1. Having the house to myself means my wireless Bose speaker gets a good workout while I get things around the house done. The first thing I tuned into this morning became my Vizio University lesson. Among its many rich offerings, the Criterion company has a ton of podcasts available online (criterioncast.com). While I got the kitchen organized and the living room picked up, I listened to a Criterion podcast featuring my new favorite writer about movies, Imogen Sara Smith, talking with the Criterion Now hosts about the wide, fascinating world of film noir. I got the gist of what she and the hosts discussed in general about this genre, but without pen and paper handy, I couldn't keep up with the copious number of movies they mentioned. So, that's a future project: listen to this podcast again, slowly with many pauses, and make note of all those titles. In addition, I think the time is approaching to get a copy of Imogen Sara Smith's book, In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City.
2. Over the last couple of months, I've been otherwise occupied by one thing or another on Thursday evenings and have, to my regret, not been reveling in the pleasures of Blissful Thursday, that is, not listening to Jeff or Daniel on Deadish or Hard Rain and Slow Trains on KEPW.org.
This past Saturday, Zero played the WOW Hall in Eugene.
I can't think of another day, since leaving Eugene in 2014, when I so ached to be back in Eugene, to be able to hear Zero live again.
Today, I surmised correctly that Jeff's Thursday, July 28th Deadish show would feature at least an hour of excerpts from Zero shows over the last 30-35 years.
I surmised correctly in one way.
Jeff focused on Zero, but not for an hour, for the WHOLE TWO HOUR SHOW!
Two things lit me up as I listened to Jeff's show.
First, I love reliving memories of going to WOW Hall shows from about 1989-1995. I loved sitting, taking in the music for a while, but I really loved dancing, alone, joining the sweaty throng of other solo dancers, blissing out to Nine Days Wonder, Little Women, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Widespread Panic, any number of other jam bands I've forgotten the names of, and, Zero.
Second, Zero's playing lit me up. Zero is a versatile band. They move easily and readily between blues, rock, psychedelia, jazz, and dreamy romantic sounds. Their eclectic prowess reflects the wide-ranging mastery of their guitarist, Steve Kimock, the rock solid foundation of their drummer, Greg Anton and bass player, Bobby Vega, and the lyrical, dreamy saxophone work of Martin Fierro. I wasn't always sure as Jeff's show spanned many years of Zero which keyboard player was playing on which songs he played, but I really enjoyed Chip Roland all through the early 90s and I'm sure I recognized his splendid playing today. When I first started going to Zero shows, they were an instrumental band, but, at some point they added Judge Murphy as a vocalist and I loved hearing him sing today.
This show will be archived at KEPW for two weeks and I'll be returning to it frequently over the next ten days, blissing out on the unique high Zero gives me.
3. As tonight's host for family dinner, I wanted to keep the food as light and cool as possible, especially because, until the patio is poured, we don't have a place to eat outside.
Tonight's dinner would feature Tomato Bruschetta Sauce, a no-cook sauce, over rotini pasta. I decided to make the sauce this morning and let the flavors blend through the day. Making it was easy. In a bowl, I combined canned diced tomatoes (more flavorful than tomatoes currently available), several cloves of chopped garlic (I exceeded the recipe's suggestion), some salt, olive oil, and grated Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio cheese. Simple. Very tasty. Later, when I combined the sauce with the cooked pasta, I would add bunches of fresh chopped basil and mint leaves.
Now I only had two more things to do to prepare for Christy, Carol, Paul, and Molly's arrival.
First, I put up the card table next to our love seat and set out an antipasto spread of cheese, crackers, salami, prosciutto, bread and butter pickles, baby carrots, almonds, dill pickles, and Kalamata olives. Christy brought a loaf of sourdough wheat bread and I had purchased a loaf of ciabatta bread and we set out chunks of bread to augment the antipasto spread and to enjoy with dinner.
Second, I mixed, by request, a Tom Collins for Christy, Carol, Paul, and Molly. I'd never mixed this drink before, but found it simple. I put fresh squeezed lemon juice, sugar, and gin in the cocktail shaker, shook it up, poured it over ice in our non-Tom Collins glasses, and topped off each drink with club soda. I garnished each drink with a wedge of lemon and a Luxardo Maraschino cherry.
To my relief, everyone enjoyed this cocktail. I poured myself a too strong gin and tonic with fresh squeezed mandarin orange juice, a new favorite cocktail of mine.
So I finished my cocktail and cooked the pasta, combined it with the sauce, and mixed in the basil and mint leaves. Carol brought a fresh green salad and an awesome vinaigrette. We had a bottle of white and a red wine at the table and we all dug in.
Because of the online game Framed and because, before everyone arrived, I had put on Pandora's Movie Soundtrack station, we all had movies on our mind and much, but not all, of our conversation was about movies. I refrained from imposing the Vizio University curriculum on my family, so we didn't talk much about Westerns and film noir from the 40s and 50s (family members reading this just said, "Thank God!"), but we did talk about Meg Ryan, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and other actors and their movies.
We topped off dinner with the gelato that Molly brought, and, in keeping with the rest of our dinner, brought our evening to a cooling and refreshing conclusion.
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