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Adventure 50's Style

Glenn Cornick-Bass Player

Photo Claude Delorme Ever since high school I’ve been a fan of the band Jethro Tull. While not acquainted with the group’s music in the last few decades I still love their old stuff from the late60s and 70s.  Great music does indeed stand the test of time and in my opinion Jethro Tull was one of the best.  Those not familar with the band, Tull emerged in the late 60s as a blues/rock band with a very unique and unmistakable sound. Ian Anderson, flutist, vocalist, acoustic guitar player and leader of the band pioneered the flute as a rock instrument with a breathy style and stage presence that rivals the better knownfrontmen of that era (Jagger, Morrison, Plant). His trademark playing of the flute while standing on one leg added to his command of the stage.

A few weeks back I had the idea of Googling original Tull bass player Glenn Cornick’s name just to see what ever happened to him. Glenn always dressed in flashy pants and shirts with long straight hair and a colorful headband. After poking around at a number of fan sites I ran across a site that was Glenn’s. The site is very simple but had a great collection of old Tull photos obviously from Glenn’s personal collection. In addition it has photos of his family over the years. On the site was an email link for Glenn so I dropped him a note. To my surprise I heard back from him the next day. It was a short note but answered a number of questions I had and pointed me to a new release of a film from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival (Jimi Hendrix’s last show) showing Tull’s performance. I promptly ordered the Tull DVD fromNetflix and had it a few days later. 

Photo Andreas Buttman
What a stroll down memory lane!  I had seen the band probably five times in the 70s and once about 4 years ago and had forgotten how fabulous they are live. At the Isle of Wight Festival Ian Anderson pulled out all the stops, he was just incredible. Also notable is Clive Barker’s drumming. Again, he rivals many of the better known drummers of that era (and he is still alive!). And of course Glenn’s playing was as steady as ever.

Glenn told me that he still plays a few times a year. On his site there are a number of pictures of him playing at “Tull conventions” and at several reunion events. Glenn reports that many of the Tull cover bands he has played with are better than the current incarnation of the band!

The Making of A Saint

The history of the Church is replete with stories of saints who spent some point in their “formation” on Mt Athos. During the long nights of services on my trip to Mt Athos I couldn’t help but look around at the young monks (good news, there were many monks in their 20s and 30s) wondering how they made it to this incredible place.  What brings someone to leave the world behind and devote themselves to the “angelic life” of prayer, fasting, obedience and labors?  As history has shown, the regime and structure of the monastic life can transform the soul to the degree that one is sanctified and immersed in the light of God. 

We had the occasion to meet a young American monk at Xeropotamou Monastery, Fr Theodocius.  He is the brother of Fr Luke, a priest in Dalles, WA where my traveling companion Patrick will soon be a parishioner.  Now 24 years old, Fr Theodocius apparently showed up at the monastery four years earlier after the gate was closed and pounded on the gate until the monks let him in; he has been there ever since.  To leave the relative comfort of American life to journey to Mt Athos is a huge leap of faith even for the most devout Orthodox Christian. With such zeal and devotion perhaps he, like others before him, will be transformed in the crucible of monastic life on Mt Athos to one day be numbered among the saints.

Goodbye Feta

During my recent trip to Greece and Mt Athos in particular, I was reintroduced to the marvelous taste of feta cheese. I’ve always liked the strong distinctive taste of feta but like most people only had it on occasion as a garnish on salad.  A sprinkle of the salty curds can transform a ordinary salad into something of real substance. 

While on Mt Athos I had feta not simply as a garnish but as a side dish, thickly sliced often served at both morning and evening meals.  Each monastery had a slightly different version probably homemade, some quite mild, hardly salted.  Eating feta in such large bites is vastly different than eating salad style, overwhelming the taste buds, lingering and satisfying in ways that few other cheeses can.

Ever since I’ve been back hardly a day goes by without a bit of feta.  My current favorite is scrambled eggs with feta.. fabulous!  Yet, beyond taste is the memory it evokes of my time on Mt Athos.  For me it will always be associated with the trip.  As we embark on Great Lent next week (Orthodox Easter is not until May 1st this year) it will be seven weeks of fasting from dairy, meat, eggs, and fish.  Guess what I’ll be having for breakfast May 2nd?

A Second Hearing

If you are new to opera or even if you are an opera veteran the NY Metropolitan Opera’s weekly radio broadcast offers the opportunity to hear some of the best singers in the world perform and also the chance to learn a few things about opera. The Met has been broadcasting opera since 1931 and now reaches an international audience in some 40 countries.  This past weekend’s broadcast was Puccini’s “La Boheme” .  La Boheme was the my first opera experience seen at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY.  I wasn’t bowled over by the opera, not because the performances were bad but for reasons I’ll address shortly.  I was pleased to hear this popular opera again now that I have a few years of opera under my belt.  Although listening to opera on the radio on a Saturday morning while working around the house is not the best circumstance to evaluate a performance, it was quite enjoyable and left me wanting to see the opera live again.  José Luis Duval as Rodolfo was terrific in his performance of “Che Gelida Manina” in Act 1.  Hear this well known aria performed by tenor Jussi Bjorling 1936 {Mp3}. 

One of the best features of the Met Broadcast are the intermissions.  Every intermission has some educational component that may or may not relate to the current production.  Usually there is panel of experts that discuss the topic and share their broad range of opera knowledge.  Recently (Feb 12) there was an discussion of opera with director Martin Scorsese and Howard Shore, composer of “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack.  This week there was a behind the scenes series with fascinating interviews of the production staff of electricians, carpenters and others telling about their respective rolls and the logistics of staging operas at the Met.  Since the Met is a reporatory company several operas are in production at the same time.  On Saturday, for instance, La Boheme was the matinee performance and Verdi’s Nabucco the evening. 

The longstanding “Opera Quiz” is the main intermission feature.  Here the panel (which varies every week) attempts to answer questions sent in by listeners.  On Feb 12 there was a great answer by British conductor Mark Elder in response to a question from a teenager about how to get friends interested in opera.  The jist of what he said was that it is critical that new opera goers sit as close as possible to the “source of the sound”, as he put it, in order to fully connect the music with the emotional component of opera.  Sitting far away from the stage for a novice makes it difficult to make a connection with the interplay of music and theatrical elements.  He also went on to say how important it was for the singers to be able to bring the opera alive with performances that help the audience make this connection. to draw them into the “emotional world” of the opera. 

His comments made perfect sense to me and jibbed with my own experience.  Our seats at Seattle Opera are fourth row gallery on the left side (they are very reasonably priced).  Although we are on the side, we’re very close to the stage.  We can see facial expressions and of course can hear well. I’ve sat farther back in the house a number of times and find closer to be much better.  The only downside is one has to work harder to see the supertitles since they are high about the stage ( the very expensive seats just to the right of us in the center section have the same problem).  During my recent trip to Greece a friend went with Sue and sat in our seats and she said it made a world of difference for her.  In the past she had only sat in the far back and had a hard time engaging with the operas she has seen.  My experience at Glimmerglass suddenly made sense.  Glimmerglass is a unique house in that is partially open air although it is a covered structure.  The day I saw La Boheme it was cool and wet and I was actually cold during the performance which was very distracting.  We also sat on the far side near the back leaving me very much out of touch with the singers.  My advice to the beginner: sit as close as you can afford.  Try getting tickets on the front sides they are more affordable than the center sections. 

BBC archive of Met Quiz and intermission features mentioned above

Met Opera Broadcast Website

Another Roadside Attraction

Drive threw any American city or town and you are sure to find churches of every size and denomination. America is not only an ethnic melting pot but a religious one as well. In Greece it is an entirely different story. Orthodoxy is the official "state religion" of Greece. The Orthodox Church enjoys governmental status on par with defense, agriculture and the like. Orthodox clergy are employed by the "StateChurch’ and paid by the government. You would be hard pressed to find churches from any other denomination in all but the largest cities. While most Greeks are baptized in the Orthodox faith, not all are church goers or could be considered pious Orthodox. Yet, Orthodoxy still has a big impact on modern Greek culture and day to day life.

A common site everywhere are chapels. Ranging from the size of a large phone booth to ones that can fit several people, chapels seem almost as pervasive in Greece as latte stands are in Seattle; there seems to be one on just about on every corner. Each chapel is outfitted with one or more icons, small candle tapers and a sand box tray in which to place a burning taper. It is even common to see chapels in the parking lots of factories and other commercial establishments. There is no risk of offending the atheist in the next cubicle or provoking a freedom of religion lawsuit by the ACLU in Greece. Having a bad day at work? Girlfriend run out on you again? Just head down to the corner chapel, it is that easy!

There actually seems to be a significant chapel construction industry sprung up to meet the demand for "modular chapels", the ones you often see in parking lots. Much like the business we see here in the US that sellpremade sheds and small storage buildings, there is a similar industry in Greece that also carries a line of chapels in addition to the usual structures. I can just imagine TV commercials like the tacky huckster ones we see here: “our chapels are so tough you can drive a truck over them!"… “we will not be undersold”. 

There is also big demand for tiny chapels of the garden ornament type used as roadside shrines. The shrines mark places where people have died in accidents. Many of the shrines have burning votive candles and are obviously tended by the families. The Greeks are such terrible drivers that shrines unfortunately dot the roadsides. It was a bit unnerving in our travels to see so many along the road.

I’m publicly announcing it here: if , God forbid, I’m in a fatal car accident, no puny garden ornament shrine please, give one of the “modular chapels”.. you know the kind you can drive over with a truck!