Happy Father’s Day to my Dad and all you others celebrating today. Being a Dad – the most challenging occupation I know, filled with terrific highs, tough lows and lots of unanticipated in betweens. Here’s a picture of my Dad, sister, and brother in law at Pitmedden Gardens near Aberdeen.
This week was all work, work, work for both of us with lots of challenges to solve. I think McD solved most of hers, while I’m still battling through mine.
The only real respite all week was a very pleasant walk along the river trail on Thursday night. The city of Austin does such a good job maintaining the trail and the natural habitats. We enjoyed this guy with his long neck sticking up from the vegetation.
Friday afternoon brought a lot of work issues for me and so I was ready for some fun and relaxation when arriving home. I had bought tickets to see the author David Sedaris read from and talk about his latest book, “Calyso”, at Book People but couldn’t face the prospect of 400 people crammed into the 2nd floor space after such a long week – time for Plan B.
We walked down South Congress Avenue (SoCo) to the San Jose hotel for a relaxing drink and snack on their excellent patio. This is where we finished our evening with the Aussies and Diana sent Sue a picture of the patio. She replied that they were fighting through thunderstorms in Custer, South Dakota – those Aussies get around.
From the Hotel San Jose, we rambled on down to C-Boys Heart and Soul for the 10:30 pm show – the Mike Flanigin trio with special guest Jimmy Vaughan. Jimmy is Stevie Ray’s older brother and an excellent guitarist in his own right – albeit with a much more understated style than Stevie Ray.
I always appreciate a stage set up with a deep saxophone. Jimmy wandered in about 5 minutes before showtime with his guitar on his back and quickly set up.
The last time we saw Jimmy Vaughan was at the New Orleans jazz festival and his set in the blues tent was cut short by torrential rain. This show was in no hurry to finish. Here’s Jimmy with a nice guitar solo (see what I mean by understated?):
We shared a table with a local couple – he has been retired for 12 years and made us very jealous. They hadn’t seen Vaughan since the early 80s and were enjoying the show as much as us.
C-Boys Heart and Soul was an excellent venue, reminding me very much of New Orleans with the mix of ages and backgrounds of people enjoying the show together. The establishment also has a great patio and upstairs room that we’ll be returning to enjoy.
On Saturday, we caught an early movie on the way to a Target run. Rocketman is an excellent musical based on the life and work of Elton John – highly recommended.
The way the movie uses the songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin to tell the story of Elton’s life is exemplary. Very creative musical performances give way to deep scenes on his early life and challenges. Diana and I were chatting about how “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” won’t mean the same to us after the visuals and story from this movie. The closing credits show that John has raised $450 million to date for his AIDS charity – amazing from a gentleman who has brought so much musical joy to so many people, and in his second act so much relief to so many people suffering from such a horrible disease.
The scene about John’s first American performance, at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, was beautifully executed, with Elton and then the crowed levitating under the power of the music.
Here’s what the LA Times music critic had to say:
“Rejoice. Rock music, which has been going through a rather uneventful period lately, has a new star. He’s Elton John, a 23-year-old Englishman whose United States debut Tuesday night at the Troubadour was, in almost every way, magnificent.”
“His music is so staggeringly original that it is obvious he is not merely operating within a given musical field (such as country or blues or rock) but, like Randy Newman and Laura Nyro among others, creating his own field.”
I chuckled on arriving at Target – there was a greeter up front to tell me that they were having computer system issues and it could take a long time to check out. I read the next day that all their stores were down for two hours – they had recovered by the time we were leaving.
Fathers’ Day Sunday started with a nice swim and sauna at the apartment, followed by coffee and crossword at Opa, and a ridiculously good brunch at Odd Duck. Chef Bryce Gilmore started out in Austin years ago with the Odd Duck farm to trailer food truck, before opening Barley Swine and then the Odd Duck restaurant.
Here’s a short documentary about the original trailer that Bryce found in Wisconsin and remodeled himself:
Our brunch started with shishito hashbrown, creamed corn, and braised goat – such a delicious combination of flavors. A close second to that was the next dish of smoked chicken skillet, sunny eggs, mushroom cream, and tobacco onions. The final dish of Mediterranean flavours – eggplant falafel, fenugreek sausage, cashew humus, and herb yogurt made it difficult to choose a favourite. We really enjoy the concept of smaller portions to share – particularly when each contains so many fresh flavours. Can you tell that I was very happy with everything about my brunch?
I write this post relaxing on the couch, pleasantly sated and watching the one of a kind views of the US Open golf at Pebble Beach.
Radio Paradise accompanied our Sunday morning reading and this song from Bob Marley caught my attention. Sentiments from many years ago still so true today:
That was followed by a song with similar messages form Ben Harper – it’s been too long since I heard his music:
And then the beautiful harmonies of The Jayhawks. A band that I always forget about until they show up on the radio or a playlist – I haven’t heard a song of theirs that I don’t enjoy:
And finally, Sonia Dada, a band formed in Chicago in 1990 by Daniel Pritzker, when he enlisted a trio of singers he heard in a subway station. Again great harmonies and voices: