Look at that Squash Plant!!!

A few months ago, I noticed a squash plant growing by the Eastside Market building at 3rd and Race.   I had been wanting to take some pictures of it, but never remembered to bring my camera with me.  I happened to be driving by, the morning after our first night of frost. I figured I'd find that the plant had died. Not so.  This was one hardy plant.  I went home and got my camera.  Just look at this thing.  (You can click on the images to see larger versions.)

It's taken over the entire lot.

There's still flowers and fruit, just days before Halloween.

Not even electronic waste could stop this plant from growing.

Now, I'm sure this must be more than one plant.  And it just might be a watermelon for all I know.  But these plants show us what could be done with vacant lots all around this town.  Next time you see a vacant lot, throw a squash out there and see what happens.

Guerrilla Garden on Devonshire Ave.

This is a story I've been watching develop for a while.  If you follow my Lexington's Bike Pathways blog, then you know that I am a fan of using a short-cut from Devonshire Ave to Red Mile Rd.  Devonshire Ave is a short street, 2 blocks long.  One block carries a fair amount of traffic, but the other is barely used at all.  Along this barely used portion of the street used to be a dump for someone's beer bottles and cans, each bottle and each can wrapped in it's own brown paper sack.

Here's the view down the less traveled portion of Devonshire Ave.

One day, the bottles and cans disappeared.  In their place, someone had put a pile of dirt.  Turns out that the pile of dirt was a garden bed, and now there is food growing where trash once was.  Currently, the garden contains lettuce, collards, green beans, spinach, broccoli, green peppers, and tomatoes.

I've chanced across the gardener of this plot, and he told me the food is there for anyone who wants to take it.  He also provided some tips for potential harvesters: (1) It's best to pick lettuce leaves from the outside of the plant, leaving some in the middle, so that the plant can keep growing; but if you see that the lettuce is going to seed, just take the whole dang plant, it's time is done; (2) Once the beans start growing, they need to be picked frequently, so the plant keeps producing.

I think this is a great idea.  Just today my wife and I picked some collards for our dinner.  They were GOOD!

Outside the Spotlight Music Series

Given the timing, it is appropriate that my first blog post is about the Outside the Spotlight music series, perhaps my most favorite thing about Lexington.  This Tuesday, 11/23, is the natural anniversary of the series.  Ross Compton began the series eight years ago on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

The Outside the Spotlight series gives Lexingtonians a chance to see and hear live performances of improvisational music.  I have heard it referred to as free jazz.  And in many cases, I understand why one would locate this music in the jazz category.  But in other cases, for instance when The Friction Brothers brought their noisy improv to town, using hot metal objects on dry ice to produce weird and wonderful sounds (not to mention using scrapers and vibrators on a snare drum to create sounds that do not resemble any ordinary percussive sound),  it is not so clear to me that what I am hearing is jazz.

But I will leave the classification to others.  What I do know is that the Outside the Spotlight series consistently presents talented artists who make good music.  And music that, so far as I can tell, is available no where else in Lexington.  For me, it is the way the musicians use sound to twist space and time that keeps me coming back.  I am never disappointed.  My mind is consistently blown.

That Ross Compton has been able to keep this series going for eight years is a testament to his hard work.  He has had to move the location of these events many times.  They have occurred in Memorial Hall on UK's campus, in storage facilities, in an old ice house next to Altec's Kentucky Ale brewing facility, in the wonderful (but now defunct) downtown Gumbo Ya Ya, and probably in many other locations I am unaware of.  That Ross has continued to keep the price of admission ridiculously low (I have never paid a cover charge of more than $5) shows his concern that people of all income levels can enjoy live music.  

That the musicians continue to come back to Lexington, despite the fact that they will make only a small amount of money for their work is due in large part (or at least I think it is) to the fact that the Lexintonians who show up to these events make for a good audience.  They actively listen.  And, most importantly, they do not talk during the show: You can hear a pin drop when the music gets really quiet.  Ultimately, this is what makes the show for me.  When the entire audience makes the music the focus, one is able to experience sound in that very special way made possible only by deep listening.

The Outside the Spotlight music series has opened the world of sound to me in ways that I never would have thought possible a few years ago.  We are lucky to have this series here in Lexington.  Thank you Ross.

The series 8th Anniversary show is Tuesday, 11/23/2010, at Collexion.  Here's the info:

> Outside the Spotlight / Event 122 / 8th Anniversary Show!

Tuesday, November 23 

Ballister 

* Dave Rempis - reeds

* Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello

* Paal Nilssen-Love - percussion

at Collexion, 111 1/2 E. Loudon Ave (at the corner of N. Limestone - immediately behind the building marked 'HOP HOP')

doors 7:30pm, show starts at 8pm

all ages welcome, $5 or pay-what-you-can (more or less, as you are able) 

Here's a  link to Walter Tunis's preview of the show.

Here are some links to videos of past OTS shows:

Tatsuya Nakatani and Dave Farris at the Icehouse, September 27, 2006 (here's a cool video of some kids who took over the stage during intermission and forced Tatsuya and Dave to jam with them)

Peter Brotzmann and Fred Lonberg-Holm at the downtown Gumbo Ya Ya, February 23, 2010

The Thing w/ Joe McPhee at the downtown Gumbo Ya Ya, June 18, 2010

The Friction Brothers at the downtown Gumbo Ya Ya, June 29, 2010