NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER, 2005

We are finally getting some cold weather after an unseasonably warm October but it doesn’t look like we will be able to enjoy great Fall colors this year. You will, however, be able to hear some great music at the café this month:

NOVEMBER 3 – GREG KLYMA. He is the real deal, singing about stuff that matters.” Sing out! Magazine.

NOVEMBER 5 – BOB SINCLAIR & VICTROLA CLUB. “A thinking man’s Americana-swing with a ballad or two thrown in.”

NOVEMBER 10 – ORIGINAL FORMULA. Making their debut at the café, this duo sings harmonies in that staunch, stoic style popularized by everyone from the Stanleys to the Everlys.

NOVEMBER 12 – GIGI DOVER & BIG LOVE. One of our favorite performers returns.

NOVEMBER 17 – TIM HARRISON. This Canadian singer/songwriter returns.

NOVEMBER 19 – DAVID CHILDERS & MODERN DON JUANS W/ TERRY CLARKE. Nothing further needs to be said to his many fans.

NOVEMBER 24 – THANKSGIVING. NO MUSIC. Have a great time with family and/or friends giving thanks for whatever is important to you.

NOVEMBER 26 – ANON DIXON DAY. This versatile Tuxedo-based performer is perfect for a holiday week-end show.

*

Other than the incredible destruction and havoc they have wreaked, what do the tsunami in Asia, hurricanes Katrina and Rita in this country and the earthquake in Afghanistan have in common? They tapped into what I believe is our innate desire to help one another when there is a need. The world responded with an incredible outpouring of support of all kinds. Politics were put on the back burner as were long festering animosities between groups and nations in a desperate effort to assuage the human hurt and need as well as to assist in the rehabilitation of the affected areas.

It is amazing how we seem to instinctively respond to disasters in this way. We don’t ask if the people who need the help are worthy. Or if they are black, brown or white. Or if they are liberal or conservative. Or if they are “foreign”. People’s lives have been changed forever and we want to help.

Of course, working for those in need takes place in every community through individual, non-profit and governmental efforts. We have all spent time and money over the years supporting these good works and encouraging others to do so.

What puzzles me, at least in this country, is why we and our leaders cannot seem to apply this same sense of responsibility, obligation and urgency to such things as protecting the environment and/or implementing policies that benefit the less fortunate of us who live at the margins of our society. I wonder if we are so large and rich that we have forgotten that every action has a consequence. My wife met a couple who is planning to move to New Zealand for just that reason. They said that if you live on an island with only 4 million people on it, you have to understand that everything you do to the community and/or the environment can have an immediate impact on every one else there and act accordingly.

Maybe that is a lesson that even we Americans can learn about our role in the world or do we have “a levitational self-belief that nimbly transcends the realities of human suffering.” (From John Le Carre’s novel “Absolute Friends”)

*

Quote of the month:
Clearly the trick in life is to die young as late as possible.
William Sloane Coffin

*

Bumper stickers I am quite fond of:
Non-judgment day is near.
Your body is a temple. Mine is an amusement park.
Critical thought. . .the other national deficit
Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have to act like one.
Everyone smiles in the same language.

*

As always, we hope to see you often at the café.

Robert Seiler
Purple Onion Café
www.purpleonionsaluda.com