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My best friend from high school popped up out the blue. I got a Smugmug message from him. He passed though town on other business and we spent a few hours monopolizing a table at the Southport. I had kind of forgotten that it was from him that I got my, ahem, sense of humor. (although he claims it was the other way around). Which made me realize that it's been way too long since I've even lurked here. So I'm posting and promising to do better

All bookcases completed. And the other project I alluded to... This Walnut cookie was cut from a tree on Al's Brother's property, where now stands his new house. This table will now sit on the covered veranda, not far from where the tree originally stood. Al found the base from a seller we've used before for table legs. Hard to see from my poor photography skills, but there's lots of burl in this piece.

So Thursday we drove to Manchester, VT and toured Hildene for most of the day and then went to dinner at The Copper Grouse where Karen had a super Coq au Vin and I had an excellent orange duck. On Friday we attended a one-day Fly-fishing course at Orvis which was a hell of a lot of fun. After the course was over we used our 20% off coupon to buy two of their mid tier fly-rods and reels. Then we went for dinner at The Reluctant Panther and had an excellent lobster and Brie fondue appetizer. Karen had a nice, thick bone-in pork chop and I had an excellent lamb sirloin steak. Drove home on Saturday and picked up the dogs from the doggie pet resort. Nice relaxing mini vacation that we both needed.

It's a travesty that these guys aren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! They sold a phenomenal amount of records.

The Carnegie Hall Concert by Alice Coltrane (2024) (recorded - Feb. 23, 1971) https://album.link/i/1727474137 Example: This has been on the top of my queue since it was released in March. After the tribute above, I took the time to give this as good listen. I was interested in the story of this as well, not being released until now. But with -- Three percussionists (Ed Blackwell, Clifford Jarvis, Kumar Kramer), two saxophonists (Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp), two bassists (Jimmy Garrison, Cecil McBee), a vocalist (Tulsi Reynolds) and one bandleader, harpist Alice Coltrane. How can I not listen? The example is one of the 4 tracks of the 1 hour 20 minute recording. It is the most melodic compared to the higher level of entropy of the other three tracks. It is on the edge of my musical taste, and knowledge, but I really liked it. I will spend some time with it again to dig a little deeper as to what is going on.

Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel by Duane Eddy (1958) https://album.link/i/217699746 << - is this site defunct? - I have been noticing a lot of omissions. But then again I am mostly pretty far away from mainstream music. But I assume it is just a pile of API's collecting info. Anyway... Example: Long live twangy guitars....

And the Weber is good for snacks...LOL HS

The Femmes show was a lot of fun and they were just as rough around the edges as ever. They have never performed their albums start to finish but it worked well. They played Hallowed Ground first and then their self titled first album after a brief intermission. Three songs made up the encore and sent the aged crowd home happy. The giant sax is apparently a Contrabass Saxophone and sounded like a fog horn even compared to the baritone sax that Blaise Garza also played. The other unusual instrument was the Weber kettle bbq that the drummer played.

Normally they make a track-focused special, so maybe one more exclusive derivative, that would be the most desirable unobtainable collectible one, although I wonder if any extra aero is going to ruin the looks. https://autozine.org/Archive/Ferrari/new/F12.html#812 I would be very surprised it if hasn't improved a bit further from the previous gen, which was already a 5-star driving car, the 'electronic' driving experience has started a long time ago, and people got used to it. I would assume they've sorted out the handling, but still an extra 90 hp on top of that... So the 'natural feel' at speed when stepping on the loud pedal is probably scary. Even with all the driving aids, in less-than-ideal conditions, this much power can overwhelm the rear, so we will eventually see premiership footballers crashing it. Another notable thing is that they also had to clamp down on the outside noise due to some stupid regulations and use the interior to amplify it on the inside. Aftermarket exhaust makers will have a field day with this one.

Hi Carl! It would be great to see you hanging round this joint a bit again.

In my next life I want to be you!

I really regretted not being able to do my radio show last night. I'd 100% have ended it with CSNY's "Ohio"

54 years ago today:

I own a lot of lenses, but end up using a 50/1.8 almost all of the time. All of these were taken with it and my 5D4, at ISO 200. F/9, 1/400. F/9, 1/200. F/8, 1/40. F/10, 1/500. F/8, 1/320. F/8, 1/200. F/7.1, 1/320. F/5, 1/125. F/8, 1/160. I took this one with the 50/1.4 at F/4, 1/80. The 1.4 has significantly more barrel distortion than the 1.8, which is never noticeable in actual photos.

Duane Eddy https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/may/03/duane-eddy-obituary I mourn. One of my inspirations as a baritone guitar player. I have his Gretsch Bass6, which I am keeping.