The Age of Connection

I've been meaning to post about this for awhile.  This summer, I had an experience that really showed me the power of social media, and the interconnectedness we can all share if we choose to do so.

I had a Friday off from work, so I went into NYC to visit Eli at work, and to go to lunch together.  Because we're both nerds, we use Foursquare, and I checked in at the location where we were eating.  I didn't really think much about it, but then again, it was just a fun thing to do.  Gain a few points, see where I stack up against friends with the check-ins for the week, you know the score.

About ten minutes after I had checked in, who should show up at our booth but a friend of ours.  Let's call him Tom.  Eli and I were both pleasantly surprised, and we asked if he was at the restaurant on his own lunch hour.

He said, "I saw you check in on Foursquare on Facebook, and I work just a few blocks from here, so I thought I'd swing by."

Now, I know this isn't rocket science, but for me, it was a very quick realization how social media brought this connection together.  Granted, we're not curing cancer here, but still, we got to hang out with a friend who we otherwise wouldn't have seen that day.

For this child of the 70s/80s, it was a real thrill.

iPhone blogging

My first blog with the iPhone app. Just a test, nothing to see here...

Visiting Boston College

A few weekends ago, I was up in Boston, visiting friends with Eli, which of course was a blast. It's always good to reconnect with old compatriots, even though we communicate a lot over e-mail, phone, and other venues. However, nothing beats being able to wander through old haunts, refreshing memories of those days gone by.

Wandering through the campus of Boston College, it's easy to focus on what is new and different, and part of my conversation with Eli was about that. New building here, changed pathway there, those are the surface changes that are easy to point out. What is deeper and more meaningful, is feeling the reflection and the ghosts of those old memories coming back to life.

Wandering around the grass of Shaw House, it was easy to remember the first time I stayed there, as a senior in High School, and then returning in September 1989 to live there for the first two years of my college experience. It's not the place to just randomly recount memories here, as this is more about those feelings of refreshing the well of memory. Place plays a strong role in memory, so being able to wander the grounds around the building, talking with Eli about what was where, who lived in different rooms, it was easy to connect back to those old times.

I did wish that some of those people I shared the time with were there also, as I think the discussion of what we remembered would cause a great synergy. Tony G. and I have often talked of revisiting Boston at the same time, and this visit just makes it even more imperative to do so at some point in the future.

Revisiting other areas of campus, walking the walks, it gave me flashes of memories that I hadn't recalled in years... Visiting Boston in general allows for that, and also creates the new memories...

Words for my grandmother

I mentioned in my most recent blog post that my grandmother recently died, on Halloween of this year. My dad asked if I could speak at the funeral, and I agreed. What follows is what I said at the funeral.

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My grandmother, Thelma Partridge, was born in September 1917 to Robert Partridge and Bessie Nixon. She was the second of three daughters, and the longest lived of all three. If you are here today, it is because Gram touched your life somehow also, and she loved you in return…

When I think of my grandmother, I think of someone who was always willing to tell a story, to recount something from the day, something she saw, or something from the past to illustrate something in the present. Being the family researcher I am, this was a great help, although I didn’t get off to an auspicious start with this in my childhood. I believe we were driving somewhere, and my grandmother was telling some story, where in the middle of it, she said that she may have told this one before. My response was something along the lines of “Only a few hundred times before!”

But through her stories, as I got older, I got to know the family in ways I would not have otherwise had had the chance to. My grandfather died when I was 13, but through her, I got to know him in different ways. The same holds true for the stories she would tell of both her father and mother, lives I never quite touched, but lives that I was able to learn about from her.

I want to tell two brief stories of my grandmother, and perhaps these stories will sound familiar in some ways to you, just with you playing a role in the story instead of me.

When I was a child, adults are looked to for life lessons, and I remember one time, driving with Gram somewhere, I believe it was to see her mother, my great-grandmother, in the nursing home in Neptune where she lived. I was telling a story about a friend in school who was in some sort of battle with another classmate, and I said, “My friend really hates this other person.” Gram said in return to me, “Well, you should never really hate someone else.” In my mind, I listened, and said, “Okay, don’t hate other people. Check.” It’s something I’ve tried to live by through my life, and while it’s hard, I think that if you don’t hate those you don’t like, you at least can try to understand, rather than be blinded by your hate…

In recent years, with doing my research on the history of the family, I’ve had many conversations with Gram about what I’ve discovered. Through examining old photos, looking up documents that haven’t seen the light of day in years, I’ve learned a lot of the “facts” about the family, but not necessarily the “life” of the people. However, in looking at a lot of old photos, I’ve seen similarities between generations that maybe haven’t been noticed in the past… I mentioned to Gram during one of these conversations, that the Nixon’s, the family of her mother, had rather large ears…. I pointed to some old photos of her uncle Robert, and some others, and even some of the grandchildren of her sister Dot. Nothing that matter with large ears, it was just one of those things you observe in photos…

We left it at that, until I got a call later that week, from Gram! In mock horror, she described looking at her own ears in the mirror that morning, and discovering that she herself had the NIXON EARS! I laughed about it with her, and said that when you live with them that long, they’re just *your* ears, not Nixon ears. But that perhaps she had had hair cover her ears for a reason…

So, those are some of my own special moments that I have featuring Gram. I’d like us all to pause for a moment, to think of those things from our life with Thelma, that make us smile, that we can hold close to ourselves for the future.

Thank you for your time, and I give my love to my grandmother, and to all of you, for being able to be here today.

Robert Fripp in NYC

Tonight, I attended the second of four performances of Robert Fripp's soundscapes at the World Financial Center in NYC.

Being a King Crimson and Fripp enthusiast, I've seen Fripp with Crimson a number of times, but had not had the experience of attending a soundscapes performance. I have many of the CD releases of Fripp's ambient work, but no live experiences. So, I was looking forward to this event in NYC. The added benefit of it being free was also a plus, but I would have paid, had the show needed advance tickets.

I arrived at the venue around 5:45pm, for a 7pm start time, and was able to get a seat at the front right side of the stage. The venue, while a public space, was very nice, with high ceilings, and a large backdrop behind the stage, which gave me the impression of being a sail.

Fripp came out at about 6:30pm to do a bit of soundchecking. Someone shouted "21st Century Schizoid Man," but fortunately that was the only bit of doofiness for the evening. Fripp was on stage for a few minutes, and then exited, to await the performance start time.

Fripp was introduced by one of the WNYC (New York's public radio station) hosts, I can't recall his name right now, but he does the "Sound Check" new music show on that station. He asked for no flash photography, and detailed how in this type of performance, which is mainly improvised, we the audience are as much a part of it as the performer. Our attention adds to the experience, and shapes it in ways that are both obvious, and subtle.

When Fripp then came on stage, he bowed to the audience at the front of the stage, then to stage right for a bow, and then to stage left before sitting at his stool to start the performance. Soundscapes are created by playing some different notes, patterns, or short melodies, that are then looped or processed in ways, allowing for additional loops or guitar solo melodies to be played along with the loops. It is a *quiet* music, but full of feeling.

Putting my own feelings on the table, I had had a full month. My grandmother died on this past Halloween, and some of the melodies, in their feelings of melancholy, loss, and reflection, I could not help but think about the life of my grandmother, and the loss that I have felt. But while it could be sad and maudlin to use music in that way, the soundscapes, for me, seem to have a feel of hope and redemption about them. Some do have a slightly darker feel, but even those have some feel of light about them. And, when reflecting on the life of someone close to you, it is good to have that feeling of being able to say goodbye, through music.

Fripp played for about 50 minutes, and I would say that there were 5-6 distinct pieces during that time. As some pieces flow into another, it's hard to say exactly how many pieces there might have been. For me, the second piece was particularly moving, and one of the transitions later in the set truly touched me.

There are two more performances in this series, both tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:30pm and 7pm. I would recommend these performances to anyone in the NYC area who would like to hear some music that is both very different from much of what is out there, but still can move you in ways that you will think about for a long time.

And still....

When I weighed myself this morning, I'm at 200.

Good to know that I can go basically 3 months, and end up right where I started...

More to come!

Stable!

No change in weight from yesterday.  Still at 200 lbs.

Will it change tomorrow?  The suspense is killing me!