Takacs Quartet

This evening Becky and I attended the first Buffalo Chamber Music Society concert of the season in the Mary Seaton Room of Kleinhans Music Hall. It was a wonderful concert by the Takacs Quartet. They started off with a Schubert piece... Quartettsatz, D. 703. Then they added a fifth performer, a second viola player and the rest of the night was spent performing two Mozart Viola Quintets... No. 3 and No. 4. They were spectacular.

During the intermission we saw a few people we knew including Dan and Barbara Schilfeling which was nice.

Overall a very nice evening and now looking forward to many more concerts in this series including a brass septet next month.

Everytime You Go Away - Songs 1985 FV

More great songs from 1985 and another set of music in my Songs 1985 Final Version series of mixes. I played most of these songs in the bar I spun records at that year and it was a lot of fun. I especially liked spinning the opening song from Paul Young, well, actually all of them. The first half of the mix is definitely new wave.

Paul Young in the pic. 

Everytime You Go Away - Songs 1985 FV

1. Everytime You Go Away - Paul Young
2. Ride Across The River - Dire Straits
3. Head Over Heels - Tears For Fears
4. It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back) - Eurythmics
5. A Good Heart - Feargal Sharkey
6. Close To Me - The Cure
7. I Got You Babe - UB40 & Chrissie Hynde
8. Suspicious Minds - Fine Young Cannibals
9. I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee) - Marshall Crenshaw
10. Slave To Love - Bryan Ferry
11. Cry - Godley & Creme
12. We Run - Strange Advance
13. Be Near Me - ABC
14. Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) - Scritti Politti
15. Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
16. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free - Sting
17. Life In A Northern Town - Dream Academy
18. Colored Lights - The Blasters
19. Dancin' - Chris Isaak
20. Burning Down The House - X
21. Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M.
22. The Old Man Down The Road - John Fogerty

Sean & Fuzz in Town

Sean and Fuzz came to town yesterday to stay with us Saturday night before going to the Bills game Sunday morning. Today was actually only one of two home games this season that are scheduled for the usual 1 pm Sunday afternoon start. Most of the home games are late starts or prime time. That makes it difficult for Sean, Ashley and Tony to make it to all of the home games in their season ticket package.

Sean called us earlier in the week to see if it was OK for him and Tony to stay with us Saturday night and of course that's fine with us. Having house guests helps us to get the house cleaned. Ashley and Fuzz stayed with us a couple of weeks ago for a late Sunday night game. They got back to our house around 11:30 pm even after leaving the game at the end of the 3rd quarter which they regretted when the Bills made a 4th quarter comeback. Last week Ashely and her mom went to the game which was another late Sunday game but they stayed with a friend in the Southtowns. 

When Sean and Fuzz arrived around 5:30 pm or so they brought some dinner for us all. Pizza, chicken fingers, french fries and salad from Pasquale's Italian Restaurant in Derby along the way. We had a nice time eating the meal in the dining room and then spent the rest of the evening watching college football.

We got up early this morning with Sean and Fuzz when they got ready for their day at the Bills game. They were meeting some friends for breakfast at a restaurant near the stadium. They left here a little after 7 am. They would drive home directly from the game.

I watched the Bills game today where they beat the New Orleans Saints 31-19.

There's another home game next Sunday with another 8:30 pm start but Ashely and Fuzz are planning to stay with her friend Mel after the game.

Trump's Medbeds Sci-Fi Scam

The orange turd has recently been posting an AI video of himself promoting a fake medical product known as "medbeds" to his 10.8 million followers on his "truth social" scam and fake news site. The clip he posted was a fake fox news story with Laura Trump hawking "medcards" that would give his followers access to "the nation's first medbed hospitals" that have the most advanced medical technology in the world. The funny thing about the AI trump is that they have him speaking in complete sentences and which of course we all know is inconsistent with his real life speaking patterns.

So what are "medbeds"...  Apparently there has been an ongoing far right conspiracy theory that spreads the idea that the American government has access to futuristic medical pods that can cure any disease and regrow limbs but liberals have been hiding this information from the American public. Some folks in the QAnon sect believe that the government has been using a "medbed" to keep JFK alive. I wonder what RFK jr. thinks happened to his uncle.

Voices Carry - Songs 1985 FV

The first of my reworking of the Songs 1985 mix series. An hour and a half of new wave sounds from that year. I was working as a DJ during that time in the 80's and played most of these songs in the sound booth. The first few songs were really big hits in that bar.

I particularly liked playing that Level 42 song. It really got the crowd going. Kid Creole too. The opening song was always something I really liked and then the lead singer Aimee Mann would go on to be one of my favorite artist of the 90's and beyond.

Voices Carry - Songs 1985 FV

1. Voices Carry - Til Tuesday
2. Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
3. Take On Me - A-Ha
4. Something About You - Level 42
5. I Love You Like A Ball And Chain - Eurythmics
6. I Didn't Mean To Turn You On - Robert Palmer
7. A Girl Like That - Nona Hendrix
8. What You Need - INXS
9. Endicott - Kid Creole & The Coconuts
10. Vicious Games - Yello
11. Bang Bang Lulu - Boney M
12. Eighties - Killing Joke
13. Tonight She Comes - The Cars
14. Sensation - Bryan Ferry
15. Myrrh - The Church
16. Always A Flame - Gene Loves Jezebel
17. Say It Again - Danse Society
18. She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
19. Going Down To Liverpool - Katrina & The Waves
20. And We Danced - The Hooters

Fish Fry @ The PM

I enjoyed a fish fry at the Parkside Meadow this evening while Becky had a nice turkey club sandwich. The restaurant was very crowded and all the tables in the dining room were full as were all the tables on the patio. The bar itself was jammed. It was a typical PM Friday night.

I had a nice draft beer Fiddleheads IPA.

The Blasters - Kitchen Listening

Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings - The Blasters, 2002.

A two and half hour listening session with The Blasters who have been one of my favorite groups over the years. This is a nice multi-disc compilation that includes their albums The Blasters, 1981, Over There Live, 1982, Non Fiction, 1983 and Hard Line, 1985 along with many outtakes and several more cuts from various other sources.

I have ten of their albums including the compilations and live albums. I also saw them live several times over the years including some of the individual solo tours. Listening to this set today was a lot of fun and brought back a lot of memories.

The last time we saw them was a few years ago at the Sportsmen Club. It was both Dave and Phil Alvin and essentially The Blasters.

Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan

Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan by James McGuire, 2006. 

This book is very readable and well researched. I finished reading it today after spending a several weeks pondering growing up in the 50's and 60's times of Ed Sullivan.

Wow, and what a blowback to what seems like another life and time. He certainly impacted my early years with many images I will never forget and was an iconic part of my childhood. As an older teenager I stopped paying attention to his show except if there was a special rock band I wanted to catch.

He was on the air every Sunday night from 1948 until 1971. Our great grandparents lived in our home with us from the mid 50's into the early 60's and Nana insisted on watching Ed Sullivan every Sunday. It was a family ritual like so many other American households. This is what Ed Sullivan was striving for all those years.

Some of my memorable moments were of course The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, that Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio, the numerous magicians, plate spinners, comedians, vaudeville superstars, etc, etc.

It was fascinating to read about Sullivan's recognizing and promoting black performers at the time despite the terrible racist backlash he often received including from his corporate sponsors. 

Escalatorgate

Trump and the UN escalator. Yep, it stopped working when he stepped on it after Melania. He immediately accused the UN of sabotaging it and had a meltdown. 

The stopped escalator wasn't the only technical problem the orange turd encountered that day. The teleprompter he was using during his speech stopped working too. Another issue was the sound system being used by the members of the assembly audience which was faulty. Apparently the translations for some members were not coming through their sound systems. 

He then went on the accuse the UN of a "triple sabotage" and has demanded an investigation. He claims the UN is out to get him and demanded the people responsible be arrested.

It turns out that after the UN technology team looked into the problems it turns out that all of the issues came from the president's own inept tech staff. Even shutting down the escalator came from one of his own people and the teleprompter was completely in the hands of his staff.

Covid Shot Today

Got my Covid Pfizer vaccination shot today for this year. I made the appointment at Walgreens a few days ago and I got reminders on my phone every day since then. It was a very easy in and out and only took a few minutes. I did all of the forms online which made the whole thing that much quicker. Becky got her shot on Monday of this week.

It's nice that there was no charge for the shot because we have good medical insurance. Who knows how long that will last with the crazy regime in power and threatening all vaccinations. Hell, the orange turd wants to get rid of medical insurance and make it all AI. Crazy shit.

We've have received our covid vaccination shots regularly since they became available in 2021 and I've added them all to the shot cards that I carry around in my wallet. Today's shot looks to be my 10th overall including boosters.

So I guess I'll be a little sore in the arm today and probably tomorrow. I've been fortunate overall because with all of these shots I have not had any problems or reactions.

Chicken Cutlet & Rice

Yum. Another of Becky's tasty dinners with chicken cutlets and rice. A nice salad too. Almost always a nice salad.

Looking forward to some Fall meals too. 

It Is What It Is - Back Porch FV

A recent mix in the Back Porch series and a Final Version. From a certain time period. The Highwaymen in the pic.

It Is What It Is - Back Porch FV

1. It Is What It Is – The Highwaymen, 1995
2. This Bird’s Gonna Fly – Los Lobos, 1996
3. Ain’t Hurtin’ Nobody – John Prine, 1995
4. The Hurting Business – Chuck Prophet, 1999
5. One Of These Days – Jill Sobule, 2000
6. The Last Thing On My Mind – Cry Cry Cry, 1999
7. Somewhere Out There – Steve Earle, 1997
8. High Water – Bob Dylan, 2001
9. I Don’t Know – Gretchen Peters, 2000
10. Dust Down A Country Road – John Hiatt, 1995
11. Adia – Sarah Mclachlan, 1997
12. China – Greg Brown, 1996
13. Alameda – Elliott Smith, 1997
14. Not When I Need It – Matthew Sweet, 1995
15. Lost Love – Golden Smog, 1998
16. For The Rest Of My Life – Edwyn Collins, 1997
17. Virtually Happy – Holly Golightly, 1995
18. Wildflowers – Tom Petty, 1994
19. Cure For Pain – Morphine, 1993
20. Lovetown – Peter Gabriel, 1994
21. Show Some Emotion – Joan Armatrading, 1996
22. Throng of Blowtown – Mary Lou Lord, 1998
23. A Song For You – Whiskeytown, 1999
24. I Won’t Back Down – Johnny Cash & Tom Petty, 2000

Trump @ UN

Today I just happened to turn on the TV and suddenly I was confronted with the orange turd standing in front of the UN Assembly of world leaders ranting and raving and embarrassing the entire nation of America. It was much worse than a terrible joke. It was disgusting. 

I had heard earlier in the day that he would be speaking at the UN and I was really hoping the world leaders would boo him or have a mass walk out. I guess the world is classier than what was have been putting up with in America. But then I couldn't sit there and watch too much of his debacle on the stage and I shut off the television before I could see if anyone jeered or booed the orange clown. 

I did get to hear him rant about immigration, climate change, and many other things he just kept lying about and spreading conspiracy theories. He also told the world leaders that "your countries are going to hell". 

He was supposed to speak for 15 minutes but he had a faulty teleprompter which made him ramble on for a very long time... when on for an hour long rant and lectured the world leaders with the wisdom of a former reality tv personality. He also went on and on about how he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Really? 

How could he beat that... he spent a long time talking about how bad wind power energy was for the world and how much everyone needed "beautiful clean coal".

More Jimmy Smith - Kitchen Listening

I had another session of kitchen listening to Jimmy Smith. My recent jazz gathering discussions about this wonderful organ player had me itching to play more of his albums. My last session with Jimmy Smith was listening to his 4 CD retrospective box set. Loved it but this time I played four of his albums from my collection that were not compilations which I do have several of. 

I've loved everything I have ever heard from this great jazz artist. I also especially loved listening to his duet albums with another favorite... Wes Montgomery on jazz guitar.

Here are the four albums...

• A Date with Jimmy Smith, 1957
• Back at the Chicken Shack, 1963
• Bluesmith, 1972
• Further Adventures of Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery, 1968

Sweet & Spicy Soppressata Pizza

Becky picked up some amazing frozen Roman style pizza from Porta Tradizione Italiana which is a Canadian pizza company. She picked up the frozen pizza at Whole Foods. They make several styles and this one was their Sweet & Spicy Soppressata and it was a little spicy. We enjoyed it very much.

Looking forward to having this again and to also try some of their other flavors and stylings.

More From Robert Reich

To quote Robert Reich today... 9/22

Adam Zyglis cartoon. 

Friends,
It’s getting worse.

Trump’s regime forces late-night comedians off the air. He threatens to take away broadcast licenses of networks whose TV personalities criticize him. Demands that the Attorney General prosecute his enemies. Sues The New York Times for criticizing him. Bombs boats in international waters. Occupies more cities. Accuses the left but not the right of political violence. Targets “liberal” organizations. Targets (and sometimes disappears) people who look Latino. Allows Putin and Netanyahu to do their worst. And so on.

If you are feeling frightened or disoriented, you have every reason.
Yet we have learned several lessons about how to deal with this tyrant, and we must practice them.

First, it is not possible to appease him. As Columbia University, several big law firms, and media companies such as ABC and CBS have shown, seeking to appease him only further encourages his tyranny.
It is better to fight and litigate than to settle.

Second, it’s hard to stand up to him separately, since every university, law firm, media company, and other target of Trump’s wrath is competing with every other for students, consumers, clients, or advertisers. Which is why it’s important for us to join together to create a united front.

Harvard is doing a good job confronting the regime but would do better if it acted as umbrella for all of higher education — litigating against the regime as a whole and speaking with one voice against its incursions on academic freedom and free speech.

Every tyrant in history has sought to divide and conquer. It’s one of Trump’s major ploys. He wants to attack institutions individually so they don’t join together. He also seeks to divide America — by politics, ethnicity, race, religion, region, sexual orientation and preference — so that we’re fragmented and angry with each other.
The third lesson is that confronting a tyrant requires courage. Large profit-driven corporations like ABC and CBS have none. Columbia and several other universities, as well as the law firms that surrendered to Trump, have shown little.

But The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have displayed backbone, as has Harvard. And hundreds of thousands of you have shown courage by making good trouble at Republican town halls and participating in peaceful demonstrations.
Courage can be contagious. It is easier to be courageous if others are courageous, which is why solidarity is essential. Demonstrations show us we’re not alone — that we’re part of a broad movement to take back our democracy. (Mark your calendars for the next No Kings protests, on October 18.)

A fourth lesson: Confronting tyranny is an ongoing effort. It requires tenacity. The oppression we’re experiencing will not end soon. Which is why it’s important to pace ourselves, maintain our strength, and not get burnt out.

Fifth, confronting tyranny requires that we act in small ways against it as well as large. We must correct lies when we hear them coming from anywhere, even members of our family. We cannot tolerate bigotry, from anyone. We have to push our elected representatives — as well as the organizations that employ us and the institutions in which we participate — to fight back.

Sixth, we must look for opportunities to celebrate even small wins and find ways to maintain our hopefulness. Tyrants want those whom they oppress to lose hope so the tyrants can take over all facets of society. We must not ever lose hope.
Finally, the best antidote to feelings of panic, helplessness, and stress is activism. The more we speak up, write our members of Congress, push the leaders of our companies and universities to take strong stands, organize locally, participate in demonstrations, boycott companies that are surrendering to the tyrant (such as canceling our Disney+ subscriptions), and protect the most vulnerable among us — the better we feel and the stronger we become.

My friends, these are among the hardest times most of us have ever experienced. I understand the stress you feel. I share it. But please do not despair. Do not feel helpless. Channel your outrage, anger, and sadness into action.
It is up to us to preserve democracy and protect social justice. Our predecessors in this struggle — generations who have sacrificed for these values — demand it. Our children and grandchildren deserve it.

What are your thoughts?

Death's End - a novel

Just finished the final book of the Three-Body Problem trilogy written by the Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu. The original name of the trilogy was The Remembrance of Earth's Past but since then has taken the name of the television series... Three-Body Problem. 

It took me awhile to get through this long winded and meandering book but it certainly had it's fascinating moments. I originally had it checked out as an e-book from the NYPL but I couldn't get through it in the borrowing time and there was a waiting line to check it out again. I then saw that the Canisius College Library had a copy so I went down there and got it. As a retired staff member I can borrow books there for six months. Well, I did get through it in another week or so.

Now I'm looking forward to the next season of the television series coming out some time in 2026.

Jazz Night @ Greg's House

Tonight I had a nice time at Greg's house with a few guys from the neighborhood talking about our jazz experiences and listening to some jazz vinyl. Greg has gone back to collecting vinyl records since he retired. He also made us a nice dinner for us with some BBQ chicken sandwiches and a wonderful soup that Karima made.

Greg and I had been talking about getting together to listen to jazz for about a year or so and it came up again at a recent WOW. The last week at the Parkside Meadow anniversary party Greg invited me to his house for a jazz get-together. It was originally scheduled for 6 pm but then he moved it forward to 5 pm because of the Bills game later that night at some folks had plans.

I walked over to his house this evening and went around to the back. I just assumed that it would be a backyard gathering because he and Karima have a wonderful backyard for hosting WOWs with a nice sound system. But we were brought inside to their living room where Greg had his turntable in place along with some wonderful speakers. I had not been in his house aside from the back porch room and bathroom. It was nice to see all of the art that Karima has collected. It was a wonderful first floor in a beautiful house.

We listened to several LPs including albums from Oscar Peterson, Brother Jack McDuff, Grant Green, Joshua Redman and many more. The pic is one of the albums we listened to tonight.

We also talked a lot about our experiences seeing jazz artists in concert. I think I had the best track record for seeing live music. Most of these guys didn't go out to see live music when they were young and then later in big arenas. They didn't seem to have the club experiences I had. A couple had gone to the Tralf but none had been to the old Tralf on Main Street which had many classic jazz shows. Also I had a lot more experiences because I grew up in Philly and had access to more live music.

Anyway, we had a great time talking jazz and look forward to doing it again some time.

Then it was time to go home and watch the Bills game.

Let Me Take You Down - Happy Hour FV

This is another old mix that has gone through some reconfigurations over the years. It is part of my Happy Hour Final Version series of mixes.

Some great tunes from the 60's that all meant a lot to me. These were the years I really got into going to live concerts and buying lots of records. I loved playing them for my friends. First in the basement of our house on Greene Street in the 60's, on cassettes in the Navy, at the house on Seymour Street for my friends in the mid to late 70's, as a barroom DJ in the 80's and at parties over the years... especially our annual 60's parties.

The Beatles in the pic from their Strawberry Fields Forever sessions.

Let Me Take You Down - Happy Hour FV

1. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles, 1967
2. Crimson and Clover - Tommy James & The Shondells, 1968
3. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys, 1966
4. All Along The Watchtower - The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968
5. Heart Full Of Soul - The Yardbirds, 1965
6. See Emily Play - Pink Floyd, 1967
7. Paper Sun - Traffic, 1967
8. Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones, 1967
9. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks, 1967
10. Pictures Of Lily - The Who, 1967
11. Bus Stop - The Hollies, 1966
12. Summer In The City - The Lovin' Spoonful, 1966
13. A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum, 1967
14. A Hazy Shade Of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel, 1968
15. Along Comes Mary - The Association, 1966
16. Where Were You When I Needed You - The Grass Roots, 1967
17. She'd Rather Be With Me - The Turtles, 1967
18. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better - The Byrds, 1965
19. I'm So Glad - Cream, 1969
20. Gypsy - The Moody Blues, 1969
21. Hush - Deep Purple, 1968
22. I Can Hear The Grass Grow - The Move, 1967
23. Monterey - The Animals, 1968
24. Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin, 1969
25. Piece Of My Heart - Big Brother & The Holding Company, 1968
26. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band, 1969

Hallwalls Opening Tonight

Becky and I went to an interesting art opening at Hallwalls tonight after our dinner at Trattoria Aroma. It was odd having the opening on a Wednesday night which for them was very unusual. Normally they have their opening receptions on a Friday night.

The show was kind of special. It was presenting the work of Becky's former UB dept chair boss Millie Chen and a former Turkish born UB grad student Arzu Ozkal who is now a professor of graphic design at San Diego State University. They worked together on this project for many years. 

The project was the Silk Road Songbook which was a multi-screen projection of images and sound of landscapes from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and many other countries along the traditional Silk Road through Eurasia. It was all very fascinating. The opening was crowded and it would be nice to go again sometime to be able to listen to the sounds more carefully.

The artists gave a presentation of their work in the auditorium earlier in the evening while we were at the restaurant. It appeared to be very well attended.

We did get to see and talk with many people at the show including the artists. Many other friends from the art community too.

There was a funny aside... there were promotion flyers of another artist talk and presentation taking place the following night featuring Nick Cave at Asbury Hall. For a moment I thought they were talking about the rock musician Nick Cave but very soon realized they were referring to the artist Nick Cave. Oh well, I've always wanted to get to a Nick Cave concert.

So it was another night of heavy socializing.

Birthday Dinner @ Trattoria Aroma

It was a Wednesday night a day after Becky's birthday.  We went out for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants... Trattoria Aroma on Bryant. It was great as usual. We had a wonderful dinner.

Becky had the Pappardelle Alla Bolagnese which is something I usually have there but tonight I had their Penne Aroma which is their pasta with sausage and mushrooms. I hadn't had that in a while and I'm really glad I had it again. It was spectacular. I had a nice glass of Toscanna red wine too. I followed that with some nice Birra Moretti.

We had been going to this restaurant for many years and long before when it was a different restaurant called Just Pasta. We loved it then and we love it now. The place does look like an old Italian restaurant. Recently they took down a mural on one wall and replaced it with a collection of wine bottles. There are still several murals and the new wall does look very nice.

Then we headed down to Hallwalls for an art opening reception.

Blue Break Beats - Kitchen Listening

Blue Break Beats: 50 of the Best, 2007. This is a wonderful collection of tracks from various Blue Note albums from over the years. They released numerous volumes of their Blue Break Beat collections on LPs and then CDs. This is a best of collection from those releases and collects 50 great classic jazz tracks from the label. The set runs for nearly five hours and I enjoyed every moment over the past couple of days playing in our kitchen.

A lot of my favorite jazz songs are part of this collection from artist such as Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Kenny Burrell, Cannonball Adderley and many many more.

Birthday Treats

Today is Becky's birthday and she went on an art road trip with our neighbor Brian up to Niagara Community College for an art show and reception that was happening in the afternoon. She was back home for dinner but we decided to go out to a restaurant tomorrow evening. 

While she was gone today I went out to Dash's and got her some treats... a dozen red roses and a lemon lime cheese cake. Got some tasty breakfast bread too.

Fox News... Murder the Homeless

A host on Fox and Friends has declared that homeless people should be executed with involuntary lethal injections. "Just kill 'en". That would be this guy... Brian Killmeade.  Typical MAGA goon. He calling for killing the mentally ill if they refuse treatment.

He didn't get fired. In fact, the mainstream media apparently ignored his horrific comments. America is sick. Then he apologizes for his remarks after the calls for his firing.

There is a failure of corporate mainstream media. ABC has fired Jimmy Kimmel for mocking trump. CBS has fired Stephen Colbert for mocking trump. ABC has fired Terry Moran for slamming Stephen Miller. NBC has fired Matthew Dowd for calling out hate speech. But Fox protects Brian Killmeade for calling for the state murder of homeless people. Corporate media has failed us as trump pushes fascism.

Robert Redford RIP

Today we saw on the news that actor Robert Redford passed away at the age of 89. Wow, he had an amazing long life in films. He was a Hollywood icon and a founder of the Sundance Film Festival.

I had been putting together some lists of my favorite films by year and he has been part of many of them. I first became aware of him as an actor in the late 1960's with Barefoot in the Park and then of course with Butch Cassidy in 1969.

Some of my favorites... actor and or director

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• The Sting
• Barefoot in the Park
• All The President's Men
• A Bridge Too Far
• The Natural
• The Milagro Beanfield War
• Jeremiah Johnson
• The Way We Were
• Three Days of the Condor
• Inside Daisey Clover
• The Candidate
• The Great Gatsby
• Downhill Racer
• The Great Waldo Pepper
• Out of Africa

And probably many more

He also started out in television and was a guest on shows such as Maverick, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and many more. 

Last Nite - Late Night FV

Last Nite. A fun mix and has undergone some changes over the years and had been part of the Happy Hour series. Now it is one of my Late Night Final Version series mixes.

The Strokes in the pic.

Last Nite - Late Night FV

1. Last Nite - The Strokes, 2000
2. Hate To Say I Told You So - The Hives, 2000
3. PDA - Interpol, 2002
4. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand, 2004
5. Banquet - Bloc Party, 2005
6. Are You Gonna Be My Girl - JET, 2003
7. Fell In Love With A Girl - The White Stripes, 2001
8. Red Morning Light - Kings Of Leon, 2003
9. I Predict A Riot - Kaiser Chiefs, 2005
10. I Need Your Love - The Rapture, 2003
11. Got What I Want - The Sights, 2002
12. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeah, 2003
13. The Good Ones - The Kills, 2004
14. Everything Flows - Teenage Fanclub, 2003
15. Fly Away - Lenny Kravitz, 2000
16. Red Dragon Tattoo - Fountains Of Wayne, 1999
17. Connection - Elastica, 1995
18. I Live - Jason Falkner, 1996
19. Dear Lover - Social Distortion, 1996
20. Gee Angel - Sugar, 1994
21. I Alone - Live, 1994
22. Only Happy When It Rains - Garbage, 1995
23. Long Long Time - Love Spit Love, 1997
24. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway... - Wilco, 1999
25. A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers, 1996

300 Million Dead

According to the President of the US 300 million Americans died last year from drug overdoses. Yes, the trumpian orange turd said that. I heard him myself spewing that dementia nonsense during an interview. The current population of the US is 340 million people.

Everyday he says crazy lies. Everyday, multiple times a day. Actually 75,000 people did die of drug overdoses last year and that is tragic but that is also a big difference between 75,000 and 300,000,000.

Heavy Pickup - Early

This is heavy trash pickup week and yesterday evening I put several things on the curb in front of the house that included three of Becky's chairs from her old art studio, the broken hose reel cart with a still good garden hose on it and a very old large light fixture that has been in the basement for decades. We also have a large number of very big wood painting stretchers which I hadn't put out yet. We are hoping some artist friends may pick them up. Several neighbors had large piles on their curbs too.

This morning we were very surprised when the city trash trucks came down the street and loaded all of our stuff onto a truck and took it all away. We really expected some trash pickers to get to our pile before the city did and we really wanted someone to get those chairs who might need them. Two of the three were in good working order and just had some paint stains on them. The hose reel seemed like it would be useful for someone and the light fixture had a significant amount of heavy metal that a trash picker would want.

So we were a little sad that the stuff did not get to the people whom we thought would take it. Usually it takes a couple of days for the city to get around and pick it up which gives trash pickers time to get there. Not this time.

I've been down to the trash depot a few times and know that there is a lot of sorting that goes on there and perhaps those chairs will still get some use from someone somewhere which is what we had hoped for. In the meantime we still have a lot of wood to put on the curb even though we are hoping someone finds some use for those stretchers.

Today we put out those stretchers and already quite a few of them have been picked up.

Crowded House - Kitchen Listening

Another favorite band and some kitchen listening. Crowded House. I do have a lot of their albums in my collection including several compilations and live sets but these are the records that got me going with them and kept me interested in them all these years.

This set of four albums ran about 3 hours. We enjoyed every moment of it.

The album set...

• Crowded House, 1986
• Temple of Low Men, 1988
• Woodface, 1991
• Together Alone, 1993

Martin House Latin Festival

We went for our regular daily neighborhood walk today. It was a beautiful day and we took our walk a little earlier than usual. It was a little after 1 pm. We could hear music coming from the Martin House which is not that unusual so we made sure we headed over that way as we walked. It turned out there was an event... the Martin House Familia Fun Day which is a celebration of Latin culture, food and heritage. 

We walked around the festival for about 20 minutes or so. There was a lot to see but we were in-between performances. We had just had our lunch otherwise it would have been fun to have some of the Hispanic food available. We enjoyed our time there and then continued on our walk around the block and back to our house.

Do It Again - Happy Hour FV

Let's do it again. An old mix that has been remade several times over the years and decades in different configurations. This is the Happy Hour Final Version. It was fun putting this together one last time. An hour and a half as usual.

These are songs that I played at our parties in the house I lived in with friends in the mid to late 70's and then later I played these at the bar I worked in during the 1980's. Classic stuff. Steely Dan from 1972 in the pic.

Do It Again - Happy Hour FV

1. Do It Again - Steely Dan, 1972
2. Hypnotized - Fleetwood Mac, 1973
3. Riverside - America, 1971
4. Uncle John's Band - Grateful Dead, 1970
5. Bron-Y-Aur-Stomp - Led Zeppelin, 1970
6. Hope You're Feeling Better - Santana, 1970
7. Room Full Of Mirrors - Jimi Hendrix, 1971
8. Keep On Growing - Derek & The Dominos, 1970
9. No Time - The Guess Who, 1970
10. Love The One You're With - Stephen Stills, 1970
11. Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) - Janis Joplin, 1969
12. Baby Blue - Badfinger, 1971
13. The Seeker - The Who, 1979
14. Midnight Rambler - The Rolling Stones, 1969
15. Them Changes - Buddy Miles Express, 1970
16. Make Me Smile - Chicago, 1970
17. Jump Into The Fire - Harry Nilsson, 1971
18. Suffragette  City - David Bowie, 1972
19. Maggie May - Rod Stewart, 1971
20. Question - The Moody Blues, 1970

Dinner @ Romeo & Juliet's Cafe

We had a wonderful dinner tonight at one of our favorite nearby restaurants... Romeo and Juliet's Cafe. When we got there at about 5:20 pm we were the first table in the dinning room but soon there were many more. We had a nice table in the front with a view of Hertel Avenue and also of the rest of the dining room including the outside patio area. Very nice. When we left a little after 7:00 or so the place was packed. The place had really filled up and especially the outside patio.

We had discussed possibly going to several other restaurants but ended up agreeing on Romeo & Juliet's and it was a good choice as always. I started off with a glass of Montepulciano which is one of my favorite red wines. I would have two glasses for dinner. Becky had some Pellegrino sparkling lemon water.  For dinner Becky ordered a margherita pizza and I had a Picasso Panini which is my favorite. The bread on the side was delicious. Well, everything was delicious. A great dinner and we shared everything. Got some nice leftovers too.

We always have a wonderful meal at this restaurant and it's why we keep coming back. One of the things we really like about this place is that it does look like a real Italian restaurant. It has that look and feel along with the traditional taste and preparation of the food. It's truly authentic. 

Songs 1985

I recently realized I had never made any songs of year mixes for 1985. I was kind of shocked at myself. I looked back on some file directories for old year mixes and sure enough there were mixes for every year but 1985 and also 1992. All those years and decades of making mixes I didn't do any for the songs of 1985 and 1992. I was stunned. Especially for 1985 which was a time when I was working at that bar as a DJ. Those 80's years especially 82 through 86 were important to my mix making thing.

So now I'm going to put together a group of mixes focusing on the songs from albums in my collection released in 1985. I'll do 1992 later but right now I'm gonna focus on 1985. I had been doing some Final Version reworking of mixes by years and concentrating on the years a decade apart like the ones I did last year... 1974, 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014. I recently worked on the FV mixes for 1975 when I discovered there were no previous mixes for 1985. 

Time to get to work. I know I'll be making at least a dozen mixes running an hour and a half each. 

Next Big Thing - Late Night FV

The Next Big Thing mix has a definite punk feel and for lots of reasons. Raw rock 'n' roll. Played a bunch of these records as the Pastime too.

The Dictators in the pic.

Next Best Thing - Late Night FV

1. The Next Best Thing – The Dictators, 1975
2. Watch That Man – David Bowie, 1973
3. I Can’t Hide – The Flamin’ Groovies, 1976
4. Beat On The Brat – The Ramones, 1976
5. Trash – New York Dolls, 1973
6. Blackmail – The Runaways, 1976
7. What’s My Name – The Clash, 1977
8. Friction – Television, 1977
9. Pink Flag – Wire, 1977
10. Neat, Neat, Neat – The Damned, 1977
11. God Save The Queen – Sex Pistols, 1977
12. One Chord Wonders – The Adverts, 1977
13. Human Fly – The Cramps, 1979
14. I Am A Poseur – X-Ray Spex, 1978
15. Into The Future – The Vibrators, 1977
16. Are Everything – Buzzcocks, 1979
17. Ether – Gang of Four, 1979
18. No More Heroes – The Strangler, 1977
19. I’m Your Man – Richard Hell & The Voidoids, 1977
20. New Feeling – Talking Heads, 1977
21. Astral Plane – The Modern Lovers, 1976
22. Moonshake – Can, 1973
23. Radioactivity – Kraftwerk, 1975
24. Jocko Homo – Devo, 1978
25. Dream Baby Dream – Suicide, 1979
26. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight – The Cars, 1978

PM 10th Anniversary

Earlier this evening Becky and I walked down to the Parkside Meadow to celebrate their 10th Anniversary at the bar restaurant. They are normally closed on Tuesday so this was a special event with an open bar and food available in the back room. The wings were great, the rest of the food was OK and the cookies were wonderful. Sarah behind the bar was very busy all evening. The party was scheduled for 5 to 7:30 pm.

The place was incredibly crowded and of course there were many people we knew. We both were talking with folks the whole time we were there. I think I had conversations with about 20 people. Maybe more. I had two beers which I nursed throughout the time we were there. We got there a little after 5 and we left a little after 8. There was still quite a few people there at that time.

I didn't take any pictures so I'm using one from a friend's post.