It was a wet weekend, as promised, though maybe not quite as dramatically so as predicted. We got rain, flooding rivers, and wind, but I don't think we got anywhere near five inches of rain on Sunday. Splitting wet hairs, I know. It has been warm, too. with temperatures in the 50's (lower 10's C). Flood warnings remain in effect, but this week's forecast offers more than just the little dripping cloud icon that has been so ubiquitous these past several weeks. Wednesday and Saturday even show the cloudy sun icon!
Watching a brief bit of news this weekend I was struck by the perspective of folks who live along the banks of rivers. The ones that were interviewed by the TV crews, at least, all seemed angry and shocked that the river could flood and suddenly change course, taking a chunk of their property and possessions with it. There seemed to be a sense of anger that someone hadn't done their job correctly for this to have happened. Many had never seen anything like this before. My heart goes out to anyone who, for any reason, loses their home. That is one of those losses that, quite literally, uproots and undercuts most of us. However, living alongside a river also means living alongside powerfully coursing uncertainty. Rivers do flood, and they frequently change course. One flood event can alter the location of a river significantly. Unless you so tame a river as to destroy its character and purpose in life, it remains a wild thing and should be respected as such.
A short playlist, this morning, of long tunes. These tunes ran 7-1/2, 6-1/2, and 4 minutes in length, respectively. This was truly a playlist in which each tune was so similar to the others as to be from a single album which, in fact, two of the three cuts were. The last two tracks were from the Uninvisible album by Martin, Medeski, and Wood (me thinks the iPod was being lazy with its shuffling this morning). Both tunes are instrumental jazz, tending toward the ragged edge of the genre. Electric, percussive, and frequently discordantly deconstructed, I wouldn't call it easy morning music. Good, by all means yes, but in a challenging-to-follow sort of way. The first cut, from the venerable Pat Martino, runs along similar lines, though is less discordant and slightly more electric.
The full short playlist:
- Pat Martino: Outrider
- Medeski, Martin, and Wood: Nocturnal Transmission
- Medeski, Martin, and Wood: Take Me Nowhere
- Posted via iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment