“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:
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
On 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.
In 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.
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:
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):
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
workouts and then lunch at Toulouse in Legacy West. Diana was excited when her choice for restaurant stuck – the other two options we discussed were closed for the holiday. We enjoyed a delicious white wine and steak tartare with frites. I know, you’re thinking our diet is almost exclusively raw meat these days – only when we go to French places that do it well.
And did you know that I’m highly allergic to wasp and bee stings – swell up like the Elephant Man. Turns out hornets nests are not always in trees. We found five piles of sand in the beds next to the grill, looking just like ant hills without the ants. Further investigation showed some kind of bug burrowing into the ground and kicking out sand. We decided to leave well alone and wait for the pest control experts.
early dinner at the Grape. She says she had been thinking about going all week – must have some special ESP going. We started by sharing the chicken liver mousse, which now has the pistachio topping added back – last time we visited, over a year ago we guess, they had changed it, and not for the better. Then we split a delicious salad, followed by steak frites for Diana and scallops for me. A lovely evening and way too long since we’ve visited the Grape.
“The Parade” by Dave Eggers, a very favourite author, is a spare and powerful story of two men, Western contractors sent to work far from home, and tasked with paving a road to the capital in a dangerous and largely lawless country.
“Biloxi” by Mary Miller is quite different than any book that I’ve read in a while. Miller skillfully transports us to her unapologetic corner of the South—this time, Biloxi, Mississippi, home to sixty-three-year-old Louis McDonald Jr. His wife of thirty-seven years has left him, his father has passed—and he has impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance check that may not come. In the meantime, he watches reality television, drinks beer, and avoids his ex-wife and daughter. One day, he stops at a house advertising free dogs and meets overweight mixed-breed Layla. Unexpectedly, Louis takes her, and begins investigating local dog parks and buying extra bologna. Mining the absurdities of life with her signature “droll minimalist’s-eye view of America” (Joyce Carol Oates), Mary Miller’s “Biloxi” captures every day life in the South perfectly.
The week started well with a relaxing and delicious lunch at June’s All Day brasserie on far South Congress. This is the place that Mark took me to for lunch when I interviewed for my job in Austin, and I hadn’t been back since. Diana and I both loved our lunch – delicious wines, smoked salmon nicoise salad for D and steak tartare for K. The heavens opened as we were finishing up and so we had to stay for coffee and wait for a brief respite in the rain. Temperatures dropped 15 degrees in a few minutes and the humidity was thankfully gone from the air for a while.
Then they met up with Sean at the Continental Club to see the amazing Peterson Brothers. These two young men have so much positive energy and interact with each other beautifully. May they never lose those positive smiles they have playing music together. I was able to join around 7:30pm for the second half of the show. We particularly enjoyed the rendition of “Amazing Grace” on violin by Alex – it was his first instrument in school before graduating to bass guitar virtuoso.
Changing over from music to the literary front, I finally finished “The Parisian” by Isabella Hammad. This was a very long slog of a book with lots of Arabic dialog and names. I did learn a lot about the history of Palestine in the early 2oth Century, and the influx of Jewish immigration that ultimately caused the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that still exists.
Our second wedding anniversary on Monday was welcomed with a pretty sunrise. After a long work day, we celebrated at Uchi, a sushi restaurant close to the apartment and rated one of the best in the United States. The food was excellent, as you can tell by the smile on D’s face. The service was equally outstanding, from the initial greeter, to Sam our waitress, and everyone else that interacted with us.
The rest of the week was busy with work and quite hot outside. On Wednesday evening we braved the heat for a walk along the river, passing by the movie on the lawn event on the way home. “The Goonies” was showing on a giant inflatable screen. Temperatures continued to heat up, with Thursday being the first 100 degree day of the year.
Friday afternoon took me to one of our stores on far South Congress to observe system performance during the peak time and close process. As luck would have it, C-Boys Heart and Soul was close by. Diana joined me and a couple of work colleagues for happy hour. The Rosie Flores Revue was playing (as they apparently do every Friday) – what a pleasant surprise. We’ll have to return again soon.
Sunday kicked off with a nice long swim and very relaxing sauna, followed by coffee at Opa! The puzzle was by creators and an editor we didn’t know – where did Fred Piscop go? It took us both over 30 minutes to finish the “Doing the Splits” crossword.
After dinner we finished off the evening at the Roosevelt Room. The bar is lovely and the cocktails good, but we decided it was just a bit too much work to get a drink in that place. I did like the interior and particularly the musician paintings – here’s one of Austin native Gary Clark Jr.
Happy Father’s Day to my Dad and all you others celebrating today. Being a Dad – the most challenging occupation I know, filled with terrific highs, tough lows and lots of unanticipated in betweens. Here’s a picture of my Dad, sister, and brother in law at Pitmedden Gardens near Aberdeen.
The only real respite all week was a very pleasant walk along the river trail on Thursday night. The city of Austin does such a good job maintaining the trail and the natural habitats. We enjoyed this guy with his long neck sticking up from the vegetation.
We walked down South Congress Avenue (SoCo) to the San Jose hotel for a relaxing drink and snack on their excellent patio. This is where we finished our evening with the Aussies and Diana sent Sue a picture of the patio. She replied that they were fighting through thunderstorms in Custer, South Dakota – those Aussies get around.
Our brunch started with shishito hashbrown, creamed corn, and braised goat – such a delicious combination of flavors. A close second to that was the next dish of smoked chicken skillet, sunny eggs, mushroom cream, and tobacco onions. The final dish of Mediterranean flavours – eggplant falafel, fenugreek sausage, cashew humus, and herb yogurt made it difficult to choose a favourite. We really enjoy the concept of smaller portions to share – particularly when each contains so many fresh flavours. Can you tell that I was very happy with everything about my brunch?
I was up early on Tuesday morning for a swim at the chilly Barton Springs pool. A very refreshing start to the day. After work, Damon and I had dinner at Chi’Lantro and then caught an Allman Brothers tribute band at the One 2 One bar. This was an excellent show, far exceeding our expectations. All the musicians were great – the dueling guitars, double drummers, bass and organ. Anne would prefer this to the original Allmans as the solos were short and tight – not the sprawling 10 minute guitar solos of the original band. Anne always complains that there aren’t enough words and the songs last too long.
On Sunday evening, we revisited on of our favourite Austin spots -the Townsend bar and listening room. The entertainment was by Michael Fracasso featuring Charlie Sexton on guitar and Michael Ramos on keyboards and accordion. 
It was a treat to see Sexton in such a tiny venue – he was about to head back out on the road as the guitarist in Bob Dylan’s band. I mentioned a week or so ago enjoying his playing on Boz Scagg’s latest album. And of course the Arc Angels, his short lived band with Doyle Bramhall II, has been a favourite of mine since living in San Antonio. Michael Ramos has an equally impressive resume, having toured with and produced many well known artists.
While we were in the show, everyone’s phone started alerting at the same time, for a flash flood warning. Apparently it was raining very heavily outside. Things had dried out after the show and we were able to enjoy the walk home at a temperature over 20 degrees cooler than when we entered the show, 2 hours prior.
Denny shared an excellent article, “The Memorable Mr. Hughes”, with me this week. Mr Hughes is retiring as the music teacher at Lusher, the school that Jack and Jason attend. Diana and I have attended several “Morning Meetings” in the Lusher courtyard and the music is always a big part of these. A highlight was Trombone Shorty getting down in the middle of the kids when his microphone didn’t work correctly. Here’s a quote from the article: