An Overture

It is April the second...a day after the tomfoolery of April Fool's Day is history. The weather is simply no joke. It is a cheerless, grey, raw, damp, chilly afternoon in which the reluctant spring is fended off by the tenacious winter. With howling winds and the threat of a late snow, this is a wintry wolf in spring sheep's clothing. The birds that were chirping in the morning and the frogs that were peeping in the evening just a few days ago have been silenced again. The weather does serve to keep one inside, and provides an inviting environment for crafting the first entry in my experimental blog. My thanks to Mick Jeffries, colleague and friend who shares with me the scintillating tintinabulation of the gamelon orchestra at the University of Kentucky. The gamelon--an assemblage of gongs and metalophones native to Bali and Indonesia--has finally found an unlikely, yet hospitable home in the blugrass of Kentucky. Nothing finer than beginning the day with a meditative groove of overlayed hocket rhythmic patterns.