Travel – Page 16 – Keith Robertson

Week in Review – March 11, 2018

Have you heard of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico?

We hadn’t either until Denny pushed hard for this to be the destination for his 50th birthday trip. We flew down on Thursday and were happy to find it took a short 2 hour flight and 1.5 hour drive to reach the lovely house that Denny had arranged for us.

San Miguel de Allende is situated at 6,200 feet and has a population of around 70,000. The mountainside location leads to plenty of uphill and downhill walking. Our house was about a 10 minute walk uphill from the main square and so our calves did get a reasonable workout. The weather was very pleasant during our stay with highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s.

We arrived around 3pm and Sean and Sheri weren’t due until later in the evening, so we set out to explore the center of town. The main square is dominated by La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, the current parish church of San Miguel, which is unique in Mexico and the emblem of the town. It has a Neo-gothic façade with two tall towers that can be seen from most parts of town. It is one of the most photographed churches in Mexico. The church was built in the 17th century with a traditional Mexican façade. The current Gothic façade was constructed in 1880 by Zeferino Gutierrez, who was an indigenous bricklayer and self-taught architect. It is said Gutierrez’s inspiration came from postcards and lithographs of Gothic churches in Europe, particularly the one in Cologne; however, the interpretation is his own and is more a work of imagination than a faithful reconstruction.

There is a plethora of rooftop restaurants to choose from and we chose Quince beside the church as our first stop. The food and views were excellent – we think it might be the best grilled octopus that we’ve tasted.

As we stopped at a wine shop to stock up for the weekend, a very interesting Mexican wedding celebration passed by. A procession through town led by a donkey carrying flowers and tequila, followed by very large human puppets of the bride and groom, a Mariachi band, and the wedding party. As the weekend progressed we realized that this is a very common occurrence with many weddings taking place on Saturday.

Sean and Sheri arrived safely on Thursday evening and we headed to another rooftop, SMA restaurant, just up the street from the house. We had a delicious dinner and several of the group sampled Casa Dragones Joven tequila (apparently a favourite of Oprah and Martha Stewart).

Friday began with a walking food tour. This took us to 6 restaurants around town and our tour guide, Pascal, provided a lot of cultural and historical information along the way. The town, so the story goes, owes its founding to a few over-heated dogs. These hounds were loved by a Franciscan friar, Juan de San Miguel, who started a mission in 1542 near an often-dry river 5km from the present town. One day the dogs wandered off from the mission; they were found reclining at the spring called El Chorro. The mission was moved to this superior site.

San Miguel’s favorite son, Ignacio Allende, was born here in 1779. He became a fervent believer in the need for Mexican independence and was a leader of a conspiracy that set December 8, 1810, as the date for an armed uprising. After initial successes Allende, Hidalgo and other rebel leaders were captured in 1811. Allende was executed, but on independence in 1821 he was recognized as a martyr and in 1826 the town was renamed San Miguel de Allende.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the town was in danger of becoming a ghost town after an influenza pandemic. Gradually, its Baroque/Neoclassical colonial structures were “discovered” by foreign artists who moved in and began art and cultural institutes. This gave the town a reputation, attracting artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, who taught painting.

This attracted foreign art students, especially former U.S. soldiers studying on the G.I. Bill after the Second World War. Since then, the town has attracted a significant number of foreign retirees, artists, writers and tourists, which has shifted the area’s economy from agriculture and industry to commerce catering to outside visitors and residents.

Now back to the food. Our first stop was La Parada, a Peruvian restaurant, where we enjoyed ceviche with leche de tigre (tiger’s milk) and excellent pisco sours. We liked this one so much that we returned for lunch later in the visit.

Next was Casa del Diezmo, a Yucatan Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed Pork Pibil Panuchos. This place was typical in that you wouldn’t know it existed from the street and on entry found a gorgeous courtyard with beautiful plants and flowers.

One of my favourite dishes from the tour, mole enchiladas, was next at La Cocina, Café del Viajero. There are many different recipes for mole sauce, typically including chocolate, chiles, sweet and sour ingredients, thickeners and spices. The sauce at our stop was absolutely delicious.

Although the portions at each stop were relatively small, we were starting to feel pretty full at this point. The last stop before desert was Don Taco Tequila, a vegan restaurant where we enjoyed mushroom tacos.

The tour finished with ice cream from a street cart and delicious churros with caramel sauce. This was a wonderful way to explore downtown, the food variety, and to learn some history – thanks Anne for organizing.

After the food tour, can you guess what we did? Yes – another rooftop at Pueblo Viejo and then dinner downstairs. In between, Diana, Denny and I relaxed at the bar at a fancy boutique hotel called Beelia.

On the walk home we enjoyed several Mariachi bands with the Amistad band being a highlight. They were certainly the loudest with lots of brass and a sousaphone – sounded a lot like a New Orleans brass band.

Saturday started with a delicious traditional breakfast prepared by the housekeeper, Mar, who was lovely and welcoming and entertained us by trying to communicate in Spanish with no desire to slow down and help us understand.

Jimmy Ray “Anado” McLaughlin in front of Kismet

The day continued with one of the more unique activities of our visit – a trip to Jimmy Ray McLaughlin’s art compound a few miles outside of town. This is the kind of special surprise only experienced when traveling with Denny and taking advantage of his prodigious research. Jimmy Ray has lived throughout the US and around the world and likes to go by Anado, a name he was given in India. Anado uses bottles, tiles, and other recycled material to create very colorful and detailed mosaic artwork. We enjoyed the tour of his art compound with several galleries, a large mosaic wall called “Kismet”, his house and studio, but mostly his colorful commentary on his art and life.

Saturday dinner was our one “fancy” dinner of the trip at, you guessed it, a rooftop restaurant. Zumo offered fantastic views of the city and a spectacular tasting menu and wine pairings. Everybody loved their meal. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and just say that the foie gras mousse and the short ribs were the stand outs for me.

wild mushroom potage with white truffle foam

Mezcal marinated foie gras mousse — mescal marinated foie gras mousse

Back at the house after dinner began game night. Several rounds of heads up started the hilarity and were followed by Kahoot where I learned that I know nothing about current popular culture but quite a lot about classic rock.

Sunday brunch was at another Denny deep research find, Nicasio Comedor Mexicano. This was a small, simple restaurant with an open kitchen where we watched traditional Mexican breakfast fare prepared with great flair and attention to detail – tweezers used to place garnish and tiny jalapenos. The pet duck wasn’t in its bed in the restaurant but rather in the pond since it was starting to get hot.

After brunch we visited Fabrica La Aurora, an art market on the outskirts of town that is a converted textile mill and houses many individual art galleries. Denny and Anne tried hard to find some art for their redone living room but came away empty handed. Sean found a very unique poker chip holder and we found a fun gift for Patty’s birthday.

The afternoon ramble through town started with tapas and drinks at the Luna restaurant on top of the Rosewood hotel (the fancy hotel in town). This had amazing views all around.

Next on the ramble was a stop at a tapas restaurant where Denny heard interesting music. The music stopped right as we entered but was quickly replaced by Los Miguels, Miguel and his friend Miguel, who sang and played guitar beautifully. Miguel #1 tried very hard to explain the meaning of each Spanish song to us in English before he performed – and he did an admirable job. His passion for his music and for communicating really came through.

We briefly checked out the tapas restaurant rooftop but weren’t huge fans of the electronic music – a hard transition from Los Miguels.

Anne had been mentioning a visit to “La Sirena Gorda” (the fat mermaid)for a couple of days and so we finally made a visit there on our way to an evening snack at Quince (finishing the trip as we began).

A late night game of liars dice finished out our last full day in San Miguel de Allende.

Sean and Sheri had a very early departure (5am – ouch) back to the airport and the rest of us left a few hours later. You can tell Denny had a good trip from his snooze on the drive.

On the drive to the Leon airport I emailed David to ask him about the rumor I heard from my Mum and Dad of a new cousin in the family. He quickly replied with pictures of Penelope’s new cousin – a gorgeous red Porsche Cayman. I’m looking forward to meeting her in Scotland in the summer.

For the musical lagniappe this week I offer two great songs that I heard for the first time this week. “Good to Me As I Am to You” by Aretha Franklin featuring Eric Clapton on guitar and “Tennessee Blues” by Bobby Charles, who also wrote “Walking to New Orleans”.

Week in Review – February 18th, 2018

Travel to Pacifica, CA was the main activity this week. Spring has sprung there already.

Diana flew out on Tuesday to help her Mum with cataract surgery on Wednesday. All went well and recovery seems to be on track. Although I was alone for Valentine’s day, I did get a nice sign and bowl of treats. Clorinda had “Pacifica Penguin” waiting as my Saint Valentine gift.

I joined McD in Pacifica on Friday afternoon and we had a very enjoyable dinner with Clorinda’s new neighbours (Andy and Jude) on Friday evening. They live about 50 yards up Gypsy Hill from D’s Mum and their house has been beautifully remodeled with huge windows and views of the ocean. The sunsets are amazing. Andy and Jude first moved to California from England in 1989 and opened a record store in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. They are a very interesting and kind couple and have been great neighbours for Clorinda in the short time they’ve been there.

We met Finn in Los Gatos for Saturday lunch at a relatively new restaurant called Bywater. It’s owned by David Kinch who has the 3 Michelin star restaurant, Manresa, in downtown Los Gatos. He loves New Orleans and wanted to open a small, casual restaurant serving the local food. Bywater is a gentrifying but still pretty funky neighborhood of New Orleans that does have some great restaurants. I caught up with Finn over a yummy brunch and D sat at the bar and caught up with her friend Aimee who also lives in Los Gatos. It was nice to see Finn free of back pain and feeling positive.

The interesting painting on the Bywater wall, “Society of St Anne Meeting Spot”, refers to a New Orleans marching krewe that parades each Mardi Gras. Known for the very elaborate costumes of its members, the group gathers in the Bywater each Mardi Gras morning, with the Storyville Stompers brass band providing the music. As they pass through the Faubourg Marigny and French Quarter, additional costumed marchers join the parade at various coffee shops and bars along the route. The marchers continue to Canal Street to watch the Rex Parade and then return into the French Quarter. Of course it made us think of our own favourite Anne from New Orleans.

After lunch we played bocce ball at Campo di Bocce across the street (a very Italian spot). This was a lot of fun. McD and Finn weren’t much of a match for Aimee and me and of course we were very gracious in victory.

The eating continued with a three course dinner at Kris and Cat’s home. As usual, Cat provided several very entertaining stories – one from his childhood with a flaming Christmas tree being thrown out into a busy street below and another involving driving his new race car to get smog tested. Dessert was advertised as pear flambee but the rum refused to catch fire – even when subjected to a welding torch. We always come away with some great memories from a visit to their home.

Will and Christine were our lunch companions on Sunday. We let Will pick the spot and he came up with NOLA in Palo Alto – unknowingly keeping the New Orleans theme going. Lunch was great and then we made a visit to see the new apartment fully decorated and looking very cozy. It’s great to see them so happy with a very nice place to call home and a much shorter commute for Will.

Not too much progress on my Turkish book this week and I did start a new book for light relief between Turkish lessons – “Uncommon People, The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars” by David Hepworth. Each chapter focuses on the rise or fall of a particular rock star in each year from 1955 to 1995. I very much enjoy Hepworth’s writing style and interesting stories. Here’s one about Ringo Starr joining the Beatles in 1962 – “The strongest influence on his upbringing was his grandmother, a woman of nineteenth-century superstitions. One was the belief that any child unfortunate enough to be born left-handed must be trained out of the habit. She set herself the job of making sure young Richard wrote right-handed. He subsequently played a right-handed drum kit with the inclinations of a left-hander. It’s Ringo’s grandmother we have to thank for the characteristic lacunae that made so many of the Beatles’ drum parts impossible for other drummers to play.” Diana’s Dad was similarly forced to write right-handed but performed surgery left-handed. David Hepworth was the host on the British music program “The Old Grey Whistle Test” which I enjoyed very much – check out some of the episodes on Youtube – some great performances.

Not too much time for new music discovery this week but I did hear this great song from my favourite Govt Mule album, Dose.

Week in Review – February 11, 2018

Back to New York again this week – maybe the last trip for a few weeks.

I flew up on Tuesday and met up with some old teammates for dinner and drinks – always fun to reminisce about what seemed to be funner times but I’m sure came with just as many challenges.

On Wednesday I made my first visit to Fraunces tavern in the Financial District. This is a Colonial tavern which has been operating since 1762 with over 200 whiskies and 130 beers. There is a museum attached with some fascinating stories. One of my favourites is that after British troops evacuated New York, the tavern hosted an elaborate “turtle feast” dinner for George Washington in the “Long Room” where he bade farewell to his officers of the Continental Army. We didn’t get to see the “Long Room” but I did have some great late night scotch eggs in “Lafayette’s Hideaway” bar.

As has become somewhat traditional, Thursday night was music night. This time jazz at Dizzy’s Club in the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex. My boss and I enjoyed dinner at Landmark in the Time Warner center at Columbus Circle and then headed next door to the jazz club. Dizzy’s is unique in that the musicians perform in front of large floor to ceiling windows that provide a view out onto Columbus Circle and Central Park. The sound is also the most pristine one can hear in any music club.

The music was by the Christian Sands trio who did a tribute to the music of Errol Garner. Sands is a 28 year old pianist who is viewed as one of the best of the younger generation. His technique and dynamics were both amazing. Garner is known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad “Misty”, has become a jazz standard and was featured in the Clint Eastwood movie, “Play Misty for Me”. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

A young singer, Michael Mayo, joined the band on a few songs – most notably Misty. I don’t typically enjoy jazz singers but Mayo’s voice was beautiful and his dynamic control excellent. The concert almost (not much at all really) made up for missing the Anderson East concert that Diana and I had looked forward to attending on Thursday in Dallas at the tiny club Trees.

We enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday and particularly the performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” with two doves becoming one. The drones on the mountain were pretty amazing as well.

Since McD and I were not going to be together on Saint Valentine’s day, we celebrated early with a movie and dinner on Saturday night. The movie was “The Darkest Hour” about Churchill’s challenges in May 1940 during Dunkirk. We both thoroughly enjoyed Gary Oldman’s Churchill and learned a lot about those few weeks in history. Many of the classic Churchill quotes were in the movie, along with my favourite, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.

Options were limited since I had left it so late to make a dinner reservation and everywhere was busy with the pre-Valentine rush. I chose Perry’s Steakhouse and our first visit there was a big success. Great music from a lady singing and playing piano, steak tartare and escargot appetizers, tasty steaks, good wine, and lots of leftovers for Sunday. We look forward to returning to try the signature pork chop.

The Churchill movie brought to mind one of my favourite Supertramp songs about the Dunkirk evacuation, Fool’s Overture. This comes from an album with excellent cover art – wouldn’t it be fun to dust off the snow and play the piano with that view?

Here’s a couple of melancholy songs that have been on heavy rotation this week. “Summer’s End” – the first new song in many years from the outstanding song writer John Prine, and “I Think it’s Going to Rain Today” from Randy Newman’s first album many years ago with the lyric, “Human Kindness is Overflowing” and the immediately identifiable Newman orchestral arrangement. Why haven’t I heard this before?

My book this week was “Notes on a Foreign Country (An American Abroad in a Post American World)” by Suzy Hansen. This is by a New York Times journalist who moves to Istanbul and quickly comes to realize that her views and opinions on American policy are quite different when observed through the local Turkish lens. I’m enjoying the book quite a bit but think it’ll take several weeks to finish with some lighter material for breaks.

Here’s one final piece of music that I’ve been listened to several times this week – “Trust” by Roy Hargrove. I love the flugelhorn sound on this one. Hargrove was born in Waco, Texas and attended the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas. It’s there that he was discovered by Wynton Marsalis on a visit to the school. One of his big influences was David “Fathead” Newman who was a core member of Ray Charles’ Band. Interestingly Newman was the second concert that I saw in the United States – at a small club called The Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth while I was working in the oil business. What was the first show I hear you asking – Delbert McClinton at the same excellent venue in downtown Fort Worth.

Week in Review – January 28, 2018

Back in New York again and getting a bit road weary.

My stay was booked through Friday at the Gild Hall hotel but I was able to escape the madness on Wednesday. My last few days of Executive Platinum status on American Airlines was put to good use in getting me on a flight an hour earlier than planned. This sign that I saw in Heathrow airport was on my mind as I sat cramped in a seat at the back of the earlier flight.

As usual, I was able to escape work for a few hours and enjoy some of the excellent jazz music that seems to be happening somewhere every night in New York. The Tuesday night show at Birdland was titled “The Story of Jazz: 100 Years” and was presented by the Vincent Herring band.

Here’s the blurb from the playbill:

“A musical journey celebrating 100 years of America’s original art form begins with the African drumming and work songs that led to the birth of the blues – the basis of all jazz. The show moves through 1920’s Ragtime, to 1930’s Swing, to 1940’s Bebop, to 1950’s Cool. In the 1960’s jazz explodes with innovation: The Hard Bop of Miles Davis and Art Blakey, the Modal Jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Soul Jazz, the Bossa Nova craze, Latin Jazz, and Free/Avant-Garde sounds of Ornette Coleman. The program concludes with 1970’s Fusion and the many Post-Bop iterations from the 1980’s to the present.”

I really enjoyed the medleys from the Dixieland era (featuring lots of Sydney Bechet style clarinet) and from the 1950s with “So What” by Miles Davis. I dragged my boss out of the office to join me and we were in the front row next to the band which allowed us to enjoy the interaction between the players. Here are a couple of videos. The first has the classic “Birdland” and the second features some very high register trumpet playing – it hurts my embouchure just listening to it.

The rest of the week has been quite relaxing and spent catching up with my long lost wife. All the little daily routines – workout, coffee and crossword, watching “This is Us” and “Madame Secretary” – that I really miss when on the road too long.

On Saturday we saw the movie “The Post” with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. I enjoyed learning about a historical incident that I didn’t know about. The backdrop of the IPO of the media organization and the legal ruling against the New York Times publishing the Pentagon papers really made the decision on whether or not to publish by Katharine Graham very compelling.

Here are a couple of musical langiappes: My favorite version of “Birdland” by the amazing Weather Report featuring the classic Jaco Pastorius bass lines and some great jazz rock from the 70s by the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.

Week in Review – January 21, 2018

I arrived in London on Monday morning for a few days of work. The Tower of London was right next to my hotel and so after a nice rejuvenating swim in the hotel pool I went for a wander around the neighborhood. Thai food was my choice for dinner and then off to try and sleep.

On Tuesday morning I woke up early but reasonably well rested for a day of work in Croydon. A 15 minute walk to the London Bridge train station was quite brisk and refreshing. It took me a few minutes to understand that I was headed to East Croydon and had to type that in to buy a ticket. The new and fully automated station didn’t have anyone to ask for help. The train journey was less than 15 minutes and the office was directly across the street from the East Croydon station – easy peasy. Meeting the EMEA team face to face for the first time was very nice – I even got to play some ping pong in the newly modernized office. The walk back to the hotel numbed my toes and my colleague informed me that those in the know wore thermal socks – not something I considered when packing for the trip. Some clients took me out for drinks and dinner when I got back into central London and scotch eggs on the menu was a pleasant surprise.

Wednesday was spent in the central London office meeting colleagues. The office vibe was much more pleasant and relaxed than that of the New York office and everyone was very welcoming. Dinner was at Tayyabs which is voted the best Indian restaurant in East London. It serves Punjabi, Northern Indian cuisine and I really enjoyed it. The fiery lamb chop appetizer is not to be missed. Paul, a Scottish friend, who lives in London and worked with us in Fort Worth for several months last year joined for dinner and was as entertaining as ever. He was able to FaceTime with Diana after dinner and get her all filled of Italian vacation dreams – Paul was married last year at a villa in Tuscany and has spent a lot of time in Italy.

Thursday was back to Croydon for work and no issues with the train routine this time – maybe that puts me in the fast learner category? I enjoyed a delicious Turkish dinner at Atesh in Croydon with George, a colleague who also has 3 sons about the same age as mine. We exchanged some entertaining stories. The lamb moussaka was some of the best that I’ve had.

On Friday I caught a quick flight up to Glasgow to help Elspeth celebrate her 50th birthday. The flight landed just ahead of a snow storm and I was glad David had his Land Rover to collect me. The drive to Stewarton was uneventful. Here’s a map that shows the location of Stewarton on the West coast of Scotland.

You can see the lovely snow covered countryside in this video:

Gifts were opened and birthday cake enjoyed at 6 Merrick View and then we headed to the Brig O’ Doon restaurant in Alloway. Mum described the drive from Stewarton to Fenwick as “horrendous”. Snow was falling heavily and the road was icing over to the extent that many folks were abandoning their cars and walking into town. Thank goodness for the Land Rover and David’s excellent driving skills. After reaching Fenwick, the rest of the drive was smooth. We parked next to the Brig O’ Doon that is featured in the famous poem, Tam O’ Shanter, by Robert Burns.

The opening lines known by all Scottish schoolkids are:

When chapmen billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors meet

Several lines from the poem are painted throughout the restaurant which was appropriately hosting a Burns supper that evening. Here’s the part where Tam’s horse gets him across the bridge but loses her tail.

Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane o’ the brig;
There at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the key-stane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!
For Nannie, far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi’ furious ettle;
But little wist she Maggie’s mettle –
Ae spring brought off her master hale,
But left behind her ain gray tail;
The carlin claught her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

And finally the advice to anybody inclined to drink too much:

No, wha this tale o’ truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son take heed;
Whene’er to drink you are inclin’d,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think! ye may buy joys o’er dear –
Remember Tam o’ Shanter’s mare.

We had a lovely, leisurely meal and the ladies finished up with some fancy sundaes. Many but not all of the abandoned cars had been retrieved by the time we made the drive back home.

Saturday breakfast consisted of some of my favourites made to order by my Mum – black pudding, fried egg and mushrooms. Elspeth, David, Heather and Penny (cairn terrier named after Miss Moneypenny from James Bond) took me for a walk at the Whitelee Wind Farm near Eaglesham.

This is the largest Wind Farm in Scotland and is very impressive up close. The turbine housing at the top is the size of a large caravan and you really don’t appreciate the scale until up next to it. Walking in the snow and wind certainly blew out the cobwebs and I was glad to have Struan’s hiking boots.

Here’s a video of silly Penny trying to catch a snowball:

Mum made one of her delicious beef stews for dinner and then we watched some Grand Tour episodes with the car crazy David.

For Sunday breakfast I had my favourites again but at a much earlier hour so that David could drop me back in Glasgow for my flight to London and then on to New York. I was pleasantly surprised by the food on the flight and particularly the oatcakes (one of my top foods) with cheese. Immigration at JFK airport was a breeze but the car to my hotel seemed to take forever due to heavy traffic and bridge construction. I watched most of the 2nd half of the football playoff game on the drive.

I finished Tom Hanks’ new book, Uncommon Type: Short Stories, on the flight and highly recommend it. Each story starts with a picture of a typewriter from Hanks’ collection which features somehow in the story. The quality of the short stories and the everyday characters captured in them was surprising – what a talented man.

A song by the Scottish band Deacon Blue, very popular in the 80s, was playing in the car on my drive to Heathrow airport and it transported me back in time quite effectively. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard Deacon Blue on the radio in America.

Week in Review, January 14, 2018

New York and the cold weather again?

On Monday I flew back to the freezing cold Big Apple. These pictures I took from the plane on descent show the frozen conditions. Those huge ice blocks broke up a little as they floated down the East river that we could see from our office conference rooms.

I chuckled at this sign in front of the entrance to my office. Not sure what you’re supposed to do in response to the sign, look up? Temperatures rose each day that I was there and as usual I tried to make the best of being in New York in the evenings.

On Tuesday night I experienced the best jazz concert that I’ve seen so far. The Joshua Redman quartet at the Blue Note. Redman seems to completely inhabit the tenor saxophone and has a unique combination of total technical mastery and enormous musicality. The setlist was an excellent combination of gorgeous ballads, up tempo improvisations, and everything in between. Redman was joined by Aaron Goldberg on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Gregory Hutchinson on drums.

You can see from the picture above that I had a great view of Aaron Goldberg’s hands on the piano. What a treat that turned out to be. He shares the same combination of technical dexterity and musicality that Redman exudes. I’ve been listening to a few of his solo albums and enjoying them very much – a nice new discovery on a cold Tuesday evening.

Hutchinson’s drumming was a big part of my enjoyment of this show as well. He moved from subtle brush work on ballads to explosive fills in the more up tempo ballads – playing the drums like a lead instrument on several occasions.

I sat at a table with a very interesting mother and son duo. Sandy Evans is a well known saxophone player from Australia. She and her son were spending some time in New York before heading to Cuba to perform in the international jazz festival. They were friends with both Aaron and Joshua and so I got to have a nice chat with them as a result. You might remember that I met Joshua once before at the Village Vanguard when McD shared her champagne with him.

Breakfast at the hotel is pretty expensive for the quality and so I stopped at Bailey’s for breakfast on Wednesday. This breakfast bull was quite intimidating.

Work involved many long meetings with vendors, and it was easy to drift off into enjoying this excellent view of the Brooklyn Bridge and East river from the conference room.

I chose The Odeon in Tribeca for dinner on Wednesday night. We’d been there once before with Mary and Chuck and I remembered enjoying the French brasserie feel. A nice bracing mile walk helped me work up an appetite.

The restaurant is a typically loud and boisterous New York scene but the food is very good. I started with a sazerac to warm up and then enjoyed some excellent steak tartare and a side of baby brussel sprouts with bacon.

It was back to McKinney on Thursday night and a relaxing Friday evening cooking Gorgonzola lamb chops and catching up on the episode of “This is Us” that we missed on Tuesday night.

After workout and coffee and crossword on Saturday, Diana got sucked into the puzzle that my Mum and Dad sent for Christmas. We noticed that the title of this challenge is, “The puzzle that ruined Christmas”. It’s similar to the Frenchy (New Orleans artist) puzzles in that it doesn’t have any edge pieces and the pieces are cut in interesting shapes. The majority are Christmas trees and Diana had a small outburst saying that, “Ah geez, three pieces fit together to make another Christmas tree shape”.

We’re looking forward to dinner tonight with Patty and Brent at Meso Maya. This is an authentic Mexican restaurant as compared to the usual Tex-Mex fare that Dallas is well known for. I’ve been perusing the menu and having a hard time narrowing down my choices – which I think is a sign of a good menu.

“Never a Dull Moment, 1971 – the year that rock exploded” has kept me company on my travels this week. Each chapter recounts stories and record releases from a particular 1971 month. The writing by David Hepworth and the anecdotes are fantastic. Describing the early days of the Soul Train television show, Hepworth writes, “These dance moves, which took the generic frugs and twitches of pop dance and reclassified them into an entirely new terpsichorean taxonomy, swept the nation”. I’m amazed at the number of records released in 1971 that are still considered classics today.

“Encore”, the new album from Anderson East was released yesterday and is excellent. East is based in Nashville and is playing at the small Deep Ellum club Trees in a couple of weeks. He has what’s referred to as a “modern southern soul sound”. Here’s a song from the new album that he wrote with Chris Stapleton.

Week in Review January 7th, 2018

Happy New Year!

10,9,8,7….. 2018 was officially rung in at Thom and Libby’s new compound in New Orleans. Champagne, Alex and Laura, Denny and Anne, 2 crazy red hound dogs, and a gaggle of kids somewhere downstairs all helped with the celebration.

New Year’s Day was a very relaxing affair in the Ogans’ living room watching college football playoff games with a nice fire. The girls got adventurous and worked on a jigsaw puzzle which Jack, Mason and Aidan finished off later.

Pascal’s Manale and happy hour oysters beckoned the ladies around 5pm. Laura joined and Denny went along as the official chaperone. He chuckled when a guy at the bar asked him if all three blondes were with him. Girl time wasn’t finished and the ladies made an unchaperoned stop at the Kingpin. They did make it home in time to rest up for the big 15^th birthday bash on Tuesday.

The 01/02/03 twins celebrated their birthday at Commander’s Palace, the classic New Orleans restaurant in the Garden District made famous by Ella Brennan. There’s a great documentary on Netflix called “Ella Brennan, Commanding the Table” if you’d like to learn more about the history of the fantastic Brennan restaurant empire.

Our gift was bobble-heads of the boys which we think captured their personalities very well. A highlight of a great meal was the bread pudding soufflé with whisky sauce. Jack and Mason enjoyed being offered whisky on their birthday while wearing their celebratory chef toques.

After lunch it was off to the airport and into our respective huffs about having to leave New Orleans again after such a relaxing and enjoyable visit.

Wednesday was back to work for me and a rest day for McD. On Thursday we reprised our annual get together with Judy and Scott who were in town to visit their new grandchild. Wendy joined as well and we had a great laugh together and fun showing the wedding album. We’re looking forward to the Dillings potentially moving to the DFW area.

The week finished up with some strong Team Robertson manual labor – breaking down the Christmas tree and storing it and the rest of the decorations in the attic. That followed by watching the Saints vs Panthers playoff game and catching sight of Denny and Anne in their fancy outfits. The score is 24-12 in the Saints favor at the time of this posting.

Boom (Thom), Zoom (Alex) and Denny rambling to the game

I finished the book “A Kind of Freedom” by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton this week. This story is appropriately set in New Orleans and follows three generations of an African American family from the 1940s until today. I enjoyed the read very much and gained a good insight into the class and racial struggles in the city through the years.

The music discovery this week is from Langhorne Slim, a singer songwriter from Nashville.

Week In Review – December 17, 2017

“Baby It’s Cold Outside”. Snapped this picture on my walk back to the New York hotel on Thursday night/Friday morning. Another cold and unplanned week there for work. But I’m getting ahead of myself already.

The week got off to a great start with a Timothy B. Schmit concert at the Granada on Tuesday night. “I loved everything about that show”, said Diana. I think it was her best concert experience in a long time.

Schmit was a member of Poco in the late 60s and joined The Eagles in 1977. He typically plays sold out arenas with The Eagles and you could tell he really enjoyed playing his own songs for a more intimate audience of a few hundred. The band was excellent with the Beach Boys musical director on keyboards and high vocals, an excellent guitarist named Hank Linderman (produces for Keb Mo, Don Henley and many others), and three high energy backing soul singer ladies. Schmit took the most care we’ve heard in introducing the band – making time to tell us about their musical background and personalities – a very nice touch. The set list was nicely varied with Schmit’s originals, Eagles songs, and Poco songs and included solo acoustic, full rock band, and acapella settings. The sound quality was by far the best I’ve heard from the Granada’s house sound system. Here’s a video of “Love Will Keep Us Alive”, a song from the “Hell Freezes Over” Eagles album. There are a couple of other videos posted to my YouTube channel.

I left for New York very early on Wednesday morning for the remainder of the work week. As I said earlier, it was quite cold with snow and cold winds on Thursday morning. Thankfully I had the right clothing on this trip. There was a work Christmas dinner on Thursday night at Joseph’s Italian restaurant which was very nice. The appetizer plate of various Italian favorites was a great start. A long three hour dinner was followed by a quick visit to the Dead Rabbit, voted the world’s best cocktail bar a few years running. I can’t resist whenever I see scotch eggs on the menu and claimed that as my dessert since I’d been too full for dessert at Joseph’s.

Saturday began with a long overdue workout, coffee and crossword, and a trip to Best Buy and the hardware store. A new mesh home WiFi system was purchased at Best Buy and well received by the female occupants of Boulder Lake who have been complaining about slow and spotty WiFi for a while. All the home devices were updated to the new network and then I spent some happy time under the Christmas tree with ornaments getting stuck in my hair to wire up a new plug and finally get the lights fully operational.

A little relaxation time was had prior to the “2017 ClaraFlute Christmas party”. Alicia had around 15 (they come and go so much that it’s hard to get an accurate count) clarinets and flutes over for cookie decorating, sock exchange, Christmas games and general noise making. I did notice that a bassoon (who happens to be very adept at noise making) snuck in as well.

Sunday included the usual workout, coffee and crossword and football. The New Orleans Saints had a nice win and we saw an excited touchdown scoring player leap up into the stands with our friend Greg and his daughter. She had quite a surprised look on her face. The Cowboys don’t play until this evening. Half of Campbell’s housemates are Raiders fans and so they should have a good time watching.

Do you know what’s special about this Sunday? Don’t stress too much, I didn’t guess correctly either. It’s our 6 month wedding anniversary! I’ve been remembering having all those wonderful people with us in Cozumel for such a wonderful few days all day long.

I finally finished up the 866 page “4321” by Paul Auster this week. Remind me to avoid tomes like that in the future. I enjoyed the book quite a bit but needed a change of pace in my reading relaxation time. Apparently Auster worked on the book 7 days a week for 3 years and wrote it long hand. I’m sure he was ready for a change of pace after that as well. The novel was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker prize.

The book is the story of Archie Ferguson told at four different times, and in four different versions. Each chapter is divided into four parts (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4) which represent the different versions of his life. Ferguson grows up with the same Jewish, middle class parents, Stanley and Rose, as well as many of the same friends, including Amy Schneiderman, his girlfriend/friend. However, the relationships change with each Ferguson version. These changes cause his lives to take very different paths. The story follows his home life as well as college years, his love life and political ideas. The story is set in the Newark, New Jersey and New York City areas in the 50’s and 60’s. As Archie grows through young adulthood, events like the Vietnam war, Civil Rights, the Kennedy election and assassination, and white flight from Newark are covered.

The book received very mixed reviews. Michelle Dean of the L.A. Times was harshly critical of the book’s execution, referring to it as a “slog”, a “doorstopper,” and a “bad joke.” On the other hand, in The Seattle Times, David Takami praised Auster’s execution as “brilliantly conceived,” a “brilliant compendium of the tumultuous 1960s”, with many “descriptive gems” too numerous to name. My opinion lies somewhere in between. 400 pages in I was ready to give up on the “slog” but determined to finish after investing so much time. I did enjoy the differing historical perspectives. I highly recommend Auster’s book “Sunset Park” as a better place to start with his work than “4321”.

Wow. I had a bit more to say about that book than I planned. Suppose that’s what happens when you live with a novel for well over a month. Now for this week’s lagniappe – “Memphis Soul Stew” from King Curtis recorded live at the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1971. Bernard Purdie is on drums and sounds as precise and soulful as ever. I love the blend of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, blues, funk and jazz that King Curtis pioneered.

Curtis was born in Fort Worth, TX and started playing the saxophone at age 12. He’s played on many recordings – that’s him on “Yakety Yak” by the Coasters.

Week in Review – November 5, 2017

Lots of good music and entertainment this week.

It started with a nice surprise on Wednesday night when my friend Kevin invited me to join him at an event his company was hosting at ATT Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys). I wasn’t sure what to expect when I met up with Kevin at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine. Apparently the “Royal Treatment” is what I should have been expecting. Our bus had an escort of four police motorcyclists who sped us through busy traffic and intersections over to the stadium in record time. Upon arrival we were whisked up to one of the luxury boxes for a drink and pictures with the Cowboys cheerleaders. Then it was down to the field for dinner and an excellent concert by Aerosmith. We were supposed to have pictures taken with Steven Tyler but their flight was delayed and they had to go directly on stage. I heard all of my favorites from their catalog – Dream On, Walk This Way, and Sweet Emotion. It was a huge langiappe when the Cheerleaders joined the band onstage for “Walk This Way”. A very pleasant evening all around with the highlight being taking a picture with Emmitt Smith (running back for the Cowboys with three Superbowl rings) and Cheerleaders. Thanks for thinking of me Kevin!

On Friday we flew to Nashville for a weekend with Denny and Anne. Festivities got off to a great start with lunch at Pinewood Social which is an old building converted into a bowling alley and really excellent restaurant. It was a good scouting visit as we’re planning on visiting there for an evening when we have a work trip to Nashville later in the month.

A pleasant walk down the riverside took us to Broadway. This is the main street in Nashville for music clubs and bars. There are about 3 or 4 blocks which are solid music clubs enabling one to stroll along and stop into whichever place sounds best. I had met a guy at the Aerosmith event who gave me his favorites. We mostly followed his recommendations with one addition and that worked out very well. First up was the Acme feed store with a very pleasant rooftop bar looking over the river.

Rooftops seem very popular in Nashville – many places had them and a lot of the hotels had rooftop pools. Not sure I’d enjoy them in the heat of the summer but for our visit they were very pleasant. The unscheduled stop was at the Bootlegger’s Inn where the musician playing attracted us in. He did great covers of Chris Stapleton songs and a few Johnny Cash songs at Anne’s request. From there we went to a place called Nudie’s which is not what it sounds like – just another music bar with a high ceiling and an extended length Cadillac complete with cowhide seats and longhorns on the front grille mounted above the stage.

The evening entertainment was Anders Osborne and Jackie Greene at the City Winery. Two of my favorite singer songwriters in an excellent listening room environment. We enjoyed a couple of flatbreads for dinner after recovering from “the burning menu incident”. What happened you ask? Well, let’s see…one of our party placed a menu on top of a candle. What’s that burning smell we wondered? Root cause was identified just as an employee came sprinting towards us from the back of the venue. No harm done and a great way of introducing us to our neighbor, William “Billy” Robertson. It turns out Billy had enjoyed dinner at the Millhouse in Stewarton a few weeks previously and has a family home near Dunlop. What a very small world. For those of you not familiar with the Millhouse, it’s a restaurant and bar about a quarter of a mile from the house where I grew up in Stewarton, Scotland.

As we exchanged stories, I learned that Billy had also made a visit to Portpatrick, a small seaside village on the West coast of Scotland near Stranraer. We used to go there as a family on a regular basis when we had a caravan in Glenluce. I remember walking along the cliffs, looking at the lifeboats, and enjoying ice cream cones. Back to the music now. I had seen Jackie Greene several years ago in California and enjoyed his blues piano playing and so hoped he was going to have a piano in addition to his guitar. Turns out he had a very nice grand piano and sounded great on some of his classic songs. I believe Anders Osborne is best in a quiet setting on the acoustic guitar and really enjoyed his songs as well. Here are short videos of both and the encore of “Break Down” – another in the recent series of Tom Petty tributes.

Brunch on Saturday morning was at Husk and everyone enjoyed the meal and setting of the restaurant in an old Victorian house with its own herb and vegetable garden very much. The smoked trout deviled eggs were a definite stand out.

After brunch I made a quick trip to a mall to pick up some work clothes. I hadn’t planned on going from Nashville directly to New York for work and so had to do some emergency shopping. After that fun excursion I met back up with the crew, who had been through the Johnny Cash museum, on Broadway. We decided it was too busy and noisy for us old folks during the day and so headed to Jack White’s Third Man records where an album for Jack and Mason was purchased and from there to the rooftop bar at the Thompson hotel in the “Gulch” area that we had enjoyed on our previous visit.

The Butcher and Bee was our dinner destination and we tried a speakeasy style place for a drink before dinner. Rosemary is a lovely bar and patio in what looks like a small house at the end of a quiet street – all except for the large bouncer checking identification on the porch. I highly recommend Rosemary and the patio out back to anyone visiting Nashville. The walk to Butcher and Bee was the perfect length to finish working up our appetite. Food and drinks were very good with highlights being braised lamb and seabass dishes. The food came out in a somewhat random order with some entrees before some appetizers were ready and dessert after our coffees were finished but we enjoyed it nonetheless. The East Nashville neighborhood where these establishments are located seems to be a very up and coming part of town with a lot of great looking restaurants. It reminded me quite a bit of the Bishops Arts district of Oak Cliff in Dallas.

Sunday got off to a reasonably slow start and we all certainly enjoyed the extra hour gained from the clocks “falling back”. Anne suggested the Hillsboro Village neighborhood for brunch and so that’s where we headed. There were several places to choose from including Biscuit Love which always has a very long line and must be good. Some of our group weren’t feeling like standing in a line and were ready to eat so we opted for Jackson’s and a decent brunch. Part of the strategy in selecting this area near Vanderbilt University was a potential trip to the Parthenon. Timing didn’t work out but a very kind Uber driver gave us a tour of Centennial Park on our way back to the hotel. The Parthenon is a full scale replica of the Athenian original and was created for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exhibition. It includes a 42 foot tall statue of Athena just as in the original. The park housing all of this seems to have a lot to offer with amphitheaters, Shakespeare in the Park, art exhibits, dancing classes and lots of open space for other activities.

As the time for airport runs loomed closer, Anne did some gift shopping and the rest of us relaxed watching the Saints football game. I made the first airport trip for my 4pm flight but shouldn’t have bothered as it was close to 7pm before it left due to air traffic weather delays in New York. This did allow me to watch most of the Cowboys versus Atlanta Falcons. How did that finish up, you ask? Well…with another excellent Cowboys win over a team with a great record. It wasn’t too late when I arrived at my New York hotel and as I reflected on the weekend I was yet again amazed at how much fun and action ends up getting packed into a weekend with the Ogans.

This piece of art from the hotel room sums up my thoughts on the weekend and music very nicely. Tennessee Williams was spot on I think.

I have a couple of langiappes if you made it this far this week. A pretty view of the fall colors as we arrived in Nashville and a video from the Aerosmith concert of “Dream On” with Tyler and Perry posing on top of the white grand piano.

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.