Rumblestrip is recording a new album, and I can’t help but notice that the really smart musicians are releasing their new albums in time for the holiday season. How do they do that? Do they record all summer when it’s glorious outside, stuck inside a studio, out of the sounds of a summer day…? They must have a producer that more than nudge them into that sound dead room where the sound is controlled and the mics stick you in the face. Then plan ahead to get all the art work done and the reproduction, and the boxes of finished product come in the mail at the beginning of December. What perfect timing, planning. How come I can’t do that?

Naturally, the best time to record is the winter, when the weather forces you to be inside anyway. The snow mutes the sounds of the birds, trees, the leaves. Nothing is growing. You can shove the boots on, run outside to dump the compost, full of coffee grounds, full of vegetable bits. You can also get on the the ski boots and go off skiing in the woods – hoping that you got the ski wax right so you don’t slip backwards and get really pissed off. But you always have to get back inside, where it’s warm, where you can have a cuppa tea, warm up the finger tips, put back on the the woolen slippers and pick up the instrument.

I know this, that the most business-wise time to release an album is when people are buying. And that’s around Christmas. And we didn’t do it.

“Manages to be divey without being skanky. The phrase “ragged glory” comes to mind.”
“Classic Tacoma. Small, cramped and smells horrible. Locals love it. Yes, it’s a dive … in the truest sense.”
“This is NOT the place to go to meet [classy] chicks, order a margarita, have a sit down meal with your significant other, or watch the game with your buddies. This is one of the last bastions of Gritty City greatness, you should go experience it.”

This is a different story.

Wouldn’t life be simple if I were only interested in music. Then I could present a unified front, and never doubt what and where I am. Like all those folks in the music business. They all seem so… focussed. I have been in love with photography ever since I bought a camera from a friend for $20 in 7th grade. It was the one thing besides music that kept me out of trouble in those confusing adolescent years. It was certainly a way of hiding behind something, and also giving reason for those long walks in the woods, or a secret bus ride into Manhattan during the school day (I walked 42 St and took pictures of busy people, sprawling drunks, halloween storefronts). I spent hours in the darkroom, and once skipped an entire week of HS to be in the darkroom (my father found me out – I left my open journal on the table). I attented a photo class at the local university where Joel Meyerowitz and Emmet Gowin were teaching . They let me in their class, I was passionate, I was 17. They saw that. I don’t remember being amazed that they let me in. I must have been. Wow. But I worked hard and joined all the discussions.

Anyway, I’ve been looking through the last 9 years of photographs (since I went digital), and wondering, WTF? I am still doing this. For 37 years I am doing this.

So, I just want to say, from here on in, there’s going to be photographs, and the usual music thoughts and updates.

Up at the top, one of my favorite photographers, the Bechers. See their portfolio, beautifully presented here:

http://photography-now.net/bernd_and_hilla_becher/portfolio1.html

I am struck by the thought that while the subjects are industrial, metal, manmade, riveted, hard, cold… they are organic and alive in shape. An underlying beauty in industrial shapes. Now I won’t start to think about the latest – not so latest trend in industrial shape, the metal corrugated box building. Will we find beauty in that in 100 years?

The Bechers were also influential in that they collected and eventually displayed their photographs in a grid form, inviting comparison of form and shape. Who is it among my friends that has a poster on her wall, a grid of colorful outhouses? Becher influenced.

The hottest week of a cool New England summer. I’m savoring the gulf stream mix, keeping my feet in the water, on an island for a few days.

Swing a Cat! has been doing a lot of evening town concerts this summer, all over NH and some in Maine. What a blast it’s been, and we’ve been getting some excellent response. It’s great fun to sing and play the old tunes, we’re working hard on those Boswell tunes, which are so hard, so fun to sing. Thanks to all our fans…!!
you can find a little more on that band here:

www.swingacatmusic.com

Being in love with all kinds of sound, I loved this next website: four members of the thrush family, their familiar songs, then – hear them slowed down. What incredible skill and fascinating patterns. Some are like whale song. Makes you think.

wildmusic.org/animals/thrush

Been reading great murder mysteries, my mother in law has an amazing collection of old paperbacks from the 50s:

Fish or Cut Bait by Gardner Erle Stanley (writing As AA Fair)
Poor Harriet by Elizabeth Fenwick

I’ve been listening to alot of podcasts lately, since I’ve been doing a lot of driving this summer. I always seem to enjoy the program “Speaking of Faith”. I am tired of Christianity and far more interested in Buddhism. Being raised a lax Unitarian, it’s not a far leap. Krista Tippett takes speaking of faith in intelligent directions, always.

Anyway, I stumbled upon Jon Kabat-Zinn in the last year or so, trying to deal with the death of both my brother and mother, searching for ways to live my life, be healthy, be awake, get through greiving, and make this life work…

I stopped the ipod at this moment in the conversation and “rewound”:

“The key to creativity is cultivating spaciousness of the mind”. Exactly, I thought, that is exactly what I am looking for. I know these are the times that I am producing the best work, the best thoughts, the best energy.

So he goes on, “Well, actually the spaciousness is already in the mind…we can’t cultivate it, what we can cultivate is intimacy with it so that we actually know how spacious, how luminous, how creative and reliable our own minds are. Now that would be good to start learning in kindergarten!”

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/

Schedule page finally updated! Something about spring, lots of energy to get though those lists…

Had a great gig with Blue Ox, what fun playing those fierce swing grooves, and playing with old friends. I did my best to hire everyone that worked with me on the “in my girlish days” album. It was such fun, and inspiring. Time to make a new album of this material.

And Swing a Cat has had some great gigs too, at Del Rossi’s Trattoria of Dublin NH, and at the Belknap Mills, in Laconia. The mill has a wonderful room, very well attended, with an unusually pliant crowd (they were serving martinis and cheesecake!). Next we’re playing at Daniels Restaurant in Henniker NH, followed by some summer concert series around NH. I love those outdoor gazebo gigs! That is, until the bugs come out…

Rumblestrip will be attending the New England Folk Festival this weekend, starting off with a contradance in Concord on Thursday. Marco Brehm will be helping out on bass, we’ve got waltzes, contra dances, and there’ll be a special one night only appearance of Liza and the Swing Thing… don’t miss it!

Other than that, it was my birthday yesterday. I got tea and toast in bed, thanks to my 9 year old, but then I had to wash the dishes. Books, chocolate, champagne, oh and a beautiful old japanese woodblock print from my father in law…things I love. I bought myself a really nice “Glyph”(ukulele) made by Dave Means, of Annapolis MD. It’s a lovely thing. And a well deserved upgrade, after a few years of the mexican built Martin S-O that the kids sat on (I did reglue it, but it’s nothin like the Glyph).

I’m going to try to do monthly updates. Feels good to be into spring at last!

As well as the beginning of mud season, it’s also birthday season. Piper and Zooey turned 9 and 11 respectively in the last 2 months, and we’ve been eating cake. I have been perfecting my vegan cake, it’s the best: from the cookbook “Veganomicon” (the same author as “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World”). Wicked chocolate with a taste of almond. I also made coconut lemon cake. Everyone loves me.

Family, circa 2009

Music: Rumblestrip is chugging along, festival invites are coming in, which is alway nice to have happen during the long new england winters. We are playing for the Downeast Festival this coming weekend (last weekend in March) in Topsham Maine. Always a fun festival, full of people we know, with that enthusiasm those Mainers are known for. So true! I’ll be teaching a workshop on swing guitar at the festival as well as helping out Nat in his fiddle workshop, playing for dances, including the Survivors Dance in Yarmouth on Sunday afternoon with Perpetual Motion (John Cote and Ed Howe). Google DECDA for more info. You can listen to the beginning of our new CD on our MySpace page,   www.myspace.com/rumblestrip1

Swing A Cat Trio has a concert coming up on the 4th of April, at Del Rossi’s Trattoria in Dublin NH. We’ve been working hard on expanding our repertoire, we’ve got a handful of Boswell Sister’s songs to do, and lots of others from that era, 30s and 40s. The music of my mother. Mom used to play old records, and we’d dance around trying not to make the needle skip. Swing a Cat has some other gigs shaping up for the summer. Check out our new website at http://swingacat.wordpress.com or listen at
http://myspace.com/swingacatmusic

I have lots of ideas for new recordings, and need to get all that in place and get it done. Argh! I got pretty overwhelmed last fall with the sudden death of my brother and the expected death of my mom at the end of the summer. The waves of grief, the purposeful activity as someone’s life comes to a close, like what to do with all the stuff, taxes, paperwork, lawyers. Ugh. Thank god I have 2 sisters, we are all working together, for better or worse. I now have lots of new tools, since my bro was a woodworker and housepainter out on Nantucket. Which is pretty exciting. He would totally understand my excitement. Time to finish the studio that is waiting (as a tarp covered deck) in the backyard… that’s probably what they would have wanted me to do, in fact, they were already insisting that I do. There is no escape from family!!

Family, circa 1969

I finally went to the web yesterday and googled “a month without plastic.” Chris Jeavens didn’t stop using plastic entirely, she only had no new plastic for a month. Shoot… I can do that! What do we use and buy that is plastic, regularly? Granola bars (wrapped in shiny plastic wrappers), cereal (plastic bag inside), Soy-milk (waxed paper with plastic lining, I think), rice-milk has that plastic spout, tofu (comes in plastic tubs), toilet paper (wrapped in plastic).

Alright, so I need to do some research. I can get toilet paper in a box from Seventh Generation, I can get fresh tofu from the co-op, where I can also get bulk items, like shampoo, grains, in my own containers. We can make granola bars. We already use wax paper bags for their lunches – those little sandwich bags no longer live in this house.
But how do I find soymilk that tastes good in a plastic free container? The best tasting soymilk, hands down, is Edensoy. My neighbor once showed me an ad for a soymilk making machine. I wish I could try it without spending lots of money. I bet the container’s made of plastic. But it would cut down on garbage to be making our own.

My mother was an avid recycler from the 60s for as long she could. She even berated them at her senior living community to make it easier for the residents to recycle. I remember flattening the cans. I loved that we did that. We kept compost too. I also want my children to remember what we did, the things that we do to create a better environment.

We are good recyclers, we have our mixed plastics, glass and metal bin under the sink, and another box for mixed paper and box-board (a lot of which we burn in the wood-stove during winter), a bag for magazines, and then another for corrugated cardboard. We deliver it about once or twice a month to the recycling center. They sort the plastics, glass and metal. My only problem is the odd useless plastic bags that accumulate, I get frustrated and toss them. We use the ones we can. This should change. And now it is…

Hannafords, our local large grocery store, takes plastic bags. I always thought it was only for carrier bags, but I don’t know. I guess I should take them all there, and let them sort them out. I am slightly suspicious that they get tossed. Anybody know?

UPDATE:
I started it. Last Friday we went to our monthly Rehobeth (MA) contradance gig, and I brought our own containers for take out food. We went to a pizza place (somewhere around Attleboro), which always pleases the kids and Nat ordered me a salad. I rushed out to the car to get my containers, happily, smugly, and brought them into the pizza joint. The lady said, “what, are you green?”, not unkindly, and I replied, well I’m trying not to acquire any new plastic. At that point I realized, and Nat pointed out to me, that the salads were already made and stored in those thin plastic clear containers. The worst containers. Useless. She said, “these are reusable!” and I said, “no, not really, and besides, I don’t want any new plastic containers.” So, I cancelled my order. I felt bad, but not so bad that I didn’t do it. Nat had a salad, and I went out to the car to get him a plastic fork. The kids were kind of in awe that I was creating a fuss, but fortunately not embarrassed. The other customers waited, watched, and said nothing. I had on my Obama button. They figured I was a freak? Tree-hugging dirt-worshipper?
The next morning we went to our favorite breakfast place, Helen’s, in Concord MA, for pancakes. I didn’t want to use the little half and half plastic things, and asked for a glass of milk for our coffee. Which they brought. Piper ordered chocolate milk (so much for being vegan), which came in a plastic cup with a lid and a plastic straw. Ooch. When she was done with it, I saw that it was “greenware”, and kind of compostable material made from corn or something. So I went up to the waitress at the end, and said. “I love that you are using these,” I held up the greenware cup and top, then I switched to the little creamers, “but why are you still using these?” Her answer was, “that’s the way they come”, to which I replied, “but there could be a little pitcher on the table…” she smiled.
Outside, where they were all waiting, the girls said, “What were you doing? Dad said you were lecturing the waiters about plastic.”

Vancouver to debate ban on plastic shopping bags

Dallas council refuses to tax or ban plastic shopping bags

lovely photo of treed plastic bag (we call’m witches knickers) courtesy of flickr/WYGD

Working on a song for Mom’s service, which I am determined to do, already knowing how hard it is to keep it together. A closed emotional throat can’t be sung through! I’m working on a poem set to music by Peter Amidon, “Oh the Comfort”. Mom loved my music, but she never heard this one. I think she’d like it.

Thanks for indulging me. I wanted to let people know why I haven’t been updating. I am fervently practicing my yoga to keep an even keel. Things are mostly ok. I drop out from time to time, and I know that I shouldn’t have to hold it together completely. So I let myself drop. and then come back. My family is understanding and patient.

Here’s the piece on her in the NYT. I figure as a family member I can lift it. Mom was extremely proud of her accomplishments, fueled by a genuine love and passion that I admired.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN of the New York Times

September 18, 2008

Betty Constable, who used a powerful left-handed stroke to become the dominant woman squash player of the 1950s and went on to post a formidable record as Princeton’s first women’s squash coach, died on Sept. 9 in Skillman, N.J. She was 83.

The death was confirmed by her daughter Kacey Constable Nugent.

When the United States Squash Hall of Fame inducted Mrs. Constable in 2000, it called her a “central force behind the growth of women’s squash in the United States.”

Mrs. Constable was part of squash royalty. Her mother, Margaret Allen Howe, who, in the custom of the day, played as Mrs. William Francis Howe, won the national title in 1929, 1932 and 1934.

Mrs. Constable’s twin sister, Peggy Howe White, won the national title in 1952 and 1953 and lost three times in the finals.

Mrs. Constable won the national title in 1950, 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959. She won three veterans’ singles titles for women over 40 and three veterans’ doubles titles.

The Howe Cup, a prestigious prize in American women’s squash, is named for the family. It began as an intercity competition of teams among New York, Philadelphia and Boston and expanded to include the rest of the United States and Canada.

After Princeton University admitted women as students, it included squash as one of six varsity sports for women that it introduced in the 1971-72 academic year, and appointed Mrs. Constable coach. Her teams had a record of 117-15 over all, and 73-11 in the Ivy League. Ten of her teams were undefeated.

Elizabeth Howe was born 20 minutes before Peggy in Natick, Mass., on Nov. 8, 1924. She graduated from the Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, Mass. She worked as a nurse’s aide with the Red Cross during World War II rather than attending college. On May 20, 1950, she married Dr. William Pepper Constable Jr., who had been captain of Princeton’s 1935 football team.

Mrs. Constable learned to play squash in her 20s at the New Haven Lawn Club.

The twins were alike in each marrying a doctor but different in their style of play: Mrs. White was right-handed and Mrs. Constable was more aggressive on the court.

“She’s like a bulldog,” Mrs. White said in an interview with Time magazine in 1959. “She drives under an opponent’s racket of swings without regard for anything but hitting the ball. I’m daintier. I play a softer game.”

Women’s squash in the 1950s was still very much an upper-class sport, and the regular competitions between the best players of the United States and England were treated as glamorous events in the London papers. The Evening Standard reported that American team members brought an average of 15 dresses, including 6 ball gowns, and each had 10 pieces of luggage. Teas and Champagne dinners with royalty were de rigueur.

The English women almost always won handily.

Mrs. White died in 1997, and Dr. Constable in 1986. W. Howe Constable, the Constables’ son, died this August.

Mrs. Constable is survived by her daughters Margo Constable of Idledale, Colo.; Ms. Constable Nugent of Old Saybrook, Conn.; and Liza Constable of Nelson, N.H.; her stepson, William Pepper Constable III of London; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In the Time interview, Mrs. White said she and her sister “just don’t like each other on the squash court,” and refused to move aside to give the other a clean shot.

“I won’t get out of her way, and she won’t give me a thing,” Mrs. White said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 20, 2008
An obituary on Friday about Betty Constable, a star squash player of the 1950s, omitted her husband’s given and middle names and his suffix. He was William Pepper Constable Jr.