Austin City Limits clinched the deal.
Lots of old school bluegrass. Ironically the standup bass was “unplugged” into an electric bass. The venue…yea please.
It all starts with fiddle.
Austin City Limits and Billy Strings
December 25, 2025
concert, travel all of tomorrow, austin, austin city limits, billy strings, bluegrass, cabin song, concert, katy daly, little maggie, shady grove, slow train, way downtown 1 Comment
MASP take two
September 23, 2025
art, museum, travel art, art museum, brazil, degas, magritte, MASP, São Paulo, van gogh Leave a comment
Since our first visit was interrupted by 50,000 protesters, we returned to see the original MASP wing on our last day in São Paulo.
There were cars in the street and commerce was proceeding apace. Late stage capitalism perks along with one or two corporations owning everything.
Curation was interesting in this wing. Hodge podge to be sure (with bad lighting), but some masterpieces on display.
The best stuff was not really from Brazi.
Van Gogh does eye
Magritte does eye
LGBTQ Jesus from the middle ages.
Degas dances in São Paulo as well.
Degas does eye
The brutalist architecture does its thing.
Pinacoteca de São Paulo in the Thunder
September 23, 2025
art, fashion, film, photography, politics, travel 1960s, art, art museum, brazil, gem, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, romey, São Paulo, travel Leave a comment
What do you do when you are in São Paulo on a thunderous rainy Monday (the day that much is closed)? Seek out the Pinacoteca, and experience some art. Visit both sides with a sprint between rainstorms.
The space is beautifully assembled of old and new in contrast. The curation follows this concept and lacks only professional lighting. Brazil could use some NY light people in all of its museums.
Two views.
The exhibits are spotty, but there are always jewels to be found.
Some of the sculpture is exquisite.
Romey in a pink box.
This is not art!
Channel Emily.
And then brave the rain, walking through the huge unfamiliar trees of Brazil.
Arriving at the Contemporary building just as the power flickers and the clouds unleash.
Enter the late ’60s and the dissolution of dictatorship. Yankees out of vietnam.
BLUM!
Then have a late lunch while you wait for the rain to abate. Banana milk punch for the win.
Esperanza Spalding in Brazil
September 22, 2025
art, concert, travel audio, brazil, christian, concert, esperanza spalding, fabio, live music, romey, São Paulo, shotgun app, travel 1 Comment
When we were looking for a concert to attend Saturday night in the São Paulo Spring, we were surprised by the pickings. Not much going on even though the city is huge. A conversation in Brazil with a young show producer told the tale of why, the gist of it being that a post COVID explosion of creativity is drawing to a close and the performers are exhausted. But the constraints led us directly to an exceptional treat—Esperanza Spalding in Brazil.
Magical.
We did require some help from our new friend Christian (a USP fresh out Ph.D.) who was able to use the local shotgun app to get tickets. I tried that earlier from the US with no luck since the app required a Brazilian citizen ID number.
In a small world phenomenon, we ran into Fabio Kon and his wife while waiting in line to get into the venue.
It was nice to spend some time with the locals. LOL. Here are some pictures and videos of the show.
There was some waiting around to do from 8pm to 10pm, but it was all worth it.
.
We were, in fact, in Brazil…as you can hear.
.
A commentary in AI and jazz. Computer speed and human speed compared.
When we got back to the rosewood after the show, we had a late night snack at 1:30am.
Jardim Botânico São Paulo
September 18, 2025
flowers, garden, travel christian, garden, Jardim Botânico, monkies, São Paulo, Spring 2 Comments
The monkeys were making lots of noise.
But the Spring was pretty quiet.
I found my statue in São Paulo.
We saw capybaras…kinda
Special thanks to Christian for showing us around.
Decompressing at the Stick
August 1, 2025
cooking, dogs, ocean, travel, wedding anne, april, gøran, lisa, noelie, rhine, the stick, wedding 1 Comment
After all of the planning, and then the actual event itself, we were ready to put our feet up. So we did.
The Stick with Göran, Anne, Noelie, Lisa, Rhine and April—hosted by the newly married McGraws! Late May is perfection at the beach. No people.
Oh yeah, the dogs came too. We rented a huge vehicle in Pittsburgh to cart everyone and all their stuff down.
Now back to those feet…
About the only complication was figuring out the state of the improperly-installed dishwasher. We built our own sign to signify state. It was good in theory. LOL.
As always, cooking was an important part of our beach time. Romey and Lisa made a delicious meal indeed.
The dogs felt left out.
The view from the porch leads to inner peace.
We did make a few cocktails.
Tranquility…unless you are a ball.
Just add more olives.
Starts like this…
Ends up like this. Thanks John and Joan!
Feel the Rhinoceros: Musée d’Orsay
February 27, 2025
art, travel art, art museum, caroline, gem, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, rhinoceros, romey, yo 1 Comment
Yo could have sworn that we had a kilometer yet to go. He did not open himself up to the rhinoceros.
Romey and I sprinted up to 4 as soon as we arrived to take in the impressionists before they were mobbed.
Is this a Renoir or a Manet?
Lunch was actually delicious.
And now you too can channel your inner rhinoceros.
Banksy Pop Up in Paris: The Walled Off Hotel
February 27, 2025
art, travel art show, banksy, bowie, jobs, Paris, pop up, queen, romey, the walled off hotel, warhol 1 Comment
Sometimes when you are walking down the street in Paris taking in the sights, you just take a quick left into an art show. We probably could have stayed at the hotel (copy) too.
Who did it better?
Steve is taking all our shit!
Just who is the real queen?
Jazz in Paris: Karl Jannuska at Sunset-Sunside
February 27, 2025
art, music, travel jazz, karl Jannuska, live music, original music, Paris, record, sunset-sunside, suset-sunside, the pull 2 Comments
Well it’s not Caveau de la Huchette, but Sunset-Sunside is a great place to see a jazz show, especially if you want to sit close enough to the stage to read the music off the guitar player’s stand! We were lucky to catch the album release show for The Pull by Karl Jannuska (of Manitoba Canadian-fame now living in Paris). The show was very good.
Just how close to the stage?
A complete version of Unsung (track 11 on The Pull).
Karl is an absolutely outstanding drummer.
This guitarist is also astoundingly good. Revel in his finger work and tasty, subtle melody stitches (partial).
A jam (partial) from Picture Perfect, track 6 from The Pull.
The piano player (who also worked on the recording in an important capacity) held down the bass. This was by far the trickiest part of the gig and mostly worked. Seeing Karl preside over the rhythm section with a real bass player would be a dream.
I know the challenge of having recorded tracks that you perfected in the studio in your head that are nigh on impossible to redo live due to the two instruments problem. Sometimes I switch back and forth inside of one song when performing. At least piano players get two hands.
So What’s Next?, track 2 on The Pull, featured an outstanding release jam reminiscent of Miles’ Bitches Brew tracks. Watching this happen live really makes me want to grab my fiddle and hop in.
The sound guy spent a bit too much time recording and not enough watching what was going on. But I’m sure those were his marching orders.
Track 13 from The Pull, Unfiltered Life (complete) features some excellent guitar work from the other guitarist (whose back we watched). In this track he channels Andy Summers. I like this live version better than the recorded track, mostly because there were points when things got iffy and the band persisted).
For the third set, we moved out front.
For a last minute, “lets just pop the TGV to Paris early” plan, attending this show was absolutely lucky as hell. Thanks Karl for a very memorable evening. May we cross paths again.
Get a copy of The Pull from Bandcamp here. You won’t regret it.
