Food – Page 29 – Keith Robertson

Week in Review – October 29, 2017

The highlight this week was a weekend in San Diego to visit Campbell and hang out with Kris and Cat who were celebrating Kristina’s birthday. We arrived on Friday afternoon and relaxed by the pool with books until Kris and Cat arrived. Dinner was at Seersucker in the Gaslamp district and it was fun to observe all the folks out enjoying the evening in their Halloween costumes. The fantastic Whiskey House was an after dinner drink stop on the way back to the hotel. Kristina had quite a time selecting a scotch from the extensive menu of over 1,000 choices.

The afternoon on Saturday was spent exploring the Pacific Beach area. A quick google search of “Best beach bars in San Diego” led us to the Lahaina Beach House which had a great patio right by the boardwalk with great views of the beach and the ocean. Again we enjoyed the people watching of folks with crazy Halloween costumes on for an early Saturday afternoon drink. A ramble along the boardwalk continued to provide entertaining sights including a gaggle of roller blading “Ducks” from Oregon. We laughed as the last rollerblader bringing up the rear had “Robertson” on the back of his jersey. There were several beach cottages and hotels along the boardwalk that we noted for future visits. After a snack at the Firehouse restaurant it was time to head back to the hotel to meet up with Campbell and Molly. The Firehouse food was very good with oysters, char-grilled Brussel sprouts and an excellent ceviche.

The perfect bite – ceviche and char-grilled brussels

Campbell and Molly met us for a very enjoyable dinner at Roy’s which backs up to the Marriott hotel pool on the marina side. We sat outside and enjoyed the gorgeous evening weather and views of the marina. I had the San Diego sea bass and Diana the shellfish combination. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food very much. Campbell and Molly headed off to celebrate Halloween with friends and we made a trip to the Nolen rooftop bar in the Gaslamp district. This was a very fancy rooftop with great views of downtown San Diego and again lots of Halloween costumes.

Sunday morning brunch was planned at World Famous in Pacific Beach which Will recommended as having excellent lobster Benedict. Shortly before departure they called to say that their block was having a power outage and they wouldn’t be able to do breakfast. Plan B was the Harbor breakfast restaurant in Little Italy and it was a very well received alternative. Diana had the lobster Benedict and I had a spicy Italian sausage omelet (when in Rome and all). After brunch Campbell was able to introduce Molly to his Granny and Grandpa over facetime.

Kris and Cat headed to the airport and Diana and I watched the first half of the Cowboys game at the pool bar and then did the same. We watched most of the remainder of the game in the airport lounge and then got the final victory score on the plane right before takeoff – a 33 to 19 win over the division rival Washington Redskins.

On the music front, we lost Fats Domino this week at the age of 89. Fats and Louis Armstrong were responsible for putting New Orleans so firmly on the world musical map. Here’s a performance he did at the New Orleans jazzfest in 2001 that sums up everything that’s so amazing about that festival.

I can remember first hearing Fats Domino on the jukebox at the student union on the Heriot Watt Riccarton campus in 1981. Somebody in that student union really liked “Blueberry Hill” because I don’t remember a time that I was in there when it didn’t eventually come on the jukebox. It’s amazing how many huge hits Domino had in the early fifties. Here’s my favorite. That’s Herb Hardesty with the excellent saxophone part – we saw him perform with Dr. John at Tipitina’s just before his passing last Christmas.

My current book is too fat to travel with so I started “Dirt Road” by James Kelman, who was born and lives in Glasgow but has taught at both the University of TX in Austin and at San Jose State University. The book follows the travels of a Scottish father and son who go to visit the father’s brother in Mississippi. I’m really enjoying the tale so far and particularly the son’s descriptions of the American musical styles he encounters. There’s a great scene where he joins in on accordion with a Zydeco band and plays Scottish jigs for the Louisiana crowd.

McD gave me a gift of the new Tom Hanks book, “Uncommon Type”, this week. I haven’t started it but chuckled at the continuing antique typewriter theme. The reviews are very good and I’m looking forward to pulling this one out of my growing “to be read” stack.

Here’s the langiappe for this week if you made it this far:

Q: What do you call the combination of a Scotsman and an Italian?

A: A scallion

Just the kind of silly joke that I enjoy and courtesy of Cat in San Diego.

Week in Review – Oct 1, 2017

It has been a reasonably quiet week with us as Diana continues to move around pretty gingerly on her injured left foot. The pain is certainly a lot less than it was last weekend but she still can’t rotate her foot on its vertical axis at all (no yaw is possible in McD’s foot). One more week and then she’ll see the doctor if it’s not a lot better. I’m enjoying grocery shopping and a few other tasks that are normally in Diana’s domain while she tries not to walk too much.

“Who reads at 5am?” was Alicia’s question when she came in our bedroom to say goodbye on her way to early morning band practice. We chuckled. She doesn’t enjoy reading and so was incredulous that I would be engaging in such a boring activity so early in the day. I was trying to make some progress on “4321” by Paul Auster – I’m really enjoying the 4 different versions of Ferguson’s life that are set off by slight differences in life choices in the first chapter – but it is very slow going.

Diana met me at the Cowboys Club on Wednesday afternoon and we watched the team practice from the Quarterback Corner area. We noticed a couple of the passing plays from practice in the game today against the Los Angeles Rams. Unfortunately the Cowboys lost the game after a very strong first half and an opportunity to win in the last two minutes.

On Saturday we made an impromptu decision to attend a celebrity cooking demonstration and lunch at the Granada theater. First time either of us had been to anything like this and we were very pleasantly surprised. Chef John Tesar was quite the character, with an endless supply of stories from his years in the kitchen and on shows like Top Chef and Restaurant Wars. The first course was risotto with duck confit and wild mushrooms. The duck confit preparation technique was quite interesting and the risotto delicious. Everyone’s name was placed in a hat for a raffle at the end of the event and I was lucky enough to be pulled out in time to claim a huge tray of the risotto. It has been a nice accompaniment to football watching today. The main course was Beef Wellington with dauphinoise potatoes – also very good but a huge palaver to cook. I looked up palaver just now to make sure I was spelling it correctly (it’s a West of Scotland word meaning a lot of fuss and bother) and was surprised at how many fake definitions there are published on the internet. Lunch ended with the pastry chef from Tesar’s “Knife” restaurant demonstrating his special technique for chocolate mousse – again very good but quite rich after the first two decadent courses.

Tesar was the chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek (a famous Dallas fine dining institution) in 2007. He replaced the well-known chef Dean Fearing and lasted two years before moving on to several other opportunities. Until the last few years (when it appears he may have matured and settled down just prior to turning sixty) the consensus in the Dallas restaurant trade was that “he’s a talented chef, but he’s also a narcissistic sociopath with his calloused index finger always hovering above the self-destruct button”. That personality was certainly evident as he told stories while demonstrating amazing technique.

In his book, “Kitchen Confidential”, Anthony Bourdain writes, “Tesar was probably the single most talented cook I ever worked with—and the most inspiring. … His food—even the simplest of things—made me care about cooking again. The ease with which he conjured up recipes, remembered old recipes (his dyslexia prevented him from writing much of value), and threw things together was thrilling to me. And, in a very direct way, he was responsible for any success I had as a chef afterward. …”

Thankfully the lunch portions of all that decadence were pretty small since we had been invited to Patty and Brent’s home for dinner. Dinner was delicious as always with both of us wishing we’d had better self-control when presented with such yummy fried cheese as an appetizer. Brent administered a “Love Languages” quiz on us. This is from a book from a few years back that talks about how people prefer a couple of the five common “love languages” – Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Touching, and Quality Time. Diana and I guessed each other’s preferences and then took the test. She did a much better job of guessing my languages than I did hers. Quite an entertaining evening as usual.

“Love is Like Oxygen” by Sweet transported me back to 1978 this week on my commute. I can remember watching the band lip sync to this song on Top of the Pops. I really like the initial syncopated guitar riff and the high vocal harmonies. It reminds me of “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. What’s special about that song? I’ll give you a couple of minutes to ponder while you watch Top of the Pops or listen to the song…

Ready? It was the first song ever played on MTV. I know – those are precious brain cells that I could be using to store something useful.

Now for something from a totally different genre and time – I really enjoyed “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t Ma’ Baby” by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five form the 1950s swing era.

Week in Review – September 17, 2017

“Music makes a house into a home”, Ivor Tiefenbrun, M.B.E.. More about that later.

Things are improving with our work teams in Houston – one of the five campus buildings is open and we’re moving folks out of it so that critical teams can start to occupy it – this means a lot of technology updates and is keeping me quite busy. While Houston recovers, I was shocked to see videos of the devastation in the Virgin Islands. All the leaves and limbs have been completely stripped bare from what used to be jungle like vegetation and many buildings are completely destroyed. I really worry about the future of these islands as they are so dependent on the tourist economy and it looks like it will be many years before they recover. We count ourselves lucky that we were able to enjoy such a wonderful vacation on St. John a few years ago (see post from February 28, 2016 – https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?m=201602).

My boss was visiting for the week so on Monday evening I took him to the Cowboys Club for dinner. He’s a diehard Eagles fan but really enjoyed the club and a lovely sunset from the terrace. I collected another “small world” story – my boss was a chef in Bucks County, Pennsylvania before getting into IT. He ran the back of the house operation at several restaurants and on occasional nights was a guest chef at the Ottsville Inn which my Uncle Scott and Aunt Evelyn ran for several years.

Ivor Tiefenbrun delivered one of the best presentations I’ve heard at my local audio store on Wednesday evening. He’s the chairman of Linn Products in Eaglesham, Scotland and was on a speaking tour of the United States. My friend Raj was in town from California and was able to attend with me – he’s a much bigger audio nut than I am and understands a lot of the technical details. Ivor grew up in the Gorbals in Glasgow and started Linn in the 1970s. Their famous and ground breaking product is the Linn Sondek LP 12 turntable and I was lucky enough to receive one from Diana as a gift a few years ago – hence the invite to the event. I’ve enjoyed countless hours of listening pleasure from my Linn system in my home office.

Ivor’s wit and humour reminded me of my Uncle Scott (he gets two mentions in the same week) and he obviously has a huge intellect and is very well read. He engaged the audience in about an hour of stories from growing up and starting Linn and verged off into all kinds of topics. I enjoyed one about his Dad who created special purpose machines – some for the Singer sewing factory in Clydebank. He had the audience touch someone we didn’t know and posited that touch conveys many emotions – love, hate, indifference, curiosity. He believes that music is the equivalent of “touching at a distance” and that an audio system of sufficient quality allows the listener to be touched by the emotions conveyed by the artist. He mentioned that hearing is the first sense to develop and usually the last to be lost and told a story of his mother conducting her favorite piece of music, which he was playing on one of his systems in her hospital room, while in a coma. One of my favourite quotes from Ivor that night is, “Music transcends race, class, religion, education and time”.

The last 30 minutes was a lesson in “active listening” and a demonstration of Linn’s top of the line system using the 2^nd movement from Beethoven’s Emperor concerto (one of my Mum’s favourites) performed by Artur Pizzaro. It was a rare treat to hear such an expensive system which costs almost as much as a small house (in Texas at least). It turns out that Linn’s Chief Technology Officer is also a Keith Robertson. This led to an interesting conversation and an invitation from Ivor to tour his factory with him the next time I’m in Scotland.

Raj’s research before the event taught us that Linn in Scotland describes where a watercourse has cut through a shelf of hard rock creating a narrow, steep-sided cut through which the watercourse runs. Now the name and logo make sense – the needle in the record grooves.

The annual Americana Music awards were held on Wednesday night and I was pleased to see several of my favourites winning. Sturgill Simpson won Album of the Year for “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” (see my May 10, 2016 post – https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?

m=20160510). One of my favourite songwriters, John Prine, won Artist of the Year. His most famous song is “Angel from Montgomery”. Charlie Sexton, who we saw a couple of weeks ago at the Kessler (see my August 28^th post – https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?m=20170828), won Instrumentalist of the Year. Iris Dement, Robert Cray, and Van Morrison also won awards.

I had bought tickets to see David Gilmour’s new concert film from Pompeii on Wednesday night at the iPic theater but unfortunately had to pass that up to attend the Linn event – I’ll see it on DVD soon I’m sure. It’s amazing to read that no audience had seen a show in that amphitheater in over 1,000 years until the Gilmour shows.

Saturday started with a workout at Cowboy’s Fit followed by a delicious lunch at Neighborhood Services Grill across the way from the gym. This location of NHS opened about a month ago and proved to be just as delicious as the original that we enjoy so much on Lovers Lane in Dallas.

After lunch we went to see the movie “California Typewriter” at the Angelika Cinema. I had asked McD if she’d like to go to a movie and only told her the name of it and that Tom Hanks and Sam Sheppard were both in it. She asked if it was a documentary and if she could see the preview video – I declined on both because I didn’t think she’d approve the choice if she saw it, and because I suspected her reaction to the movie would be quite funny. My prediction was correct – she was doubled over in laughter at the end of the movie because it was so strange, dry, and geeky – including an attendee behind us in the theater asking at the end of the movie if anybody else was a typewriter collector.

The movie centers around a repair shop in Berkeley, California and various avid typewriter collectors and historians. Tom Hanks excitedly demonstrates his collection of over 200 machines and explains why he prefers some over others. I enjoyed the documentary but think it probably appeals to a very niche audience. Here’s the preview that McD didn’t get to see:

My sister-in-law, Amy, sent us this Jack Johnson video from a new song that I think perfectly captures the current sentiment about dividing walls.

I’m currently making slow progress (combination of being busy at work and the density of the prose) on Paul Auster’s book “4 3 2 1”. The book tells the life story of Ferguson in four different variations. The first couple of chapters show how small variations in the story line can start to have dramatically different impacts on Ferguson’s life. I think I’m going to enjoy getting into the meat of this one.

The Cowboys are playing Denver in Denver right now. There was about an hour long weather delay as a thunderstorm with heavy lightning moved through. The game is tied at 7-7 and looks like it might be quite exciting.

Week in review – September 10, 2017

Tuesday through Thursday of this week was spent in New York in meetings with Microsoft. Their offices are next to Times Square which is filled with hustle and bustle at all hours of the day and night. The view from the conference room included the New York Times building and huge TV screens with advertisements and breaking news – quite distracting. I stayed at a hotel called The Sanctuary which is at 47^th Street and 8^th Avenue – half a block off Times Square but a quiet and modern boutique hotel which was a nice find.

On Tuesday night I made a repeat visit to Birdland jazz club having enjoyed it so much a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the NYT crossword before the show and a nice dinner during.

The music was by the Steve Kuhn trio which featured Steve Kuhn on piano, Steve Swallow on bass, and Joey Baron on drums. Steve Kuhn made his initial name playing piano with jazz legends like John Coltrane, Stan Getz, and Chet Baker. Steve Swallow is a wizard on the bass and a very well respected jazz composer. He has played in the Stan Getz and John Scofield bands. Joey Baron is one of my favorite jazz drummers – he brings a huge positive energy and excitement to his nuanced playing and is always completely in tune with the other personnel in the ensemble. I saw him play with Bill Frisell at the Blue Note a couple of years ago for the first time and was very impressed.

Here are a couple of videos of the show that highlight Steve Swallow and Joey Baron’s skills.

Wednesday was a full day of meetings and then a family style Italian dinner at Tony di Napoli’s restaurant on 43^rd Street. The food was good and we got to share a number of Italian classics – veal Saltimbocca, penne pasta a la vodka, eggplant parmigiana and the like. After dinner I took my boss and a colleague from California to the Stinger bar in the Intercontinental hotel that Mc D and I discovered on our last trip for the excellent “Smoking Sipper” cocktail.

Thursday was another full day of meetings and then travel back home. Thankfully all travel both ways was smooth and uneventful. I even had the seat next to me vacant on the flight home which is quite unusual for a Thursday night when all the consultants are usually traveling home.

Much of Friday was spent working from AutoHans while Penelope was attended to. She needed an oil change and new brakes. I did find a very nice neighborhood bistro only a five minute walk from the garage called Astoria. I was able to sit outside in the nice summer transitioning to autumn weather and enjoy lunch, the newspaper, and good coffee.

On Friday night we watched a documentary about the Chinese-American artist Tyrus Wong who created the sketches that were the original inspiration for Bambi. Tyrus lived to be 106 and endured all kinds of discrimination during his lifetime but never stopped creating excellent art. Late in life he studied library books about Chinese kite making and created some amazing flying machines. A recommended documentary for sure.

Saturday was a very pleasant day – not too hot and no humidity. So I sat outside and finished the book “Bruno, Chief of Police” by Martin Walker. This was a light, quick and thoroughly enjoyable read. Martin Walker was born in Scotland and moved to the Perigord region of France in 2006. He published the first Bruno novel in 2007 and has been pumping out a new one each year since. I enjoyed the local village characters and the food and wine descriptions – life in St Denis sounds perfect.

Here’s how Martin Walker describes Bruno:

“Bruno cooks, he hunts, he builds his own house and grows his own food. He organizes the parades and festivities and fireworks displays and keeps order in his fictional home town of St Denis. A pillar of the local tennis and rugby clubs, he teaches sports to the local schoolchildren.

Bruno finds lost dogs, fights fires, registers births and deaths, and enforces the parking regulations. But he maintains a sophisticated intelligence network to outwit the interfering bureaucrats of the European Union in far-off Brussels. The country folk of the Perigord have been making their foie gras and their cheeses and sausages for centuries before the EU was ever heard of, and see no reason to bow to its rules and regulations now.”

An article in the newspaper this week had the phrase “topsy turvy” in it. I had a flashback of about 50 years and a book called “Topsy Turvy Land” that I loved – all about a world that was upside down for the people who lived in it. I tried to find some pictures of the pages online but didn’t find anything that looked like that book – maybe it’s still in the attic in Stewarton.

For dinner on Saturday night we were joined at the Cowboys Club by Patty and Brent. With the cooler weather we were able to enjoy coffee and dessert on the lovely patio. Everyone was excited for the start of the football season on Sunday and the Cowboys versus Giants game on Sunday night.

The Cowboys had a nice 19-3 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night to open the season. Highlights were an amazing one-handed behind the shoulder circus catch by Cole Beasley and Jason Witten setting the franchise all-time receiving record by passing Michael Irvin’s 11,904 yard total and scoring a touchdown doing it.

Jason Witten sets all time Cowboys receiving record

“Southern Blood” by Greg Allman got a posthumous release on Friday. I’ve listened to it a couple of times now and it is my favorite release of this year by far. Greg’s voice has a frail, less gravelly quality to it that lends even more poignancy to songs like “Going, Going, Gone”. The arrangements and musicianship are excellent throughout.

I heard the song “Jealous Moon” by Hayes Carll and it really caught my attention. I’ve seen him listed on the schedule at several of our local music clubs – Dan’s Silverleaf, the Kessler, and Poor David’s Pub – but hadn’t heard any of his music. We’ll have to give him a try next time.

Week in Review – August 27, 2017

On Thursday we had breakfast at the Cowboys Club and then watched a bit of the Cowboys training camp at their indoor practice facility at the Star in Frisco. It’s a sign of the popularity of the Cowboys and their new facility that several thousand people showed up to watch them practice. The whole event was a typical Jerry Jones production with a lot of booths and hoopla outside the event. We enjoyed watching the whole team doing their calisthenics and then running drills with the various groups. After that the teams worked on passing and running plays which was the most interesting part. I hope Dez Bryant doesn’t drop as many passes in the regular season as he did in practice. Jason Witten (Campbell’s favorite Cowboy) got the biggest cheer as he ran out on the field and they were passing out replicas of his face on the plaza outside the facility that were quite funny.

Jason Witten talking to a coach on the sideline

Friday night took us to Trinity Groves for dinner with Patty and Brent and then a concert at the Kessler. We met at Beto Mexican restaurant which was so loud inside from both music and people that we only lasted for a drink and appetizer before moving to a neighboring Mediterranean restaurant named Souk. The nitro margaritas at Beto were an interesting table side display. They use liquid nitrogen to freeze the margaritas – not bad but a little sweet for my taste.

The food at Souk was a bit mixed but it was quiet and comfortable and gave us a chance to catch up without yelling. I enjoyed the lamb moussaka and had some leftovers to enjoy for lunch on Saturday. We laughed at the restaurant name because my Mum had been telling Diana last weekend that “Sook” was a good Scottish expression for sycophant – a term McD had been using to describe my behavior with her Mom.

The concert at the Kessler was by Charlie Sexton. He’s a Texas guitarist and singer who was most famously in the band Arc Angels in the early nineties. I saw them in San Antonio in 1993 and still remember it as one of my favorite concerts. Charlie has also played guitar for David Bowie, Bob Dylan (still in his band), and appeared as a session musician on many famous records. He did play one Arc Angels song, “Always Believed in You”, which was the first highlight of the show for me.

Later in the show Charlie and his keyboard/accordion player did a few songs without the drummer and bass player which were very well done. Brent commented that the drummer had “guitar envy”. We didn’t initially understand until he explained that the drummer had been swapping out snare drums several times during the show to provide different sounds just as guitar players swap guitars frequently for different tones.

Rather than make the hour drive home after midnight, we opted to stay at the lovely art-deco era Belmont hotel close to the Kessler. The bar at the Belmont used to have an amazing view of downtown Dallas from just across the Trinity river but now one of the increasingly ubiquitous and increasingly annoying urban loft living developments has blocked it. Great views are still available from the pool area.

One of the benefits of staying at the Belmont is the restaurant Smoke next door. We enjoyed a leisurely brunch on Saturday morning this time opting for a salmon and collard green benedict over the usual pulled pork benedict that I’ve been practicing at home.

After brunch we stopped at a newly discovered coffee shop for “coffee and a crossword with Keith”. The “Magnolias Sous Le Pont” was a lovely coffee shop on the north side of downtown Dallas that you would never know is there if you didn’t stumble across it. The Saturday crossword was unusually difficult taking both of us over 20 minutes – it’s good to get a challenging one sometimes.

Sunday was a quiet day with workouts, coffee and crossword (this time at a boring Starbucks) and some tennis shoe shopping for McD. In the evening I watched the first half of the Cowboys pre-season game and was pretty happy with the overall performance – looked like the practice was paying off although Dez did drop a pass just as he had in the practice that we watched.

Some new or re-discovered music this week included this song by the Velvet Underground that I heard playing at the Belmont hotel – they play such an eclectic mix and this song got stuck in my head all weekend.

I heard this collaboration between Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa on my commute and enjoyed it. It’s the most bluesy (a la Susan Tedeschi) that I’ve heard Beth Hart.

And finally a very poignant new release from Gregg Allman who passed away in May of this year. I’ve seen the Allman Brothers a number of times including at the Beacon Theater in New York, the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Dallas, and the New Orleans jazzfest and enjoyed Gregg’s voice and Hammond organ immensely. This is the first song from his upcoming release “Southern Blood” that was recorded at Muscle Shoals studio just before his passing. I’m looking forward to listening to the full album in early September.

Week in Review – August 21, 2017

The last of our three consecutive weeks of travel took us to New York to accompany Clorinda on her visit to watch our niece, Sophia, perform in an off Broadway play. We arrived a few hours before Clorinda and visited the “Black Tail” restaurant in Battery Park. This is run by the folks who have the “Dead Rabbit” close to my work office in the Wall Street area – it was named the best cocktail bar in the world and so we had high hopes of “Black Tail”.

The cocktail menu was very cleverly constructed as a multi chapter novel and had lots to choose from. My favorite was the “Doctor Zhivago”. The place had a Cuban theme including décor and menu options. A highly recommended stop for a great craft cocktail and good views of the Statue of Liberty from outside.

For Friday lunch we tried “Craft”, a restaurant by the celebrity chef Tom Collichio. They have a 3 course prix fixe lunch menu that we all thoroughly enjoyed. The duck liver mousse appetizer was a highlight. Clorinda enjoyed tasting the desserts. The restaurant had a nice relaxed feel while the food and service were very well done.

On Saturday we took Clorinda to the top of the Empire State Building. Diana sprung for VIP tickets and we avoided the very long lines for the elevators. The views were quite spectacular and everyone enjoyed the visit very much. The ladies opted for a pedi-cab ride back to the hotel. It’s been about 25 years since I was up in the Empire State Building – the last time was on a work trip from San Antonio to install computer systems in Pennsylvania. That was the same trip that I surprised my Uncle Scott and Aunt Evelyn at the Ottsville Inn.

Clorinda went to watch Sophia’s first performance on Saturday night and so we tried a restaurant that Diana had picked from those participating in New York restaurant week named “Batard”. This was our best dining experience in a long time. The place is located in Tribeca and has one Michelin star (not that you would know from their advertising or menus – it’s just a small award in the window). We had foie gras and steak tartare to start and both were phenomenal. Then duck and lamb to follow – Diana’s lamb was the best I’ve tasted. The service and atmosphere were just what we like. We’ll certainly be back as soon as we can.

After dinner we tried to go to Small’s tiny cellar jazz club but it was full and so we opted for the late show at the Village Vanguard. This is the place that I like to go to on Monday night when they have the Vanguard orchestra. On Saturday they had a three piece band without any names I recognized and a “special guest”. The guest turned out to be Joshua Redman – perhaps the best living saxophonist. We both really enjoyed the show and Diana was able to share some of her left over champagne with the star of the show and his friends.

All three of us attended the matinee of Sophia’s show titled “Show and Tell” on Sunday. The show was very well done – particularly considering the short rehearsal time the kids from all over the country had together. Sophia had one of two leading parts and so we got to enjoy a lot of her singing and acting.

A picnic in Central Park was our plan for Sunday afternoon. We got off to a dodgy start as the subway train didn’t stop where we expected at 81^st street and our next option was 125^th street in Harlem. We quickly came back down to Columbus Circle on the next train, picked up some sandwiches and headed into the south area of the park for our picnic. A short ramble after lunch took us past the carousel, baseball fields and “Library Walk” which features statues of both Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.

Birdland jazz club was our destination on Sunday evening. We saw the Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra which was in the midst of a five week Sunday residency. The music was excellent – mambo and salsa style and the band was very well rehearsed and together. Here’s a video of the rhythm section getting a workout. I hadn’t been to Birdland before and was very pleasantly surprised by the white table cloths, food, service, sound and room to move around the tables.

After the show we stopped into a cocktail bar in the Intercontinental hotel across from the club. The craft cocktail performance making the “Smoking Sipper” was quite something as was the presentation. We met a few interesting characters at the bar – a former McKinsey consultant from Dallas and a couple from Canada who had owned and worked in the “Horseshoe” – apparently the most famous music club in Canada. The club owner was named “X-Ray” and told us a story about the Rolling Stones playing his 180 person club.

Travel home for us on Monday was smooth (after the horrible traffic into LaGuardia airport with the construction) but Clorinda didn’t fare so well with multiple cancelled flights and redirection to Cleveland rather than Akron. It was very late when she finally arrived at her destination in Wooster, Ohio.

I finished the book “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles this week. Amusingly the lady across the aisle from me on our flight home was reading the same book and was at about the same place. We had a nice chat about how much we were both enjoying being transported to Russia in the early 20^th Century. The book details the exploits of Count Alexander Rostov after the Russian revolution and his “house arrest” in the Metropol hotel. The Count spends more than 40 years in the hotel and finds ways to pass his time, ultimately becoming the head waiter of the excellent restaurant in the hotel. This was a very interesting view into a period and location in history that I don’t know a lot about. A couple of favorite quotes:

“his fingers were half an inch longer than the fingers of most men his height. Had he been a pianist, Andrey could easily have straddled a twelfth. Had he been a puppeteer, he could have performed the sword fight between Macbeth and Macduff as all three witches looked on. But Andrey was neither a pianist nor puppeteer – or at least not in the traditional sense. He was the captain of the Boyarsky, and one watched in wonder as his hands fulfilled their purpose at every turn.”

“As the willow studied the Count, he noted that the arches over her eyebrows were very much like the marcato notation in music – the accent which instructs one to play a phrase a little more loudly. This, no doubt, accounted for the willow’s preference for issuing commands and the resulting huskiness of her voice”

I heard the song “Senor Blues” by Taj Mahal this week and was taken with its combination of jazz and blues – particularly on the piano part. Some research showed this to be the 36^th album from Taj Mahal, released in 1997, and with the fabulous Jon Cleary (an Englishman who has lived in New Orleans for many years that I’ve had the pleasure of listening to several times) on piano.

The oldest of nine children, Taj Mahal was born in Harlem to a gospel-singing schoolteacher mother and a West-Indian born composer-arranger father who was a big jazz fan. So from his youth Taj Mahal was immersed in the music which would become his career. He writes that his father had a short-wave radio, and when young Taj was growing up, he was able to tune in to styles from all over the world. Later, his heroes would be American blues masters like Mississippi John Hurt, Sleepy John Estes, Big Mama Thornton, plus rock & roll pioneers like Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. In his college years at the University of Massachusetts, before his graduation in 1964 with a degree in animal husbandry, Taj had an R&B band playing on campus. Then he turned professional after graduation, co-founding a group with fellow blues aficionado (and one of my most favorite guitar players) Ry Cooder called The Rising Sons.

Having finished my book on jazz, I picked up a new “car book” – the book I keep in the car for a quick and light read if I stop for coffee or have to wait for someone or something for a few minutes – titled “The Olivetti Chronicles – Three Decades of Life and Music” by John Peel. Peel was a late night Radio 1 DJ in England when I was growing up and I love the walks down memory lane that his short stories provide. Here are a couple of snippets:

From “Kenny Dalglish” in the Guardian, 12 August 1994

“Of course, we were well aware of Kenny’s abilities long before he came to Anfield. I stood on the Kop for his first home game and we warmed to him in a way that we had never really warmed to Keegan. The most impressive of his abilities in those early matches was the way he seemed to know where every player was at all times. Even a superb Liverpool squad, by far the greatest team the world has ever seen, took a few weeks to catch up with Kenny’s speed and anticipation”

From “Tubular Bells” in The Listener, 7 June 1973

“With Tubular Bells we have a record that does quite genuinely cover new and uncharted territory. Without borrowing anything from established classics or descending to the discords, squeals and burps of the determinedly avant-garde, Mike Oldfield has produced music which combines logic with surprise, sunshine with rain. In the process of so doing he plays a bewildering range of musical instruments without ever playing merely for effect.”

Finally, a couple of other songs I heard this week and really enjoyed. A cover of “Hey Joe” by Jerry Douglas, the amazing dobro player from Nashville.

And a song from the upcoming release from “The War on Drugs”. I’m looking forward to listening to the whole album.

Week in Review – August 15, 2017

Our second of three consecutive travel weekends is behind us now. We arrived in San Francisco on Saturday afternoon and headed straight down to Redwood City, in our very loud and flashy rental car, for my niece (I can now officially call her that) Olivia’s 10^th birthday. The party was finishing up when we arrived but we did get to enjoy Marco’s hand crafted Tiki bar. I got to learn a new card game from Gianluca and we had a nice visit with Marco and Julie. When we checked into our usual room in Pacifica, I gave Clorinda her gift of some “exquisite” plates (causing Diana to sneeze “sycophant”) I had picked out for her at the Tablas Creek winery in Paso Robles.

On Sunday we headed down to Silicon Valley to catchup with family and friends. Diana had lunch with her friend Aimee and I had a delicious lunch with Finn at the Straits Café. Their roti prata bread with curry dipping sauce is something I had missed. After lunch Finn and I met my friend Sean for a good blether.

Then Sean joined us at Kristina and Cat’s home for dinner. He enjoyed discussing Cat’s new track racing car with him. Dinner had a Greek theme with lamb, Greek salad, dips, and excellent potatoes. As usual there were lots of laughs and entertaining stories. Rather than make the long drive back to Pacifica, we ubered over to the Toll House in Los Gatos to spend the night.

Monday started with brunch with Campbell and Molly at the Los Gatos café and their fluffy soufflé omelets. It was very nice to get to catch up with Campbell and Molly – we hadn’t seen Campbell since the wedding and Molly since our sailing trip in San Diego. We made our leisurely way back up to Pacifica via Half Moon Bay where we stopped into Sam’s Chowder House for chowder and a lobster roll for lunch. That was followed by coffee and a crossword at It’s Italia (where we had Diana’s 50^th birthday dinner). We finished up with dinner at Adamo and Amy’s house.

Tuesday started with overdue workouts (Diana’s first time at the 24 hour fitness in Pacifica). In the afternoon we made the drive down to Saratoga for a pre-concert dinner at the Basin. Dinner was very good – particularly Diana’s scallops.

Then the main excuse for the visit to California – Willie Nelson at the Mountain Winery. I wasn’t sure what to expect from an 84 year old country singer but was extremely impressed – Willie sang and played the guitar very well. He didn’t hide behind any backup singers or guitarists at all – it was all him out front with minimal backing. His older sister, Bonnie (86), played the piano. Here are a couple of highlights from the show. He opened with Whiskey River, then highlights for me including Georgia, Always on My Mind, and On the Road Again.

The Mountain Winery venue is one of my very favorites with great sound, views, and setting. We’re going to try and pick one concert each year to attend here.

Wednesday morning involved babysitting Massimo and Luciano for an hour or so before heading to the airport for a quick unpack, wash, and pack again for New York. Thankfully they were both well behaved and easy to handle.

I really enjoyed the movie “Hidden Figures” on the flight home. It’s about female African American mathematicians and their contributions to the early NASA flights. Highly recommended.

I heard an interesting version of “Apache” by “The Incredible Bongo Band” this week – reminded me of the trip to Zin Zen with the Halls and the Shadows covers played by the local band.

Week In Review – August 7, 2017

This was the first of three weekends of travel in a row. We flew to San Luis Obispo to visit Diana’s stepson John, his wife Madison and their family. Our arrival was delayed as we missed our connection in Phoenix so didn’t get in until late evening on Friday. We’re so spoiled by being able to take a direct flight to almost anywhere from Dallas.

John and Madi picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel, “The Carlton”, in downtown Atascadero. I kept thinking of the dance on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air show that the character Carlton does. This is a very small downtown but has most everything you could need – a good hotel, a great bakery and several very good cocktail bars. We enjoyed the dive bar, “Whiskey and June”, for a nightcap after arrival.

Saturday started with coffee and a very buttery and delicious croissant from the Back Porch bakery. Then we enjoyed a lovely brunch at the “Kitchenette” in nearby Templeton.

Then it was off wine tasting in the Paso Robles wine country. Diana had organized a large van through Uber that worked out very well. John, Madi, and her parents, Tad and Terri, joined us. First stop was the Tablas Creek winery where Tad had arranged a private barrel room tasting for us. We liked a few of the wines but nothing jumped out and grabbed us. Our hostess was a wine student at Cal Poly who really knew her stuff and could answer all of Tad’s various questions with ease. Madi wasn’t dealing with the twisty roads too well and so we chose close wineries for our next stops. I was amazed at how mountainous the region was – much more varied than Napa valley and more difficult to navigate.

Next stop was Adelaida and we all agreed that this was our least favorite stop – sweet and fruity wines for the most part. The views from the mountaintop were very good with a straight line view to the Hearst ranch where the famous castle sits. We finished up at McPrice Myers which was the smallest and friendliest of the wineries. Our hostess invited us to bring in our meat and cheese and enjoy it on the counter during the tasting. I made friends with the house Westie. A couple of the wines at this stop were quite pleasant.

We headed back to Atascadero to relieve the babysitters who had been watching John and Madi’s kids – Ben and Lilly. They are quite busy and time consuming for sure – both being under the age of two. John had been smoking a brisket for 12 hours or more and we enjoyed it for dinner in the garden of Tad and Terri’s house with a nice breeze and a great view over the valley.

Sunday had a lazy start with breakfast at the Back Porch bakery and then hanging around outside at Tad and Terri’s home reading and enjoying Bloody Mary’s and bagels and lox. In the evening John and Madi took us over to Morro Bay on the coast for dinner. The water front looks directly out on Morro Rock, a 581 foot volcanic plug that is connected to shore by a causeway. It is the last peak of the Nine Sisters which extend from San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay. It was named by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (a Portuguese explorer) in 1542 – “Morro” in Spanish translates as crown shaped hill.

We had appetizers at 3 different places that were quite different and enjoyed them all. Tognazzini’s was our first stop where we had oysters and calamari on the deck with a good country singer for entertainment. Next was Morro Bay Wine Seller where champagne flights were sampled by all but me along with the “ultimate” crostini and some very pleasant live music. We captured this silly boardwalk picture on the walk to the final progressive meal stop at Windows on the Water where I sampled some yummy risotto. Some shuffle board and pool at Whiskey and June and then it was off to bed.

Travel home on Monday was smooth with no delays and actually arriving home a little early.

I finished the book “Swing Time” by Zadie Smith this week. The British author writes about friendship between two girls growing up in a poor part of London. One of them goes on to dance on the stage in London while the other works for a pop star and travels the world. A key theme is the attempts by the pop star to create a school in Africa and the challenges that ensue. The book was very well reviewed and was a quick read but didn’t really do a lot for me. Some of the references reminded me of things I had forgotten all about – “I ventured into the kitchen to get two beakers of Ribena”, “I sometimes sang for him – the theme tune to “Top Cat”” – now I can’t get that tune out of my head.

In the credits for “Moonglow”, Michael Chabon comments on enjoying music from “A Winged Victory for the Sullen” while writing the book. This is interesting and relaxing music that would be helpful background music while concentrating. It’s kind of a cross between Keith Jarrett’s Koln concert and Brian Eno’s ambient music.

This thought sent me off to listen to the Koln concert again and I came across an excellent TED talk explaining how Jarrett wasn’t going to perform that night because the wrong piano was delivered. It was too small for the 1,400 seat hall and unplayable in the high register. The seventeen year old promoter convinced him to go ahead and he had to improvise around all the flaws of the piano. I had never heard this story before – I just really enjoyed the concert. Amazing what a challenge can bring out in a world class musician.

Two other songs really caught my attention this week. “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Julie Rhodes showcases a powerful new voice and some excellent guitar. This song was written by Ellington Jordan and first released by Etta James in 1967. I’ve listened to a few versions including this one, Beyonce, and Joe Bonamassa and definitely prefer the Julie Rhodes rendition.

The next is “Tell Me” by Meena Cryle. I found this because she also does a version of “I’d Rather Go Blind”.

Week in Review – July 31, 2017

This was a quiet week until Saturday when we were able to squeeze a number of fun activities. The day started with a matinee of the “Bodyguard” musical at the Fair Park Music Hall just south of downtown Dallas. The venue is quite old with a nice art deco flavor and lots of room to mill around before the concert started. We had seats in the balcony and were able to move to better seats as it wasn’t very busy upstairs. The musical is based on the movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner from 1992 and has 20 songs – mostly popularized by Whitney Houston. The big number is “I Will Always Love You” towards the end. The story didn’t completely follow the movie – particularly in the second half. The singing was fine but not quite as good as we were hoping for.

We headed from Fair Park over to the Bishop Arts district in Oak Cliff and the “Wild Detectives” bookstore. This is my favorite bookstore in Dallas (not that there are many to choose from these days). It’s very small with a nicely curated selection of both books and music. It also serves coffee and drinks. We had a coffee and crossword in the outside garden which was fun until I started melting in the 100 plus degree heat.

The fantastic French restaurant, “Boulevardier”, across the street offered some welcome air conditioning and a delicious cocktail and steak tartare (served with a quail egg). Next was dinner with Patty and Brent at the Meddlesome Moth. We shared several delicious appetizers and then I had a wonderful rabbit pot pie. It paired beautifully with my Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin Nitro beer.

We managed to cram a lot of activity into Saturday afternoon and evening.

Monday night saw the first concert at the new Frisco Star – the indoor practice field for the Dallas Cowboys. James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt put on a very enjoyable show. We had been concerned about echo in the venue based on a lunch we attended on the field, but some very large curtains took care of that nicely. The highlight for me was Bonnie’s cover of the “Angel from Montgomery” by John Prine – so soulful and heartbreaking. James Taylor highlights were “Fire and Rain” followed by “Sweet Baby James”. It was nice to have dinner at the Cowboys Club and use the private “Jones family elevator” to get down to the concert. Diana actually went back up to the club to get her drinks rather than waiting in line in the venue – and beat me back to the seats.

I finally finished up “Moonglow” by Michael Chabon. The narrator in this book is chronicling Chabon’s conversations with his dying grandfather and mother about his family. He weaves together tales of the various generations and relatives very cleverly and sometimes with just a bit too much detail. Chabon is right up there with Ian McEwan as one of my current generation favorites based on his wonderfully clever and descriptive similes and metaphors. “He had maybe two minutes before the rocket of his anger burned up its fuel and fell back to earth”. “Inside the airduct was a smell like the taste of a new filling”. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the last of his books I read, “Telegraph Avenue”, but would definitely recommend it.

I discovered an excellent Aretha Franklin song during dinner at the Meddlesome Moth due to the amazing Shazam app. “Share Your Love With Me” was originally recorded by Bobby Blue Bland in 1963 and covered by Aretha in 1970. There are very good covers by Van Morrison and The Band as well. Richard Manuel’s singing on The Band version is amazing.

The other song I heard this week that really caught my attention was “(Wish I Could) Hideaway” by Credence Clearwater Revival. It has a lot of the same elements that I love about their song, “Long as I Can See the Light” with the “Candle in the Window” line that made it into Diana’s vows.

The latest chapter in my jazz book covers Charles Mingus – the renowned bassist and composer most popular in the 1950s. My favorite recording is “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” which he released in 1959. I learned that it was written as an elegy to Lester Young who had died a couple of months earlier and was well known for his broad-brimmed pork pie hat when playing the saxophone. I remember enjoying the Jeff Beck version from the early 70s when studying in university. Joni Mitchell released an album dedicated to Mingus where she added lyrics to his compositions – I’ve never been able to get into it although I’ve tried a few times.

Week In Review – July 23, 2017

On Wednesday I was able to convince McD to give the Cowboys Fit another try – this time the music and machines were much more to her liking. We enjoyed the new breakfast service at the Cowboys Club after a good workout.

The Ogans arrived on Thursday evening and we enjoyed a relaxed evening at home.

Patty and Brent joined us for pizza and some games around the dining table.

Friday kicked off with my pulled pork eggs benedict for breakfast – Denny commented that I had upped my breakfast cooking game quite a bit. The afternoon entertainment was iFly indoor skydiving. Denny and Anne had double fly time as Jack and Mason decided it didn’t look like fun to them. We enjoyed watching Denny’s cheeks vibrating in the upward air blast.

Friday night dinner was at Wasabi where the food was good but the service was very slow. We found afterwards that one of the line cooks had walked out just as we were sitting down to eat and another one had an accident. I had commented that it was nice to see the restaurant full and we were concerned that they weren’t able to keep up – little did we know.

Diana and Luna were both exhausted after the evening and a look through the amazing wedding album that Diana compiled.

Got all the way through to the back page of the 100 page album and went off to sleep

Saturday started out with pool time and then a lovely brunch at the Cowboys Club. There’s not a chance that I was going to get a smile out of either Jack or Mason when I forced them to pose in the Cowboys Star – Saints fans wouldn’t dare.

The USA versus Costa Rica soccer semifinal of the soccer championship was the big event for Saturday night. We tried out the soccer experience set up in a parking lot of AT&T Stadium but the kids were melting outside.

The cooler option was dinner at the Stadium Club inside the stadium. The first half got off to a slow start with neither team able to string together effective breaks. The only exception was a very narrow miss by the USA in the first 10 seconds. The second half was much more exciting with two excellent goals from the USA.

The second by Clint Dempsey was one of the more impressive bending free kicks that I’ve seen. I learned afterwards that this goal tied him with Landon Donovan for most goals for the USA.

The breakfast offering on Sunday was my Gorgonzola cheese grits and eggs which were again well received by Denny and the crew. Then some more pool time and the traditional ice cream in the hot tub for the boys.

And then all good things have to come to an end again. We really enjoy the Ogan visits and they always seem way to short.

On Sunday night we watched a show called “American Epic Sessions”. This was executive produced by Jack Black and was a series of recording sessions using original 1925 recording equipment that had been restored over a 10 year period. The care was amazing as the engineers set up the gear and cut the sessions directly to LP. Here’s one of the sessions with Elton John and Jack White.

The latest chapter in my jazz book is on Ben Webster – a saxophone player most popular in the 40s when he started as the lead player in Duke Ellington’s band and then recorded a number of excellent solo albums. I’m really enjoying his ballads and here’s one of my favorites.

The full Stanton Moore tribute to Allen Toussaint was released on Friday and I’ve listened to it a few times now. I still enjoy Java – the first track that was released last week and here’s another favorite.