Far out new year

Cat Parade

41 Christmas together

I have tended to remember the Christmas of my childhood as being the most prevalent . All of the sudden this year that all changed. The change came when it dawned on me that Sharon and I have now been together for 41 of them. That number far surpasses the years of "family " Christmas. Remarkable!

far out Christmsa

Amazes

It still amazes me that stuff like this happens about 20 miles from our house

Bah Humbug!

Something is not right about this scene. It seems to me that some spirit is missing from these flattened decorations. Either keep them on full time or don't bother!

Over the years my wife Sharon and I have had many pleasant stays at Portmeirion.
During one of the first few we met a couple of fellow Prisoner enthusiast who have become life long friends. The four of us have returned many times and created wonderful Village moments.Each time during our stay we would always venture out at night and usually got up to some fun mischief. The idea was to enjoy the special mood the quiet, lighted atmosphere created .Well, maybe the dinner and several pints at the Golden Fleece Pub near by had something to do with the mood but I digress.
This night we ended up sitting on one of the benches(one of our many squigging opportunities) in the piazza and everything seemed perfect. Almost everything that is,because the fountain was not on. As luck would have it I had seen a gardener turn it on that morning so was appointed to do so too .Feeling a bit like a burglar ,I crept to the pump, concealed in a box near the bench .After removing the top and fumbling around inside the box's darkness there was a whirring sound and the water shot up in the air. I hurried back to the bench and we all laughed hysterically. Then we started babbling about Mrs Cartwright ( the rather stern hotel manager at the time) and all this talk about being banished . At the height of our laughing hysteria a voice
boomed out of the darkness saying NO ONE WILL BE BANISHED ,HAVE A NICE EVENING! It was an odd, slightly sobering moment. Our very own magical Prisonerish experience in the Portmeirion Village! It is one of my favorite Village moments .

Side yard palm

Astounding

What an evening it was. Saturday Sharon and I had a wild evening. It began with a wonderful crazy flaming red sunset upon arrival at the volcano National park. It is at the 4,000 foot level of Mauna Loa(14,000ft) The mountain looked as if giant piece of the sky had been cut out and all around it there were scarlet clouds. We were up there to see the the Brothers Cazimero. They have been singing Hawaiian music for many years and are truly great showmen. Their long careers include 36 albums and performances at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood bowl . Just seeing them would have been enough but there is more. Because the venue was in the Volcano National park, after the show we took a detour to one of the two active volcano vents to see the glowing lava lake. This would have been awesome enough(it was 9 pm and about 48degrees ) but there is still more. This weekend there were wind advisories here on the Island and it was blowing so hard (50 mph) that we had trouble keeping our balance. Buffeting there in the dark , gawking at this swirling,steamy orange glow ,while freezing and trying to avoid being blown off this cliff was quite challenging. Astounding what a diverse place Hawaii island is!

Happy evacuation day!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Happy Evacuation Day
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Christmas must be coming coming! Once again I have found Christmas Beer! I have to start looking a little earlier and harder here in Hawaii but I am persistent. So persistent that I learned that this island was only going to receive 7 cases of the Anchor ale and I managed to get one of them. The Anchor"special" Ale in my left hand is really special. as this the 37th year it has been produced. It seems reasonable that Anchor Brewing http://www.anchorbrewing.com/ was selling it before some of the others (like the Deschutes http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/ Jubleale ) in my other hand was even in business. Anyway we are off to a good start!

amazing

I put this on my ipod and have been listening 3 times a week for months now wile exercising.It just keeps getting better! Seeing as it was recorded so long ago its vitality is amazing!

U.K County-village-pub name #6

The 6th in my series of interesting British county/town/and pub names.

Item from Harper's

Having the last name of Niceley(in case you hadn't noticed) I find this funny!

From the archives 1980s

Subject: Beware of Happy Hour!

advise re a friends email

I did not know this.....

When you drink Vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure,

When you drink Rum over ice, it can give you liver failure,

When you drink whiskey over ice, it can give you heart problems,

When you drink Gin over ice, it can give you brain problems.

Apparently, ice is really bad for you.

Warn all your friends

British Town/pub names #5

The fifth in my presentation of interesting British town names and pubs located there.At this rate it will take a while.

I normally would not do this but I have put down the Last book I was reading to start something else. Already halfway through Double play and enjoying it. This is the story behind the double assanations we lived through in San Francisco during the 1970s. That horrible event was something the city did not recover from for a long time if ever.
Although it was a sad event it is interesting to see all of the elements(that we knew nothing about at the time) which led to the shootings.

Hard to believe we have lived here almost 10 years. During that time the view of the ocean from our Lanai had slowly disappeared. Recently we worked out a tree trimming deal with the owner of the house across the street (including cutting some on t he front of our lot) and as you can see the view has returned. You would think that seeing the ocean would loose its attraction living on and island but after all these years of having it nearby it is still something special.

Red

Red contributes to our recycling efforts in his own special way!

Sharon found this on Book TV(cspan).I have just started it and it promises to be enjoyable.Already I have learned that there are many factors that have contributed to this process.Just a few are Geological , political, historic treaties and purchases . It is interesting that states did not get their current shapes instantly ,rather by a process that evolved as conditions changed . More later

Another cycle change completed. This was the easiest yet although it is still a few days work.These plants(bottom photo) will not have fruit until season after next
(June-August 2013) If the world has not blown up by then they will be yummy I am sure!

He's back

Although my mom died over 30 years ago she was in our house today. I feel that way every time I fix spaghetti. When I was a kid she would make this and it was quite an occasion.She would put it on at 8 in the morning and by the evening the house would be filled with a wonderful aroma, She claimed the recipe was given to her by a friend of my dads. His name was Charlie Masterpolo and his family was said to have owned an Italian restaurant . Of course my mom also claimed she was going to name me doing very (Niceley). Anyway, it is a nice story and I am sticking to it!
She would always complain as we were eating . The sauce was always to watery or something else would be off. It always tasted good to me though. As I got older I was not going to chance eating spaghetti fixed any other way so decided to learn to cook it myself. Although I have gotten fairly competent fixing it I still can't resist thinking it is just not good enough either. I guess that is just part of the recipe.

SO!

I had been watching a ballgame(well actually a ballgame and a movie on TCM) for almost an hour.I turned to look at my cat Harlech (a castle in Wales) for just a second and when I looked at back the picture had shrunk to the center of the screen and turned a funny brown color. Just as I thought--- what the--- a funny cracking sound came from the rear of the set followed by a loud POP and a strong electrical burning smell. "This does not look good" I thought. Odd that I had been thinking earlier that we have had this set for 20 years . And it still has such a great picture! Talk about going out with a bang!

We have less than 20 pineapples left(having started with around 60) and it is time to move to the next phase
of rooting starts and planting them. Faced with a shortage of new planting space we are
doing things differently this year.We would usually leave the 2nd year plants in for another season(plants can
fruit for more than one season) but these have multiple shoots that might produce more that one fruit on each plant meaning smaller fruits and less quality. Removing these (pictured) plants will give us the needed space and better fruits, They wont have fruits next season but the 60 pants we put in last time will. Never though this would turn into such a fun (although labor intensive) project!

Can I get an amen!

Time for a change of pace(reading material that is) . I normally like to read non fiction but
Sharon thought I would like this Mystery. Now that I have read almost 100 pages I can say she
is correct! More later

From the Archives

Tthings my wife wants me to throw away #4

Pineapple time again! This year we have about 60 that are almost ripe ,last year it was 100. Slowly we are succeeding in downsizing because it is too difficult to use or give them away fast enough . last year it was worse because warm weather made them ripen all at once. Problems Problems!!!!

what a wonderful thing!

Gil Scott-Heron 1949-2011

One of the winning groups at Merrie Monarch

Fun Stuff

miss you

The Way it feels sometimes

Merrie Monarch time again

Here is a brief rundown from the Merrie Monarch festival page

King David Kalākaua

The Merrie Monarch Festival is dedicated to the memory of King David Kalākaua, known as the Merrie Monarch. King Kalākaua came to the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1874 and reigned until his death in 1891. He was a patron of the arts, especially music and dance.

Kalākaua restored Hawaiian cultural traditions that had been suppressed for many years under missionary teachings. He advocated a renewed sense of pride in such things as Hawaiian mythology, medicine, chant, and hula.

Ancient Hawaiians had no written language, but chant and hula served to record such things as genealogy, mythology, history, and religion. Hula, the dance of Hawaiian people, was one means by which culture was expressed and passed down through generations.

The Merrie Monarch Festival has steadfastly maintained the teachings of our kupuna, our elders, and in doing so we strive to perpetuate the history and culture of Hawaiian people in a manner that respects those teachings. Through our efforts, along with those of other organizations, we hope to ensure that the unique traditions of Hawaiian people will continue to flourish.

Now I understand!

U.K. Town / Pub names #4

Woke up with a tune on my mind this morning. This used to go on for hours.
Every few minutes I would find my self whistling or singing
(well attempting to sing) this intruder.
Then one day I read that if you can name it you can usually relate it to your mood. For the past week I have been fighting off this cold that is an energy zapper. Not bad symptoms but general tiredness. Well the morning of the songattack I was feeling better hence the tune "No more Blues" was in my head. Pretty slick!

Things my wife wants me to throw away # 3

It's becoming a habit; This Saturday afternoon CD review. This week it was the Hi-lo's ,
a tight harmony vocal quartet.They were formed by Gene Puerling in 1953 and
produced almost 30 albums . This CD (actually a 2 album compilation of albums made in the 50s) was produced in 1999. Suddenly it's the Hi-lo's is presented first but the second( Harmony in Jazz) is what interests me. This is because It has a more serious jazz nature . Unlike the first half of the album ,which has a complete orchestra including strings, the second half (Harmony in Jazz) has the group accompanied by the Marty Paich Dek-tet so the material selected is less commercially oriented . This smaller group also showcases the voices better ! This is another of my comfort albums( recordings loved as a child)
but remains vital still. Another case of quality material passing the test of time!

Contact imminent contribution

Speaking of the Prisoner, I am a member of the Six of One Prisoner appreciation , a group for those of us that cant get enough Information about the classic cult TV series. One of the membership benefits is a quarterly magazine and from time to time I try to contribute by sending them material. Here is my latest contribution.

The Prisoner series

I can't recall how many series of things I have started but here is a new one anyway. This time it is a trading card set of The Prisoner ,my favorite tv series. I promise to see how many I have running and try to make progress on all of them. You are probably thinking who cares but I have fun with it anyway.

U.K. Town and pub names #3

The third in a series of British town and pub names from The Camra Good Beer Guide. There are over 50 counties so this might take a while. The real challenge will be to just make it through the entire guide . At least I am not listing all 4,500 pubs in the book.

Lucky we live Hawaii

I was walking Red yesterday and had one of those moments where it really hits me how fortunate I am to
live here. So here are a couple more photos. Top one is looking towards the back of one of our 1 acre lots.
The trees in the far background are the lot line.The plants halfway back on the left are bananas which we eat periodically. To the right is a lemon tree. I then turned around and took the bottom photo looking towards the front.The palm frond on the ground is from the coconut tree in front of it. I am actually standing on our other lot which is also one acre. More on that later. The lots are about 120 feet wide and 400 ft long. For the most part it is blissfully quiet here with almost no traffic or background noise other than bird song and a faint surf sound. The fact that I have not seen one jet contrail overhead in the 9 years we have been here illustrates how remote we are!. As they say here Lucky we live Hawaii!

Dave Frishberg

Listened to this Dave Frishberg CD again the other day . He is a Pianist/ songwriter /singer ala Mose Allison,
Bob Dorough, and The late Blossom Dearie (stylistically speaking) He co-creates a lot of the material he does but also presents great versions of others work. He does not have a strong voice but does have a hip sense
of phrasing and presentation and his piano "chops" are excellent. I have had this Live CD for a long time (it was produced in 1986) and in reading the liner notes realized for the first time the Sharon and I were there when it was recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

Things my wife wants me to throw away # 2

I did a similar post last year with Guinness but this time the Guinness is a little different.
Guinness brews more than one style of Stout. This Bottle is Foreign extra Stout. Unlike most of the bottled Guinness we get in the states, most brewed in Canada , Foreign Extra is brewed in Dublin. It is also quite a bit stronger( 7.5% ) than most of "our" Guinness. A few years ago I bought bottle of it in England but until Lately it has not been available here. Perfect selection for today!

Better Repair

I recently fixed a set of headphones I have. The material covering the foam rings had
deteriorated (blame the sub tropic environment) and was flaking off all over me. Now that they are in good working order again I have been trying to catch up listening to some boxed sets acquired over the past few years. I tend to buy them, listen once and go on to something else. It might take some time but I eventually return to each and get to know it better. The latest is The Nat King Cole/ Billy May sessions.
The material on this 2 CD set was recorded in the late 50s/early 60s. All of the arrangements are done by Billy May and performed by his orchestra although there are exceptions where Nat King Cole is accompanied by a small group. The orchestra (there are strings on some cuts) is very full and with the addition of a Tuba
a really interesting full sound range is produced. the arrangements are excellent and of Course Nat King Cole
is too. The execution is perfect making everything fit .
This would not be nearly as easy to hear without the head set . I shall make an effort to keep them in better repair!

absolutly melts me!

things my wife wants me to throw away #1

Sax Baixo Rio Branco-143

Dreamy twilight

I had a colonoscopy last week that turned out great. It was really a piece of cake even though my imagination made me miserable before hand . The cleansing was not pleasant (the solution was a bit much after 16 - 8 oz glasses over 2 hours ) but was not bad The anesthetics I worried about were no problem. After the nurse gave me the drugs, I babbled away for 15 seconds and the next thing I remember I was the recovery room. I don't even remember going to sleep! The doctor popped in and said everything looked great . When I told him how easy it had been he said "Good , tell your friends to have one"!

from the archives

Did it just get hotter in here?

On the Importance of Jazz

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, WPFW News (Washington), [23 August 2002]

God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.

In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival

The way it feels sometimes

A day in mom's life - 1938