Baby Penguin (BP) was my company in Austin Monday through Thursday while McD toiled away in Dallas. I found a new coffee shop reasonably close to the office, Trianon Coffee, and guess what? They serve TacoDeli breakfast tacos – perfect! I’ll have a Jess Special please. What’s that you ask? A delicious mix of eggs, cheese, avocado and some peppers.
On Monday night I noticed a bit of a rumpus on the roof of the Hyatt Regency parking garage. There are often photo shoots up there, capturing the Austin skyline as a backdrop. This one had some bright lights behind it and what did they spell out? Tacos! They’re everywhere. Some closer investigation seemed appropriate and so I took the lift up to the parking rooftop and found the shoot was for the 512 (Austin area code) Taco Man. Haven’t come across that truck anywhere but will need to keep an eye out.
I suppose I lied when I said that BP was my only company. My friend Ron (we worked together for years at AIG) from Los Angeles came to Austin to 
have dinner with my boss and me. Our new colleague Damon joined as well. We started with a drink at the apartment Sky Bar and then walked across the 1st Street bridge to III Forks for a delicious steak dinner. Thanks Ron! What a great time we had reminiscing on work experiences, folks we worked with, and just generally catching up. We finished up at the apartment with some music and banter.
The river was the calmest I’ve seen it so far on the walk back home and I snapped this picture of the Hyatt Regency reflection:
Ron was in Dallas on Wednesday and was able to meet up with Diana for dinner at The Keeper. So he was able to understand our relationship from both individual perspectives – probably could do some excellent marriage counseling now. I know, I know: everything’s perfect and that would be such a waste of money.
My favourite sunrise this week was Wednesday morning and yes, I was awake in time to see it after all the fun with the boys the night before. Pretty impressive I think.
I caught the bus back to Dallas on Thursday afternoon and then had a busy day on Friday catching up on things left undone for a few weeks: dental cleaning; Penelope oil change; selecting a new softer mattress for the apartment; Penelope bath; processing the stack of mail… Seems a lot of my day was spent catering to Penelope’s needs – I suppose that’s fair given that she’s been tolerating Diana driving her a lot recently – poor girl just isn’t used to going that fast.
Saturday commenced with the usual workout followed by coffee and a crossword. I could feel McD nipping at my heels during crossword time – she finished 10 seconds after me – whew, that was a close call. Penelope got new tires installed on Saturday afternoon – they were supposed to be done on Friday but there was a mix up on the tire delivery. She really is a very high maintenance girl, requiring new tires every 20 thousand miles or less.
We met Jens and Glenda for dinner on Saturday night at a restaurant that was new to us – Mexican Bar Co. at Willowbend mall. The food and company were excellent. We spent over 3 hours catching up on all that had happened in our lives in the 4 or 5 months since Jens’ 60th birthday party. I enjoyed a perfect chile relleno and elote (Mexican style corn on the cob with aioli). I had the leftovers just before finishing up this post.
Sunday started like Saturday – workout followed by coffee and crossword in downtown McKinney. I lost on the crossword today by 2 seconds – great job McD! (I could feel it coming yesterday). Then I did some light weeding and dead bush removal in the garden. By now it was eighty degrees outside and so we uncovered the pool loungers and spent a happy few hours reading and 
listening to music. A couple of light rain showers, while the sun was out and the sky clear blue, interrupted us for a few minutes at a time. I went inside to take a shower before dinner and heard the tornado sirens going off – time to get out, put on some clothes and check the TV weather update. We believe the siren was warning us of heavy hail approaching. Heavy indeed:
Will and his crew were in Tahoe this weekend for snow boarding and skiing. Christine took ski lessons for the first time and apparently had a great time. Will’s friend Bryce made it too – that’s him in the picture with Christine.
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Weight of a Piano” by Chris Cander this week. Cander lives in Houston and has been a writer in residence for Writers in the Schools there. She also stewards several Little Free Libraries in her community.
The story revolves around an old German Bluthner piano whose music connects two seemingly unconnected characters: a man on an inexplicable quest to photograph it, and a woman who, although unable to play it, can’t let it go. The strands of the plot twist together with alternating chapters following the family history of both characters. I think the novel is exploring how music can change and enrich lives in amazing and quite different ways.
Cander makes the piano a credible third character, intimately involved in the plot. The book begins with Bluthner picking Spruce for piano soundboards in the Romanian mountains: “He knocked them with his walking stick and pressed his ear against them as his intuition dictated, listening for the music hidden inside. He heard it more clearly than any other piano maker, better even than Ignaz Bosendorfer and Carl Bechstein and Henry Steinway. When he found what he was listening for, he marked the tree with a scrap of red wool, which stood out bright against the snow.”
The Russian composer, Scriabin, features often in the book, particularly his Prelude no. 14 in E flat Minor. I’ve listened to this several times and can’t get as excited about it as the folks in the story. It’s over almost before it starts (1:00 minute long exactly) and is very dramatic and bombastic. Notice the interesting Jim Morrison looking character playing the version below.
“From her first lesson, Clara had planned to devote herself to learning her father’s favourite piece of music – Prelude no. 14 in E Flat Minor by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, which he’d looped repeatedly on his CD player at home. It was wildly energetic from the start through its abrupt and dramatic ending, and very difficult even for an accomplished pianist to play well, her teacher had told her.”
Katya’s father is a piano tuner, and the Bluthner is gifted to him and his daughter:
“But without the German and his music, Katya could fall asleep only if she lay down with her head beneath his piano. With her hair tangled in the pedals, she dreamed of snow fairies dancing, and gentle rain, and clouds blithely passing by overhead. In the mornings she tried to copy the sounds, picking the notes out one by one, learning their order.”
“She sighed and sat down at the piano. Playing always helped calm her nerves, especially now that she had her old Bluthner back.”
The thought behind the title isn’t revealed until very close to the end of the book:
“What if every single thing ever played on her Bluthner left an afterimage, a shadow of emotion deposited somewhere inside the case, on the soundboard or the hammers or the strings? What if – just as a photo album grew thick with memories of holidays, vacations, family, and friends – the piano gained the weight of each owner and his or her music?”
The final two pages of the book are a piece of piano music named “Die Riese” (The Trip). I just tried out the first few bars and it’s a pleasant piece that builds in speed and intensity. The piece is in B major with 5 sharps – not my favourite as I typically play pieces with 3 or less flats and sharps.
I just finished up “Infinite Tuesday” by Michael Nesmith. There’s a special prize for the first of you to tell me what he’s most famous for. No takers? Ok, I’ll tell you – he was one of the Monkees, and was dubbed the brainy Monkee. The title is based on this cartoon (I love it):
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the variety of stories and topics included. Nesmith was born and raised in Dallas by a single mother who worked very hard to make ends meet. After he runs off to California to try his hand at being a singer songwriter, she makes a fortune by inventing liquid paper (the white stuff you used to brush on to paper when you made a typo on a typewriter). She was a secretary and an artist and found the perfect intersection of both to meet an office product need.
Nesmith lives in Carmel, where he loves the dog friendly beach, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles. I kept flashing to a scene on Carmel beach where Finn insisted on running into the sea (or was it Campbell) and had no change of clothes – Granny and Grandpa had to improvise.
He tells tales of foreseeing the home video industry and buying up the rights to all kinds of documentaries (including the Jacques Cousteau series), only to be challenged in court by a nefarious PBS action. Then he invents MTV just before it gets popularized. And lastly, earns a patent for inventing the technology for embedding live video into virtual reality internet environments. Clearly a visionary well beyond the expectations of any Monkee.
A decent portion of the middle of the book delves into Nesmith’s Christian Science upbringing and various cosmic spirituality pursuits – I kind of tuned out through much of this section.
His stories about hanging out with John Lennon and Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) are excellent.
This book makes a great pool or beach read with the wide variety of entertainment industry and intellectual stories.
Youtube suggested this beautiful instrumental version of “Summertime” by Marcus King and Billy Strings, reminding me of King’s excellent solo set at the Hula Hut last week:
Greg Brown pops up from time to time on my Discover Weekly list on Spotify (songs recommended based on listening preference). I really enjoyed “Dream Cafe”:
Listening to “The Randy Newman Songbook” while reading, I enjoyed this song that I don’t think I’ve heard before:
And finally, The Band of Heathens Live from Momos with “Anywhere I Lay My Head”, reminding me of their delightful set at Shady Grove last week, and of the first time we saw them as they played the closing night of Momo’s many years ago:
The next band was local to Austin, Tomar and the FCs, with a retro funky soul sound that we both enjoyed very much. These guys popped up all over town this week – even playing the Yeti showcase next to our apartment on Wednesday afternoon.
We checked out the outside pool area before leaving to walk home and snapped this picture of our apartment behind the fireplace. We have a great view of the Van Zandt hotel from our living room.
One of our very favourite bands, the Band of Heathens, followed Hood and Warner around 9am. They sounded better than ever with the full band crammed into a corner of the restaurant – a great sound job by Sun Radio. Here they are doing their version of “Heaven Help Us All” from the recent release, “A Message from the People” (originally released by Ray Charles):
What an amazing way to start the day!
I escaped work a bit early and we continued our SXSW sampling by walking down to Guero’s on South Congress. JM Stevens, the musician we chatted with last Saturday, was playing with his full band. We enjoyed the show and another taco. It’s very nice to be able to walk to so many lively destinations. This event was actually called “SXSF – South by Soup Fest” as it raised money for various Austin charities. This is Stevens’ song “Fire in the Wind” – it’s the one with the video filmed in Iceland.
Saturday began with a workout and then crossword and coffee – nice to get back into that routine. We’ve been sampling all the independent local coffee shops and this time chose Irie Bean Coffee on South Lamar which had a nice rear patio.
We had a Saturday dinner reservation at Juliet Italian and walked down (almost a mile) to House Wine next door before eating. Guess what? Yes, another music showcase underway. We enjoyed a band called “Sedona Skies” and were educated about an organization named “Women Crushing Music”. WCM helps aspiring female singer songwriters get ahead in the music business.
Sunday also started with a workout followed by coffee and a crossword. This time we chose Merit coffee on South Lamar which also has a nice patio – albeit a bit noisier on the street. To continue the reprise of Saturday, we made another trip to Target to get the second chair. This time it was in and out of the car without too much trouble – all about knowing the right technique.
Will sent me this picture (a classic Will stance) with some street art in Oakland, where he was trying bikram yoga for the first time – this is where you do a subset of yoga moves in a very hot room – no thanks!
Lamb Vindaloo was the perfect dinner on a freezing cold evening. I also got some art together for the apartment – a picture of the Continental Club and a canvas of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s classic guitar that he played to fame in Austin. I tease McD that the guitar picture is the same size as her.
I was able to enjoy a late lunch at El Alma, my new favourite Mexican restaurant. The fresh ingredients, flavorful sauces and unique ambiance make this a superior place – and it’s close to both the apartment and work.
Diana hosted my boss at “Wine down Wednesday” at the Catherine sky bar and then we walked across to Peche for another delicious dinner.
On Saturday evening, Diana wandered across the parking lot to get some of the excellent ceviche that the Hyatt offers. She texted me that there was a good musician playing and so I walked over and joined her at the bar. The musician, JM Stevens, was very good indeed. He joined us at the bar after his set and we had a great chat for about an hour. Here’s his latest video for a new song. The video was recorded by a cinematographer based in Iceland at an abandoned air strip and JM’s part was added via Skype.
instruments in his studio and particularly a vintage Hammond B3 and a 1930s era double high Leslie speaker. I liked his description of the B3 sounding like some “fog rolling into a recording’s landscape”. I’ll include a link to this album in the music section at the end of this post. JM recommended Cosmic coffee as a new venue that treated local musicians well and so we put it on our list for Sunday.
Sunday began with workouts, followed by a delicious brunch at El Alma. Diana’s crab Benedict with chipotle hollandaise sauce and corn cake base was amazing.
Diana spent most of the week in Boston for a client visit. It was very cold there and we know that McD really, really doesn’t like the cold wintry weather. Fortunately she had some colleagues with her to scrape off the rental car and get it all warmed up before she joined.
Back in Austin, the guest bedroom mattress, desk chair, and bar stools were all delivered on Monday. I wrestled the boxes up to the apartment and assembled the chair and stools – they look good in position. The good news is that the trash room for recycled boxes is right outside our door.
My boss had a dinner recommendation from his Uber driver and so my friend Issac and I joined him at Lin Dim Sum. The food was very creative and tasty. They are known for soup dumplings but I didn’t think I’d be able to consume those without making a mess – particularly with chopsticks. We sat at the bar and I watched a couple of girls very skillfully manage an order. We shared a number of dishes and they were all very good. I’m looking forward to seeing what Diana thinks of this West 6th Street restaurant.
afternoon. We timed the drive to arrive just as Diana was returning from Boston and we were able to drive Penelope home from the airport together. I laughed as Vinod and I passed the Vonlane bus half way into our drive – I had been considering the big comfortable bus chair as compared to the sporty seat in Vinod’s BMW. We took the Fort Worth branch of Interstate 35 and I was able to check out the building at Gearhart where I first worked in Texas (back in 1987). It was fun to see what has become of all the lunch places that we used to frequent there. The Rig, a burger and steak restaurant, seemed to be a Mexican place. Nothing else had changed too much and the Gearhart building was occupied by another oil related business.
Sugar Bacon in downtown McKinney. We thought it was just going to be the four of us to listen to one of Steve’s friends providing the music, but there two other couples (Brian, Evelyn, Jeremy, and Diane) who also joined. Brian provided some unexpected entertainment when he asked to take over as the musician so that he could serenade Evelyn. I had ribs and have several left over for dinner tonight. They were very well cooked and tasty.
inconsequential details. After that, I became very invested in Tara’s journey to gain an education. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a BYU college history class, she raised her hand because she didn’t know what it was. She hadn’t been in a classroom until the age of seventeen. Her religious fanactic father was dubious of public education, believing it was the way the government brainwashes its citizens. Her mother was not at all diligent with homeschooling and Tara had to ultimately teach herself to gain the necessary score on the ACT to attend BYU. She eventually earns a PhD from Cambridge. The strength of Westover and the sacrifices she makes are phenomenal. This book really underscores the value and power of an education, something so many of us take for granted. I highly recommend this book and ask you to be patient in the first section as the middle and conclusion are worth it.
ay morning and picked up the keys to our new apartment in a building called “The Catherine”. This is a 19 story facility on the south side of the Colorado river in downtown Austin. Our unit is on the 14th floor corner (left hand side of the picture) and looks out over downtown and the river.
Continental Club on South Congress avenue. The Peterson Brothers play there every Monday at 6:30pm. I covered the details on this excellent band a month or so ago so won’t go into too much detail. Diana really enjoyed the positive energy and interaction between the brothers. She just came back to the apartment as I’m writing this to report that she had been chatting with a musician in the elevator (there was music in the Sky Room bar on Sunday afternoon). She asked him about his favorite music venue in Austin and he replied with the Continental Club and mentioned that he had been watching the Peterson Brothers since they were very young kids. Here’s a short video of the performance:
Here’s Alicia’s contribution to the apartment and my belated Christmas present – a Keurig 2.0 – so that I’m all ready to go with coffee in the morning. Thanks for the great gift Alicia!
Our friend Vinod, who’s working with me in Austin now, met us at Shady Grove for dinner on Thursday. He worked with both of us at AIG and Diana hadn’t seen him in 3 years. It was great to catch up on family and life in general over a delicious dinner. Vinod is vegetarian and enjoys the veggie plate at this restaurant – and it doesn’t have mushrooms (one of the few veggies that he won’t touch). He’s one of the smartest guys we know and has an endless amount of energy.
On Friday evening, we walked across the 1st avenue bridge to Peche (French for “sin”, if I could find the acute accent feature) for dinner. This turned out to be an excellent French restaurant/absinthe bar. We loved our drinks and meals. Diana tried a Manhattan with fig foam and loved it. The steak tartare and charcuterie platter were some of the best we’ve had. Our entree of braised short ribs over mashed potatoes and mushrooms was also delicious.
Saturday started with workouts – our chance to try out the new gym – all good with the elliptical machine passing Diana’s requirements. We walked across to Second Bar and Kitchen for a late lunch and had an early night in. There was a lovely sunset view from the balcony on Saturday night.
Sunday started with a beautiful sunrise view from the master bedroom. Diana went down for a workout while I read my book for a while – I’m way behind on my reading for the week.
It was a gorgeous afternoon on Sunday and we enjoyed a walk down South Congress for a coffee at Jo’s – just missing the live music on their patio. Lots of folks were out enjoying the day. By contrast, my friend Greg in Minnesota was ploughing a route across the lake to his ice fishing camp after a blizzard.
I was a bit nervous about my first trip to New York in a few months on Tuesday morning – the weather forecast called for snow, freezing rain and ice pellets. Diana dropped me off at the airport in plenty of time, and sure enough, the flight was cancelled. It turned out that every other flight was cancelled to ease traffic in to La Guardia with the adverse weather conditions. I was able to get on the next flight and arrived only 30 mins later than planned.
It was very nice to catch up with Vince and to hear about his new job as CTO of insurance company QBE. I miss our time together in New York catching jazz performances and enjoying meals together.
Wednesday took me to 10 Hudson Yards, the office of BCG Digital Ventures – a company we are in partnership with to stand up a new digital business. The view from the 46th floor office down the Hudson river was amazing. I enjoyed experiencing the modern, hip office that I imagine is commonplace in internet 
companies like Google and Facebook – complete with a full espresso bar and all kinds of snacks and drinks. Most of the folks working with us on this project are based in Sydney and Diana is promoting the need to visit their home office pretty strongly. She really misses Sydney and would love to visit all her friends there.
but it’s already packed for Austin and I can’t remember where it is. My gift was a book of my blog entries from last year and we laughed when we compared it to the book from a couple of years ago – much fatter. Apparently I have a lot more to say about our activities these days. Dinner of sea bass, green beans, and eggplant was delicious – thanks D!
concert. We saw an excellent show at the same venue from Broussard last year. I thought it was around May but Diana was correct that it was almost exactly a year ago. This time around they didn’t offer cocktail tables downstairs (standing only) and so we had seats in the wrap around balcony upstairs. We claimed our seats and then enjoyed a yummy burger at PhD (across the street from the Kessler) before the show. Can you tell how cold and gloomy the weather is from the sky behind the Kessler?
I finished the book “Let’s Go, So We Can Get Back” by Jeff Tweedy this week. I enjoyed the conversational style of this book very much and highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this style of music.
Work occupied most of my bus ride down to Austin on Monday morning. An AIG colleague, Vinod, joined my new company and I arranged a welcome aboard dinner with him on Monday night. He’s vegetarian and likes Thai food, so I suggested Thai Fresh, a restaurant that came recommended that’s located in a neighborhood close to the office and the Carpenter hotel. Vinod was early to the restaurant and texted me to let me know he was outside. I asked him if the place looked okay. His reply made me chuckle – “It does not look 
good”. Thai Fresh is a bit of a hole in the wall kind of place and is located in a residential neighborhood – not what Vinod is used to in the Dallas area but quite typical of Austin, and part of the charm of the city. He enjoyed dinner a lot and we may have another convert to the excellent off the beaten path Austin restaurant scene. Another plus is that I walked to the restaurant and back – a 2.5 mile round trip that gave us some good exercise early in the week.
I was able to sneak out of work early on Tuesday evening to catch the happy hour show at the Saxon Pub. I’ve been trying to catch David Grissom’s regular Tuesday night performance since I started working in Austin, but something always gets in the way. Here’s an excerpt from Grissom’s online bio that indicates what an amazing guitar player and musician he is:
After the concert, I met another colleague, Jeff, for dinner at Shady Grove on Barton Springs road close to the hotel. This is another classic Austin restaurant that’s been around for over 20 years with an amazing patio. Jeff told me a story about watching a kid who got his head stuck in one of the wagon wheels surrounding the patio, while eating there with his family. Apparently it ultimately took a visit from the EMTs to free the head from the wheel. I really enjoyed my green chili chicken a lot and the ambiance was great – amazing to be sitting outside eating at 8pm in February.
On Wednesday, I had dinner with a potential new partner company at the Carpenter hotel restaurant. I was pleased to find blood sausage on the menu as an appetizer. It wasn’t quite the same as the Stornaway black pudding that my Mum gets for my breakfasts when I visit Scotland, but very tasty nonetheless.
trying to ration myself to once a week now. Jeff and Greg joined me and we all enjoyed the breakfast snacks. I should mention that breakfast tacos from Taco Deli were served before and after a Town Hall at the office on Tuesday morning where I delivered a presentation on an exciting new business opportunity that we’re presenting. I did enjoy a migas taco after my presentation.
I can’t claim to be that smart and driven, but I did score a personal best time on the USA Today crossword on Wednesday during a coffee break- 5 mins and 36 seconds. Things were back to normal on Thursday – over 11 minutes.
This was an amazing musical performance. The band was comprised mostly of jazz musicians with Jon Cowherd (piano) and Brian Blade (drums) as co-musical directors. I have a recent album by both Cowherd and Blade form a french jazz label that I really enjoy and to find them leading the band was a nice treat. Seal’s performance of “Both Sides Now” was an outstanding highlight of the show. Chaka khan did a couple of songs and I was surprised by her faithful interpretations. Diana Krall’s control of 
both vocal and piano dynamics was amazing on her two contributions. Lastly, Los Lobos with La Marisoul on vocals was another outstanding performance. I highly recommend this show (available now on DVD) to anyone who enjoys the music of Joni Mitchell – the musicianship is superb. Joni herself looked very frail (she suffered a brain aneurysm a few years ago and has not spoken or appeared in public for a while). Kris Kristofferson (now 82 years old) also looked a bit confused in his performance with Brandi Carlisle – apparently he has some memory issues due to Lyme disease.
One of our favourite musicians, Delbert McClinton, received a Marquee Star in front of the Austin Paramount theatre on Friday. This is only the third star given to a musician, with previous honorees including Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker (see my post a couple of week ago where I talked about Jerry Jeff’s biography). Lyle Lovett wrote, “If we could all sing like we wanted to, we’d all sing like Delbert.” McClinton also received the Nobelity Projects “Feed the Peace” award at the Four Seasons on Saturday for his support of many great charitable causes.
I read “What Belongs to You” by Garth Greenwell this week. I can’t remember where I picked up the recommendation for this book but it was named a best book of the year by over fifty publications in nine countries, including the New Yorker, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Guardian.
I also very much enjoyed the short story “What Can You Do With a General” by Emma Cline that was published in the New Yorker magazine this week. The dialogue and descriptions of family interactions are perfectly done. I read that Cline received a $2 million 3 book advance in 2016 around her first novel, “The Girls”. I’ll have to put that book on my future reading list.
The weather in Austin this week was chilly but significantly warmer than most of the rest of the country. Chicago was particularly badly impacted by the polar vortex with the entirety of Lake Michigan freezing. Scotland had a decent amount of snow and I received excellent pictures from both Merrick View and Aberdeenshire.
The night sky as I headed out to Second Bar was very colourful as the wind began to really whip up. I know a red sky at night is supposed to be a “shepherd’s delight” but this one felt a bit ominous.
I ate dinner at Carpenter Hall on Tuesday evening as well. The wild mushroom pasta and charred broccoli were both excellent. I look forward to staying at The Carpenter again. There is a very good wine bar right next door with 100 wines available by the glass and many interesting selections. Can you make out that the sign on the back of the building, that I captured from my hotel room balcony, is made from corks?
I read the book “Asymmetry” this week. This book had some of the most positive reviews of last year from the New York Times and several other well respected publications and I had been looking forward to digging into it.
This is the first of Ezra’s favourites from Asymmetry. I love the theme from this piece and the performance by Yoyo Ma and the London Symphony with Andre Previn is excellent.
I dropped my bag in the rental car at the Hyatt and walked to the Continental Club on South Congress (SoCo) to enjoy the free show by the Peterson Brothers. This was less than a 10 minute walk and so will be easily accessible from the new apartment.
I had read that the Peterson Brothers were the next big band in Austin and about to make it big. They put on an excellent show that was a gumbo of soul, blues, jazz and funk. Imagine Weather Report, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Miles Davis and Al Green mixed up in a band and that’s a bit of what they sound like.
The weekend was nice and relaxing with workouts, coffee and crossword sessions, and time for reading. We had a nice late lunch at Toulouse in Legacy West on Sunday. This is the place that Diana and Anne visited for champagne and steak tartare on their visit in October. We started with steak tartare and then we both had great salads. My whipped goat cheese and beets salad was delicious.
I read the book “At Home with the Armadillo” by Gary P. Nunn this week. This was an excellent review of the Austin music scene in the 1970s and 80s. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the stories about all the characters involved in developing the Texas music movement. Nunn played in the bands of both Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphy in the 70s and tells a great story about opening for Elton John at the Palmer auditorium, a building that I drive by every day on my short commute to the office each morning. Another story I enjoyed was of Nunn seeing a very young Joe Ely play in Lubbock and thinking that he was going to be a big star. He worked to arrange Ely’s first record contract with MCA. It’s interesting that we just saw Joe Ely last weekend (in his seventies now) and I’m reading this week about how he got his first recording contract.
Monday took me to Guatemala City for a few days of work. I had done some pre-reading on my destination but wasn’t really sure what to expect. Customs and immigration was a very quick process and I found myself looking around for my car service and without mobile phone service (should have double checked that before leaving). I had been strongly warned not to take a regular taxi but was close to taking that risk. Fortunately, the driver showed up about 20 minutes later and, after a short ride, I was checked into a very modern Marriott hotel and enjoying dinner. This was the view from my balcony.
This view from the office balcony shows shacks built into a valley, right next to a very modern office complex. It was a bit disconcerting to learn that all the executives in the office drive heavily armored and bullet proof cars but I was happy to know that on our way to dinner on Tuesday through some very interesting neighborhoods.
Wednesday was a long work day and so we opted for a local restaurant in walking distance of the hotel. Kacao provided a good sampling of local cuisine – very similar to the Mexican food we are familiar with . I had a very good mixed seafood ceviche.
We awoke to a light dusting of snow on Saturday morning and it’s been so cold this weekend that it hasn’t quite melted yet. You can imagine how much McD is enjoying the cold weather and biting wind. I heard the classic, “I’m ready to go and lie on a beach now”, comment this morning. Quickly followed up with “and I mean a warm beach!”.
The Kessler beckoned us to another excellent concert on Saturday night. We checked into the Nylo (now called the Canvas) hotel and Ubered over to Nova for a pre-concert dinner. The special of scallops on a bed of ratatouille was excellent.
The concert was by Joe Ely, a performer that I’ve seen a couple of times over the last close to 30 years and always enjoyed. He was born in Amarillo in 1947 and has spent most of his life based in Lubbock, TX (famously the home of Buddy Holly). Here is his performance of “Dallas”, one of his best known songs and the 2nd in the setlist:
There was some hilarity on our Uber ride back to the hotel after the show. We commented on a huge new gas station that we passed and our driver told us that the owner kept a bison, a longhorn, and a zonki behind the store. What’s a zonki? Exactly – we had no idea either. My Dad guessed correctly earlier today – a cross between a zebra and a donkey.
I chose Standard Pour as our brunch destination. This was our first time trying the food here (we learned from Martha, sitting next to us at the concert, that our favourite brunch location in South Dallas, Smoke, had closed a few weeks ago) and we enjoyed the whole experience. Diana chose the economical carafe of mimosas but didn’t quite finish it. That washed down a very stacked burger. We have lots of leftovers for dinner.
Will is spending the weekend in Lake Tahoe, snowboarding at the Heavenly resort. They have several feet of new snow and the conditions should be excellent. This is the first time Will has felt his knee is strong enough to ride in several years. I hope he’s having a great time, being safe, and has a smooth drive home after the snow abates a bit.
I finally finished “Independence Day” by Richard Ford this week. This 450 page, small font book has been with me for several weeks now.