Category: Events

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The Carolina Chocolate Drops are Reuniting!

Holy crap, this would be awesome!

Mary and I discovered the Drops in 2011, or thereabouts, and got tickets to see them at The Queen in early 2012. Hoots & Hellmouth was added to the lineup and it was an unforgettable night. Between sets, mama Mary almost got me into a fight when we observed a young child without ear protection who clearly didn’t want to be there. We had to sacrifice a sweet spot in the pit to diffuse the situation, but still shook our backsides off to CCD (the little bit ‘o ass that Hoots left us to shake).

We saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops as a family in June of that year at the Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival. Westen was taken with their energy and we saw Rhiannon being a sweet mom at one of the kids activity tents.

Mary and I saw them at the Grand on one of our rare dates in 2013. The audience was the worst of the public radio crowd and wouldn’t get off their butts. Mary and I had amazing seats, but scooted into the wings to dance and not block anyone’s view. Unbeknownst to us, WHYY was filming the show and we saw ourselves months later on TV.

After Mary passed away, it was a special honor to take the boys to see Rhiannon Giddens in 2018 at Delfest. It was the first time they got to stay up for a proper headliner and Giddens served up a captivating performance. It wouldn’t be the last time I cried that weekend.

In 2022, Kristen and I took our kids to the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Local heroes, The Honey Badgers, were our big draw that year, but we also got to see Dom Flemons…twice. Few artists have the depth of talent and knowledge and personability that he does. He is an American treasure.

CCD hits deep in this family.

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WORLD OF CHAOS

My son’s new band World of Chaos will debut at Rainbow Records tonight!

Westen been a stage hound since David Stradley asked for volunteer readers at a Delaware Shakespeare event on Market Street in Wilmington. He couldn’t read yet and Stradley had to feed him his line.

Westen actually made it onto a DelShakes stage in their production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and has acted in too many plays to name here (most for Pages Alive Theater).

He’s been learning guitar for a little while now and has had a crash course in bass to prepare for his musical debut.

If you’re local to Newark, Delaware, and want to support some awesome kids, we’d love to see you tonight!

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Hope

Live music. A friend lamented at music’s healing power of sound, connection, rhythm, and pure magic. I shared the lament. This is the longest I’ve gone without a proper concert (even counting the miracle yoga and music fest we attended in August).

Then I remembered I had tickets for a Lone Bellow concert at Union Transfer in Philly in March. My date for that show dumped me months ago and I was pessimistic that it was still happening at all. I looked up the venue and the show is still listed as on!

With good news trickling out and an event date right at the beginning of spring, I’m cautiously optimistic that my friend and I will be letting loose like the maniacs we are in a couple months.

Now, to find that magical, four-day, hippie fest my sons and I have been craving…

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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Rare Disease Day at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children

Home educators are hyper diverse. Each family has its own reasons for choosing to take full ownership of their child(ren)’s education. Within multi-child homes, there are varieties of reasons for choosing the lifestyle, or not choosing it as some siblings attend brick-and-mortar schools. Temporally, the reasons may change as children and family dynamics grow.

My personal journey evolved from not knowing the words “unschooling” or “deschooling” to being a cheerleader of these approaches.

Illness can be one of the saddest reasons a family chooses to home educate. Not only do these families bear the burden of a child with compromised health, but they often take on the responsibility of educating that child. It was a world I hardly knew about before joining the home ed community.

Rare diseases are an extra burden as families have to navigate uncharted territories, at home and in health care.

Today will be a learning experience for us. We will learn humility. We will learn about pain. We will learn about how blessed we are for the health we have. We will learn hope. We will learn about the strength of children and families and the human soul.

The most important learning is uncomfortable. It must kill old beliefs and renew them like the Phoenix from the ashes.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason