The Last Concert I Saw

As mentioned previously, I attended the Alejandro Escovedo concert in downtown Buffalo yesterday and thought I would share some photos of the event. I'm pretty please with the quality of the pictures I took, mostly employing a new zoom lens I recently purchased.

I've been a fan of Escovedo's since his days in Rank and File and the True Believers, but his career even pre-dates those bands, as he was once a member of the Nuns punk band too. He's also Sheila E's (remember her?) cousin and noted percussionist Pete Escovedo's nephew. More recently (the last twenty years), he's kind of been associated with the alt.country movement, being named No Depression magazine's man of the decade a few years back.

Yesterday's show was fantastic, high energy from the get-go. My only complaint might be that it was too brief for him to perform an ample sampling of his whole career output (just about 75 minutes long), but that might've been a consequence of the venue. Thursday in the Square is a Buffalo institution (they've been doing it for about twenty-five years now), and while it's a great treat to see performers of this caliber for free, I imagine that the downtown bars, restaurants, etc. hope for some post-show business and so they end the event pretty promptly at 9:00.

While I was waiting for the show to begin, a number of folks asked me if I knew who was playing, signaling that many were there as much for the beer and socializing as they were for the music. I have a feeling that few were fans prior to the show, but many left wondering why they never heard of this guy before, as Escovedo and his group, the Sensitive Boys, really played to the rock and roll hopes and expectations of an audience that was clearly there to party. Fans like me might wish for a few more of his more low key ballads (first rate in comparison to anyone else you'd care to name), but their absence certainly wasn't missed by the crowd.

The lineup for this weekly event for the rest of my stay here doesn't quite come up to Escovedo's stature, but I think I might try to catch Rogue Wave in a couple of weeks. If I do, I'll be sure to post a review.

More Friday Family Blogging

I wonder what mischief is percolating behind those smiling eyes of Emma?

Friday Family Blogging

I enjoy taking my nieces and nephews to the playground, which I've been doing for years and years. I have to say that Helen exhibits perhaps the greatest athletic skill, and more fearlessness, than most of her siblings and cousins (not counting the Bannings ;-), especially for her age.

Friday Philosophy

A big part of philosophy is understanding not just what we know but how we know it. This line by the playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) kind of alludes to that latter point:

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we
exchange these apples then you and I will still each
have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have
an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of
us will have two ideas."

Tift Merritt Live

I went to see Alejandro Escovedo tonight (more on that tomorrow), and the opening act was Tift Merritt and band. I've heard a couple of her records, but they don't do justice to her live show, which kind of rocked (maybe she was inspired being on the same bill as Escovedo). Anyway, here's an example of her work from a couple years ago:

The Last Movie I Saw

I went to see Iron Man 2 the other night. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring the always entertaining Robert Downey, Jr., I have to say the movie was a good time though I'd be hardpressed to make a case that the plot had anything to do with that. The appeal of this particular franchise is probably 75% Downey, whose Tony Stark/Iron Man is such a lovable cad that he pretty much carries the movie with his weirdly self-aware narcissistic manner. Buty Favreau deserves some credit too, in giving Downey the necessary room to chew the scenery. Unlike most action pictures, there are actually long scenes of dialogue (or monologue, depending how you count Stark's interactions with his computers) between the fights, and even when the momentum picks up, Favreaus sometimes lets his camera linger more than a second or two on what is unfolding, which to these old-fashioned eyes is kind of a relief from the more common frenetic style of IM2's most recent genre counterparts. Much like the first film, I probably won't remember many of the details from this one, except that it was an easy and enjoyable way to while away a couple summer hours. Sometimes that's good enough.

Soup Diary 100610

I have to say, the names "spinach" and "gorgonzola" are not exactly appealing in and of themselves. But the cup of Spinach Gorgonzola soup I had at Fables a couple days ago was pretty darn appetizing. It's funny how much a name might affect our willingness to try something, quite apart from past experience with the foods in question. I actually really like spinach, even though that name connotes something kind of yucky in my mind (something about the "ch" sound at the end I think). I don't know if I've ever even had gorgonzola before I tried this soup (first time about a year ago), maybe in part because it sounds like some mutated Japanese movie monster. But my mission is to go for the stuff I used to eschew, and avoid the standard fare (you know, chicken noodle and vegetable beef). So now I have to hope the eggplant chowder pops up on the menu, since those too are words that kind of turn me off, which makes me think the soup must be wonderful. That's a rational way to think, no?

Quote of the Day

Seneca the Younger (4 BC-65 AD) was a Roman stoic philosopher. Some of what that means is apparent in this quote:

"Man's ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled
the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that
reason demands of him? Something very easy--
that he live in accordance with his own nature."

An Old Fashioned Cutting Contest

One of the cool traditions in jazz is a stage competition between musicians, especially on the same instrument, known as a "cutting contest." Here's a fairly recent example featuring perhaps the two finest contemporary saxmen out there, James Carter and Joshua Redman:

Another Trip to Niagara Falls

I know I've posted a bunch of pictures from Niagara Falls here over the last year or so, but it really is a nice place to practice photography since there are a lot of people, lights, etc., not to mention the Falls themselves. These were all taken from the Canadian side, so they offer a slightly different perspective, and once again, I was trying to sharpen my night-time picture-taking skills.

As you can see, the Falls are illuminated with colored lights after dark, and it was a bit of a challenge to capture both the rushing waters amidst mist and reflections. The shot above may be the most successful of those I took in that regard (out of about a hundred).

This one also turned out pretty good. I know it looks like the park is deserted, but this in this case I took the picture by keeping the shutter open several seconds, which rendered the few moving people invisible.

Another timed shot captured the beams of light reflecting up off the water in this case, which I think stand in nice contrast with the lights reflected in the river below the bridge. Actually, I'm getting a bit burned out on the Falls, but I think I'll probably make at least one more trip, hopefully on a night when they shoot off fireworks so I can try to incorporate them into my shots as well.

The Last Movie I Saw

Sometimes friends of mine complain because I like to think about and analyze the movies I see. They tell me that "it's just a movie" and therefore it's okay to just to sit back and turn off your brain and enjoy. But while I can appreciate that the goals of many movie-makers are not on a par with those of serious artists, and that sometimes there are significant virtues in simplicity and modest goals (like, to deliver a good time), that doesn't mean that something ill-conceived or badly made deserves a critical pass, even by the masses. The title of Hot Tub Time Machine (directed by Steve Pink) signals that it is meant to be mindless escapism, but despite a few laughs, it fails to live up to even that minimal level of entertainment. The problem, as is often the case in movies like this, is that it lacks the courage to go all out for trashy, raunchy fun and tries to shoehorn in some serious notes about choices, responsibility, and friendship (as if Back to the Future did not already exist-- that was a movie that had some brains behind it). All Pink manages to do is water down those elements that no doubt sold the movie to producers in the first place-- four guys go back in time to a wild ski weekend in the eighties. Right there, you've got plenty of ammunition for parody, but the inept director and tepid script leave the able performers (including John Cusack, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry) mostly adrift in overly obvious situations, most of which are lamely foreshadowed so that there isn't even a mild element of surprise as things unfold. The movie also looks bad, with some of the murkiest photography I've seen in a mainstream movie, which is especially odd given it's attempted links to eighties style, which was generally bright and colorful. So, am I over-analyzing here? Maybe, but I went in with minimal expectations, just looking for some laughs, and the film mostly cheated me in that regard to push an agenda that was not what was promised; so I think I have a right to complain.

Wednesday's Wisdom

Today's quotation is from the famous American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), who famously wrote about growing up in Samoa (though I don't know if that is where this particular insight occurred):

"Laughter is man's most distinctive emotional
expression. Man shares the capacity for love and
hate, anger and fear, loyalty and grief, with other
living creatures. But humor, which has an intellectual
as well as an emotional element, belongs to man."

Rank and File

Here's one of the original cowpunk bands from the eighties-- they came along right around the same time as Jason & the Scorchers, Blood on the Saddle, and some others, But Rank and File had some true punks in the Chip and Tony Kinman who came out of the Dils and Alejandro Escovedo (who I'm looking forward to seeing live in a couple days) from the Nuns. This was the first track on their first album, a great intro to the group:

The Last Book I Read

In my humble estimation, the cartoonist who goes only by the name of Seth is the most brilliant artist working in graphic novels today. His work is so heartwarming, and evocative of places and times that are lodged somewhere back in the dim recesses of my unconscious (whether I've experienced them directly or not), that his works read almost like the recollections of some half-remembered dream. George Sprott 1894-1975, his latest, compiling strips that originally appeared in the New York Times Magazine, is an exquisite example of this. It provides what can only be called a multi-faceted obituary for a deceased local TV personality, whose best days are well behind him, but which continued to define his life in virtually every way right up to the end. I don't mean that George just relives past glories, because he is haunted by his mistakes as well, and as he ages and approaches the end of his life, he seems to have lost the capacity to understand in any meaningful way how all of the things he did came together to define him. So, the review of his life and career is marked by numerous contradictions and diverse reactions, from both himself and those who knew him. Perhaps that is the nature of every life, or anyway, should be acknowledged as the most honest way to evaluate virtually any person; and Seth's accomplishment here is to make it seem a reasonable and fair if not an ultimately positive reflection on George. Part of Seth's ability to create such an complex impression is due to the images he creates to visually define the contexts for George's life. These are places that depict, for example, a small Ontario city or the cold Arctic north exactly as I'd have imagined them, but also portray a powerful sense of more narrowly defined spaces (homes, offices, bars, studios, etc.) that could and do exist anywhere. The sense of identification with these settings goes a long way towards building the sense of identification with the characters, and that is a big part of the author's ability to effectively blend the literary and visual qualities of his story. This is highly recommended, as is anything you can find by Seth (especially Clyde Fans or It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken).

Soup Diary 100608

One of the true highlights of the rotation of soups served at Fab;es Cafe is the African Peanut variety that seems to pop up about one a year (or anyway, once a year when I'm actually around to try some). That happened a couple days ago and I was not disappointed. This is a hearty mix of onion, peppers, celery, rice, and peanuts in a broth that is truly heavenly, flavored very similarly to Thai peanut sauce. It's got a sweet tangyness that I don't really associate with any other kind of soup. I don't think it's the best soup available at my favorite soup place, but it may be the most singular. It really isn't like anything else-- and I'm glad I didn't miss it when it came around in the rotation this time.

Tuesday's Quote

Today's line come from the eminent French poet-philosopher Paul Valery (1871-1945):

"Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us,
exposes our weaknesses more ingeniously than the
attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows."

The Killer

The original rock'n'roll wild man from Ferriday Louisiana. This is short, I think because it's hard to sustain that kind of energy for a long time (though Jerry Lee has been doing if for going on sixty years):

Happy Birthday Marenka!

Now that Marenka has reached "legal" age, I hope she won't be needing the sunglasses for anything more than keeping the sun out of her eyes ;-)

Three Photos

More photos from my meanderings around Western New York. Above is an old concrete-block operated drawbridge across the Erie Barge Canal.

I like this shot of the fisherman and his dog whiling away a morning on Ellicott Creek.

A blurred jogger running by the Burchfield-Penney Art Center at night.

Quote of the Day

Here's something said by the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746-1828), on a topic I'd wager he knew something about:

"Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces
impossible monsters; united with it, she is
the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels."

New Video

I recently read about this band called the Strange Boys in a couple of reviews that were pretty complimentary. So, today I bought their new album, and it's pretty good. Here's one of the songs off it, with some interesting homemade-looking video accompaniment:

Three Photos

Here is photographic evidence of three places I visited yesterday, starting with the SCA Renaissance Faire at the Herschell Carousel Museum in North Tonawanda (I don't think carousels date from the medieval period, but the combo somehow works in the contemporary context).

Later I headed down to the Erie Basin Marina with friends Bill and Rick at dusk to take some pictures. Here's one with Buffalo's City Hall looming up in the background behind some sailboats.

Last, a shot of Bill taking a picture of an oncoming Metro train standing in the middle of Main Street, long after everybody else has headed home. If that green tinge in the background looks familiar, it's because you saw it in the previous picture: it's City Hall again, but this time looking at it from the southeast instead of the northwest.

The Last Movie I Saw

As may be apparent from past postings here, I'm a long time comics fan. Over the years, the only thing that has changed in that regard is that I outgrew the superhero genre some time ago, though I can still occasionally get a bit of a nostalgic kick from seeing some old favorite either in print or in a movie (Iron Man, for example). My tastes run more to the realistic, autobiographical graphic novels that have become fairly prevalent, and in the case of the more fantasy oriented subjects, I find myself more inclined to enjoy reading about them, as opposed to reading the comics themselves. Along those lines, in recent years there have been some really fine historical/analytical books published (e.g. Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones and Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright), as well as Roy Thomas' great magazine Alter-Ego and the long running Comics Journal, all of which treat the comics with scholarly, if not academic, respect and erudition. This tendency to take the form seriously, especially with respect to superheroes, would have been almost unimaginable (for a number of reasons) when I started collecting the things almost forty years ago. One of the other notable changes is that the comics themselves have become, at least on occasion, more self-conscious and self-critical in their own right, starting at least by the time of Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen and Frank Miller's Dark Knight (though the movies made from each, I would argue, fell short of matching the original print versions in meeting their standard of scrutiny of the genre). The new movie Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn is kind of in this same vein-- very "meta" in its approach to the whole notion of super-heroics, and rather interesting in the questions it poses about how young people especially relate to the form as they work out their own concepts of good and evil in the world. In that regard, the film makes for a great conversation starter, though in the end, I think it fails to really follow through with a fair examination of the issues it raises. Instead, it falls back onto the sort of "Bam!" "Pow!" "Zap!" histrionics that always marked the climax of old Batman TV episodes (which was self-conscious about itself in a way much different from something like Watchmen, which is to say it played up the parody angle). In the end, I found Kick-Ass fairly entertaining, but more for its lapses into over-the-top "let's nail the bad guy" than for any intelligent commentary on the genre, That's unfortunate, because I think that, if some producer could see beyond raw market research of what sells, it would be possible to combine the two to create something truly classic.

Sunday's Quote

Here is a wonderful passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Nature." I think I know exactly what he means:

"In the presence of Nature a wild delight runs
through the man in spite of real sorrow. Not the
sun or the summer alone, but every hour and
season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour
and change corresponds to and authorizes a
different state of mind, from breathless noon to
grimmest midnight. Crossing a bare common, in
snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky,
without having in my thoughts any occurrence of
special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect
exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the
woods, too, a man casts off his years as the snake
his slough, and at what period soever of life is
always a child."

Classic Tom Rush

It's been awhile since I posted something by one of my favorite singers, Tom Rush. So let's rectify that situation with this clip of his version of a song called "Driving Wheel." The images here are ok, but you'd do just as well to close your eyes and just listen:

Soup Diary 100605

Well, here's a first-- Fables screwed up my soup order the other day. I ordered a cup of the Braised Pork with Black-Eyed Peas, but received a cup of the Italian Sausage with White Beans and Kale. I actually didn't notice until I was halfway through the cup-- it was that good. I hadn't had either before, so no real complaints. I'm generally not a huge fan of Italian Sausage, which is why I went with the Braised Pork in the first place, but the chunks of meat in this soup were very mild and tender, without the excess of basil that generally turns me off. The beans and kale set it off nicely as well, so all-in-all a good cuppa soup, no matter what it was I ordered.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Here's one of the seemingly endless cartoons featuring a dog battling a cat. But this particular one was directed by the always imaginative Tex Avery, so its hardly the same old, same old...

Today's Quote

I think you can kind of tell the following came from a historian. The man in question is George Santayana (1863-1952):

"We must welcome the future, remembering
that soon it will be the past; and we must respect
the past, remembering that it was once all that
was humanly possible."

Classic Calloway

Here's a scene from the movie Cabin in the Sky featuring the incomparable Cab Calloway and his Orchestra, with some fancy footwork contributed by the Nicholas Brothers:

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

A nice picture of Dad, Natalie, me, Theresa and Tom. The question is, what was the occasion that brought us together? For extra credit, who is sitting immediately to Dad's right (cropped out here)? Put your answers in the comments section.

Last week, I asked you to identify the youngster hiding behind the shades, and Lizzie got it right off the bat: Raechelle. Thanks to all who played, and good luck with this week's stumper.

The World's Greatest Water Fountain

I hope you will indulge me for just a moment as I extol the virtues of the world's greatest water fountain. Now, I have to admit that I have not done an exhaustive search prior to bestowing such a designation on this particular spout, but I feel sure that it would be competitive for the title aside any other plumbing fixture you would care to name or describe. It sits in the first floor hallway of Hayes Hall on the south, or Main Street campus of my alma mater, the University of Buffalo (yes, I know that officially it is actually the University AT Buffalo, but any self-respecting native of Western New York should insist on using its pre-state-system-affiliation name). That's Hayes Hall in the shot above.

Here's a picture of the fountain. This particular fixture has been in the same place for at least 35 years, and I imagine even longer than that. I started hanging around the campus a bit when I was still in high school, and it was there then, dispensing its sweet, cold water whenever I needed refreshment. Typically I would need refreshment since I usually rode my bike to the campus (as I did this afternoon, for old times' sake), and the University is not only about a five mile ride from my parents' house, but sits at the top of a fairly steep hill covering the last three hundred yards or so of the ride. So, I'm generally ready for a drink when I get to the top of the hill. This fountain's water is always on (only once, when Hayes Hall was being renovated a few years ago did I discover it disconnected), always ice cold, and for some mysterious reason in light of its near perfect qualities, there is never a line. Even setting all that aside, it may be about the only thing, aside from the facades of several buildings, that remains virtually unchanged from my undergraduate days on that campus, and therefore never fails to provide a wistful tinge of nostalgia when I lean in for a satisfying draw on its sparkling water. It's kind of nice to have that experience every now and then-- the affirmation that some things can stay the same.

More Friday Family Blogging

In this shot you see Marenka holding two babies. This is not the "official" weekly quiz, but does anyone want to take a shot at identifying the aforementioned infants? Put your guesses in the comments section.

Friday Family Blogging

Since I'm visiting my Mom, I have access to literally hundreds of photos that I did not take, including this one. That's Ben, Thomas, Natalie, and Sara sitting around a table my Dad made for just such a gathering (with Gramma in the background).

Friday Philosophy

Today's quotation comes from the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), who employed scientific principles to the evaluation of moral and even religious ideas. This is at least hinted at in this line from his work on ethics:

"Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but
virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because
we control our lusts, but, contrariwise, because we
rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts."

A Great Singer

Richie Havens has one of the most distinctive voices I've ever heard, and it means he can take almost any composers song and kind of make it his own. Here he does that with songs by Van Morrison and Bob Dylan-- a pretty substantial accomplishment, I think you'd agree:

Three Photos

A thunderstorm blew through the area this evening so I grabbed my camera and drove up to Niagara Falls, hoping that I might catch some great skies over the Falls, or at least some rain-swept sections of the park. Unfortunately, it blew over rather quickly, so my plans were somewhat thwarted, though that didn't stop me from snapping some shots. These are three that turned out okay.

You get a little sense of the unsettled skies in the above picture, but it's equally evident that the sun was already poking through.

I like the green and brown combination in this shot-- just a lonely park bench on the outskirts of the park. The Falls make for a great place to take pictures, not just because of the Falls themselves, but because of the park setting, the large numbers of visitors, the skyline across the river in Canada; I'll no doubt go back a few more times while I'm visiting the area.

The Strasburg Show

Today I went to Pilot...er, Coca Cola Field in downtown Buffalo and saw the phenom of the ages Stephen Strasburg pitch for the Syracuse Chiefs against the Buffalo Bisons. If you've followed baseball at all in the last couple of years, you know that Strasburg is hailed as the greatest pitching prospect since, I don't know, maybe Christy Mathewson.

He attracted a crowd just warming up, and the game was actually televised nationally on a couple of different cable stations. I don't know if this has been formally announced, but everyone assumes this was his last minor league appearance before being called up to the Washington Nationals to begin his major league career next week. He's blown through two levels of opposing hitters already this year, and based on what I saw (and of course, what everyone says), I think he'll do pretty well when he hits the bigs.

He throws with an easy, efficient and fluid motion that appears to take little effort but generates consistent speeds of 96-97-98 mph on his fastball, and I do mean consistent. He went five innings in this game (limited by a pitch count, I believe), and I would guess three quarters of his pitches hit in that range. This made his off-speed stuff, dropping down to the low eighties pretty devastating. The Bisons, who have the best hitting team in the International League, were clearly over-matched, managing just a couple hits off him, plus one walk. He struck out five-- a bit below his average going into the game, so I guess that's a small moral victory.

This was easily the most dominating performance I've seen at a minor league game since I saw Bartolo Colon toss a no-hitter for the Bisons back in 1997. If Strasburg becomes the big star that seems his inevitable fate, it'll be nice to be able to say I saw him when...

The Last Concert I Saw

My summer concert-going got off to a rousing start last night when I drove over to Rochester to see Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric. They played in a nice bistro/bar on the edge of the RIT campus, though the bulk of the modest crowd averaged well over the typical age of college students. It didn't matter-- Amy and Eric put on a good show. I'm a long-time Rigby fan, and know Eric primarily by his classic post-punk standard "Whole Wide World" (done last night in excellent fashion). If I had any complaints about the show, it was that in splitting material (they are husband and wife and function on stage as a duo), Amy's solo stuff only popped up occasionally through the evening; thankfully most of her choices were of the rocking variety and she really threw herself into their performance, especially on "Raising the Bar." Another highlight was their rendition of the Goffin-King, Byrds classic "Goin' Back." This is the third time I've seen her live, and each time she has shared the stage with another performer (Eric last year and Marti Brown a few years before that). As much as I like the work of her partners, I hope someday to see an unabridged Rigby showcase-- she has a deep enough catalog of material to put on a killer show all by herself. But I might've been in the minority in feeling that way last night, as it was clear Eric had a bunch of fans in the audience too. The biggest disappointment wasn't musical, however: I forgot to bring my camera, and therefore have no snaps to share here, only the cover of the couple's new album which I picked up (it just came out Tuesday). If they should show up somewhere near you, I'd definitely recommend checking them out.

Thursday's Words of Wisdom

This quotation comes from one of the founders of the French Romantic Movement in art and literature, Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863):

“What moves those of genius, what inspires
their work is not new ideas, but their obsession
with the idea that what has already been said
is still not enough.”

Video of the Day

Here's a cool song from Nick Lowe, going back to his early days with Stiff Records and his (and Dave Edmunds') band Rockpile:

Soup Diary 100602

The picture above is only a rough approximation of the most unusual soup I have ever eaten. It was at a restaurant in Rochester, and the listed soup of the day at a fancy burger and pizza place. This is the name of the soup, as it appeared on the specials board: Chilled Strawberry and Raspberry with Organic Yogurt and Fresh Mint. It tasted quite good, like a smoothie in a bowl, and I imagine the idea was to come up with something appropriate for the mostly hot weather Western New York has been enjoying over the past few days, and to that end it was successful. The idea that soup would be made from fruit, as opposed to vegetables is an interesting concept, but it pretty much seemed like I was eating a nice dessert at the start rather than the end of my meal. In the past I've had gazpacho and cold cucumber soup, both of which I like, but as tasty as this was, I can't get my head around the idea that it really was soup, as opposed to some kind of culinary novelty item. I would not have ordered it at all if I hadn't committed myself to trying out new soup varieties as much as possible, and I'm not sorry I did in this case. But I doubt I'd order it again if the opportunity arises.

Today's Quotation

The following is from the eminent cultural historian Christopher Lasch (1932-1994), who taught for many years at University of Rochester (a city I visited earlier today-- perhaps putting me in mind of Lasch):

"Ideologies, however appealing, cannot shape
the whole structure of perceptions and conduct
unless they are embedded in daily experiences
that confirm them."

A Favorite Song

Every few months I pull out the album by Cry Cry Cry (talked about in the intro of this clip), to pick something to play on my radio show. Almost always, this ends up being the song I choose, though several others are worthy contenders. I just like this one that much. I wish I could find a video with all three members of that group (Dar Williams and Richard shindell are the other two), but Lucy Kaplansky does alright by it on her own. I hope you like it too:

Feels Like Summer

I know that officially summer is still about three weeks away, but a day like today makes me feel like its already here. Gorgeous weather led me outdoors to Delaware Park where I shot the above picture in the Rose Garden there. I'm not usually drawn to take pictures of flowers, but couldn't resist how glorious these looked in the late morning sun.

I also took a walk along the Erie Basin Marina. I'm guessing a lot of these boats were out over the long Memorial Day weekend, but they made an appealing photographic subject for me while moored in their berths (are those the proper nautical terms?).

Tonight, it was a trip to the old ballpark to see the Bisons (that's 1B Mike Jacobs swinging the bat above) take down the Syracuse Chiefs. I also bought a ticket for Thursday's game, when I'll get to see what is supposed to be the last minor league appearance by all-world phenom Steven Strasburg (pitching for the Chiefs). I'll have a report on that later in the week.

Soup Diary 100601

Well this is something of a first. I usually illustrate these diary entries with pictures I find on the world wide web, and occasionally that means the images are not exactly identical to the soups I write about. But today, the picture looks nothing like the stuff I enjoyed at Fables this afternoon, although it purports to be Chicken Artichoke soup. Apparently, this is most commonly served as a creamed or pureed concoction, but the version served at Fables was filled with chunks of chicken, chunks of artichoke hearts, and pretty big chunks of onion and celery too. I found it good, but not great, with the artichokes adding both interesting flavor and texture to the mix. I was a little worried that once I was back in Buffalo, the choices at fables would run to the same varieties I've already tried, but right off the bat, here was something new. so I'm optimistic that I'll have even more different choices over the coming weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Eggplant Bisque will show up again (it was offered over the winter, as posted on the cafe's website), but their track record is so good that I almost cannot be disappointed. Of course, I'll be trying soup at other joints as well, but fables have established themselves as this soup aficionado's home base.

A Quote for Tuesday

This comes from the decidedly unique mind of Robert Benchley (1889-1945), an American humorist too rarely remembered today:

"A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience,
loyalty, and the importance of turning around
three times before lying down."