September 10th, 2016

Follow up to last time...the Hillary campaign did refund our two hundred bucks and did so timely.  Also asked they take me off of their daily email list and they did that too. 

  Since we do the West Coast shuffle each summer, will try to keep it lean and do mostly quick hits.  We hit SF on July 3rd and left from Seattle on August 8th.  In between...

- The West Coast MLB portion of the trip included games in Oakland, SF, LA and Seattle (2).  Giants Stadium (can't remember it's corporate sponsor) is still the nicest going.  Location, view, food, fan rabidity are all in the top 5.  We went to a 7:05 start on July 6th and it was the coldest I've been in the last 4 years and that includes being in Budapest in January.  Took my mom and we had coats and a blanket and that sea chilled air whips off the bay and tears through to your intestines. The announcers called in blustery. I know I have reminded my future self before to prepare and thought we did, yet here we are...

Oakland (again, think the name changed recently) is simultaneously the shittiest stadium in all of sports and my favorite place to watch a game.  The fans there make up for the awful food, location, poverty stricken ballclub, etc .by their humor and willingness to don themselves in the ugliest green and yellow combo imaginable.  Here is a picture of the ground under my seat...it is a metallic surface and the entire section was riddled with rusted out scars.  Mix in the DNA of the decidedly blue collar crowd and the Coliseum is an incubator of several diseases like hepatitis, tetanus and E.coli.

Safeco Field, where the Mariners play, is aesthetically pleasing but...  Answer me this, what came first, the lame fans or the lame team.  Every time I go, the visiting team always has better/louder fans.  This years torture was compounded by the fact that the only games I went to were against the Red Sox whose fans are the most odious in professional sports.  I liked 'em way better when they were cursed.   Went to two games of the 4 game series, which the Sox and Mariners split but the home team lost both times I was there.  Figures.  One of my favorite nights of the year is the annual game sitting in the LF bleachers with the fellas...there are usually 6 of us and all were in attendance this year.  The game was not only against the Sox but was also Irish Heratige Night.  Ugh.  Our game that night was that you get 5 points for every green Sox capsspotted and could win instantly if you knocked one off the jamokes head.  I did my part to antagonize the visitors sitting in front of us by pointing out that the color barrier in baseball was broken in 1947 and asked if anyone knew what team was the last to have a black player.  The answer is of course, the Red Sox.  In 1959 and doing so only after a discrimination lawsuit was filed.  Their first black player was someone named Pumpsie.  The Sox fan in front of me said that "we're not all racists in Boston".  I think I laid on just the right amount of sarcasm in my "of course they're not" in my reply.  Another activity that night was trying to come up with the top 3 things the Irish have contributed to world culture.  Potatoes were mentioned but it got pointed out that they came from the Incas.  What we ended up with were:
3 - Whiskey as sport
2 - Famine
1 - Lucky Charms

Dodger Staduim.  I don't have to remember the corporate name du jour as they don't have one.  Never have.  Walking into the place feels exactly the same as I did in the early 70's when Garvey, Lopes, Russel and Cey held court.  They have made small improvements everywhere but the overall vibe is just the same.  Food is decent and you can still get a crappy old Dodger dog (easternmost in quality, westernmost in flavor).  Even the fans, who have had the late arriving/early departing reputation forever are getting more serious.  If you've followed along for a while, I've been comparing a lot of the new stadiums and that while their rating comes down to things like location, food, etc., they all have a similar feel with the brick facades and exposed green steel beams and quirky field dimensions. Throwbacks that Baltimore started and which look fantastic, but all feel the same in their uniqueness if that makes any sense.  This thought hit me as I sat there and looked and the uniform dimensions of Dodger Stadium.  What was once considered bland and sterile is now peculiar and nostalgic.  Had been a while since I've been there and had been attracted to this new stuff, but Dodger Stadium is still my favorite place to be to watch a game.

There are even local watering holes where the Dodger faithful can congregate pre/post game.  My buddy Norm and I met at the Short Stop and as I'm sitting there remember reading an article about how Gerg Dulli from the fantastic band Afghan Whigs bought a dive bar near the Ravine and made it a baseball bar and sure enough, it was the Short Stop.  That probably means nothing to anyone but me, but there you go.

 California for us is now always based in Palo Alto where my mom and sister both live.  I left Babydoll with G-ma and drove down to LA for 48 hours to see the old High School J-O's and go to the game.  The drive to and fro on the 5 is a monotonous affair with the only break coming 1/2 way down at Harris Ranch.  Anyone that has made that drive knows that there is a massive cattle ranch that skirts the freeway and if the wind is blowing away from the road, you get a whiff and ask your co-pilot if that smell is coming from them.  If the wind is blowing towards the freeway, then it become Cowmageddon.  On my way home, it was just that and the air was thick with bovine.  I could see the cloud ahead for miles and tried to button up the Chevy Cruze, but it got in and the car smelled like cow shit for the rest of our time with it. 

My mom turned 90 the other day and spending time with her is so important.  For (then) 89, she looked great, but as with kids you don't see for a year and they look all big and stuff, not seeing an older person an have the same affect.  A little more bent over, a tad more forgetful and just a feeling that everything frustrates.  The computer, too much noise at restaurants, loss of smell.  Tough. 

But it isn't all bad.  With her loss of smell, it is liberating in that she is free to fart whenever she wants.  As with my Grandma, don't think she can control them with any consistency anyway.  Had dinner at my sister's one night and in addition to us, she had some friends and neighbors over.  between dinner and dessert, one of the neighbors lights up a doob and mom has no clue as she can't smell it.  I wasn't about to partake with my mom in attendance and commented on how weed is becoming more acceptable in society.  My sister said the guy who sparked it has some kind of pain and that it is medicinal for him.  Yeah right.

The other thing that is liberating for an older person in my observation is  that the brain becomes more fluid.  She has a hard time remembering what we are doing tomorrow, but is laser sharp on stuff that happened decades ago.  Case in point, every family has their stories that are retold at family functions and one of ours has always been the time when I was two years old and fell into the pool,  My sister, who was 8 at the time, and Grandma were there and "Ma" had to jump in to save me.  Ma was all dressed up as they were going to some show and she was all pissed off about it and must have let my 8 year old sister have it for not going into save me.  Have always felt that this caused a schism between them as they were never tight in my memory. 

We're sitting at this dinner and my sister brings up this incident.  We run through the story as above and my mom, who has been sitting there listening quietly says to my sister, "you pushed him in."  Spit take.  Like a friendly reporter rephrasing something Trump said that was awful in a way to make it not sound quite so callous and him just doubling down on his original screed, we tried to give her a chance to recant and she stood by it and said again that I was pushed in.  A 48 year old story of family valor was flipped on its head to attempted murder in an instant. 

Babydoll and I took my mom to Vegas for a couple nights as we have last couple of years.  She loves it and we had a decent time but would have been better had we had even a moment of luck, but it was a 48 hour run of total shit luck with nary a single decent run by either of us.  I couldn't find a non-Chinese Asian lady blackjack dealer in the morning, which is always a pot of gold, but did have two sessions with first a dealer from Ethiopia and then one from Eritrea.  America is great like that.  We had some nice food and caught the Cirque du Soleil show "O" at the Bellagio.  Everyone says that this was 'the best' and you gotta go, so we did.  Fine I suppose...the performers are amazing and it is a constant spectacle, but if you've seen one of the CdS shows, you've seen 'em all in my opinion.  Towards the end of the show, these 5 Asian ladies are doing this contorting gymnastic lava lamp-like routine and I'm thinking, I flew from the other side of the planet, paid $140 bucks and maneuvered my frail 90 year old mom into this theatre just to watch Chinese acrobats?  Dumb shit.  Next year we're getting Brittney Spears tickets.  There were clowns in the show and got to break out one of my favorite old gags...how do you stop a clown from smiling?  Shoot him in the face. 

A plus in traveling with an 89 year old is that you are welcome to cut to the front of every line everywhere.  Have to make a huge call out to Southwest Airlines for how nice they are to the elderly and handicapped.  At every curb, there are people with wheelchairs waiting, they put her in one, all the way through Customs to the gate and then from the plane to the curb.  They hire a company called Gateway Frontline Services to perform the service free of charge and all of the handlers are nice and chit chat in such a gentle way.  Of course you tip them, but they were all just so great.

Betty arrived late into our time in SF and we decided to leave the kiddies w/G-ma and drive up to Napa for a couple nights.  Had only been to Napa once before, 25 or so years ago for an afternoon (with friends including Betty at the time).  Neither of us could remember when we went away sans children so was looking forward to going.  A memorable time was had.  We got some recommendations on wineries and did a tasting or two, but you can get loaded fast and since neither of us are hard core boozers, we turned our attention to the gardens we encountered.  They ranged from  ones designed on Italian vineyards to bio-diverse organic ones.  Anyone can garden, but combine people that not only love to, but are well trained, with soil that is as fertile as anywhere on the planet, and it is truly the Garden of Eden.

Just the right mix 

A by-product of this is that the food is exquisite.  The most delicious of ingredients mixed with rich folk with the highest of standards that are willing to pay for the best, and the food options are off the hizzie.  Everything we ate was excellent and to cap off our stay, we made reservations for the second night at Meadowood.  One of the few 3 Michelin star restaurants in the US, we knew we were in for a treat.  Of course, the place is perfect in every way, from greeting to departure the servers are knowledegaeable and attentive.  new utensils with every serving and tuxedoed staff scooping up any crumbs as each plate was taken away.  Set menu of 8 or 9 courses that rotate with the season with each being a bite or three but we were full by the end.  I jotted down the offerings as they came.
- an amuse bouche of fried squash flower
- day lily stuffed with prawn
- freshwater eel wrapped in beef tongue (cooked on a cabernet plank)
- cucumber seed risotto w/caviar
- bean flower over avocado and squid (in squid butter)
- line caught halibut w/un-ripened apple juice
- cabbage and cod liver in oyster and nettle sauce
things get a little fuzzy here and my notes aren't clear.  I think...
- lamb broth steeped in artichoke
- truffle something
- some part of the duck with duck fudge
- "chase fm Mendoza sheets goat w/grape marmite"
- dessert of Bananas Foster with rye instead of rum, and eggplant instead of bananas.
- 2nd dessert of chocolate bobka
 With desert, I ordered an Ethiopian coffee brewed over 500 degree sand while Betty had foraged tea (which we think was tea made from the weeds in the garden). 

We knew it was gonna be expensive going in, but dinner with not a ton of drinks cost $800,  Re-gaw-damn-diculous, and was hard for a simple guy like me not to think that each bite was about $20 each as it was going down, but a once in a generation experience and all.

We stayed at the home of a couple that my sister knows...a couple of Silicon Valley types that bought some acreage years ago and have now retired there.  They have several exquisite gardens (food, cactus, Chinese), chickens, a lovely  pool and we stayed in their guest cottage.  Their buildings were made of rammed earth construction, which is has been used by early civilizations and is coming into vogue as the materials are natural and reusable.  Sleeping with the windows open in the cool summer night air under a down blanket was close to perfect.  Since we've returned to TW, have slept in a closed up room with a forced air conditioner unit under at most a sheet and still come back to a puddle of sweat after taking a pee in the middle of the night.

You may have noticed a couple of words in there that are not new, but whose epicenter of use is Napa and radiates from there.  Other than acerage and rammed earth, we heard...
biodynamic
terroir
high bench
flight (wine tasting menu)
mesoclimate
unpack
primal (as opposed to paleo diet)
proteins and enzymes

Those last two bug me.  We've all heard the word protein used to replace meat but if not, an example is when making your own burrito, there is a line to pick your "protein"  Way to take a meal I was prepared to enjoy and turn it into a chemistry project.  Was gonna let it slide, but then some a-hole used the word enzyme in a way that took the air out of a good time.  Was ordering a cocktail and asked for a vodka on the rocks with a piece of lemon.  Dude says, "you want a slice or a twist?" and I say something about just some lemon please.  He looks at me and says, "Oh, you just want the enzymes..."  Really?  You're a waiter, just say yessir and fetch me my damn vodka and perhaps I'll tip you fairly.  That was in Seattle though and they are now adding gratuity to the bill automatically.  We were in one place and the menu says that an 18.89% gratuity is added to all bills.  .89?  I understand that it has something to do with the raise of the minimum wage in Seattle but can we all agree that if you are calling it gratuity and it is over 15%, then let's give some decent service or just add it to the cost and say No Tipping.  At this 18.89% place, the service was atrocious and then they overcharged us on our bill THREE times.  Taylor Shellfish was the place and do not suggest you go.  Good call on that place Big Sprang,,,am sure the ladies at Shanghai Garden wouldn't have screwed us over.

The morning we left Napa we had booked a sunrise balloon ride down the valley.  Luckily, this was a couple weeks before the one burned up in Texas, but I was still apprehensive about it for months in advance.  They had to move us from Napa Valley as the fog was too thick about 20 miles east into Yolo Valley.  I am sure it was prettier over Napa, but still an experience.  Our balloon's basket could hold 17 people, 4 each in one of 4 dividers and the pilot in the middle.  Our basket was full of couples celebrating their marriages or anniversaries, and us, who were just happy to have ditched the kiddies.  We went around the basket and said where we were from and there was a couple in one section from Spain and another in a different section  from Puerto Rico.  I wanted to say that 'I am a Trump supporter and can we put these Mexicans in their own section?', but edited myself and mumbled it under my breath to Betty only.  Something everyone should try once in their lives.

The Bay Area is so gorgeous, but traffic and property values are so messed up that it would be impossible to live there.  San Francisco has its charms but is a city you visit to walk a mile uphill to watch a homeless guy take a shit in the bushes. 

When you only get to town once a year, the best way to see old friends is by sharing a meal with them and they always want to take you to the place that serves rich food as we become their excuse to put the feed bag on.  Good in that we eat well but by the time we  hit Seattle, was feeling a bit polluted.  The fun didn't stop and a total highlight for us was being introduced to Totchos.  Simply, they are nachos with tater tots replacing tortilla chips.  The most genius of inventions are always the simplest. 

One day while in Seattle, took the Boy and a couple of his buddies down to Portland to visit Reed College.  A fun day hanging with those boys for sure.  Reed has a really nice campus and all of us were impressed by it but as it is in hippie central, they are bohemian.  Their unofficial motto, which was given them in the 1920's but they still proudly tout it is "Communism, Atheism, Free Love"  Gotta say that is appealing and the boys thought so too.

The last three days in the States were amazing for yours truly.  Had seen a few months previously that my beloved Yo La Tengo were playing two nights at a festival in Portland called Pickathon.  Rallied a couple of my Portland friends to come out and had a fantastic time.  Pickathon is held on a farm about 30 minutes outside of Portland and is completely green.  Bring your own cup and plate so there is no trash, all the stands and stages are solar powered and whoever curated it was in lock step with my taste.  Not only was Yo La Tengo  on the bill, but other favorites of mine like the Thee Oh Sees, La Luz  and Moon Duo were there too.  At these things, it is the new discoveries that can elevate the festival into greatness and we stumbled on some things that have already become new favorites with the biggest highlight being Adia Victoria.  At Pickathon, one of the neat things is that all bands play two sets and different times or days, so if you miss one, you can see them another time.  Had a hole in my schedule so walked into Adia Victoria with no prior knowledge and (as with almost every show that weekend) walked right up to the front.  She is this young black woman that is heavily influenced by the blues from her S. Carolina roots, but the backing band plays the skronky indie sound that I love.  She was sooooo sex, dressed in a white nightgown and at one point is really belting out this song three feet in front of me, looking right into my eyes and to quote George Costanza, "It moved". 

Sir Richard Bishop

 Blossom

 King Sunny Ade

 Moon Duo.  So loud and groovy

 Alvvays

 La Luz

 The Deslondes.  My friend Malibu had a similar reaction to the slide guitar player as I did with Adia Victoria.

 Ultimate Painting.  Poseur British crap...only bad show I saw all weekend

 Jeff Tweedy.  Not sure I am grooving on his troubadour jag but refrained from yelling out "Where's Nels?"

and of course...Yo La Tengo.  This was from the first night during their quiet set.  At the Woods Stage which was in the woods (natch).  Great work by the organizers in lighting up the trees in colors during all the night sets there.

 And the loud set the next day.  Ira handed his guitar to the crowd at the end of Ohm for the crowd to bang on.  I did and can now officially say I have played live with Yo La Tengo.  Scorching set.

Fairs allow people to wear their worst.  A new "thing" is for young girls to bring hula hoops and do their Jerry Dance with them.  Was banged and attacked by them for two days.  Then there are the utilikilt guys...have to retreat to Asia to get away from these numbskulls.

Pickathon is all ages and there were a lot of families out there.  I always refrained from taking my kids to these kinda things cause they just aren't interested and they are my thing and don't want to feel that I have to entertain anyone but me.  Saw this kid and thought that to combat boredom, his parents gave him a Swiss Army knife.  An inspired move by thembut still found the kid menacing.

Here's my buddy Kathy on day two.  Think I have told this one before, but she and our mutual friend Howie would come up to Seattle for years and we'd do Bumbershoot together.  Bumbershoot 1998 was two weeks after Betty was implanted with the Boy via IVF, and the day we were supposed to find out if it took was day two of Bumber and Yo La Tengo were scheduled to play that night.  We were all worried...what if it was bad news?  Would we still go to the show?  Pins and needles all morning, but then we got the call telling us that we were gonna be parents so Betty was happy and couldn't have cared less if we took off for the concerts as she had her family to call.  Have shared many a big rock and roll  moment with Kathy (aka Malibu Kathy as she owned a Chevy Malibu)

 As a local, she has friends in town and one of them was running a secret stage in the woods where they would get bands to come and film a couple songs in HD for the festival website.  She got us directions and it was an oasis of sofas and free booze.  Nice to have friends in high places.

 Being a working farm,  horses were there too.

Great little things like these lights in the woods made Pickathon a great experience and one I hope to repeat in years to come.

 I mentioned at the top of this that it was three days, but Pickathon was only two.  During the summer, learned that Yo La Tengo booked a show in Seattle the next night to maximize their trip from NJ to the west coast.  Was floating on air as they were playing in a tiny club and were to play two sets...quiet and loud. 

I've been seeing them since the early 90's, so 25 years or so , and they always amaze.  This night, the second set started loud and they kept it  pushed to the floor all night.  I saw them do things that I'd never seen before and it was just the perfect way for me to end a fantastic couple of months.

I love them so much.  Was chatting with the road manager and mentioned Taiwan and he said they were coming here.  Whah?  Giddy.  I just checked out their website and they finally officially said they are coming and full Asia schedule is out soon, but teased it with dates in Seoul November 30 and Bangkok December 4th.  Woo to the Hoo.

With the NFL fully kicking off tomorrow (1AM Monday my time, will be up and in the RedZone), everything is coming up Gomez.