may not wish to linger over the wall of photos in the back. “That’s my Wall of Shame,” says Charlie, who lets another fellow hang the photos. “I don’t go back there.” )

It’s not just a manly citadel, though. About 40 to 50 women each month come in to buy cigars at The Squire, Charlie says, and many hang for awhile, adding plumes and fumes to the atmosphere. I love the place and am a member in good standing, with my white laminated “Squire’ card in my wallet entltitling me to discounts. I buy exactly one cigar a month there, an Arturo Fuente 8-5-8 . In fact, there’s a half-smoked one in an ashtray on the back porch, where I sit in exile from the rest of the family to smoke. Cigar and pipe exiles from across the valley head to The Squire to share the burn.

Juan Williams, go away

You listen to the National Public Radio commentators and reporters over the years and the voices become a part of the soundtrack of your life, all warm and fuzzy-like. Then, one of them, Juan Williams, says something like this. And you know, henceforth, you will never ever listen to him again - if you ever do listen to him again - without wanting to spit on his shoes. Here’s more on Williams describing First Lady Michelle Obama as an angry “Stokely Carmichael in a dress,” which many observers in the links on this post note says a whole lot more about the guy making the remark. But really it’s National Public Radio that should be paying heed, as one person noted: “NPR should be ashamed to have their name on that screen with those comments.” Mine is a teensy blog in the outback of the web. But I wanted to add my tiny little search result to the algorithm the next time someone Googles “Williams, Juan…” “Eed-jit!” as the Irishman at the bar might say.

Here’s the piece to read on Michelle Obama , Ta-Nehisi Coates’ profile “American Girl,”  from The Atlantic Monthly. It gets at the kind of appealing, full-blooded human being in actual evidence before the nation’s eyes.

At the Gates of History: A Multimedia Slideshow from the Obama Inauguration

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I went through a host of hoops to get a ticket to the Obama inauguration, planning on doing a feature story and multimedia piece for the Charleston Gazette (W.Va.). Then, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s office required the ticket be picked up either the Friday or Monday before the event. Trouble was we were coming into D.C. on a commuter train from Martinsburg, W.Va., the very morning of the inauguration. An e-mail and a plea to a dear friend who lives in the city sent him out in the frigid very early morning air of a gridlocked D.C. to pick up the ticket, then meet us at an equally gridlocked Union Station. I’d come with my wife, 18-year-old son, his girlfriend and three other of their pals. We split up as they were ticket-less. I headed for the “Purple Gate,” being one of the Slightly-Important People who’d nabbed an inaugural ticket. Right. Once I got to the gate, I joined thousands of other folk with purple passes. While hundreds of thousands of others made it through, the damn Purple Gate seemed to be letting in only a trickle. Then, the trickle stopped and the gate swung shut a half-hour before Obama’s noon inauguration. Well now. So I tried to make a little lemonade out of this lemony situation. Take a look at the result.

Come listen to “Songs for a New World” in March and April

CLICK POSTER TO ENLARGE IT.

A dear friend is part of a musical-theatrical clan I consider a spiritual homeland in southern West Virginia. A month ago, she invited me to be of one of four characters (’Man One’) in an area production of Jason Robert Brown’s wonderful 1995 off-Broadway show “Songs for a New World.” Oh, what a fabulous, witty, moving, profane and powerful cycle of songs. Oh, what a bunch of challenging songs to sing. Omi-gaaaawd….. That was the third reaction after I began diving into the libretto and score, trying out the songs Man One is tasked to sing. I am now past the freak-out stage after several weeks of intense rehearsals. I’ve got a new voice coach whipping my vocal chords into Broadway mode. God, I love this show. Killer songs. A masterpiece of four-part composition. A slew of genres (often within the same song), moving from pop to gospel, Broadway chorus to R and B. Come see what we’ve worked up from one of the finest new shows in recent American musical theater. Two opportunities:

MARCH 20 and 21, Beckley, W.Va.:

WHEN: Dinner at 6:30 p.m.; show 8 p.m., on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21
WHERE: Tamarack in Beckley, W.Va. A dinner theater show in the cozy 150-seat theater of this arts and culture showcase. The food will be fine, I assure you, as they’ve got excellent cookery going on there.
MENU: Tamarack Chop House Salad; Fennel-seed Roasted Salmon with Ciopino-Saffron Broth; Homemade Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberries
TICKETS: $40 a person. Call 1-88TAMARACK ext. 148 or 168.
NOTE: This version of the show is the family-friendly one, missing a few of the ribald references and language of the off-Broadway production
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APRIL 10 and 11, Princeton, W.Va.:

WHEN: Dinner at 6:30 p.m.; show 8 p.m. on Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11.
WHERE: The Room Upstairs, run by the RiffRaff Arts Collective at 869 Mercer Street in downtown Princeton, W.Va. It’s one of the coolest performance spaces in West Virginia.
MENU: To be announced (but I’ve had the cook’s food from this festival and it’s very very good).
TICKETS: $22 a person. Call 304-425-6425.
NOTE: The full Monty, language-wise. (Including the funniest in-your-face song about Santa Claus ever written, from the perspective of his long-suffering wife.) There will also be a Create West Virginia regional meeting that day with the show as the evening’s entertainment.

PS- Now, someone tell me what ‘Ciopino‘ is.
PSS- OK, I just Googled it and as a person of Italianate extraction, I really should have known this.

MULTIMEDIA: What do you think about Barack Obama’s Inauguration?

CLICK FACES OR RIGHT HERE TO LISTEN

Here’s a new multimedia piece, done this past week with a couple colleagues at the Charleston Gazette. We headed to a mall and a black community center and asked people a simple question: “What does it mean to you personally that the first African-American president is going to be inaugurated next week?” The people who really didn’t want to talk to us said, “You don’t wanna talk to me…” and strode off. (I’m still peeved at my state for going with John McCain and Sarah Paleontology.) But a lot of people did want to talk to us.

I am not too happy with the overall sound. I’m still learning the Zoom H4 Digital Recorder I used (plus the chowderheaded, cutting-edge multimedia reporter lost the mic muff somewhere around the Waldenbooks). Plus three of us edited the somewhat erratic up-and-down sound. Even so, some of the people said some pretty good stuff. Am headed to the inaugural myself on Monday with my wife, 18-year-old son, his 16-year-old girlfriend and 3 of their friends to do a multimedia piece from amid the throngs. And the porta-potties. A friend was there this past weekend and said the sight of 5,000 porta-potties on the Washington Mall was stirring indeed. Here’s a quote you probably never thought you’d read from one of the several porta-potty inaugural stories online: “Fifteen hundred portable toilets — if you put them side by side — is a line a mile and a half long.”

‘MY WEST VIRGINIA’ SHOW: ‘Just a long-hair from the ’70s, still havin’ fun

JOHN NELSON, 51, is an institution in Charleston, W.Va. He is manager and music buyer for Budget Tapes and Records, the go-to place for new music, concert tickets and gifts and goodies for three decades in the Kanawha City section of West Virginia’s capital city. John’s been a new music guru to several generations of music addicts. I followed him around with a hand-held recorder and my trusty Canon PowerShot A630. Read, view and hear the results below:

VIEW “MY WEST VIRGINIA, No. 5: “Still Havin’ Fun” audio slideshow on John Nelson, manager and music buyer at Budget Tapes and Records: (4 min).

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LISTEN TO MP3 interview featuring “My Rock Concert History of Charleston” by John Nelson (10 minutes). Listen or download mp3 (right click this text and choose ‘Save Link As’ )

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READ COMPANION ARTICLE on Nelson in the Dec. 21, 2008 Sunday Gazette-Mail (reprinted in the gazz section)

“The Buddhamas Carol or Ode to the Vipassana Yogi”

NOTE ON LOADING TIMES: Try waiting a few seconds before starting the show, to give it a little time to load. With a fast connection (or mindful patience) you can watch the show full-screen by clicking on the ‘four-arrows’ icon at lower right of the viewing screen.

VIEW FULL AUDIO SLIDESHOW

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SO, BHANTE YOGAVACARA RAHULA, an American Buddhist monk, stayed at my house earlier this year. We lodged him downstairs in a guest room that shares space with my home rehearsal and recording space. I came back from work to find he’d written and recorded on my BR 600 notebook recorder what he called “a Buddhist Christmas carol.” It’s about a yogi who sits down and attains enlightenment one silent night. My monk friend titled it “The Buddhamas Carol or Ode to the Vipassana Yogi.” Since monks aren’t supposed to become the next Myspace web stars, I recorded the song with harmonies by The Clementines, which would be Casi Null and myself. It’s a rough recording with a lot of ambient noise in it. (I recorded Casi at her kitchen table in a drive-by visit to her new digs in Princeton, W.Va., near the Riff Raff Art Collective. I think at one point, you hear Hendrix the Dog skittering across the linoleum kitchen floor). One day, we’ll do a proper recording in a real live studio with a sound engineer who knows his stuff. The lyrics are below. Let us know what you think. For more on Bhante Rahula, see here and here.

NOTE ON USAGE: Feel free to republish the song on your site, use the lyrics for your own version of the song (or slideshow). Or get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to cover the tune. If you do record your own version, let me know (contacting me here) and I’ll post it here. If you republish it somewhere, it would be appreciated if you listed the web address: bhavanasociety.org.

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A Buddhamas Carol
or Ode of a Vipassana Yogi

1.
Silent Night, Peaceful Night,
All is calm, Stars are bright,
Round the hall Yogis sitting still,
Keeping their backs straight, exerting will,
Enduring pain without any ill-will,
Pervading Metta all throughout space,
Wishing goodwill to the whole human race.

2.
Silent Mind, Peaceful Mind,
Thoughts are few, Pain is slight,
Focusing mind at the tip of the nose,
Knowing each breath as it comes and it goes,
Perceiving the light that steadily glows,
Feeling the Rapture from head to the toes. Continue reading ‘“The Buddhamas Carol or Ode to the Vipassana Yogi”’

New Meditation Circle website debuts

Check out the new blogsite for the Meditation Circle of Charleston, W,Va., a weekly sitting group in the Buddhist insight meditation tradition. The group meets 6 p.m. each Tuesday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Kanawha Boulevard. You don’t need to be a card-carrying Buddhist to come — just have an interest in learning meditation or deepening an existing practice.