I made a last minute trip to New York on Monday for a 6 hour meeting that ran from 1-7pm. It was difficult to find a flight that got there in time, so I tried Virgin America for the first time. Virgin was a pleasant change from American Airlines – the seats seemed a bit larger and the in-flight entertainment was good – including the ability to order food and drink from the seat back entertainment screen. I watched a remake of the movie “Point Blank” on the flight – it was like a Warren Miller ski/snow board adventure film – great stunts and scenery with a weak plot and acting – good material to pass the time on a plane. Here’s what I thought was an over the top demonstration of law enforcement as I was pulling up to my hotel to change for the meeting.
The conference room that I was confined to for 6 hours at least had a very nice view.
After the meeting I attempted to visit the Village Vanguard jazz club in Greenwich Village. On Monday nights the Village Vanguard Orchestra plays – they and the club are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and are world renowned. When I got there the show was sold out but there was a short line for no-shows. I got in line and unfortunately was the first one in line that didn’t get in – the last group of 4 taken was right in front of me.
Here’s a video of the orchestra so that you can see what I missed.
I was pretty tired at this point (car service picked me up from home at 5am) and so just headed back to the hotel with the help of the New York subway iPhone app.
On the walk from the subway station to the hotel I passed “bookend” restaurants for my time with Mark DeBenedictus at AIG. Bailey’s is where I had breakfast with Mark when he first pitched me on the idea of leaving HP and joining AIG. Giardino D’Or is where we had Mark’s last supper on the evening that he left AIG.
Tuesday began with a few meetings and then a flight back to Dallas. I read a bit of my “All the light we cannot see” book – the setting has now moved to St Malo which reminds me of our family vacation in Brittany and several visits there. I also discovered some new music on the Virgin in-flight music channels. Here’s some things I enjoyed listening to:
Hearing the band “Pearl Django” made me think of the jazz music played at cafes in Paris – apparently it’s known as “French Jazz” or “Gypsy Jazz”. The Pearl Django music is inspired by the jazz guitarist Django Reinhard. Here’s some of their music and an excellent French Jazz playlist that I found on Spotify.
Guy Clark, a classic Texas songwriter, famous for “Desperados waiting on a train” and “LA Freeway” passed on Tuesday. I remember watching a great cover of this at Tolbert’s restaurant in downtown Dallas over 20 years ago – can’t for the life of me remember the name of the musician performing it. Here’s Guy Clark’s original version. I also recommend the versions by The Highwaymen and Jerry Jeff Walker. It was interesting to read that Guy was also an excellent guitar maker and made a living doing this while writing songs in LA prior to his move to Nashville and the release of his classic albums.
Wednesday was a quiet work from home day. I managed to catch up with a few backlogged crosswords as well. The Blue Apron delivery arrived and I made Red Curry and Coconut Shrimp Stir-Fry with Rice Noodles and Pea Shoots for dinner.
On Thursday I braved the commute to Roanoke after a few meetings at home. A pleasant stop on the way was at the coffee shop in Grapevine where I finished the USA today crossword in reasonable time.
I escaped for a quick lunch at my favorite local New Orleans style restaurant, “Bayou Jack’s” – a bowl of their delicious crawfish bisque. I heard a number of good new musical artists on the commutes. Snarky Puppy is interestingly from Dallas and is playing at the Granada theater tonight.
I have to do some research to find out the name of the drummer on the Joey Defrancesco track – he sounded amazing.
I switched from Jazz and the Jam_On Sirius station over to B.B. King’s Bluesville station and came across Eric Bibb – sounded a lot like really good Robert Cray.
I arrived home to find the pool busy draining all its water out into the street. We’re having the re-plastering redone to remove the streaks and inconsistent staining.
Another Blue Apron dinner on Thursday night. This time soy-glazed meatballs with jasmine rice, Swiss chard, radish and scallion. Another great tasting meal.
On Friday we headed out to the Four Seasons golf course in Irving, TX to watch the 2nd round of the Byron Nelson golf tournament. We try to head out for at least one day each year. It’s not as luxurious these days since EDS isn’t the sponsor – no luxury boxes, food and drink. Here are Diana and our friend Vinod enjoying the action on the 17th green.
We walked most of the course, educating Vinod on the basics of golf as we went. We watched Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia (getting ready to tee off below), Matt Kuchar and several others along the way. Sergio ended up winning on Sunday after a sudden death playoff with Brooks Koepka from Florida. It was an exciting finish with several players having a chance to win.
New albums were released this week by 2 veterans – Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. So far, I much prefer the Bob Dylan classic song covers. Eric Clapton’s is pleasant with great musicianship but doesn’t keep my attention the way his older albums still do. It’s very much of a J.J. Cale tribute continuation with 2 covers and several of the Tulsa musicians that played on all J.J.’s classic recordings.
Sunday dinner was the last of the Blue Apron deliveries for this week – Seared Chicken and Verjus Pan Sauce with mashed potatoes, mushrooms and kale. I had to look up Verjus Blanc (white grape juice) – the tart, fresh juice of unripe wine grapes. It is a culinary ingredient indigenous to the world’s wine producing regions that is used in sauce making, for poaching fish and meat, and to dress lettuces, vegetables and fruit.
I was finally able to track down a near pristine used copy of an album that I loved in University – “Bright Size Life” by Pat Metheny.
This was released in 1976 and was one of the first recordings by both Pat Metheny and my favorite bass player, Jaco Pastorius (of Weather Report fame). I used Jaco’s solo album to audition hi-fi speakers – 90% of them rattle during his “Portrait of Tracy”. This album is for Pat Metheny what “Kind of Blue” is for Miles Davis. All music lovers should hear this music. The collaboration of Pat, Jaco and Bob Moses on drums is amazing. The music has a lot of empty space that highlights the way Jaco plays electric bass like a lead instrument and really enhances Metheney’s playing (which almost has a country twang sound in places – a sound rarely heard in jazz). Moses’ explosive but very detailed drumming is quite unique and adds a very interesting texture to the music. There’s a new documentary out about Jaco that I’ll have to watch soon.