Your 2024 year end photos

 

Mike Reardon

Shirley Timberman

Jon Harwood

Hey Bulldog

You remember that I had auditioned my favorite fab four songs for the Sirius Radio Beatles channel a few weeks ago? Guess what?

I was picked. I got a letter this afternoon. Will guest DJ.

Going to record my banter very soon. Will let you know when it will run when I know.

I really can not believe this but it is true. I am very excited. Stay tuned.

Food for thought

I am getting back into cooking. 

Made another batch of scones the day before yesterday, pretty decent but not as good as the last ones as I only used half the blueberries and they weren't as sweet.

Yesterday I cooked a couple of New York steaks up in the pan, absolutely delicious. But I am most proud of the potatoes I made, sort of a cross between Epicurious's triple cooked potatoes and Kenji alt's.

I peeled yukons, then boiled for about 15 minutes in a baking soda and salted water bath. I rinsed them in a colander and then after cooling, tossed them with a little butter and cheese, roughing them up in the process.

I then put them face down in a peanut oil laden skillet and browned them, finally sticking them in a 375 degree oven for twenty more minutes with a liberal splash of duck fat and rosemary.

They were so perfect, crispy brown outside and soft centers, close as I have come to spud perfection. Leslie could not stop eating them, said definitely my best batch yet.

Leslie went off the visit a girlfriend this evening and I decided to make myself a nice dinner.

I made Tuscan chicken thighs with sun dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, spinach, freshly grated Parmesan and heavy cream. 

Lots of garlic.

I dredged the thighs first in seasoned flour, got them quite crispy.

Removed them and started my sauce.

Put it over fried rice that I had left over.

Pretty freaking good.

I hope that she likes the leftovers, I could only eat one thigh, so rich and filling.

The only problem is that I have to clean up a serious mess before she gets home and I hear about it!

Broken the speed of the sound of loneliness

Nevermore

Not quite ready to put 2024 in the tank but we are certainly approaching that point. It was a difficult year, in many respects, and I can only hope that things will get easier in 2025 for me and the people in my life.

Unless I have a huge creative writing burst, which I really can't foresee coming, this will be my lowest output year on the blog since 2017. Which is fine with me, I long ago stopped caring about my productivity. 

I don't get paid enough to care, in fact I don't get paid anything. 

Before you know it we will have seven million views, which is sort of astounding to me, even with all the Singapore bot traffic.

You would think that people had better things to do.

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It slipped my mind that we run an annual photo of the year contest on the blast. Usually start it end of November. I forgot.

It wasn't a banner year for me photographically but I got some decent shutter pushes along the way. One of the high points was being on the water the day the dolphins started jumping.

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Send me something if you feel like it.

RARE EARTH

I went to the basketball game with my old friend Kevin Barry last week and somehow conversation landed on this band, Rare Earth. He had friends that grew up with them in Detroit. I told him that I always loved them too, the best white Motown band and definitely underappreciated.

The drummer Peter Rivera aka Peter Hoorelbeke was both an incredible player and vocalist.

Coincidentally the next day I was reading an interview with guitarist Skunk Baxter and they asked him who his favorite drummer was all time. You might think Gadd, or Mitch Mitchell, Porcaro, Bonham or Peart. Nope. Who was the first guy he mentioned?

Peter Rivera.

I love New York

I hear the hushed whispers, barely audible. "My god Robert, look at all the ribeye you eat." I feel the punitive stares I get from my vegan friends knowing that I have doomed myself to several thousand more incarnations as a rock or a stump for the wholesale bovine slaughter that I am personally responsible for.

And before one more person tells me to "mix in a salad" I want you to know that I am course correcting. No more ribeye steaks for a while.

I'm changing to New Yorks.

I went to Costco Business today and picked up this top loin beauty. 

If you have never been to a Costco Business, well their meat departments are pretty insane and sometimes you can find really good deals.

I was debating between the New York subprimal I eventually bought and a halal, grass fed ribeye from New Zealand.

It was a really good deal but I happen to prefer the taste of grain fed beef.

The man who worked there said that the taste of the halal cut was quite strong.

I ended up going with this one.

A little over thirteen lbs. at $9.79 a lb.

Not a tremendous amount of fat on the fatcap.

I am splitting this with Deb and Jim. 

I took it home, cut it and sealed it, ended up with fourteen nice steaks and trim.

Darn, used my very last seal a meal bag, have to remember to restock!

I cooked up the trim, couldn't very well sell my friends beef I had never tasted now, could I?

It was absolutely incredible, flavor was fantastic and it is so nice to have something different than a ribeye.

Excellent marbling for this cut of beef.

Tonight, this steak was better, much more flavor than the Ribeyes that I have been devouring of late.

Go buy a steak in a restaurant and see what it costs.

Think about it, fourteen steaks for a hundred and twenty eight dollars.

Not too bad.

Bird day

I had a few extra hours of free time and drove out to the wildlife area. 

Wasn't a particularly good day for birding but even a bad day birding is better than most.

Great way to get my head together and I forced myself to take the longish hike, which my body needed.

I had a thought come to me at one point that was something on the order of "You'll never know what's out there until you go look." Have to get out there.

I think that things have changed up there since Tom retired. 

There used to be a lot more water in the ponds but I think the Eastern Water district is doing the bare minimum and more interested in selling it to corporate farmers than creating suitable habitat.

So it was slow.

One thing I love about the place is that after all these years, I know pretty much exactly where I will find certain birds, like the tree swallows or these vermilion flycatchers. 

They are year round residents.

This is the immature male to your left, still not in full breeding plumage.

I got pictures of him a few weeks ago also.

And here is a pretty female vermilion taking off.

I found out that my participation in the Audubon Christmas bird count will not be required this year.

I have done it for quite a few years but I think they were looking for a better birder and not a mere half ass bird photographer.

I don't blame them. I will go out somewhere by myself instead. 

I prefer to be alone in nature anyway.

As Jimmy Buffet once said, "It's my own damn fault..."

As I said, not a lot to shoot yesterday. I never even put the good lens on the camera.

Still it was very rewarding.

snowy egret

kestrel

Northern harrier female

I hope that everybody has a wonderful holiday.

First salmon in century reach Oregon's Klamath Basin after dam removal

Genghis Blues

Sanjay Mishra

Jerry Garcia plays on this and two other tracks on this 1995 record by Indian guitar player, Sanjay Mishra. Sort of a different sound for Jerry.

Doppelbanger

We got up at three Sunday morning and drove to the Long Beach Flea Market. 

It was a tough slog but Leslie has a vendor who sells there and just left for Thailand, she had to pick up some items from her assistant even though my wife was not feeling well. 

Poor thing, but she is a soldier and didn't complain once.

I didn't bring a real camera, I was only interested in one thing, selling. 

Didn't want to distract myself from my major pursuit, which was putting money in my depleted bank account and paying my upcoming mortgage.

Stayed locked in the booth all day, neither the money or inclination to shop, all business.

It can be a tough grind out there on the pavement but I did okay, selling a decent painting at the last minute and having a lot of smaller sales throughout the day.

I discounted the hell out of things and made them go away. It actually got pretty hot yesterday and I became very tired and exhausted as the day wore on.

Leslie thought the crowd was somewhat sartorially subdued but it looked like the normal freakshow to me.

I saw some interesting people of course, one guy had a shirt on that read "Fuck Yoga." Not sure why stretching exercises would raise one's ire to a degree that you would have to emblazon it on a t-shirt but it's a big, strange world out there.

Snapped a couple pictures with my phone, nothing spectacular or earth shattering.

I thought the upper arm tattoo was artistically interesting.

She said it was drawn by a man in Mexico City.

My favorite moment of the day was these two sweet girls.

 

Same glasses and similar facial characteristics, I asked if they were sisters as they looked a lot alike.

"No," the girl in front said.

"We are gay partners but we get that a lot.  It is prevalent in our scene for people to pair up with similar looking people. In fact there is even a name for it in the queer community, doppelbangers."

Now that cracked me up.

Danko Rules

I was listening to the radio the other night when I heard my favorite song by the Band, It makes no difference. But something was off. The voice wasn't quite right. A decent attempt but off. It turns out that Eric Clapton recorded it at the Crossroads Festival last year.

And while it was competently sung and well played, there was something missing, what was it? You can listen to it here, you tell me?

The answer of course, is Rick Danko. Perhaps the most emotive and plaintiff voice of our generation. Powerful and sincere.

All other attempts to cover this song of heartbreak pale and should be banned, for now and the future.

Flying Objects

 

kestrel

ruddy duck

green heron

Paul Pena

Here is another mostly unknown album with Jerry guesting on pedal steel. New Train, cut in 1973, due to label hassles it took about twenty seven more years before it was released to the public!

Paul Pena (1950-2005) was a blind, singer songwriting guitar player who opened shows at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia for Zappa and the Dead in 1969. Later he moved to San Francisco and opened a number of shows for JGB. He also wrote the hit Jet Airliner, later made popular by Steve Miller. 

Pena's family was from Cape Verde, a poor island republic located off of West Africa.

He had a varied career, playing with T-Bone Walker and somehow becoming a master of Tuvan throat singing along the way.

He got into a spat with Bearsville Records owner Albert Grossman, who screwed him to the wall and delayed the release of New Train for almost three decades.

A documentary about his throat singing adventure won an award at Sundance in 1999, Genghis Blues.

Aztec pride

The San Diego State University basketball team, a perennial winner, was picked by the conference to finish fourth in the Mountain West this year. Nevada Sports Net's Chris Murray picked them seventh.

Really? I winced when I saw that, they have one of the greatest win percentages in the NCAA the last decade and were in the Sweet Sixteen the last two years, reaching the finals two years ago.

The rest of the Mountain West is jealous, always trying to bury the Aztecs and all the team does is win. They are currently ranked 23 or 24 in the nation, the only Mountain West school in the ranking, depending on which poll you are looking at. This year they are winning with a team of mostly freshmen and sophomores, many of last year's players flocking to greener pasture$.

Thanks to some very good friends, I have been to five games already this year. So much fun! Lots of energy. If you have never been, go.

The Aztecs are now 7-2, having lost to two great schools, Oregon and Gonzaga, currently ranked #12 and #9 respectively.  But note that the Aztecs have beaten Houston, which was ranked #1 or 2 and Creighton, which I believe was ranked #21 at the time. The Aztecs have the sixteenth toughest strength of schedule in the nation.

Rest of the conference? Unranked right now. Of course, with one notable exception, the conference stunk up the big dance last year.

What bugs me are the predictive polls, like KenPom or Bart Torvik. They bury the Aztecs. And it doesn't make any logical sense at all. Same deal with ESPN's BPI. All blowing the same smoke up Houston's gym shorts. And you need a Master's degree to grok the current NET rankings, don't even go there.

Here's KenPom.

And here is Bart Torvik.

Sorry about the small print. You see the Aztecs are buried so far down that you can't see them without a microscope, at #56.

Take a look at where Houston, a 6 and 3 team that the Aztecs beat like a drum, is positioned in the two polls, #4 and #1 respectively.

7 and 3 Creighton? #40 and 32.

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Try as I might, I can not understand the logic of predictive polls. 

What was the famous saying by Al Davis, "Just win baby?" 

No more. 

Now you have to beat a team by a certain margin more than the computer estimated that you would.

Stupid. What is the value in that? What am I missing?

A win is a win.

Aztecs beat Houston by three. Creighton by eighteen. Yet both teams outrank them in the current predictive polls.

Scoreboard.

A four and four Arizona team in no way deserves to outrank an undefeated Utah St. team, who look to be very good and dangerous this year. Kansas is beaten by Creighton, a team ranked twenty nine slots beneath them in the KenPom. What gives?

As we all know, there is a heavy east coast bias in basketball and sports rankings in general. The people that vote are in bed and don't see our games. They favor bluebloods even when they are getting their ass kicked.

And every year Brian Dutcher and the Aztecs show them that they are idiots, that hard work and defense trumps one and done and stupid NIL packages. They have only failed to get into the tourney twice in the Dutcher era and have been to the big dance 12 times since 2006.

Miles Byrd

I have no idea where they will actually finish this year.

The team has some nifty guard play but rebounding is a concern and the starting low posts nimble but not really bangers. 

Heide is finally starting to play with confidence. Byrd and Boyd are outstanding. Compton quite a finisher. Gwath can be great one game and then utterly disappear. 

I predict that they will get better and better and be a factor once again when March comes along. When all is said and done they will be where they always are and the rest of the Mountain West will be looking up at them. 

 Predictive polls be damned.

Oh Mommy (I ain't no commie)

This is the topical B side of Brewer and Shipley's hit One toke over the line.  This is from their outstanding Tarkio album in 1970. 

Recorded at Wally Heider Sound in San Francisco, where the Airplane and Dead frequently recorded.

Michael Brewer saw Jerry in the studio one day and asked him if he would care to show off his nascent but lovely pedal steel skills on this cut.

He agreed.

Beware and prepare

My friend Bob in Northern California was scammed recently.  You might read his email so you too do not get nailed in the future.  A lot of scammers out there. A local merchant was hurt by a sleight of hand artist just this week.

 Dear Robert. 

Yesterday, I was in my local grocery store (Safeway) at a self checkout station completing my purchase with my ATM card when someone close by pointed to a crinkled $20- bill where I was standing indicating that I must have dropped it.  I did not think it was mine, but I bent over and picked it up.  I walked out of the store and the person who told me about the bill came up to me and indicated that he had dropped the bill which I returned to him.

A day later I received a phone call from my bank fraud division indicating a number of charges were made on my card.  I immediately opened my wallet and found that my ATM card was gone.  There were 12 transactions ranging from $150- to $400- for a total of about $3,500-.   I denied all of these purchases and was told the card had been closed, that I needed to sign documents at my local bank denying the bogus purchases, get a new card, and would have my funds eventually restored.  The bank teller told me this happens more often than I could expect.  For security purposes I needed to change my PIN.  Who knows what personal information was included on the encrypted numbers when I applied for the ATM that the thieves could lift.

Here is what happened.  When I completed the Safeway purchases and bent over to pick up the bill, a second person of the scam removed my card and I never realized that I did not take my card back as I had opened my wallet and put something in it (the $20- bill).  The thieves have a special device that read the encryption on my card and changed my PIN.  They then issued a new card with my numbers, but with their PIN.  To avoid having the thieve discovered sooner, the transactions are limited in the amount.  They purchased small items and obtained cash back.  They even did this at a Wells Fargo branch ATM.  

I never thought that I would be the subject of a scam as I thought I would realize something was not right before it happened.  Now I feel stupid, violated and angered.  I am telling this to you so that you will not be caught off guard as was I.    

B.D. 

Foodish

 

Joel hasn't been on the blast for a while but he mentioned at breakfast that I am slacking on food.

Well, sorry Joel, I just haven't been cooking that much. Cooked the thanksgiving turkey, with somewhat mixed results...

BigDave sent this ai picture rendition of me yesterday.

I did make scones the other night, first time in a while. Maybe one of the best batches ever...

My scones are not like other people's scones.

I fill them with great stuff, there is a lot going on.

These are made with organic blueberry, cranberry, ginger, walnut and hazelnut. 

Later I topped them off with a maple, butter, confectioner sugar glaze.

I left the nuts and the ginger chunky.

For some reason, these tasted terrific. Just nailed it. Even though I lost my little plastic pastry cutter that I use to mix and the flour didn't mix in as well as I had hoped. Each bite an explosion of taste. Blueberries were at just the right point on the sweet/tart scale. 

I am going to have to make another batch pronto.

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Last night I cooked a big Fred's steak from Schaubs in Palo Alto. It too was wonderful, a gift from our friend Melissa. If you have never had a Fred's steak you need to put one on your bucket list.

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What else to report?  Peter and I went out to my favorite sushi bar, Sushi Camp in Temecula and had a wonderful meal.

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The Italian restaurant at the old Village Inn, Scampis location is now serving Indian. People are asking my wife to check it out, she is an expert on the cuisine, I am ambivalent.

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Took Kevin to Bronx Pizza before the basketball game. Best in San Diego since 1997. The spinach ricotta slice is to die for.

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I went to Fallbrook's Pho place the other day but couldn't get water or service for what seemed an eternity and left. The place is really good now but understaffed.

I walked over to Yumi and saw unfamiliar faces and a new menu with more Chinese. Food was honestly not very good.

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Carnitas burritos at Robertito's are over twelve bucks now. Really?

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Duck fried rice is always good at Thai Thai.

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Walked out of Mariscos after waiting ten minutes for a menu and water. On to Rosas, always great!

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Kent and I met Roxanne and Mick at the Chicken Pot Pie shop before the USD game. Place is good but I advise sticking to the pot pie.

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I received some bad attitude from staff a month ago and we stopped going to the Hearth.  New owners and bad vibes. They kept raising the prices on really bad coffee. Best coffee in town is the drive through Java Time. Baking it up, across from my store is really good too and over a dollar a cup cheaper than the Hearth.

My pals and I are going to Fallbrook Donuts instead. A bit cramped but a great donut and decent coffee and no attitude.

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Saw Curtis Price's jazz group at Village Roots on Sunday.  Great band, amazing drummer. I was stood up and went solo. I had a beer, first time in a year or two. A rich porter, it was delicious. The pizza is really good too.

There you have it.

Staple Singers

Alleyway Blues

Yesterday was not a good day and it capped off a pretty bad week. All sorts of tsoris that I don't need to get in to. But the capper was in the afternoon when I got this crappy text.

I had been loading up the van for the flea market on Sunday and because the yoga and pilates people usually commandeer all the street parking on Main I am often forced to park behind my shop.

I own my building and have a couple parking spots in the rear that I use. My van is long but I was not aware that it had ever been a hindrance.

Third time? No one has ever complained about me blocking the alley, which I don't and this text honestly got my blood boiling. 

Sign your name, asshole. I hate keyboard warriors.

Of course, the first thing I did was try to call the number back but it was a no go, like a burner line.

I was livid. I started going through my internal enemies list which is not too large in all honesty and wondered about who might not have the guts to confront me directly?

I narrowed it down to a few people in my mind but really couldn't be sure.

I discussed it with my neighbors, no one knew anything.

We had a homeless psycho derelict break into Jackson Square and the owner came by yesterday. He called the cops to make a report.

The homeless guy was still inside when the cop showed up, homeless guy put his head through the gate and asked how he could help the cop? I think he got arrested but who knows? I walked away.

A few minutes later I went back and showed the cop the text and told him that I would contact him again if I started getting harassed.  He said that he could not run the number unless there was a direct threat. 

I was not feeling good at all. You just don't know about people anymore and I didn't want anything to happen to my building or my van. What anonymous prick was pissed off at me?

Last night when I got home I put the number in google search and came up with nothing except a Kansas church, pretty blocked out and no luck.

I hate having an unknown enemy, the person who would resort to this kind of language without at least talking to me first. You never know how weird people can get these days.

I decided to call a local private investigator who has helped me many times in the past, Tony C. Tony can break through the red tape and figure this sort of thing out. Tough dude, great friend.

I called him a little before eight this morning and he told me that he was still in bed. And then he asked me a question that startled me. 

"Is this about the problem in the alley?"

I was completely bewildered, how did he know about that? Then he started laughing. 

"I sent you the text, I was just messing with you. Payback for all the times you have flipped me the bird while I was talking to clients out on Main St.."

We both had a good laugh. He got me. He told me that when he saw my call this morning he thought that either I was somehow on to him or that I wanted to hire him. Pretty sharp. Right on the second count.

How funny is that, the guy I call first is my secret perp?

I guess that we are even now. The mystery is solved. Glad I don't have to keep looking over my shoulder. But he should step lightly, he may actually now have another one coming.