Weekly Updates – Page 21 – Keith Robertson

Week in Review – October 24, 2021

“Happy 90th Birthday to Clorinda”

I dropped Diana at DFW on Wednesday afternoon so that she could fly to San Francisco to prepare for her Mom’s 90th birthday. Then I continued on to the Woodlands Resort (about 45 minutes North of Houston) for our annual company awards fiesta. The resort was quite beautiful and I had a room with a nice patio overlooking one of the golf courses. Here are the views from there early on Thursday morning:

This was a very nice celebration event where all the top performing folks were recognized. Everyone got to choose an event – golf, concert etc. I chose to attend the Doobie Brothers 50th anniversary tour on Thursday night. I enjoyed dinner with a colleague at Jasper’s before the concert. I always love their blue cheese chips – it really is a single serving. Here are a few members of my team at the event.

The Doobie Brothers show was very good, with Michael McDonald joining the original lineup for the first time on this tour. The crowd seemed to enjoy his songs more than those from what I consider the classic lineup – which was a bit disappointing. Here’s “China Grove” – funny every time I hear it because Joe Carroll tried to convince me “China Grove” was in the Santa Cruz mountains, despite the line “Down Around San Antone”.

The set finished with the crowd favourite, “Listen to the Music”:

I was feeling quite cramped in Penelope on Friday morning, as I drove back from Houston to McKinney. Then a call came in from the VW dealership to tell me that the new car had been delivered. With a limited window to execute all the paperwork, I Ubered over and got it all taken care of. I really like the size and comfort of the Atlas Cross Sport.

I got a kick out of the floor lighting when I pulled the Beast into the garage.

After a quiet night at home alone, it was time to catch my flight to San Francisco. A last minute first class upgrade was very pleasant. Diana picked me up at SFO and we headed over to Adamo’s for a party he was hosting to celebrate their wedding anniversary and several other events that had been missed over the last year. Will, Christine, and Ollie were able to come for a while and enjoy Adamo’s cooking and the Sam Hunt band. Ollie was sporting his Halloween pumpkin haircut and enjoyed playing with the other party dogs. The Sam Hunt band is the same one that played at Alicia’s 21st birthday party last year. They are really interesting with a cello and trumpet adding to the unique sound:

Fortunately the rain held off most of the day on Saturday for the party. That was not the case on Sunday for Clorinda’s 90th party. The “cyclone bomb” hit early in the morning and dumped rain all day. The gravel area in front of Clorinda’s house clearly wasn’t going to be a good party destination, and so Diana had arranged to use the Little Brown Church (home of the historical society that Clorinda belongs to) as a plan B. We had set up tables and chairs on Saturday, and so just some finishing touches with flowers and caterer set up remained for Sunday.

The event was a huge success with all of Clorinda’s kids and all but one of her grandkids in attendance.

Diana had the idea to set up a small table for Clorinda so that folks could come and visit with her throughout the event. It worked out perfectly.

I love this picture of Frankie trying to retrieve her lost balloon:

We enjoyed several musical performances and speeches. Marco did an excellent job as always:

Renee, Giancarlo and Carlo sang a song and then Giancarlo read a poem he wrote for the event:

Diana’s catering selection was excellent – such a kind and efficient crew:

And then it was time to sing “Happy Birthday” (accompaniment by Renee and Alicia) and enjoy cake.

What a great event Diana arranged and we were fortunate that around 50 people chose to brave the horrible rain to attend. Clorinda had a fantastic time.

Monday was the antithesis of Sunday with bright sunshine all day. We assembled Clorinda’s gift and she took full advantage of the new table and chairs to enjoy the sun and some champagne with her daughter.

I really enjoyed this performance of Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing” by 40 fingers (a group of 4 guitar players):

40 Fingers – Sultans of Swing

One of the more unique renditions of “Hallelujah” – an Irish priest at a wedding:

I was saddened to read about the passing of Paddy Moloney, founder of Irish band The Chieftains. Here’s one of my favourites:

Be Kind!

Week in Review – October 17, 2021

“Moving Week”

When I left you last week, the Cowboys were about to play the New York Giants. I was nervous as they tend to lose these games when heavily favoured. It must have been Campbell and Honey’s support that drove them to a solid win, 44-20, and a 4-1 lead in their division.

There was quite a storm on Sunday night with very high winds. Lots of big trees broken when we had our run on Monday morning.

Movers arrived on Tuesday to help Finn and me move the big items (sofa, bed, TV unit) from storage to his apartment. He’s in a ground floor apartment just a few miles from storage, so it didn’t take too long. We worked on Wednesday to get the internet installed (did it all ourselves), and to do a deep clean on the sofa. Finn learned how to assemble the Bissell cleaning machine and how to use it.

We borrowed Jens’s SUV on Thursday and moved the rest of the stuff. And finally the place was ready for Finn to spend the night by himself. He said that he slept really well and is enjoying the place.

I treated him to a pumpkin spice latte at Duino after all our work moving things over and getting organized. He does like the sweet drinks for sure.

Friday was employee appreciation day at Market Street and Finn was very happy with the gift card he won, and the burgers and hotdogs that were served for lunch. He made the comment that the place he worked in Los Gatos would never dream of having an appreciation day. It’s amazing how far a little thank you goes.

We booked appointments to get flu shots on Saturday morning and hoped to add on COVID booster shots when we got there. Success – we’re all boosted and ready for the winter.

A stop at Market Street on the way home from our jabs allowed us to observe Finn in action – here he’s stocking the “specialty produce section”. We met his boss who was raving about what a great addition Finn has been to the team.

Finn is coming over to watch the Cowboys play the New England Patriots later this afternoon and Diana has promised to make us some sliders. Hoping for another strong Cowboys performance.

Not too much reading this week with all the moving activity. I did start “Harlem Shuffle” by Colson Whitehead, and I think I’m going to enjoy it quite a bit. Whitehead is famous for “The Underground Railroad”, which I haven’t read yet.

I enjoyed this descriptive paragraph:

“This first hot spell of the year was a rehearsal for the summer to come. Everyone a bit rusty but it was coming back, their parts in the symphony and assigned solos. On the corner, two white cops recapped the fire hydrant, cursing. Kids had been running in and out of the spray for days. Threadbare blankets lined fire escapes. The stoops bustled with men in undershirts drinking beer and jiving over the noise from transistor radios, the DJs piping up between songs like friends with bad advice. Anything to delay the return to sweltering rooms, the busted sinks and clotted flypaper, the accumulated reminders of your place in the order. Unseen on the rooftops, the denizens of tar beaches pointed to the lights of bridges and night planes.”

A pair of new live albums caught my attention this week – both involving Donald Fagen. The first is “The Nightfly Live” – the original is such a fantastic sounding album, and the live version is also excellent.

The second is Steely Dan Live (Fagen was co-founder with the late Walter Becker). Listen to how great the band sounds on this track:

We’ve been enjoying Jeff Daniels in the “American Rust” TV series. This great Randy Newman song was featured on the last episode. I love the unusual chord structures.

Speaking of Jeff Daniels, I discovered live streams that he’s been doing over the last year. The monologue about his role as Atticus Finch in the Broadway production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is really interesting. And he’s an excellent blues guitar picker.

https://www.jeffdaniels.com/category/videos/

Stay safe and kind!

Week in Review – October 10th, 2021

“Let’s do sprints!”

Monday started with a very enjoyable run. What made it fun? The 62 degree weather – perfect for running and such a nice change. We can both move faster and further when the temperatures are 20 degrees cooler than we’re used to.

After a quick shower, I made a trip to the hand surgeon to see about a small cyst on the palm of my hand. He informed me it is minor “dupuytrens” – a genetic condition common to Northern Europeans and more likely to be found after a hand has been operated on (as mine was 2 years ago). Nothing to worry about but it can ultimately pull your pinky down to where it’s permanently bent. We plan to get it removed on November 9th in a quick outpatient surgery. The J.W. Marriott in Austin, with its faulty door, has more to answer for!

After work we relaxed with the latest episode of Billions – by far my favourite current TV series. The dialogue is so quick and good that I usually watch twice to pick up all the subtle pop-culture references. McD did ask if I wanted to watch Monday Night Football, but I decided to give her a break from that.

I had another enjoyable run on Wednesday morning. This time below 60 degrees – perfect. After that, it was a busy day of packing and shipping. First, we loaded the Passat for shipping to Alicia in San Jose, CA. It should arrive early Monday. Sorry to see such a good car go. It served us well on multiple road trips to Austin and California.

Car shipped, it was time to turn attention to the storage unit and unearthing the furniture that Finn will use in his new apartment. You can see that boxes were stacked in a very higgledy piggledy way, and so the only option was to unpack everything and then repack with the furniture needed at the front. This was not something that Finn or I thought our backs would be able to endure, and so hired a few helpers to do the hard work. They had things unpacked and reorganized for the official move in no time and I didn’t even break a sweat supervising.

We relaxed on Wednesday evening with a movie called “The Starling”. The stars are Mellissa McCarthy, Kevin Kline, and Chris O’Dowd. It took us a few evenings to finish, but this is a great film. Understated, funny, and very poignant. Highly recommended!

We made two tries to get Finn his Texas drivers license on Friday. One at 7am – already more than 100 people in line so we didn’t stop and again at 3pm to see if they would take walk-ins later in the day – again a hard no. We did take advantage of being close to downtown McKinney in the morning to stop in for coffees and quiches at Filtered. They have finished the sidewalk expansion and put in new flower planters. Very pretty view for our coffee talk. We’ll try a more remote location next week. Appointments for new licenses are booking out in February of next year, so we need to figure out a walk-in alternative.

The keys to Finn’s new apartment were picked up on Saturday afternoon. The unit looks great with new carpet in the bedroom and wood floors in the living and kitchen areas. We dropped off a bed frame and the internet set up kit, and will be back on Tuesday for the official move in. Finn seems excited.

Penelope has been enjoying having the entire garage to herself – parking sideways to flaunt it – silly girl. That will be coming to a quick end as we put a deposit down on a VW Atlas Cross Sport on Saturday morning. It’s black with burgundy and black seats. I was quite surprised that McD agreed to two tone seats – but she seems genuinely fine with it. The car should arrive in a few days – maybe we’ll have it by next weekend to finish moving Finn. Here’s an old but funny commercial for the Atlas:

I tried to take Diana to a new place for lunch after car shopping. Stix Icehouse looked really fun when I drove by it, but didn’t open until 3pm – weird since it was TX vs OU college football day. They play every year in the Cotton Bowl, and it’s a huge deal around here. My boss invited me to go with him on Saturday morning, but we had already planned car shopping. The game ended up being an absolute doozie with a huge number of points scored and a very exciting finish. Oh well. Getting down there with the State Fair in progress would have been a nightmare – and getting out perhaps even worse. Better to watch on TV.

We went for a long run on Saturday morning, and in a weak moment I agreed to go for a walk with “sprints” on Sunday morning. Diana kept changing the rules about how long the sprints would be, how frequent they would be, and how many we were doing. On arriving home, she told me that’s what Amy would do to her when she was her trainer. Amy and Ray just rented a house in Santa Fe – so we have a place to stay if we want to go skiing there in the New Year. If my legs recover from sprints this morning.

I just watched the New Orleans Saints (with a depleted roster) defeat Washington. Very nice as they are in the same division as the Cowboys. The Cowboys are now playing the New York Giants and are off to a dubious start – but it’s still the first quarter. They can taking a commanding lead in their division with a win today.

I finished up “Away with the Penguins” by Hazel Prior this week. I was disheartened to find that the book has been renamed to “How the Penguins saved Veronica” for the American market. I don’t like that title anywhere near as much. Either way, I highly recommend this book. Veronica is one of my favourite characters in a while – particularly in her initial interactions with Eileen (her housekeeper) in her home in Ayrshire (the county in Scotland where I grew up). The latter third of the book dragged a bit and started to get a bit trite, but don’t let that put you off what is overall a very enjoyable read.

I loved the opening quote:

“I find penguins at present the only comfort in life…one can’t be angry when one looks at a penguin.” John Ruskin

A perfect description of a mean Scottish wind:

“The wind cuts through me. It is that damp, feral variety of wind one finds only in Scotland. I huddle in my coat and pick my way northward along the coast path. I have always believed in the efficacy of a daily walk and I refuse to be put off by inclement weather. To my left the sea churns in slate-grey patterns and spits a wild, white froth out into the air.”

Some local Scottish information that made me smile. Mum and Dad used to book holidays through a travel office in Kilmarnock:

“My tickets were ordered by phone from the travel office in Kilmarnock. They confirmed them by email via Eileen and sent the tickets also by email via Eileen, who has printed them out and given them to me. Why they have to make everything so complicated I will never understand.”

One of the key plot elements is Veronica discovering her grandson, Patrick:

“As we are in good time Eileen insists that we stop to have a coffee together in one of the noisy café areas. I have just selected the only table that is free from other people’s detritus when, to my shock, I discover a tall, scruffy young man is standing right in front of me.

‘Hello, Granny!'”

A typical email from Eileen to Veronica and her mental response:

“I saw some Penguin biscuits in Kilmarnock Stores yesterday and thought of you. I didn’t buy any, though. I haven’t got through the lovely marshmallow chocolate biscuits you left yet. I’m trying not to eat too many at once. Doug (my husband) says it won’t do my figure any favours. I know he’s right, but I do like sweet things so much.”

“I cannot think why she bothers to send these emails when she has nothing of any interest to say.”

On introducing Pip, the baby penguin that Veronica insisted on rescuing, back into the group:

“Sometimes we leave him in the ‘creche’, which is the name they give to a bunch of kiddo penguins left together while their penguin parents go out fishing. Pip’s getting braver and braver. He trundles around with the other chicks, plays chase and hop-the-puddle and so on.”

Every time I paste the picture above in to the blog I dream of building a bookcase unit like that to store albums.

I love the slide guitar on this song that we heard on the soundtrack to the new Clint Eastwood film, “Cry Macho”. We fell asleep and still need to finish the movie.

Here’s a new video from my latest find, Houndmouth. Such a good sound and the musicians are in such a good groove together:

Here are a couple of really good songs from “The Starling” soundtrack. Great movie and a very pleasant soundtrack:

And finally, a classic from Allison Moorer with an excellent guitar solo from Joe McMahan at 3:00 mins in:

Stay safe, kind and patient!

Week in Review – October 3rd, 2021

“Cowboys Win – twice in one week”

After many meetings in Mexico on Monday, we retired to an excellent Argentinian steakhouse for dinner, and to watch the Cowboys destroying the Eagles. Damon was the only Eagles fan in the group and it was hard not to feel badly for him. This picture shows the fancy disinfecting unit in front of the restaurant – only Eagles fans had to walk through it 🙂

I thoroughly enjoyed the overall meal and experience. The shrimp empanada appetizer (served in a burlap sack) was a great start. My dry aged chorizo steak was a wonderful way to continue. I’ve never had such a large table side menu before. That’s Norma (my LATAM CIO) and Francisco (LATAM COO) in the picture.

They had the most creative dessert menu presentation that I’ve seen:

The flight back on Tuesday evening was very smooth. Except for Blair. He was catching a flight from Dallas to Austin, circled for an hour in thunder storms, and ultimately returned to Dallas.

I forgot to mention that I woke up on Tuesday to the news that Alicia had totaled her Jetta – not her fault. A girl ran a red light and ploughed into the front left side of the engine. Damon spent the night with us after the flight from Queretaro and agreed with D’s suggestion that we ship our Passat out to Alicia and look for a new car.

I took Finn for sushi after I picked him up from work on Thursday. He loved the place I chose. The salsa dancer (pictured here) was a great dish, and we picked out a couple of others that were equally delicious. McD was surprised that I wouldn’t go for sushi with her but took Finn. Can’t win!

The Passat was due for a service on Friday. I took D over to drop it off and then we enjoyed a Taco Deli lunch. Always so good. I arranged for us to test drive the VW Atlas Cross Sport when we picked up the car on Saturday. The first test with a V6 engine didn’t work out – under powered for the car. The second drive with the turbo engine was better, but we’re not convinced yet. The price point is quite attractive, so we’ll see what we end up doing for a second car. Penelope is quite concerned.

Ollie made a trip down to San Jose on Saturday and accompanied Will on the patio of Rosie’s Irish Pub while he enjoyed a shepherd’s pie. I’ve had that there before and it’s delicious.

I was texting my friend Tom in New York on Sunday to see what was new. Was not expecting him to reply that he had triplet grand-children. The guy in the middle, Michael, was only 1 lb. at birth and spent 4 months in the NICU- I’m sure he’ll catch up quickly.

Cowboys watching on Sunday was very pleasant. A great win over the 3-0 undefeated Carolina Panthers to advance to 3-1 and top the NFC East division. Finn watched with me and enjoyed D’s pigs in the blanket football snack. There was a gecko on the patio trying to get into the action.

It’s always fun to text with Campbell and Tim during the games. Especially when the Cowboys are doing well.

I really enjoyed S. A. Cosby’s “Razorblade Tears.” Even better than his last, “Blacktop Wasteland”, with more complex and relatable characters and more vivid action. Not for the feint of heart, but really well done. Here’s the Amazon review:

“We couldn’t have loved Cosby’s last book, Blacktop Wasteland, more, so it’s gratifying to report that Razorblade Tears is just as good, if not better. Cosby has an uncanny knack for weaving righteous anger, heartfelt reflection, and even the inarticulate space between those two, into compulsively readable prose. Ike Randolph, a Black man fifteen years out of jail, meets his son’s father-in-law under the worst circumstances. Buddy Lee is also an ex-con, and his anguish at hearing that his son and his son-in-law—Ike’s son—have been gunned down in cold blood, is outpaced only by his guilt at how unaccepting he was of his son’s sexuality. But if these men missed the mark with their boys during their lifetimes, they will not let them down in death. The two horsemen of the apocalypse—driven by vengeance, race, and grief—make for a killer thriller. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review”

I’m about 2/3rds of the way through “Away with the Penguins” by Hazel Prior. This was a book that Heather gave Dad for his birthday, and I thought it looked really interesting. It was described as being similar to “Eleanor Oliphant is Just Fine”, a book that Diana and I loved last year.

I’m really enjoying the book and the comparison is very accurate, with Veronica and Eleanor sharing many characteristics. I like the first person narrative from Veronica’s point of view very much.

More to come next week when I finish up.

A new song from Nathaniel Rateliff is always a highlight. Not my favourite but still a good song:

Here’s a great new song from Hayes Carll. Not with his wife, but equally great:

And finally, I was looking for an album to play this week and came across an unopened copy of this gem. I remember not loving the record when first released (hence the unopened album), but now I can’t imagine what I was thinking. So many great songs.

Stay safe, kind, and patient!

Fortnight in Review – September 26, 2021

“Happy Birthday Marco!”

Denny and Anne celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary last Thursday, and Anne chose this picture to commemorate the occasion. It was taken on a trip we took with them to Nashville in December 2017. Classic Denny and Anne.

Finn has been treating us to several new and experimental dishes that he’s been adding to his repertoire. First a novel breakfast toast where he cuts out the inside of the bread, replaces it with an egg, spinach, mushroom mixture, and then reattaches the bread with some melted cheese. Hard to describe but delicious. On Wednesday, he surprised us with a wonderful chicken curry – just a delicious mixture of flavours in the sauce and perfectly cooked chicken. We were both very impressed.

Last Friday we flew to San Francisco to celebrate Marco’s 50th birthday. Alicia drove us from the San Francisco airport to the San Jose airport since there were not any rental cars available at SFO – such a pain, but many thanks to Alicia. It was dinner time when we arrived back in Pacifica to collect Clorinda to drive to Sonoma. Amy had pizza ready to enable to a quick turnaround. We arrived at the lovely farmhouse in Sonoma around 10pm. Marco and his friend Jeff were enjoying the hot tub when we pulled up. He was quite surprised to see us and particularly his Mom. Julie had rented the house and hadn’t told him who was coming to spend the weekend.

We hung out for a while on the lovely porch and then called it a night. Coffee the next morning was challenging – the high-tech, automated house and equipment were almost too much for us. Diana finally rebooted the fancy coffee maker and we were in business.

The rest of the day was very relaxing, just hanging out by the pool, reading, chatting, and playing ping pong. At one point, Clorinda headed for the ping pong table at high speed and really enjoyed a game.

The third picture above is Marco modeling our gift. Will suggested hybrid shorts (both swim and regular wear) that change pattern when wet. Here Marco has dipped the bottoms in the water to get a “marlin cuff” pattern.

Adamo and the boys showed up in the afternoon and enjoyed all the facilities. The tree swing out back was a big hit.

Giancarlo arrived in time for dinner, only living 20 minutes or so away from the Sonoma farmhouse.

Dinner was again technically challenging – we couldn’t get the fancy pellet smoker to work well. McD and I muscled through and were able to do a decent job of barbequing/broiling dinner for the crew. Birthday cake was served after dinner – I climbed up on the step ladder to get the group shot.

This was one of the after dinner games we enjoyed. I laughed because Finn is someone that absolutely knows the answer to that question. Another game was a combination of Pictionary and the Telephone Game called Telestrations – highly recommended. That was a big hit with the group.

Gianluca was the only one awake when we ventured into the main house on Sunday morning. He walked down to the French patisserie with us, we enjoyed breakfast (Croque Madame for me), and brought back a selection of pastries and quiches for the gang. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this T-Rex enjoying a Trump snack in a yard we passed.

Then it was time to drive back down to Pacifica and relax for the evening before flying back to Dallas on Monday afternoon.

Diana treated me to dinner the next Saturday night since I was headed to Mexico for a few days on Sunday afternoon. We decided to Uber to C.T. Provisions in downtown McKinney. The driver told us the streets were closed off for Oktoberfest. This was not something we hadn’t realized, although I was wearing an Oktoberfest t-shirt that Finn had brought me from Market Street, with the dates on front. Street blockage didn’t cause us too much trouble and provided some fun entertainment.

I had mentioned to Mum and Dad that I was hoping they would have a stuffed quail on the new Autumn menu – and wouldn’t you know it, they had a delicious dish on there. The overall new menu was filled with things that are right up our alleys. Mussels, octopus, pork belly – all great. Uber back home was a bit more work, but not to huge a hassle.

I caught my flight to Queretaro, Mexico on Sunday afternoon. It’s only 2 hours from DFW and was a very smooth journey. Turns out only a 30 minute drive from San Miguel de Allende, our destination for Denny’s 50th birthday. I’m going to take Diana on my next trip and we’ll spend the weekend there before I start the week in Queretaro. Our driver gave us a brief tour of downtown before delivering us to our hotel.

There are some very interesting stories about the origin of the aqueduct on the left. Aqueduct Construction of the Queretaro aqueduct began in 1726 by Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana and was completed on October 19, 1738. The 1,280-meter (4,200-foot) aqueduct transported water gathered from various springs to fountains within the city’s convents and plazas. Several different tales are told about why Juan Antonio was compelled to build this – and they all include a lady that he was interested in and wanted to provide safe water to, the difference being which lady.

We hung out at the hotel for dinner and Sunday night football watching. These are my traveling companions Blair and Damon exchanging views on the game.

I read “Lake Success” by Gary Shteyngart in a couple of days early this week. It’s a quick and easy read with a constant oscillation from quirky humour to truly sad situations. The challenge is that the main characters really do come across too much like caricatures, and the main plot of Barry Cohen, uber rich hedge fund dude, abandoning everything to cross the country on a Greyhound bus, just a bit too far fetched. The book made all the big top 10 lists when published in 2018, and I think part of that was driven by the back drop of the Trump election and how that features prominently in this tale. I did learn a lot about very expensive watches – Barry’s passion. Here’s the Amazon review:

“An Amazon Best Book of September 2018:: By most measures, Barry Cohen has achieved the American Dream. He manages a hedge fund with $2.4 billion in assets. He lives in Tribeca and has a beautiful wife. He even has a case full of extremely expensive watches. He appears, at least on the surface, to be a highly unlikely candidate for a cross-country journey to find himself. But when we first meet Barry, he is stressed out and unhappy, and he is bleeding because his wife recently attacked him. Soon we learn that there is more imperfection in his life: his son is autistic and an SEC investigation is hanging over his head. So when Barry gets on a Greyhound and tries to leave it all behind (naively seeking out a long lost college girlfriend), we understand the allure he finds in busing himself into the unknown. There is humor in this novel, much of it recognizably Shteyngartian; there is also a dark line running across this story like a line drawn across a map. Shteyngart traces that line, setting his story in the summer of 2016. As Barry meets “real” Americans—i.e. the other 99.9%– they help to fill in the parts of Barry that are missing. Some readers will feel for Barry’s plight, some won’t. It was Shteyngart’s incisive observations about how we view ourselves and our country that drew me in. There are many different American Dreams out there. But are dreams real?”

My second book was “What’s Mine and Ours” by Naima Coster. It’s been a week or so since I read this book, and I couldn’t remember the plot or characters without some internet research – probably tells you this was not very exciting or memorable to me. I did enjoy the read but it certainly didn’t have too much to embed itself in my memory. Here’s the summary review:

“From the author of Halsey Street, a sweeping novel of legacy, identity, the American family, and the ways that race affects even our most intimate relationships.

A community in the Piedmont of North Carolina rises in outrage as a county initiative draws students from the largely Black east side of town into predominantly White high schools on the west. For two students, Gee and Noelle, the integration sets off a chain of events that will tie their two families together in unexpected ways over the span of the next 20 years. On one side of the integration debate is Jade, Gee’s steely, ambitious mother. In the aftermath of a harrowing loss, she is determined to give her son the tools he’ll need to survive in America as a sensitive, anxious, young Black man. On the other side is Noelle’s headstrong mother, Lacey May, a White woman who refuses to see her half-Latina daughters as anything but White. She strives to protect them as she couldn’t protect herself from the influence of their charming but unreliable father, Robbie.

When Gee and Noelle join the school play meant to bridge the divide between new and old students, their paths collide, and their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deeply knotted, messy ties that will shape the trajectory of their adult lives. And their mothers – each determined to see her child inherit a better life – will make choices that will haunt them for decades to come.

As love is built and lost, and the past never too far behind, What’s Mine and Yours is an expansive, vibrant tapestry that moves between the years, from the foothills of North Carolina, to Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Paris. It explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.”

I popped the CD of Jason Yates eponymous 2009 release into Penelope this week and remembered how much I had enjoyed this when it first came out. Such understated but very catchy songs. This one has been stuck in my ear for days:

I heard about Sandy Nelson on a drumming documentary that I enjoyed last week. What a great sound:

Stay safe, patient and kind!

Week in Review – September 12, 2021

“Let’s Roll”

I took Finn to look at apartments on Wednesday. He ended up liking the first place that we looked at, Hudson Ranch, the best. It’s a smaller community, easy walking distance to his work, and about 2.5 miles from our home. He was excited that his one bedroom comes with a washer and dryer. Move in date is sometime around October 9th. Here are some pictures of the model – looks pretty comfy.

Football was back on Thursday night, with the Cowboys kicking off the season against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys played amazingly well, ultimately loosing 31-29 to a last second field goal. Had they made easy field goals that were missed earlier in the game, they would have pulled off a very impressive win. It was fun to get back to texting with Tim and Campbell during the game.

I managed to convince Finn to get his second COVID shot on Friday afternoon. There were no immediate reactions this time, although we had fun telling McD that he had fainted and taken down the CVS candy aisle. He went to work on Saturday morning and made it until 1pm before the body aches were too much. He’s back at work today (nice 6am Sunday start) and seemed to be feeling fine when I dropped him off.

Bob Schneider played an excellent show at the Kessler on Friday night. He performed both an early and a late show, and so we were home at a reasonable hour after a concert in Oak Cliff for a change. This was a good thing as my Saturday started at 7am with a Finn drop-off.

Schneider opened up the show with one of my favourites – “2002” from the “Lonelyland” album. I think that’s his best album – it’s one of his early ones from 2001.

He really is a unique singer songwriter, having the ability to switch from deep and moving to ribald humour, sometimes in the same verse of a song. His intra-song patter is just as entertaining as the music. Janelle and Steve joined us and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the show.

We’ve been enjoying watching the US Open tennis, and particularly the new youngsters that have been doing so well. There is clearly a new generation taking control of women’s tennis, with the amazing feat by Emma Raducanu of winning the final without dropping a set the entire tournament. She was ranked 150th going in.

The 20th anniversary of 9/11 made Saturday quite somber. My colleague was visiting his daughter in Baltimore and having a coffee by the harbor when this happened right at 8:46am – the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

I was talking to Finn about the events of 9/11. He didn’t know about Todd Beamer from Los Gatos – the guy who said “Let’s Roll” on flight 93, before leading a small group that over-powered the terrorists, and preventing the flight making it to Washington, DC. What a true hero.

I tried a new breakfast bake recipe on Sunday. This one is very healthy and vegetarian with quinoa, mushrooms, onion, spinach, cottage cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and egg whites. It turned out well but I think I would prefer some more egg and less quinoa. There’s plenty left for Finn to have for his very early morning breakfasts this week. We both ran 30 minutes early this morning and so were ready for breakfast when this came out of the oven.

I’ve read a couple of book since my last posting. “A Spool of Blue Thread” by Anne Tyler is described this way in a review:

“The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate an indefinable kind of specialness, but like all families, their stories reveal only part of the picture: Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets.

From Red’s parents, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to the grandchildren carrying the Whitshank legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn house that has always been their anchor.”

Tyler has rapidly become one of my very favourite authors after learning of her earlier this year, and this is a classic example of her work – wonderful characters and a beautiful talent for writing about the mundane and ordinary details of family life. This one set against a backdrop of the home construction/remodeling business and the Depression.

My other read was “The Eternal Audience of One” by Remy Ngamije, a writer from Namibia. The story follows Seraphin as he escapes Rwanda, then Namibia, and tries to make a life in Cape Town. Here’s a summary from a review:

“Seraphin Turihamwe is a young man whose life is characterised by movement. After leaving Rwanda under duress and never feeling at rest in Namibia, which he believes is slow and boring, he finds himself fighting to fit in in Cape Town. So much about the city is designed to push people like him out. Through his interactions with a few reluctant mentors, loyal friends and the women he carries on relationships with, he explores and performs different parts of his identity while dealing with other issues of family, race, immigrant life and love.Seraphin and his pursuit and struggle for inner peace and identity effortlessly meld together geography, history and how one’s experience of a place can be perceived as a relatable journey. The themes of movement or displacement, life as an immigrant or refugee and the life of a black youth are neatly unpacked. His relationships with women become markers of the passing of time and lessons learnt and provide insight into who he is and who he wants to be. Whether he ever finds rest and truly comes to know himself is up to the reader to decide.”

I didn’t love this book but did enjoy learning something about life in Rwanda and Namibia.

I really enjoy the “Funky Friday” radio show on 91.7 KXT. Here are a few great songs from last week:

The amazing Grupo Fantasma from Austin:

The amazing voice of Clinton Clegg fronting the nonet Commonheart:

The Kashmere Stage Band – check out the wonderful documentary about this fantastic high school band reuniting later in life.

The always great Etta James, with help from Steve Winwood:

And finally this classic from Jimmy Hughes:

These songs form the base of a playlist that I could listen to every day.

Stay safe and kind to everyone!

Fortnight in Review – August 15, 2021

“Back and Forth”

Whew! That was a busy couple of weeks, and I didn’t do anywhere as much traveling as McD. I didn’t keep great notes and so I’m going to break with tradition and go in somewhat of a reverse chronological order.

We spent the weekend with four other couples at something called the “Celebrity Dream Estate” in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. This was a very fancy place and one of the few to be found that had five bedrooms and bathrooms. Rancho is about 30 minutes north of San Diego and is located in the hills above the Pacific Ocean. Here are some pictures of the place:

We arrived on Friday afternoon, picked up supplies, and then spent a pleasant evening catching up with everyone. Saturday began with a run and walk for D and me, while most of the group went hiking by the coast. The roads were quite hilly and narrow – not completely ideal for running – but a good test for us. The first test was how to get out of the coded gate from the inside without the weight of a car on the sensor pad. We managed to squeeze through and later learned of a code box hidden on a fence post. The driveway is very long.

We did pass Diana’s new estate on our run – just missing a “g”.

Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool, followed by a lovely dinner at “Pamplemousse” – a highly recommended local restaurant in Solana Beach. I really enjoyed my Duo of Game – a Venison Chop Au Poivre and Lemon Thyme Marinated Quail. This was the waiter’s number one recommendation and I’m glad I followed his lead.

Sunday was my favourite day of the trip. We met Campbell and Molly for lunch at a great Mexican restaurant and then walked across to Cardiff State beach, timing it just perfectly so that the awning and chairs were fully set up by the advance party. Diana was very adventurous with jumping the waves – most of which were several feet taller than her. I’m glad I joined to provide a tiny bit of supervision. Campbell and Molly came back to the house and played games with the crew, while Merry Lee enjoyed watching Campbell’s mannerisms that she thought were doubles of mine.

A really good trip and I know Diana enjoyed catching up with her girlfriends.

This was her second trip out to California in two weeks. She took her Mom back home last week. Clorinda was happy to get back to her grandkids.

Alicia flew back last Thursday and they were able to visit her new University (also Clorinda’s alma mater).

The weather has become quite boisterous as I’m tying this – lots of thunder and the torrential rain that I’ve only experienced in Texas. My new 6 inch gutters in the back patio are passing this test with flying colours – no overspill at all – much better than the old 4 inch variety. Diana is not going to enjoy her drive to the dentist much though.

While Clorinda was with us for a couple of months, Caroline had made a project of organizing her clothes. Diana enjoyed making some videos of her Mom telling stories about the dresses, when she made them, and where she wore them. And then the fun started as Diana decided to model a couple of her favourites.

Finn started work earlier in the week in the produce department at Market Street (a high end grocery store 2 miles from our home). He’s enjoying it and seems to be doing well in the eyes of his managers.

After I dropped him one morning, I finally tried the Del Sur Taco counter that’s inside a Shell station across from Market Street. Folks rave about their breakfast tacos, and they were very good. Looking forward to another visit soon. I know Denny would like all the Mexican wrestling masks.

I’m loving Mark Ronson’s Apple TV+ series “Watch the Sound”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09qsnkw

The episode on synthesizers had a great piece on a BBC engineer, Delia Derbyshire, who came up with the original Dr. Who theme song using a series of oscilloscopes and wave shapers. Each episode so far has been very interesting and educational.

Here’s a new song from saxophonist Chris Potter with the fantastic James Francies on keyboards and bass pedals:

I watched a film called “You’re Not You” sometime over the last fortnight and really enjoyed it. Hilary Swank’s character (and I’m really not usually a fan) is a classical pianist who has ALS. The story revolves around her relationship with the brash college student, hired as a caregiver, who ends up being wonderful for her. I enjoyed seeing some of the Houston musical hotspots like the sister to Austin’s wonderful Continental Club.

I read “Clever Girl” by Tessa Hadley over the last week or so. Having really enjoyed a short story from Hadley in the New Yorker, I thought I would give this a try.

Here’s a synopsis review:

“Clever Girl is an indelible story of one woman’s life, unfolded in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Britain’s leading literary lights—Tessa Hadley—the author of the New York Times Notable Books Married Love and The London Train.

Like Alice Munro and Colm Tóibin, Tessa Hadley brilliantly captures the beauty, innocence, and irony of ordinary lives—an ability to transform the mundane into the sublime that elevates domestic fiction to literary art.”

My review would not be as effusive. The first half was a real struggle, and I got some enjoyment from the second half. Just not my thing – too much hippie commune stuff. I only enjoyed the last few chapters when the “Clever Girl” reaches my age.

Stay safe, kind and sensible in the increasingly nutty environment!

Week in Review – August 1, 2021

“Bye Grammie, Come Back Anytime”

Finn and I picked up Alicia from the airport on Monday. We stopped at the Blue Goose in Grapevine on the way home. I enjoyed my usual sour cream chicken enchiladas and Finn had combination fajitas. Alicia was good and had some kind of healthy salad. Oh, almost forgot – we tried something new – the goose eggs appetizer, jalapenos stuffed with shredded chicken and cheese. They were delicious and pleasantly spicy. Let’s have those again soon.

Grammie was very happy to have Alicia back in McKinney.

We watched the Olympics in the evening – situation normal during Grammie’s visit. She became such a sports nut. I was amazed at the British synchronized diving team – Tom Daly and Matty Lee. They looked like a single diver from the side angle – just excellent and not surprising that they won the gold medal.

Alicia took Finn on an outing to bowl at Pinstack on Tuesday – it’s nice for him to have someone around to hang out with during the day when we’re working. Alicia’s friend had given them a bunch of tokens that Finn deployed to win three stuffies from the claw game that I thought never allowed anyone to win – a hidden talent.

Wednesday brought a couple of pieces of good news – Finn passed his final interview for the job he wants (just the background check and orientation now), and travel restrictions to the UK eased for vaccinated US travelers – no quarantine required now. Hoping that holds until our visit.

The Olympic highlight was Finke’s acceleration in the final lap of the 1500 meter freestyle swim to go from 5th place to 1st. My favourite Olympic moment so far.

We attended the funeral service for Stanley John Bassett via livestream on Wednesday night. A really meaningful service and we were so glad to be able to participate from so far away. Vilma and their two daughters did a lovely job eulogizing Stan. They played this song as folks were leaving the chapel – hadn’t heard it in so many years. I remember when it was popular as the theme song to the Watership Down movie.

Alicia joined us for a show at the Kessler on Thursday night while Finn kept Clorinda company watching the Olympic gymnastics finals. We kept with our pre-concert ritual of dinner at Nova. Diana burger, Thai cauliflower with noodles for me, and Moroccan chicken for Alicia – quite the eclectic international mix.

Robert Ellis is a quite different performer who was based in Austin until recently (moved to Fort Worth, and I’m sure because Austin is becoming way too expensive for musicians.) He alternates between ironically funny, and very poignant songs on guitar and piano. Here’s one of his more popular songs – an ode to the sparkling water Topo Chico:

Ellis had the first three songs organized and then relied on audience requests. One entertaining moment occurred when someone requested “Two Cans of Paint.” “I don’t remember the guitar part to that.” “I can play it,” from an audience member. “Who is that?” “It’s Stacy.” “My friend Stacy – come on down and play a song for us.” Apparently Ellis had met Stacy on his last visit to the Kessler. She played a beautiful song.

Here’s another song from Ellis, “When You’re Away”:

The lineup of talent in the next month or so at the Kessler is very impressive. I think musicians really love playing there.

Diana traveled back to California with Clorinda on Saturday. She’ll stay for a week and get everything organized with new local doctors. I’m “supervising” Finn and Alicia solo now. I took a break from the Olympics on Saturday night and finished a movie I started a few weeks ago. “Our Friend,” starring Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, and Jason Segel, is not an uplifting, positive movie but the acting is first class.

The “kids” were quickly on board when I suggested Velvet Taco for lunch on Sunday. I’m not sure if it moved since Brent and I visited last, prior to auditioning speakers at Audio Concepts, but it wasn’t exactly where I remembered. I tortured Finn and Alicia with a visit to Interrabang books after lunch – and it had certainly moved – all the way to Lovers Lane and the other side of the tollway. The new store is smaller and I couldn’t find anything that caught my fancy at all. On prior visits I’ve come away with three or four new books. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood.

There was another baking adventure on Sunday evening. Lemon and blueberry cookies with cream cheese frosting was the product this time. The teamwork was solid and Clorinda is working on convincing Alicia to bring some when she returns to California later this week.

Will had his car at the track again over the weekend and was excited to share some pictures of the new trim – not exactly sure what’s new but it does look very fancy.

There’s a new music technology show out on Apple TV. Mark Ronson hosts a show called “Watch the Sound”, and I’ve been enjoying it with my elliptical workouts. The episode on reverb was fascinating. I had just read in my Robbie Robertson autobiography (more below) about the fantastic reverb available from the concrete chambers underneath the Capitol records recording studios in Los Angeles, and sure enough that was one of the places Ronson visited. That and a massive, abandoned diesel tank in Scotland that is rumored to have the longest reverb in the world.

“Testimony”, Robbie Robertson’s autobiography has been my companion this week. What a fascinating account from an amazing musician who had a front seat to so many musical highlights – backing up Bob Dylan when he went electric, and witnessing Jimi Hendrix first shows in New York to name just a couple. I remember first watching “The Last Waltz”, Scorsese’s movie about The Band’s farewell concert, in university and being completely amazed at the level of musicianship. The book is over 500 pages long and I haven’t quite finished yet.

On first meeting Levon Helm, one of my very favourite musicians:

“In the center of it all was a young beam of light on drums. Teeth gleaming, laughing, bleached hair glowing, whole body shaking, drumsticks twirling, pushing those red sparkle drums with a hawk painted on the bass drum like a white tornado. It was the first time I saw Levon Helm, and I’d never seen anything like it.”

Watching Levon dance across the front of the main stage at the New Orleans jazzfest, a few weeks before he died, is one of my best musical memories.

Encountering Jerry Lee Lewis:

“As we headed back to Sun Records for Fred’s appointment, I was flushed with excitement. Inside I took a seat in a little lobby area while Fred was escorted to an office. The pictures of legendary Sun records artists hanging up and down the hallway made me feel I was stepping into a rock ‘n roll cathedral. A man came out of the recording studio, and as the door swung I thought I saw Jerry Lee Lewis sitting at the piano. Must be imagining it, I thought, but the door to the control room opened and from the speakers I heard that voice and that piano – Jerry himself. So real I could barely stand it.”

Weird encounters:

“Jack, the owner of the Skyline Lounge, was none other than Jack Rubenstein – otherwise known as Jack Ruby. The man who had hired us only a few months before to play his weird, burned-out Skyline Lounge in Fort Worth, Texas, had shot and killed the assassin of President Kennedy.”

What sounds like a wonderful evening of music:

“On one of our nights off, Levon and I, along with Connie and Mama Kosh, drove a couple of hours to the Buffalo Auditorium to catch Otis Redding; Jerry Butler, with Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions; and Junior Walker and the All Stars.

Otis was astounding; that voice slayed me. He could be such an exciting performer, but it was the ballads that completely took me away, songs like “These Arms of Mine.””

My favourite paragraph so far:

“Upstairs in the workroom across from my bedroom on Larsen Lane, I sat with a little typewriter, a pen and legal pad, and a Martin D-28 that said NAZARETH, PENNSYLVANIA on the label inside the sound hole. I revisited memories and characters from my southern exposure and put them into a Luis Bunuel surreal setting. One of the themes that really stuck with me from Bunuel’s films, like Viridiana, was the impossibility of sainthood – no good deed goes unpunished. I wrote “The Weight” in one sitting that night.”

Imagine – that’s where those classic lines started – looking into a Martin guitar sound hole:

“I pulled in to Nazareth
Was feeling ’bout half past dead
I just need some place
Where I can lay my head
“Hey, mister, can you tell me
Where a man might find a bed?”
He just grinned and shook my hand
And “No” was all he said”

There’s been a lot of music chatter already, so I’ll just share a couple of songs I’m enjoying from my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist.

The guitar intro had me hooked right away:

Love the laid back, J.J. Cale type feel:

Stay safe and kind!

Week in Review – July 25, 2012

“Pretty P”

Just after I posted the blog last week, I received this nifty little tool from Amazon. What do you think this is used for? It’s a $10 item that freed Finn from a hazardous task. We were going to beg him to climb up in the empty alcove at the bottom of the stairs where the bulb has been out for years. Diana changed the next one over, which is easier to get to from the stairs, but we were not comfortable having her try this one. I remember Finn climbing to the top of a friend’s very tall pine tree to install the Christmas star – he used to be such a completely unafraid climber. No need, 2 minutes with the right tool and I had the bulb replaced.

I enjoyed a new streaming series with my workouts early this week. “3-2-1 McCartney” features Sir Paul discussing his music with über (I finally figured out all the secret codes necessary to add accents to letters in this blogging software) producer, Rick Rubin. As Diana would say, this is “right up K alley.” Particularly the parts where McCartney is sitting at the piano, showing Rubin how songs came about. A very simply produced (black and white mostly) series that I highly recommend.

I loved the story of a roadie asking Sir Paul to “pass the salt and pepper”. McCartney heard Sgt. Pepper and thought what an interesting character that might be…

The boys gave me a full interior and exterior detail service for Penelope for my birthday. I thought that should get done before I lost the coupon, and so scheduled it for Monday morning. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with torrential rain until around 10:30am. The guy who came to do the service had to wait a while for a break in the rain. He came in a special truck outfitted with everything he needed – didn’t even want a hose – “we use special de-ionized water.”

P hasn’t looked this good since the day that I bought her. The wheels are spotless throughout and she really sparkles in the sun. I hope I haven’t set a bad precedent with her now.

The last piece of the kitchen project arrived this week. Jose installed the new ovens (and a couple of new ceiling fans for the back patio). They certainly seem to heat up and cool down faster than the old ones (which took forever.) Finn cooked a great batch of lemon bars last night. Clorinda is a big fan of those. Diana particularly likes that the doors open vertically rather than horizontally – much easier to get close to the racks to remove hot treats. Penelope got a chuckle out of the fact that the oven is made by the same company, Bosch, that manufactures most of her spare parts. It’s nice to have this project behind us. Well, one small update still required – a couple of the new floor boards pop when you hit them just right. Apparently Jose will need to drill small holes and pump some glue in to fix that.

We managed to break Clorinda away from Olympics watching to work on a jigsaw puzzle for a while. Maybe we shouldn’t have started with one of the super challenging Frenchy ones – but thought the fatter wood pieces would be easier to manage.

Outdoor exercise is having to happen earlier in the day as we enter the Texas summer. We were out at 8am this morning for our walk/run and my shirt was still drenched by the end. It does feel good to get that behind me so early in the day. I now have my sights set on brunch at C.T. Provisions – yes, I’m having the voodoo shrimp Benedict again.

We lost one of our very favourite humans this week. Stan Bassett passed away in Brisbane, Australia, after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He was able to accomplish some major life goals that seemed impossible after the initial diagnosis – he danced with his daughter at her wedding, met his new grandchild, and moved his daughter, son-in-law, and baby into a house across the street from his home. That’s Stan at the back of this family photo.

I first met Stan in the lobby of a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and we hit it off right away. He spent many nights at our home, enjoying making unique combinations from Diana’s meat and cheese platters. So much kindness and positive energy radiated from Stan. There was the evening when we discovered that he knew every word to every song on Meat Loaf’s “Bat out of Hell” album – a result of having just a couple of cassette tapes when driving across the Outback. And the next morning (a Sunday) when he came downstairs to catch a flight to London – in full suit, tie, and military style spit-polished shoes. “Why are you all dressed up to sit on a plane for 8 hours Stan?” “It’s work time and this is how I dress for work.” Thanks for all the wonderful memories Stan!

On Gypsy Hill in Pacifica, CA, the three musketeers headed out for a walk. I love the way this picture captures Frankie happily leading the way, while Luciano is on the lookout for wildlife.

I finished “Dirt, Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking” by Bill Buford, and promised some quotes. I enjoyed this book but found it a bit of a slog in the middle – too much rambling about the tiny details of French cooking.

Buford attends a culinary school run by the famous Paul Bucose, and describes attempts to make the perfect, French style omelet. Not something that I’ve come anywhere close to yet.

“A student presented his omelet. The instructor poked it and shook his head. He didn’t bother to taste it; he tipped it into the trash. An omelet wants to be soft in the middle, pillowy to the touch. It should have bounce. This one was hard.

The next student’s omelet was too big: big in the sense of too much volume. The instructor remonstrated him. “Why did you use a whisk? Un fouet. “I told you a fork.”

The class was kitchen basics. A whisk aerates the protein. It is what you use to make a soufflé or a meringue. An omelet gets it tenderness by being mixed, not whipped. You want the egg whites quiet and small.”

I enjoyed this description of Buford’s wife responding to commentary from fellow diners in restaurants. I’m with the first gentleman on laughing too loudly – I get really tired of groups of ladies who feel the need to cackle at the tops of their lungs to let everyone know how much fun they’re having.

“No civic official, I am confident, had ever seen an American like Jessica once crossed. She had been emancipated by the French language. There is a quality about French rudeness – a self-righteousness, probably – that provoked Jessica to the point of rage, especially if she was the target: as when a diner (again, a man) crossed the very small restaurant where we were eating dinner with friends to tell her that she laughed too loudly, or when a diner (a man, of course) at the next table at the Bouchon des Filles leaned over, after observing that she had filled my glass, and told her that, in France, it is the man, not the woman, who pours the wine. Jessica expressed exaggerated surprise, given that the woman in question was a wine expert, that she also consulted on the wine list of the restaurant, which was pointedly called Bouchon des Filles, and was owned and run by women. (The man was witheringly silenced, and his wife spent the rest of the evening apologizing for the behavior of or her spouse.)”

A description of just how seriously the Lyonnaise take their food, even in public schools.

“The canteen menu was posted each week outside the school’s entrance: three courses, plus a produit laitier; a milk product – yogurt or cheese. There were no repeats, a feature so radical that I am compelled to repeat it. No menu was ever served twice during the entire school year. (Jessica, who had become a member of a parent-teacher executive committee, discovered that, at strategic intervals, certain foods were repeated – turnips, kale, beets – to help children become familiar with them.”

The first course would be a salad – say, grated carrots with a vinaigrette, George’s current favorite (“Carrotes râpées!”), which he asked his mother to make for dinner. The second, the plat principal, might be a poulet with a sauce grand-mère (made from broth that the chicken had been cooked in). There was a cooked vegetable (maybe Swiss chard in a béchamel sauce), and a fruit or dessert. The boys’ favorite had been moelleux au chocolat, hard on the outside, like a brownie, and soft in the middle, with a warm meltingness.

L’École Robert Doisneau was an underfunded, overcrowded public school. It had roof leaks, an asphalt playground that was breaking up and weeds growing through the cracks. In its confidence that eating could be taught, it wasn’t exceptional. The food our boys ate made them different from their parents.”

I didn’t know that da Vinci finished out his years in France. Buford has an ongoing theme in the book that most of French cooking actually has its roots in Italian cuisine from the Medici era. He presents a lot of seemingly credible, and deeply researched information to support this theory.

“I had been to Vinci, where Leonardo comes from – da Vinci – in Tuscany. Leonardo is the undisputed genius of the Florentine Renaissance. Just about everyone knows this. What I hadn’t known, even when I was visiting the village where he grew up, was that he would die, in 1519, effectively a Frenchman. The detail is seldom mentioned in Italy. It seems to be mentioned less in France, even though Leonardo’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, is hanging in the Louvre because it was one of the canvases he brought with him. The other was Saint John the Baptist.”

This reminded me of the delicious zabaglione that my Mum makes. Maybe I can have one if we make our visit in August.

“A sabayon is a foam sauce as much as it is an emulsion. As Harold McGee points out: Yolks will foam pretty well on their own, but they will foam spectacularly with water. Mine had failed because they didn’t have enough water. I had reduced it too much.

Dictionaries describe the French word sabayon as having appeared in the French language in 1803, even though the technique was probably in place long before. It comes from the Italian zabaglione (sweet wine, Marsala usually, the water element, plus egg yolks, whisked and cooked).”

Ahh, the French cheeses:

“Like the fact that there are so many different kind of cheese in France, more than anywhere else in the world, twelve hundred of the twenty-two hundred unique European varieties, according to Michel Bouvier, the former curator of food and drink at the Gallo-Roman museum near Vienna. And now, my hands still smelling of milk, I find it miraculous that there would be so many. The miracle isn’t because France has a varied landscape with varied food making practices arising out of it, although it does; it is implicit in the sheer antiquity of how long cheeses have been made here, each one originating out of a specificity of place that is probably pre-civilization, when the horizon was not much more than the perimeters of where you could walk in a day.”

Buford’s twins struggled on returning to New York after several years in Lyon:

“They had issues with the food. At the school, the “chefs” didn’t wear toques, George complained at dinner. Also, they didn’t cook, he said.

“They use a microwave,” Frederick explained. The expressions of both boys conveyed utter astonishment that a microwaver would ever have the audacity to call him or herself a chef.”

I also read “Sorry for Your Trouble”, a collection of short stories and novellas by Richard Ford. I loved his books “The Sportswriter” and “Independence Day” and had high hopes for this collection. The two novellas (around 45 pages long) were quite good, but the short stories didn’t work as well.

It was clear from the stories that Ford has spent considerable time in New Orleans and Ireland – an internet search shows that he actually taught for a while at Trinity college in Dublin.

“They were at the Monteleone, the shadowed old afternoon redoubt with the bar that was a carousel. It wasn’t crowded. Outside the tall windows on Royal a parade was shoving past. Boom-pa-pa, boom-pa-pa. Then the trumpets not altogether on key. St. Paddy’s was Tuesday. Now was only Friday.”

This review from the New York Times sums the stories up quite well:

“Ford has a gift for nimble interior monologues and a superb ear for the varieties and vagaries of human speech. His prose can strike a Hemingwayesque cadence…One page later, a sparkling note of Fitzgerald…Ford is of the last generation of writers to have grown up directly under the Papa-and-Scott dispensation, and it’s gratifying to hear his sentences pay homage…Acutely described settings, pitch-perfect dialogue, inner lives vividly evoked, complex protagonists brought toward difficult recognitions: There’s a kind of narrative, often dismissed as the “well-crafted, writing-class story,” that deals in muted epiphanies and trains its gaze inward, to pangs and misgivings.”

I got on a bit of a Stevie Wonder kick this week, listening to most of the triple album “The Secret Life of Plants.” What a superb collection of music in so many different styles.

One of my favourite Stevie Wonder creations from the “Hotter than July” album:

And finally, I’ve been revisiting some old (late 70s) Alan Parsons Project – the production and orchestration are so good:

Stay safe and kind (just like Stan)!

Week in Review – July 18, 2021

“A Guys Happy Hour and Dinner and a concert in the same week!”

I got some work done on Monday between coffee with Finn at Duino, and going to Clorinda’s appointment with the retina specialist in the afternoon. Later, I went to my first Happy Hour with some guys in a while. Robbie and Fred from work met me at Union Bear and we really enjoyed catching up for a couple of hours.

Nothing much to report from Tuesday through Thursday. We shared duties taking Clorinda to appointments and were both pretty busy with work. I have a quarterly Board of Directors meeting in a couple of weeks, and it’s always busy getting everything ready for that.

Diana followed me down to Auto Hans early Friday to drop off Penelope for an oil change. Now she has new tires, new oil and is getting a full detail tomorrow – so spoiled and pampered.

On Friday evening, Finn cooked and hung out with Clorinda so that we could attend a concert at the Kessler. Mike Zito and his Big Band with opener Indigenous. We bought tickets at the last minute and so didn’t have a reserved table. No worries, we got there early and claimed the prime high seats at the back beside the mixing desk. That way Diana had a clear line of sight to the stage, and the sound is premium.

Seats claimed, we walked up to Nova for our typical light dinner before the show. We sat at the bar and enjoyed three delicious appetizers – beets (my favourite), Brussel sprouts, and smoked salmon potato skins (McD’s favorite.)

We really enjoy the relaxed and welcoming feel of Nova. The bar tender was convinced she knew me – thought she might have gone to high school with me – unlikely. Upon investigation, we decided that the only place we could have met was at the Green Room in Deep Ellum, over 20 years ago. Possible, but still unlikely.

I was looking forward to Indigenous. They are a band formed of family members from the Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Mato Nanji (Ma-TOE NON-gee) is the lead guitarist and singer. I first listened to them in 2000, with the CD “Circle” one of my favourites that year. I also saw them as part of the “Experience Hendrix” show at the Warfield in San Francisco, with Buddy Guy and Carlos Santana. Here they are at the Kessler performing a John Lee Hooker cover, best known these days as the theme music for NCIS New Orleans:

And here’s a Hendrix cover that I enjoyed. Isn’t that a beautiful looking guitar?

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Mike Zito. He was in a band that I enjoyed, Royal Southern Brotherhood, with Cyril Neville. His guitar playing was always great, but didn’t know if I would appreciate the vocals. We were pleasantly surprised. Here’s a Prince cover, not necessarily what you expect from a blues band:

Now a good example of Zito’s blues guitar:

That solo is from a new song, “Ressurection”, that I thought was a highlight of the set:

And I’ll finish up the concert sharing with a solo from the trumpet player (apparently a regular member of Jason Mraz’s band):

At Diana’s prompting, we had a nice chat with Jeff Liles, booking agent for the Kessler, about this appearance in the “Bring Music Home” book that raised money for “Save our Stages”, a fund raising effort to save independent music clubs that were closed at the height of the pandemic. I really love that book and the thought and care that went into creating it.

Saturday started with a walk with McD – it didn’t seem too hot but we were both quite sweaty and tired when we finished – the humidity always gets you. While limbered up, I finally was able to fix the aromatherapy unit for the steam shower – power reset required, and then took on the task of washing the big windows that look out to the pool from the family room. My best job yet, with the secret being the drying technique with the squeegee. Clorinda approved the work and is enjoying her clearer view of the pool, trees, and flowers. Diana tackled the ever-returning weeds while I did that. We both entered the afternoon with a feeling of accomplishment.

Amy spent the night, having had her fill of crashing on the couch at her kids’ apartment. We ordered food from the Little Greek and enjoyed catching up – getting formal by eating our take out in the dining room.

Finn and I watched game 5 of the NBA Finals (Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns) with Clorinda after dinner. It was a good game and she refused to go to bed after it finished at 10:30pm – thinking there was still something interesting to learn from the post game commentary. We’ve created a sports fanatic.

On Sunday morning I watched the British Open golf while Diana and Amy went out for a run. They both miss their running buddies. Jordan Spieth tried hard but couldn’t keep up with the flawless final round play of Collin Morikawa.

I promised some quotes from “Saved by a Song” by Mary Gauthier – my book last week and my favourite of the year so far and by far:

From the introduction, or what Mary calls “Invitation”:

“I believe songs that heal come from a higher place. They help us with the struggle of being human by letting us know we are not alone. This is the greatest gift a song can give a songwriter and a songwriter can give the world.

Bruce Springsteen said, “Music is a repair shop, I’m basically a repair man.” I love that. Songs have the power to repair hearts and souls.

Saved by a song.”

From the chapter on the song “Drag Queens and Limousines”:

“Clarity comes from stories. They help us make sense of our lives. Witnessing other people’s lives through stories is a kind of medicine, and the magic is in getting the story emotionally honest.

Guy Clark once said, “We’re all pretty much living the same life just hitting the marks at different times.” “Drag Queens in Limousines” showed me that I have no idea what’s going on inside a person’s heart, in that tender place that the poet Miller Williams, Lucinda’s father, described as, “Where the spirit meets the bone.” Until I wrote this song and played it for people, I had no idea most everyone has felt like an outsider at some point in their life, but they have.

That outsider feeling is universal.”

On working on the amazing “Mercy Now”:

“We hang in the balance

Dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground

Every single on of us could use some mercy now

I worked on it for the next three days, changing one word at a time, meditating on the meaning, letting the new words sit a while, and it was slow going. I played it for a friend, a fellow songwriter, who encouraged me to be brave and play it on a side stage at a festival workshop we were going to share the next afternoon. So, I wrote the words on a piece of hotel room stationery. And in the afternoon on the last day of Canmore Folk Festival, August 2003, I taped those words onto the mic stand and played “Mercy Now” in front of an audience for the very first time.

I’ve played it on every stage at every show, every night, since.”

From the chapter on John Lennon’s “Mother”:

“St. Francis of Assisi said, “One who works with their hands is a laborer. One who works with their hands and head is a craftsman. One who works with their hands, their head and their heart is an artist.”

Finally, from the chapter on “Rifles and Rosary Beads” and writing about a songwriting camp that pairs songwriters with veterans to share their experiences:

“Our job as songwriters is to help turn the veterans’ stories into songs. The songwriter brings decades of songwriting experience, the veteran brings their story. Before I worked my first retreat, I assumed that asking a wounded soldier to open up to a songwriter would be a stretch. I’d heard that silence is the soldier’s code; that those who have seen combat do not talk about it, those who talk about it have not seen it. Coming out the other side is enough.”

“Before long, they start to tell me their story, little by slow. I play a little music on my guitar, find a melody that matches what they’re saying. The music helps open them up; a sympathetic melody is like a magnet that pulls their story out. They feel seen and heard, which helps them feel safe.”

I’m about half way through “Dirt, Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking” by Bill Buford.

Here’s a summary review that captures the plot pretty well:

“What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and pack up and (with a wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France. But what was meant to be six months in a new and very foreign city turns into a wild five-year digression from normal life, as Buford apprentices at Lyon’s best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school, and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, where he discovers the exacting (and incomprehensibly punishing) rigueur of the professional kitchen.

With his signature humor, sense of adventure, and masterful ability to bring an exotic and unknown world to life, Buford has written the definitive insider story of a city and its great culinary culture.”

Some samples of my favourite bits next week.

This has gone on for a while, and I’ve covered a lot of musical ground already, so I’ll share this excellent playlist that Amy Campagna sent me. So many great songs on this – kudos to whoever created it. Ahh, I see now that was Alex Harrouff. I like the sound of that last name, picturing the pitch going up on the “ouff.”

Stay safe and kind to everyone!