Video Links

Last weekend Gary Louris and Mark Olson performed two shows in Minneapolis. Long ago they were the heart of the Jayhawks, a Minneapolis band at the center of the Americana scene. Mark Olson left the band, that struggled and never quite broke through and that meanwhile amassed major debt with their label on the hope of breaking through with just one more record. But the reason he left was mostly his marriage to Victoria Williams, a singer-songwriter from Joshua Tree, California. I loved this band and also Mark and Victoria, who made their own music with Olson's songwriting as the Harmony Ridge Creekdippers. A couple early Creekdipper CDs were sent to me in brown manilla envelopes hand-addressed by Mark Olson. It was a great thing-- leaving the band and making music in the desert. But also, this band and my history with it can still break my heart.

Olson and Williams broke up about eighteen months ago, and now Olson and Louris just finished touring together. I am out of touch enough that I didn't know they had made a new CD together, or were touring, until the two shows were imminent and sold out. A friend did post a link to some amazing video, however. You have to scroll down to Louris and Olson, and there are 3 videos on there, all just wonderful. For the link, click here.

I spent the better part of three days at work putting together a PowerPoint to highlight the new museum show that opens next week and figuring out how to make it into a flash video and then how to get that flash video onto our web site. I wanted to get a little "player" on the web site, but that meant getting it onto YouTube, who don't accept the "flash" format. After much downloading of free converter software and finagling, I realized the clearest video is achieved by posting the file with a link. Sorry you have to do some clicking to get to it, but here's the link to the page of exhibitions at least. To view the PowerPoint, read the essay "These Gentle Communists," and other fun stuff, click here.

Hooray for technology.