It's an uncle

After 8.5 months of uncertainty, last Thursday, I became an uncle (as opposed to an aunt).  James Oliver Troisi was born on March 8.  He is all of 6 lbs, 13 ounces and 19 inches.  Anne is back home after spending the weekend in the hospital and Mom is soon headed up to Hotlanta at the end of the week.

Oliver (as he will be known) was born on International Women's Day. I can only hope that he is able to parlay this into lots of dates as a college student -  I envision him throwing parties for himself and saying "hey, its international women's day, want to celebrate my birthday".... maybe its a good thing that Anne doesn't read this blog... 

Speaking of college, the day after his birth had the Gators facing UGA in the SEC tournament - the 4th time his parents' alma maters have faced each other since Anne got pregnant. The good guys are 4-0 - hope this trend continues through Ultimate season.

old timey folk blues

On Saturday night, Lisa suggested that an interesting show was playing at the Fogartyville Cafe in Bradenton, she just couldn't remember any details or why she thought it had sounded so interesting.  With that promise, we made our first visit to Bradenton's community coffee house and music venue.  We were surprised to be greeted by "do you have reservations?" (we did not) and we were told the show was SRO (we still didn't know who was playing). One of the volunteers said that they could squeeze us and called over a performer to sell us on the show. A mix of awkwardness and curiousity made us commit to see Paul Jeremiah and Roy Bookbinder, in Roy's words, "just about the best you'll ever see". Between the two of them, there are over 80 years of performing and lots of stories and the whole thing benefitted Sarasota's upstart community radio station.  While not totally my cup of tea, I had a good time and was glad to be there.

Percussive weekend

Without any prior planning, this turned out to be quite a weekend for percussion in my life. 

On Saturday, Lisa was given tickets to Blue Man Group's "Megastar 2.0" tour stop in Tampa.  This was a great show. I'd never seen BMG before and really enjoyed it - rock music, humour, creativity and social commentary.  I'd be remiss to leave out the opening performer Mike Relm.  He has an awesome blend of audio (scratching and sampling) and video.  I think the clincher is that he has a look and vibe that is not what people (well, me, anyways) typically connect to the type of art he creates.


Saw a great film too called Favela Rising.  A favela is a slum of Rio de Janiero.  There are over 600 of them.  In one of the most violent, two men look for a way to change their environment through music and culture. Their group, Afro Reggae, is a vibrant blend of dub reggae, hip-hop and the percussive sounds of any object that will make noise.  I would recommend the film for its musical content, but also for the social and inspirational message.  

For the class discussion portion of the blog, compare the life works of Anderson Sa of Afro Reggae to Paul Farmer of Partners in Health and Mountains Beyond Mountains fame

Riverside, Saturday

A little grainy, but this was the scene at the end of business on Saturday. I had an excellent time this weekend and have a new appreciation for the beauty of Southern California. The weather was fantastic and the landscape was beautiful.

World Nutella Day

I am happy to celebrate World Nutella Day. A few years ago I created the "Nutella-dilla".

1 flour tortilla
generous spoonful Nutella
butter or cooking spray


Apply the Nutella to the tortilla
coat a skillet with melted butter or cooking spray
fry the tortilla until golden-brown
fold over
enjoy


I included a snapshot from this morning's breakfast

christmas eve 2006

christmas eve 2006 007
Originally uploaded by Murray Factor.

This is just about how much fun I had in Seattle visiting Cher and Ed. It was great to hang with them and to see a bit more of the Puget Sound area. Can't wait for the next trip out there.

Everything old is new again

When I first moved to town 2 years ago, I thought that studying in the USF library a few blocks away would be a great idea. I was thwarted by the summer hours then and didn't venture back until tonight.
Glad I did.
The library is set next to the harbor, so I had a nice view while grading my essays. It is early in the semester, so none but the nerdiest students were there.

Better than all the atmosphere and productivity (no TV or Internet) were the memories of those fun nights at Marston Science Library.