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.

Day 32: Return Home

I'm stuck in traffic, so I must be in Tampa....
Made it out of the traffic and back to St Pete safe and sound.

Final stats for trip
Miles: 4915
States: 15 (FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, PA, NY, CT, MA, NH, ME, VT, NJ, DE)
Homes visited: 10
Nights of mooched "hotel": 21
Nights in actual hotel: 0
Blue cheese burgers consumed: 4 (I think)

There's a "priceless" joke here but I don't know it. The trip was a blast. I'll start planning the next one in a few days.

Day 31: Atlanta

Mellow Day with Anne and Terry.

For the first time, I don't have a "next stop" and am in fact interested in going home.