January 27th, 2017
敖早 (gâu-chá) !! (“Good Morning to you all ” in the Taiwanese flavor of Chinese!)
It is the dead of winter here in San Diego. Gratefully, that means we got some very much needed rain, enough to put a dent in our drought I am told. But these sub-70 degree winter days are tough for an old goat like me to handle.
And so it begins, stupid gestures, garbled nonsensical tweets and terrible policy changes rise out of the new White House like so much methane from compost bin. We got a fence that cannot be effective, established punishments for compassionate cities, and despite literally all evidence to the country, called the popular vote into question simply because it is not what the President wants it to be. Furthering, the stench of ineptitude it is now the policy of the US Government not to share taxpayer funded research with other scientific communities trying to understand the causes and effects of climate change. The new press secretary criticizes the press for reporting the truth instead of the propagandistic spin he so clumsily perpetrated about the attendance at Trump’s inauguration and the success of the opposition’s Women’s March.
This week I learned some stuff:
• I have been watching the first year’s episodes of “The Magicians” on Netflix. It is interesting but the writers appear to be insincere. It appears that they cannot decide if they want a great story about magic or a sexually ambiguous soap opera. I am enjoying the acting and the story a lot more than the soap opera. Season 2 starts on Syfy on Wednesday night.
Website Update
• Last week for our New Vocabulary Quiz!!
• I added 2 new recipes this week – Wild Ass Garlic Aioli. This wonderful concoction will make your savory sandwiches sing!!! We had it on a lovely grilled Chick Breast and roasted red pepper on Ciabatta rolls dinner. I also bastardized something I saw on Facebook into some delightful and sinfully easy cheesy sliders. Check it out – “Yummy – Iffn’ Eyes Do Say Sew Myself!!”
• I would also like to remind everyone, that you can add any recipes that you would like to share as well. You don’t need to do anything special, just go to the “Things to Eat” page, select the category of your dish, cut & paste it in, and enter the I-am-not-a-bot code at the bottom and you are good to go.
• This week I also added the lyrics for 3 Doors Down’s “Kryptonite” for your sing-a-long.
Writing and Painting Update:
• Getting estimates for the Fine Line Editing for Grandpa Stories this week. Registered to restart my writing workshops Feb 1st and Watercolor classes Feb 3rd. No painting this week.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• Mary Tyler Moore passed away this week. She was in a rare class of women of the arts such as Lucille Ball, Betty White, Madonna and more recently Taylor Swift; Women whose talents in the arts were as great as their business acumen. Who as young women, took control of their products and managed their greatness and business. MTM was a force unto her own. I always enjoyed her. RIP, dear Mary.
• The “Black Dog” as Winston Churchill described his own depression has come to visit more than one friend or loved one over the past few months. There have been losses. As you all know, we lost young Steven this month but sometimes its not so easy to track the source of our depression when it sets upon us. Sometimes its hard to sort through our own feelings well enough to be any comfort to others or as is more often the case, nothing that we can do will materially effect the severity or duration of this particular visit from the “Black Dog”. Everyone is different. While some are seldom visited, others’ visits are more frequent, longer, deeper and/or darker. Our minds are fantastic miracles and when they go wrong, the results can be fantastically debilitating. Our job is to be vigilant for the signs, supportive as best we can. keep them safe and be responsive when the dog finally wanders off.
Music Update:
This week’s selection is a fairly eclectic cross selection:
• 3 Doors Down – Kryptonite – This is the cut that launched these boys to international stardom from Escatawapa, Mississippi (do you still love to spell Mississippi ? I do 🙂 Anyway, these boys have put together some fine music.
• Spin Doctors – Little Miss Can’t be Wrong – This one is a catchy little too from their Pocket Full of Kryptonite album released in 1991.
• Sister Hazel – All for You (Full Band Version) – This is rediscovered music for me even thought they released it in 1997 on their Somewhere More Familiar album, I hadn’t heard it a number of years.
• John Mayer – Changing — This is new Mayer music. This is from his new “The Search for Everything -Wave One- EP release this week. John reminds me a bit of the Beatles in that each new record seems to be a whole new musical stye. I love the guitar work on this song – its just so rich.
• Super Session – Fat Grey Cloud (Live) – This is a deep cut off an amazing record. This one is just Al Kooper and Mike Bluefield caught live during the sessions before Stephen Stills came in – Old timey blues played like only serious white boys can.
• U2 – Where the Streets Have No Name – From their Joshua Tree album. This song is the one that made me fall in love with this great band.
• Steely Dan — Rikki Don’t Loose that Number – From the Vinyl!!! (Pretzel Logic).This was the song that locked me into Somerset. The boys played this so well and I remember during rehearsals they would change the lyrics in the chorus to, “Rikki don’t eat that lumber or Rikki roll us another number” and other variations that cracked me up every time!
• George Michael – Faith (2010 Remastered Version) – This one was the title track for his 1987 release and a big hit. George Michael was found dead on last Christmas morning. He was 53 years old.
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come!
As always, thank you for being my friend!
James
Under the Jacaranda Tree URL: http://www.jfmccann.com