Top 3 of the Week

3. The Foam Roller

Since I had to take a year off from running to be injured, I have kept track of anything that hurts when I exercise (in a spreadsheet, obviously).  My Physical Therapist seemed to have done wonders with my tight calves (I was pain-free for four weeks) and then I went to Nicaragua.  Everything went back to the way it was before PT.  Then one day while in Florida, I had a great run.  My soleus (the actually source of the pain) was only slightly hurting during my run.  Hmmm...  From there, I had three awful, horrible runs...the kind that make you doubt that you are even close to someone who should own running shoes.  Then I had another great run (with absolutely no pain).  What did these two great runs have in common?  For one, they were flat.  That is important for my calves, but every run in Nicaragua had been flat too, so I thought it had to be something else.  The day before both runs, I had been at the gym and gave my muscles the foam roller treatment.  Maybe there's a lurking variable here, but I'm pretty sure that there is causation between using the foam roller and decreased calf pain.  So, when I get back to Cali on Friday night, there will be a nice foam roller at my door and I will consider it one of the better investments I have made recently.  You can get one too, here.  Or, you can do what I'm doing until I get to Cali...just using some water bottles.  More evidence that foam rollers are great: when flying from Atlanta to Boston, I saw a football team traveling together and one kid had a foam roller as his carry-on.  I'm not ruling that out for the future.

2. Sunday NYT Crossword (08.03.08)

I have only recently started doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with any sort of consistency and persistence (persistency?).  Last week, I was steaming mad at Will Shortz.  Ali and I started the puzzle and were doing pretty well, but things just weren't making sense.  It turns out that we were supposed to put arrows in some of the boxes to mean "up," "down," "left," or "right."  Such as liberals was "THE <--."  I was furious about this, but apparently, that's not unusual and I've now been initiated.  I now know that the Sunday NYT puzzle might not be as straightforward as it looks and the title actually means something and the Sunday puzzle is actually hard.  So, yesterday, I brought my A game to the crossword.  The puzzle was very clever and I suggest you try it, if you have access.  So, this Sunday's puzzle was conquered (thanks to a disappointing set by Calexico)

1. Newport Folk Festival

This was just the highlight of...maybe the summer (no offense to the wonderful people I've spent time with and the country of Nicaragua).  I would have liked to attend both days, but since I've never been before, I thought I'd just check out one day and see how it went.  Not to mention that the line-up on Sunday was not to be missed: Willy Mason, Brandi Carlile, Calexico, Gillian Welch, Levon Helm, and Jimmy Buffett (well...we did miss him).  Here are some tidbits.

Willy Mason--cute guy, wore suspenders, nice voice, had a woman (last name Carlile but not Brandi) who had a great voice and played the guitar, his brother played the drums, and his parents came out to sing the last song ("Oh You Restless Fugitive"...a song that I loved but can't find reference to anywhere).

Brandi Carlile--Simply awesome!  This woman is a performer, in and out.  I love the way she uses her voice and the beautiful grittiness it can have (some credit for which goes to producer T Bone Burnett, who produced Gillian's first two CDs).  I really liked "Turpentine" and "My Song," both songs I haven't heard since I don't own her new album.  She closed with Folsom Prison Blues (which she did just the way it should be done) and encored with Hallelujah, which gave me goosebumps.  When she started the latter, K asked me if I had heard the song.  I said, "Yes, but not the Leonard Cohen version."  About a minute later, these punk kids with cigarettes, sat down next to us.  One turned to us and said "Have you guys heard of Leonard Cohen?  He does this song much better."  K just said, "Yeah, maybe, but I'm not here to complain."  Meanwhile, I had goosebumps, so perhaps her performance of that song was somewhere in between.  Anyway, I think she's great in concert and encourage you to see her, if you get the chance.

Calexico--As I said, I got a bit of the crossword done during this set.  I like their stuff and enjoyed their collaboration with Iron and Wine, so this was disappointing.  During the first few songs, the bass was so loud that it was hard to hear the songs.  The best song was "Goin' to Acapulco"with Jim James (a voice worth listening to from My Morning Jacket).  That's all I have to say about that.

Gillian Welch--Ahhhh...how long I've wanted to see her live.  There she was with David Rawlings and out came "Miss Ohio" right away.  Gillian is not as energized as the others we saw, but it was her and she played the banjo and harmonica and was just great.  She also seems very comfortable in front of an audience.  She was just chatting between songs and seems very comfortable on stage. And the best part is that you all can enjoy her performance, courtesy of NPR.  They are slowly posting many of the performances on their website.  There are lots of performances there (including Jim James...who mentions the "interweb" around 28:10...Brandon).  It also seems like they will be available as podcasts through "All Songs Considered Concerts."  I loved Gillian's "Lawman," "Gamblin' Man" (which I guess is a woman's take on a traditional folk song about a gambler), "Red Halo," and her cover of "Jackson."  And her version of Paul Simon's "Gone At Last" really is better than his.  Actually, pretty much all she did was great!  She played three new songs, which I hope means that she's going to release an album soon. 

Levon Helm--I have never seen someone so happy to be playing on stage.  Before, during, and after every song, the man was smiling and happy.  He just was having so much fun.  I would be having fun too if I beat throat cancer and was playing with a band of 10 or 12 in front of thousands at 68 years old.  Not a bad gig.  He was fabulous (despite the tequila-drinking parrotheads next to us complaining about the voice of the old guy who they thought was probably on Cialis)!  He had quite the band of horns, a slide trumpet (?), Little Sammy Davis on the harmonica, Howard Johnson on the tuba, and his daughter Amy singing.  Levon was on the drums to start but then on the mandolin for a lot of the time.  They did a great "Ophelia" and "Long Black Veil."  But I think the highlight was closing with "The Weight" with Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele, Gillian Welch on vocals, David Rawlings on vocals and guitar, and Little Sammy Davis back on harmonica.  I know that it wasn't really "my generation," but K and I left on such a high after watching these musicians pour it on for us.  

Notes for next time: Despite what they say, people were in all kinds of chairs and had umbrellas.  I definitely would have been much more comfortable if I was sitting and shaded.  I don't mind wearing a bucket hat and an SPF 30 shirt and applying sunscreeen every hour, but it wasn't for comfort.  Also, apparently this stuff is streamed online through wfuv.org if there are days when you can't make it.  I do hope to get there again in the future.  It's unbelievable to see so much great talent for the price that you would pay for just one performer. 

That's the scoop from the east coast.  Hope this finds you well.