Winter Storm, Norfolk, 2010

A few snow pictures from the Winter Wonderland that is the city of Norfolk, Virginia, this weekend. I’m particularly fond of the Currier & Ives vibe on the window shot.

New Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

My friend, Rebecca Skloot, has a new book out today worth time in your lap.

There is a wonderful excerpt in O magazine here. Check it out.

Here’s some of the background:

When Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer in 1951, doctors took her cells and grew them in test tubes. Those cells led to breakthroughs in everything from Parkinson’s to polio. But today, Henrietta is all but forgotten. In an excerpt from her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot tells her story.

In 1951, at the age of 30, Henrietta Lacks, the descendant of freed slaves, was diagnosed with cervical cancer—a strangely aggressive type, unlike any her doctor had ever seen. He took a small tissue sample without her knowledge or consent. A scientist put that sample into a test tube, and, though Henrietta died eight months later, her cells—known worldwide as HeLa—are still alive today. They became the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture and one of the most important tools in medicine: Research on HeLa was vital to the development of the polio vaccine, as well as drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease; it helped uncover the secrets of cancer and the effects of the atom bomb, and led to important advances like cloning, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping. Since 2001 alone, five Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research involving HeLa cells.

There’s no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta’s cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all the HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—the equivalent of at least 100 Empire State Buildings.

Today, nearly 60 years after Henrietta’s death, her body lies in an unmarked grave in Clover, Virginia. But her cells are still among the most widely used in labs worldwide—bought and sold by the billions. Though those cells have done wonders for science, Henrietta—whose legacy involves the birth of bioethics and the grim history of experimentation on African-Americans—is all but forgotten.

Alejandro Escovedo at The Jewish Mother

Alejandro Escovedo bolted into his show at The Jewish Mother Saturday night counting “1,2,3,4″ and leading his band into the bracing rock of “Always a Friend,” perhaps the catchiest and most ear-friendly tune of a long career filled with them.

While Escovedo’s music over his four decades as a performer has ranged from string-backed Southwestern ballads to cow punk (he was an originator with the great band, Rank and File) to bluesy Stones stomps (The True Believers), he was announcing this evening would be one rock gut punch after another.

Escovedo collapsed and nearly died of complications from Hepatitis C in 2003 and it’s been a long road back for him. But there was nothing tentative about this show (his plight resulted in the two CD set, “Por Vida: with artists like Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Los Lonely Boys, The Jayhawks and Son Volt recording his tunes) . He looked every bit as commanding and vital as he did more than a decade ago when I saw him lead a band through a sweat-drenched set at The Mercury Lounge in New York. Naming this touring band “The Sensitive Boys,” a nod to a song on his latest, “Real Animal,” was an in-joke.

For this tour, Escovedo, who has gone on the road solo or with spare accompaniment and also as a big band leader, chose a tight four-piece featuring guitarist David Pulkingham, bassist Bobby Daniel, and long-time drummer Hector Munoz. They were supple enough to follow Escovedo’s changing leads and moods, giving the show both an urgency and a spontaneity perfect for the tight, crowded confines of the Jewish Mother. Their only error may have been relying on the guys from Vampire Weekend for fashion advice and showing up on stage wearing scarves.

Pulkingham switched from electric guitar to nylon-stringed classical acoustic playing each with punkish fervor, ringing clarity or wall-bending distortion when needed. Daniel and Munoz were locked in all night and, as Escovedo said, “it all starts with the rhythm section.” They drove a set of 13 songs featuring tunes from Escovedo’s solo career, which began in 1992 after the breakup of The True Believers, and ending with two sing-along covers.

They rarely relented throughout the 90-minute set, launching into “Everybody Loves Me” for the second cut to open the show with a double shot of hard rock. Escovedo, who turned 59 earlier in the months, said he was working out some new songs for a return to the studio with producer Tony Visconti, who manned the knobs for his superb latest, “Real Animal.” All of them were keepers, from this third song of the set, “Anchor,” through “Down in the Bowery,” written for his 17-year-old son, a skater and hip hop fan who loved The Ramones, as Escovedo did,  to the encore opener,  “Tender Heart,” fueled by Pulkingham’s Keith Richards-style guitar attacks. “I’ve got nothing you need, but everything you want,” Escovedo sang.

Escovedo is one of the premier songwriters of our times, fluent in a ridiculous range of genres. This is the guy who opened for the last Sex Pistols show in 1978. There are echoes of everything from Lou Reed to Townes Van Zandt to Roky Erickson in his work.

“Real Animal,” released in 2008, was hailed as a creative pinnacle for Escovedo. And while the often autobiographical songs and straight-forward arrangements were easily appealing, it was just the latest in a line of stellar releases, including “A Man Under the Influence,” “Thirteen Years,” and “Gravity.” From “Animal” he pulled “Sister Lost Soul,” dedicated to those he’s lost along the way, including Stephen Bruton. “Nobody Left Unbroken; Nobody left unscarred; Nobody here is talking; That’s just the way things are.” It’s an simple summary of his life and career, but singing about it before an enthusiastic crowd somehow salve the wounds.

Among the show’s highlights were Pulkingham’s flamenco punk guitar playing on “I Was Drunk” and the distorted guitar interplay between him and Escovedo on “Chelsea Hotel ‘78,” another autobiographical tune about living in Manhattan’s infamous fleabag in the late 1970s.

Escovedo introduced the set closer by telling a story about a friend who called him to say the tune, “Castanets,” was on a New York Times top ten list. Then he told him the origin of the list: it was from George W. Bush’s iPod. “It ruined the song for me,” Escovedo said, noting he didn’t play it again until an appearance at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. The band tore into a version that brought the crowd to its feet.

For the encore, Escovedo tried out “Tender Heart, ” a solid rocker which he said had been played in concert for the first time the night before, then reached back for covers of Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes” and The Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden,” encouraging a willing audience to sing the choruses. After, many lingered for autographs. But it also seemed they wanted to savor the performance, unwilling to let the night slip quite so easily into memory.

\ Set List

“Always a Friend”

“Everybody Loves Me”

“Anchor” (new song)

“This Bed is Getting Crowded” (new song)

“Sister Lost Soul”

“Down in the Bowery” (new song)

“I Was Drunk”

“One True Love”

“Faith” (new song)

“Iko Iko”intro interlude

“Chelsea Hotel ‘78″

“Lickin’ Stick” outro interlude

“Castanets”

Encores

“Tender Heart” (new song)

“All the Young Dudes”

“Beast of Burden”

Alejandro Escovedo at The Jewish Mother

Alejandro Escovedo, one of the premier songwriters of our time, will be at The Jewish Mother on Saturday. Show time is 9 p.m. I’ve seen him before and he puts on a show that comes close to those of Bruce Springsteen’s intensity.

The American Football League at 50

I grew up a fan of the old American Football League. I recall getting a fancy reel to reel tape recorder for Christmas in 1968 and using it shortly thereafter to tape the broadcast of the Jets and my beloved Joe Namath’s upset victory over the Colts in Super Bowl III. Here’s my Smithsonian story on the AFL at 50 featuring interviews with several of the stars, including George Blanda, who is still one tough guy.

The AFL’s 50th anniversary.

Nashville Scene Best “Country” of 2009

The Nashville Scene list of the best “country” of 2009. I was asked to contribute (because, of course, I’m a hat guy) and they were kind enough to include my comments about the Buddy and Julie Miller album. It’s nice to see the Millers, Todd Snider, Justin Townes Earle, and a bunch of other artists outside the stuff that parades as mainstream country on the list.

Country Music Critics’ Poll.

Woody Guthrie’s Continuing Collaborations

My piece on contemporary songwriters delving into a mountain of unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics is now up on the Smithsonian site at “Woody Guthrie’s Music Lives On.”

It features Jonatha Brooke and Sarah Lee Guthrie. My only regret is that my interview with Jay Farrar, who is working on an album full of material using the Guthrie Archives, was cut from the story for space reasons.

For more about Woody’s lyrical legacy, go to the Woody Guthrie Archives.

Just in Time: Sledding for Adventurous Adults

I’m jealous of my northern friends and the snow storms that dumped a load of delight on the area. One of the things I miss in winter is sledding, a genuine childhood delight.

It’s also an adult delight.
Here’s a piece from several years ago about snow boarding, which is sledding at warp speed without the control. And, yes, I’m the fool in the pictures.

“It’s going to be super fast today, super fast,” Mike Chaney says.

The day before Chaney, the ski area manager for West Virginia’s Canaan Valley Resort, had spent a couple of hours riding with me on an Airboard, an inflatable sled that careens down mountains at speeds you only dreamed about on your old Flexible Flyer. But the afternoon brought a high sun turning the snow soft and even when we went to the top of the mountain, something the resort doesn’t normally permit airboarders to do, the speed was moderate if fun. Maybe tomorrow will be better, he said, when we finished.

Even so, Chaney warned me about the allure of speed. Fast was good, fast was fun. But under control fast. Earlier in the winter, Chaney, a passionate convert to the new sport, had been filming a promotional video when he got carried away, flying down the mountain and over a jump that shot him 20 feet into the air for a few seconds of adrenaline thrill punctuated by a thudding, bellyflop landing. “It sure did seem like I was up there a long time,” he recalled.

This morning dawned cold with flurries, yesterday’s soft snow frozen hard, as I’d hoped. When it gets icy, he’d warned, Airboards prove difficult — very difficult — to steer. As if on cue, someone at the rental shop cracks “Is that the kamikaze look?” after I’d donned a helmet with a red target on the forehead. But when I get to the top of the glistening slope find it virtually clear of traffic, the warning and the wisecrack faded from recent memory. So what if the slope was slicker than an Olympic luge run, I had a half day left, one more chance to go fast, really fast, and I was going to enjoy it.

I push off from the top and within seconds lean into a long sweeping turn to the right, burning off some speed, then I sweep back to the left, shooting down the mountain, the airboard chattering on the ice, resisting my command to turn even as my legs whipsaw to the side. Pushing hard, white-knuckling the handles, I force an arcing turn back towards the center of the slope, barely holding on.

I’m flying, too. Fast. Faster than I can remember any sled run as a kid, faster than that wintry day decades ago when the icy hill behind my boyhood house froze solid into a memorable, miniature, homemade bobsled run.

Just then, I hit a patch of ice and I’m no longer turning, I’m hurtling. Straight for a pack of high school students ambling towards the lift, presumably for their first run of the day. To their right, the trail ends, sloping off steeply into a thicket of trees. I put my feet down, dragging them, but there’s little effect. I try a hockey stop, pushing the sled in front of me at a right angle. I’ve become practiced at it over the past day, but never at this speed. Predictably, it fails. Delightfully. I’m going so fast I lose my grip and slide off the sled, rolling sideways, stopping short of the crowd. I get up laughing, dust off the ice flakes, and head past the baffled crowd to the lift for another ride. Why not? This is a blast.

I’m not alone in that assessment. Chaney, enchanted by the idea of reliving his youth in Winchester, Virginia, sledding down hills, quickly became a convert. Eric Skarvan, a guide and outfitter who has been leading snowshoeing and airboarding treks into the mountains around Aspen, Colorado, calls it “an endorphin adrenaline cocktail.” He and friends hike up the Buttermilk Trail on a full moon night and rocket down on Airboards. “That is such a great time,” he says.

Greg Murtha boarded for the first time as part of his job as the director of marketing for the Sugar Bowl Resort in California. “I have not had that kind of ear to ear grin in a long time,” he says. “Sliding down the mountain was a whole new thrill ride. It’s a hoot.”

Sugar Bowl and Canaan Valley are among a handful of resorts inching into airboarding, which was invented in Europe and is only now gaining a snowshoe-toe hold in the United States. Ann-Elise Emerson, president of Emo-Gear, the Airboard distributor in North America, is in her third year of business and thinks the Airboard is “making good headway.”

But, like in the early days of snowboarding, Emerson says the tough question for resorts is how to bring in a new and fast sport like airboarding with skiers and snowboarders already crowding the slopes. “A lot of them don’t want to be the first,” she says. “I’ve ridden at a huge number of resorts with management and no one had a negative experience.”

At Canaan, most airboarders are restricted to the slopes below mid-mountain. At Sugar Bowl, they have a slope of their own, but only on Tuesday and Saturday nights. At HooDoo Ski Area in Oregaon, the first to offer airboarding in North America four years ago, all slopes are open Monday through Friday and in the evenings.

Chaney says there were “mixed emotions” from enthusiasts on both sides — skiers and airboarders — about how they would share the slopes, but no problems ensued. Like snowboarding, Emerson says airboarding will take time to gain acceptance.

Emerson decided to start a company selling Airboards in North American after getting hooked during a trip to Switzerland, where the Airboard was invented. Unlike traditional sleds, Airboards don’t need special snow conditions so they can be ridden over powder or groomed surfaces, just like skis and snowboards. They’re part whitewater raft, part snowboard and part boogie board, made of a tough urethane-coated nylon fabric. Handholds on either side and hard nylon runners on the bottom provide a control akin to skiing or snowboarding, carving turns and making hockey stops by pushing down one side. Riding head first and close to the snow heightens the sense of speed.

And Airboards are fast, faster than skis or snowboards if you’re willing. Chaney says 40 mph isn’t out of the question and in 2005, a European snowboarder reached 88 mph rocketing down an empty slope. The freestyle tricks are already evolving with some enthusiasts launching into barrel rolls off jumps.

Emerson says while airboarding offers something for extreme sport enthusiasts, it’s also appealing to families who just want to have fun. Families, she notes, have less and less time together so they’re looking for a sport with an easy learning curve. Airboarding is one. Most resorts, for instance, require only an hour of instruction before turning people loose on the slopes. “Families can get up on the mountain and have a great time on their first day,” she notes.

Skarvan agrees. “It’s a thrill, very unique, a great sensation,” he says. “You’ve got speed, the flotation over powder, control and jumping capability.”

While airboarding is easy for the novice, it also offers an opportunity for extreme riding. “If you want to get really good, you can go for it,” Emerson adds.”There are amazing aerial maneuvers folks are doing.”

While the first North American Airboarding competition was held at HooDoo Ski Area in Oregon two years ago, Emerson says the Europeans have a couple of years head start. There are regular competitions, especially in Switzerland, with 100-200 competitors.

Switzerland is the birthplace of the Airboard. Joe Steiner, a snowboarder grounded by injuries to his ankles, spent nearly a decade developing the Airboard, researching inflatable sleds from patents going back decades. A Swiss maker of inflatable hospital mattresses helped him develop prototypes that eventually became the first sled (there are several models now, ranging in price from $149 for a kids’ board to $298 for a bigger Freeride model designed for backcountry powder).

Skarvan likes to pack his Airboard in a backpack, hike up a bowl, inflate the Airboard and zoom down.And while the speed and backcountry aspects of Airboarding are attracting fans, there is a downside. Skarvan’s company, Sun Dog Athletics, was scrambling for insurance coverage over the summer because his old carrier went out of business and his new carrier was unwilling to offer insurance for Airboarding after reading stories about the speeds involved.

“We’ve been running this successfully for two years with no incidents,” Skarvan says. “Insurance carriers in Europe are covering it. The track record is good, statistically it’s safe, but it’s an unknown to them. Insurance companies don’t want to deal with question marks.”

At Canaan, Chaney says there was one minor injury among the more than 350 riders who tried Airboards last year. The resort opened the season with six adult boards and three kids’ boards, but sold out several days so it added more, ending the year with 15 adult boards and six kids boards. “We’re going to expand some this year, hopefully get the terrain park open earlier,” he says. Canaan was the only resort in the country last year with a terrain park of S curves and jumps catering to snowboarders and airboaders.

My day at Canaan Valley resort began with instruction from Jonathan McArthur, a college student during the summer and mountain mainstay during the winter who said he hadn’t heard of an Airboard before being trained at the resort at the season’s beginning. As we stand on the bunny slope, Airboards in hand, the questions begin:

“What is that?”

“That looks like fun. Is it easy to control?”

That’s the question. Isn’t it? The snow is slow and we have to push to start gliding down the soft incline, a little lower mountain tree-lined trail. At first, leaning the direction I want to turn doesn’t seem to have much effect, but I learn that with a little speed and by pushing my opposing hand down, causing the rails on that side to dig in, I can make slow, controlled turns.

Riding the chair lift to the top of a real slope is easy with the Airboard. You hold it in front of you with both hands, the back propped on your feet. At the top, Jonathan goes first, showing me a line down the slop, which doglegs to the right. I slide the Airboard onto the snow and take off tentatively, slowly gaining speed. Soon, too soon, I’m going faster than I expected, dragging my feet and trying to turn, sliding off the board in a heap halfway down. But I get back on and finish the run, eager to try again.

The next run is smoother. I learn to begin my turns sooner and carry more speed. And I execute a neat hockey stop when I reach the end of the run. Good thing. It empties into a thicket of trees. I’m hooked, though I want more and Chaney promises we may explore going to the top of the mountain and coming down after lunch.

With a simple, “Are you ready” after lunch, Chaney grabs his helmet, an Airboard and we’re soon on the lift  to the mountain top with a buddy and a guy from Miami trying airboarding for the first time. It’s warm and the snow is soft so Chaney thinks we’ll handle it fine. Not too much speed.

The black diamond signs give me pause, but Chaney goes first, showing us a line down a slope where he’s built a terrain park featuring a couple of banked S curves and a small jump at the end. The first time, I miss the first curve, then hit the second one at the wrong angle, slowing me down. By now, going slow frustrates me. I crave the speed.

The next run is better and it empties onto a long, broad slope below allowing me to point the Airboard straight down the mountain and gather speed before burning it off with a slow turn near the bottom. Now, this is fun. We go up and come screaming down again and again, careful to stop atop one blind rise to survey the skiers below so we don’t run over the slowpokes. Yes, slowpokes. I give them a wide berth as I zoom by them.

As the afternoon slips away, the snow turns wetter and stickier and we decide to call it a day, hoping tomorrow will dawn colder and slicker.

Indeed, I get my wish — and then some — the next morning, taking the teeth-chattering ride down an icy slope. What could be better? I’m a grownup giddy as a kid home from school on a snow day, revisiting childhood memories and indulging in adult adventure.

After my first tumble, I’ve no time to waste. I want to squeeze in every adrenaline-pumping run I can this morning. I’m hooked.

–end–

The Value of Nature

I wrote about nature’s often overlooked value for National Wildlife several years ago in “What Is Clean Water Worth?”

In that piece, I noted that replacing the natural filtration the undeveloped Catskills provides for New York City’s water supply would cost unfathomable billions of dollars.

Now, a new report from The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative out of the United Nations proposes some preventive maintenance for the Earth.

From the report:

Solutions are already emerging from cooperation between
economists and scientists – and being tested
and refined around the world. They point to four urgent
strategic priorities:
• to halt deforestation and forest degradation
(i) as an integral part of climate change mitigation
and adaptation focused on ‘green carbon’ and (ii) to
preserve the huge range of services and goods
forests provide to local people and the wider
community;
• to protect tropical coral reefs – and the associated
livelihoods of half a billion people – through
major efforts to avoid global temperature rise and
ocean acidification;
• to save and restore global fisheries and related
jobs, currently an underperforming asset in danger
of collapse and generating US$ 50 billion less per
year than it could;
• to recognise the deep link between ecosystem
degradation and the persistence of
rural poverty and align policies across sectors
with key Millennium Development Goals.

The full report is at Teeb.org.

Other best of 2009 Picks

Here are some other lists of the best albums of 2009. I’ll add more as I come across them.

WXPN

From Metacritic

Large-hearted Boy’s aggregated list

Lisa Findley

Amazon

Best of 2009 Aggregate site

The Nashville Scene