March 25th, 2016
Jó reggelt (kívánok)! (A fine Hungarian good morning to you !!!)
California has gotten the Memo!! Spring has arrived. Every shade of Ice Plant, Bougainvillea and just about every other plant mother’s son is all dressed up in their spring time colors and brightness. We got some crazy colors up in here!
Have you ever had real Hungarian Kielbasa sausage, with sauerkraut and sour cream??? I know, it sounds horrible but it is absolutely delightful. During one of our returns to Miami, Tippy got a job at this Hungarian restaurant for about a month and they served it and we both fell in love with this dish. Its a simple peasant’s dish but I have never been able to get the right balance of paprika, caraway, sour cream and sauerkraut and having genuine Hungarian Kielbasa helps too. Try it if you can.
This week I learned some stuff:
• I learned that ITunes will “update” your music cover art for you too. It seems that from time to time songs that maybe associated with album Xs cover art can be re-assigned to album Ys art. It can be disconcerting, especially when you were living when the original assignment was made and the new one is wrong or at least in accurate.
• I learned again, that I hate doing my taxes and paying them!
Website Update
• Woo Hoo!!! A new Vocabulary Quiz.
Painting Update:
• Slowly, step by step, I am making my way to the paints…but not this week.
Writing Update:
• I took another week off from editing … still finding typos in GPS.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• This week I was doing some work at the Gallery and stopped for lunch at the Noodles Company and left my phone in the car. I was a good 200-300 feet away from my phone and I did not suffer any physical symptoms of withdrawal. I did notice a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t have if I had my face in my phone checking my mail, messages or Facebook. I even spoke to a human briefly that I would have missed entirely if I had been focused on my phone. Huh!
• Bernie Sanders who is touted as the next “also ran” candidate seems to be uninformed as to his status. In stead of shamelessly pandering to the Jewish vote in NYC (Trump-I will vacate the IRAN nuke deal and Hillary – I am a real good friend to Jewish People!!). Bernie got on his commercial airlines flight and flew out to San Diego and sold out his venue in a state whose primary results don’t matter due to Republican/Democratic party agreements on primary timing. I didn’t give him much hope initially but I find his focus on benefiting primarily the middle class reminiscent of our current president, his personal tenacity endearing and his insistence on describing how his programs will be paid for before they are considered refreshing. You rock Bernie!
Music Update:
I try to give you all an interesting mix to set up your weekend.…I hope it does.
• Dave Mason – Look at You, Look at Me — From the Vinyl!!! ..This cut is actually from Dave’s Alone Together Album. This truly one of the great Dave Mason compositions. In my humble opinion, there were just so many incredible musicians who were forming so many super groups in the 1960s and 1970s, that they kind diminished them all into this amazing glorious primordial haze of greatness – Traffic, Beatles, Stones, Buffalo Springfield, Jimi Hendrix, Blind Faith, Cream, Bob Dylan and the Band, Rod Stewart, Jethro Tull, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Beach Boys and the list goes on on and on… I am glad I was alive and got to see most of them perform their respective flavors of magic.
• The Beatles – Wait — This is just another great classic from Rubber Soul. The credits always said Lennon-McCartney but both John and Paul remember this one as one of Pauls tunes. And reflects Pauls genuine paranoia when it came to his significant others when he was away.
• Allman Brothers Band – In Memory of Elizabeth Reed – This was the first Allman Brothers recorded song that was written by a band member (Dicky Betts) as opposed to a brother. The band used to hang on in this cemetery not to far from where they rehearsed to relax and get high between recording takes. Elizabeth Reed was just a name on a grave stone that caught Dickey’s eye when he was writing the song. Ironically, Rose Hill Cemetery is now where both Duane Allman and Berry Oakley who was the original bassist for the band are both buried. In a time when the catchy lyrics of shortish songs drove musical success, this long instrumental hypnotized us and lead us down that north GA dirt road to her gravesite.
• Neil Young – Helpless — Always one of my favorite Neil Young songs. The imagery is vivid as in the sentiment. Who doesn’t tighten up their nasal passages and sing along with old Neil when this one comes on the radio .. uh huh .. I thought so:)
• Janis Joplin – Piece of My Heart – This little girl with big ole rough voice from Port Arthur, TX took a piece of everyones heart and then she broke them all with her early and sad departure from this world. I have to believe that anyone with that much soul only had so long to share it with us.
• Savoy Brown – Street Corner Talking — Another tune from these boys you never heard of who got lost in that great amazing musical haze I mentioned above. These boys had it all and then some. This is the title cut from their first album after Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl and Tone Stevens all went off to form Foghat.
• Bruce Hornsby – Fields of Grey – This is another newer song from Bonnie Raitt’s favorite musician(and he is pretty high on my list too). Its just a pretty song about loving someone much more than anything in this world could change.
• John Denver – Paradise — I first heard this song sung live by a guy name Russ Kirkpatrick, a traveling folksinging troubadour at a little bar on Olney Rd in Norfolk, Va called, “The Red Mule”. I thought Russ could be a real guy, that could cut records and everything. I was a well informed sailor with about a year or so of sound mixing experience with a band that didn’t ever get ready enough to cut records in Miami. Looking back, I am amazed that Russ didn’t change his whole approach based upon my advice that night. It turns out that a fellow named John Prine cut records and wrote this song. Its actually a tragic song about a tragic behavior that has marked “the progress of man” since we crawled out of muck. John Denver, another folksinging troubadour, who cut records and everything does a pretty good job with the song too.
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