I want to thank the good folks at Google for flashing me a banner when I sign into Gmail, telling me their sign-in page has a new, modern look. Otherwise I likely wouldn’t have noticed, and that just wouldn’t do. I hope they continue to remind me of the good work they do for my convenience. And what a swell look it is. Very exciting.
A beautiful waltz from one of the best stringbands working today, The Foghorn Stringband.
A blast from the past this afternoon. Here are Ian Dury & the Blockheads.
….but she never spoke Spanish to me.
Here’s Texas Tornados performing the Butch Hancock Tune. I love the way Doug Sahm sings this hurtin’ number. And of course, there’s Flaco….
Check out this video from ChessBaseIndia. This is here in Toronto at the Great Hall on Queen W at the Candidates Tournament. Pragg got the full rock star treatment from fans when he emerged from the Hall today after defeating Vidit. Go Pragg!
We dropped by Sawmill Sid’s over by the Arsenal Lands, just the other side of Marie Curtis Park. We were looking for edge slices of wood showing all bark, which we would use in conjunction with our bird mosaics. It turned out we were easily able to find several excellent pieces at great prices. Next week we’ll begin to lay out the first project involving these finds and work out the technical details as to how everything will fit and work together.
If any readers are interested in having a look at some of our mosaic work, check it out at the Long Branch Mosaics site.
From the Chessbase India YouTube channel – this is last night at the Madison Pub here in Toronto, the eve of the big Candidates Tournament. For nerds like me, this is super-exciting!
The fellow who does this channel has come all the way from Mumbai to Toronto to do some commentary on the tournament. Woo-hoo, big time chess in Toronto!!!
Here’s Scrubby Sewerniak and the Dynatones performing The She Likes Kielbasa Polka. This band was from Buffalo New York and at one point in the 80s they had one of the greatest polka bands in the land.
Scrubby played the Chemnitzer Concertina. There was always a bellows-shaker on accordion behind his shoulder, and a pair of trumpets. They were a powerhouse.
Here are the boys at a Dynatones re-union many years later performing one of my fave polkas, the Zosia Polka.
I love this drawing by SL Jones, which hangs in our dining room.
Shields Landon Jones was born in West Virginia in 1901 and passed in 1997, also in WV.
“A person has to have some work to do, so I carve some and play the fiddle.” I searched YouTube in hopes of finding recordings Mr. Jones may have made playing his fiddle, but no joy there. I read that he also taught himself banjo. Jones started drawing, painting, and soon after also carving, in 1967 after retiring from a job as a carpenter/foreman for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
It looks like these musicians are dressed up for a gig. The banjo appears to be an open-back instrument, which would suggest Old Time music rather than Bluegrass even if the coordinated outfits suggest Bluegrass. They’re looking good and they’re ready to play. Maybe they’re on their way to play a dance.
Some super-fine squeezebox action here.
27th Street 