Keith Robertson – Page 31

Week in Review – August 19, 2018

This was another quiet week at home for me, with Diana traveling to St. Petersburg, Florida on Thursday and Friday, where she finished out a very busy work week.

McD solving an outage late into the night

We met Brent for coffee and a crossword after our workouts on Saturday morning. He refused to attempt the crossword after a quick glance over it – “I don’t have a crossword brain – good for puns and witty remarks, but not crosswords”. The time while not solving the crossword was put to good use – reading an article in the “Scientific Mind” on the fact that men with high testosterone also happen to be better dancers, hence the reason women are attracted to good dancers – honestly!

Saturday night brought a classic Texas torrential downpour and thunderstorm. This one lasted much longer than normal and provided the garden with a good soaking.

I finished the novel “Wonder Boys” by Michael Chabon this week. Chabon is perhaps my favorite author and the film from this book is also one of my favorites, so I had quite high hopes for this read. It did not disappoint. I enjoyed it more than Telegraph Avenue, which was one of my most enjoyable reads last year. The characters and crazy antics built around a writers celebration at a Pittsburgh college are excellent. It’s difficult to set aside visions of the actors who played the main characters – Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, Tobey Maguire, and Patricia Clarkson – but I tried hard and enjoyed the written characters even more than the visual versions. I’m looking forward to catching up on some more of Chabon’s catalog in the near future.

Aretha Franklin passed away this week. “Live at the Fillmore West” is one of my top 10 live albums and I listened to it a couple of times this week. Aretha’s concert piano technique coupled with the versatility, soulfulness, and range of her voice make this album very special. Here’s a sample – a duet with the unforgettable Ray Charles:

Wow! – I’ve seen some amazing shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco, but nothing like this. One of my all time favorite Aretha performances was at the Kennedy Center Honors when she performed for Carole King’s induction – “Feel Like a Natural Woman”. The reactions from Carole and President Obama say it all.

An advertisement for a Blue Note concert by Maceo Paker, saxophonist for James Brown in the 1960s and Parliament Funkadelic in the 1970s, included a link to this video featuring Trombone Shorty from New Orleans. This might be the best trombone solo I’ve come across:

And finally on the music front, a music video that a friend turned me on to this week. The band is called Meute. They hail from Hamburg and describe their music as “German techno marching band”. I like the horn arrangements and performance very much.

Week in Review – August 12, 2018

A reasonably quiet week at home for both of us was a nice change. Lots of rain fell most days which took the edge of the scorching August heat a bit.

My parents, on the other hand, had great weather for their short getaway to Portpatrick. This is a picturesque, seaside village on the West coast of Scotland that we visited regularly as kids during our weekends and holidays in Glenluce. I’m reminded of ice cream cones enjoyed while wandering around the harbor, cliff walks with rock scrambling to a secluded beach, and mini golfing. Portpatrick is also a lifeboat station and I remember being amazed at the lifeboat that is fortified to enable rescues in extreme conditions. Mum and Dad seem to have had a very relaxing visit.

Our main activity this week was an outing to the Kessler on Saturday night with Brent. He found a new restaurant for us to try which is a very short walk from the Kessler as you can see up above. We’ve never ventured West past the theater before and so had been deprived of a great restaurant called Nova. This is a remodeled Dairy Queen burger shack and one of the owners told us that Stevie Ray Vaughan’s first job was there.

We really enjoyed Nova and look forward to returning soon to try more of the menu. It’s mostly Southern cooking but there are a wide variety of choices. Diana and I shared the crawfish and chorizo etouffee – absolutely delicious! We made it back to the theater in time for the complete opening act set (a rare feat for us) and were very pleased that Jeff (artistic director) had let us sneak in before heading to dinner to claim some good seats. Here’s an interesting article on Jeff’s background and the Kessler:

https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/a-day-in-the-life-of-kessler-theater-artistic-director-jeff-liles-10123991

He does an excellent job of booking talent into such a small theater (300 capacity with seated configuration) and manages the sound quality to an exceptionally high level.

Rob Baird opened the show with some acoustic country singer-songwriter music which we all enjoyed. Woodrow, the electric guitar player, joined him for most of the set and I think he is very talented and added some nicely nuanced guitar color to Rob’s songs.

It always adds to a show when the performer interacts with the audience via stories and anecdotes between songs and Rob did a superior job of that.

Monte Montgomery and his band were the main act. Diana and I had seen them a few years ago at the Granada theater and really enjoyed the show. We were not as impressed this time. Monte is a very skilled guitar player but sometimes all the fast notes and technique are just too much and the audience started to drift off after a while.

I love the “Live from Daryl’s House” show that started as a webcast and now is on network TV. Here’s a song from the episode that featured Monte with Daryl Hall.

Diana had a very busy work week and so enjoyed a nice, long nap on the drive home.

Sunday took us to the movie theater to watch the Christopher Robin film. What an all around treat – the story, the voices, and the animation were all perfect. Diana commented that it should be required viewing for all working parents. The Pooh voice was so perfect that we wondered if it was the same person that provided the voice in our youth – it was not but what a great job. I have to admit that I had completely forgotten about “Heffalumps”.

I’ve been listening to a new album from Boz Scaggs this week and enjoying it very much. Here’s a song from that:

Week in Review – August 5, 2018

Diana made her first business trip for her new job on Monday and Tuesday. The destination was San Jose and the meeting seems to have gone well. She was entertained to find a picture of an old typewriter in her room – they show up everywhere since we saw the California Typewriter movie.

This picture from her flight home shows the layer of smoke from the massive California wildfires that continue to burn. The Mendocino fire is now the largest in recorded history with close to 300,000 acres burned.

I dropped Diana off for her flight and we stopped into my favorite Dallas area coffee shop, Redefined coffee in Grapevine, for coffee and a crossword on the way. When I arrived at my office I found a nice new mousepad on my desk – a gift from Mike Mead that merges the Scottish and American flags in a creative way.

On Thursday we flew to Pensacola, Florida to rendezvous with Denny, Anne, Jack, Mason, and Sabine for a long weekend in Navarre beach. Anne’s parents, Carolyn and Jack, have a condo there that they live in during the winter months. Navarre beach is located on a very thin sliver of an island that parallels the coast – it takes just a couple of minutes to walk from the leeward to the gulf side of the island.

We stopped at the Union Public House in Pensacola for a drink and a snack before making the drive. The crab fingers and scotch eggs were very good.

Our next stop was at Joe Patti for fresh seafood. This place had the largest and most impressive array that I’ve seen – amazing variety. Denny picked up some scallops and lump crab meat.

Diana captured this picture of the gorgeous sandy beaches as we drove along the island. Here are some of the lovely views from the condo after we arrived.

Denny and Anne cooked up an amazing feast for dinner including perfectly cooked fresh scallops with tzatziki sauce. That was followed by a pretty wild game of cards against humanity which Mason won, just edging Denny and me.

Diana and I did some work calls first thing in the morning and after a late, lazy breakfast, we headed over to the beach on Friday and stayed there until a thunder storm rolling in from offshore seemed ready to soak us. Then we headed to T.J.s in Navarre proper on the mainland for a late lunch.

Our Friday night entertainment was a walk down to Juana’s to listen to the live band. The music was classic rock which everyone (except maybe Denny) enjoyed. The people watching in the music section of the bar was some of the best I’ve seen in a while with all kinds of characters involved. It became clear why the floor of the bar was nice soft sand.

Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday with a trip over to the beach. The current and waves were much calmer and so we were able to spend some more time playing in the sea. Lunch was at Windjammer on the pier where Anne and Diana had found some impressive sand art on their earlier walk down the beach.

Sunday morning brunch was amazing crab benedicts assembled by Chef Denny, Anne with a small contribution from me. After brunch we enjoyed some quality time on the massive blow up island in the water out behind the condo. Diana tried out Anne’s paddleboard and did very well – no falling at all.

D paddle boarding – should she be that far out?

Then it was that awful time again – time to leave the Ogans and fly home to boring, land-locked McKinney. Thanks to Mr. Denny for driving us to the Pensacola airport. The candle that Anne gifted to Diana caused some brief interest from the Pensacola TSA staff.

My cigar cutter and ashtray set up caused me to be stopped for a bag check on the way out of Dallas to Pensacola and I was lucky to get a TSA agent who was also a cigar aficionado and let it pass. So we were able to get extra screening on both legs of the trip.

Jack had Anne send us home with a gift from him (one that didn’t alert TSA) – a piece of wine cork art that is now hanging in our bar area.

A huge thanks to Jack and Carolyn for the use of their condo for an excellent long weekend!

My reading this week has been from the new Paul Simon biography. I’m about half way through and around 1974 when “Still Crazy After All These Years” was released. This has been a very interesting read – I enjoy hearing about the inspiration for the songs and the special recording techniques and musicians used on the various albums. I was interested to learn that the Muscle Shoals “Swampers” were the key musicians on the “Rhymin’ Simon” album – one of my favorites. It’s amazing how many of the records that I love were recorded at Muscle Shoals with that great cadre of musicians.

Here’s a song from that album:

Denny turned me on to a great version of “As Long as I Can See the Light” by My Morning Jacket while we were in Navarre:

And to finish out the music section this week, here’s an excellent song by Little Richard with Jimi Hendrix on guitar and Billy Preston on organ that I heard about through the Immortal Jukebox blog (highly recommended):

Week in Review – July 29, 2018

The week started out with a pretty significant packing oopsy! I arrived at DFW airport and realized that I hadn’t packed any trousers for my trip to New York and was wearing shorts – not ideal for the office environment.

As a result, Monday started with an early morning walk to Target, which didn’t have any dress pants at all, and then a walk to Century 21 where I was successful. It was rainy and very humid for the walk as you can see from the misty top of the Freedom Tower. I did find a great coffee shop to dry out in next to Target where I enjoyed a delicious beet humus (seems to be an increasingly popular option) and avocado toast and heard this interesting music playing.

Tinariwen is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. I like the rhythmic and repetitive guitar sound and it reminds me a lot of an album I have from 1994 with Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure (also from the Saharan desert region) titled “Talking Timbuktu”.

My first New York musical outing was to Birdland to see the Birdland Big Band. They are a 16 piece band with lots of brass and perform at the club every Friday evening and for a two week residency in the summer. I enjoyed the mix of musical styles they offered and even one of a few songs they did with a singer named Veronica swift – “Someone to Watch Over Me”.

A couple of evenings later I was able to catch a performance by the blues guitarist Walter Trout at the Highline Ballroom next to Chelsea Market. Trout had a liver transplant a few years ago and was so sick that he had to learn to talk and play guitar after surgery, taking several years to regain all of his skills. I didn’t love the show but did enjoy the venue and particularly a young guitarist named Solomon Hicks whom Trout invited to join him for a couple of songs.

I finished out the work week with a delicious Mediterranean dinner with colleagues at a new find named “Nish Nush” on John Street. The falafel trio was excellent with the best falafels and sauces that I’ve had. I’m looking forward to returning when I’m back in the area.

On the short walk back to my hotel, I thought I heard a band playing on the plaza outside the JP Morgan building, but further investigation showed that it was Thursday movie night with “Back to the Future”. I walked up right as the “flux capacitor” was being introduced.

I had a full day of meetings on Friday and headed to La Guardia airport at 5pm in a rain storm. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8pm and was constantly pushed back as the thunder storm continued to hover above the airport. The incoming flight was eventually diverted to Pittsburg for refueling and ultimately arrived around midnight. We landed in Dallas after 3am and it was close to 4:30am when I got home – a long day to say the least.

I was able to rally for a workout, coffee and crossword with Diana on Saturday morning but got very sleepy in the afternoon.

Week in Review – July 22, 2018

We decided to make a quick overnight trip to Edinburgh on Monday. There was some family debate about the pros and cons of taking the train versus driving. The hotel we chose didn’t have onsite parking and Edinburgh has a lot of pedestrian only zones and one way streets – so I decided that the train was a better option. What have you heard about the reliability of trains in Scotland? I don’t remember any issues when I used them regularly many years ago. We were not lucky as the train we planned to take from Stewarton to Glasgow never showed up. There were a few folks on the platform who were equally confused about the lack of any notification and one lady with a mobile app said the next few trains had been cancelled with no notice or explanation. A quick call home and my Mum and Dad came to the rescue and shuttled us up to Glasgow to catch a train there. It’s interesting that all the station signs have a Gaelic translation as I don’t think there’s anyone in Stewarton who speaks the language or ever did.

We parked in Buchanan Galleries and my Mum was on a mission to get us to the station for Edinburgh and on a train as quickly as possible. I struggled to keep up dragging the suitcase behind me down Buchanan Street. We sprinted to a train that was just leaving the platform and less than an hour later were making the short walk from Waverley station to our hotel. We left our luggage and went out in search of lunch. The terrace at the Dome on Rose Street was just a block away and we enjoyed a very nice pizza and salad al fresco.

Suitably sated, we set out for a walk around Edinburgh – down into Princes Street Gardens and then up Castle Terrace to the Castle Esplanade.

This is a picture of the General Assembly building for the Church of Scotland and this is where my graduation ceremony was held back in 1985. Interestingly we went for a celebration lunch at the hotel that we stayed at on George Street.

We walked down the Royal Mile as far as Jeffrey Street, where I lived in a flat at number 21 in 1984, with Andy Bull and Stuart Johnson. On the way I pointed out the phone box where I would come to call home and McD forced me inside for a picture.

I chuckled to see the Baked Potato shop, the “Tempting Tattie”, still in operation right across the street from the flat. My Mum and sister had a story to tell about coming to pick me up when we vacated the flat and spending hours cleaning while I sat on the couch eating a potato from that shop – funnily enough I don’t remember that at all.

We headed back to the hotel to change for dinner at the Witchery at the top of the Royal Mile. The views out over the Firth of Forth to David’s homeland of Fife from the hotel room were quite impressive.

We weren’t sure what to expect from the Witchery – it got great reviews but we were worried it might be very touristy with less than great food. The setting is amazing with lovely old dining rooms and décor.

Our waiter was quite terse to begin with but we were able to warm him up and he gave some great recommendations. We started with steak tartare and then Diana enjoyed a beautifully cooked lobster thermidor while I had scallops.

We walked down the Royal Mile after dinner to the Malt Shovel, a pub that Andy Bull and I frequented when we lived on Jeffrey Street. It still has a similar feel but the bar area inside has been completed reconfigured – not what I remembered at all.

To cap off the night, we took a taxi to a speakeasy I had read about on Rose Street. It’s called the Bryant and Mack Detective Agency and is the perfect 1920s style speakeasy inside. The menu is delivered in an envelope marked “Confidential” and the bill comes in a “Case Closed” envelope.

Breakfast on Tuesday morning was back on Rose Street. We found a little pub with a cozy restaurant in the back and I enjoyed black pudding and eggs. I enjoyed the mural on the wall which included a caricature of the great Scottish comic Billy Connolly.

The rail trip back to Stewarton in the afternoon was smooth and uneventful – showing Diana how it should work.

Tuesday night took us to Braidwoods outside of Dalry for dinner. This is a restaurant located in a small farm house in the middle of the countryside and has only 7 or 8 tables. It has a Michelin star, the only place in Ayrshire with that award, and has retained it for 19 years, making it the longest running such recognized restaurant in Scotland.

What an amazing meal we had! Most of us had roe deer for our main while Diana chose lamb – both absolutely delicious.

I got a bit ahead of myself and forgot about the amazing appetizers – parmesan tart, pea soup, a beautifully arranged quail breast, and salmon terrine. You can zoom in on the menu for more detailed descriptions of all the ingredients.

We got a decent view of the Dalry church on the drive – the same church where my Mum and Dad were married 55 years ago. A big thanks to Elspeth for being the designated driver for our group.

While commenting on Elspeth and David’s wedding picture, I remembered the pictures of Will in his kilt and my Mum pulled out the album with these pictures. Didn’t he look great in his wee kilt?

Wednesday was our travel home day. The plane from Heathrow to Chicago was one of the 380 double deckers and it took a bit longer than expected to board. Just long enough for us to be impacted when a fire alarm caused an evacuation of the air traffic control tower. Diana decided to take advantage of the delay to get a nap in and seemed to think it was fine to have all her electronics spread around on her table prior to take off.

The delay was just long enough to cause us to miss our connection in Chicago. British Airways did a great job of having a hotel booked for us and onward flight reservations confirmed. We left the hotel at 5am to catch our 7am onward flight and of course that was delayed another 4 hours due to a tire change. We got home just in time for me to participate in a meeting that I had hoped to join. It wasn’t all bad – I appreciated the chance to stretch out and relax for a while after the transatlantic flight. I liked this champagne piano in the Chicago airport and we did enjoy the sunrise over downtown from the lounge.

And then it was back to the baking temperatures of Dallas after such a nice respite. We returned just in time for the record breaking hottest days of the year. Penelope registered 108 degrees at 6pm and we had 6 consecutive triple digit days. Whew – that’s hot!

All the travel downtime allowed me to finish “The Chessmen” by Peter May. This is another of my birthday books from Mum and Dad and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a murder mystery set on the island of Lewis (where they do still have a lot of Gaelic speakers) and centers around a group of friends who were in a Celtic band in university that became quite famous. I enjoyed all the Scottish references and felt the remote island life was brought to life very well. The Lewis chessmen that play a role in the story are a real thing – they are carved from walrus ivory and were discovered in 1831 on Lewis. They are one of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets and have very distinctive characters.

The band in the novel reminded me of the Scottish band Runrig that I haven’t listened to in several years. Many of their songs are sung in Gaelic as well and they have been popular for many years. Here’s a song from their 1981 album “Recovery”. I really enjoyed reconnecting with this music.

Week in Review – July 15, 2018

We arrived in Glasgow via Houston and London Heathrow on Thursday afternoon in time to celebrate my Mum’s 80th birthday. Diana did a nice job of wrapping her gift, a necklace with birthstones for each of the grandchildren, in a fancy stack. We were amazed at the array of 80th birthday cards – no two the same. You just don’t get that kind of selection with us. The weather during our visit was perfect and a very nice change from the 100 degree temperatures that we left behind in Dallas.

On Friday we decided to take a trip up to Glasgow in the afternoon. We parked at Buchanan Galleries and enjoyed lunch in Princes Square. It was fun to observe the various buskers along Buchanan Street and to see all the people enjoying their lunch al fresco. As we were leaving I spotted a dinosaur exhibit in the shopping mall and was able to coax McD into hatching from a dino egg.

On Saturday we went for a walk along the front at Troon which came with a stop for ice cream at a kiosk by the beach. David brought Penelope’s Cousin (PC), his new Porsche Cayman GTS, to Merrick View for a visit in the afternoon and then we went for an exhilarating drive on the Fenwick road.

Saturday evening brought the 80th birthday celebration dinner at Lochgreen. This is the same place where we had my Dad’s birthday party and we reprised family pictures before going in for dinner.

We had a lovely meal and Lorna provided one of her typically creative birthday cakes.

We slept in late on Sunday and then David took us to Brig o’ Doon for coffee and a snack in the afternoon. President Trump was leaving from Prestwick airport and the traffic of protestors and observers made for a slower than normal trip. The Brig o’ Doon is situated in Alloway, home of Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns. His poem, Tam o’ Shanter, finishes with his trusty horse, Meg, helping him escape witches giving chase after a night of too much imbibing. Meg makes it across the Brig o’ Doon only by shedding her tail to the witch. Here is the original verse and a translation.

There was a wedding going on and so we were asked to move out of the backdrop for the wedding pictures as we posed atop Brig o’ Doon.

That’s Heather’s new boyfriend, Michael, holding her hand as they ascend the bridge. He seems like a lovely young man in spite of being vegan. I got a picture of Diana under a line from another of Burns’ poems that I sang for her on St. Valentine’s day. My Mum commented that the gesture wasn’t complete without presentation of a red rose to accompany the song.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner of my Mum’s famous boeuf bourguignon and individual pavlovas on Sunday evening before Heather, David and Struan had to head back to Aberdeen for work on Monday.

I finished a couple of books this week. “Famous Father Girl” by Jamie Bernstein tells of her life growing up as the daughter of Leonard Bernstein. I enjoyed this very much – particularly her stories about her Dad preparing to conduct some of the famous symphonies around the world.

The other was “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova. I loved “Every Note Played” earlier this year and my Mum had left this one on the bedside table for me to read during the visit. I enjoyed this one very much as well – Genova does an amazing job of capturing what it must feel like to face the onset of early Alzheimer’s.

Week in Review – July 8, 2018

At last, a mostly peaceful week at home for both of us. Diana worked hard for four solid days to continue to come up to speed on her new job, her accounts, and the people that she works with. I had a couple of busy days with high impact outages and other annoyances. However, I was able to watch some of the World Cup and particularly enjoyed the Japan vs Belgium and Brazil vs Belgium games. It’s fun to text back and forth with my friend Judy, soccer referee extraordinaire, in California about our predicted outcomes. She chose Brazil to beat Belgium and so lost that game, while I chose Sweden to beat England and lost that one. I’m predicting Belgium wins 2-1 over England in the final.

One of my favourite musical bloggers shared these thoughts about the best footballer ever in his opinion, the Scotsman Alan Gilzean. He was a wee bit before my time, but this video would support the commentary that follows it:

Alan Gilzean was to use a fine Scots term a supremely canny player. He seemed to have an advanced football radar system that allowed him to know exactly where he was in relation to his markers and his team mates.

He insouciantly brought off feats of skill and technique that other fine players could only dream of – leaving opponents admiringly bemused and teammates exhilarated.

But, with Alan Gilzean it’s not the numbers that you remember it’s the breathtaking elegance of his play – the way he could amaze you game after game with the subtlety of his footballing imagination.

Reading about Gilzean had my mind drifting back to Kenny Dalglish, my favourite Scottish footballer, and his goals for Scotland in the World Cup and his amazing performances with Celtic and Liverpool.

On a sad note, I heard of the passing of Henry Butler on Monday, at the young age of 69. Butler was born in New Orleans and lived there for much of his life, moving to Boulder, CO after Hurricane Katrina and finally living in New York where he was an active participant in the jazz scene.

I met Mr. Butler on my very first visit to New Orleans, about a year after Katrina. I was visiting some folks from my State Farm account team and met up with Denny and Anne after dinner. They took me to the original Rock N’ Bowl and then to see Kermit Ruffins at Vaughans. Henry Butler was sitting in on keyboards with Kermit and Anne introduced me to him as she was helping him to a taxi – Butler went blind from glaucoma at a very early age. What an amazing night that was and what a typical kind gesture from Anne.

I like what the New York Times had to say in their obituary:

Mr. Butler’s music was encyclopedic, precise and wild. He was acclaimed as a member of a distinctively New Orleans piano pantheon alongside Jelly Roll Morton, James Booker, Tuts Washington, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint and Dr. John. He was also a forthright, bluesy singer who often used New Orleans standards as springboards for improvisation.

Mr. Butler commanded the syncopated power and splashy filigree of boogie-woogie and gospel and the rolling polyrhythms of Afro-Caribbean music. He could also summon the elegant delicacy of classical piano or hurtle toward the dissonances and atonal clusters of modern jazz. He could play in convincing vintage styles and sustain multileveled counterpoint, then demolish it all in a whirlwind of genre-smashing virtuosity.

Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) once described him as “the pride of New Orleans and a visionistical down-home cat and a hellified piano plunker to boot.”

Ivan Neville, who leads the New Orleans band Dumpstaphunk and recorded with Mr. Butler as part of the all-star group New Orleans Social Club, said by email on Tuesday that Mr. Butler was “an amazingly, truly gifted musician and pianist like no other.” He added, “At times it sounded like he had three or four hands instead of just two.”

My big take away from this is – go and see the great live performers while you can! Make the effort to get out and see live music – you’ll rarely regret it.

Our noisy pool pump got even noisier this week and finally gave up the ghost. An expensive but much, much quieter pump has now been installed and is working very well. The great news is we’ll no longer be awakened by the pump turning on and off during the winter nights. It turns out the pump had been leaking for a while and supporting an outbreak of weeds in the pool equipment area – McD with her weed gun to the rescue!

Patty and Brent joined us for dinner on July 4th. Diana was hungry when she went shopping for dinner and so we had several courses – D’s famous meat and cheese platters, lamb chops on the grill, a selection of sausages with a selection of mustards, caprese, shrimp and veggie fries. There were lots of leftovers for the rest of the week. We decided not to brave the crowds to watch live fireworks and settled for the New York music and fireworks display on television – a sign of aging I’m sure.

We watched the movie “A Song for You” on Friday night. This film gives a behind the scenes look at 40 years of the PBS music show “Austin City Limits”.

I really enjoyed the view into what makes this show special as well as the commentary from musicians and the clips of archive performances – those by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Ray Charles being highlights.

Saturday took us back to the Kessler for perhaps our last concert with Patty and Brent before they move north – I’m sure we’ll try to tempt them to visit in the future with upcoming concerts. They’ve been working through a list of Dallas restaurants that they want to try or revisit before moving and chose North Italia at the new Legacy West development for our pre-concert dinner. The home made pasta dishes were excellent. Patty found a perfect new car for David parked across from the restaurant:

The concert was by the Devon Allman Band with opener Duane Betts. Devon is the son of the late Gregg Allman who started the Allman Brothers Band (one of my very favourites) with his brother Duane Allman and Dickie Betts on guitars. Duane is the son of Dickie and (you guessed it) named after Duane Allman. Both Devon and Duane played sets of their own music and then concluded with a tribute to their fathers and the Allman Brothers.

The opening dual guitar riff from “Blue Sky” always makes us smile:

The music is very much from the Southern Rock genre with a strong blues element. We particularly enjoyed Devon’s cover of “I’ll be Around”, originally recorded by The Spinners.

Devon was very brave when he rambled through the audience playing a guitar solo and stood up on one of the folding chairs beside us.

What a great night of music – right in my sweet spot with the dual guitars.

We stayed at the Joule hotel downtown after the show – a chance for Patty and Brent to treat themselves before moving. A good feature of this hotel is the champagne they serve you as you check in. That might be Diana’s favourite part of the hotel.

I finished “Blue Lightning” by Ann Cleeves this week. This was one of the books I got from my Mum and Dad for my birthday and is set on Fair Isle (located about half way between Shetland and Orkney islands) and a birders paradise. A body is discovered in a bird observatory and detective Jimmy Perez has to solve the murder in the middle of a very strong storm. I enjoyed the insight into the competitive bird spotting world and the twists and turns of the murder mystery plot. Fair Isle is also known for very intricately designed hand knitted sweaters.

Here’s one more song from Devon Allman to finish out the post this week:

Week in Review – July 1, 2018

Back to New York again on Monday for a week of long meetings every day. My flight was delayed by a few hours while a tire was changed and extra fuel was added so I was a bit grumpy by the time it took off. The movie “The Death of Stalin” really cheered me up. I had no idea what to expect and quickly started chuckling at the crazy exploits of the Russian leadership as Stalin dies and they compete for power. The actors include Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi and Michael Palin and all are hilarious. The movie was directed by Armando Ianucci, whom I’d never heard of. Some quick research showed him to be Scottish from Italian descent and a graduate of the University of Glasgow – might explain why I enjoyed the dark, off-kilter humor so much. I also learned that he was a bit part of the creative force behind the HBO series “Veep” – a show that I love and McD doesn’t – it’s just a bit too raunchy and wrong for her and she can’t understand what’s funny. Here’s Ianucci and the cast being interviewed about the movie and drawing some direct comparisons from the Stalin era politics to our current leadership.

On the drive in from the airport I heard this excellent song by Book T and the MGs. It’s rare to hear Booker T on the piano versus the Hammond organ and I love the gospel feel of the guitar by the legendary Steve Cropper. Sunday Sermon was originally the B side to their 1970 cover of “Something” by George Harrison.

After checking into my new favourite Wall Street area hotel, the Downtown Association, I headed out for a quick dinner and found a new Mediterranean place around the corner named Zeytin. The food was very good with lamb-beef doner meat that reminded me of the late night kebab shops that Andy Bull loved so much in our Edinburgh university days. The beet hummus was also very nice. A good new place for a quick and casual lunch or dinner.

When I made it back to the hotel room the Jools Holland show was on TV and a very unique looking musician named Seasick Steve was performing. He was born in Oakland, CA and is now 78 and has had a very interesting life. He lived as a hobo for many years – jumping trains and working short term jobs. He played in blues bands and as a session musician and producer. In the 1990s he produced albums by Modest Mouse and in 2006 he received his big musical break appearing on the Jools Holland show in the UK for the first time. He went on to perform at many large festivals and won several awards. Seasick Steve makes many of his unique guitars and other instruments.

Here are some pictures of Heather preparing to attend her graduation ceremony on Tuesday to receive her first class Honors law and languages degree. Everyone is exceptionally proud of her accomplishment.

On Tuesday night I decided to try out a new jazz club I had read about in Tribeca – 75 Club. It advertised a speakeasy style basement jazz club. One of the great features of New York is that you can take the subway to any neighborhood and stumble across a very good restaurant. I was drawn to Serafina at West Broadway and Chambers Street and had a delicious dish of scallops with celery root puree and shaved black truffles.

Now it was time to try out the 75 Club which lived up to its advertising very nicely. As I approached the club I was surprised to find a large collection of semi trucks full of movie gear and catering stations set up all along Murray Street. The film crew was eating in the first floor of the Bogardus mansion that houses the 75 Crew. A quick bit of research revealed that they were filling a scene for an episode of the show “Ray Donovan” starring Liev Schreiber. I’m amazed at how many people it takes to put a show like that together.

Named after its builder, James Bogardus, the originator of cast-iron architecture, the building was built in 1850 and features a 5-story facade replicating the late 15th century Palazzo Veladramini in Venice. It now serves as a very popular space for wedding and special events.

The pianist and bass player, Tardo Hammer and John Webber, were sitting at the bar telling stories when I arrived in the basement of the mansion. This was equally good entertainment to the music that they performed to a very small Monday night crowd.

I would like to return to this venue on a weekend night and enjoy their nice club table seating and acoustics.

I snapped a couple of pictures of the Oculus rail terminal and Freedom Tower on my walk to and from the club.

Meanwhile, in Arroyo Grande/Pismo Beach, California, Momma D was busy babysitting Lily and Ben. She seemed to do a good job of swinging Ben and had a good visit with Alicia to her new home at Cuesta college. I think McD worked much harder than I did this week – and I know I was pretty tired by the end of the week.

Wednesday night took me to the Blue Note jazz club in Greenwich Village to see the band Lettuce. This is a New Orleans style funk jam band featuring a stellar group of very in demand musicians – Adam Deitch on drums, Adam Smirnoff on guitar, Erick Coomes on bass, Nigel Hall on keyboards, Ryan Zoidis on saxophone, and Eric Bloom on trumpet.

Alicia and I saw Lettuce at the Granada theater in Dallas about 9 months ago and so I was excited to see them on the line up this week. I enjoyed the diverse crowd as compared to typical Blue Note shows – the lady at the table next to me introduced me to her eighty year old parents who were looking forward to the show.

After Lettuce I met up with my old boss who was in town for the night. We wandered down the street to a music club called Groove that had another great band playing and had a good chat for a while.

My flight back on Thursday was delayed by lightning and we ended up sitting on the plane for over 2 hours at La Guardia before take off – delays both ways on this trip which hasn’t happened to me in a while. Diana was flying back from California and we had arranged to meet in Dallas and share a car home. Fortunately, her flight was delayed almost as much as mine and everything worked out well, albeit a few hours late.

On Friday we had Rachel and her boyfriend Rich over for dinner. Neither of us remembered until Thursday night and didn’t have anything in the house for dinner so ordered pizza and arancini from Cavalis. We were both tired but had a very nice visit and enjoyed meeting Rich- we approve.

Saturday took us to Poor David’s Pub for the first time in a couple of years to see Sawyer Fredericks. We had dinner before the show at a restaurant in Deep Ellum called Local that Diana chose. Local is housed in what was once the Boyd hotel and is very modern and minimalist inside. The Boyd hotel was built in 1911 and is one of the last remaining building in Dallas with a cast iron front. I didn’t know there was such a thing until earlier this week when I read about the Bogardus mansion that houses the 75 Club and learned that Bogardus invented the technique. The hotel was a hub for jazz and blues musicians in the 1920s with Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson (the father of Texas blues) both staying there. It’s also well known as having been a hangout for Bonnie and Clyde. We enjoyed the restaurant very much with Diana opting for the filet while I had a very tasty sea bass.

D’s champagne cocktail with house made sorbet

We checked into the Nylo hotel after dinner and then made the short walk to Poor David’s Pub. The owner of the club, David Card, is celebrating his 41st year of presenting music in Dallas and we had a very nice visit with him prior to the show starting. He used Diana’s comment about how young Sawyer is (19) in his opening as he had thought he was ten years older. I enjoyed David telling me about his top 10 list of shows he’s presented.

View of Reunion Tower from the Nylo hotel

This poster inside Poor David’s shows what must have been an excellent show before Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen became so popular. I also enjoyed a new plaque that’s in the walkway in front of the club.

Sawyer won the TV singing competition “The Voice” a couple of years ago and we both loved the tone and quality of his voice.

Here’s a video of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” – one of the songs we really enjoyed on the Voice.

The show was very good with Sawyer’s songs very mellow and deep for a 19 year old.

Patty and Brent stayed downtown on Saturday night as well to celebrate Brent’s birthday and we were able to meet up with them on Sunday morning for a birthday brunch at Saint Ann.

I finished up “Emerald City” by Jennifer Egan during my travels and really enjoyed this collection of short stories. The theme connecting the various stories seemed to be using travel to escape financial or family traumas. I’ve enjoyed all of Egans books that I’ve read this year very much.

This song by St Paul and the Broken Bones came on a Spotify radio channel that I created based on Anderson East and I don’t remember enjoying a song this much on a first listen in a while.

Week in Review – June 24, 2018

We arrived home from California on Monday just in time for Diana to rest up for the big day – Back to Work! She started as a VP of Operations for NTT Data on Tuesday. Her week was spent meeting her team, peers, and folks that she’ll be working with – a busy week of back to back meetings and trying to keep all the names straight. She seems to be working with a good group of people and will enjoy it once she gets settled back into a routine.

We had been looking forward to our Saturday concert for a while – The Eagles with special guest Chris Stapleton at AT&T Stadium (the Cowboys home stadium) in Arlington. If you ask Diana who her favourite band is, she’ll always answer that it’s the Eagles. We were guests in a suite that included dinner in a nice club and so arrived early to beat the crowd of 75,000 entering the stadium and enjoy a relaxing dinner. This also allowed Diana to select the perfect seat in the box.

Chris Stapleton has an interesting story. He moved to Nashville to be a songwriter and has contributed over 150 songs to albums by such artists as Adele, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, George Strait and Brad Paisley. He has won five Grammy awards and seven Academy of Country Music awards. His performing career really took off in 2015 when he sang his cover of the song Tennessee Whiskey from his recently released Traveler album as a duet with Justin Timberlake at the Country Music Awards. A huge audience was introduced to his soulful voice and guitar playing and the album was number one for many weeks.

We both thoroughly enjoyed Stapleton’s show which included all our favourites – “Fire Away”, “Traveler”, “Parachute”, “Broken Halos”, and “Tennessee Whiskey”.

By the time the Eagles took the stage at 9pm on the dot, the stadium had filled to a capacity of close to 75,000. The band included long time members Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmitt, and Joe Walsh with new additions Vince Gill and Deacon Frey (replacing his father and founding Eagle, Glenn Frey, who died in 2016). Do you think Deacon looks anything like his father at the same age?

Timothy B Schmitt – Love Will Keep Us Alive

The new members did a great job as you can see in the video of Vince Gill singing “Take it to the Limit”.

The last time we saw Timothy B. Schmitt was in the small, intimate Granada theater and AT&T stadium is about as far from that as could be imagined.

Here’s Deacon singing one of the songs that his Dad made famous:

The top song of the night for me was a cover of the Tom Waits song “Ole 55”:

The first encore was the song most associated with the Eagles, “Hotel California”. I enjoyed the trumpet introduction – there was a 5 piece brass section on several songs including the James Gang song “Funk 49”.

Of course there were the classic Joe Walsh songs – “Life’s Been Good” and “Rocky Mountain Way”:

And it all came to a close over two and a half hours later with Diana’s favourite, “Desperado”:

We spent the night at a hotel near the airport so that Diana could catch her flight out to California to babysit for John and Maddi, who are enjoying a few days in Hawaii. She’ll enjoy spending time with Alicia before she starts college.

I had a quiet, relaxing Sunday afternoon and finished the book, “The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music” by Steve Lopez. Lopez is a Los Angeles Times journalist and this book is about his experiences in befriending a mentally ill homeless man who he had noticed to be an amazingly gifted musician. As it turned out, the man, Nathaniel Ayers, had been trained in classical music at Juilliard. He attended Juilliard on a full scholarship from 1970 – 1972, when black students were extremely rare – especially ones from lower-middle-class, single-parent families. He did extremely well in that ultra-competitive and stressful environment (straight A’s in music performance classes; and also in other classes until his schizophrenia kicked in and his grades began to fall) until the illness finally forced him out. Ayers had been living on the streets for 33 years and was in his mid-50’s when Lopez met him.

This beautifully empathetic and honest book is as much about Lopez’s efforts to help Ayers as it is about Ayers himself. There are many memorable sections – one of my favourites describes Ayers’ reunion with Yo Yo Ma at Disney Concert Hall – they attended Juilliard at the same time. The book concludes with Ayers finally accepting use of an apartment and music studio in a care facility on Skid Row – he is the musician in residence at the studio.

I highly recommend this book.

Week in Review – June 17, 2018

Diana and I officially became “empty nesters” (not a term that I love especially after hearing it so much in the last week) at 7:08am (precision timing provided by Diana) on Wednesday morning as Alicia drove off to start her long drive to Cuesta college in California. She picked up John at the Dallas airport and they made it all the way to Santa Fe on their first day. From there they spent the night in Sedona and Las Vegas, arriving in Arroyo Grande on Saturday afternoon. It was very strange to go from a totally full house to just the two of us over the course of a few days.

Patty and I took turns keeping Diana busy on Wednesday and Thursday and then we flew to San Francisco on Friday for the triple threat of Fathers’ Day, Finn’s birthday, and our first anniversary.

I met the boys for an early combination Finn’s birthday and Father’s Day celebration at Terun in Palo Alto. This is a Neapolitan style Italian restaurant with the official Italian government approval on the pizza style. The food was delicious – Brussel sprouts, beet gnocchi, and mushroom pizza all amazing.

After lunch we made a quick stop at Will’s apartment so that I could give Finn his birthday gift. It’s a painting that I saw in a McKinney coffee shop and thought Finn would enjoy – a panda done with pastels on suede. Finn has always loved pandas.

Bowling was our next stop at a classic old bowling alley in San Mateo. We had a lot of fun and Will’s crazy spin technique took him to victory in the first frame. Campbell did give him a good challenge.

It was a real treat to spend the afternoon with all three boys and I especially appreciated Campbell making the trip up from San Diego.

Meanwhile back in Pacifica Auntie D was enjoying some time with her nephews, Massimo and Luciano.

We’re amazed at how well coordinated Massimo is for his age. It has to be rare for an eighteen month old to be that adept on a scooter. I found this picture of Diana and her brothers and enjoy it very much. What a lot of work Clorinda had dealing with that gang. I think Amy and Adamo certainly have their hands full with two very active boys. I laughed when Luciano called me Auntie Keith. He’s used to Auntie D and assumed that’s the right title for me too.

On Sunday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary at Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos. The restaurant burned a few years ago and re-opened in 2016 with only a chef driven (i.e. no choices) tasting menu and has received 3 Michelin stars each of the last three years.

We had an amazing four hour dinner with 12 small courses. The menu wasn’t presented until the end of the meal and we enjoyed the surprise of each new plate. The presentation with different plates, glasses and cutlery for each offering was just as impressive as the food itself. The service was so good that it was almost comical – just as you took the last sip of wine from a glass it was scooped up to prepare for the next course. It didn’t seem that waiters were hovering but they just appeared table side at all the right times. The iced oyster with radish and the caviar tart were my two favourites while Diana loved the roasted squab which tasted like a perfectly seared foie gras. The most amazing presentation was the “into the vegetable garden” course which must have taken a huge amount of work to assemble – each vegetable, leaf, and flower seemed to be exactly placed with tweezers.

Our reservation was at 8pm and we didn’t get back to the hotel (a 10 minute walk that we needed) until after midnight. The company was so good that it didn’t feel anything like a four hour meal. It’s good fun to reminisce about what we were doing on this day last year with our family and friends on the beach in Cozumel. We have Diana’s amazing albums to help remember the beautiful day.

Here’s some interesting new music from a band called Gogo Penguin. They are based in Manchester, England and combine jazz, rock, classical and electronic influences in their music. Good relaxing, background music that’s quite different from the norm.