Anyone who saw the engrossing documentary on PBS some months ago or packed into the Belcourt Theatre one hot Sunday evening for a one time showing (with a special appearance by Bela) of Throw Down your Heart knows what this is all about.
This is the soundtrack that resulted from the ambitious trip made by Bela Fleck to several African countries in early 2005 to, essentially, “bring the banjo home” and jam with many outstanding musicians and groups in places like Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mali.
I’ve always enjoyed the purity and spirit of various African musical styles, and my Hi life compilations and King Sunny Ade juju recordings prepared me somewhat, but this is some really far-reaching, varied and impressive music! Eighteen tracks, many featuring serious polyrhythms, djembe drums, various stringed instruments along with possibly the thumb piano or even a giant wooden miramba comprise this soundtrack. Vocalists can be anyone from Oumou Sangare to a group of villagers.
Some of my favorites are the funky, bass heavy D’Gary Jam and the sublime title track which features raga like drones, ngoni (the banjo of Mali) runs and Bela’s intricate picking. What a tour de force! Zawose features some amazing gogo singing styles by an entire family that may sound jarring at first but is really unique. The song Mariam features phenomenally fast African guitarist Djrlimady Tounkara in a duet of sorts with Bela. Wow!
Overall, the first several tracks drew me in with really interesting and varied vocal stylings then after the title track I was thoroughly mesmerized by tracks 10 through till the end. In short, this is more about the fantastic musicians of Africa and their instruments; Bela Fleck often fades into the background and lets them shine.
A wonderful project; great documentary and superb soundtrack!
The IT Crowd
Series created and directed by Graham Linehan
If you don’t enjoy the British or American version of mockumentary sitcom The Office, read no further. Stop reading! I’m not talking to you! If you are a fan of one or both versions of The Office, you should definitely check out the BBC sitcom The IT Crowd.
Computer nerds and social outcasts Roy and Moss work for Denholm Industries, as the IT department. They work from the basement (why are most IT departments located in the basement?), and their office consists of the stereotypical décor one might expect from computer nerds – collectibles, action figures, books, computer parts, and unhealthy snack foods. Roy’s stock answer when the phone rings is “Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?” Roy’s and Moss’s comfortable work life is turned upside down when an attractive woman is hired to run the department. Roy and Moss quickly find out new boss Jen knows absolutely nothing about computers!
The actors who make up the IT Crowd have great comedic chemistry, and company president Denholm is disturbingly hilarious. Why are workplace comedies like this so funny? If you’ve ever worked in a corporate setting, or office of any kind, you can identify with the characters and situations they find themselves in. Misery loves company, as the saying goes. Or at the very least misery loves a good satire now and again.
Ancient histories rarely read like detective stories, but Charles Mann is travelling the globe investigating the origins of the Americas. In 1491, Mann hunts down the latest discoveries about the cultures of the western continents before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.
Mann looks at several early civilizations in North, Central, and South America. He synthesizes many recent, but little-known studies from a range of scientific and historical experts. He challenges that the Americas were home to cultures more advanced than had been previously been known. With this in mind, he also debates their possible beliefs and attitudes toward land, slavery, and governance.
1491 shows how much of what we know today of our continents’ history is highly debatable. There is a faction that holds the Amazon Basin supported vast, thriving civilizations up until the fifteenth century. Others still maintain that this would have been impossible given the unforgiving climate and jungle landscape.
While discussing the new findings, he also tracks how the most common myths were accepted. Though many of the anecdotes in this work are speculative, even the little-known facts of these civilizations are presented in a satisfying tale. His coverage of the Indians who occupied New England and the Mississippi River is fascinating. The work creates a very different, more provoking, study than the grammar school text books provide.
This was darker, but also funnier, than McCorkle’s other work. Most of the stories deal with regret and/or the ability of family members to drive you insane; the story Intervention does both and is nearly perfect. McCorkle’s writing is truthful and poignant, and not to be missed.
The birds John Yow profiles are probably familiar to everyone: crows, bluejays, belted kingfishers, wrens, robins and the rest of the backyard bird clan. Neither identification nor feeding guide, the book is a wondrous rundown of each bird’s habits and behavior. More studious observers than I likely know these things, but I found myself reading aloud to anyone who would listen and reciting bird lore to friends at parties. Seriously, did you know that cedar waxwings will stuff themselves full of berries until they fall on the ground? They also play at passing a berry back and forth, or up and down a line of their little friends, and repeat the pass until someone gets bored and swallows the berry. I saw this game for myself recently when the waxwings made their fall pilgrimage to my privet and honeysuckle hedge. Here’s some other cool stuff from the book: belted kingfishers dig 6-foot tunnels in riverbanks and nest in their caves; crows can talk if they want to, and for sure they put walnuts in the street and wait for cars to run over them; hummingbirds steal spiderwebs and use them as a wrapping to reinforce their nests. I have a whole new respect for my winged pals now.
One last thing about waxwings: one fall I found one on the sidewalk outside the Belle Meade Starbucks, alive but wonky and unable to fly. I assumed it had hit the window and stunned itself. I couldn’t bear the thought of the little guy wandering strange in the parking lot, so I begged a box and took it home to my yard, where it spent the night in its cardboard motel room and then went its merry way the next morning. Now I’m thinking the little guy had been on a berry bender and was looking for his after-dinner coffee.
– Pam
Bill brings us an interview to Jon Davison producer the Airplane!. Airplane! will be show on Saturday December 19, 2009 at the Main Library Auditorium at 2pm as part of our Movies at Main series.
Ed. note: due to a technical glitch with Bill’s mic he is a little quiet, but we thought the interview was too cool not to share.
I openly admit loving all of the Dan Brown books. There, I said it. Well, maybe Deception Point was a little weak; being saved after skidding at high speed across an iceberg is soooo much more unlikely than falling from an exploding helicopter and landing unscathed on a roof, right? But I digress. The Lost Symbol has the baddest baddie of all time. He is creepy; he is relentless; he is tattooed over every inch of his body except a little blank circle on the top of his head. The Lost Symbol has, of course, the Masons. They fare very well in this novel, and it’s a lot of fun learning about their symbols and how prominently they (the symbols) figure in the architecture of Washington, D.C. And The Lost Symbol has noetic science (using scientific methods to explore consciousness/soul and its effects on the physical world), adding just the right amount of spooky-dooky to the mix. Formulaic? You bet. (The folks at Slate have created a very amusing Dan Brown sequel plot generator. Check it out.) Page-turner? Yesiree. Worth reading? Absolutely. Go on and read it–you know you want to!
- Pam
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1491
Bill brings us an interview to Jon Davison producer the Airplane!. Airplane! will be show on Saturday December 19, 2009 at the 
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