Month: February 2019

Week in Review – February 24, 2019

Austin Move-In Week is upon us!

We made the drive down from McKinney to Austin in about 4 hours on Monday morning and picked up the keys to our new apartment in a building called “The Catherine”.  This is a 19 story facility on the south side of the Colorado river in downtown Austin.  Our unit is on the 14th floor corner (left hand side of the picture) and looks out over downtown and the river.

Here are pictures of the view from the 19th floor resident bar and of the pool area.  We haven’t had a chance to try either yet.

A nice feature of the Catherine is the 24 hour concierge service in the fancy lobby area.   The guys manning the desk will accept deliveries for you, let guests up to visit if approved, let you back into the apartment if you lock yourself out (hmm – who did that?), and generally handle everything.

This service was much appreciated as the first of many deliveries showed up shortly after our arrival – our new TV.   We hauled the things we had packed into Diana’s car up to the apartment and then walked across the parking lot to check into the hotel.  In the early evening, we walked to the famous Continental Club on South Congress avenue.  The Peterson Brothers play there every Monday at 6:30pm.  I covered the details on this excellent band a month or so ago so won’t go into too much detail.   Diana really enjoyed the positive energy and interaction between the brothers.  She just came back to the apartment as I’m writing this to report that she had been chatting with a musician in the elevator (there was music in the Sky Room bar on Sunday afternoon).  She asked him about his favorite music venue in Austin and he replied with the Continental Club and mentioned that he had been watching the Peterson Brothers since they were very young kids.  Here’s a short video of the performance:

We headed to Swift’s Attic for some dinner and had another delicious meal.  We’re really enjoying being able to walk to such excellent local restaurants.

All deliveries on Tuesday happened before the estimated windows.  The couch and bed were delivered well before expected and then the cable/internet technician was also way ahead of schedule.  Thanks to Diana for handling the furniture while I was oblivious at the hotel gym.  By the end of the day the apartment was almost ready to go.  One thing missing was Diana’s desk chair but she chose to “think outside the box”.

We had an early dinner at the hotel bar and then had planned a run to Target to pick up a number of things we needed for the apartment – trash baskets, laundry baskets, laundry detergent, waters, brush and pan, pillows etc etc.  Unfortunately, the Target we selected was tiny and designed for students grabbing a few things to go – with no parking and tiny shopping carts.  We got a few essentials and gave up.

Here’s Alicia’s contribution to the apartment and my belated Christmas present – a Keurig 2.0 – so that I’m all ready to go with coffee in the morning.  Thanks for the great gift Alicia!

 

For Wednesday lunch, I tried a new food truck that I had noticed on the drive to work – Sarah’s Mediterranean was excellent, even though they had only been open for 3 days.

A real Target visit happened on Wednesday night and we were officially into the apartment to spend the first night.  We’re very happy with the place we chose.  Here are some pictures of the views from our balconies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our friend Vinod, who’s working with me in Austin now, met us at Shady Grove for dinner on Thursday.  He worked with both of us at AIG and Diana hadn’t seen him in 3 years.  It was great to catch up on family and life in general over a delicious dinner.  Vinod is vegetarian and enjoys the veggie plate at this restaurant – and it doesn’t have mushrooms (one of the few veggies that he won’t touch).   He’s one of the smartest guys we know and has an endless amount of energy.

On Friday evening, we walked across the 1st avenue bridge to Peche (French for “sin”, if I could find the acute accent feature) for dinner.   This turned out to be an excellent French restaurant/absinthe bar.  We loved our drinks and meals.  Diana tried a Manhattan with fig foam and loved it.  The steak tartare and charcuterie platter were some of the best we’ve had.  Our entree of braised short ribs over mashed potatoes and mushrooms was also delicious.

 

We made a stop at Dumont’s Down Low (next door to Peche) for a nightcap   – good drinks but annoying music.  According to the doorman, the best music is on Thursday night.

Saturday started with workouts – our chance to try out the new gym – all good with the elliptical machine passing Diana’s requirements.   We walked across to Second Bar and Kitchen for a late lunch and had an early night in.  There was a lovely sunset view from the balcony on Saturday night.

Sunday started with a beautiful sunrise view from the master bedroom.  Diana went down for a workout while I read my book for a while – I’m way behind on my reading for the week.

 

 

We enjoyed a delicious brunch at Odd Duck on South Lamar.  Quail and crispy chicken dishes were both very good.

It was a gorgeous afternoon on Sunday and we enjoyed a walk down South Congress for a coffee at Jo’s – just missing the live music on their patio.  Lots of folks were out enjoying the day.  By contrast, my friend Greg in Minnesota was ploughing a route across the lake to his ice fishing camp after a blizzard.

 

 

 

It’s been a pretty hectic week and I haven’t done much reading and don’t have much new music to report on.  So, I’ll finish with my Oscar picks, just before the broadcast starts:

Best Picture:  Roma

Best Actor:  Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Actress:  Glenn Close in The Wife

Best Supporting Actor:  Mahershalla Ali in Green Book

Best Supporting Actress:  Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Director:  Alfonso Courian for Roma

Best Song:  The Shallow from A Star is Born

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week in Review – February 17, 2019

I was a bit nervous about my first trip to New York in a few months on Tuesday morning – the weather forecast called for snow, freezing rain and ice pellets.  Diana dropped me off at the airport in plenty of time, and sure enough, the flight was cancelled.  It turned out that every other flight was cancelled to ease traffic in to La Guardia with the adverse weather conditions.  I was able to get on the next flight and arrived only 30 mins later than planned.

A documentary, “RBG”, about the life of the Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg helped pass the time on the flight.

I enjoyed a section covering how Ginsberg’s husband promoted her strongly for the court vacancy during the Clinton administration.  Clinton describes his interview with her, which quickly turned to a deep discussion on various legal matters, as sealing the deal very quickly – “Within 15 minutes I was confident that she was the right choice”.  I also enjoyed the discussion on her relationship with Antonin Scalia, the most right leaning justice on the court and as such her philosophical opposite.   They seemed to find a way to become close friends despite their differences.  Ginsberg is indeed a legal giant and made huge contributions to the advancement of equal rights for all under the law.
Famous Smoking Sipper

Vince, a good friend from AIG, and his daughter, Alex, joined me for dinner and drinks on Tuesday evening.  We started with a “smoking sipper” at the InterContinental hotel bar – one of our favourites, and then braved the rain and slush for a short walk to Bar Centrale, a speakeasy style place close by.

Bar Centrale is popular with celebrities looking to escape the hustle and bustle of Times Square and the theater district.  We were interested to see Anderson Cooper, the CNN news lead, a couple of booths down from us.
It was very nice to catch up with Vince and to hear about his new job as CTO of insurance company QBE.  I miss our time together in New York catching jazz performances and enjoying meals together.
Wednesday took me to 10 Hudson Yards, the office of BCG Digital Ventures – a company we are in partnership with to stand up a new digital business.  The view from the 46th floor office down the Hudson river was amazing.  I enjoyed experiencing the modern, hip office that I imagine is commonplace in internet companies like Google and Facebook – complete with a full espresso bar and all kinds of snacks and drinks.  Most of the folks working with us on this project are based in Sydney and Diana is promoting the need to visit their home office pretty strongly.  She really misses Sydney and would love to visit all her friends there.
As I was enjoying all the accoutrements of the modern office, I was entertained to find AIG featured in the crossword puzzle.
BCG hosted us at a New York Nicks basketball game on Tuesday night.  My nephew, Struan, would be jealous as he’s a huge basketball player and fan.  I’m not that interested in basketball these days but enjoyed the experience in the iconic Madison Square Garden very much.  Can you spot Madison Square (actually round) in the foreground of the Empire State Building in this picture from the office?
The flight home on Thursday was smooth and uneventful.  I watched the movie “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”, and was very impressed by Melissa McCarthy’s performance.  She plays Lee Israel, a biographer who has fallen on hard times and makes money by forging letters from famous literary figures – Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker and the like.   This is quite different than the typical comedic performances that McCarthy is known for, and a pleasant change.  I saw her interviewed on CBS Sunday morning today and she talked about visiting bookstores each weekend to pick up a physical book rather than an ebook – in the course of a week she climbed significantly in my estimation.  During the movie I heard an excellent trumpet song and further investigation revealed a Chet Baker song that I’ll include in the musical section later in the blog.
I arrived home around 2:30 in the afternoon and was just heading out to pick up something for Saint Valentine’s dinner when Diana arrived in the garage.  She had teased me with a 6pm arrival at home so that she could surprise me, and had already been to the store to pick up dinner.  What a nice surprise!
We exchanged gifts and enjoyed a nice Valentine’s dinner at home.  I loved Diana’s gift – a hand painted cheese board with part of the melody from “True Companion” – our wedding dance.   I wanted to include a picture here but it’s already packed for Austin and I can’t remember where it is.   My gift was a book of my blog entries from last year and we laughed when we compared it to the book from a couple of years ago – much fatter.  Apparently I have a lot more to say about our activities these days.  Dinner of sea bass, green beans, and eggplant was delicious – thanks D!
I was very proud of the card I found – a couple of octopi (second in our animal affinity to penguins).
Owners of Lucia and Micellaio enjoy a dinner at home

We headed to downtown Dallas on Saturday afternoon in preparation for a concert at the Kessler.  We checked into the Canvas hotel (formerly the Nylo) and then drove over to Oak Cliff.  I had a quick browse through the Wild Detectives store, and picked up a book which seems promising based on the first few pages.  Then we enjoyed a cocktail and delicious chicken liver mousse and salumi at Macellaio (Italian for butcher).  This is a new tiny, 55 seat restaurant from the owners of Lucia (our favourite Italian restaurant in the Dallas area) which specializes in salumi: sliced, cured meats and sausages – right up D alley.

From Macellaio we drove over to the Kessler for the Mark Broussard concert.  We saw an excellent show at the same venue from Broussard last year.  I thought it was around May but Diana was correct that it was almost exactly a year ago.  This time around they didn’t offer cocktail tables downstairs (standing only) and so we had seats in the wrap around balcony upstairs.  We claimed our seats and then enjoyed a yummy burger at PhD (across the street from the Kessler) before the show.  Can you tell how cold and gloomy the weather is from the sky behind the Kessler?
Broussard started out very strongly with some upbeat soul and Motown style music.  Here is doing a medley including Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”:
We had a tough time with the booming sound from the bass kick drum and the noise from the standing audience below – not what we have come to expect from the pristine sounding and respectful Kessler.  My Dad said it well today – “You’re just getting too old for that”.
About half way through the show, Mark switched to a solo set,  and we enjoyed that very much.  Here he is doing the heartbreaking “Gavin’s Song” – Gavin is his oldest son, now 16 but this song was written for him at 2 weeks old.  I think it speaks to all parents, no matter what age their children.
The band rejoined Broussard and he kicked off with his classic “Lonely Night in Georgia”- always a crowd pleaser:
We enjoyed the concert a lot – just not as much as previous concerts – the price of progress and popularity.
After a good night’s rest, we enjoyed breakfast, coffee, and a crossword at “Opening Bell” – a very cool coffee shop across the street from the Canvas hotel.   Their avocado toast with bacon crumbles was just what we wanted.  Then it was home to McKinney and to packing up for moving some of our stuff down to the new apartment in Austin.

I finished the book  “Let’s Go, So We Can Get Back” by Jeff Tweedy this week.  I enjoyed the conversational style of this book very much and highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this style of music.

Some excerpts that I particularly enjoyed:
“My Dad also loved “Hummingbird”.  He loved it so much for years he’d ask me , “Why don’t you write more songs like “Hummingbird?”  I’d tell him, “I have no idea.  I can’t.  I’m not even sure how I wrote “Hummingbird.”
“Hummingbird” is one of my favourite Wilco songs and so I can relate to Tweedy’s Dad’s advice.
Tweedy continues:
“Something I heard a lot when I was in rehab was this totally awesome way counselors would shut someone down when they started arguing that they didn’t have to listen, they were going to do it their own way.  The counselors would point out that “You’re best thinking is what put you here.”  Most of the time everyone would laugh at the undeniable truth of it all.
Watching the Melissa McCarthy movie, I heard a trumpet solo that I liked enough to look it up – no surprise it was Chet Baker, perhaps my new favourite:
Brandi Carlisle popped up a couple of places this week – on the Joni Mitchell 75th birthday show and the Grammy awards.  Here’s a song that caught my attention:
The Tedeschi Trucks Band released a new album recently, featuring a couple of amazing songs as usual.  Here’s a good one:
Jeff Tweedy had a couple of “Fame” references in his book and this one in particular.  I always thought this was a great song:

Week in Review – February 10, 2019

 

Mural featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan at Congress and Barton Springs

Work occupied most of my bus ride down to Austin on Monday morning.  An AIG colleague, Vinod, joined my new company and I arranged a welcome aboard dinner with him on Monday night.  He’s vegetarian and likes Thai food, so I suggested Thai Fresh, a restaurant that came recommended that’s located in a neighborhood close to the office and the Carpenter hotel.  Vinod was early to the restaurant and texted me to let me know he was outside.  I asked him if the place looked okay.  His reply made me chuckle – “It does not look good”.  Thai Fresh is a bit of a hole in the wall kind of place and is located in a residential neighborhood – not what Vinod is used to in the Dallas area but quite typical of Austin, and part of the charm of the city.  He enjoyed dinner a lot and we may have another convert to the excellent off the beaten path Austin restaurant scene.  Another plus is that I walked to the restaurant and back – a 2.5 mile round trip that gave us some good exercise early in the week.

I was able to sneak out of work early on Tuesday evening to catch the happy hour show at the Saxon Pub.  I’ve been trying to catch David Grissom’s regular Tuesday night performance since I started working in Austin, but something always gets in the way.  Here’s an excerpt from Grissom’s online bio that indicates what an amazing guitar player and musician he is:

David Grissom has toured and recorded with John Mellencamp, Joe Ely, Storyville,The Allman Brothers Band, The Dixie Chicks, Chris Isaak, Robben Ford, The FabulousThunderbirds, Ringo Starr, Buddy Guy, Bob Schneider and John Mayall among many others. His songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood, Lee Ann Womack, John Mayall, Shannon Curfman and Storyvilleto name just a few. Over the years, he has been featured in Guitar Player, Guitar World, Musician, and Vintage Guitar magazines several times.

David moved to Austin in 1983 and quickly became a stalwart on the vibrant local scene. Playing first with Lucinda Williams, he then joined Texas legend Joe Ely’s band in 1985, touring and recording nonstop until 1991, when he joined John Mellencamp’s band. David made three records with John and toured extensively from 1991 through 1993. After, Mellencamp, David went back to Austin to form Storyville, the band that included the Double Trouble rhythm section and powerhouse vocalist Malford Milligan. Storyville released two CD’s for Atlantic Recordswhich were well received at various rock radio stations. Since 2000, David has divided his time between recording sessions, including the last three Buddy Guy CD’s, among scores of other releases, touring with the Dixie Chicks, Bob Schneider and also playing hundreds of his own gigs, while still finding time to produce his CD’s and two releases for Ryan Beaver.

Here’s a video from the Saxon pub show of a typical Grissom jam.  I love his hybrid picking style – a combination of strumming with a plectrum and finger picking with the remaining three fingers:

Here’s a bit of “Take me back to Texas”, a Grissom song that starts with a line about the “wind in Amarillo”:

And finally, here’s a melancholy song he performed about a lost friend:

I’ll include some more Grissom music later at the end of this post.

After the concert, I met another colleague, Jeff, for dinner at Shady Grove on Barton Springs road close to the hotel.  This is another classic Austin restaurant that’s been around for over 20 years with an amazing patio.  Jeff told me a story about watching a kid who got his head stuck in one of the wagon wheels surrounding the patio, while eating there with his family.  Apparently it ultimately took a visit from the EMTs to free the head from the wheel.  I really enjoyed my green chili chicken a lot and the ambiance was great – amazing to be sitting outside eating at 8pm in February.

After dinner, Jeff mentioned a coffee and so we drove over to Bennu, the 24 hour coffee shop.  We were both amazed to find the place packed with kids, all studying hard.  We found a spot to relax and enjoy our coffees on the patio.

I made it back to the hotel in time to meet up with Damon to collaborate on a note to our CEO about a technical outage that had caused some disruption earlier in the day – great fun!

On Wednesday, I had  dinner with a potential new partner company at the Carpenter hotel restaurant.  I was pleased to find blood sausage on the menu as an appetizer.  It wasn’t quite the same as the Stornaway black pudding that my Mum gets for my breakfasts when I visit Scotland, but very tasty nonetheless.

I was awake early on Thursday morning and so went for a walk down Barton Springs to Bennu for coffee around 6am.   I snapped the picture of the mural at the top of this post on the walk.  This was a pleasant 2 mile round trip to get me going for the day.  After the walk, I made a visit to Taco Deli for breakfast tacos – I’m trying to ration myself to once a week now.  Jeff and Greg joined me and we all enjoyed the breakfast snacks.  I should mention that breakfast tacos from Taco Deli were served before and after a Town Hall at the office on Tuesday morning where I delivered a presentation on an exciting new business opportunity that we’re presenting.  I did enjoy a migas taco after my presentation.

On Friday morning, I visited Dr. Sabzali, our regular family doctor, for a checkup – a good report all around.  She made me smile as she was gushing about her son’s college opportunities.  Apparently the kid achieved a perfect score on both his SAT and ACT tests (a very rare accomplishment), is on the national merit and presidential scholar lists, and currently has offers from UT, USC, and UCLA related to bio-medical engineering and pre-med degrees.  We think very highly of Dr. Sabzali and she has clearly raised a very smart and driven son.

I can’t claim to be that smart and driven, but I did score a personal best time on the USA Today crossword on Wednesday during a coffee break- 5 mins and 36 seconds.  Things were back to normal on Thursday – over 11 minutes.

 

 

 

 

We attended a unique event on Friday night.  Our friend, Steve Boston, had arranged to propose to his girlfriend, Grace, in front of 50 friends at Fleming’s steak house.  There was a large poster set up in the bar area where they would arrive with Yes/No check boxes.

They were clearly a very happy couple and enjoyed having all their friends there with them.  Somebody made some entertaining masks.

Not an approach to a proposal that I would ever have considered, but typical of Steve.

After the celebration, we walked across the street to the Capital Grille for dinner in their lovely bar area.  Diana got an excellent rack of lamb that we enjoyed again on Saturday for dinner.  I love the painting of Tom Landry, legendary Cowboys coach, that hangs in the bar.

Saturday was a very lazy day around the house and Sunday began as normal with workout, followed by coffee and a crossword in downtown McKinney.  We stopped at the hardware store to pick up some outside wood screws and then I repaired the fence (a couple of boards had popped loose beside one of the front gates).  This was a bit of a process in the rain, as I passed an extension cord through the dog door in my office so that I could use the drill to push in the screws.  I was glad to be able to check this long standing task off my list on the pantry whiteboard.

I convinced Diana to go to the cinema with me on Sunday afternoon.  “Joni Mitchell – a 75th birthday celebration” was playing (one of only two showings in theaters).

This was an amazing musical performance.  The band was comprised mostly of jazz musicians with Jon Cowherd (piano) and Brian Blade (drums) as co-musical directors.  I have a recent album by both Cowherd and Blade form a french jazz label that I really enjoy and to find them leading the band was a nice treat.  Seal’s performance of “Both Sides Now” was an outstanding highlight of the show.  Chaka khan did a couple of songs and I was surprised by her faithful interpretations.  Diana Krall’s control of both vocal and piano dynamics was amazing on her two contributions.  Lastly, Los Lobos with La Marisoul on vocals was another outstanding performance.  I highly recommend this show (available now on DVD) to anyone who enjoys the music of Joni Mitchell – the musicianship is superb.  Joni herself looked very frail (she suffered a brain aneurysm a few years ago and has not spoken or appeared in public for a while).  Kris Kristofferson (now 82 years old) also looked a bit confused in his performance with Brandi Carlisle – apparently he has some memory issues due to Lyme disease.

One of our favourite musicians, Delbert McClinton, received a Marquee Star in front of the Austin Paramount theatre on Friday.  This is only the third star given to a musician, with previous honorees including Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker (see my post a couple of week ago where I talked about Jerry Jeff’s biography).  Lyle Lovett wrote, “If we could all sing like we wanted to, we’d all sing like Delbert.”   McClinton also received the Nobelity Projects “Feed the Peace” award at the Four Seasons on Saturday for his support of many great charitable causes.

I discovered a new Youtube series, “Earworm”, this week and enjoyed the episode that explains the unique key changes and challenges of playing John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”.  This is a very interesting series and I look forward to checking out some more episodes.

I read “What Belongs to You” by Garth Greenwell this week.  I can’t remember where I picked up the recommendation for this book but it was named a best book of the year by over fifty publications in nine countries, including the New Yorker, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Guardian.

I don’t consider myself overly prudish, but some of the descriptions in this book were a bit much for me.  That being said, the characters, Bulgarian setting, and writing style are all very good.

I also very much enjoyed the short story “What Can You Do With a General” by Emma Cline that was published in the New Yorker magazine this week.  The dialogue and descriptions of family interactions are perfectly done.  I read that Cline received a $2 million 3 book advance in 2016 around her first novel, “The Girls”.  I’ll have to put that book on my future reading list.

 

I enjoyed part of the movie “Irma La Douce” this week.  Starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine and released in 1963, this is a silly and entertaining film.  One of the scenes includes part of one of my favourite classical pieces, Rimsky Korsakov’s Scherzerade.  I’ve included this in the music section below.

I love the lyrical quality of the opening violin lines in this version of Rimsky Korsakov’s Scherzerade:

As promised, here’s something more from David Grissom – his live version of the Allman’s classic “Jessica”.  He was planning to record this with a five piece horn section in Milan this weekend (part of a story he told at the Saxon Pub).

One of our favourites from Delbert (and beautifully covered by Marcia Ball in concert also):

I heard this song playing in Bennu on Thursday morning, and was surprised to find that it was a Beastie Boys recording – not what one typically hear’s from them.  It’s a tribute to the late organ virtuoso Richard Arnold “Groove” Holmes – best known for his 1965 recording of “Misty”.

 

 

Week in Review – February 3, 2019

The weather in Austin this week was chilly but significantly warmer than most of the rest of the country.  Chicago was particularly badly impacted by the polar vortex with the entirety of Lake Michigan freezing.   Scotland had a decent amount of snow and I received excellent pictures from both Merrick View and Aberdeenshire.

Winter comes to Merrick View
Aberdeenshire Winter
SnowPenny

I had intended to attend a show at the tiny Continental Gallery Club on South Congress on Monday evening.  It’s called “Church on Monday” and features Dr. James Polk, esteemed Austin multi-instrumentalist, world-class organist, and former arranger for the great Ray Charles.   Instead, I had dinner with my boss at Second Bar and Kitchen to catch up on plans for the week ahead.  I’ll have plenty of chances to catch “Church on Monday” in the near future.

The night sky as I headed out to Second Bar was very colourful as the wind began to really whip up.  I know a red sky at night is supposed to be a “shepherd’s delight” but this one felt a bit ominous.

I picked another new hotel this week.  The Carpenter is a hip and modern hotel just off Barton Springs road, very close to my office, and to several fun restaurants.  Carpenter Hall, the onsite restaurant gets rave reviews, and that’s how I found the hotel.  One of my favourite features is the lounge area where you can select from a large selection of vinyl albums to spin while you relax and read in the evening.  The speaker is also quite unique.

Sunrise on Tuesday was pretty in the Pecan grove where the hotel is situated.  I tried the migas breakfast at Carpenter Hall and it was delicious – perfect flour tortillas to wrap around the crispy eggs.

I ate dinner at Carpenter Hall on Tuesday evening as well.  The wild mushroom pasta and charred broccoli were both excellent.  I look forward to staying at The Carpenter again.  There is a very good wine bar right next door with 100 wines available by the glass and many interesting selections.  Can you make out that the sign on the back of the building, that I captured from my hotel room balcony, is made from corks?

Wednesday took me back to Dallas on the bus to attend some work meetings there on Thursday.  It’s always nice to get home a day earlier than normal.

We saw the movie “The Green Book” on Saturday and both really enjoyed it.  The film tells the story of Dr. Don Shirley’s concert tour through the American South in 1962.  Shirley is played by Mahershala Ali and his driver/bodyguard/butler, Tony Lip, is played by Viggo Mortensen (my favourite current generation actor).

Mortensen’s transformation into an entirely credible New York Italian heavy is amazing – an entirely different physique and character than his last role in Captain Fantastic (another great movie).  Ali’s suave and educated character is equally well acted and the friendship that develops between two men from entirely different backgrounds is quite heart warming.    I enjoyed one scene where Don and Tony are locked up in a small town jail.  Shirley uses his one phone call to call Bobby Kennedy, who calls the governor, who calls the local sheriff to have them released.  I looked it up and this is completely historically accurate.

Shirley played popular tunes in an interesting style that is a hybrid of jazz, blues, and classical styles.  He says he would have preferred to play Chopin, but audiences at the time wouldn’t have accepted that from a black man – so his record company insisted that he stick to more popular, current music.  Here are a couple of his recordings.  Can you hear the classical influence coming through?  I think there’s a definite Chopin Nocturne feel in the quieter passages.

I read the book “Asymmetry” this week.  This book had some of the most positive reviews of last year from the New York Times and several other well respected publications and I had been looking forward to digging into it.

The book, which is essentially a study of the imbalance of power in relationships, was brilliantly written but a bit confusing and incongruous.

Written by Lisa Halliday, it is actually three novellas, the first two of which have nothing in common and the third of which is a strange attempt to unite the first two in the form of a BBC “Desert Island Disks” interview.  I’m just not smart enough to get the linkage and so can’t agree with the rave reviews at all.

The first story, “Folly,” is a May-December romance between Alice and Ezra that some critics say is about Halliday’s own affair with Philip Roth with lots of allusions to “Alice in Wonderland.” The second story, “Madness,” is about Amar, a young American man of Iraqi heritage, who is detained for several days at Heathrow Airport based on ethnic profiling. The story flashes back and forth between the airport nightmare and his life story until then.  The third story is the radio interview with Ezra, and in the answer to one of the many questions he is asked, he unites the first two stories. Sort of, but not really for me.

I did enjoy a number of the musical references in the book, as Ezra shares his favourites with Alice.  A few are included in the music section this week.

This is the first of Ezra’s favourites from Asymmetry.  I love the theme from this piece and the performance by Yoyo Ma and the London Symphony with Andre Previn is excellent.

 

 

 

 

The second from Ezra’s list is from Faure.  I enjoy this piece but it doesn’t resonate with me as much as his Requiem – if you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend giving it a listen.

I stumbled on this song by Breakestra – a band that I had never heard of and know nothing about.  The drumming and bass playing caught my attention right away – sounded a lot like the Meters from New Orleans but with a special twist.

It turns out that Breakestra is a rotating cast of Los Angeles musicians, anchored by bassist/guitarist/upright cellist/producer/vocalist “Music Man” Miles Tackett.  Miles is the son of Fred Tackett from Little Feat – one of my top 10 favourite bands with an amazing drummer themselves, and a band that we enjoyed at Tipitinas in New Orleans a few years ago.

The final selection this week is from Kurt Vile.  I’m really enjoying his new album, “Bottle It In”.

This is my first week in a long while without any live music experiences.  I’ve been trying to compensate by playing the piano a bit.  I promise to try and do a better job of supporting live music next week.