Karen Dalton

Another one bites the dust...

I am back from Hillsborough. It wasn't phenomenal but it wasn't horrible either. I have been spoiled of late honestly and you can't always hit a homer. Solid double and I bought a lot of nice things. I sent this letter out today (which sounds a touch grouchy):

Hillsborough was a rather long drawn out affair. Not a lot of painting buyers, some people did really well. I snagged a couple sales. 

And as so often happens, sometimes you have to buy your way out of a humdrum show. I found some wonderful things this trip. 

Like this 40 x 40" Stark Davis (1885-1950) Macaws painting, haven't had one in a long while. I have always loved his work.

Needs a serious cleaning although some people like these paintings with their age old patina. Would look beautiful in a Spanish revival plaster walled home.

I also found a Rembrandt etching of an old man seated in a chair, circa 1630 as well as a cool Helen Bregar modernist work at the show. A large Philip Moulthrop figured Tulipwood bowl. A Richard Misrach photograph of the Golden Gate. A Beulah Stevenson painting of clam diggers.

An elderly gentleman with a huge collection of paintings that he has amassed over many years invited me over to his Danville area home. I bought some real beauties from him yesterday morning on my way home.

Robert Wood (1889-1979), untitled approx. 9.5 x 15.5"

Franz Bischoff (1864-1929) Carmel blufftop 6 x 9" S. Speck 22k frame

Jimmy Swinnerton (1875-1974) Desert sunset 7 x 9"

William Posey Silva (1859-1948)  Rock and Sea, Carmel  9 x 12"

William Keith (1838-1911) River scene 10 x 14" I am not sure where, has a heavy yellowed varnish that needs to come off but I think it will be beautiful when cleaned. My friend thinks  he knows the river location, do you?

Del Mar Show starts tomorrow, if you have an interest in any of these, please call today and I will give you a price! If you get a chance, come by the show and see them and all the rest of the great new inventory I have bought of late.

all the best,

Robert Sommers

Blue Heron Gallery

Trying to think of memorable moments at the show...

 

John Paul is a photographer/gaffer/rigger. Friend of Warmboe. 

I was very impressed with his tape and tool collections. 

He had names and specific uses for each roll of tape.

I love this level of organization but it will unfortunately never be me.

What stood out at the show? Besides meeting lots of wonderful people, maybe it was the Russian who wanted me to go have a drink with him so that he could explain why the whole Ukraine war was the fault of the Unites States. I declined. These people have convinced themselves that the neighboring countries are in some ways a threat to Mother Russia and I think most clear thinking people would see that that is preposterous.

Food wise the high points were a delicious meal with Loughlin at Stella Alpina in Burlingame which featured osso buco and these beautiful truffle gnocchi.

Next night at my old fave Creola was not so good. They took the filet off the menu, the shrimp étouffée only so-so.

Breakfast at Kristys with Cam and Bill was fun. I had a delicious solo meal at Ben Tre in South San Francisco, Quail and pho. 

Reubens at the Escape with Dave, Amy, Meyer and Howard.

Went out with Melissa and Gary to Corso in Berkeley. Great burrata and cured meat appetizers, tambillo entree cold and rather unappealing.

Wonderful coconut custard dessert.

In any case, I drove home all day yesterday after my call, barely stopped except at Pyramid lake where a crane was dragging a trailer wreck off the freeway. Bumper to bumper, no movement for an hour. Finally got going, eventually stopped at Zankou in Pasadena for chicken tarna and rest room.

Got home fairly decent hour, feeling pretty good. New neighbor is a widow ex cop with lots of dogs that won't shut up all night. Big drag. Del Mar starts tomorrow.

I leave you with some random people shots from the show.

Terry Reid - River

Puns from Bob

 

Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.   A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.   Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.   Shotgun wedding - A case of wife or death.   A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.   A hangover is the wrath of grapes.   Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.   Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?   Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.   Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.   When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.   A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.   In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.   She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.   A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.   If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.   With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.   The man who fell into an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.   You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.   Local Area Network in Australia - the LAN down under.   Every calendar's days are numbered.   A lot of money is tainted - taint yours and taint mine.   A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.   He had a photographic memory that was never developed.   Once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall.   Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.   Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.   Acupuncture is a jab well done.

Twelve Thirty

The Wool Growers

I checked the blog. It has been a mere three years since I visited the famous French Basque restaurant in Los Banos. It feels like an eternity.

The Wool Growers has been open since the 1890's and I don't imagine a lot has changed in that time. What a meal I just had!

I took my time leaving this morning and making my way up the Central Valley. Why rush? I checked into my hotel around five and asked the owner about food recommendations. Great Mexican a stone's throw this way, Italian on the other side. 

But I knew that I was too close and I had to return to one of the most simple and unique places that I have ever encountered. I so rarely get an opportunity to eat this sort of food.

I walked about ten blocks through the old yet clean downtown streets to the familiar corner.

I decided to get smart on my second trip here. The enormous amount of food did me in last time, I would have to pace myself.

I was seated at one of the long tables that had over twenty chairs.

A simple red and white oil cloth covered the table. I noticed that one of the old pictures on the wall was gone, there is another new owner, I hear.

I had a simple setup in front of me that included a thin complimentary bottle of wine. Looked like a very rustic rose. Because I am on antibiotics I sent it back.

When you venture into the Wool Grower it is easy to close your eyes and pretend that you are in a foreign country.

I only heard Basque and Spanish spoken around me tonight. Rather than the farmers and hunters I encountered on my last visit, these were certainly sheep herders. The language was beautiful, the laughter robust.

This is peasant food, not an ounce of pretension anywhere. 

I decided to be smarter this time. Last time I filled up so early I could barely eat my entree, a choice of tri tip, lamb or pork. I asked the server to scale down the nine course meal and he was happy to oblige.

It started with a vegetable consomme soup, absolutely superb. A plate of basque beans, a delicious salad, a potato salad. Next came french fries and lamb stew. Then the tri tip. I deferred and skipped on the dessert.

The stew was superb as was the entree. Simple, rustic fare, completely unpretentious and absolutely delicious. Nothing fancy but totally real and pure. Unaffected.

It took me back to my youth on the island of Ios in Greece, eating at a remote taverna on the backside of the island and dining on a freshly caught rabbit stew and homemade red wine.  Heaven, indelibly etched in my gustatory memory.

Or feasting with the Pueblo Indians at San Ildefonso on the day of the corn dance, I was once again a visitor sharing a food experience and fare that goes back hundreds of years and is yet to be despoiled.

I left with the biggest smile on my face I can remember having leaving a dining establishment in a very long time. I will be back!

Pretty flower

When Doug and Retha moved to Maui he gave me this unusual lophophera like lobed plant. I am not sure if I ever got the name but it flowered this morning. I like it.

Blue Oyster Cult

Hell of a lineup

I've been actively interested in family genealogy since as far back as the seventies and eighties, I guess. Used to go to the National Archives in Laguna and pour through ship manifests, sort through obscure microfilm at the Weisenthal Center, pester relatives who would rather not talk about it, I left no stone unturned (nor any turn unstoned for that matter) in my quest for a little information about the mishpucha.

This was in another era kids, before anybody had ever really heard of the internet. It was much harder then and any small victory was achieved through a hell of a lot of sweat and hard work. I loved the research, frankly.

Later I had my DNA tested, my autosomal and mitochondrial plumbed and my Y chromosome sequenced, the first one in my entire haplogroup to do so. I didn't find a couple cousins, I found over 30k of them, complete with email addresses. Enough already.

Seriously, the quest has been very rewarding. But it could have been much simpler if somebody at the start had said, "Hey kid, guess what? We are all related." Because it is not too far off. We Yids are what is known as an endogamous population and you throw a little Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation in and everybody is related to everybody, I tell you. And honestly I probably shouldn't even mention bacon this close to a major holiday.

I have been a subscriber to a free service called Geni for years but have not done all that much with it. I belong to about six of these genealogical tools. It is a great place to create a family tree if you have or don't have a GedCom file. The other day I decided to upgrade to their GeniPro trial for two weeks. Expensive but cancellable. Boy, did I hit paydirt. Geni gives you both blood and in law relationships, it is quite a valuable tool for researching family history. It fills in a lot of gaps.

Yesterday I discovered that two of my closest and dearest old friends Lena and Ricardo are both closely related to me and each other through my Father's maternal grandmother Chana Grosbard. It was very exciting. Similar news for my friend John Feldman. Another connection to Chana. Click on a red link and see the connection.

John Van Neumann

Today I decided to take it further. Albert Einstein? No, but yes, the girl he was shtupping. I decided to stick with the physicists, everybody likes to brag about smart relatives. John Van Neumann, the famous Hungarian physicist? Check. 

I shared this info with my cousin Keren, who is the true DNA maven in the family and she suggested I try Lev Landau, another famous physicist. Check. One question, how did the cousins get all the brains? What am I, chopped liver? As we all know, life isn't fair.

When I was a kid my parents used to brag about their kinship with the great yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. They were right. I guess we were related. But funny thing, it was supposed to be through my mother. Her side of the family is strangely absent from my searches, still to this day. Not sure why.

Smarts are one thing but there is nothing like power. I knew from my Y DNA that I was a very close match with Napoleon. This confirmed the familial relation through my sister in law. Cool. Kissinger? Of course. Golda Meir? Yes, through my wife. Barry Goldwater? Was there any doubt? Another Grossbard link. Notorious RBG? You bet.

Well, who else should I check? I went for music. Bob Dylan? No problem, well at least related to his daughter in law anyway. Jacob, we'll be over for dinner.

I kept with the music. Leonard Cohen? Bingo. Bette Midler? Divinely so. Cass Elliot? Zoftig, baby. Again through my wife. Joey Ramone? Gabba gabba, yes. Kinky Friedman? Si. Michael Bloomfield, Chicago cousin through Buzz.

People say I remind them of Anthony Bourdain. Wonder why? Bingo. Jeff Goldblum? Sorry, yes, him too. Edward G. Robinson? Ditto. Kirk Douglas? See this hole in my chin?

Milton Berle. Bugsy Siegel. Phil Silvers. Hedy Lamarr. George Burns Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Lepke Buchalter. Yes to all. Even Meyer Lansky. Killers to comics, apparently the family did not discriminate. Barry asked about Julius Rosenberg? Of course. 

Who did I strike out with? One guy, so far, Lou Reed. Sorry Lou. But I'll take this guy on my team any day, Lenny Bruce. Born Leonard Alfred Schneider. And this lefty, again through my Grossbard line, Sandy Koufax.

Damn, the world is getting smaller every day. And it ain't like I'm anything special. Yossi the Schmeckel, the bum at the racetrack, has all the same connections I do. It is a very large and mostly quite productive family. 

Even has a past President of the United States.

Good Yontiff.

Lyn Collins - Think (About It)

Feckless hypocrite and Mearshimer slimes again

Kevin McCarthy thinks Biden should have helped Ukraine sooner but he was fine when Trump withheld military aid.

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Koch-funded analyst raises doubts about Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians

First look

 

I saw the baby red tailed hawk for the first time this morning. I am not sure if we have one, two or three and am reluctant to guess because they often hide and I am always wrong. There appears to be a large dead critter in the nest for food supply.

I look forward to taking more pictures when I return from my work voyages.

Hawk babies are awfully cute!

Del Mar is just around the corner!

 

Black Peter

Oriole Saturday

I don't normally make these sorts of rookie mistakes but I did this morning. I saw multiple orioles buzzing around my feeder and grabbed the camera, neglecting to check that the ISO was on auto. I didn't get enough light on the sensor, basically and without light, you don't get accurate focus. I flubbed a whole bunch of shots.

I tend to shoot manual with auto-iso, it sort of corrects any exposure mistakes and balances everything out.

The great thing is that there is always another day to correct and get it right!

The neighbor told me that she saw baby heads yesterday in the nest. I have not as yet, so I don't feel like I missed anything today. Here is mother this morning.

I hope I don't miss anything too epic when I am away. I had a passive aggressive young shitkicker in a red truck try to dust me out in my driveway as I was shutting the gate. Steph said that he practically ran her off the road a few seconds earlier. Guy had fishing poles in his rear window. I don't get people that think they can wreak havoc in other people's neighborhoods, show so little respect.

I'm not sure why but the blog has been going crazy in both Russia and China lately. This is from yesterday. Maybe they get so little news now with social media shut off that they have to resort to checking out the blast.

Wonder when they pull the plug on me, if ever? Anyway comrades, be well, your government is lying to you but most do and you knew that anyway.

I get Ash Wednesday, Holy Tuesday, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Easter, saw that there was once something known as Clean Monday and Maundy Thursday. But why doesn't Saturday have a name this week? Wait, it actually does. Black Saturday.

Enjoy your holiday!

Robby Krieger

Brand new video! Pretty darn cool.

Definition of bad neighbor

Interesting article at Newsweek, Russia still seeks regime change, to turn Ukraine into "Rump" state. Very sobering, sounds like they are in for the long haul. Shades of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Russians evidently don't share the rest of the world's definition of what constitutes a sovereign nation.

They have announced their intention to decimate the country and for once I think we should believe them. And over here we have hair splitting d-bags like Rich Lowry trying to argue the difference for what really constitutes genocidal and just plain awful behavior. See Russia not committing genocide in Ukraine.

The Russians are guilty of great savagery in Ukraine, but there is no evidence that they intend to exterminate the Ukrainians.

Their initial plan was to sweep President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from power quickly and install a pro-Russian government. Every indication is that, if this possibility had truly been in the offing, the Russians would have been happy to have a puppet preside over a pacified Ukraine full of quiescent Ukrainians — in fact, they seem to have erroneously assumed that this is what was going to happen.

Lowry and Carlson deserve a front row seat in hell for their enabling and little love fest with Putin. If I was Finland and Sweden, I would join NATO so fast their head would spin. And the rest of Russia's neighbors, Moldova, Lithuania, Estonia, etc. should be under no allusions that they are not the next "neighbor" whose head is on the chopping block.

I got this from Jill, who got it from Jerry...

Top ten signs you might be at a Republican Seder:

10. They refuse to answer the four questions without a subpoena.

9. They demand a recount of the ten plagues.

8. They defend not increasing the minimum wage on the grounds that according to Chad Gadya it still costs only two zuzzim to buy a goat.

7. The afikomen is hidden in the Cayman Islands.

6. They refuse to open the door for Elijah until they see his immigration papers.

 5. They attack Moses for negotiating a deal with Pharaoh because why would we negotiate with our enemies?

4. They don't understand why the Egyptians didn’t cure the plagues with hydroxychloroquine.

3. They omit the parts about slavery from the Haggadah because it reminds them of Critical Race Theory.

2. They keep saying “when do we get to the miracle of the Jewish space lasers?”

And the number one sign that you might be at a Republican seder:

1. They end the Seder by singing "Next year in Mar-a-Lago."

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Happy Passover! And for you mixed couples out there, Carol sends this along...

Dear God

Schwabacher reflections

 

Weather Report Suite

I love Bob Weir. At one time I believe he was one of the greatest rhythm guitar players in the world. Jerry would not have spent all that time playing with a slouch and Weir was definitely no slouch. Sneaky good, a lot of his music sublimely inventive in the background. Great ear.

The guy was a definite ace on the cowboy songs too. Bob was also a really fine singer in his day. But he had a habit of using a little too much volume and shouting at times and I think it may have screwed up his voicebox permanently.

I honestly have a real hard time listening to his post Grateful Dead stuff. It sounds like it hurts for him to sing. His voice has not aged particularly gracefully and he seems to labor hitting anything approaching a higher register.

Aging is a fact of life, the only organisms that don't age are already dead. Some musician's voices get whiskey sounding with time, think J.J. Cale or Prine. I don't think Bob was that lucky. Admire him for trying but just can't listen anymore.

Quotes from Sun Tzu

Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

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If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.

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The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

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Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.

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Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.

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When an invading force crosses a river in its onward march, do not advance to meet it in mid-stream. It will be best to let half the army get across, and then deliver your attack.

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If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him.

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Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

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If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.

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Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.

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In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

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He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.

Grandmas with iphones trump satellites

Excellent Thomas Friedman article - Free advice for Putin.

many and small beats large and heavy.

finding always beats flanking.

swarming always beats surging.

STOP

 

© Robert Sommers 2022

Steeleye Span

Gerald of Wales

 

Shawn in Thailand has been delving into strange recesses again. He sent me the following snippet from Giraldus Cambresis, better known as Gerald of Wales.

Remarkable, indeed. Now I have never been to Snowdonia, nor even heard of it, think the Marx Brothers might have visited it once in a movie. Sounds a little far fetched, but as I said, I wasn't there. But if Shawn can dig, it is only polite for me to find out a little more about old Gerald.

In my short cyber wander, I have seen his birth listed as 1145, 1146 and 1147 so I can safely say that accurate information about the fellow might be scant. He passed in 1223, around the age of 77, depending on the accurate birth year. The son of royalty, he was a clerk to the King and an archdeacon in the church.

He was a respected scholar and wrote at least ten major works, many of them stories of Wales and Ireland and the strange taxonomy present in both faire lands. In hindsight many of his writings seem quite fanciful but also show a wild imagination, with a particular proclivity towards inter special whoopee. 

I include a few odd things that I chanced on when cursorily examining his work:

An illustration from 'Topographia Hiberniae' depicting the story of a traveling priest who meets and communes a pair of good werewolves from the kingdom of Ossory.

Thanks so much for the odd rabbit hole, Shawn.