Thursday, March 31, 2011

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.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

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!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Thursday, March 10, 2011

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!

Sunday, March 06, 2011