www.intermod.org

Last fall, a friend finally succeeding in getting me to show up at a local high school’s robotics team, where he was the faculty sponsor for a group of students were feverishly working to compete in a FIRST Robotics challenge, a sprawling nationwide competition to draw students into STEM.

Maynard H Jackson High School RoboJags (they’re the “Jaguars”):
– website: mjhsrobojags.godaddysites.com
– (for convenience, I set up both mjhsrobojags.org and mjhsrobotics.org to forward to the above website)
– Instagram: www.instagram.com/mjhs.robojags
– (not @mjhsrobojags , that was a brief 2020 account)

Below are the suggestions and tips that I presented to the students, following a year of watching and occasionally helping them build their robot.

Continue reading “Mentoring a high school robotics team”

(The full reports went to Facebook, including lots of photos, with captions on every one. Copy-pasted here are just the daily summaries.)

Copenhagen! We’ll be here for six days, hanging and doing with friends Scott and Meredith, including a daytrip across the Øresund* to Malmö (Sweden) and a daytrip north into the countryside for castles ‘n sh-t. Then to Germany for a quick visit with family. Go!

I’ll just go ahead and apologize now for not properly using the slash-O character (Ø/ø) in these updates. I may or may not figure out how to do that on my keyboard. EDIT: OK editing them in now via crude copy-paste …

Continue reading “Copenhagen and Germany, April 2026”

(Text copy-pasted from Facebook, posted here for quick reference in future. Each event had 1-2 photos posted, with much more information in the photo captions.)

And so it begins. Another March, another Big Ears music festival, the weirdo / avant gardey weekend put on by Ashley Capps who made his money years ago and is now spending it on this. It’s an absolute juggernaut with 4-6 shows happening simultaneously for 12 hours daily for four days.

Continue reading “Big Ears Knoxville 2026”

Just logging the trip … We went to Chicago for a long weekend (four nights), nominally to see the Yoko Ono exhibit at the MCA but then also to do a dozen other things. Our friends Scott and Meredith went up too 🙂

Continue reading “Chicago, Nov 2025”

This blog originated on TypePad in 2005, and since then I’ve quietly posted personal stuff here. About half of it is travelogues with the missus, and the other half is random junk that was on my mind. Starting in 2015 or so I was posting more on FB, and less here, but I still would at least log our trips here for quick reference.

Over the years, the TypePad platform got worse and worse. For example, the search function here broke years ago, as did the archive listing function, so I couldn’t even find my own posts! Sometimes a targeted Google search would take me to them, sometimes not. Nonetheless, despite the troubles, it was never bad enough for me to migrate off the platform.

After circling the drain for a few years, TypePad shut down for good on Sept 30th, and they gave us 30 days warning. After some hunting around (and finding several really terrible solutions), I came across this guy’s TypePad python scripts, which hoovers up the content from TypePad, including images, then massages it into WordPress-importable form.

So, this month I worked on that move, starting with the capturing of the old blog’s contents, including images; obviously that was the critical action to be done before Sept 30th. After I safely had that on my computer, I then set up this new website, and worked on importing/uploading all these old posts into it. As I type this, that basics are all in place, and all 219 (!) posts are now visible here. Hey look, search works again! The image handling isn’t great; it lost the text wrapping we were doing, especially in our image-heavy travelogue entries; it also lost the click-to-enlarge function, and I’ve put both on the todo list.

A major omission is the comments on the posts, which are all missing — for now. I do have them downloaded, but will need to manually upload them. Most critically, on a few posts (OK, maybe only one) I came back over the years and logged some more things via comments on that post, and I definitely want to restore that.

Et cetera et cetera. Thanks for stopping by!

Annual trek to Knoxville for the Big Ears music festival.

Short reviews (and a representative photo) of each performance are on Facebook, perhaps to be copied over to here someday. For now I’m posting these summaries here for quick(er) reference than I can get from Facebook.

Thursday, day 1 of 4: – Kramer – Tigran Hamaysan – Tyshawn Sorey + Adam Rudolph – Steve Roach and the astonishing Age Of Reflections projection – Wayne White’s Username/Password – Darkside

Friday, day 2 of 4: – Immanuel Wilkins ensemble – Philip Glass Ensemble – Fugazi film – Tyshawn Sorey (Feldman/Rothko) – Sun Ra – Joseph Keckler – Thor Harris – Dawn Richard + Spencer Zahn – Squanderers – Sorey again – Steve Roach again – Mike Reed’s Separatist Party – Maria Chavez + Miriam Rezaei + Victoria Shen

Saturday, day 3 of 4: – Eiko Ishibashi film score – Steven Shick – Philip Glass Ensemble (again) – Holocaust violins exhibit – Wayne White artwork – Pangrok prints – Beak – WTF portrait mode, and camera shortcut – William Basinski and the Art Of Reflections projections again – Michael Rother (Neu et al) – the astonishing Peni Candra Rini – SML – Dakha Brakha – Claire Chase et al – SUSS – Ahmed – Clipping – Fabulous Funky Fred – Water Damage

Sunday, day 4 of 4: – Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (film) – more gallery wandering – Susan Alcorn tribute – Eliza McCarthy – Kahil El’Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – old cemetery – Anoushka Shankar

We made our annual trek to Knoxville for the Big Ears music festival.

Short reviews (and a representative photo) of each performance are on Facebook, perhaps to be copied over to here someday.

Thursday, day 1 of 4: – Joe Henry and Kenny Wollesen launch event – Tord Gustavson – Zoe Keating – Tyondai Braxton – the incredible Jlin – Wombo – Unwound, LOL

Friday, day 2 of 4: – Fourth & Gill neighborhood – Charles Lloyd doc – John Paul Jones – Haitian voudu doc (stunning) – Henry Threadgill – Brad Mehldau – Chocolate Genius – Laurie Anderson – Bitchin Bajas – Suzi Analogue – Carl Craig Saturday, day 3 of 4: – Trio Medieval – Secret Chiefs 3 – Colleen – Colin Stetson – Horse Lords – Yasmin Williams – SGM – JG Thirlwell – Herbie Hancock – Ash Fure

Sunday, day 4 of 4: – Wollesonic – Allen Toussaint doc – Secret Chiefs 3 – Threadgill / Iyer / Prieto – KMRU – Steve Keane – Aleuchatistas – Thurston Moore + John Paul Jones – Laraaji/Suphala

Annual trek to Knoxville for the Big Ears music festival. The weather was pretty good, just one day of on-and-off rain and then a day of high winds (which sadly scuttled the big parade for the weekend). We sprung again for the more expensive “Premier” passes that allowed us to skip the worst of the waiting lines. Our hotel (Embassy Suites) cost an arm and a leg, though, far more than the festival passes; next year we’ll try the Hyatt Place again.

I ran “in” the Knoxville marathon again 🙂

Drove there and back in an electric car, with just one 10 minute stop for charging. It’s 2023 folks, time to get over it and give up your gasser. See me for advice.

Short reviews (and a representative photo) of each performance are on Facebook, perhaps to be copied over to here someday.

Thursday, day 1 of 4: – Yarn/Wire – King Britt – Phill Niblock – Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet – Kali Malone

Friday, day 2 of 4: – Robert Ashley street opera thing – trumpeter Nate Wooley – Yarn/Wire again – Robert Lundberg piece with Atlanta improv-ers – Carl Stone Trio – Xylouris White – Joe Rainey – Pino Palladino – William Parker with regrettable bonus – Billy Woods – Caterina Barbieri

Saturday, day 3 of 4: – Stephen O’Malley – Lee Ranaldo – William Parker’s Mayan Space Station – Etran de L’Air – Luke Schneider – Sierra Ferrell – Aroof Aftab / Maeve Gilchrist / Shahzad Ismaily – SUSS – Xylouris White – Fujiiiita

Sunday, day 4 of 4: – Knoxville marathon 🙂 – the singing saw guy – Lonnie Holley – Wadada Leo Smith – Nate Wooley – King Coal screening – Oneohtrix Point Never – Zorn / Dunn / Lombardo – Zorn Cobra conduction

We had to go to Indiana for an Unnamed Family Obligation, so decided to stop in Nashville for a couple days on the way up.

Monday: drive to Nashville

stopped in Trenton GA on way up for lunch and car charge

Nashville: Ryman tour (and stage photo!)

Frist Art Museum

Robert’s Western World

Tuesday: Nashville

Opryland and (newer) Grand Ole Opry, all terrible

Parthenon

weird ghost kitchen lunch

Tootsie’s

The Listening Room

Wednesday: Nashville then drive to Indianapolis

Johnny Cash Museum

Patsy Cline Museum

National Corvette Museum (20 minute charging stop)

Kentucky Stonehenge

Oscar Getz Whiskey Museum

Heaven Hill distillery (and huge rickhouses everywhere)

Thursday: Indianapolis then points south

historic winter storm, with extreme cold, was approaching, so we upended our original plans

quick drive around Indianapolis, including diminutive steam clock

Franklin IN for family business

POW Chapel at Camp Atterbury

Bloomington: Trojan Horse, Garret driveby

Battery Innovation Center and charging fail

limping south to make it to next station in Kentucky and overnight stay

Jasper: Providence Home geode grotto

Jasper: Schnitzelbank German restaurant, three hour stay while charging

overtaken by cold front (40 deg to 10 deg within two hours), which worsened range problem

overnighted in southern Indiana instead

Friday: finish drive home

wake up to -3 deg cold but fully charged car

four charging stops on way home (being extra conservative in cold)

frozen windshield washer fluid, both in car and at gas stations

Regrets:

Shaker Village

Thomas Merton Hermitage

Goat Milk Stuff

Indianapolis: medical museum, art museum, Broad Ripple neighborhood

Slocum mechanical puzzle collection

Birdhouse paradise

This old post-punk band Jawbox was holding some special reunion shows in NYC and I decided to go. While I was in NYC (by myself) I did a bunch of other stuff.

Wed July 20th

view of Sandy Hook’s North Beach on approach into NYC

arrive via LaGuardia via Delta and shiny new Terminal C

take bus+subway to Greenwich Village and AirBnB room in 5th floor walkup

dinner at Bleecker Street pizza and on to Le Poisson Rouge, venue for show

opener: Savak, with members from old DC scene

headliner: Jawbox, playing material from early albums and singles (“Dischord era”), delivered what I came for in the first three songs!

afterwards: walk by Blue Note and Village Vanguard, back to pad for planning and sleep

Thu July 21st

run along Hudson River and down to Battery Park

stop at Merchant Marine Memorial

walk up Canyon of Heroes

lunch at Chelsea Market (smaller than expected, smaller than Ponce City Market)

immersive digital projection experience at Artechouse

Little Island was closed due to nearby lightning, seemed like it would never open so abandoned for …

Whitney Museum including Biennial

Hudson River WetLab

dinner at Joe’s Pizza and on to Le Poisson Rouge

opener: Versus, beloved indie band from back in the day, didn’t play any of the couple songs I’d hoped for, but OK anyway

headliner: Jawbox, playing material from middle albums, was fine but not as interested, left halfway through

over to Small’s Jazz Club (thanks to AirBnB host Kristin for the tip) and saw a combo that featured the talented Simon Moullier on vibraphone but also Mark Whitfield Jr on drums was great.

Fri Jul 22nd

Museum at Eldridge Street, a grand old synagogue from the 1890s when Jews dominated the Lower East Side

met up with old friend Allan, walk around LES and end up at Essex Market (the new one, not old one across the street)

dinner at Manousheh Bleecker and then on to Le Poisson Rouge for last time

opener: Ted Leo (playing solo, not with The Pharmacists), nice job

headliner: Jawbox, playing material from late albums, those songs are growing on me, but left at end of main set (before encores)

took subway out to Williamsburg where I’d hoped to see another show but it got Covid-cancelled; walked around, took CitiBike to subway, discovered the G-line runs rarely at night, got a Lyft

met up with Allan again at The Library, out late

Sat Jul 23rd

subway up to New York Public Library for their Polonsky Exhibition of the NYPL’s Treasures

hello to Patience and Fortitude, wander through Bryant Park

subway back down to Greenwich village, nope, subway halted, took long, careful CitiBike ride sans helmet!

finish packing, subway+bus to LGA, last look back at metro NYC for how long?

Regrets (didn’t get to it, or want to do with Sharon):

• Mount Saint Michaels in Bronx (OAC school)
• The Cloisters
• Harlem jazz museum
• Little Island
• piano man in Washington Square Park
• Governor’s Island
• Summit One Vanderbilt (touristy?)
• Frick Madison
• see Time Out NY’s “100 Best Things” list for more (including several of above)