Category: Books

“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.

 

 

“Snow Day”

This was a relatively uneventful week, with Diana and Alicia in McKinney and me playing at working hard.

Damon came over for dinner on Tuesday night and was able to participate in Diana’s update about the fire department going to Grammie’s house.  She called them because she smelled burning – a space heater overloading a plug.

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”:

I attended a fancy work executive committee pow-wow on Thursday night at the lovely Jeffrey’s restaurant in West Austin.  We had talked about having my birthday dinner there but chose Justine’s instead, so I was interested to try it out.

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.

For dinner, I selected the snapper en papilotte (French for “enveloped in paper”), and it was delicious.

 

 

 

 

It was funny to watch the crew leave at the end of the evening.  Blair’s monster, lifted truck coming through the valet, Jacob, our tall Swede, taking off on a monster Harley etc.  What a crew!

I left Austin early on Friday, in hopes of beating the monster storm into McKinney.  Penelope and I were in the garage around 4pm, just prior to the downpour.  We didn’t get the 2 inch hail and tornadoes that were forecast – thank goodness.  The temperature was 70 degrees on Friday, and Saturday started below freezing with a dusting of snow.  Crazy Texas weather.

The weekend was normal – workouts followed by coffee and crosswords.  Diana did win the crossword battle on Saturday by 15 seconds – I really need to step up my game.

Alicia flew back to San Luis Obispo on Sunday morning, then we had late workouts.  I enjoyed the NFL playoff game between Kansas City and Houston, while McD read a kindle book.

I warned you up front – a pretty uneventful week.  We’ll try to be a bit more exciting in the coming week.

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.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of Glasgow in 1969, as major portions of the population are moved from old, decaying tenements to supposedly better environments.  The story was well done, unfolding slowly and keeping you guessing.  I thought I had it solved at page 250 of 400 – only partially.  Liam is an excellent writer, but doesn’t have his father’s ability to capture a thoroughly believable character in a few paragraphs.

“What if he does it again, sir?”  McCormack drained his glass and set it down.  “You thought of that?  We have Paton inside and the Quaker does another.  What happens then?  You’re playing golf in Maidens.  We’re still here””.

This paragraph reminded me of the hilarious day in the Maidens, when Uncle Ian’s wheelchair backed into a hole.  Good memories of good times.

The Barrowlands ballroom is at the center of this story, and it reminded me of going to the Kings Theater in the Gorbals a few times in High School – all that culture in the middle of a very rough neighbourhood.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a good crime thriller and an understanding of the Glasgow milieu.

I came across this amazing version of St. James Infirmary this week.  What do you think?  Best version ever?

What an excellent Jerry Garcia song from his first solo album:

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is the new face of the blues.  We saw him at the ACL Hall of Fame induction ceremony, playing with Buddy Guy, and he was excellent.  From Clarksville, Mississippi, he grew up in the home of Robert Johnson and seems to really embody the blues.

The Building is a band fronted by Anthony LaMarca, guitarist for War on Drugs.  Very peaceful music.

 

 

 

 

“75 degrees in early January?”

Penelope and I led the way down to Austin on Monday, with Diana following behind in the racing Passat.  Alicia flew in on Thursday and the girls are driving back up to McKinney on Monday, so we needed two cars.

My Christmas present from Diana was delivered in person to the apartment on Monday night.  Sharon from the Soundwaves art gallery decided it would be easier to drive over my painting than to mail it.  She is married to the artist, Tim Wakefield,  who creates these excellent music related pieces.  Mine is of The Kinks “Waterloo Sunset” and is signed by Ray Davies.  It looks amazing.  Thanks D!  One of my very favourite songs from such an underrated band.

Sticking with the new artwork theme, we installed Quine and Loon in our Austin bedroom – don’t they look great?

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.

 

Our first New Year’s Eve in Austin was a lot of fun.  We met up with a work colleague, Issac, and his wife Adrienne.  They have a similar situation to us, splitting time between a home in San Antonio and an apartment in Austin.  Issac selected La Volpe (the fox) as our dinner destination with a 10:30pm reservation to facilitate ringing in the New Year.

The interior of the restaurant was very modern and cool, and I read was designed by Jennifer Long, who also worked on C-Boy’s Heart and Soul on South Congress.

The special menu was all small plates with some great options.  The plates ended up not being so small and we had plenty to eat.

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:

New Year’s Eve in Austin certainly ended up being more exciting than our typical McKinney experience.  Maybe we’ll do it again next year.

We rested up on New Year’s Day and planned some fun for Alicia’s arrival on Thursday.  Festivities started with dinner at Diana’s favourite Austin restaurant, Peche.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals.  Then we 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.

 

Did I mention an excellent trombone player?

Armstrong’s “The Sunny Side of the Street” took me back to New Orleans and Kermit Ruffins at Vaughan’s on my first evening in that fantastic city:

Everyone thought the music was outstanding.  A great first night for Alicia.

On Friday night, Alicia decided she was in the mood for sushi.  I suggested Lucky Robot on South Congress based on a quick Yelp search.  We had walked by it many times, but never considered dining there.  The food and service were both very good, with a menu that included several things that I liked – pork belly bao (steamed buns).  There are a lot of origami birds inside.

Saturday was a gorgeous 70 degree day – seriously, in January – so I went for a jog along the river trail while the girls hit the gym downstairs.  In the afternoon, we walked across to the Alta coffee shop and enjoyed the sunset.  A very nice, relaxed Saturday.

Sunday started with workouts downstairs and then brunch on the rooftop 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!

McD took advantage of a table to enhance her view, and I snapped this picture of the two girls looking up river.

“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.

There are so many great stories from a very interesting life, starting with Billy’s tough childhood and initial working life at 15, as a welder in the Clyde shipyards – building the Queen Mary and QE2.

I learned that Connolly had a band in the early 70s and recruited a young Gerry Rafferty to join.  The duo were quite successful, but Rafferty was clearly a more sophisticated and talented musician, going on to release some amazing albums.  Did you now that Dire Straits opened for Rafferty on some of his biggest tours?

I enjoyed the stories about Connolly’s Dad taking he and his sister to Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, for summer holidays during the Glasgow Fair.  And handing their buckets and spades to the incoming Paisley Fair kids as they left.  The descriptions of  the trauma of a knitted swimsuit are very funny.

This book has a lot of heart and soul, and captures the Scottish population very nicely.

Let’s start with some more of “Sunny Side of the Street”.  The original and Kermit’s version from Vaughan’s:

 

The Australian Teskey Brothers came across Spotify again this week.  What a great sound:

And this song by FREEMAN popped up again.  I really like this one: