For My Brother Randolf

So yesterday my youngest brother Rene got a hold of me by phone and text and I knew something was terribly wrong before even speaking to him. Rene and I had not spoken in quite a while because we are both stubborn and I just get so upset and I guess irrational at times.

His first words were "it's about Randolf" and I knew right away that he was no longer was with us. I always expected this call though I didn't expect it so soon. So until yesterday I had not spoken to Rene and Chantal (my sister) for quite a while. The reasons why are so infantile especially on my part and if anything I have learned in the last 24 hours is to let it go.

Weirdest thing is that Randolf and I have always kept in touch. It was hard given some of his life choices but in recent times we had been exchanging messages via Facebook and Messenger as he gave me some attitude about some of my food choices, distilled spirit options and music adventures. Since our Mom had passed I have not been up to Montreal as often as I should and our physical contact had not happened as often as it used to when I visited annually. There was never ever judgement stuff when we got together. We'd just talk about where we were in our lives at that given point. Randolf and I always shared that history. For better or for worse. I would try to make it a point to bring him out for supper on a Montreal visit. One of my happiest recent Montreal memories was going out for steaks with him and paying this totally outrageous bill.

In the last day I have been thinking about our lives as siblings and some good and some terrible things we went through. As we got older he became my doppelganger until my recent weight gains. We looked similar. We had the same voices. We had the same diction and pretty decent vocabularies. We would be able to fool others into thinking we were the other sibling. That was not always a good thing!

So I was born in '62, Chantal in '63 and Randolf in '67. Randolf never knew our Dad. I barely have any memories of him except when I see pics. I am not even sure I remember him except to know that I was his carbon copy at one point. Our Mom and Dad had been separated for maybe a year when he took his life in Sept. 1969. So long ago but the impact of that haunted us until this day. The three siblings had to stay in some foster families for an 18 month period while Mom tried to get us reunited. Survivor benefits and insurance proceeds under the circumstances of our Dad's death were pretty non-existent. As our situation was temporary, we kids were a package deal in our foster family placements. Most were good. One was horrific for me and I suspect for Randolf. I remember that as I got older and discussed some of this stuff with my Mom when I had the courage to do so; she told me that she felt an enormous misplaced guilt for what had happened to us. She felt responsible for Randolf not speaking coherently until he was 4 years old. I can only speak for myself and I guess Randolf and say that we have had some serious trust issues over the years. I am actually smiling as I type this as this point came up when I last saw him as I was dropping him off at the Cote Vertu metro station in June 2014.

Okay this is a little darker than I wanted to go but it feels good to type it out.

Not too long after the foster family thing happened we were all reunited in Lasalle and lived as a single parent family unit in an apartment on Jean Brillant.. That's where my Mom met our stepfather Gene who together with my Mom brought some much needed normalcy and stability in our lives. We moved to Chomedey and our youngest brother Rene showed up in '73. Things went well for almost a ten year period. Our Mom was together,our stepfather was a good man and us kids were doing okay. High school was hard for Randolf. I graduated in '79, my sister in '81 and Randolf had to compete against us in the same classes with the same teachers. Things were different then. Teachers would put in comments in report cards that Randolf needs to be more like his older siblings. We set the bar pretty high at Western Laval. He had no chance. Plus Randolf was a lefty! Is there such a thing as a normal lefty? I think not!!!

Fast forward to the summer of 1986. My Mom decided that she was moving to Pictou County, Nova Scotia to get a fresh start with Blaine who she had taken up with after the dissolution of her marriage with Gene (my stepfather). She was going there with my youngest sibling Rene. My sister was already out of the house and I had rented an apartment off Levesque Blvd in Chomedey. There was no way Randolf was going to Nova Scotia. I was moving out because our home life was untenable. My Mom asked me to take him with me. So here I was at 24 yrs old already on my way to a life to a life of ruin because of drugs and alcohol moving into an apartment with my extremely angry and stoner younger brother. We managed to live there in reasonable harmony for about a year. Police were called only twice. Once was because we were acting out a wrestling match at midnight on a Monday night. WWF was on Mondays at midnight. Well the neighbors were not wrestling fans it seems. LOL. That was our first roommate experience.

Our second roommate experience occurred in mid 1988. I had hit rock bottom at 26 years old. I had lost job after job. I went from living in apartments to rooming houses to bumming off friends to staying at Motel St-Jacques and Motel Raphael to finally sleeping under grandstands in parks. My life belongings were in a hockey duffel bag and I was doing day labor to drink and use. I had my "see the light" moment and managed to get a hold of Randolf and asked him to crash at his place while I tried to get clean and sober. His only rule was that I could not drink/use. I was ready. He had this dive apartment upstairs from the Blue Angel on Drummond St. in downtown Montreal. He was working days and I was working graveyards. It worked out great. I got clean and sober. I discovered that one could live off pasta, margarine and oregano. The apartment literally had no furniture. It had a mini fridge and a mini stove and strange sexual encounters would occur late at night in the doorway stoop.

While the previous paragraph seems kind of sad. That day in the beginning of August 1988 has led me to where I am today in April 2017. The largesse of Randolf's generosity back then has led to me having this pretty awesome life that I have today.

Our third roommate experience occurred shortly afterwards in July 1989 where he and I moved into this huge flat with two of his work buddies (Mark and Shane) on Park Avenue in the Plateau. By this point Randolf's life as well as mine had taken a turn for the better. I was hired on the company I am still working for 27 years later, I went back to school and finally got my university education at nearly 30 yrs old. I met my ex wife and mother of our son. Randolf's life was going pretty well. He had gotten some decent jobs. He was riding bikes. He met someone. He got married. We were kind of living parallel lives in a way. He moved around the corner on St-Joseph while I stayed on Park and then I moved onto St-Urbain.

Stuff happened in my life in the mid 90s directly related to not having learned life skills when I was younger. I had some solid friendships, solid recovery years behind me and I had Jeune Homme keeping me grounded so when I moved here to SC in '99 I was copacetic. Sadly that is when things took a turn for the worse in Randolf's life. His work life, his home life and his reality life became so messed up.

I knew things were bad but I was 1070 miles away and trying to cope with my life here in Greenville with an 8 yr old kid and no support system. I had an opportunity to get Randolf down here to watch Harrison for me as I had to travel up to Canada for work. I got him to come down for a month with his bike. He like our Mom hated air travel so he took a Greyhound bus down here with his $2000 bike in 2001 dollars crated up. LOL. Thirty hours later he showed up at my place at the Paddock Club on Woodruff Rd.

Randolf and I bonded incredibly during that month sitting on the back porch, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and listening to R.E.M. on cassettes. His fave band was out of Athens, GA which seems ironic given that it is less than two hours away from my house. Had I known when he was last here we would have definitely gone to visit. If memory serves me correctly he would only listen to albums 1 through 6 only. He hated when they went MTV with "Out Of Time". His favorite songs were South Central Rain, Orange Crush, Call On Me, The One I Love and Radio Free Europe. I used to tell him all the time. You need to come down here permanently. I will find a way to sponsor you or worse comes to worse you can stay here and live with H and I and work under the table. Sadly he never took me up on that offer.

Fast forward to today and I am still trying to process all of this. Late last week someone at worked asked me how do I manage to do all that I do with the driving, the concerts, the baseball games, the beach trips, the late night cooking, the overindulging of barley and malt products??? I sincerely answered I am so afraid of missing out on things. I was like Mom was 60, her brother was 54, my Dad was 33 (different circumstances) and his eight siblings barely made it to 60. Little did I know that Randolf was already gone at that point. I last communicated with Randolf on March 21st and per the police he may have been gone a couple days afterwards.

I leave this with the words from one of his favorite songs....
This one goes out to the one I love
This one goes out to the one I've left behind
A simple prop to occupy my time
This one goes out to the one I love

Concert Review Meanderings - Breaking Benjamin

So this past Tuesday night (the 24th) a couple friends and I moseyed up Asheville to attend Breaking Benjamin's sold out show at The Orange Peel. This was my 4th time seeing Benjamin Burnley and the cast of characters perform live. This show featured a good selection of songs off of their five albums with a heavy emphasis on 2015's "Dark Before Dawn" but also included the hits and other fan favorites.

One of the reasons I love listening and attending Breaking Benjamin shows is that I know that I will get a solid, professional and dare I say grateful attitude from Benjamin and the band. I sincerely believe him when he states the reason that they are out there performing live is for their love of their fan base. He mentions it several times at each show and you know that he is not mailing it in at any of their shows. He has a great rapport with the people at the shows be they at the front of the stage or way in the back.

Cool thing is that they keep their ticket prices reasonable as well. Face value for the ticket was $36 for two hours of solid ass rock music which also included a decent length set by the openers out of Detroit, MI called Wilson. Every time I thought of the name to myself I expected Tim Allen to magically appear. I am not familiar with Wilson's music and I guess the best way to describe it would be hard rock bordering on thrash metal. They did a pretty good AC/DC cover of "Back In Black" as well.

Breaking Benjamin's Set List Song/Album :
So Cold (We Are Not Alone)
Angels Fall (Dark Before Dawn)
Sooner or Later (We Are Not Alone)- featuring Keith Wallen on lead vocals
Blow Me Away (Shallow Bay)
Simple Design (We Are Not Alone)
The Imperial March / Bulls on Parade / Smells Like Teen Spirit / Walk / Sad But True
Polyamorous (Saturate)
Ashes of Eden (Dark Before Dawn)
Believe (We Are Not Alone) - featuring Aaron Bruch on lead vocals
Never Again (Dark Before Dawn)
Breath (Phobia)
Failure (Dark Before Dawn)
Until the End (Phobia)
I Will Not Bow (Dear Agony)
Encore:
The Diary of Jane (Phobia)

Although I loved every song and I pretty much sang aloud on all of them some of my favorites this night were "Sooner or Later", "Breath", "I Will Not Bow" and the gorgeous "Ashes of Eden". "Ashes" had Benjamin leaving the stage and joining fans in the first rows touching hands and doing fist bumps. Very cool!

As always Breaking Benjamin performs an awesome medley of songs from bands that had a big impact on them over time. They always start it off with "The Imperial March" from Star Wars as Ben Burnley says is the anthem for geeks and nerds like him. LOL. Good line! That segues into Rage Against The Machine (Bulls..), Nirvana (Smells..), Pantera (Walk) and Metallica (Sad..).I always enjoy this bit and over time they have added songs to the medley.

My only complaint is some of my fave songs are left off the set. Songs like "Give Me A Sign", "Medicate" and "Rain". However I have heard these in previous shows so it's all good. It was mentioned at the show that they are working on new material so I am hoping this gets released in 2017 if not my current Breaking Benjamin CDs will continue to be in heavy rotation in the house and in car CD player.

Peace and rock on!

Food Review Meanderings - Mamacitas

So anybody that sees my Orange Peel concert posts on Facebook will often see a mention or two of my love for Mamacitas Mexican Grill which is located right nearby on Biltmore Avenue. In fact only Wicked Weed Brewing stands in between the OP and Mamacitas. Wicked Weed is also an awesome place especially for some pretty spectacular brewed on-site craft beers and funky food choices. I will have to blog about Wicked Weed one of these days. Likely after one of those nights that I partake in several pints of awesome beers by their fire pit.

The really cool thing about Asheville is that they have some great places to get good food at really affordable prices. One of those places is definitely is Mamacitas Mexican Grill. Check out this part of the menu:

1. Choose OneBurrito, Taco Pair, Burrito Bowl or Salad
2. Fillings, Delicious Fillings

Grilled Chicken - citrus OR chiptotle marinated …$7.49
Avocado & Black Bean - avocado - black beans - mexican rice …$6.99
Pulled Pork - slow cooked pork - adobo sauce …$7.49
Baja Fish - cabbage- baja sauce …$7.49
Citrus Tofu - organic tofu citrus marinated …$7.49
Chorizo Verde - house-made deliciouness …7.49
Grilled Steak - salsa marinated-cooked to order …$9.99
Grilled Shrimp - guajillo marinated-Oaxacan style …$9.99
Veggie Mama - sweet potato-kale-black beans …$7.49
Ground Beef - seasoned beef-chipotle sauce …$7.49

I always go for the Chorizo Verde Burrito which is absolutely massive (see pic below). In the last few months I have this strange fixation on sausages related to a country's cuisine be it Polish, Portuguese, Italian, German or Mexican. May as well throw in Cajun Country's andouille sausage as well. Yeah yeah I know I have issues. Tell me something that I don't know.

So I get this huge effing burrito filled with chopped or diced chorizo verde which is basically ground pork shoulder mixed with fresh poblano chile, fresh serrano chiles,cilantro and ground spinach powder. Yes it has a little bite to it. Added to this in the burrito are black beans, Mexican style rice, finely shredded Mexican cheese, fresh diced jalapenos, pico de gallo and more cilantro. Usually I will get a side of fried plantains on the side which are otherworldly awesome. Deep fried plantains are my raison etre for using a deep fryer at home. Absolutely epic. I didn't get those the other night. I took the homemade chips on the side and added some tomatillo salsa verde and a spicy chipotle salsa.

Knowing that I was going to partake in some craft beers at the Dweezil Zappa show and that I had a 70 mile drive home later that night I only took a couple of glasses of ice water to help alleviate the spiciness of my food choices. LOL. I will say though that their beverage prices are extremely reasonable just like the rest of their menu is as well. End result to wallet that night for that awesome tasting burrito was $8.01 or $27 Canadian. LOL. Geezus some of the drek that you can get at fast food places costs more and that is for fake processed shite. Super value at Mamacitas Mexican Grill!

I'll end this blog saying that I have tried on many occasions at home to perfect burrito plates especially with leftovers that remain from my cooking for one adventures (haha) but my efforts are always for naught as my burritos fall apart and pretty much become a messy salad of sorts. I think my burritos are too wet. Okay that looks weird. Too wet. Hmm. Pretty sure I will edit that line at some future date. I just can't think of a better term right now. LOL.

In honor of this blog, it's time for a good tequila shot!!!

Concert Review Meanderings - Dweezil Zappa

So this past Wednesday night I headed up to The Orange Peel to catch Dweezil Zappa's "Cease and Desist" show aka "Dweezil Zappa Playing Whatever The F@%k He Wants" show. Turns out there is some family acrimony on who rightfully owns the name Zappa so Dweezil Zappa has to be very careful on how he markets the shows. His younger siblings Diva (37) and Ahmet (42) and those are their ages not their IQs though those could be state that they own the family surname Zappa and that Dweezil Zappa needs to "Cease and Desist" using the "Zappa Plays Zappa" moniker and that he can not sell any merchandise at his shows with the likeliness of their Dad. They even tried to copyright Frank's moustache for fuck's sake. Geezus how petty!

Anyways Dweezil Zappa has been performing the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour since 2006 and has done over 1000 shows with a smorgasbord of musicians over time and on this latest tour he has several players that have been with him for years. One thing about Frank Zappa's music is that it is quite complex with constant time and beat changes. The rhythm section are Ryan Brown on drums and Kurt Morgan on bass. Ryan works like crazy and is great drummer with nary a break during the whole show. Frank didn't write ballads. LOL. Multi-instrumentalist Scheila Gonzales has been there since the beginning and keyboard player Chris Norton has been there for quite a while as well. The newest members are David Luther on vocals and horns and Cian Coey on vocals as well. Every band member had time to shine during the 145 minute show (2H25M). The musicality of the band is incredible and their versions of Frank's music was fantastic. Dweezil has some serious guitar chops. Any doubts on how good he is would be rendered null and void if y'all check out the instrumental "Apostrophe" from the January 17th show at Jannus in St. Petersburg on YouTube. The Florida one not the Trump one. LOL.

In fact "Apostrophe" was one of the highlights of the show for me. This is an instrumental featuring guitar, bass and drums and was written by Frank Zappa, Jack Bruce (legendary bassist of supergroup Cream) and the very troubled drummer Jim Gordon. The song comes from Frank Zappa's 18th album of the same name released in 1974. Frank's first album "Freak Out" was released in 1966. 18 albums in 8 years. Holy Eff Batman says Robin. "Apostrophe" was his highest charting album at #10 and also featured "Cosmic Debris" which was another highlight of the show and it also had the classic comedic song "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". Sadly that song didn't make the setlist. One could have a show of only Frank's comedy songs and you would still come away impressed on how good the music is in these tunes. The album itself has the following genres: comedy rock, progressive rock, hard rock and jazz fusion. Not exactly the usual same old same old huh.

The setlist (just below) for the show featured over 25 songs and had out and out rockers, the comedy songs, the satirical songs, the statement songs, the guitar songs, the horn songs and pretty much everything else in including kazoos, beach toys and fake boobs. You had to be there for that last one (Fembot In A Wet...). LOL. Another favorite of mine was "Black Napkins" with the dual horns and the solos. Beautiful song!

Help, I'm a Rock / Transylvania Boogie
It Can't Happen Here
You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
Harry, You're a Beast / The Orange County Lumber Truck
Lemme Take You to the Beach
How Could I Be Such a Fool?
Who Are the Brain Police?
What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?
Shove It Right In
Flower Punk
Inca Roads
Black Napkins
Apostrophe
Teen-Age Wind
Montana
Zomby Woof
Doreen
You Are What You Is
Yo' Mama
Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt
On the Bus
Keep It Greasey
Packard Goose
Watermelon in Easter Hay

Encore:
Ride My Face to Asheville
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
Cosmik Debris
Muffin Man

All in all it was great show. Fantastic value. Seeing this performance gives me a more appreciative view of the complexity of Zappa's music and how much he was before his time.

Abbey Road - The Orange Peel (01/14/17)

So last night was my first music event of the year after last weekend's snow event and it started off with a great show. I drove up to Asheville again. LOL. It's like my second home. Hmm perhaps third home if I throw in Sanibel as my number two. The band that was performing at the OP are called Abbey Road LIVE and as the name implies they played the Beatles 1969 classic album from the opening song on side one "Come Together" through to side two's epic "Medley". The band's members are from the Athens, GA area and have been touring since 2002. Unlike many Beatles tribute bands they do not dress the part with the wigs and "uniforms". These guys let do the music and their skills do the talking. Don't get me wrong; some of the bands doing the Mop Top tribute do a great job as well. I am thinking of The Return who I have seen a couple of times in recent years.


First thing I noticed last night coming into the venue was that it was an all ages show which is pretty darn cool when you see teenagers of the 2010s attending a show to appreciate music that is 50+ years old. Their parents did a great job exposing them to great music. Don't get me started with most of the noise that is on the radio bands nowadays! I will save that for another blog or ten. LOL.

So onto the show we go! I was all of 7 yrs old when Abbey Road the album was released so I can easily say that I did not hear this music in my little BBG world at that time. That was the year that my father died. Wow that's a sad remember when. My Mom was not a Beatles fan. She was more a Jerry Vale and Renée Martel and Ginette Reno fan. Okay that is more of a pleasant remember when. I actually like those artists. Jerry Vale was oh so smooth.

I probably really started hearing the songs in the mid 70s when I started listening to 97.7 CHOM-FM in my birth hometown of Montreal. Great thing back then on CHOM is that they would literally play any cut off the album and they would play it in its entirety. Here I'm referring to Lennon's classic paean to Yoko Ono "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". All 7m44s of it. Abbey Road LIVE did an awesome job on this bluesy stoner rock classic. A+ to Abbey's lead guitarist who I call the Tom Petersson look-alike. LOL.

The band members are great musicians. The Beatles were way more mature and experimental in their later days in their lyrical content and musicianship in comparison to the early Beatles stuff which was fun and all and risque for the times but kind of bubble gum to me. Just my opinion. I am not an expert. I like pop ditties from time to time but give me "Come Together", "I Want You" and "The Medley" any day. So they started off with the rock songs"Come" which segued into "Something" and I knew I was in for a special music night. Then came the pop songs "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh Darlin" and "Octopus Garden". The latter being one of my least favorite Beatles song. A close runner up to that tune would be "Yellow Submarine". Side One ends with "I Want You".

Side Two begins with another great George Harrison song "Here Comes The Sun". Such a beautiful song! Turns out this song was written in Eric Clapton's garden. George and Eric had an interesting and odd relationship. Think Patti! Abbey Road LIVE did an awesome version of it. That was followed by the pretty "Because" that was one of the few songs that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all sang in unison. Sure they harmonized tons but most songs featured one of them on lead and not all three as one.

Then the highlight moment for me from the Abbey Road album was played which is the 15 minute medley that closes out the album. Beatles geeks like me love that song and can sing or mumble through all eight pieces of the Medley. As it was being played by Abbey Road LIVE I was looking around to see who else was way into it. There were quite a few us. Men mostly. Mostly in their 50s and bald, balding and baldest. LOL. Us geeks were there swaying, riffing, drumming and singing mumbling from "You Never Take My Money" all the way to the majestic "The End". The great Ringo drum solo was featured and was very cool.

That was the first set. 47 minutes of amazing music! A short break followed for costume change, rest break for the band and BBG sitting his butt down outside in the smoking section. I really do not miss smoking. No lecture forthcoming. LOL. Just an observation. They have seats outside in the smoking section and it was not too crowded hence my being out there. I am way too old and big to park myself on a floor.

Then the second set began and that featured a lot of the early and later Beatles songs that many people came to hear. You know like "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Don't Let Me Down", "Birthday", "Hard Day's Night", "Oh Bla Di, Oh Bla Da", "Hello Goodbye", Twist & Shout","Day In The Life", etc etc. That set lasted about an hour and boy oh boy people young and old were singing along during this set. They did an impromptu tribute to David Bowie and sang a great off the cuff version of "Changes". Cool thing that the band did was take some requests. Problem there is that the Beatles had so many songs and unless Abbey Road LIVE was going to play for four hours there was no way to get them all in. Abbey Road LIVE has more than 100 Beatles songs in their repertoire.

It was a great show! Highland Gaelic Ale is great beer! Dweezil Zappa is next on the docket.

Found Me Some Portuguese Food

So anyways it seems to me that it took like forever for me to have a non-ordinary event happen in 2017. In a perfect world I would have been down in Athens, GA last Friday night to attend a Yacht Rock Revue concert at the Georgia Theater and then on Saturday night I would have been in my favorite funky city of Asheville, NC attending the Donna The Buffalo show at the Orange Peel.

Instead here I am hunting and pecking at the keyboard under the watchful gaze of BooBoo Dammit on Thursday, January 12th. Good gawd the last time I was out was New Years Eve!!! Like really. WTF!!! No wonder I was happy happy at about or aboot 515pm yesterday as I made my way out of the Mother House's doors to my left sided dented and scratched but amazing mileage with heated effing seats 2013 VW Passat TDI.

Seriously I almost was gliding to my car last night as I was so pumped to get out and about to was to be my 3rd event of the year that had become the 1st event of the year. Okay maybe gliding is not the correct word. At my size I be not gliding anywhere; I be plodding. LOL. Anyways you get the gist and hopefully not the visual. Smiles.

So anyways I love going to Asheville. The drive is kind of short when you look at things from my perspective. Pretty much an hour or so to get there. Traffic is not an issue if I am making my way there from work. More on that in a sec or maybe a few secs depending on how much more babbling I do before I get to the point. The drive is way better though in daylight or when you are not driving in SC NC dark. It's especially nice on SC 25 NC 25 and then I26 in NC as you motor through the start of the Blue Ridge Mountains when coming from around Travelers Rest area.

Okay back on point to when I leave work I get to miss most traffic as I am taking Suber Rd. to SC290 to get my BBG butt to SC 25. The other name for SC290 in "dem dese" parts is Locust Hill Road. Okay seriously WTF with the W standing for Who and T standing for The and F standing for Fudge named the fucking road Locust Hill. Seriously would you not think that a house on Peachtree Rd or Honey Bee Way would have more cachet than Locust Effing Hill. Every time I see the word locust it makes me harken back to some epic Charlton Heston biblical saga directed by Cecil de Mille or is that DeMille. Hmm. In the big scheme of things well it matters none. LOL. Okay rant over. Suffice to say I am not impressed with Locust Hill as a place name.

So my first stop was this new Portuguese cafe in Asheville that opened their doors about 6 weeks ago. I had seen an article on this new place in the cool Mountain Xpress newspaper that services the Asheville area that has tons of articles on foodie things, craft beers, local nightlife and arts with an editorial slant that is more community focused than the typical Gannett reprints with their syndicated columnists that we are now getting in many local daily papers.

Anyways the name of the place is "Fill My Cup Cafe" and it is owned and managed by the Freitas. Mr and Mrs were out on a date night it seems as the very nice day shift manager explained to me when she sat down near me to talk about the food menu.

It has been forever since I have had authentic Portuguese food. Okay forever goes back to July of 1999 when I moved from Montreal to Greenville, SC. For my last 6 years in Montreal I lived in an area of the Plateau Mont-Royal that was loosely known as Little Portugal replete with Portuguese food stores, restaurants, cafes and bars and front yard shrines to the Virgin Mary. I got to experience an awful lot of Portuguese culture by neighborly osmosis during that time. You want to experience sports fanaticism at its best. Sit outside on your front stoop on St. Urbain Street anytime Brazil wins a football (soccer for us American and Canadian types) game of any magnitude. It is "Carnivale" time for 5-6 hours when that happens. I'd be out there with Jeune Homme watching all of the excitement parading up and down the street with my landlords the Delgados. They always gave me care packages of authentic food and homemade wine and port. I never had the heart to tell them in my early days of single parenthood that I was not a wine drinker. LOL. The food was amazing. I especially loved their method of cooking chicken and their native sausage.

Okay I do tend to ramble off and on subject. LOL. So I was there by myself on Wednesday night so I could not take full advantage of the dining experience and partake in a bunch of small plates tastings running the gamut from cacoila (pork marinated for three days and then slow cooked and broiled) or a fava bean dish cooked with sweet onions and chourico sausage or maple-glazed chicken kebabs. My go-to option was then a Portuguese soup and sandwich combo plate. So my dining choice was Caldo Verde and Chourico on Papo Secos (pictured above). This would be known as Portuguese Kale Soup (Caldo Verde) with a Garlicky Paprika Pork Sausage (Chourico) on an authentic artisan roll (Papo Secos). All I can say is that it was epic, awesome, cool and excellent. I should have asked if I they sold care packages. I will attempt the soup this weekend which is no biggie as I already make soups very similar with kale and potato but unless I can find a place that sells chourico I will have to substitute andouille sausage which I have in the house. Facebook posts to follow....

Peace out....Rock On!

Suckered At The Bob Dylan Show.....(11/13/16)....

Hmm...pretty cool that I got to see Bob Dylan in concert last night in Asheville given his status in the folk/rock n roll pantheon ....takeaways are that his voice was actually pretty strong (surprisingly so)....his band is really tight....those are the good things....now for the less favorable part of the show....as you can see below, unless you are a huge Dylan particularly of his 10 yrs or so the set list is unrecognizable...I guess if you know Sinatra you would know more of his stuff than the Bob Dylan songs...lol...it is the first time that I have seen ushers physically grab people that tried to take a picture at a concert...these ushers were of white and blue haired age and literally grabbing people's arms...it was truly surreal to see...there was zero attempt to connect to the audience...not a single "hey Asheville", "here's a new one", "here's an old one" or even a "thank you".....first concert ever that not a word was uttered by the artist or the band....NOT A WORD....I like to call Asheville a hippie town....our Woodstock of the South...well the 'Woodstockians" last night were not very happy....the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium was sold out but midway through the set people were leaving...it was great for me as it afforded me some leg room...lol..I think all told fees and all the show cost me $112...not 100% sure as I usually buy tickets in bunches and dollar amounts get lumped in...well I feel suckered for spending that kind of money....I don't mind spending money...I guess some would say I waste some but I usually have a positive coming back my way for spending that money...aside from Highway 61 Revisited there weren't many positives.....the other classic Dylan numbers he played were unrecognizable...I was like wtf...that isn't "Tangled Up In Blue"...don't get me started with "Blowin' In The Wind"...seriously that was a huge disappointment....It was like a piss poor Harry Connick Jr. piano version of the song with a croaky karaoke singer on lead vocal....the answer my friend was not blowin' in the wind....the answer is BBG got hoovered!

The Set List

Things Have Changed
She Belongs to Me
Highway 61 Revisited
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
What’ll I Do (Irving Berlin cover)
Pay in Blood
Melancholy Mood (Frank Sinatra cover)
Duquesne Whistle
I’m a Fool to Want You (Frank Sinatra cover)
Tangled Up in Blue (with some new lyrics)
High Water (for Charley Patton)
Why Try to Change Me Now (Cy Coleman cover)
Early Roman Kings
I Could Have Told You (Frank Sinatra cover)
Spirit on the Water
Scarlet Town
All or Nothing at All (Frank Sinatra cover)
Long and Wasted Years
Autumn Leaves (Yves Montand cover)
Blowin’ in the Wind
Love Sick

Loss Of Civility (10/30/16)

So I was at a local laundromat drying shirts as one year later I still have not had my dryer looked at or replaced when I met up once again with someone so racist that I am still shaking my head in disgust at what this person shared with me.

I was sitting outside while waiting for my clothes to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame and enjoying the mid 80s sunny weather that we have had for almost the last six weeks when a gentleman around my age sat down next to me on the bench outside and started some small talk. I guess I have that kind of demeanor at times that total strangers just start talking to me.

Inside of 2-3 minutes he told me that he has been living in Greenville almost all of his life though he was born in Dover, DE. He was the youngest child of a military Dad that had been stationed at Donaldson when it was active. He then proceeded to tell me that his father (using the term loosely) disappeared when he was two years old leaving him and his three older siblings with their single Mom. She never remarried. He then told me that his Dad committed suicide when he was 10 yrs old. Not something that gets shared with you every day especially within moments of meeting someone in such an innocuous setting.

He then told me that he has a son that is in the Navy stationed in San Diego. Here's where it gets weird real quick. I told him that I spent a few days in San Diego and found it to be a pretty cool place. I did mention that I was on an expense account so I probably didn't really see much of San Diego as I had meetings and dinners to attend. That's when he tells me and I quote "well you didn't miss much, San Diego is filled with homosexuals." I was like OMG WTF. Do I have a sign on me that says "hey racist asshole tell me what is wrong with the world from your brain-damaged viewpoint?" I looked at him and said well I think my dryer cycle is done. Gotta run. Guess what candidate he is supporting?

I am disillusioned! What happened to civility?

America (the Band) in Atlanta (04/01/16)....

Disclaimer: I wrote this thing on April 2nd. Just forget to post it. LOL. So it was 4 weeks ago tonight. LOL.

Last night was another one of BBG's concert road trip nights. I had the opportunity to finally see America (the band) in concert. If memory serves me correctly I wrote about their music a couple of years ago and now the circle is complete with this blog. I bought a great seat for this show on one of my concert buying search and buy soirees. You know one of those nights where I've had the opportunity to indulge in my liking of hops and I am looking for concerts in my backyard. LOL. Atlanta is my backyard. I only drove 300 miles round trip for this show. It's like going to the grocery store for regular humanoids.

So anyways I left work a little bit early as the show had a start time of 730pm. At the best of times the drive into Atlanta from the Upstate can be a dicey timing adventure. I'd say about 60% of the drive is on a portion of I85 that is only two lanes wide in both directions. It's truly hit or miss whether or not it will be a smooth drive. Tons of truck traffic on this 225 mile stretch of highway between Charlotte and Atlanta. I kind of lucked out as the weather was pretty much overcast with no rain and miracles of miracles there was not a single wreck or stalled car on the drive south. My trusty Google Maps app was bang on giving me an ETA of around 645pm to cover the 149 miles from HNA. I ended up at Atlanta Symphony Hall as planned and had no issues finding parking. Harrison had given me a heads up on where to park as he had been to the same place for a comedy show a couple weeks prior. Jeune Homme and I both have a penchant for taking semi-long drives to see shows. LOL. We don't only share the height thing it seems. Cool thing was parking was only $10 in one of those mega parking structures that they have in Atlanta. I am used to the usual $20 rate when in the big city.

So I made my way into Symphony Hall which as the name describes it is not a typical concert barn. Jeepers the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is the main tenant of this venue. No frozen margarita concoctions or Fireball shots are to be had at this venue. LOL. I had to settle for a $6 bottle of Beck's beer being served to me by someone dressed as an usher at a formal black tie wedding. Me in my standard canvas cargo shorts was an anomaly here. LOL. There were more than a few blue-haired ladies and yellow pants wearing men that maybe thought that tonight's performance was going to be all about Neil Diamond's song "Coming To America" as opposed to a performance of two of the three original voices of the the 2nd most popular 3-part harmony acts of the early 70s. The 1st band I guess was Crosby, Stills and Nash but for the 4 year period starting in '72 and ending in '75, America had 11 Top 100 hits of which 6 songs hit the Top 10 and 2 of them hit #1 and they could lay claim to being the top American folk rock band of the land.

As I mentioned I had a seat 4 rows from the stage which was totally awesome. I was ready to be entertained and I was not disappointed. America formed in 1970 when three sons of Americans stationed near London met in university. The original band was the triumvirate of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and the late Dan Peek. Dan Peek was an integral part of the band from 1970 to 1977. He co-wrote and sang lead on 4 of America's hits. These being "Don't Cross The River", "Woman Tonight", "Today's The Day" and the beautiful "Lonely People". Dan left the band in 1977 after going through some health and addiction issues. Gerry and Dewey have been performing together for 46 years. Yikes. That's amazing. You can see and sense their friendship and camaraderie even after all this time as they gently teased each other throughout the evening about the types of music they perform. Gerry does the mushy love stuff ("I Need You" and "Daisy Jane") as Dewey mentioned and Dewey does the spacier druggy songs ("Sandman" and "Green Monkey") as Gerry mentioned. Dewey did mention that his daughter and grandchild were sitting exit stage left as they live in the Atlanta area. He said it was a bit like a homecoming for him visiting his daughter and family.

The setlist contained 19 songs from 8 albums and 1 soundtrack. It featured all of their popular hits throughout the years except for "Muskrat Love". I never did get that song. I for one always thought it was a Captain and Tennile song. LOL. I never got a good vibe just from the title of the song. Muskrats really? Throughout the evening Gerry and Dewey talked about their songs and where they were when they were writing them and what they meant to them. They also talked about the 3 covers that they performed ("California Dreaming", "Woodstock" and "Til I Hear It Again"). The story about being on a triple bill with the Mamas and the Papas and the Beach Boys and all bands performing "California Dreaming" was amusing. America was the first act to hit the stage and as they said they set the bar pretty high with their version of the song. LOL. Dewey and Gerry tour with the bass player Richard Campbell formerly of Three Dog Night who joined the band in 2003 and two relatively new additions since 2014 being drummer Ryland Steen formerly from Reel Big Fish and lead guitarist Bill Worrell who as Gerry put it is in the band to attract cougars to the shows. LOL. Bill is in early to mid-30s and is a great rock guitarist. Dewey and Gerry are very generous and let their band do some solos and have some fun on stage.

Anyways here's the setlist:
1. Tin Man
2. You Can Do Magic
3. Don't Cross The River
4. Daisy Jane
5. Riverside
6. I Need You
7. Ventura Highway
8. Woodstock (Joni Mitchell cover)
9. Cornwall Blank
10. Til I Hear It From You (Gin Blossoms cover)
11. The Border
12. Green Monkey
13. Woman Tonight
14. Only In Your Heart
15. California Dreamin' (The Mamas and the Papas cover)
16. Lonely People
17. Sandman
18. Sister Goldenhair
19. Horse With No Name (encore)

All in all it was a super enjoyable show and a trip down memory lane. Definitely would see them again and again in concert. As Gerry mentioned "we have been doing a 100 shows a year for 46 years and as long as you continue coming to our shows, we will continue to visit your towns". The Kinks released a live album in the early 80s called "Give The People What They Want". America definitely does that!

Life In The BBG World (03/19/2016)

Well it's been a while since I have hunted and pecked at the keyboard but I have an amusing story that happened today which has many similarities to an event that happened with my Mom back in the late '70s. Typically I would just post to Facebook and write a mini-novel there but I decided I should post here as it is much easier to find on my blog page than on my Facebook page. Goodness gracious I post so much there that I lose patience looking for something that I posted about way back in mid-February. LOL.

So anyways as I am typing right now the original plan was for me to be at The Tabernacle in downtown Atlanta with a couple of friends having a craft beer or two and mangling the lyrics to Vance Joy songs.

That was the plan! LOL. Instead I am in my messy bedroom with BooBoo Dammit staring at me as only she can trying to get me to feed her yet again even though she was fed hmm like 13m48s ago. Not going to work BooBoo! I am in the typing zone.

So let's head back in the time travel machine in Marc's aka BBG's world to sometime in the latter 70s. Okay it may have been the real early 80s. Memories get a little jumbled when you go back ohemgee 35 years. Geezus I am old. LOL. Okay back to point BBG.

So my stepdad Gene (my youngest brother's father) used to work for CNR (Canadian National Railway) as their head photographer I guess in what was their PR department when CNR was a huge important cog of the Canadian economy. He used to have to travel for trade shows and take pics of trains, planes and automobiles. Okay ixnay the last two modes of transportation it was really trains and the scenery you would see if you took a train and the people you would see along the way. Remember back then we humans actually stopped and smelled the roses in our interactions with other humanoids. So my stepdad was in Washington, DC on some PR junket and he called my Mom back in Chomedey and asked her to join him for a weekend in DC. I was in my late teens then and my sister Shawnie was a year and half behind me in age and we were more than capable to take care of our younger brothers Randolf and Rene while our Mom went to join our stepdad in Washington, DC.

This is when it gets funny. My stepdad tells my Mom to book a flight to Dulles and he will pick her up or arrange for a taxi/limo service to pick her up and bring her to wherever the festivities were in DC. Well my Mom booked her flight to meet my stepdad but my Mom being French Canadian may have misheard my Canadian American stepdad's instruction to book a flight to Dulles. Mom booked a flight to Dallas. As in Texas. LOL. Remember back then there were no cellphones. No computers. Good Gawd you would get busy dial tones when you would call people back then and there was no such thing as voicemail. So Dad spent a weekend near Dulles and Mom spent a weekend in Dallas. That story has been shared in the family and with friends for years and years.

Sadly the protagonists in this part of the blog are no longer with us. That's where I come in to continue what we can now call a family tradition. Hmm is it a German thing or a French Canadian family tradition. I'll let others decide.

As many of my friends know and can ascertain I am a total live music junkie. I think nothing of driving hundreds and hundreds of miles to go see concerts. I consider Atlanta and Charlotte my backyard almost and those destinations are what 140 miles and 100 miles away. Sheesh I have meandered to Raleigh NC, Tampa FL, Macon GA and Salem VA to see shows in the last year. Often these decisions are made after a trivia night or some cooking adventure in my kitchen. This implies that BBG may or may not have had a beer, a shot or a glass of wine and perhaps the decision making process is a little more liberal than if I was stone cold sober. Note I said one beer or shot or glass of wine. LOL. As if.

So this year's goal is 60 concerts. Not 60 acts. 60 concerts from 01/01 to 12/31. My musical tastes pretty much run the gamut except for maybe hip hop and what passes for music on Hit Radio in the 2010s. One of the joys of owning my VW Passat is that it came with SiriusXM radio and that has opened my musical world to artists like the Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Nathaniel Rateliff and Vance Joy.Not exactly artists you hear on the radio or see on TV covered on the mindless talent shows like American Idol, The Voice, etc etc.

So back in late December I booked a ticket for Vance Joy in my backyard of Atlanta. I see an artist on tour and I immediately book a ticket if they are in my backyard. I regret missing Rush last year in Atlanta on their 40th anniversary tour because I hemmed and hawed. I swore then and there, I see an act I want to see I buy a ticket.

I have had it on my concert calendar for months. March 19th, 8 pm Atlanta, The Tabernacle. I told friends I was going. I told friends I would see them there. So around 430pm today I head out the door on my way to Atlanta to see Vance Joy. I stopped for a coffee around 6pm in Commerce, GA which is kind of the halfway point and then I look up on my Ticketmaster app the address for the Tabernacle in Atlanta as I have never been there and I was going to imput into my GPS. This is when I discover I had a ticket for Vance Joy alright but my ticket was for last night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville TN. Let's say that my favorite F word escaped my lips several times in a row. LOL.

Immediately I rechecked my Ticketmaster app to make sure that I am a doofus which it did confirm so I thought hmm I guess I need to get another ticket. LOL. Well eff that idea the dang show is sold out. Yay me in Commerce GA not. An hour later I am finishing this blog. LOL.

I am my Mom's son.