What It Is - Kitchen Listening

What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves: 1967-1977 - Kitchen Listening. A wonderful various artists compilation of funky soul music in a 4 CD set of 80 songs from that decade that was released in 2006 from Rhino Records.

This set makes for an incredible listening experience that goes on for a little over five hours. One of the things I loved about this collection was the deep cuts and the not well known but fantastic artists represented here.

I came of age musically as a teenager in Philadelphia and this was a lot of the stuff I listened to growing up into young adulthood. I started out with Motown and doo-wop but quickly got into that funk with James Brown and beyond. I saw a lot of soul and funk bands during this decade too including JB. More on the album on AllMusic.

Banana Bread

It's been awhile since we made any Banana Bread but this evening Becky put one together and I can't wait to have some for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Update 3/29 - The banana bread is delicious.

Mexican Food Leftovers

Tonight for dinner we had some of the leftovers we brought home from La Fiesta Cantina last night. We added some rice we had leftover from the a couple of days ago and also a fresh salad. It was a nice meal.

Somebody's Fool - A Novel

Somebody's Fool - Richard Russo, 2025. Today I finished reading this third book in his North Bath series which takes place in that town in Upstate New York. I enjoyed the book a lot like I did the books of his that I've read but this one also kind of weirded me out with his descriptions of the characters and their relationships with each other. It was also odd the way the characters from the previous books in the series reemerged again years later. 

The first book of the series, Nobody's Fool, was written in 1993 and I read it in 1994. The second book, Everybody's Fool, was written in 2016 and I read it in 2017. And now here I am reading Somebody's Fool which was written in 2025. So each book came out about 10 years apart. 

Overall this is the ninth Richard Russo novel I've read and the first in almost ten years. I wrote about Russo in my Authors List series here. There are still a lot more of his books that I would like to read but right now I'm starting another John Banville novel... Venetian Vespers that was just published a few months ago.

Broadside - Kitchen Listening

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine and released from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. 

Today is No Kings Day and a great time to listen to the 5 disc compilation box set released in 2000. The album runs about five and a half hours of contemporary folk music of it's time with much of it very topical development of an American social consciousness in popular music.

This is a great collection of music and an awesome listening experience. Here is a breakdown of the album on Discogs and a little history of Broadside Magazine.

J. K. Rowling - The Authors List

J. K. Rowling. The Authors List with 7 books. Yep, the Harry Potter books. I had a Harry Potter moment in my life. During the Christmas break 2011-2012 I decided to watch all of the Harry Potter movies one after the other in just under two weeks. I enjoyed them all very much. Then in the Spring of 2012 I started reading the books which I checked out of the campus library one by one. I read all seven books between April and June. So yes I enjoyed my Harry Potter experience. BTW, after reading the books I watched the movies again.

J. K. Rowling books that I read:

• Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, 1997 - Apr 2012
• Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, 1998 - Apr 2012
• Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, 1997 - Apr 2012
• Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, 2000 - May 2012
• Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, 2003 - May 2012
• Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, 2005 - Jun 2012
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows, 2007 - Jun 2012

Dinner at La Fiesta Cantina

Tonight Becky and I had a wonderful dinner at a fabulous Mexican restaurant on Allen Street... La Fiesta Cantina. Both the food and the service was great. The restaurant itself was very interesting and welcoming. This was our first time in this particular restaurant but a number of years ago we had been there once when it was another Mexican restaurant called Don Tequila. Was not impressed. For many years we went to the K Gallagher restaurant in that location.

We had two dinners that we shared. Two Chimichangas filled with shredded chicken with rice, beans and a delicious salad. The other main dish was Tex-Mex Quesadilla with steak, grilled onions, corn and black beans along with an order of fries. These dinners were spectacular. 

I also had a couple of Modelo Especial Mexican Lager. It's been a long time since I had one of these on tap. 

Acid Drops - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen Listening with Acid Drops, Spacedust and Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionary from the UK Underground 1965-1969, 2001. 

This is an incredible four disc compilation box set put together by Mojo Magazine of obscure British psychedelia from the 60's. They also mix in some well known bands to give the collection a nice historical balance and context along side the many one hit wonders and psychedelic obscurities. It really is a fun listening experience and I enjoyed every moment. The set runs for nearly four hours.

More about this compilation here on AllMusic.

Mark Twain - The Authors List

Mark Twain. The Authors List with 8 books I've read. Two of them I read in my early teens... guest which ones. Yep, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Then I read them again as an adult along with a few other ones. In the late 80's and early 90's I was interested in Mark Twain again. 

I especially liked his non-fiction autobiographical travel memoirs. He was a very interesting writer and I really liked that he was writing of his time and travels through the Old West and along the Mississippi River.

I particularly loved his autobiography which was more of a dictated collection of reminiscences, anecdotes and ruminations near the end of his life rather than a traditional written memoir.

Mark Twain books that I've read:

• The Prince and the Pauper, 1881 - Jan 1988
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889 - Jul 1989
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876 - Aug 1991
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884 - Oct 1991
• Life On The Mississippi, 1883 - Jan 1992
• Roughing It, 1872 - Jun 1993
• The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrim's Progress, 1886 - Aug 1993
• The Autobiography of Mark Twain, 1910 - Nov 1993

Cream of Chicken Soup

We had some left over chicken from the past couple of nights so Becky made some cream of chicken soup tonight. It was delicious especially with some smoked paprika liberally springled on it. We had some of that wonderful French peasant bread too.

A nice meal for those last cold days of the season.