Tuesday, 28
Aug
07
(the)
Melvins - 'The Talking Horse' - (a)
Senile Animal (Ipecac)
This song sums up how
I've felt the past few days. I've been out of commission. Kelly left
Saturday afternoon, but after I got back home from taking her to the
airport in Gulfport, I've felt miserable. I think I must have gotten
some kind of food poisoning from the salad I made at the house. Kind of
strange since it was packaged spinach, garbonzo beans, marinated tofu,
and blue cheese, all things I had earlier in the week. For whatever
reason, my stomach just didn't sit right. I'll spare the details, but
needless to say, I've been spending the past 2.5 days either in bed or
laying on the couch, trying to keep something in my stomach. I wasn't
successful until yesterday when I kept a grilled hamburger bun with
cheese and a bit of rice down, although my stomach didn't care for the
soup I attempted at dinner. My sleep was also messed up last night,
waking up at 2.15am and not really getting back to sleep with the rain
outside, then after the rain Tura decided to bring in a present for me
at 4.20am. A large, live mouse. She dropped it and it tried to run
away, but fortunately she chased after it and caught it and took it
back outside. I saw her playing with it in the yard for a bit before I
tried to go back to sleep. About half an hour later she brought it back
in, but this time it was dead. I thanked her (since she was quite proud
of herself), then used a rubber glove to toss it back outside into the
trees.
I did get up a little before 8am, feeling a bit better, but very
hungry. Kelly called me to tell me that she was not pleased to have to
share a cabin on the ship with another woman. It wasn't the sharing
part, it was the fact that she outranked some of the others on the ship
who were getting their own rooms. Unfortunately, I didn't have much
consolation for her, although I agreed that it was unfair. I was glad
she called though because it perked me up some. She had also called on
Sunday afternoon after she had arrived at her port destination. She
said she was glad to have been able to upgrade to Business Class on her
flights and that she saw some decent movies. That also made me feel
better on Sunday to hear that she had gotten there safely. I think that
I'm at a point where I really miss her when she's out at sea, even for
just one month. Or maybe having to try and get better all alone in the
house just wasn't any fun. I'm glad that we got to spend the evening
together on Friday night before she left. We went to dinner at Vrazel's in Gulfport, which we had
never been to since we lived down here. It was actually quite good, and
not too expensive. I ordered the grilled then smoked amberjack with
spinach casserole on the side, and Kelly had stuffed boneless flounder
(or was it snapper?) and a side baked potato. Both dishes tasted great.
Afterwards we went up to Barnes and Noble so Kelly could get some
'trash magazines' to read, then we headed home to watch The Daily Show
from Thursday night. Ah, we are set in our routines, but it's
comfortable.
So, feeling a bit better today I got up and ate a granola bar, then
after awhile I showered, shaved, got dressed, and drove down to Bay St.
Louis to get a sandwich for lunch at the Mockingbird Cafe and a few
groceries, since there wasn't much around the house. I'll be back at
work tomorrow since I've missed two days and I feel much better than I
did a couple of days ago. One good (or maybe not so good) outcome of
being sick is that I lost about 5 or 6 pounds. Probably not the best
way to lose weight, but it was effective.
-posted
by Chris
Friday, 17
Aug
07
Max
Roach - 'Lonesome Lover' - Pure
Fire! A Gilles Peterson Impulse!
Collection (Impulse)
Today's song is a
tribute to legendary jazz drummer, Max Roach, who died yesterday at the
age of 83. NPR had a nice little tribute
to him this morning during the Morning Editon program. We were really
fortunate to see him in New Orleans at Jazzfest about 5 or 6 years ago
(maybe longer?). Kelly and I both ditched work one Friday of Jazzfest
to go see him perform for free as part of the Workshop series at the
chapel at Dillard University. The
acoustics were great, and there were a lot of school kids there in
attendance all bussed in from the city schools. It was truly an awesome
experience. We also saw him later that weekend at the WWOZ tent at the
main fairgrounds, and it was one of my favorite live Jazzfest
performances.
So, what have we been doing the past two weeks since Kelly last wrote?
Been miserable in the blistering heat and humidity. For almost two full
weeks there has been a heat wave of sorts (here and elsewhere in the
region and country) and our temperatures were near 100 degrees daily,
with high humidity pushing the heat index up to 105-112 degrees. And we
weren't even in the worst of it. Upstate they had higher temperatures
exceeding 100 degrees, plus the high humidity which still has them
under an extreme heat advisory. Now we're watching Hurricane
Dean as it barrels across the Atlantic and towards the Gulf. Too
early to tell right now where it's going to go, even though a lot of
the computer models have it plowing into Mexico or Texas, everyone on
the coast has an eye on it. We could probably use some rain, but that's
about all we'd want is maybe some of the outer bands. Unlike Texas who
was hit by Tropical Storm Erin and flooded with more rain which they
really didn't need. It would really suck if they got hit again with
rain, but the thought is 'better them than us'. Sad.
We actually have gone out and done some things, although not much
during the days when it's better to stay inside in the air
conditioning. I made the mistake of coming home after work one evening
and going biking right away. I only did one loop around Diamondhead and
was drenched with sweat and feeling pretty drained. I did go another
night a bit later and after it had rained earlier, which made it a
little more tolerable, but still very moist. On the weekends I've
ridden with some of the club members, training for the MS150
ride in October, and we've done 25-30 mile routes early in the
morning starting around 7.30-8am. Any later and the day is shot because
even after an hour or so it just starts to get too hot. It was a bit
cooler today, although still pretty hot in the middle of the day. I was
pretty tired and took a nap for almost 3 hours after we got home from
getting our haircuts and paying the balance on our Seawolves tickets.
That was cool to talk up the team with one of the guys in the office
and him telling us that they're getting the team together but can't let
too many cats out of the bag yet, so I think we'll be pleasantly
surprised and impressed with the team once the games start in October.
Last weekend we went to dinner at Todd English's Olives
restaurant at Beau Rivage. We had been planning to go for Kelly's
birthday dinner since May, but haven't had a chance to go, so we
finally went before she goes out to sea next weekend. It was excellent
food and a nice atmosphere. We had two appetizers:
Yellowfin Tuna Tartare
spun cucumber salad, crispy rock shrimp,
warm sesame dressing, whitefish caviar
Olives Mezze
selection of Mediterranean dips and salads,
grilled zaatar bread
and my entree:
Butternut Squash Tortelli
brown butter, sage, Parmesan cheese
Kelly's entree was one of the specials that night, a nice cut of
grilled salmon with not much spice, but good flavor on top of a bed of
black beans and topped with cilantro, as well as some vegetables I
believe. Overall it was very enjoyable and we definitely want to go
back and try some of the other dishes on the menu. The flatbread with
Kelly's appetizer was exceptionally good and they offer it with
different toppings, so that will definitely be one thing we try next
time.
Last Sunday we went to a free preview screening of 'The 11th Hour' courtesy
of the New Orleans Film Society. This was produced and is narrated by
Leonardo DiCaprio, and is similar to 'An Inconvenient Truth', but they
seemed to talk with more scientists and offered a few more solutions for the viewer to
participate in after watching the film. We didn't stick around for the
panel discussion following the film, but that probably would have been
interesting. We actually went to two different shows at two different
clubs that night, and it just worked out that we got an email for free
tickets to the movie prior to the shows. We went over early and had
dinner at Rock n' Sake before the movie. Kelly went to swoon over Chris
Isaak at the House of Blues, while I went to go see alt-country hottie
Neko Case and her band taking a day to headline a show at The Republic
on one of their off days currently touring with Rufus Wainwright.
Kelly's show started earlier than mine, so she left about half an hour
before the end of the film, but I stayed until the end at 9.30pm. I got
coffee at the Harrah's Starbucks on the walk from Canal Place to The
Republic and was pleasantly surprised that the show that announced
'doors at 8pm, show at 9pm' had indeed followed it's advertising, which
is rare. I missed the opening act, but the doorman said that I didn't
miss much, and I arrived about 10 minutes before Neko Case and her band
took the stage promptly at 10pm. We saw them last summer in Portland,
and the crowd in New Orleans was a lot quieter and dare I say more
polite, but it's hard to tell if they were just not as rowdy on a
Sunday night, didn't know the songs, or if they didn't know how to
respond to a female fronted 'country' act. They did seem appreciative,
yet a bit apprehensive. I enjoyed it though, even though I'm not
normally a fan of country music. She just serves it up right for me.
They played for a full hour, then Kelly showed up outside and listened
to part of the encore and I came out with her after about 15 minutes so
we could slip away and avoid the mass exodus from the club. We were
happy to hit the road by 11.15pm and get home before 12.30am on a work
night. Both of us enjoyed our shows that night.
Last night we went over to Slidell to pick up Powerball tickets for the
$210 million dollar drawing tomorrow night, cashing in the $3 winning
ticket from last week's drawing and a $4 winning ticket from last month
for a total of 7 tickets. I also picked up 5 tickets for Gary so if
either of us win we'll all be set up to get out of here and not have to
work again, at least not be stuck in dead-end jobs we hate. Then we sat
at Starbucks having coffee and Kelly handing my ass to me playing
Rummy. Our win streaks come in waves, and last night Kelly was on a
good one. We then went to go see the new film 'Stardust' based on a Neil
Gaiman book. There was only one other couple in the theater, but then
it was 10pm on a Thursday night. I had only seen the trailers which
made it look like a decent fantasy film, but that was it. It WAS indeed
a very good fantasy film, but also included quite a bit of
tongue-in-cheek humor and some slapstick comedy. Very funny, and we
were laughing pretty hard at many points. The other couple didn't
really seem to laugh much, but maybe Kelly and I are just easily
amused. The movie kind of reminded me of 'The Princess Bride' with it's
'fantasy quest' and added humor. Definitely recommended.
Tomorrow night we may or may not play poker. Depends on our flaky
friends. Kelly was hoping to get in one more game before going out to
sea, but that may not happen. If not, maybe we'll do something else,
although I don't think there are really any other movies I want to see
that badly. We'll find out what happens.
-posted
by Chris
Saturday, 04
Aug
07
Nick
Drake - 'Black Mountain Blues' -
Family Tree (Tsunami)
I guess I was
supposed to continue the blog and talk about our adventures in
Michigan. Really there's not much to say. We stayed with Aunt CJ and
relaxed around the house, went out to a movie, Sicko
(which was really good, but slanted in that usual Michael Moore kind of
way...still his point is taken - capitalism + health care = really good
care for those who can afford it & not so good for those who can't.
Yeah...we get it, thanks for making US look so bad & feel even
worse). Chris and I did some record shopping at Vertigo in Grand Rapids.
We always stop by there when we' re in town, because it's a really good
indie record store. And of course we bought a few items (like "new"
Nick Drake - listen & love it). My mom was there and so we spent
some time with her. And my cousins too and then Chris' sister, Katie,
joined us for part of the week (she was in Detroit for a rotation). The
week culminated with BOB (Breakfast on the Beach of Lake Michigan).
It's like a mini-family reunion and get-together to eat breakfast and
play in the sand. My cousin, Drew, and his wife Sarah had a new baby a
little over a year ago & this was our first time meeting Liesel.
She's a cutie. Aunt Jan & Uncle Larry did most of the food prep -
pancakes, eggs & sausages. We ate and then wandered around the
beach. We did not storm the sand dune like usual, since it was fenced
off due to erosion from too many people running down it (like we used
to do for 30+ years).
Chris contemplating
child
(Liesel)
The extended family
After BOB we headed back to Chicago in order to catch an early morning
flight the next day. When we got to the outskirts of Chicago, we
took back highways into town...which took us through some interesting
neighborhoods. We also stopped off near the University of Chicago
Midway Plaisance (where the World's Fair Midway had been 100+ years
ago). I had been reading a book about the World's Columbian
Exposition and a serial killer in Chicago who operated around the same
time. The book is called Devil in the White City and is
really interesting. It's a non-fiction that reads like a fiction.
Supposedly someone is turning it into a movie. Anyway...because I was
reading an historical book on Chicago, I wanted to see some of the
landmarks from the book. Unfortunately there wasn't much left at the
Midway. The Museum of Science and Industry is the only surviving
building from the fair (it was the old Fine Arts building - the other
large buildings burned shortly after the fair). There wasn't even a
marker that I could tell about the Midway being the site of the
original Ferris Wheel - invented by a guy named Ferris who designed it
as a way to rival the Eiffel Tower that was built for the previous
World's Fair. Pretty impressive engineering feat, and the original one
was 264ft tall and could carry over 2000 people at one time. We also
drove past the old Stockyards (think The
Jungle by Upton Sinclair) and Cabrini Green
(used to be some of the worst Chicago projects that have since gotten a
facelift). We also got stuck in traffic getting out of a Cubs game and
ended up driving out of the way and finding a place to eat (Greek
food). All in all, it was a very nice vacation.
The original Ferris Wheel at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago
circa 1893
Since vacation we've had my
friend, Amy, visit & went on the eco-disaster tour & saw The
Simpsons Movie (which was awesome - and I think we laughed more than
the people around us because of the Northwest humor moments). Last
night Chris & I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum, which was also
very entertaining. Matt Damon was on the Daily Show TH night and
mentioned that all the reviews were good except for someone wanting to
buy the director a more stable camera (who takes cinema verite to the
mainstream and makes us all dizzy in the process). Today I'm making
chicken soup (because I've had a sore throat for weeks) and am still in
my PJ's and it's almost 1! We're going out later tonight, so I've got
to enjoy these quiet at home moments. Aside from making soup, I've been
watching our sick child (Josie) and torturing her by not letting her
outside and giving her meds. I also watched the Shawshank Redemption on HBO, which
I hadn't seen before - it was really good.
OK...I've rambled long enough. Enjoy the Nick Drake. It's from the
recently released "Family Tree" which came from old reel-to-reel
recordings the Drake family held onto after he died. I think some of
these recordings (maybe all) were done in the family home, just sitting
around playing guitar/piano. Very cool.
-posted
by Kelly