currently listening + more pics from MI + currently reading

Still in the Great Lakes State and currently meandering my way through Grizzly Bear's latest album, Veckatimest. It's hard to describe but it's obviously very good. (I suppose it doesn't hurt that Nico Muhly contributed a few bits here and there.) and, you've got a few bucks to throw at iTunes it's completely worth it. I hate to put a this band reminds me of in what is supposed to be a "serious" musician's blog but--for me at least--there's a flavor of The Shins' first album, Oh, Inverted World, here. But whatever. It's still a work of great originality and the swirling climax of "I Live With You" is one of my favorites.
















I ate at the Mackinaw Brewing Company in Traverse City this afternoon and the portabello burger was sufficiently portabello-y. I'm really starting to kind of dig this town. It's very touristy (it's "The Cherry Capital of the United States"...the National Cherry Festival starts on the 4th) but, if you ignore the people on holiday from suburban Detroit wandering around in their loafers and linen shorts, it's actually a nice place to post up for a bit.
















Work on the opera is slow going. In fact, I haven't worked at all for the past 5 days because it's been cold and rainy and my writing space is one of Interlochen's "practice huts" (essentially a tiny shelter in the woods equipped with four walls and a grand piano...there are dozens on the campus). Despite that, I've jumped over a major hurdle and started to write the accompaniment figures into some of the arias.

I took a trip to the shores of Lake Michigan near the "vanished" town of Aral last week that, aside from the lady who informed me that I had just walked through a patch of poison ivy (which I thankfully never showed any symptoms of), was a lot of sunny fun.

I also finished John Adams' autobiography last week (it was sooo good...every musician should read it) and dove straight into a book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Eat, Pray, Love. (Side note: I'm loathe to mention that title without first explaining the book because it sounds quasi-religious and self-helpy. But I'll get to that in a minute.)

Before I left Minneapolis for 7 weeks Mama Shank handed me this book and gave me one of those "you have to read it" speeches (although it should be noted that she phrased it like only a mother could: "I really want you to read this"...you're awesome, by the way, mom). I decided to crack it open because it was obviously important to her and, frankly, I've got nothing but time on my hands here in the woods of western Michigan. (My next book is Jon Meacham's Pulizter Prize-winning biography of Andrew Jackson!) As always, she turned out to be a really good judge of what I might like to read.

It's EG's story of her post-divorce travels through Italy (to seek pleasure), India (to seek devotion) and Indonesia (to find "a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence"). Let me first say that, if this all sounds like one of those smarmy self-help books, it's because that's exactly what it all sounds like.

However, this book is much, much more than that. Her writing is effervescent, sensual and full of color. It's one of those rare cases where you feel like you're packing right alongside her at every stop on her journey of self-discovery. She is an immensely talented writer and I am really enjoying this book.

By the way, I can't believe I just wrote "journey of self-discovery". It makes me want to throw up but it should be noted that this book is good enough for me--with malice aforethought--to represent myself with a trite phrase like that.

Mahalo.