Uncategorized – Page 15 – The Boring Old Man

A little bit of this and that…

I realized yesterday that time has flown by since my last post and once again I’d dropped the ball.

Nothing all that noteworthy has happened in the last couple weeks, just life rushing at us at 100 mph.

We got back from our trip to Pismo, and I was feeling on top of the world. Rested, recharged and ready to get back to the real world, with many “to-do’s” to do, plans to make and goals to achieve.

It was all well and good ’til that Thursday night when a call came in from the fire alarm monitoring company- a water flow alarm went off just before 9pm…which means *something caused water to move in the fire sprinkler system. Never, and I mean NEVER a good call to get.

So basically, from Thursday August 25th, through last Thursday, September 1st things were a bit over the top tense. And I’ll leave it at that.

Cast iron + direct contact with the earth = trouble.

While this was going on, the Mrs. and our girl were both getting started for “back to school”, with their classrooms being occupied by the varmints as of last Monday, August 29th.

So, I’ve been a little preoccupied lately, and the blog took a back seat…

Despite the drag of life, I did manage to do a few fun things.

I finished another book – “A Great Reckoning” by Louise Penny. This was a random recommendation from Amazon actually. I’d never heard of the writer, who turns out is quite prolific, but the book was good. It was your typical ‘whodunnit’ detective novel, with a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and some very memorable characters. Not earth shattering or life changing in any way, though certainly a fun read nonetheless that didn’t take any real commitment to finish. She kept it compelling enough that I found myself WANTING to read it, to discover how it all went down. Perfect lite fare for a vacation/beach/lazy Sunday escape.

I also went on a treasure hunt and dug out a bunch of old cassettes containing a bunch of my earliest music we recorded back in the day. My old music partner moved back to the area some time ago, and we thought it would be fun to “digitize” these so we could listen to our oldies but goodies from days of yore. Hopefully more to come on this in the not too distant future.

And last but not least, my daughter and I hit the Caravan Lounge in downtown San Jose last Saturday night.

The Caravan has been a dive bar since at least the mid 80’s, and I hadn’t step foot in the place since maybe ’92 at the latest but they didn’t have bands playing there back then. Some time later it became a somewhat legendary spot in the South Bay for punk bands and the more underground scene, which I’d kind of outgrown by then, so I never had gone there strictly for music until the last weekend.

Things didn’t pan out as planned unfortunately… the band we went (and I really WANTED) to see – the Wet Bandits, we didn’t see. The flyer for the show listed the Wet Bandits and nobody else, with a start time of 9pm. We got there at 9pm and found there was in fact an opening band, whose name I forget. Anyhow, the opening act didn’t START their set until 10:15, which was a drag. Then on top of that they were just boring, frankly. We figured they’d do a 30 minute set since they started so late, but at the 32 minute mark,the guitarist sat out and we were “treated” to a drum and bass duo jamming God knows what… At that point I called it a night. Don’t get me wrong, I love trios, and I can absolutely get down with some drum and bass jams, but these guys needed more time in the garage before they put themselves in front of a crowd. Bush League stuff, at best.

The bright side was getting to hang with my kid, just the two of us. It doesn’t happen all that often, so I really appreciate it when it does!

Yesterday was just a boring day of laundry and chores and super fun stuff like that. The Mrs. is a bit under the weather (back to school = cooties galore) so she’s lying low trying to recuperate before going back to classes this week. Me? No rest for the wicked…Working on the “holiday” per usual, massive deadline looming in a week. And I’m on-call for Jury Duty this week. Yay.

Oh, and did I mention we’re in the midst of a heat wave? It’s been in the high 90’s for the last 3 days. Supposed to be 103 today. Hotter tomorrow. Good times.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Elvis Costello!

Born Declan Patrick MacManus on this day, back in 1954, but rose to prominence as “Elvis Costello” in the late 1970’s.

I can still vividly recall the first time I heard Elvis Costello and the Attractions. As a kid, we didn’t have “cable TV”, so MTV wasn’t part of my life, but there was a show on broadcast TV called “MV3”, that was what you might call a mashup of American Bandstand and MTV… Anyhow, I used to hear a lot of new music on that show as it primarily played what was known then as New Wave music – the Romantics, Bow Wow Wow, the Three O’clock, stuff like that… This would have been late ’82/early ’83.

Anyhow, it was on this show that I first heard “Pump it Up” by EC&tA and I was an instant fan. I have remained a fan for the last 40 years. It wasn’t until later I learned that song was already 5 years old, but I snatched up his ‘This Year’s Model’ album and it went into heavy rotation for a long while. And when I could find them, I picked up all his earliest records.

The song that made me a fan!

He and his band somehow managed to take Motown-like music and fuse it with the energy and brashness of punk rock and it was magic. That he looked like a goofy nerd while blasting out this awesome music made him even more endearing.

But unlike the vast majority of punk and new wave bands, he was clever, and his band could really play. The music was raw, but deliberate unlike a lot of the music at the time.

Right around the time I first discovered him, he hit paydirt with the hit single ‘Veronica’, which frankly at the time I didn’t really care for. It was such a departure from his earlier albums, it didn’t even seem like the same artist.

Keep in mind though, I was very young and VERY arrogant about music back then… I was far too immature to understand musical growth in an artist, it felt like a betrayal, or in the popular parlance of the time that he “sold out” for commercial success. What can I say, I was a dumb kid…

Anyhow, luckily for me I grew out of that short-sighted stupidity and learned to embrace musical change.

After years of missing out on his live show, we finally got to see him a few years back out at the Concord Pavillion. He put on a great show (especially considering he was about 60 years old at the time!) and it was frankly shocking how many great songs he pulled out. When an artist is as prolific as he is (something like 25 albums released to date!), it’s easy to forget just how many great songs he’s put out over numerous decades. It’s remarkable that his music has changed drastically over the years, but it all remains relevant decades later.

Well done Sir! Best wishes to you on this day, and thank you for all the great tunes!

Road Trip: Pismo Beach, CA

Summer vacation time! Generally speaking, we come to Pismo Beach once a year, though its often more as it’s only about 3.5 hours south of us.

Time to recharge the batteries and hopefully get a little board time out in the surf. Praying for waves!

Happy Birthday August Darnell! (aka Kid Creole)

Today marks the birthday of one of the most unique and entertaining musicians of my lifetime, Mr. August Darnell. He rose to prominence as Kid Creole, of Kid Creole and the Coconuts fame back in the early 80’s.

(NOT to be confused with the wannabe gangsta Kidd Creole that was just sent to prison!)

My first introduction to Kid Creole and the Coconuts was the track “Lifeboat Party” which I saw the video for on a weird music show back in 1983 I believe. It was the height of the “New Wave” era, where all the rules were thrown out the window and new “mashup” sounds were all over (college) radio and the newly launched MTV. Kid Creole took it to another level, mixing R&B, calypso, reggae, big band and good old rock and roll into a sound never heard before (or since, for that matter!) On top of his insanely different music, his sense of style was off the charts and there was simply nobody like him. Needless to say, their “Doppelganger” album ended up in heavy rotation in my life, and stayed there for quite a long time.

I was lucky enough to catch their live show at Bimbo’s in San Francisco back around ’90/’91 and to this day it stands out as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Pure entertainment, with everybody on stage giving it 100%. The band was so tight and fluid, and the Kid… there are no words that can do him justice. He’s simply a born showman.

For reasons l could never fathom, Kid Creole and the Coconuts never really became a household name, despite a fair amount of radio play, and even a performance in the film “Against All Odds”, which was a HUGE movie at the time. Unfortunately, Phil Collins’ contributions to the soundtrack eclipsed Kid Creole and after that the band kinda drifted into obscurity, at least in the US. From what I understand, his European following is much stronger than the US side… in fact, one of my prized possessions is an “unavailable in the USA” Kid Creole and the Coconuts CD “Tropical Gangsters” that my brother-in-law found while traveling through the UK. Yeah, before the internet was “a thing”, European imports were hard to come by and heavily cherished!

Kid Creole and the Coconuts have been part of my life’s soundtrack for 40+ years now and if I had to pick my Top 10 Desert Island Discs, The Kid would DEFINITELY be there. After all, if you were stranded on a desert isle, who wouldn’t want to hang out with some Tropical Gangsters?!?

Happy Birthday Kid! Thanks for all the great times, the great tunes and the great memories!! You are A Wonderful Thing and one of a kind!

Concert Review: ASHE at Bimbo’s 365, S.F.

Here we had another show where I knew almost nothing about the artist we were going to see, ASHE. She came through town some time ago and the Mrs. wanted to go see her, but when we learned of the show, it was sold out.

Turns out she was doing doing a gig after her “Outside Lands Festival” performance the day before, and as luck would have it, she was playing at Bimbo’s, a club I’ve been dying to go back to for ages!

Bimbo’s 365 on Columbus Street in San Francisco is an iconic spot. To give you some context, the last time I was at the club, the Mrs. was pregnant with our now 28-year-old daughter! And the club was old back then! It’s a great old school, vintage night club. They used to even have “cigarette girls” walking the club selling smokes and gum and whatnot, like out if a film from the 1940’s. Even today they still have bathroom attendants to trun on the faucets, hand you towels and such. It’s a throwback, for sure, but kinda nice at the same time. Reminds you of a simpler era, and the vibe elicits a little more manners and social grace than you find at most night clubs.

The opening act was Adam Melchor, also unknown to me. He came out, just him a guitar and I was proud of myself for keeping an open mind, since I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the last couple solo singer/songwriter performances I’ve seen. Well, Adam broke the spell of pleasant surprises. While he’s a fine guitarist and his voice is not bad at all, his music left me completely flat. No surprises, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing exciting. And what made matters worse was the talking between songs. Good grief! He played roughly 40 minutes and I’d say 15 of that was him blathering on.

Clearly he had some fans in the place, and they were singing along with him and all, but for me and the Mrs., it was boring and entirely forgettable. Again, not to say he was “bad”, it just wasn’t our cup of tea.

Ashe came out strong and her band was really holding their own. It was a unique lineup – drummer, a violin/keyboard player and a guitarist/bassist that switched back and forth, depending on the needs of the song.

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t really familiar with her material, but what I do know of it, is very “modern” production – think synthesizers and computers – so to hear the songs with real musicians and actual (not virtual) instruments gave it a whole new sound and feel for me. And yes, as a musician I will say (with utter bias) it was better live than recorded.

Ashe herself was a great performer. Her voice was strong, her energy level was high and she was clearly there to put on a show. My only gripe was there was a little too much “downtempo” music. Her fans were thrilled with the set list though, and singing along to nearly every song, so that is just a personal preference of mine. I like my live shows to keep me energized, not stifling a yawn and the night wears on!

All in all, I give her performance a thumbs up. Not the best thing I’ve ever seen, but far from the worst. And she’s mighty young, so if she sticks with it, I’m sure she’ll just keep getting better and better. I’d certainly go see her show again, I’d just hope for a more well suited opening act!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gone Fishin’

Sunday I got to hang out with my brother-in-law and his work/fishing buddy Bill, and do some fishing out of Half Moon Bay.

B-I-L has a great boat – the Miss Jessica – and he’s an awesome waterman, so getting out on the ocean with him is a real treat, despite the 3:30am “boarding call”.

We launched at the HMB marina at 5am and headed south toward Pescadero. We didn’t have much luck for the first couple hours, then I was finally able to land a salmon, only to have it 3″ too short, so back into the sea it went…

About half an hour later, I pulled in this beauty:

I am not by any means a “fisherman”. As a kid I used to fish lakes and rivers with a couple of cousins, but by my teen years I had too many other interests and fishing fell off my to do list for decades. But I gotta say, this open water ocean fishing is a whole different level!

We first ran down to south towards Pescadero, but when things were not happening we headed north up through Pacifica, nearly to the Golden Gate Bridge. But evidently the fish had other plans for their Sunday…

Anyhow, as luck would have it, my keeper was the ONLY fish brought in that day. The irony that 3 fisherman (two with decades of experience!) could stay out on the water for 11 hours and the only fish brought in was by the noob with literally. 001% the experience of the other guys, was hilarious to me. Nonetheless, despite their arguments that I should take the whole Salmon, as it was my first ever caught, I insisted the we split it 3 ways – keeping with a long standing tradition of my BIL – so we all walked away with a nice couple Salmon steaks after a great day on the water.

These trips are a great learning experience for me, it’s almost information overload to be honest, but its awesome to have guys that know a LOT about a subject try to pass on as much information as they can, to make your experience all the better. And being on the water is always a joy for me, no matter the time of year or the conditions. To be honest, the fish is just a nice parting gift, the least important part of the day.

I think the old adage is true: the worst day of fishing beats the best day of working!

Thanks for a great day Captains Karel and Bill – it’s one I won’t soon forget!

Thanks for reading!

Concert Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers at Levi Stadium, Santa Clara.

FINALLY!! I have been a fan of RHCP since the first time I heard “True Men Don’t…” on KSJS (San Jose State College radio) back in the early-1980’s.

Fast forward 40 years, and I’m still a fan but for whatever reason I’ve never had the opportunity to catch their live show. (I did get to see their drummer Chad Smith at a drum clinic a number of years ago and he was amazing!)

When I got a notice for a pre-sale on tickets back in October of LAST YEAR, I jumped at it. You never know when their last go-round might be… So yeah, been sitting on these tickets for nearly 10 months and could barely contain my excitement!

In all honesty, I’m not a fan of stadium shows. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to several dozen of them, but my expectations are pretty low nowadays for them. Nevertheless, I’ll take what I can get when it comes to the Chili Peppers!

The venue, Levi’s Stadium, is realitively new and this was my first event there. It’s generally home to the 49ers, and I loathe football so they were never a draw for me to check out the stadium even though it’s practically in our “backyard”. And truthfully, I have yet to hear anything good about the place so I was a little disappointed when I learned that is where the show was being held.

The opening act was Thundercat, whom I first learned of several years ago but wasn’t terribly familiar with. I did know he’s a phenomenal bassist, so I was excited to see him live. Sadly, the traffic situation surrounding the venue was so bad we missed his set completely. Strike One for the venue.

Next up was Beck. We’ve seen Beck twice before and he was actually better than expected. We never went to see him specifically, and I wouldn’t say we’re big fans of his, but he was on a couple other bills in the past and we were pleasantly surprised by how good his show was. This time however, he really knocked it out of the park! Really great energy, the band was tight and you could tell they were having a really great time with it. Another pleasant surprise!

Finally after months of anticipation the Chili Peppers hit the stage, opening with a kinda wild improv of guitar, bass and drums before launching into their set with “Can’t Stop”. The guys were on fire!

Anthony – who will be 60 this year! – looked fit as ever, full of energy and his singing voice has improved quite a lot over the years. Clearly the hard work has paid off.

Guitarist John Frusciante (who I was thrilled to learn was back with the band) was great, though live it’s impossible to play his parts like the recordings – they’d need another 2 or 3 guitarists backing him up to recreate his studio wizardry.

Chad Smith was solid as a rock and just straight up bombastic. A joy to watch.

Flea as you might expect, was the life of the party and put it all out there, every minute of the set. He’s in a class by himself as a bassist and his performance was top notch. Unfortunately the sound in the venue was less than stellar and a few times when he really went off the sound turned to mush, but overall he put on a great show.

Overall, I’d say the night was a mixed bag. On the venue itself, a solid thumbs down. I won’t go into my gripes, but it would take a MASSIVE draw (like Stevie Ray Vaughn or Prince coming back from the dead!) to get me back to that place. The band played great, and they played a couple of my favorites, but their set list was a bit of a disappointment if I’m being honest. And they only played for an hour… which for a band with a 40 year history and a deep catalog of material, seemed a bit of let down.

Nevertheless, it was fun to see them finally and I’m not sorry I went. I wish I’d had a chance to see them in a smaller venue back before megastardom put them in arenas, but I am grateful I got to see them at all, especially with this lineup, which in my opinion is the magic RHCP combination.

And when all is said and done, I got to spend a lovely summer night outside with my family, listening to some great music. Those are the kind of things that make life worth living!

Thanks for stopping by!

LMAO: Chris Porter at the Punch Line, SF.

Saturday night the Mrs. and I, along with our daughter and her BF hit the road up to San Francisco to catch some laughs at the Punch Line.

Chris Porter is a comic we just recently learned of, literally a couple weeks ago. It just so happened he was going to be “in town” right after we found out about him so we jumped at the chance to see him in person.

Boy, am I glad we did! His set was hilarious and every bit as good as his recorded specials.

His opener, Pat House, we’d never heard of either, but he was pretty good as well. He did a bit in Wendy’s (the fast food joint) thst had me in stitches!

All in all it was a great night out, and a LOT of laughs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Closed for Maintenance

This past Monday afternoon, I underwent a pretty significant oral surgery. As of this morning, it still feels like I was hit in the face with a baseball bat… Good times.

This mouth rebuild was supposed to take place prior to the Plague, but as with everything it was pushed out by a couple years…

So consider this a Public Service Announcement…in light of how terribly sideways things seem to be going these days, if you have medical/dental/wellness needs, take care of them now. While you can. I was lazy and more than a little fearful facing what I needed to do, so I kept putting it off. Then the Plague hit and I couldn’t do what I needed to do, even if I wanted to.

Now, I’m two years older, healing more slowly than I would have two years ago and it cost me a lot more financially than it would’ve two years ago. Luckily, things didn’t get (much) worse before I was finally able to get treatment. Live and learn!

Take care of yourselves. I should be back shortly, with something a little more fun to read.

Thanks for stopping by!