Shadows and Light

Robin and Dave with the Ormidale Chorale - Argyll, Scotland

The Beach Boys - Vegetables

Downtown

A friend sent a mysterious text Sunday with a tic tok video attached, Beware! I don't do tic tok so I called him Monday morning and asked him what was up and if there was anything in particular that I should be concerned with.

He said not to worry, he just wanted me to know that a noted Fallbrook street person (rhymes with Meth) was seen fishing mail out of the mail slot at the Mission Theater with another urchin.

He followed them behind another business and watched them sort through it. He called the cops, told them that he had video and they did nothing, Went into an alley and laughed. No arrest, no nothing.

I thought mail theft was a federal offense?

Not in Fallbrook, apparently, where the cops don't like to make waves. Unless they are prosecuting my wife for defending herself against a crazed Maga-ite who punched her in the face. Because "it is her word against yours and we are going to side with the conservative." That one cost us some money. Good thing a scared witness who saw the whole thing finally stepped forward.

Anyhow I don't usually bother talking to the deputies about the homeless who seem to run roughshod on Main St. The ones who crap near my back door and who I continuously have to pick up after. I filled a garbage bag yesterday. I have seen them charging their phones in one of my utility outlets that is practically on the roof. But nothing ever changes, I think somebody is bussing more and more derelicts in.

Not sure why they are my responsibility to clean up after but at least they have mostly stopped screaming foul epithets at customers and shopkeepers and scratching their names on my window. I just pick up trash and power wash poop,

My friend told me that one of these losers had a gun and tried to carjack him a few months ago. But law enforcement won't do anything. Pretty useless.

What a shame.

I used to have a lot more sympathy for the downtrodden but I have used up my quota. All they seem to do is take. And the rest of us are on our own. 

Neighborly

 

Black throated wind

Love you, Bob.

So saddened to hear about the passing of Bob Weir. 

Dave alerted me that the end was near a few weeks ago. 

I didn't want to believe it. 

During my long tenure as a fan and member of the dead community I managed to meet, hang out and talk with every member of the dead but Kreutzmann for some reason.

But Bob is the only member of the dead I ever drank with. It was at Griffin's funeral. 

We drank a bottle of tequila, right out of the bottle. 

Jerry was drinking whiskey in the bar but Bob and I were swigging right from the bottle outside.

This was way back in 1991. We talked about a lot of things that I don't totally remember at the moment but I do recall talking to him about Griffin's Imperial Message mural that Gordon and Griffin erected behind the dead back at the infamous Swing show in San Bernardino in 1977. 

Bob had no clue it was ever up, apparently until I told him, he didn't have any idea. They were looking the other way. Tried to tell him how powerful that night was for many if us, not sure it got through. Anyhow he was a genuine guy and I was and still am quite grateful that he took the time to reminisce and share a bottle of spirits with me mourning our late friend.

Beautiful man, will be sorely missed.

Weather Report Suite

The Ol' Cardiff Days

After forty three years of chemical sobriety, I have to figure all the criminal statutes have expired by now and I can safely expound on my misbegotten youth. So a confession; I was not always such a squeaky clean boy scout as I am today.

College was quite the experience. I had two roommates, Dave and Jeff. Rick Griffin called us the original Furry Freak Brothers. Never went to class much, interfered with our partying. Dave recently sent pictures.

We had quite the bachelor spot, right on the bluffs of Cardiff. Pretty legendary, industrial sized nitrous tank, glass tabletops, Motown parties, we were like pioneers of our craft.

We all have our roles to play. I was sort of the mature adult chaperone in this household. "Have a glass of milk, have you done your homework?" Somehow we managed to fit in quite a few Grateful Dead concerts in between our scholastic efforts.

Me to the right, my first year issue red BMW. Not sure about the white pants. Dave had a green BMW CS coupe, one of the early ones. We set the bar for high or low, depending on your pov. Lots of fun times, many girlfriends.

An older milf type woman named Francine would open her door and scream loudly so everyone on the block could hear, "Robert, do you want to f-ck..." I tried not to ever let the old gal down.

blotter tongue

easing congestion

Tempe airplane ride

Dave says he has a lot more shots, some even more disturbing than these. These pics actually scare me now. We were definitely out of control. But we sure had fun. These whippersnapping kids these days...

Brick in the wall...

What sad times we live in when a communist lesbian agitator is allowed to run over a masked ICE officer with her car. Wait, what do you mean that never happened?

String Cheese Incident

Bully Power

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Stephen Miller

Our application and newfound love for the Monroe doctrine in places like Venezuela and Greenland will have one immediate result; it will be an invitation to Russia to take over Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Poland and bring them back into the puppet state fold. 

Look for China to greenlight their takeover of Taiwan as well.

We have set a stunning example with our rhetoric, threats and bullying actions. We have forsaken and alienated our longtime allies and given strength to ruthless adversaries.

Europe and the west will be the new enemy for Trump and his new allies in Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang, who share his love for unbridled power and autocracy.

It is frankly a shameful time to be an American, both internationally and domestically.

*

Having said that, kudos to several Republicans for finally standing up to Trump. Thank you Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Don Bacon, a retired Brigadier General. We need more people of every political stripe and tribe to speak out against the insanity.

Jesse Ed Davis

Note from Big Dave

I thought that this was an interesting screed and probably quite accurate.

Remember January the 6th

 

Cowboy Collectors Gathering

For the first time ever, I will be exhibiting at the Cowboy Collectors Gathering in Prescott, Arizona later this month. 

It looks like a fun little show to do and a great opportunity to buy. Lots of top notch dealers.

If you are in the area, stop by and say howdy!

note from Thailand

 

Allman Brothers Band

3/12/71 Fillmore East - Alternate take

Justice Ketanji Brown warned us about this...

In his recent state of the SCOTUS address, Chief Justice Roberts pointedly said that justice would be equally dispensed to the rich and the poor.

“Those of us in the third branch must continue to decide the cases before us according to our oath,” he wrote, “doing equal right to the poor and to the rich, and performing all of our duties faithfully and impartially under the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

A new study shows that that is plainly balderdash. 

The study, published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, investigated whether the Supreme Court has contributed to rising income inequality by ruling in favor of policies that favor wealthy parties.

It is called Ruling for the rich; The Supreme Court over time.

Its authors—two academics from Columbia University in New York and one from Yale University—found that in cases pitting the rich against the poor, Republican appointees were far more likely than their Democratic colleagues to side with the wealthier party.

Back in 1953, Democratic and Republican appointees were statistically indistinguishable on the issue, with justices appointed by members of both parties favoring the rich in 45 percent of cases on average.

By 2022, the average Republican-appointed justice was voting in favor of the rich a whopping 70 percent of the time.

The average Democratic justice cast a “pro-rich” vote—which was defined as a vote that would directly shift resources to the party that was more likely to be wealthy, including votes that supported businesses over consumers or workers—just 35 percent of the time.

“The results reveal a steady increase in polarization, mostly due to Republican appointees whose decisions rise from about 50 percent pro-rich share to a 70 percent pro-rich share over the course of 70 years,” the study’s authors, Andrea Prat, a Columbia economics professor, Jacob Spitz, a Columbia PhD student, Fiona Scott Morton, a Yale economics professor, and wrote.

No wonder Roberts brought it up.

Mona

Psyched

I took a puff or three this afternoon, to no or little effect. It had been a year and I thought I should check in. Oh well, maybe try again.

Big Dave sent me a picture of Hippie Robert on an infamous plane charter we took over forty five years ago.

We were hanging out with the Dead and Warren Zevon's band back then, getting into all sorts of mischief at the hotel. I am quite skinny, I believe I was on a special Peruvian diet.

Sweet girl's name was Sue. We engaged in some serious fun a mile up in the air, pilot threatened to abort the trip. It was not destined to be a long relationship, she insisted on talking to me while I had my morning coffee and was dutifully engaged in reading the paper, a serious breach. Great while it lasted.

Here are a couple more pics of me during my psychonaut days, thought the fun and hijinx would go on forever, it didn't.

Living large

Being a good husband, or doing my best anyway, I made scones this afternoon. It has been raining off and on all day and I started the day driving back and forth to Mission Viejo, helping out a friend who is moving back to China with his wife.

Leslie has been asking me for "her" scones and it was her turn. Dried cherry, dark chocolate, walnut, pecan. I added a bit of maple to the vanilla in the wet mix.

She found a screaming deal on whipped honey with cocoa and we drizzled a few, just because we could.

Leslie says Delicious.

*

Speaking of deals, Steve Wagman told me that he found fresh swordfish yesterday for half off at Major Market, $7.50 a lb.

Leslie drove down this afternoon, brought back swordfish and wild caught fresh Alaskan cod.

I made a compound butter with garlic, paprika, lemon zest, lemon juice and parsley. 

Got my Le Crueset griddle screaming hot in the oven, did a three minute sear with olive oil on the stovetop, flipped it and stuck it back in the 400 degree oven for about six minutes, a bit longer on the cod.

We slathered it in the compound butter. Leslie made a beautiful grilled artichoke lemon fettuccine that could not have been better. Tomorrow we are back to salad.

Killer meal. Life is good.

Take the A train

Falling Down Blues

Bully Pulpit

First stop Venezuela, is Mexico next? Canada, Greenland, Denmark, does it ever stop?

Trump says we will run Venezuela now, to the consternation of many of our allies. Take the oil.

Now I am not sure if this is the good old Monroe doctrine or the divine right of kings but I don't think this bullying attitude and disrespect for other countries' sovereignty is going to end well.

Not that Maduro was a prince but I thought the GOP said it was now time to mind our own business and go non-interventionist?

The indiscriminate murder of the people on the boats, who may or may not have been trafficking drugs that may or maybe not headed to the United States makes a little bit more sick sense now, a prelude to his real intended takeover plan the entire time.

I am sure that our newfound allies in Russia, Hungary and North Korea will heartily applaud the strategy.

*

We never hear much from Russia hawk Lindsey Graham on the subject of Ukraine any more. Why the crickets, Senator? Somebody get access to the Grindr account?

Of course, there are lots of GOP members too afraid to open their mouths right now.

*

All of the polls are pretty clear, a gigantic majority of Americans support extending ACA credits.

78% of the total populace and 59% of Republicans. 57 % of the people who identify as MAGA, which makes sense since they will bear the brunt of not having health insurance.

The Republican leadership will have a lot of heavy lifting to do in order to convince Americans that destroying the health care system in this country is a good thing. 

It's not like they have not had fifteen years to come up with a suitable alternative.

But instead we have nothing.

Button your seatbelts. 

We are in for a very bumpy ride the next three years. 

Anything can happen. 

But at least we will have a lot of new gold and marble fixtures in Washington D.C..

Arc de Trump. It was a natural! 

Le Chêne

I would love to try this place. I miss New York.

Happy New Year from Jimi Hendrix

Nero's feast

New Years weekend was a gluttonous affair, not intentionally mind you, but our bacchanalian revelry ended up looking like something out of satyricon. Where's that feather?

Leslie and I decided to take a rainy New Year's Eve off and go to the Costco Business center in San Marcos. Get us some provisions.

I had promised her a big box of crab to put in the freezer. I saw some king crab there a while back. She loves crab, I am more of a lobster guy. But marriage is a series of endless compromises, as we all know.

I want to keep her happy.

We got to Costco, bought short ribs and beef ribs for later but the only crab was dungeness that was unfortunately frozen. Her friend bought fresh crab from them recently so we passed.

We ended up at the Nordahl Costco and they had fresh dungeness claws, which I bought even though she would have preferred to wait for the whole crab. 

For the hell of it I bought six fresh lobster tails too as well as the wild caught Argentinian red shrimp.

She protested both purchases but there are times when a man has to make his move.

We drove home looking forward to some sort of feast and then a bit of panic set in. 

You see, the crab and lobster were fresh, previously frozen and probably could not stand a re-freezing without a real breakdown in texture and taste.

That meant cooking everything that night. 

And you are supposed to eat lobster within 24 hours.

But when we took the lobster tails out of the pack, there were not six of them, as we were fooled to believe, there were actually twelve, they had been stacked.

Whoa!

Hmmm, what to do? Who could possibly eat all of this food?

We ended up baking and broiling eight lobster tails and steaming the other four in our large stockpot with the wire colander on top. 

I  cracked the malocostracan decapod thorax in a dish towel, cut the shells down the center, made two bottom cuts, fanned the tail and carefully pulled the succulent meat out and placed it on top of the tail. 

I watched a youtube video. Now I know.

We melted a butter garlic sauce and added a touch of paprika to the mix.

Squeezed a lemon over the tails and painted on the butter. Dash of salt and pepper.

Pre broil iteration

Bake at 425° and then a quick broil at the end.

Holy shit, how were we going to eat all this treif?

Well the good news is that we did, or we made a great stab at it anyway. 

The first night we had seven tails and a large portion of the crab, which was great out of the package, not even steamed.

We liked the grilled method better than the steamed for the tails but we tried them both ways.

Dungeness crab was superb. I didn't realize how much I loved it.

Last night I made lobster salad with two of the remaining steamed, celery, lemon juice, mayo, salt, pepper and dill.

Three to go, they will probably go into a lobster risotto tonight.

And what am I forgetting? 

Leslie had marinated a rack of lamb all day Wednesday that was supposed to be our dinner before I got the selfish shellfish itch. 

We had to cook that too. Lamb should not be over marinated or it breaks down or so she tells me.

We were so stuffed that it had to sit in the fridge until last night.

It was unbelievable, I nailed it at the perfect point of medium rare. So tasty.

I honestly can't believe how much food I/we ate. 

Amazing.

I won't need lobster for a while. My fault. But it was an incredible feast.

And while somewhat expensive, the price for all of the food was far less than what one would pay for a seat for one at a swank New Year's Eve restaurant soiree.

So there!

*

Yesterday morning we went to Del Mar to meet old friends and have brunch at Davanti Enoteca.

I broke my alcohol fast with a bloody mary. First cocktail in a year.

The place has new owners and try as they might, is just not the same. Focaccia is not as crisp, my orrechiette with fennel sausage was just good and not great, the drink a feeble memory of a forgotten masterpiece. 

Which instantly clogged my sinuses. Not sure if it was the alcohol or the tomato juice but I am susceptible to such occurrences, especially with white wine and champagne. Leslie gave me a benadryl, which got me slightly dizzy. She drove home.

Didn't taste much alcohol, she didn't either. In any case it was an underwhelming experience. My next drink will be a greyhound and I will see if it triggers my respiratory system as well? If so, all bets are off and my dreams of becoming a late in life lush might be extinguished.

Perhaps it will be a sober year after all?

In any case it was great to see Lena and Ron, Bob and Shela.

Hope you all had a great New Years and best of luck this year. The country and world will need it.

Try not to overeat. ☺

*

Yes Linda, I am seeing Dr. Mells. What a sweetheart.

Pretty tight

End year ramble

I guess I have time for an extended end of the year free form shpiel. I'm really out of practice, honestly, tasting my output before it rolls off my keyboard of late. Not everything needs to be shared and I am trying to be a bit more measured about what to hold inside.

I was thinking the other day about how time slips by. Before too long, all the boomers will be extinct and Gens X,Y, Z and M can have at it. I don't have my hopes up for the future for a variety of reasons, predominately environmental in nature, but perhaps we can be pleasantly surprised?

As we move forward at technological lightspeed our personal conventions are changing. McLuhan was right, the medium is the message and technology changes human behavior in ways and at a speed that heretofore would be unimaginable. 

All of our successors on this earth have never known a world without email or the internet yet ignorance of history and general incompetence seems to be at its zenith.

Even with a powerful computer at the end of everyone's arm.

Because history is now whitewashed and shaped by those that control our respective media silos, truth be damned. Ahh, truth, that illusory thing that we called reality, now on sale to the highest bidder.  That and general apathy and stupidity anyway. Anyway, our methods of communication are certainly changing and I got sobering news of that the other day.

My friends know that I always say, "I am a talker, not a texter..." It is easier for me. I prefer to talk in human voice with someone than text. It is called a real dialogue as opposed to a staggered monologue. The word dialogue comes from the Greek dialegesthai to ‘converse with.’ In my book converse means to exchange spoken words but I am admittedly old fashioned.

Anyhow I was told the other day that it is now deemed gauche to call someone on the phone without texting first.

Really?

If this is true, I think it sucks.

If you have something to say to me, please call. Let's have a pleasant chat, shall we? If you can make the time.

*

I guess if I am on an end of the year bitch session I should relay some other things on my mind that are bugging me. 

Like AI.

What a great tool for people that lack their own artistic vision or have no interest in that reality thing we were talking about earlier. Why bother with it when ChatGTP can give you a reasonable facsimile that may or may not be riddled with errors but is good enough to fool a good chunk of the audience a good amount of the time?

What a bunch of bullshit.

*

The Trump administration is now talking about revoking Somali immigrants' citizenship. I have no doubt some fraud was committed in Minnesota, I have no idea of the scale. Might be enormous. People need to be prosecuted.

But like all peoples, there are good somalis and bad somalis, like in every culture. We are a nation of immigrants, back to the first inhabitants crossing the Bering Strait 10 or 20kya. To single out a people like this seems un american to me. 

Substitute, Italians or Irish, or Jews, Chinese, Blacks or Indians or any other particular group that you yourself might actually belong to and think about how you would feel?

I've known some wonderful Somalis in my life, some in hijabs.

We are better than this.

Trump recently called for more immigration from nordic nations, let get some more hot women, right? Oh and white South africans. 

If I didn't know better I would think the administration was just trying to exclude the browner shades of humans from our shores. What is that called again?

*

I am back to my winter cooking regimen. Made my first pot roast the other night. 

I couldn't afford the chuck roast at ten bucks a lb. and went with the cross rib. 

Not as much fat but not a lot of difference. 

Still expensive at almost seven bucks a pound.

Roasted chicken the next night and rack of lamb tonight.

I love cold weather cooking. 

Gives me a chance to get the dutch oven out.

Short ribs soon, freezer is packed!

*

I haven't been to a dentist for four years. My guy retired and my hygienist lost his foot to diabetes. 

Leslie found me a dentist yesterday. I have a little gum emergency. Going to be a bit expensive, four deep cleaning sessions. 

But I like her. The ordeal starts Friday.

Remember to take care of your teeth.

*

I wish you all the best of New Years.

*

Darkow

 

Bottoms Up!

Well, a very different year is coming to a close. Since I decided to forsake weed and alcohol for the past 12 months, with the exception of one glass of port and cabernet respectively, I guess I will forever think of it as the "dry year." I said I would abstain and I did and I feel proud that I could. I got a lot of stuff done, although life was lacking a little inspiration in spots.

I was never a huge drinker, more of an occasional puffer, but it is funny. I really have no desire for weed whatsoever but a huge hankering at the moment for alcohol, specifically vodka. 

I have been dreaming of the perfect bloody mary, one that I intend to imbibe early on New Years Day.

The problem is that I don't know where to find a great one anymore. 

Perhaps one of you has a suggestion?

The go to Bloody Mary bar for me was Davanti Enoteca in Del Mar. 

Their bloody mary setup went from here to eternity with every possible condiment available that one could possibly require. Sadly, they got rid of the bloody mary bar. 

Heartbreaking.

They tell me that they still make a great bloody mary and based on our past history it may be my initial stop.  If for nothing else, their focaccia. 

At some time in the day I will probably switch to the greyhound, my old standby. 

I haven't even thought about quaffing Jamesons, my other favorite drink.While 2025 was the year of sobriety, 2026 is where I do my best to turn into a lush.

Leslie actually makes a mean bloody mary and her secret must have ingredient is pickle juice.

I honestly don't know if this will be a year for drinking or not. Or writing. I am going to play it all out by feel and see what happens.

Please be safe this New Years Eve, especially in this wet weather. Let's start on Thursday.

*

Best bloody mary's of San Diego.

Louie Bellson

Seedy blues

Wear my love like heaven

Over eleven million served

Sort of a milestone day. The Blue Heron Blast crossed the eleven million view mark early this morning. 

Seems like the last million hits came quick.

Thanks to all of my readership, past and present. 

This year has seen a real paucity of posts but probably a little better mental health and work/life balance.

Who knows what the future will bring?

Wishing you all the best of holidays.

*

I just came back from a great trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where I did an appraisal for a very nice estate.

I flew up in a Learjet 40 XR, my first. Quite nice, about a two hour flight. Flew back on a Citation.

 

We got some serious snow the second night and tales of strong winds to the south. Was a bit worried about getting out.

But not to worry. 

In the words of the great Bob Weir, everything ended up exactly perfect!

Happy, happy everybody. There's still time to send me an end of the year shot.