But I’ve heard
from some fans lately (well, one: thanks, Linda!) who miss the occasional
updates. So let’s try again…
One big
thing we overlooked while we were gone: in the summer months our county, San
Luis Obispo, explodes with music! Maybe it’s the same now all over California,
or even all over the country, but I’ve never lived anywhere where we have as
many musical choices as here. There’s dozens every week, throughout the county.
Why, right here in little ole Los Osos we’ve got a concert every Saturday
afternoon at the golf course, and then there’s “Beer at the Pier” on Monday
evenings…
While in Europe we saw a number of memorable musical events. Every country has its
own specialty, its own genre of music. And musicians in each of those countries
are great at their own music. But the Blues is a truly American form of music.
The Blues
musical idiom in Europe is perhaps a bit like American football in Europe –
there is a very devout and dedicated group of aficionados, but for the most
part, locals don’t know much and don’t care. This means that the
second-strings, those who aren’t really competitive in the US, have a huge
opportunity in Europe. Lots of B-team football players do very well in Europe,
as do less-than-great blues players. But we’re back in the US now…
One night we
went to a wine bar in Morro Bay for what was publicized as a “tribute” to
Rodney Crowell. He’s not even in the top 10 of my fave musicians, but I did
have a fling with him (well, his music) a few decades back, listening to a tape
in my car as I did my daily driving.
The event in
Morro Bay turned out to be a great evening, in spite of those who insisted on
carrying on their everyday conversations during this great live music (a pet
peeve of mine: why don’t they stay home? Or wait outside?) Rodney Crowell is a
great song writer, and we heard amazing tender ballads, and raunchy love songs.
But it wasn’t until the very end that we got to hear the songs I’d come to
listen to, the raw honky-tonk stuff he was into a few decades back. Here’s a
brief sample by Steve Key, organizer of the event.
And it
occurred to me… we NEVER hear this kind of music in Europe! It helped me
realize that there are some great, uniquely American things! The American
musical idiom is popular (as is much of American culture) around the world, but
it’s not done anywhere better than here in the good ole US of A.
I’ve
discovered a whole range of things that don’t annoy me now as much as they used
to, before we left for Europe (well, I still hate it when people talk during
live music!). Things like our nonsensical Imperial measurement system, with its
pounds and quarts and inches and teaspoons. The metric system, used in Europe
and the rest of the world, is so much more logical and easier to understand.
What a relief to spend time where we can escape the craziness of 12 inches per
foot and 64 ounces per quart (or is that per half-gallon?). But now on our
return I find the system – since I already understand it – quirky but colorful.
How quaint! All those meters and liters now seem so… drab. (But I still measure
lengths in centimeters – fractional inches drive me up the wall. And don’t even
get me started on wrench sizes…)
So what else
have we done since we’ve been back? Took a road trip to Seattle, WA to visit my
brother (1000 miles / 1600km north of here). Spent some time in Portland to see
my daughter. Caught the total eclipse of
the sun on August 21 – that was more fantastic than I could ever imagine!
Thanksgiving
in Phoenix, AZ, to catch up with another brother, and my son, and other family
members. Lots of house projects underway back home in Los Osos: new front
doors, landscaping, reorganizing. Oh, and planning our next European trip, in
April.
Plans are
still in process, but we will be visiting some of the Scandinavian countries, and
will some time in Scotland. We’ll go back to Spain, this time Madrid; re-visit
Seville and the friends we made there; find a place on the Mediterranean coast
to stay for a while (Alicante, as it turns out).
After that
the crystal ball gets cloudy. We’re thinking Prague, Budapest, and Vienna
deserve some time, as well as parts of Eastern Europe. Clearly, the problem is
not a lack of places to go!
Oh, but
before signing off on this installment, we must mention the photographic
summary of our last European trip. In the final weeks of that trip Paula and I
put together slideshows for each country we’d visited So here on YouTube are
seven 3-minute videos, one for each country, in roughly chronological order.
Not intended to be travelogues, but just hints at what we saw and did. Relax
and enjoy!
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| The Elfin Forest on the edge of Morro Bay, a few blocks from our house |
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| Twisted trunks of scrub oaks in the Elfin Forest |
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| Morro Rock, form the beach |
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| Looks like rain on the beach near Morro Bay |
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| High tide near Los Osos |
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| Another fantastic sunset from our front windows! |
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