Category: Food

Week in Review – December 29, 2019

“Quine and Loon”

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 enjoyed breakfast at the Millhouse on Monday morning, prior to David driving us up to Aberdeen in what’s known as a “Duber” service (David’s Uber).  We gave him a very good rating.  The Millhouse is much nicer than when I visited the previous discotheque incarnation more than 35 years ago.  The 4 hour drive (with a pleasant stop for coffee) concluded just in time for us to ooh and aah over the amazing rural views from Elspeth and David’s home before the early sunset.

That’s the Bennachie mountain range in the distance, and the highest peak, Mither Tap at 1,732 feet, on the left.  How would you like to enjoy that view from your kitchen every day?  A website says it should take about 2.5 hours to climb Mither Tap.  I asked David how long it took him – about an hour – sounds pretty typical of the speed he moves.

David’s younger sister, Suzanne, and her family arrived shortly after us on Friday afternoon.  They came even further than us – all the way from Brisbane, Australia.  It was funny to watch David looking down the road and judging the size and speed of each car to determine if it could possibly be Suzanne.  When they arrived, Suzanne said she knew she was at the right house because she saw the way David was walking through the window.  It was a real treat to meet the entire Ruff family of Suzanne, Alan, Rebecca, Izzy (Isabelle), and Alex.

From the left: Izzy, Alex, Michael, Heather, Struan, Rebecca, Bramble in the foreground

David was a good sport and took the girls out to enjoy the night sky from the hot tub.

The Ruffs headed off to the Lecht Ski Center on Monday morning,  in search of some snow for the girls – not much of that in Australia.  David took us to an excellent coffee shop – the Coffee Apothecary near Pitmedden, a short drive from the house.

The coffee selection and presentation were great, as was the chicken liver pate.  What a nice feature to have such an excellent place close by in such a rural setting.

Alex and Bramble in the back garden

After coffee and a snack, it was Bramble’s time to have some fun.  Who’s Bramble?  Sorry – the latest addition to David and Elspeth’s family, a red Labrador retriever.  David took us to Fyvie castle to give her a good run.  Another pet seemed to sneak in on the adventure – that crazy baby penguin certainly gets around.

 

 

Here’s a video of the exercise routine.  It helps when Bramble keeps an eye on the ball all the way to hitting the ground.  Diana survived a direct hit on the noggin with the tennis ball from the launcher shortly after this video was made.

Tuesday was a quiet and relaxing day.  David, Suzanne, Bramble and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood.  I wasn’t expecting to be doing quite as much “off-roading” through mud and long grass.  Wind power is popular in Scotland, with turbines seen all over the landscape.  We passed under a set used to power the ice cream making operation at Mackie’s farm, next door to Bonnyview.

Our hike lasted about an hour and we had worked up a good appetite by the time we finished.  Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was working their way slowly through a Christmas jigsaw puzzle.  I’ll spoil the excitement and let you know that the puzzle was ultimately completed on Boxing Day afternoon.  I hate to think how many man and woman hours were invested.

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.

The girls enjoyed the colouring book, pens and charm bracelet kit that Diana picked out for them.

 

Elspeth, David and Heather worked very hard on a delicious Christmas dinner.  From the prawn and smoked salmon starter, through turkey with all possible fixings, through to Christmas cake and pudding (thanks Mum), everything was perfect.

The hilarity level went up a bit after dinner with board game time.  We played several rounds of a game, the name of which I can’t remember now, where you had to describe a thing without using the word.  The teams were evenly matched and so we kept having to play another deciding game.

That was followed up with a game of Cranium.  I enjoy the variety and silliness of this game – everything from clay modeling, to charades, to blindfolded Pictionary.  I was disappointed that nobody could guess my puppeteer work as I had Suzanne demonstrating how to milk a cow.  It’s really lovely to see everyone laughing and having so much fun.

The Ruffs left early on Thursday morning.  Not really that early to give David a good excuse for wearing his pajamas out to close the gate after them.

David and I used our time in the afternoon to coach Michael through enhancing a picture that we had jokingly titled the “Elf on the Shelf”.   I shared this with Brent, who in typical clever fashion, suggested “impaired on the stairs”.

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.

Our visit was drawing to a close and we did our best to organize our packing for an early start to the airport on Friday.

The airport is located less than a mile from where I worked my first job out of University at Gearhart.  The area has changed a lot since 1985, but the Four Mile Inn (a regular lunch spot back in the day) is still there and looks much the same.  The Aberdeen airport was small and pain free (other than not having jet bridges, resulting in us having to haul our carry on luggage up slippy metal stairs), and we were soon in some very comfy seats (particularly for a shuttle flight to Heathrow) and enjoying a massage.

The flight to Dallas was around 10 hours and a bit hot and stuffy.  I was glad to get home and stretch out.  I did catch up on some movies and enjoyed a TV series by Billy Connolly about traveling through the east coast of the United States.  I had been reading his autobiography (a present from Mum and Dad) on the earlier flight.

We got a much needed work out in early on Saturday (early to bed and early awake thanks to time changes) and then enjoyed coffee and a crossword in downtown McKinney.  We enjoyed reflecting back on how enjoyable our visit to Stewarton and Bonnyview had been.  We are fortunate to enjoy spending time with our family as much as we do.

We exchanged gifts that were too much to carry to Scotland on Saturday afternoon.  These penguins nest like Russian dolls.  One of several very creative gifts that Diana picked out for me.  She got another puzzle – this one double sided for extra fun.

 

I finished “Olive Again” by Elizabeth Strout this week.  I had recently watched a TV series based on the original “Olive Kitteridge” book, and starring Bill Murray and Frances McDormand.  I kept visualising them as I read this sequel.  It’s a bit of a depressing story as each chapter chronicles residents of the town and their interactions with the aging Olive, but Strout is an excellent writer who can create a very vivid picture of a character in just a few paragraphs.

 

I’m not a huge fan of Christmas music, so try to find twists on it that I enjoy.  As usual, New Orleans to the rescue.  Here’s a big band version of a classic carol.

And here’s a couple from a great New Orleans Christmas album:

I heard this more raucous and irreverent carol by the Pogues on the Scottish radio:

Week in Review – December 1st, 2019

We landed in cold and rainy San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon and were greeted by an American airlines protest outside the terminal – something about “One Job is Enough” – very loud.

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.

 

 

 

Diana enjoyed holding Francesca – 7 weeks now and almost 7 pounds.  I 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.

 

 

 

 

We returned to Adamo’s home on Wednesday morning to do a couple of hours of babysitting while Amy went to an appointment.   McD did a good job on some puzzles and we were able to keep the two terrors entertained almost up until their Mom returned – they’re good for about 90 minutes.

Thanksgiving day started and continued with lots of cooking.  Giancarlo and Diana made a good team preparing two kinds of stuffing and D’s famous artichoke dip.

I particularly enjoyed a story from Diana’s childhood about the reused lunch bags.  While all the other kids in class got a new lunch bag with their name nicely written out each day – poor, tortured D had to reuse whatever size sack was available until it could be used no more.  Apparently particularly embarrassing if containing a smelly leftover fish sandwich.  It was better to go hungry than stink up the whole classroom.  She created this mock up to make her point – Clorinda was too busy to write out full names and just went with initials.  I think I saw some deep seated frustrations being worked out as the bag was aggressively crumpled up.

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.

 

Family and friends soon arrived, with Julie bringing up the rear in typical fashion.  Plates were filled with all kinds of delicious offerings and then we took our places at the very long table with the beautiful Pacific Ocean backdrop.

Amy stopped moving for a couple of minutes and allowed a couple of family pictures:

Massimo had on a very cool t-shirt under his flannel – Austin Mix Tape:

Clorinda’s neighbor, Andy, finally got the two terrors to settle down and watch some videos of the new mountain line that has been patrolling Gypsy Hill:

We met up with my boys, Christine, and her Dad, Guy, on Friday evening.  Will chose Vino Santo in Redwood City and it was delicious.  We had fun giving the kids their Christmas gifts as we won’t be in California this holiday season.

Will started us of with his “off-menu” appetizer sampler dish – a very nice way to try a number of things:

The lobster ravioli seemed to be the most popular entree at the table.  I enjoyed  veal marsala – haven’t had that in a long time.

The evening closed with the usual father and sons picture.  It was great to see all the boys looking so well.

We walked up hill to Andy and Jude’s gorgeous home for coffee on Saturday morning.  There was a hummingbird convention underway outside the window – this was just one of three feeders and all were equally populated.

Andy and Jude are a very kind couple, keeping a close eye on Clorinda, and full of good stories.  I enjoyed a new one about hippies sitting outside their record store in the Haight Ashbury region of San Francisco, playing loud bongos and blocking entrance to their store.  They tried several different approaches to moving the hippies on, ultimately having success with an Andy idea – play the Barney song repeatedly through the outside speakers.

I’m pushing publish a day early this week as we’ll be traveling back to Dallas most of tomorrow.

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 really enjoyed Patchett’s prior book “The Commonwealth” and this was almost as good.

The story is based around the Dutch House, purchased at the end of the Second World War by Cyril Conroy, who combines luck and a single canny investment to build an immense real estate empire, and thrust his family from poverty to great wealth.

Set over the next five decades, the story is about two smart people, Danny and Maeve, who cannot overcome their past.  Despite outward signs of success, the siblings are only truly comfortable when together.  They are ultimately forced to confront the people who left them behind with dramatic consequences.  I recommend this book a lot.

Here’s a paragraph that explains the book jacket picture:

“the thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was the portrait of Maeve hanging there in the drawing room without us.  How had we forgotten her?  Maeve at ten in a red coat, her eyes bright and direct, her black hair loose.  The painting was as good as any of the paintings of the VanHoebeeks, but it was of Maeve, so what would Andrea do with it?  Stash her in the damp basement?  Throw her away? Even as my sister was right in front of me I felt like I had somehow left her behind, back in the house alone where she wouldn’t be safe.”

And here’s something that I don’t understand – “and two hamburgers for Kevin, who could have cared less”.  How did this get turned around in American English?  Patchett is trying to say Kevin didn’t care at all – he couldn’t have cared less – but instead uses, could have cared less, meaning he did care a bit.  It’s interesting how these things that are obviously wrong, become accepted as meaning what they don’t.  Climbing down off the soap box now to tell you about the other books I read.

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:

“A brilliantly funny novel of bad behavior in the post-Obama era, featuring a wealthy Connecticut divorcée, her college-age daughter, and the famous novelist who is seduced by them both.”

Not really my cup of tea, but a quick and entertaining read nonetheless – I think this is what is referred to as a perfect beach read.

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:

“Big Little Lies meets Succession in the scorching heat of the Big Easy . . . Money, power and family are touched upon through Attenberg’s emotional, humorous and sharply written accounts.”

 

“If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am,” says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex—a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister–feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be with her family, but mostly to interrogate her tightlipped mother, Barbra.

I enjoyed the characters and New Orleans setting of this novel, but it was also a bit of a quick, beachy read.

I revisited a couple of excellent country folk songs from Hayes Carll this week:

This new Grace Potter song came up on one of my playlists this week and I like it:

Here’s a good one from Austinite Rob Baird.  He’s opened a couple of shows at the Kessler and seems to be gaining a good following:

And finally another Austinite, Shinyribs:

Week in Review – November 24, 2019

“Levon’s New Drum Set”

The week started off on a bittersweet note.  We had a farewell dinner for my boss, Mark, who is leaving the company.  I’m sorry to see him go and it brings a lot more responsibility for me.  D and I will miss going out with him in Austin.

We organized the dinner at Eddie V’s – an excellent seafood and steak house in downtown (next door to the legendary Antone’s blues club).  Team members joined us from Guatemala, Canada and Australia.  Everyone that Mark wanted there showed up.  Diana did an exemplary job of selecting wine and appetizers for everyone.  We particularly enjoyed going around the table telling our favourite Mark stories.  Adam was hilarious.  Going clockwise from me we have Caleb, Mark, Adam (Canada), Issac, Roy (Australia), Norma (Guatemala) and Damon.  And not to forget our excellent photographer Diana.

Norma thought she was very funny in the office on Tuesday.  Sitting with a bandage on her finger just waiting for me to notice.  In her defense, she brought an amazing bottle of 23 year old Ron Zacapa rum from Guatemala that we all enjoyed very much.

 

 

 

View from the library rooftop garden

Saturday started with the normal routine – workout followed by coffee and crossword.  Then we walked over to the excellent downtown Austin library, walked back on the river trail, made a Xmas shopping stop at the Yeti flagship store, and relaxed on the balcony with books.  What great weather.

Fall colour from the reading balcony

Festivities picked up nicely on Saturday evening.  We tried a new Vietnamese restaurant called Mandala.  What delicious flavours and creative dishes.  Edamame with truffle oil and sea salt, surf clam ceviche, mini rice pancakes, and Vietnamese curry chicken – all excellent.  McD was pleased with an inexpensive and very good French champagne.  This place is certainly a good addition to the expanding Austin restaurant rotation.

Mandala pancakes

clam ceviche

A short walk from Mandala and we were at the One-2-One bar for Shelley King’s new CD release party.  And it was indeed a party – for the great value price of $10.

Here’s a favourite from the new CD – “Levon’s new drum set” – a tribute to the late, great Levon Helm of The Band.  Shelley was in Woodstock to play one of Helm’s Midnight Rambles in the barn by his home.  This was the week that Levon passed and there was no Ramble.  At the time that the concert would have started, there was a massive thunderstorm.  Shelley viewed this as Helm playing his “new drum set” in heaven.  What a great song:

Then special guest Carolyn Wonderland joined the band, picking up the energy and guitar level immediately:

The next special guest was long tall Marcia Ball on the keyboards for “Hurricane Party”.  Shelley told the story of Marcia being scheduled to play shows in Florida that were cancelled due to the hurricane.  She called Shelley to arrange a dominoes game – like a “Hurricane Party”:

Another lovely night of music in a small Austin club.  Four different bands were playing in the One-2-One on Saturday – an amazing array of talent.

We were up early for a workout on Sunday morning, and then packed up and made the drive to McKinney.  I arrived just in time to catch the last few exciting minutes of the Saints game – they eked out another last minute win.  The Cowboys are not doing so well now in freezing cold, rainy New England.

I finished “Conviction” by Denise Mina this week.  Here’s the Amazon synopsis:

The day Anna McDonald’s quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people’s problems are much better than one’s own — a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna’s problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she’s taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened.
Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened — and in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, she goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.
A true-crime podcast sets a trophy wife’s present life on a collision course with her secret past in the “blazingly intense, exciting as all hell” (A. J. Finn) new thriller from Denise Mina.  We just listened to A.J. Finn’s “A Woman in the Window” on audible, and now we’re listening to Mina’s “The Red Road”.  Audio books make the drive back and forward from Austin to McKinney pass much quicker.
I enjoyed this passage as the protagonist arrives at Skibo castle:
“First the hills across the water rose into view, pale and round.  Then the sea became visible on the left, molten grey with the winking lights of oil rigs in the bay for repair.  They stood ankle-deep in the shallow water, like giants wading, home for tea.  Lastly; the castle rose up from behind a screen of strategically grown trees.”
This passage looks much better with double spaces after the periods.  Something about the font and the single spacing after periods really bothered me.  That and the five or six typos I found in a published book.
I heard this song by Patty Griffin on Sun Radio – what a pretty tune.  So many great “River” songs – Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Leon Bridges, and the young Dallas blues guitarist whose name I can’t remember right now.
Seth James was playing the Sun Radio Wednesday night show at Guero’s Oak Garden.  Listening on the radio, I loved the Little Feat feel, the horn section and his guitar playing.
Kevin Galloway was playing at the Saxon Pub on Friday night – but not until 11pm – too late for us old folks.  I do love his music and hope to catch an earlier show.

Week in Review – November 10th, 2019

“The Ogans are coming”

Thanks for all the concern about my poor finger.   It’s much less painful and messy this week – still not completely straight and looking like some kind of bug with antennae sticking out.  I did get a nice custom brace fitted on Wednesday afternoon, and the stitches should come out next week.

My week started with a different medical appointment – the annual eye exam complete with dilation on Monday morning.  Nothing better or worse than last year, which is always pleasant news.  Right after that we made the drive down to Austin so that McD could attend a prospective client meeting on Tuesday morning.  It’s nice that she has a client in Austin instead of Milwaukee or Boston.

 

Our friend Ron was in town for a few days and met up with us on Wednesday night.  The requisite Sky Bar picture opportunity was followed by a delicious dinner at Peche – the foie gras on grits was amazing.  After dinner, we couldn’t resist a quick taste of the Spazmatics before walking back to the Catherine.

Denny and Anne arrived for a long awaited visit on Thursday afternoon.  I took them shopping at the Yeti store, followed by pool at Ego’s, while poor Diana finished up work for the day.

Dinner was at Suerte and Denny said it was the best Mexican meal he’d ever had – we were off to a good start.  I thought the mushroom tamale and goat barbacoa were highlights.  And of course the famous suadero tacos.

 

After dinner we sampled a bit of the house band at the Parker jazz club, and then called it a relatively early night.  The weather was very cold and wet and so the walking I had planned between events was all replaced by Uber XL.

 

I headed to work on Friday and left the Ogans to explore downtown Austin.  The original plan was a trail hike, but again the weather didn’t cooperate.  We met for lunch at Loro – a new south Lamar restaurant from the chefs behind Franklin Barbecue and Uchi.  I had really been looking forward to this place after reading so much about it.  In an interview with Henry Winkler (The Fonz), in town for Wizard Fest, he said, “I’m sitting here now thinking that when I get off the plane Loro’s is where I’m going to go first.”

Anne went with the bar tender’s recommendation and had this delicious bavette steak – perfectly cooked with a smoky flavour.  Denny’s curry chicken was also perfect.  I look forward to heading back to Loro soon.

While I went back to work, the Ogans walked all over Austin – they have so much energy – go, go, go all the time.

 

The four of us reconvened at C-Boy’s Heart and Soul for some happy hour music from Robert Kraft – very pleasant and a good volume that still allowed us to chat.  Here are our guests with the Soulman Sam and Jimmy Vaughan murals out back:

It was a short walk to June’s and a typical situation – the champagne by the glass didn’t suit McD (I tasted both samples and agree with her this time), and so a bottle was ordered.  We enjoyed another great meal – my bone marrow bolognese was fantastic.  Our only complaint was the music the DJ was playing – we might be getting too old for this place on weekend evenings.

After dinner Diana and I were ready to call it a night.  Not so much with our guests.  They Ubered to a honky tonk 20 minutes away and enjoyed a show by Choctaw Wildfire.  They always like to find some authentically local and off the grid spot.

The visit drew to a close on Saturday morning with a yummy brunch at Launderette and a walk along the river.  Then we dropped Denny and Anne at the airport and had a relaxing afternoon.

The James Beard award winning pastry chef at Launderette does come up with some excellent creations.

 

 

 

Sunday saw our first workout in a couple of weeks and my finger survived fine.  Not so much the coffee and crossword – Diana beat me!  I got stuck on “Macduff and Macbeth”.  I know, shouldn’t I have an advantage on Scottish clues.  My parents will probably be disappointed that I didn’t know “Thanes”.  Even had to look it up – “the chief of a clan, who became one of the king’s barons.”

The Saints lost badly to the Atlanta Falcons, much to the chagrin of the Ogans who were in attendance at the Superdome.  That’s what happens when Denny taunts us about how well they’re going to do.  We’ll see how the Cowboys do later tonight.  Campbell and crew were also enjoying some live football – they traveled to Chicago to watch their friend Nick Bawden play for the Lions.  Sounds like they had a great experience.

Will was having a great experience this weekend also.  His birthday gift to himself was race track driving his BMW M2C around the Thunderhill Raceway.

My book this week was “Panama” by Thomas McGuane.  What a crazy ride of a book, n0t like anything I’ve read.  Felt like a marriage of Hunter S. Thompson at his gonzo best and John Kennedy Toole’s New Orleans humor from “Confederacy of Dunces”.

An interesting  paragraph blends in the final lines of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”:

“On the steps of St. Paul’s church, a pigeon worked its way diagonally below the feet of two elderly gentlemen, factional members of a Long Island exodus.

“We could have had such a damned good time together,” I heard one say.

“Yes,” replied the one in the bonnet, “Isn’t it pretty to think so.”

“Now,” said the former, “I’m heading home to put things by.””

And then an excellent set of musical references:

“As to this orchestra, I am an admirer; at the same time, I know better.  I came of age like everyone else, wearing out copies of Tupelo Honey, feeling richly gloomy.  Now in Los Angeles, Jackson Browne and The Eagles nurse everybody’s bruises, and Mick Jagger, the tired old hag, says the Rolling Stones are the best punk band in the world.”

My fingers are getting tired now and I’m going to skip the “K’s New Music” section this week.  It should be back next week with some new discoveries.

Week in Review – October 6, 2019

“True Companion”

Warning – whiny paragraph ahead.  We closed out September in Austin with 16 days over 100 degrees.  Ridiculous.  Ludicrous even.  Why such an effusive reaction, you ask?  Well, an average September has 3 days over 100.  Why is it necessary to have 5 times as many as normal on the year that I spend most of my time here?  Just to torture a guy that was designed to excel in 50 degree, rainy weather.  Just to finish off my whine, I’ll share that we’ve had 54 days over 100 so far this year – which interestingly is quite a bit below the record.

I’ve enjoyed watching the preparations for the ACL music festival this week on my commutes down Barton Springs.  Oh sorry, some of you haven’t heard of ACL I’m guessing.  Fast forward if you know all about it already.

Austin City Limits (ACL) is a long running and totally excellent Public Television music series filmed live in Austin.  I’ve been enjoying the show for at least 20 years now.  The ACL music festival was born in 2002 and has grown into a mammoth production, staged over two weekends in October.    The event has 8 stages across Zilker Park and this year is October 4-6 and 11-13.  450,000 people attended last year and so you can imagine that central Austin is very busy right now.

I was by myself again on Monday night, but Diana did leave me some of her leftover sea bass.  What to pair with that delight, I wondered.  A tour of the freezer yielded the perfect accompaniment – veggie tater tots.  A delicious bachelor meal.  McD commented that she particularly appreciated the squiggle of mayonnaise.

We successfully concluded a massive, global, highly complex (I know I’m really overdoing it now) project at work on Tuesday.  Seriously, they have been at it for over 3 years, with all kinds of challenges and starts and stops,  and we finished successfully with our last sites in Mexico this week.  Lots of back slapping congratulations, flowery thank you emails, and the like ensued.  That lasted about 10 minutes, and then it was time to get back to work again.  Worn out from all the celebratory high jinx, I enjoyed quiet nights at the apartment on Tuesday and Wednesday, reading and listening to music.  More about the music discovered later, as usual in these posts.

Thursday took me from the “Live Music Capital of the World” (Austin) to “Music City USA” (Nashville) for a long weekend.

Diana made a similar trip from Dallas – greatest musical claim being the birth place of Stevie Ray Vaughan – and we rendezvoused in Nashville around the same time.  A quick Uber to the Westin downtown and we were ready for a quiet dinner and an early night.   The Decker & Dyer restaurant in the hotel fit the bill perfectly.

What do you think of this as a replacement for Penelope?  I’ll be tallying votes and will report out next week.  They do say that orange is the new black.  Take my back condition and size into consideration when casting your ballots please.

Why did we choose Nashville for a few days away?  Well…after the Marc Cohn and Blind Boys of Alabama concert that we saw in California a few months ago, McD said that she hadn’t had enough of just Marc Cohn at the show and wanted to see him again when it was just him playing his regular catalog.  The best location we could find for that was the City Winery in Nashville on Sunday.

A workout was called for after a lazy start to Friday.  Then, as it was a beautiful sunny day outside, I suggested lunch on the rooftop of the Thompson hotel in the Gulch area.  My wife quickly approved that plan.  One of our party should have applied sunscreen prior to the walk over to the Gulch and time in the direct sun on the rooftop.  I’m sure it’s difficult for you to imagine who could have been so silly.

A quick regroup at the hotel, and then it was time to head over to East Nashville to reprise a few of our favourite haunts.  There really are a lot of similarities between Austin and Nashville – a rapidly gentrifying East area of town with great restaurants and bars, a compact and walkable downtown, and a vibrant music scene.

We started with a cocktail on the back patio of the Rosemary speakeasy.  This place has become a bit more commercial since our initial discovery, and not in a great way.  Still a good spot, just not as charming.  It was on the patio, once I had a drink in hand, that Diana informed me that she would like to go to Blake Shelton’s restaurant the next day.  Yee haw!

Unlike Rosemary, our dining destination, the excellent Butcher & Bee, seemed even better than we remembered.  The whipped feta and grilled mushrooms were fabulous.  A huge thanks to Diana for asking the hostess to seat us away from the loud party of girls – they were very high pitched and loud and I wouldn’t have lasted through the meal beside them.  Nashville has become a huge bachelorette party (hen party for my Scottish readers) destination – we saw so many groups riding around town in open topped buses and trailers, even a party fire truck, dancing and having a good time.  At least it keeps them out of the way of folks trying to enjoy the restaurants.  The book that our bill was delivered in sent us on a trip down memory lane – Beatrix Potter.  I read some in my best upper crust English accent.

 

 

We were proud to get a workout in again on Saturday morning, before setting off for the madness of Broadway.  This is a street similar to 6th street in Austin – one honky tonk with live music after another for 3 or 4 blocks.  It was particularly packed at lunchtime on Saturday.

We satisfied D’s request and had a pleasant lunch at Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s place.  The downstairs was communal seating and we sat with nice folks from North Carolina, who ordered the largest plate of nachos I’ve seen.  Our fried pickles and quesadilla were equally massive.  Lance and Lea provided a pleasant mix of musical accompaniment.  I texted Alicia:  “You’re Mom is torturing me!”.  The rapid reply: “Welcome to the club.  We’ve been waiting for you!”.  Phunny girl.

My navigational skills failed me again after lunch.  I was trying to follow the walking directions on my phone to get to the Ryman auditorium.  Diana was quite convinced we were headed in the completely wrong direction – even more annoying because I was headed uphill.  Of course she was correct, and we got some unnecessary exercise in after the large lunch.

We did a self-guided tour and really enjoyed exploring the Ryman.  The movie that starts the tour was exceptionally well done and did a great job of covering the history.  Originally opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats.  Ryman conceived the idea of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones.

Lula Naff leased the building in the early 1900s and promoted all kinds of shows and events.  Some of the names to perform in the early years include Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in ’45, Hank Williams in ’49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in ’54, Johnny Cash in ’56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in ’57,  Patsy Cline in ’60, and Minnie Pearl in ’64.  The Ryman also served as the regular Sunday venue for the Grand Ole’ Opry and Johnny Cash TV shows.

After falling into disrepair, and a renovation spear-headed by musicians, who loved the acoustics (said to be better than Carnegie Hall) and atmosphere of the venue, the Ryman hosts performances by big name musicians most nights of the week.  Here’s a picture of some of the folks that have played there:

The tour finishes with a photo opportunity.  Here are the next big stars to be discovered at the Ryman.  Poor Diana is just trying to avoid being bonked on the head with my guitar.

I’m not sure you’d be very comfortable in the ancient pews while listening to us perform:

After another short rest at the hotel, it was time for a real highlight of the trip.  I had read about a restaurant named Bastion that sounded right up my alley:  only 24 seats large, advertising an “adventure menu”, and spinning vinyl records.  On arrival through a sliding metal door, you are welcomed into the little bar for a pre-dinner drink.  Jeremiah took very good care of us.  Then we were seated at the kitchen counter and presented with our “adventure menus” to make selections.  Only a couple of ingredients are revealed to aid in the decision making process.

K’s choices

D’s choices

The courses were excellent with lovely presentations and descriptions.

First course – manchego and country ham waffle cones for K, oysters and tequila for D
2nd course – hamachi and hibiscus for D and raw beef and green curry for K
desserts – they treated us to all three

All of this deliciousness was set off beautifully by the “Fly Blind” wine pairings – some really unusual selections.  And of course there was the treat of vinyl albums for background music – some early Elvis Costello for the 2nd course.

A very impressive fire was burning outside the restaurant with coals transferred inside regularly for the inside grills.

Bastion is so good that I would recommend people make a trip to Nashville just for the experience of dining here.

Sunday made three workouts in a row – a rare feat with our work schedules.  Then we reprised another old favourite – brunch at Husk.  The shrimp and grits were different and tasty, but still not up to the gold standard – Ricks in downtown McKinney.  The rain stopped long enough for us to walk back to the hotel, passing the City Winery on the way.  They were having their 5th anniversary harvest festival outside, with really good bands playing  – including Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk.  We chose not to spoil our musical appetite for the big evening show.

The Cowboys played the Green Bay Packers at 3:25pm and I found a sports bar just off Broadway to watch the game.  The Corner Pub had a massive screen showing all the games and we found a good spot in time for kickoff.  What a horrible first half – nothing working for the Cowboys and everything clicking for the Packers.  Ugh!  The Boys pulled it together in the second half with some good play, but it was all too little and too late.  What a disappointment.

Can you guess what wasn’t a disappointment on Sunday?  That’s right – Marc Cohn.  Mark Erelli opened the show – a very talented singer songwriter, who had recently played at the Ryman.  The sound in the City Winery is really fabulous.  I appreciated his song “By Degrees”, which I believe is about the need for improved gun control.  Erelli showed up later to play guitar on several Marc Cohn songs – and did an excellent job on slide guitar.

I have another of Erelli’s songs that I’ve been enjoying in the new music section at the bottom of this post.

Marc Cohn played all of our favourites and sounded as good as ever.  Diana commented that she could hear the Blind Boys in her head on “Work to Do”:

Then came my favourite, “Listening to Levon”, a tribute to the late great Levon Helm of the Band:

The song that put Cohn on the musical map, “Walking in Memphis”, with the classic “Ma’am I am tonight” line:

“Silver Thunderbird” always tugs at the heart strings:

And now it was time for the closer, also the opener to our wedding reception and my marriage proposal, “True Companion”.

We were fortunate enough to have Marc Cohn sign a new poster he was selling, featuring the lyrics to the last verse of True Companion.  Diana took the time to tell Cohn about the first time we heard him play the song, and his very kind gift of flowers to a military wife in the Kessler audience, whose husband couldn’t make it to the show – not a dry eye in the house.

Diana was very happy with the show and the experience – and isn’t that what life’s all about – sharing happy times with your True Companion.

She wasn’t so happy the next morning with her 4am start to get back to Dallas for a client meeting.  I had a more leisurely start, time for breakfast, and even the best shoe shine I think I’ve had, before flying back to Austin.

Such a fun trip – I’m glad you were able to join me Diana.

 

 

As promised, here’s “The Hitter” by Mark Erelli.  Did you already forget about him?  Remember, he opened for Marc Cohn.

There’s a new album, “Ode to Joy”, by Wilco out this week.  I’ve only listened to it once through.  I was surprised in the first few songs that there was none of Nels Cline’s angular guitar playing.  It did finally show up, but this is certainly mellower than their recent output.

I watched an interview of Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top this week, and he was talking about this Lightnin’ Hopkins song.  I’m sure you can here a number of ZZ Top songs in this.

And finally, a new discovery for me, ZZ Top’s superbowl halftime performance from the late 90s:

 

Fortnight in Review – August 25, 2019

“Surfing Dogs, Walking in Memphis”

Did you miss me last week?  Really?  Be honest.

We were visiting with Kris and Cat last Sunday prior to their French adventure, and ended up staying late after dinner.  With travel and excitement, I decided to skip the blog and catch up on two weeks today.  Do you think I qualify as a “Babe Who Blogs” – I didn’t think so either and so skipped this event at the apartment building.

I spent the first week in Austin, while McD headed to Wisconsin for a few days.  Sunrise on Tuesday was described as “crepuscular” by the TV weather guy.  It was quite impressive and I looked up what that meant:

Crepuscular Rays:  A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a ray of sunlight that appears to radiate from the point in the sky where the Sun is located. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains, these columns of sunlit scattering particles are separated by darker shadowed volumes.

I do enjoy waking up with sunrise over downtown Austin.  Meanwhile Diana was enjoying what Wisconsin had to offer – much cooler weather, and some good steakhouses (no relation to the New Orleans institution of the same name).

I enjoyed an amazing Chinese Dim Sum meal on Wednesday with Mark and Damon.  Lin Dim Sum is one of my new favourite Austin restaurants.  We navigated the hard to eat soup dumplings and then enjoyed the stand out of our meal, the seafood basket.  All the different seafood offerings were perfectly cooked and presented.

Diana and I regrouped in Dallas on Thursday night at the lovely Neighborhood Services restaurant on Lovers Lane.  We love this place and it never disappoints with excellent service and food.

On Saturday morning, we caught a flight to San Francisco for a few days with family.   Crosswords are a good way to pass the time, and I always enjoy the view of the Sierras with a small snow cap remaining.

We took Clorinda to Puerto 27, the Peruvian restaurant in Pacifica, for dinner on Saturday night.  She enjoyed “sharing” the pisco sour 27 cocktail with me, and was heard to say, “is the rest of this for me?”.

 

Clorinda thought her “His and Hers” note by the extra coffee maker acquired at a rummage sale was very funny:

Sunday took us down to Santa Clara to visit with Kris and Cat.  The fresh produce from their garden led to excellent appetizers and dinner.  We laughed as we reviewed the calendar for their three week trip to France, and particularly Kris’ list of outfits, shoes, and accessories to be worn each afternoon and evening

Diana had to work on Monday, so I took Clorinda for lunch at the Cliff House – a classic San Francisco restaurant on the cliffs above Ocean Beach.

Sutro’s at the Cliff House is very fancy and we were able to score a lovely window seat.  Clorinda loved every last drop of her red Thai curry bouillabaisse, while I was equally happy with my scallops and shrimp over saffron cous cous.

I gathered some excellent stories:  Why it’s so much more difficult to sing opera in French than Russian (who would have expected),  the challenges of surf boarding behind a ski boat in Lake Tahoe when you can’t float with a life jacket,  living in a one bedroom apartment in North Beach with a baby grand and not being able to concentrate on music if the kitchen wasn’t fully organized, and making a 21 layer rice crispie cake for Adamo.  For desert we chose a butterscotch pot de creme (yummy).  We both enjoyed our 2 hour plus lunch experience.

 

While in Wisconsin, McD had seen a story on the news about the dog surfing championship in Pacifica.  It was funny to read about this in the local Pacifica paper.  Here’s the start of the story:

“It was a foggy morning in Pacifica, but the cover burned off as the day went on and it didn’t deter crowds from coming out to see the 4th annual dog surfing championships at Linda Mar beach on Saturday.  At least a thousand people showed up to watch.”

Tuesday took us down to Campbell to prepare for our concert at the Saratoga Mountain Winery.  We enjoyed dinner at Pacific Fresh in the Campbell Pruneyard and then made the precarious drive up to the winery.

Shemeika Copeland, daughter of blues great Johnny Copeland, opened the show beautifully.  Her dialogue between songs really added to the experience.

You can tell from the video that Diana sprung for some amazing seats – front row, right in front of Marc Cohn’s piano.  Thanks for the excellent birthday gift!

Marc Cohn and the Blind Boys of Alabama followed Copeland, with a very unique set.  The Blind Boys adding excellent gospel harmony to Cohn’s songs.  “Walking in Memphis” taking on a whole new meaning with the gospel harmonies.  The blind boys have been performing for over 7o years, with one of their member close to 90.  What an experience.

Video recording was not permitted at the show, so here’s a sample of what that song sounded like at another performance:

I loved watching Cohn’s smile as he listened to the Blind Boys enhancing his compositions.

We will never forget the Cohn concert at the Kessler a few years ago, when we were first introduced to “True Companion”, our wedding song, and the story of an overseas service members’ wife attending the concert.  Here’s a memory from that show:

Taj Mahal finished out the show.  While we enjoyed his music and performance, more Marc Cohn would have been great.

I love this video of Taj Mahal riding around New Orleans while performing his classic song, “Queen Bee”:

We flew back to Dallas on Wednesday, fortunately sharing the flight with Kris and Cat heading to France.

Prior to the flight, we enjoyed brunch at Mo’s in downtown Campbell, home to an outstanding Bloody Mary with onion ring and bacon – yummmm.

We both worked most of the day on Thursday and Friday, and then Diana organized an excellent night out on Saturday.  We began with dinner at Rye in downtown McKinney.  Ownership had changed in the last year and the cocktail list had me on alert, but we ended up having an excellent meal.  Four courses of shared tapas – blue cheesecake (very creative), forest floor (almost up there with Manresa presentation) with four kinds of mushrooms, edible flower, and seaweed foam, perfect scallops, and finally pork belly lollipops.

Dinner was followed by the Peterson Brothers band in the downtown McKinney courthouse – quite a change from the Continental Club where we usually see them.  Diana had a nice chat with Deana (the boys mother) where we learned that they were just back from opening for Gary Clark Jr. in Virginia – big time!  As usual the Brothers delivered high energy, positive vibes with those great smiles and  energy.

Sunday began as normal- swim, coffee and crossword, and facetime with Mum and Dad.  I laughed at the story of my Dad’s challenges with caulk, only to struggle as I tried to fill in a hole where wasps are gathering around a window on our back patio.

On a completely different note, Will is headed to Burning Man next week and has been excitedly sharing pictures of his camper, outfits and transportation:

I’m excited to hear about Will and Christine’s experiences in the Google village at Burning Man.

I loved the book “Henry, Himself” by Stewart O’Nan.  O’Nan is renowned for illuminating the unexpected grace of everyday life and the resilience of ordinary people with humor, intelligence, and compassion. In this book, he offers an unsentimental, moving life story of a twentieth-century everyman.

Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he’s always believed in logic, sacrifice, and hard work. Now, seventy-five and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It’s 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry’s strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can’t answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for?

The quality of the writing is superb, and I really enjoy the time taken exploring the everyday experiences that make up a life.  I look forward to reading the other two books in this trilogy.

This is my favourite Peter Gabriel album, before things got too esoteric, with excellent production by Bob Ezrin, and containing “Here Comes the Flood” – a top 10 song of mine.

Try this piece for an escape from the ratrace – just beautiful and calming:

And if you liked this, then you will probably enjoy this as well, excellent pianist also:

And as the wonderful Monty Python’s Flying Circus would say, “and now for something completely different”.  In my estimation, this is the perfect bouncy summer song for relaxing by the pool:

Shemeika Copeland delivered an awesome version of this song by her father on Tuesday night:

 

Week in Review – August 11, 2019

“My compliments to the chef”

It was back down to Austin on Monday morning and back up to McKinney again on Friday.  Diana let me borrow her car so I would be a bit more comfortable on the long drives, while she and Penelope tried to get along on her drives to downtown Dallas.

As you can see from the pictures above, it was oppressively hot all week.  Those red bars are the “feels like” temperature – adjusted for humidity.  Diana’s car is reporting a real temperature of 105 degrees at 5pm.  As a result, I spent most of my time indoors this week.

Cat was in Austin for an Apple Systems Engineering annual meeting, and we were able to meet up on Thursday evening.  We made a quick visit to the Sky bar for the requisite picture, and then Ubered over to Peche – I know, it’s less than a mile, but it was still too hot to walk at 7:30 pm.

We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Peche.  The combination of Cat’s intelligence, world view, and immense wit, make him a perfect dinner companion.  He loved the rabbit and mushroom risotto, and sent his compliments to the chef via Tucker, our waiter.  Chef showed up a few minutes later and Cat told him he liked the dish because you could stop eating to tell a story for a few minutes, and the excellent flavor was still in your senses.  This is a new dish on the menu, and Diana will have to return to try it soon.

We visited the Roosevelt Room, a kind of fancy speakeasy style cocktail bar, after Peche and I enjoyed a Paper Plane.  We sat at the bar and thoroughly enjoyed watching all the craft cocktails being prepared – some works of art.  My drink came with a small origami plane flying alongside

It was very nice to spend an evening with Cat without the girls along.  Wait – maybe that didn’t come out exactly the way I meant it.  What I was trying to say….  Ah, never mind, I’ll just stop digging the hole now.

I tried a couple of new things for my drive on Friday.  #1, I downloaded an audible book to listen to on the ride – I’ve listened to podcasts but never a book.  I chose “Lincoln in the Bardo”, which got such rave reviews last year.  It has an all start cast reading – apparently one of the largest for an audio book.  Nick Offerman is excellent.  What a weird book – I listened for almost four hours and was really struggling to figure out what was going on.  Had to read a synopsis when I got home.  Not sure whether I’ll make it through the remaining 3 hours or not.  #2, I decided to venture away from the standard places along the highway and try a real Waco restaurant for my lunch stop.  Harvest was a very good farm to table casual place, not too far off Interstate 35.  The migas were excellent.  I look forward to stopping there again.

 

It was very nice to resume the regular weekend routine with Diana – swim, coffee and crossword, reading.  The simple things that I miss when we’re not together.  We ventured out of the normal routine for dinner, trying a new restaurant for us, Knife, located by Willow Bend Mall.  This is a John Tesar place.  You may remember I came home with a whole pan of his duck confit risotto after attending a demonstration he did at the Granada theater a few years back.  He is starting to expand his empire with a few different places now, after getting his real start as the executive chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek.

We were both very pleased with the quality of the steak and the sauces.  My au poivre was absolutely delicious.  I chuckled at the mini fry basket that the french fries were served in.  We have plenty of left overs for dinner tonight.

I was even able to resist the chocolate caramel treat and have that waiting for desert later.

I finally finished “Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli.  On the surface this is a family road trip story.  Parents and two young children embark on a trip from New York to Arizona and the Apache homelands.  Several stories interweave, including narratives on the plight of native Americans, and on children traveling alone across the border in attempts to reunite with family members living in the United States.  All very poignant with the backdrop of our governments challenge to figure out a workable immigration solution on our southern border.  I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but got bogged down in some of the historical details and discussion on documentary field recordings.

Welcome to a new series of introductions to my new music finds – featuring some of  my favourite album covers.  I particularly like the diner scene on the back of Supertramps’ classic “Breakfast in America”.  If you zoom in you can see Dougie Thompson reading the Glasgow Herald.

I had been listening to some Philip Glass music this week, and then read in the acknowledgements in “Lost Children Archive” that Luiselli had listened to his “Metamorphosis” a lot while writing the novel.  Also interesting that the owner of Shakespeare & Co in Paris gave her a room above the store to work in for a year while writing.  Here’s Part 2 of metamorphosis – I love the triplet right hand part around 2:30.

Zero 7, an English duo who began as studio engineers, have a new album out this week with a host of guest vocalists.  All very relaxing, chill sounds, and, not surprisingly, beautifully produced.

Something about the Zero 7 music sent me to Stereolab and one of my favourites from many years ago:

 

Week in Review – July 7, 2019

Hornet’s Nest

I decided to stay in McKinney with Diana this week, rather than make the trip back down to Austin.  The early part of the week was heavily work focused with some system challenges keeping me busy.  I’m hoping we’ve turned the corner on those now, performance has been great the last few days.  Hope I didn’t just jinx things.

There were no silly 4th of July questions this year.  It seems that every other year or so, somebody asks me “Do you celebrate the 4th of July in Scotland?”.  I know they don’t mean do we celebrate being free of the responsibility of the United States.  Ha.  We celebrated with late morning workouts and then lunch at Toulouse in Legacy West.  Diana was excited when her choice for restaurant stuck – the other two options we discussed were closed for the holiday.  We enjoyed a delicious white wine and steak tartare with frites.  I know, you’re thinking our diet is almost exclusively raw meat these days – only when we go to French places that do it well.

Dinner was the more traditional holiday fare – burgers and veggies on the grill at home.  I was pretty brave to spend as much time by the outdoor grill.  Why is that?  Well…are you familiar with the expression “A Real Hornet’s Nest”?  And did you know that I’m highly allergic to wasp and bee stings – swell up like the Elephant Man.  Turns out hornets nests are not always in trees.  We found five piles of sand in the beds next to the grill, looking just like ant hills without the ants.  Further investigation showed some kind of bug burrowing into the ground and kicking out sand.  We decided to leave well alone and wait for the pest control experts.

The pest control professional arrived on Friday morning and confirmed hornets’ nests.  He was very careful in spraying them, commenting that they can be very aggressive and their sting hurts a lot.  Lots of mud-dauber and wasps nests were also removed.   We feel like we’re under attack from flying stingers of all varieties.

Friday was a light work day for me – I was able to enjoy a swim and watch some good Wimbledon matches.  Coco Gauff’s recovery to win over Hercog was very impressive, more so considering she’s 15 years old and on the Center Court.  I enjoy picturing my Mum and Dad talking to the TV as they watch Wimbledon.

Saturday started with a swim and crossword, before settling in to read and enjoy the tennis on TV, while McD sunbathed.  Then I surprised Diana with an early dinner at the Grape.  She says she had been thinking about going all week – must have some special ESP going.  We started by sharing the chicken liver mousse, which now has the pistachio topping added back – last time we visited, over a year ago we guess, they had changed it, and not for the better.  Then we split a delicious salad, followed by steak frites for Diana and scallops for me.  A lovely evening and way too long since we’ve visited the Grape.

It was an early start on Sunday to get a swim and crossword in, before packing to start traveling at 1pm.  Me over to the bus to Austin, and Diana to the airport for a flight to Tampa.  We both arrived at our destinations about 30 minutes late – which is not too bad for the weekend after the 4th of July and the hordes of people moving around.  As I finish this post up, I’ve just finished troubleshooting the internet and TV service in the apartment – the third reboot was the charm.

We received a couple of entertaining pictures from Denny and Anne this week as they continue their travels through Europe.  This week in Berlin.  Here Jack and Mason recreate the famous picture of them peeking their heads in to the cottage in New Orleans as we were waking up.

And here Dad and the boys manage to find an Irish bar in Berlin to watch the Womens’ World Cup Final:

Two short, quick reads were a very welcome change of pace on the literary front this week.

“The Parade” by Dave Eggers,  a very favourite author, is a spare and powerful story of two men, Western contractors sent to work far from home, and tasked with paving a road to the capital in a dangerous and largely lawless country.

Four and Nine are partners, working for the same company, sent without passports to a nation recovering from ten years of civil war. Together, operating under pseudonyms and anonymous to potential kidnappers, they are given a new machine, the RS-80, and tasked with building a highway that connects the country’s far-flung villages with the capital.  Four, nicknamed “The Clock,” is one of the highway’s most experienced operators, never deviating from his assigned schedule. He drives the RS-80, stopping only to sleep and eat the food provided by the company.  Nine, however, spreads chaos: speeding ahead on his vehicle, chatting and joking with locals, eating at nearby bars and roadside food stands, he threatens the schedule, breaks protocol, and ends up fighting for his life when contracting malaria. His illness, corruption, and theft compromise their high-stakes mission,  and Four and Nine discover danger far greater than anything they could pose to one another.

Impending doom seemed to be lurking through the last third of this book but never arrived.  Then it all struck in the very last paragraph of the book.  Wow – wasn’t expecting that.  This book is a very impressive allegory for so many of the civil wars that are tearing countries apart.

“Biloxi” by Mary Miller is quite different than any book that I’ve read in a while.  Miller  skillfully  transports us to her unapologetic corner of the South—this time, Biloxi, Mississippi, home to sixty-three-year-old Louis McDonald Jr.  His wife of thirty-seven years has left him, his father has passed—and he has impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance check that may not come. In the meantime, he watches reality television, drinks beer, and avoids his ex-wife and daughter. One day, he stops at a house advertising free dogs and meets overweight mixed-breed Layla.  Unexpectedly, Louis takes her, and begins investigating local dog parks and buying extra bologna. Mining the absurdities of life with her signature “droll minimalist’s-eye view of America” (Joyce Carol Oates), Mary Miller’s “Biloxi” captures every day life in the South perfectly.

The exotic turntable picture is for you Raj – hope you’ve completed your audio penance.

I found this song was in my Blues Piano book as I revisited it this week.  A great exercise in dexterity and I’m nowhere near up to speed yet.

Speaking of revisiting, I played this album from Charlie Hunter again this week and enjoyed it just as much as on first discovery.

And here’s a new jazz trumpeter from Italy that I enjoyed.  The album gets a bit repetitive, but I do enjoy the modern sound.

Week in Review – June 30, 2019

The week started well with a relaxing and delicious lunch at June’s All Day brasserie on far South Congress.  This is the place that Mark took me to for lunch when I interviewed for my job in Austin, and I hadn’t been back since.  Diana and I both loved our lunch – delicious wines, smoked salmon nicoise salad for D and steak tartare for K.  The heavens opened as we were finishing up and so we had to stay for coffee and wait for a brief respite in the rain.  Temperatures dropped 15 degrees in a few minutes and the humidity was thankfully gone from the air for a while.

I got tied up at work until late on Monday evening.  Diana was able to meet up with Sheri (after some confusion on which Kendra Scott store they were meeting at) and then they stopped back into June’s for some Happy Hour champagne.

Then they met up with Sean at the Continental Club to see the amazing Peterson Brothers.  These two young men have so much positive energy and interact with each other beautifully.  May they never lose those positive smiles they have playing music together.  I was able to join around 7:30pm for the second half of the show.    We particularly enjoyed the rendition of “Amazing Grace” on violin by Alex – it was his first instrument in school before graduating to bass guitar virtuoso.

Then the Brothers went mobile, wandering through the club, passing the guitar off to a friend at the bar to jam, heading out into the street and then plopping down in the seats behind us for a few minutes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the second hour of this show.  Just what I needed after a long work day.  Here’s a quick clip of the Brothers jamming:

After the show we followed the typical circuit – Hopdoddy burger followed by Hotel San Jose courtyard.  Sean was able to have a nice chat with Glenn and Alex about when they were going to play in California.

Diana headed back to Dallas on the Tuesday bus and I put in some long days at the office, battling system problems.

I enjoyed a work dinner at Bonneville on Wednesday night.  This is a good restaurant, just across the bridge from the apartment, that I hadn’t heard of but enjoyed quite a bit.  The scallop dish was yummy.

I rode back to Dallas with Vinod on Thursday afternoon – always an enjoyable journey because of the wide ranging conversations.  It was really nice to be home with Diana in McKinney for a few days.

The new movie from director Danny Boyle, “Yesterday”, was our entertainment on Saturday afternoon.  We both enjoyed the movie and the interesting concept behind it.  It really brought home the breadth and differences in the Beatles catalog.  Diana mentioned being reminded of the Cirque du Soleil “Love” show in Las Vegas, and how it gave whole new meanings to the classic Beatles songs.

I had always thought that the Beatles “I Want to  Hold Your Hand” was the number one song when I was born.  I just looked it up and that was actually an honor held by the Four Pennies, with their song “Juliet”.  Have you ever heard of the Four Pennies?  I certainly haven’t.  I like the guitar introduction to the song.  It was only number one for a single week.

Take a look at the number one hits from 1964 – so many classics that we still remember.  I challenge anyone to believe the same will be true of the number one hits from 2019 – most of them will be forgotten a couple of years from now.  Cilla Black has a couple of number ones and she got a mention in “Yesterday” during the visit to Liverpool.  What was in that Mersey water?

Date Artist – Title Weeks
at #1
« 1963 1964 Number One Songs 1965 »
 –  Beatles – I Want To Hold Your Hand 5
 –  Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over 2
 –  Searchers – Needles And Pins 3
 –  Bachelors – Diane 1
 –  Cilla Black – Anyone Who Had A Heart 3
 –  Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – Little Children 2
 –  Beatles – Can’t Buy Me Love 3
 –  Peter and Gordon – A World Without Love 2
 –  Searchers – Don’t Throw Your Love Away 2
 –  Four Pennies – Juliet 1
 –  Cilla Black – You’re My World 4
 –  Roy Orbison – It’s Over 2
 –  Animals – The House Of The Rising Sun 1
 –  Rolling Stones – It’s All Over Now 1
 –  Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night 3
 –  Manfred Mann – Do Wah Diddy Diddy 2
 –  Honeycombs – Have I The Right? 2
 –  Kinks – You Really Got Me 2
 –  Herman’s Hermits – I’m Into Something Good 2
 –  Roy Orbison – Oh Pretty Woman 3 (2)
 –  Sandie Shaw – (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me 3
 –  Roy Orbison – Oh Pretty Woman 3 (1)
 –  Supremes – Baby Love 2
 –  Rolling Stones – Little Red Rooster 1

I heard a song on Spotify that I enjoyed by Alan Price.  The keyboard sound was somewhat familiar, so I did some research.  I found out why it sounded familiar – he was the organ player with the Animals.  You’ll notice above that “House of the Rising Sun” was number one just after I was born – I still enjoy that song today and remember Billy Joel playing it when we saw him in New Orleans recently.  The Western musical brain certainly loves arpeggios – particularly when a minor resolves into a nice major.

Alan Price is a self-taught musician and was a founding member of the Tyneside group “The Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo”, which was later renamed “the Animals”.   His organ playing on “The House of the Rising Sun”, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, and “Bring It On Home to Me” was certainly a big part of the group’s sound and success.

He also had a big role in introducing one of my favourite musicians, Randy Newman, to the world.  Price’s second album, “A Price on His Head”, released in 1967, featured seven songs by Newman, virtually unknown at the time.

What was number one on December 18, 1964 when my wife entered the world, I hear you asking.  Well – that was a Beatles song – “I Feel Fine”.  Not one that I was familiar with, even though it spent 5 solid weeks at number one.  Oopsy – now that I listen, I know it well.  “I’m in love with her, and I feel fine”.

Changing over from music to the literary front, I finally finished “The Parisian” by Isabella Hammad.  This was a very long slog of a book with lots of Arabic dialog and names.  I did learn a lot about the history of Palestine in the early 2oth Century, and the influx of Jewish immigration that ultimately caused the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that still exists.

Here are some of the reviews that convinced me to embark on this read.  I’m not sure I agree with any of them – this book was really hard work.  I enjoyed the first few hundred pages that were set in Paris, but the Palestinian years were just work.

I’m looking forward to some lighter reading this week.

Here’s the Alan Price song that got me off on that Animals trip earlier:

Diana gave me a beautiful vinyl rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s new “Western Skies” album for fathers’ day.  Here’s one of my early favourites:

How can Bruce still be making such meaningful music while performing every night in his solo Broadway show?

I’ve always loved the music of Robert Cray and came across this recent album.  Ask me about seeing Robert Cray in a small club on Greenville Avenue in Dallas in the late 80s, when Stevie Ray Vaughan joined him on stage.

 

 

 

Week in Review – June 23, 2019

Our second wedding anniversary on Monday was welcomed with a pretty sunrise.  After a long work day, we celebrated at Uchi, a sushi restaurant close to the apartment and rated one of the best in the United States.  The food was excellent, as you can tell by the smile on D’s face.  The service was equally outstanding, from the initial greeter, to Sam our waitress, and everyone else that interacted with us.

The rest of the week was busy with work and quite hot outside.  On Wednesday evening we braved the heat for a walk along the river, passing by the movie on the lawn event on the way home.  “The Goonies” was showing on a giant inflatable screen.  Temperatures continued to heat up, with Thursday being the first 100 degree day of the year.

Friday afternoon took me to one of our stores on far South Congress to observe system performance during the peak time and close process.  As luck would have it, C-Boys Heart and Soul was close by.  Diana joined me and a couple of work colleagues for happy hour.  The Rosie Flores Revue was playing (as they apparently do every Friday) – what a pleasant surprise.  We’ll have to return again soon.

We met our friend Vinod for dinner on Saturday night at the newly re-opened Swift’s Attic on Congress Avenue.  They had a fire several months ago and we’ve been looking forward to enjoying the amazing scallops again.

That’s the table we occupied in the bar area.  The word seems to be out on the re-opening after just a few days – the whole place was quite busy.

Sunday kicked off with a nice long swim and very relaxing sauna, followed by coffee at Opa!  The puzzle was by creators and an editor we didn’t know – where did Fred Piscop go?  It took us both over 30 minutes to finish the “Doing the Splits” crossword.

Sean and Sheri were in Austin looking at houses and evaluating a move from San Jose.  We had a drink together in the Catherine Sky Bar on Sunday evening and then a lovely dinner at Peche.

Diana and I split steak tartare (one of our favorite renditions but Justine is still the winner in Austin) and a decadent burger and fries.  Sheri loved the braised short ribs and duck fat mashed potatoes, and Sean was quite happy with his bouillabaisse.  Of course McD couldn’t pass up the fig foam Manhattan.

After dinner we finished off the evening at the Roosevelt Room.  The bar is lovely and the cocktails good, but we decided it was just a bit too much work to get a drink in that place.  I did like the interior and particularly the musician paintings – here’s one of Austin native Gary Clark Jr.

I continue to slog through my current book with a firm goal of finishing it up this coming week and getting on to some quicker, lighter summertime fare.

A work colleague told me about a solo release by Ed Jurdi of the Band of Heathens – “Bumblebee” – very nice.  Diana was listening to it on Sunday morning and wondering why it sounded like the Band of Heathens, but not quite right.

The other lead singer from BoH also released a solo album a few years back.  I love this song from Gordi Quist, “Satisfied Mind”:

Thinking about local musicians brought me around to Ian Moore and one of his underappreciated albums, Luminaria:

And here’s a late addition that just popped up on my Spotify playlist – seems appropriate as we enter summer.  The great songwriter and performer Chuck Prophet – will never forget seeing him in Denton with less than 10 other folks – hard to believe.