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.