I'm not usually a big fan of live albums but one can't just dismiss "The Who". I mistakenly tried listening multiple times to the Special 40th anniversary edition of this on Spotify which turned out to be a massive opus of multiple concerts. (I particularly have no interest in listening to the entire Tommy rock opera.) Anyway, paired down to something closer to the original ~ 14 song playlist the Live at Leeds album becomes much more approachable (and enjoyable).
I swear I painted this as a kid:
NYC (Aug 2015)
This very same paint-by-numbers. I wonder if my copy some how ended up on a NYC bathroom wall or if someone else painted one too.
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Sunday's Entertainment:
Barrymore Theatre on 47th Street, NYC (Aug 2015)
Unbelievable and highly unusual staging: It think this was the first play I've seen where the physical stage and tech (sound design and lighting) were an integral character in the play.
A Coke is a Coke
“A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke... All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.”
"Green Coca-Cola Bottles" (Andy Warhol, 1962, at the Whitney Museum)
Young Rascals | Groovin' (1967)
The whole album has that lazy afternoon feel. Groovin' with a lot of soul feel. Put this on next time you're basking in a blanket in the sunshine.
I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do in response to this sign.
Calistoga, CA (Aug 2015)
Rollercoasters and Drivers
“Why are rollercoasters popular but boneheaded drivers not? Both produce the feeling of imminent death.”
Aboard the Rocky Mountaineer
Last month we took the two day journey aboard the Rocky Mountaineer train from Banff to Vancouver, Canada. It was a beautiful trip. This is a few seconds of it:
(Video by me, music by Eric Clapton)
El Niño - come soon. PLEASE.
With temps over 100 and suffering through another year of drought, the Napa Valley is screaming out in pain. Trees are stressed. Ground plants are stressed. Vines are stressed. And vintners are stressed. (I spent over $4000 during July just buying water for my vineyard!)
We can keep buying water to get us through harvest, but all of the glorious California oaks on our Baconbrook property are looking very sad. And sad trees are susceptible to disease and pest. Dry grass and ground plants look like matches ready to strike.
"They" say that there is a 50-50 chance Northern California will get a huge rainfall this year. We need it. There will be challenges with mudslides and flooding, but those are problems we need to live through right now. We need the rain. But even more importantly, we need snow. Five of the lowest snowpacks on record in the Sierra have taken place over the last ten years. Snow pack is our water storage system.
So come on, El Niño. Bring it on. While we all enjoy the glorious Golden State sunshine, we're ready for some gloomy rainy days. A bunch of them.
Book of Questions 9: Would you accept $1,000,000 to leave the country...
“Would you accept $1,000,000 to leave the country and never set foot in it again?”
$1,000,000 isn't enough to buy me off to leave the country. But one could perhaps talk me in to doing it for free if I knew that I would be financially stable.
Make sense?
I wouldn't go against my wishes for a mil but immigrating from the USA doesn't scare me either.