I wanted to post some Santa Fe shots but this came up and I will do that later.
Leslie and I got up at three o'clock in the morning Sunday and drove to Long Beach to do the Flea Market.
Kind of crazy as I have only been back a couple days and have been sick and pretty much exhausted.
But you got to do what you got to do and I owed Warmboe some money and had to return some things.
My plan was to shop for a couple hours before I set up but I was busy all day and never left the booth. We had a good day, didn't make a ton but I didn't bring a lot either.
Long Beach is the best place on earth for street photography and I was snapping all day. The people up there really let their freak flags fly. All manner of humanity, from Trumpers to the still undetermined.
Here are a few shots of the crazies along with some of my favorite humans, some fairly normal, some off kilter.
I am back from my trip to Santa Fe. I returned the night before last, after an unexpected left turn to 108° Phoenix. It was a very successful trip, could not have been happier, bought well, sold well, in a booth about a third of my normal confines.
I got to see my friend Jonathan Hill, who I was worried about, if only for a split second and I am happy to report that he is thankfully still kicking.
But I got really sick with some respiratory thing at the end, a buddy came into the booth that shouldn't have and I picked up what ever was bothering him. Feel a a little bit like strep, I am taking antibiotics, maybe not the right one.
Anyway I was all set to regale you with swashbuckling tales of mayhem and pillage but I really just want to go home and lay in bed. So you are going to get the condensed cliff notes version, free of all but a few profound witticisms, which aren't so easy to summon when you feel like crap. And yes, I did covid test, twice, so don't ask me again.
It's all starting to fade but let's see, first night Holbrook Econolodge, no issues. I arrived at the Albuquerque show about noon the next day and managed to buy and sell a large Navajo weaving off the floor for a cool 15k.
I think I bought something else or sold something, I don't quite remember but it was a good day. I drove up to Santa Fe that night and checked into my suite, which had been generously gifted by Joseph and Linda. It was incredible.
I called Horsley and asked him to dinner and we bee-lined to what is my traditional first stop in Santa Fe, the Plaza Cafe. We both ordered our favorite dish that we start the shows with, cashew chicken mole enchiladas and to our collective chagrin, they have been taken off the menu for some reason.
We asked why, no explanation. Dinner was just so so and they told us we had been sitting too long after our meal and asked us to leave... Might be a while before I return. I told Friedman and he said he went in to order the same thing and when they told him the bad news he walked straight out. We should have too.
It was a Sunday night, no music in the bandshell but there was a Lakota drum circle in the Plaza, which I listened to and recorded a few snippets of.
Great to be in New Mexico, cooler than home.
The next day I lay in bed and went "damn." I had nothing to do for three days. I am not used to that, I push, push, push all the time. What the heck was I going to do?
I decided to drive up to the Randall Davey Audubon Center and try to photograph a few birds.
And bugs, like the guy you see up top.
I guess this is another ritual of mine, after thirty years or so of making these trips.
I didn't get any great shots but it was nice to be out there.
I didn't bring my good lens but it may just be a case of me running out of talent.
There are four hummingbird species there, two which we seldom see, rufous and broadtail.
This is a rufous.
It looks a lot like an Allen's.
The black chinned hummers are also quite striking.
The next three days I cruised around and ate.
Hit Stephen's, Zaplin and Mackley.
Barry turned me on to a cheap local joint, Piccolino, where I had a very good lamb shank for around twenty bucks.
Barry used to be a comedy writer but honestly he hates jokes and he blanched and moved to the other corner of the waiting room when I started trading wry ripostes with an older Mexican gent and his family.
Some people have no sense of humor.
Ron Winters invited Steve and I out to the Oaxacan place that used to be the blues club, Paloma.
They are famous for their mescals.
I had a little taste, quite good, will say that their chicken mole was incredible.
Another night Barry and I went to Mucho Gusto and had shredded duck mole enchiladas, which were phenomenal.
Last few years I have overdosed on green chile, to my stomach's discontent.
My engine feels a lot better running on mole.
I started one of my morning at the Burrito Cafe, wanting to go cheap. Decent but a little attitude on the part of the staff. Next day, another ritual, breakfast at La Fonda, Trout and eggs.
They screwed up the recipe, coated the trout in oats of all things. Decent but not nearly as good as it used to be...
Other days I ate at Wecks and the Pantry, two old standbys, corned beef hash at the latter.
My favorite restaurant in Santa Fe, year in and year out is the Santa Cafe.
I went with the Stoops and Calvins this year.
I had rack of lamb in a moroccan spice with a nectarine burrata salad.
It was okay but a bit of a disappointment. The waiter asked us if we wanted dessert and we were still waiting for our entree.
When it did arrive I wasn't thrilled with the flavor set, it was so good last time.
Guess it is all about who is cooking that night...
I had a phenomenal meal at Taverna with Tad and Sandy Dale and our old friend Casey the rug dealer.
Great tapas restaurant.
They had a wonderful Spanish guitar player, Nacha Mendez.
I had a pork belly dish and we sampled a nice Manchego charcuterie plate.
One of the best meals of my trip.
After packout I had dinner at Jambo with Peggy and Terry DeWald.
Power was shut off at Pasquales and Tiny's but Jambo had lights.
I had the goat stew with the peanut chicken stew and lentils.
Great food, great company.
So there's the food, with the exception of the place in Gallup we will discuss later. Next I will talk about the show, which was wonderful for me and which I am really grateful for.
I will forego my customary radio silence when I am traveling to share something beautiful that I purchased today. As most of you are aware, I am exhibiting at the preeminent Native American and Ethnographic Show in the country, Whitehawk in Santa Fe.
About 125 of the best dealers in the world are here. I am still setting up, opening night starts tomorrow evening. My booth is quite small compared to what I am used to but I am making it work and having a good time. Crossing my fingers.
I bought this Navajo Germantown Moki blanket today.
I have probably sold less than twenty great Germantowns in my life but I have sold quite a few of those to museums, both in Oklahoma and California. This is a great one, with a large center diamond medallion, a classic wearing blanket motif, but they are honestly all beautiful.
A Moki pattern refers to the repeating blue and black striped background that was originally borrowed from the neighboring Pueblo Indians. Moki or Moqui is another name for Hopi, from Mookwi. The Hopi tribe learned to weave them from the Spaniards in the Coronado Expedition around 1540, the Navajo in the 17th century.
These blankets are highly prized by collectors. This one was woven sometime in the last quarter of the 19th century. I don't have an accurate measurement on hand for this one, but it is quite large.
I did a Google search on Germantown Moki. Take a look and you will see what they retail for. I will sell this one for far less.
Here is something I wrote about Germantown blankets earlier this year:
The Navajos have long been known for their beautiful weaving. In the early part of the 19th century they wove blankets with homespun wool and native dyes.
But in 1863 the tribe was forced on what is known as “The long walk” to a remote encampment at Ft. Sumner, New Mexico called Bosque Redondo where they were interned by the United States government until 1868.
It was at Bosque Redondo where, some say in order to placate them and keep them busy, the government issued them a new and exciting commercial wool from a suburb of Philadelphia called Germantown.
This new analine dyed wool, originally a three ply but then quickly becoming a four ply, allowed them to create a brilliant new type of weaving called an eyedazzler.
These new weavings were very time intensive to weave and much denser, almost four times the knots per inch compared to the older wool. In a visual sense they were very kinetic, with a pattern that often resembled what later became known as op art.
They were typically created with a cotton warp, making them a bit more fragile than blankets created with a wool warp. Fringe was added sometimes but only after the weaving was finished, not a part of the general field.
The advent of the railroad and the trading post, as well as the popularity of shows like Wild Bill Hickock’s Exposition at Niagara Falls greatly increased the desire of Americans to buy Native goods of all kinds including blankets.
Most germantown blankets date from 1870 to 1900 although there was a minor revival from 1910 to 1915. While they were no longer woven, their design complexity and color continued to influence navajo weavings in what is known as the transitional era.
The transitional period began in 1895 and blankets largely gave way to rugs at that point in the timeline. Germantown eyedazzlers occupy a special historical apex in Navajo weaving that will never be eclipsed on a design level.
Hope you get a chance to check out this blanket! If you are around, come see the show!
This is the B side of Chuck Berry's first single for Chess Records, Maybellene. It was recorded in 1955. I was listening to it today and thinking about how wonderful the tune was and how much it reminded me of the work of Berry's musical mentor, T Bone Walker.
Walker was one of those rare musicians who could sing as well as he could play, a virtuoso with incredible musicality who also was the first guitar player to engage in stage theatrics, which Berry took even farther later with his duck walk.
It is a slow blues number and so different then Berry's high electricity rocking stuff. The music was actually written and performed years prior by the keyboard player on the track, Jimmie Johnson. Berry added lyrics before they cut the record.
Chuck Berry started out as a blues player and he was a fine musician in that genre. As you can see here, he had a lovely voice.
I read an interview him once where he said that he played rock to feed his family but didn't take it seriously, his heart was always in Blues and Jazz (He actually played with Teagarden and Jo Jones at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.) Wish he had recorded more of this type of work.
My drivers license is expiring in November so I went online yesterday to try to renew it. All fairly painless until I got to the part about registered political party. You see I have voted as a democrat for the past 47 years.
No more.
I am now officially "no party."
It means that I will no longer be able to vote in primaries and probably not much else. I will certainly not be voting for Donald Trump in the next election.
I honestly have a position in the middle somewhere, can't sign on to the left or right. But I will never align with people like Tlaib and Omar, that's for damn sure.
I was getting my hair cut the other day and my barber mentioned that she was a relative of Burl Ives, had I heard of him?
Had I heard of him? Burl Ives was one of the greatest American folk singers. He had such an iconic voice, in fact there are few voices in our musical lexicon as beautiful, singular and pure. Fogerty, Ives, Ray Charles, Seeger, the list is not that long.
Ives was a man who wandered around playing his banjo in the depression. He was jailed in Mona, Utah for vagrancy and for singing a song the authorities deemed "bawdy."
He eventually hooked up with fellow singers Woody, Seeger, Will Geer, Lampell and Lee Hays in a New York City band called the Almanacs. The Almanacs were, like the Weavers, pretty left politically and Ives was called before the HUAC committee to name communists. Seeger thought that Ives fingered him, a charge Ives denied and they had a long falling out.
I, like most of the people my age, grew up with Jimmy Crack Corn, Comin around the mountain and Big Rock Candy Mountain, a hobo song he learned on the road. Camp songs and purely American songs. It pains me that the youth of today have little knowledge of people like Ives and are not exposed to his lovely whisky tenor anymore.
I discovered this art teacher a few months ago. I like both her technique and her sense of humor. I painted with oils in college and really miss them, had to stop for health reasons. I loved underpainting and using glazes so this particular class is right down my wheelhouse.
"How do I make things this round? Years of drinking..."
Van Wyk (1930-1994) had a popular and long running PBS show, Welcome to my studio. She also published a magazine called Palette talk.
It's Jerry's birthday and in his honor I would like to play this song, Wave that flag. It debuted in 1973. I first saw the band play this in March of 1973 at the Philadelphia Spectrum and then later in the year at the Boston Music Hall in November/December.
The lyrics were ultimately modified (several times actually) and the title was changed to U.S. Blues. I kind of liked the earlier version better but what the heck, they never asked me.
Wave that flag, pop the bag, skin the goat, learn to cope
Bell the rat, trap the cat, ball the jack, chew the fat
Read the signs, connect the lines, pay your fines, save your dimes
Pick up time, light the fuse, making time, pass the juice
Eat at days, hide in caves, pull the tooth, stretch the truth
Feed the poor, starve the war, pick up chicks, catch the fix
Get your kicks, pick up sticks, trim your wick, take your pick
Try your tricks, impress the chicks
Wash the fence, dig the den, live the vain, die in shame
Catch the fool, burn the stew, shine your shoes, sing the blues
Wave the flag, pop the bag, bell the cat, trap the rat
Ball the jack, chew the fat, shoot the breeze, lose the keys
Read the signs, connect the lines, pay your fines, read the rhyme
Shot the breeze, lose your keys, don't be late, what I say
Stretch the truth, pull the tooth, feed the poor, starve the war
Cash the fix, get your kicks, trim your wick, take your pick
Try your tricks, impress the chicks
Wash the fence, dig the den, live the shame, die in vain
Catch the fool, burn the stew, shine your shoes, sing the blues
Here's the later version that stuck:
Red and white, blue suede shoes, I'm Uncle Sam, how do you do?
Gimme five, I'm still alive, ain't no luck, I learned to duck.
Check my pulse, it don't change. Stay seventy-two come shine or rain.
Wave the flag, pop the bag, rock the boat, skin the goat.
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my.
I'm Uncle Sam, that's who I am; Been hidin' out in a rock and roll band.
Shake the hand that shook the hand of P.T. Barnum and Charlie Chan.
Shine your shoes, light your fuse. Can you use them ol' U.S. Blues?
I'll drink your health, share your wealth, run your life, steal your wife.
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my.
Back to back chicken shack. Son of a gun, better change your act.
We're all confused, what's to lose?
You can call this all the United States Blues.
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my.
I was listening to this the other day and thought of the line I'll drink your health and share your wealth and couldn't help but think of the Beatles' Taxman. I wonder if the dead were getting audited at that point?
Progressives don't want Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro to be Vice President. A Jew would be too much.
One letter signed by nearly 50 progressive leaders pointed to Shapiro’s “shortcomings as a national candidate” and urged the vice president to consider Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) instead.
“With the compressed timeline ahead of us to defeat the Trump-Vance-MAGA threat, we simply cannot afford any setbacks,” the letter said.
A letter from another progressive group, known as “VP Unity,” said Harris’s consideration of Shapiro has “set off alarm bells” among young voters, Muslims, Arab Americans and activists.
Some progressive critics of Shapiro say his response to the pro-Palestinian protests in Pennsylvania, which they labeled as “heavy handed,” could impact a Harris-Shapiro ticket more negatively than his views on the Israel-Hamas war more generally.
Here's another headline, also from The Hill.
Seems to be more of the same.
A group of progressive leaders is urging likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to consider Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) as her running mate and rule out Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), as the party seeks to consolidate its base ahead of November.
Close to 50 progressive leaders hailing from states ranging from California to Kentucky — including the originator of the coalition efforts, California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus Chair Emeritus Amar Shergill — signed onto a letter released Tuesday telling Harris that they “whole-heartedly” endorsed her campaign while noting that “it is difficult to overstate the importance of your decision in selecting a Vice-Presidential running mate.”
...while Shapiro is a “valued member of the Democratic coalition,” he has become known for his “shortcomings as a national candidate,” including “controversial policy decisions” like his backing of school vouchers.
“Choosing Tim Walz or Andy Beshear as Vice-President Kamala Harris’ running mate will invigorate the nation by rallying all of our diverse communities, especially young voters, public education advocates, and the working class,” California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus Chair Fatima Iqbal-Zubair said in a statement.
There is one reason that Progressives don't like Shapiro and it has nothing to do with his stance on school vouchers. Nice try. The truth is as easy to see as the nose on his face. They do not like Jews or anyone that supports Israel and its existence. Anyone that acknowledges Israel's right to defend themselves from attacks like October 7th is a pariah.
The governor has been a vocal supporter of Israel in the months since the Oct. 7 attacks, but has also been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Shapiro allies are pushing back.
“Throughout his entire career and particularly over the last several months, Governor Shapiro — who enjoys a close personal relationship with Muslim-American, Arab-American, Palestinian, Christian, and Jewish community leaders — has brought people together, listened, and worked with them to try and keep our communities safe and heard,” Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder told The Hill.
Shapiro has not been a knee jerk supporter of either Israel or Netanyahu, I believe that his views are quite similar to mine. But his ethnicity alone is enough to be declared verboten by the progressive hordes. And it has a lot of good Democrats running scared. Horrors! A woman of color and a Jew on the same ticket. Too much!
*
I received this letter this morning, from a progressive Jewish friend, a lawyer who is aligned with J Street:
Hi
Forgive me for writing this to you.
I am writing because I am hoping that you might be willing to do what I have done just now. I am hoping that if you agree with me, you might want to take the action I am suggesting. You needn’t reply to me, and I am not trying to convince you.
I am concerned that if Josh Shapiro is selected by VP Harris, it will unleash a torrent of antisemitism like we we have never seen. I respect and appreciate him. I believe selecting him will alienate some Democrats.
I called Eric Holder’s law firm. They sent me to a hotline that he has set up to field calls and I left a message. His number at the Covington firm is 202 662 6000.
If you share my concerns, and have a connection with anyone within the Harris campaign, please consider contacting them to express this concern.
Sent from my iPhone
I wrote him back and let him know that I totally disagreed with his premise.
I do not agree. I think that the large progressive coalition that is anti Shapiro because of his faith are disgusting and I want nothing to do with them.
He wrote back that he was concerned about anti-semitism from the right. I countered that I was just as worried about antisemitism from the left, which in my opinion is just as bad. Try walking through a university with a kippah or Star of David.
I have no idea if Josh Shapiro is the best possible candidate for the Vice Presidential position. But I think it is craven and horrible that he should be excluded simply because Progressives won't want a person of his ethnicity in the oval office. And I think and truly believe that that is the case here.
We Jews get attacked from both the left and right, both onslaughts are equally pernicious. We are both patronized and used. This is why I don't feel really comfortable in either party.
Between the lines: A story in The Atlantic on Wednesday noted that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the two other top VP contenders, are not facing such campaigns despite having similarly pro-Israel politics.
"Activists have not organized in force to discredit any of the non-Jewish contenders for vice president on these grounds. There are no viral memes against 'Killer Kelly' or 'War-Crimes Walz,'" author Yair Rosenberg wrote.
Several high-profile Jewish lawmakers, including Reps.Adam Schiff(D-Calif.) andDan Goldman(D-N.Y.), have since called out what they say is an antisemitic double standard.
