Schlewing's World

For My Brother Randolf

2017-04-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

So yesterday my youngest brother Rene got a hold of me by phone and text and I knew something was terribly wrong before even speaking to him. Rene and I had not spoken in quite a while because we are both stubborn and I just get so upset and I guess irrational at times.

His first words were "it's about Randolf" and I knew right away that he was no longer was with us. I always expected this call though I didn't expect it so soon. So until yesterday I had not spoken to Rene and Chantal (my sister) for quite a while. The reasons why are so infantile especially on my part and if anything I have learned in the last 24 hours is to let it go.

Weirdest thing is that Randolf and I have always kept in touch. It was hard given some of his life choices but in recent times we had been exchanging messages via Facebook and Messenger as he gave me some attitude about some of my food choices, distilled spirit options and music adventures. Since our Mom had passed I have not been up to Montreal as often as I should and our physical contact had not happened as often as it used to when I visited annually. There was never ever judgement stuff when we got together. We'd just talk about where we were in our lives at that given point. Randolf and I always shared that history. For better or for worse. I would try to make it a point to bring him out for supper on a Montreal visit. One of my happiest recent Montreal memories was going out for steaks with him and paying this totally outrageous bill.

In the last day I have been thinking about our lives as siblings and some good and some terrible things we went through. As we got older he became my doppelganger until my recent weight gains. We looked similar. We had the same voices. We had the same diction and pretty decent vocabularies. We would be able to fool others into thinking we were the other sibling. That was not always a good thing!

So I was born in '62, Chantal in '63 and Randolf in '67. Randolf never knew our Dad. I barely have any memories of him except when I see pics. I am not even sure I remember him except to know that I was his carbon copy at one point. Our Mom and Dad had been separated for maybe a year when he took his life in Sept. 1969. So long ago but the impact of that haunted us until this day. The three siblings had to stay in some foster families for an 18 month period while Mom tried to get us reunited. Survivor benefits and insurance proceeds under the circumstances of our Dad's death were pretty non-existent. As our situation was temporary, we kids were a package deal in our foster family placements. Most were good. One was horrific for me and I suspect for Randolf. I remember that as I got older and discussed some of this stuff with my Mom when I had the courage to do so; she told me that she felt an enormous misplaced guilt for what had happened to us. She felt responsible for Randolf not speaking coherently until he was 4 years old. I can only speak for myself and I guess Randolf and say that we have had some serious trust issues over the years. I am actually smiling as I type this as this point came up when I last saw him as I was dropping him off at the Cote Vertu metro station in June 2014.

Okay this is a little darker than I wanted to go but it feels good to type it out.

Not too long after the foster family thing happened we were all reunited in Lasalle and lived as a single parent family unit in an apartment on Jean Brillant.. That's where my Mom met our stepfather Gene who together with my Mom brought some much needed normalcy and stability in our lives. We moved to Chomedey and our youngest brother Rene showed up in '73. Things went well for almost a ten year period. Our Mom was together,our stepfather was a good man and us kids were doing okay. High school was hard for Randolf. I graduated in '79, my sister in '81 and Randolf had to compete against us in the same classes with the same teachers. Things were different then. Teachers would put in comments in report cards that Randolf needs to be more like his older siblings. We set the bar pretty high at Western Laval. He had no chance. Plus Randolf was a lefty! Is there such a thing as a normal lefty? I think not!!!

Fast forward to the summer of 1986. My Mom decided that she was moving to Pictou County, Nova Scotia to get a fresh start with Blaine who she had taken up with after the dissolution of her marriage with Gene (my stepfather). She was going there with my youngest sibling Rene. My sister was already out of the house and I had rented an apartment off Levesque Blvd in Chomedey. There was no way Randolf was going to Nova Scotia. I was moving out because our home life was untenable. My Mom asked me to take him with me. So here I was at 24 yrs old already on my way to a life to a life of ruin because of drugs and alcohol moving into an apartment with my extremely angry and stoner younger brother. We managed to live there in reasonable harmony for about a year. Police were called only twice. Once was because we were acting out a wrestling match at midnight on a Monday night. WWF was on Mondays at midnight. Well the neighbors were not wrestling fans it seems. LOL. That was our first roommate experience.

Our second roommate experience occurred in mid 1988. I had hit rock bottom at 26 years old. I had lost job after job. I went from living in apartments to rooming houses to bumming off friends to staying at Motel St-Jacques and Motel Raphael to finally sleeping under grandstands in parks. My life belongings were in a hockey duffel bag and I was doing day labor to drink and use. I had my "see the light" moment and managed to get a hold of Randolf and asked him to crash at his place while I tried to get clean and sober. His only rule was that I could not drink/use. I was ready. He had this dive apartment upstairs from the Blue Angel on Drummond St. in downtown Montreal. He was working days and I was working graveyards. It worked out great. I got clean and sober. I discovered that one could live off pasta, margarine and oregano. The apartment literally had no furniture. It had a mini fridge and a mini stove and strange sexual encounters would occur late at night in the doorway stoop.

While the previous paragraph seems kind of sad. That day in the beginning of August 1988 has led me to where I am today in April 2017. The largesse of Randolf's generosity back then has led to me having this pretty awesome life that I have today.

Our third roommate experience occurred shortly afterwards in July 1989 where he and I moved into this huge flat with two of his work buddies (Mark and Shane) on Park Avenue in the Plateau. By this point Randolf's life as well as mine had taken a turn for the better. I was hired on the company I am still working for 27 years later, I went back to school and finally got my university education at nearly 30 yrs old. I met my ex wife and mother of our son. Randolf's life was going pretty well. He had gotten some decent jobs. He was riding bikes. He met someone. He got married. We were kind of living parallel lives in a way. He moved around the corner on St-Joseph while I stayed on Park and then I moved onto St-Urbain.

Stuff happened in my life in the mid 90s directly related to not having learned life skills when I was younger. I had some solid friendships, solid recovery years behind me and I had Jeune Homme keeping me grounded so when I moved here to SC in '99 I was copacetic. Sadly that is when things took a turn for the worse in Randolf's life. His work life, his home life and his reality life became so messed up.

I knew things were bad but I was 1070 miles away and trying to cope with my life here in Greenville with an 8 yr old kid and no support system. I had an opportunity to get Randolf down here to watch Harrison for me as I had to travel up to Canada for work. I got him to come down for a month with his bike. He like our Mom hated air travel so he took a Greyhound bus down here with his $2000 bike in 2001 dollars crated up. LOL. Thirty hours later he showed up at my place at the Paddock Club on Woodruff Rd.

Randolf and I bonded incredibly during that month sitting on the back porch, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and listening to R.E.M. on cassettes. His fave band was out of Athens, GA which seems ironic given that it is less than two hours away from my house. Had I known when he was last here we would have definitely gone to visit. If memory serves me correctly he would only listen to albums 1 through 6 only. He hated when they went MTV with "Out Of Time". His favorite songs were South Central Rain, Orange Crush, Call On Me, The One I Love and Radio Free Europe. I used to tell him all the time. You need to come down here permanently. I will find a way to sponsor you or worse comes to worse you can stay here and live with H and I and work under the table. Sadly he never took me up on that offer.

Fast forward to today and I am still trying to process all of this. Late last week someone at worked asked me how do I manage to do all that I do with the driving, the concerts, the baseball games, the beach trips, the late night cooking, the overindulging of barley and malt products??? I sincerely answered I am so afraid of missing out on things. I was like Mom was 60, her brother was 54, my Dad was 33 (different circumstances) and his eight siblings barely made it to 60. Little did I know that Randolf was already gone at that point. I last communicated with Randolf on March 21st and per the police he may have been gone a couple days afterwards.

I leave this with the words from one of his favorite songs....
This one goes out to the one I love
This one goes out to the one I've left behind
A simple prop to occupy my time
This one goes out to the one I love

Concert Review Meanderings - Breaking Benjamin

2017-01-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

So this past Tuesday night (the 24th) a couple friends and I moseyed up Asheville to attend Breaking Benjamin's sold out show at The Orange Peel. This was my 4th time seeing Benjamin Burnley and the cast of characters perform live. This show featured a good selection of songs off of their five albums with a heavy emphasis on 2015's "Dark Before Dawn" but also included the hits and other fan favorites.

One of the reasons I love listening and attending Breaking Benjamin shows is that I know that I will get a solid, professional and dare I say grateful attitude from Benjamin and the band. I sincerely believe him when he states the reason that they are out there performing live is for their love of their fan base. He mentions it several times at each show and you know that he is not mailing it in at any of their shows. He has a great rapport with the people at the shows be they at the front of the stage or way in the back.

Cool thing is that they keep their ticket prices reasonable as well. Face value for the ticket was $36 for two hours of solid ass rock music which also included a decent length set by the openers out of Detroit, MI called Wilson. Every time I thought of the name to myself I expected Tim Allen to magically appear. I am not familiar with Wilson's music and I guess the best way to describe it would be hard rock bordering on thrash metal. They did a pretty good AC/DC cover of "Back In Black" as well.

Breaking Benjamin's Set List Song/Album :
So Cold (We Are Not Alone)
Angels Fall (Dark Before Dawn)
Sooner or Later (We Are Not Alone)- featuring Keith Wallen on lead vocals
Blow Me Away (Shallow Bay)
Simple Design (We Are Not Alone)
The Imperial March / Bulls on Parade / Smells Like Teen Spirit / Walk / Sad But True
Polyamorous (Saturate)
Ashes of Eden (Dark Before Dawn)
Believe (We Are Not Alone) - featuring Aaron Bruch on lead vocals
Never Again (Dark Before Dawn)
Breath (Phobia)
Failure (Dark Before Dawn)
Until the End (Phobia)
I Will Not Bow (Dear Agony)
Encore:
The Diary of Jane (Phobia)

Although I loved every song and I pretty much sang aloud on all of them some of my favorites this night were "Sooner or Later", "Breath", "I Will Not Bow" and the gorgeous "Ashes of Eden". "Ashes" had Benjamin leaving the stage and joining fans in the first rows touching hands and doing fist bumps. Very cool!

As always Breaking Benjamin performs an awesome medley of songs from bands that had a big impact on them over time. They always start it off with "The Imperial March" from Star Wars as Ben Burnley says is the anthem for geeks and nerds like him. LOL. Good line! That segues into Rage Against The Machine (Bulls..), Nirvana (Smells..), Pantera (Walk) and Metallica (Sad..).I always enjoy this bit and over time they have added songs to the medley.

My only complaint is some of my fave songs are left off the set. Songs like "Give Me A Sign", "Medicate" and "Rain". However I have heard these in previous shows so it's all good. It was mentioned at the show that they are working on new material so I am hoping this gets released in 2017 if not my current Breaking Benjamin CDs will continue to be in heavy rotation in the house and in car CD player.

Peace and rock on!

Food Review Meanderings - Mamacitas

2017-01-22T17:03:00.000-05:00

So anybody that sees my Orange Peel concert posts on Facebook will often see a mention or two of my love for Mamacitas Mexican Grill which is located right nearby on Biltmore Avenue. In fact only Wicked Weed Brewing stands in between the OP and Mamacitas. Wicked Weed is also an awesome place especially for some pretty spectacular brewed on-site craft beers and funky food choices. I will have to blog about Wicked Weed one of these days. Likely after one of those nights that I partake in several pints of awesome beers by their fire pit.

The really cool thing about Asheville is that they have some great places to get good food at really affordable prices. One of those places is definitely is Mamacitas Mexican Grill. Check out this part of the menu:

1. Choose OneBurrito, Taco Pair, Burrito Bowl or Salad
2. Fillings, Delicious Fillings

Grilled Chicken - citrus OR chiptotle marinated …$7.49
Avocado & Black Bean - avocado - black beans - mexican rice …$6.99
Pulled Pork - slow cooked pork - adobo sauce …$7.49
Baja Fish - cabbage- baja sauce …$7.49
Citrus Tofu - organic tofu citrus marinated …$7.49
Chorizo Verde - house-made deliciouness …7.49
Grilled Steak - salsa marinated-cooked to order …$9.99
Grilled Shrimp - guajillo marinated-Oaxacan style …$9.99
Veggie Mama - sweet potato-kale-black beans …$7.49
Ground Beef - seasoned beef-chipotle sauce …$7.49

I always go for the Chorizo Verde Burrito which is absolutely massive (see pic below). In the last few months I have this strange fixation on sausages related to a country's cuisine be it Polish, Portuguese, Italian, German or Mexican. May as well throw in Cajun Country's andouille sausage as well. Yeah yeah I know I have issues. Tell me something that I don't know.

So I get this huge effing burrito filled with chopped or diced chorizo verde which is basically ground pork shoulder mixed with fresh poblano chile, fresh serrano chiles,cilantro and ground spinach powder. Yes it has a little bite to it. Added to this in the burrito are black beans, Mexican style rice, finely shredded Mexican cheese, fresh diced jalapenos, pico de gallo and more cilantro. Usually I will get a side of fried plantains on the side which are otherworldly awesome. Deep fried plantains are my raison etre for using a deep fryer at home. Absolutely epic. I didn't get those the other night. I took the homemade chips on the side and added some tomatillo salsa verde and a spicy chipotle salsa.

Knowing that I was going to partake in some craft beers at the Dweezil Zappa show and that I had a 70 mile drive home later that night I only took a couple of glasses of ice water to help alleviate the spiciness of my food choices. LOL. I will say though that their beverage prices are extremely reasonable just like the rest of their menu is as well. End result to wallet that night for that awesome tasting burrito was $8.01 or $27 Canadian. LOL. Geezus some of the drek that you can get at fast food places costs more and that is for fake processed shite. Super value at Mamacitas Mexican Grill!

I'll end this blog saying that I have tried on many occasions at home to perfect burrito plates especially with leftovers that remain from my cooking for one adventures (haha) but my efforts are always for naught as my burritos fall apart and pretty much become a messy salad of sorts. I think my burritos are too wet. Okay that looks weird. Too wet. Hmm. Pretty sure I will edit that line at some future date. I just can't think of a better term right now. LOL.

In honor of this blog, it's time for a good tequila shot!!!

Concert Review Meanderings - Dweezil Zappa

2017-01-22T10:52:00.001-05:00

So this past Wednesday night I headed up to The Orange Peel to catch Dweezil Zappa's "Cease and Desist" show aka "Dweezil Zappa Playing Whatever The F@%k He Wants" show. Turns out there is some family acrimony on who rightfully owns the name Zappa so Dweezil Zappa has to be very careful on how he markets the shows. His younger siblings Diva (37) and Ahmet (42) and those are their ages not their IQs though those could be state that they own the family surname Zappa and that Dweezil Zappa needs to "Cease and Desist" using the "Zappa Plays Zappa" moniker and that he can not sell any merchandise at his shows with the likeliness of their Dad. They even tried to copyright Frank's moustache for fuck's sake. Geezus how petty!

Anyways Dweezil Zappa has been performing the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour since 2006 and has done over 1000 shows with a smorgasbord of musicians over time and on this latest tour he has several players that have been with him for years. One thing about Frank Zappa's music is that it is quite complex with constant time and beat changes. The rhythm section are Ryan Brown on drums and Kurt Morgan on bass. Ryan works like crazy and is great drummer with nary a break during the whole show. Frank didn't write ballads. LOL. Multi-instrumentalist Scheila Gonzales has been there since the beginning and keyboard player Chris Norton has been there for quite a while as well. The newest members are David Luther on vocals and horns and Cian Coey on vocals as well. Every band member had time to shine during the 145 minute show (2H25M). The musicality of the band is incredible and their versions of Frank's music was fantastic. Dweezil has some serious guitar chops. Any doubts on how good he is would be rendered null and void if y'all check out the instrumental "Apostrophe" from the January 17th show at Jannus in St. Petersburg on YouTube. The Florida one not the Trump one. LOL.

In fact "Apostrophe" was one of the highlights of the show for me. This is an instrumental featuring guitar, bass and drums and was written by Frank Zappa, Jack Bruce (legendary bassist of supergroup Cream) and the very troubled drummer Jim Gordon. The song comes from Frank Zappa's 18th album of the same name released in 1974. Frank's first album "Freak Out" was released in 1966. 18 albums in 8 years. Holy Eff Batman says Robin. "Apostrophe" was his highest charting album at #10 and also featured "Cosmic Debris" which was another highlight of the show and it also had the classic comedic song "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". Sadly that song didn't make the setlist. One could have a show of only Frank's comedy songs and you would still come away impressed on how good the music is in these tunes. The album itself has the following genres: comedy rock, progressive rock, hard rock and jazz fusion. Not exactly the usual same old same old huh.

The setlist (just below) for the show featured over 25 songs and had out and out rockers, the comedy songs, the satirical songs, the statement songs, the guitar songs, the horn songs and pretty much everything else in including kazoos, beach toys and fake boobs. You had to be there for that last one (Fembot In A Wet...). LOL. Another favorite of mine was "Black Napkins" with the dual horns and the solos. Beautiful song!

Help, I'm a Rock / Transylvania Boogie
It Can't Happen Here
You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
Harry, You're a Beast / The Orange County Lumber Truck
Lemme Take You to the Beach
How Could I Be Such a Fool?
Who Are the Brain Police?
What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?
Shove It Right In
Flower Punk
Inca Roads
Black Napkins
Apostrophe
Teen-Age Wind
Montana
Zomby Woof
Doreen
You Are What You Is
Yo' Mama
Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt
On the Bus
Keep It Greasey
Packard Goose
Watermelon in Easter Hay

Encore:
Ride My Face to Asheville
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
Cosmik Debris
Muffin Man

All in all it was great show. Fantastic value. Seeing this performance gives me a more appreciative view of the complexity of Zappa's music and how much he was before his time.

Abbey Road - The Orange Peel (01/14/17)

2017-01-15T12:40:00.000-05:00

So last night was my first music event of the year after last weekend's snow event and it started off with a great show. I drove up to Asheville again. LOL. It's like my second home. Hmm perhaps third home if I throw in Sanibel as my number two. The band that was performing at the OP are called Abbey Road LIVE and as the name implies they played the Beatles 1969 classic album from the opening song on side one "Come Together" through to side two's epic "Medley". The band's members are from the Athens, GA area and have been touring since 2002. Unlike many Beatles tribute bands they do not dress the part with the wigs and "uniforms". These guys let do the music and their skills do the talking. Don't get me wrong; some of the bands doing the Mop Top tribute do a great job as well. I am thinking of The Return who I have seen a couple of times in recent years.

First thing I noticed last night coming into the venue was that it was an all ages show which is pretty darn cool when you see teenagers of the 2010s attending a show to appreciate music that is 50+ years old. Their parents did a great job exposing them to great music. Don't get me started with most of the noise that is on the radio bands nowadays! I will save that for another blog or ten. LOL.

So onto the show we go! I was all of 7 yrs old when Abbey Road the album was released so I can easily say that I did not hear this music in my little BBG world at that time. That was the year that my father died. Wow that's a sad remember when. My Mom was not a Beatles fan. She was more a Jerry Vale and Renée Martel and Ginette Reno fan. Okay that is more of a pleasant remember when. I actually like those artists. Jerry Vale was oh so smooth.

I probably really started hearing the songs in the mid 70s when I started listening to 97.7 CHOM-FM in my birth hometown of Montreal. Great thing back then on CHOM is that they would literally play any cut off the album and they would play it in its entirety. Here I'm referring to Lennon's classic paean to Yoko Ono "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". All 7m44s of it. Abbey Road LIVE did an awesome job on this bluesy stoner rock classic. A+ to Abbey's lead guitarist who I call the Tom Petersson look-alike. LOL.

The band members are great musicians. The Beatles were way more mature and experimental in their later days in their lyrical content and musicianship in comparison to the early Beatles stuff which was fun and all and risque for the times but kind of bubble gum to me. Just my opinion. I am not an expert. I like pop ditties from time to time but give me "Come Together", "I Want You" and "The Medley" any day. So they started off with the rock songs"Come" which segued into "Something" and I knew I was in for a special music night. Then came the pop songs "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darlin" and "Octopus Garden". The latter being one of my least favorite Beatles song. A close runner up to that tune would be "Yellow Submarine". Side One ends with "I Want You".

Side Two begins with another great George Harrison song "Here Comes The Sun". Such a beautiful song! Turns out this song was written in Eric Clapton's garden. George and Eric had an interesting and odd relationship. Think Patti! Abbey Road LIVE did an awesome version of it. That was followed by the pretty "Because" that was one of the few songs that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all sang in unison. Sure they harmonized tons but most songs featured one of them on lead and not all three as one.

Then the highlight moment for me from the Abbey Road album was played which is the 15 minute medley that closes out the album. Beatles geeks like me love that song and can sing or mumble through all eight pieces of the Medley. As it was being played by Abbey Road LIVE I was looking around to see who else was way into it. There were quite a few us. Men mostly. Mostly in their 50s and bald, balding and baldest. LOL. Us geeks were there swaying, riffing, drumming and singing mumbling from "You Never Take My Money" all the way to the majestic "The End". The great Ringo drum solo was featured and was very cool.

That was the first set. 47 minutes of amazing music! A short break followed for costume change, rest break for the band and BBG sitting his butt down outside in the smoking section. I really do not miss smoking. No lecture forthcoming. LOL. Just an observation. They have seats outside in the smoking section and it was not too crowded hence my being out there. I am way too old and big to park myself on a floor.

Then the second set began and that featured a lot of the early and later Beatles songs that many people came to hear. You know like "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Don't Let Me Down", "Birthday", "Hard Day's Night", "Oh Bla Di, Oh Bla Da", "Hello Goodbye", Twist & Shout","Day In The Life", etc etc. That set lasted about an hour and boy oh boy people young and old were singing along during this set. They did an impromptu tribute to David Bowie and sang a great off the cuff version of "Changes". Cool thing that the band did was take some requests. Problem there is that the Beatles had so many songs and unless Abbey Road LIVE was going to play for four hours there was no way to get them all in. Abbey Road LIVE has more than 100 Beatles songs in their repertoire.

It was a great show! Highland Gaelic Ale is great beer! Dweezil Zappa is next on the docket.

Found Me Some Portuguese Food

2017-01-13T18:41:00.000-05:00

So anyways it seems to me that it took like forever for me to have a non-ordinary event happen in 2017. In a perfect world I would have been down in Athens, GA last Friday night to attend a Yacht Rock Revue concert at the Georgia Theater and then on Saturday night I would have been in my favorite funky city of Asheville, NC attending the Donna The Buffalo show at the Orange Peel.

Instead here I am hunting and pecking at the keyboard under the watchful gaze of BooBoo Dammit on Thursday, January 12th. Good gawd the last time I was out was New Years Eve!!! Like really. WTF!!! No wonder I was happy happy at about or aboot 515pm yesterday as I made my way out of the Mother House's doors to my left sided dented and scratched but amazing mileage with heated effing seats 2013 VW Passat TDI.

Seriously I almost was gliding to my car last night as I was so pumped to get out and about to was to be my 3rd event of the year that had become the 1st event of the year. Okay maybe gliding is not the correct word. At my size I be not gliding anywhere; I be plodding. LOL. Anyways you get the gist and hopefully not the visual. Smiles.

So anyways I love going to Asheville. The drive is kind of short when you look at things from my perspective. Pretty much an hour or so to get there. Traffic is not an issue if I am making my way there from work. More on that in a sec or maybe a few secs depending on how much more babbling I do before I get to the point. The drive is way better though in daylight or when you are not driving in SC NC dark. It's especially nice on SC 25 NC 25 and then I26 in NC as you motor through the start of the Blue Ridge Mountains when coming from around Travelers Rest area.

Okay back on point to when I leave work I get to miss most traffic as I am taking Suber Rd. to SC290 to get my BBG butt to SC 25. The other name for SC290 in "dem dese" parts is Locust Hill Road. Okay seriously WTF with the W standing for Who and T standing for The and F standing for Fudge named the fucking road Locust Hill. Seriously would you not think that a house on Peachtree Rd or Honey Bee Way would have more cachet than Locust Effing Hill. Every time I see the word locust it makes me harken back to some epic Charlton Heston biblical saga directed by Cecil de Mille or is that DeMille. Hmm. In the big scheme of things well it matters none. LOL. Okay rant over. Suffice to say I am not impressed with Locust Hill as a place name.

So my first stop was this new Portuguese cafe in Asheville that opened their doors about 6 weeks ago. I had seen an article on this new place in the cool Mountain Xpress newspaper that services the Asheville area that has tons of articles on foodie things, craft beers, local nightlife and arts with an editorial slant that is more community focused than the typical Gannett reprints with their syndicated columnists that we are now getting in many local daily papers.

Anyways the name of the place is "Fill My Cup Cafe" and it is owned and managed by the Freitas. Mr and Mrs were out on a date night it seems as the very nice day shift manager explained to me when she sat down near me to talk about the food menu.

It has been forever since I have had authentic Portuguese food. Okay forever goes back to July of 1999 when I moved from Montreal to Greenville, SC. For my last 6 years in Montreal I lived in an area of the Plateau Mont-Royal that was loosely known as Little Portugal replete with Portuguese food stores, restaurants, cafes and bars and front yard shrines to the Virgin Mary. I got to experience an awful lot of Portuguese culture by neighborly osmosis during that time. You want to experience sports fanaticism at its best. Sit outside on your front stoop on St. Urbain Street anytime Brazil wins a football (soccer for us American and Canadian types) game of any magnitude. It is "Carnivale" time for 5-6 hours when that happens. I'd be out there with Jeune Homme watching all of the excitement parading up and down the street with my landlords the Delgados. They always gave me care packages of authentic food and homemade wine and port. I never had the heart to tell them in my early days of single parenthood that I was not a wine drinker. LOL. The food was amazing. I especially loved their method of cooking chicken and their native sausage.

Okay I do tend to ramble off and on subject. LOL. So I was there by myself on Wednesday night so I could not take full advantage of the dining experience and partake in a bunch of small plates tastings running the gamut from cacoila (pork marinated for three days and then slow cooked and broiled) or a fava bean dish cooked with sweet onions and chourico sausage or maple-glazed chicken kebabs. My go-to option was then a Portuguese soup and sandwich combo plate. So my dining choice was Caldo Verde and Chourico on Papo Secos (pictured above). This would be known as Portuguese Kale Soup (Caldo Verde) with a Garlicky Paprika Pork Sausage (Chourico) on an authentic artisan roll (Papo Secos). All I can say is that it was epic, awesome, cool and excellent. I should have asked if I they sold care packages. I will attempt the soup this weekend which is no biggie as I already make soups very similar with kale and potato but unless I can find a place that sells chourico I will have to substitute andouille sausage which I have in the house. Facebook posts to follow....

Peace out....Rock On!

Suckered At The Bob Dylan Show.....(11/13/16)....

2016-11-13T06:44:00.001-05:00

Hmm...pretty cool that I got to see Bob Dylan in concert last night in Asheville given his status in the folk/rock n roll pantheon ....takeaways are that his voice was actually pretty strong (surprisingly so)....his band is really tight....those are the good things....now for the less favorable part of the show....as you can see below, unless you are a huge Dylan particularly of his 10 yrs or so the set list is unrecognizable...I guess if you know Sinatra you would know more of his stuff than the Bob Dylan songs...lol...it is the first time that I have seen ushers physically grab people that tried to take a picture at a concert...these ushers were of white and blue haired age and literally grabbing people's arms...it was truly surreal to see...there was zero attempt to connect to the audience...not a single "hey Asheville", "here's a new one", "here's an old one" or even a "thank you".....first concert ever that not a word was uttered by the artist or the band....NOT A WORD....I like to call Asheville a hippie town....our Woodstock of the South...well the 'Woodstockians" last night were not very happy....the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium was sold out but midway through the set people were leaving...it was great for me as it afforded me some leg room...lol..I think all told fees and all the show cost me $112...not 100% sure as I usually buy tickets in bunches and dollar amounts get lumped in...well I feel suckered for spending that kind of money....I don't mind spending money...I guess some would say I waste some but I usually have a positive coming back my way for spending that money...aside from Highway 61 Revisited there weren't many positives.....the other classic Dylan numbers he played were unrecognizable...I was like wtf...that isn't "Tangled Up In Blue"...don't get me started with "Blowin' In The Wind"...seriously that was a huge disappointment....It was like a piss poor Harry Connick Jr. piano version of the song with a croaky karaoke singer on lead vocal....the answer my friend was not blowin' in the wind....the answer is BBG got hoovered!

The Set List

Things Have Changed
She Belongs to Me
Highway 61 Revisited
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
What’ll I Do (Irving Berlin cover)
Pay in Blood
Melancholy Mood (Frank Sinatra cover)
Duquesne Whistle
I’m a Fool to Want You (Frank Sinatra cover)
Tangled Up in Blue (with some new lyrics)
High Water (for Charley Patton)
Why Try to Change Me Now (Cy Coleman cover)
Early Roman Kings
I Could Have Told You (Frank Sinatra cover)
Spirit on the Water
Scarlet Town
All or Nothing at All (Frank Sinatra cover)
Long and Wasted Years
Autumn Leaves (Yves Montand cover)
Blowin’ in the Wind
Love Sick

Loss Of Civility (10/30/16)

2016-10-30T14:13:00.000-04:00

So I was at a local laundromat drying shirts as one year later I still have not had my dryer looked at or replaced when I met up once again with someone so racist that I am still shaking my head in disgust at what this person shared with me.

I was sitting outside while waiting for my clothes to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame and enjoying the mid 80s sunny weather that we have had for almost the last six weeks when a gentleman around my age sat down next to me on the bench outside and started some small talk. I guess I have that kind of demeanor at times that total strangers just start talking to me.

Inside of 2-3 minutes he told me that he has been living in Greenville almost all of his life though he was born in Dover, DE. He was the youngest child of a military Dad that had been stationed at Donaldson when it was active. He then proceeded to tell me that his father (using the term loosely) disappeared when he was two years old leaving him and his three older siblings with their single Mom. She never remarried. He then told me that his Dad committed suicide when he was 10 yrs old. Not something that gets shared with you every day especially within moments of meeting someone in such an innocuous setting.

He then told me that he has a son that is in the Navy stationed in San Diego. Here's where it gets weird real quick. I told him that I spent a few days in San Diego and found it to be a pretty cool place. I did mention that I was on an expense account so I probably didn't really see much of San Diego as I had meetings and dinners to attend. That's when he tells me and I quote "well you didn't miss much, San Diego is filled with homosexuals." I was like OMG WTF. Do I have a sign on me that says "hey racist asshole tell me what is wrong with the world from your brain-damaged viewpoint?" I looked at him and said well I think my dryer cycle is done. Gotta run. Guess what candidate he is supporting?

I am disillusioned! What happened to civility?

America (the Band) in Atlanta (04/01/16)....

2016-04-30T01:04:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: I wrote this thing on April 2nd. Just forget to post it. LOL. So it was 4 weeks ago tonight. LOL.

Last night was another one of BBG's concert road trip nights. I had the opportunity to finally see America (the band) in concert. If memory serves me correctly I wrote about their music a couple of years ago and now the circle is complete with this blog. I bought a great seat for this show on one of my concert buying search and buy soirees. You know one of those nights where I've had the opportunity to indulge in my liking of hops and I am looking for concerts in my backyard. LOL. Atlanta is my backyard. I only drove 300 miles round trip for this show. It's like going to the grocery store for regular humanoids.

So anyways I left work a little bit early as the show had a start time of 730pm. At the best of times the drive into Atlanta from the Upstate can be a dicey timing adventure. I'd say about 60% of the drive is on a portion of I85 that is only two lanes wide in both directions. It's truly hit or miss whether or not it will be a smooth drive. Tons of truck traffic on this 225 mile stretch of highway between Charlotte and Atlanta. I kind of lucked out as the weather was pretty much overcast with no rain and miracles of miracles there was not a single wreck or stalled car on the drive south. My trusty Google Maps app was bang on giving me an ETA of around 645pm to cover the 149 miles from HNA. I ended up at Atlanta Symphony Hall as planned and had no issues finding parking. Harrison had given me a heads up on where to park as he had been to the same place for a comedy show a couple weeks prior. Jeune Homme and I both have a penchant for taking semi-long drives to see shows. LOL. We don't only share the height thing it seems. Cool thing was parking was only $10 in one of those mega parking structures that they have in Atlanta. I am used to the usual $20 rate when in the big city.

So I made my way into Symphony Hall which as the name describes it is not a typical concert barn. Jeepers the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is the main tenant of this venue. No frozen margarita concoctions or Fireball shots are to be had at this venue. LOL. I had to settle for a $6 bottle of Beck's beer being served to me by someone dressed as an usher at a formal black tie wedding. Me in my standard canvas cargo shorts was an anomaly here. LOL. There were more than a few blue-haired ladies and yellow pants wearing men that maybe thought that tonight's performance was going to be all about Neil Diamond's song "Coming To America" as opposed to a performance of two of the three original voices of the the 2nd most popular 3-part harmony acts of the early 70s. The 1st band I guess was Crosby, Stills and Nash but for the 4 year period starting in '72 and ending in '75, America had 11 Top 100 hits of which 6 songs hit the Top 10 and 2 of them hit #1 and they could lay claim to being the top American folk rock band of the land.

As I mentioned I had a seat 4 rows from the stage which was totally awesome. I was ready to be entertained and I was not disappointed. America formed in 1970 when three sons of Americans stationed near London met in university. The original band was the triumvirate of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and the late Dan Peek. Dan Peek was an integral part of the band from 1970 to 1977. He co-wrote and sang lead on 4 of America's hits. These being "Don't Cross The River", "Woman Tonight", "Today's The Day" and the beautiful "Lonely People". Dan left the band in 1977 after going through some health and addiction issues. Gerry and Dewey have been performing together for 46 years. Yikes. That's amazing. You can see and sense their friendship and camaraderie even after all this time as they gently teased each other throughout the evening about the types of music they perform. Gerry does the mushy love stuff ("I Need You" and "Daisy Jane") as Dewey mentioned and Dewey does the spacier druggy songs ("Sandman" and "Green Monkey") as Gerry mentioned. Dewey did mention that his daughter and grandchild were sitting exit stage left as they live in the Atlanta area. He said it was a bit like a homecoming for him visiting his daughter and family.

The setlist contained 19 songs from 8 albums and 1 soundtrack. It featured all of their popular hits throughout the years except for "Muskrat Love". I never did get that song. I for one always thought it was a Captain and Tennile song. LOL. I never got a good vibe just from the title of the song. Muskrats really? Throughout the evening Gerry and Dewey talked about their songs and where they were when they were writing them and what they meant to them. They also talked about the 3 covers that they performed ("California Dreaming", "Woodstock" and "Til I Hear It Again"). The story about being on a triple bill with the Mamas and the Papas and the Beach Boys and all bands performing "California Dreaming" was amusing. America was the first act to hit the stage and as they said they set the bar pretty high with their version of the song. LOL. Dewey and Gerry tour with the bass player Richard Campbell formerly of Three Dog Night who joined the band in 2003 and two relatively new additions since 2014 being drummer Ryland Steen formerly from Reel Big Fish and lead guitarist Bill Worrell who as Gerry put it is in the band to attract cougars to the shows. LOL. Bill is in early to mid-30s and is a great rock guitarist. Dewey and Gerry are very generous and let their band do some solos and have some fun on stage.

Anyways here's the setlist:
1. Tin Man
2. You Can Do Magic
3. Don't Cross The River
4. Daisy Jane
5. Riverside
6. I Need You
7. Ventura Highway
8. Woodstock (Joni Mitchell cover)
9. Cornwall Blank
10. Til I Hear It From You (Gin Blossoms cover)
11. The Border
12. Green Monkey
13. Woman Tonight
14. Only In Your Heart
15. California Dreamin' (The Mamas and the Papas cover)
16. Lonely People
17. Sandman
18. Sister Goldenhair
19. Horse With No Name (encore)

All in all it was a super enjoyable show and a trip down memory lane. Definitely would see them again and again in concert. As Gerry mentioned "we have been doing a 100 shows a year for 46 years and as long as you continue coming to our shows, we will continue to visit your towns". The Kinks released a live album in the early 80s called "Give The People What They Want". America definitely does that!

Life In The BBG World (03/19/2016)

2016-03-19T21:10:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a while since I have hunted and pecked at the keyboard but I have an amusing story that happened today which has many similarities to an event that happened with my Mom back in the late '70s. Typically I would just post to Facebook and write a mini-novel there but I decided I should post here as it is much easier to find on my blog page than on my Facebook page. Goodness gracious I post so much there that I lose patience looking for something that I posted about way back in mid-February. LOL.

So anyways as I am typing right now the original plan was for me to be at The Tabernacle in downtown Atlanta with a couple of friends having a craft beer or two and mangling the lyrics to Vance Joy songs.

That was the plan! LOL. Instead I am in my messy bedroom with BooBoo Dammit staring at me as only she can trying to get me to feed her yet again even though she was fed hmm like 13m48s ago. Not going to work BooBoo! I am in the typing zone.

So let's head back in the time travel machine in Marc's aka BBG's world to sometime in the latter 70s. Okay it may have been the real early 80s. Memories get a little jumbled when you go back ohemgee 35 years. Geezus I am old. LOL. Okay back to point BBG.

So my stepdad Gene (my youngest brother's father) used to work for CNR (Canadian National Railway) as their head photographer I guess in what was their PR department when CNR was a huge important cog of the Canadian economy. He used to have to travel for trade shows and take pics of trains, planes and automobiles. Okay ixnay the last two modes of transportation it was really trains and the scenery you would see if you took a train and the people you would see along the way. Remember back then we humans actually stopped and smelled the roses in our interactions with other humanoids. So my stepdad was in Washington, DC on some PR junket and he called my Mom back in Chomedey and asked her to join him for a weekend in DC. I was in my late teens then and my sister Shawnie was a year and half behind me in age and we were more than capable to take care of our younger brothers Randolf and Rene while our Mom went to join our stepdad in Washington, DC.

This is when it gets funny. My stepdad tells my Mom to book a flight to Dulles and he will pick her up or arrange for a taxi/limo service to pick her up and bring her to wherever the festivities were in DC. Well my Mom booked her flight to meet my stepdad but my Mom being French Canadian may have misheard my Canadian American stepdad's instruction to book a flight to Dulles. Mom booked a flight to Dallas. As in Texas. LOL. Remember back then there were no cellphones. No computers. Good Gawd you would get busy dial tones when you would call people back then and there was no such thing as voicemail. So Dad spent a weekend near Dulles and Mom spent a weekend in Dallas. That story has been shared in the family and with friends for years and years.

Sadly the protagonists in this part of the blog are no longer with us. That's where I come in to continue what we can now call a family tradition. Hmm is it a German thing or a French Canadian family tradition. I'll let others decide.

As many of my friends know and can ascertain I am a total live music junkie. I think nothing of driving hundreds and hundreds of miles to go see concerts. I consider Atlanta and Charlotte my backyard almost and those destinations are what 140 miles and 100 miles away. Sheesh I have meandered to Raleigh NC, Tampa FL, Macon GA and Salem VA to see shows in the last year. Often these decisions are made after a trivia night or some cooking adventure in my kitchen. This implies that BBG may or may not have had a beer, a shot or a glass of wine and perhaps the decision making process is a little more liberal than if I was stone cold sober. Note I said one beer or shot or glass of wine. LOL. As if.

So this year's goal is 60 concerts. Not 60 acts. 60 concerts from 01/01 to 12/31. My musical tastes pretty much run the gamut except for maybe hip hop and what passes for music on Hit Radio in the 2010s. One of the joys of owning my VW Passat is that it came with SiriusXM radio and that has opened my musical world to artists like the Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Nathaniel Rateliff and Vance Joy.Not exactly artists you hear on the radio or see on TV covered on the mindless talent shows like American Idol, The Voice, etc etc.

So back in late December I booked a ticket for Vance Joy in my backyard of Atlanta. I see an artist on tour and I immediately book a ticket if they are in my backyard. I regret missing Rush last year in Atlanta on their 40th anniversary tour because I hemmed and hawed. I swore then and there, I see an act I want to see I buy a ticket.

I have had it on my concert calendar for months. March 19th, 8 pm Atlanta, The Tabernacle. I told friends I was going. I told friends I would see them there. So around 430pm today I head out the door on my way to Atlanta to see Vance Joy. I stopped for a coffee around 6pm in Commerce, GA which is kind of the halfway point and then I look up on my Ticketmaster app the address for the Tabernacle in Atlanta as I have never been there and I was going to imput into my GPS. This is when I discover I had a ticket for Vance Joy alright but my ticket was for last night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville TN. Let's say that my favorite F word escaped my lips several times in a row. LOL.

Immediately I rechecked my Ticketmaster app to make sure that I am a doofus which it did confirm so I thought hmm I guess I need to get another ticket. LOL. Well eff that idea the dang show is sold out. Yay me in Commerce GA not. An hour later I am finishing this blog. LOL.

I am my Mom's son.

Random Thoughts...(04/03/15)

2015-04-03T18:13:00.000-04:00

So it's been a while since I last hunted and pecked. I guess I didn't have much to say. LOL. Surprisingly! I can be quite voluble at times and I know there have been tons of times that I said to myself that I have to put down another blog. Yes I do talk to myself. Whatever! I amuse myself and talking to myself allows me to hear it outside of my head. My head is complicated enough as it is!

So what prompted me to start typing on this beautiful day? First I have to say that this day has been absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and a warm sun. Temps hitting 80F which is almost 27C. Awesome day! Okay I meander I know. It is what I do! I worked outside tending to my grass (the legal kind) on my front lawn and making sure that my newly planted iris buds are getting water. Oh my BBG talking about gardening! LOL.

So my plan is to start each paragraph with the word so. Chuckles to himself. So not only do I talk to myself I even chuckle to myself. Okay I need to get this down before I meander some more a la Adam Duritz of Counting Crows performing live.

So there is that word again. LOL. Yesterday I donated a pint of my O+ blood at Fluor Field and besides getting some Greenville Drive swag (tickets, ballcap and some ballpark food), I got the added benefit of feeling pretty pumped about doing a good deed. My original plan after donating was to drop into Mac's Speed Shop and partake in their awesome selection of beers on tap and grab a bite to eat. But alas I read the dang paperwork that they gave me when I answered the million questions of questionable behavior that I did not partake in my earlier days and I guess what I thought was questionable behavior way back when was pretty lame.

So anyways one of things aka effing rules that you are expected to follow after donating blood is waiting to have alcohol at least an hour later and after a hearty meal. Well ixnay my opportunity to embark on a high gravity beer adventure as all I had eaten yesterday (Thursday) was a healthy salad and that was five hours earlier. There are times that common sense actually prevails in my life. I hate those times. LOL. Yesterday was one of those times. Dang!

So having had one of those sensible BBG moments I figured I should go home and feed BooBoo Dammit. I did have to stop and get some veggies and more importantly good beer on my way home as at some point I was going to have a hearty meal on April 2nd. LOL.

So besides the cool ballcap and the ticket vouchers which I can use singly or dare I say on a date, they gave me some ballpark food which consisted of a large bag of roasted peanuts (yum), a bag of doritos (less yum) and a 20 oz Pepsi (semi yum as it isn't beer). I don't think that food freebies were considered hearty given that I did want to have a beer or seven on a night before a day off so off I went to my car to head back home.

So on my way to my car I passed by a gentleman sitting on a bench in front of the church and it was plain to see that he was having a tough time. I was there once in mid 20s when I spent a couple months homeless and being on the fringes of society. Fortunately in my case that happened in a place where social agencies were in place to help people like I was. Not sure if we have that here. Having been there in mind and reality I try to make eye contact with those less fortunate. It isn't all altruistic. Sometimes it is a purely a self-defense mechanism to be prepared just in case.

So anyways the gentleman says hey and asks how I am doing. I look at him and say things are good. He looked at the stuff in my hands (the peanuts, doritos and soft drink) and then told me that he was hungry. I was there once I was never able to panhandle or beg. I just couldn't do that though as to me it meant I would have to look at someone in the eye; at someone who was higher on the totem pole of life in my mind and ask for help. I have noticed when being asked to give something that those asking look at people straight in the eye. When I was there I couldn't do that. It's an amazing gutsy move. I know I have been there. He was grateful for my "gift".

So bumping into the gentleman on the bench in front of the church in front of Fluor Field was a great remember when of where I once was and where I am now. Things are not perfect but things are good!

So in the words of the members of the band Fun as well as their producer....Carry On ....

Never On Sunday (10/18/14)....

2014-10-19T15:39:00.000-04:00

Well it has been a while since I hunted and pecked on my keyboard. I guess I have something to say once again. Perhaps it's because the never ending election cycle has started back in earnest down here and I get to be regularly pissed off listening and seeing Koch Bros. election buying BS and lies that they are trying to pass of as editorial content while I am trying to watch the greatest professional sports team ever (Montreal Canadiens) play hockey on a Saturday night.

Well here's a big fuck you to fossil fuels producers! The environment does matter! "Drill Baby Drill" proponents are fucking delusional! Global warming aka climate change is a fact! Home schoolers should not get tax breaks and the NRA is fucking nuts!

Okay I have pissed off half of my FB friends in less than four complete sentences. Who says that one can not accomplish great things on a Sunday? LOL!

Anyways I have Windows 8 on this desktop. I hate it. I am too old for this app nonsense. Where the hell is my CD player? Yay I found it! I just popped in a live performance CD from Winnipeg's own RazorBack. One of the members of the band is Dave Seifert who I have known via my job and his job for the last hmm 20 years at least. His band performed at the Park Theater on Osborne St. in Wpg. back in November 2011 and he sent me a copy of their 1st set on CD. Tons of great classic rock featuring Dave's lead guitar prowess. One day I will make it to one of his shows. They just need to schedule a show between the months of June and August because I am not going to Winnipeg during their 9 months of Canadian winter. I want to see Dave play Free's "All Right Now" and "Mississippi Queen" live. Great lead work there!

I actually got on the computer to look for some recipes to make a turkey stock base for soup and then I somehow ended up on my Blogspot page. Hmm! Must be a Windows 8 mystery! LOL. Anyways this blog was supposed to be about my bad decision to go to Costco on a Sunday morning after church let out. I never made it there I guess. I will have to try this once again next week before the Judas Priest concert at the Charter Amphitheater.

Peace out rock'n'rollers and as Rob Halford so aptly puts it "Livin' After Midnight" is the way to go....

Cooking On Christmas Day (12/25/13)...

2013-12-25T11:29:00.000-05:00

Well this will be a quiet Christmas holiday this year. H is here with me for the first time in many moons. Typically he goes up to see his Mom but seeing that she recently moved out to Regina, SK that put a damper on those plans. He gets to hang out with his Dad, the cats and his friends this holiday season.

Next year I am putting up a tree so that it looks a bit more festive in the house. Hopefully Jynx has gotten old enough that she is no longer interested in using the branches of the tree as various sleeping spots and using fragile Christmas ornaments as cat toys. I guess I will have to tempt the fates then.

I gave H the last of his gifts last night. Christmas Eve was always the night for the opening of the Christmas presents growing up. Typically right near midnight. I did it a bit earlier. LOL. Staying up past midnight requires a pre-planned afternoon nap which I didn't have yesterday.

It gets harder and harder to get him gifts as he gets older and I don't like the idea of just giving him money as it shows a lack of creativity. I know I work with numbers so creativity is not my forte. I do try to get some surprises though.

This year I got him some stuff off the NHL.com website to continue to encourage his recent like of all things Canadiens. He got those gifts early as the box was delivered when he was home and I was at work. So the inquisitive type that he is opened up the box to find a Habs t-shirt, key chain and a chillsner that keeps the beverage of choice nice and cold.

I gave him a gift card to Mac's Speed Shop which he can use with his friends as well as a nice bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. Maybe next year I will surprise him with Johnny Walker Blue. He and his friends fancy themselves as good scotch and bourbon drinkers all of a sudden. It is interesting to hear them discuss the merits of this brand next to the brand. It's a guy thing!

I also got him the requisite underwear and socks as it would not be Christmas without those products. It's like having orange, mandarin or tangerine in the Christmas stocking. It's a must! When my siblings and I were kids we always had a soft package of socks under the tree.

The last thing that Santa delivered to him was the result of my using up the last finite amounts of patience that I had yesterday and braving the traffic on Fairview Rd. Suffice to say that many French Canadian swear words escaped my lips right around noon yesterday. There is a good reason why I don't use that road much and yesterday only served to back that argument up.

Anyways I ended up going to Belk's and getting him a nice Calvin Klein fragrance gift set so now he can then use his own good stuff rather than raid my stash. LOL. I am a man with a plan.

So as the title implies I have already started cooking on this cold for SC Christmas Day. The temperature outside is right at freezing and it won't be getting much warmer. They are only calling for a high of 40F or 4C. That is cold for us. Brrrr cold!

So I have roast already going for late lunch thing I guess. I got to use some of the Pampered Chef items I received this past Monday. Happy Christmas to me! Now I just need to learn how to use them properly. There were some accidents involving beef broth and onions this morning. At least the cup of red wine made it to pot to correctly braise the beef. It better cook out during the process or I will be half lit by supper time. LOL.

I am going to do a roast chicken for later tonight as well. Ham is not a big favorite in this house so I went with a large chicken. I can use the leftovers for a soup base as well as for chicken salad I guess. I would have bought a turkey but they only had frozen ones at the grocery store and if memory serves me correctly it takes a couple of days for a turkey to defrost in the fridge. I will plan that better next time. I've never cooked a turkey so that will be a first. I will no longer be a turkey virgin. LOL.

That's it for now Journey fans. Merry Christmas one and all and peace out!

Another Rainy Day In The Upstate (12/22/13)...

2013-12-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

So we have had a really dreary day here in the Upstate with a heavy downpour around noon. Warm temps in the 60s but constant rain. How effing annoying. It was coming down so hard that it awoke me from my nap. LOL. That's what happens when I wake up at 5am. Before you know it I will need a nap to get through the day.

I had a couple of my special coffees and had started reading my latest Randy Wayne White novel "The Man Who Invented Florida" when BooBoo Dammit decided to come and cuddle in the crook of my arm as I was reading. Given that she had marked her eminent domain territory on my arm I decided to close my eyes for a minute or two. Ha. That became about an hour and I only awoke because of the racket the rain was making out on the roof of the back deck.

Since then I have been puttering around the house cleaning up while listening to MC Rock Hits. Housecleaning is definitely not my favorite activity. Off white carpets. Good Gawd that color scheme does not work with two men and two dark haired cats in the house. It looks clean for about five minutes and that's it!

I made a wonderful salad for lunch with two kinds of lettuce (romaine and iceberg), roma tomatoes, green and yellow zucchini cut in razor thin slivers, red onion, green peppers, kale, whole wheat croutons and a Greek salad dressing. I should have taken a picture of the salad. The colors were wonderful. All shades of green with some red and yellow interspersed. It was yum. I had a Dos Equis Ambar with a lime wedge placed in the neck of the bottle and that upped the taste factor big-time.

I guess I need to get back to work. Peace out Midnight Oils fans!

This & That Before My Morning Coffee (12/22/13)....

2013-12-22T08:27:00.001-05:00

So the other day I am heading to take a shower before heading to work and I notice in the mirror a large pimple right on the tip of my nose. It could not be in a more obvious place. How annoying acne at 51 yrs. old. Grrr. Adding to this disturbing picture is that a couple of days earlier I somehow managed to scrape up my forehead but good while shaving my head. I never do that. So for the last couple of days I have relived the early teens of my years with marks on my face. Not exactly the remember when that I want to have. LOL.

Yesterday afternoon I tried a new recipe with chicken breasts, hot Italian sausage and farfalle pasta. It turned out real well and it was really to make with few ingredients. I was worried that it would be a bit bland but the red wine and Italian seasoning brought out quite a bit of taste to the dish overall.

I wish I could say the same of the chicken noodle soup I made afterwards. It was so-so. I pretty much followed the recipe I have been using recently but I may have had watered down the stock a bit too much. I am not real good with salt and pepper to taste in dishes as I am not a big user and fan of salt. I always tell H that it may need some afterwards. The soup is still good but it seems to be missing an ingredient. Maybe it is carrots. I have forgotten to replenish that root vegetable on the last couple of trips to my local Food Lion.

If you need proof that our world has changed for the worse in many ways all you need to do is go on a comment section of a typical news site on the web and prepare yourself for low intellect, racist, unintelligible and disturbing comments on various subject matters. It is beyond belief what can be written on a website without any regard for truth and honesty. Add to the fact that most of these sites don't check or validate what is written and that most of these putrid comments come from people hiding behind avatars, fake names and false Facebook user IDs. It is like having the low intellect cave dwelling members of the KKK coming out from behind their sheets to spew their hatred and non-sensical vitriol. It has gotten to the point that I don't even go to these sections anymore in search of dialogue because all I get is the sense that I need to take a shower to rid myself of the stench of bigotry and hate.

Okay so that was weird as I went from my temporary markings on my face to my adventures in the kitchen to editorializing about "stupid is as stupid does" people. Well it has been bugging me for a few days. LOL. So I now I have written about it and I feel better.

Anyways time to make coffee Collective Soul fans. Peace out.

Well My Smoke Alarms Work (12/19/13)....

2013-12-20T18:25:00.001-05:00

So I was listening to some 70s music play while reading up on Southern rock bands on the Wikipedia website when all of a sudden the smoke alarms went off. Damn that is one loud sound that emanates from a smoke detector. Both of them went off. One in the hallway next to Harrison's bedroom and the one next to my bedroom door.

The reason they went off was because I started the oven cleaning process. I guess that the high heat started to super burn all of the pizza bits that Harrison and his friends leave at the bottom of the oven when they super load up the pizzas that they have baked.

I had neglected to turn the overhead fan so I discovered how well the smoke alarms and sensors work and how effing shrill that alarm sound makes. LOL. I have my kitchen window wide open now trying to dissipate the imaginary smoke. Seems imaginary to me. LOL. I will have to close that window soon as it is only 46 out there and if it keeps up it will be 46 in here but quick. LOL.

I feel like the 1974 Ohio Players classic "Fire" should be next up on the imaginary turntable in my head. Peace out rock'n'rollers and be serene.

Meanderings Of A Sunday Morning In Schlewingstan (12/15/13)....

2013-12-15T16:38:00.001-05:00

I had a real rough night sleeping last night. I had some serious bad dreams. I don't normally remember my dreams and even last night's memories are sketchy. I know my Mom played a central figure in it even though I never recalled seeing her in the dream. She was always off in the distance somewhere. That isn't surprising as it has been 11 years since she has passed on to whatever awaits us on the other side. Hmm I shouldn't get started there because I will ramble on forever on what I think happens to us when we pass on.

That topic along with Fox Non-News Host Megyn Kelly's thoughts on Santa Claus and Jesus being white or caucasian in politically correct language would tie up more than a morning of me hunting and pecking on a keyboard.

Somehow my Mom was there in some way and it involved my maintaining or not maintaining my house and property. Just to enhance things; failed romantic events or advances of recent times were thrown in. LOL. Like I said it wasn't a good dream. I know that I woke up around 635am and told myself I am not going back to sleep because these remembrances or dreams of mine sucked. Perhaps not the prettiest word to use there to use but it is rather concise and suits the situation to a T.

I ended up putting on some canvas shorts and headed to the kitchen to get some coffee going. H was up as he was starting work at 7am and he questioned my sanity then and there. On a day off, his idea of waking up in the morning is getting out of bed at 1159am. He never understands how I get up so early on my days off. It's like I told him; if I am tired later on I will have a nap. Ha. I usually do. It's a real rarity if I don't as I have 3-4 years of sleep deprivation to build back up. Having three large mugs of coffee liberally not conservatively laced with Kahlua, Bailey's or some other spirit may contribute to the nap factor as well. LOL. Trying to think of what I do or think in a conservative manner would be a short conversation.

To add to this day that was off to a rip-roaring start involved my having to grind some whole bean coffee to make a fresh pot. Suffice to say I had a coordination event occur at approx. 645am and I will likely be wiping up spilled coffee grounds for the next few days. Jynx Schlewing may be a tad hyper for the next couple of days because this morning's trial and tribulations occurred on her piece of the kitchen area. I can definitely say that she has been running around more than usual. That may be weight loss related mind you and not caffeine related. LOL.

Shortly after getting the coffee going; I ended up finishing up David Baldacci's "True Blue" that was published in 2009. I enjoyed the read. I was a little perturbed with Mace Perry the main character or protagonist in the book. She was a little too Jack Bauer like in the novel and at times I found her headstrong ways annoying. That isn't a bad thing as at least I had an opinion of her rather than just being indifferent. I kind of pictured Maria Bello in that role. I had to google her name as I wasn't completely sure that was her name. I ended up on the USA Network "In Plain Sight" webpage. OMG what a clustereffword of a webpage. Another one of my segues into whatever land. LOL.

Anyways rock'n'rollers and hangers on I sure hope your Sunday morning went well. Peace out.

State of the Marc (12/08/13).....

2013-12-08T13:17:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe that Christmas is only two and a half weeks away and then before you know it 2014 is here and 2013 is just a memory. It does seem at times that as one gets older that time just flies by. Yes I know that isn't really the case but it does seem that way.

I think it is a culmination of 9 hour work days, an hour or so driving to and from work along with errand runs thrown in and then settling things down to make supper. Before you know it is 8pm and you are just beginning to unwind from your day. Some nights involve tedious and mundane housework tasks. Other nights include watching a Habs game with Harrison. Other nights may have a nap involved in trying to replenish the sleep bank. Before you know it is bedtime. That may be 11pm or midnight or even 1am depending on the day. Repeat that four or five days and nights and weeks really roll on by quick. LOL. It sure didn't seem like that when I was in my 20s or 30s.

Started off the day to rain coming down quite hard with temps just above freezing. Not exactly a rip roaring start to the day.

One of those days that you take a quick look outside and decide hmm perhaps staying in bed bundled under the covers with a steady stream of Kahlua coffees and a good book to read and catching up on 31 games of Words With Friends that I have going sounds like a perfect way to start the day. Toss in listening "Building Blocks of Rock" with Sharon Hyland on CHOM out of Montreal and that describes how I spent my Sunday morning. Breakfast and lunch consisted of a banana, some blueberries and two bowls of cabbage chicken soup I made on Friday night. Hint to self: don't use red cabbage in a soup as the color bleeds. LOL.

I finished reading "The Last Man" by the late Vince Flynn. I enjoy reading his Mitch Rapp books. They remind of Jack Bauer character on Fox's 24 which is probably the last episodic TV show I have watched faithfully.That means I haven't really watched network TV since 2010. Hmm. Seems that my TV is stuck on baseball, hockey, cooking shows and the Smithsonian channel. I guess I am not the advertiser's target market. Ha!

Well almost 1pm. I guess I should get productive. LOL. Peace out rock'n'rollers and hangers on.

Short Blog of Me Being Lazy Imagine That (12/01/13)...

2013-12-01T17:25:00.001-05:00

Well at about ten to five this afternoon I decided to get going and get productive. Basically I have spent the day in my version of PJs (t-shirt and shorts) reading about three weeks worth of newspapers and my latest Randy Wayne White novel while listening to music on various radio stations on the internet and drinking some enhanced coffee. By enhanced I am referring to the new bottle of Kahlua that made into the Schlewingstan household yesterday afternoon.

I can confirm that the weather in Brisbane, QLD, Australia is in the mid 80s with partly cloudy skies per Triple M. In New Glasgow, NS, Canada it was around 32 or 0c with some snow flurries later changing to rain per East Coast FM. In Montreal, QC, Canada it's about -3c with light flurries per CHOM-FM. I can confirm that it was about 10c or 53F here today with clear skies. That's coming from temperature thingee on my back deck as I didn't listen to any Greenville stations today.

I can also confirm that my front lawn no longer exists as it once did. It is covered with thousands of leaves from the Bradford pears that I have out front. My neighbor on my right will not be happy with me as the other day he had some hired help out there on his property removing any leaf of significance whatsoever from his property. Once it dries up a bit more here, my leaves will be sneak attacking his lawn with total disregard of real and/or imagined borders or property lines. LOL. I wonder if that is what was meant by "love thy neighbor". Hmmm. Probably not.

Right now I have some country-style pork ribs in the slow cooker. They had a fire sale on them the other day at the store where Harrison works part-time. I bought a slow cooker recipe mix at the same time to use along with honey and ketchup. I am not crazy about store-bought recipe envelope mixes as I always worry as they seem to be loaded with salt and I am not a salt user. Also not crazy about using ketchup as a key ingredient. Not sure why but it makes me uncomfortable. Now there's some effing logic for you. LOL. Yes ma'am right up there with Einstein's Theory of Relativity is Schlewing's Theory of Ketchup Use.

I need to get back to the kitchen and start cleaning up. Between the curry and the chicken soup I made yesterday and these ribs from today I have used pretty much every pan, pot and cutting board I own. That implies that my weekend slothful ways have to come to an end. Bleh to that.

Peace out rock'n'rollers Monday is almost here. Hahaha. I can here Ode To Joy now in my brain NOT.

Setting The Bar Low (11/23/13)....

2013-11-23T22:43:00.000-05:00

Well it was not the most productive day ever in Schlewing-stan. I woke up around 9am and brewed some coffee and this being the weekend I added a drop or two of Kahlua to ensure that I would have mellow start to the day. My big plan was to get busy outside raking leaves but I never made it outside. I got onto my work laptop and sent out a couple of emails and then decided to continue reading my latest Randy Wayne White novel "The Heat Islands."

I ended up doing that for a couple of hours as I sipped on some good coffee and listened to some satellite radio.

About mid-afternoon I decided that perhaps I should be a tad more productive. LOL. It wasn't like I set the bar too high earlier in the day. I started to tidy up some in the kitchen and my bedroom and then decided to make a homemade chicken soup. I did take a shortcut by using using some organic chicken broth rather than using a broth from a full chicken and then shredding the meat off. I will say that my efforts were quite successful. I've been doing pretty well with soups from scratch for the last little while.

I'd love to write that I did a whole lot more but that would be a lie. I ended up getting back into my book and that pretty much carried me to the Pens-Habs game tonight. I am sure that tomorrow I'll be way more hmmmmm active. LOL.

Whole Lot of Nothing Done

2013-11-12T17:41:00.000-05:00

Just about halfway through day two of nine day break from work including weekends. I haven't done anything yet since my break started. I haven't even left the house since coming home from Bailey's on Friday night. I still have a couple of newspapers sitting in the driveway. It even took me two days to post this blog.

I woke up this morning (Sunday) around 830ish with a faint red wine hangover. I polished off most of a bottle last night when I decided that 10pm was a good time to open a bottle of Apothic and make a soup from scratch. I searched for a recipe on the AllRecipes.com website that I like to use for cooking finds and came up with a cabbage, potato and tomato soup.

The cooler night temperatures kind of encourage comfort foods and as I had all of these root vegetables I figured it would make for a nice and hearty soup. Started off with a quick saute of onions, celery, potatoes and some garlic. Once I had that had gotten going I added chicken bouillon cubes and water and brought that to a quick boil. I added some roughly chopped cabbage and then some diced organic tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and for a bit of zing some hot sauce. Brought all of that to a boil and then let it all simmer for a bit after adding some organic chicken broth to add some more liquid. By about 1115 it was ready to eat. Harrison gave me the two thumbs up so I did pretty good I think. I actually two large bowls for breakfast this morning. LOL. I eat rather weird on weekends. One of the perks of being single and marching to the beat of my own drummer. The soup actually helped me get rid of that slight headache that I had earlier.

My big plan for today is to listen to more 70s music on Sirius and to finish reading my latest Randy Wayne White book (Dead of Night) and then a whole lot of nothing. I have several days to get to steam cleaning carpets in the house and whatever else cleaning I can think of to do. LOL. I am not banking on a hugely productive week. Smiles.

Long Weekend...(09/20/2013).....

2013-09-20T21:40:00.001-04:00

Wow I haven't been exactly prolific in my writings lately, have I? Rhetorical question by the way. LOL. It seems the only time I have been sitting in front of the PC lately is to keep up with my Nationals online and to play Words With Friends until I get so effing annoyed by the stupid ads that I used to be able to mute but can't mute anymore and hear repeatedly. I don't effing need breath strips for my dog. I don't have a dog! I've got cats and cats have good breath it seems so breath strips are effing useless. LOL.

The blog title says long weekend as I have this coming Monday off as I am off to Sevierville, TN on Sunday to see and hear live in concert The Marshall Tucker Band, .38 Special and Foreigner. It will be an awesome show! I have seen the latter two bands live in the last 3-4 years and I know I will be bopping to songs that I have been listening to since I had lots of hair on my head. Yes that long ago. LOL. I can't wait! Hopefully my phone will be charged and I can take some decent pics from the show. I messed up by leaving my phone in the car a week or so ago when I went to see The National in Asheville which was an excellent show. I've enjoyed the shows I have seen this summer. Started off with Third Eye Blind then Darius Rucker then Chicago then Heart then Sheryl Crow then the Beach Boys the Mumford & Sons and then The National. Pretty darn cool!

In fact I have tons of long weekends coming. I booked about 11 days off over the next eight weeks or so just to get to my carry-over for 2014. I didn't plan my vacation time real well this year. Well I started off well with the Sanibel trip in early July but the nearly $2000 "Jynx Get Well" vet bill kind of screwed up some plans between having to take care of her and that money that was destined for a second Sanibel trip. Nevertheless Jynx is well and purring up and sneezing up a storm so all is well in Schlewingstan.

Anyways back to the present. I opened a bottle of "Menage A Trois" I picked up earlier tonight on my red wine and salsa run at Costco and I am typing away as I listen to the musical stylings of Mark Knopfler, Meat Loaf, Powderfinger, Bear's Den and Sinead O'Connor. Nats are up 7-0 nothing and the Tribe are up 2-1. Reds are losing (good) and now we need the Rangers to be down as well or perhaps the Rays pitching can falter letting the Orioles back into the game. Less than 10 games left in the season. H told me last night that I need to get the hockey package on our cable programming. H is a Habs fan. That is so cool! It took 19 years but the Prodigal Son has allowed his Canadian DNA to prevail. I really need to upgrade the sound on that flat screen I have in the living room. It is kind of tinny and brutal! I just don't watch enough TV to give a whit....

I will finish this in the morning...H is home and he wants to chat...

What Came Over Me? Alien Takeover Perhaps! (08/20/13)...

2013-08-23T18:56:00.000-04:00

So last week I went out and bought myself with the help of BB&T a 2013 TDI Passat SE and with the blah weather we've had I haven't really driven it much. H on the other hand is never around since I gave him the 07 Sorento for his bday. I asked him to cover the last three payments and presto he now has a car with a $10K book value. That car is a whole lot better than my lemon of a first car which was a Pontiac Sunbird. Basically on a bi-weekly basis I pumped in what I had left of my pay cheques back then and waved it bye-bye to various car repair shops in the Montreal area.

Back to the point I was making though when I started typing here. LOL. I was a little bit sidetracked as I am wont to do at times. So at lunch time I decided to go on a good beer run at Greene's Discount as I had all these limes in the fridge without the correct beer to use the limes. Even if I drank the Buds and Millers of the world I wouldn't be using lime to add taste. Perhaps some formaldehyde would add some zing to those beers (and I use that term lightly). Budweiser is the king of beers as much as I am the next in line to lead the Republicans to election glory in 2016. Not effing likely.

Anyways beer run completed. Some Sierra Nevada Torpedos. Some Dos Equis Ambars. Some RJ Rockers Patriot Pales. Some Thomas Creek Extreme IPAs. Mission accomplished. This should cover me through Saturday and then Sunday I will go to church and atone for all of my sins. Oh that's right I don't go to church. I am therefore sinful. I may have to do another good beer run on Saturday then so that on Sunday I forget that I am sinful. Oh boy that would be a whole other blog there. Ha!

Anyways I had all of this energy when I came home and did two loads of laundry. Cleaned three cat litter boxes. Fed the cats. Changed shower liners. Trimmed hedges. I am telling you that this level of activity coming from me between 530 and 7pm is effing unusual. I'm thinking aliens. LOL.

That's it for now. Time to listen to some Simple Minds and their Greatest Hits. Peace out and as Jim Kerr once wrote....Don't You Forget About Me....

Meanderings From A Middle-Aged Man Living In The Rain Belt (07/27/13)...

2013-07-28T02:27:00.000-04:00

So this might be longest blog title that I have used so far. Suffice to say that one day when I blank on a new blog title I will just add the word "More" to this title and I will have a new champion of letters used in a blog title. Hehe!

As is often the case when I am up and at 'em early I do lots of news web surfing about places I have lived and places I have visited. While on the http://www.ngnews.ca/ website which covers news and happenings in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. This is an area of NS that I visited often with Harrison when he was a pre-teen as my Mom had moved there after I moved here. I saw an item on the Westville Drive-in being repurposed. I just typed the word repurposed and it has squiggly red lines underneath it which in my world means the word doesn't even effing exist. In normal English which many of us in North America speak if we grew up with English as our first language; the imaginary word "repurposed" means closed. You know closed and all of its six letters would have fit in just nicely and be way more effing concise and truthful in the headline rather than an imaginary word that obfuscates and almost deceives.

You know I understand Sobey (the grocery and real estate conglomerate) selling their movie theatre and drive-in assets for a tidy sum. That is capitalism and it can be rewarding for the shareholders. That's how things work in our economic system. I can even understand the new owners of that piece of property deciding that they can make more money with the drive-in real estate assets by changing its function to something else. I am not sure what it is going to be used for in its next incarnation and if memory serves me correctly there is quite a bit of underutilized land in the county. Maybe the fact that it is leveled makes it easier to use than some undeveloped nearby property. Anyways it is the new owners choice.

What I really didn't like about the story was that the news division of this paper could have just taken the press release from Sobey and Cineplex Entertainment (new owners) and just classify it as a paid ad for all the "probing" journalism the article contained. No one from the News really questioned what is going to happen to the 65 jobs that are going to disappear with this "repurposing". That is a news story to follow. What's the next headline? Those 65 jobs have been "right-sized". More corporation gobbledygook. Why don't they just say that 65 people are going to lose their jobs if Sobey can't find them new positions in the non-theatre assets in Stellarton. That would be honest journalism. Repurpose that you gutless lackeys.

I have good memories of that drive-in and going there with Harrison a few times. Reading about its impending closure obviously bugged me and seeing the wording in the article really peeved me. Yeah I know I am restating the obvious. LOL.

That's it for now. Remember to keep rocking and rolling and singalong to the songs that make you feel. Peace out!

Chicago in Kingsport, TN (07/20/13)....

2013-07-21T22:33:00.000-04:00

Here's my review of the Chicago show at Kingsport, Tennessee's 2013 FunFest concert last night. Let me start by saying that the 160 mile drive there is one pretty drive. Once you get past the Pleasantburg Drive / Poinsett Highway shopping sprawl and are past Furman University; the next 120 miles or so are pretty darn spectacular as you drive past and through the rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Smokies. I think I read not long ago that these are all part of the Appalachians from up north. Let me say that in July the greenery is spectacular. I took some pictures on my droid but they do not do justice to the majestic grandeur and vista that you see as you drive through.

There's a couple of scenic outlooks that I stopped at that truly caught these moments for me. I was thinking of a saying while parked and looking at these views. The saying was "Hurry Up and Slow Down" and enjoy life. At one lookout there was one car besides mine and at another there were two cars. All the while I am taking in these views I hear the cars buzzing by on interstate 26W and was wondering if the occupants of said cars realized what they were missing by not "Hurrying Up and Slowing Down." Somehow I think not. Oh well their loss.

So I made it plenty early to Kingsport and parked my car minutes away from the high school football stadium and wandered down the street where the "Taste of the Tri-Cities" was set up and had some pulled pork barbecue from one of the local shops. The sandwich was huge and the sauce was excellent. The sides were way overpriced and not all that tasty. I will know better next time to stick with just the sandwich.

Interestingly this whole event was alcohol-free (even the concert) as the city was calling it family friendly. It is what it is. It was weird to see the smokers galore out there walking around in a so-called family friend event. I was prepared as I had a small cooler with beers. LOL.

Anyways onto the show. Gavin Degraw opened up and played a 45 minute set and did a yeoman's job of fronting his band and encouraging the audience. At one point he jumped into the crowd and sang two songs while walking through and high-fiving people. I really don't know any of his music. It seems that he is popular with the 2000s version of MTV listeners as some his tunes have been featured on their shows as well as on One Tree Hill. His band are tight musicians and they did their best with many in the audience being twice their age.

Okay onto Chicago's lengthy set. As trumpet flugel horn player par excellence Lee Loughnane mentioned very early in the show; they would be playing a lengthy set (around 2 hours in all) and they would be covering all the bases and touching upon their over forty years in the music business. Truthfully they did a phenomenal job of picking out a set list. As keyboard and sometimes lead singer Robert Lamm later mentioned; the band has had seventy songs hit the charts. Both Loughnane and Lamm weren't kidding.

The concert started with the aptly name "Introduction" which is the first track off of the first Chicago album "Chicago Transit Authority". This tune performed live shows off what will happen over and over in the set. Some hard rocking, some horns, some ballady soft stuff and then some more horns. The tune was written by the late Terry Kath and is now sung by Robert Lamm. This segued into "Questions 67 and 68" from the same disc. This song is one of those desert island songs for me. CHOM-FM used to play this song semi-regularly back in the late 70s and early 80s and from the first time I heard the horns I was hooked. It was weird hearing it last night with a bunch of people that may not have been very familiar with the non-AM radio songs that Chicago includes in their set. Jason Scheff on bass sang lead with some assistance from Robert Lamm on the deeper vocal parts. This song allows the band to showcase the horns as well as lead guitarist Keith Howland's chops. Great great performance. This led into Dialogues Parts 1 & 2 which comes from Chicago V in 1972. Another rock and jazz song with some catchy choruses as well as a nice vocal interchange between Lou Padrini, Jason Scheff and Robert Lamm. This led into the first recognizable tune for many in the audience which was 1978's "If You Leave Me Now" from Chicago X. As my friend Jeff P. says this is one of those QFM songs. Hehe. It's a pretty song. Then we had "Call On Me" from Chicago VII next which is the one hit song written by Lee Loughnane and ably sung by Lou Padrini who has taken over some of Bill Champlin leads. Then came my 2nd desert island song of the night which was 1973's "I've Been Searchin' For So Long" also from Chicago VII. album. This tune to me is another one of those songs that talk to me. It is one of those songs that encapsulates what life should be about or aboot. LOL. Next up was the instrumental track from the same album named "Mongonucleosis". This is a James Pankow (the eminent trombone player and one of the four remaining original band members) word play song which is a upbeat jazz tune I guess. It has a great Jason Scheff bass line and shows off Loughnane's trumpet skills. A fun tune.

Then came a very nice part of the show. The whole band exited stage left (lol)and then a stage light was directed at a lone keyboard set up front and center. Out came Jason Scheff and he did a solo version of "Will You Still Love Me" from Chicago XVIII on that keyboard. It almost seemed like the couples in the audience moved closer to each other and hands were being clasped. You could hear the soft whispers of people singing the chorus together. I had a brief moment of sadness given my current status but nevertheless was taken in by the moment. It was an impressive performance. Then Jason left the stage and Robert Lamm came out and took Jason's recently vacated spot along with Keith Howland with an acoustic guitar and the immensely talented and vibrant auxillary percussionist Walfredo Reyes Jr. and they performed a mellow version of Robert's song from Chicago X "Another Rainy Day In New York City." This was also well received by the crowd at the show and I liked hearing the lesser played song from that album. They left the stage and out came Lou Padrini to sing an amazingly heartfelt version of "Look Away" from Chicago XIX. Halfway through the song the rest of the band came on and the radio version was played. Great great tune. Not a tune to listen to when you are down on romance. LOL. These solo performances were real nice and a great change of pace.

With the whole band on stage you kind of knew that the tempo was about to pick up. Then the unmistakable opening horn hook of 1970's "Make Me Smile" from the suite of "Ballet For A Girl in Buchannon" on Chicago II. This song is over 40 years old and still has me dancing in my chair. Please don't think of the graphic of a man 6'5"+ and 275 lbs. dancing in a chair. It isn't pretty. Nevertheless Lou Padrini did a great job on vocals until passing it onto Robert Lamm for his bit then to Lee Loughnane's trumpet solo and then before you knew it the unmistakable piano/keyboard intro of the wedding song classic "Color My World" broke out midway in the "Ballet" with Lee Loughnane (yes really) on vocals complete with the beautiful flute solo by another original Chicagoan Walt Parazaider. As the suite continued, there was some more beautiful horn arrangements sequeing back into "Make Me Smile." A nice performance of a song that you normally only hear in the hit song versions.

Then back to Chicago I we went with the immediately recognizable Robert Lamm tune "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is". The ode to the weekend where time, watches and clocks do not exist in Schlewing-land. A nice place to be. This led into the flute intro by Walt Parazaider on the #3 hit from Chicago XVII's "Hard Habit To Break". In 2013 the version features the vocal interplays of Jason Scheff and Lou Padrini. Well done. I know I was singing along to the "I am addicted to you Babe, you're a hard habit to break" vocal. Then again I was singing along to everything. LOL. Perhaps I am biased. Ha! This led into the Peter Cetera penned tune "You're The Inspiration" from Chicago XVII. This was also sung by Jason Scheff who has taken over the Cetera vocals and bass playing and does a great job at it. This is not one of my fave Chicago songs as it is a bit formulaic which is not surprising as it was written with David Foster's help. Not a David Foster fan. At one point he was producing Chicago and telling them that they did not need the horns. LOL. My opinion is that they didn't need the Foster. So there!

Back to Chicago I we go with "Beginnings". Signature Chicago song. Robert Lamm lyrics. Great chorus. Horns in the back mix. Some nice acoustic guitar. Scheff solo. Pankow solo. Loughnane solo. The latin rhythm backbeat provided by Tis Imboden and Walfredo Reyes Jr. All I can say or write is Wow!

Up next we now have us some cowbell! Yes. The Spencer Davis classic "I'm A Man" is up next and the horn section has cowbells and cymbals. I don't think there is a bad version of this song in existence. The drums, the cymbals, the tambourine, the cowbell and the electric guitar has gots to gets your feets tapping. If it doesn't there is no hope for you. I am sorry. You have no cool genes! Anyways back to the live version of the song; about three minutes in we have ourselves a drum and percussion solo exchange between the wonderfully talented Tris Imboden and Walfredo Reyes Jr. If you have a chance YouTube Chicago Freedom Fest 2012 "I"m a Man" great drums and you will not be disappointed if you have a cool gene in your body.

Next up came the great James "Jimmy" Pankow to introduce the next song. He's been using the same line about this song for years but it is still a propos. "First it is song that people get married to and then it is a song that babies get conceived to." Those were Jimmy's words. They are so true in hindsight! Is there a better lyric about being in love than "baby you're everything, I've ever dreamed of"? That's one of the key lyrics from Chicago VI's "Just You'N'Me".

Here we go into the home stretch of the concert. 18th song of the night. All of them hits. All of them singalongs. Well for me anyways. LOL. The key-tar starts and it's the unmistakable opening riffs of "Saturday In The Park" from Chicago V. A common theme in this blog seems to be how many songs that one recognizes within five seconds. They may have not changed the world but they affected my little world and that ladies and gentlemen is the beauty of music. This segued into the keyboard intro of "Hard To Say I Am Sorry" from Chicago XVI in 1982. Once again we have Scheff doing an able job on Cetera's original vocal. This immediately leads into the unmistakable opening guitar riff of Chicago VI's "Feeling Stronger Every Day". Everybody is standing up now. Fists are in the air. Lots of Oh Yeahs. LOL. And that is the end of the concert until the encores. I'm forty feet from stage now having worked my way up as the show has gone along and I am ready for the encores.

The first encore is a quintessential Chicago track "Free" from Chicago III. Some horns. Some guitar. Some latin rhythms. Some patriotism. Some "Free". Then comes the Keith Howland intro to the timeless "25 or 6 to 4". I still don't have an effing clue what that song means. Joey Baranski and I used to select this song on the jukebox at Atomic's Pizzeria in a strip mall located at the corner of 100th and Souvenir. Forty years later I remember this as it was yesterday. Still no clue what it means but on July 20, 2013 that song was fucking amazing!

I can't wait until I see them next year. Dang I may try to get them to come to the Charter Amphitheater so I don't have to drive three hours for a show. I think it would be a money-making venture. Perhaps putting concerts of my favorite bands is in my near future. I really think we are underserved here.

Rock on Chicago lovers rock on!