Tom's Last Goodbye Mix

Tom's Last Goodbye Mix. This is another grieving mix I made that followed the previous Tom's Only Life mix I made last week based on an earlier mix I made following the death of my brother Tom in 2014. It is another four hours of song that make me think of my friend Tom and the many many hours we spent together listening to music.

Tom's Last Goodbye Mix

1. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
2. Drowning In Your Tears - The Rembrandts
3. Sweet Surrender - Sarah McLachlan
4. Goodbye - Emmylou Harris
5. Speed of the Sound of Loneliness - Nanci Griffith
6. Volcano - Damien Rice
7. I Don't Know Why - Shawn Colvin
8. Into Temptation - Crowded House
9. Try - Blue Rodeo
10. Everytime You Go Away - Paul Young
11. Moments In Love - Art of Noise
12. The Hurting - Tears For Fears
13. Walking On A Wire - Richard & Linda Thompson
14. Levi Stubb's Tears - Billy Bragg
15. Quiet Heart - The Go-Betweens
16. Lorelei - The Pogues
17. Book of Days - Enya
18. Winter - Tori Amos
19. I'll Stand By You - Pretenders
20. Only A Broken Heart - Tom Petty
21. Ballad of Big Nothing - Elliot Smith
22. Here With Me - Dido
23. Lullaby - Shawn Mullins
24. Stars All Seem To Weep - Beth Orton
25. Tears Are In Your Eyes - Yo La Tengo
26. Blue - The Thorns
27. The Scientist - Coldplay
28. Bring It On - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
29. Days - David Bowie
30. I Want To Die - Rick Bain & The Genius Position
31. Something To Talk About - Badly Drawn Boy
32. Rapture (Sweet Rapture) - A. A. Bondy
33. Holocaust - Son Volt
34. Lived In Bars - Cat Power
35. If You Want Me - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
36. In Vain or True - Fistful of Mercy
37. Poison & Wine - The Civil Wars
38. In The Hearts of Men - First Aid Kit
39. All Night - Tyler Ramsey
40. Song For Zula - Phosphorescent
41. Myth - Beach House
42. Dear Friend - Jonathan Wilson
43. One Day - Sharon Van Etten
44. (I'm Gonna) Fly Away - The Acorn
45. Tomorrow - Espers
46. Wordless Chorus - My Morning Jacket
47. Venus - Air
48. Sweethearts on Parade - M. Ward
49. The Last High - The Dandy Warhols
50. Destiny - Zero 7
51. Everything In Its Right Place - Radiohead
52. Autumn Shade - The Vines
53. NYC - Interpol
54. Crazy - Afghan Whigs
55. Mellow Doubt - Teenage Fanclub
56. Is It Like Today? - World Party
57. If I Should Fall Behind - Bruce Sringsteen
58. Losing My Religion - R.E.M.

Dinner @ Kostas

We had a nice dinner tonight at Kostas. This was the first time just the two of us we went there in many years. Lately we have gone with Katie and the kids when they come to town because they always want to go there for a meal. We had just been there in June for lunch with the kids.

This has always been one of our favorite places to eat and especially as a Greek restaurant. We loved taking our kids there when they were little. Long before we had kids we were also regulars at Kostas. It was located down the street on the same block of Hertel as Becky's family owned art store where we both worked in the 80's. We had lunch there often and also stopped in after work a lot for dinner. Katie and Todd spent a lot of time at Kostas during their teenage years in the area.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner tonight and I had one of my usual Kostas dinners that included chicken souvlaki salad. I probably would have had a side order of Greek potatoes too but Becky had ordered a BLT sandwich which included fries which we shared. Next time I'll get those Greek potatoes and some of their great rice pudding too. We didn't want to eat deserts too because we were heading over to the Squeaky Wheel anniversary party afterwards and their would be snacks there too.

Empire's Crossroads - The Caribbean Sea

Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day by Carrie Gibson, 2014. I finished this book today after spending about two months reading it.

This book was a well documented fascinating story of exploring the "New World", a quest for empire, the search for gold, growing tobacco and sugar, the slave cultures, pirates, the blend of so many different cultures, races and peoples including the indigenous inhabitants and then on to the banana republics, corporate domination and the cold war. The modern era of the book seemed to concentrate on Haiti and Cuba.

I've been interested in the history of the countries and islands of the Caribbean Sea ever since I spent several years in the area as part of the US Navy's Caribbean Ready Group in the early 1970s. I visited over 20 of the islands and countries in the region and enjoyed the food, the music and the people.

Over the years I read histories of many of these individual places such as Panama, Haiti, Puerto Rico,  Cuba, Jamaica, Costa Rico, Nicaragua and many more. However, this is the first time I read a book that was an in-depth historical overview of the entire region. 

A list of countries and islands I visited in the Caribbean over 50 years ago between 1971 and 1973.

• Cuba
• Puerto Rico
• Haiti
• Dominican Republic
• Panama
• Costa Rico
• St. Thomas
• St. Croix
• St. John
• Aruba
• Martinique
• Guadeloupe
• St. Kitts 
• Columbia
• Venezuela
• Barbados
• Curacao
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Hondoras
• Mexico
• Bahamas

Dinner @ The Steer

We had seen the promotions of the reopening of The Steer Restaurant recently in social media so it was on our radar. We were out last night down at the Roswell hospital down at the medical campus where I had my CTA brain scan which had been scheduled a little later than usual at 6:15 pm. Becky went down with me and we got there a little early which was good because they got me started with the scan a little before 6 pm. We got out a little more than an hour later and decided to go somewhere for dinner. We both thought about The Steer that had just reopened and had been one of our favorite restaurants for many years. We drove up Main Street and got there around 7:30 pm which was a little late for us going out to dinner. It was great to be back in The Steer and the menu was very similar to the previous traditional one.

Becky had a chicken finger sub and I had the BBQ grilled chicken sandwich. We shared an order of fries. I had a Harp Lager draft and Becky had an NA.

There were four other tables of folks in the dining room while we were there. The service was great and the food was delicious as usual. The new owner/chef came out to greet us at our table before we left.

Brain Scan #24

Yesterday evening I had my 24th brain scan to monitor my multiple brain aneurysms. I think this is the first time I got scanned during Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month. My first scan was a CATscan in November 1988 that showed negative results and then a follow-up angiogram a few months later revealed two aneurysms. Since then I have had a brain scan every two or three years. Then later MRIs, MRAs and now CTAs. These scans after my surgery were used to keep track of the large aneurysm that was clipped and to monitor the smaller one behind my eye that at the time was considered inoperable. Technology and updated procedures have improved and if that aneurysm acted up it could be quickly removed. Also over the years that improved scanning technology enabled the discovery of a couple more small aneurysms and my continuing CTA scans I've been having every two or three years. 

Tom's Only Life Mix

I originally put this mix together in June 2014 a couple of weeks after my brother Tom died. At the time I really wasn't thinking about specifically about Tom and the music he loved and this mix was really about him. But it turned out to be about me and my grieving for my brother. Later when I played this set of music I always thought of Tom because this all came out as part of my grieving process. It's happening again for my friend Tom who recently passed away.

The original It's Only Life mix was about an hour and a half long and at the time I put it together I described it as "pop songs of sad contemplation about life and death. Sometimes over the top and sometimes down in the depths."

Tom Loonan and I were music buddies. We listened to a lot of music together and went to lots of music clubs together for live performances. His wife wanted some jazz music playing in the background at his visitation afternoon and I was asked to put something together. I made a four hour jazz mix and called it Tom's Body and Soul Mix.

But this past week I was also listening to this mix here that I had made for my brother Tom 12 years ago at his sudden death. I could get it out of my head so I took off with it and expanded it into a 4 hour collection of "pop songs of sad contemplation about life and death. Sometimes over the top and sometimes down in the depths."

It starts out with the original hour and a half that I made with my brother in mind then I kept going in the same vein, heart and soul for another two and a half hours. Actually for about four hours and twenty minutes. It was hard to come to an end and I think it will continue with another mix I'll put together after the memorial service on Saturday. 

So I spent several days working on this new version of It's Only Life and edited it over and over again trying to get it right about how I was feeling. What songs worked and what ones didn't. It was trial and error but now I'm satisfied but of course this is only for me to judge, it's how I feel. The first thing I did when I felt it was completed was to change the name. Now the mix is Tom's Only Life mix.

I've added it to my YouTube Music collection of mixes. Spotify too. 

Tom's Only Life - A Reflections Mix

1. It's Only Life - The Shins
2. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - Fleet Foxes
3. Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
4. In This World - Moby
5. Lost Cause - Beck
6. No Surprises - Radiohead
7. In My Place - Coldplay
8. Turn - Travis
9. Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
10. Lightning Crashes - Live
11. Fade Into You - Mazzy Star
12. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
13. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
14. Building A Mystery - Sarah McLachlan
15. With Or Without You - U2
16. No Distance Left To Run - Blur
17. Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips
18. Trying To Get To Heaven - Bob Dylan
19. Keep Me In Your Heart - Warren Zevon
20. Hurt - Johnny Cash
21. Only Time - Enya
22. A Voice At The End Of The Line - M. Ward
23. Revelator - Gillian Welch
24. The Greatest - Cat Power
25. The Only Way - Jim Noir
26. Don't You Know - The Sleepy Jackson
27. The Funeral - Band of Horses
28. Crown of Love - Arcade Fire
29. Blonde on Blonde - Nada Surf
30. New Slang - The Shins
31. Waltz #2 - Elliott Smith
32. Five String Serenade - Mazzy Star
33. Night Swimming - R.E.M.
34. Tower of Song - Leonard Cohen
35. Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel
36. Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
37. From a Distance - Nanci Griffith
38. The Nightingale - Julee Cruise
39. Ode To My Family - The Cranberries
40. Sonnet - The Verve
41. Cannonball - Damien Rice
42. Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
43. For Emma - Bon Iver
44. Cloudy Shoes - Damien Jurado
45. So Well - Dawes
46. Morning - Beck
47. Cold Coffee - Assembly Of Dust
48. Sing - Travis
49. Million Dollar Bill - Middle Brother
50. Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings - Father John Misty
51. These Days - Glen Campbell
52. Falling Apart - Brian Wilson & Emile Haynie
53. Take Me To Church - Hozier
54. Epic - Calexico
55. Dust to Dust - The Civil Wars
56. Thinking 'bout You - Yusuf
57. He Doesn't Know Why - Fleet Foxes
58. The Way That He Sings - My Morning Jacket
59. Lonesome Tears - Beck
60. Exit Music (For a Film) - Radiohead

Chicken & Baked Beans

We haven't opened up a can of baked beans in a few years... until today. Becky grilled up some delicious chicken cutlets and made a nice salad. She had a few beans on her plate but I had a lot! Baked beans was one of my favorite foods growing up. We always had a few cans on the shelves in our house. I also loved having them on my Navy ships too.

Crucible - A Novel

Crucible by John Sayles, 2026. Yesterday I finished this incredible work of historical fiction based on 15 years in the life of Henry Ford and the violent rise of the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. The book follows the stories of several people involved with Ford's many endeavors of the time including his auto plant assembly lines in Detroit, his Fordlandia rubber plantation and village in Brazil, his private security army, his fight against the efforts to unionize his factories, his supporting the war effort, etc. All this happening during the times of the Depression, the War, race riots, the Great Migration, his antisemitism and support for fascism. Lots of real historical figures throughout the book too.

This was a very fascinating book although sometimes it was hard to follow what was going on since there were no chapters and dates of the incidents as they happened. This novel would make a really good television series.

This is the first time I've read a book by this author but I've seen lots of his movies.

Furnace Time

It's been getting chilly the past few days and especially at night. It has been in the 60s during the day and 50s at night. Most of the time it was getting chilly in the house and we were wearing a second layer. We also needed to wear a coat yesterday on our walk. It feels like Fall is here and we have been talking about turning on the furnace soon.

Last night the temperature got down into the 40s and this morning when I came down it was 62 in the house. I turned on the furnace. I set the thermostat for 68 since it was going to be sunny and in the 60's today. The warm air from the furnace felt good and the temp quickly rose to 68.

We'll see how it goes...

Ultra Chilled 04 - Kitchen Listening

Ultra Chilled 04 is probably the last of these chill compilations I'll be playing for awhile. I certainly have been enjoying these sounds over the past few days but it's time to move on although I do have several other chillout compilations album in my collection that goes right with this stuff. They were also used extensively in my Night Chill mix series.

I'm not sure what I'll be playing tomorrow but it will be good but different.

And what's with the album cover photos?