Bummer!

On Monday, I was out taking a run. At one point, the trail that I was running alongside the bay had a lot of rocks in it and I stumbled on one of them. In order to avoid doing a face plant, I turned to the side and hit the ground full impact on my right shoulder. The pain was pretty excruciating and I knew right away that I had done some serious damage. Eileen took me to the emergency room where they did x-rays and determined that I had fractured my collarbone at the point where it attaches to the shoulder blade. The upshot is that I am going to have surgery on Friday at 10 AM to repair the damage. They are going to have to put a plate in, with screws, as stage one of the process. Then, three months later, I have to go in for another minor surgery to have the plate removed. All in all, it is a real downer. Fortunately, they have prescribed adequate amounts of Percocet pending the surgery and we already have a post-surgery prescription for loads more Percocet.

Because I am in a sling right now, I have resurrected my Dragon speech recognition software and am dictating this post. I will continue to use the software to keep you up to date and to post items as I would normally do.

Bowie surprise...

I am working on a new compilation to burn to disc and give to my friends.  In the course of this project I remembered a true buried treasure that I have known about for years:  David Bowie covering "Wild Is The Wind."  In my opinion it's a complete outlier, being unlike anything else of have heard him perform.  And, it's just simply a genius rendition of the tune.  Now I cannot help but give you a link to hear it for yourself.  As it builds it becomes crazy-good.  Eat your heart out Johnny Mathis!
 

Jesse Winchester, R.I.P.

It's bad enough when someone you admire very much dies, but it's worse when you don't find out about it until a month or so later.  Such was the case with the death of Jesse Winchester on April 11th.  I only learned of it today.  I loved his music and his great soul.  In fact, my first wife and I named our son Jesse after him.  He rarely appeared in the Bay Area, but every time he did, I was there.  Most recently was a couple of years ago at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley -- just him and his guitar and a boatload of wonderful songs all written by him, of course.  Damn, this one really hurts. The world is definitely not the same now that he has left us.

Anyway, you can read a good obit here in the Rolling Stone, and check out the Wikipedia entry on him here.

There are scores of his songs that I could put up here, but I'm going to give you a link to one that I heard him sing and play for the first time at the Freight & Salvage gig, which really moved me, never having heard it until that moment.  The song is called "If Only."  From a live performance with just him and his guitar, listen to it right here.

 

Me...

Here is a picture of me on the deck of the Carmel rental house.

The Dude and I have it down. Nuff said.

Carmel/Monterey

We rented a little house in Carmel to celebrate Eileen's birthday.  We arrived Tuesday afternoon and will be leaving tomorrow morning, Saturday.  The weather has be absolutely gorgeous, in fact, the best I have ever experienced here in mid-May.  We went to Carmel beach on Wednesday, and yesterday we walked along Monterey Bay and had lunch at Cafe Fina on Fisherman's Wharf.  Here are a few shots to illustrate. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Carmel beach

Pelicans hanging out in Monterey Bay

Harbor Seals snoozing in Monterey Bay

Wide shot of above critters

Unexpected snow!

Hey everybody.  We were up at our Tahoe/Donner place over the weekend. All during the drive up we noticed no snow at all --ditto on our arrival.  Much to our amazement, it snowed on Saturday. (Hmmm, I'd say that's yet another manifestation of climate change).

From the front bedroom window at the beginning of the snow.

About an hour later from the rear bedroom window.

But of course there really is no such thing as climate change, is there.

A loyal Obama fan recharges his batteries

For quite some time now I have been discouraged over the Obama presidency.  As I have written before, it's sort of like forcing a gifted quarterback to play on a team with a horrible offensive line, receivers with snail-like speed and concrete hands, and no defense at all.  After a while even the most loyal fan stops going to the games because it is too painful to watch his idol be sacked, and literally beaten up, while his receivers drop the few passes he is able to get off, and meanwhile the defense is letting the other side score at will.  My loyalty and admiration remain intact regarding the president, but I have to confess that I have been missing quite a few games these days.  Thus, it was truly refreshing to read this article by Eugene Robinson.  Guess I should pull out my season tickets and head for the stadium.

Gotan Project

I have been a big fan of "Gotan Project" for quite some time now.  I was introduced to them when one of their tunes came up on Radio Paradise and I have been hooked ever since.  They are masters of hip tango music, which I find highly pleasing and certainly sensual.  A great introduction to the group would be "Queremos Paz," which you can listen to by clicking right here.  And if you want to actually see them in action, check this out.

Another "cool" addition to the Birth of the Cool.