"jazz"

Today was another attempt at getting to the 'making' part of the trip... derailed by over 3 hours at the masonic temple. Like THE masonic temple. Hopefully some of my colleagues will post pictures soon. Though I suspect that there is plenty of architecture in the world that is more breathtaking than this, I would be comfortable in saying that this was the most impressive and detailed work I've seen in the states. The hard part was that it has largely fallen into disuse, and giant giant giant spaces that fall into disuse have a real sour sort of vibe to them. This was no exception. The lodge/ritual rooms and the largest of the 3 theater spaces (yes, 3 theaters in 1 building) were mind-numbingly good though. This was followed by lunch at Prof. Johnson's loft (unbelievable pork stew that saved the day) and a whirlwind lecture on Whiteheadian philosophy that ninja-kicked a semester's worth of philosophy into my brain in about 2 hours. No Joke. This was followed up by about an hour of decompression leading into another gathering at Prof. Johnson's Magical Mystery Loft which would this time include two amazing musicians doing an avant-garde jazz performance. This wasn't just any jazz though. Turns out this amazing man named Marko is an instrument collector with a stunning collection of unique instruments from different cultures. I have never seen any of the instruments he was playing... and that is incredible. After two amazing sessions they invited us to join the music making. Our guide Chris and I jumped in playing the wine glasses, which opened up the door for.... chaos. banging bottles, clanging cans, chopping onions, piano noise, whistling, and all other sorts of sounds absolutely took over the loft. It was magical. But, as one could expect and would be pointed out to us by one of the musicians, the key part to improv is knowing when to stop. Let it be known that non-musical art students might need a few lessons on this.