Friday, December 25, 2009

This Years Haul

Well no Mercedes but a good day.I received a great hooded sweatshirt from the Wellfleet Beachcomber,A Fenway Park,Red Sox long sleeve T-Shirt,a four CD set on the Philly Sound,a mutli dvd set of Charles Kuralts On the Road series,The hardcover book on America's Natl Parks from the recent Ken Burns Series,A jug of NYState maple syrup,A nice framed photo of an old barn in Naples,NY,a 2010 calender of old Rochester,NY photos,A Bluto Pez dispenser and several other gifts.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Let it Snow

I've been watching the Weather Channel a lot and they had a Guaranteed White Christmas contest going on and the winner turns out to be a family from Summerland Key which is down in the Florida Keys*.I'm thinking snow in the Keys,gee that's a novel thing but it isn't the straw snorting kind of snow so I can't wait to see what their backyard looks like when the Weather Channel gets done spraying the snow all over.*back in the early 90's we rented a place in Middle Torch Key down near Big Pine and each night we would walk down to the beach waving lanterns hoping to entice a coke boat to drop a load.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A X-Mas wish?

About nine days ago while waiting for the bus out front of Saint Timothy catholic church on the corner of Beverly Glen and Pico I was looking at the statue of Mary that is carved into one corner of the building outside.Someone had placed what looked like a bible on the ledge at her feet.Now it rained for four days after that and the bible got a bit wet but it was still there.So imagine my surprise this morning when waiting for the bus again I saw a wrapped gift box with bow on top sitting on top of the bible.It got me to wondering if the same person placed both items there or was it two different people and is it just an empty box or is something in it?While folks are leaving gifts at Saint Timothy up the street at our building some is taking gifts.For the second time in three months someone has walked off with one of the beautiful potted mixed succulents that graced our front steps prompting my neighbor to remove the other two up to the entrance door area.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Driving fun

On sunday I was waiting for the bus to go to Trader Joes and as I'm sitting on the steps of Saint Timothy's an asian woman in a large SUV pulled up to the light.She had her left hand on the wheel but in her right hand she had chopsticks.Now I've seen a lot of foolish things folks do while driving but this is the first time I've seen chopsticks.She was dipping down to the center console to whatever she was eating and I was hoping a police car would show up to set her straight on her really really dumb driving habits.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

A new Book Jones

So I rejoined Quality Paperback Book Club about ten days ago and today I received my five books for like 20.00.I now haveH.W. Brands"Traitor to His Class" about FDR,"down at the docks" by Rory Nugent about New Bedford and it's fishing industry,"The Last Fish Tale" by Mark Kurlansky about Glouecester and it's fishing industry,"The Virago Book of Ghost Stories" edited by Richard Dalby and last but best a coffee table sized hardback "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:the illustrated edition" which is a 40th anniv edition of a book I love and this illustrated edition is a beaut.New essays also included though I prefer one of my smaller paperback editions for bedside reading.The ghost stories book is all by female writers of mostly the past like Wharton,Nesbitt,Riddell etc.These are literate stories not the vampire type nonsense rampant now.I can't wait to read the Nugent vs Kurlansky books because they both write not only the history but the everday things.Kurlansky is much better known but I loved Nugents"The Search for the Pink Headed Duck" some years ago.Nugent is much more offbeat.So my to read pile is now approaching the National Debt but I blunder on.

Friday, December 4, 2009

It's a beautiful tree

I was wandering the frozen aisle at Ralphs Grocery on wed afternoon when I looked up at all the Xmass stuff for sale on top of the freezers and spotted"The Charlie Brown Xmas Tree"So I bought one and brought the box home and when Sweet Pea and Knuckle Sandwich came out on the patio I gave it to them and they scampered upstairs to pull it out of the box and put it together.It looks just like the pic.I see other ones online that don't come with Linus's blanke but that was the clincher for me.

It's a beautiful tree(pic)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tis the Season

I was up at the mall today looking for my XMass cards after a Kung Pao chicken lunch and man cards have gone up.I picked up one box and it was 32.00 for 14 cards.For that price I could give a few friends a pack of smokes for XMass like they do in Canada.I found a box of 20 smaller cards that I picked up to send to a few friends and stay in the good graces(wills) of several aging Aunts and Uncles.Passing by the post office sub-station at the mall I was surprised to see them getting a mail delivery from a letter carrier.Who knew the post office got a mail delivery? I wonder what they do with the junk mail.Finally my buddy did his Naples Run today and picked up two more jars of Sour Cherry jam for me.Oh and before I forget has anyone else seen the PBS special recently of Ed Sullivan and the music acts on his show.Some really good stuff and some of the nights I can recall where I was watching these for the first time.I swear though Mick Jagger is stuffing his pants when they do"I Can't Get no Satisfaction".

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A New Jones

So on one of my drives down to Naples,NY to buy grape pies at various places I made a visit to Monica's Pies the biggest of the pie sellers.Monica sells great Chicken Pot Pies frozen andI bought 8 of those to take back up the road to Pittsford and I bought another jar of her Seedless Blackberry Jam but I also bought a jar of her Sour Cherry Jam which I tried last night with some ham.Oh my lord the stuff is wicked wicked good.But I just found out Monica not only quit shipping pies which were way expensive fed ex but she no longer ships the jams and jellies and conserves also.So I'm going to call my buddy I stay with who calls on a Doctors office in Naples twice a month and see if he will pick up a few jars I can give as Holiday gifts.The sour cherry jam is that good.Loaded with chunks of Sour Cherries and the sugar gives them a slight sweetness that with sweet cherries would be overkill.I don't know how to describe the taste but my tastebuds love it.

Botany of Desire

I'm watching the PBS video version of Michael Pollans great book from several years ago"The Botany of Desire".Not to be missed.It's almost as good as the book was reading it the first time.In case anyone doesn't know Pollan took four plants,Apples,Tulips,Marijuana and Taters and detailed their origins and how they manipulated animals and humans into spreading them and using them.Fascinating to watch.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Bad Weather

Last week after three weeks in Western New York I came out of the Ralphs Market in Century City to around a temp of 75 with some clouds passing overhead.As I was waitng for my cab with all my groceries to stock an empty Fridge. I hear an older lady walking by say to her caretaker lady"My it's a gloomy day isn't it","Yes it is" replys the caretaker lady.

Lazarus

Welll I was thinking I sort of miss it here and Facebook does limit one to rather short posts so I think I'll give this space another shot.Hopefully more books along with the same old ramblings.Today I received in the mail a 50.00 gift card if Iget my Mercedes serviced at Beverly Hills Mercedes.Now I don't own a Mercedes but it was addressed to my name not resident so I'm thinking with X-Mass coming my brother and boss is springing one on me and the guys at Beverly Hills Mercedes just let the cat out of the bag so to speak.I shall be looking out the window each morning the latter half of Dec for my German Automobile.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

New Post or last post

I haven't been posting here of late because now that I have a Facebook Wall page thingy I find it better suited to my short rambling sometimes lucid thoughts.I'm thinking of doing another blog to talk books because that's what I miss from the defunct NYTimes forums and a few other sites I have found lacking or atarted out promising only to have the owner shut down.Plus I have a few blogs I love to read especially Trout Towers and Fast Grow the Weeds and I feel guilty that these folks actually write things while I find my thing not suited to a blog well except for my old Parkrat blog which I had fun telling all those drug stories and tales of wasted youth but I'm afraid when I decide to run for a higher office I will be outed.

Friday, September 4, 2009

North to Alaska

I loved it when the local weatherman chuckled about being wrong about today's high,It was supposed to be 89 but went to 96 making this as he laughed the 10th straight day of 90 or above.He didn't mention the fact that all the LA stations said this was going to be a four day heat wave when it started and that after day two the temps have been 94 to 100 each day with east coast humidity the past several days.I came across a Spanish language version of Call of the Wild this early am and watched it with little sound just because when I came upon it it showed a beautiful snow storm.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Facebook

The reason I finally joined Facebook is because I came across a site for Burdett's.Burdett's was the village market in my hometown of Pittsford,N.Y. where I worked off and on for a few years senior year and after high school when I was back in Pittsford off and on.It was THe job to have because everyone came through there and there were always a bunch of cute girls working there.Then I found a facebook page for Thirsty's the town bar in Pittsford.The icing on the cake was finding A Fan's of the Provincetown Jug Band page which had a link to The Old Colony bar.The Jug Band played at The Surf Club for many years and the Surf Club was in my estimation the finest dive bar in America.It was smack on the harbor but inside it was a ramschackle hodge podge of hats hanging from the ceiling and other asssorted bric a brac.I recall the first time my father came in there looking for me when they came to visit one weekend and though I wasn't there he said when he walked in to the dimly lit place in daytime it looked like the kind of place where someone gets knifed.Oddly enough I never saw anyone get knifed in there but I did outside just steps away on the wharf.Alas years ago they gutted the Surf Club put in windows and sliding doors all around turned it into mostly a restaurant and ruined it.I still weep at the thought.The OC meanwhile on Commercial Street is a lot smaller than the Surf Club but has been the same dive it was since I first saw it in 1975.It's where I imagine or in some cases know where the old Surf Club crowd hangs out.At least those who are still living.

Fall can't get here soon enough

With all the smoke in the air the moon has risen tonight and stayed a strange Orange hue.It's quite beautiful and looks like Halloween until you realise all the damage and suffering that has gone on to create that color moon above Los Angeles tonight.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Missing in Action

I've been remiss in posting here of late for several reasons.One has been the horrid weather we've had so I haven't been out and about.Another was I spent the weekend watching all the Ted Kennedy stuff as it was the end of an era so I was mostly at a History blog I belong to.Also I joined facebook a few weeks ago and each night I find a long lost person wanted or unwanted and all that entails.Lastly Sweet Pea and Knuckle Sandwich are in Arizona with their dad visiting grandparents so it's quiet around here and they inspire me though their Mom is enjoying a few days off so to speak.Hoefully Sept. will kick in some posts but the number of places I now hang out online is stretching me thin.P.S.,Though I did go to Trader Joes today by bus and cabbed it home with a case of Zin and four gallons of Iced Tea plus various other things.I ran into Lloyd Braun(the 2nd actor who played him on Seinfeld)whom I've run into for years in grocery stores and the Post Office before I knew who he was.He looks like a golfer and plays in a tournament Ethel Kennedy has on the Cape each fall so I asked him if he watched the wake on C-Span and he had and we chatted and went our seperate ways.I know his real name but I'm respecting his privacy so one can look him up if one wishes.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

A Sad Night

Just seeing the news coming out that Senator Edward Kennedy has passed.The last of the Kennedy boys and perhaps the best Senator we had these many years.He was able to reach across party lines and always brought common sense logic to the debate.It's to bad that some of the wacko right tried to destroy him.Especially over the night on Martha's Vineyard.Of course those same folks were quick to condemm a man for faults they also had but chose to ignore.We have lost a giant and great human who used his family name and wealth for the betterment of others instead of personal gain.God bless you Teddy!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Books

I took the bus to Trader Joes today to buy a few things I don't have to keep cold and when I got on the bus I noticed two people reading books.Three stops down at the mall two more folks got on and sat down reading books.As we went down Westwood Blvd. I noticed a guy at a bus stop on the other side leaning against a pole reading a book.When I came out of Trader Joes and sat down at my return bus stop there was a young lady reading a book.Granted Westwood Blvd. is on a UCLA run but the bus I was on turns away from that route both ways so I was pleasantly surprised to see so many book readers and none looked to be books of the pulp mass market kind.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

What was Scotland thinking

The release of a total scum bag by Scotland in the bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie is not only disgusting but the reaction when he landed in Libya was truly sick.That anyone would celebrate this lowlifes return is sad but the fact he is supposed to be dying is vauge.On a like note the Bush family has a long link in oil deals to Libya and with the Tom Ridge allegations today it gets more disgusting.Of course the extremist right wingers will put up more nonsense on this which makes me detest these folks even more.

Nature Shows

Now that I have basic cable again I've been watching a good amount of PBS Nature shows.There is one on right now about Baboons.I never realised how violent the pecking order can be and the King Baboon actually took down an Impala fawn with ease.I did not picture them eating animals that large or animals for that matter.

My trust is shattered

My Frigidaire which I had repaired in June has gone on the fritz again and today I bought a new Westinghouse.Luckily I'd just finished the Caviar,Lobster and foie gras along with the truffle risotto when it went.When I was at best buy today I asked the clerk to look up my frigidaire purchase.August 27th,2006.So the sucker didn't even make it three years.The frig before that was 22 when it went in 2006.Here's the kicker though the Frigidaire was made in Canada!.If the Canadians can't build a decent one my trust in humankind has taken a hit.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Tom Guiler(left) and I thumbing in front of Babes,North Truro 1978

Dog Days of Summer

I haven't posted of late because I've had a summer head cold that is hard to shake and I finally caved in to a few friends and joined Facebook last Fri night I think.So I've been there every night looking at other peoples walls which leads to another long ago friend popping up.It's sort of scary how facebook works because as soon as I signed up they had names of folks I haven't seen in thirty years as potential friends.Also it's cool to look up old girlfriends and realise how old you are in fact are. I also found a Fans of Provincetown Jug Band facebook site which I joined right away.I had the most fun at Facebook though filling out my profile info.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

One of the local news stations the CW to be exact led off their ten O'Clock news with these two teaser storylines."Cockfighting Ring Broken Up" and"Celebrity Hollywood Sperm Bank".

Thursday, July 30, 2009

What Are They Smoking Them With?

I was at Trader Joe's today in the Anchovie section when I started browsing.Eveyone once in awhile I get a jones for the tinned smoked oysters or trout.I spotted the Trout fillets for .99 and the I noticed next to them the Smoked Trout fillets for 3.29.They were both the same size tin so I'm wondering what on earth are they smoking them with to make the price jump that much.So the jones went away and I took the salty little fish home with me.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Saint Mary's Lake,Glacier Natl Park

I was watching a PBS show on hiking the Divide tonight and when they hit Glacier they showed a photo like this which brought back a flood of memories.When we were kids we had in our finished basement at our first house a whole wall with a picture of Saint Mary's Lake we had gotten from my Uncle at Kodak.It was one of the prints they used when Kodak had these huge pics displayed in Grand Central or Penn Station I forget which one.I would spend hours staring at that wall size pic of Glacier and when in 1965 we went west I got to stand on the spot as a ten year old wearing my new white Cowboy hat(My brothers all picked Black ones) and stare at the same picture live.It was breathtaking.That day we went for a walk on a lakeside trail and met a couple with two Husky pups named Yukon and Nuggett.Five years later when we got a Husky pup mix we named him Yukon of course.

Saint Mary's Lake,Glacier Natl Park

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Last Lonely Eagle

I just read about the passing of John"Marmaduke"Dawson the co-founder of Jerry Garcia's other band New Riders of the Purple Sage.While Garcia,Lesh and other Dead members left it quickly New Riders put out several great albums the best being their self titled debut in 71 I think it was.They also opened for the Dead for a few years around the World.Though they had the pot songs like Henry and Panama Red and one of my fave drug songs Lonesome L.A. Cowboy they also wrote some great Country Hippie Rock which stands up to this day.I'm going to dig out my New Riders on Cd and LP and play the next few days.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Death of the Urban Tomato

I do beleive I mentioned here about the Tomato plant growing out of a storm drain some weeks ago.It's hard to keep track because I am reading and posting on an ever expanding series of sites.Anyhoo today while waiting for the Bus I noticed the Tomato plant was severed and nothing left but the base stem.Now it may have been a weed wacker that got it as the carwash occupying the site has a small strip of grass there above it but then they also have a little fish pond and flower garden on the next corner so I'm thinking maybe the Streetsweeper Truck got it finally on it's weekly pass.Since the three tomatoes were very green last Saturday I doubt anyone picked them but standing there lokking at the severed Tomato plant I noticed Purslane growing in a crack in the pavement.Now Purslane is aweed but also a nice salad ingredient.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Beach Sticker Madness

I was just reading about the uproar in Wellfleet,Mass on the town going after folks with more than one beach sticker on their car.Now on the Cape in each town it's sort of a long tradition to have twenty years of beach stickers on your car.It's sort of silly but people do it to say look at me,I've been here all these summers or as a way to mark their territory and show what town on the Cape they summer In.Like if you have a Truro* sticker you are way cooler than Eastham and such depending on your town and sticker choice.It's just a thing people do probably mostly summer folks but one would think that Town Govt would have a lot more important things to do than go after scofflaws with multiple beach stickers.In fact I think it's an infringement of Free Speech.Man I would love to see this one wind up in the Supreme Court.Whot Larks as they say across the pond on the old sod. *Of course if you have a Truro beach sticker you are cooler than everyone else.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

40 Years Ago

This summer has some big 40 year events.In August we will celebrate the 40th anniv. of landing on the Moon and the 40th anniv. of Woodstock.Also during the past few days was the 40th anniv. of Senator Edward Kennedy's accident on Chappaquiddick which took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne.This date has become a religious holiday to the extreme right wackos much like President Clinton's impeachment.What I find ironic is that both of these feature Dicks.It's almost like the right wing is obsessed with them. I suppose it's the homo erotic episodes from boarding school for the Bush types and the first male cousins in a barn for the Gingrich types.Oh and the Genesee Beer sign and my graduating 8th grade from Saint Margaret Mary.

Shining Bright

On Friday night the big sign light on top of Genesee Brewery in Rochester was relit after 40 years of neglect and darkness.It will shine like a beacon to those who beleive and those lost souls that don't.My family has a long history with Genesee Brewery.At one time in the 60's there were probably 8 or 9 Abels employed there and we go way back to the end of Prohibition and some before.In high school my one Uncle was in the front office and we would mosey down to the city and he would send us down to the taproom for a few cases gratis.The new owners have dropped the goofy High Falls Brweery name and returned to the original Genesee Brewery and seem to have a better understanding of the long history of the Brewery to Rochester.It really is one of the last Independents around so I hope they make a go of it.I can't wait to get home and drive down there at night in October to pay homage to the great light.

A Beacon in the Rochester NY Night once again

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Where the White Women At*

The local news today ran a story on a guy who has shown up at LA city council meetings the past few days dressed in full Klan garb including the hood.His time to speak came up yesterday and when he stepped to the podium was asked to remove the hood and he refused so the city council walked out.They are trying to figure out what to do with the guy.The kicker is that the dude is black.One can plainly see that from his hands in the footage. *Cribbed from Blazing Saddles

That's a Lot of Candles to Blow Out

Happy 300th Birthday to Truro,Mass on July 16th.One of my favorite spots on earth and a beautiful place.To many good memories to list but maybe the best place I ever lived.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Radio 10.4 no more

Been reading a bunch of stories and looking at pics about WBCN today and I'm still sad about the whole thing.Another part of youth ripped away for good.I know BCN had not been the station it was for many years but the news just brings back the fact that at one time it was the best freakin FM station in the USA.I had heard it off and on but it wasn't till I went to Northeastern and lived in Boston 8-9 months of the year and the rest on the cape that I heard it all the time.My friend from my town of Pittsford,N.Y. was going to Berklee and when I got to Boston I hung out with him a lot.Pedro was good buddies with Eddie Gorodetsky who was writing or getting paid for doing something at BCN at the time.My first BCN event I went with Pedro,Eddy and a DJ named Tami(Heidie) to the first Superman movie.I recall Tami because one of the plugs for her was the music from the movie Tami.I spent some great nights up near the top of the Pru and at some great parties at Eddys or some DJ'S house.What DJ'S they had back then.Charles Laquidara and his sideshow on weekdays and his alter ego Duane Glasscock on Saturdays.I still recall the day he played the Kinks"Superman" for 4 hrs straight.Mark Parenteau whose love of young boys wound up costing him some prison time but I still think he was the best DJ of them all.A real wise ass and I thought the most real of the DJ'S but then he never hit on me when I was around him.John Brodie was a fave because in the summer of 77 he played cuts from "Exodus" all the time on his afternoon show.We would park above Cold Storage beach in North Truro spark one up and on would come Exodus or Turn Your Lights Down Low,Hell every cut on the album was a keeper and John played them all. We really really got into Bob Marley that summer though I never met John Brodie till he moved to LA and his really nice wife Mavis worked at EMI with my buddy.Oedipus who was just starting out there when I met him and was sort of offputting to me.I think it was when Oedipus gained control the station started on it's long slow slide.Of course the rise of corporate radio was the big reason.Back then BCN jocks actually picked all or most of their own music.They turned me on to the Clash for one thing.I'll never forget a day driving from the Cape back to Boston one fall afternoon when the DJ played the Byrds"Chestnut Mare" which I can't recall ever hearing on any station.Now it's like an 8 minute song and he went from that into "Cinnamon Girl" followed by "Waiting for the Man" and then "Somebody Got Murdered".Nobody mixed music like WBCN.It's like will never be seen again.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

WBCN

I just read of the demise of WBCN on the Boston Globe site.I'm just to stunned to comment now.More on Wed.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Eat at Babes

I had a nice phone chat with my old boss Claudia on Sunday about all kinds of things.When she was in France/Germany during the spring as I mentioned Madame her mother passed away and as a result Claudia never had the renovations that needed to be done on the house in Menerbes she bought last year put into action.So she has lost this summer as using it as a rental property.Then when she arrived in North Truro on July 2nd found out the nutjob that is leasing Babes had installed an outdoor patio for dining without her permission or even mentioning it.To top it off the town of Truro is trying to push through"affordable housing" on pretty much the same piece of land she had to fight in court over a few years back which involved well field issues.It's amazing to me that after sticking a new library and community center in that same area the town now wants to destroy a wooded area in fact one of a few left for housing.This while the old Air Force tracking station is being used as an"arts center".Lord knows that part of the Cape doesn't have enough space for artists at the expense of working year rounders and so the towns refusal to put any housing on the former base is a great mystery.Plus from what I understand the old fire station in North Truro is now used as housing at the tune of over 1100.00 a month.Now who is that affordable for?

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Fish Can Sing

So I've had this book since before X-Mass and finally picked it up a few nights ago.Oddly enough though it will be the shortest Halldor Laxness novel I've read it took me the most pages to get into it.But once in I'm enjoying his sly sense of humor as much or more than any of his other three novels I've read.After another three novels I know of it's time to start hunting down old translations on a few that were in English print at one point.

The Fish Can Sing Cover

Saturday, July 4, 2009

4th of July

I just watched the 25 minute fireworks show from my 2nd floor bedroom window that the country club down the street puts on each year and it was as always very nice.The 4th for some reason triggers the same memory bank as X-Mas in me and gets me to thinking where I've spent past 4th of July's.In the mid to late 60's the 4th meant our two hour drive south down to Canisteo NY and my Uncles rustic hunting camp.No indoor plumbing way up in the hills and us kids loved it.You washed out of a rainbarrel full of water,drew water from a spring and watched the fireworks my dad and uncles would shoot off into the field across the road.We always got the fireworks in South Carolina each Easter on our camping trip to Florida.One year my uncle lit a whizzer thing and it whizzed backwards at the cabin instead.I never saw my Mom and two Aunts move so fast on the porch to get out of the way.After that I recall 1976 because it was our 200th and we were just two years out of high school so our gang had a memorable all nighter in Pittsford N.Y. which started out with fireworks at one of the two junior highs and ended in the wee hours with about 40 friends at a parents house that was out of town.It was also the only time I recall doing Acid on the 4th.77-81 were my Provincetown fireworks years with the exception of 78 when I went with one of my buddies from Babes and his parents down to friends of theirs out in the backroads of Orleans/Chatam.The folks we visited were MIT profs so I wasn't quite expecting the drinking and merry making these folks put on followed by firing shotguns into the air and myself asking their 16 year old daughter over and over if she'd like to go to the Wellfleet Drive In with me some night.The P-Town 4th's were always great as the town was jammed the fireworks were on the pier and then a few steps away into the Surf Club where the Provincetown Jug Bands 4th show was one of the best they played though they played each night of the summer the 4th always had a revved up crowd and rousing sing alongs to the patriotic songs.It also usually ended with the umbrella lady leading a conga line through the Surf Club with Geno right behind her on trombone as the boys played"When the Saints Come Marching In"After the Cape the 4th got more mundane for me but I do recall one in Melbourne,Fl one year where we took my friends 40 ft sport fisherman to watch the fireworks on the Inter Coastal only to have a nasty thunderstorm move in and cancel the show.What was scary was watching a large number of boats racing back to where they came from all at once some driven in a manner that suggested the consuming of many many many drinks.Also I recall my first July 4th in Manhattan Beach the first year I moved to Calif.I was living in a one bedroom right across from the beach and some friends were out visiting.On the 4th at night it was a giant party all along the beach/paved bikeway the length of Manhattan Beach.There were thousands of people all mingling,drinking and shooting off fireworks.It was the biggest block party I have ever seen.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

Dance of Joy

I was walking back from the Barbershop today after my friday lit salon at McDonalds with a few gents when a block away from home I came upon a young girl of 7 or 8 skipping and running on her front lawn with a big smile on her face and in a singsong voice"Yay,I'm free.I'm free for the summer!Yay,I'm free.I'm free for the summer" I couldn't help but smile at the display thinking of how that was exactly how I felt the day school let out but I had never done a dance of joy over it like this girl.I almost started reciting the lines myself.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Dreams

A loud afternoon here with news and police choppers and police cars all converging on Westwood and UCLA a few miles north.I've been having some strange dreams of late but last nights may have toped them.I dreamt I was at a house in Truro,MA but the people who brought me there had left without telling me.So I was wandering around wondering how I was going to get home when I went out front and sat down at a small circular bar on the front lawn.Then the bar and part of the front lawn started moving slowly in a circle.The lawn and bar were rotating so I asked the bartender why and she said "Well we wanted something special for the book awards for the Truro school kids"I was like huh? when I looked across the bar to see one of my best friends from high school Russ and my best friend from college Bear sitting there laughing.That's when I woke up.I have no idea what the dream means other than to lay off the 6.50 a bottle generic Canadian Whiskey.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Out Where the Buses Don't Run

So today I went to my Dermatologist in Santa Monica and talked mostly Golf instead of my meds so it was a good visit.After I took the little blue crosstown bus to pick up my 5 Bus.I got off the bus walked around the corner and here comes my bus!.But as it got closer the front read NotIn Service.So I sat down and a few minutes later here comes my bus! except as it got closer it also read Not In Service.So I sat down as one can see a good distance towards the ocean where I was and I saw no busses down the road.So I sat down and enjoyed the afternoon when I see a bus coming from the other direction headed towards the Ocean that reads Not In Service.At this point I'm laughing a bit out loud and passerbys are starting to glance away.A few minutes later again headed towards the Ocean comes another Not In Service at which I exclaim loudly to myself I feel like I'm in a freakin Twilight Zone episode except a lady pushing a stroller with another youngster walking by her side is passing behind me at which she starts moving a bit faster to get away from the crazy man in the Red Sox hat.After about fifteen minutes a bus going my way finally comes along and stops.As the door opens I hesitate a bit thinking maybe this is where the horror part of the story starts and I'm actually getting on a bus that will turn out to be all aliens from another galaxy.........After I got home I was thinking maybe it was Karma for the time in high school when three carloads of us in a row one after another pulled up to a hitchiker our age and one after another as each car pulled up and the kid ran towards the door each car sped off.I was in the backseat of the last car and will never forget the look on the kids face as I looked back at him standing by the side of the road flipping us the bird.White punks on Dope indeed.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Storm Drains

I also noticed a few nights ago that the storm drains around here are now covered with grills.Now the thing about that is I would see Raccoons climbing out of those storm drains sometimes at night.The first time I saw one about ten years back I told my neighbors and they thought I was smokin weed till they saw one climb out.What I'm wondering is what happened to all those critters living in the storm drains when they grated them over.

Bus Ride

I took the bus into Santa Monica this morning and after a few stops I realised that this older lady who I thought was helping out a passenger was actually giving a LOUD running commentary on each bus stop.She would name the stop then give a description of what food,banks,mattress stores etc. were at each stop.After a bit I asked the bus driver about it and she said the lady does it every Tuesday at the same time.

Jackson

I received an email from my old neighbors today that Jackson had passed away a few weeks ago. Jackson wasn't that old in dog years.I've been in a funk since then.Jackson was a yellow lab and my favorite dog ever.He came to our building some years ago as a puppy and I spent a lot of time with Jackson in his formative years.Brian and Julie would go away some weekends which left me and Jackson together.He really really loved squirrels and he loved to play hide and seek Jackson style.We would chase each other across the back of the building and I would duck into a stairway to hide.Jackson caught onto that and would sneak up to the stairwell to look and see if I was there upon which I would yell and he would take off running.He was also a great looking Lab.Everyone in the neighborhood said so.I recall one night watching him and I was out on our patio.I had the backdoor to Jackson's apt open and he was bringing out every five minutes or so one of his toys and dropping them at my feet trying to get me to play.He would look at me and I'd try and ignore him and then off he would go and bring back another toy.I was laughing after awhile he had so many toys out and then we went for his favorite thing.A nice walk.Jackson was very popular in the building.One lady Eve would leave her back kitchen door open when she came home and Jackson would come out his door and wander down to Eve's where she would give him a treat.Eve passed away several years ago of Cancer so I like to think Jackson is in heaven hanging out at Eves back door and she's giving him a doggie treat while he waits for the squirrels to come out.I haven't seen Jackson in a few years but I'll miss him for a long long time.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Perfect Beach Car

The Fiat Shelette was pictured in the sunday NYTimes mag but the one pictured there was sort of a pea green with rattan seats.It was owned by Maria Callas.It seems they were made mid 60's to mid 70's?.When I saw it today I was thinking what a freakin perfect car for cruising around the Cape!

Fiat Shelette beach car

Headline News

I just saw a headline online I misread as "Ottoman lands TV show".It was really "Octomom lands TV show". I'm thinking the Ottoman would be better.Maybe a sitcom about a talking Ottoman and his Ottoman Turk owner.Of course Gilbert Gottfried would be the voice of the talking Ottoman.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

A Tomato Grows in Los Angeles

A few weeks ago at the bustop down the street by the carwash I noticed a small tomato plant growing in a wee bit of dirt street level next to a storm drain.Today while I'm waiting for the bus I notice the plant has like seven blossoms and two small tomatoes growing on it.I've only put in one tomato so far and that in a pot and while it's growing well still no blossoms.This little plant next to the storm drain gets no love and is doing well.I'm hoping I get to pick one of the tomatoes from it because this guy/gal comes from tough stock and I'd like to see what I can do with it's seeds next year or this winter.We need to weed a patch of dirt behind the building so I can get Knuckle Sandwich and Seetpea to help us put in some more tomato plants.Speaking of Sweetpeas I found two packs of seeds from 2007 so I placed them a few inches apart in front of my Impatien beds on top of our patio wall and under the ficus tree.Even though it's late to plant them here they are old seeds and they are fairly shady spots so I'm waiting to see if I get anything at all from them.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Summer Reading

I was out on the patio this eve amongst my plants hearing voices from the Gnomes scattered about I tell sweetpea only I can hear so now she tells me the potted trees talk only to her.I was glancing through last Sundays NYTimes book review and I happened to look at the Mass Market Fiction paperback best seller list and found some gems.#15"Forbidden Nights With A Vampire",The hot tempered vampire owner of a sizzling nightclub is forced to take anger management classes and meets a man who dares to tame her. #19"Till There Was You", A 21st century man looking for love time-travels to 13th century England;romantic complications ensue.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Dirt is Dollars

So I spent the day replanting the patio and the walls above it and I dropped 135.00 out of my own pocket this trip.I can only hope the landlord appreciates this but I doubt it.It looks really good though and I've already given a talk to Sweetpea and Knuckle Sandwich about kicking balls,waving large sticks and other general mayhem around the plants.On the plus side since I was outside I didn't feel the 4.1 quake we had on Tues that was the follow up to the Sunday night 4.7 that really shook me up and buckled my Cookbook/Gourmet Mag. bookcase.It's not so much the plants but the new bags of Potting Soil that run up the bill.I think I should become a dirt farmer.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Fun in Vermont

If you are in or near Brattleboro Vermont the weekend of June 5th,6th and 7th you are in for a real treat.It's the 8th annual Strolling of the Heifers with the parade on Sat.I don't think this site links but I'll put up the web address anyway. http://www.strollingoftheheifers.com/v2/

Friday, May 8, 2009

Kentucky Fried Eel

So I'm watching the news tonight and they have this story on about how Oprah did some thing with the new Kentucky grilled chicken this week on her show and there was a coupon for free chicken.Well KFC didn't realise the power of Oprah and they were swamped.Something like 4 million coupons with 5 million out there and many chains are now rejecting them so KFC is giving rain checks now on folks who come in.It all sounds confusing but the fun part for me was listening to the CEO.The guy has a British accent bordering on the type of Scotsman you can't understand a word he's saying.Who knew a Brit was running a Fried Chicken empire.Now that I think about it a few weeks ago I got some chicken strips at mine and the young lad in front of me was either from the Isles or Jamaica and first off he was asking for "chips" with his meal which the server was trying to explain they didn't have but they had potato wedges.Then the kid asked for a serviette and the server had no clue what he wanted till I said napkin.It pays to watch the Three Stooges where I recall Moe told Curly he had dropped his serviette although what happened after that wasn't polite..But listening to this young man speaking like this instead of the street slang mumbling of LA was a real eye opener.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Thank You Sir may I have Another

So I just sort of watched the Fox show Bones while reading some papers online and it dealt with college and a fraternity tonight.I though Iheard a name I knew a liitle off then a second and I started laughing at the corny homage.So I looked up the episode and sure enough one frat brother was named Greg Harmalard and the Dean was named Dean Vernon Warner.Oh and the dead frat brother who was named Beaver was killed in an Otter mascot suit and he did it with the Deans wife.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Blinking Heart of North Truro

In another blog last night I read about some great links to Calif WPA projects and mentioned my favorite WPA guide was "Cape Cod Pilot" of which I bought a reprint edition at Dutras Market in North Truro years ago.Dutras was at the heart of North Truro a blinking light on 6a that was a big old house basically as a grocery on the left side and a package store on the right.On the left I had my NYTimes every day and a New Yorker every week and on the right side is where we bought cases and cases of 16oz Pickwick Ale in the returnable bottles for around 8.00 a case in the late 70's and early 80's.The cases themselves served as end tables etc in our living quarters each summer.Up the street from Dutras was Punchys Garage where in 77 I bought my gas for the Vega Wagon and on one morning coming out of the room between the restrooms at North Truro Camping Area I was still living at with my brother even though I had quit and was working at Babes I found that my car wasn't there.I had no idea where it was and walking past Punchy's at around 6:50 am I saw two cars from the Truro Police looking at me and I looking at them and thinking lord are they grinning at me because they know where my car is and how I did whatever I did last light.But after walking up Puke Hill on 6a to Babes I found out that my car was indeed at a house on Pond Road a little worse for the wear and the really cute blond girl from Corn Hill pretty much convinced I wasn't boyfriend material.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Headline of the Year

I saw this gem in the Rochester Democrat&Chronicle today. "Man stopped en route to Grateful Dead Concert faces drug charges"

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

My Mentor

I was thinking tonight about my old friend Geno Haggerty and I see I missed what I think is the 7th anniv of his passing on March 28th,2002.Geno's health problems came from when he fell off the stage at a Truro Dump Dance and he injured both legs badly.The town of Truro never offered any help and in fact denied any fault at all but circulation problems in Geno's legs after that led to his death.After I left the Cape summers and the several memorable Jug Band shows at our frat house in Brookline including two after I had moved to L.A. I would send Geno postcards from all over saying the Jug Band should play here.My favorite and his was the Indian Room at the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite which I told him would be perfect for a Jug Band show.In my years after I moved to L.A. Geno would send me pictures he had taken on the Cape and he really had some talent.My favorite Geno thing though was a year or so after I moved to L.A. and was in Key West at Captain Tonys bar one morning around 10 after a long night out when the phone rang and the girl tending bar yelled out "hey dad it's some guy named Geno from Provincetown for you"I asked her if it was Geno from the Jug Band and she said I think so they might play here in Feb.It turned out the bartender girl was Capt. Tonys daughter and while Tony was talking I asked her if she could put me on at the end.She did and I said hello to Geno and told him who it was and he paused a minute then I heard Tim Dickey laughing in the background while Geno was asking me what the hell I was doing in Key West instead of Los Angeles and Capt Tony is yelling behind me"I just bailed him out of jail Geno!".We had a good laugh about it next time we met in Provincetown.He was a good man and truly was the heart and soul of the Provincetown Jug Band.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Best Darn Holiday

A Happy Patriots Day to one and all.I don't know why more states don't celebrate it.In fact only Mass.,Maine and I think Wisconsin celebrate it.All I know was it is the day of the Boston Marathon and an early Red Sox game which lets out around the time the trace finishes in the same general area leading to a lot of partaking in the liberty to celebrate the repeal of prohibition but then again pretty much everyone in Mass knew the American History behind the holiday.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Madame

I received word on Saturday that the old owner of my beloved restaurant Babes had passed away at her house in Germany on the 14th.The summer I first worked at Babes in 1977 her daughter Claudia took over as Madames husband Rene had passed away the previous winter.Rene by the way is mentioned in the Tom Kane book I put up the pic of Cape Cod Chronicles for his wonderful cakes and pastries.Anyhoo Madame still visited each summer and was an imposing woman.We had many talks on History of which she shared a passion and she gave me several books on French and German History though two were in fact in French and German and I heard stories she was in the French Resistance as a young woman though I never asked her about it.She always called the kitchen crew her boys and she doted on us.Several of the Babes crew wound up camping out in her Paris apt one fall on a trip I did not go on.Claudia and daughter happened to be in Germany for Easter from Montreal and so were at her side.On another note the temp is about to jump from around 8o degrees today to 93,94 and 90 the next three days before dropping back to a high of 68 on thurs.I am glad I was lazy last weekend and didn't replant all the patio pots and wall space.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

"TEA"Parties

I watched with some amusement and some sadness today at these events.Amusement that this is happening this year.Where were all these concerned citizens the past several years as the deficit ran into the billions and billions most of it off the books so to say for the"liberation of Iraq" no questions asked even as some in Congress asked.Now all of a sudden the right wing radio voices are up in arms and concerned for the future of the country and their mindless minions are also.The signs and words denouncing the President and Dems would be amusing if it wasn't so sad.The same Repub righties who gave billions away to Bush are now concerned Patriots and dropping the key words to get folks scared.Pelosi,Socialism,Barak Osama are just a few.That they would stoop so low is not a surprise to me after all the failed Right wing policies of the past eight years put us in the mess we are in today but to think it isn't going to cost us a dime to get us of the this huge mess is either naive or stupid or a bit of both.I also love the fact that todays protests were being pushed as some grass roots thing started by a few concerned citizens on the internet that was picked up by right wing radio and carried forward though in fact the group behind it all is a lobbying firm with Dick Armey calling the shots.The same Dick Armey who never met a Pork project he didn't love for his Texas district is now the Patron Saint of fiscal prudence.The same Dick Armey who pushed through deregulation of the banking industry in his prime.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

This and That

It seems I always come across something on my bus trips to and from Trader Joe's and today was no different.I was waiting for the Bus afterwards and a Bentley Coupe pulls up to the light with personal plates that read 2.0 GPA.Also today Knuckle Sandwich returned from his week long visit to his grandparents in Ariz.Only 8 but this is the second time he's gone there and back solo on the plane.While he was gone he received a letter from the President in reply to one he sent him.It's on a nice little card and I told him he should frame it but he sort of ripped the envelope up it came in.Sweet Pea seemed not so impressed but then maybe it was because she was plotting her easter egg hunting on Sunday at her cousins while rocking out to Rock Lobster on her DVD player and telling me her strategy at the same time.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Martin Denny

I've been listening to this 2 CD set called The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny the past week off and on after not putting it on for a few years.A WOMR public radio from Cape Cod DJ named Squid Jigger who has a bi-weekly sunday night gig called Squid Jiggers Ball got me going on it again.The funny thing about the CD which has been out for a number of years was originally suggested by a friend of mine when he was at Capitol and they laughed at him.After he moved on to EMI and then EMI moved to New York A Capitol sub label at the time it came out.Anyhoo it's a sound you'll either love or hate.Martin Denny was the master of Tiki Music that came about after WW2 and it's hard to describe.It has a lot of background sounds especially strange yelps,moans and animal noises.A bit of surf guitar before there really was surf guitar and a lot of other instruments.My favorite is a number called The Enchanted Sea though there are a lot of gems on the CD'S.I recall several of the albums residing at my Aunt and Uncles house the ones that had no children and I got to sleep over on weekends on occasion falling off to sleep after ten! while they played cards with friends in the nearby kitchen something that was exotic enough compared to my parents house.In LA I do beleive there is still a Trader Vics in Beverly Hills though I haven't been in years.When I lived in Brookline during college years there was a small Chinese place the other side of Beacon past Coolidge Corner that we called Old Man's that was a mini version just because they served drinks like The Scorpion,Fog Cutter,Blue Hawaii etc.Out of all the Tiki bars I saw though the oddest and thus my favorite was the Kon-Tiki room at the Sheraton Mount Royal in Montreal.My brothers and I for several years would meet at my brothers college digs in Winooski,Vermont when he was at Saint Mikes and drive up to Montreal for a Habs game at the old Montreal Forum.We always stayed at the Sheraton and spent the first night in the Kon-Tiki room.I went twice with Frat brothers from Boston twice also in late fall and winter and there was just something about drinking in a tiki bar in Montreal during the cold months.It's been gone for years but there are still web sites praising it.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Tradition

I noticed today looking at my grocery store flyer the Paas easter egg dye kits.Now I recall those same Paas easter egg dye kits when we were growing up and sure enough according to one site the Paas kits have been around 125 years.Also I was at Trader Joe's the other day and bought a liter bottle of Tejava Iced Tea for the first time.Now I'm an Iced Tea junkie in the warm weather months and was really impressed with the Tejava.I make my own do the sun tea thing and like Trader Joes gallon jugs of their own black tea.In Calif at least it's sometimes hard to just find unsweetened black tea.But one can find loads of sweet teas and those freakin peach and whatnot flavored things.There is nothing more annoying than Chip or Wendy telling you all they serve is peach/mango or some freaking berry thing as the only iced tea.It's like asking for a Martini and the person says Gin or Vodka.Excuse me but Gin is a Martini and anything with Vodka is some weak ass imitation and properly not a Martini.End of Rant.

My Pamet Cover

Vermont

The past few nights I've been reading mostly "Green Mountain Farm" by Elliot Merrick which is about he and his wife buying a Northeast Kingdom farm for 1,000 dollars during the depression.It's been first rate so far and reminds me a bit of a book I really loved when it came out in the late 80's,"My Pamet" by Tom Kane.That book was a compilation of Kanes weekly posts in the Provincetown Advocate and Cape Codder as Town Father from the 50's to the mid 80's.His stories though go back to his boyhood on the cape and since I haven't read the book since it came out I think I'll do a reread next.It's still available in the original hardcover though there might be a paperback version.Speaking of Vermont they are in the frozen four starting on thurs in DC and I'm rooting for them over the hated BU in the second semi final of the day.My fiction reading at present is the last reread of Fitzgerald"The Beautiful and the Damned" which after thirty plus years I recall nothing about so it's like reading it for the first time.Of course when I read it senior year in high school it was around the time we were doing acid or mescaline every few nights so that may have something to do with the memory banks.I'm finding it a lot more cynical than most F. Scott this time around.Since I've re read Gatsby and Tender is the Night several times over the years I can't compare it to rereading all this other Fitzgerald I've read this year for the first time since 73-74.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Visa in many colors

I've seen this Visa ad on TV of late that uses the Moody Blues song"Tuesday Afternoon" as the background showing an aquariam somewhere with the father taking his daughter there.Now it's all warm anf fuzzy but if I'm not mistaken and I may be but I thought that song was about an acid trip.I have that CD lying about but it won't say.But just listening to the song in the ad makes me want to drop a hit of windowpane if I still did that sort of thing.In fact I think the last time I did that sort of thing was way back in the 80's at our Lake Tahoe hideout and woke up to my old LA roomate Charlie doing a naked dance with some large bird feathers at dawn on the front porch.The house is around 6500 ft above sealevel so we were out on a fairway of the golfcourse in the wee hours and the stars were so low in the sky we thought we could actually touch them.At that point we were both fully clothed.Sometime after that my tales of this being an old Indian site had some impact on Charlie.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Job Interview

My post last night got me thinking about the spring of 1981 when I actually thought of not working at Babes Restaurant for the summer because the Provincetown Advocate the local weekly had an ad that spring for and ad sale rep.I took the bus out to P-town one March saturday morning from Boston and as I stepped off across from the Surf Club I went into the town bathrooms right next to the bus stop.A guy that was on the bus came in and standing next to me asked in a low voice"Is there a Cemetery in town?". I reply that indeed there is one on top of the hill up behind the Provincetown Monument the big stone thing you can't miss.He replies sneering at me"Good cause I came to bury someone" and then cackled like a deranged killer.Now I'm thinking OKAY and then I thought it's great to be back in Provincetown.I went to some place near the Post Office Cafe for lunch and had a great cream of broccoli soup then went and interviewed with Duane Steele the Advocate publisher at the time and had a nice chat but didn't get the job.After I was back at Babes that summer Claudia the owner told me their attorney was the Advocates attorney etc. and she could have put in a good word but I was happy to be back in the kitchen at Babes with my buddies and whatever waitress or waitresses I fell for that summer.The best damm job I ever had or will have unless there is actually a job that pays you just to hang out in Key West all winter.Another bus trip to P-Town in the offseason there was a guy on the back of the bus who kept laughing like a loon then coughing like he was hacking up a lung followed by mumbling and then loudly"Shit Stains,You're all a Bunch of Shit Stains".This went on every five minutes or so from Hyannis till around Orleans when the bus driver told him to shut the hell up or he was throwing him off the bus.I miss those off season trips but I doubt they are as colorful anymore.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Binghamton

By the way I'd like to offer congrats to the NRA for the murders of more innocent Americans on Friday.They must be proud.

Say it isn't so

I just read a link on the Cape Cod Times newsite that the Boston Globe is on the brink.I can't beleive that the Globe of all Papers is in trouble but it seems the parent company NYTimes has ordered drastic cuts and union concessions or the Globe goes down.Whats even harder to swallow is the Cape Cod Times link came from the Boston Herald a worthless rag if there ever was one.When literate cities like Boston and San Francisco's main newspapers are on the brink it really shows how bad things are in the print buisness.I can't picture Boston with the Herald as the only remaining newspaper.Edit,I just read the article on the Boston Globe site and indeed the threat is real though the Globes article is much more in depth.

NEZ 255 St. Paul Street

The previous pic is that of my home off and on for four years while I was at Northeastern Univ. my 5th stop in my college years counting two year schools and thanks to Dave C. for finding the pic.We were evicted by Brookline in 1988 seven years after I departed for the west coast.The house was white in my day but oddly enough a pic of it I have seen from 1966 it was yellow with green trim and shutters long gone when I lived there.It wasn't a fraternity in a sense one thinks of a bunch of jocks hanging out but it was a lot more like the Delt house in Animal House which oddly enough after we moved to Jamacia Plain for some years were kicked out by Northeastern because we were a local frat.So a few years ago we were reborn as the NEZ chapter of Alpha Delta Phi(the Delts) though the Dartmouth chapter based on Animal house was kicked out the Natl around the start of the 70's.Anyhoo I really had a wonderful time living there.College is a lot more than just going to class which I sometimes did but I read a shitload of books that had nothing to do with the classes I was taking.Summers I was off to North Truro for work except 1980 when my co-op job with the New England Press Association meant I had to stay in Boston with bus or car trips to the Cape just about every thurs night till Sunday night.The frat was pretty empty in the summer so I had the best bedroom in the house to myself located on the second floor at the rear with a fireplace.I started out reading Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano" then his "Ultramarine" either drinking Gin and Tonics or Pickwick Ale or Ballantine Ale in 16oz bar bottles and chain smoking Camel straights.Then I read the Yukio Mishima Sea of Fertility Tetralogy the first of I think was "Spring Snow" which at the time had a cool cover I put put a small piece of glass on top of and snorted lines off of.It was a great summer even though I wasn't in North Truro with my gang every day.Next up the P-Town Jug Band shows at NEZ.

NEZ House Brookline

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Surf Music

I finally ordered a replacement copy tonight of Brian Wilson live at the Roxy.My copy vanished and I noticed a few weeks ago it is no longer available though it's not that old.I think it was Brimel records or something that put it out and though the DVD is around not the CD.So I bought a used copy since new ones are going for 45.00 and way above.It got me thinking about some of the older things I had lying about on LP so I dug out my copy of The Malibooz from 1981 with the great Surfin Ghost on it.The Malibooz are led by Walter Egan of Magnet and Steel fame and have put out several albums over the years.Surfin Ghost was a really cool song with the clever little"You'll never hear psychedelic music again" chanted at the end in a flip response to the old Hendrix line"You'll never hear surf music again".The other gem I pulled out was the 1978 Euclid Beach Band's"There's no Surf in Clevland" which is straight on Surf Pop but a catchy tune and produced I beleive by Eric Carmen from the Raspberries.

Oysters

A comment in my Santa Monica Seafood post from I beleive a Wellfleetian today got me thinking about Oysters.Several years ago while back home in Rochester,NY I took the train down to NYCity to visit a friend and his wife.We went to the Grand Central oyster bar one night to meet up with a frat brother of mine who was living in NY.I ordered six oysters to start but you could mix and match so I picked two Wellfleets,two Prince Edward Islands and two from the Vancouver area.The difference between the oysters was amazing and not something I expected.I mean you think a raw oyster is a raw oyster but they aren't.You really should try it sometime with several different Oysters.In fact they were so good I ordered six more but all Wellfleets.When I was still at Northeastern some friends from Roch came up one fall weekend and with another Roch friend from Harvard we all went to the Legal Seafood across from The Copley Plaza on a fri night.Since Legal didn't take reservations and the place was packed we were at the bar for a long time and started ordering plates of oysters.My friend Russ loaded one up with horseradish and Tabasco being young and foolish and as he slurped it in the heat of it hit him and he coughed it out so hard it sailed a good five yards and landed in the bartenders tip glass behind the bar on a shelf.The whole bar broke into applause and the bartender rang his tip bell in appreciation.I'd also like to thank squid jigger for having a Chesterfield Kings song on one of his playlists I looked at.One of Rochester's great garage bands and a regular act at the old Scorgies,the now defunct haven of punk bar in downtown Rochester though there was a reunion show this winter at the German House of several of the bands that made Scorgies famous.

Mercy Mercy Me

Wed is of course April 1st and while it's known for pranks it is also the 25th anniv of the death of the greatest soul singer ever.Marvin Gaye was shot by his father in a domestic dispute with a gun Marvin had given him a few months earlier on April 1st,1984 the day before Marvin's 45th Birthday.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Fabersham*

ABC news tonight had a story on a language school in Japan where the instructor uses Barack Obama speeches to teach his students English.It was pretty fascinating watching them repeat Obama lines in English or sometimes fractured English.The instructor has also used speeches of Martin Luher King and JFK to teach students.So I got to thinking it would be cool to go there and open up a Language school teaching English by using Three Stooges videos and some of Richard Pryor's live footage.I'd also throw in some Joe Pesci from"My Cousin Vinny" and of course tapes of Gilbert Gottfried. For the very good students I'd throw in some Leon Spinks to really challenge them or some Ozzy Osbourne. Maybe even a little Jedd Clampett and Granny just for giggles.Heck I might be able to franchise it around the non English speaking world.*If you know what 60's sitcom Fabersham came from and what it was give yourself an A plus plus and get outside and away from Nicks TV land for a few hours.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Cupcakes

I was talking to Knuckle Sandwich tonight on the patio as I was grilling a steak.I didn't see him on Fri so I wished him a Happy Birthday and asked him about his little party which was in a nearby park with several boys and two girls from school.His female classmate and buddy from across the street couldn't make it so it wasn't three girls.I asked him how it was and he said it was lots of fun.I asked him if he had cake and he said we had pizza.You had pizza for cake?.No we had cupcakes.Guess what I had,A mocha.You mean Mocha frosting?,No a mocha cupcake.Now I'm not advanced past chocolate or yellow cupcakes so this was news to me.I haven't looked it up yet to see if there is such a thing or if it was the frosting.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Birthdays and a Senior Moment

So I was checking my email today and there was a message from the Genie site which is one of these family tree site things my oldest neice and nephew set us up on to recall Birthdays,weddings,Arrests etc. and it said my brother was 53 today.Now I looked at it and thought I was 53 and then since I went to college/university it dawned on me I was in fact 54.My brother has been stuck in Chicago for a trial for a month and probably won't be home to San Diego to the wife and kids till May so I felt sort of bad for him.Also Knuckle Sandwich turns 8 on Friday and I thought he was already 8 so chalk another one up to the ageing mind.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Santa Monica Seafood

I don't think I've mentioned that my favorite seafood market here Santa Monica Seafood has moved from 12th and Colorado to 10th and Wilshire after being at the Colorado location since I think the 60's.Originally they were on the Santa Monica pier but with increased vehicle traffic the city asked them to move so they did 12 blocks inland to Colorado and 12th.Now that was great especially after I sold my car then truck having had enough of driving in L.A..It was an easy bus trip to the store or sometimes I would have my brother pick me up something as he goes over from work most Fri afternoons.But a few weeks ago they moved up to 10th and Wilshire a much busier area both people wise and traffic wise. So now they are in a hip neighborhood instead of the light industrial area they left but it now will take a bus trip with one or two transfers each way to get there.But they do have a huge selection of fresh fish and now an indoor outdoor cafe.I love getting some Artic Char fillets there.They also have those great little Manila clams which are great for pasta and clams or the Pacific Butter Clams.They always have a bunch of different Oysters including on occasion my beloved Wellfleets and every so often in summer Blue Fish will show up from back east which now I look on fondly but not when we pretty much lived on it in the Cape days cause it was cheap if not literally given to us.They also have the big meaty stone crab in season as well as Shad Roe in spring.On an average day I'd say they have twenty or more varities of fresh fish as well as all the shellfish and some good prepared stuff especially their cold squid salad.They even sell one pound bags of frozen Smelt from Canada which growing up on a great lake was a real treat and something I still get a jones for once or twice a year.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Eight IS enough

So I step off the bus across from my Trader Joe's a little after noon and as I am crossing the street and get to the curb who do I see giving me a LOOK but my old friend Dick Van Patten.He's in the TJ'S parking lot loading up the trunk of his red mercedes convertible and giving me the half stinkeye look he always gives me.Now I haven't seen him in over a year but I always wear my Red Sox cap and he seems to know who I am though I don't know him.This all started a few years ago when I would be waiting for my cab every morning in front of my building and for about a month Dick would drive by every day or so and see me standing there and give me a look lkie this guy looks like he's casing the cars or the houses on this street and maybe I should call the cops.Then about a month later I was on Pico and saw this guy from behind putting things in the back of his Red Mercedes convertible top down and I said as I walked by that the car looks really good in that color and as the guy says thanks he looks up and if it isn't Dick Van Patten and he registers a Oh it's you,I'm on to you look and jumps in the car and takes off.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

X-Mas according to Sarah Palin

More Black Helicopters

I was thinking early this morning when I have my best thoughts half awake that it might be more reasonable that the helicopter put down on the large ball/picnic fields next to the golf course right off Motor though there are Tennis courts there used all day but for the Pres I guess they could chase everyone off for a bit.I also assume the copter put down because I only saw it dropping low but if it didn't land it was twenty feet above ground level last I could see.It actually makes sense because it knocks off a good 3 to 4 miles of motorcade route disrupting more traffic.On a totally off the cuff note Moe Howard of the Three Stooges daughter lives right behind or did still afew years ago the golf course/rec area.You can make of that what you want.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Black Helicopters

So tonight around six I'm reading the end of "True North" the novel which has a very strange end but more on that later when I start hearing Big Choppers in the sky.I look out my window and see a Blackhawk UH-60 I beleive they are called going by low towards Santa Monica airport.Then I heard more and it dawned on me since the President was just in Orange County he must be coming into LA already.Next thing I saw was amazing because I watched a Blackhawk putting down on what looked like Motor Ave(Usually they fly the copters into nearby Santa Monica Airport) which runs dead end into Fox Studios.It was then I noticed traffic on my cross street Beverly Glen was very heavy so wandering outside I saw that Pico Blvd. was blocked both ways at Beverly Glen.Then I saw all the folks hanging out along Pico so I surmised that the helicopter put down on Motor to send the President into his motorcade to Century City where one hotel was popular with past Presidents for fund raisers and staying.But the motorcade unlike the Bush years did not come up Beverly Glen past me but went the other way down Pico back towards L.A..Then later tonight I hear that Obama is in fact staying at the Beverly Hilton which was so far off the radar the police said there wern't even any Lovers or Haters outside the hotel when the motorcade pulled up.I'll tell you though having several Blackhawks swooping around low over your building is a bit unnerving.Not only are they rather large and loud but sinister looking in that flat black.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Corned Beef and Cabbage

I did my Corned Beef last night so tonight it was easy leftovers.I put the corned beef on the stove for three and a half hours and the sucker was falling apart.I cooked the veggies seperate this year because I don't like the taste the corned beef liquid imparts into the taters.The odd thing is whenever I do a brisket for anything else it's on the Weber or in the oven.Because SweetPea left my Iris's alone I bought her a bunch at Trader Joes yesterday.She and her brother were outside in back so I took them down and she said Thank You and then asks right away"John could you take them upstairs and give them to my Mom or Dad to put in water"Then a few minutes later she asked me if I was going to bring out any snacks while I'm trying to read the NYTimes.So I went and got some pistachios and after awhile she says.Don't you have any apple slices.So it was back upstairs for apple slices.I told her mom she's only five and she's already wrapping men around her finger.Meanwhile her brother Knuckle Sandwich asks me if I'm going to smoke a cigar.I tell him no and he says when was the last time you smoked one.I say about ten days ago when I was out with you and he says man thats a long time to go.I want to see you smoke another one.I did get through the Monday NYTimes regardless.

Happy St. Patricks Day from Shane McGowan

Sunday, March 15, 2009

No Moe

SweetPea and Knuckle Sandwich have discovered the Three Stooges.I've often mentioned them and have a Curly Doll in my bathroom window which they have asked about.A few weeks ago SweetPea says out of the blue I like Curly,he's funny and then as if on cue Knuckle Sandwich came outside and did a pretty good Curly imitation.They also love watching Spanky and our Gang(Little Rascals) so their parents are doing a fine job raising them.Yesterday I pointed out to Sweet Pea we have our first Iris blooming in a front bed just as the liitle daffodils are wilting though the big creamy ones are getting ready.I showed it to her and ask her if she likes flowers."I Like picking flowers" she says and indeed she does.Sometimes she picks herbs from our garden and mixes them into a "salad" as she calls it.She also likes to pluck the lavender and crumble it.I can tell when her and her brother have been outside just by the plant debris lying on the sidewalk in front of our building or on the patio.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Hats

So I'm walking from the bus after Trader Joes today and right near my Apt. here comes the hat lady walking the other way.She was wearinf a red bangles type number I've seen before and as we chit chat I ask her if she has a St.Patricks day hat and she says yes.I then tell her I loved her Easter hat last year with the eggs I saw her wearing and she says I'll make your wife a hat.I tell her I'm not married and as I'm saying it I'm thinking I should have said that would be great so I could have sent it to someone.A few girls have expressed interest in what these hats look like.Maybe I'll ask her nice next time I see her.I have gotten to the point where she knows who I am.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Oh,Canada

Last night I was watching a rerun of Boston Legal which aren't reruns for me because I never watched the show before but anyhoo William Shatner and James Spader went fishing in Canada and on comes this really catchy tune about Welcome to Canada,it's the Maple Leaf State so I look it up and it's by some group called Five Iron Frenzy which appears to have been out of Denver in the late 80's.They were described as a Ska-Punk band and the song is out there downloadable for free.I guarantee you'll like it.They even mention Willian Shatner in the song as they do Milk in a bag,Venison Slurpie and the terms take off and Eh?.I started watching these on Ion tv which is over the air and in the later ones Shatner and Spader are on a terrace pretty much at the end of each show drinking scotch smoking stogies and talking life.I hadn't smoked a Cigar in a few years but that darn show caused me to order 25 by mail order from Thompsons Cigar in Tampa.Every ten days or so I smoke one on the patio and the last time SweetPea was out.She was fascinated by the whole thing then told me that smoking isn't good for me but at least I don't inhale the cigar she said.A smart little five year old she is.The song by the way is titled Oh,Canada but not that one though there is a horn hook in the middle of the real Oh,Canada my favorite of National Anthems by the way especially when sung by the late Roget Doucet at the old Montreal Forum before a Habs game.

True North times two

Last week I went over to Amazon to look at reader reviews of Jim Harrison's"True North" which I had started a few nights earlier and more on in a later post.Another"True North" caught my eye because the intro was by Lawrence Millman one of my favorite travel writers.His "Our Like will not be there again:Notes from the west of Ireland" is excellent as is his"Last Places,A Journey North" in which he follows the Viking route from Norway to Labrador.After I read that book I came across "The Lure of the Labrador Wild" by Dillon Wallace a harrowing account of a tragic canoe trip in Labrador in the early 1900's which Millman helped put back in print."True North" is another book on Labrador by Elliott Merrick who gave up an advertising career in the NY metro area during the depression to live amongst the natives and trappers in Labrador.It's quite a story so far and his description of the country is beautiful.The book was originally published by Scribners in 1933 and praised by Maxwell Perkins.This edition is a small press out of Vermont as is Merrick's later"Green Mountain Farm" which I also bought.In that one he and his Aussie wife who he met in Labrador buy a run down farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom some years later and the book is an account of their life on the farm.Millman writes the intro to this book also and both seem to be highly praised.I don't know why Labrador holds such a pull on me,maybe it's because to this day parts of it are still truly wild places but "True North" is the type of book I'm going to slow down on towards the end because I don't want it to end much like when I first read"The Lure of the Labrador Wild" years ago.This also marks the first time I have been reading two different books with the same title.So each night of late I talk to myself and ask do you want to read True North or True North tonight.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

It's a Miracle

The streetlight right past our bldg has been out since last X-Mas eve.I called it in on Dec 26th and tonight it was finally fixed!.It's never taken more than ten days before to replace a bulb but after eight years of neocons in control even basic services are the shits.A few more years of Republican rule and we'd be on a par with Albania.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Grazing at the Supermarket

So I took my usual saturday morning trip up to my Ralphs market and it was free treats all over!.Well not all free.As I walked up the Girlscouts(actually a Brownie Troop) were selling cookies.Now I recently ran out of my east coast haul from last fall of nieces and friends daughter which is when they sell them in Syracuse and Rochester.I bought a few boxes from the young ladies and then made my way into the store.When I reached seafood/meat there were some kind of garlic shrimp samples so I had a few.Then coming out of produce I hit a goldmine.A Boars Head lady was set up offering cocktail franks of which I had several and four different cheeses in cubes which I stabbed a few of with my toothpick.Then it was on to the actual Deli where I sampled a slice of the turkey breast I was buying.At the Deli counter was a tray of Kerri Gold Irish Cheddar cubes so I partook of those also.Reaching the checkout line with about fifteen toothpicks I was next to a table set up offering pieces of the bakery's glazed donuts so I had two for desert.A little wine or beer giveaway and I might not have left for a few hours.

Friday, March 6, 2009

The Comanche Empire

Of all things watching "The Outlaw Josey Wales" got me interested on reading about the Comanche's and this book came out last year.It's by Pekka Hamalainen who is a Finn and there has been talk both good and bad about the book.I love reading Native Histories but the Southwest tribes are really the only ones I haven't read much on.Something about arid lands just doesn't grab me.So I went over to my History Book Club site and ordered this last night.One thing that stikes me about the cover is how almost Oriental the Comanche on the cover looks in that makeup.I have some other books to post in the near future.

Cover "The Comanche Empire"

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Long Leg,Edward Hopper,1935,comment

I just read tonight that this Hopper painting is going to be a new US postage stamp.It's off Provincetown and at first I thought it was harbor side and the Wood End Light as the Long Point light farther out is just a tower but looking at it closer it must be the ocean side and Race Point Light.By the way one can stay at Race Point during the spring through fall season.It is off the grid but green powered.As for Wood End and Long Point they remain close to my heart.In 81 when we rented the cottage off Bay side North Truro from my loft bedroom I could lay awake at night/early morning and see across the bay to Provincetown.Many times I just watched the light shows from Thunderstorms on the bay with the lights of Provincetown inthe distance and the green and red flash of the light houses.Made me feel like I was in a Fitzgerald novel.By the way I've never really noticed this Hopper till now but what I find amazing is the way he's painted the currents into it.It almost looks like a photo in that part of the painting.

The Long Leg,Edward Hopper,1935

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Haircut in Key West

I was just reading a friends blog from Cape Cod the wonderful"Trout Towers" and there was mention in todays post and replies of a Parrot in a gilded cage. I'd link it but I never manage to do it right.I think if you click on my moniker it's under blogs I follow.But I googled it and it shows up easily.Ironically when I typed in Trout Towers it didn't show up on the top ten list that pops up.Trout Tickling seemed to be most popular though I have no idea what that entails and Trout Trucking also jumped out.Anyhoo to get back on topic I was reminded of some years ago when friends and I rented a house from a friend of a friend smack in the middle of a Key West August.The house had a small pool but the system was broken,the owner was out of town and the pool guy was always coming the next day to fix it.We just kept dumping chlorine in each day and after several days of Key West summer heat the chlorine smell in my hair and looking for an air conditioned hangout I wanderd down a little alley to a barbershop and thought I might as well cut it short for relief.I entered the place and it was a bit dark for a Barbershop.As I walked in I saw an older woman under a dryer and then glancing right an old guy asleep in a wheelchair.He opened one eye gave me a sneering look like Barrymore does to Johnny Rocco in "Key Largo" and went back to sleep.Then the lady who owned the place came out of a back room and I told her I would like a haircut.She started in on the haircut and we were chatting when I noticed a rather large Parrot on the windowsill.I said that's a beautiful Parrot and right away the Parrot starts bobbing it's head.Then it gives the wolf whistle and says"What the Hell"It says that a few more times then flys onto the Barbers shoulder with me right there.She tells me not to worry that he doesn't bite but now the Parrot is doing the whistle and What the Hell right near my ear.The bird then grew bored and flew off to a table where it started walking in circles.I'm thinking what have I gotten myself into here.Finally we are done and it was a pretty good haircut.I pay her and as the register dings Barrymore opens one eye again briefly.I exit the shop and one of the"locals" accosts me with a demonic grin on his face."Excuse me sir would you like some free shampoo?It's Free"I tell him no and he wanders across the street to a drug store as I'm standing there waiting for my friends a few minutes later I hear yelling from the drug store,A police car pulls up and my shampoo friend is shoved in the back of the car yelling his head off.Seems he was loading up on various items without paying and had done it before.Since this haircut other Barbers just don't give me a thrill.I long to go back for another one someday.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Autumn Mist Lake George by Alfred T. Bricher(1871)

Shadowbrook

I was looking at some of the old mansions tonight in the Berkshires and came across this one again.It was built in 1893 and burned to the ground in 1956.At one time it was the largest house in the US at 100 rooms on 9oo acres.I forget the gent who built it but the second owner not soon after was Andrew Carnegie and he lived there until his death.I think I may have posted the pic of Shadowbrook in this blog way back but I don't feel like going back and looking.Let sleeping dogs lie is my motto for 2009.

Shadowbrook,Lenox,MA

Monday, February 16, 2009

Ex Presidents

I was thinking last night that we really haven't heard anything about GW Bush since he left office and I think he's one of those ex Presidents that won't get much attention even in this media age.I think the last ex President who received so little attention was LBJ another Texan.I recall reading little about LBJ after he left office and in my high school days was a faithful reader of the print NYTimes back in the day when the news digest was printed on the bottom of the front page.I recall around 1973 seeing a B&W photo of LBJ in the NYTimes with pretty long hair and thinking to myself I haven't heard about this dude in awhile.For some reason Jimmy Carter who one would think would have drawn little press attention after he left office did.

First pic of ex president Bush on his ranch

Family Time

So I'm watching the Daytona 500 on Sunday and Nascar is all about family but yesterdays race was like Kentucky where everyone is first cousin to someone else.First off Tom Cruise was the grand marshall or something and rode around in the pace car before the race started.The live from the track music show before the race was done by Keith Urban.Keith Urban is married to Nicole Kidman.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Uro Club

Just when I think I've seen it all I came across this gem last night.The Uro Club is a hollow club that you relieve yourself on the golf course in so you don't have to stop your game.The towel comes with it and they claim it cleans easily and there is enough storage for you and your partner to share.EEEWWWW!!!.Now I'm going to look more closely when I see guys leaning against their club with a towel over their waist on the course.I think it might be handy for storing Gin&Tonics on the course though or some pre-rolled Herb.

The Uro Club pic

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Beanpot

Oh what could have been for Northeastern tonight.It was a classic game with lots of drama and with NU down 2-3 with a bit less than 7 minutes left to Boston University the Huskies go on a power play and GIVE UP TWO SHORTHANDED GOALS!.This after not scoring on a 5-3 advantage early in the third.BU scored three shorthanded goals and wins 5-2 for their 29th Beanpot title with BC edging Harvard 4-3 for third.If you don't live in New England you don't realise how big the Beanpot is.It's been played since 1952 and has been played the first two monday's in Feb for many years because nothing else is going on then.It sells out the Boston Garden every year and tonight there were over 17,000 fans there.I just looked at one blog and as always there were many clever chants between the Fans of the Huskies and the Terriers.Now in real life everyone knows a Huskie would kick a Terriers ass but not in Boston.Oh well we still lead BU by a point in the Hockey East Standings(BeanPot games are non-conf) with a home and home series at NU/BU the weekend of Feb 20th.There really is a trophy shaped like a Beanpot by the way.To top it off BU came into the game ranked #1 in college hockey with Northeastern #3(amazing for an NU team) the highest rankings between two teams in the Beanpot final ever which gave it even more of a big playoff game feeling.Hopefully this is the year my Huskies make their second ever trip to the Frozen Four which is in Wash D.C. this year.