Kodachromatica

The evolution of photography in my family started with my great grandfather John Henry Bailey in the 1890s. He was a share cropper living in western Tennessee and didn't have two cents to rub together as they used to say. When John was just eighteen, his father died, and he had to pay the doctor with a "stiff neck mule." Meanwhile John's little brother Jim left home at the age of fourteen to sell Bibles, but he came back a photographer, and in 1892 he asked his brother John to join him in his chosen profession. They opened a studio in Milan, Tennessee (pronounced "Me-lan" in those parts.) Consequently I have a treasure load of what would have been unaffordable photographs of our family back then. Here's one of my grandmother with her little sister on the floor. And poultry in a hat.

When I grew up, the Kodak Instamatic camera came out in 1963 and cost about $15. The best part was the film cartridge which eliminated the need to thread the film. Plus there was a flashbulb which snapped right on. Just point and shoot!

Except my mother wasn't very good at it.

Now of course our phones are our cameras and visa versa. If I can't see the stage at a concert, I can often look up at the little screens being held aloft in front me. This doesn't happen so much at local events. Perhaps people are having too much fun to bother recording things for posterity. Tonight The Rhodes Tavern Troubadours return for their monthly gig at the Takoma VFW. This Saturday I'm thinking  Dingleberry Dynasty and Marc Rebillet at 9:30 Club which will be a crazy cool show, or King Soul at a new venue for them in Silver Spring which sports a big dance floor unlike many of their other haunts.

Sunday it's Spider Cake and Crown Cobra at the Galaxy Hut- still my favorite bar in the universe of Arlington. I tried a new brew pub around the corner last week which had neo-country music blaring, and it was an excruciating experience. I could barely sit through a beer. Iota has been lost to new construction, but you can still find refuge at the Hut. For now....

I can't listen to what they call country in this century, but give me John Prine any day. On Monday local musicians including a trio of Williams, (Billy Coulter, Bill Starks and Bill Williams- whoa! Double Williams!) will come together for a tribute to Mr Prine at St Mark's social hall.