Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 06:23PM 
With the entire enterprise "scaled back" from what it's been in previous years, and with attempts to not participate in the end of year consumer panic, this was a suitable amount of gifting.
It was good to see the fam for the annual gathering here in Virginia, and we hope all made it home safely. More tomorrow about some of our activities.
Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 09:27PM 
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This past Monday evening I joined several hundred other eager listeners to hear Bill Frisell play some new compositions to accompany the projection of images by Mike Disfarmer, the much heralded photographer from Heber Springs, Arkansas who died in 1959 and left behind some 3000 glass plate negatives of the farm families from the area during the middle of the 20th century. It was a curious mixture of media. I've been fond of Frisell's playing for a number of years, but was totally dumb to Disfarmer's photography. He was truly an eccentric, an antisocial individual who ran a portrait gallery during a time when people could not do photography for themselves. So they went to the photographer in town for a sitting. The results were remarkable portraits stripped of any glamour or artifice which seem to say plenty about the mid century United States.
This from Richard B. Woodward's essay "American Metamorphosis: Disfarmer and the Art of Studio Photography":
To the citizens of Heber Springs, the photographs of his that they can pick out in family albums represent first of all—and most of all—individuals that they or their parents or grandparents knew. They are names before they are faces.
For the rest of us, though, it is the reverse. It is the expressions and gestures, clothes and hairstyles—the anonymous humanity—that holds our attention. To many of the people here we can feel inexplicably attached even though we never knew them or their families. Disfarmer's photographs—inadvertent elegies for a small town, a region, an era, a way of life—have to been seen outside their origins to be fully appreciated.
They are also a tribute to the passing of a profession. It is tempting to think that many other towns had photographers as gifted as Disfarmer, and that their work was either destroyed by locals who didn't recognize its worth or still lies buried in an archive. But what Disfarmer accomplished was not easily duplicated. The small-town photographer is figuratively and literally a thing of the past, and Disfarmer sui generis.
There are two online primary sources for Disfarmer prints and information. Most - if not all - of the images during the Frisell performance seem to have come from this source. The other one appears to be collecting oral history about the man and the legend. It's here.
A stimulating evening with influences from all over the place. And stories and leads that go in many different directions as well.
Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 12:40PM 
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In what appears to becoming a Sunday avocation, here's the latest progress report.
Ever the tireless self promoter - NOT - here's a link to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society's annual Spirit Walk. By the time this is posted, there's not much time left to get in on the action. Tickets are probably still available for the Sunday - tonight - tours. This weekend has been centered around this activity, and the reason for the sudden interest in trick roping.
Three years ago the fam took the tour through the historic district of Charlottesville on the 11th Annual Spirit Walk. Guided groups encounter famous - at least locally and some far beyond the region - personalities from the 18th to the mid 20th centuries. We enjoyed the experience enough that the following year Claire and I decided to become part of the spirit crew. She played Jefferson's grand daughter Cornelia Jefferson Randolph, and I the county jailer John Martin. This year, Claire is a nameless street barker - affectionately known as "Alice" - who is extolling the wonders of the 100 year old amusement park Wonderland.
Much to my joy, I've found myself cast as the 19th century cowboy legend "Texas Jack" Omohundro. Each of the characters on the Walk are given two minutes to present whatever information they deem noteworthy and entertaining. It's not easy to encapsulate the essence of a life, even one as short as TJ's, in two minutes. He was one of the first cowboys to perform on stages throughout the eastern cities, with the much better known Buffalo Bill Cody. Part of his act on stage was trick roping, and hence I've found motivation for a new activity.
The acting thing is still at least as nerve wracking as it ever was twenty years ago when I used to go on stage more frequently. Perhaps even more, now that I'm farther away from doing such things on a regular basis. It's annoying and exhilarating not necessarily at the same time or in equal portions, but certainly contained within the totality of the experience. It's an immediate form of experience, but as with most modes of performance, it's often more for the psychic well being and mental needs of the performer than it is about the form, the material, or an audience. In this brief interview between the film makers Doug Aitkin and Werner Herzog, Herzog has a few amusing things to say about "the theater." I guess I'm not quite ready to let it "expire," but the experience in a closed space, the theater as it has become institutionalized, surely is one of our more artificial environments. Even at it's most realistic, it is still completely conceptual in nature. On the other hand, these "street performances" couldn't be more intimate. We're within spitting distance of the audience, and it's hard not to get some energy flow from the experience. Mostly it feels like it's from me to the viewers, but I guess that's part of the therapy process. The immediacy can have its drawbacks, as was exhibited Friday night, when it rained most of the entire four hours we were on the street performing and waiting for groups to come into our performance zones. Thankfully it was never a deluge, but it was certainly wet enough that we all got damp. I was much appreciative of being able to wear a hat as part of the costume.
As for the trick roping - it's come a long ways, but is still "not ready for prime time." Nonetheless, I've attempted to display a flat loop, and several times Friday evening was able to pull it off for people to see. Last night, it felt like there was only one group that got to see a successful spin. But I think the performer immediately preceding me and I have successfully worked out the transition between the two of us - she is now doing TJ's introduction - and depending upon how well my spinning is going is when I let out my exclamatory Yeehaw that turns the crowd around.
In fact, it's now time to stop diddling around here and go outside and work on my roping.
