Another day, another tree. . . If a tree falls over in your neighborhood while you're not home, and when you do come home you find cleanup crews next door chainsawing the remnants and the power company replacing fallen lines, and your electricity is out until 9 pm and cable and internet until the next day, did the tree make a sound?

Yet another tree falls in our neighborhood, this one right next door to my home, and did some real damage to the house next door. It's still inhabitable, but there's blue tarp on the roof as I write and lots of damaged gutters, porch railings, etc. Trees have now fallen on all of the houses around me, and it's just a matter of time until one lands on my house.

Just another reminder of impermanence.

Method. Madness.

As even a casual glance at this blog will tell you, I've been too busy lately to provide many updates. Over the last week or so, I've been to a number of concerts, including radio-friendly soft rock from Shaun Mullins (Rock For Roots), Chrissie Hynde's new band, called Chrissie, JP and the Fairground Boys (Rock For Roots), and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' brand of southern rock (also at Rock For Roots), as well as the Watson Twins and Laura Veirs & the Hall of Flames at the Earl, and more local, unsigned bands than I can count at the East Village Strut.

However, it hasn't really been as busy as implied here. Last Tuesday, I didn't go see CocoRosie, although I wish that I did. I had a meeting of the alliance of neighborhood associations and while I was planning to head to Variety Playhouse after the meeting for the concert, the meeting went long and I got tired. From what I've heard, I missed a great show.

I didn't go to the Wednesday night concert at Mississippi Studio, either, for the very practical reason that Mississippi Studio is in Portland, Oregon. I'm not even sure why I posted the announcement - I suppose I'm nostalgic for what could have been if things had worked out differently, and I've found myself perusing the club listings for Portland even though I know that there's no way I can go to any of them.

I was planning to go to the album-release party at the Drunken Unicorn on Friday night, if for no other reason than to see the opening act, Atlanta's Jeffrey Butzer. I've heard only two songs by him, Theme For a A Tailor and Hotel Explosion (with Claire Lodge), and they couldn't be more different, so I'm very curious to hear how he would sound live. However, the friend that I was going to go with cancelled at the last minute, some adult responsibilities that needed taking care of, and while I'm not at all adverse to going alone, I didn't this time. I spent the balance of this weekend holed up in the house with my cats.

So that's the long and short of it. Fortunately, ever since I started my new job at the beginning of the year, I've not had to be at the office until an hour later than my previous jobs of the past, oh, 29 years, and it's a shorter commute, so time has opened up for me in the morning to practice my zazen. This in turn, has freed me (in more than one sense) to head out in the evening to these little youth-oriented clubs and hear these interesting bands.

Videos Worth Watching

Sunday

Led To Sea (Alex Guy)

The Watson Twins

Laura Veirs

East Atlanta Strut

Rock For Roots Festival, Atlantic Station

Shawn Mullins (6:30 pm)

JP, Chrissie (Hynde), and the Fairground Boys (8:00 pm - first concert together!)

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (9:30 pm)

About This Weekend

I'm not sure exactly how or why Water Dissolves Water has morphed into a music blog, but then again I'm not sure exactly what kind of blog it actually was to begin with. I figure that it's better to just go with the flow and let the posts play themselves out out as they will rather than try to control things.

So in keeping with this new, almost Daoist-like acceptance of things-as-they-are, here's a post full of things going on in (and around) Atlanta this weekend, most or all of which I expect to be a participant. Tonight, of course, is the season premier of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia; I understand that this season the writers are going to have to resolve the real-life pregnancy of Kaitlin Olson, the Tualatin, Oregon native who plays Sweet Dee in the show. I know that it's kind of lame starting off a What's-Going-On-This-Weekend post with a television show, so maybe you can find a viewing party or something like that going on somewhere.

Friday's big event is the Rock For Roots show at Atlantic Station. They've apparently covered an asphalt parking lot with sod (the "roots" part) for the audience to enjoy as they listen to several bands (the "rock" part), including Atlanta's own Shawn Mullins, Chrissie Hynde's (The Pretenders) new band (JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys), and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. The music's scheduled to start at 4:00, although I won't be making it there until after 7:00 or so and I can get out of work. Oh, and it's free.

On Saturday, there's the East Atlanta Strut festival, another free event featuring an artist's market, a parade, and the general ambiance of East Atlanta Village, home to The Earl among many other fine establishments. Music will be performed at several stages by many, many bands (they're promising 50!) from 10 am to 10 pm, so there's that.

Sunday will start with a Zen service in Chattanooga, Tennessee, apparently soon to be home of the fastest internet service in America. Sunday night, Portland's Laura Veirs performs at The Earl (return to East Atlanta). I missed her the last time she played in Atlanta at The Star Bar, although I do believe that The Earl would be a better venue for her (Star Bar would have been a better venue for Those Darlins). Anyway, The Watson Twins will be opening, so it's a must-see event whatever the venue.

Of course, attending this show means missing the premier of HBO's Boardwalk Empire (directed by Martin Scorsese!), but that's apparently the karmic consequence of starting the weekend with a televised event, although HBO does tend to rerun these things like a hundred times the following week, not to mention On Demand.

Finally, the next evening will feature, as always, Monday Night Zazen. The interested reader is referred to the picture in the post below for additional details of this concluding event.