Category: Uncategorized

“Silly Penguin”

Penelope and I made the drive down to Austin on Monday afternoon.  The morning was spent getting my teeth cleaned and a filling replaced – such fun to hang out in the dental chair for over 3 hours.  Following that with 4 hours in Penelope wasn’t ideal, but I did want to enjoy the convertible as we enter into the beautiful fall weather in the Hill Country.  You should have heard Penelope when she discovered that her rear-end was a little too wide for some of the parking spaces at the Catherine.

Tuesday was a quiet work day.  I was tired in the evening, had a nice swim and sauna and called it a night, after a chat with Diana who was working in Milwaukee.  I was shocked to look down at the end of the call and see we’d been yacking away for almost 2 hours.  I’m sure we very productively solved all kinds of problems but don’t really remember any great conclusions.

Baby Penguin (BP), having spent over a month lost under the couch, played on my sympathies and convinced me to take him out on Wednesday.

BP really enjoyed the ride down Barton Springs road with the top down.  He was excited to make some new friends at my office.

I left BP unattended for an hour while I went to a meeting.  During the session, we lost all network connectivity in the office – first time this has happened in the 11 months that I’ve been there.  Hmm – what’s different in the office today.  Review of security footage revealed the root cause of the issue:

Vinod was not at all happy with the problems the unattended BP had caused:

I made the silly penguin join me in the gym as a penance for his poor behavior.

I was busted on Wednesday evening.  I made the mistake of telling McD that I was having dinner with Damon.  She tracked me and saw we were at the Odd Duck – one of her favourites.  The pork chop and creamed corn dish there is delicious.

Our COO retires on Monday and there was a very nice event to recognize him in the office on Thursday – complete with a throne for him to sit in.

Diana arrived in Austin from Milwaukee around midnight on Thursday.

I missed the flu shot clinic at the office and so decided to get one at Wallgreens on Friday lunchtime.  My doctor has been on me to get the Shingles shot and so I got that at the same time.  The pharmacist warned me that the injection site would be sore and swollen for a few days and that I may have flu-like symptoms for 24 hours.  Both turned out to be accurate.  After a short workout on Saturday morning,  and coffee and crossword at a new location, Once Over Coffee on South First, I had to go to bed for a few hours.  A nice feature of this new coffee shop is the El Primo taco truck out front.

 

I was mostly recovered by the evening and we had an excellent dinner at Eddie V’s.  This is an old school seafood and steakhouse -waiters in white jackets with business cards.  Diana’s sea bass was beautifully flaky and I enjoyed my redfish with lump crab.   Live jazz music was playing in the lounge, which gave me an idea.  I had heard that the Parker Jazz Club was a good venue, and it happened to be just a couple of blocks from Eddie V’s.

This venue is great, with comfy seats, good drinks, precise sound and an excellent house band.  The trombone player was very talented:

We enjoyed the reed player very much – he had quite the array of instruments: soprano, tenor and bass saxophones, clarinet, flute and bass flute, and a flugel horn.

We enjoyed the music so much that we stayed until the end of the set at close to midnight, before walking home.

One evening in Milwaukee, Diana had dinner at a gastro pub and mentioned that they had scotch eggs on the menu.  This led me to a Google search for “best scotch egg in Austin”.  Which then led to Phoebe’s diner for brunch on Sunday.  They call their version of a scotch egg the “Cheeky Monkey” and it was quite tasty – particularly the sausage gravy.  The tater tots we shared and Diana’s crab cake benedict were also yummy.

 

Diana headed back to Dallas on the bus on Sunday evening – too short a visit by far.   I settled in to watch the Cowboys playing the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome.  This is the first big challenge for the Cowboys this year – their first three victories coming against teams with losing records.  New Orleans star quarterback, Drew Brees, is injured and so we should have a bit of an advantage.  As I press “publish” on this post, the Cowboys are leading 10-9 but it’s a very close came.

 

Peter Green might be my very favourite guitar player, and this is a gorgeous song:

Heard this Herbie Hancock on the radio.  I don’t love all of his music, but quite a bit of it is very good.

I can’t remember what made me put on some Chris Rea music this week (part of the aging process) – hadn’t thought about him in many years.  Andy Bull used to play his music constantly at University.

The excellent Texas singer songwriter, Rodney Crowell, has a new album out and here’s a highlight:

 

 

“Bill Frisell at C-Boys Heart and Soul?”

We’re making that drive again?  Yes – back down from McKinney to Austin on Monday morning – I’m getting a pretty good routine going with where to stop along the way.  The drive came with all the usual treats – McD click clacking on her laptop, and various conference calls for both of us.

You’ll remember that Diana didn’t love the Allmans tribute band last week.  She did, however, love the Eagles tribute (“Fake it to the Limit”) this week.  Mark and Damon joined us at the One to One club, and everyone agreed that the musicians really had it down.  Here’s the classic dual guitar solo from Hotel California:

Here’s Diana’s favourite, Desperado:

We enjoyed hanging out and telling stories after the show.  Lots of good laughs – I’m fortunate to work with such good friends and Diana certainly holds her own with the crew – I know that’s a surprise to all of you.

The rest of the week was mostly work and lazy evenings.  Then I found something interesting for Friday evening.  Reading through the Chronicle weekly newspaper, I noticed Bill Frisell playing at C-Boys Heart and Soul on Friday and Saturday evenings.   A double take was necessary – Frisell is a world class jazz guitarist that I’ve enjoyed a few times in the famous New York jazz clubs, and C-Boys is a small dive bar that usually features blues and soul music.  Further research on the C-Boys website confirmed that this was all on the up and up.

We arrived early and were amazed to find front row seats – literally 2 feet from Frisell’s guitar – were still available.  Talking to the lady next to me, also a jazz guitarist, before the show, revealed that Frisell is good friends with Steve, owner of C-Boys and the Continental Club, and loves to play on South Congress in Austin.  The seats allowed me to fully appreciate what was happening on the guitar and with the pedals.

Frisell delivered a beautifully nuanced and quiet solo set, and the small audience seemed to really appreciate the innovative musicianship.  What an unexpected treat.

Here’s a video that Diana made from the concert:

 

 

 

We made the short walk down South Congress after the show for dinner at June’s All Day.  Diana took control of ordering, and chose very well with steak tartare and seared foie gras.  Great choices Diana – I haven’t had a seared foie gras in ages – and this one was excellent.

Saturday featured all the regulars: workout; crossword; lazy afternoon reading.  In the evening we walked over to Peche (rapidly becoming a leading contender for favourite Austin restaurant for both of us).  We enjoyed steak tartare and an amazing rabbit and mushroom barley risotto.  Cat had tried this a month ago when I took him to Peche, and I was hoping it was still on the menu.  What great flavour mixes and plenty to share between both of us.  Our waitress recommended a delicious French Pinot Noir that paired perfectly   The owner stopped by a couple of times to check on us and I could tell he was pleased with how much we enjoyed the dish.

Sunday began with the same regulars as Saturday.  Different was that the printer was out of ink, so we headed to Opa and did the crossword on our devices.  From Opa we traveled to Aussie’s – a sports bar right next to our apartment with sand volleyball courts out back.  We watched the first half of the Cowboys game there, and split a burger.  I noted that this was a good place to take Tim – classic rock music playing, sports on TVs throughout and lots of burgers and other Timmy staples on the menu.  You would be proud of me for sitting on the patio while it was over 90 degrees – low humidity makes it possible.  I ran into a work colleague, Nick, who was on the US Olympic volleyball team until destroying his shoulder weeks before the Olympics started – he still loves everything volleyball.  That’s the Catherine parking garage with the slits in the concrete from Aussie’s patio and volleyball court.

We watched the second half of the Cowboys game in the refreshing air conditioning of our apartment, and then took a walk down South Congress to the Continental Club for the free afternoon show.  Steve has been good to us this weekend – first Bill Frisell and then the Crescent Soul Review.

But wait, I forgot to revel in the Cowboys victory over the Washington Redskins – and another classic Jason Witten touchdown – number 70 for him, and Campbell commented that 50 of them must have been the same play – every team knows it’s coming, but none of them can defend against it.

Back at the Continental Club, the band worked their way through New Orleans flavoured soul music, with some excellent Band and Little Feat covers.  The Band’s “Ophelia”:

Followed by a personal favourite, Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken”:

And finally the Professor Longhair classic, “Big Chief”:

What a benefit of our location – free Sunday afternoon shows at the Continental Club – a fifteen minute walk away.

Many miles away, Will made it to the BMW M racing school in Palm Springs.  I’m looking forward to his videos and stories from the experience.  He really loves his M edition BMW and I’m a bit nervous about how he’s going to be driving it through Redwood City after all this “training”.

Even more miles away, my Mum and Dad enjoyed a week in Jersey and Guernsey.  I didn’t realize that both islands were occupied by Germany during the Second World War.  Churchill having decided that the civilian loss associated with defending the islands would be too great.  My Dad told us a story today about his shortest airline flight – 10 minutes end to end.  The ferry between islands was having mechanical difficulty, and the passengers were diverted to an island hopper flight.

My book this week was “Always Happy Hour” by Mary Miller.  I ordered it up several months ago, and can’t remember what led me to do that.  Did I read an interesting review, or get a recommendation from some other book I really enjoyed?  Either way, not a good decision on my part.  This is a collection of short stories, all told from the female point of view.  Remind me that I really don’t enjoy short story collections as much as I think I do.  I loved William McIlvanney’s “Walking Wounded” short story collection (having read it at least 3 times now), and haven’t enjoyed any collection very much since.  I don’t recommend this one and I hope women don’t think like the characters in these stories.  Here’s a review I found that seems positive:

“Claustrophobic and lonesome, acerbic and magnetic, the women in Always Happy Hour seek understanding in the most unlikely places—a dilapidated foster home where love is a liability, a trailer park laden with a history of bad decisions, and the empty corners of a dream home bought after a bitter divorce. Miller evokes the particular gritty comfort found in bad habits as hope turns to dust, and proves yet again her essential role in American fiction.”

Here’s something else from Bill Frisell’s excellent “Guitar in the Space Age” album:

Here’s a good example of his spare and nuanced guitar work – a cover of the over-covered “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen:

Robert Randolph and the Family Band have an excellent new album out.  I’ve enjoyed Randolph live a number of times, opening for Clapton, sitting in at Tipitinas and the Blue Note – always a delight.

Have you ever heard of a band named the Sheepdogs?  I haven’t either, until this song popped up.  They are from Canada and started in Saskatoon in 2006 – plenty of good music to explore.  I would love to have a sheepdog if we ever live in a place with enough land to provide the daily exercise needed.

And finally, The Texas Horns.  Heard them on Sun Radio this morning and thought it was a great sound.  Do you agree?

“Suadero Tacos – Wow!”

There was a Food and Wine magazine in the doctor’s waiting room a few weeks ago when I went for a regular check up.  I flipped to the “Best new restaurants of 2019” section and found an Austin place, Suerte, listed in the number 2 position.  Disappointed with myself for being unfamiliar with this place, I made a note to try it out soon.

Suerte was our Labor Day dinner destination.  Here’s a review by the local newspaper that we read and it built our anticipation of a great meal. “You may be able to replicate the black magic oil if you find the right balance of black sesame oil, garlic and morita chile, but I doubt you can make small, supple red corn tortillas like those at Suerte, or summon the alchemical powers to abracadabra tender confit brisket elevated gently with the citrus kiss of avocado. Delivered four to a plate, the brisket tacos with the toasty sauce are some of the best I’ve ever eaten in Austin. The way the chefs synthesize Texan and Mexican traditions into something wholly unique but familiar reminds me of what Lawrence Wright refers to as the third (and highest) level of cultural evolution in his recent book, “God Save Texas.””

We started with excellent cocktails and a very good ceviche, noting the excellent service.  Then the famous suadero tacos with a side of Mexican street corn.  Wow!  Amazing combination of flavors and beautifully cooked.  My only mistake was not accepting McD’s suggestion to get an extra order to go – big lesson learned.  I can hear Alicia’s voice in my head: “Epic Fail”.   Not a mistake – resisting the pull of the amazing Old Fashioned at Whisler’s right next door to Suerte.

We were back at the One to One bar on Wednesday night for the early show – an Allman Brothers tribute band.  Damon and I had seen them a few months ago and loved the musicianship.  I’m not sure Diana enjoyed it as much as Damon, but I thought it was excellent.  The dual drummers and guitars, perfectly in time in the harmony parts, had me back at the several Allmans shows that I’ve enjoyed over the years.

Here’s the band doing “One Way Out” towards the end of their set.  By this time they had played “Soulshine”, right up there behind True Companion for Diana and me, and she was enjoying the show a bit more.  A couple of songs without words, otherwise known as instrumentals, had snubbed her enthusiasm for the show earlier.  She took advantage of the noodling to nip next door to Chi’Lantro for a salad to accompany the rest of the show.

“Whipping Post” was the closer, reminding me of the excellent Bonerama five trombone cover of this excellent song.

Ok, you asked for it, here’s the trombone version:

We drove up to McKinney on Thursday morning, pausing for a quick brunch at Harvest in Waco.  Diana had a work meeting and dinner and I relaxed at home.  There’s a new series of “Travels with my father” on Netflix that I enjoyed.  This is a hilarious travelogue of English comedian Jack Whitehall enjoying adventures with his father.  This season they are in the United States – starting out in Los Angeles with yoga and healthy food.

I enjoyed the US Open tennis over the last couple of weeks.  I was very impressed with Bianca Andreescu’s victory over Serena Williams.  A 19 year old and the first Canadian to win a major tennis championship.  She survived the highly partisan crowed and pressure to win a tournament that she didn’t even qualify for last year.  It was fun to watch the pride from her parents as the match progressed – they emigrated from Romania to Canada in the nineties with just two suitcases.

I think Berrettini will be a star on the Men’s tennis stage very soon.  He lost to Nadal in the semis but I think has a great all around game.

Sunday started as usual – swim, sauna, coffee and crossword – and then the joy…Football’s back!  The season started with the classic Cowboys vs Giants rivalry.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from our running back, Zeke, after he held out the entire pre-season for a better contract.  He did ok in the first half – nothing amazing.  The rest of the team looked great – with Jason Witten back from a year off commentating – and straight out of the booth into the end zone with an excellent touchdown.  The score is Cowboys 21 Giants 7 at half time – a very pleasant start to the season.  Hope it stays that way for the rest of the game.

The US Open Men’s Final is conflicting with the football – have only seen small portions of it during the commercial breaks – looks like Nadal has it in hand against the preying mantis Medvedev.

My oldest baby, Will, survived the week in the desert at Burning Man.   This is their vehicle, Stuart, out in the middle of nowhere, and their main transportation for the week.

Will’s contribution to the event was the ear splitting bass from his Durango, “Basswlf”.  Checkout the message on the bottom of his wooden license plate.  I’m not sure I would do well on this hanging stone walk.

 

 

 

I don’t think my baby got much sleep during the week.  Christine, on the other hand, looks well rested and ready to go at this sunrise party.  I know – what’s with her hair – suspect it was a good approach given no water and showers for a week.

“City of Thieves” by David Benioff was a thoroughly engrossing read this week.  I’m a big fan of “25th Hour”, a Spike Lee directed movie from Benioff’s first book – he also wrote the screenplay, and was hoping this second novel would be enjoyable.  It was hard to put down after the first 50 pages or so.

This book was selected by the “Man’s Book Club” that I’ve been invited to join in Austin.  I haven’t made any meetings yet due to travel conflicts.  I hope to soon – all their choices so far have been good reads.

Back to the story.  During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

The premise sounds far fetched and contrived, but Benioff makes the horror of the siege and the terror of the times come alive in very real terms.  The two leading characters, Lev and Kolya, almost direct opposites, are very well realized.  The story of their evolving friendship is at the heart of the novel.  The horror of the times and the story make this a book that is at times very brutal and gruesome – not for everyone.

I did some reading on the siege of Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg again.  Pinned in by the German Army from the south, assisted by the Finnish Army from the North (until they reclaimed land seized by Russia previously), this event lasted almost 900 days – September 8, 1941 through January 27, 1944.  Very little food made its way from the surrounding countryside into the city, resulting in the siege being declared an act of genocide.

Do you remember the movie and then TV Show “Fame”.  Good – you’re probably close to my age at least.  I don’t remember why this song from the movie popped into my head this week – hadn’t thought about it in decades – weird synapses firing, while the ones I need to fire resist.

I read that Pat Metheney, jazz guitarist extraordinaire, was having some concerts in New York this week.  I smiled to see James Francies in the band with him – this guy blew me away on piano when I saw him at the Jazz Standard a year or so ago.

We should include a song from the incomparable Ry Cooder, whose album cover headlines the music section this week.  I love everything about Cooder’s music and suspect that his “Paradise and Lunch” may be the record that I have played most over the years:

This tune was playing as we waited for the band to start at One to One this week.  Took the synapses a few seconds to recognize it as Jeff Beck – another incomparable, and quite different, guitar player:

“Less like a dorm room”

I stopped in Waco for lunch on my drive back to Austin on Monday, and continued my exploration of off the highway restaurants.  Alpha Omega is a delicious Mediterranean place with a very nice atmosphere in the heart of downtown Waco.  I enjoyed a salad, gyro and perfect macchiato – why is it so hard for so many places to get it right?

On arrival at the apartment, I took care of one of McD’s biggest gripes.  It goes something like, “the master bedroom looks like a dorm room, with no headboard and no end tables”.   A neighbor had advertised teal end tables for sale and I snapped them right up for a very reasonable price.  Still waiting on a good headboard to pop up.

Progress is now visible at the work site across the street – a big hole has been dug for the foundation of the new building.  Street closures to allow the running of power are now behind us as well.

Diana and I had a conference call (she was en route to Boston) on Wednesday morning to wish my Dad Happy Birthday.   We sang to the voicemail box, and it was quite the performance – we couldn’t get in sync on the beat at all.  Hopefully that recording has been erased.  My Dad enjoyed High Tea at the Glasshouse restaurant by Rowallan Castle to celebrate.

I had a night out with Damon and Issac from work on Wednesday night.  We started with Indian at G’raj Mahal – I love their lamb Rogan Josh.  Then we enjoyed a performance by the Canned Beets band at the Half Step.  I had seen their guitar player at the Charlie Hunter show recently and had a nice chat with him about the show.  He said, “Charlie Hunter’s not only the best at what he does, he’s the only person that does what he does”, meaning the only guitar player that we’re aware of who plays the bass and lead on the same instrument simultaneously.

Here they are performing Simple Man at Damon’s request:

We finished up with a quick visit to Whisler’s in East Austin, close to Issac’s condo.

Meanwhile in New York, Denny and Anne were enjoying a performance by Alejandro Escovedo, during their trip to catch some US Open tennis matches.  Escovedo used to live in Austin but moved to stay in the Belmont Hotel in Oak Cliff when Austin got too expensive for working musicians.

Diana’s trip back from Boston on Friday started well with an upgrade to first class.  It didn’t end as well with flights canceled due to thunderstorms in Dallas.  She eventually made it to Austin a bit after midnight on the Vonlane bus- a creative solution.  It’s been a couple of months since her last visit and she’s been fixing all the things that I haven’t been taking care of properly – the list is too expansive to cover here.

We enjoyed brunch at Mattie’s on Saturday.  This is a restaurant in an old mansion in the Bouldin Creek area – a mile or so from our apartment.  The setting is amazing with lots of land, shaded by live oak trees.   The food lived up to the setting – really delicious.  Diana had an excellent burger and I loved my duck confit hash.  After brunch, we explored the grounds and found a few peacocks and peahens roaming around.

I surprised Diana with a concert at the local One to One bar on Saturday night.  This was her first visit to this music bar that I’ve enjoyed several times.  The “Bee Gees Songbook” was the band performing and they did a very good job covering songs from the entirety of the Bee Gees extensive career.  Here are a couple of the big hits:

Sunday was a lovely lazy day, followed by dinner at Barley Swine.   We sat in the corner  on the right of this picture.  This is the sister restaurant to the Odd Duck, one of our local favourites.  This is the furthest we’ve ventured out for a meal – a solid 10 mins or $10 Uber – that shows you how many great places there are within walking distance.  We started with steak tartare and bone marrow, then amazing soup shitake dumplings, crab fundido with yummy tater tots, pork steaks, and tres leches desert cake.  Wow!  Another amazing Austin meal.

 

I finished “Man of the Year” by Caroline Louise Walker this week.

Dr. Robert Hart, Sag Harbor’s just-named Man of the Year, is the envy of his friends and neighbors. His medical practice is thriving. He has a beautiful old house and a beautiful new wife and a beautiful boat docked in the village marina. Even his wayward son, Jonah, is back on track, doing well at school, finally worthy of his father’s attentions. So when Jonah’s troubled college roommate, Nick, needs a place to stay for the summer, Hart and his wife generously offer him their guest house. A win-win: Jonah will have someone to hang with, and his father can bask in the warm glow of his own generosity.

And then things quickly start to unravel.  I enjoyed the twists and turns as the pace quickened and differing view points of characters were revealed.  I did not see the twists of the last 50 pages coming at all – very clever and creative.

In honor of Anne’s visit with Alejandro Escovedo – “Always a friend to you”:

Whenever I hear Bon Iver I remember how much I love his music and wonder why I don’t listen more often.  Alicia always complained that she couldn’t understand the words:

I  absolutely love this song by New Orleans little known artist John Fohl:

I can’t remember where I heard this song, but I really enjoy it:

 

 

 

 

 

“Think before you speak, read before you think”

It was a scorcher of a week in Austin with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees all week.  Work was a bit less all consuming this week – thank goodness.  I had a work dinner on Monday at III Forks steakhouse.  Diana had been wanting to try their happy hour with oysters and champagne for a while, and so walked across with me.  She ended up being invited to join us for dinner, which thankfully meant very little work talk.  We ended up having a very nice evening all around.

On Tuesday evening, Diana was committed to watching a very exciting episode of the Bachelorette, where two of the remaining four contenders for the love of the Bachelorette are sent home.  She has a particular dislike for Luke P. (can’t blame her from what I’ve seen) and was looking forward to him going home.  She decided to invite our friend Damon (he travels in from Philadelphia every other week, and was just hanging out in a hotel room) over to watch it with us.  The next morning I got an earful – “first of all you were talking all through the episode, and then you and Damon fell asleep while I was making a pizza”.  Oopsy – we must be working way too hard.

Diana headed to California on Wednesday to check on her family and attend a baby shower.  I focused on work with a brief respite on Thursday night for an excellent dinner with my boss at the Odd Duck.  This is rapidly becoming my favourite Austin restaurant – such a casual feel and amazing combinations of fresh flavors.  The pork chop dish with creamed corn, shishito peppers and mushrooms was particularly yummy.

Saturday began with a swim and sauna and then I finally made a visit to the downtown Austin library.  This is an amazing facility in the heart of downtown, constructed at great expense and heavily patronized.  The modern design of the building is beautiful and the open layout of all six floors is quite something.

I enjoyed the quotes that can be seen from inside the facility on the panel in the right hand picture.  The Fran Lebowitz one is my favourite.

There’s a very good farm to table restaurant inside the library, and I enjoyed some great roasted beets while I completed the crossword.

There are a lot of interesting displays inside the library to draw patrons interest.  I enjoyed browsing the Texas music selection.

The sixth floor rooftop garden provides a good view of the river and our apartment building.  What an amazing facility!

I stopped into Le Politique for a coffee on the walk back to the apartment, and completed the New York Times crossword puzzle.  I’m not often able to finish the Saturday version without some help, or looking things up.

After a little time to cool off from walking a couple of miles in 95 degree weather, I drove over to the Austin Film Society to watch a documentary on Blue Note Records.   “Blue Note Records – Beyond the Notes” covers the history from the start of the label in the 1930s through the present day.

What an interesting story.  Founded by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, who fled Jewish persecution in Germany, in 1939, the label transitioned through many phases of jazz, was sold to a larger label, and then rebounded recently with Don Was as chairman.  The artists who recorded for Blue Note are a veritable who’s who of all eras of jazz – Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, through to modern day ground breakers like Robert Glasper.  I discovered a few new gems that I’ll include in the New Music section later.

Jeff Lofton, a jazz trumpeter who calls Austin home these days, participated in an interesting Q&A after the film.

I read about the Long Play Lounge in the local paper and thought it was located close to the Austin Film Society.  As luck would have it, less than a mile.  Another great establishment – turntables spinning from an extensive collection, a creative music themed cocktail menu, friendly service, and a patio with music playing.  I look forward to sharing this find with McD soon.

The temperature finally dipped below 100 degrees on my drive back to the apartment.  Even Penelope was starting to complain a bit – some German version of “How can it still be 100 degrees at seven o’clock at night?”.

After parking the complaining “P” in the Catherine garage, I walked across Congress Avenue bridge to the Fareground food hall and enjoyed the amazing chicken hawaiej hummus.  While Odd Duck is atop my restaurant list, this particular dish is my favourite in Austin so far.  The hummus is wonderfully creamy and on a par with Shaya in New Orleans (rarefied company) and the flavors with the chicken are amazing.

 

The sunset was pretty on my walk over with lots of people on the river:

 

A few blocks further into downtown, Joe Ely was playing at Antone’s.  I always enjoy a Joe Ely show and I’ve seen several, dating back almost 30 years to a memorable show he did in San Antonio, with Ian Moore on guitar.  This was a full band show and quite different to the solo acoustic sets that I’ve seen recently  at B.B. King’s in New York, and at the Kessler.  Antone’s was quite full of a lively crowd of folks – quite the scene when Ely took the stage and started to get warmed up.

Here’s “Dallas”:

Things really heated up with “All Just to Get to You”:

I’m getting old and had a busy day, so didn’t make it until the end of the show  – I know how disappointed you are.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day of swim, sauna, laundry, and catching up on some reading.

Here’s the first song from the Blue Note movie that really caught my attention – I love the piano chords and the answer from the reeds:

Then there’s this one from Horace Silver, hadn’t heard of him until watching the movie.  Can you hear Steely Dan’s “Rickie Don’t Lose that Number” coming from Donald Fagen’s love of this song?

And another I hadn’t heard of – Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder:

This one is not on Blue Note records, but one that I heard at Antone’s waiting for Joe Ely.  What a good sound:

 

 

 

It’s most definitely starting to feel a little bit like Christmas here.  Above is our favourite card so far (and unlikely to be topped).  I wonder if Ben is bawling about seeing Santa?  We love the look on Lilly’s face.  That’s Santa Peaty (holding Scotch whisky – get it?) on the right.

Tuesday was Diana’s birthday (she finally caught up to me) and we celebrated with dinner at Pappa’s Bros steakhouse.  The poor thing had a totally full day of work and was still dressed up and ready to go at the prescribed time.

Pappa’s Bros is consistently voted the best in the Dallas area and one of the top 10 in the United States and so my taste buds were excited.  I kept the destination a surprise from Birthday D.

 

We started with an outstanding lobster and brioche dish.  Both nicely cooked and with great flavour provided by the shaved truffle and sauce.  In a very mature move we decided to save two for dinner the next day.  Thank goodness because we didn’t do a very good job of getting through our steaks either.  Dinner on Wednesday nice was very good.  Diana had a steak special dish with ridiculous foie gras on top, shaved truffles, and a cauliflower puree on the bottom.

Trying to pick something light from the dessert tray was impossible, so Diana ended up going with a mousse concoction with a toasted marshmallow on top.

I was sad to hear that Zumie, my dog in California, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 16 (or 112).  He lived a very long life for a Westie and, as my Mum said, “was a lovely wee dog”.

 

 

 

Diana and I had our Christmas gift exchange on Thursday night as we had a concert on Friday and travel to California on Saturday.  We didn’t bring the big tree down this year since we were spending such little time at home over the holidays.  However, we did not have the smallest tree we saw this year.  That honor goes to Harold, Patty and Brent’s tree.  We didn’t have a full appreciation until a picture entitled “pressies under the tree” arrived.  Our tree is named Cooper, because he’s a Mini version.  How did Harold get this name?  Well, Harold is in charge of all the angels, you know – “Hark the Harold Angels Sing”.  Classic Patty and Brent humour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both our trees fared better than the downtown McKinney tree which blew over in high winds right before the parade of lights.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday took us to another excellent Christmas concert – Marcia Ball, Carolyn Wonderland, and Shelley King at Poor David’s Pub.

We enjoy all three of these ladies in concert individually and together they are a real treat.  They shared an eclectic mix of Christmas songs and songs that could be considered appropriate to the season.  This was the opening song:

We enjoyed “Christmas in Austin” and “Christmas Fais Do Do”:

And finally, I always love a good Marcia Ball ballad:

After all that, it’s really starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

We made the long drive home and then got up and headed to the airport for San Francisco on Saturday.

Amy and Adamo prepared an excellent feast to celebrate the closing days of D’s birthday week.  Some of Adamo’s hand caught lobster and yummy butternut squash risotto.  Luciano and Massimo provided assistance in blowing out the candles (which seem to have got switched around at some point).

 

On Sunday we met up with the boys and Christine at Timber and Salt in Redwood City for the annual gift exchange.

We had a very good meal and a lovely time catching up on the news from the boys and Christine.  One interesting piece of news was that Campbell had been awarded the “Rookie sales person of the year”.  Among other rewards, this comes with an extra week of paid vacation.  He seems to be doing really well at work and enjoying it – even admitted to D that it comes pretty easily and isn’t too much work at all.

After dinner Will took me for a ride in his newest BMW – yes, you might be thinking, “I thought he just got a highly customized new BMW from the factory”.  That is correct, and he was offered a “too good to be true” opportunity to trade up a notch to the racing track BMW M2 Competition edition.  It’s very fast and outfitted with all kinds of computerized engine adjustments.

It was very nice to spend time with the kids and now it’s back to Pacifica to prepare for the Christmas onslaught.

 

 

 

 

 

I flew back to New York on Tuesday for the first time in a couple of months.  I enjoy the city but don’t miss the hassle associated with flying into La Guardia and getting transportation into the city.  The drive was particularly long this trip due to all the traffic coming in to see the Christmas tree and decorations at Rockefeller Center.  The hotel is located between the iconic art-deco Chrysler building and Grand Central rail terminal.

On the flight I watched the film “The Children Act” starring Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci.  This is based on the Ian McEwan book of the same name and he wrote the screenplay.  I read the book a couple of years ago and so the story was still pretty familiar to me.  Thompson and Tucci give very good performances and the ending is just as saddening in the film as in the book.

I braved the bitterly cold weather to head out of the hotel for dinner and some brief exploration.  The Grand Central terminal building is really impressive after the renovation several years ago.

At peak times you can certainly see the origin of the phrase, “busier than Grand Central station”.  A nice part of the renovation is that there are many good restaurants at various price points throughout the building.  My boss and I enjoyed lunch at Cipriani on the main concourse on Wednesday afternoon as we prepared to present to our major investors and the analyst community on Thursday morning.

From the rail terminal, I headed up to Rockefeller Center to take a look at the famous Christmas tree.  It was still busy there at close to 11pm on a very cold night.

I enjoyed the light and music display at the Sak’s Fifth Avenue storefront and some of the characters milling around.

All this Christmas excitement reminds me of a sign that I saw at Eddie V’s last week and forgot to share in the post.  I’m hoping the Martini fairy might visit me once or twice this holiday season:

 

I’ve been enjoying the new solo album from Wilco front man, Jeff Tweedy, this week.  Here’s a good song from “Warm” and I’ll include one or two more at the bottom of the post.

Tweedy also released a memoir in the last few weeks that has been garnering positive reviews.  Maybe it’ll end up in my Christmas stocking.

 

 

 

 

Making a dinner reservation on Wednesday night in midtown Manhattan proved challenging.  My boss’s nephew is executive chef at a fancy steakhouse but they were fully booked with holiday parties and couldn’t get us in.  After many rejections, I found a Northern Italian place on 47th street, Allora, that could get us in.  The reviews promised a classic New York Italian restaurant experience and that’s exactly what we got.  Good food, waiters trying to rush us along with humor, finally giving up and buying us grappa on the house.  I enjoyed a couple of delicious appetizers (the waiter wasn’t listening and got them wrong before bringing us what we really wanted in addition) and then an excellent mushroom risotto – one of the best I’ve tasted.  I snapped this picture of the bridge outside the hotel with its holiday outfit on.

I would not choose to stay in midtown Manhattan during Christmas again.  The traffic (both cars and on the pavements) is crazy with folks in to see the lights and decorations.

Our presentations and meetings with investors on Thursday morning went well.  They seemed interested in new systems and applications that we’ve been developing.  Then it took over an hour to drive what should have been a twenty minute trip to the airport.

Friday and Saturday turned out to be very busy days – mostly entertainment busy, so no good reason to complain about it.  Friday evening began with Diana’s Christmas party at her office.  This was very nice with drinks and hors d’oeuvres and a pleasant group of folks.  We stayed for about an hour and then had to leave to drive down to the Elton John concert – Diana got tickets to the work box in recognition of her big project to create a new spin-off company that went so well.

On the drive to the concert, Diana asked me what songs I was hoping to hear.  My reply was, in this order, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Funeral for a Friend”, “Song for Guy”, “Rocket Man”, and “Daniel”.    Five out of six isn’t bad – only “Song for Guy” didn’t make the show.  Here are videos of my number one choice from the amazing “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” album.

Elton is on an 18 month farewell tour and has stated that he will not tour again when this tour is complete.  The last time I saw him was in Edinburgh in 1984 – hard to believe it was 34 years ago.  I remember being hugely impressed with his band and the sound in the Edinburgh Playhouse.  The band on this tour is even better and the sound at the arena was the best I’ve heard – perhaps even better than the Eagles – certainly louder.  Here’s one of his best known songs, “Rocket Man” – with the lines about living on Mars that start to sound less and less fantastic as Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson race into space tourism:

“Funeral for a Friend” sends everyone into a melancholy mood but the music and performance were excellent after the very theatrical lead in:

You can tell that the stage set and the videography were very well done.  I particularly enjoyed watching the exemplar percussionist, Ray Cooper, on the top tier of the stage with his five timpani drums, tubular bells, bongas and multiple other percussive accoutrements.  He puts more energy into playing the tambourine than anyone that I’ve ever seen.

The second and final encore of the night was “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and it was accompanied by a wonderful video showing Elton John from a kid through all of his crazy performance outfits.  It really did feel like a farewell performance at that point:

Elton came across as being exceptionally thankful for his career and fans throughout the evening and I was very happy to be able to participate in his final tour.  His music has meant a lot to me through the years and I enjoy attempting to play it on my own piano at home very much.  I will never forget his reinterpretation of “Candle in the Wind” as “Goodbye English Rose” for Princess Diana’s funeral.  They did so much for AIDS patients together and I have no idea how he held it together for that performance.

We spent the night at the downtown Omni hotel and I snapped this picture of the Pegasus outside with the downtown Dallas skyline:

Saturday was a warmer day than we’ve had in a while and I caught these pictures of the Dallas morning skyline before we headed for our workout.

The Christmas ornament balls out front are huge as you can tell from the person pushing a cart beside the large stack in he center.  We tried to have brunch at Hattie’s in Oak Cliff but they didn’t have their brunch menu on Saturday – only Sunday.  A quick regroup and we walked to Bolsa for a delicious brunch – this is such a relaxed and great restaurant that we continue to enjoy year over year.  From there we walked back to Wild Detectives (my favourite store of any kind in the Dallas Fort Worth area) and enjoyed a coffee with our crossword on their back patio.  I showed D a few books for my Christmas list while we were there.

After brunch we had several hours to kill before our Saturday evening plans.  I found a few good places to explore in the Uptown neighborhood, just north of downtown Dallas.  We started at the Standard Pour – a brunch and cocktail bar that looked very promising – we’ll have to check it out one weekend.  From there we walked through Uptown, had a coffee, and then visited the Bowen House.  This was the first “Prairie Style” house built in 1865, and now housing an excellent speakeasy style cocktail bar with a very interesting menu – we resisted as dinner was fast approaching.

A friend had invited us to see the 10th annual Ricki Derek Christmas Show at the Granada theater on Lower Greenville on Saturday night and we met for dinner at the Sundown restaurant prior to the show.

We enjoyed some ridiculously good tater tots before our friends arrived for dinner.  Tater tots are Diana’s favourite comfort food and these were a huge hit with both of us.

The Ricki Derek show was excellent.  He’s a classic crooner in the Sinatra, Michael Buble style and had a 16 piece jazz orchestra accompaniment.  I loved the campy nature of the variety style show with comedians, excellent guest singers, the Grinch, Frosty the snowman etc.   Here’s a video of a guest vocalist joining Ricki for “Winter Wonderland”:

We arrived home around 11pm with good leftovers from brunch and dinner to see us through Sunday.

The Cowboys could have clinched a playoff spot with a win on Sunday, but as usual had a huge let down against the Indianapolis Colts and will have to try again next week.  This amazing hurdling run by Zeke Elliott on the opening drive was indicative of the great Cowboys plays that ended up going nowhere:

We’ve covered a lot of musical ground in this post, and so I’ll save the new musical discoveries of the week for next week.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday and Tuesday were quiet, work from home days.  It was nice to be back in the routine of working from home with Diana, if only for a couple of days.  Travel to San Francisco on Wednesday was pretty quiet and painless and we arrived in time to meet up with Will and Christine for dinner at Sushi Plus in Redwood City (where  Will’s new apartment is located).  Will was able to give us a ride in the new BMW M240, but not the full experience since it had rained most of the day.  It was entertaining to have the live run down of all the special features that he had customized on his factory order.

Will took care of most of the ordering at Sushi Plus.  The “fire roll” and “super duper roll” were very good and unique.  Clorinda enjoyed her left overs of “super duper roll” very much.

Christine has just started a new job and was clearly very pleased and excited about it.  Will told us a fun story of how Christine started working in the technology field – she was running the jewelry department at Nordstrom and one of her customers liked her service so much that she told her son (owner of a technology startup) that he needed to hire the lady  who helped her from Nordstrom to interact with his customers.

Adamo and Amy hosted Thanksgiving at their home.  We had a group of 13 and so it was good that they had just bought a big new table.  As usual, Amy, Adamo, Diana, and Clorinda created a delicious feast.  My favorite was the “French Onion Soup stuffed mushrooms”.

The little monsters above (my nephews, Luciano and Massimo) did their best to disrupt my quiet afternoon of football viewing before the meal.  The Cowboys pulled out a nice win over the division rival Redskins and I was able to watch some of it.  I like this picture of Clorinda making a key point with her neighbor Andy as he’s cooking up something for the feast.

On Friday we were lucky to have an early dinner with all three boys at Vino Santo in Redwood City – Will’s favourite Italian restaurant.  The food and service were both excellent.  We started with an off-the-menu appetizer sampler that Will apparently orders on each visit, then shared lobster ravioli and some delicious scallops.  By this time we were starting to get full and hadn’t ordered main courses yet.  Diana had a calamari steak and I had a beet salad.  Will, on the other hand, had plenty of room for a full size ribeye steak.  Clorinda enjoyed left over calamari later in the evening.  Dinner was really good and we had a very nice conversation with the boys.  Here’s a picture with Finn from the evening and one of all three from Thanksgiving day.

Saturday was an early start to the airport to fly home.  The airport was much busier than on Wednesday with lots of families flying.  We had a concert at the Kessler on Saturday night and so drove from the airport to a downtown hotel and then headed to the Bishop Arts district in Oak Cliff for a pre-concert ramble.  This is a picture of the Mobil pegasus outside the hotel (the pegasus atop the Mobil Oil building was a stalwart of the Dallas skyline for many years).

I enjoyed the movie “Pick of the Litter” on the flight.  This follows a litter of five puppies born at the Guide Dogs for the Blind facility as they progress through training and assignment to owners.  Only two of the five were placed as guide dogs with one retained as a breeder, one assigned as a PTSD support dog, and one finishing as a pet.  The training to have the dogs learn to ignore owners’ commands when they would put them at risk was fascinating – to be able to teach a dog to decide that traffic is unsafe and to not proceed across a street even though given the command is amazing.  I highly recommend this film.

Our Oak Cliff evening began at Macellaio – a new restaurant by the couple behind the fabulous Lucia Italian restaurant.  We enjoyed an amazing chicken liver mousse and delicious cocktails.  After that Diana’s new boots were given a good comfort test as we walked 1.1 miles to Nova for dinner.  They passed with flying colours.

We met Diana’s co-worker, Janelle, and her husband at the Kessler to see the Band of Heathens.  I think this is a band we’ve seen more than any other – the first time was when we took a trip to Austin several years ago.  The opening act was “Matt the Electrician”, also from Austin.  He originally worked as an electrician all day, rewiring houses and playing concerts in the evening.  We loved his voice, songs and between song banter.

The Band of Heathens put on an excellent show – the first half was a selection of their popular songs and the second a full performance of their latest album, “A Message from the People Revisited”.   This was a Ray Charles album from the 1970s that speaks to many of the social issues that are still relevant today.  We had a table in the front row and it was funny to watch McD “swooning” over the two lead singers.

Here’s a video of “Abraham, Martin and John”, my favourite from that album.

And here’s the encore performance of “Hurricane”:

Another in a long list of great concert experiences at the wonderful Kessler theater!  Here’s the full set list, courtesy of the swooner:

On Sunday morning, we took advantage of being downtown to visit Smoke for breakfast.  I enjoyed my usual pulled pork benedict and Diana ordered a bacon burger so that we’d have leftovers for dinner.  Breakfast reminded me of some pictures Finn sent this week of his latest breakfast creations.

 

 

We (ok, mostly Diana) put up a small Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon.  Much smaller than usual since we’ll be gone over the holiday and couldn’t face hauling the regular tree down from the attic.  I always get a kick out of how much Diana enjoys unwrapping and placing the ornaments on the tree.  That’s the famous angel that Adamo and Amy repaired last year on top.

Two great new albums were released this week by Roseanne Cash and Mark Knopfler (I read this week that he was born in Glasgow).  Here are tracks from each and a closer from Matt the Electrician.

 

We decided to make a quick overnight trip to Edinburgh on Monday.  There was some family debate about the pros and cons of taking the train versus driving.  The hotel we chose didn’t have onsite parking and Edinburgh has a lot of pedestrian only zones and one way streets – so I decided that the train was a better option.  What have you heard about the reliability of trains in Scotland?  I don’t remember any issues when I used them regularly many years ago.  We were not lucky as the train we planned to take from Stewarton to Glasgow never showed up.  There were a few folks on the platform who were equally confused about the lack of any notification and one lady with a mobile app said the next few trains had been cancelled with no notice or explanation.  A quick call home and my Mum and Dad came to the rescue and shuttled us up to Glasgow to catch a train there.  It’s interesting that all the station signs have a Gaelic translation as I don’t think there’s anyone in Stewarton who speaks the language or ever did.

We parked in Buchanan Galleries and my Mum was on a mission to get us to the station for Edinburgh and on a train as quickly as possible.  I struggled to keep up dragging the suitcase behind me down Buchanan Street.  We sprinted to a train that was just leaving the platform and less than an hour later were making the short walk from Waverley station to our hotel.  We left our luggage and went out in search of lunch.  The terrace at the Dome on Rose Street was just a block away and we enjoyed a very nice pizza and salad al fresco.

Suitably sated, we set out for a walk around Edinburgh – down into Princes Street Gardens and then up Castle Terrace to the Castle Esplanade.

This is a picture of the General Assembly building for the Church of Scotland and this is where my graduation ceremony was held back in 1985.  Interestingly we went for a celebration lunch at the hotel that we stayed at on George Street.

We walked down the Royal Mile as far as Jeffrey Street, where I lived in a flat at number 21 in 1984, with Andy Bull and Stuart Johnson.  On the way I pointed out the phone box where I would come to call home and McD forced me inside for a picture.

I chuckled to see the Baked Potato shop, the “Tempting Tattie”,  still in operation right across the street from the flat.  My Mum and sister had a story to tell about coming to pick me up when we vacated the flat and spending hours cleaning while I sat on the couch eating a potato from that shop – funnily enough I don’t remember that at all.

We headed back to the hotel to change for dinner at the Witchery at the top of the Royal Mile.  The views out over the Firth of Forth to David’s homeland of Fife from the hotel room were quite impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

We weren’t sure what to expect from the Witchery – it got great reviews but we were worried it might be very touristy with less than great food.  The setting is amazing with lovely old dining rooms and décor.

Our waiter was quite terse to begin with but we were able to warm him up and he gave some great recommendations.  We started with steak tartare and then Diana enjoyed a beautifully cooked lobster thermidor while I had scallops.

We walked down the Royal Mile after dinner to the Malt Shovel, a pub that Andy Bull and I frequented when we lived on Jeffrey Street.  It still has a similar feel but the bar area inside has been completed reconfigured – not what I remembered at all.

To cap off the night, we took a taxi to a speakeasy I had read about on Rose Street.  It’s called the Bryant and Mack Detective Agency and is the perfect 1920s style speakeasy inside.  The menu is delivered in an envelope marked “Confidential” and the bill comes in a “Case Closed” envelope.

 

Breakfast on Tuesday morning was back on Rose Street.  We found a little pub with a cozy restaurant in the back and  I enjoyed black pudding and eggs.  I enjoyed the mural on the wall which included a caricature of the great Scottish comic Billy Connolly.

The rail trip back to Stewarton in the afternoon was smooth and uneventful – showing Diana how it should work.

Tuesday night took us to Braidwoods outside of Dalry for dinner.  This is a restaurant located in a small farm house in the middle of the countryside and has only 7 or 8 tables.  It has a Michelin star, the only place in Ayrshire with that award, and has retained it for 19 years, making it the longest running such recognized restaurant in Scotland.

What an amazing meal we had!  Most of us had roe deer for our main while Diana chose lamb – both absolutely delicious.

I got a bit ahead of myself and forgot about the amazing appetizers – parmesan tart, pea soup, a beautifully arranged quail breast, and salmon terrine.  You can zoom in on the menu for more detailed descriptions of all the ingredients.

We got a decent view of the Dalry church on the drive – the same church where my Mum and Dad were married 55 years ago.  A big thanks to Elspeth for being the designated driver for our group.

While commenting on Elspeth and David’s wedding picture, I remembered the pictures of Will in his kilt and my Mum pulled out the album with these pictures.  Didn’t he look great in his wee kilt?

Wednesday was our travel home day.  The plane from Heathrow to Chicago was one of the 380 double deckers and it took a bit longer than expected to board.  Just long enough for us to be impacted when a fire alarm caused an evacuation of the air traffic control tower.  Diana decided to take advantage of the delay to get a nap in and seemed to think it was fine to have all her electronics spread around on her table prior to take off.

The delay was just long enough to cause us to miss our connection in Chicago.  British Airways did a great job of having a hotel booked for us and onward flight reservations confirmed.   We left the hotel at 5am to catch our 7am onward flight and of course that was delayed another 4 hours due to a tire change.  We got home just in time for me to participate in a meeting that I had hoped to join.  It wasn’t all bad – I appreciated the chance to stretch out and relax for a while after the transatlantic flight.  I liked this champagne piano in the Chicago airport and we did enjoy the sunrise over downtown from the lounge.

And then it was back to the baking temperatures of Dallas after such a nice respite.  We returned just in time for the record breaking hottest days of the year.  Penelope registered 108 degrees at 6pm and we had  6 consecutive triple digit days.  Whew – that’s hot!

All the travel downtime allowed me to finish “The Chessmen” by Peter May.  This is another of my birthday books from Mum and Dad and I enjoyed it a lot.  It’s a murder mystery set on the island of Lewis (where they do still have a lot of Gaelic speakers) and centers around a group of friends who were in a Celtic band in university that became quite famous.  I enjoyed all the Scottish references and felt the remote island life was brought to life very well.  The Lewis chessmen that play a role in the story are a real thing – they are carved from walrus ivory and were discovered in 1831 on Lewis.  They are one of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets and have very distinctive characters.

The band in the novel reminded me of the Scottish band Runrig that I haven’t listened to in several years.  Many of their songs are sung in Gaelic as well and they have been popular for many years.  Here’s a song from their 1981  album “Recovery”.  I really enjoyed reconnecting with this music.