a personal story

I recently received an email from an old college friend alerting me to a really unfortunate situation involving someone I care about. Her name is Hoa Nguyen and she is originally from Vietnam. I met her in the fall of 2000 when we were both students at Luther College and I still remember vividly her teaching me how to pronounce her last name with a huge grin on her face ("It's just like the wind, Josh. That's how you say it!"). She married a really great guy, Dan Hanson, a few years later and, frankly, he can say it better than I can:

“My wife, Hoa Nguyen, was detained by four U.S. Immigration officers on August 14th, 2009. Since returning from our wedding in Viet Nam in February, there have been some difficulties making sure we have been complying with U.S. Immigration law. Hoa missed a court date on the 13th of August, as she mistook he date to be the 23rd, and was subsequently ordered to be immediately deported. It came as a shock to us that such serious action should be taken for that mistake. Currently, she is being held at Sherburne County Jail and we are doing everything in our power to secure her release.

Hoa and I have known each other for 7 years. I met her at Luther College and we began dating a year and a half after graduation. Since that time, we have fallen in love, married and we are now anxious to live the early years of our marriage in continued happiness and calm.

Hoa has a wonderful disposition and shares her laughter, smile and wit with all that are around her. She is infectious, kind, an amazing cook and can connect with kids in an instant. Additionally, she has a master’s degree in French from the University of Minnesota. A family as well as a restaurant, a day care, or teaching are her ambitions. She deserves to be in the U.S. on her own merits. She is however, my wife and as a U.S. citizen she and I have the right to be together. I am disappointed that we have experienced this part of our system and regret that we did not seek professional help earlier. Be that as it may, we are in this position and have every intention of making it through this with our heads held high and our relationship stronger."

Those paragraphs from Dan (and the 2 pictures I included here) were taken from a website that Hoa's friends set up to alert people to the situation (http://www.hoadefense.org/). He gets all the details just right but you can sense a tremendous amount of reservation regarding his emotions about the situation...and I certainly can't say that I blame him. For my part, all I can tell you is that Hoa is truly an amazing person; a positive force for positive change with everyone she meets. You might say she's "one in a million" or some cliche like that which cannot even come close to summing up what she's given you with her gracious personality and gentle spirit. Another friend of ours likened her to the human incarnation of a butterfly. This is not far off.

The latest update on http://www.hoadefense.org/ is a letter from Hoa herself. In it she talks about the rigors of living in the jail--no windows, lock downs sometimes for 10 hours a day--but that, "I have started to have dreams again and have very deep sleep."

We've all met people like Hoa and Dan and it would be a shame not to speak up on their behalf in any way possible. I've contacted our three representatives in the Congress (as I would imagine they already have) and am looking to see if there is anything else I can do. These are tremendously good people with a deep sense of compassion, social justice and an obvious devotion to each other. If there's anything that anyone out there can do please do it.

big whiskey

I've been listening to the Dave Matthews Band's newest album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, for the past couple of days. It was released back in April but I've only now just gotten around to listening to it. It's the last album that original band member LeRoi Moore laid any tracks down for before he died last August and he's never far from the spirit of the songs. In fact, the album cover is a drawing (by Dave Matthews himself, no less) of him in the guise of a Mardi Gras float.




















My hands down favorite is the fourth track, "Lying in the Hands of God." It's a 4/4 thing with a maestoso tempo and the awesome lyric, "Save your sermons for someone who's afraid to love." Some of Moore's sax licks drop in around 2'58" and add this floaty passion to the proceedings that you didn't know was missing until it was suddenly there.

Definitely worth a listen and a fitting tribute to one of the great sax players of all time.

yet another joshua shank

Remember last year when I found a bunch of other Joshuas Shank via Google alerts? Well, Google just let me in on the fact that I'm (presumably) back in high school (in Canada) and can now play rugby. Here's the picture from the St. Albert Gazette:

The tag line for the picture read:

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Joshua Shank of the Pirates tries to split the St. Albert defensive tandem of Taylor England (left) and Jarid Snidal in Wednesday’s U18 match at the Leading Edge Physiotherapy Field. A late try by Jordan Schapansky secured a 5-5 draw for St. Albert.

So, at the very least, I led the team to a draw, right? That's not a loss, people! And, frankly, it's kind of comforting to know that, somewhere out there, there's a Joshua Shank who is actually good at sports.

Mahalo.

and we're off! + choral awards

No more opera writing for a bit as it's time to start on work for the paying customers! First up is a set of three songs in French for soprano Jessica Hardy. The last French set I wrote, Chansons des la Vigne, was a whole lot of fun and I'm looking forward to some more good coffee with my French tutor. The instrumentation will be the interesting combination of piano and harp.

This time around I've chosen some great texts by one of my favorite poets ever, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). The guy was German but wrote over 400 poems in French...which I read in their entirety over the summer (it took forever) along with reviewing some of the poems I flagged by Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine and Guillaume Apollinaire. Morten Lauridsen famously set a bunch of Rilke's French work in his Les Chanson des Roses and, having admired that work forever, I decided to try my hand at some Rilke.

His poetry always has such a beautiful, sinewy line to it that is incredibly difficult to try and honor with music. In fact, it's almost music in and of itself so the real challenge will be to reveal what's there already. I used an English translation of his poem, Herbst, for a choral piece I wrote in 2004 but this is my first time with his original words. It's going to be so much fun.

In other news, I just won a pair of choral awards from both coasts! First, the NYC-based Society for Universal Sacred Music chose Musica animam tangens as one of the winners for their Festival of Universal Sacred Music. There are also winners from Sweden, Italy and Switzerland alongside the other six from the U.S. so I'm incredibly honored that they chose my piece. They'll perform it next April at the gorgeous Kaufman Center in the Upper East Side.



















A Grass-Green Pillow (the fifth movement of Color Madrigals) also racked up its second award in as many years; this time from San Diego's newest choral ensemble, Sacra/Profana. Artistic Director Krishan Oberoi was very gracious in our initial correspondence and I'm incredibly grateful they chose my piece to represent themselves with.

However, what I'm really tickled at is that there's a picture on their website of their selection committee holding up copies of my piece. I remember when I judged The Singers' Choral Horizons program last year with Abbie, Jocelyn, Tim and Matt and the Sacra/Profana people look a fair shade better than we did after digging through dozens and dozens of scores for hours and hours (I would imagine that you always get way more submissions than you think you will for these things). They posted an email I sent on their website so, since one good turn deserves another, here's that awesome picture. Thanks, S/P! I can't wait to hear what you do with the work!

currently listening

So, Imogen Heap's new album, Ellipse, just came out today. Wow. It's just amazing. I'm still processing what I'm hearing because it is so singular. Once I get this one all listened to I'm going after Matisyahu's new album, Light, which also came out today.

My hands down favorites are "Bad Body Double" (it's a lesson in the percussiveness of rapid-fire words) and the track immediately after, "Aha!" (it reminds me of a good Danny Elfman score to a good Tim Burton film). Everyone should go out and get it today!

re-stringing day

It's Instrument Upkeep Day here at the Shank household! I spent the last few hours re-stringing both my 12-string and 6-string guitars. It's easy to forget both how long this takes (I'll never do both in one day again) as well as the finger grime that builds up on the fingerboards when these instruments are put to good use. It's a little gross but kind of cool--as far as gunk goes, that is--to think how hard you must've rocked to shred all that stuff off your fingers.

That being said, there are certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon other than watching a few Netflix episodes of Dark Angel (Remember that early 00s show, anyone? I've been on a sci-fi/cyberpunk kick lately.) and sipping on a cup of coffee while you endlessly crank the tuning pegs to remove, replace and tune 18 bronze strings. The payoff is obvious, though. They sound great.

currently listening + burgers + potatoes

I don't know why I've only just downloaded this song but I am really digging Prince's song, 7. If you don't remember exactly which one I'm talking about perhaps you'll remember the video where he had a microphone on the end of a gun and a police hat with chains down the front obscuring his face. Yeah, it's that Prince I'm talking about.





















He does this really cool pitch bend on the word "blasphemy" that makes the spine tingle every time. He's layered his voice vocoder-style (eat your heart out Immy) like 15 times and they all go in the same direction before snapping back to the "right" notes. It is so cool. A lesser artist would have populated the song with stuff like that but he seasons it just right...once is enough for His Royal Badness. Oh, and did I mention he's from Minneapolis?

Since I moved to Uptown and now live really close to the Wedge Community Co-op, I've decided to try and cook something really nice each week this year. I went down to Dubuque, Iowa last week to visit my brother's family and cooked some kickass black bean burgers and potato salad. I read John Mackey's amazing blog whenever I get the chance and he's been cooking up some Ina Garten recipes lately. So, as a knower of a good idea when I see one, I went with her French Potato Salad recipe. Pair that with the alfalfa-sprouts-and-fresh-guacamole-on-a-black-bean-burger combo that I love at my local organic restaurant, Tao Natural Cafe, and you've got a Combustible Edison. It was amazing.

I didn't go all out and make the black bean burgers myself (although this is an eventual goal). Morning Star Farms has some great vegetarian stuff that I love to use and, usually, I just throw the pattie in the microwave because it's fast. However, my sister-in-law taught me a new method to prepare these beauties: the toaster. You just pop them in on the highest setting a couple of times and it turns them crispy. I can't believe I never thought of that. Thanks, Beth!

not so lonely planet

I use Lonely Planet whenever I travel. I traipsed around Europe and the UK for 6 weeks a few years ago with nothing but their awesome books, I took another to Greece this past March as well as my last jaunt to Montreal and I'll more than likely buy one for my trip to Spain next year. The descriptions in their books use really amazing language that make you just want to get out and do stuff. Despite my long history with the LP books, I've never actually looked up what they had to say about the city I'm in love with, Minneapolis. It definitely has its own character and I'm incredibly proud to be from here. So here's what they had to say:

Minneapolis is the artiest town on the prairie, with all the trimmings of progressive prosperity – a cache of coffee shops, organic and ethnic eateries, swank art museums, and enough theaters to be nicknamed Mini-Apple (second only to the Big Apple, New York City). It’s always happenin’, even in winter.

But there’s no attitude to go along with the abundance. It’s the kind of place where homeless people are treated kindly at the coffee shops, where the buses are kept immaculately clean, and where the public workers tell every­one to ‘Have a nice day,’ rain or shine (or snow). No wonder the city recently topped the list as the most charitable place in America.

Hells. Yeah. I love my city. And they got pretty much everything Minneapolitans brag about in two paragraphs. The only thing they missed was the chain of lakes around the city. The local government kept all the shoreline for the public so there's always tons of people outside running, walking, biking, etc.

It's awesome.

You betcha.

montreal to minneapolis in 4 meals or less

Back to Minneapolis for the duration of the summer! Montreal was très, très bon. After my last entry I remembered my camera for the rest of my time in the second largest French-speaking city in the world so I've got just enough pictures to make a pretty hearty blog entry.

Tuesday night I went to a great tapas restaurant on Rue St Denis called Confusion. They have swings in their dining room. How cool is that?
















The thing that I like about tapas restaurants is that you can try more than a few things and not get stuffed. The even nicer thing about Confusion is that they take the traditional tapas meal and twist it just a bit (hence the "fusion" part in their name). The lighting was not great for the taking of pictures but I can assure you that my fried plantain chips with guacamole and feta falafel with mint leaves were amazing.

Afterwards I went to a great blues bar down the street for some great live music. The Bistro à Jojo has been running blues acts 7 days a week for 30 years and, after I realized I had been gritting my teeth and digging my fingernails into my palms for an entire song, it wasn't hard to see why. My love affair with live blues music continues unabated. The place just rocks. Even the bartenders were having a blast.

The next morning I woke up a little early and took the metro over to the Olympic Park for a look at the Biodôme de Montréal. It was originally a velodrome that hosted judo and cycling events for the 1976 Olympic Games and the Canadians wisely recycled the space into a massive and wildly popular tourist attraction.

Inside there are four separate ecosystems to sample. First you've got the Tropical Forest where they had one of those giant rodent Capybara things. I've never seen one of them in the flesh before and, though I'm far from afraid of anything that size with fur, it was a little disconcerting to see such a massive rodent. It was chilling in its pool harmlessly eating some leaves but I felt like it could seriously mangle me if it got such a notion into its little brain. This thing was far weirder to behold than the alligators. (Side note: watch this video to get creeped out by one of these things with an old lady.)

Then you head into the North American forest environment (which, for some reason, is called the Laurentian Forest). This had all the animals we're used to here in the States. This makes them no less interesting, however.

From there you move into a massive aquarium modeled after the estuary habitat of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The tank is so big that it's disorienting to stand in front of it for so long. Your brain starts to tell itself that it's in the same environment as the fish which, according to your eyes, are just floating around in "the air"...like you could fall into it at any moment. Very cool.

And some of these fish were absolutely massive. Like easily the size of my carry-on suitcase but a lot longer.

On to the polar area. This faux environment reminds me of that last moment in The Truman Show where Truman's boat smashs into the sides of his fake world.

In this part of the biodome they just have a shitload of penguins...just dozens and dozens of them of all kinds waddling around or swimming in their tanks. These little buggers are incredibly photogenic but frustratingly hard to get a good picture of. No flash photography and they won't stand still.

Sometimes, however, this leads to an interesting photo. This little guy stared at me through the glass for what seemed like forever. When I finally took out my camera to see if I could snap a picture was when he playfully decided to move (he totally did it on purpose...I just know it). The photo came out to look sort of like an impressionistic painting.

Waddle, waddle. You can watch these guys on their very own webcam.

After I finished up there I took the metro over to the Planétarium de Montréal. I took (and really enjoyed) Astronomy in college and, since it's been ages since I went to a planetarium, it seemed like a good idea. It allowed me to get a better lay of the land with regards to downtown Montreal...and the actual projector looks like some sort of James Bond villain's laser.

From there I walked around Montreal a bit more before hitting Menthe et Couscous for supper. Once again: great ambiance...

...but terrible lighting for pictures. I had this awesome vegetarian couscous. I have got to learn how to grill vegetables like this. It's all in the order that you put them in, right? It should be simple enough.

At the Montreal airport the next day I had this awesome salad while waiting for my flight. I had one of those dreaded, 4-hour portions of free time to waste so I made some more headway on my Andrew Jackson biography (which I blogged about over a month ago but am still working on...only about 50 pages to go now).

Once I got back to Minneapolis I immediately went out for an amazing dinner with some friends at BALi. This place is over-the-top good. I had this curry with green beans, tofu and shitake mushrooms in a coconut sauce and a cinnamon/chili martini (how about that for an interesting combination?). BALi is relatively new so I'm going to go back to this place as often as I can.

And speaking of interesting drinks. I had this thing called a Black Velvet whilst at McKibbin's Irish Pub in Montreal. It's half cider and half Guinness. That shouldn't be good, right? Wrong. Amazing. And photogenic.

So that's Montreal for blog consumption. I love love love this city and hope to return for an extended stay next year. Here's some pics I took around downtown.

Au revoir, Montréal. Vous avez mon coeur.