Week in Review – August 6th, 2023

“A Few Days in Austin”

After the long drive from New Orleans to Austin on Sunday, I decided to keep it simple and eat in the hotel restaurant, Caroline.  Lachie had the same idea and so we each had some unexpected company and covered a wide variety of topics.

I found the breakfasts at Caroline on Monday and Tuesday morning to be excellent.  It’s so nice when a hotel restaurant has fresh and creative offerings.  The corn cake benedict and the huevos rancheros were both delicious.  And the poached eggs were perfectly cooked.

I had the Board Audit committee meeting on Monday, and then met Damon and Neffie at the Firehouse lounge, a cool speakeasy around the corner from the hotel.  You slide the bookcase in the hostel lobby to the side to gain entry.  I had been there before with Denny, Anne, and Diana, and knew they make good cocktails.

We tried Lonesome Dove for dinner.  This is a well known place from Fort Worth, that opened a branch in Austin.  It’s famous for exotic game dishes, snake, elk and the like.  We all enjoyed dinner.  The elk and foie gras sliders were a highlight, and my scallops were very fresh and well cooked.

After a full day Board meeting on Tuesday, the executive committee enjoyed dinner at Dean’s Italian restaurant.  I enjoyed cooking the wagyu on a hot stone, and decided to have scallops again.  These were just as good as the night before.

A few of us stopped into the Elephant room after dinner to listen to jazz music.  The band wasn’t terrific, but pleasant for relaxing after a long day.

I made the final triangle of my drive on Wednesday, Austin to McKinney, stopping at DFW to pick up Diana on her return from San Francisco.  I broke the drive up by stopping for lunch with April in Round Rock.  We both enjoy the Salt Traders restaurant and it’s right off the main highway to Dallas.  The shrimp poblano enchiladas were great.

Here’s Clorinda anticipating the new book from Ann Patchett that Diana got for her.  I understand she put down her current book and dove right in.

I enjoyed the Beanie Baby movie over a couple of evenings.  I thought Jack Galifianakas was very good as the guy who created and ultimately destroyed the Ty toy company.  I’m sure there are still several hundred of these silly toys in storage units outside the house in Los Gatos.

All the inspections on the New Orleans house happened on Thursday:  General, termite, sewage and air conditioning.  We’re still awaiting all the details, but there doesn’t appear to be anything huge to deal with.

Patty and Brent were in town looking at potential places to build a retirement house.  I don’t think they saw anything they liked, and so Dallas might be coming off the list.  We met them at Harvest in downtown McKinney for Friday dinner.  A really nice visit with good food.  We’ll see them again in a week or so.

Rachel was over to sunbathe and enjoy the pool one last time on Saturday afternoon.  She didn’t know about the move until she saw the yard sign.  Oops.

Friends and family were having fun in other parts of the country.  The Ogans at altitude outside Boulder, CO:

Olivia celebrating her sixteenth birthday.  We don’t know who the guy next to her is.  Interesting hair.

Will and Christine in Reno, NV with G-Man, Caitlin, and crew:

And lastly, Campbell and Molly with Kris and Cat on a beach in San Diego to enjoy some music.

“All the Sinners Bleed” by S.A. Cosby was my book this week.  A fast paced thriller, and not for the feint of heart.  I enjoyed it a lot, maybe even better than his last two novels.  The main character, Titus Crown, a police chief in rural Virginia is excellently done.  Here’s the online summary:

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Fresh and exhilarating. . . Cosby keeps his eye on the story and the pedal to the metal.” ―Stephen King, TheNew York Times Book Review

A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

The new novel from New York Times bestselling and Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author S. A. Cosby, “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction.” ―Washington Post.

“An atmospheric pressure cooker.” ―People

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.

With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction” (The Washington Post)

This article about how AI can determine the attributes of music you were just listening too is quite interesting:

https://www.livescience.com/health/neuroscience/googles-mind-reading-ai-can-tell-what-music-you-listened-to-based-on-your-brain-signals

I wonder what my brain looks like after listening to this?  Great beat and slide guitar sound.  I think it made me quite relaxed.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.

 

Week in Review – July 30, 2023

“Let’s find a New Orleans home”

We loaded up and drove to New Orleans on Tuesday.  It’s about an eight hour drive, that we broke up with lunch at Athena in Shreveport.  We arrived at Denny and Anne’s home on Webster a bit after 7pm.  They’re in Boulder, CO, but the boys were there to entertain us.

Our first task on Wednesday was to secure a safety deposit box for our valuables.  The Regions bank on St. Charles had a vault and boxes available.  It was a bit of a process to select one and determine if it was available, but thirty minutes later we had everything secure.

We met Tracy, one of our realtors, at the fist of six houses at noon.  I wasn’t expecting Diana to be very impressed, but a few minutes in she turned to me and mouthed “I like it!”  Go figure.  I liked it a lot more than the first time I saw it also.  The Garden District location is fantastic, although not exactly where we were planning to be.

The next five houses were a bit of a blur for us.  I liked the two we made offers on last week less the second time around.   We eliminated one and decided to pause on the other.

Back on Webster, we sat down to review our thoughts.  Fifteen minutes later and I had a table summarizing our thoughts over to Tracy.  Let’s make an offer on the first one we saw in the Garden District.

We submitted an offer on Thursday afternoon, had an attractive counter back quickly, and signed a contract in the evening.  Now it’s on to inspections.  The home was built in 1860 and renovated ten years ago, so I’m sure there will be some issues to be negotiated.

The counter was actually received while Diana and I were enjoying a delicious lunch at Shaya.  We thought we deserved it after all the activity of the last few weeks.  The whipped cream cheese, with shallots, dill and trout roe was ridiculously good, as was the old standby lamb ragu humus.

Kenny volunteered to close his friend’s taco restaurant in the Warehouse district while he was on vacation.  We went with him and met Kara, Ian and Nina.  They had just come from the Barbie movie, and all enjoyed it.  The tacos, margaritas and service were excellent.  It’s so much fun to hang out with the Kirsches.

I dropped Diana at the New Orleans airport on Friday – she headed to San Francisco via Dallas to check up on her mom for a few days.  I dropped a deposit check off at the realtor office on my way back – things are moving ahead.  I saw an email shortly after that showing that the Washington house was “under contract.”

I decided to treat myself to a nice breakfast on Saturday morning.  Ruby Slipper is a five minute walk from the Washington house – so I thought I’d give that a try.  Good choice.  I got the “peacemaker” benedicts – a choice of two.  The St. Charles chicken and Cochon were both excellent.  I hope to be coming back to this place often.

 

 

After that yummy breakfast, I delivered Morrison to Kenny and Kara for safekeeping.  He seemed ok, if not a little stressed out by the move.

Kara suggested a music movie at a gallery for afternoon entertainment.  It was sold out but we thought some folks would cancel.  I came up with guitar wizard Marc Stone at the Bourbon Orleans hotel at 4pm as an alternative.

The movie did seem to have some cancellations, but we decided to park at the fire station, “Got any room for an old, retired Chief to park?”, and go to the Marc Stone show.

With a bit of time to kill, we played some pool in the local Irish bar.

Marc Stone was as excellent as I remembered.  All three of us thoroughly enjoyed his set.

His finger picking and slide guitar are excellent.

A wedding second line parade came through while we were listening to the show.  Classic New Orleans:

After the entertainment, we stopped by “Butcher” for sandwiches.  Always a great choice.  I got something similar to a Philly cheesesteak.

Another great afternoon in New Orleans.  Looking forward to being there soon.

Sunday was another driving day.  I started at 6:30am from New Orleans to Austin.  About 30 mins in I realized that I’d left my laptop in Denny’s office.  That added an hour to an already long drive.  I arrived in Austin 9 hours later.  I did have one fun stop in La Grange.  I’ve been listening to the ZZ Top song about that town since I was in University.

Another great book again this week.  “Such Kindness” by Andre Dubus III really held my attention.  Just as good as “Townie”, which I enjoyed a lot many years ago.

The main character, Tom, broke his hips and had screws installed.  I could certainly relate to some of these descriptions:

“I drink more water.  I try to sit straight in my chair, but the hip screws are burrowing hotly into my bones and I need to stretch out and lie down.”

Here’s the online plot summary:

“Tom Lowe’s identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family’s dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls.

In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the cost of his relationships with his wife and son, Tom slowly comes to realize that he can never work again. If he is not a working man, who is he? He is not, he believes, the kind of person who lives in subsidized housing, though that is where he has ended up. He is not the kind of person who hatches a scheme to commit convenience-check fraud, together with neighbors he considers lowlifes, until he finds himself stealing his banker’s trash.

Who is Tom Lowe, and who will he become? Can he find a way to reunite hands and heart, mind and spirit, to be once again a giver and not just a taker, to forge a self-acceptance deeper than pride?

Andre Dubus III’s soulful cast includes Trina, the struggling mom next door who sells her own plasma to get by; Dawn, the tough-talking owner of the local hairdressing salon; Jamie, a well-meaning pothead college student ready to stick it to “the man”; and a mix of strangers and neighbors who will never know the role they played in changing a life. To one man’s painful moral journey, Dubus brings compassion with an edge of dark absurdity, forging a novel as absorbing as it is profound.”

Kenny shared this gem with me.  I love the Hiatt and Douglas combo:

Another really interesting combination:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

Fortnight in Review – July 23rd, 2023

“Busy!”

The house stager arrived on Monday.  After asking us to remove the “clutter”, the stager replaced it with a different kind of clutter that didn’t appeal to me at all.  I weeded some of that out and we’ll live with it.  Diana would have had a fit if she was here.

In addition, the window washer arrived and spent several hours making all the panes shiny inside and out.  The window replacement guys also replaced two foggy windows in the bathroom.  Lots of coming and going for me to coordinate while working.

I received this picture from colleagues in Guatemala.  Upside down lighting from a volcano close to Antigua – the one that is usually spouting every ten mins or so when we visit.

Here’s an article that explains the phenomenon:

https://guernseypress.com/news/viral-news/2019/08/05/upward-lightning-on-guatemala-mountain-captured-in-striking-video/

The pictures for the various home selling websites and flyers were taken on Tuesday.  The guy seemed to know what he was doing and was very thorough.

Wednesday was attacked by nature day.  One of those ridiculous doves flew head first into a living room window – not used to them being so clean and shiny.  Then I had to kill a wasp nest on the arbor – amazing how quickly they construct their homes.

The house went live on the listing services on Friday evening, and I quickly received two requests to show it on Saturday – the first at 10am.

Kenny teased me with this video of the Saturday night happenings at Le Bon Temps Rouler.  Hopefully we’ll be there very soon.

There was an Open House for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon, so I had to vacate the premises again.  There were three cars parked outside before the doors even opened, and a lot of interest.

I picked up Diana and Alicia at the airport on Monday, and we quickly received some good news – an offer at above asking price, with no contingencies, and full pre-approval on the buyer’s mortgage.  “We’ll take it.”

The inspector arrived and the only thing they wanted fixed was the pool heater – we haven’t used it in several years and had no idea it wasn’t working.  First folks who looked at the house are now all set to buy it – closing on August 9th.

With all this good news in hand, I decided to make a trip to New Orleans to look for a new home.  I looked at five houses and thought two were good possibilities.  I treated myself to this amazing po’boy sandwich at the New Orleans airport.  Mopho has an outpost there.  Yum!

We submitted offers on those two homes the next day.  The counter offers were disappointing, and so we decided to do nothing further until Diana could look with me.   We planned that for the following Tuesday – driving down and then looking at places on Wednesday.

Diana’s mom had some significant health challenges over the weekend that had us very focused on making sure she got the care and support needed.  In between dealing with that, we were working the logistics of what to take down and leave in New Orleans, and what to leave home, given that we’ll be homeless soon.  Valuables were organized to go in a safety deposit box in a bank vault in New Orleans on arrival.

What a whirlwind, but I don’t think it gets much easier than that when it comes to selling a home.

My book this week was “The Door to Door Bookstore” by Carsten Henn.  What an excellent read.  Just a beautiful book all around.  I don’t have it with me as I write this post, so can’t share some of the quotes that I dog-eared.  You should read this right away!  Here’s the online summary:

“Small-town German bookseller Carl Kollhoff delivers his books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world.

When Kollhoff unexpectedly loses his job, it takes the power of books and a nine-year-old girl to make them all find the courage to rebuild their bonds with each other.

A bestselling phenomenon internationally, Carsten Henn’s The Door-to-Door Bookstore is a feel-good novel about books and friendship.”

Here’s something quite different.  Oryema was a Ugandan musician who had to escape during the height of the Amin rule.  He became part of Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD tour and his first three albums were published on Gabriel’s label.

And here’s a classic from the wonderful Joan Armatrading:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

 

Week in Review – July 9th, 2023

“Those are some strong bones!”

We joined Lisa and friends for a birthday pool party at her home near downtown Dallas on Monday.   She has a very modern home and recently added what Diana describes as the perfect backyard pool.  I enjoyed meeting several new folks, particularly Mark Mundy, who hosts an Americana radio show on KNON, the local community radio station.

https://www.knon.org/texas-renegade-radio-friday/

We had a lazy day of rest on July 4th, my first as a citizen of both sides of the Independence activities.  Denny taunted me with this picture and the caption, “This is what a patriot wears and does today.”

Diana went with me for my two week post-operation visit on Wednesday.  The first thing the Physician’s Assistant said was, “My, you have some strong bones!”  Apparently Dr. Haslam had to work very hard to get the screws out and was constantly worried that they were going to break.  Hopefully this leg trouble is mostly behind me now.  I should be pain free in less than a month.  I do have to wonder how the thing broke in the first place if the bones are so strong.  The Cooper Clinic bone density test also said I had the bones of a 25 year old man.

I watched the “Blackberry” movie on Wednesday evening.  Just a crazy story of how the two friends started the company, made it huge, and then ran it into the ground by following bad advice to manufacture in China, and discounting the iPhone threat.  One of the two friends sold all his stock at the peak and is secretly one of the wealthiest folks in Canada.

The early rounds of play at Wimbledon are usually the most entertaining.  Andy Murray and Stefano Tsitsipas provided a very entertaining match.  Murray was looking strong but the 4th set was delayed until the next day because of the curfew.   He came out flatter the next afternoon and sadly exited the tournament.

We watched the new season of “The Lincoln Lawyer” on Thursday night, before Alicia called to torture her mom.  We enjoy the show.

I dropped Diana at the airport on Friday, and sat back to enjoy the empty, quiet house for a bit.

She worked with Adamo and the crew to complete another crazy Dali puzzle.

I decided to catch up on my growing stack of New Yorker magazines over the weekend, rather than dive into a new book.  This article about Larkin Poe, a Southern rock band fronted by two talented ladies, reminded me of watching them at Gretna Fest earlier this year.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/17/the-ministers-of-the-lap-steel-revival-tour

My favourite album changes from week to week.  “Duke” by Genesis was my go to this week.  I think this was the later line up at their peak, particularly Tony Banks keyboard playing.

The last two songs, “Duke’s Travels” and “Duke’s End”, have always struck me as something like the opposite of an overture, weaving together elements from all the prior songs.  I love the dual drummers:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0H52iIUgADZnStfXURJq3Z?si=b5c9e0eab79c459e

That starting point took me to another favourite from Genesis, “Wind and Wuthering.”  This was the last album to feature Steve Hackett on guitar.  I think his contribution to the overall sound was really missed in future offerings.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

 

 

Week in Review – July 2nd, 2023

“Goodbye Penelope, and a lot of other stuff”

Monday was a sad day.  I took Penelope for an inspection requested by Rick, a prospective buyer.  They found a couple of issues, but nothing too bad.  Rick and Lisa came over and closed the deal on Monday night.  So sad to say goodbye to my companion of over 10 years.  Logically, it was the right time to sell, with almost 80,000 miles and about to lose a lot of resale value.  Emotionally is a whole different story.  The whole sales process was very quick and smooth.  Hoping the same for our house.

Tuesday was packing day with the movers.  I owe a huge amount to Diana for getting everything organized and for all the packing she did.  I was very little help at all.  We got so fortunate with the moving company we chose.  Keith, Fernando and the crew were wonderful.

At one point in the day, Diana appeared at my office door and I could tell she was in some kind of emotional state.  Always a bit scary.  Turns out Fernando had just found the very valuable and sentimental jewelry that she “hid” when we had the bathroom remodeled.    She thought it had been hidden in the pocket of one of my suits, but didn’t remember which and hadn’t told me about it.  We were pretty much resigned to the fact that if it didn’t show up as we were packing clothes, then it was likely gone.  Fernando found it on the floor next to one of the wardrobe boxes she packed – apparently it had been in the pocket of some of her clothing.  What a blessing that it was found!

Something else that was uncovered – Diana’s birth announcement.  She thinks her Mom hand drew it all.  The C major triad with the three names is great.

I also found this penguin that Olivia drew for me many years ago:

Wednesday was loading for storage day.  The truck was half full by 10am, good news given the heat outside.  Keith and crew were all over it.

Thursday was a partial day of rest from moving activities.  Diana had Janelle  over in the evening and broke news of the move to her.  She couldn’t break herself away from her picture sorting crusade for too long.  Days of poring through albums and stacks to determine what she can’t live without.

The painters started on Friday morning.  All the colour is gone, to be replaced by “Worldly Gray.”  That’s the colour of the family room and kitchen, and now the majority of the rest of the house.  Rodrigo, Maria, and Jesus did a great job and were very kind.  They will finish up on Monday.

 

 

I sold the pool table on Saturday morning.  That turned out to be a lot more than anyone was expecting.  Those 3 slates that make up the bed are very heavy.  Cesar and his buddy spent 3 hours breaking the table apart into manageable pieces.  What a lot of work!

The house is very empty now.  Here’s the calendar for the first part of the move.  It’s funny to think that we just made the move decision on June 11th.

While the guys were battling the pool table, a work buddy, Sean, was building a garage.  Some folks just have a load of hidden talents.  I can’t imagine taking on securing those roof trusses.

 

 

I was able to catch up on some backlogged New Yorker magazine reading while the painters were busy.  This article on the multi-year development that ended up yielding my favourite, the CrunchWrap Supreme, tickled me.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/24/taco-bells-innovation-kitchen-the-front-line-in-the-stunt-food-wars

I also enjoyed this article about a man who teaches elephants to play various instruments and records their orchestral performances.  There’s a lot more to it – this guy is a psychology professor during the day, and a big part of the downtown New York avant garde music scene at night.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/03/david-sulzer-profile-neuroscience-music

I wasn’t able to start a new book this week.  Hoping to make it to the library tomorrow.

I enjoyed this song from a band I haven’t heard of:

And this one from a band I know well.  Those old Faces albums with Rod Stewart really are classics:

And another one from an artist I don’t hear too often that caught my ear:

Coexist peacefully with patience and kindness for all!

Fortnight in Review – June 25th, 2023

“These screws need to come out”

We made a big decision shortly after my last post.  Have you heard?  We’re listing our house and moving to New Orleans.  We love our home, but it’s just so boring and such a long drive to things we like to do.  We’re looking forward to spending time with our friends in the city we love.

It’s been a complete whirlwind since we made the decision.  We hired a realtor, organized a moving company, contracted with a painter, and packed innumerable boxes.  Diana has been a beast with the packing and I haven’t been a ton of help due to my leg surgery – more on that shortly.

On Monday, Diana was upset that the under-sink garbage disposal hadn’t been replaced while she was in California.  I rarely use it, and so hadn’t even thought about it.  Never mind – a quick order from Amazon and I was ready to tackle replacement.  Not having done this before, I made sure to read all the instructions carefully.  The flange from the old disposal didn’t accommodate the new one – ugh.  I just couldn’t figure out how to get the old one off.  Youtube to the rescue – there’s a hidden spring clamp inside the assembly.  Ahh – two seconds later and it was off.  Now it was time for problem number two – the replacement unit is too fat for the space available.  Back to Amazon and a new unit showed up before 6pm.  That was quickly installed and all is working well for now.

I decided to have the screws removed from my femur.  They’ve been in there for over three years and continue to hurt every day.  Enough!  The orthopedic surgeon required several tests to be completed through my regular doctor before operating.  Should be easy enough, I thought.  Never that easy.  Four phone calls later, the doctor had the instructions on what was needed.  So, I got to spend a happy couple of Monday hours waiting for an EKG and some blood tests.

Tuesday brought the final pre-op test – a chest x-ray.  I was all clear for surgery the following Wednesday.

Thursday brought my final pre-op appointment at the orthopedic office.  All clear and ready to go.  We also met with a listing agent who will help us to sell the house.  She wants all the clutter and personalization gone from the house before she has some staging done and takes photos.  So now we’re in mad dash packing and sorting mode.

We awoke on Friday to the horrendous news of a tornado that destroyed much of Perryton, TX.  It arrived with no warning and wiped out big swaths of Main Street and other areas.  Just devastating.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/16/perryton-tornado-storms/

Finn turned 30 a week ago on Saturday.  We took him to Drake’s Old Hollywood in Dallas for dinner.  What a wonderful new place.  Beautiful old school design and wonderful food and service.  We started with lobster escargot – like escargot but with lobster, puff pastry and garlic pesto.  Finn said the appetizer meatball was the best he’s ever tasted.  Diana and Finn both had the Chilean sea bass and loved it.  Then the sparkler topped chocolate mousse.  I think Finn had a very nice time.  He just told us some big news a few days ago – he has a girlfriend that he really likes and they also celebrated his birthday.

We celebrated our 6th (iron) anniversary when we got home – letting Finn have the dinner be just his celebration.

 

 

 

Dr. Neffie (she just completed her PhD) and her fiancée Shaun came over to visit us on Sunday.  Diana made one of her famous meat and cheese platters and we enjoyed some mini sliders from the grill.  I really enjoyed chatting with Shaun – I can see why the Dr. likes him so much.

After a long wait in bed at the surgery center on Wednesday morning, I was finally wheeled to the operating room around noon.  Can you believe the size of the screws that were in there?  Here are before and after x-rays.

Apparently bone had grown around the screwheads, causing the pain that I’ve been experiencing.

Wednesday was also Timmy’s 60th birthday.  He celebrated with his lovely family in Philadelphia.

Diana worked miracles, putting in 14 to 16 hour days of packing and sorting.  The first truckload left on Friday – all donations to the women’s shelter and other charities.  Now on to the stuff that’s going into storage while we show the house.  It’s a lot of stuff, and includes all of the pictures on my office walls.

 

 

I posted Penelope for sale on Facebook Marketplace on Friday afternoon, and wasn’t sure what to expect.  Immediate interest.  I showed it to a guy on Saturday afternoon and he seemed very interested.  More to come next posting.  I did find this entertaining picture of the day I bought her, a little over 10 years ago.  She’s been such a good car.

Quite the storm came through on Friday night.  We had several branches come off the huge oak tree in the front yard.  No major damage, thankfully.

Will likes to post about his dining adventures on Instagram.  He tried the Bywater restaurant in Los Gatos and appears to have really enjoyed it.  It’s operated by David Kinch who owned Manresa for many years.

“1 Dead Attic – After Katrina” by Chris Rose was my book this week.  A shocking collection of articles that Rose wrote in the aftermath.  These are tremendously well written by someone who lived through the early days of recovery in New Orleans.  Chris was married to our friend Kelly at the time this was published (Kelly actually self published it and remembers how successful it was financially) and it’s interesting to read her account of the impact all of this had on his mental health and overall physical wellbeing.

Here’s an online summary:

“Celebrated as a local classic and heaped with national praise, 1 Dead in Attic is a brilliant collection of columns by an award-winning Times-Picayune journalist chronicling the horrific damage and aftermath wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2006. “Frank and compelling…vivid and invaluable” (Booklist), it is a roller coaster ride through a devastated American wasteland as it groans for rebirth. Full of the emotion, tragedy and even humor—which has made Chris Rose a favorite son and the voice of a lost city—these are the stories of the dead and the living, of survivors and believers, of destruction and recovery, and of hope and despair.”

Here’s a quote about New Orleans:

“The experience of everyday life here is magnified by emotional intensity and creative reverie, yet also reduced by the heat, humidity, and altitude to its most basic and primal elements: Food, shelter, and the Saints.

You can regulate our smoking and regulate our music and – hard to believe this day has come – you can even regulate our go-cups.

But you cannot regulate soul.  You cannot legislate funk.  And you cannot pass an ordinance that makes us ordinary.  

The best things about us will never change.”

So well said!

“If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom.”  Judy Deck.

From the article “The First Time Back 9/7/05”:

“Riding my bike, I searched out my favorite places, my comfort zones.  I found that Tipitina’s is still there, and that counts for something.  Miss Mae’s and Dick & Jenny’s, ditto.

Domilise’s po-boy shop is intact, although the sign fell and shattered, but truth is, that sign needed to be replaced a long time ago.

I saw a dead guy on the front porch of a shotgun double on a working class street, and the only sound was wind chimes.”

From “Life in the Surreal City 9/10/05”:

“There are men and woman from other towns living there in tents who have left their families to come help us, and they are in the park clearing out the fallen timber.  My fellow Americans.

Every damn one of them tells you they’re happy to be here and every time I try to thank them, on behalf of all of us, I just lose it.  I absolutely melt down.

There is nothing quite as ignominious as weeping in front a soldier.

This is no environment for a wuss like me.  We reporters go to other places to cover wars and disasters and pestilence and famine.  There’s no manual to tell you how to do this when it’s your own city.”

From “Don’t Mess with Mrs. Rose 2/21/06”:

“I’ve always had a particular fascination with people who steal stuff that obviously belongs to kids.

Anyway, my wife, she’s like me: a little raw.  A little roughed up by all of this.  With all that can go wrong around here on a minute’s notice, she’s in no mood to let her day be ruined by a punk, a bad guy, part of the problem.

So she unfurled a bloody tirade against this guy, who may or may not have been armed but was so stunned by her fury that he babbled some lie about “That guy said I could borrow it” and she continued with her furious but rather persuasive diatribe.

She grabbed the bike.  He got off and walked away.

“Moseyed,” she tells me.”

That would be Kelly, and I do not mess with her.

I have many other dog-eared pages, but that’s enough for now.

Here’s a beautiful, relaxing piece of music:

And I think that’s a good way to end.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

Week in Review – June 11th, 2023

“TV, Sports, and Music”

I neglected to share a couple of poignant pictures from last Sunday – the 30th anniversary of the death of Sebastian Campagna (Diana’s father.)

I like that you can see Diana’s reflection in the first, and yes, that’s one of Amy’s evolving memorial tributes on the table.  I can’t remember the correct name for it.

This is as far as Diana got on the torturous Dali puzzle that Adamo bought for her.  He definitely gets some sick pleasure out of seeing her struggle away for hours with the challenging ones.  I think she has an idea on how to get him back with a Lowry one.

Here’s an interesting sight on the deck at Clorinda’s home.  Finn got a kick out of it as his nickname for the store manager at work is the “Big Turkey.”

I watched an entertaining series on Apple TV – “Bad Sisters” is set in Ireland and definitely involves a lot of local humour.

I picked my D up at the airport on Tuesday evening, bringing an end to my ten days of bachelorhood.

There’s an excellent documentary on Leonard Cohen out now.  Simply called “Hallelujah”, the film focuses on the album containing that iconic song, that was never released in America.  The record executives didn’t think the songs were commercial or good enough.  Wow!

The Jeff Buckley version on the amazing “Grace” album, first brought notice to the original song.  It’s interesting to hear how that recording came about.  Buckley was first discovered when participating in a celebration of his father’s (Tim Buckley) music at St Ann’s cathedral.

http://www.fuelfriendsblog.com/2006/07/15/jeff-buckley-channels-his-father-st-anns-church-april-26-1991/

The lady who organized the show introduced him to “Hallelujah” via the John Cale “I’m Your Fan” version.  The song really got some attention when it was used in the original Shrek movie.

I highly recommend the documentary.

On Wednesday, I watched the NBA finals.  The series between Denver and Miami was tied  1-1.  Miami showed a lot of promise at home, but ultimately, Jokic was just too much for them.  Denver won the series later in the week – the first title for that franchise.

Continuing with sports – on Thursday I watched the ladies French Open semi-final, featuring Swiatek (Poland) versus Haddad Maia (Brazil).  I don’t care too much for the long shot rallies that typify ladies tennis, but the second set tie-break was very exciting.  On Friday, we were treated to two great sets of men’s’ tennis, before Djokovic ultimately overpowered Alcaraz.

I know, a relatively boring week when I’m talking about TV shows, movies and sports most of the time.

I finished up “Foregone” by Russell Banks.  The last third really dragged for me, disappointing after the initial positive impression.

 

 

 

 

My next book was “Our Man in Havana” by Graham Greene.  I’ve enjoyed everything from Greene that I’ve read, and wish I’d come to this book sooner.  I thought it was fantastic.  Some of the best dialog that I’ve ever read.  It speaks volumes that this tale from 1959 still reads like a current novel.  Here’s the online plot summary:

“MI6’s man in Havana is Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true…
 
First published in 1959 against the backdrop of the Cold War, Our Man in Havana remains one of Graham Greene’s most widely read novels. It is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire of government intelligence that still resonates today.”

The latest release from Tipitina’s record club showed up on my door step this week.  Always an exciting event.  The new record is solo Dr. John from 1984.  Back when jazzfest was held in the Riverfront park, there were after shows aboard a riverboat.  This is a live recording from one of those shows in 1984.  Just the Doctor and a stand up piano.  This is a great album that I’ve been enjoying all week.

 

Here’s a Youtube show from Rick Beato that details why “Xanadu” is Rush’s best song.  I can see you rolling those eyes, Diana :

There’s a lot of interesting commentary in there.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

Week in Review – June 4th, 2023

“Silly doves”

This has been a very quiet week at home – not a lot to report on.

The only interruption to my peace was from the idiotic doves that seem to come and visit every year about this time.  A few years ago they built a nest on top of the patio speaker above the door.  They attempted to reprise that stunt while we were gone.  I ultimately had to take the speaker down as they just wouldn’t give up on dive bombing in to take their spot atop it.  Undeterred, they decided to try the other speaker.  So annoying.  I took that speaker down as well and have had the ceiling fans on all the time.  That seems to have done the trick.  They can no longer perch on the fan and have their meetings about where to try and nest next.

I did venture out a couple of times.  First for lunch at Mexican Cactus and then for Sunday lunch at Tacodeli.  Their migas royale platter is so good, and a great value.

 

 

 

 

Massimo and Luciano had their final baseball game and are quite proud of their medals.  Sweet pictures, and I’m confident they were back to beating up on each other a few minutes after these were taken.

It seems the weather in Pacifica has been pleasant, even suitable for D to sunbathe on Friday afternoon.

Speaking of sunbathing, Anne just sent a picture of her new backyard pool.  Denny must be so pleased.

Diana and Alicia hosted Will, Christine and Adamo’s crew on Saturday evening.  Will took Adamo and the boys for a spin in the fancy BMW M2, and they watched the whales at sunset from Adamo’s home.  I hear that Alicia made some yummy tacos.

 

My book this week was “Foregone” by Russell Banks.  Sadly, I have not heard of Banks, who has published many well reviewed books.   The good news is that I have a lot of new titles to explore.  Here’s the online summary:

“At the center of Foregone is famed Canadian American leftist documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam. Fife, now in his late seventies, is dying of cancer in Montreal and has agreed to a final interview in which he is determined to bare all his secrets at last, to demythologize his mythologized life. The interview is filmed by his acolyte and ex–star student, Malcolm MacLeod, in the presence of Fife’s wife and alongside Malcolm’s producer, cinematographer, and sound technician, all of whom have long admired Fife but who must now absorb the meaning of his astonishing, dark confession.

Imaginatively structured around Fife’s secret memories and alternating between the experiences of the characters who are filming his confession, the novel challenges our assumptions and understanding about a significant lost chapter in American history and the nature of memory itself. Russell Banks gives us a daring and resonant work about the scope of one man’s mysterious life, revealed through the fragments of his recovered past.”

I haven’t quite finished the book yet, and have really enjoyed what I’ve read so far.  The structure of the tale, bouncing from present day to memories in alternating paragraphs kept things interesting.

Another discovery – “China Girl” by Iggy Pop.  I read that Bowie and Iggy wrote this together, and this version was released before the massive Bowie hit.  It just needs the wonderful Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar licks.

My final discovery this week:  Songhoy Blues is a desert blues music group from Timbuktu, Mali.  Very interesting sound.

And closing out this posting with this gorgeous song from Ry Cooder.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

Week in Review – May 28th, 2023

“Happy Birthday to Us”

Alicia chauffeured us from San Luis Obispo on Monday afternoon.  Grammie was glad to see everyone.  She’s been asking about our arrival for several weeks now.

I received a hilarious video of Campbell and Molly doing karaoke with the Texas relatives, back in San Diego:

Another birthday for me showed up on Tuesday.  They just keep coming!  I received a lovely song from the New Orleans group in Roatan, Honduras.  Denny reported it was very nice but very hot and humid – something coming from a New Orleanian.

 

The little monsters all made me lovely birthday cards that they delivered to Grammie’s:

Hand made cards really are so special!

And then there is this hilarious card from Patty and Brent.  Where do they find these?

The boys and Melanie gave me a gift certificate to La Costanera in Half Moon Bay.  This is a wonderful Peruvian seafood restaurant.  Caroline and Clorinda joined us, and Clorinda certainly enjoyed the food, consuming more than anyone else.  It was nice to see her enjoying things.  The only thing not readily consumed was the green mocktail that we chose for her.  The restaurant is located by the marina and offers great views.

I had picked out a few interesting things on the menu before going, and ended up sampling most of them.

The ceviche sampler, mushroom empanada, pulpo and elote were all delicious.

We got to watch Massimo and Luciano compete in a baseball championship game on Wednesday evening.  The game was tied 15-15 at the end of regular innings.  They had a heartbreaking loss in the extra inning.

A walk by the beach on Thursday offered pretty flowers and great views of several pods of migrating hump back whales.  After the walk, I used the Dinosaur’s gift certificate from Caroline to buy one of their yummy Portobello sandwiches.

 

 

 

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/whales-spotted-san-francisco-bay-area-coast-18121919.php

Andy and Jude joined us on Friday afternoon and we enjoyed listening to music and telling stories.  Always so fun to visit with them.

 

 

On Saturday it was time to cede Birthday Week privileges to Alicia.  She had requested a 70s theme, and Diana did a great job of coordinating flower colours and decorations to that request.

Diana whipped up some of her delicious jambalaya – an ideal dish for a party where folks show up over several hours.

I invited Sean to join us since his wife has been gone for several months, taking care of her Mom.

We had a great turnout and I think Alicia enjoyed herself very much.

Here’s my favourite birthday picture – three generations:

Diana was finally able to sit down, relax and snuggle up with Yeti.

Sunday was a travel day for me.  Time to head back home to McKinney and an empty, quiet house for a week or so.

My book this week was “Solar” by Ian McEwan.  Here’s what The Guardian had to say about it:

“Solar is a sly, sardonic novel about a dislikable English physicist and philanderer named Michael Beard. He’s a recognisable Ian McEwan type, a one-dimensional, self-deceiving man of science. We have met others like him before in McEwan’s novels – such as Joe Rose, the science writer who narrates Enduring Love, or Henry Perowne, the brian surgeon protagonist of Saturday – but none is quite as repulsive as Beard. Perhaps McEwan should have written against expectation by choosing as his protagonist a scientist who has a profound artistic sensibility in the model of his friend Richard Dawkins, or an artist who is articulate in the language of science, as McEwan is himself. As it is, he remains a determined binarist; what continues to interest him are stark dichotomies, the clash and interplay of stable oppositions. Repeatedly in his fiction he sets reason against unreason, science against art, the mind against the body, technology against nature.

Beard, who we are encouraged to believe won a Nobel prize in physics as a young man for something called the Beard-Einstein Conflation, is a short, fat, balding, much-married man of immense bodily appetites and scant self-discipline. He rapaciously consumes food, women and drink, with little regard for the consequences. He’s a resolute short-termist, fearful of commitment and of becoming a father, living for the here and now. His behaviour is a local example of the more general problem of human over-consumption: just as Beard devours everything around him, so we are devouring our world, with its finite resources and fragile ecosystems.

The trick of the novel, its central comic turn, is to make Beard, the greedy, selfish uber-consumer, an accidental expert on anthropogenic climate change. Through his expertise as a physicist, and then his opportunism in stealing the research ideas of a graduate student who works with him at an institute in Berkshire known only as the Centre, Beard is engaged in a programme to create cheap renewable energy through a process of artificial photosynthesis (you’ll need to read the book to be filled in on the science).

McEwan’s great gamble is to narrate Solar, which is in three parts and spans nine years, from 2000 to 2009, entirely from Beard’s point of view. Some of this is satisfying, especially the pithy scientific elaborations: McEwan, who has a precise, technician’s vocabulary, has swotted up to PhD level on physics, just as he did on neurosurgery for Saturday, musicology for Amsterdam and molecular biology for Enduring Love. None of this extracurricular learning feels perfunctory, especially when compared with, say, a novel such as Martin Amis‘s The Information. In that novel, disquisitions on infinity, black holes, dwarf planets and astronomy felt imposed on the narrative rather than being intrinsic to it. In Solar, the physics never feels forced or unearned but rather is embedded in the deep structures of Beard’s consciousness. We see the world just as he does, in all its cold reductiveness.”

I kept having a nagging feeling that I’d read this book before.  A search of all the blogs says that wasn’t in the last 7 years.  Maybe I read an excerpt somewhere – the ending certainly seemed familiar.

I think The Guardian is a bit harsh on the one-sided, unlikeable nature of Beard.  I did enjoy the satirical tone, but didn’t find it particularly comedic.  I certainly didn’t chuckle at any part of it.

Not too bad of a read, but far from McEwan’s best – which in my opinion is “Saturday.”

I heard this Aretha classic on the radio, and had to look up who was drumming.  Of course, it’s Bernard Purdie, and it turns out the song was built up from his drum pattern.  I didn’t know he was Franklin’s musical director for 5 years.  So good!

Here’s the angelic voice of the late Jeff Buckley, recorded in a tiny club.  Such a talent.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

 

 

Week in Review – May 21st, 2023

“Will and Christine Tie the Knot”

We had a few days to rest up and get organized before catching a morning flight to San Luis Obispo, CA on Thursday morning for Will and Christine’s wedding festivities.

Poor D was squished in between the two Robertsons.  Don’t worry, she unsquished pretty quickly.

We checked into our Airbnb – a very comfortable newly renovated farmhouse style place, about a 20 minute walk from downtown.

I was tickled by the array of gear in the equipment cabinet to power all the smart touchscreens and audio gear.  I also enjoyed the grand piano tucked beside the stairs.

We ordered an Uber to take us to Trader Joe’s to pick up some supplies for the weekend.  Turned out to be the same driver that took us to the house – there are only a few drivers in SLO.

 

Melanie, Mawmaw and Alan came to the house later in the afternoon to say hello to Finn.  It had been many years since they had seen or talked to him.  I still get emotional looking at these pictures.

Either one of those pictures was easily worth the price of the flights and the house.

We all met up in downtown SLO for the Thursday night Farmer’s market extravaganza.  There were loads of food tents set up in front of the strip of restaurants and bars.  I loved my Indian vegetarian sampler.  I’m not sure Mawmaw was thrilled with the concept of eating standing up.  We took her into Nick the Greek for a seat afterwards.

 

Friday was rehearsal day.  We walked down to town with Finn for coffee and breakfast burritos, bringing some back for sleepy Molly and Campbell.

We met at the venue, The Penny, around 3pm for a practice run through.  Will was very dressed up in his kilt and spiky shoes.  Granny still remembers him parading around the store in Glasgow when he bought the kilt.

Rehearsal dinner was at The Hightower, a rock and roll themed restaurant close to The Penny.  David Bowie supervised the bar area:

We were fortunate to be seated with a lovely group of Christine’s friends and partners.  Courtney and Garret on the left were hilarious.  Here they are enjoying “Tea Time” – some kind of punch bowl served with tea cups.  We steered clear of that – way too old.

Dinner was served family style, with many very filling courses.  Will did not want us to be hungry.  I gave a short speech to welcome everyone – D seemed to enjoy it.

Saturday arrived, and the big day was upon us.  Everyone got spiffed up and headed back to the venue.  Table decorations, flowers and the whole set up were lovely.

The service was presided over by Will’s friend, Bryce, who he met on his first day at Cal Poly.  He knows the happy couple well and was able to add some fun stories.  I think the vows might be the longest I’ve heard, very meaningful nonetheless.  My role in the service was to participate in the ancient Scottish hand tying ceremony.  Finn began by wrapping a piece of Robertson tartan around their hands and tying a knot, then another knot by Campbell, and then a third from me.  Then I read these lines:

I forgot my print out and so had to read from my phone – after an initial moment of panic.  I did well until I got to the last sentence.  Made it through and then forgot to untie the hands.  Finn to the rescue.

Everyone moved out to the courtyard for cocktails, while the wedding party and relatives exited to the side for a vast array of picture groups.  Here’s a selection.

We finally made it round to the courtyard for the fancy cocktail hour – His, Hers, and the Ollie.

The staff did an amazing job of turning the venue around for dinner, and we sat down right on schedule.  Now it was time for the wedding party to enter.  What a performance:

Dinner was delicious barbequed chicken and brisket.  Will had a typically heaped plate.  That was followed by some excellent speeches – the highlight being Christine’s Dad Guy’s speech:

And then the  cake cutting.  Another performance:

 

 

 

 

 

Then everyone moved back out to the courtyard for dancing.  Will and Mawmaw doing a great job on “Bootscootin’ Boogie.”

The reception finished relatively early, and the core group made a stop at The Sidecar (the guys that were doing the mixology), followed by the Lofts.

What a terrific day all around!

 

 

Sunday was a day to relax and enjoy the memories.  We taunted Diana into doing the puzzle that came with the house.  It was ultimately finished at 12:02am.

In the afternoon we drove over to John and Maddie’s house for dinner – a wonderful smoked and barbequed selection from John.  It’s always impressive to spend time with their kids, Lilly and Ben.  So well behaved and interactive.  The night finished with some kind of four dimensional Connect Four variant – way too much for me.

This has been one of my favourite posts to create – so many fantastic memories.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!