3 Shades of Blue

3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan, 2025.

Becky got me this book for Christmas and I loved it. I took my time reading it in small segments rather than going through it like a mystery novel page-turner and enjoyed every bit of it over the course of four months. 

The main focus of the book was the year 1959 and the making of the album Kind of Blue which is often considered the greatest jazz album of all time and one of my favorites. The book then followed those three giant jazz musicians through the next few years of their accomplishments and struggles.

I have also been doing lots of kitchen listening to the music discussed in the book. Great albums from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and so many more.

Over the years I've read several other books about Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Kurt Vonnegut - Authors List

Kurt Vonnegut - Authors List. 6 books of his I've read starting with Slaughterhouse Five which I read in 1971 while cruising on a Navy ship in the Caribbean Sea. It was very intense to read this semi-autobiographical anti-war novel while in the military during a war. I quickly followed this book with Cat's Cradle and then four more of his novels over the next few years. They were all fascinating quirky novels that in hindsight fit very well in the 70's.

I remember seeing the movie at a downtown Philly theater right when it was released while I was home on leave and waiting for the bus to take me back to the base in Virginia. 

Kurt Vonnegut books I've read:

• Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade, 1969 - Nov 1971
• Cat's Cradle, 1963 - Dec 1971
• Sirens of Titan, 1959 - Feb 1972
• Player Piano, 1952 - Mar 1972
• God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, 1965 - May 1973
• Breakfast of Champions, 1973 - Jan 1974

Miles Davis in Person 1961 - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen Listening. Reading about Miles Davis and listening to Miles Davis. In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, San Francisco Complete. This is a 4 CD set that includes the original first two albums released in 1961 along with the additional sets from Saturday night released in 2003. This is a four hour box set that makes for a wonderful kitchen listening experience especially while reading so much about his  recordings and live shows during that period along with John Coltrane and Bill Evans. 

BTW, I did write about this album here for another live Miles Kitchen Listening set in 2020 along with a couple other of his live albums. I do have a lot of live Miles albums in my collection from every period of his career. 

Joe @ Intensive Care

My brother-in-law Joe has been in bad health for many years with a variety of issues. I just got some messages from my sister and niece concerning his current health. On Wednesday Joe was admitted to the ER at the Upper Bucks County hospital. He was diagnosed with something called dead or dying bowel syndrome which is a very serious condition that could be fatal is not handled immediately. He had emergency surgery right away.

They kept him overnight after the surgery and scheduled him for a special CAT scan to determine the cause of the problem which could be vascular or low blood flow. They did determine the bowels and intestines were not damaged or dead. He was fortunate to have that surgery quickly. They also put him on blood thinners and controlled his blood pressure to improve blood circulation to his organs.

They did a second surgery on Joe and had him on a ventilator. The surgery was successful and they did not need to cut out any of his intestine and the treatment they've been giving him has improved his health of his intestines and bowels. Everything is looking good and it was a close call but it was a rough couple of days.

He was still in intensive care on Friday but more alert. Betsy just sent us the picture here of Joe. So glad to see him smiling.

Becky and I are going down to Philly in a couple of weeks to see Katie and the kids and we will make sure we stop by and see Betsy and Joe too.

Rita @ ER Again

We got a message from Wendy through Dan concerning Rita's latest health issues. On Wednesday she was in the ER at Grandview Hospital. An ambulance took her there after she didn't show up for lunch and a friend came by to check up on her. She was in bed at 1 pm, very confused and disoriented. Wendy spent time with her at the hospital and said she was still confused and could not answer a lot of questions correctly like her birthday or where she lives. Apparently she had another fall the previous night. She had been sick and vomiting over the past couple of days.

They did bloodwork and a CT which they said looked good. They were admitting her for observation and scheduled an MRI and echo. She had more testing done the following day. Apparently the test results showed that Rita had a mini-stroke. She is recovering well and will be discharged to a rehab center tomorrow. 

Miles Davis - Kitchen Listening Blue

Listening to Miles Davis while reading James Kaplan's 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool. The book covers the period of jazz in the late 1950's to the early 1960's. Focuses a lot on the making of Kind of Blue among other albums of the period and of course I started this set off with that album from 1959. Then went back to 1957 for 'Round About Midnight and then Milestones from 1958.

It's nice having a lot of Miles Davis albums, compilations and box sets in my collection.

George R. R. Martin - The Authors List

George R. R. Martin - The Authors List. 6 Novels. Game of Thrones... I read all five books of that series A Song of Ice and Fire in 2011. One right after the other. A few years later I read another novel. I was never really into reading fantasy novels very much but this was something a little different. It was more like a medieval alternate history but with some dragons.

I did enjoy reading the books and then of course I watched the TV series that went on for 8 seasons running between 2011 and 2019. A new prequel series just began on HBO in 2026. I guess I should check it out.

George R.R. Martin books I've read:

• A Game of Thrones, 1996 - Jul 2011
• A Clash of Kings, 1998 - Aug 2011
• A Storm of Swords, 2000 - Sep 2011
• A Feast for Crows, 2005 - Oct 2011
• A Dance with Dragons, 2011 - Dec 2011
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, 2015 - Jan 2016

Fish Fry Tonight

We were going to go out last night for our usual Thursday dinner but realized that with the Sabres playing our favorite spots would be a little crazy so we went out this evening instead. We went to Coles and I had a fish fry. Becky had a Buffalo Wrap. Lots of delicious fries too.

We got there around 5:30 and it wasn't very crowded but by 6 the place was filling up and when we left around 7 every table was full. The food was wonderful as always and the service was great.

Canisius Library Today

I went down to the Canisius library today to pick up some books. I have been planning to do this for awhile. It's been quite a few months since I've last been down there. So after cutting the grass today I got in the car and went down the street to my old workplace. It was a Friday afternoon so I was expecting it to be quiet there... I was wrong.

It's also near the end of the semester so the library was quite full of students. I first talked with Matt and caught up with what was happening at the library. I also had a nice conversation with a grad student working the desk. Then I went down to the lower level to see if Kris was there. She wasn't. Then I went and got the books I was looking for. They were books on my to-read list that I hadn't been able to get previously from other sources.

I also went up to the second floor. It was a shock to see all the books were gone but the college did do a great job renovating the space for it's new use which is not being a library. It is more of a student study center... without books. Last year I was surprised to see that thousands of books were discarded from the stacks on that floor and tossed into trash bins. The books that were kept were all taken down to the lower level and reorganized which is still an ongoing process.

New Lawnmower - Cuttin' Grass

I got the new electric lawnmower up and running this week. A couple of days ago I cut the front lawn. It was an easy job because the bad weed has been somewhat under control in the front. Then it rained a couple of days so I waited for the back lawn to dry out the extensive weed. So yesterday I tried the mower out with the heavy weed in the front of the backyard. I filled a very heavy bag full of weed from the mower's catch container.

Today I went back out there and did the rest of the backyard. It took about an hour because of the heavy weed. I also did it in four sections and loaded a full white trash bag for each section. That's a lot of heavy weed bags overall. 

The mower did a great job cutting the weed and grass. I didn't do the weed whacking trimming yet though. It's going to rain tomorrow so I'll probably wait until Monday.