Category: Weekly Updates

“You can never have too much New Orleans piano”

The Monday night between the two New Orleans Jazzfest weekends is typically “Piano Night”.  This event, an annual fundraiser for the excellent radio station WWOZ, has been going for 32 years and lately is hosted at the House of Blues.  All the pianists performed from their homes this year.

The live stream was very well produced and we thoroughly enjoyed the 2 plus hours of New Orleans inspired piano.  You can watch the replay here for some amount of time:

https://www.wwoz.org/pianonight

We both commented on the difference between the highly technical pianists and those that really had a “feel” for the New Orleans beats and styles.  We’ve seen Joe Krown play at all kinds of venues around New Orleans and he can make any beat up, old upright piano sound amazing.  He’s one of the folks that has a tremendous feel for the music, coupled with ridiculous dexterity.  I get exhausted just watching how hard his left hand is working.  Joe started with “Classified” by the legendary New Orleans player James Booker.   It sounds and looks to me like an incredibly difficult piece to play well.  The credits at the end of the show indicated that Joe had a large part in organizing and producing the show.

Jon Cleary, an Englishman who plays piano like he’s a 3rd generation New Orleanian, is another one with a great feel for the music.  Jojo Herman, of the jam band Widespread Panic, was a revelation – he clearly has spent a huge amount of time listening to James Booker and Professor Longhair.  He had spent some time learning from Dr. John, who passed away earlier this year, and shared a personal video of Mac performing “Tipitina” at the end of the show.  “What is a tipitina?”, asked Jojo of the Dr.  “Fess (Professor Longhair) told me it was some kind of bird, but I never heard of such a thing.”

The show finished up with my all time favourite, Long Tall Marcia Ball.  Excellent as always with a rare performance on a grand piano – we typically see her with her electric keyboard, legs kicking in time to her beat.

Thanks to WWOZ for producing such a great evening of music.

A loud thunderstorm woke us early at 4:30am Tuesday morning.  We were fortunate to miss the brunt of the storm, which treated South Dallas to ping pong ball sized hail and very strong winds.  We were up and ready in plenty of time for the window washer/pressure washer guy (Vincente) making his annual visit to clean things up for outside living weather.  This excellent Van Morrison tune just popped into my head:

I forgot to talk about these murals when I was mentioning Dr. John earlier.  Denny and Anne ventured out around town to take pictures of some of the musician murals that have been popping up.  Here we have Dr. John, Professor Longhair, and Jimi Hendrix.  I think these are really well done – the artists really took some time on the details.

Penelope needed some repair work done and was ready to be picked up from Auto Hans on Tuesday afternoon.  Diana drove me down there at 5pm and we were amazed at the “rush hour” traffic on the Dallas North Tollway.  Easy to drive 80 mph on a route that would typically average 15 mph at that time of the day.  I’m not looking forward to everyone getting back on the roads again.

The remains of the yummy Rye rib-eye tacos and elote made for a very pleasant Tuesday dinner.  Team Robertson was like a machine in the kitchen putting it all together.  Maybe there’s a taco food truck by a sandy beach in our future.  We attempted to finish watching “Ford versus Ferrari” after dinner.  One of us finished and the other only made it for a few minutes.  I really enjoyed this movie and found Christian Bale and Matt Damon to be excellent – particularly Damon as Carroll Shelby – quite different than some of his more typical roles.  The tug of war between the GM “suits” and the entrepreneurial and freewheeling Shelby/Ken Miles collaboration was well depicted.  What beautiful cars Shelby made.

Tuesday night brought more severe thunderstorms overnight.  We both slept through them with the only visible signs of their presence being some mulch and leaves strewn about the patio.

Wednesday morning brought one of the work activities that I find the least exciting and inspiring – the quarterly meeting of our Board of Directors Audit Committee.  Three solid hours of hearing about inspections of our operations to point out everything that could be done better.  Much more positive than it has been in the past, but still a bit of a chore.   Oh well, it still earns a paycheck, and I should be very grateful for that right now.

I received this article on Wednesday evening.  “Irvine’s super grandad who beat coronavirus with one lung celebrates birthday.”  Interesting sentence structure from the Daily Record – maybe “with one lung” is better positioned right after “grandad” to avoid any confusion?  This is my Uncle Scott’s younger brother – what an incredible fighter.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/irvines-super-grandad-who-beat-21947296

Thursday was the full Board of Directors meeting at work and I had to give a brief update.  This was a bit more fun than the Audit Committee but still dragged on for more than 3 hours.  Diana laughed when she came to make sure I was doing well, to find me playing the piano in the office.  “Don’t you have the Board meeting now?”  “Yes, I’m on the call”.

This was the day that I should have been attending Jazzfest and enjoying what we’ve taken to calling “Dad’s day” – the day when the Dads get to enjoy the smaller crowd.  I also noticed Friday lunch at Commander’s Palace on my calendar – very sorry to miss that.

I finally had an X-ray taken of my left hip and pelvis to see what’s causing the pain when I walk.  Nothing showed, so we’re assuming it’s muscle or tendon related and will schedule an MRI for next week.

Brian was the trivia victim for our team Happy Hour in the evening.  His Oklahoma raising did generate some entertaining questions, including showing us tools and implements set up as ornaments in his home and asking what they were.  One was a hay bail hook that looked like it would have made my work at the Kennedy’s farm much less damaging to my hands.  I remember being in agony picking up those bails by the lacerating twine.  Where was the “hook” that Brian used back then?

We had a lazy weekend, “Jazzfesting in Place” out by the pool, reading and enjoying the lovely weather.  My New Orleans meat pies, crawfish pies, and mini crab pies arrived just in time on Friday night.

Sunday was a great fest day.  John Boutte’s version of Randy Newman’s classic “Louisiana” was excellent – had never heard him do that before.   The lyrics have been enhanced to show Boutte’s disgust at President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

And then there was the Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions band performance from 2006, just 8 months after Katrina and the first ever performance by his new band.  This performance is really a completely unique show, catering directly to the New Orleans locals and the pain they’ve endured.  I share these two songs from that set:

My first book this week was “Travels with Charley (In Search of America)” by John Steinbeck.  I hadn’t heard of this work until it was cited by Stephanie Land as a big reason for her desire to explore Missoula, Montana.  I thought maybe the descriptions of that territory may convince McD to give it a try.  Or at least that overly optimistic child living inside me thought so.

Steinbeck sets out at the age of fifty eight to find the “real America” on a road-trip across country.  Who do you think Charley is?  Perhaps a new young girlfriend besotted with the famous author and ready to spend hours on the road in his track and camper top?  That may have made an entertaining set of stories, but no,  Charley (actual name Charles le Chien) is “an old gentleman poodle.”  “He was born on the outskirts of Paris and trained in France, and while he knows a little poodle-English, he responds quickly only to commands in French.  Otherwise he has to translate, and that slows him down.”  I very much enjoy the way that Steinbeck humanizes Charley throughout.  “Now, Charley is a mind-reading dog.  There have been many trips in his lifetime, and often he has to be left at home.  He knows we are going long before the suitcases come out, and he paces and worries and whines and goes into a state of mild hysteria, old as he is.  During the weeks of preparation he was underfoot the whole time and made a damned nuisance of himself.  He took to hiding in the truck, creeping in and trying to make himself look small.”

Steinbeck’s descriptions are as on point and original as ever.  “At the first lighted roadside restaurant I pulled in and took my seat at a counter.  The customers were folder over their coffee cups like ferns.”  What an excellent simile.

I enjoyed this commentary on the sameness taking over the country (from back in 1960): “Communications must destroy localness, by a slow, inevitable process.  I can remember a time when I could almost pinpoint a man’s place of origin by his speech.  That is becoming more difficult now and will in some foreseeable future become impossible.  It is a rare house or building that isn’t rigged with spiky combers of the air.  Radio and television speech becomes standardized, perhaps better speech than we have ever used.  Just as our bread, mixed and baked, packaged and sold without benefit of human frailty, is uniformly good and uniformly tasteless, so will our speech become one speech.”  I have to disagree with the “better speech than we have ever used” on television – they don’t know the basic difference between an adjective and an adverb anymore.

The last quote I’ll share is from the section on Montana, and one that I was anxious to share with Diana.  I’ve been trying to convince her that this would be a lovely retirement destination, to retorts about too cold in the winter and no beach and ocean.  “The next passage in my journey is a love affair.  I am in love with Montana.  For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love, and it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.  The scale is huge but not overpowering.  The land is rich with grass and colour, and the mountains are the kind that I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda.”

I highly recommend this book.  A really enjoyable read.  Has me ready to go back and revisit all those Steinbeck classics set in Central California.

All the time at the pool this weekend allowed me to finish another book – a fast paced mystery set in Paris during World War II.  “Three hours in Paris” by Cara Black tells the story of an assassination attempt on Hitler when he pays a quick visit to attend a mass at Sacre Couer in Montmartre.  The sniper is actually an American from Oregon who is recruited while living on a UK Army base in Stornoway with her Scottish husband.  Her attempt fails but she does kill the leader of the German Navy by accident as Hitler ducks.  The cat and mouse pursuit of Kate through various Parisienne neighbourhoods by the German forces is well written and keeps the pages turning fast.  I recommend this as a good pool or beach read and a good one for those that have visited Paris to reminisce over.

Let’s finish up with some more New Orleans music.  I know I’m probably over doing it for most of you, but I can’t get enough of it.  Just stepping off a plane at Louis Armstrong airport and hearing those classic syncopated rhythms brings a smile to my face.  First up is some more Joe Krown, this time with the excellent Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and recorded at the iconic Maple Leaf Bar:

Now some of Snooks Eaglin – one of the highlights from “Festing in Place” last week.  I recommend anything from this “Rhapsody in Bronze” album.

A little more Joe Krown – I think the best version of “Tipitina” – even better than the original Professor Longhair:

The legendary James Booker, idol of all New Orleans piano players, closes out our music section this week with one of his genre bending offerings:

I leave you this week with some helpful advice on spousal communication during these trying times:

“Settling in for the long haul”

This is the week when I feel like we settled into a regular quarantine routine.  I felt myself stopping fighting against things and just relaxing into the flow of the days.  Part of our routine is watching live streams of music from some of our favourite artists and bands.  Most of the time the technology works pretty well.  This would have been such a different experience prior to the internet, wifi, and readily available video conferencing.

Music on Monday night came from Eric Lindell.  It was Sheri’s birthday and she and Sean were also watching from California.  It felt very vaguely like going to a concert together, as Lindell performed in his bathroom (he  noted that, as is typical, that’s the room in his house with the best acoustics).  The show was good but not anywhere near as much fun as seeing him at One Eyed Jacks, Carrollton Station, or the Kessler.

Music continued with the regular Tuesday night Band of Heathens Good Times Supper Club show, from their homes in Austin.  Gordy and Ed trade off on songs, the rest of the band shares cocktail recipes, favourite albums, a classic Grateful Dead show archive recommendation, and even reads a portion of Shakespeare.  Quite the eclectic hour and a half of entertainment.

Earlier on Tuesday, it was my turn to pick the workout routine.   I found a core workout for runners (yes, after almost 4 weeks we’re calling ourselves runners) that looked interesting by a Swiss guy.  It ended up being way too difficult for us – what the Swiss gentleman made look easy was well nigh impossible for us.  We found a much more suitable one, although McD complained that it was a bit too easy.

The routine on Wednesday was from Diana’s trainer Amy, who recommended alternating situps, pushups, and tricep dips after a run.  Apparently D is going to add in squats the next time we do this – yahoo!

Since Diana made a lovely dinner, I agreed to watch the new version of Little Women.  Not as bad as I anticipated, with Chris Cooper, Laura Dern and Saoirse Ronan (had to check that I spelled her first name correctly) all giving good performances.

My weekly work happy hour on Thursdays is always good fun.  Isaac was our trivia victim this week.  He had several good questions, one of which was what is his new skill picked up during quarantine?  Choices included:

(a)  Beer Brewing

(b)  Cocktail Creations

(c)  Shoe and Boot Shining

You don’t know Isaac, but what do you think?  Turns out he’s been digesting YouTube videos on shoe shining, learning techniques and the best products.  People have been dropping off boots on his doorstep to give him practice.  I’ll have to pick his brain on this new skill.

We added an office tour into the routine this week.  Doug showed us all his mementos including artifacts from his Dad’s butcher shop, a Wizard of Oz collection from his stay in Kansas, pictures of grandparents and grandchildren, and lots of other interesting things.  One of the benefits of this time is really getting to know people better.  Isn’t it strange that when we’re the most disconnected, we take the time to connect in a deeper way?

With all this time on video calls, I decided to spruce up my image with behind camera lighting and an adjustable tripod for my webcam.  Diana finds it all quite entertaining.

This came in handy for another happy hour on Friday night.  While I was doing that, Diana was on a video call with PCD in Australia, catching up on the last year or so in his life, and getting a video tour of his new apartment.

Week 4 of Couch to 5K concluded on Saturday morning.  Diana was really pushing me, pulling ahead on several occasions.  I had to wait for a “hill” to catch back up again.  The picture of our route is a bit fuzzy, but we covered a solid 2.2 miles – our longest yet.

Later in the afternoon, we made our weekly trip to Rye restaurant to pick up our meal kit.  This week we got quail with risotto, green beans and mushrooms, and a ribeye steak that D was begging for.  She hasn’t been able to get any decent meat anywhere.  The Rye version is dry aged and vacuum sealed and should be delicious.

The quail turned out well.  I’ll make a slight adjustment with the next batch to make the quail meat a bit rarer – I think 8 minutes instead of 10 in the oven.  The black cherry sauce set off the quail perfectly.  The meal kit is for a family of 4 and we always seem to get about 2.5 meals out of it.

Sunday was a dark and gloomy day.  And it started earlier than I was expecting.  At 7am my wife was spotted coming into the bedroom with her stepping stool over her arm.  “What on earth are you doing with that at this time in the morning my love?”  Apparently it was an ideal time to do a deep sort and reorganization of her closet.  Maybe she’s not relaxing into this routine as much as I had previously thought.

I spent part of the day on an annoying work issue but was able to finish up the NYT crossword in less than an hour in the background while listening to troubleshooting talk.  I always have a big sense of accomplishment if I can finish without looking anything up and break the 1 hour barrier.

You can see the last clue I got, “Sign of winter’s end”.  Spring?  No.  Some kind of thaw?  No.  Ahh, the other kind of sign, an astrological sign, Pisces.  Geez.

After the puzzle I made a decent brunch with left over fungi salad, sausage omelet, and grits.

 

 

 

We may have created a monster out of Clorinda, Diana’s Mom, this week.  After a few years of trying, she’s now sufficiently bored that FaceTime is appealing to her.  She ends the session each day with “See you tomorrow”.  We’re practicing patience as she wanders off for several minutes at a time, returning to be surprised that we’re still there.  That’s Andy, her amazing neighbour, photo bombing.  He was helping Adamo to install a new vanity.

Here are a couple of pictures that I enjoyed this week.  A funny one of Wilson virtually herding, and a touching one of a rainbow spanning across the very troubled city of New York.

My book this week was “Deacon King Kong” by James McBride.  Set in a public housing project in the late 1950s, this story features a crazy bunch of characters.  McBride was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama in 2016 “for humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America”.  There’s certainly plenty to reflect on in this novel about the struggles of citizens living in public housing and working low income jobs.  I enjoyed the story and particularly the development of a number of very interesting characters as the plot unfolded.

This song from Amy Black and the delightful Blind Boys of Alabama caught my ear this week.  A good message and sound for these times:

I had one of those mornings earlier in the week where a melody and one line of a song was in my head but I couldn’t for the life of me place it.  Was it the Tedeschi Trucks Band?  No, too high and reedy of a voice.  I worked on it in the back of my head for a couple of hours before giving up.  Then just after lunch it popped up.  The line about Marlon Brando was the hook that got my brain to pull it up – “Pocahontas” by Neil Young.  Of course!

Stay safe and kind!

“Penguin Out”

I’m back.

Did you miss me?

That’s very sweet of you to say.

Yes – with all this staying at home I’m capable of carrying on extended conversations with imaginary friends.  With no concerts to attend or restaurants to visit, I wanted to wait until I had something interesting to report before writing this report.  You can be the judge if there’s actually anything in here or not.

Let’s start out with some humour.  I agree, something we all need just now.  I received a package with a card reading “Thought you could penguin out while in quarantine.  Love you from A, A, L, M, & F”.  Those initials are Amy, Adamo, Luciano, Massimo, and Francesca, and we know now that Amy was behind this.  She had a great giggle at this picture, as did Diana.

And then… another package showed up in the evening.  Guess what?  Yes – a smaller version.

That has to be one of the more ridiculous sights in a while.  Anybody have an entertaining onesie picture they’d like to share with us?

Our couch to 5K running program continues.  I’d like to say it’s going well and it’s pretty hard work at the same time.  McD continues to join me and is doing very well.  We finished week 3 and are nervous about the jump up involved in transitioning to week 4.

In retaliation (maybe too strong a word) for running, Diana has me doing Zumba (who knew there were so many different salsa, sambas and the like?) and Yoga with her.  I’m enjoying the variety and she’s getting a kick out of how silly I look doing it.

We enjoyed Easter Sunday video calls with both sides of the family.  My Mum and Dad, Will and Christine, Campbell, and Alicia were first.  The technology worked well and it was really nice to virtually see everyone.  Then we had the extensive Campagna clan joining Clorinda.  It took a while to get Grammie’s video working and then she had a great time chatting with all the grand kids.  Marco started with a virtual treasure hunt, shared a video of Olivia’s choir group all performing together virtually, Giancarlo read a recent poem of his, and then we heard from each grand child.  The lower IQ group joined from Puerto Rico, and had to leave the call to go and pack in hopes of catching the last flight off the island in the morning.

I’ve been using some of my extra time to take an online piano course.  It’s by Willie Myette and I’m working my way through the Blues piano section.  I highly recommend this course – it’s great to be able to start and stop and learn at your own pace.  I’m working on “Frank’s Blues” just now and maybe I’ll post a video when I get it down.  That reminds me – I had to come up with the trivia for our team virtual Happy Hour on Thursday, and decided to play the intros to some songs on the piano and guitar and see who could guess the song and artist first.  Here’s some of the silliness on the guitar.  I need to get back to online guitar lessons next.

It’s fun to meet families and pets on the video calls.  Brad has two Irish wolfhounds – I’m very jealous.  Here they are recovering from Happy Hour.

Rye, our wonderful little downtown McKinney restaurant, continues to keep us well fed with their meal kits.  We enjoyed some redfish ponchatrain – an excellent New Orleans style sauce – and the best asparagus I remember tasting, last week, and then steamed buns (bao) with pork belly and all the fixings this week.  It’s really nice to be able to support this great restaurant this way.

 

Here are a couple of pictures that I enjoyed recently – my Dad’s garden planter and a view that one of our neighbours took from our apartment building – I like what the Fairmont hotel is doing in the distance with the heart of Texas.

And here’s a wee funny about the stress that isolation can put on relationships:

I really enjoyed “The Adventurer’s Son” by Roman Dial.  This is a true story of Dial’s search for his son who goes missing hiking solo in the Costa Rican rain forest.  The book starts with great stories about Dial’s adventure exploits prior to kids, continues into describing the trips and activities that he completed with his son, and ends with his search for his son.  There are a lot of twists in the search with a great amount of misinformation and story telling from the Costa Rican authorities.  I have recommended this to the “Manly Book Club” in Austin.  The descriptions of hiking in the jungles of Guatemala and South America were really interesting.  It’s amazing what some folks are willing to undertake.

We lost three amazing musicians over the last 2 weeks.  Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of the most famous New Orleans music family that includes Wynton and Brandford passed away from pneumonia caused by Covid-19.  Marsalis contributions to music are huge – particularly as a teacher.  Here he is in the jazz tent at the New Orleans Jazzfest:

Bill Withers death was not related to the virus.  He retired from music many years ago but a few of his songs have lived on – “Lean on Me” seems to be everywhere these days.  Here’s “Ain’t no Sunshine” from the excellent Old Grey Whistle Test series:

Finally, and having the most impact on me this week, John Prine passed away from the virus as well.  He is one of my all time favourite singer songwriters.  Best known for “Angel from Montgomery” and the Bonnie Raitt cover, he has penned and performed numerous haunting and deeply insightful songs.  There is an excellent show that he did for the Sessions at West 54th series several years ago – highly recommended.  My favourite is “Hello in There”:

I also love the NPR Tiny Desk concert that Prine did recently:

Be safe and kind!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I Don’t Eat Anything I’m Not Sure How to Pronounce”

I’m afraid these updates are going to start getting pretty boring with everyone staying at home for the most part.  I’ll do my best to find some interest in the day to day goings on around our McKinney home and beyond.

We’re determined to try and get some daily exercise even with all the gyms and pools closed.  After a reasonably extensive search, we found a nice used elliptical machine locally and had it delivered on Tuesday.  Thank goodness Diana decided to pay extra to have it dropped upstairs in the media room.  There’s no way we could have done it ourselves.  The gentleman on the lower end looked like he was competing in “The World’s Strongest Man” as he hoisted the behemoth upstairs.  Fortunately some excellent supervision was provided from the upstairs landing.

All that activity was worth it as the machine went into daily use:

The other way we’re getting exercise is with C25K (Couch to 5K).  This is an application that coaches you from sitting on the couch to being ready to run a 5K.  It’s an 8 week course with three 30 minute sessions each week.  The duration of runs versus walks increases each week.  I never expected McD to do this with me, but she’s doing really well and we completed week 1 successfully.

Week 2 starts around 11am tomorrow morning.

 

People have been trying hard to stay connected with everyone working at home, and I shared my Wednesday dinner creation and asked my team what they’d been cooking.  Sole meuniere ended up being much easier than I anticipated – I added a bit too much lemon juice but otherwise it tasted quite good.  Nick responded with a picture of one of his favourites – mixed cheese stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos – don’t those look amazing?

 

I did chuckle when one of my very Texan team members replied that he doesn’t eat anything he’s not sure how to pronounce.

 

 

Another way we’re staying connected is with virtual happy hours.  Here’s some of my team participating in the Thursday night version.  Michelle on the top right lives on a boat on Lake Travis – a great setting but very tight quarters to be cooped up in.  We were treated to an excellent version of “Rocky Raccoon” by Will, a very talented colleague who is leaving us this week for a new opportunity.

Diana picked up the meal kit for this week from Rye in downtown McKinney – lamb baos.  We had them on Friday night and they were fabulous.  And there’s plenty left for another meal.  Baos of any kind was one of our favourite meals when we were doing Blue Apron a few years back.  She also treated me to a bottle of their delicious “Bob Marley” cocktail – scotch, rum, and cynar – a very interesting combination.

I was able to finish the Sunday NY Times crossword in less than an hour – a first for me.  I’m getting a bit more time to practice with the NYT puzzles.

We’ve been doing whatever we can to support our local businesses – the restaurants, music clubs and artists that we enjoy most.  The Kessler, an amazing venue in Oak Cliff, south of downtown Dallas, started selling t-shirts to support their staff while closed down.  I think they came up with a great design.

 

 

We watched the movie “A Change in the Air” one evening, not sure exactly which at this point.  This was a quite and peaceful movie, such a nice change, with a very interesting ending – I won’t spoil it for you.

Macy Gray plays a musician and music teacher in the movie and one scene has her leading a choir in Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells” from my favourite album of his, “Oh Mercy”.  The Daniel Lanois production and Mason Ruffner guitar playing are excellent.  The album was released in 1989 and was hailed as a triumph by critics, after a string of poorly received albums.  Here are Dylan’s original and a couple of interesting cover versions:

I finally finished “Christmas in Austin” – it’s been a while since it took me 3 weeks to get through a book.  Nothing much happens in the book beyond what I reported over the last two posts.  The family did climb Mount Bonnel this week, reminding me of when Diana and I dragged Alicia up the 99 steps to see the terrific views of Austin.

On tap for this week is “The Adventurer’s Son” by Roman Dial, and it looks like it will be a bit more of an exciting journey:

I leave you this week with my 88 year old mother-in-law looking through some pictures that had just been unearthed from deep storage.  It’s lovely to see her reminiscing about her opera performances:

Sorry – I just remembered one other funny thing that I wanted to share.  This is Damon’s cousin playing “Stairway to Heaven” with parrot accompaniment.  That’s really the parrot.  Apparently Damon’s mother owned an exotic bird shop and they owned one with a vocabulary of over 1,000 words and the ability to remember phrases associated with folks he only saw every few months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Stir-crazy”

The word of the day from dictionary.com this week sums things up nicely – “Stir Crazy”.  After three days of both working from home in our Austin apartment, we decided that some more space would be a good idea, and so drove up to McKinney on Thursday.  The roads were quiet, particularly through the log jam that is typically Waco on I-35, and we made good time.

We settled in to watch the Luck Reunion concert that would typically take place at Willie Nelson’s ranch, but this year was through a live stream broadcast.  The lineup was excellent and nicely varied.

I particularly enjoyed Nathaniel Rateliff and highly recommend his new solo album.  Then the finale by Willie and his sons, Lukas and Micah, was quite something.  Here are a few jittery videos I made from the TV since this particular live stream wasn’t saved for future viewing.  Thanks Amy for letting us know this concert was on.  We had been watching a different stream from Gordy Quist’s (Band of Heathens) kitchen table and then switched over to watch this one.  Such a great way to be able to contribute to the musicians while they’re not able to perform live.

 

Rye, our favourite downtown McKinney restaurant, got creative quickly and was offering a choice of three meal kits to take home and cook.  This is a great way for them to keep the place open and to keep ordering from their farmers and other suppliers.  We picked up a blue corn chilaquiles kit and used it to cook both dinner on Friday and brunch on Saturday.  The mushrooms, tomatilla sauce, creme fraiche, and all the other ingredients were so fresh and delicious, and I learned a new brunch recipe.  Oh, there was a langiappe from the Rye visit, Diana ordered me a quart of their excellent barrel aged Vieux Carre cocktail to go, and surprised me with one as I was cooking.  Thanks McD!  This cocktail was originally created at the Carousel Room of the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans around 1930.

 

 

Neighbours at the Catherine took these pictures of the Fairmont hotel paying tribute to Austin, Texas (ATX).  I really like this gesture from an almost empty hotel, struggling like all in the hospitality business.

Saturday morning was quiet with nowhere to go for our normal workout followed by coffee and crossword routine.  We watched a live stream concert by Anders Osborne from his living room in New Orleans.  He was totally new to the technology and approach, making the stream feel even more real and intimate.  He was easily distracted with the comments streaming by, and at one point even changed a string on his dobro while continuing to chat away.  His wife, Sarah, had her hands full keeping him focused and organized.  I highly recommend this live stream that you can find on Facebook for a sampling of this great musician’s work.

We walked to Zin Zen, our local wine bistro, to collect a take out Saturday dinner.   Their ad had given us a chuckle earlier in the week – “free roll of toilet paper with all orders over $25”.  It was nice to get some exercise while supporting a local small business.  I really enjoy their fungi salad and shrimp flatbread.

Diana braved the grocery store on Sunday for some provisions.  She reported that it’s not too crazy and the place is well organized.  We’re currently shopping online for an elliptical machine for the house – not having a lot of luck but have a few places lined up to call tomorrow.  I suspect a lot of folks are having the same idea with all the gyms being closed.

I’ve almost finished “Christmas in Austin” – the middle section has been a bit of a slog.  There are so many family members to keep track off and the action has been pretty mundane.  Hoping for some excitement in the last 150 pages.

I enjoyed the description of Central Market, an upscale H.E.B. grocery store – “a high-end local incarnation of an old local chain, arranged not in columns and rows but in a kind of snakes-and-ladders setup that forced you to follow the path from beginning to end” – so true, it’s a real pain to shop there until you get to know the layout.

This is such a great album.  I like every song and love at least three.

I went on a bit of a Wilco listening spree this week, it’s been too long.  Here’s one from their first album:

And finally, one from Langhorne Slim, one of Denny’s favourites:

 

“It’s My Turn to Keep the Wolves Away”

McD arrived back in Austin on Tuesday night, worn out from all those days sorting documents and pictures, and generally organizing her Mum’s house.  It was a pretty day in San Francisco when she left, as shown in this shot out the plane window.  I zoomed in on the second one to show how stunning the city is from the air.  Much prettier than this shot as she came in to land in Dallas:

The one hour change window in Dallas was shortened as the plane sat on the tarmac waiting for a gate – such a huge airport and it’s not uncommon to wait a while for a gate.  I always wonder why they can’t tell that flights are arriving to the minute and plan ahead on gates – I’m sure it’s much more complex than it seems.  Anyway, Diana was one of the last to make the plane, and a passenger in the first bulkhead row was putting his bag up for takeoff.  “Oh, excuse me”, he said to Diana, and as she got a look at him, realized it was Bill Murray.  I wonder what he’s doing in Austin this week.  I’m sure I would enjoy being a part of whatever it is.

We received this picture of the storage unit leaving ‘the hill” from Adamo.  That unit has been there for more than 10 years, and it was a huge accomplishment for the kids to get it emptied out and off the hill.

On Wednesday I asked Diana if she would like to go out to see Kevin Galloway performing at the Continental Gallery (the living room sized venue above the famous Continental Club).  We were both tired and non-committal and settled in to catch up on episodes of the Bachelor that we had missed while being separated for 10 days.  Just before 8pm, I decided that we should get out and enjoy some live music.  You might remember that the last (and only) time we saw Galloway was at Geraldine’s in the Van Zandt hotel with noisy, disrespectful people in front of us.  I was hoping this show would be different.

As we stood in line out front, we learned that this would be Galloway’s last show before moving from Austin.  While disappointed with that news, we were treated to an excellent show.  A friends and family send off, bringing out the very best in the musical performances and storytelling.  We sat at a table with Ace and Eddie.  Ace, “not wanting to toot his own horn too much”, informed us that he played harmonica on Galloway’s latest album and particularly “The Change”.  I think he does a lovely job and really brings something to the song.  Eddie is in construction and responsible for so many of those new condo developments that are taking over the heart and history of Austin.

The Uncle Lucius classic “Keep the Wolves Away” had most of the audience in tears. Kevin introduced it as one of two true stories that he would perform.  It’s about a refinery accident that disabled his father many years ago, and the line “Now It’s My Turn to Keep the Wolves Away” is the one that gets you.

Here are a couple of long storytelling introductions to “Taking in the Views” and “Johnny Tibodeaux”.  We really enjoy it when artists share something about their songs:

Here’s a final highlight from the show, a cover Kris Kristofferson’s “Loving Her Was Easier”, featuring a lovely couple in their eighties dancing.  We had seen them dancing before at the Saxon Pub, the gentleman taller than me and hunched over, but still moving so gracefully.

Diana couldn’t help but tell them how much she enjoyed seeing them get up to dance.  The venue, company, storytelling and excellent musicianship combined to make this one of our favourite shows in a very long time.  Another classic and unexpected Austin evening.

I enjoyed a work dinner at Peche, followed by a stop at Dumont’s Down Low, with a new work colleague on Thursday night.  I saved half of my delicious rabbit and mushroom barley risotto to share with Diana, but, as is typical, left it sitting at Dumont’s.  Sorry Diana.

Saturday was one of those fun days that just unfolds as it goes – I love those days.  A work colleague, Roy, who is in transition from Australia to Miami, was spending the weekend in Austin and so we invited him to join us for Saturday afternoon at the Continental Club.  John X Reed, from Amarillo, TX, was playing the 3pm show, with an excellent mix of old school country music.  The dancers were very good, and provided very good entertainment.

I really enjoyed seeing the group, all in their late sixties or seventies, crank out such an excellent set of songs.  Classic old school Texas music.

When we’d had our fill of old school country, the patio at the San Jose hotel across the street beckoned.  We hung out there for a bit and then enjoyed a delicious dinner back across the street at Boticelli’s.  Diana disappeared for a bit, only to be found in deep conversation with Andrew Boticelli, owner of the place, and his best friend (a jazz musician).   She knows how to get on the inside track.  The Italian food at this place is great, from the Boticelli bread to my main course of perfectly cooked scallops on a bed of truffle risotto.

While Diana went missing, Roy suggested attending the Kool and the Gang concert at Austin City Limits.  Why not?  A classic disco era band should be a nice treat for McD.  We grabbed an Uber and headed over.  No D, you can’t take your left over Boticelli’s into the concert!

We were up on the balcony, but enjoyed the flashback to our youth:

That was a really fun and impromptu experience.

Oh, I almost “forgot” to mention that my brain wasn’t working well in the Crossword competition on Saturday afternoon, with McD finishing more than 3 minutes faster than me.

We had a fancy date on Sunday, brunch at the Odd Duck.  Such a creative and unpretentious restaurant that never disappoints.  We ordered more than we could hope to eat, with the intention of having leftovers for supper.  The smoked fish pimento crackers and goat and chorizo corn dog with egg and mustard emulsion were excellent starters.

We followed that deliciousness with an excellent slow braised lamb, mushroom, and fried egg on toast – wow!

The presentation and originality of flavours in the dishes is amazing.  We finished up with a frito pie chilli dish, which is mostly waiting in the fridge for dinner.

Will enjoyed a visit to Disneyland in southern California.  Apparently Christine has owned those ears for over 20 years.

My book this week was “The Cracked Spine” by Paige Shelton.  Advertised as “a Sottish bookshop mystery”, this book had set my expectations set high.   The story starts with an advert for help in a bookshop, that is answered by a museum curator from Kansas:

“A bold adventurer who wants to travel the world from a comfortable and safe spot behind a desk that has seen the likes of kings and queens, paupers and princes. A humble book and rare manuscript shop seeks a keenly intelligent investigator to assist us in our search for things thought lost, and in our quest to return lost items to their rightful owners.”

This is a murder mystery set in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, a location where I attended University for several years.  I found this to be a twee rendition of that location and Scotland in general, clearly written by somebody who hadn’t spent more than a few days on location.  The mystery was a fast page turner, completed in less than two days.  As much as a I groaned at the stereotypical Scottish accents and descriptions, I kept on reading to see if my analysis of the murder was accurate – not even close, with a typically disappointing and convoluted conclusion.

I’m still hearing that excellent Kevin Galloway concert in my head and recommend this Uncle Lucius album very much!  A new Nathaniel Rateliff album is finally released.  As much as I love him with his band, this is excellent music from start to finish.

A supergroup, Golden Smog, came across my radar this week, consisting of members of Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Wilco, and the Jayhawks (many of my favourites) they have a lot of promise.  What do you think?

If you’re like me, you think it’s fine, but like all supergroups, just a bit less than anticipated.

Here’s one from the late, great Neal Casal, who played on albums by Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.  An equally good songwriter and guitarist:

And finally, an artist I listened to a lot in University, Warren Zevon, with a typically quirky song:

 

“Rye = Delicious”

The early part of this week was pretty uneventful, with both of us busy with work and enjoying relaxing in our house that we see so rarely.  I took Penelope down to Auto Hans on Monday to get new hydraulics installed in her convertible top.  She’s been after me to make sure that got done before the nice Spring weather arrives in Austin.  I appreciate her nagging, as I do enjoy my short commute down Barton Springs road with the top down.

A break in my schedule on Thursday allowed me to enjoy a decadent lunch at Bayou Jack’s in downtown McKinney.  I do love their red pepper crawfish bisque, and it’s been too long since I enjoyed a cup.

 

Then I stopped to pick up some early Saint Valentine’s day flowers – that way McD could enjoy them before she starts traveling again.

We had a relaxing Valentine’s day at home.  Diana cooked up a delicious shrimp and veggies dinner that we enjoyed in the dining room while listening to our “Wedding Dinner” playlist, and exchanging romantic cards.  I think it’s a pretty good selection, you can check it out here for yourself:

There’s also a “Wedding Dancing” playlist.  You can send me a note if you’d like to have a link to that one.  That’s one of my ways of seeing if anyone is reading this.  More on wedding dancing later.

Our official Valentine’s dinner was on Saturday night (a little less crazy) at Rye in downtown McKinney.  Diana had suggested this after getting an email about their fixed price menu.

Rye isn’t fancy, but the food is creative, beautifully presented, and very tasty.  All five courses were delicious.  The lamb tartare and wagyu tenderloin being my two favourites.  I’ve never had lamb tartare and this one had so many wonderful different flavours.  The wagyu tenderloin was cooked just a bit above rare and we could cut it with a butter knife – fantastic.  What a great place for a casual, inexpensive, but very creative meal.

We went looking for some music after dinner – Rick’s Chophouse bar was way too busy, Cadillac Pizza was too loud, Landon winery seemed like the only solution.  I’ve never set foot in it before, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wine.  A duo was playing a broad mix of music with good skill and vocals.  I caught this short video of them performing Anne’s substitute wedding song – she and Denny couldn’t remember theirs and so she picked this one at our wedding reception.  You might be able to hear Diana telling the whole story on this video 🙂

“The Truants” by Kate Weinberg was my book this week.  Here’s what a review said:

“Perfect for lovers of Agatha Christie and The Secret History, The Truants is a seductive, unsettling, and beautifully written debut novel of literary suspense–a thrilling exploration of deceit, first love, and the depths to which obsession can drive us.”

I actually enjoyed this a bit more than a typical Agatha Christie, and give it a solid B- rating.  So what is the story about? The Truants is told by Jess, a girl just starting college at a university she chose expressly for the opportunity to take classes from Dr. Lorna Clay, an author she’s enthralled by. Jess is a far more complicated girl than she first appears, with dark thoughts, but little life experience. She falls in with three others, and quickly is living a life beyond what she ever expected. In time loyalties begin to shift, and the story shifts from a campus novel to a mystery with a number of twists, some I saw coming, others took me completely by surprise.

Weinberg studied English at Oxford, and I enjoyed the very British nature of this book.

I always enjoy spending time in my home office in McKinney with the Linn audio system.  Unfortunately, it reminds me of how average the Sonos system in our apartment really is.  Joan Armatrading albums are always so beautifully produced, and I went on a bit of a listening spree this week.  Here are a couple of stand outs:

Such a great voice and songwriting talent!

Next up this week is a great song from Leon Russell.  I mentioned last week about missing seeing him in concert with Elton John.  This is the song Elton John was listening to when he decided to call up and see how Leon was doing.  The call that led to the “Union” album and a resurgence of Russell’s career.

And finally, a classic from The Band.  I watched part of “The Last Waltz”, their concert documentary by Martin Scorsese this week – what a great recording of an amazing, star studded concert.  Van Morrison and Bob Dylan both have excellent performances.