1. Bridgit, Diane, Bill, and I jumped on the ZOOM machine around 2:00 this afternoon and enjoyed a couple hours of wide-ranging and stimulating conversation. We hadn't discussed the pandemic for a while and had a very good conversation about what we observe where we live, how we are living out our lives these days, and about how our lives and people we know have been affected. We also talked about the ethics of the pandemic, especially in the medical world. Bridgit works with people in nursing homes. Her work puts her much closer to the demands the pandemic has put medical facilities under. She witnesses and feels the exhaustion. Each of us, for our own reasons, continues to proceed cautiously.
Earlier this week, Bill and Diane interviewed the members of Sandy Bradley and the Small Wonders Band. For quite a while, Diane has been working on a project for Victory Review (I hope I got the publication's name right!) interviewing Seattle area musicians about their first album. Sandy Bradley and her two fellow bandmates, Jere and Greg Canote, recorded their first album in about 1981-82. It was entitled Foolish Questions. I very much enjoyed learning today that Sandy Bradley has retired from music making and lives a rural life and that the Canote brothers are as full of vitality and good humor as ever. It was also fun remembering this trio's radio show, "Sandy Bradley's Potluck". I also enjoyed remembering going to Corvallis about 30+ years ago and hearing the Small Wonders Band in a side-splitting concert of great string music, superb harmonies, and great comedy.
We also talked about the Apple TV documentary series, 1971: The Year that Music Changed Everything. It led us trying to sort out the similarities and differences between the polarized environment of 1971 and years leading up to and following it and the polarized environment we live in now. I wouldn't go so far as to say we figured it all out, but I sure enjoyed our efforts and especially enjoyed talking about what things looked like to us back then and how they look now.
Because of this documentary and other programming, I think today's discussion convinced me that it's time to subscribe to Apple TV!
2. Once our ZOOM time ended, I discovered that Debbie had buzzed up to Radio Brewing to read and then dropped in at Diane's for a visit, so I settled into the solitude her absence afforded me and, by the end of the evening, finished Stanley Tucci's memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food. I don't want to give away the details of this book, but I will say this: I thoroughly enjoyed the intersections in Tucci's memoir between food, his childhood, his acting career, travel, his marriages and children, and illness. I didn't enjoy that illness has disrupted his life, but this element of suffering in his life was as much related to food as the more exciting parts in various countries and working on various projects.
At the moment, I'm not sure what book is next, but I have many, many options on our bookshelves.
3. All through his book, Stanley Tucci writes out recipes, many of them simple, accessible, and readily doable -- by doable, I mean that the ingredients are available in Kellogg or Coeur d'Alene. Others, well, other of his recipes would be better prepared with access to better food shopping options -- like, say, a coastal town fish market. (Maybe, however, CdA's Fisherman's Market would do the trick...) I'm happy to do what I can, though, and I look forward to seeing what happens when I try to prepare some of these dishes, especially very basic pasta dishes and, if I can find the right meats, I'd love to make the ragu recipe he provides.
No comments:
Post a Comment