Cheap Trick at Daryl's House - Oh hell ya!

The new season of Live at Daryl's House got underway a couple of weeks ago with the first guests being "Cheap Trick."  These guys have been around since 1973 and are still as authentic as can be.  They are old friends of Daryl's and it shows throughout the entire show.  I simply love watching Rick Neilsen on guitar.  He is the ultimate hip old dude.  And Robin Zander still kills the lead vocals.  The whole show was a true delight, with lots of banter and a plethora of great performances.  But to my mind, the best thing of all was a mind blowing performance of "Heaven Tonight."  I've played it over and over and am still sort of freaking out over how arresting it is -- it just grabs me from start to finish, with my high-point being Daryl's brief, but amazing vocal riff at about 5:25 into the track.  You gotta check out Heaven Tonight right here.  If you've got good speakers or a set of good head phones by all means crank up the volume.  I'm guessing that you may play this over at least once more.

Enjoy!!!

Remembering Art Farmer

Okay, you consider yourself a jazz fan. Answer me this:  When discussing flugelhorn players, who comes to your mind?  Clark Terry?  Freddy Hubbard?  Roy Hargrove?  Chuck Mangione?  Those cats are all worthy, but in my book Art Farmer is tops in that category.  Aside from eventually playing the flugelhorn exclusively, he also invented and played a hybrid instrument that he dubbed a "flumpet."  Art died in 1999, and you can read about him (and his flumpet) right here.  Luckily for you, I found this gorgeous performance of "Petite Belle," which makes my case.  Jim Hall on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass, and Pet LaRocca on drums.

Bernie blues...

Sometimes I find an article that perfectly describes a position or view that I agree with completely.  Struggling with articulating the push and pull of the Bernie Sanders candidacy, I found this well-reasoned piece that fits my feelings to a "T."  

Back from Stinson Beach

We left on Monday for our rental at Stinson Beach.  We got back yesterday.  The unit we rented turned out to be awesome.  We were right on the beach with a second floor view of the Pacific, seeing whales migrating north, various types of ships and boats, many kinds of birds and quite a few surfers.  
I took a few pictures:

Here is a view of the back of the units.  There is a very large rental on the whole bottom floor with two one-bedroom units on the second floor.  Ours is on the left.

Here is a view of the unit shot from the beach.  Your can see our unit on the right.  We spent a whole lot of time looking out of the windows you see in the picture.  The high point was seeing lots of whales that came very close to shore allowing us to see them surface and spout.  What wonderful, mysterious beings they are.

Finally, here is shot of the beach looking south.  You can see Highway One on the right side of the hill, descending into the town of Stinson Beach.

1964 political add: eerie relevance

On her show Monday Rachel Maddow played this 1964 anti Goldwater political ad. It is definitely worth watching on many levels, and is especially relevant now that Trump is the "presumptive nominee." It's brilliant.  Give it a listen... You won't regret it.  I'm just hoping the outcome this year will be the same as it was in 1964.