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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
eon 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.
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”.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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 “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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
couple of years (other than on FaceTime during our irregular “strategy sessions”). Tim had suggested to Ron a couple of days before my visit that he join us in New York and by some magic Ron was able to pull off a trip from Los Angeles in very short order. We met at Jim Brady’s Pub and I enjoyed a very good shepherd’s pie. Ron and I then reminisced with a wander through some of our old haunts from a few years ago. What a pleasant evening catching up!
Plan B for Thursday night was a visit to the City Winery to hear Joshua Davis. We first visited a City Winery in Nashville and thought it was a great venue. The New York incarnation is a bit different with a more open feel with windows to the street and a smaller menu. The wine list, menu, seating and sound were all excellent. We had seen Joshua Davis on “The Voice” and enjoyed his laid back vocal style. Here’s his blind audition with a great song choice:
Tuesday through Thursday of this week was spent in New York in meetings with Microsoft. Their offices are next to Times Square which is filled with hustle and bustle at all hours of the day and night. The view from the conference room included the New York Times building and huge TV screens with advertisements and breaking news – quite distracting. I stayed at a hotel called The Sanctuary which is at 47th Street and 8th Avenue – half a block off Times Square but a quiet and modern boutique hotel which was a nice find.
Much of Friday was spent working from AutoHans while Penelope was attended to. She needed an oil change and new brakes. I did find a very nice neighborhood bistro only a five minute walk from the garage called Astoria. I was able to sit outside in the nice summer transitioning to autumn weather and enjoy lunch, the newspaper, and good coffee.
outside and finished the book “Bruno, Chief of Police” by Martin Walker. This was a light, quick and thoroughly enjoyable read. Martin Walker was born in Scotland and moved to the Perigord region of France in 2006. He published the first Bruno novel in 2007 and has been pumping out a new one each year since. I enjoyed the local village characters and the food and wine descriptions – life in St Denis sounds perfect.
The cocktail menu was very cleverly constructed as a multi chapter novel and had lots to choose from. My favorite was the “Doctor Zhivago”. The place had a Cuban theme including décor and menu options. A highly recommended stop for a great craft cocktail and good views of the Statue of Liberty from outside.
Clorinda went to watch Sophia’s first performance on Saturday night and so we tried a restaurant that Diana had picked from those participating in New York restaurant week named “Batard”. This was our best dining experience in a long time. The place is located in Tribeca and has one Michelin star (not that you would know from their advertising or menus – it’s just a small award in the window). We had foie gras and steak tartare to start and both were phenomenal. Then duck and lamb to follow – Diana’s lamb was the best I’ve tasted. The service and atmosphere were just what we like. We’ll certainly be back as soon as we can.
A picnic in Central Park was our plan for Sunday afternoon. We got off to a dodgy start as the subway train didn’t stop where we expected at 81st street and our next option was 125th street in Harlem. We quickly came back down to Columbus Circle on the next train, picked up some sandwiches and headed into the south area of the park for our picnic. A short ramble after lunch took us past the carousel, baseball fields and “Library Walk” which features statues of both Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.
Birdland jazz club was our destination on Sunday evening. We saw the Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra which was in the midst of a five week Sunday residency. The music was excellent – mambo and salsa style and the band was very well rehearsed and together. Here’s a video of the rhythm section getting a workout. I hadn’t been to Birdland before and was very pleasantly surprised by the white table cloths, food, service, sound and room to move around the tables.
across from the club. The craft cocktail performance making the “Smoking Sipper” was quite something as was the presentation. We met a few interesting characters at the bar – a former McKinsey consultant from Dallas and a couple from Canada who had owned and worked in the “Horseshoe” – 
apparently the most famous music club in Canada. The club owner was named “X-Ray” and told us a story about the Rolling Stones playing his 180 person club.
I finished the book “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles this week. Amusingly the lady across the aisle from me on our flight home was reading the same book and was at about the same place. We had a nice chat about how much we were both enjoying being transported to Russia in the early 20th Century. The book details the exploits of Count Alexander Rostov after the Russian revolution and his “house arrest” in the Metropol hotel. The Count spends more than 40 years in the hotel and finds ways to pass his time, ultimately becoming the head waiter of the excellent restaurant in the hotel. This was a very interesting view into a period and location in history that I don’t know a lot about. A couple of favorite quotes:
I keep in the car for a quick and light read if I stop for coffee or have to wait for someone or something for a few minutes – titled “The Olivetti Chronicles – Three Decades of Life and Music” by John Peel. Peel was a late night Radio 1 DJ in England when I was growing up and I love the walks down memory lane that his short stories provide. Here are a couple of snippets: