Lowell Folk Festival 2007 - summary of posts

My collection of posts, pictures and music from the Lowell Folk Festival, July 28, 2007. stay tuned there's more to come... Eileen Ivers/Immigrant Soul - Danish Winter Song Eileen Ivers/Immigrant Soul - Riverdance Suite Eileen Ivers/Immigrant Soul - Hearts of Wonder (audio) Peeking through the umbrellas Rapid Fire Learning July Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy Lost Bayou Ramblers Forro for all Dorado Schmitt & Django Reinhardt Festival All Star Band The Lee Boys Step dancers Eileen tunes the blue fiddle Naomi Arenberg and Brad Paul Harry Potter also appeared in Lowell Diunna Greenleaf in the crowd Schedule reminder 2 Schedule reminder Early schedule

LowellFolk: Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy

LowellFolk: Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy Originally uploaded by shersteve So after the musical odyssey with five stops, what else can you bring to the stage? How about some Texas blues! Blue Mercy superbly backed Diunna and Diunna won the audience over.

LowellFolk: Lost Bayou Ramblers

LowellFolk: Lost Bayou Ramblers Originally uploaded by shersteve Hey, after traveling (musically) from Irish, to "sacred steel", to "Gypsy jazz" to "forro", there was room for some real cajun music.

LowellFolk: Forro For Al

LowellFolk: Forro For Al Originally uploaded by shersteve A Brazilian style of music, forró pé de serra, had the audience up and dancing. More on "forro" later.

LowellFolk: Dorado Schmitt & Django Reinhardt Festival All Star Band

LowellFolk: Dorado Schmitt & Django Reinhardt Festival All Star Band Originally uploaded by shersteve "Gypsy jazz" came to the festival on their way from Paris to New York City. We were fortunate to hear this delightful treat. More on "gypsy jazz" later.

LowellFolk: Lee Boys

LowellFolk: Lee Boys Originally uploaded by shersteve The Lee Boys brought "sacred steel" to the festival for the fist time. More on "sacred steel" later.

LowellFolk: Step dancers

LowellFolk: Step dancers Originally uploaded by shersteve Can you have Irish music without some traditional step dancers? These young ladies joined in with Eileen towards the end of their set. Two of them had also appeared earlier in the set. Before the rain came.

LowellFolk: Eileen Ivers tunes her blue fiddle

LowellFolk: Eileen Ivers tunes her blue fiddle Originally uploaded by shersteve Yes, even the famous blue fiddle needs some tuning. Eileen and her group "Immigrant Soul" played a wonderful set.

LowellFolk: Naomi Arenberg and Brad Paul

LowellFolk: Naomi Arenberg and Brad Paul Originally uploaded by shersteve Co-hosts of "Folk on WGBH-FM", they were also co-hosts for the live broadcast of the Lowell Folk Festival on Saturday. It was a great day for music, if marred slightly by some intermittent rain. More to follow!

Deceit at Amazon

I received an email today from Amazon. The usual occasional offering of a book by someone whom I had previously purchased. This is usually a good service. last week, I found out William Goldman has a new book coming out August 7th. Today's email was for a new book by Billy Collins. At least it appeared to be that according to the email (a screen shot of part of the copy is shown): When I followed the link to Amazon to view the book in details, I found out that Billy Collins wrote the Introduction and was not the author. Is this just sloppy on Amazon's part or has someone else seen examples of this deceit? I am curious.

5 for Friday

In the art, design and user experience space today, I have the five following links for you to explore: 1 - Sarah Nelson a noted UX person from Adaptive Path Sarah's site lead me to Tucker's 2 - You must visit this site and be SURE to read the comments. Priceless! 3 - I found this from Tucker's site: Based in Los Angeles, Zero Degrees Art is the online presence of our art community. We consist of artists, curators, and critics. Everyone included on this site is connected to someone else. The name Zero Degrees comes from Stanley Milgram's phrase "Six Degrees of Separation" a term derived from his social experimentation. In the new millennium, degrees of separation have narrowed due to global communication and ease of travel, often the actual degrees of separation are much closer than you might think. Since we began this project, we have connected artists and curators, given art writers a forum, and helped promote emerging artists. Through this website, we invite you to join our discussion, discover new emerging artists, and network with each other. 4 - I lost track of how I found this, maybe from something else with Sarah. 5 - and finally, to prove (again) the point that you to not need to travel far to find what you need. I found Kevin Brooks, storyteller on the schedule for the Adaptive Path conference coming up in Washington, DC in August. And when following the links to find out more about this storyteller, I find he is has a connection to MIT. Enjoy!

Big Brother gets the tool

Wasting Time Online Could Be A Thing Of The Past New monitoring software called BeAware aims to help increase employee productivity, cut down on wasted time, and protect company data. This came into my inbox today via the InformationWeek Newsletter. Impressive, yet scary!

Franklin: detritus from HoneyDew

Franklin_detritus_honeydew Originally uploaded by shersteve It appears that some one on a regular basis dumps their empty container after finishing their Honey Dew coffee. These white spots are all parts of the same size container along this one stretch near the intersection of Mount St and Upper Union in Franklin. With some more forensics work, we could determine the type of coffee and perhaps even get some DNA to help identify the perpetrator. Where is CSI Franklin?

Franklin: Got Enough Signs?

Franklin_gotenufsigns Originally uploaded by shersteve Gee, do you think folks might get the message that they are now leasing space? What of the folks who already live there? They already signed their lease, now they have to see these signs every time they come and go? Why don't they just provide the signs to the residents, or whomever wants to take one, and distribute them elsewhere? Note: although not shown n this view, the entire entrance way is marked every 10-15 feet with another sign on BOTH sides of the road. But you might have figured that. :-)

East of Shirley

This is being posted late as July 7th has come and gone. The remainder of the schedule and information is good! Go to the East Of Shirley (EOS) myspace page and give them a listen. They are quite good. I need to arrange to catch one of their shows! (text below reprinted from the group's email alert for their summer gigs) Just a quick update on EoS's upcoming gigs. Tonight "East of Shirley" will be performing in a special "unplugged" edition at Groton's Stagecoach Inn. Many of our band mates are off vacationing this week, so tonight what's "Left of Shirley" will be playing: Michael Clark on acoustic guitar, National Steel, and andolin, with Ed Conley on congas, drums, rainstick, and African thumb piano! We'll be doing our usual setlist of covers and originals, focusing on the tunes that will be appearing on our upcoming (fall 07) CD: "A Thousand Sarajevos." The show starts at 8:30 or so; see below for details on how to get there. The larger, 6-piece Shirley contingent will return to the Stagecoach for our regular "first Saturday" show on August 4. We'll also be performing in August at The Java Room in Chelmsford (Friday the 24th), one of our favorite venues, a great little listening room in the northern 'burbs that presents local musicians on Friday and Saturday nights. And finally, we've been asked to perform this year at Grotonfest. Details are still being worked out, so stay tuned for further info on that. You can visit us online at http://www.myspace.com/eastofshirley, where you can hear some of our recent demo recordings, download them for free, and check out the links of our many musical fellow-travelers. Also be sure to check out the gigging schedule of our percussionist Ed Conley, who plays lots of hot jazz when he isn't exploring the Shirley-side-of-life: http://www.edconley.com/Schedule.htm Thanks, and we'll see you at the shows! Mike, Tim, Steve, Nate, Doug, Dan, and Ed _________ Saturday, August 4, 2007 The Stagecoach Inn & Tavern 128 Main St. Route 119 Groton, MA 01450 978-448-5614 8:30 - 11 pm http://www.groton-inn.com/entertain.htm Friday, August 24, 2007 *The Java Room * Ginger Ale Plaza 14 Littleton Road Chelmsford, Massachusetts 978-256-0001 8 - 10 pm http://www.thejavaroom.com/index.htm Saturday, September 1, 2007 The Stagecoach Inn & Tavern 128 Main St. Route 119 Groton, MA 01450 978-448-5614 8:30 - 11 pm http://www.groton-inn.com/entertain.htm Saturday, September 22, 2007 Grotonfest! Groton Town Center at Legion Common Groton, MA 01450 10am - 6 pm http://www.grotonfest.com/index.php <http://www.groton-inn.com/entertain.htm>

International Day of Peace - 9/21/07

Please consider accepting the challenge as outlined by LJCohen I have been giving a lot of thought to my place in the world. I am so fortunate--I was born in a time and place in which I have the gifts of food, shelter, clothing, and basic safety. And I can pass these gifts on to my children. I believe that because of the accident of birth and the advantages I was given, unearned, that I have an obligation to give back to society. We do that as a family in the form of charity, volunteer work, and lifestyle choices. In a few weeks, the world will be celebrating an International Day of Peace (September 21). In honor of that day, I would like to challenge bloggers around the world to write a blog post titled: Giving Back, talking about what you are able to do in order to give back the world. This can include organizations you personally support, though I really want to showcase actions. Do you volunteer in community organizations? Your local school district? Regional, national, or international organizations? Do you maintain a community garden? How about simple things in your neighborhood like shoveling your neighbor's walkway when it snows because you know she can't? Picking up bottles and cans along the bike path to recycle? Big or small, what do you do for your world? Every action has an impact. Let's show the world how much a group of regular individuals can do. If you would like to participate in the Blogger Giving Back Challenge, leave a comment here in this post with a link back to your blog, or send me an email. I'll work out the details of sharing all the blog links in preparation of post day, September 21st. Please spread the word. You can make a difference. We can all make a difference. -- Posted By LJCohen to Once in a Blue Muse: A poet's journal at 7/21/2007 02:39:00 PM I have accepted this challenge. Will you? Go to Once in a Blue Muse and let LJ know!

Santiago Calatrava

Many thanks to Deb Estep for letting me know that the architect of the Milwaukee Art Museum is Santiago Calatrava. More info on Santiago can be found on wikipedia here and here

Weekend Good Experience Video

From Mark Hurst at The Good Experience blog comes this gem: This super-creative four-minute video, created in a single take, features a trampoline, some very good athletes, an unusual camera angle, and some thoughts on graphic design. Worth watching. (Don't miss the "status bar" on the bottom of the screen.) Truly a good experience, please give your self the four minute break this weekend! Thanks for the pointer Mark!

Vintage autos on I94

Vintage autos on I94 Originally uploaded by shersteve Classics restored cared for enjoyed shared a bright spot on any day you find one!

Milwaukee Art Museum - inside

Milwaukee Art Museum - inside Originally uploaded by shersteve what a view...

Milwaukee Art Museum - southern view

Milwaukee Art Museum - southern view Originally uploaded by shersteve I need to do some research on the designer for this building. Their work is one of the most intriguing designs I have seen.

The Pfister; Milwaukee, WI

The Pfister; Milwaukee, WI Originally uploaded by shersteve Visiting with my brother and family in Chicagoland, we drove up to Milwaukee. About an hour drive, mostly up Interstate 94 brought us into downtown Milwaukee. Wanting to start with something to eat with found the historic Pfister Hotel Cafe and had a delightful lunch/brunch. I chose the Cobb salad in the bottom right photo. If I did take another picture when I finished, it would be of a boring empty white plate! It was delicious. I'll have more pix and posts on Milwaukee coming. It was a very nice visit.

Live on Sirius Satellite Radio

Live on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 114 from 8 AM until 9 AM (Eastern time) on Monday July 16th Benjamin Bach, Greg Balanko-Dickson, Phil Gerbyshak, EM Sky and Steve Sherlock will join host Karen Salmansohn on the the Be Happy, Dammit! show for what is sure to be a fast and furious 60 minutes of conversation. Can't catch it live? Don't worry, check out the Be Happy Dammit archives, especially this great show with Keith Ferrazzi, and soon, you'll see the JJLN show there too! We'll be talking about all things learning, and no doubt learn a thing or two from Karen! Hope you can hear us soon!

Shadow - Idea

Shadow - Idea Originally uploaded by shersteve Some ideas just appear. Some ideas need to be thought about. Some ideas don't always come out in straight lines. How do your ideas appear today?

Borderland guide

Borderland Park in Easton, MA is a lovely place. We have been there several times primarily in the fall for high school cross country meets. The Boston Globe has a good piece on the kind of information you can get on a tour from Christine King.

Weikert: Lost?

Weikert: Lost? Originally uploaded by shersteve When you go into the woods for a hike, it is helpful to know what markers there will be for the trail. How is the trail blazed? Do you have a map to layout where the trail goes? And if you don't, it is certainly good to find a sign like this!

In-Depth Content Is Value-Add Content

Jacob Neilsen has posted his latest AlertBox and as usual, it is packed with nuggets of goodness. You have to identify opportunities with a non-linear utility function: where paying customers assign more than 10 times higher value to something that costs 10 times as much to produce. The old open-source manifesto "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" holds much truth: when you're the duke, you can't trade in coffee beans, because the bazaar dealers will always undercut your price. You should build a cathedral, because a thousand tents can't compete with the Notre Dame. Are you building a tent or a cathedral?

Omaha Steak (burgers) on the grill at Weikert

Omaha Steak (burgers) on the grill at Weikert Originally uploaded by shersteve Bob, Lisa, the shipment did not only arrive in time but was also put to use. The burgers were grilled on this fire circle and tasted very good! Note to others: If you want to send a special thank you to someone and you know they like to cook, grill, eat, then you should consider an Omaha Steaks gift package. Good food, delivered well.

sherku: Tenth Circle (Jodi Picoult)

spiral inward, thoughts become words, words become deeds be careful what you wish for A book review of The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult Once upon a time I found that Patti Digh did haiku book reviews and thought that a wonderful idea. I have since created sherku and almost spun off "booku" as those specifically for books but decided not to...

Sunday Paper Roundup

In the Parade magazine section of today's Boston Globe, there is an interview with Emma Watson. Emma is better known as Hermione Granger. Harry Potter 5 appears in theaters this week. A new translation of Lafayette's letters is available. Sounds like it should be interesting to read some day. Proposal to create a land bridge over Route 2 to connect Walden Woods reminds me of a land bridge we used to see regularly along Route 78 in New Jersey. The new list for the 7 wonders of the world was released yesterday after 100 million votes were tallied. The 7 wonders of learning list was also compiled yesterday on the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog.

Get in the Feedback Loop

I am teaching a class this morning; twenty newbie managers ~ my favorite audience! Yesterday, I called the hotel venue to confirm some things, and the young man who answered the phone (remember when we called them PBX operators?) said the words you expect to hear when you call a hotel in Hawai'i, but there was something different; the way he said them. His voice and his tone was animated yet personally low enough to be intimate and not over the top. I could make out every word he said, and he made me feel like he was there only for me. It was as if he'd been waiting for me to call. You could sense he had the energy and spirit of someone who loved their job, and was happy to be at work. I had to comment on it, and I said, "wow, what a wonderful way to answer the phone. I am so glad I got you this morning!" Know what he said? "Gee, thanks, usually no one says anything to me about how I do what I do, and sometimes I kinda think the extra effort makes no difference." We customers need to do the same thing I coach all my newbie managers to do: If you want your people to be exceptional at work, you have to catch them at it when they are, say thank you, and reinforce the behavior you want repeated. All it takes is noticing it when it happens. Be a good customer, and get in the feedback loop. It takes two to make hospitality happen, and it flows in both directions. ~Rosa Say

That Cracker Jack® Prize

Well now, how is this for a sweet taste of Sherlock Ho‘okipa (hospitality); I get to guest post on Passion for the Good Customer Experience! Aloha everyone! Steve could not have picked a better month to welcome me here in his very generous way, for as the author of Managing with Aloha, I share an aloha-connected value of the month with my community of readers and practitioners, and for the month of July – you guessed it – our value is none other than Ho‘okipa, the Hawaiian value of hospitality. One of the things I do to keep in my value theme’s mindset is to read books that have similar messages. The book I am reading right now is The Starbucks Experience, written by Dr. Joseph A. Michelli, and in it, he talks about the 5 principles he feels have enabled Starbucks to turn an “ordinary idea into an extraordinary experience,” thereby helping them to turn a cup of coffee into a worldwide business phenomenon. These are the 5 Principles; Make it your own Everything matters Surprise and delight Embrace resistance Leave your mark The one I want to talk to you about today is the third one. Dr. Michelli opens that particular chapter this way: “The idea behind the Surprise and Delight principle isn’t a new one. In fact, one of the most famous commercial examples is more than a hundred years old. In the late 1800s at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s first World’s Fair, the Rueckheim brothers delighted young and old with their unique confection consisting of popcorn, peanuts, and molasses. While Cracker Jack® was a consistently popular treat, its appeal increased dramatically in 1912, when a surprise could be found in every package.” So I was thinking … Steve has no internet access while he is away on vacation in the deep dark woods of Pennsylvania; what say we become the Cracker Jack® Prize he’ll find when he returns? Steve Sherlock, your host and Mea Ho‘okipa here, is one of the most generous bloggers I know when it comes to writing for us prolifically to share his knowledge, and in supporting other bloggers with his helpful comments. His voice seems to always be there to comfort and encourage us on those days we start to think no one is reading; it is absolutely uncanny how he seems to know we need him. To a blogger, the absolute best Cracker Jack® Prize that surprises and delights is when a longtime lurking reader finally decides they are comfortable enough to give you their first comment, daring to expose themselves in the very public scrutiny of the blogging community. That is what I am asking you to do. In the spirit of your aloha for Steve, and with the ho‘okipa so critically necessary in keeping any good customer experience alive and well, leave a comment here for Steve between now and when he returns on July 7th. Be his Cracker Jack® Prize. Even if you have commented for Steve before on another of his blogs, he may not know you read this one, so leave a few words. Remember, the Cracker Jack® Prize never got eaten! I’ll post a time or two more about Ho‘okipa before Steve returns, and I hope you’ll keep reading! (hopefully I’ll figure out how to fix these screwy font sizes by then too…) ~ Rosa Say, author of Managing with Aloha Postscript: If you are interested, this was my posting on July 1st at www.managingwithaloha.com about the value of hospitality: Ho‘okipa, the Hospitality of Complete Giving

7 Wonders of Learning

The countdown begins! Join us in our big, hairy, audacious goal to Saturday, 07-07-07 and Listen, Laugh, Learn, Link, Love, Live, and Leap to Wonder Listen — welcome new ideas and every teacher, listening fully opened Laugh — with the positive and uplifting joy others are ready to give you Learn — with childlike curiosity and in a collaboratively jubilant way Link — use others’ lessons learned as a springboard for your own, sharing your knowledge freely Love — tap into your passion for learning, and be of loving heart in your new bonds with others Live — be a shining example of the Lifelong Learner; “Be the learner you want to see in the world” Leap — to a new experience, stretching past the familiar, accepting leaps of higher intuition. Allow learning to transform you, and to bring you to Wonder. This is the BHAG we are leaping toward: On 07-07-07 we are determined to collect at least 777 Learning Links, possibly more. This is a shout-out to all Joyful and Jubilant Learners, readers and writers alike. Will you help us reach our goal? This is what you do: 1. Between now and Saturday, July 07, 2007 take your personal leaps of wonder: - Listen, Laugh, and Learn as much as you can from the collective wisdom online. - Link to this post and spread the good word for us! - If you blog, feel free to grab the smaller banners in our right sidebar to promote the event on your own site, and proclaim yourself as a JJL Contributor. You will be Loving, Living, and Leaping to wonder as you take these first steps! 2. On (or before) Saturday, July 07, 2007 return here, and enter your favorite 7 Learning Links in the comments. They can be from your own site, or from others. Along with each link, designate which of our JJL Learning categories you feel they best fit into, for we will be compiling them on this master page by category: Compilation: 7 Wonders of Joyful Jubilant Learning Our only rule: Keep it positive and clean, in the spirit of our 7 Wonders of Learning, and the aloha spirit this site was founded on by the Ho‘ohana Community. This will be a Learning List for all ages. We only need 111 comments to achieve our goal ... think we could push for 777 contributions? WOW! That would be 5,439 Learning Links; 5,439 leaps to wonder... Let’s go for it!