Reconnecting with old friends is always a high energy experience.
The gang of us, Peace Corps, world travelers, vagabonds, hippies, and seekers,
converged in Thailand 35 years ago and Mike Sullivan, a spoke in that wheel,
traveled to San Francisco from Austin several months ago to reconnect with our
wild bunch. Ruth and I are now guests at his home next to the University of
Texas. Mike is an old hand in this region with roots in teaching and a storied
stint in our illustrious US Customs in El Paso, where he served as a stranger
in a strange land. His astonishing stories are best reserved for face-to-face
conversation and fall mostly into the category of “truth is stranger than fiction.”
However, I will say that he told me that he would sometimes slip behind some
unsuspecting, inebriated, northern-bound border-crosser and whisper in his ear,
“Digame sus pecados! Tell me your sins!” This would often jog the religious
subconscious into revealing unsuspecting truths.
We put our ears to the ground and eyes on the Austin
Chronicle, the free
tabloid with all that’s happening in town and pulled a couple of options for
music out of the hat. Our first pick was Alejandro
Escovedo who came highly recommended and was playing in the very hip and
popular Congress area of town. We arrived pre-show and were told to wait
outside while they cleared the club. We stood in line and listened to the band’s
sound check that went on and on. I mentioned to our growing crowd peanut
gallery that rather than stand in line and pay a cover charge, we should just
go to the liquor store down the street, then come back and hang out in front.
As it turned out, that choice should have been the path taken, as the music was
hugely amped up in a small venue, and many people who are not as lucky as me
with my hearing aids that have over-modulation limiters (love technology!),
were covering their ears.
The band either wasn’t paying attention or didn’t give a hoot and
we soon joined the flow of the once hopeful out the door. The night was warm,
the crowds mingling everywhere were filled with fun, and we soon found
ourselves wrapping our hands around cold glasses of some of Austin’s best margaritas
made by our Guatemalan barista. Pleasantly lit and in the glow of the night we
returned home to sit on the back porch telling stories, laughing, and howling
like banshees until the wee hours of the morning. For
those of you who forgot, I’ve included the link of an image of one banshee that
none of us would like to meet or hear, as they are the harbingers of imminent
death. In our case, however, our cries were the expressions of wonder and
recognition that each spark of life we have encountered is rich in learning and
opportunity. No screamin’ banshees near us. I don’t care how hot they are!
Day Two of Austin Adventure, and Mike brought us into the heart of
the university campus to see bronze statues created by Pompeo Coppini on
commission by the Daughters of the American Revolution. As it turned out,
according to local legend, the DAR and the Texas Legislature was unable to pay
for the elaborate statue project that their original plans included. Pompeo,
unfortunately was bound to a contract, yet he had a twisted revenge reserved
and his contracted statues held within them a darker coded message. Now, this
is just twisted legend but a view of the illustrious George Washington from the
front is this. The same image from behind out to the Legislature building shows
him holding what appears to be an object of his body in his left hand as he gazes, from the
artist’s perspective, derisively in their direction. Now bear in mind I got
this from an inside university source.
Following this twisted tour we traveled to Zilker Park, one of
Austin’s many green spaces where is found Barton Springs Pool, a man-made swimming area filled by pure water from an
offshoot of the Edwards Aquifer, the fourth largest in Texas. Approximately 14-28
million gallons of fresh 68-degree water flow through this awesome collector of
earth’s energy and resources. The Tonkawa native American Indians inhabited
this area and used its waters for sacred purification until the Spanish
explorers discovered it in the 17th Century. Mike assured us that a short time
in this water would strip away any toxins and pull out heat from our cores that
only close to 100-degree days can instill. We stood in a long line of decidedly
non-sacred purifiers seeking entry until Mike took us slightly downstream,
outside the fence area filled with those seeking a spot to bask with their
dogs. I’ll admit that when we left I felt a tingling all over but I surmised
that it probably was due to the presence of “hot things in little suits.”
Night time in Austin is something special. I wish I could
tele-transport it home. Lots of fun energy and people finding their muses in a
multitude of entertainment. We found ourselves at the Saxon Pub to hear Johnny
Nicholas, a blues, country, master musician in a venue this time that though
equally small, made the sound perfectly suited to each person throughout the
play space. Here is a video clip of him playing that you will enjoy and
perhaps use as a springboard toward future listening.
In the last video clip you will notice that Johnny is playing a
National Steel Resonator Type Guitar, or just plain steel guitar for short.
Tampa Red, in 1928, became the first black musician to record with the guitar
which had been created in 1927, and it soon spread throughout the south among
all the soon-to-be-great musicians, Son House, Bukka White, Blind Boy Fuller,
and many others. Remember this guitar suited the technology of its time – no amplifiers,
and a need to play crowded clubs with no mics and requiring strong vocal chords
as well. It is said apocryphally that the all-metal fronts that vibrated out
the sound so well could also stop a small caliber bullet – though there are too
many factors to calculate this one! This guitar’s technology was very similar
to the early phonographs that took the sound from the needle or stylus and
transmitted it to a mica disc. The disc acted like a banjo skin and amplified
the sound. You can see this simple physics played out on the National front
from strings to the large circular metal circle disk which very effectively
amplified the sound. Add a metal or glass slide to “fret” the strings and you
get an even stronger vibration and sound amplification. Sol Hoopii Kaai,
considered one of Hawaii’s greatest steel players, brought this sound into the
Hawaiian culture and we hear its ubiquity in most of the music from there
today.
As we travel from place to place, it is becoming more apparent
that the interconnection of place, culture, and musical style, regardless of
the type, share similar DNA. The further in we go, the more the links grow
tighter, like brain cells bonding and sending out new branches, making memories
vivid and strong.
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