Week in Review – September 22, 2019

‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man

This was a very busy and enjoyable music week.  The festivities kicked off with Lonelyland at the Saxon Pub on Monday.  Bob Schneider has been playing this regular residency at the Saxon for 20 years now.

This was an excellent show – very laid back and quiet (mostly) compared to a typical Schneider show.  Here’s the setlist for the show – my favourite song was “The Band Played On” – a very melancholy song.

Lonelyland goes live at 8:30PM CT at the Saxon Pub tonight! Join in on the live stream: facebook.com/bobschneidermusic

tryer G C C D

titty bar Fm Bb Eb/Fm Bb Eb Cm Ab Bb//Ab Bb Cm

like lightning D G

existential blues E A B

blue and blue G D Em C

wasting time A D E

bad mama G C G D

band plays on (the) G# D#/A#/

dark knight (the) G C D

boys you like D Bm G D A/

like the man said F Bbm

snow men F C

joey’s song A D E

squeeze (the) C Eb F/F Am F G

touch me and i’m good Csus2 G/B Am7 Fmaj9

sun’s coming G C

in a roomful of blood F C/G

once you feel nothing F C Gm F

natural woman

If you’re a real Schneider fan – here’s the livestream of the full show.  Don’t miss the humorous “Natural Woman” followed by “Eye of the Tiger” closing.

We met Vinod for dinner at the Bouldin Creek Cafe on Wednesday evening.  This is a vegetarian restaurant close to our apartment that we chose with Vinod in mind.  The food and ambiance were very good.  McD commenting, “These are the best fajitas I’ve ever had”, on her portabello mushroom fajitas.  Vinod and I enjoyed our veggie burgers and particularly the chipotle pesto sauce.  Meals with Vinod are always very entertaining.

On the drive to the restaurant, I noticed a sign on the El Mercado Mexican restaurant alerting us that John Inmon was hosting Marcia Ball as his guest.  After dinner, we paid our $5 cover and enjoyed the last 40 minutes of that excellent show.  John Inmon is known as one of the finest guitarists in Austin (pretty rarefied company) and hosts a different guest every Tuesday night.  What a treat to see Marcia Ball with a different band and playing songs that you don’t hear in her regular sets recently.  Here’s the excellent “World Full of Love”.  Marcia and her friend told the story of writing this song after the last election – they were not happy with the result but turned around that sentiment into this beautiful song:

Thursday brought the drive back to Dallas so that Diana could attend a meeting downtown.  We listened to more of our audible book, “The Apartment”, getting close to the concluding exciting part.   Diana texted me this picture from the client office, asking me if I was interested in attending.  “Absolutely”, was my speedy response.  I’m a huge Eric Clapton fan and this festival includes many of the world’s best guitar players.

We headed down to American Airlines Center early on Friday afternoon and were the first folks to arrive at Diana’s work suite.  The show started with Bill Murray introducing Sonny Landreth (an amazing slide guitar player from New Orleans).  Last time I saw him was with less than 50 folks at the Rock N’ Bowl – bit different this time.

Eric Clapton and his band (including Andy Fairweather Low – my Mum’s 2nd cousin) were up next and provided a beautifully nuanced acoustic set – including these two gems:

Gary Clark Jr., another amazing Austin guitar player, joined Citizen Cope for this one – such a great guitar sound:

Sheryl Crow was joined by Doyle Bramhall (last seen at Antone’s small club in Austin) for one of my favourites of hers, “Steve McQueen”:

I think Jimmy Vaughan had one of the best sets of the evening (and there were a lot of good ones).  We last saw him a few weeks ago at the tiny C-Boys Heart and Soul club on South Congress in Austin – quite a change in venue.  He started out with the same band from C-Boys:

Vaughan’s first guest was the lovely Bonnie Raitt:

Then things picked up on the crowd pleasing dial.  Billy Gibbons of ZZTop joined for a couple of songs, getting the crowd going with “Sharp Dressed Man”

We saw Marcus King at the Hula Hut in Austin during South by Southwest and loved his voice.  Things were a bit loud and overdriven at this show.  I did enjoy this quieter song, “Goodbye Carolina”:

Next up was Peter Frampton – weeks away from entering retirement.  He started with a lovely instrumental version of Hoagey Carmichael’s “Georgia on my mind”, and then transitioned into the famous “Do You Feel Like We Do”, from the best-selling live album of all time, “Frampton Comes Alive”:

Then we had a real moment.  Frampton introduced a gentleman that he’d known for a long time, but had never played with, Eric Clapton.  A real one of a kind experience as they played the Beatles, “My Guitar Gently Weeps”:

 

 

Jeff Beck finished out the show.  A special guest ambled onto the stage to sing John Lennon’s “Isolation” – Johnny Depp – he did a decent job on a great song:

What an amazing event, finishing after midnight, wait – there’s a song about that.  Who wrote that?  Eric Clapton you might quickly answer, but you’d be wrong – it was J. J. Cale.  Check out the original version later in this post.  Thanks Diana, for an excellent event.  The logistics of this event were incredible – a rotating stage so that there was a very short gap between music, and satellite stages to add some special interest.  The setlist for Saturday (Vince’s buddy was recording the show and provided this) shows the precision involved:

Here’s the setlist from the show we saw on Friday:

Main Event in American Airlines Center from approximately 7PM on Friday, September 20th:

Sonny Landreth:  Walkin’ Blues, It Hurts Me Too, Instrumental (Title Unknown), Brave New Girl

Eric Clapton with Andy Fairweather Low, Jamie Oldaker, Steve Gadd, Nathan East and Pedrito Martinez:  Circus, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out, Tears In Heaven, Wonderful Tonight, Lay Down Sally

Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’ and Alan Darby – 1 song.  Alan played the new Gibson Custom Eric Clapton 1964 Firebird 1 Recreation which is part of the 2019 Crossroads Guitar Collection.

Citzen Cope – 5 songs including Bullet And A Target and Sideways. Gary Clark, Jr. joined for one number

Gustavo Santaolalla – the Argentinian guitarist and composer opened with the Apology Song, followed by a selection of songs from film soundtracks he composed.

Sheryl Crow – 6 song set with guests Bonnie Raitt and James Bay. If It Makes You Happy, Steve McQueen (with Bonnie Raitt), Live Wire (with Bonnie Raitt), Everything Is Broken (with Bonnie Raitt and James Bay), Every Day Is A Winding Road (with James Bay)

Pedro Martins and Daniel Santiago – 3 song set

Kurt Rosenwinkel with Pedro Martins – performed 6 songs. Songs were taken from Kurt Rosenwinkel’s album Caipi and Pedro Martin’s album, Vox.

James Burton and Albert Lee with Jamie Oldaker and Nathan East: That’s Alright Mama, Rock Around With Ollie Vee

Jimmie Vaughan and The Tilt-A-Whirl Band with guests Bonnie Raitt and Billy Gibbons: D/FW, Roll Roll Roll, No One To Talk To (But The Blues), Baby Please Come Home (with Bonnie Raitt), I Ain’t Never (with Bonnie Raitt), Sharp Dressed Man (with Billy Gibbons), La Grange (with Billy Gibbons)

Doyle Bramhall and Gary Clark, Jr: Rock Me Baby

The Marcus King Band: 7 song set including I Just Want To Make Love To You, Hoochie Coochie Man and Goodbye Carolina.

Peter Frampton with Eric Clapton:  Georgia On My Mind (Instrumental), Do You Feel Like We Do, While My Guitar Gently Weeps (with Eric Clapton)

Jeff Beck with guests Johnny Depp and Jimmy Hall (pending confirmation):  Jeff’s set included Big Block, Isolation (with Johnny Depp), Somebody’s Nobody (with Johnny Depp), Superstition (with Johnny Depp and Jimmy Hall), Little Wing (with Johnny Depp and Jimmy Hall)

While we were enjoying all of this varied and excellent music in Texas, Will was presenting to a Redwood City elementary class about the solar power system he installed for their school.  You can tell he’s loving the chance to interact with the kids:

It’s been a very good football Sunday – the Cowboys won easily over the Dolphins (scoring two TDs while I was facetiming with my parents), the Eagles lost, and New Orleans beat Seattle with a backup quarterback.  And Nick Baudin, Campbell’s friend since elementary school in Los Gatos, hurdled a defender for a first down for the Detroit Lions.

I started “The Most Fun We Ever Had” by Claire Lombardo this week.  The first 100 of 500 pages have been enjoyable.  I suspect it’ll take me a few weeks to finish this one.  The multi-generational story of a Chicago based family seems like it will provide many hours of interesting reading.

 

 

 

There’s a new ablum from the excellent Teskey Brothers, a Melbourne based blues/soul band that I really enjoy:

Here’s the original version of “Isolation”, performed by Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp on Friday.  It really reminds me of Dark Side of the Moon era Pink Floyd and could easily be a Roger Waters song:

Let’s finish out the week with even more excellent music, the original version of “After Midnight”:

I highly encourage you to check out all of Cale’s wonderful catalog.

 

MIND GAMES COVER

TESKEY BROS

Week in Review – September 15, 2019

“Bill Frisell at C-Boys Heart and Soul?”

We’re making that drive again?  Yes – back down from McKinney to Austin on Monday morning – I’m getting a pretty good routine going with where to stop along the way.  The drive came with all the usual treats – McD click clacking on her laptop, and various conference calls for both of us.

You’ll remember that Diana didn’t love the Allmans tribute band last week.  She did, however, love the Eagles tribute (“Fake it to the Limit”) this week.  Mark and Damon joined us at the One to One club, and everyone agreed that the musicians really had it down.  Here’s the classic dual guitar solo from Hotel California:

Here’s Diana’s favourite, Desperado:

We enjoyed hanging out and telling stories after the show.  Lots of good laughs – I’m fortunate to work with such good friends and Diana certainly holds her own with the crew – I know that’s a surprise to all of you.

The rest of the week was mostly work and lazy evenings.  Then I found something interesting for Friday evening.  Reading through the Chronicle weekly newspaper, I noticed Bill Frisell playing at C-Boys Heart and Soul on Friday and Saturday evenings.   A double take was necessary – Frisell is a world class jazz guitarist that I’ve enjoyed a few times in the famous New York jazz clubs, and C-Boys is a small dive bar that usually features blues and soul music.  Further research on the C-Boys website confirmed that this was all on the up and up.

We arrived early and were amazed to find front row seats – literally 2 feet from Frisell’s guitar – were still available.  Talking to the lady next to me, also a jazz guitarist, before the show, revealed that Frisell is good friends with Steve, owner of C-Boys and the Continental Club, and loves to play on South Congress in Austin.  The seats allowed me to fully appreciate what was happening on the guitar and with the pedals.

Frisell delivered a beautifully nuanced and quiet solo set, and the small audience seemed to really appreciate the innovative musicianship.  What an unexpected treat.

Here’s a video that Diana made from the concert:

 

 

 

We made the short walk down South Congress after the show for dinner at June’s All Day.  Diana took control of ordering, and chose very well with steak tartare and seared foie gras.  Great choices Diana – I haven’t had a seared foie gras in ages – and this one was excellent.

Saturday featured all the regulars: workout; crossword; lazy afternoon reading.  In the evening we walked over to Peche (rapidly becoming a leading contender for favourite Austin restaurant for both of us).  We enjoyed steak tartare and an amazing rabbit and mushroom barley risotto.  Cat had tried this a month ago when I took him to Peche, and I was hoping it was still on the menu.  What great flavour mixes and plenty to share between both of us.  Our waitress recommended a delicious French Pinot Noir that paired perfectly   The owner stopped by a couple of times to check on us and I could tell he was pleased with how much we enjoyed the dish.

Sunday began with the same regulars as Saturday.  Different was that the printer was out of ink, so we headed to Opa and did the crossword on our devices.  From Opa we traveled to Aussie’s – a sports bar right next to our apartment with sand volleyball courts out back.  We watched the first half of the Cowboys game there, and split a burger.  I noted that this was a good place to take Tim – classic rock music playing, sports on TVs throughout and lots of burgers and other Timmy staples on the menu.  You would be proud of me for sitting on the patio while it was over 90 degrees – low humidity makes it possible.  I ran into a work colleague, Nick, who was on the US Olympic volleyball team until destroying his shoulder weeks before the Olympics started – he still loves everything volleyball.  That’s the Catherine parking garage with the slits in the concrete from Aussie’s patio and volleyball court.

We watched the second half of the Cowboys game in the refreshing air conditioning of our apartment, and then took a walk down South Congress to the Continental Club for the free afternoon show.  Steve has been good to us this weekend – first Bill Frisell and then the Crescent Soul Review.

But wait, I forgot to revel in the Cowboys victory over the Washington Redskins – and another classic Jason Witten touchdown – number 70 for him, and Campbell commented that 50 of them must have been the same play – every team knows it’s coming, but none of them can defend against it.

Back at the Continental Club, the band worked their way through New Orleans flavoured soul music, with some excellent Band and Little Feat covers.  The Band’s “Ophelia”:

Followed by a personal favourite, Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken”:

And finally the Professor Longhair classic, “Big Chief”:

What a benefit of our location – free Sunday afternoon shows at the Continental Club – a fifteen minute walk away.

Many miles away, Will made it to the BMW M racing school in Palm Springs.  I’m looking forward to his videos and stories from the experience.  He really loves his M edition BMW and I’m a bit nervous about how he’s going to be driving it through Redwood City after all this “training”.

Even more miles away, my Mum and Dad enjoyed a week in Jersey and Guernsey.  I didn’t realize that both islands were occupied by Germany during the Second World War.  Churchill having decided that the civilian loss associated with defending the islands would be too great.  My Dad told us a story today about his shortest airline flight – 10 minutes end to end.  The ferry between islands was having mechanical difficulty, and the passengers were diverted to an island hopper flight.

My book this week was “Always Happy Hour” by Mary Miller.  I ordered it up several months ago, and can’t remember what led me to do that.  Did I read an interesting review, or get a recommendation from some other book I really enjoyed?  Either way, not a good decision on my part.  This is a collection of short stories, all told from the female point of view.  Remind me that I really don’t enjoy short story collections as much as I think I do.  I loved William McIlvanney’s “Walking Wounded” short story collection (having read it at least 3 times now), and haven’t enjoyed any collection very much since.  I don’t recommend this one and I hope women don’t think like the characters in these stories.  Here’s a review I found that seems positive:

“Claustrophobic and lonesome, acerbic and magnetic, the women in Always Happy Hour seek understanding in the most unlikely places—a dilapidated foster home where love is a liability, a trailer park laden with a history of bad decisions, and the empty corners of a dream home bought after a bitter divorce. Miller evokes the particular gritty comfort found in bad habits as hope turns to dust, and proves yet again her essential role in American fiction.”

Here’s something else from Bill Frisell’s excellent “Guitar in the Space Age” album:

Here’s a good example of his spare and nuanced guitar work – a cover of the over-covered “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen:

Robert Randolph and the Family Band have an excellent new album out.  I’ve enjoyed Randolph live a number of times, opening for Clapton, sitting in at Tipitinas and the Blue Note – always a delight.

Have you ever heard of a band named the Sheepdogs?  I haven’t either, until this song popped up.  They are from Canada and started in Saskatoon in 2006 – plenty of good music to explore.  I would love to have a sheepdog if we ever live in a place with enough land to provide the daily exercise needed.

And finally, The Texas Horns.  Heard them on Sun Radio this morning and thought it was a great sound.  Do you agree?

Week in Review – September 8, 2019

“Suadero Tacos – Wow!”

There was a Food and Wine magazine in the doctor’s waiting room a few weeks ago when I went for a regular check up.  I flipped to the “Best new restaurants of 2019” section and found an Austin place, Suerte, listed in the number 2 position.  Disappointed with myself for being unfamiliar with this place, I made a note to try it out soon.

Suerte was our Labor Day dinner destination.  Here’s a review by the local newspaper that we read and it built our anticipation of a great meal. “You may be able to replicate the black magic oil if you find the right balance of black sesame oil, garlic and morita chile, but I doubt you can make small, supple red corn tortillas like those at Suerte, or summon the alchemical powers to abracadabra tender confit brisket elevated gently with the citrus kiss of avocado. Delivered four to a plate, the brisket tacos with the toasty sauce are some of the best I’ve ever eaten in Austin. The way the chefs synthesize Texan and Mexican traditions into something wholly unique but familiar reminds me of what Lawrence Wright refers to as the third (and highest) level of cultural evolution in his recent book, “God Save Texas.””

We started with excellent cocktails and a very good ceviche, noting the excellent service.  Then the famous suadero tacos with a side of Mexican street corn.  Wow!  Amazing combination of flavors and beautifully cooked.  My only mistake was not accepting McD’s suggestion to get an extra order to go – big lesson learned.  I can hear Alicia’s voice in my head: “Epic Fail”.   Not a mistake – resisting the pull of the amazing Old Fashioned at Whisler’s right next door to Suerte.

We were back at the One to One bar on Wednesday night for the early show – an Allman Brothers tribute band.  Damon and I had seen them a few months ago and loved the musicianship.  I’m not sure Diana enjoyed it as much as Damon, but I thought it was excellent.  The dual drummers and guitars, perfectly in time in the harmony parts, had me back at the several Allmans shows that I’ve enjoyed over the years.

Here’s the band doing “One Way Out” towards the end of their set.  By this time they had played “Soulshine”, right up there behind True Companion for Diana and me, and she was enjoying the show a bit more.  A couple of songs without words, otherwise known as instrumentals, had snubbed her enthusiasm for the show earlier.  She took advantage of the noodling to nip next door to Chi’Lantro for a salad to accompany the rest of the show.

“Whipping Post” was the closer, reminding me of the excellent Bonerama five trombone cover of this excellent song.

Ok, you asked for it, here’s the trombone version:

We drove up to McKinney on Thursday morning, pausing for a quick brunch at Harvest in Waco.  Diana had a work meeting and dinner and I relaxed at home.  There’s a new series of “Travels with my father” on Netflix that I enjoyed.  This is a hilarious travelogue of English comedian Jack Whitehall enjoying adventures with his father.  This season they are in the United States – starting out in Los Angeles with yoga and healthy food.

I enjoyed the US Open tennis over the last couple of weeks.  I was very impressed with Bianca Andreescu’s victory over Serena Williams.  A 19 year old and the first Canadian to win a major tennis championship.  She survived the highly partisan crowed and pressure to win a tournament that she didn’t even qualify for last year.  It was fun to watch the pride from her parents as the match progressed – they emigrated from Romania to Canada in the nineties with just two suitcases.

I think Berrettini will be a star on the Men’s tennis stage very soon.  He lost to Nadal in the semis but I think has a great all around game.

Sunday started as usual – swim, sauna, coffee and crossword – and then the joy…Football’s back!  The season started with the classic Cowboys vs Giants rivalry.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from our running back, Zeke, after he held out the entire pre-season for a better contract.  He did ok in the first half – nothing amazing.  The rest of the team looked great – with Jason Witten back from a year off commentating – and straight out of the booth into the end zone with an excellent touchdown.  The score is Cowboys 21 Giants 7 at half time – a very pleasant start to the season.  Hope it stays that way for the rest of the game.

The US Open Men’s Final is conflicting with the football – have only seen small portions of it during the commercial breaks – looks like Nadal has it in hand against the preying mantis Medvedev.

My oldest baby, Will, survived the week in the desert at Burning Man.   This is their vehicle, Stuart, out in the middle of nowhere, and their main transportation for the week.

Will’s contribution to the event was the ear splitting bass from his Durango, “Basswlf”.  Checkout the message on the bottom of his wooden license plate.  I’m not sure I would do well on this hanging stone walk.

 

 

 

I don’t think my baby got much sleep during the week.  Christine, on the other hand, looks well rested and ready to go at this sunrise party.  I know – what’s with her hair – suspect it was a good approach given no water and showers for a week.

“City of Thieves” by David Benioff was a thoroughly engrossing read this week.  I’m a big fan of “25th Hour”, a Spike Lee directed movie from Benioff’s first book – he also wrote the screenplay, and was hoping this second novel would be enjoyable.  It was hard to put down after the first 50 pages or so.

This book was selected by the “Man’s Book Club” that I’ve been invited to join in Austin.  I haven’t made any meetings yet due to travel conflicts.  I hope to soon – all their choices so far have been good reads.

Back to the story.  During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

The premise sounds far fetched and contrived, but Benioff makes the horror of the siege and the terror of the times come alive in very real terms.  The two leading characters, Lev and Kolya, almost direct opposites, are very well realized.  The story of their evolving friendship is at the heart of the novel.  The horror of the times and the story make this a book that is at times very brutal and gruesome – not for everyone.

I did some reading on the siege of Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg again.  Pinned in by the German Army from the south, assisted by the Finnish Army from the North (until they reclaimed land seized by Russia previously), this event lasted almost 900 days – September 8, 1941 through January 27, 1944.  Very little food made its way from the surrounding countryside into the city, resulting in the siege being declared an act of genocide.

Do you remember the movie and then TV Show “Fame”.  Good – you’re probably close to my age at least.  I don’t remember why this song from the movie popped into my head this week – hadn’t thought about it in decades – weird synapses firing, while the ones I need to fire resist.

I read that Pat Metheney, jazz guitarist extraordinaire, was having some concerts in New York this week.  I smiled to see James Francies in the band with him – this guy blew me away on piano when I saw him at the Jazz Standard a year or so ago.

We should include a song from the incomparable Ry Cooder, whose album cover headlines the music section this week.  I love everything about Cooder’s music and suspect that his “Paradise and Lunch” may be the record that I have played most over the years:

This tune was playing as we waited for the band to start at One to One this week.  Took the synapses a few seconds to recognize it as Jeff Beck – another incomparable, and quite different, guitar player:

Week in Review – September 1, 2019

“Less like a dorm room”

I stopped in Waco for lunch on my drive back to Austin on Monday, and continued my exploration of off the highway restaurants.  Alpha Omega is a delicious Mediterranean place with a very nice atmosphere in the heart of downtown Waco.  I enjoyed a salad, gyro and perfect macchiato – why is it so hard for so many places to get it right?

On arrival at the apartment, I took care of one of McD’s biggest gripes.  It goes something like, “the master bedroom looks like a dorm room, with no headboard and no end tables”.   A neighbor had advertised teal end tables for sale and I snapped them right up for a very reasonable price.  Still waiting on a good headboard to pop up.

Progress is now visible at the work site across the street – a big hole has been dug for the foundation of the new building.  Street closures to allow the running of power are now behind us as well.

Diana and I had a conference call (she was en route to Boston) on Wednesday morning to wish my Dad Happy Birthday.   We sang to the voicemail box, and it was quite the performance – we couldn’t get in sync on the beat at all.  Hopefully that recording has been erased.  My Dad enjoyed High Tea at the Glasshouse restaurant by Rowallan Castle to celebrate.

I had a night out with Damon and Issac from work on Wednesday night.  We started with Indian at G’raj Mahal – I love their lamb Rogan Josh.  Then we enjoyed a performance by the Canned Beets band at the Half Step.  I had seen their guitar player at the Charlie Hunter show recently and had a nice chat with him about the show.  He said, “Charlie Hunter’s not only the best at what he does, he’s the only person that does what he does”, meaning the only guitar player that we’re aware of who plays the bass and lead on the same instrument simultaneously.

Here they are performing Simple Man at Damon’s request:

We finished up with a quick visit to Whisler’s in East Austin, close to Issac’s condo.

Meanwhile in New York, Denny and Anne were enjoying a performance by Alejandro Escovedo, during their trip to catch some US Open tennis matches.  Escovedo used to live in Austin but moved to stay in the Belmont Hotel in Oak Cliff when Austin got too expensive for working musicians.

Diana’s trip back from Boston on Friday started well with an upgrade to first class.  It didn’t end as well with flights canceled due to thunderstorms in Dallas.  She eventually made it to Austin a bit after midnight on the Vonlane bus- a creative solution.  It’s been a couple of months since her last visit and she’s been fixing all the things that I haven’t been taking care of properly – the list is too expansive to cover here.

We enjoyed brunch at Mattie’s on Saturday.  This is a restaurant in an old mansion in the Bouldin Creek area – a mile or so from our apartment.  The setting is amazing with lots of land, shaded by live oak trees.   The food lived up to the setting – really delicious.  Diana had an excellent burger and I loved my duck confit hash.  After brunch, we explored the grounds and found a few peacocks and peahens roaming around.

I surprised Diana with a concert at the local One to One bar on Saturday night.  This was her first visit to this music bar that I’ve enjoyed several times.  The “Bee Gees Songbook” was the band performing and they did a very good job covering songs from the entirety of the Bee Gees extensive career.  Here are a couple of the big hits:

Sunday was a lovely lazy day, followed by dinner at Barley Swine.   We sat in the corner  on the right of this picture.  This is the sister restaurant to the Odd Duck, one of our local favourites.  This is the furthest we’ve ventured out for a meal – a solid 10 mins or $10 Uber – that shows you how many great places there are within walking distance.  We started with steak tartare and bone marrow, then amazing soup shitake dumplings, crab fundido with yummy tater tots, pork steaks, and tres leches desert cake.  Wow!  Another amazing Austin meal.

 

I finished “Man of the Year” by Caroline Louise Walker this week.

Dr. Robert Hart, Sag Harbor’s just-named Man of the Year, is the envy of his friends and neighbors. His medical practice is thriving. He has a beautiful old house and a beautiful new wife and a beautiful boat docked in the village marina. Even his wayward son, Jonah, is back on track, doing well at school, finally worthy of his father’s attentions. So when Jonah’s troubled college roommate, Nick, needs a place to stay for the summer, Hart and his wife generously offer him their guest house. A win-win: Jonah will have someone to hang with, and his father can bask in the warm glow of his own generosity.

And then things quickly start to unravel.  I enjoyed the twists and turns as the pace quickened and differing view points of characters were revealed.  I did not see the twists of the last 50 pages coming at all – very clever and creative.

In honor of Anne’s visit with Alejandro Escovedo – “Always a friend to you”:

Whenever I hear Bon Iver I remember how much I love his music and wonder why I don’t listen more often.  Alicia always complained that she couldn’t understand the words:

I  absolutely love this song by New Orleans little known artist John Fohl:

I can’t remember where I heard this song, but I really enjoy it:

 

 

 

 

 

Fortnight in Review – August 25, 2019

“Surfing Dogs, Walking in Memphis”

Did you miss me last week?  Really?  Be honest.

We were visiting with Kris and Cat last Sunday prior to their French adventure, and ended up staying late after dinner.  With travel and excitement, I decided to skip the blog and catch up on two weeks today.  Do you think I qualify as a “Babe Who Blogs” – I didn’t think so either and so skipped this event at the apartment building.

I spent the first week in Austin, while McD headed to Wisconsin for a few days.  Sunrise on Tuesday was described as “crepuscular” by the TV weather guy.  It was quite impressive and I looked up what that meant:

Crepuscular Rays:  A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a ray of sunlight that appears to radiate from the point in the sky where the Sun is located. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains, these columns of sunlit scattering particles are separated by darker shadowed volumes.

I do enjoy waking up with sunrise over downtown Austin.  Meanwhile Diana was enjoying what Wisconsin had to offer – much cooler weather, and some good steakhouses (no relation to the New Orleans institution of the same name).

I enjoyed an amazing Chinese Dim Sum meal on Wednesday with Mark and Damon.  Lin Dim Sum is one of my new favourite Austin restaurants.  We navigated the hard to eat soup dumplings and then enjoyed the stand out of our meal, the seafood basket.  All the different seafood offerings were perfectly cooked and presented.

Diana and I regrouped in Dallas on Thursday night at the lovely Neighborhood Services restaurant on Lovers Lane.  We love this place and it never disappoints with excellent service and food.

On Saturday morning, we caught a flight to San Francisco for a few days with family.   Crosswords are a good way to pass the time, and I always enjoy the view of the Sierras with a small snow cap remaining.

We took Clorinda to Puerto 27, the Peruvian restaurant in Pacifica, for dinner on Saturday night.  She enjoyed “sharing” the pisco sour 27 cocktail with me, and was heard to say, “is the rest of this for me?”.

 

Clorinda thought her “His and Hers” note by the extra coffee maker acquired at a rummage sale was very funny:

Sunday took us down to Santa Clara to visit with Kris and Cat.  The fresh produce from their garden led to excellent appetizers and dinner.  We laughed as we reviewed the calendar for their three week trip to France, and particularly Kris’ list of outfits, shoes, and accessories to be worn each afternoon and evening

Diana had to work on Monday, so I took Clorinda for lunch at the Cliff House – a classic San Francisco restaurant on the cliffs above Ocean Beach.

Sutro’s at the Cliff House is very fancy and we were able to score a lovely window seat.  Clorinda loved every last drop of her red Thai curry bouillabaisse, while I was equally happy with my scallops and shrimp over saffron cous cous.

I gathered some excellent stories:  Why it’s so much more difficult to sing opera in French than Russian (who would have expected),  the challenges of surf boarding behind a ski boat in Lake Tahoe when you can’t float with a life jacket,  living in a one bedroom apartment in North Beach with a baby grand and not being able to concentrate on music if the kitchen wasn’t fully organized, and making a 21 layer rice crispie cake for Adamo.  For desert we chose a butterscotch pot de creme (yummy).  We both enjoyed our 2 hour plus lunch experience.

 

While in Wisconsin, McD had seen a story on the news about the dog surfing championship in Pacifica.  It was funny to read about this in the local Pacifica paper.  Here’s the start of the story:

“It was a foggy morning in Pacifica, but the cover burned off as the day went on and it didn’t deter crowds from coming out to see the 4th annual dog surfing championships at Linda Mar beach on Saturday.  At least a thousand people showed up to watch.”

Tuesday took us down to Campbell to prepare for our concert at the Saratoga Mountain Winery.  We enjoyed dinner at Pacific Fresh in the Campbell Pruneyard and then made the precarious drive up to the winery.

Shemeika Copeland, daughter of blues great Johnny Copeland, opened the show beautifully.  Her dialogue between songs really added to the experience.

You can tell from the video that Diana sprung for some amazing seats – front row, right in front of Marc Cohn’s piano.  Thanks for the excellent birthday gift!

Marc Cohn and the Blind Boys of Alabama followed Copeland, with a very unique set.  The Blind Boys adding excellent gospel harmony to Cohn’s songs.  “Walking in Memphis” taking on a whole new meaning with the gospel harmonies.  The blind boys have been performing for over 7o years, with one of their member close to 90.  What an experience.

Video recording was not permitted at the show, so here’s a sample of what that song sounded like at another performance:

I loved watching Cohn’s smile as he listened to the Blind Boys enhancing his compositions.

We will never forget the Cohn concert at the Kessler a few years ago, when we were first introduced to “True Companion”, our wedding song, and the story of an overseas service members’ wife attending the concert.  Here’s a memory from that show:

Taj Mahal finished out the show.  While we enjoyed his music and performance, more Marc Cohn would have been great.

I love this video of Taj Mahal riding around New Orleans while performing his classic song, “Queen Bee”:

We flew back to Dallas on Wednesday, fortunately sharing the flight with Kris and Cat heading to France.

Prior to the flight, we enjoyed brunch at Mo’s in downtown Campbell, home to an outstanding Bloody Mary with onion ring and bacon – yummmm.

We both worked most of the day on Thursday and Friday, and then Diana organized an excellent night out on Saturday.  We began with dinner at Rye in downtown McKinney.  Ownership had changed in the last year and the cocktail list had me on alert, but we ended up having an excellent meal.  Four courses of shared tapas – blue cheesecake (very creative), forest floor (almost up there with Manresa presentation) with four kinds of mushrooms, edible flower, and seaweed foam, perfect scallops, and finally pork belly lollipops.

Dinner was followed by the Peterson Brothers band in the downtown McKinney courthouse – quite a change from the Continental Club where we usually see them.  Diana had a nice chat with Deana (the boys mother) where we learned that they were just back from opening for Gary Clark Jr. in Virginia – big time!  As usual the Brothers delivered high energy, positive vibes with those great smiles and  energy.

Sunday began as normal- swim, coffee and crossword, and facetime with Mum and Dad.  I laughed at the story of my Dad’s challenges with caulk, only to struggle as I tried to fill in a hole where wasps are gathering around a window on our back patio.

On a completely different note, Will is headed to Burning Man next week and has been excitedly sharing pictures of his camper, outfits and transportation:

I’m excited to hear about Will and Christine’s experiences in the Google village at Burning Man.

I loved the book “Henry, Himself” by Stewart O’Nan.  O’Nan is renowned for illuminating the unexpected grace of everyday life and the resilience of ordinary people with humor, intelligence, and compassion. In this book, he offers an unsentimental, moving life story of a twentieth-century everyman.

Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he’s always believed in logic, sacrifice, and hard work. Now, seventy-five and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It’s 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry’s strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can’t answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for?

The quality of the writing is superb, and I really enjoy the time taken exploring the everyday experiences that make up a life.  I look forward to reading the other two books in this trilogy.

This is my favourite Peter Gabriel album, before things got too esoteric, with excellent production by Bob Ezrin, and containing “Here Comes the Flood” – a top 10 song of mine.

Try this piece for an escape from the ratrace – just beautiful and calming:

And if you liked this, then you will probably enjoy this as well, excellent pianist also:

And as the wonderful Monty Python’s Flying Circus would say, “and now for something completely different”.  In my estimation, this is the perfect bouncy summer song for relaxing by the pool:

Shemeika Copeland delivered an awesome version of this song by her father on Tuesday night:

 

Week in Review – August 11, 2019

“My compliments to the chef”

It was back down to Austin on Monday morning and back up to McKinney again on Friday.  Diana let me borrow her car so I would be a bit more comfortable on the long drives, while she and Penelope tried to get along on her drives to downtown Dallas.

As you can see from the pictures above, it was oppressively hot all week.  Those red bars are the “feels like” temperature – adjusted for humidity.  Diana’s car is reporting a real temperature of 105 degrees at 5pm.  As a result, I spent most of my time indoors this week.

Cat was in Austin for an Apple Systems Engineering annual meeting, and we were able to meet up on Thursday evening.  We made a quick visit to the Sky bar for the requisite picture, and then Ubered over to Peche – I know, it’s less than a mile, but it was still too hot to walk at 7:30 pm.

We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Peche.  The combination of Cat’s intelligence, world view, and immense wit, make him a perfect dinner companion.  He loved the rabbit and mushroom risotto, and sent his compliments to the chef via Tucker, our waiter.  Chef showed up a few minutes later and Cat told him he liked the dish because you could stop eating to tell a story for a few minutes, and the excellent flavor was still in your senses.  This is a new dish on the menu, and Diana will have to return to try it soon.

We visited the Roosevelt Room, a kind of fancy speakeasy style cocktail bar, after Peche and I enjoyed a Paper Plane.  We sat at the bar and thoroughly enjoyed watching all the craft cocktails being prepared – some works of art.  My drink came with a small origami plane flying alongside

It was very nice to spend an evening with Cat without the girls along.  Wait – maybe that didn’t come out exactly the way I meant it.  What I was trying to say….  Ah, never mind, I’ll just stop digging the hole now.

I tried a couple of new things for my drive on Friday.  #1, I downloaded an audible book to listen to on the ride – I’ve listened to podcasts but never a book.  I chose “Lincoln in the Bardo”, which got such rave reviews last year.  It has an all start cast reading – apparently one of the largest for an audio book.  Nick Offerman is excellent.  What a weird book – I listened for almost four hours and was really struggling to figure out what was going on.  Had to read a synopsis when I got home.  Not sure whether I’ll make it through the remaining 3 hours or not.  #2, I decided to venture away from the standard places along the highway and try a real Waco restaurant for my lunch stop.  Harvest was a very good farm to table casual place, not too far off Interstate 35.  The migas were excellent.  I look forward to stopping there again.

 

It was very nice to resume the regular weekend routine with Diana – swim, coffee and crossword, reading.  The simple things that I miss when we’re not together.  We ventured out of the normal routine for dinner, trying a new restaurant for us, Knife, located by Willow Bend Mall.  This is a John Tesar place.  You may remember I came home with a whole pan of his duck confit risotto after attending a demonstration he did at the Granada theater a few years back.  He is starting to expand his empire with a few different places now, after getting his real start as the executive chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek.

We were both very pleased with the quality of the steak and the sauces.  My au poivre was absolutely delicious.  I chuckled at the mini fry basket that the french fries were served in.  We have plenty of left overs for dinner tonight.

I was even able to resist the chocolate caramel treat and have that waiting for desert later.

I finally finished “Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli.  On the surface this is a family road trip story.  Parents and two young children embark on a trip from New York to Arizona and the Apache homelands.  Several stories interweave, including narratives on the plight of native Americans, and on children traveling alone across the border in attempts to reunite with family members living in the United States.  All very poignant with the backdrop of our governments challenge to figure out a workable immigration solution on our southern border.  I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but got bogged down in some of the historical details and discussion on documentary field recordings.

Welcome to a new series of introductions to my new music finds – featuring some of  my favourite album covers.  I particularly like the diner scene on the back of Supertramps’ classic “Breakfast in America”.  If you zoom in you can see Dougie Thompson reading the Glasgow Herald.

I had been listening to some Philip Glass music this week, and then read in the acknowledgements in “Lost Children Archive” that Luiselli had listened to his “Metamorphosis” a lot while writing the novel.  Also interesting that the owner of Shakespeare & Co in Paris gave her a room above the store to work in for a year while writing.  Here’s Part 2 of metamorphosis – I love the triplet right hand part around 2:30.

Zero 7, an English duo who began as studio engineers, have a new album out this week with a host of guest vocalists.  All very relaxing, chill sounds, and, not surprisingly, beautifully produced.

Something about the Zero 7 music sent me to Stereolab and one of my favourites from many years ago:

 

Week In Review – August 4, 2019

“Can’t be more than 114”

We covered a lot of ground this week.  I drove down to Austin on Monday to prepare for a presentation to the Board of Directors on Tuesday, driving back to McKinney when the session finished up.  We worked from home on Wednesday, and then caught a flight to Palm Springs for an adventure with the Ogans and two other couples who I’ll introduce you to in due course.

We checked into the gorgeous Korakia (Greek for “crow”) resort  on Wednesday night.  This resort was restored in 1989 and has a Mediterranean style on one side of the street, and Turkish on the other.  This place truly has the feel of an oasis in the desert, and has been featured in many architectural and travel magazines.  The San Jacinto mountains provide an awesome backdrop to the views form the resort.

No wonder the New York Times dubbed the Korakia as “one of the sexiest hotels in America”.

Kenny and Kara in Joshua Tree National Park

We met up with Kenny and Kara (New Orleans friends of Denny and Anne that I met briefly years ago) on arrival at the resort around 9pm.  The A/C in our original bungalow wasn’t working well and so we were transferred to a suite on the Mediterranean side of the road.  The suite and furnishings, including a turntable and good vinyl selection, were lovely, the only issue coming from a very high stone platform bed.  McD needed help in and out to avoid injury.  The shower was off a similar rock disposition, giving the suite a bit of Flintstones feel.  The neighbors were tired of hearing Diana yelling “Yabba Dabba Doo” as she attempted to jump up into the bed.  More about those neighbors, “the arsonists”, later.

“Can you give me a boost?”  We had a delightful evening, getting to know Kenny and Kara, and catching up with Denny and Anne.

Breakfast was included, and served on a gorgeous patio in front of the hotel, by some very happy and kind ladies.  I really enjoyed the avocado toast with a sunny-side egg and tomatoes.  The group managed to rustle up some champagne so that everyone could enjoy mimosas and get the day off to a good start.  I should clarify – the rest of the group had already been on a strenuous hike, climbing around 1500 feet in the roasting temperatures, before D and I joined them for breakfast.

Our main adventure activity on Thursday was the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.  The 10-minute, 2.5-mile ride, begins at the Valley Station (elevation 2,643 feet) and ends at the Mountain Station (elevation 8,516 feet).  It was amazing to see that the temperature at the base was over 100 degrees, while a cool 65 degrees at 8,516 feet.

It was First Responders’ month, and as Kenny is a Fire Chief, we enjoyed discounted admission, and he received a nice souvenir.  I found the rotating of the tram car (a new feature introduced with a 2000 renovation) and the dips/swing after the towers a bit disconcerting – my Dad would have had a fit.

The tramway was first opened in 1963 after many decades of planning, fundraising, and logistical problem solving.  Construction was mostly accomplished with helicopters, flying some 23,000 missions during the 26 months of construction, hauling men and materials needed to erect the four  towers and the 35,000 sq. ft. Mountain Station.  Over 20 million people have now enjoyed the ride, and the tramway has been designated a historical civil engineering landmark.

The rest of the group enjoyed a hike at the top, while our poorly planned flip flops were an excuse to just relax and enjoy the scenery from the rooftop lounge (world’s 8th best cliff side restaurant).

The descent took less of a toll on my nerves and I was able to enjoy the rotating views as the landscaped changed from high forest to salt desert.

I was amazed at how quickly the temperature rose as we descended back down to the desert floor.

We enjoyed an afternoon snack in downtown Palm Springs, followed by a somewhat refreshing dip in the Mediterranean side pool, and then headed to get ready for dinner.  That’s when we first encountered “the arsonists”.  A younger couple, clearly very much in love and in the room next to us, had decided to light a wood fire to set a romantic mood.  In 114 degree weather?  Really?  No, REALLY?  The flue wasn’t open or some other issue had caused the room to completely fill up with smoke.  They ultimately had to transfer to another room later in the evening.  You can imagine what our Fire Chief thought about these goings on.

For dinner we chose tacos and margaritas at El Jefe in the funky, retro Saguaro hotel.  The shishito peppers, queso fundido, tacos (particularly the shrimp), and margaritas were all very good.  Unfortunately “Karaoke Kenny” wasn’t able to perform as that’s only available at El Jefe during high season.

Some excellent banter followed back at the hotel and we all retired at a relatively early time.

After another delicious and leisurely breakfast on Friday morning, we packed up and headed to Desert Hot Springs (DHS), a bit nearer to the venue for the concert series that initially spurred the trip.

Diana and Anne made a visit to Trina Turk’s clothes shop, while the rest of us picked up coffees and a blue balloon dog for Anne.  Denny and I were both looking for casual lunch spots en route to our next hotel, and both decided on Dillon’s Burgers and Beers at the same time.  This dive bar has been operating for over 70 years and delivered exactly what it advertised – delicious burgers and beer.  A highlight of the visit was playing pool, with Anne receiving detailed instructions from Karaoke Kenny – “Slow your roll, and see through the ball”.

From Dillon’s we made the short drive to El Morocco Inn and Spa.  We were a bit circumspect as we arrived at the hotel – the neighborhood seemed a bit sketchy and the outside of the establishment was not overly welcoming.  However, on embarking on the welcome tour with Debbie, our opinions were changed – this was a very welcoming hotel with lots of great features:  a pretty pool, Moroccan features in the rooms, french press coffee on demand, late night port, Casablanca playing on repeat, and a wonderful spa garden featuring a full size Bedouin tent.

Trey and Dana (long first “a”) arrived from Las Vegas shortly after we checked in.  Trey went to high school with Denny and Kenny, and now lives in Dallas.  Everyone chilled in the pool for a while, enjoying Morocco-tinis, before we made the journey up to Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown for Campout 15.  “What’s all that?”, you ask?  Well, let’s see,  here’s some history from the P&H website:

The legendary Pappy&Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace has been delighting locals and travelers alike since 1982, with its mesquite barbeque, live music, dancing and friendly service. There is also a long history here. In 1946, Pioneertown was founded by a group of Hollywood investors with dreams of creating a living movie set — an 1870’s frontier town with facades for filming and interiors open to the public.

history-3On the outside were stables, saloons, and jails, and on the inside, were ice cream parlors, bowling alleys, and motels. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Russell Hayden, and the Sons of the Pioneers (for whom the town was named) were some of the original investors and personalities who helped build and invent Pioneertown. More than 50 films and several television shows were filmed in Pioneertown throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s.

history-2

In 1946, where Pappy&Harriet’s stands today, was a facade used as a “cantina” set for numerous western films well into the 1950s. In 1972, Harriet’s mother, Francis Aleba, and her husband, John, purchased the building and opened “The Cantina”, an outlaw biker burrito bar. The Cantina rollicked for 10 years, and when it closed, Francis and John made sure the building stayed in the family.

history-0In 1982, Harriet and her husband, Claude “Pappy” Allen, opened “Pappy&Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace”. While the bikers still hung around, Pappy&Harriet’s presence created more of a family atmosphere. With family style Tex-Mex cuisine and live music featuring Pappy, Harriet and their granddaughter Kristina, P&H quickly became a local favorite with all walks of life getting along under one roof!

And what’s Campout 15?  Two bands formed by David Lowery, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, have hosted the Campout music festival at this location for the last 15 years.  This was to be the final event.  Lowery formed Camper Van Beethoven, an experimental indie band, in 1983 in Santa Cruz, CA, and then the more straight ahead, Cracker in the early 90s.  I’m a very big Cracker fan – the “Kerosene Hat” album has been one of my favourites for many years.

Jesika Von Rabbit (I know, what kind of name is that?) kicked off the Friday extravaganza.  I really enjoy their “Joshua Tree” song:

That was followed by a Cracker set.  The theme for the evening was “black”, to recognize the end of the Campout’s 15 year run.  Here’s their best known song:

 

 

Camper Van Beethoven played the headlining set on Friday.  Here’s Diana’s favourite song of theirs:

The sunset behind the band was beautiful:

The founder of the band is David Lowery and one of their most popular songs is a cover of Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men”.  See if you agree with my theory here:  Lowry was an English painter, known for his pictures of matchstick men:

Here’s some info on Lowry:  L. S. Lowry (1887-1976) is best known for painting industrial scenes of North West England in the mid 20th century. His characteristic style has a dreamlike quality, populated by stylised figures referred to as ‘matchstick men’. Although Lowry was trained in academic drawing, he chose to develop his own naive style which has brought him widespread recognition. His mysterious, weatherless landscapes express a personal response to the world around him that never fails to bewitch the viewer. Lowry’s paintings tell the true tale behind English city life.

Do you think it’s interesting that Lowery covers a song by Status Quo about paintings by Lowry?  Ok, after all that, here’s a clip of that song, interestingly not really representative of the blues rock typical of Status Quo.  Trivia about Status Quo:  they opened Live Aid at Wembley in 1985 on my first day of work in the oil business.

It was a late arrival back at the El Morocco, but we managed to hang out and tell stories in the Bedouin tent for a while – with a couple of lazy belly dancing characters.  Here’s a picture of Denny and Anne in the spa garden pre-concert – don’t they look happy and relaxed?

The adventure for Saturday was a trip to the Joshua Tree National Park.  Here’s some info from the park website:

Joshua Tree National Park is a vast protected area in southern California. It’s characterized by rugged rock formations and stark desert landscapes. Named for the region’s twisted, bristled Joshua trees, the park straddles the cactus-dotted Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert, which is higher and cooler. Keys View looks out over the Coachella Valley. Hiking trails weave through the boulders of Hidden Valley.  The park covers 1,235 square miles and was established in 1994.
Several of the roads in the park were closed due to bee infestation.  Apparently the bees are attracted to the moisture in car A/Cs and then end up caught in the vents, wreaking havoc inside.  Oh, I forgot to mention, on Saturday morning I was stung twice by a wasp when exiting the room to go in search of coffee.  In my childhood, I was highly allergic to wasp stings, and swelled up like a balloon dog.  That didn’t happen this time, no ill effects after  a few minutes at all.
Here’s some somewhat shocking information – the tree on the cover of U2’s Joshua Tree album wasn’t taken in the park but in Death Valley.  How can that be?  With thousands of Joshua Trees (the same as Yucca trees) in Joshua Tree park, why wouldn’t they use a picture of one of those?
We stopped for lunch (everyone but Denny) at the Joshua Tree Saloon.  The food was very good, and Kenny and Anne were able to reprise the pool experience.
After a dip in the pool at the El Morocco, we headed up for night two of the Campout.  The order was reversed with Camper Van Beethoven starting, and Cracker headlining.  In between was an interesting experience, The Minus Five performed.  Who are they?  Well, they were formed by Scott McCaughey in 1993 with Peter Buck of REM.  Prior to this band, McCaughey formed The Young Fresh Fellows with Chuck Caroll.  What?  That Chuck Carroll?
Yes – my neighbour in Los Gatos, Joe Carroll’s brother Chuck.  I met him a few times and he can play Anything on the guitar.  The Minus Five were much more animated than expected – kind of a cross between Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello in the late 80s.  Here they are with a Beatles cover.  Can you see Mike Mills and Peter Buck from REM on the right (they are used to much larger stadium audiences):
Cracker closed out the event with this amazing, positive song:
The combination of poor cell service and rural location made securing an Uber a bit of a challenge, but we finally made it back down to the El Morocco and headed straight to bed.
Sunday started with continental breakfast and a quick drive over to Palm Springs airport.  We were back in McKinney by 5pm and relaxing in our favourite spots.
We’ve had plenty of music this week, so I’ll leave you on our own to explore Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, The Minus Five,  and Fresh Young Fellows.  Enjoy!

 

 

Week in Review – July 28, 2019

“Percussive Pigs”

This was a quiet week by myself, with Diana in California and Wisconsin.  I did venture out for some live music on Tuesday night.  Charlie Hunter and Lucy Woodward were playing at The Townsend.

This was an excellent show.  Charlie plays both bass and lead guitar on the same instrument – the top 2 strings are bass and the others are lead.  The way he builds up rhythms and combines parts is totally unique and very clever.  I had a great seat to observe exactly what he was doing with his fingers.  I saw a couple of other Austin based guitarists at the show and they were clearly amazed at the dexterity and creativity.

Lucy Woodward’s voice was pleasant and she collaborated well with Hunter.  The drummer and percussionist, Keita Ogawa, was outstanding.  The quality of musicianship on display in this small listening room was very impressive.  Here’s Ogawa playing three squeaky toy pigs in an amazing solo:

Here’s a cover from Grease, reinterpreted as a jazz standard:

This was likely my favourite show of the year so far in Austin.

I drove to McKinney on Thursday and then Diana made it back from her travels on Friday night.

The other two Aussies that we met at the Continental Club a few months ago (Sue and Graham) were passing through Dallas and hung out with us on Saturday.  They are so entertaining and funny.

Diana has left on her travels again – headed to Boston for work and returning on Tuesday night.

I enjoyed a couple of TV shows this week – “Shangri La” on Showtime is about the famous recording studio, now owned and operated by uber producer Rick Rubin.  The series showcased his unique approach to pulling the best music out of artists.

Jerry Seinfeld released a new series of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.  The episode with a vintage Maserati and Jamie Foxx in New Orleans was a highlight.

Keita Ogawa, the drummer with Charlie Hunter this week, is also part of the band Snarky Puppy.  This is an ensemble of folks that came together in Denton around the University of North Texas music department.  They have a varying cast of members and uniquely blend jazz, folk, and rock in compositions that I always find interesting.

I heard this Richard Hawley song on TV and through the wonder of Shazam was able to instantly find who was performing and the name of the song.  Hawley is an English singer songwriter with a number of good albums released.

Week in Review – July 21, 2019

“Think before you speak, read before you think”

It was a scorcher of a week in Austin with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees all week.  Work was a bit less all consuming this week – thank goodness.  I had a work dinner on Monday at III Forks steakhouse.  Diana had been wanting to try their happy hour with oysters and champagne for a while, and so walked across with me.  She ended up being invited to join us for dinner, which thankfully meant very little work talk.  We ended up having a very nice evening all around.

On Tuesday evening, Diana was committed to watching a very exciting episode of the Bachelorette, where two of the remaining four contenders for the love of the Bachelorette are sent home.  She has a particular dislike for Luke P. (can’t blame her from what I’ve seen) and was looking forward to him going home.  She decided to invite our friend Damon (he travels in from Philadelphia every other week, and was just hanging out in a hotel room) over to watch it with us.  The next morning I got an earful – “first of all you were talking all through the episode, and then you and Damon fell asleep while I was making a pizza”.  Oopsy – we must be working way too hard.

Diana headed to California on Wednesday to check on her family and attend a baby shower.  I focused on work with a brief respite on Thursday night for an excellent dinner with my boss at the Odd Duck.  This is rapidly becoming my favourite Austin restaurant – such a casual feel and amazing combinations of fresh flavors.  The pork chop dish with creamed corn, shishito peppers and mushrooms was particularly yummy.

Saturday began with a swim and sauna and then I finally made a visit to the downtown Austin library.  This is an amazing facility in the heart of downtown, constructed at great expense and heavily patronized.  The modern design of the building is beautiful and the open layout of all six floors is quite something.

I enjoyed the quotes that can be seen from inside the facility on the panel in the right hand picture.  The Fran Lebowitz one is my favourite.

There’s a very good farm to table restaurant inside the library, and I enjoyed some great roasted beets while I completed the crossword.

There are a lot of interesting displays inside the library to draw patrons interest.  I enjoyed browsing the Texas music selection.

The sixth floor rooftop garden provides a good view of the river and our apartment building.  What an amazing facility!

I stopped into Le Politique for a coffee on the walk back to the apartment, and completed the New York Times crossword puzzle.  I’m not often able to finish the Saturday version without some help, or looking things up.

After a little time to cool off from walking a couple of miles in 95 degree weather, I drove over to the Austin Film Society to watch a documentary on Blue Note Records.   “Blue Note Records – Beyond the Notes” covers the history from the start of the label in the 1930s through the present day.

What an interesting story.  Founded by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, who fled Jewish persecution in Germany, in 1939, the label transitioned through many phases of jazz, was sold to a larger label, and then rebounded recently with Don Was as chairman.  The artists who recorded for Blue Note are a veritable who’s who of all eras of jazz – Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, through to modern day ground breakers like Robert Glasper.  I discovered a few new gems that I’ll include in the New Music section later.

Jeff Lofton, a jazz trumpeter who calls Austin home these days, participated in an interesting Q&A after the film.

I read about the Long Play Lounge in the local paper and thought it was located close to the Austin Film Society.  As luck would have it, less than a mile.  Another great establishment – turntables spinning from an extensive collection, a creative music themed cocktail menu, friendly service, and a patio with music playing.  I look forward to sharing this find with McD soon.

The temperature finally dipped below 100 degrees on my drive back to the apartment.  Even Penelope was starting to complain a bit – some German version of “How can it still be 100 degrees at seven o’clock at night?”.

After parking the complaining “P” in the Catherine garage, I walked across Congress Avenue bridge to the Fareground food hall and enjoyed the amazing chicken hawaiej hummus.  While Odd Duck is atop my restaurant list, this particular dish is my favourite in Austin so far.  The hummus is wonderfully creamy and on a par with Shaya in New Orleans (rarefied company) and the flavors with the chicken are amazing.

 

The sunset was pretty on my walk over with lots of people on the river:

 

A few blocks further into downtown, Joe Ely was playing at Antone’s.  I always enjoy a Joe Ely show and I’ve seen several, dating back almost 30 years to a memorable show he did in San Antonio, with Ian Moore on guitar.  This was a full band show and quite different to the solo acoustic sets that I’ve seen recently  at B.B. King’s in New York, and at the Kessler.  Antone’s was quite full of a lively crowd of folks – quite the scene when Ely took the stage and started to get warmed up.

Here’s “Dallas”:

Things really heated up with “All Just to Get to You”:

I’m getting old and had a busy day, so didn’t make it until the end of the show  – I know how disappointed you are.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day of swim, sauna, laundry, and catching up on some reading.

Here’s the first song from the Blue Note movie that really caught my attention – I love the piano chords and the answer from the reeds:

Then there’s this one from Horace Silver, hadn’t heard of him until watching the movie.  Can you hear Steely Dan’s “Rickie Don’t Lose that Number” coming from Donald Fagen’s love of this song?

And another I hadn’t heard of – Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder:

This one is not on Blue Note records, but one that I heard at Antone’s waiting for Joe Ely.  What a good sound:

 

 

Week in Review – July 14th, 2019

“A Dull Boy”

Another week of long work days for both of us.  Becoming too much of a trend lately.  We need to fix that soon.  “All work and no play, makes Keith a very dull boy!”.

My comment about steak tartare last week prompted Raj to send me this hilarious clip of Mr. Bean about to enjoy the same:

We were paying close attention to Hurricane Barry on Friday, as it started to head towards New Orleans and surrounding areas.  Denny and Anne returned form their European jaunt on Monday and had to move their cars out of their flooded street, and get ready for several days of being home bound.

Webster Street has never been this much flooded before, and the storm hadn’t arrived yet.

My friend Norma, from Guatemala, was trying to get to New Orleans on Saturday to see the Rolling Stones at the Superdome.  This is the rescheduled concert from the Jazzfest 50th anniversary show that was canceled due to Mick Jagger’s illness.  Wouldn’t you know she had to fly on Friday afternoon to get in ahead of the storm, only to find out that the concert was pushed back to Monday.  We’re hoping she finally gets to see the band after so much effort.  She was in Lima, Peru this week, planning for our new system to be implemented, and was complaining that it was mid winter and very cold.  It will not feel like winter in New Orleans for sure.

Thankfully, New Orleans was not too badly impacted by Barry.

Out in San Diego, Campbell reported his best sales month ever, and best week ever to close out the quarter.  Look at the salesman extraordinaire go!

This screensaver on my computer took me back to the gorgeous Scottish hillsides, covered in heather.  Also made me picture Bramble, Elspeth and David’s new Labrador, out for a run and having fun.  Correction – maybe she’s really Heather’s dog.

 

Our neighbours across the street are moving to a house with better “outdoor living” after 15 years in their current house.  We’re very sorry to see them go – such happy people who would help us with anything.  It’ll be interesting to see who moves in next.

I always enjoy waking up to the sunrise view and the Friday morning edition was very impressive.

 

 

Diana arrived on the afternoon bus on Friday and it reminded me to share this picture I snapped earlier in the week.  One of the luxury Vonlane buses had broken down and the Corvette the mechanic drove over to repair it was hilarious.  Zoom in and check out all that crazy air intake equipment.

Less than two hours after arrival, I had Diana over to Antone’s to see the amazing Marcia Ball.  I just told her that I had a fun activity planned, and didn’t provide any more details.  She was quite excited on seeing the billboard.

Part of the  entertainment of a Marcia Ball concert is the way her legs and feet keep the beat.  On good display in this clip:

We always laugh at the song, “Just Kiss Me Baby”:

Given Hurricane Barry bearing down on Louisiana, Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927” was quite poignant:

It’s amazing that a song about the flood of 1927 still seems relevant today.  Here Marcia makes the song her own, following an excellent saxophone solo:

Ball is an impressive performer at the age of 70, having played in small clubs across the South for more than 50 years.  Equally impressive are the charities she runs to provide housing and healthcare for Austin musicians.

The Boogie Kings, a band formed in Eunice, Louisiana in 1955, were billed as the headliners, but the crowd had cleared out a good bit for their set – most folks came to hear Marcia Ball.

Their soul music was very good, particularly the three horn players who had clearly being doing it for many years.  Here’s the “Harlem Shuffle” showcasing the horns:

As we arrived back home to the apartment, the dull sheen of the work week was starting to wear off.

Saturday began with a swim and sauna, followed by a delicious Mediterranean lunch, coffee and crossword at Opa.   Then a Target shopping run and back to the apartment for a nap for me, while McD joined the craziness of the monthly pool party, including a DJ playing music she didn’t enjoy.

Diana was in charge of entertainment on Saturday night, and she opted for a walk down South Congress.  We paused outside the Continental Club to listen to a very good swing band – it wouldn’t have taken much to convince D to head on inside – and then continued our walk on down to the South Congress Hotel.  There really are so many interesting stores and restaurants on this street – very unique.  We enjoyed a drink at Craft and Commerce – commenting on the beautiful decor, and then walked across the street for dinner at June’s.  We sat on the patio and enjoyed the people watching.

I was up early on Sunday to watch the Gentlemens’ Final at Wimbledon.  Going to bed on Saturday, Diana said it started at 8am, and of course I had to argue – believing that was 8am Eastern.  When I got to the TV at 7am Central, the pre-game show was just starting.  Diana was right again.  She always says, “What was that?”.  I’ll repeat – Diana was right again!  What an excellent tennis match.  Federer’s single handed backhand is superb, but his forehand let him down too often to prevail.  I think we shared the Duchess of Cambridge’s emotions.

Sunday morning continued with a swim and sauna, followed by brunch at El Alma – so good.  I enjoyed an afternoon nap and some reading time.  In the evening, we walked across to the lawn at the Long Center to enjoy the Austin Symphony brass section in a free outdoor concert.  They really do take full advantage of the open spaces in downtown Austin.  The concert was a good mix of Renaissance music, film scores, Texas songs, and marches.    The crowd was the typical Austin mix of lots of dogs, kids, and even a guy doing yoga next to us.  Here’s a view of the almost full moon over the Catherine from my lawn chair, as the sun set on activities.

Here’s a short video of the brass section performing the “Yellow Rose of Texas” with some views of the apartment and downtown:

I enjoyed the book, “Machines LIke Me” by Ian McEwan, very much.  What an excellent writer and a creative premise.  The novel is set in 1982, the miners are on strike, unemployment is soaring, and Margaret Thatcher has dispatched the Navy to protect the Falkland Islands from take over by an Argentinian junta.  These are all historically accurate, and then McEwan puts a twist on things – the war in the Falklands is lost with 3,000 casualties, Lennon and JFK are both alive, and Tony Benn is challenging Thatcher for leadership of the country.

The biggest tweak to history is that Alan Turing is still alive and treated as a hero.  He has built on his famous World War II code cracking machine, and created many of the foundational components of Artificial Intelligence, which he provides to all via open source.   Charlie, the hero of the story, acquires one of 25 new androids, capable of developing a human-like personality over time.  The novel deftly explores what can go right and wrong as androids become more and more human-like.

This book reminded me a lot of Roth’s “The Plot Against America”, with the slight tweaks on history.  This one is equally well done.  McEwan has certainly become more of a crowd pleaser with his last few novels, but still highly enjoyable and unique.

I include this first song just so that I can tell a short story that I learned recently.  When receiving the rite of Catholic confirmation, participants choose the name a Saint that they admire.  Diana chose “Bernadette”, best known for her visions at Lourdes.

Returning to Antone’s on Friday reminded me of my first visit there after moving to Austin, and the excellent Doyle Bramhall II show, featuring special guest Lukas Nelson.

I heard this wonderful Chopin Nocturne on Paradise Radio this week – they really do play a great mix of styles and genres.

A unique Prince cover finishes out the post for this week.  Didn’t turn out being too dull of a week after all.