So she finally ordered a nice new comfortable chair which was delivered to the house. I decided to put it partially together at home and then bring it over to the studio for the final assembly. I opened the box and assembled some of the parts like the foot rest and the wheel and leg assembly.
Careless Love - Reflections FV
It has been raining the past few days on top of the snow that had accumulated since last week. Today was the first day that the sidewalks were actually clear of snow, ice and slush and the first opportunity to go for a walk. It wasn't too cold either with the temperature in the high 30's. It felt good to take that walk and my hip and shoulder cooperated with little or no pain. We thought it would be a good time to take that walk because the weather report for tomorrow calls for rain changing into snow throughout the day.
Next week should be good for walking almost every day and we are looking forward to it.
I was totally fascinated with this biography of Julian and his short life as a scholar, soldier and empire administrator. His brief two year reign as emperor was controversial. I was not familiar with him and only heard of him in passing or a footnote in some books I'd read on ancient Rome. He was mostly called Julian The Apostate but of course the history of Rome was written by Christian scholars. His attempt to rid the Roman Empire of Christian influence was an amazing story and that it occurred in the 360's after the reign of Constantine The Great where Christianity was made the state religion. Julian's goal was to bring back the religion of the old Roman gods. Christianity had become the religion of the ruling class of Rome but not the general public who were still basically pagan. He really could have changed history had it not been for a random Persian spear. The author's judicious use of original contemporary sources was very interesting.
I've always enjoyed reading histories and especially books about ancient Rome, Greece, Byzantium, Persia, China, India, the Aztecs, etc. I haven't read an ancient history book in awhile except some recent books about pre-Columbian Native Americans.
Gore Vidal wrote a novel about the life of Julian The Apostate in 1964. The novel was simply titled Julian.
So Far From Here - Reflections FV
There was an unusual group, Frautschi, Manasse, Nakamatsu Trio, playing last night that consisted of violin, clarinet and piano. They were all fantastic musicians with amazing backgrounds and they all played wonderfully. The program included pieces by Debussy, Chopin, Stravinsky and a couple contemporary composers. The violin and clarinet players were incredible and the pianist performed an truly wonderful Chopin piece.
My shoulder and hip problems did not bother at all during the concert which made me very happy. However, there was a group of friends sitting in the row in front of us and the person directly in front of me turned out to probably be a not very interested in chamber music person who spent the entire concert knitting something and all the while squirming in her seat and bobbing her head back and forth. She was truly aggravating but fortunately I was able to concentrate on the performances and for the most part ignored her spastic behavior. I had glanced around the room and noticed that everyone sat very still concentrating on the music but this person was obviously out of her element and probably there because a friend had given her a ticket.
It was a very rainy night when we driving to the concert with some poor visibility. We parked in our usual spot around the corner from the music hall and walked over. There was a lot of snow on the ground and we had to be careful. Lots of very deep puddles too because of the rain and the melting snow. After the show we needed to be careful walking because of black ice but at least it had stopped raining. It was a lot more pleasant driving home and we come up Elmwood Avenue. We got home around 10 pm and hung out for awhile relaxing in front of the TV.
The next concert in February is the Juillard String Quartet.
At My Most Beautiful - Reflections FV
Another Reflections Final Version mix. This one collects some nice love songs from the late 1990's and early 2000's. Most of these songs have been used on previous mixes but this particular configuration is new from a few weeks ago. It's always fun to put something like this together. An hour and a half as usual.
Sean and Ashley were at the game and it was a tough loss for them. They left early in the 4th quarter because they wanted to get back to be with Autumn. They left her with us and were gone for eight hours. They watched the very end at our house after watching it on their phone on the way home.
Bills had a good season and it was amazing that won those five games in a row to get into the playoffs.
We ended up having a wonderful time with little Autumn. They arrived at our house around 6:30 pm on Saturday evening. We had invited Dave and Donna along with Mary to stop by to see the baby. We ordered pizza from Romeo & Juliet's along with some cookies. Donna brought cookies too. We all had a nice evening together and it was fun seeing little Autumn who was just turning two months old.
The Shangri-Las were playing at Lighthouse Field down on Erie Avenue during a carnival. They shared the bill with The Ronettes. This was my first concert. I went with some friends who were more interested in the carnival sideshows rather than the girl bands playing in the parking lot. I was there to see the bands. I loved both bands back in 1965.
I first heard some of the old guy blues when the Electric Factory in Philly often opened a rock show with an old classic blues player. Then in the late 1960's I started listening to white guy blues like Johnny Winter. Later in the mid 1970's we regularly listened to the WXPN blues show on Saturday nights.
I put this blues mix together a few years ago as a blues mega mix that ran for about 15 hours and had well over 200 songs. Well, this is back to my hour and a half mixes and is part of my Final Version series.
The blues music here is all over the place from various eras and styles. I love how it comes together and sounds like a blues party all night long indeed.
All Night Long - Blues Night FV
Now I could appreciate what he was doing because I was already a member of a Philadelphia Mummers String Band where there already was a healthy tradition of taking serious music and running with it all over the place with banjos and accordians. Mummers bands played all kinds of music and frequently mixed up classical and current popular music together along with silly costumes and routines. P.D.Q. Bach could have been a mummer.
The first time I saw him was in 1973 when he opened up for Jackson Browne at Villanova. John and I went to see JB and were surprised and amazed by Springsteen and his band. A few months later I was out of the Navy and got to see him play at the Main Point. It was really fun to see him play in a small club. Later in 1974 I would see him again at the Main Point, the Tower Theater and at Widener College. He was very popular in the Philly area. They were all great shows.
Under Your Spell - Reflections FV
Another quick read... about ten days. This book is a behind-the-scenes expose of the inner workings and manipulative tactics of Facebook and the resulting scandals triggered by their uncontrolled social media platform written by an award winning technology reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The book was a shocking revelation of the efforts made by Facebook leadership to overcome the results of their own employees' studies measuring the cost to users and society of flagrant and disregarded damaging effects including misinformation, political manipulation, amplifying anger, looking the other way at human trafficking, authoritarians, and drug cartels on the platform. People are supposed to believe that Facebook tries to prevent or remove harmful content but the book shows that the company is firmly set on profits first. This also includes Instagram and any product developed by Meta.
I've noticed over the following several months other cars around the neighborhood, Kias and Hyundais, with theft clubs on their steering wheels just like ours. Becky and I have just got into the habit of putting on and taking off the club very quickly.
A couple of weeks ago there was another rash of cars around the neighborhood with the car windows smashed and their steering wheel columns damaged. They were Kias and Hyundais too. There was one car directly across the street from us and another down the block. I had thought at sometime we would be able to stop clubbing our car but probably not. Seeing the club on the car is probably more of a deterrent to a thief than the warning stickers. One of our new neighbors across the street knocked on our door to ask me about the damaged car on the block to see if I might know who owned it. He really didn't know about the ongoing Kia thing and I told our story of what happened in our driveway and our experience getting repaired and all of the other cars that were stolen or damaged.
So now we still keep clubbing the car even when it is covered with snow.
Now I'm watching the Eagles play Tampa Bay.
The show was terrific and we couldn't believe how good he and his band Double Trouble were that night.
Today was had several inches on the ground and lots of serious high winds which is the scariest part of the weather right now. We still are way behind on snow totals for the year and today is still not very much but we don't like the blowing wind. So I shoveled a few inches of snow today but it still was not enough to get the snowblower out. It stopped in the afternoon but there was a lot of snow predicted for overnight.
The Bills playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was originally scheduled for this afternoon but was rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 because of the weather. The Bills organization has been calling for volunteers to come down to the stadium to shovel out the seats.
We watched an episode of True Detective before going to bed and could here the wind blowing outside but at least it wasn't snowing... yet.
I saw it in 1975 and remember it very well. I did like the weird black comedy of the science fiction story taking place is a post-apocalyptic America but was also troubled by the misogyny of some of the very twisted plot devices. Back when I saw it the movie seemed like so far into the future of 2024. The poster said it was a future you would probably live to see and that it was an R rated rather kinky tale of survival. The telepathic dog really got to me.
This is a later mix that started out in the Love and Heartache series. Now it is with the Reflections Final Version group. Love songs from the mostly mid 2010's.
Never Gonna Love Again - Reflections FV
There has been lots of talk about the Bills playoff game in Orchard Park tomorrow and there was a call for volunteers to shovel snow in the stadium. Just a little while ago an announcement was made that the game has been moved to 4:30 pm Monday afternoon because of dangerous winter conditions predicted at game time tomorrow. Also a travel ban will go into effect later this evening.
We have not been able to complain about the weather throughout this fall and winter up until now. I only shoveled snow twice so far this season and both times it was only an inch or so. I've had the snowblower ready but haven't come close to needing it. That may change over the next couple of days.
I'm glad we got out last night for some dinner and social activity. The weather forecast is showing snowy weather all this coming week starting today. It should be interesting. The only thing I worry about is losing power with all this strong wind.
We went down to Cafe 59 for dinner a little before 6 pm and had a wonderful meal there as usual. This place has been one of our favorite restaurants for many years now. Becky got a harvest turkey wrap with steak fries and I ordered their sheperd's pie special with a nice salad. The food was great and mine was very filling and satisfying on a cold wet night. I had a kolsch from Notch Brewing which was my first time drinking this beer. It was very good and I'll be looking for it again somewhere. Then I had a Let's Go Pils, a pilsner from Community Beer Works. Becky had a Brooklyn NA Hoppy Amber. The service was great as usual.
It was nice to get out of the house. We came home and watched a little TV before heading up to bed. It's going to be a wintry day tomorrow and over the next several days at least.
Later today still no soreness in the arm. Now I did get the shot in my right arm instead of my usual vaccine left arm shot because it was my left shoulder that was recently dislocated so I opted for the other arm. So now I feel a little better about going out and doing things like maybe going to an art opening and dinner tomorrow night.
I found myself reading this very quickly despite the violence and some cliche plot devices. I was a little disappointed in the end when it looked like everything was happening because of some typical conspiracy theory activities that had been ongoing for centuries. Deep state and Illuminati sort of things just waiting to happen.
I'll probably read the second book in the series as it is a direct continuation of what was happening in the first book. The other books apparently wander off into different characters and situations.
Take A Chance With Me - Late Night FV
The show was entertaining and had lots of plot twists. The ex-agent was living as a schoolteacher in Barcelona. During the armed robbery in a grocery store that threatens her family she exhibits highly skilled fighting skills that raises questions about her identity and past that further endangers the people around her.
The story and the pacing kept me coming back and I enjoyed the series. It ended with the possible continuation of a second season.
They put on a fantastic show and played songs from their first two released albums Birds of Fire and The Inner Mounting Flame. I was very impressed with the musicians and the quality of the music. John Hammond started off the show.
The In Crowd - Funky Jams FV
