Things That Matter To People Who Matter

Avishai Cohen | Snail Mail | Fairmount Park | Trash

Avishai Cohen

Music is one of the few universes where no language need be spoken and consideration of ideas only felt. Avishai Cohen and the International Vamp Band's Unity weaves a world built upon very subtle and beautiful instrumental communication and understanding. A genesis of salsa, classical, modal and other forms of jazz, and with an ensemble representing four nations, this recording serves as a reminder that the world is one place where we all live together and subtlety is a necessary ingredient in life.

Snail Mail

E-mail is easy. MySpace is all-powerful. Cell phones grow out of people's faces. It's not hard to keep in touch with somebody, or everybody at the same time. But I get a different kind of thrill when I hear the dog bark and the roof of the mailbox creaks open. Shrouded in the mystery of a plain white envelope, addressed by hand and licked by someone at least a few states away from me ... it's a letter! I met a girl in Kansas City when I was on tour and we decided to get to know each other by way of the U.S.P.S. We send books, pictures, music. She sent me Eliza Gilkyson and Broken Social Scene. I sent her Marah and Tom Robbins. I can tell what kind of day she had by the peaks in her handwriting. I'll put my 41 cents in anytime!

Fairmount Park

I love Fairmount Park, all of it, the way you love that favorite family member whose arms are always there, unconditionally, to envelop you with love. My wife, Kristin, and I had our first date in Fairmount Park — a bicycle run to all of the park mansions. There was a fellow named Robert Montgomery Scott out front in street clothes on a rickety old bike. The peloton was made up of very successful people on very expensive bikes, wearing amazingly loud spandex over figures less than Greek, and us — dressed in casual groove on heavy vintage cruisers. We pedaled to all of the park's historic homes, but we fell in love surrendering to something as utterly luxurious as simply hanging out together, doing nothing ... at the Water Works.

Trash

One of the first things I remember seeing in Philly was a huge wad of VHS tape, tangled through a chain-link fence. It was blowing in the wind, reflecting the sunlight and was beautiful. I had just moved here after a year in Alaska, and needless to say was having trouble adjusting, but this tape reminded me that you can find something beautiful just about anywhere, if you bother to look.