Country Music: New Burns documentary coming this fall

I’ve been a big fan of American filmmaker Ken Burns going all the way back to his 1990 award-winning PBS documentary “The Civil War,” which made him a household name, and his multi-part series on “Baseball” (1994) and “Jazz” (2001) were must-see TV in my home. Thus, I was excited to learn recently that the documentarian’s latest project, “Country Music,” is coming this fall to PBS. It will chronicle the history of a uniquely American art form, “rising from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of our nation,” by asking “What is country music?” and “Where did it come from?”

In following the evolution of country music from its 20th century origins to its present – from hillbilly and bluegrass to westerrn swing and rockabilly – viewers will learn how country music has emerged as America’s music.

The multi-episode, 16-hour journey “Country Music” series, which has been six years in the making, includes biographies covering a who’s who of country: Jimmie Rogers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris. From southern Appalachia’s songs of struggle, heartbreak and faith to the rollicking swing of Texas to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, “Country Music” tells “unforgettable stories of the hardships and joys shared by everyday people,” according to the documentary’s website. More than 100 interviews were conducted for this documentary project with prominent country songwriters and musicians, including Vince Gill, Roseanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Reba McEntire.

Singer/songwriter and music historian Marty Stuart plays a prominent role as one of the principal commentators in “Country Music.” In one segment about the Grand Ole Opry, Stuart reflects on its role and importance as the mother church of country music. “All of his children had come to the mother church of country music. It was almost like a badge of honor that you had to bring your culture with you to the table. That’s why Bob Wills and his guys brought us western music. That’s why Hank Williams brought the south with him from Honky Tonks. Johnny Cash brought the black land dirt of Arkansas. Bill Monroe brought music out of Kentucky, bluegrass music. Willie Nelson brought his poetry from Texas. Patsy Cline brought her heartache from Virginia. I mean it was the most wonderful parade of sons and daughters of America that brought their hearts and their souls and their experiences, and it gave us a great era in country music.”

Directed and produced by Burns, “Country Music” is written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Emmy Award winner Julie Duffey, who has created some of Burns’ most-acclaimed and most-watched PBS documentaries, including “The Civil War,” “Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” and “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”

According to Burns, “All the while, we will note constant tug of war between the desire to make country music as mainstream as possible and the periodic reflexes to bring it back to its roots.”

Nominated: Cuarón’s Roma is a very personal project

Editor’s note: Award-winning director Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma received two Academy Award nominations on Tuesday. Roma was nominated for Best Picture and Best Foreign Film. Last month, I wrote about Roma after seeing a sneak preview in Washington, D.C. As I wrote at the time, “It’s a film you can definitely watch with your ears, but you’ll want to see it with your eyes. It’s in theaters and available on Netflix.

In Roma, Academy Award-winning director and writer Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men, and Y Tu Mama Tambien) has delivered an artful love letter to the women who raised him. Presented in Spanish with English subtitles, this immaculately photographed 135-minute film presented in black and white is a beautiful ode to his Mexican childhood. It draws upon Cuarón’s early life experiences growing up in a middle-class family in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma district to create both “a vivid and emotional portrait of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil of the 1970s.” It’s a film about resilience and survival.

As Roma begins, one critic describes its opening as “a mesmerizing four-minute credit sequence – the mopping of a courtyard – the flow of foamy water establishes a rhythm as well as a cleansing metaphor about life and memory.”

The film follows its protagonist Cleo (portrayed by first-time actress Yalitza Aparicio), a young live-in domestic helper, and captures both her devotion to Cuarón’s family as well as detailing her personal problems. She becomes the focal point of the film in what becomes a collection of childhood memories about Cuarón’s family, the house he grew up in, and his neighborhood.

As the film’s writer, Cuarón wrote the script as a stream of consciousness. So, we see a combination of personal and social issues unfold in front of us. It seemed that because Cuarón allowed his emotions to play out, some of the scenes run long without tight editing. However, as the film unfolds it becomes its strength and not a liability.

Roma is meant to make us think. It’s an art film not an entertainment movie. Because Cuarón chose to film it in black and white, we gain more intimate details – and it lends itself toward recalling memory. After all, memory can be subjective – but it can also be objective, too. There is a lot of subtlety, a touch of humor, and plenty of honesty. Several things that are foreshadowed play out later in the movie such as an earthquake, a massive fire and the Corpus Christi massacre of 1971 that is shockingly detailed and restaged by Cuarón.

Roma opens in theaters just in time for the holidays and it’s sure to gain momentum as the awards season comes into full view. It will also be released simultaneously on Netflix, which will allow the film to reach a wider audience. However, Roma is best seen on a large screen and preferably in a classic, single-screen cinema like I saw it on a recent Sunday morning in northwest Washington, D.C. Its directionality of sound is truly amazing. Recently, one critic described Roma’s sound as a “bewilderingly intricate tapestry of distant street sounds, ambient noise and close-up conversations.” It’s a film that you can definitely watch with your ears, but you’ll want to see it with your eyes, too.

Andy Murray: “I tried my best.”

By all indications, tennis player Andy Murray put up a better fight against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut than anyone – the thousands of fans who crowded inside Melbourne Arena or the global TV audience that watched during all hours of the day and night – would have thought he could on this warm Australian summer Monday evening. It was opening night at the 2019 Australian Open.

Win or lose, it would be an emotional exit for the Scotsman. That’s because last Friday, Murray came into the interview room at Melbourne Park, teary-eyed and choked up with emotion, and revealed that he could no longer play with the pain in his hip he’s been experiencing while trying to play tennis. The former No. 1 had fallen to No. 230 in the world rankings because of his inactivity due to injury.

“Not feeling good. Been struggling for a long time,” said Murray, his shoulders slumped and the brim of his cap pulled down low. “I’m not sure I can play through the pain for another four or five months.”

Even still, as New York Times tennis correspondent Ben Rothenberg tweeted moments after Murray went down to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2 first-round defeat, “his clock struck midnight before we thought it should be over.”

The No. 22 seed Bautista Agut won and will advance on in the Australian Open. But, as Rothenberg noted, Murray will be remembered for his “incredible effort; Andy has everything to be proud of.”

Following the fourth set tie-break, which Murray won 7-4, BBC5 Live’s David Law tweeted, “Whatever happens from here, over the last 10 minutes Andy Murray has turned this into an Andy Murray match.

“Fighting tooth and nail, making people care, making them live their lives through him, the ups and downs, the agony and ecstasy. Forget the titles, that’s Murray’s legacy.”

While Murray’s effort, which produced what “The Tennis Podcast” called “a rousing comeback in a match of unrivaled poignancy and significance” wasn’t quite enough for him to win, it provided everyone with hours of compelling drama. Although it was after 11 p.m. when the match ended, because of the 16-hour time difference between Melbourne and the U.S. east coast, for me I saw the exciting conclusion while digesting my morning breakfast.

Interviewed on the Melbourne Arena court shortly after his glorious defeat by his former coach-turned-broadcaster Mark Petchey, Murray searched long and deep for the right words to say that expressed his emotions. Although he was exhausted from his effort, he wasn’t sad or bitter. Instead, he composed his thoughts very carefully. Finally, he spoke, saying, “It was incredible. Thank you so, so much to everyone who’s come out tonight. ... I’ve loved playing here over the years. If this was my last match, amazing way to end. I gave literally everything I had.”

For now, Murray appears to be keeping his options open and hopes to play the final tournament of his career this summer at Wimbledon. However, that could all change in a matter of days if not hours.

During Murray’s post-match press conference that followed his four-hour nine-minute loss, he was asked by French tennis journalist Carole Bouchard what his tennis legacy should be. Murray’s answer, so brief but eloquent, was summed up in just four simple words: “I tried my best.”

Global trek: A writer senses a changing planet

Paul Salopek and his traveling companion
(Photo: By John Stanmeyer,
courtesy of nationalgeographic.org.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is one migrant among many. He’s retracing our ancestors’ ancient migration on foot out of Africa and across the globe and writing about his adventures. His story has been shared by PBS NewsHour, the New York Times, NPR and Christiane Amanpour, among many.

As he begins the seventh year of his global trek, billed as the “Out of Eden Walk,” Salopek senses a changing planet.

As he wrote earlier this week on the National Geographic website (nationalgeographic.org) from Varanasi, India, it was exactly six years ago that he ducked out of a tent in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia, “clipped a pedometer to my belt, clapped on a cowboy hat, and began hiking to the Middle East on the Out of Eden Walk: a global ramble along the pathways of the first ‘Homo sapiens’ who dispersed out of Africa in the Stone Age.”

As Salopek recalled, by the desert dawn of January 10, 2013, some 60,000 people already had died in the distant war in Syria (a toll that now exceeds 400,000). “Barack Obama was soon going to be sworn in for a second term as U.S. president. And in Ethiopia, cell phone usage was exploding at the rate of 400 percent a year, though coverage hadn’t yet reached my desolate camp. I was using a satellite phone. It’s sudden ringing that silent morning startled me. It was an American radio host.”

The radio interviewer asked Salopek if he was still carrying his New Mexico house keys. The answer was no. The writer had sent them back years ago while he was walking in Cyprus. He no longer owns a house. He has a map. Home is on it everywhere.

“Ancient migrations have guided my walk’s route and storytelling across the world from Africa to my finish line, the tip of South America,” writes Salopek. “So it’s natural that some readers – the calling journalist included – tend to see my project as an antique and maybe ethereal endeavor, a monkish pilgrimage, a ‘journey out of time.’ But it’s been just the opposite.”

By Salopek’s estimate, over the past six years, he’s walked nearly 16 million footsteps from his starting point at a human fossil site in the wilderness in the Horn of Africa and his current location on the cultivated plains of northern India. His days, he says, “have been extraordinarily busy: crammed with incident and talkative people, immersed in modern problems and current events. In this way, the Out of Eden Walk has been more like a trek into a common future: After all, we’re walking together into the shared bottlenecks of the 21st century.”

According to Salopek, after walking for six years on his trek, “two broad impressions have emerged, at boot level of this vast world.”

First, he says, “we’re living in a golden age of human migration” as desert villagers by the millions try clawing their way into urbanized global economies.

“Even at the utterest ends of the Earth, I’ve found myself walking among striving people on the move. In the remote Afar Desert of Ethiopia, I stumbled across the bodies of African migrants who had died of thirst on the unforgiving desert trails to find jobs on the Arabian peninsula. I slept in sandy Jordanian fields among Syrian war refugees.”

As Salopek points out, “the UN (United Nations) estimates that more than a billion people – one in seven humans today – are voting like this with their feet, migrating both internally and across borders. Such numbers may alarm the more settled, richer corners of the globe. But history teaches that the forces behind human exodus are rarely contained by walls.”

Are you listening, President Trump?

“I sit dusty and sweating under a ficus tree, one walker among many,” writes Salopek, “watching busloads of India’s hardworking poor come and go ceaselessly. Sooner than later, the world must learn to harness the extraordinary energy behind mass aspiration.”

As for the second change, Salopek likens it to a tectonic shift, “a new geological weight over the horizon that tilts the surface of the planet east.”

For the past three years, Salopek has walked the old Silk Road from Turkey to India. In Central Asia, he writes, he’s seen societies transformed by Chinese economic power: “new highways, pipelines, communications grids, railroads. Part of this is the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, the most costly infrastructure project in the world today.”

Salopek writes that he’s unsure whether this will be the century of the Chinese. “But it is clear from hundreds of trailside conversations in shops and farms, in schools and offices that we collectively walked across a new Asian threshold some time ago. All roads may yet lead to Rome. But there are new Romes now. And the old ones have lost something of their glow.”

The writer looks forward to exploring these new questions, on foot of course, as he walks east, toward Myanmar, toward Yunnan.

“Whatever the case,” writes Salopek, “there is no need for fear. The key is stop and talk, and then to keep moving. To cross the next river. To look around the next mountain. Humankind’s ancestors did this, and they gave us the world.”

Salopek has a map. Home is on it everywhere. “And it will do.”

(The Out of Eden Walk is Paul Salopek’s multiyear, 21,000-mile storytelling odyssey across the globe in the footsteps of our ancestors. Join the #EdenWalk journey through social media on Facebook and Twitter.)

A Tuesday Night Memo: Thoughts on turning nine

My blog, “A Tuesday Night Memo,” turns nine later this month.

People who know me well know that I've been interested in writing, reporting and storytelling for a long time. So, it's only natural that I turned to blog writing because it gave me an opportunity to hone my writing skills and provided a forum for writing about things that truly interested me that I wanted to share with others.

Here’s a little history about my blog:

I started writing “A Tuesday Night Memo” on January 26, 2010, as a means for sharing musings about my life filled with music, sport, and urban travel, and to foster community with my friends, family and Facebook acquaintances. More recently, I added a Twitter profile, which has allowed me to reach a wider audience across the country and the world.

People who read my blog know that I'm passionate about music, sport, and urban travel. Additionally, I have used “A Tuesday Night Memo” as a vehicle for writing about art, food, fashion, religion and gardening – and, in the age of Trump, about politics. Before we moved to the east coast, sharing news and photos about our former Oakland, Calif., flower gardens at home always seem to generate great interest and enthusiasm. Maybe, it was the pretty shapes and colors of our flowers that others found appealing, especially since we could maintain a garden all year long.

Up to now, I have "blogged" 439 entries for “A Tuesday Night Memo,” which collectively have received more than 161,700 page views. Among many subjects I have written about, some of my favorites have been: my appreciation of tennis champion Roger Federer; how the city of Seattle fosters community through international cinema; a history of the world as seen through 100 objects; classical music conductor Gustavo Dudamel; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr; my music love affairs with Pink Martini and Elvis Costello; validating our travel through our photographs; and Jerry Seinfeld's Internet comedy Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Among my recent posts, I have written about the Golden Globe-winning film “Roma”; the humanitarian work of Washington, D.C. chef José Andrés; and recent books written by American historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham. Also, I have shared my interest in digital photography since beginning my blog, which has enabled me to illustrate many if not all of my posts with colorful visuals to match the words I've written.

The feedback I have received not only is very much appreciated, but I also find it very useful. Much of it has been positive, but sometimes it's also been critical. Whether good or bad, I've found the feedback readers provide to be a valuable learning tool. Occasionally, I like to sneak a look at my blog's statistics, which are the key indicators that show how many total "hits" my blog has received, which stories have been read the most, and what countries comprise the blog's readership. The numbers are modest but nevertheless interesting.

Here are a few fun facts about “A Tuesday Night Memo” I thought you might enjoy:

• Since my blog's debut, it has been read in dozens of countries, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Hong Kong – even Brazil, India, Vietnam, and Australia. The top five countries reading my blog include the U.S, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany and France. I hope Russia's interest in my blog has nothing to do with their wanting to hack me because of my occasional blog posts about President Donald Trump.

Looking ahead, two years since he was inaugurated, the Trump presidency continues to garner my interest and attention from time to time. How could it not? However, there's so much more to write about. Among things that I look forward to learning about include my continuing interest in exploring museums – and what we can learn from them. Also, I would like to explore the effect digital music and media have in connecting our world.

In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy sharing my writing week in and week out, and I look forward to contributing more of my words and thoughts in what is shaping up to be another exciting year awaiting all of us.

Stay tuned! 

Thoughts on 2019’s arrival: It’s time to write another book

We are barely removed from the end of 2018,

which is a good thing because it was a very challenging year.

The world lost a lot of dear and talented people: 

Stephen Hawking, Tom Wolfe and Penny Marshall come to my mind.

And, there were lesser known but just as important ones we 

lost such as Irena Szewinska, 72, a sprinter and long jumper from 

Poland, who won seven medals in five Olympic Games, tying an 

Olympic women’s record and becoming a national hero in her country. 


For the entire year, the U.S. dealt with a President named Trump.

And, we know how well this has turned out for our country.

However, with the arrival of 2019, the first blank page of a 365-page,

year-long book that each of us will author began to be filled.

All of us start the New Year with a clean slate.

Hopefully, each of us will take the time to write a thoughtful book, 

be it a memoir or a best-selling novel,

day by day, page by page.

 With 2019 coming into clearer view, we welcome its challenges.

Remember, the words of Ecclesiastes, who said:

"The race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong."

Life is to be enjoyed day by day,

 one day at a time.

Take time for family,

read a good book, 

listen to good music,

master a hobby like photography,

talk to good friends – and listen to them, too.

Support the arts, support newspapers.

Vote your conscience, but do vote!

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year.

May each of you enjoy cheers, love and peace on earth

in the New Year ahead.

At the year’s end, one last 2018 travel adventure

A view from St. James’s Park in London.

Alan Alda, one of America’s most beloved and respected actors, once suggested that you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. “What you’ll discover,” he said “will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

As we awake to the beginning of 2019, no matter where we may be or reside in the world, it’s worth a moment of our time to consider the meaning of Alda’s words.

Last Friday, my wife and I returned from a 10-day holiday visit to London, our first time being British since 2007. Each time we’ve been to England – three times in all since 2005 – there have been new discoveries awaiting us, and this trip provided a wonderful opportunity to rediscover old things from a different perspective.

Upon arrival, we found ourselves in the thick of Christmas holiday revelry as we lodged in a charming, one-bedroom apartment on quiet Lamb’s Passage, an equal walking distance in either direction to the Barbican and Moorgate Underground stations. Within minutes, thanks to the efficiency of the Underground tube, we were able to arrive at a variety of destinations around London: Borough Market, the Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Westminster Abbey, to name just a few that we visited.

Our visit began with theater – we saw a wonderful performance of “Company” at the Sir John Gielgud Theatre, in which we met the musical’s star, Rosalie Craig, afterward, and showered her with praise. We followed it with our second Hamilton experience of the year (and third overall), a matinee at the Victoria Palace that we did on the spur of the moment.

We got a feel for British shopping during our excursion to Oxford Street, which included buying music CDs at HMV, clothes at Uniqlo and in perusing holiday merchandise at the elegant Selfridges. Nearby, we enjoyed a charming lunch at the Monocle Cafe in Marylebone. We made time for seeing the new “Mary Poppins Returns” film at the lovely Barbican Centre Cinema.

There were days spent at museums, such as the Queen’s Gallery near Buckingham Palace and the British Museum, which is one of the great museums devoted to human history and culture.

We also enjoyed a lovely walk through St. James’s Park, where we were welcomed by ducks, geese and pelicans.

Finally, we experienced the Holy Trinity of Anglican Church worship experiences, at St. Martin in the Fields, in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Each Anglican Eucharist was special in its own way. I’ll fondly remember the beautiful four-part choir performing throughout much of the early-afternoon Eucharist at St. Martin in Fields on our first full day in London. Then, there was sitting in the Quire next to the Choir of Men and Boys during Sunday morning Eucharist at Westminster Abbey, a holy shrine steeped deep in British and Anglican history. Finally, there was Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve in the venerable and cavernous St. Paul’s Cathedral, where we were the only American couple seated in a row among Germans and Austrians and British worshipers – and feeling at home in our surroundings.

We returned to Westminster Abbey near the end of our stay and it was a pleasure to stand in Poet’s Corner as well as to see the new David Hockney “Queen’s Window” stained glass window.

London is a city in which I could never see myself getting bored. There’s always plenty of interesting things to explore and admire and be curious about.

It’s easy enough to get caught up in the city’s history, its art, its architecture, the Royal Family.

There’s plenty to explore. I know we’ll be back, again.

In the meantime, I look forward to 2019 and the New Year that awaits. Hopefully, it will be a year full of new discoveries and travel adventures. It is truly my hope that yours will be filled with new discoveries, too.

Safe travels and Happy New Year!