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Re-release
of 1983’s Almanac
In 1974, in the depths of the last great economic recession, I took refuge
in the hinterland of Southern Indiana and set about learning the traditional
music and dance of the region while living with as much ecological awareness
and local self-sufficiency as possible. Songs from that experience spread
far and wide by word of mouth, and were eventually released as a phonograph
album by June Appal Recordings in 1983. Dillon Bustin’s Almanac,
re-mastered and digitized just in time for the present recession, is being
re-released in 2010. Watch www.appalshop.org
for announcements.
Tryout
of Freedom’s Way
My current theatrical project is undertaken as a guest artist of Freedom’s
Way Heritage Association. This non-profit organization represents forty-five
towns in north-central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire in advocating
for a new National Heritage Area inspired by the theme of freedom. The
play is a musical drawn from the life of Nahum Hazard (1830-1913), an
unsung hero of the abolitionist era and the ensuing war. Freedom’s
Way: The Risking of Nahum Hazard is in development for a regional
tour in 2010 to 2011. Watch www.freedomsway.org
for announcements.
and other films
Saving Historic Orange County, a preservation society based in Paoli, Indiana, is supporting a DVD compilation of four 16mm films made in collaboration with Kane-Lewis Productions. Tough, Pretty or Smart: A Portrait of the Patoka Valley Boys (1981), Water from Another Time (1982), Add and Mabel’s Punkin Center (1984), and The Pearl Fisher (1985) all depict whimsical creativity and quality of life in rural Indiana. For catalog descriptions of the individual films visit the distributor, Documentary Educational Resources, at www.der.org/films.
Essay
on Luther Burbank in Wild Apples
I have a piece in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Wild Apples: A Journal
of Nature, Art, and Inquiry. “Luther Burbank: A Hunger for
Perfect Foods” is illustrated by the Italian artist Vico Fabbris,
from his series of fanciful paintings entitled “Botanical Unknown.”
My essay contributes to the issue’s theme of “soil”
with an interpretation of the entrepreneurial horticulturist Luther Burbank
(1849-1926) as a link among pre-modern husbandry, anti-modern botanical
mysticism, and post-modern bioengineering. Visit the journal at www.wildapples.org
for subscriptions and an extended version of the essay.