Chicago Ten

My weekend was fairly sedate. I ended up going to the Sarah Vowell reading at the Englert on Friday night and she was funny as anticipated. I enjoyed the book especially since part of it talks about the area in Southeastern Connecticut where I grew up and where my immediate family still lives. It would have been nice to have my copy autographed but crowd was too large so we chose Indian food over a long line of gushing fans and book store owners with twenty copies of each her books. I am continuing the early American theme with the Horwitz book, A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World.

I caught the above documentary on PBS and the animated portions created from transcripts of the trail perfectly captured the circus like atmosphere. I recommend seeing it. Saturday night I got talked into playing poker at the local American Legion by a friend who had to cancel at the last minute. I stuck around anyways but didn't win anything in the tournament. I did have some fun drinking cheap beer and playing for small stakes with other tourney washouts.

Music wise I am currently cranking up the latest Lucinda Williams album. Very good and a return to form circa Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. The new record Little Honey includes guest musicians include Charlie Louvin, Elvis Costello, Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hofs and others.

Some Reservations

Photo by Melanie Dunea

From the book featured at right that I found on the new book shelf at library. After reading the introduction by Bourdain and seeing his picture I could not resist the book. (Bourdain's recipe included in the book is for bone marrow and salad). A local cook recently loaned me a copy of Don't Try This At Home: Culinary Castrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs, a lot of the chefs are included in both books so it was good to put faces to names (among other body parts).

Bob Mould- Sound on Sound

A clip from Bob Mould solo show. These images were being screened behind him as he played. Glad someone posted this. I meant link to this last week but I seem to be getting worse about timely posting. Must try harder or fail better as the man said.

Avett Brothers

Saw this on a few music blogs. Bartender at the Dublin turned me on to these guys. The Silver Jews are at Picador tonight. Thinking about going if it's not too expensive.

"Watching"

photo ©2008 leah bennetti from File Magazine

Ah, Fall! This is the exact time of year to be in Maine. Not sure where this picture was taken but Maine is where I would like to be. Baxter State Park... I have rambled about this before.

The Golden Years

All I do these drawn-out days
is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge
where there are no pheasants to be seen
and last time I looked, no ridge.

I could drive over to Quail Falls
and spend the day there playing bridge,
but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail
would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge.

I know a widow at Fox Run
and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.
One of them smokes, and neither can run,
so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.

Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?
I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.

by Billy Collins