Category: Life Is A Spell

The good thing about most of the saints is their legends were created when people weren’t so fussy about the facts and science and all that. They let their imaginations run wild and over time the myths become accepted as articles of faith.

Today is the feast day of Saint James, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles. He is credited with bringing Christianity to the Iberian peninsula so today is a national holiday in Spain. James left town after Christ’s ascension (a whopper) and traveled to Hispania (modern day Spain and Portugal) to preach the Gospel. He had limited success and eventually returned to Jerusalem, where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in 44 AD (Acts 12:1–2). Nothing gets you sainthood quicker than a beheading. After his martyrdom his disciples placed his body in a stone boat and set it adrift (a stone boat!). Guided by divine forces it floated to the Galician coast in northwestern Spain, where he was buried. In the 9th century, as Christians tried to drive the Moors out of the country, Saint James was said to have appeared on a white horse, wielding a sword. He led the Christians to victory and became known as “Santiago Matamoros,” the patron saint of driving a sect out of the country.

For centuries now admirers and non believers alike walk the Camino de Santiago leading to Santiago de Compostela. Peggi and I walked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Pyrénées to Santiago de Compostela and then on to Muxía on the western coast. Vieiras, scallop shells, were the symbol of the camino as the grooves in the shell meet at a focal point (representing the many different paths to Santiago de Compostela). Scallop shells were used by pilgrims as eating and drinking utensils.

Peggi found a Saint James scallops recipe online. We planned to have our first batch of pimientos de Padron this year but we left them in the refrigerator. We had some Spanish wine, Campo Viejo, and green salad from our garden. We celebrated the feast day of Santiago with a feast.

Saint James is credited with bringing Christianity to the Iberian peninsula. One of Jesus’s twelve apostles, he left town after Christ’s ascension. He traveled to Hispania to preach the Gospel. He had limited success and eventually returned to Jerusalem, where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in 44 AD (Acts 12:1–2).

Today is his feast day. around the time of the Christian Reconquest, St. James also appeared alongside the Christian army to fight with them against the Moors.

Here is Chat GPT’s visual depiction of this myth.”

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Forty-nine years ago we had some out of town guests at our apartment on Dartmouth. We partied and Rich and Steve slept on the floor. Norm and Pam probably stayed out at Norm’s parents. Dave and Kim probably stayed out with his parents. Jim and Jan stayed at a hotel. All traveled from Bloomington, Indiana to celebrate our wedding with us. Three of Peggi’s high school friends came from Detroit. Brad and John Gilmore and Bob were all living here. We had a non-denominational service at Colgate Divinity School chaple and then a reception at the University Club on Broadway. We hired a Dixieland band that we had heard in a funky bar on Lake Avenue. We tied the knot after a few years of cohabitating.

I quit my job a few days before the wedding. I was working as a carpenter, roughing new houses, for about a year and a half. My boss, Salvatore Caramana, couldn’t believe that I was quitting before getting married. “Who quits their job before getting married?” I did miss that job. It was so intense, a three man crew framing houses in three days. Someone would call out “wall going up” and we’d drop everything and help lift a new wall. One of us would always go to a deli and bring back lunch. Sal always wanted “butt capicola.” “Make sure you tell them butt capicola, no oil, no mayo.” He would put that down with Genny Cream Ale from his truck and follow it up with a Lucky Strike. We took a three week honeymoon and I found a commercial art job.

We celebrated our anniversary by taking a walk with our niece and two of her kids. They were in town from Colorado. We had some lunch and then went down to the pool. I taught the youngest how to do a can opener.

Peggi and I went downtown for the Good Trouble protest. We stopped in to see my sister working behind the jewelry counter in Parkleigh. We parked at the end of Monroe and joined a big group at Parcel 5. A dj was playing music and then a few people gave a a pep talk of sorts. The group then marched down Main Street to State and then up to the big parking lot where this John Lewis mural is. There was a pretty good drum section pounding out rhythms behind chants like “This is what democracy looks like.” And then some fiery speakers. The group took a different route back to Parcel 5. I thought was a nice touch.

From there Peggi and I walked over to Rocco’s, our favorite restaurant. We sat out on the patio and had a bottle of Primitivo wine, octopus and pesto, grilled radicchio and gnocchi with ricotta, trumpet mushrooms and lamb. Mark, the owner told us the meal was on him. Our waitress said, “It doesn’t get any better than that.” And then added, “or maybe it will later on.”

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Here I was cheering on Chelsea in the opening minutes of the Club World Cup final only because I thought they were going to give the favorites, Paris Saint Germain, a good game. Our favorite players, Vitinha, Kvaratskhelia, Fabián, Dembélé could not even get their game started. Despite PSG having two thirds of the possession Chelsea walked all over them. It was baffling.

I think the president jinxed the whole thing. Water works for a few minutes and on with the summer.

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I took this photo a few days ago when it wasn’t a holiday weekend and the temperature was quite a bit cooler. Today this beach and the shoreline for miles to the left would be jam packed. We can hear the motorboats and the music from our house. I took a photo near here on the 4th a few years back that shows a group roasting a whole pig.

We didn’t make it down to the beach today. We got a walk in and stopped at the garden but we had two soccer matches to watch, the last two of the quarter finals of the Club World Cup. The tournament is taking place in the US and for the first time a few US clubs were participating. Miami with Messi even got out of the group stage but US soccer is not there yet. Real Madrid is the only Spanish team left and they won today. A funny thing happened while we watched Paris Saint-Germain beat our favorite Spanish teams and eventually win the Champions League. We fell in the love with the team. The way they pass, attack the ball and clearly enjoy playing the game. They play like a real team and that makes this squad better than they were when they had the three superstars, Messi, Neymar and Mbappé.

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We listened to Cal Zone’s Brian Wilson tribute today, a bit of catch-me-up. We had already done our personal deep dive with a short stack of Beach Boys 45s and then along comes yet another article about Brian. This one by Rob Tannenbaum and it gets right to the heart of the reason for our mourning. Reading this short list slowly (and calling to mind the gorgeous melodies and harmonies) was particularly moving.

"The decisive evidence of Wilson's genius is his melancholy work: "In My Room," "Don't Worry Baby," "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," "Til I Die" (written, Wilson said, while he was "depressed and preoccupied with death"), "Caroline, No," "The Warmth of the Sun" (written the night President John F. Kennedy was killed), the celestial "God Only Knows," sung perfectly by Carl."

Peggi and I played a respectable version of In My Room in the basement this afternoon.

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There is a rumor going around (I started it) that the new pope chose his name in honor of Leo Messi. Of course there were thirteen other popes named Leo and five of them are saints including Leo the Great (#1) who convinced Attila the Hun not to sack Rome. We are hoping he chose to follow Leo XIII and continue his support for social justice. It was not lost on my cousin who texted us the day he was nominated that he choose the name of her uncle, my father, who gave up on the idea that the church could reform in his lifetime. Pope Leo XIV also graduated from Villanova, my father’s alma mater.

When we were in Miami earlier this spring, visiting our nephew and his wife, we had dinner at their restaurant and our nephew sat down with us for a few minutes. We had heard that Messi had eaten at his restaurant and I couldn’t wait to ask where it was that Messi sat. Our nephew nodded to the seat right next to us.

Before El Clásico on Sunday the announcers were talking about how they couldn’t imagine how Barca could carry on when Messi left and then along comes Lamine Yamal. I know Barcelona was knocked out of the Champions League by Inter but they beat the pants off of Real Madrid and they are a pure joy to watch. Not just Yamal, Pedri and de Jong in the center, Raphinha and Lewandowski (when he’s fit) up front and Cubarsi, Kundi and Balde in the rear. There is plenty of life after Messi. We have a new pope. Fascism may be raising its head but I am still optimistic.

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I didn’t find this 14 year old link until we returned but I too was hoping to find some of the funky feel of the old Hawaii Five 0 show in Honolulu and I’m happy to report we found it. Even downtown Waikiki, which is mostly swallowed up with high rises, there are chickens roaming freely, a canal that seems to stop time in the middle of the city and the surf always just a stones throw away.

Unless I missed something the Kaimuki neighborhood seems like a great place to live. A citizens group is even trying save the Queen Theater. We had brunch in a restaurant near the Local General Store and walked around enough to get a feel for the place. It was raining in the mountains on the day we were there and depending on which way I faced the light was especially dramatic.

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Was it Waiahole that means, “to nourish with food, to nourish with love.” I’ve already forgotten. In two and half years Matthew has absorbed enough of Hawaiian culture, the history, the customs, and even bits of the native tongue, to be the perfect guide. And without exception the locals were disarmingly warm and friendly. Aloha is real.

We walked through the Royal Hawaiian, now surrounded by high rises, and out to the ocean. We took a group photo in front of the Don Hoh statue. Peggi sang “Hookilah” for us, one of her mom’s favorite songs. For my birthday we had oysters and French fries in the Sky Bar at sunset. Well, Matthew had the oysters. Peggi and I were a little squeamish.

In the morning, after coffee at Duke’s Place, Peggi and I walked along the canal that cuts through Waikiki. We walked one way the the first day and the other the next, covering the length and seeing quite a bit of the beautiful city.

We drove along the coast to the windward side of the island where we played in the surf, probably got too much sun, ate avocado sandwiches and drank lime seltzer. The following day we drove over the mountains and through a tunnel to the other side. Here in an isolated cove we sat under a rainbow umbrella, ate ahi poke and pickled onions that we purchased from a nearby shop. I bought a truckers hat in pink and orange that reads “Lei’d.” Peggi was telling Matthew and Louise about the snorkling sunburn I got in Cartagena. I tried to call up the photo but discovered we were off grid. 

After dinner on our last night the four of us had a drink at the outdoor lounge in our hotel’s courtyard. The bartender recommended a local rum, something that tasted like scotch. We hatched a plan for the next visit. We’ll stay at Louise and Matthew’s place and they will stay at our place, the White Sands Hotel, a block away.

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In our approach to HNL, the pilot, a proud native judging by his accent, pointed out “the tallest mountain in the world if measured from the ocean floor.” I was thinking that puts a new spin on how we measure things. It felt right flying United, the airline featured in nearly every episode of the original Hawaii Five-0. Matthew and Louise picked us up at the airport and just minutes later we were looking at the steps of the former palace that Steve McGarrett charged down in the dynamic opening of that show.

In Honolulu it feels like we’re halfway in an Asian country, Asians and Asian culture is everywhere, lots of exotic birds and flowers for iNaturist to figure out. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant, ate seaweed and chatted the night away.

We went to the windward side of the island in the morning. Hang gliders floated above us as we and the surfers played in the turquoise water. I taught Louise “the dead man’s float.” She wasn’t convincing though. Peggi was worried the lifeguard would be alarmed but it felt so good getting thrown around by the waves.

Back in the condo the four of us watched Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 in the last minute of overtime in the Copa del Rey.

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Psychedelia is in the air on the Mill Valley-Sausalito Pathway, our main line between Rich and Andrea’s place and our hotel room, Good Earth Natural Foods and Blithedale Avenue in the other direction. Black-necked stilts, snowy egrets, Pride of Madeira and wildflowers line the low lying waterways. And then under the 101 (above!)

I wore my Trout Mask Replica shirt to the exercise room this morning. I’ve found CNBC to be a good workout partner, equal parts interesting and annoying enough to move the routine along. Rich, Andrea, Peggi and I all bought t-shirts at Ameba. Rich’s Motörhead shirt looked so good on him and Andrea looked perfectly at home in Lou Reed’s Transformer motif. Peggi found a “Love Will Tear Us Apart” shirt that makes her look like she’s in the clouds.

Just putting my shirt on brought most of “When Big Joan Sets Up” to mind.

”I’ll sit up with you Big Joan
I’m too fat to go out in the daytime
I’ll stay up all night
If you promise not to talk about your hands bein’ too small”

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Rich has a new band, a three piece, and the drummer left her kit at Rich’s so I had a chance to check it out. Made by Alesis, each piece is a black plastic disc wired to a module and a small amp. I couldn’t get much out of the hi-hat and ride but the crash sounded great and the drums sounded so melodic it was scary. It made me want to play like Sly Dunbar. Rich played a variety of instruments and with his e-sax we got into a snake-charm thing that I could see working as a subway act. That ambience when the car doors open and you hear music but you don’t know where it’s coming from.

It felt like the Waymo car saw the four of us standing there. No need to flag it down. There was no one behind the wheel when we unlocked the doors with our app. It was exhilarating watching it stop at red lights, turn ever so carefully, even slow appropriately for the speed bumps. And when the thrill wears off you are free to play with your iPad, stare out the window, even space out if you like. I am so ready for self driving cars.

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Just yesterday we read that Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing Antoni Gaudí’s “heroic virtues,” putting him on the path to sainthood. Should two people pray to him and have their wishes granted he will be confirmed. Since I don’t believe in miracles (not even yesterday’s big one with the Easter bunny) Gaudi is already a saint in my book. Today we read Max Romeo’s and Pope Francis’s obituaries. First we listened to “Chase The Devil” from “War ina Babylon” and then we looked at the photos we took in Barcelona of Gaudi’s Catalan Modernisme masterpieces.

I gave up on religion a long time ago but I am still drawn to the rituals and I had a soft spot for the Latin American Jesuit, Pope Francis. We loved Wim Wenders Pope Francis movie, “A Man of His Word.” Francis never came clean on sexual abuse in the ranks but he pushed the world toward old school, progressive change. His defense of migrants was a cardinal principle. He called Trump’s bashing of immigrants a “shipwreck of civilization.”

It is fitting that the Pope’s last visitor was J.D. Vance, a recent convert to Catholicism. J.D. has a lot to learn. His interpretation of “Ordo Amoris” (order of love) misses the whole ball of wax. Using the medieval concept to defend deportations J.D. says “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

In response Francis sent a letter to US bishops that read, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. The true ordo amoris is open to all, without exception.” Francis for sainthood.

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I remember Peggi’s father wore a bright orange hat in retirement. We have friend who wears an orange hat in NYC so we can keep track of him. Joe Ziolkowski’s hat looked particularly striking against his cyanotype cloud photos (we bought one, out of view) in Colleen Buzzard’s Studio.

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It is warm and sunny today with clear blue skies. The beach looks nothing like this. This photo was taken yesterday. This creek on the beach is the overflow from Durand Lake (across the road to the right.) It flows into Lake Ontario on the left. Depending on the rainfall, the wind and the roughness of the big lake, this creek is always different. It is constantly rearranging itself and then sometime in the summer it just disappears. When it gets warmer we take ours shoes off but often we just turn around. I was able to get across on the log this time. Peggi decided not to try today.

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I wish I had finished my soccer deep dive a little sooner. Ron would have loved it. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since one of the early reunions. I sent a link to a few of my former teammates and just a week later one of them let me know of Ron’s passing. Ron was a sensational goalie. His family held a celebration of his life at place in Webster called “The Filling Station.” I imagined the place might be where Finn’s Garage was, the Texaco station operated by Andy Finn’s father that I remember for their nickel Coke machine and bicycle pump. It turned out the sports bar was right next door, across the street from Barrett Law Offices where Joe’s father and two of his brother’s worked. Ron apparently spent a lot of time in here.

I rode out to Webster with Jeff and he turned out to be the only other member of our team that was there. We met Ron’s son and gave him our condolences. Three other member of our class were there and we all stood near the back of the bar and talked about the old days. We never did get a drink or partake of the chicken wings.

I had not seen Jim since high school. He was easily the best athlete in our class, center on the basketball team and quarterback on the football team. He had told us about a crazy motorcycle accident he was involved in where a kid pulled out in front of him. Jim was scooped up and flown via helicopter to the hospital where he got two new hips and a long metal rod in his leg. Still bowls he told us.

We all lost a mutual friend by “friendly fire” so Viet Nam came up. Jeff had driven Rex to the physical while unsuccessfully trying to talk him out of going. Bob had a sports injury where his shoulder would go in and out of its socket. He was able to disengage it while in line for his physical. I was classified 1A at the time, having dropped out when college when it provided you a deferment. I was saved buy a high lottery number.

Jim had the best story. His birthday was number one in the lottery. His brother was already serving and Jim didn’t want to go so he called the Selective Services office to see how close he was to being called up. The woman who answered kept trying to get his name and Jim didn’t want to identify himself but he finally he gave in. She looked up his name and told him he was 4F and he could forget about getting drafted. No further explanation.

I wish Ronnie could have been there.

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I was really enjoying “Severance” for the first season. I loved that there was snow on the ground when the characters were in their “outie” stage. The two episodes we watched each night felt like a disorienting but pleasant drug experience. More surreal than sci-fi. I loved the four primary actors and the sets were fantastic. The color choices were sensational. The plots were good enough to keep me awake but relaxing. Then came the season finale where my confusion felt frustrating. Peggi had a Severence dream that night where she was trapped in a B&B in our neighbor’s house.

Pete and Gloria came over with their brand new car, a Honda. We got in the back seat and they took us for a ride in our neighborhood. In fact we drove the same route that Peggi and I had walked earlier. We pointed out where we picked the pussy willows, the flowering Red Bud tree, the eagle’s nest and the marsh which is coming alive with irises and red winged blackbirds. In the back seat it was like we were in our “innie” stage but getting glimpses of our “outie” lives.

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I like this bird’s eye view of a house on Turk Hill Road. Us humans get to look up at it on a hill. Peggi was alerted to the sale by our friend, Kathy. She saw the listing described as a Don Hershey house. Peggi has been cataloguing the homes that Don Hershey built in this area on her website, DonHershey.com, and she did not have this one. The previous owner did this painting of his house. An $800 item, it was my favorite piece. This arrangement below was the only place in the house where I could rest my eyes.

Practical things were pretty expensive here and the unpractical items were as loud you can imagine. Lime green and purple walls, lots of glassware, a tabletop display of sun glasses you could imagine Elton John wearing, extra large tropical style shirts, dozens of unopened packages of cute cocktail napkins.

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When Peggi’s mom was living up here we used to go down to Silk O’Loughlin’s on Kentucky Derby Day. We would sit outside and watch the boats go down the river and there was always someone selling tickets for a chance to win on a horse. There was some serious green in there today when Peggi and I walked in. The owner was holding court, of course (in the wool sweater. ) We ordered a sandwich and a beer and sat in the back. Peggi found a green sweater to wear but the best I could do was an olive green Bug Jar t-shirt.

We had parked at the last lot along the beach and walked down Lakeshore to the river. We caught one of the eagles sitting on top of the big nest and watched him (or her) for a while before walking down Rock Beach past the Edic’s home. We looked at a few homes down here back in the day. Summerville is such a dreamy, funky neighborhood with easy access to the beach.

We looked in the new Fifth Frame Brewing on the way back. Surprised it didn’t open til four when all the other bars were full. We ran into Diane White walking her Basset hound. When we lived in the city we would go down to Carroll’s on St. Patty’s. Once we moved we did Shamrock Jack’s for years. Then that got crazy. The monster tent in the parking lot and bus loads of partiers and then the five and then ten dollar cover charge. We moved on to the Bayside. It was a nice walk across the outlet bridge. But then Webster decided to improve that area by tearing the place down.

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We walked up Biscayne, across the bridge over the inlet, and then turned directly to the bay. We could only glimpse the water before the road turned into a bridge to North Beach. We turned around there and hugged the streets along the inlet. Every third home or so was for sale. A narrow empty lot had been turned into a park (we could tell because there was a small sign that read “Park.”) We watched a motorboat come slowly up the channel and still manage to create a wake large enough to come over the banks. The low-slung, grade-level-entry houses were barely above water.

Back at the motel we researched “art galleries.” Where were they? Doesn’t Miami have a big art fair every year? We took an Uber up to the “Design District.” Every big designer brand you can think of has an outlet here. But no galleries. We got a cup of coffee at Pura Vida, a really good “cortadito,” and walked out of that area into Buena Vista, a comfortable old school residential neighborhood.

We crossed the tracks and decided to walk by the two restaurants our nephew owns. We had not hooked up with him yet. We were on the wrong side of the street when we realized we had walked right by both of them. I had taken note of the graphic on the side of one building, line drawings of young people dancing. I took it for an old fashioned teen center. It was Walrus Rodeo. Boia De, in the same strip mall, has such a low profile it took us a few minutes to realize we were standing right in front of it. At night, when their brilliant explanation mark of a logo is lit up it looks like my photo above. Our nephew was there attending to a plumbing issue. With a Michelin star Boia De is booked months in advance but somehow he arranged for us to get a table that night.

Our server, Tamar, told us they usually recommend six dishes to share per table. We decided on two, “Confit Octopus” and “Ricotta Gnocchi Alla Norcina”and two half orders, “Luci’s Chopped Salad” and “Lamb Ribs Fra Diavola.” All four were phenomenal but the salad was the best. We couldn’t finish the Gnocchi and brought it back to our motel room. Classic R&B music set the perfect vibe. In the bathroom, Curtis Mayfield’s “Future Shock” sounded as timeless as ever.

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We hated to leave Rochester when the winter was so beautiful but the the three days of full sun in Manhattan was a suitable consolation. It turned grey on our return and winter had turned ugly, in that the ice made it tough to walk. We tackled Hoffman Road to the park and back and then out Center to the park but we had to turn around there because of the ice. Even yesterday, while we were downtown, the sidewalks were treacherous. We kept thinking of a friend who fell and broke his hip. I saved the mp3s from our last Margaret Explosion gig and put then in a playlist for our next outing.

It was a 60 minute flight to DC and we had just spotted the Lincoln Memorial when the flight attendant announced we were in a holding pattern due to “VIP movement in DC.” I can only imagine but would rather not. 

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