“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:
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.
“The Truants” by Kate Weinberg was my book this week. Here’s what a review said:
A work happy hour had me stopping by the Gibson Street bar on the way home. It’s right next to the Odd Duck and we had been wondering how it was – the verdict: a very nice bar with good service, comfy booths and a good patio.
Red Young and his Hot Horns were playing, and I loved that they started out with a number of songs by Allan Toussaint, the legendary New Orleans piano player, composer, and producer. Here are a couple of those. Red’s piano skills are top notch, with a mixed quality in the horns.
If you know my musical taste, you can hear that this is very appealing to me. Disappointingly, the live sound did not match up, with overdriven, blurry vocals and none of the nuanced guitar playing and drumming in the set above. I lasted a couple of songs before suggesting that we head across the street to III Forks for a drink before Big Head Todd started. The smoke infused negronis were delicious.
We went straight home after the show to avoid any more injuries. The last time we visited the Moody theater was when I broke my finger. Interestingly, as a complete aside, my fingerprint has changed after the surgery. The gym uses a combination of phone number and index fingerprint to sign in, and my right one doesn’t work – have to use the left hand index. Who would have thought that? I’m sitting here wondering if Global Entry at the airport uses finger prints – I don’t think so and hope not.
Elton John’s “Me” was my literary companion this week. The book is well written and is a fast, page-turning read. I enjoyed the earlier chapters, more focused on Elton’s musical experiences, than the later sections covering all his addictions and excesses. Ultimately I found this book pretty sad overall – such a troubled relationship with his parents that was never overcome, and so much wasted time and money. Not to take away from the $450 million raised for his AIDS foundation and the music that I’ll always treasure.
Wednesday was a long work day for Diana, and I was determined to get her out of the apartment on Thursday night. We both have new eyeglass prescriptions, and so we headed to Warby Parker on South Congress to see what we could find in the way of frames. We put Vincente, the store manager, to work finding us the perfect frames and he did a great job. Within a few minutes we had five pairs picked out – regular and sunglasses. I have grey and blue frames and some nice sunglasses, while Diana has gold and very cool sunnies. We snapped these pictures int the photo booth before leaving:
We sat in this covered patio area and enjoyed an amazing scallop and beet appetizer, with very fresh and perfectly cooked scallops. I hadn’t had enough beets, and so went for the beet salad while McD chose the meatballs and tagliatelle.
It was still raining after dinner, and so we were “forced” into the Continental Gallery for some music. Monte Warden and his incredible band were performing as we relaxed on a comfy couch in the living room style setting. It turns out Monte is a famous songwriter, having written songs that have sold over 100 million copies, for folks like George Jones. I loved the trumpet playing of Erik Telford, and the entire band were great musicians. Here’s a #1 song that Monte wrote for George Strait, “Desperately”:
I had just arrived home on Friday when a text came in from my Minnesota friend, Greg: “where can a guy find some good jazz in Austin tonight?” Greg and Kristan were in San Antonio for a conference next week and decided to drive up and experience Austin. We made quick reservations for Peche and the Parker jazz club. Kris Kimura, Parker owner, did not disappoint with an excellent set of classic jazz.
I love the sound of the bass flute on “Wonderful World”. After the Parker, we had a quick stop at the Elephant Room, for some more modern jazz and then called it a late night.
Sunday began with the usual workout followed by coffee (or mimosa) and crossword at Opa, and then got more interesting with a walk up to the Continental Club and Jimmie Dreams. New Orleans music is all that Jimmie plays, starting with six excellent Allen Toussaint songs. Midway through the set, McD was heard to say, “We could live in this town”. Such great musicianship with no cover on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Here’s a Toussaint song recorded by Ernie K’Doe:
In related news, this large looking mountain lion was caught patrolling around Grammie’s house again. Apparently (according to McD) they make a 150 mile circuit around the Bay Area. I’m not sure I want to come face to face with this guy – the bobcats are one thing, but this seems a lot more challenging. Speaking of bobcats – here’s a picture of a mother and baby on Gypsy Hill this week – lot of nature going on up there on the “hill”:
The setting is sophisticated but casual, with a very comfortable feel. The bar area was very cool and has a great all night happy hour menu. I laughed when our strategy guy, a 6 foot 6 inch Swede, left his menu on a candle until it almost caught fire – reminded me of a trip to the City Winery in Nashville when our group had a similar experience.
I finished “The Quaker” by Liam McIlvanney this week. Liam is the son of William McIlvanney, one of my favourite authors and writer of my number one book – “Walking Wounded”. This book was a Christmas gift from my parents, under the heading “getting you back in touch with your Scottish roots”. It was the Scottish Crime Book of the Year in 2018.
And finally, D’s spin art from the Christmas party was installed in the Austin bedroom as well. It’s an album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a glam rock band formed in Scotland in 1972. I can remember checking their albums out of the High School library in Stewarton. How did the spin art folks happen to have one of these albums in Austin, TX? I think Diana created a very interesting piece.
The poached lobster and duck confit risotto were absolute standouts. Great choice Issac! We wandered around the corner to Antone’s blues club to close out the evening and posed for these fancy pictures in front of Eddie V’s:
walked across the street to the Parker Jazz Club for the early show. The House Band was playing, but we got very lucky. The trumpet player Mike Sailors was sitting in, along with club owner Kris Kimura (who plays 10 different instruments including various clarinets, saxophones, flugel horn, and 
ukulele), and an excellent trombone player. Sailors has been a big name in New York for the last several years, playing with the Village Vanguard orchestra and the Birdland band, among many others. He just moved back to Austin to take the role of jazz trumpet professor at the University of Austin, and this was his first gig. What a treat! The music was very much focused around Louis Armstrong – perfect for me. Here’s a sample.
patio at El Alma – such a good, close spot. Then we drove over to Covert Park to hike up to the top of Mount Bonnell. This is the highest spot in the city limit of Austin at 785 feet – I know, not that impressive in the scheme of things, but does offer some excellent views of downtown, and up and down river. There are some little multi-million dollar shacks right below the peak. It’s 106 steps up from the parking area to the top of Mount Bonnell. Whew, we made it!
“Mission Song” by John Le Carre was my first book this week. I “borrowed” it from the bookcase at Mum and Dad’s house. The story is told from the point of view of Bruno Salvador, “Salvo”, a very talented interpreter of African, particularly Congolese, languages. This is Le Carre’s 20th novel, published in 2006, and it focuses attention on the atrocities committed in the Congo, and largely ignored by the British and American press. Salvo begins his interpreter assignment thinking he is helping Britain find a good solution to the problems in Congo, then realizes it’s just another plan to take advantage of the region’s natural resources. He decides to attempt to stop the plan, with dire consequences. This was a typically beautifully written Le Carre book, with another really disappointing ending. A 375 page book, that comes to a conclusion with a report occupying the last page and a half – I’m getting really tired of less than rewarding endings. The commentary on the role an interpreter plays and the skill associated with the position seemed very well done.
My second book was “Made in Scotland” by the hilarious, and very Scottish, Billy Connolly, a Christmas gift from my parents. What an excellent read, but fair warning, the language is very salty at times.
David arrived in Stewarton on Sunday evening in time for some of my Mum’s yummy steak pie. Diana found the two of us waiting patiently in anticipation of the pie quite entertaining for some reason.
We expected an early start on Christmas Day with the young girls in the house. They were exceptionally patient, and even waited through breakfast before heading to the living room to open presents. There were lots of fun presents for everyone. Here’s McD with one of the stuffed trophy heads we received from Elspeth and David. Aren’t they hilarious? They did generate some interest on the trip home as they peeked out from Diana’s carry on bag, even getting the once over by the Dallas customs team.
We drove to the nearest decent sized town, Inverurie (Diana can do a decent Scottish accent on this one), for an Indian dinner. Rajpoot was very good, with everyone really enjoying their meals. The owner thought he was funny bringing me a kids dessert served in “Miss Pinky” – I had laughed when I saw them on the menu.
Diana got a bit of a shock when a man attached himself to the 14th floor kitchen window with suction cups. No reason for panic D- it’s just the external window cleaner that we had been warned about. Does make for a funny picture though. This would not be good employment for either me or my Dad. Don’t these guys usually get lowered down in a bucket? This one’s just dangling from a rope and holding himself still with suction cups.
Kevin Galloway was playing at Geraldine’s at the Van Zandt hotel – such a nice venue. Galloway was front man for Uncle Lucius, a pretty well known band, for years but has recently opted for a quieter solo life. He is a quiet singer song writer and was accompanied by beautiful cello playing. I had to politely ask those folks in front to be quiet so that we could all enjoy the music.
Diana made a quick trip to Chicago on Thursday and Friday to visit a client. She liked the hotel I recommended and enjoyed a lovely Christmas choir and orchestra performance in the lobby.
It was work holiday party time on Saturday night. We took a picture by the apartment tree and then Ubered over to the Fairmont hotel for the festivities.
I was only on the job a few weeks last year at the party, and it was a lot more fun now that I know everyone.
This review encouraged me to read “Nothing to See Here” by Kevin Wilson this week.
The event turned out to be quite something. Intro speeches by all the University brass and the “Minister of Culture” for the new Center – Oscar winning actor Matthew McConaughey. Free food trucks from several Austin classic spots – I enjoyed an empanada from Four Brothers and a delicious green chile pork taco from Torchy’s.
Moon Taxi (an indie rock band) performed after the speeches and I thought they had a very pleasant sound.
Diana’s bus wasn’t due for another 45 minutes and so I made a minor detour to Antone’s to listen to some free Blues music – what a deal.
Tuesday evening was spent at Adamo’s house enjoying Italian take out. We were glad to finally diagnose why Phoebe constantly barks whenever Grammie shows up in the house – her hearing aids emit a high frequency noise that drives the poor dog nuts.
spent some quality time having Massimo read me his favourite books – he has them very well memorized for a 3 year old. The chameleon doesn’t have a colour of his own is his current favourite.
I headed up to Adamo’s home early on Thanksgiving afternoon to watch the Cowboys play the Bills and wish I hadn’t bothered – one of their weaker performances in a while. One of the cats was more interested and determined to block my view.
I finished a trio of books this week. My favourite was “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett. I had brought this book to read on my previous trip to Pacifica, but Clorinda ended up getting engrossed in it. We were able to discuss it this time and she regularly asked me where I was in the story.
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Amazon book review when one of my favourite authors recommended two new books that he had enjoyed very much – I ordered them up and put them in the to be read stack. The first, “Very Nice” by Marcy Dermansky is described as:
The next recommendation, “All this could be yours”, by Jami Attenberg, had a bit more substance. One back jacket cover review captures the feel well: