Hodgepodge 202/365 - An Hour in the Life

A painting on the wall at Club J:
Mr. Jalapeño himself

On our way back to the car from yet another excellent dinner at Club Jalapeño in Carmel (I got one of my usuals: carnitas enchilada with mole sauce and chicken enchilada with spicy habeñero pepper sauce—though usually I get chicken with mole, carnitas with spicy, so yay: I've invented a new usual! my other usual usual being their fabulous chicken chile relleno with mole sauce) . . . we passed by Forge in the Forest with its outdoor fireside, and what was playing for the patio diners but Dave Brubeck's "Take Five." Such a recognizable—nay, iconic: biggest-selling jazz single ever—tune. David mentioned that it was actually composed by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond to feature an inventive drum solo. The tune, written in E-flat minor and featuring an unusual quintuple 5/4 time, was first performed in 1959, and it appeared on the groundbreaking album Time Out. We heard Dave Brubeck perform the tune a few years ago at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Such a pleasure!

(More of the story can be found here, where I incidentally learned that when Desmond died he left the performance royalties for his compositions to the American Red Cross, which continues to receive about $100,000 a year from this gift. And still more can be heard in an NPR story.)

On the way home, we stopped at Safeway where I was astonished to find whoopie cushions for sale (how could I never have noticed?) and a kitschy array of pop-culture Band-Aids, though none featuring insects or—this a memory from childhood—planets, stars, and spaceships. Sadly. Maybe the drugstore has a wider selection? I will have to go check.

Almost finally: while we were waiting to check out the Muzak came up with Yael Naim's "New Soul," which we proceeded to dance to (just a little bit: we were in line, after all). It's such a catchy tune.

And I will end with this, which came about because, yeah, stinking Facebook, which I of course checked the instant I stepped in my door. But oh, wonderful Facebook: I get turned on to so much good stuff. So much hopeful, uplifting, funny, educational stuff (in addition to the stupid politics, oh, begone, 45—please . . . soonest). I checked Facebook and there was Craig Childs saying, "Introducing Paul Simon to the boys this evening, the younger and I dancing in the kitchen in golden light. I'm wondering why it took so long." People in the comments posted links to songs. Including this one. Which: so wonderful. Simon and Garfunkel; David Bowie. National treasures.

And here's a YouTube version just because it's easy to click on a right-facing arrow.

So I'll end with that for this rather random post for today. An hour in the life . . . (And yes, my life does seem to involve a lot of parenthetical asides and discontinuities, so this post is formally entirely consistent.)