I'm going start ...

... slowly winding this blog down. Not killing it completely, but no more music, no more cut and past links to what I'm reading - not sure about the garden pictures. I may split it into three blogs with random, sporadic postings. If I start writing again during the Winter maybe I'll post that.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Repost)

This is a repost of an earlier posting for Tommy G. (who just made me gasp in disbelief!)

Sam Phillips's tribute song, Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us.






The original 1944 recording. The first Rock n Roll recording?

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Evening Prayer

Cheri says that she loves Summertime (the song). Me too. My favorite is one by the late Vassar Clements, who is known mostly as a Bluegrass fiddler. This version now only seems to exist in my memory. Sometimes Vassar drifted off into other musical worlds. In this one he intersected with Dave Holland, a jazz bassist who has played with Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, pretty much anyone he chose to. This time he chose Vassar and the late John Hartford. Musically I think Hartford was a little outgunned, but he held up his end pretty well. This is from an album entilted "Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Dave Holland", one of at least two albums of improvised pieces that Vassar and Holland made. Pretty sweet stuff.

Dave Alvin

Found this guy on the Justified series on FX.

Brooks

Another Delahaye 135

George A said he thought the Delahaye 135 Shooting Brake would handle like a his 1950 Buick. I think not. This is more or less what they started with.

One Last Shot for the Italians

Ferrai 365 GTB 4

French Shooting Brake

1946 Delahaye 135 Break de Chasse Guillore

Summertime

This is from the Mickey Newbury Triad Studio recordings, a collection of unreleased demo tapes, just Mickey, his guitar and Dale Bradley on cello. They are all his own material except this last one. Unedited tape filler. This is a pure, killer recording, one of those that would never get released because it's too raw and too long.

Halsey Hall, "Holy Cow!"

Halsey Hall was the first play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Twins. He was famous for eating green onions, smoking bad cigars and frankly, his folksy ineptitude. This is a link that captures him in all his glory.

http://www.pavekmuseum.org/halsey_hall.mp3

LISTEN TO THE LINK!

Kvale Today

I am still waiting for the stem - a long story, it had to be remade. The handlebar bumper will have an oxblood leather cover and bars wrapped after the new stem. This winter, new racks. Riding this makes me giggle.

Another Shooting Brake

At first blush I thought this was a Jaguar, but I don't think so. I do know no one is going to strap surf boards on it - maybe a set of matched Purdey side-by-sides and a wicker of lunch sandwiches and small pastries.

I Say Old Boy, the Surf Is Up

1949 Bentley Shooting Brake

Surf's Up

For Tony, who thought the Packard needed a couple of surf boards on top. Chrysler used a lot of wood and this looks like a '47 to '50 Chrysler Town and Country, although I've never seen one with wire wheels before. Wow.

1939 Packard Six

A Shameless Plug

Chris Kvale only makes about six frames a year. At this point in his life he doesn't like to be hurried and enjoys spending a little time visiting with friends who drop by. In between frames he also does a number of resprays and restorations of vintage frames. When I picked up #1103, I noticed there was a boxed up frame with an address in England. I suspect this kind of work is what actually keeps the doors open and supports his frame building habit.

What does this have to do with the Lake Breeze Inn? The inn goes back in the Raley family to 1859 and Chris's wife Marcia inherited it. So for two months in the summer, when you want Chris to be cutting, grinding and filing your frame, he's riding his bike and living the good life on the Keweenaw Peninsula. You want to spend some time up in the U.P. and take a ride with Chris? Call 612-721-5891 or 906-289-4514 for reservations.

Photos used with permission.

Blog

People at the family gathering asked what's with the blog, why haven't I been writing more.

I just haven't got anything to say.

Moody’s Downgrades US Credit Rating

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – The US economy suffered another setback today as Moody’s downgraded the US’s credit rating to “It’s Complicated.”

At the Treasury Department, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged that an “It’s Complicated” rating was not ideal but added that he was hopeful it would not affect the Chinese government’s level of interest in Treasury bonds.

“We have sent a friend request to China this morning,” Sec. Geithner told reporters.  “We are still waiting for them to friend us back.”

But in an extraordinary step, the Chinese government announced today that it was “blocking” the United States, suggesting that its relationship with US Treasuries was at an end.

Perhaps attempting to soften the blow, the Chinese government later issued this official statement: “It’s not you, it’s us.”

In other economic news, the US added jobs in the auto sector, which for many Americans is now the same thing as the housing sector.

The Believing Brain

"As a back-of-the-envelope calculation within an order-of-magnitude accuracy, we can safely say that over the past ten thousand years of history humans have created about ten thousand different religions and about one thousand gods," Mr. Shermer writes. He lists more than a dozen gods, from Amon Ra to Zeus, and wonders how one of them can be true and the rest false. "As skeptics like to say, everyone is an atheist about these gods; some of us just go one god further."  A Trick of the Mind

Orbison - Crying

One of my mother's favorites. Roy Orbison wasn't performing full time by 1988, but for this one they pulled together a pretty high profile back-up group: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, etc. and a female chorus of k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt. His voice was getting a little thin in the high range by then, but only by Orbison standards. 

Racking My Brain

Here's a couple of things to think about. Any and all thoughts on front racks are needed and welcome.

Do You Need a "Thought for the Day"?

...here you go:

"If you can think of times in your life that you’ve treated people with extraordinary decency and love, and pure uninterested concern, just because they were valuable as human beings. The ability to do that with ourselves. To treat ourselves the way we would treat a really good, precious friend. Or a tiny child of ours that we absolutely loved more than life itself. And I think it’s probably possible to achieve that. I think part of the job we’re here for is to learn how to do it. I know that sounds a little pious." -- David Foster Wallace