Downtown Evening

Becky had to drop off some artwork at Book Arts downtown at Washington and Mohawk. We decided to go for a walk around the area and then go somewhere for dinner. We decided on dinner at the Streetlight Brassiere. We had a nice meal there last year.

We went down there at 4 pm, hung out a little bit talking with the staff and then walked around the area. Mike told us about a tiny mall nearby that was interesting to explore on Main Street. The entrance was a book store and a narrow hallway took us through to several businesses that ended with a ramen restaurant. We walked up and down several streets before heading over to the Streetlight at 5 pm. 

We had a wonderful dinner. Very tasty and the service was great. I had their Streetlight Smashburger and Becky had a Buffalo Chicken sandwich. We shared an order of fries. I also had a Sapporo Lager on tap.

When we came into the restaurant the host sat us at a prime location table at the front window where we had a great view of the downtown neighborhood and the happy hour bar crowd.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 3

Another set of Sonny Rollins Kitchen Listening. Three compilation albums and then a live album.

The Prestige Profiles album features selections from his albums on the Prestige label 1953 to 1956. The Blue Note years cover 1956 and 1957. The RCA years were from 1957 to 1962. The live album at the Village Vanguard was recorded in 1957.

• Prestige Profiles: Sonny Rollins, 2004
• Best of Sonny Rollins: The Blue Note Years, 1989
• The Essential Sonny Rollins: The RCA Years, 2005
• A Night at the Village Vanguard, 1958

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 2

Listened to more classic Sonny Rollins today. This time some earlier albums from the 1950's in my collection. This set went on for about three hours.

I was a tenor sax player in my teens and Sonny Rollins was an early influence. I had some friends that played sax with me in the Uptown Mummers String Band who were older than me and liked playing music for me because I was always interested in hearing something new... like Sonny Rollins.

• Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, 1953
• Moving Out, 1954
• Rollins Plays For Bird, 1956
• Tenor Madness, 1956

Crook Manifesto - A Novel

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead, 2023. This is the second book of the Harlem Trilogy. Looking forward to the 3rd volume in the trilogy to be published later this year. 

I enjoyed this book very much although it was a very intense trashy view of NYC and particularly Harlem life in the early 1970's. I was also reading this novel the same time I was reading Ibram X. Kendi's Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age, 2026. Another very intense book.

This is the fifth Colson Whitehead book that I've read so I really should add a posting for him in my Authors List series.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 1

This is the first of several sets of Sonny Rollins albums from my collection that I'm listening to following hearing of his passing yesterday. I have about a dozen of his albums including a box set that I will be playing over the next few days.

This set ran about three hours.

• The Bridge, 1962 
• Sonny Meets Hawk!, 1963 
• Sonny Rollins on Impulse!, 1965
• There Will Never Be Another You, 1965

Sonny Rollins RIP

We woke up this morning to discover that Sonny Rollins had passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Wow, actually I didn't know he was still around. Haven't heard anything about him in a long time. When Becky and I saw him in the early 90's we thought we were being lucky to see an old classic sax player. I also saw him in 1986 at the Tralfamadore Cafe in downtown Buffalo. 

He was one of my favorite tenor saxophone players. I played tenor sax as a teenager. 

Another Buffalo Marathon

Today another Buffalo Marathon sent runners down our street in front of our house. It's been happening every year that we've lived here on Crescent Avenue. Not a nice day but it could be worse. At least it's not raining on the runners. Cloudy and cool in the 50's but that is probably good for the runners. Not very many people on the block outside watching the race.

Well, except for the one house of neighbors who set up a table, screamed at the runners, played bongo drums and shook noise makers. Yep, same folks every year but this year they didn't last very long... about an hour. Maybe their voices gave out.

I took a couple of pictures from the upstairs bedroom of the race.

The people in the pic watching the race can be very obnoxious and that has been a long tradition from that house going back to Peter who liked to shout at the runners often mocking them if they slowed down or started walking. He thought his comments were funny but he was an embarrassment to the block and the neighborhood. Him and his family also backed on all kinds of pots and pans, drums, etc. He's been gone for a few years now but his family keeps his tradition going... well except the mocking runners thing.

Glass of Beer - Cape May Gold

I had a busy day. Our first day back home. Mowed the front lawn. Did three large loads of laundry. Carrying suitcases around the house. I needed to sit down this evening and have a glass of beer.

While at Katie's house in Mt Airy we stopped by the Brewers Outlet again. We try to do it every time we are in town. I've written about it before and described the store here and our history with it. This time I bought a 12 pack of Cape May Brewing variety pack which was a little different than the last time I got their beer there.

And today I had their American Golden Ale... Cape May Gold. It is very delicious.

Looking forward to checking out some of the other beers in this variety and I have had a couple of them before which I loved.

Cheesesteak Sauce and Onions

I had been wanting to get a Philly cheesesteak sauce and onions during our nearly a week long visit to Katie's. I finally got one on the last night before leaving when Katie ordered some cheesesteaks from Lorenzo's Pizza Steaks & Hoagies in Manayunk delivered to her house. She ordered several versions of their steaks and cut them up for everyone to try but for me she got their classic sauce and onions one which I loved.

Grandkid Selfie

We've been having a wonderful time with our grandchildren on this trip and one of the first things we did together was take our regular selfie photo yesterday on Friday the day we arrived.