“Happy Birthday Clorinda”
When I left you last Sunday, we were sporting our “Flu Fighter” band-aids. Diana added her “I Voted” sticker in the afternoon and reported that the line to vote at the fire station was short when she arrived a few minutes before the early voting opened.
On Monday I managed to work a haircut and swim into a relatively busy day of work, then settled into watch the Cowboys in the evening. Even Campbell turned the game off at half time because they played so poorly. I got all set up to watch the game in California today and was again treated to a very disappointing performance.
We boarded our first plane in eight months on Thursday – making the flight from Dallas to San Francisco to help Clorinda celebrate her 89th birthday. We didn’t get off to a good start with an hour delay to change a tire, but after that the flight was fine, albeit a bit stressful to be around so many people after living mostly at home for so many months.
I met Will for Chinese food at Yat Sing in Redwood city – home of the best pot stickers in town on Friday. They were very tasty – particularly when dipped in the special combination of sauces that Will recommended.
We sat outside and caught up on what’s going on in Will and Christine’s lives. Pending new puppy, looking at engagement rings, researching houses to buy, and a special photo shoot of his BMW in a music video production studio were among the various interesting topics. And he even paid for lunch. It’s lovely to see him doing so well and enjoying life. We got so involved in the conversation that I completely forgot to take a selfie of ourselves rather than just the dumplings.
The weather in Pacifica was terrific for our visit as you can see from these outdoor pictures of Clorinda and family enjoying her birthday on Saturday.
Andy and Jude (Clorinda’s wonderful neighbours) won the most creative card award. This is a picture of Clorinda and accompanist from around 60 years ago. Andy made a mask for the accompanist from the same material as her dress – very nice detailed work.
I think Clorinda enjoyed sitting talking to and watching her newest grand-daughter, Francesca, more than anything else. She’s such a good and happy baby – Amy certainly deserved that third time around.
I watched the movie “Parasite” by Korean director Bong Joon-ho during my elliptical sessions this week. The film won the Cannes Palme D’Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2019. It’s described as a “black comedy thriller” and I really enjoyed the creativity and cleverness of the first half, before it got a bit silly and violent.
“Remember My Name”, Cameron Crowe’s documentary about David Crosby was my companion for part of the flight to San Francisco. Incredibly well done and very sad as Crosby recounts his struggles with demons that caused him to spend time in jail and destroy wonderful friendships with Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young. His enduring love for creating music is the big redeeming factor.
Kenny (New Orleans Fire Department Station Chief) recommended “The Cooperating Witness” by Mike Avery, a friend of his who now lives in New Orleans. Interestingly Kenny is currently working on a memoir of his 30 years on the NOFD. I suspect there are going to be some very compelling stories in there, including the months when he lived at the fire house during Hurricane Katrina. Here’s a little bit about Michael Avery from his website:
“Beginning in 1970, Michael enjoyed a career as a civil rights and criminal defense attorney over four decades, representing clients in jury trials and arguing cases in federal and state appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. His principal specialty was law enforcement misconduct. Michael and a team of lawyers obtained the largest award ever against the FBI for wrongful convictions, securing damages of $102 million for the families of four innocent men who were framed on murder charges by the Bureau. In 1998, he joined the faculty of Suffolk Law School in Boston, where he was a tenured professor, teaching Constitutional Law, Evidence, and related courses. In 2014 Suffolk awarded him the status of professor emeritus.”
Back to the story. Suffolk Law student Susan Sorella is tending tables at her father’s restaurant in Boston’s North End when the head of the local mob pays her a surprise visit. What he tells her sends her on a mission to save an innocent man accused of gunning down the mob’s accountant.
Susan’s an intern for Bobby Coughlin, a burned-out defense attorney who pleas his clients out faster than they can sign his retainer agreement. The judge, having dropped the accused trigger man in Bobby’s lap, is pushing for a quick guilty plea. Bobby wants to supply it before he has a nervous breakdown.
Susan has to battle Bobby’s fear of failure, his sexism, the State’s Attorney, crooked FBI agents, their homicidal informants, and a cooperating witness to get to the truth. She’s not a lawyer yet, but with her knack for digging up evidence and the wise guys on her side, she’s racing to get to the truth before an innocent man goes to jail.
I didn’t see the twist in the tail of this book coming at all – always a nice surprise. The descriptions of the Italian restaurants and food in the North End of Boston were some of my favourite parts of this book.
“Bostonians come from all over the city to the North End to eat. Walking down Hanover Street, one finds a restaurant every hundred feet. There’s always a line of people waiting to buy cannoli outside Mike’s Pastry. Those who want to buy Italian specialties to enjoy at home step into Salumeria Italiana for prepared meats, olives and olive oil, salted anchovies, fresh sun-dried tomato pesto, and similar delicacies. Several times a year the streets are taken over by people celebrating the feast of one or another Catholic Saint”
Susan describes strolling the North End with Romano, the mob boss:
“Romano took her elbow and they walked out to Hanover Street. The North End was his domain. It was like walking through medieval Florence with one of the Medici. Romano was a prince of this city, a modern student of Machiavelli. All the familiar coffee shops and neighborhood restaurants looked different with him at her side – smaller, less independent.”
I recommend this fast paced criminal mystery, made all the more believable by Avery’s first hand experiences.
The other book that I enjoyed this week was “Chinaberry Sidewalks” by Rodney Crowell, a singer songwriter raised in dirt poor conditions in Houston in the 1950s and 60s. I’ve enjoyed his music and the albums he produced for Rosanne Cash and others for several years, and enjoyed his memoir a lot.
In the first chapter, Crowell describes Hurricane Carla and his father’s disdain for preparations:
“My father’s admiring his newly resuscitated television when a news bulletin announces the impending arrival of Hurricane Carla.
This sends Jacinto City residents into a frenzy of preparation. Masking-tape crosses appear in windows, sheets of plywood seal up screened porches, new batteries make old transistor radios work just fine. Everybody stocks up on food and water, blows cobwebs off kerosene lanterns, and replenishes liquor supplies. So many people scurrying around in a frenzy reminds me of the Ant Farm Mrs. Cain keeps in the back of her fifth-grade classroom.
Such fastidiousness offends my father’s sensibilities and is as unlike him as being a bird-watcher. He dismisses his conscientious neighbors as a nervous pack of limp-wristed do-gooders. Lighting up a Pall Mall and spitting tobacco strands from the tip of his tongue, he scoffs, “Aw, hell, I ain’t afraid of no hurricane. It can blow the dang roof off for all I care.”
A similar disdain for preparation will become the hallmark of my adult life, winging it at all costs my Achilles’ heel and “damn the torpedoes” my battle cry.”
Talking about his father’s immense inventory of memorized songs:
“The Saturday night Grand Old Opry on a neighbor’s dry-cell radio, local barn dances, his own father’s front-porch performances – that was the extent of his access to popular music. But lack of exposure to the outside world did nothing to hamper his ability to accrue words and music. He possessed an ability to absorb songs from the atmosphere. If he heard a song once, he new it forever. Such was his gift.”
Alicia appears to have a very similar gift of memorizing lyrics and music on a first listen.
Kenny had just texted me a report on his fishing trip with Denny, letting me know he was now “Mr. Exotic” because of the large alligator gar he had caught, when I read this passage:
“As a river fisherman, Sherman Buck was unrivaled. He could drag alligator gar and catfish as long as your leg out of a dry creek bed.”
The memoir is mainly about Crowell’s early life – up to finishing high school – but does include a fast forward to the deaths of his mother and father. A very sweet portion at the very end of the book:
“The impulse to try to sculpt a narrative out of my family’s history started when I remembered introducing my mother to Roy Acuff backstage at the Grand Ole Opry in 1991. Identifying herself as a lifelong fan, she told the most popular country musician of her generation that she’d met the love of her life at his concert in the Buchanan High School gymnasium, obliging everyone present, myself included, to imagine this had taken place only a night or two before. The courtly superstar paid rapt attention and then said his most treasured memory from that evening was of two young lovebirds whose faces shone from the audience with the light of love everlasting. The meeting lasted no more than three minutes, but I wish it could’ve gone on forever. My mother floated out of Mer. Acuff’s dressing room, an eighteen-year-old girl again.”
Let’s start out the musical section with something from Rodney Crowell. You can’t go wrong with any of his albums but I prefer those from the last 10 years or so:
Some Puccini for Clorinda. She was translating the story for me as we listened to this:
I read about Hall Willner and his tribute albums, which led me to these great T. Rex covers on his “Angelheaded Hipster” album:
Willner also produced Lucinda Williams’ “West” album that includes Bill Frisell (of surprise C-Boys jazz guitar performance) and Jim Keltner on drums:
Stay safe and calm – it’s likely to get a bit crazy in the next few weeks.