Last Weekend for March 30-April 1
1. My original plans for Friday night were thrown out when my mother's sister Barbara died earlier this week. My parents stopped at my house on Friday night en route to the funeral on Saturday. The three of us and M shared a matzo kugel and pot of matzo ball soup.
As my parents are on track to move out of my childhood home after 34 years, they have been aggressively getting rid of things. I long ago cleared everything out except some camping gear for Boundary Waters, so they brought that along. They also brought several boxes of their own possessions to store in my basement until they have a new home set up. More immediately entertainingly, they brought a box with all the scrapbooks my mother put together of all the awards I earned in school, plus assorted childhood art projects and photographs. I have minimal interest in these items, but M and my mother had a pleasant evening going through them together.
2. My parents were up and gone on Saturday morning. I ran a great many errands and did some reading before the main event started that night. First I dropped M off downtown to meet her friends before they went to see Justin Timberlake. I abandoned any pretense of observing Passover and got a tasty bowl of pho before going to the first concert I've seen in the Agora Theatre since 2009. That 2009 show was one of the many times I saw The Black Keys; this show was Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach with his Easy Eye Sound Revue. Auerbach was touring for his second solo album, which I didn't enjoy as much as pretty much any of his earlier work.
Shannon and the Clams opened (their new album was produced by Auerbach). Regrettably, some problems with the live mix killed the vocals; even 10 yards from the stage I couldn't hear them well. That was not a problem with Auerbach, who brought a big band of very competent Nashville and Memphis musicians with him, including Bobby Emmon and Gene Chrisman of the Memphis Boys. He also had help from soul vocalist Robert Finley, whose new album Goin' Platinum! is also on Easy Eye. Finley is another guy who had a career in music when he was young, ended up leaving it to pay the bills, went legally blind, and then was rediscovered busking and is back at it professionally. I liked his songs a lot, and bought his album after the show and shook his hand.
Auerbach was good. The material from his new album that I thought was weak sounded much better live. I would never claim this gig had the power or excitement that the Black Keys pulled out of me, or even earlier solo Auerbach or The Arcs, but it was a very good show.
By fortuitous coincidence, M's concert got out around the same time so I picked her up and took her home. I was asleep within 5 minutes of getting home.
3. On Sunday morning M wanted brunch, so we tried Michael's in Rocky River, which I had thought was a diner but was actually a decently nice restaurant. We had a good breakfast, maybe nothing special but it was solid.
My radio show featured a lot of gospel and my annual playing of the Take Me Out to the Ballgame as rendered by cover band Bruce Springstone. My original plan to do an April Fool's Day show of nothing but covers of The Weight was sidelined when I discovered that the majority of the covers played it straight, which isn't all that fun.
I briefly considered going to the Brave Combo show, but my knees were still unhappy from the day before so I stayed in instead.
Media Consumed:
1. I read a book edited by Bill Fawcett called How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders that I got from theferrett at his Oscar party. Regrettably, the book was worth about what I paid for it, or maybe less. Except for some of the chapters about the Civil War, most of it was sloppily written, and almost none of it covered any territory I wasn't already familiar with.
2. I made a small dent in a posthumous collection of James Salter's essays titled Never Save Anything that was on the "A Librarian Recommends" shelf at my local branch. I'd read his memoir Burning the Days back in 2016 and really enjoyed it; I'm pleased to say that thus far the essays are equally compelling.
As my parents are on track to move out of my childhood home after 34 years, they have been aggressively getting rid of things. I long ago cleared everything out except some camping gear for Boundary Waters, so they brought that along. They also brought several boxes of their own possessions to store in my basement until they have a new home set up. More immediately entertainingly, they brought a box with all the scrapbooks my mother put together of all the awards I earned in school, plus assorted childhood art projects and photographs. I have minimal interest in these items, but M and my mother had a pleasant evening going through them together.
2. My parents were up and gone on Saturday morning. I ran a great many errands and did some reading before the main event started that night. First I dropped M off downtown to meet her friends before they went to see Justin Timberlake. I abandoned any pretense of observing Passover and got a tasty bowl of pho before going to the first concert I've seen in the Agora Theatre since 2009. That 2009 show was one of the many times I saw The Black Keys; this show was Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach with his Easy Eye Sound Revue. Auerbach was touring for his second solo album, which I didn't enjoy as much as pretty much any of his earlier work.
Shannon and the Clams opened (their new album was produced by Auerbach). Regrettably, some problems with the live mix killed the vocals; even 10 yards from the stage I couldn't hear them well. That was not a problem with Auerbach, who brought a big band of very competent Nashville and Memphis musicians with him, including Bobby Emmon and Gene Chrisman of the Memphis Boys. He also had help from soul vocalist Robert Finley, whose new album Goin' Platinum! is also on Easy Eye. Finley is another guy who had a career in music when he was young, ended up leaving it to pay the bills, went legally blind, and then was rediscovered busking and is back at it professionally. I liked his songs a lot, and bought his album after the show and shook his hand.
Auerbach was good. The material from his new album that I thought was weak sounded much better live. I would never claim this gig had the power or excitement that the Black Keys pulled out of me, or even earlier solo Auerbach or The Arcs, but it was a very good show.
By fortuitous coincidence, M's concert got out around the same time so I picked her up and took her home. I was asleep within 5 minutes of getting home.
3. On Sunday morning M wanted brunch, so we tried Michael's in Rocky River, which I had thought was a diner but was actually a decently nice restaurant. We had a good breakfast, maybe nothing special but it was solid.
My radio show featured a lot of gospel and my annual playing of the Take Me Out to the Ballgame as rendered by cover band Bruce Springstone. My original plan to do an April Fool's Day show of nothing but covers of The Weight was sidelined when I discovered that the majority of the covers played it straight, which isn't all that fun.
I briefly considered going to the Brave Combo show, but my knees were still unhappy from the day before so I stayed in instead.
Media Consumed:
1. I read a book edited by Bill Fawcett called How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders that I got from theferrett at his Oscar party. Regrettably, the book was worth about what I paid for it, or maybe less. Except for some of the chapters about the Civil War, most of it was sloppily written, and almost none of it covered any territory I wasn't already familiar with.
2. I made a small dent in a posthumous collection of James Salter's essays titled Never Save Anything that was on the "A Librarian Recommends" shelf at my local branch. I'd read his memoir Burning the Days back in 2016 and really enjoyed it; I'm pleased to say that thus far the essays are equally compelling.