Bye Bye, Portland!

Well, today, I'm wrapping it up, catching it up, and moving it out. The snow is finally receding, and it's warm and rainy. Back to normal.

Dinner with Phoebe

On Wednesday, with the snow still everywhere and no school, Janet and I took a nice long walk through the beautiful Irvington neighborhood of comfortably big old houses (timber money) and large, tree-lined streets. I worked, and we played music together some more. Then Phoebe came cruising over to take me out to dinner!

She called my cell. I looked outside. No sign of her. After calling back and forth, I finally found her down the street, waved frantically, and then bundled up to go out. She took me down to Eagle Thai on Broadway, which was very good, although something was in the food that gave me some slight allergic reactions later. We had a great time catching up and comparing notes, and Phoebe tried to teach me (briefly) how to pose for a camera. You can see above that it didn't quite work. She had on some cute new Nike boots to keep her dry and warm and told me about working out with Lance Armstrong's coach and her spinning class at Nike, where she works as a librarian.

Catching Up

Thursday was my day to catch up. For one thing, it's the beginning of my academic week, when I try to turn in a bunch of grades and move everyone into the next week's readings. In Myth then journey from place to place, and having left Egypt and Babylon, are now in Greece and then Rome for the next two weeks.

I actually found a Curves (yeah, I joined, at least for this trip) and did my little workout thing. Someone with ADD or something like it had to have dreamed this up. It doesn't give me enough aerobic work, but that's when walking comes in! Right next to Curves was a bank, so I could finally cash some checks from a banjo student (sorry to take so long, Carol!) and then a Supercuts! So I splurged and finally got my hair trimmed after about 6 months. I had a young single mom and we traded stories.

Last night, Phoebe came by and we all went out for dinner at a pub that used to be a funeral home. I didn't smell any formeldahyde and didn't feel any wrathful spirits, but after a large porter, who knows? It was a manic, lively conversation as always with my two and their sweeties: Philip 'n Kim, and Phoebe and Michael.

Today I'll visit my old and good friend KMK (Kathleen, but that's how she used to log in at Floating Point, where we worked together editing techie stuff--they still all call me "Jeano" from my old login). Then I'll head over to Ron and Jennifer Rich's pasture--they've bought a place way the heck to the west of PDX, which is just perfect for getting me started out to the coast and down to my next mooching spot.

I just finished reading Dreaming in Cuban, which is quite wonderful, a sort of Cuban version of Louise Erdrich's books, in which many family members, mostly women, tell the stories of their lives so that the main protagonist is not an isolated person but a family. A really nifty conceit, showing the relations between folks and the various versions of a story.

I am also slowly moving through Volume IV of the Philokalia, a collection of writings famous in Eastern Orthodoxy, but probably unfamiliar to others, mostly written for monks and rather difficult, so I just read a page a day. But right now, I'm reading about the Kingdom of Heaven being in the human heart, how each of us is a universe. If we could only keep this awareness for even five seconds, how differently we might treat our fellows. And last night, driving home with Phoebe, I told her what a different world they live in, how my world is receding so quickly and becoming so unfathomable, often even to me! Of course, all the real traveling takes place within, a commonplace to take with me on this little adventure!

Some Possible Van Additions

Ron Hudiburg sent me some ideas for spiffing up my van and for life on the road. I'll let you know how these work out.

Hangin' Around

Thus the snow hath decried: "Thou shalt not move from thine house, neither shalt thou drive. Thou shalt only taketh walks, being careful not to fall on your butt."

So, actually, it's kinda fun hanging out at Janet's. We're all hanging out. Schools are all closed after Portland got its little surprise. I had to do a lot of myth class work, so I did that, with breaks for reading and playing music. I practiced some tunes Forrest and I do (hear that, Forrest?!) and some Hellbreaker tunes (hear that, Quenn? Becky? Bob? Dave? Karen?) with Janet gamely trying to follow my fiddle playing on the banjo.

Conversing with Horses in Vermont

I got to finish my old friend Helen Husher's book, Conversations with a Prince. OK, she's my friend, but really, this is some fine and wonderful writing about what horses mean and how we hold conversations with them. Helen lives in Vermont and has written wonderfully on that state in her book Off the Leash and its sequel. Here, she swishes back and forth between taking up riding in her fifties and why one would do that, and her riding days in her teens and twenties.

This was espeically moving for me because I was there for some of it, slogging along in the woods on the wonderfully patient Baby, a horse who could put up with and even be sweet to a non-horse person. She did kick up her old heels once and jump with me, which was exciting. And the summer before I left for college (not a happy summer), she was one of my chief joys since I rode her daily and rubbed her down to keep her moving. In Lincoln, MA, the trails are exquisite and everywhere, and back then in 1969, there was a lot less traffic.

From http://www.mass.info/lincoln.ma/description.htm

Lincoln is a small suburb west of Boston with a strong sense of place. It began as a rural farming community made up of pieces of land nipped from adjacent towns; hence its nickname was once "Niptown". The town also became a popular site for country estates, some of which have become schools, museums, town buildings or parks. Retention of open space and protection of its rural character against an encroaching age of urban development are extremely important to the community. To that end, Lincoln was one of the first towns to create a Conservation Commission that has, with the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, acquired key parcels of land throughout the town. Significant areas of the town are now preserved against development, providing protection for wild life and water supply and creating conservation trails for use by the public. Residents note that Lincoln is a quiet pretty place to be whether to visit a museum or walk in the woods all year round.

For more on Helen's exquisitely written and well-thought-out books, see

• http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Prince-Year-Riding-East/dp/1592286933/sr=8-1/qid=1169060413/ref=sr_1_1/002-1970026-3844853?ie=UTF8&s=books



• http://www.amazon.com/Off-Leash-Subversive-Journeys-Vermont/dp/0881504270/sr=8-2/qid=1169060413/ref=sr_1_2/002-1970026-3844853?ie=UTF8&s=books



• http://www.amazon.com/View-Vermont-Everyday-Life-America/dp/0762727969/sr=8-3/qid=1169060413/ref=sr_1_3/002-1970026-3844853?ie=UTF8&s=books

Banjo Gigs!

I heard from both Wintergrass and Dusty Strings yesterday! I'm going to be teaching a beginning clawhammer workshop at Wintergrass on Saturday, (they're swapping me a free day pass) from 10-11 in Copper Hollow (good grief) in the Tacoma Sheraton. This will be on Feb. 24th. Name of workshop (they named it)--"How to Take a Break." Maybe I'll just sit there in a chair sipping a drink. No, I'll come up with something, and Forrest promises to show up to help me demo. Any other bluegrass buddies want to join in with us? (Hmmm, do I have any bluegrass buddies? Guess I'll find out.)

Maybe this will help me live down the infamous Wintergrass in which I stepped on Jim Ketterman's fiddle. (I was pushed, and it was on the floor.) Within about 2.5 minutes, everyone I met was saying, "Whoa, I heard about the fiddle! Bummer!" Someone was writing a song about it. It was Scott's task to fix this fiddle up, so I owe him my life forever, I guess.

Then there was the Wintergrass I ended up in the hospital thanks to a nasty inversion and bad air, lots of woodsmoke that made my asthma go ballistic. However, those days, I hope, are past.

For more on Wintergrass, see http://www.acousticsound.org/

Dusty Strings Clawhammer Weekend

May 4-6, 2007 is the date for DS's clawhammer blowout, something I've never been to but will be teaching at with Bob Carlin and one other person (they're working on someone right now who would be FABULOUS). Intimidated? Oh, uh, yeah! But I figure most everyone will want to go to Bob or the other person, so maybe I can hunker down with one or two people and just get 'em going.

We also have to perform, so I've already gotten Scott to promise to fiddle and Forrest to guitar and sing, so I won't be up there by myself!

Bob is a great teacher. When I was just getting back into banjo and feeling pretty insecure, I went down for my first ever vacation at Cannon Beach (sleeping in the back of my truck--do we see a theme here?) and took a class with him and mainly remember learning his F tuning, which he was way into at the time. It was really fun. His tabs are the ONLY ones that I think are any good in the Banjo Fakebook, at least in terms of really learning a tune as a beginner from tabs.

My Scott worked at Dusty Strings for a while, so it's kind of neat coming back to da famleee.

For more on Bob Carlin, see http://www.cartunesrecordings.com/

For more on the Dusty Strings, see http://www.dustystrings.com/ I don't see a page on the Clawhammer Workshop yet. But check out all their winter workshops!

SNOOOOOOOOW

I woke up a few times after a restless night, finally pulling the back insulation off the window, only to find it was covered with...SNOW! I quickly turned up the heater and snuggled back into bed to read while the van warmed up and the snow melted off the back. (This, except for the snow part, is rapidly becoming morning ritual.) Of COURSE, I wore my sandals out last night, so I had to schlep through a few inches of snow and come in and dry off. I was going to visit my friend Caroline, go to Curves like a good girl--instead, when all else fails, I ate breakfast. Just as I started, Janet and Eliza came stomping in from a grocery run. No school today! (Janet is a school librarian.) So now some chicken soup is simmering on the stove, the real thing. Mmmmm!

Fiddle Lessons
Last night, after a fun little session with Janet (me on fiddle practicing Hellbreaker band tunes, Janet on banjo, with me giving vague banjo directions), I went over to Sammy Lind's house for a fiddle lesson. Sammy is, of course, the esteemed fiddler in the Foghorn Stringband and a heckuva nice guy. He's a great teacher as well. We learned two tunes in D tuning (ADAD): "Houston" from Burl Hammons and Tommy Jarrell's "Cumberland Gap, which was great for getting that shuffle bowing. Then we swapped over to Tommy's "Breaking Up Christmas" in AEAE, also great for the shuffle.

There were about 8 people there, all ranges of ability, and Sammy handled it all eloquently with no fuss and lots of clarity. It was a great example to me. Sammy has this class on every Monday evening from 8-9:30 p.m., and if you're down in Portland, I highly recommend it.

Foghorn also has a new album out--Boombox Squaredance with a great case of cardboard in a design patented by their bass player, Brian Bagdonas. How cool is that? Anyway, you can order it, I think, at http://www.foghornmusic.com/

We heard Foghorn with Dirk Powell up in Port Townsend a few months ago, when Dirk finally brought my banjo back. (A long pointless story. ) It was a lot of fun, and of course, we'd heard them before. It's really great to watch them develop as a band and keep friendly and enthusiastic.

OK, time for me to get to work and see what the myth students are up to!

Brrrrrr, It's Cold!!!

Portland is NOT supposed to be this cold. While my van is completely toasty and warm, well, almost completely, doing anything else is tough. Your hair gets dry, your skin gets tingly, you get lethargic and computer- and book-centered because you don't want to move away from your little center of heat. Eliza, Janet, and I are all huddling over computers and phones and things.

In the van, the whole scientific principle of heat rising is really apparent. When I crawl out of my cocoon and put my feet over the edge of the cot, my feet curl up and go, "Arghhhh!"

We're leaving all the faucets dripping and hunkering down.

MegaBand

Last night I tagged along at the Portland Megaband rehearsal at Sue Songer and Lanny's house, mostly because there was a potluck, but it was fun trying to play lots of notey tunes fast on my fiddle in the background of things. After dinner, though, I got tired and sat on the couch reading until Janet took pity on me and schlepped me home. Pictures are from megaband! Note brave banjoists Janet and John Adams holding forth.

Unsuspecting Myth Students
I forgot that I had this problem last year: Janet's DSL demands a different port number. Thanks to the wonderful Dorothy at Olympus Net, I was able to fix the problems with my school account and get my myth students all their stuff. They're only into their second week, so everyone is still reeling from the shock of having to actually READ THE DIRECTIONS before doing the assignments.

Now that that's settled, I'm getting some excellent discussion on Gilgamesh and Isis for this week. I finally revised the class a bit with--gasp!--some new questions! I really needed some new questions after about 500 times through the same ones.

My grammar class isn't going to fill, so I'm hustling for work--some editing or something. Let me know if you hear of anything that's online!

Tonight, I'm going to Sammy Whathisname's (of Foghorn) fiddle class. This should be a rude awakening, my usual experience on this instrument. The schedule is filling in with visits, and Phoebe promises to take me to her crafts group on Wed. night. I'll bring the socks that were supposed to be for Becky's Christmas present. Once I finish them, I'll need to get some more sock yarn and start another pair.

Looks like I may head over to the coast on Saturday and camp out at one of the parks if I don't make it to my friend Bob-o's in Port Orford. It's supposed to be getting a little warmer by then. Yeah!

Listen! I Hear Music!

Whew! The Old-Time Gathering is winding itself down today after quite a wonderful time of swarming multitudes, music, and merriment! It really was a lot of fun for me, anyway, and as always great to see a lot of folks. This year I got to some of the performances, which were especially fun, though I did miss Shiho and Kori (Dyad). At least I got to see them.

More pictures at
http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j19/tapermark/2007%20Portland%20Oldtime%20Gathering/?action=view&slideshow=true

I woke up on Saturday morning at an amazingly reasonable hour (8:30! So there!) and after a light breakfast at Janet’s, hustled over to the ThriftLodge to play some tunes with Forrest and Mark. Mark and I switched fiddles and played some different versions of “Roving Gambler” (the Skillet Lickers tune) and other stuff. Then we headed over to the Norse Hall and site of all the festivities. On the way, I showed the guys my cool van with my special new toy from my brother that I forgot to describe—a big pink button on the dashboard called “The Redneck Naghorn.” Trust Steve to find only the very best. Some of its classic utterances in a gnarly female voice:

***Stop the car! Walmart’s havin’ a sale!
***Pick a lane instead of your nose!
***Pull over and buy me somethin’!

Just the thing.

Inside, Forrest and I went and snagged a kitchen. This is rapidly becoming a tradition for us at the PDX OTG, and we actually found a THIRD kitchen in the Norse Hall later that night, though it was freezing! We got to rehearse a bunch of songs and then were joined by some wonderful Portland folks who rounded things out.

Before we knew it, it was almost 3 and time for me to run upstairs to hear our dear friend Allen Hart and his bones player, Cliff Ervine, who, it turns out, I met a few years ago at the Centrum Blues workshop when I was intrigued with his spare rib bones. I ended up buying a pair for the road since I left my wooden bones at home. (Is this a tax-deductible expense? Of course it is!) Allen and Cliff played an incredible set, with Allen especially pulling out some amazing sound on “Roustabout”—making the banjo just thrum out. His playing is elegant and hypnotic and not a messy note in it, unlike, sigh, mine.

I stayed for most of the following set of Sauber and son and Mark Graham, very fun with two banjos, a combo I especially like, and Mark’s harmonica and humor. Having missed dinner last year because we were too busy playing, both Claudia Anastasio and I found ourselves at the head of the line! We had a great dinner of cornbread, rice, beans, and more with Scotty Leach, Susan Sawyer, and Barry Cole, among others, and thanks to Susan, I now have a place to stay in Berkeley where a whole bunch of other musicians live! Whooo hoo! Anyone know anyone around Fort Bragg or Arcata?

After dinner, Claudia and I got down to some squirrely D tunes and were joined by the elegant guitar of Sheila Blech, who gave me a beautiful lime green cuddly scarf as a late Christmas present! My color! And it’s just the thing down here, where it’s still cold!

After a while, browsing CDs at John Hatton’s corner and talking with old friends, including Debra of the beautiful voice, I ended up with Forrest again, in the third freezing kitchen with Debra joining us. We had a lot of fun. My final set was being dragged into one more banjo deal with Kevin and Forrest!

Home for tea, check in, and bed.

St. Nicholas and Sunday
This morning, I was off to St. Nicholas church in Portland, where Fr. George Gray presides. A beautiful church and wonderful choir, and I saw old friends from my days in the C.S. Lewis society, back before he was hijacked by the evangelicals.


Now, in all the sun, Janet and I plan a walk, and then I’ll get down to grading my poor students, who probably wonder if I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. This after wiping dog crap off my shoe and cleaning all the places on the carpet I’d tracked it in. Another typical Jeanie day!

Sprung Loose!

Wooo hooo! I'm here in Portland at my friend Janet's house after a beautiful drive in the sun and on the spotlessly dry roads yesterday. (The only problem is that the windshield squirter seems to have broken, so the windshield was covered with a fine dust of snow that glittered.)

Here's Janet and Eliza-->

One scary moment (don't freak, Scott): I was coming up on a huge moving van when a terrifying and immense chunk of ice broke loose off its roof and smacked my windshield. Luckily, no cracks or anything, but it was one of those suddenly-everything-gets-slow moments. Trucks, ugh!

As I drove, I started listening to The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman, written, I think, in 1846. What a great book to listen to for the trip! His descriptions of the Platte, of the open country, and, scarily, all the desolation already wrought, was quite a contrast to my van cruise but a nifty one. The PT librarian kindly made my books on tape due the day I get back! Cool, huh?

Getting out of the House
I was flabbergasted that I slept well the night before, but getting out was a little crazy. I almost drove off without my bag (purse) and coat, in true ADD fashion. And of course Scott was trying to help me velcro the insulation to the windows at the last moment. He will be truly appalled when he sees my pathetic job at doing the other side window and the back, which, it turns out, also needs something to help it stick in the cold.

Oh, and I have to say that those quilt storage bags with zippers are no good in the cold; they crack. So I'll have to go get a few more boxes.

Finally, I waved goodbye to Scott and T-Lou, stopped to get a stash of Market Spice tea (my morning addiction), got gas, and was off!

Janet's House and Janet
Janet lives in a fabulous and huge old house in NE Portland, right near the Old-Time Gathering, where all the old-time fiddlers and banjoists do their manic thing. She stays with us for Fiddle Tunes, and I stay with her when I'm down here. For one thing, she has great wireless! And she is a wonderful and generous hostess!

I got to her house and played my banjo and read in the van while I waited for her to come home from work. I was working on Wade Ward's "New River Train," a piece I've loved for years but now find I have to sing in E or even F. It has that cool bar at the fifth fret--mmmm. At least, in my delusion, I think it does. (Comments?)

Janet and, at the same time, her lovely daughter Eliza (who is on break from Bennington), both got home at the same time in a flurry of bustle, with Eliza apologizing breathlessly to me and her mom about the state of the house, as if I would notice!!! Eliza is hooked on Chinese and settled down to watch a Chinese movie with her dad, who was visiting her, while Janet and I headed out to an awesome little restaurant with some major vegan choices. (Some of you will know why this was important!) I had some very strange cous cous that looked like barley, but it was yummy, and we split a piece of mint chocolate cake that was a little over the top. Then we headed out for the OT festival.

Last night was a concert. It's at the Norse Hall in Portland, and the whole place is just packed and swarming with jams, talking, reunions, etc. I was immediately sucked into a jam with Forrest Newton, Kevin Cavanaugh, and Mark Gaponof, among others, all holding forth in the bar and singing up a storm. Then I tore myself away to hear The Tallboys (fabulous banjo player!), Cliff Perry & Laurel Bliss (ahhhhh! incredible vocals with a lot of Carter family stuff), and finally, the stupendous Uncle Wiggly. Dave Mount is one of the best fiddlers I know of--his bow arm is really worth watching, and he just gets that sound. Back up for him was stupendous.

And now, the part you've all been waiting for....

Sleeping in the Van
I admit, I was a little nervous. Would this really work? Even though I'd done it before, it was freezing out last night. I set the heater on full blast and went in to check on my myth class and drink tea. When I came out there, the place was toasty! I plugged in the Christmas lights and stuck them in a net and hung them up--it was gorgeous! (I know I need a picture, but I have to figure out how to load pix. It's coming.)

I ended up having to turn down the heater several times. I was really comfy, though the bed is sort of too soft--I'm thinking I need to find a firm, thick piece of foam somewhere around here. I didn't sleep deeply, but I slept well enough to have a weird dream about wandering weird Puyallup streets that were like a frontier town in the old west and making the discovery that Chinese Rice Beer was the beer for me!

On that note, I go to the full-gore festival today. I'm going to try to at least take some pictures, even if it takes me a while to post them!!!