On a windy but very clear crisp Spring day, we visited the Kreeger—a small but excellent collection in an interesting architectural space. Chagall, Monet, Picasso, Kandinsky (though the wrong periods), and some very interesting Mondrian are among the finds. What a stunning place to have lived. Must be nice to be an insurance plutocrat!
Ghost Romey in the jungle.
Romey’s favorite, this Picasso woman.
The architecture is 1960’s modern, but still very tasteful and beautiful.
The light on Piet.
Outside was chilly but likewise very well structured.
A series of “wrong” Kandinsky. Late and early, but no just right. Where is Goldilocks when you need her?
Romey secured a grant from the town to beautify her building as part of the main street COVID funding. The grant covered a new door, stonework pointing, flashing update, and fixing A/C drainage. While the work was being completed, the Winchester Star snapped this picture and put it in the paper.
There is a back story of sorts. Way back in the summer of 2022 in Virginia, we decided it would be fun to see Roxy Music and also Florence and the Machine when we could. Happily, we managed to do both, but only with some doing.
The plan for the Florence show was to get to the UK on business in November, skip American “dead turkey day,” meet up with our best British friends, and catch the show in Manchester. But somehow Florence broke her foot in London (while we were there) the day before the Manchester show.
We vowed to return.
Here are some bits from the show, an emotional powerhouse led by a charismatic master of the stage. What a show.
The AO arena is a great place to see a show, mostly because the crowd is fantastic. But the best reason to see a show there is because Noelie and Lisa are excellent hosts and are really fun to hang out with.
The crowd gathers.
We don’t even remember who the opener was.
Then, it was showtime!
Heaven is Here was the first song of the night. Florence had shoes on.
Ship to Wreck
Free
Dog Days Are Over. This is my favorite Florence song, and I was psyched it made the setlist. The fucking phone diatribe was captured in bits. Here it is in all its glory.
Of course the real Florence fan (and the reason we were all here) is Romey. She knew all the words to all the songs and had a huge smile on her face.
Romey dances.
Morning Elvis
My Love
You’ve Got the Love is Romey’s favorite Florence song. She was super psyched that it made the setlist.
The encore song Never Let Me Go had 20,000 people singing along.
Never Let Me Go, performed for the first time in a decade.
An important new year’s resolution for me this year is to play more music. We started things right with a session on January 2nd. Rhine came into town for a day. Clark popped by for some music. Our best audience was lulled to sleep.
Playing in the living room.
We had some Scot Toddy’s in Romey’s xmas cups and kept the bar open late.
This year we rang in the New Year with delicious food and an intimate two person party.
Nine hour Burgundy Mushrooms are absolutely delicious! But they do really take nine hours. Six hours of simmering with a lid on and three more with the lid off. The new Mauviel christmas pot (my best present by far) was perfect for the job.
We also roasted a chicken and veggies in the new pink pot using one of Romey’s recipes. Likewise delicious.
This was “first dinner.” The coup de grace was still to come.
Mr Skaggs paid a visit while the cooking proceeded and we had a couple of Seelbach cocktails (take care of the time warp!). We’re pretty sure that’s why we accidentally fell asleep before midnight. LOL.
This was a fancy pants Seelbach iteration with veuve clicquot champagne and blanton’s bourbon. Absolutely fantastic.
And then it was time to cook up blinis for the caviar. We went to the “gold plated groceries” store for the fixins. Crème fraîche for the win. So delicious.
Incidentally, these were fried to perfection in another new pan.
This special meal called for a vintage bottle of pink veuve clicqot.
We attempted to watch Fight Club (which I had never seen) , but we fell asleep just before the end (and just before midnight). We blame the Seelbachs.
The leftover champagne and blinis made a great first breakfast of 2023.
Sometimes walking out the door and around back is the best way to hike. We bushwhacked up through juniper and blueberry towards a small lake where fish are rumored to live. Tyinkrysset, Norway is beautiful.
This little stream is just up the road a few hundred meters.
Here are some pictures of our walk in the mountains.
A view of the valley.
Chilly Romey.
Panorama
Our intrepid hosts at the top. Our fearless leader Nova was dressed for the weather.
The trail, built by hand with horses and carts through steep mountain passes, is incredible. Like a movie set. This is one hike in Norway not to miss. We did a few kilometers day hike to the Stave Church completed in the 1180s.
The Kings Road is what Kongevegen means, BTW. The scenery at peak Fall is stunning and magical.
Romey and the logo bench.
Just up over the pass the first view of the Stave Church.
We approached from behind (with a herd of sheep). These are not the sheep!
Our fearless leader Nova.
Don’t eat the mushrooms.
A quiet moment of conversation.
A boy and his dog!
An impressive waterfall on the drive home.
Coffee stop.
And back home for beer and a small fire. This is the only kind of smoking that I like to do.
It’s pretty far to get to the waterfall, and the directions are tricky.
Maybe it’s that way?
Should we follow the reindeer?
And you have to stop by the visitors center snack place where they have really nothing. No coffee today, no waffles, nope, no water, sorry only candy made from juniper berries.
But there it is! Upness in a waterfall.
OK. Not the best waterfall in Norway, or really even the most interesting. But there were reindeer!
The Roxy Music show in DC was excellent and fun. St Vincent opened up (and not many of the audience members knew her stuff). We rocked out. Here are some bits.
We parked at the arena (though it cost some $$$ it was way worth it as we drove directly out in under 2 minutes). We arrived early enough to buy a very bad gin and tonic from the sports betting center on the corner before the show.
We were in the venue about 30 minutes before the show. Row 12!
St Vincent played lots of material from her new album.
New York
Only mother fucker in the city…
Slow disco.
The stage change took about 25 minutes. And it was worth the wait.
ROXY MUSIC in the house!
The show began with Avalon interstitial into Re-Make/Re-Model.
A guitar solo by Phil Manzanera.
Bryan Ferry was full of energy during this show.
Andy Mackay on woodwinds.
The guitar gets wild
While My Heart is Still Beating
Roxy gets psychedelic.
As does Romey! You go girl.
Many of the interludes were beautiful in just the right Roxy way.
One of our all time favorites To Turn You On
The Main Thing
The crowd was into it. And the visuals were just as much of the experience at the music. One guy in front of us knew every word of every song.
An all time favorite (though honestly I would rather play this than listen to it), More Than This.
Romey captures some bits.
And a very much great version of Avalon (though, don’t be the asshole who talks over this song).
The Warhol set was awesome
Jealous Guy
Congrats on 50 years of being a band, Roxy Music! You guys still rock.
