Day: November 24, 2019

Week in Review – November 24, 2019

“Levon’s New Drum Set”

The week started off on a bittersweet note.  We had a farewell dinner for my boss, Mark, who is leaving the company.  I’m sorry to see him go and it brings a lot more responsibility for me.  D and I will miss going out with him in Austin.

We organized the dinner at Eddie V’s – an excellent seafood and steak house in downtown (next door to the legendary Antone’s blues club).  Team members joined us from Guatemala, Canada and Australia.  Everyone that Mark wanted there showed up.  Diana did an exemplary job of selecting wine and appetizers for everyone.  We particularly enjoyed going around the table telling our favourite Mark stories.  Adam was hilarious.  Going clockwise from me we have Caleb, Mark, Adam (Canada), Issac, Roy (Australia), Norma (Guatemala) and Damon.  And not to forget our excellent photographer Diana.

Norma thought she was very funny in the office on Tuesday.  Sitting with a bandage on her finger just waiting for me to notice.  In her defense, she brought an amazing bottle of 23 year old Ron Zacapa rum from Guatemala that we all enjoyed very much.

 

 

 

View from the library rooftop garden

Saturday started with the normal routine – workout followed by coffee and crossword.  Then we walked over to the excellent downtown Austin library, walked back on the river trail, made a Xmas shopping stop at the Yeti flagship store, and relaxed on the balcony with books.  What great weather.

Fall colour from the reading balcony

Festivities picked up nicely on Saturday evening.  We tried a new Vietnamese restaurant called Mandala.  What delicious flavours and creative dishes.  Edamame with truffle oil and sea salt, surf clam ceviche, mini rice pancakes, and Vietnamese curry chicken – all excellent.  McD was pleased with an inexpensive and very good French champagne.  This place is certainly a good addition to the expanding Austin restaurant rotation.

Mandala pancakes

clam ceviche

A short walk from Mandala and we were at the One-2-One bar for Shelley King’s new CD release party.  And it was indeed a party – for the great value price of $10.

Here’s a favourite from the new CD – “Levon’s new drum set” – a tribute to the late, great Levon Helm of The Band.  Shelley was in Woodstock to play one of Helm’s Midnight Rambles in the barn by his home.  This was the week that Levon passed and there was no Ramble.  At the time that the concert would have started, there was a massive thunderstorm.  Shelley viewed this as Helm playing his “new drum set” in heaven.  What a great song:

Then special guest Carolyn Wonderland joined the band, picking up the energy and guitar level immediately:

The next special guest was long tall Marcia Ball on the keyboards for “Hurricane Party”.  Shelley told the story of Marcia being scheduled to play shows in Florida that were cancelled due to the hurricane.  She called Shelley to arrange a dominoes game – like a “Hurricane Party”:

Another lovely night of music in a small Austin club.  Four different bands were playing in the One-2-One on Saturday – an amazing array of talent.

We were up early for a workout on Sunday morning, and then packed up and made the drive to McKinney.  I arrived just in time to catch the last few exciting minutes of the Saints game – they eked out another last minute win.  The Cowboys are not doing so well now in freezing cold, rainy New England.

I finished “Conviction” by Denise Mina this week.  Here’s the Amazon synopsis:

The day Anna McDonald’s quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people’s problems are much better than one’s own — a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna’s problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she’s taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened.
Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened — and in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, she goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.
A true-crime podcast sets a trophy wife’s present life on a collision course with her secret past in the “blazingly intense, exciting as all hell” (A. J. Finn) new thriller from Denise Mina.  We just listened to A.J. Finn’s “A Woman in the Window” on audible, and now we’re listening to Mina’s “The Red Road”.  Audio books make the drive back and forward from Austin to McKinney pass much quicker.
I enjoyed this passage as the protagonist arrives at Skibo castle:
“First the hills across the water rose into view, pale and round.  Then the sea became visible on the left, molten grey with the winking lights of oil rigs in the bay for repair.  They stood ankle-deep in the shallow water, like giants wading, home for tea.  Lastly; the castle rose up from behind a screen of strategically grown trees.”
This passage looks much better with double spaces after the periods.  Something about the font and the single spacing after periods really bothered me.  That and the five or six typos I found in a published book.
I heard this song by Patty Griffin on Sun Radio – what a pretty tune.  So many great “River” songs – Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Leon Bridges, and the young Dallas blues guitarist whose name I can’t remember right now.
Seth James was playing the Sun Radio Wednesday night show at Guero’s Oak Garden.  Listening on the radio, I loved the Little Feat feel, the horn section and his guitar playing.
Kevin Galloway was playing at the Saxon Pub on Friday night – but not until 11pm – too late for us old folks.  I do love his music and hope to catch an earlier show.