NEWSLETTER

MAY, 2006

We are still experimenting with our new mailing list server, especially trying to get the format the way that we want it. We are happy, however, that it is now being sent again and this time pretty much on schedule for May’s performers. The other big news is that work is going on as we speak on the new courtyard eating area. Susan is keeping her fingers crossed that it will be ready within two weeks. One final note is that you can access the web sites for our performers through their links on the Purple Onion web site which is www.purpleonionsaluda.com .

MAY 4 – ABI TAPIA. All the way from Austin, Texas, Abi is making her debut at the café.

MAY 6 – DAVID CHILDERS & MODERN DON JUANS. We know their many fans will be here.

MAY 11 – DAVID MORREALE. We are happy to have this Baltimore-based singer/songwriter return.

MAY 13 – JIMMY LANDRY. Another old friend returns from Asheville.

MAY 18 – JOHN SHEARER. “Big John” is a folk singer you should not miss, a huge voice to shake the rafters and/or tender enough to make you weep.

MAY 20 – BOB SINCLAIR & VICTROLA CLUB. Another café favorite is back.

MAY 22 – ROBERT SEILER. At the piano for dinner. Proceeds to Children & Family Resource Center.

MAY 25 – ELLEN TRNKA & WALT WHITNEY. This duo from Hendersonville returns.

MAY 27 – BOOGIEDOK. Bad weather kept this Brevard group from being with us last year. They will be here this time.

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THE ELOQUENT EYE.” For some reason, I still remember this homage to a loved one on the plaque in the cemetery on the campus of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee where we were visiting friends. It seemed to speak volumes about how attentive the person was to what was going on around him and reminded me of how much of our time is spent rushing through the minutiae of our daily lives and not noticing too much of anything. It also suggested that this person knew what to do with this information that may have helped him and those around him lead a more meaningful and happier life. One of the continuing joys of living in Saluda is that it increases the chances of living and loving being in the slow lane. This from Zadie Smith’s book, “White Teeth”: “Time is how you spend your love.”

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In view of the continuing discussion about religion and politics in these fractious times of extremism, I want to recommend a book to you. It is “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation” by Jon Meacham. He posits that the founding fathers of our nation acknowledged the existence of a supreme Being when they wrote the Constitution while preserving the freedom for all of us to believe or not to believe. “The great good news about America – the American gospel, if you will – is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it. Belief in God is central to the country’s experience, yet for the broad center, faith is a matter of choice, not coercion, and the legacy of the Founding is that the sensible center holds. It does so because the Founders believed themselves at work in the service of both God and man, not just one of the other.” Unless you are a strict secularist or part of the religious right, it is comforting to understand that there is room for all of us in this great experiment that we call America.

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Some bumper stickers:
Warning: I drive like you do.

Our national health plan. Don’t get sick!

Thank you for not being perky.

If only closed minds came with closed mouths.

Under Republicans, man exploits man. Under Democrats, it is just the opposite.

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See you at the café.

Robert Seiler
Purple Onion Café
www.purpleonionsaluda.com