December 4, 2025 – Keith Robertson

“Happy Thanksgiving – Cowboys win 3 in a row”

We had a smooth flight to San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon with a helpful MUber (Marco’s Uber) pickup. Caroline had kindly cleaned the house, made up the bed, and shopped for some staples. What Marco calls our “advance party.”

Wednesday was pretty much an all day preparation day for Diana and Alicia. The scalloped potatoes are usually Alicia’s dish and this year I gave her a “loaded” version of the recipe – adds in bacon and other cheeses. Diana worked on her regular and vegan stuffings. I think I provided adequate supervision as all dishes turned out well. Ouch – that punch hurt.

One thing you can count on in most Pacifica visits – amazing sunsets. No disappointment on this trip:

Thanksgiving started out well with ANOTHER Cowboys win – this time over the Kansas City Chiefs – the other Superbowl team from last year. This is what makes it so difficult to be a Cowboys fan – they beat the elite teams and lose to all kinds of others.

We had a delicious meal and enjoyed the company and particularly the usual excellent hospitality from Amy and Adamo.

Friday was a take a breath day, with Diana enjoying some well deserved veggie time.

Joey (Diana’s stepson) and his lovely family came up to visit on Saturday. The little monsters were selling cards and gift tags outside of Grace’s shop, Sirens, and so they all went down to support them. Some amount of the money they raised is going to support a local “resource center.”

Joey’s wife, Bonna, made a wonderful tart with fig jam, goat cheese, and onions. I’m hoping Diana was paying attention (think she was) as it seemed like a great party guest recipe.

Marco and Julie joined later on Saturday afternoon and we had a fun visit with everyone.

Caroline and Carolyn (Clorinda’s caregivers) came over on Sunday afternoon. It was so nice to hang out with them in a non-stressful situation. Carolyn brought over a deep frier and all the stuff to make her famous wontons – yummy! And she cranks them out so effortlessly. Caroline told me a funny story that I’m going to call “Tsunami’s Over!” You can ask me to hear it – think I’ll get in too much trouble if I publish it here.

Later on Sunday the Gypsy Hill krewe – Adamo’s group plus Andy and Jude, Diana, Carolyn, and Caroline – decorated the tree by the entrance to the hill. Apparently this has become an annual thing with hot chocolate, champagne and carols. I like it!

I continued with the two books I started last week. The first was “Licks of Love” by John Updike. Not at the level of his prime “Rabbit” and other work, but still a great read.

Updike has a way of capturing things that just makes me smile. For example:

“She was a solid, smooth-faced woman, so nearsighted that she moved with a splay-footed pugnacity, as if something she didn’t quite see might knock her over.”

Not necessarily a kind description, but paints a picture so elegantly.

One more example:

“She had a stern, impassive way of absorbing a great deal of liquor and betraying its presence in her system only by a slight lowering of her lids over her bright black eyes, and an increase of pedantry in her fluting voice.”

Just wonderful – “an increase of pedantry in her fluting voice.”

Here’s an online summary of the collection:

“In this brilliant late-career collection, John Updike revisits many of the locales of his early fiction: the small-town Pennsylvania of Olinger Stories, the sandstone farmhouse of Of the Farm, the exurban New England of Couples and Marry Me, and Henry Bech’s Manhattan of artistic ambition and taunting glamour. To a dozen short stories spanning the American Century, the author has added a novella-length coda to his quartet of novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Several strands of the Rabbit saga come together here as, during the fall and winter holidays of 1999, Harry’s survivors fitfully entertain his memory while pursuing their own happiness up to the edge of a new millennium. Love makes Updike’s fictional world go round—married love, filial love, feathery licks of erotic love, and love for the domestic particulars of Middle American life.”

The other book I dabbled in this week was “Flesh” by David Szalay. I’ll say more about it next week. It did win the Booker prize and is written in a quite different style – like a terse Hemingway.

I came across this on Youtube – just ridiculously talented:

Tom Stoppard died a few days ago. You may not have heard of him – a famous British playwright who was knighted. I studied “The Real Inspector Hound” in high school and may even have attended a performance at a theater in Glasgow. I can still remember one line “vilified and pilloried in the stocks of common gossip.” Crazy that just jumped into my head, given all that I can’t remember to save my life.

What’s this doing in the music section? Fair question. Be patient.

I read a post from our wonderful New Orleanian, originally from England, Jon Cleary. He describes an evening from Jazzfest last year or the one before when he had Tom Stoppard at a backyard party. Stoppard comes to see him at the tiny Chickie Wah Wah music club the following evening, and finds himself seated at the bar next to another Sir Tom – Jones.

Here’s a video of Sir Tom Jones joining in with Jon Cleary:

Here’s some of what Cleary reported:

“One Sir Tom, Tom Stoppard, the English one, was a knighted playwright, an icon of sixties and seventies London. The other Sir Tom, Tom Jones, the Welsh one, is a knighted singer of equal stature and also in the arts. They chatted amiably, amused to be seated next to one another by chance, caught up in the bonhomie, enjoying the ambience of a neighbourhood saloon bar in New Orleans at night. My job was to play the piano and and Sir Tom, the Welsh one, needed no arm-twisting to bounce over with jaunty enthusiasm to join me on the small stage to belt out an old Joe Turner tune to the delight and surprise of all the ladies in the audience (and the fellas too).”

I like that Jon uses the “proper” spelling on neighbourhood – generating a red spelling underline warning. Don’t change it Jon.

I cite this as another example of things that only happen in New Orleans.

“Brigtsen’s Dinner – Finally”

Monday began with a walk down to French Truck coffee. Someone did the usual – “Can I have a cappuccino with non-fat milk please?” To receive the typical hipster coffee retort, “We only have Oat, Almond and whole milk.” “Ok, I’ll have regular milk.” Would it be so hard for them to add 2% or non-fat milk to the other three options?

Later in the day we drove over to Louisiana Running and Walking company to see about some new shoes for Diana. She really likes the ones she’s had for the last year or so, tried on a couple of other options, and decided to stick with the new version of what she’s “been having.”

It seems this business, tucked into a really nice little house on Canal street, would do better with a sign that could be seen from the street and some marketing. On the other hand, they seem to have a loyal following and I like the non-mall like setting. And the guys who help are runners, with a treadmill and know what they’re talking about.

Monday night football was a pleasant affair for once. ESPN and ESPN2 (Manning brothers cast) were all of a sudden available again on Youtube TV, the dispute with Disney apparently resolved. Dak was able to score many touchdowns and the defense didn’t look as inept as they regularly do. It was against a losing Vegas Raiders team, but a good sign.

We watched a movie called “Sliding Doors.” It was entertaining and the ending made no sense to me. Diana said I needed to understand the parallel planes where things were happening – two dimensions. Seriously? She says we need to go back and watch the opening few minutes, with sliding doors on the subway, and her “director’s commentary” to understand. Surprisingly, we haven’t found time to do that yet.

You should ask me about a funny Gwyneth Paltrow (and her sister) story sometime.

I didn’t make it to trivia on Tuesday. Here was the final question – put these in chronological order:

First Superbowl, Beatles on Ed Sullivan, First Email sent, Jaws movie release.

I would have gone with Beatles (64), Superbowl (70 ish), Jaws (75), and email (78, 79?). Seems that’s what the Bayou Boyz decided also and bet 20 points on it.

The first email was actually sent in 1971 – I looked it up to verify. All teams messed that one up and so we ended up in third place.

“The first email was sent in 1971 by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, who sent a test message to himself between two computers side-by-side. The message content was likely a random string of letters like “QWERTYUIOP” and the email marked the first time the “@” symbol was used to separate a user’s name from their host machine. “

Diana and Laurie had a night out at “Really Really Nice Wines” while the guys persevered at trivia. This is a walkable store with good snacks and wine and it seems they enjoyed the couple of hours they spent there.

Wednesday began as usual – run and yoga with Laurie, Kara and Kenny (yoga only – sorry Kenny but no credit for run, but extra credit for coaching the pickleball newbies.)

Then we had an amazing dinner at Brigtsen’s. I had promised to take McD here before Frank retires (who knows when.) Denny and Anne heard about our plans and asked to join – why not?

I’ve only been here once before and it was over a decade ago. I remember having a rabbit dish and being very impressed.

The space is really just a small house in the Riverbend neighborhood. There are a couple of rooms and you feel welcomed into a home. The chef, Frank Brigtsen, began at Commander’s Palace and then followed Paul Prudhomme to his new place, K Paul’s. He ultimately opened his own small place with help from Paul. Here’s a long, but wonderfully written recap of his life:

Frank Brigtsen biography

If you know me much, you’ll know what point in that story really got to me. Email me your thoughts. Here’s a quick summary of a long story:

“Chef Frank Brigtsen and his wife Marna are the owners of Brigtsen’s Restaurant, in the Riverbend neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans. Frank began his culinary career in 1973 while attending Louisiana State University. In 1979, he apprenticed at Commander’s Palace Restaurant under the guidance of Chef Paul Prudhomme. In 1980, Frank became the first Night Chef at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen when the restaurant began dinner service. During his seven-year tenure with Chef Prudhomme at K-Paul’s, Frank attained the position of Executive Chef. Paul and the late K Prudhomme were instrumental in helping Frank and Marna open Brigtsen’s in 1986.”

Let’s move on to the food. I’ll say up front that this is one of the best meals I’ve had in many, many years. I started with a “cup” (much more bowl shaped) of the butternut shrimp bisque. This was ridiculous. Anne tried to order a bowl and our waitress, Amanda, strongly steered her away from that. If you eat a bowl you won’t be up for anything else – quoting some stat about the amount of heavy cream they used in a day. A quote from Frank:

“What would he would tell a first-time visitor to order?

“If this is your first time to Brigtsen’s, your first taste should be the butternut shrimp bisque,” Frank says. It’s a dish that brings people back.”

Our server quickly identified Anne as the troublemaker in the group – “I see why you sat her in the corner.” A discussion of “Nobody puts baby in the corner” ensued and I learned that it’s a Patrick Swayze quote from the Dirty Dancing movie. I’ve heard it used for years but did not know that origin.

Back to the meal, that bisque was heavenly and a cup was more than enough if one planned to eat anything else. Meanwhile, Diana had the house salad and pronounced it, “Maybe the best salad I’ve ever had.” The dressing was sublime.

Denny started with deviled eggs and shrimp remoulade. Amazing:

Anne had the bisque – same as me. She followed that with an appetizer as main selection of barbeque shrimp. Diana said the sauce was incredibly reduced and rich:

Anne said the combo of the bisque cream, barbeque sauce and deserts gave her a tummy ache that night. Poor baby (as she was delivering freshly caught red snapper fillets for us to cook up.)

I followed my bisque with a crab crusted drum. The caramelized onions in the veggie side were a total star, and the fish was the best I’ve ever had – that sauce, crust and beautifully cooked.

Here’s what Frank has to say about the curst and the sauce – I think he figured all this out yeas ago:

“In the late eighties, crusted this and crusted that was a buzzword in menus,” Frank says. So he decided to make a fish that had a crust similar to fried fish. Without actually frying it.

He made a crab dressing, then put it really, really thin on top of the fish, cooking it under the broiler to get it brown and crusty. The menu describes it having a lemon crab sauce. Frank lists the components: “Onions, celery, leeks, bay leaf, sliced fresh lemons, a couple pounds of fresh jumbo crabs cooked, cooked, cooked, with crab stock on top to double the flavor, a little turmeric to make it yellow because it’s lemon, and blond roux to give it body. Then strain it all.”

The result? A rich, velvety, buttery lemon crab flavor. Frank smiles: “I’m a sauce guy.”

After her favourite salad, McD opted for the seafood platter. Here’s the description:

Brigtsen’s Seafood Platter

Grilled Redfish w/ pesto shrimp sauce/baked oyster w/ Herbsaint creamed spinach/artichoke baked oyster/shrimp cornbread w/ jalapeño smoked corn butter/fried calamari w/ cherry pepper aoili

Diana loved this dish – and said that next day leftovers were even better as the sauces got time to seep in.

We had a pecan pie and a lemon ice box creme brulé (wonderful) for dessert. I think Kenny would love that lemon brulé.

Thursday began with a run in Audubon park – got to work off some of those Brigtsen’s calories. Then we made a stop at the local coffee shop, Tartine, to read the paper and enjoy a snack. My quiche and Diana’s bagel with lox were both excellent. We agree that it might be the best quiche we’ve had – from a hidden neighborhood joint – yes! Better than filtered in McKinney – definitely.

I heard a good joke (my opinion) when walking in the park – on a podcast, not one I overheard from other runners and walkers. I’d like to share it with you:

A turtle tries to cross the street.

He’s ambushed by a couple of snails, who rough him up badly.

Police arrive and ask the turtle what happened:

“I don’t know, it all happened so fast.”

In the afternoon, we drove back over to Friends jewelry to get Clorinda’s rings resized and reset for Diana to wear. This was a typical local experience – dogs in the store, snack bars out, and a bar cart in the back.

Returning home, I did some work outside – washed the car, trimmed the hedge, blew some leaves around, dead-headed and trimmed some bushes. Diana tagged in and bagged some leaves. We have no trees on our property and spend a lot of time sweeping up and bagging leaves – seems wrong.

While I was sweeping, Annie O showed up with the red snapper fillets we had forgotten to pick up on drop-off after Brigtsen’s.

I watched an excellent movie on Thursday night – “Lilly” is the story of Lilly Ledbetter, a manager at Goodyear who made about half the salary of the male managers that she trained. This stars the wonderful New Orleanian, Patricia Clarkson. You can tell it’s a true story with the Ginsberg and Obama segments.

We made our first visit to a newly reopened venue, the Jazz and Blues Market, on Friday. This opened a month or more ago and is a real adult jazz club – cocktail table seating, great sound, and a very nice lobby bar. Another treat – table service with well made cocktails.

We saw Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia with special gest Anders Osborne:

Here’s a lengthy write up from the venue about the musicians (I like the detail they provide for someone who may not be familiar with the artists.):

“Mike Zito is a top-tier guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter who has become a major presence…”
— ROCK AND BLUES MUSE

“When you listen to ‘Resurrection’ you will understand why Mike Zito recently won a Blues Music Award for Best Blues Rock Artist.”
— BLUES BLAST MAGAZINE (2021 Album Review ‘Resurrection’)

“Mike Zito Unleashes Ferocious Guitar Attack on Live Set ‘Blues for the Southside’”
— GLIDE MAGAZINE (2022 Album Review ‘Blues for the Southside’)

6x-Blues Music Award Winner and 14x-Blues Music Award Nominated Guitarist, Singer & Songwriter MIKE ZITO and 3x-Blues Music Award Winner and 7x-Blues Music Award Nominated Guitarist, Singer & Songwriter ALBERT CASTIGLIA bring BLOOD BROTHERS to the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market! Their most recent individual albums BOTH hit #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart!!

This is a 2 Hour Show where both Mike and Albert will be onstage performing together for the entire show, so fans can enjoy the amazing chemistry and creativity that these two musicians share with each other – and the audience!! In addition to their own Rock, Blues and Roots individual tunes, the set will feature a number of songs from the new “Blood Brothers” album.

MIKE ZITO is one of the most lauded artists in the contemporary blues arena today. Zito has won 6 Blues Music Awards in recent years: 2018 & 2021 “Blues Rock Artist of the Year”; and “Blues Rock Album of the Year” (‘Mike Zito and Friends – Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Tribute to Chuck Berry’, in 2021 ‘Resurrection’ in 2022, ‘Blood Brothers’ in 2024, and ‘Life is Hard’ in 2025). Zito has 11 Blues Music Award Nominations and 7 of them have been for “Blues Rock Album of the Year”!!

ALBERT CASTIGLIA won the 2020 Blues Music Award for “Blues Rock Album of the Year” (‘Masterpiece’) and the 2022 Blues Music Award for “Blues Rock Artist of the Year”. Castiglia was also Nominated for the 2020 “Blues Rock Artist of the Year” at the Blues Music Awards.

Both Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia are celebrating the phenomenal success of their most recent albums: Zito’s double live set, ‘Blues for the Southside’ (2021), debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart; and Castiglia’s latest solo disc, ‘I Got Love’, (2022) peaked at #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart. With both artists on the exciting Gulf Coast Records label, it only made sense to join forces and give the fans what they’ve long been clamoring for: “Blood Brothers.”

Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia are true “Blood Brothers” in life and in the music they create both individually and collectively. They are joining forces in a collaborative effort of songwriting and performances to create a total listening experience greater than the sum of its parts. “Mike and Albert have a special chemistry together when they plug in and play that few have. They finish each other’s sentences musically,” says Award-Winning Legendary Blues Guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia release their album “Blood Brothers” in March 2023, produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith and recorded at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana. In support of the new “Blood Brothers” album they will bring together their two powerhouse bands for their tour, featuring Matt Johnson on Drums; Ephraim Lowell on Drums; Doug Byrkit on Bass; and Lewis Stephens on Piano/Organ.

“His ability to play any style of guitar with expert skill and sing his artful, meaningful lyrics with soul and passion will put him on top of the blues charts for years to come.”
— BLUES ROCK REVIEW (on Albert Castiglia)

“Albert Castiglia is the best blues guitar player in South Florida and, perhaps, anywhere…He’s a fine player, singer, and songwriter who has forged his own unique brand of rock-influenced blues filled with power and soul…Buy this record [‘Masterpiece’] at once!”
— ROCK AND BLUES MUSE (2020 Album Review ‘Masterpiece’)

“Castiglia does what he does best here – play damn good music…this is Albert Castiglia doing what he loves to do and doing what no one else can. Go get this CD now…”
— BLUES BLAST MAGAZINE (2022 Album Review ‘I Got Love’)

I had a quiet and relaxing day on Saturday. Diana met the girls at Sunnie’s for morning yoga by the pool and then they hung out and had some good girl time.

Diana met a group for pickleball on Saturday night and seemed to have a good time. I need to play again soon.

Some kind of a fancy hat parade came by the house on Sunday morning. I remember this from last year. Diana looked it up but I can’t remember now what it was all about. She just reminded me – St. Catherine’s hat parade:

details on St Catherine’s hat parade