Travel – Page 15 – Keith Robertson

Week in Review – October 7, 2018

Monday was my last day of work for AIG after 6.98 years (graciously rounded up to 7 for benefits purposes) and I’m enjoying a few weeks off before starting my next work adventure. More about that in a few weeks. McD, on the other hand, worked hard all week long, spending most of her time in downtown Dallas by the Trinity river.

Brent and I celebrated National Taco Day on Thursday in style at the Velvet Taco in Dallas. The shrimp and grits taco and the margarita were both excellent. After lunch, I took Brent across the street to Audio Concepts, where Diana purchased the Linn turntable that became the heart of my office sound system that I enjoy every day. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours auditioning speakers for Brent’s new office in Corning. The slight challenge is that Patty is requesting bookshelf speakers for flexibility of placement in a future retirement home. Landon did a great job of demonstrating various digital streaming player and speaker combinations for us and we’ll see what Brent decides. “Private Investigations” by Dire Straits was the track used most to compare and what a great piece of music that is. I remember being amazed by the quality of the recording when first hearing it back in my University days.

On Friday afternoon we flew to San Francisco for the much anticipated Good Shepherd 8th grade 40th anniversary reunion event on Saturday evening. We decided to take Clorinda (Diana’s Mom) for dinner at the local Peruvian restaurant, Puerto 27, but changed our minds when greeted by extremely heavy traffic on Highway 1 South. Clorinda suggested we make a quick adjustment and try dinner at the local golf club – “Kevin’s a good cook”. Turns out Kevin is a really good cook – my Dover sole, Diana’s beef medallions, and Clorinda’s lamb shank were all delicious. Left overs were used in several breakfast omelets over the remainder of the weekend. Here’s a write up on Sharp Park gold course which was designed by a very famous Scottish architect and a video that adds some more details.

Of all the public golf courses in San Francisco, Sharp Park, which opened for play in April, 1932, arguably has the most distinguished pedigree and the deepest historical roots. Located 10 miles south of San Francisco alongside Salada Beach in Pacifica (San Mateo County), the course was designed by Dr. Alister Mackenzie, the Golf Hall of Fame architect who also designed Augusta National (home of the Masters Championship), Cypress Point (often ranked as the finest course in the world), as well as scores of other famed courses around the globe.

But even among that famous company, Sharp Park is utterly unique. It is the only MacKenize course that is both public and by the sea. The layout is spectacular, featuring stunning mountain and headlands views and a host of MacKenizie’s signature design features: the use of camouflage; cloud-shaped bunkers; sprawling greens; double fairways, and shotmaking options that require careful strategic thinking by the golfer. U.S. Open Champion Ken Venturi, who grew up on San Francisco’s public courses, called Sharp Park “Dr. MacKenzie’s great gift to the American public course golfer.”

In a sense, MacKenzie transplanted a bit of Scotland and placed it on the California Coast. Sharp Parkrepresents a true public links venue, reminiscent of classics such as North Berwick and St. Andrews itself. The old-time Scottish flavor of the place is accentuated by the 1932 Spanish Revival-style clubhouse, designed by the Willis Polk office, which today houses a lively neighborhood pub.

Saturday began as a classic foggy Pacifica day. We spent the morning visiting the nephews and Amy while Adamo was lobster diving off Southern California. Those kids have way too much energy for us old folks.

I got a lot of enjoyment from watching Massimo trying to put on his socks so that he could go and play outside.

Clorinda put together what I call the “Progression of D” ahead of the reunion and I enjoyed reviewing her school photos.

We also reviewed the year book pictures to see who Diana might remember from 40 years earlier.

Diana drove her Mum to church on Saturday evening just ahead of the reunion. When she asked who was giving a ride back home, the answer was: “I’m not going home – I’m joining you at the party!” She did indeed join the party and was mentioned as a “highlight” in an email today from one of the organizers.

It was great seeing everyone getting reacquainted and enjoying old stories. I particularly enjoyed a video of a band that three of the classmates had played in back in the day.

Sunday was a nice sunny day – always seems that the fog leaves right as we depart Pacifica. Our flight was delayed a few hours for unknown reason, and so we were able to enjoy some of the lobster that Adamo had just caught before leaving.

There was plenty of time for reading this week and I finished a couple of books with some similarities. The first, “Little Fires Everywhere”, by Celeste Ng takes place in the suburban town of Shaker Heights, Ohio, where she grew up. The lives of several families become intertwined through their children and Ng’s tale of what happens behind perfectly manicured suburban lawns takes off. The characters and the story telling are excellent with just enough believable twists to keep me hooked. While reading, I wondered if a movie version was planned as the story and characters seem ideal. I just read that Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington are planning a TV series.

The second book, “Ordinary Grace” by William Kent Krueger, is based in New Bremen, Minnesota in 1961 and is narrated by Frank Drum. He recounts the story of his teenage years from the perspective of a 40 year older version of himself. 40th anniversaries are a theme this week!

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”

I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as Little Fires, but it still kept my interest well and was a quick read.

I was introduced to Radio Paradise by the guys at Audio Concepts and have been enjoying the varied mix of music all week. You can choose a high fidelity FLAC stream which sounds great. Here are a couple of the songs I enjoyed.

Week in Review – September 23, 2018

Diana stayed in Florida for work on Monday while I flew back up to New York in time to attend a show at the City Winery.

The Loft is the smaller venue upstairs at the winery, which is located in the SoHo neighborhood. I heard that the whole location is closing at the end of the year as Disney has purchased the entire block to consolidate their New York locations. The entertainment was provided by the Ana Popovic band and I had limited expectations, not having seen or heard much about her.

Popovic is a blues singer and guitar player who grew up in Serbia and now records and resides in the United States. I was very pleasantly surprised by Ana’s music and particularly by her excellent band, which included trombone, saxophone, and keyboard players from New Orleans. It’s always interesting to notice someone who speaks with a very noticeable Eastern European accent, singing without any trace of an accent. Here’s one of my favourite performances of the evening, “A New Coat of Paint”, a cover of the Tom Waits song from the classic “The Heart of Saturday Night” album.

Another song that I enjoyed was “Slow Dance” from her most recent album, produced by the fantastic Keb Mo:

Finally, here’s a jam between Ana and the brass section:

This was a very enjoyable evening of high quality music performed in a very nice, intimate venue. I’m sorry the club is closing, but understand they are looking for a new location to open in the New Year.

A typical New York scene greeted me on returning to my hotel – dueling jackhammers digging up the street right outside several hotels at 11pm.

I flew back to Dallas on Wednesday evening and always enjoy the view of the New York skyline from La Guardia airport.

Around the same time, Will and Christine were arriving in Stewarton, Scotland to visit my Mum and Dad for a couple of days.

Here’s what Will had to say on text about this visit: “Had such an incredible day today with Granny and Grandpa! Woke up to a homemade breakfast of haggis and black pudding. Then went to the coast to see Ailsa Craig. Walked the coast, got haddock fish and chips and smoked salmon at the famous ice cream shop. Found a little shop with authentic curling stones and these stones made from compressed heather that were really cool! Went into some old churches. Then headed home. Had homemade cottage (Cumberland) pie for dinner and meringue for dessert then ended the night with some Arran single malt scotch. Also had some really good Dunlop cheddar and oatcakes with dessert!!” The way to Will’s heart is clearly through his stomach.

The next day they all met up with Struan in Glasgow, where Will treated himself to a Hunting Robertson kilt and accessories. I enjoyed my Mum and Dad telling me today that Will reported having “done” Scotland, England, and Spain in the couple of days he spent in each.

The Dallas area was treated to around six inches of rain overnight on Saturday, which resulted in some pretty bad flooding. We thought the rain was mostly finished in the afternoon and I took Diana to see a movie without letting her know the name or what it was about. The trailer led me to believe this was a light, romantic comedy which was just what McD needed after a very long work week. See what you think:

It turns out the movie, “Life Itself”, had a significant amount of tragedy embedded in a very well done story of three generations of two families. The creator of the TV show, “This is Us”, had a major role in the film and you could certainly see the similarities in story telling techniques. We’re looking forward to “This is Us” starting a new season this week as it’s our favourite TV show these days (sorry Brent). I enjoyed the references to Bob Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind” throughout the movie and how it played into the story. Here’s a song from that excellent album:

It was still raining heavily when we exited the movie and Penelope was so suitably miffed with this that she shut down one of her window wipers.

I saw this video on TV this morning and thought it was hilarious – a Great Dane mimicking his owner doing lunges.

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/video/great-dane-performs-lunges-with-owner/vp-AAApfAX

I’ve been enjoying this new song by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame. Kind of a new jazzy feel with the saxophone solo.

Week in Review – September 16, 2018

Back to New York again this week. The hotel that I usually stay at was transformed into “The Macallan Manor” for several nights as the club members there enjoyed a very fancy scotch tasting experience with some good bands playing.

It’s always very sobering to be in New York on September 11th, as we all remember watching the horror unfold on our television sets in 2001 , while the New Yorkers lived through it. My colleague took these pictures at the memorial – the only night of the year when lights outline the silhouette of the fallen twin towers.

Meanwhile, I was attending a Jethro Tull concert at the Beacon Theater on the upper west side. This was a sold out, 50th anniversary concert by a band that I enjoy very much but have never seen live. My pre-concert meal was at an excellent Mediterranean restaurant, the Hummus place, that is right behind the Beacon theater.

The mushroom hummus was amazing and the falafels were some of the best I’ve had. On exiting the restaurant, I was amused to see the Jethro Tull equipment truck – “Scotsman & Clan Transportaion”.

The concert was very enjoyable with a lot of video accompaniment from the 50 year history of the band and of world events.

It’s fairly amazing that a band with a flute as it’s main lead instrument and with a very classical bent has survived this long. Here’s a video of their Bach cover, “Bouree”.

The concert lasted well over two hours, with an intermission. The Beacon is such a gorgeous old theater with great acoustics – here are a couple of pictures from inside.

Predictably, the last song of the show was “Aqualung” which came with an entertaining video backing.

Hurricane Florence caused me to change my plans and travel down to rendezvous with McD in Florida a day early on Thursday. My flight to St. Petersburg arrived with no issues and a smooth ride overall. Diana’s hotel was within walking distance to downtown and we enjoyed exploring the area. Dinner was at the Copper Shaker which had excellent cocktails, service, and food.

Diana worked most of the day on Friday and so I was able to explore the breakfast joints, bookstores, coffee shops, and cigar bars of St. Petersburg reasonably thoroughly. I found it to be a very friendly, eclectic, walkable, and enjoyable city overall.

On Friday night we moved over to the Sandy Pearl resort in Clearwater Beach. The beaches there are made up of beautifully fine white sand. We enjoyed dinner at the very casual Frenchy’s Café, known for the grouper sandwich and “Crabby fries, and then enjoyed a lovely sunset.

Saturday started with lobster benedicts at Clear Sky café next to the hotel – very good. It was very hot and humid by the pool and so I didn’t last very long before retreating to air conditioning. I heard some great music coming from Clear Sky in the afternoon and so wandered over to listen. Diana joined me, and we met a fun couple from the nearby town of Dunedin. It made me smile because a work colleague recently moved back to Dunedin in New Zealand to run his family businesses. The couple had known each other from Kindergarten until the end of middle school and had recently reconnected – some good stories. They also recommended “Bon Appetit” in Dunedin for dinner.

We enjoyed dinner and the Dunedin sunset very much. Our waiter, Michael, had been in the restaurant business for 52 years, and certainly knew what he was doing. We shared a steak tartare starter, and then Diana enjoyed a nicely cooked lobster tail while I had the Dover sole (deboned table side by Michael). This was very much an old school restaurant.

In an effort to coax me out of air conditioning and down to the pool, Diana treated me to a poolside cabana on Sunday. This was a very special and luxurious way to relax and enjoy football and a book all day. I’m writing his post from the luxury of the cabana couch. Thanks Diana!

The Cowboys don’t play until later today, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (the local Florida team) just beat the Eagles, which always helps the Cowboys playoff chances.

I’ve been absolutely loving the book “Rules of Civility” by Amor Towles this week. This is about the exploits of a young lady in New York during the years surrounding the Great Depression and is exceptionally well written. I loved “A Gentleman in Moscow” which was Towles most recent novel and this, his debut novel, is even better in my opinion.

On the music front, I was reacquainted with this amazing Ray Charles song – a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and John and Bobby Kennedy.

Wow! What a song and what a performance.

Week in Review – August 5, 2018

Diana made her first business trip for her new job on Monday and Tuesday. The destination was San Jose and the meeting seems to have gone well. She was entertained to find a picture of an old typewriter in her room – they show up everywhere since we saw the California Typewriter movie.

This picture from her flight home shows the layer of smoke from the massive California wildfires that continue to burn. The Mendocino fire is now the largest in recorded history with close to 300,000 acres burned.

I dropped Diana off for her flight and we stopped into my favorite Dallas area coffee shop, Redefined coffee in Grapevine, for coffee and a crossword on the way. When I arrived at my office I found a nice new mousepad on my desk – a gift from Mike Mead that merges the Scottish and American flags in a creative way.

On Thursday we flew to Pensacola, Florida to rendezvous with Denny, Anne, Jack, Mason, and Sabine for a long weekend in Navarre beach. Anne’s parents, Carolyn and Jack, have a condo there that they live in during the winter months. Navarre beach is located on a very thin sliver of an island that parallels the coast – it takes just a couple of minutes to walk from the leeward to the gulf side of the island.

We stopped at the Union Public House in Pensacola for a drink and a snack before making the drive. The crab fingers and scotch eggs were very good.

Our next stop was at Joe Patti for fresh seafood. This place had the largest and most impressive array that I’ve seen – amazing variety. Denny picked up some scallops and lump crab meat.

Diana captured this picture of the gorgeous sandy beaches as we drove along the island. Here are some of the lovely views from the condo after we arrived.

Denny and Anne cooked up an amazing feast for dinner including perfectly cooked fresh scallops with tzatziki sauce. That was followed by a pretty wild game of cards against humanity which Mason won, just edging Denny and me.

Diana and I did some work calls first thing in the morning and after a late, lazy breakfast, we headed over to the beach on Friday and stayed there until a thunder storm rolling in from offshore seemed ready to soak us. Then we headed to T.J.s in Navarre proper on the mainland for a late lunch.

Our Friday night entertainment was a walk down to Juana’s to listen to the live band. The music was classic rock which everyone (except maybe Denny) enjoyed. The people watching in the music section of the bar was some of the best I’ve seen in a while with all kinds of characters involved. It became clear why the floor of the bar was nice soft sand.

Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday with a trip over to the beach. The current and waves were much calmer and so we were able to spend some more time playing in the sea. Lunch was at Windjammer on the pier where Anne and Diana had found some impressive sand art on their earlier walk down the beach.

Sunday morning brunch was amazing crab benedicts assembled by Chef Denny, Anne with a small contribution from me. After brunch we enjoyed some quality time on the massive blow up island in the water out behind the condo. Diana tried out Anne’s paddleboard and did very well – no falling at all.

D paddle boarding – should she be that far out?

Then it was that awful time again – time to leave the Ogans and fly home to boring, land-locked McKinney. Thanks to Mr. Denny for driving us to the Pensacola airport. The candle that Anne gifted to Diana caused some brief interest from the Pensacola TSA staff.

My cigar cutter and ashtray set up caused me to be stopped for a bag check on the way out of Dallas to Pensacola and I was lucky to get a TSA agent who was also a cigar aficionado and let it pass. So we were able to get extra screening on both legs of the trip.

Jack had Anne send us home with a gift from him (one that didn’t alert TSA) – a piece of wine cork art that is now hanging in our bar area.

A huge thanks to Jack and Carolyn for the use of their condo for an excellent long weekend!

My reading this week has been from the new Paul Simon biography. I’m about half way through and around 1974 when “Still Crazy After All These Years” was released. This has been a very interesting read – I enjoy hearing about the inspiration for the songs and the special recording techniques and musicians used on the various albums. I was interested to learn that the Muscle Shoals “Swampers” were the key musicians on the “Rhymin’ Simon” album – one of my favorites. It’s amazing how many of the records that I love were recorded at Muscle Shoals with that great cadre of musicians.

Here’s a song from that album:

Denny turned me on to a great version of “As Long as I Can See the Light” by My Morning Jacket while we were in Navarre:

And to finish out the music section this week, here’s an excellent song by Little Richard with Jimi Hendrix on guitar and Billy Preston on organ that I heard about through the Immortal Jukebox blog (highly recommended):

Week in Review – July 29, 2018

The week started out with a pretty significant packing oopsy! I arrived at DFW airport and realized that I hadn’t packed any trousers for my trip to New York and was wearing shorts – not ideal for the office environment.

As a result, Monday started with an early morning walk to Target, which didn’t have any dress pants at all, and then a walk to Century 21 where I was successful. It was rainy and very humid for the walk as you can see from the misty top of the Freedom Tower. I did find a great coffee shop to dry out in next to Target where I enjoyed a delicious beet humus (seems to be an increasingly popular option) and avocado toast and heard this interesting music playing.

Tinariwen is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. I like the rhythmic and repetitive guitar sound and it reminds me a lot of an album I have from 1994 with Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure (also from the Saharan desert region) titled “Talking Timbuktu”.

My first New York musical outing was to Birdland to see the Birdland Big Band. They are a 16 piece band with lots of brass and perform at the club every Friday evening and for a two week residency in the summer. I enjoyed the mix of musical styles they offered and even one of a few songs they did with a singer named Veronica swift – “Someone to Watch Over Me”.

A couple of evenings later I was able to catch a performance by the blues guitarist Walter Trout at the Highline Ballroom next to Chelsea Market. Trout had a liver transplant a few years ago and was so sick that he had to learn to talk and play guitar after surgery, taking several years to regain all of his skills. I didn’t love the show but did enjoy the venue and particularly a young guitarist named Solomon Hicks whom Trout invited to join him for a couple of songs.

I finished out the work week with a delicious Mediterranean dinner with colleagues at a new find named “Nish Nush” on John Street. The falafel trio was excellent with the best falafels and sauces that I’ve had. I’m looking forward to returning when I’m back in the area.

On the short walk back to my hotel, I thought I heard a band playing on the plaza outside the JP Morgan building, but further investigation showed that it was Thursday movie night with “Back to the Future”. I walked up right as the “flux capacitor” was being introduced.

I had a full day of meetings on Friday and headed to La Guardia airport at 5pm in a rain storm. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8pm and was constantly pushed back as the thunder storm continued to hover above the airport. The incoming flight was eventually diverted to Pittsburg for refueling and ultimately arrived around midnight. We landed in Dallas after 3am and it was close to 4:30am when I got home – a long day to say the least.

I was able to rally for a workout, coffee and crossword with Diana on Saturday morning but got very sleepy in the afternoon.

Week in Review – July 15, 2018

We arrived in Glasgow via Houston and London Heathrow on Thursday afternoon in time to celebrate my Mum’s 80th birthday. Diana did a nice job of wrapping her gift, a necklace with birthstones for each of the grandchildren, in a fancy stack. We were amazed at the array of 80th birthday cards – no two the same. You just don’t get that kind of selection with us. The weather during our visit was perfect and a very nice change from the 100 degree temperatures that we left behind in Dallas.

On Friday we decided to take a trip up to Glasgow in the afternoon. We parked at Buchanan Galleries and enjoyed lunch in Princes Square. It was fun to observe the various buskers along Buchanan Street and to see all the people enjoying their lunch al fresco. As we were leaving I spotted a dinosaur exhibit in the shopping mall and was able to coax McD into hatching from a dino egg.

On Saturday we went for a walk along the front at Troon which came with a stop for ice cream at a kiosk by the beach. David brought Penelope’s Cousin (PC), his new Porsche Cayman GTS, to Merrick View for a visit in the afternoon and then we went for an exhilarating drive on the Fenwick road.

Saturday evening brought the 80th birthday celebration dinner at Lochgreen. This is the same place where we had my Dad’s birthday party and we reprised family pictures before going in for dinner.

We had a lovely meal and Lorna provided one of her typically creative birthday cakes.

We slept in late on Sunday and then David took us to Brig o’ Doon for coffee and a snack in the afternoon. President Trump was leaving from Prestwick airport and the traffic of protestors and observers made for a slower than normal trip. The Brig o’ Doon is situated in Alloway, home of Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns. His poem, Tam o’ Shanter, finishes with his trusty horse, Meg, helping him escape witches giving chase after a night of too much imbibing. Meg makes it across the Brig o’ Doon only by shedding her tail to the witch. Here is the original verse and a translation.

There was a wedding going on and so we were asked to move out of the backdrop for the wedding pictures as we posed atop Brig o’ Doon.

That’s Heather’s new boyfriend, Michael, holding her hand as they ascend the bridge. He seems like a lovely young man in spite of being vegan. I got a picture of Diana under a line from another of Burns’ poems that I sang for her on St. Valentine’s day. My Mum commented that the gesture wasn’t complete without presentation of a red rose to accompany the song.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner of my Mum’s famous boeuf bourguignon and individual pavlovas on Sunday evening before Heather, David and Struan had to head back to Aberdeen for work on Monday.

I finished a couple of books this week. “Famous Father Girl” by Jamie Bernstein tells of her life growing up as the daughter of Leonard Bernstein. I enjoyed this very much – particularly her stories about her Dad preparing to conduct some of the famous symphonies around the world.

The other was “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova. I loved “Every Note Played” earlier this year and my Mum had left this one on the bedside table for me to read during the visit. I enjoyed this one very much as well – Genova does an amazing job of capturing what it must feel like to face the onset of early Alzheimer’s.

Week in Review – July 1, 2018

Back to New York again on Monday for a week of long meetings every day. My flight was delayed by a few hours while a tire was changed and extra fuel was added so I was a bit grumpy by the time it took off. The movie “The Death of Stalin” really cheered me up. I had no idea what to expect and quickly started chuckling at the crazy exploits of the Russian leadership as Stalin dies and they compete for power. The actors include Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi and Michael Palin and all are hilarious. The movie was directed by Armando Ianucci, whom I’d never heard of. Some quick research showed him to be Scottish from Italian descent and a graduate of the University of Glasgow – might explain why I enjoyed the dark, off-kilter humor so much. I also learned that he was a bit part of the creative force behind the HBO series “Veep” – a show that I love and McD doesn’t – it’s just a bit too raunchy and wrong for her and she can’t understand what’s funny. Here’s Ianucci and the cast being interviewed about the movie and drawing some direct comparisons from the Stalin era politics to our current leadership.

On the drive in from the airport I heard this excellent song by Book T and the MGs. It’s rare to hear Booker T on the piano versus the Hammond organ and I love the gospel feel of the guitar by the legendary Steve Cropper. Sunday Sermon was originally the B side to their 1970 cover of “Something” by George Harrison.

After checking into my new favourite Wall Street area hotel, the Downtown Association, I headed out for a quick dinner and found a new Mediterranean place around the corner named Zeytin. The food was very good with lamb-beef doner meat that reminded me of the late night kebab shops that Andy Bull loved so much in our Edinburgh university days. The beet hummus was also very nice. A good new place for a quick and casual lunch or dinner.

When I made it back to the hotel room the Jools Holland show was on TV and a very unique looking musician named Seasick Steve was performing. He was born in Oakland, CA and is now 78 and has had a very interesting life. He lived as a hobo for many years – jumping trains and working short term jobs. He played in blues bands and as a session musician and producer. In the 1990s he produced albums by Modest Mouse and in 2006 he received his big musical break appearing on the Jools Holland show in the UK for the first time. He went on to perform at many large festivals and won several awards. Seasick Steve makes many of his unique guitars and other instruments.

Here are some pictures of Heather preparing to attend her graduation ceremony on Tuesday to receive her first class Honors law and languages degree. Everyone is exceptionally proud of her accomplishment.

On Tuesday night I decided to try out a new jazz club I had read about in Tribeca – 75 Club. It advertised a speakeasy style basement jazz club. One of the great features of New York is that you can take the subway to any neighborhood and stumble across a very good restaurant. I was drawn to Serafina at West Broadway and Chambers Street and had a delicious dish of scallops with celery root puree and shaved black truffles.

Now it was time to try out the 75 Club which lived up to its advertising very nicely. As I approached the club I was surprised to find a large collection of semi trucks full of movie gear and catering stations set up all along Murray Street. The film crew was eating in the first floor of the Bogardus mansion that houses the 75 Crew. A quick bit of research revealed that they were filling a scene for an episode of the show “Ray Donovan” starring Liev Schreiber. I’m amazed at how many people it takes to put a show like that together.

Named after its builder, James Bogardus, the originator of cast-iron architecture, the building was built in 1850 and features a 5-story facade replicating the late 15th century Palazzo Veladramini in Venice. It now serves as a very popular space for wedding and special events.

The pianist and bass player, Tardo Hammer and John Webber, were sitting at the bar telling stories when I arrived in the basement of the mansion. This was equally good entertainment to the music that they performed to a very small Monday night crowd.

I would like to return to this venue on a weekend night and enjoy their nice club table seating and acoustics.

I snapped a couple of pictures of the Oculus rail terminal and Freedom Tower on my walk to and from the club.

Meanwhile, in Arroyo Grande/Pismo Beach, California, Momma D was busy babysitting Lily and Ben. She seemed to do a good job of swinging Ben and had a good visit with Alicia to her new home at Cuesta college. I think McD worked much harder than I did this week – and I know I was pretty tired by the end of the week.

Wednesday night took me to the Blue Note jazz club in Greenwich Village to see the band Lettuce. This is a New Orleans style funk jam band featuring a stellar group of very in demand musicians – Adam Deitch on drums, Adam Smirnoff on guitar, Erick Coomes on bass, Nigel Hall on keyboards, Ryan Zoidis on saxophone, and Eric Bloom on trumpet.

Alicia and I saw Lettuce at the Granada theater in Dallas about 9 months ago and so I was excited to see them on the line up this week. I enjoyed the diverse crowd as compared to typical Blue Note shows – the lady at the table next to me introduced me to her eighty year old parents who were looking forward to the show.

After Lettuce I met up with my old boss who was in town for the night. We wandered down the street to a music club called Groove that had another great band playing and had a good chat for a while.

My flight back on Thursday was delayed by lightning and we ended up sitting on the plane for over 2 hours at La Guardia before take off – delays both ways on this trip which hasn’t happened to me in a while. Diana was flying back from California and we had arranged to meet in Dallas and share a car home. Fortunately, her flight was delayed almost as much as mine and everything worked out well, albeit a few hours late.

On Friday we had Rachel and her boyfriend Rich over for dinner. Neither of us remembered until Thursday night and didn’t have anything in the house for dinner so ordered pizza and arancini from Cavalis. We were both tired but had a very nice visit and enjoyed meeting Rich- we approve.

Saturday took us to Poor David’s Pub for the first time in a couple of years to see Sawyer Fredericks. We had dinner before the show at a restaurant in Deep Ellum called Local that Diana chose. Local is housed in what was once the Boyd hotel and is very modern and minimalist inside. The Boyd hotel was built in 1911 and is one of the last remaining building in Dallas with a cast iron front. I didn’t know there was such a thing until earlier this week when I read about the Bogardus mansion that houses the 75 Club and learned that Bogardus invented the technique. The hotel was a hub for jazz and blues musicians in the 1920s with Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson (the father of Texas blues) both staying there. It’s also well known as having been a hangout for Bonnie and Clyde. We enjoyed the restaurant very much with Diana opting for the filet while I had a very tasty sea bass.

D’s champagne cocktail with house made sorbet

We checked into the Nylo hotel after dinner and then made the short walk to Poor David’s Pub. The owner of the club, David Card, is celebrating his 41st year of presenting music in Dallas and we had a very nice visit with him prior to the show starting. He used Diana’s comment about how young Sawyer is (19) in his opening as he had thought he was ten years older. I enjoyed David telling me about his top 10 list of shows he’s presented.

View of Reunion Tower from the Nylo hotel

This poster inside Poor David’s shows what must have been an excellent show before Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen became so popular. I also enjoyed a new plaque that’s in the walkway in front of the club.

Sawyer won the TV singing competition “The Voice” a couple of years ago and we both loved the tone and quality of his voice.

Here’s a video of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” – one of the songs we really enjoyed on the Voice.

The show was very good with Sawyer’s songs very mellow and deep for a 19 year old.

Patty and Brent stayed downtown on Saturday night as well to celebrate Brent’s birthday and we were able to meet up with them on Sunday morning for a birthday brunch at Saint Ann.

I finished up “Emerald City” by Jennifer Egan during my travels and really enjoyed this collection of short stories. The theme connecting the various stories seemed to be using travel to escape financial or family traumas. I’ve enjoyed all of Egans books that I’ve read this year very much.

This song by St Paul and the Broken Bones came on a Spotify radio channel that I created based on Anderson East and I don’t remember enjoying a song this much on a first listen in a while.

Week in Review – June 17, 2018

Diana and I officially became “empty nesters” (not a term that I love especially after hearing it so much in the last week) at 7:08am (precision timing provided by Diana) on Wednesday morning as Alicia drove off to start her long drive to Cuesta college in California. She picked up John at the Dallas airport and they made it all the way to Santa Fe on their first day. From there they spent the night in Sedona and Las Vegas, arriving in Arroyo Grande on Saturday afternoon. It was very strange to go from a totally full house to just the two of us over the course of a few days.

Patty and I took turns keeping Diana busy on Wednesday and Thursday and then we flew to San Francisco on Friday for the triple threat of Fathers’ Day, Finn’s birthday, and our first anniversary.

I met the boys for an early combination Finn’s birthday and Father’s Day celebration at Terun in Palo Alto. This is a Neapolitan style Italian restaurant with the official Italian government approval on the pizza style. The food was delicious – Brussel sprouts, beet gnocchi, and mushroom pizza all amazing.

After lunch we made a quick stop at Will’s apartment so that I could give Finn his birthday gift. It’s a painting that I saw in a McKinney coffee shop and thought Finn would enjoy – a panda done with pastels on suede. Finn has always loved pandas.

Bowling was our next stop at a classic old bowling alley in San Mateo. We had a lot of fun and Will’s crazy spin technique took him to victory in the first frame. Campbell did give him a good challenge.

It was a real treat to spend the afternoon with all three boys and I especially appreciated Campbell making the trip up from San Diego.

Meanwhile back in Pacifica Auntie D was enjoying some time with her nephews, Massimo and Luciano.

We’re amazed at how well coordinated Massimo is for his age. It has to be rare for an eighteen month old to be that adept on a scooter. I found this picture of Diana and her brothers and enjoy it very much. What a lot of work Clorinda had dealing with that gang. I think Amy and Adamo certainly have their hands full with two very active boys. I laughed when Luciano called me Auntie Keith. He’s used to Auntie D and assumed that’s the right title for me too.

On Sunday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary at Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos. The restaurant burned a few years ago and re-opened in 2016 with only a chef driven (i.e. no choices) tasting menu and has received 3 Michelin stars each of the last three years.

We had an amazing four hour dinner with 12 small courses. The menu wasn’t presented until the end of the meal and we enjoyed the surprise of each new plate. The presentation with different plates, glasses and cutlery for each offering was just as impressive as the food itself. The service was so good that it was almost comical – just as you took the last sip of wine from a glass it was scooped up to prepare for the next course. It didn’t seem that waiters were hovering but they just appeared table side at all the right times. The iced oyster with radish and the caviar tart were my two favourites while Diana loved the roasted squab which tasted like a perfectly seared foie gras. The most amazing presentation was the “into the vegetable garden” course which must have taken a huge amount of work to assemble – each vegetable, leaf, and flower seemed to be exactly placed with tweezers.

Our reservation was at 8pm and we didn’t get back to the hotel (a 10 minute walk that we needed) until after midnight. The company was so good that it didn’t feel anything like a four hour meal. It’s good fun to reminisce about what we were doing on this day last year with our family and friends on the beach in Cozumel. We have Diana’s amazing albums to help remember the beautiful day.

Here’s some interesting new music from a band called Gogo Penguin. They are based in Manchester, England and combine jazz, rock, classical and electronic influences in their music. Good relaxing, background music that’s quite different from the norm.

Week in Review – June 10, 2018

The big highlights this week were Alicia’s graduation ceremony on Friday morning and the celebration on Saturday night. More to come on both as the week plays out in this posting.

I had work meetings in New York early on Monday and so did something that I hate to do – flew for work on a Sunday! That used to be a regular occurrence and the good news is that it’s very rare these days. Another rare event these days is me wearing cufflinks and so the penguins were happy to get out and about and to enjoy the view from our fancy conference center looking out on the Brooklyn bridge.

I took my boss to one of our favorite New York restaurants, Batard in Tribeca (a great discovery by McD a few months ago), for dinner. He used to be a professional chef and so has pretty high expectations for food quality and service – he loved everything about Batard.

I started with the mushrooms and cauliflower which was served with raisins, shallots and black sesame. Perhaps the tastiest cauliflower and mushrooms that I’ve had – it’s amazing how good simply prepared, fresh vegetables can taste. That was followed with an excellent rabbit cassoulet. I’m looking forward to eating here again soon.

On Tuesday I went on a walk up to Greenwich village after being cooped up in conference rooms all day. I liked these views of the Freedom Tower and the Oculus. The Oculus is a new $4billion facility that acts as a rail hub for various lines coming together in the financial district and 9/11 memorial area. It’s a very modern juxtaposition with the older buildings in the Wall Street district. I also came across this church of some kind in Greenwich village and liked the lighting as the sun began to set.

It turns out the meal at Batard was my last with my boss as my boss – he and most of my peers left the company unexpectedly on Wednesday. This was a very disconcerting day and it was really tough to concentrate on what needed to be done for the rest of the afternoon. Some of us met up with him after work to say our goodbyes. Just when you have a good team going, everything has to change again.

I arrived home around 8pm on Thursday night after enjoying the movie “The 15:17 to Paris”. This was a good distraction after the work week. I’m not sure Clint Eastwood’s decision to use the real heroes of the train attack worked too well, but it passed the time well.

The graduation fiesta soon began with Kris and Cat arriving after midnight and John, Maddi, Lily and Ben showing up around 3am. After a few hours of sleep, it was time to head over to the Allen Event Center for Alicia’s high school graduation.

The ceremony was very well orchestrated and 600 plus kids graduated in around 2 hours. Poor Lily and Ben were very tired with short attention spans and fortunately graduation was in alphabetical order so that they could leave before getting too grumpy.

Diana organized a graduation get together on Friday night at Zin Zen for family, Kris, Cat, Patty and Brent. We enjoyed the walk to and from Zin Zen although it’s already starting to get very hot all day long. Here are Diana and Brent in a serious strategy session about who knows what while Patty relaxes.

Most of Saturday was spent working through D’s action lists to prepare for the party. If you didn’t keep moving and looking busy you very quickly got another task from the list. Fortunately, John was a workhorse and handled all the big jobs like cooking three kinds of pasta sauce from scratch. You can see the flowers that had to be distributed to just the right location – wait a minute, that might look better over here. With so many helpers, everything was ready in plenty of time for the 7pm start. I forgot to mention that Clorinda and Adamo arrived in the middle of the afternoon to add to the excitement.

The party was a big success with a pretty full house of both adults and graduates. The graduates seemed quieter than normal – maybe they’re growing up or more likely just worn out. Various airport trips started on Sunday while the remaining crew cleaned up, relaxed, and enjoyed my special pulled pork Benedict.

We had organized a trip to the Kessler with John and Maddi a few months ago when we knew they would be visiting. We thought Alicia could babysit and it would be a nice night out. Sunday evening rolled around and everyone was pretty tired but decided to go for it. We started with a lovely dinner at Bolsa and then saw the Bacon Brothers in concert. This is the actor Kevin Bacon and his older brother Michael. I anticipated the two of them strumming acoustic guitars and was pleasantly surprised by a very talented full band.

McD was just a few feet from the stage and had direct line of sight to Kevin – she had that same look on her face that she gets when Hugh Jackman shows up on our TV screen. Here are a couple of clips from the show.

A late night but very enjoyable company, food, and music.

Whew – I’m almost exhausted recapping the week as I was living it.

Throughout the week, the Ogans were taunting us with pictures from their visits to France, Portugal and Spain. Here’s D’s station in Portugal.

Here’s a relaxing song that I enjoyed this week to finish up.

Week in Review – June 3, 2018

Both birthdays are behind us and now it’s time for a Memorial Day celebration! We started with a late afternoon snack at The Keeper, one of our favourite local restaurants with the best calamari we think we’ve tasted. I chuckled at the mermaid handles on the door as one of my funny birthday gifts from the Ogans involved a picture of Diana’s head on top of a mermaid body purchased on Denny’s birthday trip to San Miguel de Allende. The lobster sliders are quite yummy as well.

Later in the evening, Diana and I walked up to the charity concert at Adriatica that happens every year and stayed to watch the fireworks after the show. The concert was held in an open piece of land behind the new developments that is shaped like an amphitheater. The sound was not very amphitheater like and McD commented that the sound crew needed to go and take lessons from the folks at the New Orleans jazzfest. Very true.

The musical headliner was Joe Nichols, a country artist that I’m not familiar with but Diana knew a couple of his songs. Pleasant background music for enjoying a nice early summer evening but nothing memorable at all. The fireworks after the show were set up on a raft in the middle of the manmade lake beside Harry’s restaurant and were quite impressive. In previous years, we’ve watched from Alicia’s balcony while she attended the festivities – this was the first year we’d been up close and Alicia decided to stay at home.

The magnolia trees in our back garden seem to be quite happy this year and celebrating Memorial Day in style with larger flowers than we remember and some good new growth.

It was back to New York again for me on Tuesday and an opportunity to meet up with my boss on Tuesday evening. We were headed to Barbounia at 20th and Park for dinner (a place that caught my eye on a walk back to the subway from the Jazz Standard) but made a quick stop at the “Library of Distilled Spirits” beforehand. This was a lovely new find with a great cocktail list and beautiful surroundings.

Barbounia is a Mediterranean restaurant with an Israeli/Middle Eastern concentration. We liked everything about it – the appetizers and mains were delicious with great ambience. So many things sounded good that it was really hard to choose. I ended up having duck “Shawarma” which was served over black rice, wild mushrooms, pearl onions, tahini and pine nuts – I loved the dish! My boss had short ribs Tajine that I sampled and they were equally delicious. I’m looking forward to visiting Barbounia again the next time Diana is with me.

It wasn’t too late when we finished dinner and so I suggested a stop at the Jazz Standard which is just a few blocks from the restaurant. We saw the Sachal Vasandani quintet. Sachal is a young jazz singer and a favourite of Wynton Marsalis. His voice and style have a little bit too much of the Michael Franks smooth approach for me but the band was excellent. James Francies was the stand out on piano – his sound, touch and improvisation were beautiful. Francies grew up in Houston and moved to New York in 2013. He’s in his early twenties, has won numerous awards and appears regularly on the Tonight Show playing with the Roots. He has composed music and movie soundtracks with Questlove. I had a brief chat with James after the show and found him to be very humble and charming. Here’s a video from the show. Obed Calvaire on the drums was also excellent and another up and coming young New York based jazz musician.

I met up with my friend Andrew (used to work with me at EDS/HP as a sales executive) on Wednesday night for dinner. He had suggested one of the fancy Wall Street steak houses but I was easily able to divert him to the Jazz Standard for barbecue and music. We enjoyed the same band and James Francies was even more impressive on the piano the second time around. Here’s a video of Francies with his own band and composition.

A pleasant schedule change at work allowed me to get back to Dallas in the early afternoon rather than close to midnight. Patty and Brent were planning to bring over Thai food to celebrate Diana’s employment before I got home and so I was able to crash that party and enjoy some yummy food.

I enjoyed the movie “Lucky”, starring Harry Dean Stanton as Lucky, on the flight to New York. Another quiet, unassuming movie about a retired man who lives alone in a very rural desert town. Much of the movie follows Lucky as he goes about his daily routine in a somewhat lackadaisical manner. About half way through he meets a new friend and the movie very cleverly shows his mood improving through subtle changes in his routine. I’m hoping for some new movies on the American Airlines system in June as I’ve now definitely watched everything that interests me at all.

The music channel on the plane surprised me with Blue Spirits by the jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard as a “new release”. This music was recorded in 1967 and has been re-mastered and released a few more times since. One of the interesting aspects of the recording is that there are three different pianists on the various tracks – Harold Mabern, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock. The rhythm piano playing on the first song, Soul Surge, caught my attention (it’s Harold Mabern) and I was surprised when the style changed a lot on the next track – now I understand why.

Friday evening and a portion of Saturday were spent working my way through my “Honey Do List” which has become a bit lengthy with the upcoming visitors and graduation party. I’m happy to report that the bed relocation project has been completed since this picture was snapped. “Fix up misters” is the only remaining task and is awaiting some mounting hardware. Patty wondered if this was some fixing up I was doing on myself – Mister Robertson. The “feels like” temperature (adjusted for humidity impact) was 104 degrees on Friday which made for an ideal time to replace the filters in the attic – good exercise.

I finally finished John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany” this week and don’t remember a book that took quite as long to complete. I enjoyed the book but wasn’t dragged back into it whenever I had some spare time. This is apparently Irving’s novel that is most often referred to as “an American classic”, ahead of his better know novels “The World According to Garp” and “The Cider House Rules”. The story portrays the enduring friendship between the narrator and Owen Meany during the time when the Vietnam War was having its most divisive effect on the United States. English teachers apparently often reference the first sentence of this book as one of the best – mainly because it contains the essence of the entire story. Here it is: “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

As I write this post the Miles Davis recording of “It Never Entered My Mind” is playing and I think this may be the best and fullest trumpet sound I’ve heard on any of his recordings.