The early part of this week was spent catching up on work and chores after Denny’s birthday weekend in San Miguel de Allende – piano tuner, car service, laundry (thanks McD) and the like.
On Friday I took the first of the piano lessons that Diana gave me for Christmas (thanks McD). Anthony has a music studio in a room of his bungalow in downtown McKinney and calls it the Piano Dojo. The lesson was very enjoyable as Anthony asked me to play scales and sight read (scales not so good after 40 years of neglect, sight reading not too bad). He also wants me to start learning basic drumming patterns so I’ve obtained drum sticks and a practice pad and might get started today. Apparently learning to drum teaches the brain to better manage right and left hand separation and is good for the type of blues/boogie piano that I’m hoping to learn. Anthony and I shared stories about jazz clubs in New York and musicians that we enjoy. I’m looking forward to getting my scales and drumming down so that I can schedule my next lesson.
We celebrated Patty’s birthday on Friday evening and started with a lovely dinner at Sachet in the very fancy Highland Park neighborhood just north of downtown Dallas. Sachet is a Mediterranean restaurant and was voted the best new restaurant of 2017 by the readers of D magazine. We started with several “meze” or small plates – the yellow beets, red beet hummus, oregano, labne dish was my favourite (tender and flavorful beets), followed by the spicy roasted eggplant, roasted peppers, garlic, tomato, and then the french Lentils, muhamarra, piquillo peppers, and walnuts. It’s always interesting how good fresh, well cooked vegetables can taste.
After the meze we enjoyed green fava falafel, radish salad, mint yogurt (my favourite dish of the evening with the best falafel I’ve tasted), charred octopus, Rancho Gordo beans, swiss chard, fennel, salmoriglio (not as good as the amazing grilled octopus in San Miguel de Allende), Casarecce, Turkish lamb ragu, pomegranate, labne (yummy lamb ragu), and finally squid ink spaghetti, lobster, tomato, white wine, and star anise.
Patty’s birthday was off to a great start but we had a surprise in store – John Oates at the Kessler theater (Dallas’ most redeeming quality). John Oates is one half of the best-selling duo of all time, Hall & Oates, as well as an accomplished solo artist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Oates embarked on his solo career in 1999. He has recorded six solo albums and his seventh project, “Arkansas”, was released in February. He featured 6 songs from this album to start his Kessler show.
In addition to his solo shows, Oates continues to tour with Daryl Hall, playing sold-out concerts around the world. You could tell he was relishing the very small venue as compared to the sports arenas he plays as part of Hall & Oates. At one point he mentioned an upcoming Hall & Oates show in Dallas in the summer and invited us to join 15,000 of our best friends to listen to it – quite different than the few hundred folks at the Kessler.
“Arkansas” is mostly a tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, an original bluesman who made his first recordings in the late 1920s, but also features some ragtime and Jimmie Rogers inspired pieces. Here’s a video of Oates performing “Make me a pallet on your floor” – the excellent Fender Telecaster work is by Guthrie Trapp. The video is followed by links to the original Mississippi John Hurt recording and the version from the “Arkansas” album.
Diana’s favorite song from the show was “Lose it in Louisiana”:
I’ve been enjoying “Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan this week. The novel opens in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to the house of Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family.
Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. She is the sole provider for her mother, a farm girl who had a brief and glamorous career with the Ziegfeld Follies, and her lovely, severely disabled sister. At a nightclub, she chances to meet Dexter Styles again, and she begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life, and the reasons he might have vanished.
That’s as far as I’ve reached in the story so far and it’s setting up for an interesting second half. The quality of the writing and story telling are excellent and I’m looking forward to trying some of Egan’s other novels.
On the musical front, I read about a new recording by Mary Gauthier called “Rifles and Rosary Beads”. This is an interesting album in that Gauthier composed it in writing workshops with soldiers that were designed to provide therapy by allowing them to share their stories and feelings. The songs are very good although, as you can imagine, quite melancholy and poignant.
You might remember my commentary on Gauthier’s amazing “Mercy Now” song in the June 26, 2016 edition of this blog – well worth a listen.
The musical lagniappe this week is from the 70s group Big Star – I heard it on the closing credits of an episode of the HBO series, “I’m Dying up Here”.
We arrived around 3pm and Sean and Sheri weren’t due until later in the evening, so we set out to explore the center of town. The main square is dominated by La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, the current parish church of San Miguel, which is unique in Mexico and the emblem of the town. It has a Neo-gothic façade with two tall towers that can be seen from most parts of town. It is one of the most photographed churches in Mexico. The church was built in the 17th century with a traditional Mexican façade. The current Gothic façade was constructed in 1880 by Zeferino Gutierrez, who was an indigenous bricklayer and self-taught architect. It is said Gutierrez’s inspiration came from postcards and lithographs of Gothic churches in Europe, particularly the one in Cologne; however, the interpretation is his own and is more a work of imagination than a faithful reconstruction.
Sean and Sheri arrived safely on Thursday evening and we headed to another rooftop, SMA restaurant, just up the street from the house. We had a delicious dinner and several of the group sampled Casa Dragones Joven tequila (apparently a favourite of Oprah and Martha Stewart).
Friday began with a walking food tour. This took us to 6 restaurants around town and our tour guide, Pascal, provided a lot of cultural and historical information along the way. The town, so the story goes, owes its founding to a few over-heated dogs. These hounds were loved by a Franciscan friar, Juan de San Miguel, who started a mission in 1542 near an often-dry river 5km from the present town. One day the dogs wandered off from the mission; they were found reclining at the spring called El Chorro. The mission was moved to this superior site.
One of my favourite dishes from the tour, mole enchiladas, was next at La Cocina, Café del Viajero. There are many different recipes for mole sauce, typically including chocolate, chiles, sweet and sour ingredients, thickeners and spices. The sauce at our stop was absolutely delicious.
The tour finished with ice cream from a street cart and delicious churros with caramel sauce. This was a wonderful way to explore downtown, the food variety, and to learn some history – thanks Anne for organizing.
After the food tour, can you guess what we did? Yes – another rooftop at Pueblo Viejo and then dinner downstairs. In between, Diana, Denny and I relaxed at the bar at a fancy boutique hotel called Beelia.
Sunday brunch was at another Denny deep research find, Nicasio Comedor Mexicano. This was a small, simple restaurant with an open kitchen where we watched traditional Mexican breakfast fare prepared with great flair and attention to detail – tweezers used to place garnish and tiny jalapenos. The pet duck wasn’t in its bed in the restaurant but rather in the pond since it was starting to get hot.
Next on the ramble was a stop at a tapas restaurant where Denny heard interesting music. The music stopped right as we entered but was quickly replaced by Los Miguels, Miguel and his friend Miguel, who sang and played guitar beautifully. Miguel #1 tried very hard to explain the meaning of each Spanish song to us in English before he performed – and he did an admirable job. His passion for his music and for communicating really came through.
Sean and Sheri had a very early departure (5am – ouch) back to the airport and the rest of us left a few hours later. You can tell Denny had a good trip from his snooze on the drive.
go and retrieve our car on Saturday. The radar showed a break in the rain but guess what – yes, the heavens opened for our drive back home. It’s particularly helpful when Texas truck drivers speed through flooded areas and make it impossible for other drivers to see anything due to the spray.
I made a pretty interesting music discovery this week on one of the artists I listen to most, Miles Davis. An article on a Scandinavian trumpet player referenced “Filles de Kilmanjaro” as a major influence on his style. What is this album that I’ve never heard of? Turns out it was recorded in 1968 as Miles was making the transition from his second great acoustic quintet to his “electric period”. The first sessions included Wayne Shorter on sax, Herbie Hancock on Rhodes piano, Ron Carter on electric bass and Tony Williams on drums. The later sessions had Chick Corea on piano and Dave Holland on double bass. I’ve been fortunate to see both Chick Corea and Ron Carter in separate shows at the Blue Note in New York and Ron Carter again in an amazing show at Birdland. This album came right before the classic Miles album “In a Silent Way”.
The interesting painting on the Bywater wall, “Society of St Anne Meeting Spot”, refers to a New Orleans marching krewe that parades each Mardi Gras. Known for the very elaborate costumes of its members, the group gathers in the Bywater each Mardi Gras morning, with the Storyville Stompers brass band providing the music. As they pass through the Faubourg Marigny and French Quarter, additional costumed marchers join the parade at various coffee shops and bars along the route. The marchers continue to Canal Street to watch the Rex Parade and then return into the French Quarter. Of course it made us think of our own favourite Anne from New Orleans.
The music was by the Christian Sands trio who did a tribute to the music of Errol Garner. Sands is a 28 year old pianist who is viewed as one of the best of the younger generation. His technique and dynamics were both amazing. Garner is known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad “Misty”, has become a jazz standard and was featured in the Clint Eastwood movie, “Play Misty for Me”. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Since McD and I were not going to be together on Saint Valentine’s day, we celebrated early with a movie and dinner on Saturday night. The movie was “The Darkest Hour” about Churchill’s challenges in May 1940 during Dunkirk. We both thoroughly enjoyed Gary Oldman’s Churchill and learned a lot about those few weeks in history. Many of the classic Churchill quotes were in the movie, along with my favourite, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.
My book this week was “Notes on a Foreign Country (An American Abroad in a Post American World)” by Suzy Hansen. This is by a New York Times journalist who moves to Istanbul and quickly comes to realize that her views and opinions on American policy are quite different when observed through the local Turkish lens. I’m enjoying the book quite a bit but think it’ll take several weeks to finish with some lighter material for breaks.
We ran into Marc Broussard on the way in to see the opening band and Diana took a picture with him. The opening act was the Devon Gilfillian band – Diana said his name sounded Welsh but he grew up outside Philadelphia in a musical family and now lives in Nashville. His sound is a combination of gospel-blues and southern soul with a lot of musical variety from song to song. Part way into the show the band surprised us with an a cappella version of “Lean on Me” with the audience singing along nicely.
On Saturday we had brunch at Smoke since their outpost in Plano closed recently. We love the pulled pork eggs Benedict and cheese grits. Then we took advantage of being in the Oak Cliff area to visit the excellent Wild Detectives book store for coffee, crossword, and a couple of new books. This funny sign was on display in the store.
dedication. She is really addicted to jigsaws – once she starts she has to finish. This one is of the Place du Tertre in Montmartre in Paris where we spent some pleasant time watching the artists at work. I need to try and make her wait a few weeks before starting on the next one.
I finished up the new John Le Carre book, “A Legacy of Spies”. This was much lighter than the typically dense Le Carre spy fare but I was frustrated with the open ended and inconclusive ending. Right up until the last page I was convinced that things were going to come to a good end – but no – left hanging. George Smiley did not come to the rescue although I think that’s what the reader is supposed to assume.
My stay was booked through Friday at the Gild Hall hotel but I was able to escape the madness on Wednesday. My last few days of Executive Platinum status on American Airlines was put to good use in getting me on a flight an hour earlier than planned. This sign that I saw in Heathrow airport was on my mind as I sat cramped in a seat at the back of the earlier flight.
I arrived in London on Monday morning for a few days of work. The Tower of London was right next to my hotel and so after a nice rejuvenating swim in the hotel pool I went for a wander around the neighborhood. Thai food was my choice for dinner and then off to try and sleep.
quite brisk and refreshing. It took me a few minutes to understand that I was headed to East Croydon and had to type that in to buy a ticket. The new and fully automated station didn’t have anyone to ask for help. The train journey was less than 15 minutes and the office was directly across the street from the East Croydon station – easy peasy. Meeting the EMEA team face to face for the first time was very nice – I even got to play some ping pong in the newly modernized office. The walk back to the hotel numbed 
my toes and my colleague informed me that those in the know wore thermal socks – not something I considered when packing for the trip. Some clients took me out for drinks and dinner when I got back into central London and scotch eggs on the menu was a pleasant surprise.
50th birthday. The flight landed just ahead of a snow storm and I was glad David had his Land Rover to collect me. The drive to Stewarton was uneventful. Here’s a map that shows the location of Stewarton on the West coast of Scotland.
We had a lovely, leisurely meal and the ladies finished up with some fancy sundaes. Many but not all of the abandoned cars had been retrieved by the time we made the drive back home.
The turbine housing at the top is the size of a large caravan and you really don’t appreciate the scale until up next to it. Walking in the snow and wind certainly blew out the cobwebs and I was glad to have Struan’s hiking boots.
I finished Tom Hanks’ new book, Uncommon Type: Short Stories, on the flight and highly recommend it. Each story starts with a picture of a typewriter from Hanks’ collection which features somehow in the story. The quality of the short stories and the everyday characters captured in them was surprising – what a talented man.
sign in front of the entrance to my office. Not sure what you’re supposed to do in response to the sign, look up? Temperatures rose each day that I was there and as usual I tried to make the best of being in New York in the evenings.
well known saxophone player from Australia. She and her son were spending some time in New York before heading to Cuba to perform in the international jazz festival. They were friends with both Aaron and Joshua and so I got to have a nice chat with them as a result. You might remember that I met Joshua once before at the Village Vanguard when McD shared her champagne with him.
Work involved many long meetings with vendors, and it was easy to drift off into enjoying this excellent view of the Brooklyn Bridge and East river from the conference room.
eon in Tribeca for dinner on Wednesday night. We’d been there once before with Mary and Chuck and I remembered enjoying the French brasserie feel. A nice bracing mile walk helped me work up an appetite.
After workout and coffee and crossword on Saturday, Diana got sucked into the puzzle that my Mum and Dad sent for Christmas. We noticed that the title of this challenge is, “The puzzle that ruined Christmas”. It’s similar to the Frenchy (New Orleans artist) puzzles in that it doesn’t have any edge pieces and the pieces are cut in interesting shapes. The majority are Christmas trees and Diana had a small outburst saying that, “Ah geez, three pieces fit together to make another Christmas tree shape”.