Hi friends. This post today encompasses my experiences since last Sunday the 5th of April, through last night the 11th. It started with a trip down to Georgia for some hiking on the Appalachian trail.
The Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls State Park
Rosemary and I went here last week. 5 mile hike in from the falls and trail head. Stayed 2 nights at the Inn.Dinner and breakfast are served family style. Educational and entertaining programs are conducted in the Sunrise Room after dinner most evenings. Programs consist of everything from worm composting to storytelling. Books and games are also available. The Sunrise Room (as you would expect from the name!) is an excellent place to observe the sunrise in the morning.
http://hike-inn.com/default.asp
Day 2 we awoke to a snowstorm and cold temps. Ate breakfast group style and then met some folks in the sunrise room who were going to Springer Mountain, snow storm or not. Those were our kind of people. We signed on to that trip, as we were going to do that ourselves anyway and off we went.
See my pictures here:
This plaque is embedded in the rock at the Springer Mountain Appalachian Trailhead at Springer mountain. It reads: “A footpath for those who seek fellowship with the Wilderness”
The other plaque is shown below with a map and trail marker.
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Appalachian Trail
Georgia to Maine
1954
Georgia Appalachian Trial Club
The trail, in the Chattahoochee National Forest, flows from Amicalola Falls State Park to Springer Mountain is a microcosm of the natural history of the North Georgia mountains. It follows the high eastern ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. Much of the trail is covered with snow in the winter. Spring melts give way to many of the wildflowers common throughout the mountains including bloodroot, trillium, and azalea. Laurel and rhodedendron "hells" bloom in the early summer and cover much of the clear areas of the trails. Forests are mostly second growth hardwood with hickory, oak and poplar dominating. Read more history here.
After returning to Nashville on Wednesday, we attended the Bela Fleck show at the Ryman auditorium. He performed with 4 men from Africa (Toumani Diabate, Vusi Mahlesela, D'Gary, and Anania Ngoliga) I can say that this was fantastic. One highlight was a performance of one of the most important musicians in Africa, Toumani Diabate.
Toumani plays the kora, a harp unique to West Africa with 21 strings, which 71 generations of his family have played. This instrument sounds so beautiful. The countries represented were Tanzania, Mali, Uganda and The Gambia. Heads up you Tucson fans. This show (or a version of it) will be at the Rialto theatre June 17th and then they'll be heading up to Telluride on the 19th!!!!! for the Telluride Music Festival.
Thursday afternoon I went into the dentist to get a cracked molar worked on. I got a crown and wasn't that fun? Good to get it over with is all I can say. I go back in 2 weeks for the permanent crown and a "deep cleaning". Doesn't that sound fun also? As you can see I'm not much into going to the dentist. The dentist I'm seeing now is Edwina at Aqua Dental. She was nice to me and did a good job for me. It was expensive though as dental work always is. Even with Dental discount coverage it still costs alot!!!! I don't think there is such a thing as good dental insurance. It never covers very much. A special thanks also to Rose for accompanying me to the dentist and waiting for me. It helped my attitude knowing she was in the waiting room while I got worked on. Thanks Rose!!
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Friday afternoon was all about weather. A woman and her baby died in a nearby Tornado. Got big thunderstorms and then the Tornado Sirens went off. There's one just down the street from where we live in Brentwood. And they are all over Tennessee as far as I know. So we turned on the TV to the local weather, where they have great technology now to see what's happening and where. They pointed out the "hooks" and the "swirling winds" which represent possible Tornadoes. We got "tornado warnings" which means at least one actual tornado has been spotted in our area. So we went into the basement (Rosemary's office is our official shelter because it doesn't have any windows, it's downstairs and so that's where we go). There's a tv down there too so we watch the weather, listen to the sirens and ride out the storm. Well, the tornadoes that day were east of us and one did bad damage and caused 2 deaths in Murfreesboro. Click here to read the story published in the Tennessean about it. And here are more pictures from the Tennessean. Tornadoes are something I never had to worry about living in Arizona and around the western US. They are pretty wild and unpredictable and scary, and deadly.
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On a lighter note.........
Friday evening Rose and I went out to hear some great music.
We went out for music last night. First we went to 3rd and Lindsley for a Cello performance by Matt Haimovitz an Israeli-born cellist now based in the United States and Canada. He is known not only for his outstanding technical and musical skill, but also for his highly unusual concert career and repertoire choices. He mainly plays a cello made by Matteo Gofriller in 1710. It was outstanding. He played all kinds of different stuff that I can’t even describe. I can only say it sounded really neat and looked pretty complex. I know he played some Bach stuff. The night before this show he performed at Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra. He says his current small-venue tour is a reconciliation of his two home countries (US and Canada), in celebration of recent U.S. electoral results. His program for what he calls his “listening-room” concerts features contemporary American composers Elliott Carter, John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse alongside Canadians such as Anna Sokolovic and Serge Provost. This is a man of many talents. Read more about him here:
http://www.thelongplayers.com/ Saw this Rolling Stones imitation show last night at Mercy Lounge featuring the 1978 Some Girls Album done in it’s entirety. Rocking great show. Lots of older folks like us at the show.
Check out this bio on Bill Lloyd, one of the main guys from The Long Players: http://www.thelongplayers.com/blog/billlloyd.html This guy has quite a musical history. Last night’s show featured many local Nashville performers each doing a different Mick Jagger, lead singer performance. John Cowan (original member of New Grass Revival) played bass for a while. Then he swapped out with the bass player for Cheap Trick. Ho Hum. Another night of music in the Music City!!!
Other shows we didn’t see last night include: Ten out of Ten, featuring Katie Herzig, Butterfly Boucher and Matthew Perryman Jones. They have signed on as part of a new music website called Brite Revolution. A subscription gives users exclusive access to stuff that isn’t available already everywhere else on the internet. Check out the website here: http://www.briterevolution.com/
There was also a Bob Dylan vs Tom Petty Tribute at a local hole in the wall called The Basement.
Anyways, that gives you a very small sample of some of the typical, any night of the week music around here in Nashville.
Adios for now!
Curtis
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