Total Eclipse

Click image for more photos ....

There was a total eclipse of the sun today, Monday April 8, and Kate and I tried to take advantage of it.

There was a partial eclipse a few years ago (2017) that we remember and we both have vague memories of similar partial eclipse's from our early childhod years. Kate had read quite a bit about this event and the importance of seeing the totality — it goes completely dark like night-time and you can actually see the stars (if it is clear of course). The position of the moon for this eclipse was such that it would cover the sun exactly right — not too big, not too small. Here in St. Marys they were to see 99% coverage where it would be more like a twilight — not completely dark. So we made plans to go to Niagara Region with friends, Erich and Lisa, who live in Burlington. We stayed overnight with them on Sunday and drove together for the day.

In Burlington they would be closer to the totality but still at the edge. Niagara Region (Niagara on the Lake, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, etc.) would be right in the totality and we wanted that experience. It turns out that Burlington is about an hour from the Niagara Region (an hour going there and much, much longer returning). We might have instead drove directly from here; if we had that would be about a two and a half hour drive. But, we were worried that there might be a big traffic snarl getting there. There was a "state of emergency" declared for the region in anticipation of a large turnout — I recall forecasts that a million people would be there! Staying overnight with friends nearby seemed like a better plan.

Our friends, Lisa and Erich, have a lovely home with a view of the Hamilton Harbor and the steel plants on the other side. Overnight the view is sometimes a bit like Dante's Inferno with flames and steam lighting the sky. Monday morning arrived with a heavy cloud cover. Many of our friends in SW Ontario had a similar morning experience. It did not bode well for any of us.

Erich is an old friend of mine — we were both computer science students at Western and lived together for several years in what Mike called "The Horbinger Home". We had lost touch but we re-connected just before the pandemic. There's a gang of us from those many years ago who share stories over a video conference call every couple of weeks. Erich is a jolly likeable guy, always joking — it would be hard not to like him. Erich and Lisa are quite social and kind to have us to their home for this and other events. We do enjoy our time together.

We had made reservations to see the eclipse at "Between the Lines Winery" starting at 2:00 and had lunch at a nearby restaurant "Bricks and Barley" in Virgil recommended by the winery. Both are a very short distance from Niagara on the Lake (a quaint Victorian contrast to the hub-bub, casinos, and carnival atmosphere of Niagara Falls). We had looked at staying in Niagara Falls, we had been there last year for my birthday, but the prices had sky rocketed knowing that there were many who wanted to be part of the event.

Getting to Niagara was no problem at all but the skies remained overcast. We arrived well before the restaurant opened, spent some time exploring an antique shop in Virgil and had a drive through Niagara on the Lake before returning for our lunch. You could see in Niagara on the Lake that there were a lot of visitors there for the eclipse. The parks were busy, people were getting set up to catch the eclipse, and there wasn't a parking space to be found. Clearly, not everyone was in Niagara Falls. The restaurant was busy for a Monday. It's a nice sports bar with too many TV's to distract you. But the service was good, the food was ample and we enjoyed our lunch together. If nothing else, we could visit with each other.

At the winery the set-up wasn’t as nice as we had been expecting but we got chairs and a table (the last ones – the other option was picnic table which would have been icing on the icing or camping out on the ground as many others were). But it was cloudy, overcast, a bit windy and quite cool. Fortunately it wasn't raining; although it looked like it might! We didn’t have enough clothes (at least Kate was cold the whole time). And then there was nothing to see. The only saving grace was that it did get very dark and that was really interesting. If you are near a total eclipse, I would highly recommend seeking totality. However, although dark as night, the clouds prevented us seeing any stars or the eclipse itself. It was a bit odd to be in the middle of this darkness (at around 3:20 for a few minutes) with what looked like a sunrise peeking out all around in every direction at the far distance.

The winery provided some tastings that we shared. Lisa doesn't drink, she was our designate driver. But we didn't drink that much anyways. Any of us could have driven home. We joked a lot about "The Rapture" and on the way home I noted a sign some zealot had posted: "Rapture - Almost Home. Jesus is coming back soon". Who ever posted that I bet they were disappointed God didn't take them home; I know I am. A friend Carol, in response to a Facebook posting on the subject, tells me:

"[At] breakfast the morning after the eclipse one of the servers commented that they had Jehovah Witness relatives who were planning for the rapture that was sure to happen during the eclipse. Jim asked her if she spoken to them yet that morning."

Thankfully we poor sinners were not taken by the rapture. As the darkness started to lift, the clouds parted a little and we saw a sliver of the sun and that was it. Kate was so disappointed. It didn’t help that friends in St. Marys, Burlington and elsewhere were writing to tell us how great it had been (“amazing” – Kate doesn't want to ever want to hear that word again). Apparently, the clouds had parted and it had cleared everywhere but in Niagara. Damn! Many friends we had convinced to take the event seriously and all who got to see it were impressed. Peter and Colleen have some great pictures of the totality that they caught near Cornwall a little later that day.

At that point, Kate is pretty disappointed but still okay. At this point we should have pulled into a bar, commiserated and maybe got drunk – something to make ourselves feel better but instead we headed back to Burlington in hopes of avoiding the traffice. Traffic wasn’t bad when we left but it got worse and worse until it was going very slow. When we left the winery, the mapping program told us it was 52 minutes to home. An hour later we were still 52 minutes from home and approaching the Burlington Skyway (a very long bridge) and Kate had to go to the bathroom. We did not want to chance being stuck on the bridge so we took one of the last possible exits and found a washroom at the local Walmart. We all went in to pee (except Lisa). The boys really had to go too but they weren’t as worried because they knew they could always go by the side of the road – we had already seen one car stopped for a kid to pee.

Well, it took about 45 minutes to get back on the road and then quite some time to get home. We had a pasta dinner together and Kate went to bed early. There are some end of the day photos of Dante's Inferno across the bay. I stayed up with Erich and Lisa to watch "The Bee Keeper" (2024) — a Bruce Willis styled action adventure starring Jason Statham. IMDB describes it as "One man's brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as "Beekeepers."" I collect cameras, Erich collects movies.

Anyways, Kate is determined to see a total eclipse and disappointed that we missed out on this one. As they don't happen very often she suggests we might go to Spain  where there's one coming up in August of 2027. Others comment that "The rain in Spain falls mainly on eclipse days".

63 Monroe/NFG

 

We have a bit of history with the band 63 Monroe (also known first as "NFG" and briefly as "First Date") starting back in the 1979/1980. Their 1980 EP, "63 Monroe/NFG", has been re-released on vinyl (also digital on Bandcamp) on Tony Lima's "Yeah Right!" label and we are peripherally involved. Band credits for the EP are:

• Steven R. Stunning (lead throat)
• Markii Burnaway (guitar)
• Bob Gliddon & Mark Deroux (bass)
• Peter Lamber (drums)

Back in the day I was into shooting band photos and they were an outrageous bunch who played 3 chord hard, hard, rock and roll (i.e., Punk) at the infamous Blue Boot/Cedar Lounge and around town. Their shows were crazy, fun and wild! Kate and I really liked them, still do, and even went to see them on our wedding night after the reception. And, icing on that, we had them play at our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We had them a number of times to our home in London back in the 1980's where we'd drink home made beer and play Trivial Pursuits. We still have some contact with some of the guys, Facebook is great for that.

Anyways, back to the EP. We had met some of the guys in the band, they knew I was taking photos, and they asked if they could use some of our work. We said sure and some of those photos appeared as contact strips on the back of the original EP. I wasn't involved in the artwork — the cover was great, the back was very amateurish. Most of my photos of various local bands from back then have been shared with various people, here in my blog, and in many Facebook postings. But, with this re-release, my 15 minutes of fame continues.

Tony Lima, formerly of Call the Office (a noted venue in London), got hold of me in January of 2022. He and Scott Bentley (the voice of NFG/63 Monroe) told me they were looking to re-release the EP on Tony's "Yeah Right!" record label and asked if I still had the photos that were used back in 1980 and if I had any others. The plan was to redo the back cover with better sized photos. Conversations went back and forth with us waving any rights to the photos and rescanning a bunch at higher resolution in late 2022. I hadn't heard much on this project in 2023 and was totally surprised when the project was finished and product was announced this month. I wasn't involved with the artwork but I'm pleased with the results. Doubly pleased as I got a photo credit this time!

We digitized the 1980 EP many years ago and have it framed and on the wall. I really don't like playing or listening to vinyl but Tony was kind enough to give me two copies which I picked up at "Speed City Records". With vinyl, you have the artwork. One copy I've passed on to our friends Sam & Albie, the other I'll save for another day. Micheal Todd, who owns the record store, and I had a bit of a chat when I picked up the EP. The original EP from 1980 is pretty rare, if you can find one, it runs about $150. I asked if the reissue made the original no longer collectable. When I pruned my LP collection back in 2022 he was keen to get hold of the original which I still have, but I said no. Some things you hold onto.

Here's a link to the EP artwork -- the original from 1980 and the reissue of 2024.

----------

There was a bit of back and forth on Facebook over writing credits when the release was announced. Some of it went like this:

Rob Gliddon: So the NFG EP called 63 Monroe, comes out again without crediting any of the songwriters. It was a problem back then and it's still an issue. Simon Lewis wrote 'At The Boot', 'Cyanide' and 'Hijack Victim', I wrote two songs and Mark wrote one. I'm sure the writers of 'Teenage Kicks' might want their credit. More than enough time was available to do things properly, it was just ignored.

Reg Quinton: Rob Gliddon so I am to understand that you wrote "Give 'em up" and "Goodbye Guyana" while Markii Burnaway wrote "After"? "Teenage Kicks" is, of course, The Undertones. They're all great tunes, iconic even. Ps. I was pleased to get a photo credit.

Markii Burnaway: I wrote Give em up.. I am pretty sure Bob wrote Goodbye Guyana .100% convinced the Undertones were behind the creation of Teenage Kicks

Rob Gliddon: Reg Quinton I wrote 'After' and 'Goodbye Guyana' as a response to Simon Lewis's 'Cyanide' Simon wrote the bulk of NFG's original setlist. Later this year I will be releasing a full set of live tracks from the original NFG line-up with Simon. It comes from a Monday night gig at The Boot. It will disprove the idea that the original line-up couldn't play. It rocks like granite.

There's been a muddled history to the bands. It all reminds me of an Austin Lounge Lizards song, "Would You Like To Start A Band". The history is similar. But putting aside some of the bad memories, it was a lot of fun!

Austin '24

Click image for more photos ...

Some reflections on our travels and holiday in Austin, Texas over the winter of 2024. This blog entry is more about travelling, our long stay and coping and less about any grand adventures.

We booked six weeks (January 24 - March 6) in a three bedroom two bath house in the Zilker neighborhood of South Austin. Our land lords, Carole and Kenny, rent four long stay properties under the title "Under the Texan Sun". We stayed at their "Hill House" in 2018 (a two bedroom, one bath home) then here at "La Casa" in 2019, 2020 and again this year 2024. They are good people to rent from, we're happy with the place and have made a reservation to come again for the same period in 2025. The larger house gives us more space for ourselves, our cats and our visitors — this year Gord and Leslie came for a week. There were other guests we had invited; some who had hoped to come but timing didn't work out for them.

We have been coming to Austin for long stay winter holidays since 2013 and we've been visitors to the city since 1990. For these long stays, for several years we stayed at "Casita del Sol" (this blog Austin Feb, 2013) in Bouldin but when they stopped taking pets we found a place in Travis Heights (this blog Austin Nov, 2016). Both are in nearby neighborhoods of South Austin. We weren't that keen on that last place so we've been staying with Under the Texan Sun ever since. We've been bringing our pets with us every year. It makes finding a place a bit of a challenge; that's one reason we're pleased to rent with Under the Texan Sun. 

The gap from 2020 to 2024 is largely due to the Covid Pandemic. We left in March of 2020 just as the pandemic was declared and recognized by both Canada and the US. We considered going to Austin in 2023 after we came down with Covid in January and, with Carole's help, had even found a nearby rental. Unfortunately our car problems got in the way and we couldn't go. At that time, January of 2023, we reserved "La Casa" for 2024 — you really need to book a year in advance.

Sidebar: In 2021 Texas experienced a massive winter storm where the power was out for many days throughout the state. It was cold and people in the hundreds died on the street and in their homes — Governor Abbott blamed it on wind energy (when it was fact gas wells that froze), Senator Ted Cruz (R Tex) fled to warmer weather in Mexico. In the Austin American-Statesman I read of a woman who had died in her home during that storm and power outage when her catheter froze! In 2023 a similar ice storm hit the same areas with similar power problems. 

We are glad we were not in Austin for either of those events! I understand they still haven't integrated their power system with the rest of the country/continent to help mitigate these disasters.  However, the weather we had this year was marvelous. We even got to see the blue bonnets in bloom.

We take our car, our bikes/ebikes and our three cats on these Texas holidays. Originally it was our two cats Piscine and Richard Parker travelling in a Honda Civic, then a Hyundai Elantra, and staying at "Casita del Sol" in Bouldin. In the years that followed, with the three cats we now have, we bought a larger car (Honda CRV), in late 2018 for our subsequent trips. The Honda CRV is much bigger with enough room for all of us and our gear. Mind you, of the three cats, only Piscine, who has been with us on every trip, is comfortable with the ride. Radar and Little Moe are not happy travellers. They hunker down in the car and are clearly not having any fun. When there, they don't venture outside, unlike Piscine. There's a long cat story there which I will come to in a bit.

The drive to Austin is pretty much 25 hours driving time on the road (it's 2,500km and you can average 100km/hr on the US Interstate Highway system). That requires some overnight stops along the way. Usually we do it over three days with two nights lodging; we have done it in two days with only one overnight stay but that's awfully hard on the drivers and the cats. On our way down this year, with Reg doing all the driving, we took an extra day with overnight stays in Cincinnati, Memphis and Dallas. On the way back, Kate did a bit of driving, and we stayed in Little Rock and Indianapolis as we have often done before. We stay at the La Quinta chain because they are "pet friendly"; these days pet friendly seems to cost a lot more than it used to!

One of the reasons we like Austin in the winter is the fine weather and the bike trails. We've always brought our bikes and have enjoyed exploring Austin around Town Lake and the various river trails. Often we have taken our bikes to San Antonio and biked to the old missions along the river. In years past we've done a lot of biking, even for just getting around on the streets to various parts of the city. This year, with Kate's ankle injury, we brought a pair of ebikes that we had bought last summer before her surgery. We ended up using Uber a lot and not biking as much as we had hoped.

Bringing these ebikes was a bit of a struggle on a couple of fronts. First, the goose neck bike rack we were using for our pedal bikes wouldn't work. We had to get a tray for them to sit in and an adapter to fit the trailer hitch. Second, ebikes are not at all tolerant of wet weather. There are sensitive electrical components that you do not want to get wet. The bikes are very expensive and need to be protected from the elements. On the way down I had the bikes wrapped with a waterproof cover but that didn't work very well at all. We ended up stopping for duct tape and rope to better secure the cover which the wind wanted to tear apart. 

On the way back I figured out a better solution — the bikes were first shrink wrapped individually, then shrink wrapped again on the rack, then covered with waterproof cover and all of that tied down with ropes. On the way there the roads were wet, snow and cold was an issue. We had torrential rain in Arkansas and East Texas (I read about 6" of rain in one day!). But the bikes survived. On the way back, when the bikes were better protected, we had fine weather and never saw any wet days. We did get to use our bikes a few times — some short rides in the neighborhood, once along Town Lake, another day in San Antonio and some exploring of the Walnut Creek bike trail. As Kate improves we hope to be able to use the ebikes more.

There are a couple of interesting stories around our arrival in Austin. The first, as promised, is about the cats. The second is about the features of our rental.

As mentioned the cats are not happy travellers and we may not take all of them ever again on these long stay holidays. Piscine is a reasonable traveller and although she cries a lot in the car in the morning she soon settles down. Radar and Little Moe are almost catatonic in the car. They do not like getting into the car, in fact they have to be man handled to get them in, and once in they just lay frozen in place hoping that nothing more happens. On our arrival the cats were pretty freaked out. Little Moe especially spent a lot of time pacing around the house and crying loudly. Kate was concerned that he might not be peeing as he should (Richard Parker had died of urinary stones and behaved similarly). We ended up taking him to a nearby Emergency Veterinary Clinic. He did not want to go and he did not want to be there. He was impossible to handle and was climbing the walls to get away. He would not calm down, could not be examing and had to be sedated. In the course of doing all that I got a nasty cat bite and ended up in a nearby Emergency Clinic where I was prescribed an anti-biotic. All of that ended up costing nearly $400 for me and over $1,000 for the cat. And there was nothing wrong with the cat other than the stress from travelling and being manhandled into La Quinta hotel rooms! On the way back, on the first day, Little Moe threw up in the car and Piscine pissed on Kate's pillows. Sigh.... I should say that after a few days in Austin they were comfortable around the house and had forgiven us. But clearly travel with cats is challenging.

The second arrival story is perhaps comically/stupidly funny. We've been to this rental before but haven't been back in years and on arrival this time we noted that there didn't seem to be a microwave; or at least there wasn't one on the counter where we expected it. We are firm believers that, on a long stay like this, if there's something you need that isn't there, go and get it. And we need a microwave, so when we went to stock up on essentials at Costco (reminder: they want cash or their credit card and our debit card doesn't work with them) we ended up buying a nice one with plans to leave it behind — the expense is rather minor when you consider what you are paying overall for the long stay. We had set it up, and used it a couple of times, when making coffee one morning, I looked up from the stove to see that there's a built in microwave there over the stove with a stove exhaust fan in it. Oh for dumb! We ended up donating the one we had just bought to one of the local groups that help out with the homeless. We might have taken it back to Costco but we had no desire to pack it back up and go stand in the return lines. 

This blog has wandered far too long so I'm going to close it here. There are other stories to tell, but I have other duties that call on me today.

Charles B. Dunham

Photo by Kate, 2001. Dinner at Auberge Du Petit Prince

Our friend and erstwhile UWO Computer Science colleague Charles B. Dunham passed away yesterday, March 18 2024, in Palliative Care at Victoria hospital, London. Charles was 86 years old and had been in care at Maple View Terrace for several years now. He died peacefully, but we kept expecting him to awaken and say, "You're wrong! And do you want to know why?". Yes Charles, we'll miss your blunt corrections and gentle humor.

Charles is survived by a brother Gordon (BC) and a sister Alison (FL) and by long time friends Anne, Mike, David and more.

Charles was a professor of mine back in the 1970's when I was earning my Computer Science degrees. He was one of the very early members of the newly formed department. We formed a friendship over his love of photography and the outdoors. His published work in the discipline was always way over my head! But then Charles was not a great communicator.

In his later years I was declared, with David and Mike, as his Power of Attorney for Personal Care. We all helped with his transition to assisted living at Maple View Terrace where he lived out his final ten years. These last few weeks have been demanding. Charles had a major event in February that had him hospitalized while we were on holidays in Texas. There were several long distance phone calls with staff at Victoria Hospital as care decisions had to be made before and after surgery. On our return I was able to visit with Charles several times, met with support staff at MVT, followup care was debated (for the February event), and Palliative Care support was arranged but soon after Charles was readmitted in dire need. His POA instructions were clear as to the care he wanted in his final days and I've done my best to honor his wishes.

He died peacefully last night. His dear friends Anne and Mike were able to visit in the early evening to say their good byes. I had spent some time with him in the afternoon but he was gone when I returned after their visit. I'm glad his suffering is over.

I want to acknowledge the kind and caring support of staff at MVT where Charles lived and Victoria Hospital where he died. They helped Charles, and me, during these difficult days. Anne, Mike and David have been true friends to Charles, their support made mine all the easier.

See also obituary posting at the A. Millard George Funeral Home, London (April 2).

Click image for more photos ...

Maggie's Wake

Click image for more photos ...

This afternoon, Sunday March 17 (St Patrick's day) we went to the matinee Album Release of "Maggie's Wake" on the Auburn stage at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. It was a general admission ticket with a sold out house so we arrived early in hopes of getting good seats to enjoy the show. We ended up in the front row next the Lindsay's mom. I took a lot of pictures, as I often do, and have whittled them down to a few that are definitely worth sharing.

Maggie's Wake is a Irish/Celtic band with fiddles, tin whistles, piano, accordian, guitar, bass, and drums. The music is largely words by Tara Dunphy (vocals, fiddle and tin whistle) with many tunes by Lindsay Schindler (vocals and fiddle). The band is rounded out by Stephan Szczesniak on percussion, Andrew Kosty on bass, Dean Harrison on piano and accordian, and Kenneth Palmer on guitar. All of these are mature, experienced players who have done their 10,000 hours.

We have followed Tara for years — we are big fans of the Rizdales (an Americana/Country band with her husband Tom) and her other projects. Lindsay we know through her work with Rant Maggie Rant, a local/Stratford Irish/Celtic band that has recently run it's course. The Maggie's Wake band name is a play on Rant Maggie Rant — there's the notion of following in a boat's wake, there's also the notion of a funeral wake.

We had the CD well in advance of this release as we were early supporters via Kickstarter. I had listened to it a bit but the live performance really helped to deepen my appreciation. Tara songs, the stories, sometimes brought me tears (e.g., Maid of Fortune). Lindsay's reels and tunes had us wanting to get up to dance (Kate has a history with Irish dance from her childhood). I was particularly impressed by the percussion by Stephan — he's no ordinary drummer! I wonder if Ken Palmer, of Dixie Flyers fame, is any relation to Kenneth Palmer the guitarist here? While it was mostly acoustic guitar there was an electric guitar tune on the album that really impressed me. All of the music is worth a listen. They did a few tunes in celebration of St Patrick's day, e.g., a medley of South Australia, Tell Me Ma and Whiskey in the Jar.

I talked briefly to Tara and Tom during the set break. They were both aware of our travels and happy to see us back. I talked a bit with Tara about our Austin experiences; they are fans of the music scene there but have not been back since 2019. The album has a song about going to New Orleans, Louisiana, I know they've been going there lately. We've been once, in 2018, it is another music city worth visiting.

To top off the show they also had 3 young girls from the Sarnia Celtic Dance school who came out to dance! There was an "after the show" gathering/celebration at the Richmond Hotel that we missed.

Nikon F Sold

Click image for more photos ...

Today I've shipped off my 1967 chrome Nikon F Photomic FTN to a buyer in St John's. The photo album tells a little about the story of how I came to this camera. This is to fill in a bit more of the story. For those not familiar with the Canadian dollar $1US is $1.35CA at this writing.

The camera was purchased off Ebay from a US seller in an auction back in July of 2023 for $127US + $62.42US (shipping) + duties on arrival. You can do the math there ... that's about $250CA. When it arrived it was clear that it would require a Clean, Lube and Adjust (CLA) service — the foam bumpers for the mirror had head rotted and were crumbling. I thought about replaceing the foam myself but ended up sending the camera to a repair service through the local camera shop (Carman's in Stratford). It's difficult to find anyone locally who can service these old cameras. That CLA was an additional $130 + $60 (shipping again) so, all in, I'm at well over $400 invested. I've sold the camera for $300 + $30 shipping so this hasn't been an exercise to make money. ... lol!

From the serial number I understand this camera was made sometime in 1967. It is quite serviceable and I have run through a couple of rolls of film. See this example of local scenes shot with this camera. The CLA technician reported, via Carman's, that:

I just got an email this morning with your estimate! The price will be $130.50 plus taxes. That will be for replacing the mirror foam, Replace prism head resting foam pad, clean mirror, clean focusing screen, complete internal/external cleaning, lubrication and minor adjustments. Prism meter when working is accurate, however sometimes meter needle fails to move and unrepairable.

So why have I sold the camera? It works well and is a treat to use if only a little awkward. However, I have a Nikon F2 Photomic in black and several lenses purchased after the Nikon F. In November I found a deal I could not refuse (in Canada with the Camera Trading Company) and bought a second Nikon F Photomic FTN, an Apollo version from 1969 in black, for just over $300. Clearly, I don't need both. Actually I don't need any of these film cameras. Here's a post about my "Senseless Collection".

The 1967 Nikon F I've sold came to me with a 50mm/F1.4 lens, the second came with a 50mm/F2. I much prefer the faster lens and have swapped the two. Both are Nikkor non-AI lenses of the era and both seem to be working well. My Nikon lens collection now includes a 28mm/F3.5, 135mm/F2.8, 80-200mm/F4.5, and a 35-105/F3.5-4.5 zoom. Again, that's all part of the senseless collecting of old Nikon gear. Sometimes, I think I've become a lot like the old man in this Fred Eaglesmith song, "Small Motors"; the fellow who treasures puttering around with this old gear.

Finally, a comment on film and shooting. Film is hard to find and expensive, it's hard to find a processor for the film and that again is expensive, and it takes a while for the processing so you have to wait, and, at the end of the day, what you have are digital scans. Oh yeah, and sometimes they screw up and your film jams their machine or is terribly scratched or you've screwed up otherwise! Nevertheless, here we are playing with old technologies and reliving an experience we could ill afford back in the day. In the next few days I'm buying a new cell phone which will probably take better pictures that far exceed any from the cameras I've had to date. Such is progress.

See also Nikon F only film group on Facebook for like minded folk.

BMI Songwriters Showcase

Click image for more photos ...

On our last night in Austin (Monday) we went to the BMI Songwriters Showcase at the Saxon Pub. BMI is, of course, the publishing and music rights management company for song writers. They will have offices in places like Music Row (Nashville), Tin Pan Alley (New York) and LA where there's a music scene. They set up an office here in Austin sometime around 2020 (after we were last here) and have hosted a monthly series, the first Monday of the month, from 6:00-7:30pm. It's a free show sponsored by BMI, there are no tickets required and they don't pass a tip jar. We arrive early and get good seats to enjoy the show. There are similar BMI Showcases in other cities. We are excited to see this showcase; it's not surprising that we've not been before as they started up during the pandemic. We would have missed the February event, damn!

BMI is hosting six singer songwriters tonight in two sets of three. Over the four years of this series they will have showcased several hundred songwriters. There is that much talent in Texas! Tonight each gets to perform two or three of their songs and while there is some chatting/introductions between songs they clip along pretty quickly in the one hour and a half allocated for the showcase. Each of the artists is signed to BMI and all of them have music published for which they receive royalty cheques; most also have records of their own.

The show runs as a song swap, or music in the round, with Owen Temple, Tina Wilkins, and her husband Walt Wilkins up first followed by Bri Bagwell, Mike McClure and Courtney Patton. Mike McClure had his partner Chrislyn Lawrence come up to sing a duet with him. We were impressed by all of them; this is the kind of music we look for. Songs that tell stories, some country, some maudlin but all excellent. No bass and drums, just a guitar to complement the song. When we return to Austin we need to mark first Monday's as something well worth attending. 

Unfortunately my portable sound recorder was packed away, we are leaving for home the next morning, so I didn't captured the music of that night ... much to my regret. Kate took a couple of short videos which are in the photo album. They give you a good sense of the quality of the music. It was all excellent. DanViewtube wasn't there. It would have been a great show for him to record but perhaps BMI is exercising their publishing rights. 

All too soon the show was over. The BMI hosts and the musicians did their bows and thanked the audience for attending. We thanked some of the musicians for the great show and talked briefly with Walt Wilkins on the way out. We compared restaurants and eateries around town. He recommended the "Shoal Creek Saloon" (where we've been many times) and "Fonda San Miguel" as the best in town; oddly we had just been reading about that one. I guess next time we're here we'll give it a go. It's within our stompin' grounds — just off of Burnet near Sue Patrick and the Little Longhorn Saloon.

There are other regular Monday night events in town, notably Bob Schneider's "Lonelyland" follows this show at 8:00 and then there's Monday Night Superclub, over at the El Mercado, which has Gabe Rhodes as a guest tonight. "Happyland" with Kimmie, Gabe and Louis Rhodes has been a regular Monday event and we've been to a couple already. We bump into our newly acquired friend, newly sober and a Saxon regular, "John", who tells us he was torn between this event and the Superclub but this is such a special event he had to be here. At the end of the show he tells us his friends at the Superclub have been texting him that it's a really great show there as well and he's dashing away to catch the last of it. 

We also make friends with another fellow in the audience, J.D. Graham, who is touring the area. He's a singer/songwriter as well and had done a gig with Courtney at the Redbird in New Braunfels (a listening we had not heard of but need to investigate). We're following him on Facebook, he's interesting too.

On this trip we've become Saxon Pub regulars. We've seen a lot of really great shows here with very few disappointments (there was an impossible Ameripolitan event with no seating). Tonight was one of the best.

Esther's Follies

Click image for more photos ...

Tonight, after our dinner at Uchiba, we took Wendy and Tammy to see the comedy show at Esther's Follies. We've been many times over the years, they had never. There's a show on Thursday, two on Friday and Saturday. The weekend shows are a bit rushed with one at 7:00pm and a second show at 9:00pm.

The picture at left shows the magician cutting one of the women in half. He was maniacal, it was funny and amazing.

The show is a bunch of comedy skits, some with music and dance, and several magic acts. While many are repeated year after year there's always some topical issues, e.g., like current pop stars, book banning and border security, and always politicians to skewer. The magic tricks are quite amazing — how did she/he disappear from here and end up there?

Having been before we were aware that they would engage the audience and had picked seats near the front stage left in hopes that one of Tammy or Wendy would be called on to participate in some of the hilarity. Instead they picked Kate for the "Dog out of the canon" magic trick. Kate was a good sport but well rehearsed as she had been picked during our November 2016 visit (our guests have been on stage here several times). I had to duck out at about the climax of that act when a bathroom break could not wait.

Our friends thoroughly enjoyed the show. Perhaps they will bring some of their friends another time.

Having returned home to Canada while writing this I see that the "Haunting of the Tavern" mystery/dinner theatre is still active. It's by the same group, we've been before and really enjoyed it. We're sorry that we missed it this time.

Uchiba

Click image for more photos ...

Today our friends Tammy and Wendy from Blanco have come into town for a meal and some entertainment. They are impressed by "La Casa", our long stay, but it's nothing like the hill top home they are building. They salivate for some Tex/Mex food from Matt's El Rancho which is just across Lamar from our place. It's one of their favorite restaurants, ours too, and they can smell the food from here. But we have other plans.

It's a lovely day and we have our dinner on the street patio at Uchiba which is downtown at West 2nd and Neuces — very near the Central Library. This area used to be the warehouse district when we first came to Austin. Now it's tall buildings and fine restaurants like Uchiba. This isn't the BBQ and honky tonk side of Austin.

Tammy and Wendy made the 5:00pm reservation, we had suggested a different place on Barton Springs but they seem to have had some bad experiences there. One of the finest restaurants in town is Uchi, which is on Lamar, not too far from Barton Springs. We've been to Uchi serveral times as have Tammy and Wendy. Uchiba is a new spin off and none of us have been before. In the same vein there is Uchiko on North Lamar — another spin off we have been to. There was a third spin off, the name escapes me, in East Austin where we have been but it seems to have folded. We've been to Uchi several times, the food is lovely, as it is at Uchiba, but it's awfully loud there. I'm glad we're here on the patio. It's such a lovely day to sit outside and enjoy some conversation with our friends.

The food here is 5-star precious little bits often with an Asian influence. You order some to nosh on having only the vaguest of notions of what will arrive. If you're hungry, you order more. The wait staff give you some guidance but it's obscure stuff. Kate knew of Uchi through some chef challenge show on HGTV. The food is very good, very interesting, very precious and actually not that expensive. We enjoy our meal but it's not the kind of eatery I'd usually hang out at. I suppose the best strategy would be to just trust the wait staff to feed you and give them a little guidance. E.g. I really don't like raw fish sushi!

We have taken an Uber to get here from our place and another to get to Esther's Follies which is about 15 blocks away — well beyond the range Kate can handle.

Tiger Alley

Click image for more photos..

We had a quiet Friday evening in Austin. We went to the Central Market Westgate (it's a super market not too far down the street from us) to have a bit of dinner (heck of a deal), some wine (more heck of a deal) and catch a bit of Tiger Alley (Katy Rose Cox on fiddle, Sophia Johnson on guitar, and friends — great Western Swing band) and the dancers enjoying the free event. 

All this at a SUPERMARKET!! What a great town for live music. Our friend Jane in St Marys was asking if there's live music everywhere in Austin. The short answer is yes!

I see Tiger Alley has an album out (released about a month ago); you and I can listen to "Sizzlin Summer" on YouTube. I wonder if there's a physical CD at Waterloo Records? Another reason to go back ...

ZaCH Theatre

Click image for more photos ...

We went to see "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" at the Topfer stage at ZaCH Theatre here in Austin on Wednesday night with Gord and Leslie. The play is a modern opera/musical/dance comedy/parody done "in the round". It's an immersive experience with the audience on the stage and action/music taking place all over the theatre. There were perhaps 12 actors (no waiting for a fat lady to sing) and another 12 or so musicians. It was the most exciting show we've ever seen and closes after next week. This would be a winner if staged at Stratford. All I can say is: Wow!

Our intention was to show Gord and Leslie the view from the nearby Nido at the Loren overlooking Town Lake and the city where we had caught a glorious sunset the week before when the weather was quite warm. Unfortunately it was pretty cool and breezy; we stayed on the outdoor patio for a while but saner heads prevailed and we share our drinks inside. Nevertheless there are some snaps of the view.

At the ZaCH there was a live music entertainer playing guitar for tips at the bar/lounge before the show. There's live music everywhere in Austin. That's one of the reasons why we keep coming back.

Bullock and Bats

Click image for more photos ...

We had some fun today with Gordon and Leslie. 

First we were at the Bullock State History Museum which is behind the capitol on E. Martin Luther Jr. Blvd. The street in front is actually the continuation of Congress Ave but in recent years has been made into a pedestrian mall/green space. We've been several times before and, it turns out, we had taken Gord and Leslie on their last visit. Nevertheless there were some interesting things to see. First, it being Black History Month, there was an exhibit on the integration history in Texas and Austin — a city that intentionally had a planned "black part of town" (east side of IH35), Texans who refused to integrate, segregation at the State Fair and worse. Fortunately there was President Johnson with the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965).

Second there was a tucked away exhibit of artwork by local students and all of them were outstanding. They also, in part, speak to the problems with discrimination that continue to this day. At this time the Texas governor is fighting with the Federal Government on border security — Gov. Abbott is without compassion. The razor wire on the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass to "protect us from them" is not the way to treat your fellow man.

That evening we took a Uber over to the south shore of Town Lake at the S. Congress Ave bridge is the perfect place to watch for bats. That's us above on some green space waiting for the bats. Gord was skeptical as this isn't the "prime season" but hung in. The weather has been very warm and we've read there a lot of bats coming out right now. As the dusk settles the bats, who have been nesting/hiding in long crevices under the bridge, come out for their feeding. I gather they live on insects which is one good reason to like them. There were 10's of thousands today. These are small bats, not the huge flying foxes that we've seen in Australia. Much like the bats we have at home.

Having caught a very good show with the bats we took an Uber up the street (SoCo: South Congress) to see if we might catch Whitney Rose who has an early show at the Continental Club. She has several records and I am a fan; Kate not so much. She's Canadian and had relocated to Austin (from PEI to Toronto to Austin). In recent years she's had health problems that had her return to Canada. She is back for Dale Watson's Ameripolitan Awards, I don't know if her health problems are over and if she has plans to stay in Austin. When we arrived the place was packed, the band was playing, but it was standing room only. With bad knees and ankles we decided instead to have lunch across the street at Joann's Fine Foods, Tex-Mes of course, where there's a nice outdoor patio. It's part of the Austin Motel which is famous for it's large sign that looks a lot like an erect penis and balls. It used to be a somewhat shabby spot but SoCo is quite trendy these days and the motel seems to be very nice.

Kate and I headed home afterwards. We convinced Gord and Leslie to go back to the Continental Club gallery (upstairs and not so busy) to see a show by Rosie Flores. We convinced them that she's an important long standing Texan artist and worth watching in that intimate environment. The show was jazzy, which none of us are particularly fond of, and they were somewhat disappointed.

Happyland II

Click image for more photos ...

We are back to see Happyland at the Saxon Pub on Monday. We've got Gord and Leslie with us and are sure they'll be impressed — they are! We were here a week ago and really enjoyed the show. This is their last show for a while, as Kimmie Rhodes is going to be out on tour, so it's a bit of a special event. There are some tables reserved for guests of the band but we arrive early and get front row seats of our own. The doorman recognizes me as a regular!

We've taken an UberXL, as there are the four of us, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge for these aging seniors. There's a third row seating which Reg struggles into, after he gets in there the driver, who seems to speak no English, shows us how the second row of seats fold down. I can tell you that even with them folded down it was a struggle to get out. Oddly the driver opened the tail gate first as if that were a possible route for Reg to climb over! On our return trip we had a cautious driver from French Guyana (we could try a bit of French ... or at least Leslie could) where we could easily put three in the back seats and one up front. Getting out of that car was a bit of a leap though, Kate sort of fell out but landed on her good foot — there was a running board which might have made that easier.

We have some snacks from the food truck parked in the lot of the Saxon for our dinner. There's very little parking here, we always come by Uber and never attempt to bring our car. In years past we've biked here but not today. The fellow running the food truck is incredibly cheerful and helpful. We place our orders at the truck and he brings them in to us.

In the photo above you can see from left to right: Gabe Rhodes (electric), John Goudie, Kimmie Rhodes, Shawn Pander, Harmoni Kelly (bass) and Louis Rhodes (obscured on keyboards). John Chipman is behind on drums, we saw him on Sunday with the Purgatory Players at the El Mercado for brunch. He sang a lead there but tonight he's just adding harmonies. The Purgatory Players like to call him "John Morocco" — I have no idea why. Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves as were the audience. There were repeats of several tunes from our last visit but some new songs as well. Apparently John Chipman was responsible for the set list tonight. There was some joking that Kimmie is the band leader but she responded that "No, I'm not your mother!" She is the mother of Gabe (on electric) and the grandmother of Louis (on keyboards).

They made fun of "cow persons" as Kimmie and Shawn were wearing hats. A fellow, who had just came into the bar, was centered out as another cow person as he had a lovely big white cowboy hat. Everyone was laughing and having fun, the audience member was somewhat embarassed, and Kimmie cautioned that's it's never a good idea to heckle the audience. Such is life at Happyland — lots of laughs, good music and fun.

Two time Grammy winner Gary Nicholson was called onto stage to perform a couple of tunes. One that he and Gabe had recently written and another about "Nights Like These".  Kimmie reminded the audience that there's a song writers workshop event that she and Gary were having here at the Saxon on Saturday. Another "rock star" in the audience was the fellow who had mastered Kimmie's latest record which comes out soon.

Another great night of music. I taped the show and will work on the song sequences later. Oddly DanViewtube was not in attendance. Happily, someone else was. Here's some recordings by Kelso King posted to YouTube:

• Where do we go from here?, Kimmie Rhodes & ensemble
• Let's talk about love, Kimmie Rhodes & ensemble
• The table of the Lord, Gabe Rhodes & ensemble
• I wish you love & happiness, Kimmie Rhodes & ensemble

Titles are just my best guess. Kate had bought Kimmie's book at the house concert we attended earlier. She enscribed it "I wish you love & happiness", a lullaby and a gentle wish.

ABGB Dancing

Click image for more photos ...

Pictures are mostly from our visit to the ABGB.

Sunday was an eventful warm spring day with Gord and Leslie and a few false starts. Kate and I had been to the Sagebrush (on way south Congress) to see Los Pinkys (it's Conjunto music which I would describe as accordian polka plus plunking guitar) the day before. It was an ideal sunny and warm day, the bar was dingy and dark, and Los Pinkys just weren't that exciting — we have seen them a few times over the years and although there was a good sized audience of all ages who were enjoying the music we weren't. Anyways, we gave up. Sagebrush has some interesting acts (we've missed Garret T. Capps, Elizabeth Cook and Sophia Johnson who have played there), we had never been before and now we can say we have. I suppose we might return for a night time gig when the lights are low.

Today there's another Conjunto band playing at Sam's Town Point we want to investigate — Josh Baca & the Hot Tamales. While we have found our way to this bar before, it's way, way, way south off Manchaca at Slaughterhouse (Gord asks if we're still in Austin), it's hidden away and hard to get to and, while we've been here once before, we've never seen any acts here. Again we are aware of several interesting gigs that we've missed (Libby and the Loveless and the Guthrie Girls have a regular Wednesday gig) so we are confident that there are good things to see. However, it's another beautifully sunny day and another awfully dingy dirty honky tonk that we decide to skip. We never got to see the band and only briefly stepped inside the bar.

We're all of a mind that it would be far nicer to be outside someplace soaking up the sun. While "under the live oaks" at Guero's on SoCo is a possibility we know it will be very busy with long line ups, scarce seating, and parking will be awfully hard to find and expensive. So we decide instead on ABGB. We've been many times before (most recently for an afternoon Drag Queen show) but Gord and Leslie have not ... and they're both dancers.

The ABGB (Austin Beer Gardens and Brewery) is a reliable Sunday afternoon adventure. They have a large patio area outside shaded by live oaks and a large area inside, well lit with windows, sturdy long tables, a dance floor, a raised stage and you're guaranteed there will be a band playing dance music and regulars, some in dancing regalia, having a great time dancing. Today is no exception.

Parking is a bit of an issue as the place is hopping but we find a handicap parking place (with Kate's screwed up ankle we need it). Some of the parking lot has been taken over by outside tables. I was willing to drop people off and find street parking in the neighborhood.

The band is Theo Lawrence and the Hearts, he's a French Canadian here via France, now stationed in Austin. We hadn't heard of him and were a bit leary. But, it's the ABGB, so it's guaranteed to be dance music. The band is very young but play original classic country styled tunes from the 1950-60's. We had some beers (Kate had wine) and parked ourselves at the end of one table near the busy dance floor. The sound system is very good but you can't really see the band, even though they're on a raised stage. The dance floor is packed and it's hard to even get through the dancers to take pictures. I did talk briefly to one of the young fellows who was singing (not Theo) and told him how much I liked their music. At the time the drummer, a young woman, was taking the vocals. I've looked up Theo Lawrence on iTunes but have not found any music yet that adequately represents the full band country dance music we had today. California Poppy, from Youtube, is a good representation of the music we heard. Hmmm... his Facebook page says he will be playing Thursday night at Sam's Town Point.

With Kate's ankle problem and Gord's knee we didn't get dancing. It would have been hard to navigate the busy dance floor and, at best, it would be awkward ugly ducklings amongst the graceful swans.

We found a table outside on the reclaimed parking lot just before the band's break (Ps. I can't imagine they can brew beer fast enough to keep up with the crew today!). We tossed around the idea of staying for pizza, they are very good and we recommend them here, but ended up going home and having some quiche from the market lady (yummy) and salads from Costco.

It was a good day — springtime in Austin.

Folk Uke

Click image for more photos ...

We saw Folk Uke at the The Saxon Pub Friday night and talked briefly with Amy Nelson (guitar) and Cathy Guthrie (ukulele) as we were leaving. They had fun and were very pleased that we and the rest of the audience had come out to see them. I guess we're fans as this was probably our 3rd time seeing them here over the years. They have regular jobs and only come out to play tunes here once every couple of months.

This was one of those ticketed events without reserved seats. Why? Why? We arrived early and caught a wild dance party with the band TG BAD. That was fun and we were able to get front row seats for Folk Uke. At our age standing room only is not an option.

We ended up sitting with a couple of retired teachers who kindly let us join them in the front row. We made friends with John, newly sober and eating gummies, who sat beside us and is friend of Guy Forsyth & Jeska. He attends Purgatory Players regularly, we met him at another Saxon event.

They're a very funny folk duo (nothing like Simon and Garfunkel but still musical), we really like their tunes, and it's a real treat to see them when we're visiting Austin. "BJ to a DJ" and "California Stars" are personal favorites. "American Girl" seems to be their most recent release — it's a Tom Petty cover. Their jokes and chatter between tunes is worth the price of admission alone! Many jokes are more than a little raunchy, it's not family friendly, but had us laughing in tears. E.g., the joke about BJ's and practicing on ketchup bottles was a knee slapper. Here's a version of "Star Fucker" recorded live at this show and posted on YouTube by Kelso King.

Here's a couple of jokes Kate recalls:

We always do "Shit makes the flowers grow" as number 2 (in discussing their song list); a song by Harry Nilsson, "He's dead – I tried to marry him but he ghosted me"

Their "Fake Encore" song closed the evening. A humorous reflection on the audience and why they applaud. Oh yes, we enjoyed the show!

You can find them on YouTube and Spotify (they had a brief hit there) or go to their web site (Folkuke.com) and order some CD's. They are definitely worth a listen.

See also an excellent article from Ukulele Magazine (2022).

The Nido

Click image for more photos ...

We had dinner at the Nido restaurant, outside in a comfy lounge area, on the 8th floor of the Loren Hotel overlooking Town Lake (also known as Lady Bird Lake) and the city of Austin. There were amazing views as the sun set behind us and the lights came up on the highrises and office towers on the north shore. Wow!

 
The city scape has changed a ton since we first stayed here in 1990. It's unrecognizable now and even hard to fathom the changes since our last visit in 2020. All of that area dominated by super highrise apartments and office towers was called the warehouse district when we first came. There were old one and two story buildings and a few night clubs. Notably we went to several shows at La Zona Rosa (James McMurtry and the Emilyfest (1994), Guy Forsyth and the Asylum Street Spankers), a warehouse bar that was owned by Marcia Ball. That bar was at 612 4th St W, it's now surrounded by high rises and federal buildings, and has been repurposed and renamed LZR. See also our visit to Austin & San Antonio in 1994

The "Sail" building, pictured at the left above, is a recently completed office building which will house Google, to the left is the new Austin Central Library, to the left of that is the repurposed Seaholm Power Bldg with the old outlets to the river lit up in color, the Independent is the tallest tower with the floor shifts. There's a lot of interesting buildings which have turned the downtown into busy dark canyons. Austin is no longer a small town, it's a big city, ... an awfully big city.

There are very few dining places that take advantage of the views along Town Lake. We used to go to Joe's Crab Shack (south shore between Congress and the I35 traffic jam) but that's now a gaming arcade. There is a nice restaurant at the Hyatt and across the river at the Line (both at the Congress bridge) but the Nido is by far the best. There was a nice Alta Cafe on the north shore at the rowing club by Waller Creek but that is no longer.

Kate discovered the Nido as we were driving on Lamar. She noted some lights and what looked like a patio area on the roof of the Loren which is located on the south shore at the Lamar bridge. Thinking that it might be a restaurant she did the research to find out that the hotel (the Loren is a modern pricey hotel) has a ground floor cafe and a large fancy dining room with an outdoor lounge/patio area on the top floor. 

Kate made sunset reservations for us on the patio where we had some wine and a couple of dishes. I had the cod; Kate had the shrimp. Both were pricey dishes — quite tasty and beautifully presented. I note that others on the patio just came for the wine and had a quick nosh (fries). We'll do the same next time when we take Gord and Leslie before the show at Zach.

Happyland

Click image for more photos ..

On Monday, my 72nd birthday, we had a late lunch at the Magnolia Cafe (they opened on SoCo in 1988, we've been going there since 1990, their window slogan is "Sorry, we're open") and went to Happyland at the Saxon Pub for their early show — it's followed by Lonelyland, Bob Schneider's show which I've written about earlier.

We bought tickets and arrived by Uber shortly after 5:00pm for their 6:00pm show. The doors were open already, there was no queue, we got in right away and were able to get front row seats. There was a good crowd, some empty tables, some standing or sitting at the bar. Unlike the Ameripolitan event on Friday where we could not get a seat and had to leave without seeing much of the show.

Happyland is a musical ensemble with Kimmie, Gabe and Louis Rhodes (mother, son and grandson) and several others. We were to a house concert the day before and heard Kimmie and Gabe Rhodes there. Kimmie is about our age and has a long history in Texas country music (she has a book about her life that Kate bought). Gabe, her son, is an amazing guitar player who has written several compelling tunes as well (e.g. a story about childhood adventures and drinking from the hose).  That event, especially the stories, enticed us to see this show.

There's quite a contrast between an acoustic house concert and a full blown six piece band (drums, bass, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboard and a guest on saxophone). We both agreed that the Alejandro event at the Saxon and the acoustic house concert were the best we've seen so far. I would put this Happyland event first, Kate was not as keen. But then their music is closer to blues/pop/soft rock than traditional country even if they still wear the boots and cowboy hats.

I'd say the music was dominated by the three men on guitars (Gabe Rhodes, John Goudie and Shawn Pander) who played originals they had written with one another. Michael Fracasso co-wrote one with Gabe but wasn't there. There were other co-write authors mentioned.

They've been playing regularly under the Happyland banner for a month or so and have been busy recording music. This is their second last show (perhaps we'll take Gord and Leslie to the last show) as Kimmie and her band are going on the road — she has a new album she's promoting. I'm not sure how much of this ensemble will be travelling with her or if Happyland recordings will ever appear. For the tour it's Gabe for sure, perhaps Louis who is amazing on the keyboards. John Mills was the guest on saxophone, John Chipman on drums, Harmoni Kelley on bass. These are all professional players, it's a tight well rehearsed band even when they play some tunes for the first time!!

Our friend DanViewtube taped the event if you'd care to see and hear on YouTube (see Happyland at Saxon Pub 021924). I taped the audio event as well but we won't share that with a wide audience.

Anyways, great show. We really like the music. Hmm.... this year we seem to be spending a lot of our time at the Saxon Pub. Austin music — so many places, so little time.

Lonelyland

Click image for more photos ...

Tonight (Monday Feb 12) we caught Bob Schneider Music at the The Saxon Pub. We've been here a few times over the years for the Lonelyland show and keep coming back for more. It's a regular Monday evening residency that we quite enjoy. Others seem to know every song, we're not that fanatic.

Lonelyland (2001) was Bob Schneider's first album. The show isn't a rendition of that album.  He has a back catalogue of about 20 albums to draw from but I think most of his stuff at this show is now material he's working on.

We got tickets a while ago and made sure we had good seats rather than standing room. One of our new colleagues at the table has been here many times, for his friend it's the first. As we were leaving we talked briefly with Bob, he asked about photos and I promised to share these on Facebook and tag his page.

The audience was largely women. It's odd as his ribald tunes and stories often venture into queasy areas — like playing around the butt-hole (and I liked it), or farting chunks. One tune had the audience hollering out his name for the chorus. Our waitress had a T-shirt with "Bob Schneider adult music for adult children" so I guess it's all part of "keeping Austin weird". There was a couple at a table next to us who left early. I wonder if they were offended? Here's a sample (from another night, July 2021) of "Cheese Cake Factory Bar" which everyone sang along to; it's a good representation of what the show is like.

He has a big show on Valentine's Day at the ACL/Moody Theatre. I wonder if the set list and song patter are adjusted for that audience.

The musicians are quite accomplished. The bass player pictured we've seen on the ACL/Moody stage several times. Along with the usual drums, guitar and bass he has a fellow on stage left with a keyboard, violin and cello (sic!) who performs from sheet music (sic! again!).

We'll be back, next year when we return to Austin we'll drop in again. Until then ...

Ps. the show immediately before this one is "Happyland". The pair of them are regular events at the Saxon on Monday nights.

See also Lonelyland (2020) posting in this blog and Bob Schneider on Wikipedia.

Libby & the Loveless

Click image for more photos ...

Today, Sunday February 11, was a fairly quiet day for us. The weather is cool and grey but there are a couple of things we'll do. The Blanton Art Gallery is a quick visit and requires more standing and walking than Kate can handle so we're there only briefly. We had hoped to have lunch at the gallery's cafe but it's been closed since the pandemic — there are plans to reopen sometime.

Late in the day we pop over to the ABGB (Austin Beer Garden and Brewery) for the regular Sunday afternoon dance party. There are different bands who play every Sunday. This is the same place we went for the Drag Show a while ago. It's close, we could easily bike there but today we drive.

There's a good sized dance area, a raised stage, and Libby & the Loveless are playing. They play traditional country with a twang and the dancers love it. We do too! We recognize several dancers from events over the years. I see they have a regular Wednesday night gig at Sam's Townpoint — we'll have to go sometime. Their music is eclectic including lots of country and bluegrass that we only vaguely recognize. I suspect they're all cover tunes, but whatever, they're done well. They did a nice version of Gillian Welch's "Dry Town". Today the band has Libby Hallet on vocals and acoustic, Salena Rosanbalm on vocals and drums, Preston Rhone on bass, Schley Barrack on electric guitar and a guest (haven't got her name) on fiddle/violin. Three women and two men, all are very good musicians and we see they've been playing all over town (Sam's, Sagebrush, The Whitehorse, ABGB, The Little Longhorn, The Whipp Inn, etc.) at honky tonks we love.

Their show today runs from 4:00 until 7:00 when the bar is shutting down. It's Superbowl Sunday and everyone, other than us, will be glued to their TV's to see if Taylor Swift announces her support for Joe Biden (the MAGA media are apoplectic that it might happen). They have a break between sets and the sound track that continues is also great. We have some pizza slices with our beer and wine.

The photos show a crowded dance floor and there's even a bit of live footage that Kate took. I'm not into filming, editing is not very much fun but if Kate continues I guess I'll have to.

Libby and the Loveless don't have much of a presence on the internet (I do find a page on Instagram) but they are a band we really enjoyed. I hope to see them again. The ABGB dance party on Sundays is not to be missed.

Alejandro Escovedo

Click image for more photos ...

Saturday, February 10, finds us at a 10:00pm pop-up event at the Saxon Pub. Alejandro Escovedo is having a show accompanied by a drummer and keyboard/violinist. We had seen him earlier at the Texas Songwriters celebration at the Moody/ACL Theatre but this is an up close and personal event in a small club.  I gather the club has room for about 140 patrons, we have reserved seats up front at a small table only inches from the stage.

The club is only a few blocks away on Lamar South but we take an Uber ride — there's virtually no parking there. There's already a queue but we have reserved seats and there's a fellow processing the queue to make sure everyone is on the list and gets an arm band to enter. While we're waiting the previous band is clearing out and Alejandro's band is setting up.

It's a sold out house of devoted fans to hear stripped down versions of tunes from his extensive catalogue. One of the best parts was they (Alejandro, drummer and keyboard/violin) came off the stage and gathered in the crowd to sing a couple of acoustic numbers -- Something Blue and the Speed of the Sound of Loneliness (everyone knows John Prine). We caught him a couple of weeks ago at the Moody Theatre for a Celebration of Texas Songs. A nice contrast between this small bar and the huge theatre. We prefer honky-tonks in Austin ... at least they don't take your camera away. Today I've brought my small pocket camera (a Canon G11) rather than my DSLR. Either would have been fine.

We have two women near our our age who are sharing our table. They are devoted fans who were first in line and seem to be simply mad for Alejandro. They're both teachers, one is now retired and had spent her time in Uvalde (see 2022 Uvalde School Shooting) where her three children were raised and went to school. We talk about the shooting, how just awful it was. Her friend is from El Paso and reminds us of the 2019 Walmart Shooting there. We spend some time talking about health care (how expensive it is here) and how poorly teachers, and especially retired teachers, are paid in Texas. 

But, we also get a line on an interesting travel suggestion. Apparently, in San Marcos, there's a spring fed swimming hole where it's always 72F — something like Barton Springs. If the weather warms we might take a dip!

Blanco Pickers

Click image for more photos ..

On Friday we drove out to Blanco (it's an hour or so west of Austin past Dripping Springs, south of Johnson City, towards Fredricksburg and Luckenbach) to visit with our friends Wendy and Tammy who we know from our Galapagos Tour (2019). We've kept in touch over the years by email but haven't seen them since 2020 when we were last in Austin (pre-pandemic). They are a lovely couple, fun to be with and very energetic. I don't know how they have the strength.

There were a couple of reasons for the visit. First, they are building a home atop a hill in the rolling mesquite covered hill-country between Blanco and Johnson City. I like to think we have "friends in high places". It's an architected "California modern", still under construction, but, apart from landscaping, is really taking shape. They hope to be finished by summer time. The photo album has a panorama photo of their infinity pool with a view of the valley and country side beyond. I didn't take any other pictures  — I should have but didn't. 

They have 26 acres or so of scrub country in a gated community of similar hill top homes. One reason it's gated is for the "wild life". There are African gazelles and other exotics wandering about! It's gated and fenced to keep the critters in (and, I suppose, to keep the hoodlums out). 

The other interesting thing about this build is the fact that it's out in the country where the land is really harsh and unforgiving. That anything grows here, beyond the scrub brush, is a miracle. You'd be hard pressed to find any water if you were to drill a well. From their hill top you can see a dammed river in the valley below but it's not for them. Instead, they have a huge water tank (30,000 gallons) and collect all the rain water from the roofs of their home and nearby garage/gym. That also means they have their own water treatment system to filter the water and then UV sterilization. Wendy tells me the infinity pool will lose a thousand gallons a month to evaporation so who knows how well this will work in the hot dry summer months. We did have a torrential rainfall one day while in Austin, that would have helped.

They have their own infrastructure beyond the water supply to support living here. They had to trench in electricity, they have a large propane tank in ground and a propane fired generator should the electricity fail, and of course there's a septic system and weeping bed scratched out of the rocky hillside. The road up to their build is pretty steep and quite rough — it will be paved in due course.

There is an attached, but separate, guest quarters with two bedrooms, two baths, with showers glassed floor to ceiling so you can enjoy the view while soaping up. It's quite luxurious; our digs in Austin (and our home in St Marys) are very modest by comparison.

The second reason for the visit is the "Blanco Pickers' Circle". Every Friday night around 5:00 to 7:00 local players gather at the Lavender and Leather shop on the town square to play a few tunes. Tammy is one of those pickers and she was there to play a couple of tunes. During the warmer days, when the sun is out longer, they gather outside on the street at this store. At this time of year the sun is down by 6:00 so they are performing in the basement (back room) of the shop. The lady who runs the shop welcomes us and we end up with some souvenir T-shirts that Wendy and Tammy insist they will buy for us. We get a third for our friend Dianne back home who is also a picker and is watching our house.

Blanco is a small town of not quite 2,000 residents but there are quite a few of them at this event!  I count about 20 players, some on guitar, others on ukulele, several on percussion and tunes varied from originals, to covers (everyone sings along with "Angel from Montgomery") and even some Rap music but no Conjunto! One guy did a funny song about there not being any Reggae in Blanco. Another did a very clever country parody song about a Tennessee breakup where the fellow didn't miss his ex but sure did miss the double-wide and the satellite dish. That was another song you could join in on. It was quite a lively gathering.

Wendy and Tammy know everyone and everyone knows them. For a small backwater town it seems to have attracted more than it's fair share of lefties, liberals, libertines and democrats. For example, Wendy and Tammy are getting training to be Poll Workers for the coming election — they're not doing it for the money. I'm not going to repeat the stories that Wendy told us, but suffice to say there are some very interesting characters and some stories to tell. I think some of these characters have retreated here for the small town anonymity which I will honor.

After the pickin' we went across the town square to the Redbud for dinner. There was live music there as well! What an interesting town.