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Homestead

Tuesday 24 April 2007 | 0 Comments

Over the weekend, my folks and I took K and J on a quick tour of Bristol -- my hometown. As Steve Earle sing's, "Ain't nothin' brings ya down like your hometown." Talk about making someone feel old. The realization that what happened at that street corner or in that church building was not merely a couple of years ago but more like fifteen or twenty plants my feet solidly in my mid-thirties.

We began the weekend with a trip to Natural Tunnel.

Then it was off to Bristol, stopping at South Holston Dam first:

By the time we got to Bristol, we simply decided to stay in the car and show J downtown (such as it is -- though much more lively than when I lived there) and the old house.

Pictures at Flickr.

Wandering Downtown

Sunday 04 February 2007 | 0 Comments

We took K's mother, J, downtown for a bit of walking, a bit of window shopping, and a latte.

We took her to the Grove Arcade and showed her patchwork quilts, grandfather clocks, and over-priced souvenirs.

She liked the spiral staircases the most -- the staircases that are closed to the public and apparently for decoration only.

We took her to the gallery where we used to have photographs for sale. (In six months we sold about as many photos. We were hoping to earn enough money to help pay for a new DSLR. In the end, we just wasted enough money to buy the camera outright -- but we learned something from the experience: the majority of Americans, it seems, prefers kitsche.) She was impressed with the goats-milk soap and various crocheted items.

We took her to see the largest iron in the world.

Finally, we took her for a bit of cake and a cappuccino (or latte, in K's and my case). J is used to the "Celebrate the moments of your life" type of "cappuccino" that comes in little sachets. We got her to forget that syrupy mess and try a real one. "Okay," she said, "But none of that vanilla nonsense. No almond nonsense. No flavors."

I just smiled.

In the end, the cappuccino and latte got mixed up (K wanted decaf latte and the waiter brought decaf cappuccino), but I don't think she noticed...

First Outing

Tuesday 30 January 2007 | 0 Comments

K and I bundled L up Sunday afternoon and took her on her first outing: a walk through a local university's botanical gardens.

We made a couple of loops around the trail that runs literally over the river and through the woods. Toward the back, there is a historic log cabin.

L, though, was unimpressed: she slept through most all of it.

Being house-bound is perhaps the most annoying difficulty of having a six-week-old infant. To date, it is certainly more difficult on K, who has been home with L since her birth and can go an entire day without leaving the apartment. That explains why she's so eager sometimes to run to the store to pick up that forgotten ingredient for dinner -- to go anywhere is a treat.

It's something we're both anticipating with smiles.

Biltmore

Wednesday 13 December 2006 | 0 Comments

After having lived 20 of my 33 years less than a hundred miles from the Biltmore Estate and a year and a half less than ten miles from it, I finally went for a visit with K and the Folks this Sunday.

Much to my disappointment, though not surprising, the current owners have enacted a strict prohibition of all photography within the house itself -- if such a structure can be called a "house." At 175,000 square feet (16,258 square meters), it's probably larger than many palaces.

Wandering through the house, the notion of such living is so completely foreign as to be unimaginable, even when you're literally standing in the proof.

To think of living without having to give a single thought to money, to physical needs -- indeed, even to dressing yourself -- is for us probably what the majority of the world feels when they think of those of us fortunate enough to have been born in the developed world.

Greenville

Thursday 19 October 2006 | 0 Comments

Last Saturday we took a trip to Greenville, SC. The reason is simple: housing costs here are outrageous and we've decided we'll have to look for more affordable pastures.

G'ville has the advantage of being close to the mountains and yet affordable. A home which costs $130k in Greenville (say, a 1,400 square foot three-bedroom home in good condition) would cost at least $200k here.

It's good to look at the real estate section and not worry about the possibility of soiling yourself when you see the prices...

Cherokee uber Alles

Monday 04 September 2006 | 0 Comments

Though I grew up less than two hours from this area, I never visited Cherokee, North Carolina. That's a shame, really, for a trip there promises to be thought provoking and educational.

The best place to visit is undoubtedly Oconaluftee Indian Village, an outdoor museum that recreates the eighteenth century Cherokee reality.

The village itself is deceptively small. It seems like it wouldn't take more than a few moments to wander through it all, but you wouldn't learn much then.

Instead, there's a guide who seems to know just about everything about just about everything.

Our guide also had the mandatory sense of humor that transforms a "guided" tour into something much more personable.

It was at the council chamber that the obvious was finally mentioned: the potential for a less-than-easy relationship between the Cherokee and the white tourists.

"I'm often asked, 'Do you hate white people?' when I'm giving these talks," the guide said. There's a lot of reasons to feel resentful.

White Europeans were the original illegal immigrants.
A British officer (his name escapes me now) deliberately spread smallpox among Indians by distributing contaminated blankets.
The Trail of Tears.

Yet the guide pointed out the obvious: it was not races who did this, but individuals.

It seems in Germany we're finally seeing the realization of this as well. National guilt about the Holocaust made most Germans unwilling even to cheer their national teams. National pride was not even a goose step away from nationalism, that most feared -ism of contemporary Germany.

It was only at this last World Cup -- held in Germany, which certainly had something to do with it -- that commentators began speaking of German pride. German children cheered the home team, and German flags waved in the stands.

And that concludes the diversion...For lunch, K and I went to a small park and ate open-face sandwiches with one hand while swatting gnats and flies with the other. In the park was a small grove of reed.

I'm not quite sure what variety of reed it was, yet it could have left me feeling awfully clausterphobic had the path through the grove not been so spacious.

More photos at Flickr.

Outer Banks 2

Sunday 28 May 2006 | 0 Comments

Outer Banks 1

Saturday 27 May 2006 | 0 Comments

Recommendation

Saturday 04 February 2006 | 0 Comments

Perhaps the best album I've heard in a long, long time is Gillian Welch's Revival. Simple arrangements, a stunningly beautiful voice, turn-of-the-century lyrics, all add up to one thing:

After looking at the cover of Gillian Welch's debut album, Revival, and listening to the first two cuts, "Orphan Girl" and "Annabelle," you'd be tempted to imagine that Welch somehow stumbled into a time machine after cutting some tunes at the 1927 Bristol, TN, sessions and was transported to a recording studio in Los Angeles in 1996, where T-Bone Burnett was on hand and had the presence of mind to roll tape. (All Music)

Welch is probably more widely know for her work on the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. If you liked that film and the music -- and the film was primarily about the music -- then this will be a welcome addition to your collection.