The Odyssey on Angel Island by the We Players

Support the We Players production of The Odyssey on Angel Island to get an early ping when tickets go on sale.

In 2010, I wrote about how I thought the We Players production of Hamlet was the best production of Shakespeare I've ever experienced (experience is a key word in We Players.) I even explained why, so you didn't think it was my normal hyperbole. I mean look at Sam's face in this pic - he is captivated!



And stage lighting provided by the sun. This scene is the delivery of the "Denmark's a prison" exchange and it is set at Alcatraz! Brilliant.


Well they are at it again.They are going to do The Odyssey on Angel Island. And I can't freaking wait. If you are in the Bay Area, please support it - you will not regret it. What scene will happen here?

Sam, the Archer

Nothing like watching your kid live the dream, originally uploaded by Cameron Maddux.

Sam bought a bow yesterday. Let the arrows fly.

Attention

This scene is one of two of my favorites from The Social Network. I love this part not (only) for the reason that it probably gets so much recognition. Yes, it is the moment where the nerd basically says "Fuck you" to the privileged jocks - and Jesse Eisenberg absolutely owns these lines - and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross somehow play the exact sounds going on in your head during the tension-filled moment. So yes all that movie/narrative magic is awesome and deeply appeals to my emotions, but intellectually I strongly believe in the words:

You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.

We place so much emphasis on "full attention." I've been reading a bit of Cathy N Davidson's wonderful book Now You See It, about attention. I have yet to immerse myself in it (to the point of this post) but it is on  my list of hopeful contenders for my time this holiday break.  One of the driving ideas in the book is that attention is much more complex and diverse than we often think about it or how it is perceived culturally, as well as linguistically.

You and I don't have the same type of attention. Also, the rate of attention disorders will continue to increase, not because of chemical/genetic problems, not because of behavioral problems, but because of large societal institutions failure to adapt to 21st century realities.  Chief among these problems being the classrooms which then feeds into the workplace.  My guess is that we are living in the only time when a majority of classrooms and workplaces are ill-equipped for the future of individual, business and societal needs. And the failure to recognize how attention works and build appropriate systems for it is one of major reasons why. (By the way, I teach so I am knocking myself in this post.)

If you have read Clay Shirky's incredible book Cognitive Surplus, then you know the attitude of How dare you? many of us feel towards the single-focus time-suck of television, which lulled us into an inappropriate single focus (much of which I devoted to Three's Company in my youth.) Furthermore, we are celebrating that today's technology is unraveling that insufficiency significantly.

Two of the primary tools of the wildfire spreading of Internet content are email and the web browser. Both of these things hit revolution points with relative "tack-ons." Reply-All for e-mail (while still shockingly incorrectly used by many - Oh, Aunt Tina and Mike at work) was an add-on. Who knew people would be able to have complex group conversations with intricate dynamics? I don't know much about the actual development of tabbed interface, but I do remember what it was like building stuff for the web pre-2000.  We were obsessed with slow-speed (Client: Can I put a small, 15-second video on my website? Us: Laughter. Can you fit an elephant up your ass? Client: Well, that's unprofessional.)  I'm guessing much of the thought for browser tabs revolved around being able to do x while y was loading. Remember when waiting for something to load was 85% of time online? Now, browser tabs allow us to be like an octopus playing Twister with our content. It isn't about load-time it is about mashing up all our attention.

My attention allows me to do certain things, your attention allows you to do certain things. We have very few mainstream societal tools that respond to this fact in a productive way. Our default for so long has been to build a system which looks at a single-focus attention, even though very few of us operate that way. It is believed to achieve the greatest average among the community - and that is why we are flattening out at average lately. As a society, we consistently underestimate our ability to process information. Davidson's book discusses the first speeding ticket being issued for the speed of 12mph; many people did not believe the human brain could make proper decisions at that speed: we did not evolve with that ability. (And as a bus commuter, I am well aware of most drivers having a gross overestimation of their attention while driving. STOP TEXTING WHILE DRIVING PEOPLE. However, I would guess so many people do this because we have lost faith in society and our institutions to truly understand our attention ability, so we have trained ourselves to test our own capabilities and ignore societal rules.)

If you pay attention (get it?) to Daniel Pink's Whole New Mind you know about the power of Symphonic Thinking. Or if you have read Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From (or at least seen this nifty video: ) then you know the importance of connections and shared ideas. We are learning that the power of creativity is much more about these intangibles we call connections. Connections grow exponentially with variables. Single-focused attention reduces variables.  We need to stop building an educational and workplace world where single-focus structures dominate. We need to allow variables and connections to flourish with abandon.

Please, embrace your scattered, complex attention. Be thoughtful and aware when society (teaching by subject, sitting at a workplace by department, taking a bus/google maps route that is always the same), culture (single channel media, more and more highly specific recommendations based on like-mindedness) and your own behavior (bucketing and pattern recognition that may not even exist) try to restrict your attention. I completely understand that these things all have advantages and very positive purposes, but we tend to see it as an all or none position (how meta?) and fail to recognize the opportunity to fulfill our attention's ability. Just be aware - it is your attention afterall - it is who you are and how you prioritize your life, shouldn't you give it more attention?

Hey, Look! A Squirrel!

Sam's cat

Sam's cat, originally uploaded by Cameron Maddux.

Sam's cat

Halloween Pumpkins of 2011

2011

 
Well, the 7th year of us carving pumpkins as a family was good, good fun. We laughed, smiled and recollected.  You can check out the entire Flickr set of this event we so enjoy to capture. This year Sam made a two-faced pumpkin, Mary's is in the middle and mine is on the right. (You can click on the years below to get the full stories of the past.





2010




2009



2008



2007



2006



2005

A 3rd Bone Marrow Biopsy

Well, we started up the blog again with music, pumpkins are on the way - I guess we should hit upon another one of the major themes of the blog: What the $#%^ is going on with Mary's blood? (Hopefully, we'll get some hikes and comic book stuff soon!)

Mary has done an excellent job of keeping an in-depth record. If you need to catch-up, check out her recent blog post. But let me tell you about this week, where she leaves off in her post (she much prefers the interaction of Facebook and keeps most of her stories there.)



Short version- She checked herself into a hospital on Tuesday. She had a bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday. She was released on Thursday (with enough time for a nap at home and made it to the Grouplove show.)

Why did she have to go to the hospital? Primarily, two reasons:

1) She had a low-grade fever and a swollen gland. She needed some antibiotics and the doctor thought it best to administer them through IV.

2) The biggest issue with her heath has been her neutropenia, her lack of neutrophils which are the workhorses of the white blood cells and thus immune system. The other blood numbers were mostly fine. This single focus led to most people saying it was a problem of "destruction" not "production." Something is attacking the neutrophils, but she is making them fine. However in the past couple of weeks, we have seen a drop in both her red blood cells and platelets. This could be an indicator of production problems, which is the bone marrow.  That is why the doctor wanted to peek at her bone marrow again. The big problem is still the neutropenia (she has literally had 0 neutrophils in a couple of her readings lately) - the other blood lines being down is more a concern as an indicator, rather than a danger in itself.

While the bone marrow biopsy was considerably less painful than the 2nd one (which Mary feels was more painful than childbirth) it was still a difficult one. The doctor had to basically go in three times. He was getting dry pulls - and even the third "wet pull" looked like it may be lacking in a decent sample for diagnosis. This sucks for two reasons - (a) did she go through that and not even get a sample? and (b) was the sample difficult to get because she has less marrow? (possible.)

We'll know more early next week. Anyway, the conversation has currently changed a bit after being kind of stagnant. Things that Mary "didn't have" are back in as possibilities. But it is all still unknown and TBD. She is working at getting into Stanford to work with a well-known hematologist there. She has an appointment with a specialist in Seattle. We haven't closed the door on UCSF either.

Also, we haven't been told that Mary needs bone marrow, but someone out there does - and it will save their life. Be a superhero. (It is only a cotton swab in the mouth.)

 

Albums of 2011 for me?

Hi there. Sorry about the missing blog. I let my url drop - some Yahoo!/Dotster confusion. We seem to be good now. And life has been - well, hectic. (More on that later.) Also, more and more of this kind of activity has transferred to Facebook and Twitter. But, I do love my blog. My true journal. It feels more like a personal space than anything out there. I think I'll start blogging more. I've missed it.

Plus - it is almost PUMPKIN time!!

Let's start off with yet another music story. I'm currently listening to Red Hot Chili Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex Magik (one of my albums that will forever be 1991 for me.)  It made me think: what are going to be some of my albums of 2011? (I know we still have a good 17% of the year to go - so we'll do a "so far" on this post.) I mainly want to do this now because 2 of the top ones are acts we've seen recently that I have yet to blog, so let's get the Top 3 done.

1. Sign No More - Mumford and Sons
OK, I know it seems silly to have an album from 2010 (2009 in the UK) as the number one album - but damn this album is so freaking good. Mumford was on our radar (thanks to the always great "Iron and Wine" Pandora station.) But, we didn't hardcore listen to it until we started prep for the Railroad Revival Tour earlier this year. This album is one of my favorites of all-time - every single bit of it is good, original and deeply unique. I find albums easier to rank than performances - but their performance was up there as one of the best of our music run this year, as well. They just pour energy off the stage and into the audience. It is quite lovely. Did you see them on Austin City Limits? Watch below:

Watch Mumford & Sons / Flogging Molly on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

2. The Head and The Heart - The Head and The Heart
Shout out to Khaia (how nice is it to have adventures in Switzerland over LinkedIn for a link...) for making sure we paid attention to this group. We bought the tickets to see them before we actually ever heard them, because they were opening for Iron and Wine. (I love when this happens - we had this happen with Ingrid Michaelson as well; she was main act for an opener we bought.) This album is also wonderful from beginning to end. Three lovely singers - I'm noticing that I'm really into bands that while having a "front man singer," they actually have multiple leads take on the singing in various songs. Charity Rose Thielen has a magic voice - like Norah Jones power and emotion. But rather than having her kick ass throughout - they just give us a spoonful of that honey - and it is pitch-perfect. We had the pleasure of getting to take Sam to see them during a gorgeous sunset in the midst of Treasure Island Music Festival. Definitely the kind of music that deserves grass under your feet, blue skies over your head and sunshine and ocean breeze throughout the experience.



3. Never Trust a Happy Song - Grouplove
Like the previous two, this is yet another debut album. Also, Grouplove is a band that we bought tickets for before we knew them. Actually, we bought tickets before they were even announced as part of the Outside Lands line-up. They were one of the OL highlights for us ... and for SPIN magazine for OL plus for SXSW and Lollapalooza.  The album is a get-up and dance sort of album - the songs have some pop, but depth. However, to see Grouplove live is to love Grouplove. We were fortunate to see them in a small venue (Bimbo's 365) this week. The intimacy between the band, especially Hannah and Christian is touching and authentic. They produce the sort of set that allows you to get lost in all they do, especially when you have such a close view:



Since these are debut albums, I'm excited about many years of beautiful follow-up music. Thanks for the touring guys - now get back to the studio!

1991 - Albums

I just realized that about 20 years ago, I was preparing to go to 10th grade ... for the second time. I've written about this experience on this blog. Many people know this event played a significant role in defining who I am as a person, educator and parent.

But I want to give thanks to the albums that got me through the rocky situation of being a 10th grader again, listed by how many times I'd guess I listened to them: [Album name - Artist (release date)]
1) Ten - Pearl Jam (August 27)
2) Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers (September 24)
3) Nevermind - Nirvana (September 24)
4) Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden (October 8)
5) Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet (October 22)
6) Use Your Illusion I and II - Guns and Roses (September 17)
7) Diamonds and Pearls - Prince & the New Power Generation (October 1)
8) Greatest Hits II - Queen (October 28)
9) Uncle Anesthesia - Screaming Trees (January 29 - but I didn't hear it until the fall)
10) Temple of the Dog (April 16, but like most of the masses, didn't know about this until after falling in love with aforementioned Ten and Badmotorfinger)

These albums and the constant playing and replaying of them were so helpful in getting me to barrel through those tumultuous days. To all of you who make music. Thank you.

A few really wonderful things right now: Music

So I've tried to put together a few narratives for the blog. I keep failing.  I think I just need to vomit up several things rattling in my head.  Perhaps I'll apply a coat of cohesion at some point and time.

Our #Rockcrowd Fest of 2011 was a wonderful experience.  Sam is starting high school, so Mary and I will suddenly have more "just us" time.  Our shared love for similar music is starting to manifest in all these music gigs.  While this music-run started as a "vacation replacement," I think we'll see it continue as how we enjoy our time together and why we live in this amazing area.



Outside Lands.  This is the story I've tried to tell and failed many times. It was very good. The best OL for me of the 3 times we've gone, because of both the festival/line-up but also we are figuring out how to make it a more and more pleasurable experience.  Check out the Flickr set, if you are interested.



Friday was good. Release the Sunbird was a really nice kick-off to the festival.  Joy Formidable was fun, but we only caught a few songs.  The Meters showed us some "Senior Citizen Funk 101" which kicked ass, but there were sound problems that didn't allow them funk as much as I would have liked. By the time they solved those issues, we had headed to Foster the People (along with about 90% of everyone else at Outside Lands at that time.) It was quite crowded. But we did get to groove to Pumped Up Kicks, so that's good.  Then came the surprise of the festival: The Limousines. I didn't plan on seeing them, but there was nothing else that had us captured at the time. Well, they rocked it.

While I am a big fan of their hit, Internet Killed the Video Star


My favorite song/performance is definitely Very Busy People.
Very Busy People by TheLimousines

We hung around for The Best Coast, which was okay.  I like their music, but I'm more a fan of listening to a couple of their songs, rather than a full set/album. Their Drew Barrymore-directed video is good fun and a nice taste. The evening was bits of The Shins and Erykah Badu, but nothing really immersive for us.



Saturday was better. It was Rhett Miller day. We love Rhett; we saw him during our recent concert run.  This time we got to enjoy an up-close and personal concert of him solo in the Serve Tent and then we got to go watch him rock out with the Old 97s.  The evening ended with a rockout set by Muse complete with remarkable guitar riffs and freakin' LASERS!  We saw other stuff throughout the day, but it was meh compared to Rhett (and co.) and Muse.

Sunday.  Best day of the weekend. Best Outside Lands day I've had out of the 8 days I've gone. One of my favorite live music days ever, actually.

First of all, check this line-up:
1. Fresh and Onlys (full set)
2. Josh Ritter (acoustic solo half set)
3. Grouplove (full set)
4. Lord Huron (half-set)
5. John Fogerty (4 CCR songs)
6. Little Dragon (full set)
7. Beirut (full set)
8. Arcade Fire (full set)



Yeah, pretty incredible. This is the part I struggle to put in words.  It was so good.  First of all, I have two big-time new favorites from this day: Grouplove and Beirut. These are acts I'll probably continue to follow for quite sometime, so it was nice to get an intro to both on the same day.  We also had pretty kickass positioning for seeing all these acts.  Fogerty and Arcade Fire were on the Main Stage, and I've learned - don't bother getting too close. Enjoy being a part of a LARGE festival crowd and hang in the back.  Save the "good seats" for getting closer to smaller acts that will soon play bigger stages (like Grouplove and Beirut.)  The Serve tent gave us a chance to sit in the shade and watch a few acts (Josh Ritter, Lord Huron) up close.  I'm still surprised more people didn't take advantage of this opportunity.



Anyway, it was just a great day and I am still unpacking my appreciation for these acts, so I can't really express it here, yet.

But while we are on music. Thank you to Spotify. Spotify is helping me explore music so much.  And as someone who supports live music (obviously) this service is quite helpful. It is going to help me continue to pick shows.

Oh and speaking of live music and groovy music apps. Mary and I shazamed much of the pre-show music, to be able to investigate later.  Well, we recently bought tickets for a show with one of our favorites from Outside Lands last year, Dawes.  They are co-headlining with a band Blitzen Trapper, who we didn't know much about when we bought the tickets, but figured we'd dig it. Lo and behold, one of our Shazamed favorites was a Blitzen Trapper song! (It was Furr, if you are curious.)

Rock on!

Later

Phone and computer off. Mary and I are going for a drive. See you Tuesday.

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #12

The Dirty Dozen is complete.  I'll write something comprehensive to close out our Rockcrowd tour, with lists and favorites and such.  But let's first give #12 it's due credit.



The Avett Brothers!
Wow - to think we've gone from a small stage at Outside Lands 2009 on a Sunday morning to TWO sold out shows at the Fox - well done, gents.

And even though it was a replica of the Brett Dennen story, with a Sunday Outside Lands '09 performer doing a Fox show - the Avetts show had me smiling throughout.  They continue to master intimacy and raucous energy at the same time (Mumford & Sons does a good job of this as well - probably why that Grammy Bob Dylan thing worked out so nicely.) Scott Avett has a bit of the Billie Joe Armstrong "pick the crowd up" ability while Seth melts your listening soul with his sincerity (and then they switch roles ... oh and instruments.) It is just pure talent.

a SF baptism

I've never really felt as a "denizen of San Francisco"

This attitude is for a few reasons:
1) Chicago was such a grand town for me. And this where I came after leaving there. So, it was a "second city" to me.
2) We live in Marin - and very intentionally spent our initial time here being nature-explorers, rather than urban-dwellers (we'd already done that for a bit in Chicago.) You really have to live in the town to get a feel for it.
3) I was actually trying to get to Seattle rather than SF, but JWT sent me here. So, I had a second-second city attitude. My second-city was actually a second (squared)-city.

Now, I love the city of SF and have pretty much since we moved here, but just didn't feel a part of it. Recently, we celebrated our 5th year of being in the Bay Area. And I'm starting to more than ever feel a part of the city.

One strange thing - I find myself rooting for the SF Giants - and not just when Tim Lincecum pitches.


Of course, I still find myself rooting against them to tear a game open so I can see B.Wilson - but seriously, most Giants fans are in the same category...



Then this past Friday night, we had a uniquely SF experience.

We went with our friend Ellen to the Cartoon Art Museum to listen to a drag queen-hosted reading of Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl.





We then headed to the Pied Piper bar in the Palace hotel.  It gets it's name from a giant Maxfield Parrish mural of the Pied Piper story above the bar.  I got the tasty Charlie Chaplin cocktail (absinthe, rye whiskey, dubonnet, honey, pischard bitters.)



The next morning, I headed to the ferry and opened my bag:


Spent PBR cans and geek paraphernalia - huh. I do love this city. I do embrace it. I do feel a part of it.

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #11

While Rockcrowd Concert #10 had me in a "why are we doing this?" mood - Rockcrowd #11 got me back into the "I'm so glad we are doing this" mood.



We went to the Paramount in Oakland to see Glen Hansard and Eddie Vedder.  They asked us not to take photos in the seating areas, and I respect that, so above is all from the event you are getting from me. But, you can get an "official story" with pics from the Mercury.

First, Glen Hansard came out on stage with his beaten-up guitar - this was the same venue we'd seen him play before with Swell Season.  As always, he was wrenchingly good. Besides his incredible original work, we were fortunate enough to watch him again shred the strings of his guitar for his cover of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks; I could watch that every night - it could be my "power song" for getting things done.

Then there is Eddie Vedder. I've written about him before on this blog (most of the videos are gone now.) And Mary and I had a less than ideal situation in seeing him with Pearl Jam @ Outside Lands.  But this time, he did not disappoint. He came out, sat on a stool surrounded by instruments and told stories and sang to us. It was wonderful. Just so damn good.  The program included this list of the stuff he had on stage with him:




He played a good mix of new stuff, "Into the Wild" and other solo standards and Pearl Jam. It was perfect.  Quite frankly (and obviously), I've changed so much since Pearl Jam's Ten came out. I want to say I'd prefer to listen to Pearl Jam, but that was me then - the solo Eddie Vedder stuff is definitely much more where I am now.  It is fun to experience that.

The crowning moment had to be the blend of worlds - Eddie Vedder singing Marketa's part in a "Falling Slowly" duet. Great night.

I wanted to buy tickets to the following night's show, but knew I should a) enjoy the fact that I had a remarkable experience and b) not kill myself with exhaustion & music fatigue. 

ROCKCROWD!  One show left...

A weekend without Sam

Sam has been traveling the Midwest - he comes back for a short return home time, and then off to Hawaii, so Mary and I are trying out the being a solo-couple thing.

Not bad.

We had a nice 4th of July weekend: