Tag: James Brown

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Super Bad

Looking across Eastman Lake out to Lake Ontario Winter
Looking across Eastman Lake out to Lake Ontario Winter

You know it is going to be a good party, and by extension a good year, when someone clears off the coffee table in the living room so people can take turns dancing on it. James Brown got the party started and his “Super Bad” drove it over the top. The band, with Bootsy Collins on bass and his brother Catfish on guitar, is just incredible. They wind it so tight, keeping you in crazy suspense until they reach the bridge, and then the sax solo, where James asks Robert McCollough to “Blow me some Trane” goes over the top. Prince ruled for a few songs, Grace Jones’ “I’m Not Perfect” was a knock out. I couldn’t find our seven inch of “Love To Love You” so I played part of the album version. And with the 45s all in a big pile we finished the night with the Stooges, “1969.”

There were more people skiing and snowshoeing in the park today than we have ever seen. Could be a combination of perfect conditions and a national holiday but I’d like to think more people are throwing off the digital shackles and getting out there.

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You Don’t Own Me

James Brown fans at 1964 TAMI show
James Brown fans at 1964 TAMI show

We read a pretty enticing review of the T.A.M.I. show dvd in last weekend’s paper and then another by Jack Garner in the local paper. So we hopped online and dutifully ordered it from Amazon. Eleven bucks and we’ve already got our money’s worth out of it. We expected James Brown to be sensational (that’s a freeze frame shot of the crowd while he performed) and he was, but Lesley Gore was a knockout. Her version of “You Don’t Own Me” transcended the whole teen thing by a mile. The Supremes did too. Diana Ross was at the peak of her powers. The Stones were very cool and it was great to see Brian back with the Beach Boys but James Brown kicked ass.

Sunday was sort of nice day. We picked up Peggi’s mom and took a ride in the country ending up overlooking the lake down at Canandaigua. By the time we got down there though, it was raining. Couldn’t find Kelloggs. They must have torn that place down. So decided to go to El Rincon but when we pulled up front, the name had changed. That is not usually a good sign but in this case we were assured that the place was still in the family and as good as ever. Can’t remember what the new name is.

The place was really crowded so we ordered an appetizer as soon as we had our waiter’s attention. Ceviche, made with Talapia, lime juice, fresh purple onion, real avocado slices and thin slivers of fresh jalapeños. So fantastic we quickly put in an order for another. It took them about twenty minutes to get our Margaritas but the only one that noticed was Peggi’s mom. We ordered some chicken flautas to split and then some blue corn tortillas with a chocolate mole sauce made with almonds, walnuts and pistachios and covered with stringy Oaxacan cheese.

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Hot Pants Shaker Scene

Peggi buying cabbage at the Public Market in Rochester, NY
Peggi buying cabbage at the Public Market in Rochester, NY

I loaded my mother-in-law’s SUN though SAT, MORN, NOON, EVE, BED pill container like we do every weekend but today I felt like I was loading an Advent calender. We used to have those things in our house when we were growing up and most of the little doors would be open by now. This one though has no surprises unless you forget what medicine you’re taking every day and my mother-in-law just may fall into that category.

We started the day at the Public Market downtown. I love this place especially the way it seems to draw equally from all sub cultures of the city. Red peppers were in abundance for some reason and local cabbage, pears, onions, potatoes and apples were everywhere. Christmas trees were fifteen dollars and every sort of nic nac  or common junk drawer product was there, fresh off a Chinese container. One of the fish guys tried to talk Peggi into buying an eel by wiggling it at us. “They’re good in soup”, he said. We had read a rave review of Barry from Fair Game Foods’ pastrami sandwiches in City Newspaper so waited in line for one of those and took it to our car where we listened to a cd of Margaret Explosion with Phil Marshall from last week.

It started snowing on the way home and it looked like a shaker scene. We are up to about fifteen inches of the white stuff now. We had arranged to ski with Rick and Monica so we headed right out in to the woods. Rick led the way and took us across the golf course and down a few thrill seeker hills. When we got back home we built a fire and put James Brown’s “Hot Pants lp on.

There are a few things in the running for tonight. Bob Henrie and the Goners are at Abilene and Watkins and the rapiers are doing their Christmas show at the Flipside. We might try to do both.

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