Letting Go
Some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s I walked into Blue Note Music in Northampton. It was a little music shop in the basement adjacent to the back bank parking lot across from the police station. I'm blanking on the proprietor's name, but he always had some really interesting instruments, and back when I was building acoustic guitars, he sold a few for me.
That particular day, I walked in and saw the most futuristic bass I had ever seen. In the mostly pre-internet era, you only saw instruments in magazines, on stage, or in music stores, and I had never seen a Kubicki bass. The whole instrument had a clean functional aesthetic that reminded me of a sushi board, The headstock was capped with a clean piece of ebony and the fretboard was unadorned with inlays. The body was an ergonomic futuristic shape that echoed the headstock and had a great design that was cohesive in a way that is rare in an instrument. Typically, instruments are derivatives of one another, if not direct copies, so it is always great to discover something unique.
Philip Kubicki first came to fame working for Fender, where he designed the Thinline Telecaster and built the rosewood Telecaster that was given to George Harrison. He eventually left Fender and started his own company. In 1980s he designed and started selling the
Kubicki Factor bass, which was played by John Taylor of Duran Duran, Stu Hamm, Victor Wooten, Michael Anthony, Nile Rogers and many others. For a period of time, Kubicki licensed the design back to his old company and from 1988-1991 the basses were built by the Fender Custom Shop. Philip Kubicki died in 2013, but his basses are still highly regarded.
I stumbled on to this particular example, unaware of its esteemed heritage and was just drawn to its design, and after I plugged it in, its deep full sound. One might assume, looking at the bass, that the sound would be a bright hifi sound, but my sound from the bass was always deep and organic, almost subsonic in signature. Since that time, that bass has appeared in every audio recording I've made, and on countless performances on almost every stage and bar in the valley.
Today, some twenty years after I found the bass, I packed it in a cardboard box and shipped it across the country. It was hard to let go.
I was talking with my mom the other day, and she was preparing for a talk she was giving for a church group. She talked about how people are always asking what the afterlife will be like, but that is, of course, unknowable. But what we can learn more about is the world that we live in now. She talked about life as a long opportunity to learn how to let go of things, to learn how to give one's self to others, and that being the real expression of love, letting go.
I thought that was a beautiful sentiment. She talked about making music, working for students, writing, all as giving something to others, gifting things out to the world. But I think she also meant letting go of material things too. Over the years she has slowly given away many of her antique collections, all those years of tag sales and antique shop excavations have reverted back to the great flea market in the sky.
And so I sold the Kubicki. I've given it back to the world for another person to make music with it. I guess selling is not the same as gifting, but it is an end to clinging an instrument preciously to my chest. Perhaps this is the beginning of letting go for me, working my way through the instruments and narrowing down my possessions. It is a hard thing for me, I have stories for all of my instruments, and they do seem to hold songs in them so that if I feel uninspired, sometimes just switching instruments allows for something new to emerge. I have instruments my brother gave me (I think I'll keep those), and others that embody an era of my life, like the Kubicki. In the time before the anonymous internet purchases, buying an instrument always involved multiple lingering trips to music stores, talking through the best deal with a proprietor, or meeting someone in their living room and strumming a dusty instrument with rusty strings and trying to tell if it would say something special.
Perhaps it will be a slow letting go. There are also effects pedals, amplifiers, all manner of accouterments that I can practice letting go with.
But for now, here is my expression of love for you, my letting go, my epitaph for my low end sound of the pre-pandemic. We will see what emerges after.
Take care and stay safe,
Leo
From Our Friends:
From Pres. Yves Salomon-Fernández:
From former Pres. Bob Pura:
https://www.aacu.org/blog/community-colleges-anchors-democracy
https://www.aacu.org/blog/it%E2%80%99s-time-finally-repair-our-faults
From Mary Dent:
As part of the Roots of Health Inequity Learning Collaborative, participants will be able to:
• Explore social processes that produce health inequities in the distribution of disease and illness.
• Strategize more effective ways to act on the root causes of health inequity.
• Form relationships with other local health departments who are working to ensure health equity.
From the NYT:
|
Tuesday, July 14, 2020 3:46 PM EST |
The policy prompted an immediate lawsuit from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and on Tuesday, the government and the universities reached a settlement, according to the judge overseeing the case. |
Read the latest |
From Mass Humanities:
Andre Perry, author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities, talks with Mass Humanities Executive Director Brian Boyles about writing, researching, and giving voice to race and structural inequalities in America.
From Teaching Tolerance:
July Is BIPOC Mental Health Month
July is Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Mental Health Month. We know school communities and policies that prioritize mental health literacy can create safer spaces where all young people can thrive—especially BIPOC students, who face disparities in mental health care. We hope you’ll commit to reducing stigma and advocating for policy change in your school, this month and year-round.
From NPR:
What can you do to fight systemic racism? Writer and podcast host Layla Saad has an impressive answer: a 28-day process of self-reflection that she calls a "personal anti-racism tool." (Listen here or read the story)
From JFF:
The murder of George Floyd and the ensuing nationwide protests against police brutality prompted many colleges and universities to issue statements declaring their opposition to racism and affirming their support for diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus. In this historic moment of reckoning, however, the postsecondary field must take much bolder action—or our words will ring hollow. READ MORE HERE
From NEFA:
July 31, 2020 | 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
with Kerry Thompson, Executive Director of Silent Rhythms & Senior Officer of Communications, Inclusion, & Analytics for the Disability Rights Fund
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, yet few realize that access to the arts is a disability right. The vast majority of people with disabilities seldom have an opportunity to enjoy or participate in the arts. As the arts transition to using virtual platforms, this can mean either greater inclusion or greater exclusion for people with disabilities. The Inclusive Creativity webinar will teach how the arts and culture sector can provide a creative outlet in an accessible and inclusive way. |
|
Today's Online Teaching Tips:
From OLC:
OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM: Innovating STEM Education - Coming in August!
The Online Learning Consortium and MERLOT would like to invite you to our OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM: Innovating STEM Education 2020 event on August 19-21, 2020. This free virtual expo will showcase a wide range of virtual and distance labs designed to support online STEM education, offered by both commercial and open educational resource (OER) providers. This event brings educators and providers together, not only offering expert guidance on how best to deploy the different types of virtual labs to achieve successful learning outcomes, but also in centering educator use-case virtual lab stories.
Join this collaborative community dedicated to innovative STEM education and save the dates for this free, virtual event! Learn more.
From Academic Impressions:
Strategically Integrating Experiential Learning Into the Curriculum
July 30 - 31, 2020 | Online
Create a plan to align stakeholders and drive progress towards the implementation of your experiential learning initiatives. |
|
From Wiley:
Download Online College Students 2020, available now from Wiley Education Services and Aslanian Market Research, a division of EducationDynamics.
From YouTube:
| Creating content to inspire change |
| Representation in media matters. As a creator, you have the platform, the voice, and the power to make a lasting impact. Our Creator Academy shows you how to promote diversity and inclusion. |
|
 |
From HGSE:
Strategies for Effective Facilitation: Online August 5 – 26, 2020 | Registration Deadline: Thursday, July 30 Assess, strengthen, and practice your group facilitation skills through an experiential online program. In Strategies for Effective Facilitation: Online, participants will g ain insights into various approaches to facilitation through experiential learning, focused assessments, and practical feedback. |
|
From D2L:
In our webinar Adding Action to Your Online Course, we look at the challenges faced by online educators and course designers when trying to infuse online courses with active learning. We’ll help you overcome those challenges with a mindset shift and look at specific strategies and best practices that can be easily added to any classroom setting. | | |
|
That particular day, I walked in and saw the most futuristic bass I had ever seen. In the mostly pre-internet era, you only saw instruments in magazines, on stage, or in music stores, and I had never seen a Kubicki bass. The whole instrument had a clean functional aesthetic that reminded me of a sushi board, The headstock was capped with a clean piece of ebony and the fretboard was unadorned with inlays. The body was an ergonomic futuristic shape that echoed the headstock and had a great design that was cohesive in a way that is rare in an instrument. Typically, instruments are derivatives of one another, if not direct copies, so it is always great to discover something unique. 
I was talking with my mom the other day, and she was preparing for a talk she was giving for a church group. She talked about how people are always asking what the afterlife will be like, but that is, of course, unknowable. But what we can learn more about is the world that we live in now. She talked about life as a long opportunity to learn how to let go of things, to learn how to give one's self to others, and that being the real expression of love, letting go.
Comments
Post a Comment