This is also the period of the quiet campus. While my meeting and project calendar has yet to reflect that (it will soon!), the campus is as close to sleeping as it ever gets, with most of the students and faculty gone, parking lots more empty than full, and even the rest of us starting to thin in ranks. It is odd to make the half mile walk from North Campus to Main Campus and meet almost no one on the way. I enjoy the relative quiet, but also miss the vibrancy and energy of the busy-in-full-swing campus. Not that there aren't many folks on campus working to get things ready for the next quarter. This is also that small window of opportunity for any construction, upgrade, deep cleaning, or reorganizing that needs done, a slice of time when work can happen without interrupting our central business of teaching and learning.
Next week the campus will be officially closed. All activities except the bare minimum required are to be shuttered and buildings will not be heat or services provided. This will be our third (I think) year of harvesting whatever utility savings we can squeeze out of a week of closure. In this shuttered economy, every penny counts dearly. I will not be commuting next week, so after tomorrow's post, it may be a more sporadic week and won't be focused (to the extent these finite musings ever are) on the daily commute's shuffled playlist.
Today I get to look forward to a lunch break with my beloved of 29 years. Despite the fact that we work less than six miles apart, it is rare that we get the opportunity to do this, so I color it a special treat.
This morning's playlist was another odd one, not seamlessly coordinated, but interesting. The Roosevelt (High School) Jazz Band kicked off the commute with an Ellington selection, All Heart. I've noted before in this space that a colleague and friend's son played in the band the last four years (now off to college), and we still get together for the annual Ellington Nutcracker holiday concert the band puts on. Consistently good stuff.
Life's Short Call Now (second to last tune from this morning's playlist), from the album of the same name, reminds me that Bruce Cockburn has a new album coming out in March (approaching 30 albums since 1970!), and it looks like it should be amazing. What am I going on, when there are no pre-release tracks to go by? The published playlist (song titles are usually a good indicator of content in a Cockburn album) and the list of musicians who will be working with Bruce on the album. Cockburn is often referred to as a musician's musician, and it becomes evident when you look at the musicians who have worked with him over the years. On this coming album will be local (Bainbridge Island) guitar legend Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Jenny Scheinman, Annabelle Chvostek, and others. The new album is titled Small Source of Comfort (title link will take you to a view of the album cover and playlist).
Cockburn is quoted, talking about the song (on the new album) titled, Call Me Rose, ""I woke up one morning with this song in my head almost complete. Richard Nixon is singing in person, having been reincarnated as a single black woman. The song was in my head and I had to write it down," he said.
In Cockburn's poetic hands, and with his history of passion for social justice of all sorts, this should be a treat. I'm intrigued.
- The Roosevelt Jazz Band: All Heart
- John Michael Talbot: Rebuild My Temple
- Landon Pigg: Speak to the Keys
- Bruce Cockburn: Life Short Call Now
- Stan Getz/Joao Gliberto: O Grande Amor
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