This was another quiet week at home for me, with Diana traveling to St. Petersburg, Florida on Thursday and Friday, where she finished out a very busy work week.
We met Brent for coffee and a crossword after our workouts on Saturday morning. He refused to attempt the crossword after a quick glance over it – “I don’t have a crossword brain – good for puns and witty remarks, but not crosswords”. The time while not solving the crossword was put to good use – reading an article in the “Scientific Mind” on the fact that men with high testosterone also happen to be better dancers, hence the reason women are attracted to good dancers – honestly!
Saturday night brought a classic Texas torrential downpour and thunderstorm. This one lasted much longer than normal and provided the garden with a good soaking.
I finished the novel “Wonder Boys” by Michael Chabon this week. Chabon is perhaps my favorite author and the film from this book is also one of my favorites, so I had quite high hopes for this read. It did not disappoint. I enjoyed it more than Telegraph Avenue, which was one of my most enjoyable reads last year. The characters and crazy antics built around a writers celebration at a Pittsburgh college are excellent. It’s difficult to set aside visions of the actors who played the main characters – Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, Tobey Maguire, and Patricia Clarkson – but I tried hard and enjoyed the written characters even more than the visual versions. I’m looking forward to catching up on some more of Chabon’s catalog in the near future.
Aretha Franklin passed away this week. “Live at the Fillmore West” is one of my top 10 live albums and I listened to it a couple of times this week. Aretha’s concert piano technique coupled with the versatility, soulfulness, and range of her voice make this album very special. Here’s a sample – a duet with the unforgettable Ray Charles:
Wow! – I’ve seen some amazing shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco, but nothing like this. One of my all time favorite Aretha performances was at the Kennedy Center Honors when she performed for Carole King’s induction – “Feel Like a Natural Woman”. The reactions from Carole and President Obama say it all.
An advertisement for a Blue Note concert by Maceo Paker, saxophonist for James Brown in the 1960s and Parliament Funkadelic in the 1970s, included a link to this video featuring Trombone Shorty from New Orleans. This might be the best trombone solo I’ve come across:
And finally on the music front, a music video that a friend turned me on to this week. The band is called Meute. They hail from Hamburg and describe their music as “German techno marching band”. I like the horn arrangements and performance very much.