Really looking forward to seeing the Tedeschi Trucks Band with Jimmy Vaughan and Billy Gibbons at Jazzfest a week from Thursday. This is a great tiny desk show with so many folks around the desk. The tiny desk is a series of unplugged NPR concerts – there are some great ones out there including Jackson Browne.
A lot of commuting this week with full days in the office Monday thru Thursday, dinners on Monday and Tuesday and a Happy Hour on Wednesday. Penelope didn’t fare well on the Tuesday morning commute. The car in front of me hit a cyclist and as I stopped to check on his injuries, I was rear-ended by a minivan that then left the scene. “P” is currently at the body shop being repaired. Fortunately the damage is minimal due to the fancy Porsche rear impact deflector guards.
We streamed the movie “Meru” on Amazon. Great climbing movie with all the usual set backs and tragedy of this genre. Jon Krakauer did great narration. The team ultimately were the first to summit Meru.
From Wiki:
After attempting but failing to summit Meru in 2008, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk return to the mountain in order to conquer its peak – a 4,000 foot wall known as the “Shark’s Fin”. As they climb, the men also document their ascent. “You know, I’m always a climber first,” said Chin on balancing climbing with filmmaking. “I’m always thinking about the safety of myself and the team. And I make that evaluation before I take the camera out.”[2] The film is a mixture of footage that chronicles both attempts (the failed 2008 and the successful 2011) while crafting a narrative about the climbers’ attempts to face their demons. After suffering a horrific accident while filming on location with Mr. Chin, Mr. Ozturk has a mere five months to recover before their second attempt, battling near-fatal injuries. Four days after Mr. Ozturk’s accident, Mr. Chin returns to the filming location to finish but is caught in a catastrophic avalanche that he miraculously survives with barely a scratch. Mr. Anker wrestles with bringing his mentor’s dream to fruition and the loss of both him and his climbing partner many years ago.
On Saturday afternoon we saw “Miles Ahead” a pseudo-biopic of Miles Davis starring and directed by Don Cheadle. I give it a solid C – the plot was pretty convoluted around a stolen master tape of Miles’ return to music after 5 years – but the historical recaps and the music were good. Ewan McGregor seemed quite out of place as a Rolling Stone journalist with a Scottish accent who befriends Miles. Particularly enjoyed the “current day” Miles band at the end featuring Gary Clark Jr, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter.
On Sunday we did the typical early dinner while Alicia attended her SAT prep class. Coal Vines in Plano was the destination this week – good sausage and pepper pizza, over-priced and weak Manhattan, and a Dallas Blonde beer from Deep Ellum brewery. We finished out the week with the usual Madam Secretary and Good Wife viewing.
Lots of commuting time last week and came across these “Devil” themed tunes on Sirius XM.
Anderson East has a pleasant mix of soul, rock and country in his sound. The tracks recorded at Muscle Shoals have that great sound that recordings of the 60s and 70s from that great studio posses.
Here’s more from Anderson East on Seattle radio:
This Procul Harum song sounded heavier than the usual stuff I remember from them. Great guitar from Robin Trower.
Finished this book yesterday. It started quickly but became a bit of a slog. This was surprising since I’ve read more of Philip Roth’s books than any other single author over the last few years and usually finish them quickly. The comparisons of the fictional tale to the current Trump campaign are a bit eerie. The New York Times review described the book as “a terrific political novel” as well as “sinister, vivid, dreamlike, preposterous and, at the same time, creepily plausible.
A plot summary from wiki:
The Plot Against America is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh. The novel follows the fortunes of the Roth family during the Lindbergh presidency, as antisemitism becomes more accepted in American life and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various levels. The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip, and the care with which his confusion and terror are rendered makes the novel as much about the mysteries of growing up as about American politics. Roth based his novel on the isolationist ideas espoused by Lindbergh in real life as a spokesman for the America First Committee and his own experiences growing up in Newark, New Jersey. The novel depicts the Weequahic section of Newark which includes Weequahic High School from which Roth graduated.
Sections I highlighted while reading:
Israel didn’t yet exist, six million European Jews hadn’t yet ceased to exist, and the local relevance of distant Palestine (under British mandate since the 1918 dissolution by the victorious Allies of the last far-flung provinces of the defunct Ottoman Empire) was a mystery to me.
For nearly a decade Lindbergh was as great a hero in our neighborhood as he was everywhere else. The completion of his thirty-three-and-a-half-hour nonstop solo flight from Long Island to Paris in the tiny monoplane of the Spirit of St Louis even happened to coincide with the day in the spring of 1927 that my mother discovered herself to be pregnant with my older brother.
the boldness of the world’s first transatlantic solo pilot had been permeated into the pathos that transformed him into a martyred titan comparable to Lincoln.
“No person of honesty and vision”, Lindbergh said, “can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both for us and for them.” And then, with remarkable candor, he added:
A few far-sighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still do not…We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction.
Fiorello La Guardia was the 99th mayor of New York (1934-45) and stood 5’2″ tall.
“The pompous son of a bitch knows everything – it’s too bad he doesn’t know anything else.”
prodigious pedant that he was
“Did you know, Sandy, that tobacco was the economic foundation of the first permanent English settlement in America, at Jamestown in Virginia?”
And when you remember that the First Families of Virginia were the forebears of the Virginia statesmen who were our country’s Founding Fathers, you appreciate tobacco’s vital importance to the history of our republic.
It was the first time I was my father cry. A childhood milestone, when another’s tears are more unbearable than one’s own.
“on the day when a candidate for the presidency of the United States requires a phalanx of armed police officers and National Guardsmen to protect his right to free speech, this great country will have passed over in to fascist barbarism. I cannot accept that the religious intolerance emanating from the White House has already so corrupted the ordinary citizen that he has lost all respect for fellow Americans of a creed or faith different from his won. I cannot accept that the abhorrence for my religion shared by Adolf Hitler and Charles A. Lindbergh can already have corroded…”
the uneasy aloofness that was her inbuilt defense against Gentiles.
and then, to throw a scare into the tourists crowding the beach, emerging from the water screaming “Shark! Shark!” while pointing in horror at his stump.
Vocabulary:
virulence: Venomous hostility
pogrom: An organized massacre, typically of Jews
proselytize: Convert as a recruit
ignominious: disgrace, dishonor, public contempt
vilify: defame, slander
bellicose: eager to fight
callow: immature
venerable: commanding respect due to age or dignity
rectitude: principled in conduct
sonorous: deep, resonant
peripatetic: itinerant
goyim: a term used by Jews to refer to somebody not Jewish
mellifluous: sweet, smooth, honeyed
pince-nez: glasses held on by a nose pincher without leg pieces
portentous: ominously significant
probity: integrity, honesty
upbraiding: severe reproaching or finding fault with
repudiate: refuse to accept the truth, deny the truth of
ingrate: ungrateful one
potentate: person with great power, ruler
ignominious: humiliating, discreditable
obsequious: fawning, servilely compliant
despot: autocrat, tyrant
taciturn: inclined to silence, reserved in speech
nefarious: extremely wicked, vicious
evanescent: fleeting, fading away
laconic: concise, of few words
quixotic: impulsive, unpredictable – a la Don Quixote in romance
Came across this gem on the Sirius XM Jam_ON station on my evening commute. The version I heard was from Nashville on October 13th. There are a number of versions from Warren’s recent tour with the Ashes and Dust band (members of Railroad Earth) on Youtube.
Here’s another newer Jam band (Moon Taxi) with the same Radiohead cover.
And finally, while searching for the Warren Haynes cover, I came across this cover of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” by Warren and Chris Stapleton – kindred voices.
Seven Spanish Angels
Heard this song performed on “The Voice” TV show and looked for the original. It’s by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson. Is there any more soulful singer than Ray Charles? Maybe Levon Helm or an Otis Redding ballad?
piece by Ahmad Jamal and included on Miles Davis’ 1959 release “Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet”.This was a fantastic week of music, perhaps the “Best Music Week Ever”. Bruce Springsteen, Steve Miller and Jimmy Vaughan, and then John Scofield and John Medeski. Finn had some great news this week also – he made the Dean’s Honor Roll for his last quarter. Here’s a Spotify playlist to accompany this posting:
On Tuesday we stopped for lunch at the Meddlesome Moth en route to check into the W hotel in downtown Dallas and attend the Springsteen concert at American Airlines Center. Started with a nice cheese and charcuterie platter and then had a mushroom and farro (a grain similar to Italian rice) platter. Diana was unsettled by the various moth emblems that reminded her of the night of the 600 moth attack on Pecan Valley. Keith was counseled about not returning to the house immediately when requested to help address the moth infestation.
Bruce started at 8pm and didn’t finish until after 11:30pm. We heard the entire River double album from start to finish and then a parade of greatest hits. Favorites included Badlands, Hungry Heart, and Thunder Road. He finished with a 15 minute version of Shout.
The harmonica intro to The River always gives me chills. Here’s the mid-song harmonica break:
On Wednesday, I headed to New York for 3 days. That night I saw a one of a kind concert in the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Steve Miller put on a show called “From Ma’ to Miles”, a collection of jazz and blues tunes spanning from Ma’ Rainey to Miles Davis. Jimmy Vaughan (older brother of Stevie Ray) was his special guest. The band also included the professor of music at the University of Miami who did the arrangements, an amazing jazz bassist and drummer, and a superb 3 piece horn section.
Steve Miller was inducted into the Rock N’ Roll hall of fame on Friday evening in New York and so put on this special show while in town. Apparently he does a lot of work with Jazz at Lincoln Center to create learning programs on jazz and blues music. I downloaded the New York subway app and so was able to easily navigate from Wall St to the Upper West side for the concert.
On Thursday I had a full day of meetings at 175 Water Street. As soon as they finished, I headed over to the Blue Note jazz club in Greenwich Village (using my new subway skills) to see John Scofield, a jazz guitar master. I sat next to an older lady who had taken guitar lessons from the same teacher as Scofield in Wilton, Connecticut. She knew the music really well and was a wealth of interesting information. The food at the Blue Note was suprisingly good.
John Medeski from the Medeski, Martin, Wood band sat in on grand piano and Hammond B3 organ. He is an excellent technical player and at the same time extremely creative in his solos.
Friday was mostly a travel day. I registered my best time yet (10 mins) on the USA today crossword puzzle during breakfast at the Andaz hotel. My flight was delayed due to a maintenance issue with the inbound flight from Chicago so I ended up switching to an alternate flight and wasn’t too late in arriving home.
Saturday morning included a workout and our dance lesson. We practiced forward and reverse turns in the swing and bolero dances. Kathleen also forced Keith to learn the man’s spin. She also commented on how subtle and delicate Keith’s lead signals for spins were 🙂
For lunch we tried a new place in downtown McKinney called “Rye”. What a great find – great cocktails and food. We started with goat cheese stuffed paquito peppers (even better than the ones at Cafe Malaga), then a pork and vegetable soup, and we split the burger. Their Manhattan was even better than the ones I make at home.
On Saturday night we attempted to watch the movie “Bridge of Spies”, starring Tom Hanks. Various interruptions caused me to fall asleep without finishing it – will try again on Sunday.
On Sunday I took Penelope for her annual inspection (passed with flying colours) and a bath. Then went for a swim, soak and steam at the health club – managed 70 laps which is close to a mile. Then I relaxed watching the Masters golf tournament from Augusta, GA.
Friday, March 25
Arrived in New York on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel on the Upper West Side (6 Columbus). It was opposite the Time Warner Center which housed a fancy mall, health club, some nice restaurants, Whole Foods, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Columbus Circle is on the South end of Central Park. The hotel was very convenient for Carnegie Hall and Central Park.
Had a
drink in the Library Bar at the Hudson Hotel – they made good Manhattans.
We found a really excellent and tiny tapas restaurant, Filo. Tried 4 things on the menu and enjoyed them all – Burrata, Mushroom Tacos (Keith’s favorite), Lamb Ribs, and Mussels.
Saturday, March 26
We enjoyed a workout at the Equinox health club across from the hotel. Then headed to see the musical “Beautiful”, which is about Carole King’s life and music. We both loved the musical. It had great dialog, humor, music, settings, and ensemble cast.
After the musical we had a drink 
and snacks at Bar Centrale which is a speakeasy (bar/restaurant that doesn’t have a sign or indication that it’s there – just looked like a normal house) near Broadway.
Diana’s Mom, Clorinda, arrived smoothly on Saturday evening. Her driver got out and gave Diana a hug and told her how much she’d enjoyed driving her Mom.
Sunday, March 27th (Easter Sunday)
Diana and her Mom went to Hackensack, NJ to visit Clorinda’s high school friend Jojo. She hadn’t been back there in 70 years. They had breakfast at the “Chit Chat Café”, drove by Clorinda’s childhood home, and attended Easter mass at the church she attended as a child. Diana found it interesting that the Catholic mass was conducted by an Indian priest with a strong accent. Clorinda sang a hymn as people were entering for the 2nd service.
Diana did a great job of navigating her rental car out of Manhattan and over to Hackensack and back. They drove over the Washington bridge which was opened for traffic on the day Clorinda was born.
Meanwhile, Keith explored Central Park. He walked about 8 miles up the East side across and down the West side. He found the statue of Robert Burns, the Guggenheim museum, and the huge reservoir on the North end of the park. He passed several baseball fields and children’s 
playgrounds throughout the park. The “Imagine” mosaic is a tribute to John Lennon in an area of the park called “Strawberry Fields”.
That evening we had sushi at “Sushi Damo”. We laughed because that’s what we call Diana’s youngest brother Adamo. After dinner we wandered through the Time Warner Center and peeked into Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz club at Lincoln Center. There was a great band playing with a great view of the city behind them.
Monday, March 28th
This was the day of the big Carnegie Hall performance. We sat in the fancy boxes on the first level up from the orchestra section. The band did an amazing job and the sound was fantastic. The call it the Stradivarius of concert halls and I can see why – you could hear every individual instrument perfectly and very clearly. Here’s the poster for the concert.
After the performance, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant, Trattoria Dell Arte, right across from the hall.
On Monday evening we met up with some friends who live in New York at Landmark restaurant. It was a very nice French restaurant and we were lucky enough to get one of the “Dome of Silence” tables which made it easier to talk. Excellent moules frites, lamb chops, and boudin noir. They brought green apple flavored candy floss after dinner. Here’s Diana’s Mom enjoying some and getting a chuckle out of it.
Here’s a picture of the gang. Diana, Keith, Mary, Chuck, Olga, and Clorinda. Teodor was taking the picture. It was a very memorable dinner catching up with old friends and introducing them to Clorinda.
Here’s a map showing the location of St John in the Caribbean. The North shore of the island faces the Atlantic Ocean and the South shore, the Caribbean Sea.
This is an aerial shot of the Island. Cruz Bay is the main population center and is located on the West coast of the island. This is where the ferry arrives and where the catamaran and scuba boats leave from. Coral bay is on the East end and our villa was in the mountainous area just west of it.
I arrived on Sunday evening and enjoyed steaks on the grill by Denny and Tom. Here’s a panoramic picture I took of the pool and deck of the villa.
On Monday we hiked into Leinster Bay on the North shore and swam about a half mile to a great snorkeling spot. In the afternoon we relaxed on Francis Bay just West of there. It was a lovely sandy, sheltered beach.
Tuesday took us to Hurricane Hole on the South East of the island. This was a private beach. You paid $2.50 to the lady at the snack shack to use the beach f
or the day. Very quiet and relaxing. Here’s a picture I took from my comfy beach chair. I’ve been practicing composing my photos with some vegetation foreground like Dad does.
Diana and Alicia arrived on Tuesday evening and so I rented a Jeep and picked them up from the ferry. It was my first time driving on the left hand side of the road with a steering wheel also on the left – very strange set up but not too difficult to get used to. The road down to the villa was a bit intimidating with steep drops and hairpin bends that required a three point turn.
Caneel Bay was our destination for the day on Wednesday and Alicia was introduced to snorkeling. She loved it until we body surfed into the beach and got slammed into the sand by a freak wave.
This map shows the various beaches and you can match up the beaches we visited with the aerial views in the picture up above (Cruz Bay is in the bottom right of the aerial view picture).
Here are the views we woke up to in the morning from the villa. These pictures were taken about 30 minutes apart as the sun came up.
Thursday was our day to sail in a catamaran called the “Kekoa” – picture below. The captain, Jamison, built it with his brother using wood and old school techniques. There was an album on board telling the story of how they sold the boat to some wealthy folks, who promptly got in trouble sailing the boat from North Carolina to the Virgin Islands. They had to be rescued by a coast guard helicopter and abandoned the Kekoa. Jamison hired a salvage team to help recover the boat, repaired it, and now operates the charter service out of St John.
Here’s a picture of Diana on board the Kekoa as we approached the British Virgin Islands. The crew had to take our passports to the British customs office and get them stamped before we could sail into British territory.
We anchored at Jost Van Dyke and swam ashore. You can see Diana mid swim to the beach for lunch. We tried to spend some pounds that I had left from Christmas but the restaurant on the British islands only took U.S. dollars – crazy!
Friday was scuba day. Diana and I did two dives in the morning and saw a beautiful eagle ray. Its tail seemed to be at least 15 feet long and it swam so gracefully. Denny, Anne, Mason and Alicia all did their first dives on Friday afternoon. Here’s a video of a sea turtle I made with Denny’s new GoPro.
Here’s Alicia’s first scuba experience.
On Saturday we had a full beach day at Salt Pond on the southeast part of the island. It was a bit of a hike downhill to the beach and of course uphill on the way back. Denny estimated it at 0.1 miles but it seemed longer on the way back with all the chairs and other gear.
We stopped for a late lunch on the way back and Anne got a flat tire on her Jeep as we left. Of course Denny and Tom had just driven off when it was discovered. Fortunately, two very nice gentlemen helped me change the tire. Counter to Denny’s observation, I’m actually turning the crank to jack up the Jeep and not solely in a supervisory role.
Then came Sunday and time to head home. You can’t beat the area where we waited to board the ferry back to St Thomas – chairs on the beach at Cruz Bay with some final rum based island drinks.
