October 6, 2011
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Life

I just finished reading the rollercoaster ride that is Life, the autobiography of Keith Richards, written with James Fox.

I’ve never been a big Rolling Stones fan. I like their catchy melodies and they used to do a good job covering Chicago blues, but really I’d rather hear Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. I had heard about Keith Richards’ book, and I heard it was good, but hadn’t paid a lot of attention until Tuffy P started reading it. I hardly talked to her for a week while she was immersed in this thing.

Sun Ra once wrote, “there are worlds they have not told you of” and Richards’ life of wretched excess mixed with musical passion qualifies as one. The book is a page turner. It’s really very very good, and it’s filled with stories that you just can’t make up.

I was particularly fascinated at the approach the Stones took to recording, showing up at the studio with nothing and making up songs as they go. This process is close to the way I approach painting. Don’t plan it. Do it. They find a riff, develop it in the studio. A title, a few lyrics and then fill in the gaps.

Life gets the Anchovy stamp of approval. Read this book.

 

 

October 4, 2011
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Portuguese Folk Music #corridinho

I enjoy listening to Portuguese folk music. Maybe it’s because I lived in a mostly Portugese area of Toronto for quite a while and have a fondness for Portugese culture. Here’s a player named Raul Godinho who really knows his way around the chromatic button accordion. He’s playing a corridinho, which is a fast Portuguese dance form in 4/4 time. A corridinho is like a race to the finish.

I hope you enjoy listening to this piece as much as I do.

October 3, 2011
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Spore Prints #mushrooms

Some mushrooms are easy to identify without a lot of work. Sometimes, it’s not so easy. Mushrooms don’t always cooperate and look just the way the picture in the field guide does , and if truth were known, there are mistakes in even the best field guides, a scary prospect.  One tool to help ID mushrooms is taking spore prints. Mushrooms have spores and a particular variety will always have the same colour spore print each time you find them.  In combination with other characteristics, the spore print can be very helpful.  I do mine on these handy log sheets which I’ve printed on card stock.

To take a spore print, cut the stem, or stipe, close to the cap, then set the cap, lower side down, on the surface you are using to capture the print. My handy-dandy log sheets have a black and white striped surface. This is because sometimes spore prints are white, and if so, you can’t see them on white paper. Cover your specimens with a bowl of some sort and leave them overnight. They will leave you a spore print of a particular colour.

Occasionally, it’s difficult to get a spore print, especially with younger specimens, but most times, it’s no big deal. Some field guides, like Barron’s  Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada, are organized largely by spore print colour, which can be very handy.

October 2, 2011
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Fall Gardens

I like this little garden a lot, at the back edge of the yard on the edge of the woodsy patch.

Tuffy P has done a fantastic job looking after this front garden, which just keeps getting better. Even in October, it has retained a great deal of variety and character.

October 1, 2011
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Out for dinner again?

Going out to a restaurant for dinner is the exception rather than the rule for Tuffy P and I, but this last week, we found ourselves out two nights in a row. First we went to Pangea to celebrate our anniversary, and then last night, at the suggestion of our neighbours Donna and Mark up the street, we all went together to Paco’s Kitchen. This is normally a take-out place, but from time to time, they open up a back space for special dinners, with a limited menu, by reservation only. It’s located at the west end of Longbranch, right on Lakeshore.

Here’s the menu from last night:
CREAM OF CUITLACOCHE
( corn truffle)
OR
TOSTADA  MOCAMBO
( toasted tortilla shell topped with beans and shrimp)
______________________
FISH VERACRUZANA
( fillet of fish baked  with tomato sauce,  spices and jalapeno pepper )
OR
AZTEC CAKE
(  baked layers of tortilla stuffed with poblano pepper wedges, beans and chicken )
_____________________

MEXICAN CARROT CAKE

Dinner, priced modestly at $22 per person, was excellent. It is served in a space that seats perhaps 20, just behind Paco’s kitchen, which is separated only by a counter. The combination of good food and excellent company made for a most enjoyable evening.

September 27, 2011
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nyckelharpa? #huh?

So there I was, surfing around YouTube, listening to Finnish accordion music, when I came across a video featuring a most interesting instrument, apparently called a nyckelharpa. Check it out:

I consulted Wikipedia. The internets know everything, right?

A nyckelharpa (literally “key harp”, plural nyckelharpor or sometimes keyed fiddle) is a traditional Swedish musical instrument. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to change the pitch of the string.

The nyckelharpa is similar in appearance to a fiddle or the bowed Byzantine lira. Structurally, it is more closely related to the hurdy gurdy, both employing key-actuated tangents to change the pitch.

I learned something today….and now you know about nyckelharpas too. I confess I find unusual musical instruments fascinating.

September 26, 2011
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Scottish Pipe Tunes #accordion

Here is a player named Graham Irvine performing Argyll pipe tunes on button accordion. It looks to me like the box he’s playing is a three-row chromatic button accordion. I don’t listen to a lot of Scottish music but I’m not sure why, as I like this material a lot.