tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-353670592024-03-18T10:15:50.448-07:00kellogg bloggin'Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6367125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-64641094183715935932024-03-18T10:13:00.000-07:002024-03-18T10:15:18.414-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-17-2024: Top 40 Songs of March 1968, Preparing Family Dinner, A Superb Discussion<p>1. Stu recommended that I tune into <i>'60 Satellite Survey </i>on the Sirius/XM app. Each week, the host, Dave Hoeffel, goes back to specific week in the 1960s and plays that week's Top 40 songs. So, Saturday night, I went to sleep listening to his show focused the week ending on March 16, 1968. </p><p>If you'd like see this Top 40 list, just click right <a href="https://rb.gy/rojcp8">here</a>. </p><p>I finished listening to this episode while I burned calories at the Fitness Center.</p><p>I found this list's wide range of music styles remarkable as Dave Hoeffel guided his listeners through it. </p><p>Artists as different from one another as Sly and the Family Stone, Roger Miller, Petula Clark, 1910 Fruit Gum Company, Otis Redding, and The Bee Gees helped comprise this Top 40 list and I listened to songs as widely different from each other as "Love is Blue", "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde", "Spooky', and "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)".</p><p>I'll admit it. I was expecting a Top 40 list of March 1968 to include The Beatles, Steppenwolf, The Rolling Stones, and other groups I think of as epitomizing the music of the late 1960s. </p><p>But, nope. During that week ending March 16, 1968 more people were buying The Mills Brothers, The Lettermen, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the Delfonics, and others than the classic bands I expected to appear on this Top 40 list. </p><p>2. Debbie and I hosted tonight's St. Patrick's Day family dinner. We had decided a while back not to serve corned beef and cabbage and eventually decided that I would made shepherd's pie. Yoke's doesn't carry ground lamb, so I used ground beef. The pie was simple to make. I started by boiling about three pounds of potatoes while also cooking up chopped onion, zucchini, carrots, celery, and garlic. When the onion was tender, I added the ground beef. Once the beef was browned, I added flour, ketchup, tomato paste, and beef boullion, and frozen corn kernels. I mashed the potatoes while the meat/vegetable mixture cooked down and thickened. After I sprayed oil on the inside of our cast iron dutch oven, I transferred the meat/vegetable mixture to it and topped it with the mashed potatoes and baked it for a half an hour. </p><p>I didn't season this shepherd's pie. No salt. No pepper. No herbs. No spices. The natural flavor of the ground beef and vegetables and the addition of the tomato paste and ketchup, in my opinion, didn't need further enhancing. </p><p>For an appetizer, I sliced Dubliner cheddar cheese, Debbie sliced a cosmic crisp apple, and we put out Carr's crackers. </p><p>I served Emeralds for our cocktail, a blend of Jameson's Irish Whiskey, sweet vermouth, orange bitters, and lemon peel.</p><p>We capped off our dinner with Bailey's Irish Cream.</p><p>3. I am not at liberty to write about what Paul, Carol, Zoe, Molly, Christy, Debbie, and I spent a healthy portion of the evening discussing. I would, however, like to write for my own record of the evening that I thought it was a superb discussion, unquestionably one of the very best and most satisfying we've had over the last six to seven years of eating together as a family. </p><p><br /></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-53816592496696528982024-03-17T08:39:00.000-07:002024-03-17T08:39:40.428-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-16-2024: Hooked on Exercising Indoors, Preparing for Sunday's Family Dinner, Chicken with California Rub<p>1. Warming temperatures, blue sky and still I exercised indoors at the Fitness Center this morning. It went well, although, I admit, I would have worked out longer if I'd arrived earlier and if the facility didn't close at noon. But, I burned a decent number of calories on the cardio machines and got in some fairly good work on a couple of resistance machines.</p><p>2. I'm responsible for food and drink preparations for our family dinner on St. Patrick's Day. I don't care to reveal what I'm going to fix (not corned beef and cabbage, by the way), but after a trip to Yoke's and the liquor store today, I have the food and drink I need fix our meal.</p><p>3. Today I used the California rub Christy gave me to cook with a while back and baked a packet of party chicken wings with boiled potatoes and steamed broccoli. What were the ingredients of this California rub? Strawberries. Lemon peel. Cilantro. Thyme. Turned out to be a delicious seasoning for tonight's chicken. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-84744724878838478932024-03-16T09:13:00.000-07:002024-03-16T09:13:15.928-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-15-2024: Nearly Empty Fitness Center, Kierkegaard on the Value of Walking, Paninis for Dinner<p>1. Today the clouds and fog burned off and, by this afternoon, Kellogg enjoyed temperatures nearing sixty degrees. It started to feel a bit like spring outside.</p><p>For a short while today at the Fitness Center, I was the only person exercising. I had to chuckle at myself for not being outdoors. I rely on these cardio machines to tell me how many calories I've burned and how much time I've been on the machine. I enter this information into an app I use to track my calorie consumption, how many calories I burn, and how much time I spend exercising. At some point, I suppose, I'll get back to walking and hiking out of doors and hop on my bicycle again. Today would have been a good day for it. </p><p>2. For the first time since I rejoined the Fitness Center back in November, its internet service went down today. It wasn't a big deal, but it did mean I couldn't listen to another episode of "The Jukebox Diner"on my Sirius/XM app. After listening to Bach for a while, I changed gears and clicked on my audible.com recording of the book <i>Songlines</i>.</p><p>I have become enamored with the book's chapter entitled, "From the Notebooks". In it, Bruce Chatwin records a series of his notebook entries. Some of the entries in this chapter seem random, but many of them are focused on Chatwin's deep interest in the nomadic life, in human restlessness, on the value of travel, and of how important it is (and has been historically) for human beings to stay, in one way or another, on the move. </p><p>I particularly enjoy this entry in which Chatwin quotes from a letter composed by the 19th century philosopher/theologian Soren Kirkegaard: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it . . . but by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. . .Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right. </p></blockquote><p>3. Back home, I fixed messy fried zucchini, sun-dried tomato, mozzarella cheese paninis for Debbie and me, dressed with a mayonnaise, sour cream, plain yogurt, and parsley sauce. I roasted russet potato slices as a side. This was our second HelloFresh meal of the week. I think it's the second time I've made these sandwiches. Neither time did I feel like I quite got it right, but, alas, they tasted pretty good. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-55652755173619754142024-03-15T09:04:00.000-07:002024-03-15T11:01:08.630-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-14-2024: "Jukebox Diner" at the Gym, Four Versions of "You're No Good", Delicious Italian Vegetable Soup<p>1. A couple of weeks ago, I finally downloaded the Sirius/XM app on my phone. This morning, Stu and I were chatting and he told me how much he enjoys listening to Lou Simon's show, "Jukebox Diner" and so today, at the rehab gym, I took a break from Bach and Iron Butterfly and horn bands and listened to about the first hour of Lou Simon's latest installment of this show. Lou Simon plays a wide range of pop music from the fifties forward, provides a lot of background information about performers, songs, and record albums, and he takes phone calls and also responds, on air, to emails and text messages. </p><p>2. "Jukebox Diner" made my workout today even more fun. I continued listening to this episode when I returned home and especially enjoyed it when Lou Simon played four versions of the song, "You're No Good" -- he began with Betty Everett's version, then played the Swinging Blue Jeans cover, moved on to Linda Ronstad's most famous rendition, and wrapped it up with Van Halen's 1979 track (it kind of blew me away). </p><p>Lou Simon's show reminded me a bit of a Grateful Dead call in show called, "Tales from the Golden Road". Both programs feature callers who are eager to share trivia, talk about experiences they've had listening to music live (especially true on "Golden Road"), and to ask the host questions. Like Lou Simon, the "Golden Road" hosts, David Gans and Gary Lambert are patient with the callers, often let them ramble on about stuff, and turn whatever they have to say into something positive. I don't know if Lou Simons ever does interviews, but Gans and Lambert do.</p><p>3. I popped open a HelloFresh bag for tonight's dinner and it turned out to be mighty delicious. We'd never had their One-Pot Italian Vegetable Soup before and it was simple to prepare and both tasty and comforting. It's a tomato based soup with onion, carrots, kale, and Israeli couscous, seasoned with a packet of Italian seasoning. It's a soup I could make without the HelloFresh bag. I just hope I can remember to do so some time. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-58428442389983789632024-03-14T08:52:00.000-07:002024-03-14T08:52:31.179-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-13-2024: Getting Stuff Done, Bach and *Copia*, Copper Is In Good Health! <p>1. I got down to business today and did laundry, paid bills, got my monthly blood draw at the hospital for the kidney transplant program, and, later in the afternoon than usual, worked out at the Fitness Center. </p><p>2. While I worked out, I listened once again to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and let all of its glorious, uplifting musical lines energize and uplift me. I thought a lot about the rhetorical trope <i>copia</i>, or plenty. When employed in writing, <i>copier </i>is a way at getting at the truth of an idea or the reality of things through unfolding its many dimensions, of exploring a subject in detail. Bach's compositions swim in <i>copia</i> as he explore themes, variations on those themes, and as he composes points and counterpoints in his music. It's what I love about Shakespeare. He was devoted to <i>copia</i> and creates ambiguity in his characters and ideas not by withholding detail but by exploring them in great detail, leading him so unfold contradictions, opposites existing side by side, and stimulating complexity.</p><p>3. For those of you on Copper watch, I have good news. Dr. Cook called me today and his blood work looked terrific. Dr. Cook recommends that I have Copper's teeth cleaned. He and I talked about the risks of Copper being under anesthesia and the doctor is confident the risks are minimal for Copper. It's a mystery why Copper meows (or to use Dr. Cook's term, vocalizes) overnight as much as he does. My hypothesis? Copper was once a stray cat and stray cats tend to be more active at night. Without Luna around to keep Copper company at night, I think he wants to be active. My guess is that he has a drive to be outdoors. I tried letting him go outdoors a couple of years ago, but I didn't like where he roamed to in our neighborhood so I keep him indoors. If only he would stay in our yard . . . </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-18607598939564425872024-03-13T10:24:00.000-07:002024-03-13T10:24:22.655-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-12-2024: Working Out to a Vivid Bach Memory, Building a Vegetable Stir Fry, I Take Copper In for His Annual Exam<p>1. I arrived at the rehab gym in CdA still a bit road weary from my weekend travels. I scaled back my workout just a bit. It turned out to be a wise move. </p><p>I had put Spotify's "Best of Bach" on the Camry's sound system to help keep me calm as I drove from Seattle to a gas station I stopped at several miles after getting over Snoqualmie Pass. </p><p>I had Bach on my mind after listening to Iron Butterfly last week. Today, I decided to listen to Bach's <i>Brandenburg Concertos </i>while I worked out. </p><p>My mind wandered back to 1986. I was in Portland. So was one of my favorite friends at the time, Craig T. As I remember, and I could very well be mistaken, the Portland Film Festival was getting underway and featured the world premier of Woody Allen's movie, <i>Hannah and Her Sisters</i>. Craig and I luckily snagged two of the last seats left in the theater. </p><p>In one of the movie's scenes, Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Elliot (Michael Caine) are alone while Frederick (Max Von Sydow)<i> </i>and Dusty (Daniel Stern) go into the basement to look at Frederick's oil paintings. Elliot has been recommending music for Lee to listen to and poetry for her to read. After Frederick and Dusty leave the room, Lee pulls out a Bach album she's recently purchased and plays the second movement of Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F Minor. </p><p>This moment in the movie transfixed me. When I returned to my apartment in Eugene, since I didn't have an LP with the Harpsichord Concerto on it, I played what I did have: my collection of the Brandenburg Concertos. </p><p>When I hear the Brandenburg Concertos, I can't tell one of the six concertos from another. I get so engrossed in their beauty that it doesn't matter to me if I'm listening to the first, fourth, sixth, second, fifth, or third. I love them. I'm the same way when I listen to the Grateful Dead channel on Sirius/XM. A song will come on, I'm engrossed by it, but I cannot for the life of me remember its title -- unless it's a song whose title is repeated in the lyrics. Same with Pink Floyd. Their song titles, especially from <i>Dark Side of the Moon</i>, escape me, but as I listen to their music, I often find myself transported to another world. </p><p>2. The Nancy's yogurt Debbie and I enjoy is unavailable in the Silver Valley. So is Nancy's kefir. I went to Fred Meyer after I worked out to pick up yogurt and kefir and I suddenly felt an irresistible urge to buy some produce, too, so I could make a vegetable stir fry for dinner. </p><p>Back home, later in the afternoon, I chopped a white onion, several stalks of bok choy, some broccoli, and a zucchini. I stir fried these vegetables along with some sliced mushrooms. Before stir frying, I made a stir fry sauce combining soy sauce, water, sesame oil, rice vinegar, minced garlic, ginger powder, honey, cornstarch, and red pepper flakes. As the vegetables cooked, I put all the brown rice left over from last night's dinner into the cast iron skillet and warmed it up and once the vegetables were ready, I combined the rice and vegetables in one pan. (Note to self: purchase a wok!) I then topped the rice and vegetables with several stalks of chopped raw green onion.</p><p>I seasoned the stir fry with the sauce. Debbie and I agreed: this dinner worked! </p><p>3. Just before fixing dinner, I took Copper to the veterinarian for his annual check up and vaccinations. I'll get the blood work results by phone later, but, as of now, Dr. Cook says Copper's heart and lungs sound healthy, she feels good to his hands, his weight is stable, and he seems in good shape. Copper is about thirteen years old. I'm hoping the blood work supports Dr. Cook's optimism. </p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-76952441616591818962024-03-12T08:53:00.000-07:002024-03-12T08:53:52.113-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-11-2024: Driving Home from Seattle, (Re)Listening to *Songlines*, Simple Salmon Dinner<p>1. As far as having my things gathered, I was ready to bolt out the door about an hour before I actually left the Grove West Seattle Inn, but I didn't want to drive in the dark, so I waited until daylight began to break. I knew I would experience some congestion merging onto I-5 and onto I-90, but I don't mind traffic congestion, especially because I wasn't under any time pressure at all. If it's going to be congested, all I ask is that all of us drivers behave ourselves. That happened. Drivers were patient, worked within the congestion, and so it wasn't at all stressful driving out of Seattle. </p><p>I'd read that snow might begin to fall on Snoqualmie Pass around 11:00 a.m. I made sure to drive over the pass before the possible snow came. The roadway was clear of snow and ice. It was foggy, but I managed the limited visibility without any problems. </p><p>2. Going to Seattle and coming back, I listened to approximately the second half of Bruce Chatwin's <i>Songlines</i>. It was a challenge to keep up with his book while driving, especially as he ruminated, with the help of copious numbers of sources he'd read, on such topics as human aggression, humans in relation to weaponry, different theories of species evolution, human restlessness, the significance of desert lands, and many other meanderings, all while telling the story of his experiences in the bushland of Australia. </p><p>I've finished this book, but I'm not done with it. I'll be going back, rereading parts I listened to, sorting things out, and marveling at Chatwin's breadth of knowledge and interests and at his remarkable story telling ability.</p><p>3. I knew when I arrived home that Debbie had bought a salmon filet for us to split. I seasoned it with butter, rosemary, and butter and I combined yogurt, sour cream, garlic, and water to make a garlic sauce. </p><p>I also cooked a pot of brown rice. I then sautéed a white onion, added frozen green beans and corn to the pan, and once those ingredients were ready to eat, I added brown rice and garlic to the mix.</p><p>The garlic sauce tasted great on the salmon and I also dressed my vegetable and rice side dish with it and enjoyed it a lot. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-44091925752543485362024-03-11T20:39:00.000-07:002024-03-11T20:39:12.750-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-10-2024: Recharging My Energy, Songs of Bill Davie, Post-Concert Trance<p>1. I treasure the time I spend in big cities whenever I get the chance to pay one a visit. That said, I also have a limited amount of energy to spend driving, riding, walking, gawking, drinking, dining, and enjoying the amenities of, say, Seattle, and I used up quite a bit of that energy on Saturday -- I was out and about for over twelve glorious hours!</p><p>So this morning, I poured myself one cup of coffee after another, worked on word puzzles, ate the generous portion of the Taste of Africa dish I didn't eat last night (it was a terrific breakfast), lounged around and got cleaned up.</p><p>I recharged my batteries. I got refreshed. I slowed things way down.</p><p>2. The primary reason I made this trip to Seattle was so I could attend a benefit concert to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Bill Davie and I have a long friendship, extending all the way back to 1977 and over these years I've heard him perform his songs in multiple venues in Washington and Oregon, hosted two of his concerts in my home in Eugene, and I tuned in Tuesday evenings when he was able to perform online -- you might remember his Treehouse Concerts.</p><p>Bill has had MS for about ten years. He can no longer play the guitar. </p><p>One of his fellow musicians, Mike Buchman, had a brilliant idea. </p><p>To keep Bill's music alive and to raise money for the MS Society, he organized the concert I attended today. It featured twenty musicians, all longtime friends and acquaintances of Bill's (oh! and one duo featured his nephews), each performing one of Bill's songs. The concert ended with the entire company of musicians joining together, with Bill singing lead, to get the audience to sing along and perform Bill's song, "Where Will We Go?"</p><p>The concert stirred and moved me. I marveled, not only at the superb performances, but at Bill's mind boggling range of songs, the vast variety of rhythms, moods, explorations, styles, and insights that drive his catalog. Bill's songs can be tender, loving, surrealistic, pointed, funny, and fun. They are expertly crafted, full of surprises, and always engaging. </p><p>I'm writing this blog post on Monday evening. </p><p>Earlier today I drove back to Kellogg from Seattle and the long stretches of I-90 helped stretch my mind.</p><p>My mind wandered back to the spring of 1974. I was enrolled in a Modern Literature course at North Idaho College. We'd been assigned to read poems by W. B. Yeats.</p><p>Yeats visited me today somewhere, say, where Moses Lake is, and he kept repeating to me his two lines at the end of his poem, "Among School Children":</p><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span> </span><span> How can we know the dancer from the dance?</span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I suddenly realized that for the over forty years that I've been listening to Bill Davie perform, Bill and his songs were unified to me. He was his songs. His songs were Bill. For me, the way his hands moved, the way his songs took over his body, his facial expressions, his stories, wise cracks as a performer, were all inseparable from his songs. How could I know the singer from the song? I couldn't. Bill the singer and Bill's songs formed a unity.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This afternoon that unity did not exist. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I heard Bill's songs, but not Bill the singer, the performer.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It was a profound experience. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The songs suddenly had a new life, infused with the power of other singers and players, and every one of those songs vibrated with fresh vitality and vigor.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yes, I missed being able to watch Bill perform them. I love witnessing the unity of singer/writer and song.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But without Bill to animate those songs, hearing those songs performed by twenty other musicians, gave me an even deeper sense of how strong Bill's songs are, that other dancers can dance them, other singers sing them, and his songs' power drives these other performers to convey their brilliance in ways I hadn't imagined before. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">3. After this stirring and moving two hours or so of absorbing Bill's songs, I wanted time to myself. Peter and Kris, two longtime friends from Whitworth whom I got to sit with during the concert, had other engagements that evening. I was content to leave the concert hall, wind my way through the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel, across the West Seattle Bridge, and back to my room to relax, stare, think, remember, feel gratitude, rest, and let the beauty and emotions of what I'd just experienced wash over me, trusting that I was not alone, somehow knowing that the performers and the other 150 people in the audience today were, no doubt, in their own ways, also in some kind of trance along with me. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-74237963041128953932024-03-10T09:35:00.000-07:002024-03-10T09:35:49.206-07:00Three Beautiful Things 03-09-2024: Breakfast with Peter and Mark, Afternoon in Seattle with Hugh, Mediterranean Dinner at Petra Bistro<p> 1. What a day! </p><p>It started at 8:30 this morning when I wound my way to the Alki Cafe where I joined my longtime Whitworth friends, Mark and Peter, for breakfast. We fell immediately into easy conversation for the next, oh, about two and a half hours, talking about the very things that have occupied our conversations for nearly fifty years now: books, music, our heady days being formed and inspired at Whitworth, professors and friends we knew and loved in the Whitworth days, spiritual matters, Whitworth events (like the Easter Vigil) and a bounty of other topics. I was hungry for this kind of conversation, to tap into the profound impact my years at Whitworth had on me and to bring that impact into the present, knowing that for all three of us what we learned and experienced at Whitworth is not simply a source of nostalgia, but continues to shape and influence how we live our lives now. </p><p>2. The invigoration continued when Hugh Crozier rolled up to the Grove Inn around 11:30 and we headed into Seattle. We headed straight to the Hatback Bar and Grille, grabbed a stool at the bar, and began our afternoon of stimulating conversation, beer sampling, and a good time roaming at the Pike Place Market. At the market, we enjoyed a pint and stellar conversation at Old Stove Brewing. We wandered over to Mee Sum Pastry where I devoured a steamed BBQ Pork Hombow (my first hombow ever). We then went to a produce stand, a meat market, and to other lively vendors and shops and Hugh filled the shopping list he brought. </p><p>I loved being at the Pike Place Market. I loved being a part of a sizable crowed of shoppers and visitors, loved seeing people from all over the world, loved the sensory stimulation, especially the intoxicating blend of smells, whether of the variety of food cooking, spices, fish, or the many other sources of variety and pleasure. </p><p>3. After our indulging our senses at the market, we headed south to Renton. We made a stop at the Hop Garden pub for a quick beer and continued our conversations. Then we blasted over to Hugh's house where he put his groceries in the house and his wife, Carol, joined us.</p><p>We rocketed back downtown to the Petra Bistro, a handsome Mediterranean restaurant, and enjoyed a superb dinner. </p><p>We started with an appetizer tray of falafel, dolmathes, olives, hummus, baba ghanouje, and labnie, accompanied with warm pita bread. </p><p>I ordered a terrific chicken dish called Taste of Africa, a chicken breast served with charbroiled vegetables, sautéed garlic, onion, and tomatoes, seasoned with a variety of the bistro's house spices. All of this was served on a bed of rice topped with garlic sauce. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Petra Bistro's portions were both delicious and generous and after just a single dolmathe, a ball of falafel, and some pita bread, I was full just halfway through my meal. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I sure look forward to continuing to enjoy this food on Sunday. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Let me repeat: what a day! </p><p style="text-align: left;">For me, today embodied exactly what I love to do whenever I get to travel.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I spent many hours with lifelong friends.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I enjoyed a day spilling over with stimulating conversation.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I got to enjoy a sample of the vitality and vigor of the energy of Seattle.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I sampled some delicious beer. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I got to eat food unavailable to me in my day to day life in Kellogg. </p><p style="text-align: left;">What a day! </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-81162910737383586822024-03-08T22:21:00.000-08:002024-03-08T22:21:49.697-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-07-2024: Good Work Out, Simple Dinner, Getting Packed<p>1. I worked out with a bit more vigor today in CdA and continued my discussion with Claudia about how much I need to eat before working out to keep my energy levels strong. </p><p>2. I made a simple pasta sauce and let it simmer for a few hours this afternoon and Debbie and I enjoyed a simple and delicious dinner.</p><p>3. I compiled a check list of things to pack for my trip to Seattle and got my bag almost completely ready to go. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-31765633364007153462024-03-07T09:21:00.000-08:002024-03-07T09:21:19.536-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-06-2024: Iron Butterfly and J. S. Bach, Private Pleasures, Porcini Mushroom Risotto<p>1. Was there ever a song that invited more rhythmic tapping on school desks and car dashboards than Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", as many of us used our fingers, pencils, or the palm of our hands to hammer out its famous drum solo? </p><p>I thought about the ubiquity of this drum solo this afternoon as I listened to "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" while I worked out at the Fitness Center in Smelterville. What drummer in what garage band in about 1968-70 didn't take on Ron Bushy's drum solo to advance their skills?</p><p>That said, as I listened to the album, <i>In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida</i>, today, I realized that its lasting impact on my enjoyment of music had almost nothing to do with the drum solo.</p><p>From the get-go, it was Doug Ingle's organ playing that enchanted me on this album. Ingle's dad was a church organist. Even as a teenager, I could hear the church organ influence in Ingle's organ parts. Moreover, I remember that somehow listening to Iron Butterfly always called up the music played on the tv program, <i>The Munsters</i>. </p><p>I'm realizing as I go back to these albums of my teenage years that they all helped me be receptive to different kinds of music as I got older.</p><p>Thanks to Iron Butterfly, I was receptive later on to the compositions of J. S. Bach, starting with, but not limited to, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. I suppose the feel of sacred music I could hear in Doug Ingle's organ parts and the fact that Bach's compositions were often for sacred settings might have been the contact point between the music of a psychedelic rock band and a Baroque composer -- I don't really know -- but I'm grateful that Iron Butterfly was more than just a trippy band to me.</p><p>Iron Butterfly was my gateway into the wonders of listening to J. S. Bach.</p><p>2. When I work out at the Fitness Center, I enter a bubble. I go into a world all of my own where I exercise, listen to music, and pay attention to the associations the music triggers in my mind.</p><p>It's a continuation of the way much of my music listening over the last fifty-five years or so has been private. </p><p>Yes, I've listened to plenty of music, and thoroughly enjoyed it, with friends in all kinds of settings.</p><p>But, I also have a long history of music listening that I kept to myself, never talked about, that I enjoyed in private.</p><p>It began in my upstairs bedroom with the George Gershwin album I've written about before.</p><p>Today, I called up the Symphony Hall channel on my Sirius/XM app and suddenly I was back in the North Idaho College library. My habit there -- and I continued this practice in the Douglass Room at the U of Oregon Library -- was to check out headphones and check out a classical album featuring an individual instrument -- say, the bassoon or the oboe or the clarinet or the harp -- and familiarize myself not only with the possibilities of these instruments, but with composers like Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, and others. </p><p>Yes, at the time, while at North Idaho College, I got fired up listening to Uriah Heep, the Allman Brothers, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, The Moody Blues, Free, and any number of other bands -- and I shared my excitement with friends whether at the Steinhaus, the Student Union Building, at the Cockroach Castle, or in the trailer John S. and I rented.</p><p>But, I never did bust into the Kopper Keg in Kellogg, pitcher of Lucky Lager in hand, and enthuse to my friends at the buddy bar about the great Harp Concerto by George Handel I'd listened to that week.</p><p>Nope. </p><p>That was a private pleasure. (Owed, oddly enough, in part, to Iron Butterfly.)</p><p>And it was different. Being different was good in private, not so good socially. </p><p>3. When our niece Zoe gave me a jar of World Market Porcini Mushroom Rissoto mix for Christmas, I thought, WOW! This looks really good. I brought it home and made the big mistake of putting it away because once it was out of sight, it was also out of my mind.</p><p>Today, thinking I'd make a pasta dinner, I was looking in our kitchen for any packages of pasta that might be upstairs and Glory Hallelujah!, I spied the jar of Porcini Mushroom Risotto mix. </p><p>Perfect.</p><p>Preparing the risotto was very simple and Debbie and I were both nearly giddy with how great it tasted. </p><p>We had some leftover chicken from last night and a little broccoli and these leftovers paired perfectly with this very delicious Porcini Mushroom Risotto. </p><p>If we want to purchase this mix ourselves, we'll either have to go to Spokane or order it through World Market online and my guess is that one day we'll do just that. </p><p>Thank you, Zoe! </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-9330574462692687282024-03-06T07:18:00.000-08:002024-03-06T07:18:24.621-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-05-2024: Overcoming Agitation, My World Looked Better, Simple Chicken Dinner -- As Requested<p>1. I arrived at the rehab gym this morning in a mildly agitated state. I'd forgotten to take my daily medicine. The drive to CdA was not icy or snowy, but messy -- lots of water, other vehicles (through no fault of their own) throwing gunk on the Sube's windshield. There were no parking spaces on the north side of Ironwood Drive at the Kootenai Medical Center. I was running a bit late anyway because I'd fallen asleep in a chair before I left Kellogg. As I thought it might be, my blood pressure was quite a bit higher than usual during my check in.</p><p>My hope was to find some calm working out on the aerobic machines and working with hand weights.</p><p>I did. </p><p>Santana's <i>Abraxas</i> helped. </p><p>So did pumping my legs and arms and striding on the treadmill.</p><p>I ended my time in the gym with a good talk with staff person Claudia about increasing my carbohydrate consumption in the morning before working out. I've focused on protein, but we agreed that I need more of the kind of fuel carbs provide before exercising. </p><p>I can do that. </p><p>2. By the time I drove home, I-90, especially the 4th of July Pass, had dried out significantly. </p><p>I arrived home in a much calmer condition. </p><p>My blood pressure was much lower. </p><p>I checked the oil and windshield wiper fluid in the Sube -- things were in good shape. </p><p>We needed a few things at Yoke's and as I strolled the aisles, I was all but free of agitation.</p><p>My insignificant little world looked much better. </p><p>3. I baked chicken thighs and legs for dinner. I steamed broccoli. I fried a mess of baby Yukon golds with white onion and mushroom slices. </p><p>Last night, Debbie asked me to fix a simple chicken dinner for today and I did just what she asked. </p><p>I kept it simple. </p><p>She told me dinner was perfect. </p><p>Now my earlier agitation was completely defeated! </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-64893100613083148842024-03-05T19:26:00.000-08:002024-03-05T19:26:13.602-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-04-2024: The Lasting Power of "I'm Your Captain", My Creative Edge?, Hawaiian Pizza<p>1. I purchased Grand Funk Railroad's album, <i>Closer to Home</i>, during either my sophomore or junior year in high school. I can't remember why I bought it, but as I've been thinking about albums that shaped my musical taste and how my mind works, <i>Closer to Home</i> popped in my head today. I listened to it while working out. </p><p>One song on this album moved me, transported me into a meditative state. It was as if I temporarily left the world of my high school bedroom and took residence in world of almost pure memory, thought, and feeling. The song was "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)". </p><p>Suddenly I was not only listening to the song, but I was also watching the final moments of the concluding episode of a multi-part story on the television program, <i>Lassie</i>. Lassie had strayed from home. As viewers, we experienced Lassie's adventures and the heartbreak that Timmy and his parents, Paul and Ruth suffered with Lassie missing. The story came to a climax, as I remember, when Timmy gave up, sure Lassie would never return home, and went to a spot at the bottom of a hill with a shovel to bury Lassie's toys.</p><p>Timmy heard barking. He looked up. As the <i>Lassie </i>theme song began to swell, Lassie came running over the top of the hill and into Timmy's arms. </p><p>I cried as hard as I've ever cried in my life.</p><p>But that wasn't the only emotional memory "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)", with it's repeated lines, "I'm getting closer to my home" called up in me.</p><p>The song also transported me to Oz. I felt again the aching of Dorothy who only wanted to return home again, repeating again and again, "There's no place like home . . . There's no place like home."</p><p>I think of all the different ideas and story structures I worked with over the many years I taught English, the one that mattered most to me, whether in Shakespeare's plays, the novel <i>The Color Purple</i>, Homer's <i>Ulysses</i>, and many other books, movies, and poems, was when a story centered on separation from home and then a return, of separation from loved ones and the power of reunion. </p><p>Today in the Fitness Center, I couldn't remember the last time I listened to Grand Funk Railroad's album <i>Closer to Home</i>. </p><p>The feelings, however, of their song about being separated from home and drawing closer to being home again, were fresh today. I was sixteen years old again in my bedroom. I was five years old again watching <i>Lassie</i>, watching <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>. I was in my late twenties again, teaching the plays of Shakespeare for the first time, trying to convey to my students the power of reunion, say, in <i>The Winter's Tale</i>, paralleling Leontes and Hermione's reuniting with Timmy and Lassie's or Dorothy and her family's. I was in my forties and fifties again, teaching the Literature of Comedy, joining my students in reading stories and watching movies of reconciliation, of returning home, hoping it would help them see that one of the things I loved about baseball was that it was a game of leaving home then trying to get back again. </p><p>So, this album didn't have the musical impact on me that others I've been writing about did. </p><p>It had a deep emotional impact that shaped my vision and understanding of literature and movies and what I see as of ultimate importance in life itself. </p><p>2. I was especially receptive to this experience at the Fitness Center today because a few hours earlier, Peter Blomquist had emailed me a single question: "What's your creative edge right now?"</p><p>I'm not sure I understand this question, but I decided to answer it by telling Peter that lately I'd been spending my daily workouts listening to albums from high school that laid the groundwork for my eclectic tastes in music today. Peter asked a series of follow up questions, which I answered at some length. All that writing -- much of which also has appeared in this blog -- had loosened up my mind, opened the way to have such a panoramic experience listening to Grand Funk Railroad. </p><p>3. Lucky for me, Debbie didn't eat all of her pizza at the Fainting Goat Sunday. I got to have some of her slices for dinner tonight. The pizza intrigued me. It was a Hawaiian pizza, but unlike every other Hawaiian pizza I've ever eaten, this one used barbecue sauce. It surprised me. It threw me off at first. And I loved it! It was delicious and stimulatingly creative. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-87678159606849219872024-03-04T09:32:00.000-08:002024-03-04T09:32:53.593-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-04-2024: I Owe Rod Stewart Much Gratitude, Sunday Crossword with Copper, Superb Dinner at The Fainting Goat<p>1. During my senior year at KHS, as I've written, two albums staggered me with their inventiveness and invigorating tracks: Chase's first self-titled album and Santana's <i>Abraxas. </i></p><p>Today I realized that a third album, released in 1971, had a quieter, possibly less obvious, but a long lasting impact on me: Rod Stewart's <i>Every Picture Tells a Story</i>.</p><p>I listened to this album today while I exercised. </p><p>First, an admission. I judgmentally shied away from Rod Stewart when his songs seemed to turn more disco, I guess in the late 1970s. </p><p>Consequently, I nearly forgot about <i>Every Picture Tells a Story</i>. </p><p>What a shame.</p><p>Today I realized that I'd forgotten, if I ever realized it fifty+ years ago, that <i>Every Picture Tells a Story </i>is an accomplished anthology of musical styles. </p><p>In it, Rod Stewart glides between tracks that are blues and gospel inspired, others that have acoustic and folk instrumentation and sensibilities, with tinges of country sounds, and at other times Rod Stewart sings some pretty raucous rock and roll. </p><p>I know that during my senior year of high school, the album's most popular song, "Maggie May", was my favorite. I also remembered being haunted by Stewart's riveting cover of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe", loving that Rod Stewart and Rare Earth both recorded scintillating covers of The Temptations' masterpiece, "I'm Losing You", and I really had never paid much attention to the beauty of the mandolin before hearing Rod Stewart's "Mandolin Wind". </p><p>In about 1987, I began listening to folk music, much of it better described, I suppose, as singer/songwriter music. I went to numerous live shows, including performances by local singer/songwriters in the Eugene/Corvallis area. I became enamored with acoustic instruments and, after going to hear The Seldom Scene in 1988 at the WOW Hall in Eugene, fell head over heels for bluegrass and string band music. </p><p>Today I realized that the love I developed for acoustic music, starting in 1987, actually had its origins in Rod Stewart's <i>Every Picture Tells a Story</i>, but I didn't do anything about it back in 1972 and on into my college years. Today, relishing the sounds of the mandolin, steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, and acoustic guitar on this album and the quality song writing of this album (especially "Reason to Believe"), it puzzled me that it wasn't until about fifteen years later that I really began to listen to copious amounts of dobro, mandolin, fiddle, acoustic guitar, steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, and other such music. In many ways the break outs in bluegrass music, along with listening to improvisational jazz, laid the groundwork for my developing affection for the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band, Zero, and other rock n' roll and psychedelic jam bands. </p><p>I fatigued my legs in the Fitness Center today after time on the treadmill and the NuStep machine.</p><p>I hardly noticed, though, as the gratitude inside me grew for the slow developing impact <i>Every Picture Tells a Story</i> had on my eclectic tastes in music, on the wide range of what I enjoy hearing. </p><p>2. Where to go from here? Had my day hit its peak of invigoration before 12 o'clock noon, thanks to this stellar Rod Stewart album?</p><p>Well, kind of, but not entirely.</p><p>The Sunday NYTimes crossword puzzle awaited me and I spent much of the afternoon joining Copper in the bedroom, working this puzzle, napping, and hoping to help Copper feel some relaxation and contentment.</p><p>3. Then, shortly before 4 o'clock, Debbie and I blasted east on I-90 to Wallace where we met with Christy, Paul, and Carol for family dinner. Carol and Paul performed in a matinee show at the Sixth Street Melodrama. Christy attended the show, but Debbie and I have become more protective of our time and energy on Sundays and opted to only go to dinner.</p><p>We ate at the Fainting Goat in Wallace. </p><p>I hadn't dined at the Fainting Goat. </p><p>My impressions were all positive.</p><p>It's a small restaurant and wine bar, but, somehow, felt spacious at the same time. </p><p>Our server seated the five of us in the back of the dining area near the Fainting Goat's definitive brick oven.</p><p>Other people were in the room, spread comfortably apart. We could hear each other talk easily and, speaking for myself, I was very comfortable with where we were seated. </p><p>The Fainting Goat has a short cocktail menu and Debbie, Christy, and I all ordered an Old-Fashioned. I loved this drink. I don't know what bourbon the Fainting Goat pours, but it was perfectly assertive with the sweetness of the simple syrup taking its rightful place in nearly imperceptible support of the bourbon. The Fainting Goat served the Old-Fashioned with an oversize single ice cube that kept the drink perfectly chilled and never watered down. </p><p>I've cut way back on alcohol consumption over the last two or more months. Absence had made my taste buds grow fonder. The bourbon tasted perfect to me. </p><p>I ordered a Greek salad topped with crispy chicken and a bowl of French onion soup. The salad was fresh, crisp, and I enjoyed the basil vinaigrette. </p><p>But, the soup. </p><p>Wow! </p><p>The soup. </p><p>I loved the soup. </p><p>It featured a sherry laced beef broth, caramelized onions, garlic croutons, and a blend of Provolone and Gruyere cheeses, melted, in the brick oven, on top of the broth and onions. </p><p>For me, this French onion soup was the platonic ideal of what I have imagined the perfect onion soup to not only taste like, but to feel like in my mouth. </p><p>Upon returning home, Debbie exclaimed, "My pizza was really good! Why aren't we going to the Fainting Goat once a week?"</p><p>Debbie brought home left over pizza which we'll share for our Monday dinner.</p><p>As far as returning with some regularity to the Fainting Goat: I'd love to do that! </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-73047571125058484212024-03-03T09:50:00.000-08:002024-03-03T09:50:11.089-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-02-2024: Snow Shoveling and Back to *Abraxas*, Seattle Plans Solidifying, A New (and Perfect) Dinner Combination<p>1. I knew, deep down inside, and from information online, that this morning's snowfall on the sidewalks would melt off by this afternoon. Nonetheless, I decided to shovel our sidewalk and Christy's. The snow was wet and heavy, but not deep. Shoveling accelerated my heart beat. It winded me a bit. I was finished in under fifteen minutes. It was solid pre-workout exercise.</p><p>I dialed up Santana's <i>Abraxas</i> again at the Fitness Center this morning. I'd had an ecstatic experience on Friday listening to this album and wondered how it would sound to me a day later. </p><p>Even better. </p><p>Yes.</p><p>Even better.</p><p>Yes, Carlos Santana's lead guitar work is the heart of this band. Its soul. The life blood nourishing Santana's heart and soul is the vigorous rhythm section, bass, drums and percussion, and Greg Rolie's splendid vocals and keyboard work. </p><p>More than once, I thought to myself: this album has some of the most perfect passages of music I've ever listened to. </p><p>2. Mark Cutshall called me this afternoon, Hugh Croier and I exchanged emails, I heard from Peter Bomquist yesterday, and Diane Schulstad and I concluded a two day conversation on Messenger. </p><p>The upshot?</p><p>A schedule is emerging. I've got a solid idea of who I'll see when in Seattle starting this coming Friday and it all looks awesome. </p><p>3. This afternoon I was suddenly hungry for chickpeas and jasmine rice. I bolted to our basement pantry and, as I reached for a can of garbanzo beans, I noticed a can of Margaret Holmes Tomatoes, Okra & Corn. </p><p>Aha! </p><p>I knew just what to do.</p><p>I chopped a white onion, cooked it until soft, added three cloves of finely chopped garlic, and then poured the can of Tomatoes, Okra & Corn and a can of chickpeas into the frying pan. While these ingredients simmered, I made a pot of jasmine rice. </p><p>I topped a layer of rice with the garbanzo beans, tomatoes, okra, and corn, sprinkled some Braggs Liquid Aminos over it and satisfied the yearning I'd had for just such a meal.</p><p>Later, I combined orange wedges, a chopped Cosmic Crisp apple, slices of strawberries, and a small handful of blueberries with Nancy's plain whole milk yogurt, a perfect fruit salad to round out my dinner. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-61810896074827026662024-03-02T09:25:00.000-08:002024-03-02T09:25:05.794-08:00Three Beautiful Things 03-01-2024: Copper's Restless Night, Santana Put My Mind in Overdrive, Fried Egg Atop Leftover Curry<p>1. Overnight, starting about about 2:30 a.m. or so, Copper became restless. I fed him. I tried petting him. He wanted something more -- meowed repeatedly -- and I don't know what it was. I began to think that he wanted me to get out of bed, be in the living room, as if he wanted us to be out there together while Gibbs was upstairs. I had an up and down few early morning hours trying to help Copper relax, and so, around 10:30 or so, I went into the bedroom, joined a much more contented Copper, and took a nap, a nap I sorely needed if I were going to head to the Fitness Center today.</p><p>2. Ah! The nap worked. </p><p>Around 2:00, I headed to the Fitness Center. I almost returned to Chase for the third workout in a row, but I suddenly remembered that, along with the horn-rock bands, I had another obsession my senior year at KHS.</p><p>It was with Santana. The album was <i>Abraxas</i>.</p><p>Going back to these albums stirs up a few high school memories -- memories of the pep band playing "25 or 6 to 4" or "Get It On" or memories of having some free time in boys choir class and playing <i>Abraxas</i> on the music room sound system.</p><p>Mostly, however, during that senior year, I experienced my love of Chase and Santana by myself, playing <i>Abraxas</i> and <i>Chase</i> over and over for the pure pleasure they gave me.</p><p>I was thinking today, as I pedaled away on a recumbent stationary bike, that in one huge way my love of Santana began with with Chicago's first album and the track entitled, "I'm a Man". On that track, not only does the band turn drummer Danny Saraphine loose to play a riveting drum solo, but the track also features a variety of other percussion instruments.</p><p><i>Abraxas</i> blew me away, from the start, with its variety of percussion parts, echoing, in my mind, what I'd heard in "I'm a Man", and opened the way for me to become enthralled with the percussion music I encountered when I moved to Eugene. I loved the local marimba band, Shumba, spent long periods of time, the handful of times I went to the Oregon Country Fair, listening to percussionists jam at a the Drum Tower, did the same listening to and taking pictures of percussionists at the Saturday Market drum circle, and loved whenever I heard steel drummers play. </p><p>I also loved Carlos Santana's versatility. Looking back, I now realize that Santana's flights into sublime jamming on this album helped lay the groundwork for my deep enjoyment of the Grateful Dead nearly twenty years later. </p><p>I look back to 1971-72 and the following years and I wonder if there were people at KHS or at NIC or at Whitworth who were listening to the Grateful Dead -- or going to shows. I sure didn't know who they were -- and we didn't listen to music together. </p><p>The people I listened to music with socially, whether at parties or in cars equipped with 8 track tape players, were listening to Credence Clearwater Revival, the Beatles, Deep Purple, The Guess Who, Chicago, Neil Diamond, and other more commercially successful bands that created the soundtrack for much of the fun I had with others back then.</p><p>But I didn't know that in the same way that Santana opened up songs to improvisational jamming (like their track "Black Magic Woman") or the way Rare Earth jammed a nearly twenty-five minute version of "Get Ready" that another band, the Grateful Dead, was going deeper and more adventurously into improvisational jamming than I could have imagined. I might not have been ready for the Grateful Dead in 1971-1987. I'll never know. </p><p>All that thinking and remembering in addition to the pleasure I felt listening to <i>Abraxas</i> today made the time I spent pushing, pulling, pedaling, and huffing and puffing go by in a flash.</p><p>3. After that workout and those flights into memories and thoughts about how some of my taste for music developed, what was left to do today?</p><p>Well, I continued to try to firm up when I'll get to see whom when I go to Seattle in a week.</p><p>I also cooked up a batch of chopped bok choy with some sliced mushrooms and then added the left over chicken curry I fixed last night and warmed it all up before adding a container of left over basmati rice and Debbie and I enjoyed this tasty dinner for the second night in a row.</p><p>I had a little fun with my bowl of chicken curry. I fried an egg and plopped it atop my rice, chicken, curry sauce, and vegetables. </p><p>For me, it worked. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-88427374949176674122024-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:002024-03-01T09:38:55.287-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-29-2024: Horn-Rock Group Chase Invigorates Me, A Fun Curry Dish, I'm Going to the *Songs of Bill Davie* Benefit Concert in Seattle<p>1. All through my senior year at KHS, I became obsessed, along with Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears, with Chase, another horn-rock band featuring stratospheric trumpeter Bill Chase, three other supersonic trumpet players, bass guitar, keyboard, electric guitar, drums, and the vocalist Terry Richards. Their first album was simply called, <i>Chase</i>. It featured the popular hit, "Get It On" -- which was not only top 40 material, but became a favorite of the Kellogg High School pep band, a song that fired up my basketball teammates and me when they played it during our warmups. </p><p>Today, I time-traveled back to those months in 1971-72 when I listened obsessively to this album and let it motivate and drive me while I worked out at the rehab gym.</p><p>Not only did the driving rhythm section and the bright, pulsing trumpeters get my adrenaline pumping, but I relished the vocal stylings of Terry Richards, his versatility to energetically push pulsating songs forward and his gift for slowing things down and singing like a balladeer. </p><p>As I've written before, I have no interest in ranking these horn-rock bands. I realize that Chase never cut another album that was as successful as their debut. Band leader Bill Chase was killed in a plane crash in August, 1974. The band Chase had a short life. </p><p>But this one album, <i>Chase</i>, made an indelible impact on me over fifty years ago and as I listened to it twice today in the gym, the joy and pleasure and invigoration of Chase's work has not diminished one bit. </p><p>It might have grown. </p><p>2. Several months ago, Debbie and I went on a shopping safari in Spokane. We popped into Trader Joe's at one point and Debbie bought a packet of Tikka Masala Curry Sauce.</p><p>Last night, Debbie remembered that we had this sauce and suggested that it would taste good with chicken.</p><p>I agreed.</p><p>So, late this afternoon, I cut an onion into rings and cooked them in a large frying pan along with bok choy that Debbie had chopped up a day or two ago and added in a few lime kaffir leaves. I also steamed a mess of broccoli. Once the onion and bok choy had softened, I added slices of chicken breast to the pan, cooked it through, and then added the steamed broccoli and the curry sauce. I also cooked a pot of basmati rice.</p><p>I wanted this curry to be a bit spicier, so I added a modest amount of red pepper flakes, and I added some fresh squeezed lime juice I had on hand. </p><p>I let it all simmer.</p><p>I put rice in the bottom of two bowls, topped it with the curry sauce, and Debbie and I agreed that it worked and with what was left over, we'd have it again on Friday for dinner.</p><p>3. On Sunday, March 10th, a bunch of singers and songwriters in the Seattle area will get together at 3 o'clock and perform a benefit entitled, <i>Songs of Bill Davie</i>. Bill was diagnosed with MS around ten years ago. For several years, he was able to play his guitar despite the impact of the MS, but can't any longer. </p><p>As a tribute to his decades of songwriting and performing and as a benefit for the National MS Society, this group of Seattle musicians will perform a combination of their own songs and covers of a selection of Bill's songs. </p><p>Today, I reserved a room in West Seattle for the nights of the 8th, 9th, and 10th so that I can attend the benefit (which Bill will MC) and see friends and have some time to hang out in West Seattle and elsewhere. </p><p>It promises to be a fun weekend. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-32232859133501995712024-02-29T08:47:00.000-08:002024-02-29T08:47:04.839-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-28-2024: Day of Rest, New Couch Arrives, Baked Penne<p>1. I realized late this morning that I needed a day to rest and so I didn't go to the Fitness Center. It was a smart move. </p><p>2. Debbie bought a new couch and the Furniture Exchange (under new ownership) delivered it today efficiently and in a most friendly manner. </p><p>3. I enjoy eating baked pasta and today's HelloFresh bag contained the ingredients for an easy to assemble and bake penne dish and on a day when I was hungry all day and couldn't seem to satisfy my hunger, this tomato-based zucchini enriched lasagna-like dish satisfied me. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-68352835150528226102024-02-28T08:51:00.000-08:002024-02-28T08:51:26.032-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-27-2024: I Needed a Snack, Follow Your Bliss, Corn Chowder<p>1. Evidently, my brown rice scramble, with two eggs and grated cheese on top and a side of cottage cheese was not a sufficient breakfast this morning. I finished my workout in CdA feeling wobbly. I sat for about 10-15 minutes. Claudia offered me a 4 oz container of orange juice in case my blood sugar was low. The juice helped, I rallied, and drove, without a problem, to Fred Meyer. When I finished my small shopping trip, I chomped greedily into a Cosmic Crisp apple and ate some nuts. I drank a pint of water. Ah! Before long, I felt totally revived. </p><p>Going forward, I am going to pack some food to take with me to both the rehab gym and the Fitness Center, probably a cut up apple, some cheese, and some almonds or cashews so that if I have this experience again, I'll have some fuel on hand to energize myself. </p><p>2. I've been thinking a little bit about Joseph Campbell's famous imperative, "Follow your bliss". My mind has been traveling back to when I was in graduate school, especially the years following my two school years (1982-84) working as an instructor at Whitworth. I was doing two things that energized me, that roused my passions, that gave me a sense of purpose and joy: I was teaching as a grad student and I was learning how to cook. </p><p>I never did find bliss in writing scholarship. </p><p>I enjoyed studying primary works and reading scholarly treatments of those works, but translating my studies into the substance of what I taught in class blissed me out far more than writing papers or trying to write a dissertation.</p><p>I didn't have a car from about 1982-1988. I borrowed others' cars sometimes, but mostly I got around either by foot or riding a bicycle. </p><p>I lived near downtown Eugene close to two natural food stores -- Kiva and the New Frontier Market. When I shopped for groceries, I carried them home, some items in a backpack, others in a bag. </p><p>Often when I should have been researching and writing, my mind was more occupied with what I would cook when I arrived home, what recipe I would try out from <i>Recipes for a Small Planet</i>, any one of Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, from <i>Laurel's Kitchen</i>, or from Nikki and David Goldbeck's <i>American Wholefoods Cuisine</i>. </p><p>Not once did I think I'd try to turn my bliss for cooking into a vocation. Nor did I ever have any aspirations to cook gourmet food. I enjoyed then, as I do now, cooking simple meals.</p><p>A couple days ago, I learned on Facebook that Mark Stern, a former student of mine, who also became a friend, is retiring.</p><p>Mark followed his bliss for cooking. When he was a student of mine in the early 1990s, if I remember correctly, he was cooking food for a food bar at Sundance Foods in Eugene. Later, he operated a very successful food cart, serving soup, on the U of O campus and later he opened a brick and mortar restaurant near 5th and High called Soup Nation.</p><p>Concurrently, Mark also ran a superb catering business called Carte Blanche and, in the last few years, as best I could tell, Carte Blanche was the sole focus of his work in the food industry.</p><p>"Follow your bliss."</p><p>I did that for all the years I taught. I sometimes found administrative things outside the classroom less than blissful, but working with students, whether as a group or in individual conferences always vitalized me with some degree of bliss. </p><p>I have further followed my bliss at home as I continue to cook non-gourmet meals, try out new things, and return again and again to the meatless cooking that got me started forty years ago.</p><p>I don't know this, but I imagine Mark Stern's retirement will come as a disappointment to his customers and clients who, over the last thirty years or so, have enjoyed his superb soups and his artfully presented and delicious catering offerings. </p><p>I also know that sometimes following your bliss means leaving a long experienced bliss behind. </p><p>That's what I did when I retired. </p><p>I wonder if Mark is having a similar experience. </p><p>I won't presume to know, but I've always been very happy for his terrific career, for the way Mark followed his bliss. </p><p>3. Thanks to HelloFresh, we enjoyed another simple, delicious, and meatless dinner tonight. And it was blissful to prepare. I fixed corn chowder and Old Bay toast. The chowder's combination of green pepper, scallions, sweet corn, and russet potatoes made it both flavorful and comforting. I could easily make this chowder on my own, especially with the help of the HelloFresh recipe card. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-46138204947925040922024-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:002024-02-27T09:17:08.422-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-26-2024: I Return to Rare Earth's Live Album, Throwback Stir Fry Dinner, Vitality Again! <p>1. Over the last few days, while working out, I listened to <i>Chicago: Live at Carnegie Hall</i>. I'm ecstatic that I gave this album another listen all these fifty some odd years later after dismissing it when I was a teen. </p><p>I got to thinking about live albums from my high school years. All in all, I avoided them with one scintillating exception: <i>Rare Earth: Live in Concert</i>. I played that album repeatedly in high school and today I dialed in up on Spotify and listened again while I worked out.</p><p>I loved it again today. I got to thinking that, in a way I'd never thought about until today, that this album was a gateway to my future enjoyment of the Grateful Dead's recordings live on tapes and their <i>Europe '72 </i> album. I listened to that album, thanks to Jeff Harrison, for the first time in late December of 1987 in Jay's apartment in San Francisco. I would go to my first Grateful Dead show on 12-31-87 and Jeff was tutoring me in the history and the sounds of the Grateful Dead to help me prepare to go to the New Year's Eve show.</p><p>I didn't think about it then, but now, having listened to Rare Earth's long jams on their live album -- especially their nearly twenty-five minute wide open jam version of "Get Ready" -- I realized that what I loved about Rare Earth might have been in a different pew from the Grateful Dead, but it was in the same church. </p><p>Next up? I'll be seeing what I think over fifty years after the fact of Three Dog Night's live album, recorded at the Los Angeles Forum.</p><p>2. Maybe it was thinking about my entree into the music of the Grateful Dead in 1987 and the years following that made me suddenly have a hankering for a vegetable and tofu stir fry with brown rice. I was single and had moved into a basement apartment in Eugene in the late fall of 1984 and I went from being casually committed to cooking for myself to making it a nearly everyday effort. I was especially devoted to vegetarian cooking -- it was fun, less expensive, and much easier on the tiny kitchen I had. </p><p>I cooked and ate a lot of tofu from about 1985 forward and today I went back to those days. I baked cubes of tofu and then added the cubes to a stir fry of white onion, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes, seasoning it all with black pepper and fresh basil. I also cooked a pot of brown rice and, as I prepared this food, I felt some of the excitement I experienced 30-35 years ago when I was determined to become an independent cook, not rely on anyone else to cook my food, and not to dine out very often. </p><p>Debbie and I loved this stir fry and if I can keep my wits about me and remember to do it, I think I'll whip one of these up every one or two weeks! </p><p>3. Those two weeks of illness threw some of my routines out of whack. I'd say I'm almost fully recovered and I'm getting back to longer workout sessions and back to the hydration schedule I was on before. It's hard to describe just how much I'm enjoying the return of my energy and a renewed sense of physical and mental vitality. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-27440548167330783272024-02-26T09:28:00.000-08:002024-02-26T09:28:56.386-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-25-2024: Burning Calories, Delicious Family Dinner, Great Conversations<p>1. Often what I hope to do at the Fitness Center is burn more calories than I ate for breakfast. If I push and pull, huff and puff, pedal and often stride for an hour or so, I can usually achieve this goal. Today I arrived at the gym early enough to exercise for a full hour before it closed at noon and I accomplished my goal. </p><p>2. I'm guided by an app on my cell phone that stipulates how many calories I should consume in a day to meet my next weight loss goal. I enter, as best I can, what I eat and how much, keeping track of calories. The app also tracks the calories I burn when I exercise. </p><p>Today, knowing family dinner would include a cocktail, some wine, an entree, some bread, and a dessert, I did my best to keep my calorie intake down during the day -- and it worked. </p><p>Christy hosted family dinner tonight. </p><p>It was awesome. </p><p>Carol and Paul brought naan bread and hummus to start and Debbie fixed her current favorite cocktail, a blend of gin, Cointreau, fresh orange juice, and fresh lemon juice. </p><p>Christy prepared a superb spinach feta lasagna. No store in the Silver Valley had lasagna noodles in stock, so she used radiatori pasta, to great success as far I was concerned. I think I enjoyed these bite sized radiator looking pasta bits better than I like the thicker lasagna noodle. That said, I would never turn down lasagna made with the bigger strips of pasta! </p><p>Debbie made a unique and tasty celery salad and Molly brought a loaf of garlic bread that Christy heated in the oven. </p><p>I drank a small pour of very satisfying red wine with my meal and then totally enjoyed a bar of Christy's chocolate oatmeal pan cookies with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. </p><p>3. We talked about a lot of things tonight as we ate and after we were finished -- books, book groups, the soon to occur opening of Nocturn, human aggression, how people resolve conflicts (adults and children), theological questions, and more. </p><p>My mind was a buzzing hive of mental activity when I returned home! </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-87979610730934256402024-02-25T09:29:00.000-08:002024-02-25T09:29:21.919-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-24-2024: More Energy, Unexpected Dinner Pleasures, Fact and Fabrication<p>1. Because Gibbs was out of dog food and we needed a few other items this morning, I delayed my visit to the Fitness Center until I finished shopping and put the groceries away.</p><p>I'm back to having the energy to work out for at least an hour again, even though I fell a bit short of sixty minutes today.</p><p>It's encouraging. For about two weeks, I only worked out a very few times thanks to that stubborn bug that wouldn't go away. Yes, I'm still a tiny bit congested, but mostly I've recovered and it feels great to be able to huff and puff, pedal and pump, and burn calories again.</p><p>2. Debbie and I had what turned out to be an unexpectedly fun dinner tonight -- even if it doesn't sound like it! I'd thawed a couple of tilapia filets. I seasoned them with dry dill and Old Bay seasoning. I also made a pot of basmati rice. Debbie was going to bring home dinner from Wah Hing. But, when through a text exchange, while she was at The Lounge, she learned I had a dinner planned, she decided to order Szechwan vegetables from Wah Hing to provide our meal with a side dish. </p><p>I made a simple sauce for our tilapia, combining sour cream, yogurt, and fresh lemon juice.</p><p>But, lo and behold, when I bought the Nancy's yogurt at Pilgrim's last week, I hadn't noticed that it was vanilla yogurt.</p><p>Surprise! Surprise! The sauce for the fish was subtly sweet, along with being tangy, and it worked! My accident was a fortunate one.</p><p>And, the Szechwan vegetables had plenty of heat, so our simple dinner was a banquet for our taste buds and, to be honest, this unexpected pleasure made me a little giddy! </p><p>3. As I read further this evening into Bruce Chatwin's book, <i>The Songlines</i>, I thought back to my teaching days at Lane Community College and the work some of my fellow teachers were doing with creative non-fiction. I'm not entirely sure I ever fully understood the genre of creative non-fiction, but I THINK the idea was that not only could writers write non-fiction, say memoir, by telling things that happened, they could also employ the techniques of writing poetry and fiction, including in their non-fiction pieces imagined characters and events. </p><p>For a writer like Hunter S. Thompson, this approach was called New Journalism or Gonzo Journalism.</p><p>Bob Dylan does it frequently. If you saw the movie <i>Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese</i>, you know that the movie simultaneously documented conversations, behind the scene moments, and concert footage from Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue Tour. You know that it also included fabricated characters and fabricated events, creatively mixing the actual with the fanciful.</p><p>If you've read Bob Dylan's recent book, <i>The Philosophy of Modern Song</i>, you know that Bob Dylan fabricates stories and makes up "facts" from time to time and he makes assertions that sound like he's pulling his readers' legs. Dylan keeps those reading his work or watching him interviewed or listening to his commentary off balance with his blending of the actual with the made up.</p><p>I need to look into this more after I finish the book, but <i>The Songlines</i> is sure reading to me like a work of creative non-fiction. Chatwin creates a character named Bruce, ostensibly it's Chatwin himself, and Bruce goes on one foray after another into the Australian bush with a character named Arkady. I might be wrong, but I get the sense that Arkady is much like Hunter S. Thompson's sidekick, Oscar Zeta Acosta, his heavyweight Samoan lawyer. They are characters who serve both writers' storytelling purposes, but are made up. </p><p>So, do Thompson, Dylan, and Chatwin get at truths about their subject matter in ways they couldn't if they stuck strictly to the facts? </p><p>I think they do. </p><p>For now, I'll leave it at that. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-31910299917745152892024-02-24T09:18:00.000-08:002024-02-24T16:08:46.570-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-23-2024: Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall in the Fitness Center, The Jolt of Blood, Sweat & Tears, Drinking a Classic Craft Beer<p>1. Kenton Bird recommended that I listen to <i>Chicago: Live at Carnegie Hall</i> after he read my recent comments about <i>Chicago III</i>. </p><p>So, as I settled in at the Fitness Center for an hour of aerobic exercise, I dialed up this album on Spotify.</p><p>The album ignited a rush of activity in my mind.</p><p>First, I'd totally forgotten that <i>Live at Carnegie Hall</i> was <i>Chicago IV</i>. </p><p>Then some facts came back to me. </p><p>I bought this album immediately upon its release and then rarely listened to it.</p><p>Back when I bought it, as a senior in high school, I wanted the live performance to sound just like the studio albums, <i>Chicago Transit Authority</i>, <i>Chicago II</i>, and <i>Chicago III.</i></p><p>Back then, I really didn't have much of a sense at all about how much more control a band and its producer and engineers have over the music created in a studio and I strongly preferred the clean, near perfection of the Chicago's studio sound.</p><p>Not so today! </p><p>Over the years, my attitude about live performances has transformed -- I think in large part because of the love I developed over thirty years ago (and that continues into the present) for live jam band performances and my experiences listening to live performances of the Grateful Dead, Zero, Nine Days Wonder, Little Women, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and other adventurous, improvisational bands -- not only rock bands, but jazz bands, too.</p><p>Back in 1971-72, when I probably only listened to <i>Chicago IV </i>about one time and rejected it, I was impatient with Chicago opening up their songs, turning songs into jam sessions, turning Terry Kath loose for long guitar solos, and featuring the band's other instrumentalists. </p><p>I thought today, as I pumped my legs and arms on the Nu-Step machine, how, at 17/8 years of age, how could I NOT have been ecstatic about Robert Lamm's long free form piano solo at the beginning of "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?" and the other forays into solos, improvisations, and musical fun the band performed on this album? </p><p>The answer is simple: because it didn't sound exactly like the studio album.</p><p>Am I ever stoked that I took Kenton's advice and listened to the first hour of this album today. I can hardly wait to get back to the gym and continue to listen to it, to experience the vigor, the youth, the daring of Chicago live in concert. </p><p>Is the sound quality of this album perfect? </p><p>No! </p><p>Are there rough spots?</p><p>Yes! </p><p>Does the band seem more human, less edited, less engineered on <i>Chicago IV</i>? </p><p>Absolutely.</p><p>Live performances consist of one leap of faith after another. Unexpected things happen. I sure learned this back when I performed in some plays. </p><p>Listening to <i>Chicago IV </i>stirred up the thrills I once experienced in the handful of plays I performed in, thrills I don't feel when I listen to studio albums.</p><p>Ah! But studio albums give me their own thrills and I love them. </p><p>I thought, as I drove home from the gym, about the nearly platonic perfection of Steely Dan's <i>Aja</i> and all the minute detailed work Donald Fagen and Walter Becker invested in that album, in the studio, with a steady stream of musicians and vocalists, working to make a perfect sound that could never be replicated live. </p><p>Their work in the studio thrills me. </p><p>So, do I love Chicago's first three studio albums? I absolutely do.</p><p>Am I discovering a new found love for their live performances at Carnegie Hall, as presented on <i>Chicago IV</i>? I sure am. </p><p>Same band. Same songs. But not very much alike! </p><p>2. Well, Kenton didn't stop with recommending that I listen <i>Chicago IV</i>!</p><p>He also posted, on my Facebook page, reviews of Blood, Sweat & Tear's first album, <i>Child is Father to the Man</i>, pointing out that Blood, Sweat & Tears fused rock and roll with jazz, classical, and other styles in advance of Chicago's first album and opened up possibilities for rock fusion that Chicago built upon and sustained for decades. </p><p>Kenton's posting took me back to a summer day on the shores (or on the water) of Rose Lake.</p><p>I was in high school and Mom and my sisters and I were visiting, among other people at the Rose Lake compound of cabins, the Waltmans.</p><p>I can't remember if Clint and I were on the beach or in a boat, but I do remember that we got to talking about contemporary rock music. I didn't have the wherewithal then to disagree with him, but he spoke derisively about Credence Clearwater Revival. In time, our conversation moved away from what dissatisfied Clint to the music he enjoyed.</p><p>Soon, we were discussing who was better: Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears.</p><p>I don't remember if we answered this question. </p><p>Now, in my dotage, it's the kind of question I no longer entertain -- it just doesn't matter to me. </p><p>I love both bands.</p><p>Some of the review material Kenton sent me was a bit condescending toward Blood, Sweat & Tears' second album, the one that introduced David Clayton-Thomas as the vocalist and featured such awesome songs as "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "Spinning Wheel", "And When I Die", and other great tracks, including "Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie". </p><p>Why condescending?</p><p>Some reviewers found this second album too commercial. </p><p>Thank God that in the summer of 1969 when I bought this album, I wasn't thinking about music being too commercial. </p><p>I just knew what moved me and Blood, Sweat & Tears' second album was a source of teenage ecstasy for me. I played that album repeatedly and the instrumentation along with David Clayton-Thomas' vocal stylings sent me into orbit.</p><p>Not long after I purchased this album, I heard Chicago's first album for the first time at Chuck DeAndre's house and I was nearly paralyzed with awe. </p><p>I bought the album as soon as I could and had in my possession two albums that transported me, that introduced me to musical possibilities I'd never imagined before, to styles of music that woke me up, enlarged my world, and made me hungry for more.</p><p>And, now, over fifty years later, I can open the Spotify app on my smart phone, connect my phone, via Bluetooth, to my wireless ear buds, and love Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears all over again, with deeper appreciation and an even more open mind, with the added bonus of strengthening my body in the Fitness Center. </p><p>3. What more could this stimulating day of music and memories and reflections hold? </p><p>Well, I haven't been drinking much beer over the last few months, but Debbie and I met shortly after 4 p.m. at The Lounge. I had been thinking, as I drove to uptown Kellogg from the Fitness Center, that I'd like to have a classic craft beer, a beer that would take me back to the mid-90s when, after ten years of abstinence, I decided to drink alcohol again. </p><p>Bob always carries one of the first craft beers of the craft beer movement, Sierra Nevada's sturdy, reliable, perfectly balanced, enduring Pale Ale (first brewed in about 1980).</p><p>Maybe, for me, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Chicago of craft beers. It helped introduce me to how beers can be flavor bombs and this Pale Ale does so without overwhelming bitterness and with a superb fusion of the hops and malt.</p><p>I drank one bottle. </p><p>That was enough.</p><p>But that beer helped draw a scintillating afternoon to a close. I went home and rested my mind's buzzing of memories, pleasure, and reflections all brought to the surface by listening to Chicago's live performances and by reading and thinking about Blood, Sweat & Tears. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-27965658865686593392024-02-23T09:36:00.000-08:002024-02-23T09:36:32.017-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-22-2024: *Chicago III* Wow!, Restoring the Sube's Vision, Yakkin' with Debbie and Christy and Tracy<p>1. Today marked my fourteenth day under the influence of this bug -- and it marked one of the first days that I felt like I might be free of the cough, stuffed nose, sore throat, and fatigue. </p><p>I had no reservations about driving to CdA for a session at the rehab gym. I dialed up the levels of resistance on the first machine and the incline on the treadmill, still below the pre-bug levels, but I'm getting closer to where I was over two weeks ago.</p><p>I had listened to the first several tracks of <i>Chicago III</i> at the Fitness Center in Smelterville on Wednesday and today I finished the album.</p><p><i>Chicago III</i> was released in January of 1971 and I purchased it soon thereafter, either in a store or through the Columbia Record Club. </p><p>I loved this double album from the first time I listened to it. I remembered today how when I was a teenager I loved George Gershwin's <i>American in Paris</i> and <i>Rhapsody in Blue</i>. I never told any of my friends about listening to George Gershwin privately in my bedroom -- I mean, yes, I enjoyed the music my friends enjoyed -- Cream, Santana, Rod Stewart, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and other great albums -- but I had some other tastes in music that I thought were peculiar that I kept to myself (Al Hirt pops to mind, too!). </p><p>My deepest musical satisfaction from about the 8th grade forward came from Gershwin and, in addition, from lab band music. I didn't get to listen to lab band music very often, but at least once or twice I went to Moscow, ID and listened to bands at the new festival that was getting underway, a festival of high school lab bands, the festival that eventually grew into the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.</p><p>I remember being blown away by the lab bands from Hermiston, OR and Lewiston, ID -- Lewiston's band leader was Eddie Williams, father of Gary Williams who was two years ahead of me at KHS and a terrific drummer. </p><p>Listening to <i>Chicago III </i>today, I thought, "Man. This band got to record another double album that didn't have one cut on it composed with commercial success in mind. Is this album an incoherent mess or is it a buffet of a variety of musical styles, a fearless expression of the band's eclectic talents and refusal to be predictable?" </p><p>If it's a mess, I love this mess.</p><p>If it's a buffet, I'm ready to go back for thirds and fourths. </p><p>The album's cuts are all over the place: the jackhammers and cars honking on "Progress" took me back to Gerswin's "American in Paris". Other tracks were non-melodic dives into what I now think of as the fragmented sounds of some 20th century classical music. One track is the recitation of a poem, "When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow" (I remember copying in out in the journal required in Mrs. Faraca's English class). I think I also copied out the romantic lyric, "At the Sunrise". This album rocked and rolled. It featured passages of improvisational jazz as well as some country folk and some Latin American sounds. It had tracks that sounded to me like the epitome of the lab band sound I loved so much in high school.</p><p>As it turned out, <i>Chicago III </i>did have two hit singles, "Lowdown" and "Free". </p><p>That's not, however, what made this album one of my very favorites.</p><p>I loved the album's adventurous explorations, its unconventional incoherence, its scintillating exhibition of the band members' love for classical music, the blues, rock and roll, folk, poetry, jazz, social commentary, romantic love and longing, and what I'll call the lab band sound. </p><p>Until my last two workout sessions, I'd all but forgotten about <i>Chicago III. </i></p><p>I hope to never forget about it again. </p><p>2. I began to think on Tuesday evening that one of the Sube's headlights might be out and today I confirmed that the left headlight was gone. </p><p>I bolted down to Silver Valley Tire and within about twenty minutes, one of the guys replaced the burnt out bulb and restored the Sube to full vision again.</p><p>3. After dinner, Tracy and Christy came over to visit Debbie and me and we had a wide ranging discussion of everything from dog training to Christy's book group to the KHS Class of '73 to working in elementary education to putting on <i>Brigadoon</i> in high school to organ transplants to the writing coach program getting underway at Kellogg High School. And more. </p><p>Our conversation had about the same amount of variety as <i>Chicago III</i>! </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35367059.post-39500330656279794592024-02-22T08:05:00.000-08:002024-02-22T08:05:45.243-08:00Three Beautiful Things 02-21-2024: The Slow-Go Years, Back to the Fitness Center, Coconut Curry for Dinner<p>1. If, as Byrdman has told me, the 60s are the go-go years and the 70s are the slow-go years, I surrendered to that trend today. Today was day thirteen of feeling the effects of this persistent bug I've had. Yes, for sure, I was better today than I was a week ago, but I decided it would be wise to stay home this evening rather than drive to Whitworth University for Ron White's 7:00 p.m. presentation. If the presentation had been in the afternoon, I think I could have mustered the energy to go, but I wasn't ready to be out this evening, even if I spent the night in Spokane.</p><p>And, sure enough, when 7:00 rolled around this evening, and Debbie and I were listening to the BBC podcast, <i>Obscene: The Dublin Scandal</i> about two murders that rocked the country of Ireland in 1982, I fell asleep listening to it. </p><p>I'm not quite fully recovered.</p><p>2. I suppose one reason why I fell asleep in the chair I sat in was because I went to the Fitness Center this afternoon. I only exercised for thirty minutes. It was a light workout on the Nu-Step machine. I loved that I was in motion, even if I wasn't pushing myself, and I knew I'd reached my energy limit after thirty minutes. </p><p>3. Back home, I popped open a HelloFresh bag and fixed Debbie and me a mild coconut curry dish, featuring a curry sauce combined with chickpeas served over basmati rice. I enjoyed the flavor of the garam masala and I always enjoy eating chickpeas and basmati rice. Were I to cook this recipe again, however, I'd add spice it up with a moderate amount of heat. I don't want curry to give me a swift kick, but I wish I'd punched up this recipe a bit with some red pepper flakes. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0