Some people(and dogs) walk in the rain....

"Some people walk in the rain,

others just get wet. " ~ Roger Miller

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Isn't this nice! It's raining this morning.

It seems fresh and new to me because we really haven't had a rainy day in..days!(months?) Oh yes, we have had a few torrential downpours and thunder storms, but right now I am enjoying a softly falling rain outside. The birds are even singing through it. They must be as pleasantly surprised as I am about this wet condition.

Of course, it just occured to me that I'll need to actually pull out an umbrella and walk in the rain since Jewel needs her morning stroll through the neighborhood.

Seeing Spots

**** I am a sucker for both stripes and polka dots on clothes. Seems my daughter is, too! Is it genetic, this predilection for dots and stripes?
After her first sewing lesson last spring, she choose a classic navy with small white dot fabric and sewed herself a skirt with it. I was so proud .

And, she just bought herself a classic "oh-so-French" bateau-type top the other day (which I am already planning on "borrowing", because, well..she borrows certain clothing items from my closet all the time).
So, she and I were very happy shoppers the other day in Marshall's.
Me and Miss R decided to look around since we hadn't been in there in some time(say--a week and a half).
We weren't in the store two minutes and R had already honed in on a display of winter(!) scarves and had wrapped herself in a reversible one--one side grey with big navy blue dots, other side navy with big grey spots.
Almost right after she scooped up that scarf for herself, I saw the back end of a woman pass by and she was wearing pants I wished I had! They were slim navy Swiss dotted (small white polka dots all over). I had an urge to go over and ask her where she got them, but that would have been far too embarrassing for my daughter if I did that, so I restrained myself from following her and asking.
Somehow, we eventually ended up at the back of the store where the racks and racks of lingerie are. I decided I needed some new undies(always "bikini" style for me--never any thongs, hipsters and certainly never...briefs. TMI?). Almost right away, we again spotted polka dots! On silky bikini undies!. So, yes, I now have a few pairs of black Swiss dot bikini underwear. All I need now is a pair of matching polka dot trousers to pull on over them.

** I think I'll need to follow up with a "stripes" themed entry soon, as well.

Yellow-toned Friday Flashback

Check out this yellow haze from the summer of 1972!

This Friday, I am stealing this "flashback" of horrid retro images idea

from Peg at Straight Up-No Chaser. I decided to raid the pages of the old photo albums my mother has been passing on to me the last few years.

Unfortunately, there was no concept of archival preservation of photos in those days--the album pages have yellowed and the photos(many of them Polaroids) have discolored(taking on a yellowish hue) and faded with time, too. So, this one is very fuzzy..and very yellow.

This is my sister(far left--holding onto her beloved "Oma" bear which she had until it disintegrated when she was in her twenties), my freshly permed haired mother holding onto my brother's hand(beautiful little boy, wasn't he?),

and at the far right--Your's Truly with pretty much the same hair I have to this day--frizzy and wavy and shoulder-length.

I was nine years old at the time. And, thankfully, my bare skinny legs(wearing white socks and black patent leather shoes) are not visible. I was a stick back then!

My father must have taken this while we waited at Boston's Logan airport in the summer of 1972. We were flying on a Lufthansa 747 to Berlin, Germany(then still called West Germany) to spend the summer with my mother's parents.

My mother, who had only learned how to sew a year or so before this, had sewn our matching yellow "traveling outfits" out of this thick(and scratchy) yellow polyester material. It seems I have lots of memories of uncomfortable clothing from that time of life. I was a "good girl" who was taught not to complain, so I just suffered in silence for the most part.

Check out the woven handbags we are all carrying(although my brother has a red leather

shoulder "man bag"(boy bag?)!

I am pretty sure I remember our bags were filled with gum, mint Tic Tacs(new on the market at the time) and some felt tip pen sets and little drawing pads my father brought home to us from his "5 & 10 store"(there's another retro memory waiting to be written about!). I know for a fact that in my bag there was a brand new four-color(red, blue, black and green ink choices) retractable Bic pen. A hot new item at the time, and...it is still being made!!!(found it available here). I loved that pen.

Walking Thoughts

Yesterday, since it was a cool day(unlike so many other previous steamy ones these last few months), I decided my Jewel deserved a good long walk on the paths leading down to the bay--to Rome Point. I hadn't taken her there in almost two months because of the weather(and me working and also being away on vacation).

So...here are some thoughts that ran through my head as I walked the gravel path with my dog at my heels(some of the time--usually she is somewhere behind me sniffing something or running ahead of me or darting into the woods after chipmunks):

"Hey! There's a man selling his home-grown cherry tomatoes at the start of the path! What a good idea. Maybe I'll get some when I come back this way at the end of our walk(fingers a few folded up dollar bills in shorts pocket)"

"Why would someone leave that there?? To go to the trouble of actually picking it up, but then leaving the blue bag sitting at the foot of a tree?"(after noticing a bright blue "poop bag" full of dog poop sitting under a large tree alongside the path)

"This man is annoying me. He is walking behind me and talking the entire time on his cell phone...blah...blah...blah... Even a walk in the woods, I have to hear about someone else's business while they yak away into their phone. Can anyone just walk anymore?"

"I love how Jewel knows which paths we are going to take and how I *think* she understood me when I said we couldn't go down that path(the dark woodsy one full of rabbit and deer smells)until after we got down to the water and came back this way. As soon as we passed by that way again, she gives me this look, hesitating at the beginning of the path as if waiting for my permission to enter and as soon as I said, "go ahead, Jewel" she turned into it."

"My knees are feeling a little achey as I walk these uneven paths. A sign of getting older?"

"The sound of cicadas in the trees is so August."

"I love how happy my dog is here as she sniffs and runs and meets other dogs along the path."

"Most everyone I meet along this walk thinks my dog is a puppy! She isn't bumbly with big puppy paws, but quick and nimble with her teeny, tiny ballet dancer's feet. How can they think she is a puppy? Don't they notice all the white hairs on her muzzle?"

This is what I heard the entire walk, directed at Jewel, from groups of people I passed:

A puppy!

Awww...so sweet.

Hey there, Puppy!

Look at the little puppy...

Six months? ("Er, no--she's seven years old.")

Mommy, can I pet the puppy?

"Seeing the young families--father, mother and one or two young children walking hand in hand on their way down to the water--makes me happy. Makes me remember when we did this with R. Now, I rarely can get her to want to come for walk or hike with me anymore. At least I have my "other" girl--Jewel--to go on walks with me."

I did get those homegrown tomatoes and brought them home with me, by the way.

Jamie Cullum at Newport

I finally got my chance to see Jamie Cullum perform live last night at the opening of the Newport Jazz Festival (it's 56th year!).

It was a gorgeous summer night--cool with a Newport harbor breeze, clear skies after a late afternoon shower. Mr. F got these tickets(up near the front in the "gold circle") back in the spring when the line-up for the Jazz Fest was announced, and being a Cullum fan (and yeah, Mr. F likes him, as well) we had to go!

I hadn't been to the Casino since a tennis match there back in the ...80's? I forgot how beautiful the place was with the old shingled buildings(the International Tennis Hall Of Fame and Tennis Museum is housed there, and tournaments are still played on the grass courts) and grounds. The stage and seats were set up on the main grass court, covered temporarily with a flooring of bouncy metal. As the sun went down, the stars sparkled overhead. What a great place for a concert it was!

It was, as I suspected, from having been to other concerts in the summer in Newport, full of people dressed in "Newport" style--lots of men in blue blazers, pink trousers, straw boater hats(I even saw an older gent dressed in a complete seersucker suit) and ladies in tasteful sheath dresses and some even wrapped in pashmina shawls. Not your average concert crowd--but there were some more less traditional folks mixed in(like me and Mr. F)

The "gold circle" wasn't any kind of circle, but simply excellent seats about 7 rows back from the stage. We got there(after having a tough time finding free street parking somewhere near a mansion) mid-way through the opening act of a very young Grace Kelly(no, not that Grace Kelly, of course) and her band. She's an 18(!) year old saxophone musician from Boston and she rocked(liked her best on her and her band's rendition of "Round Midnight").

Jamie(all 5' 3" of him) was as good--well--better!-than he sounds on his CD's--and I wanted the show to last longer(he did come out and do an encore--his electrifying version of Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary"). His voice has that growly, emotional edge and his flying fingers on the keyboard were amazing. Not to mention his incredible stage presence!

I found a review of the concert from a writer at the Providence Journal. He must have sat right down after the show ended and wrote it. His review is spot on(although I wish he, like others, wouldn't bring up that comparison to Michael Buble who he is NOT in any way similar to and if anything, miles ahead of Buble in the talent and creativity department) We, instead, wandered the streets looking for any place in town that had a late night menu.

There was nothing! The bars were packed but it seems no place serves food after 11:00 in that town.

We finally found a A-1 Pizza on Broadway and I was so starved by then, the placed seemed(and smelled ) like Nirvana when we stepped in there(and the help was suprisingly cheerful and upbeat for having to be working after midnight, too!).

I don't know what's going on with me--I am a hungry beast again, so I'll have to go and rustle up some breakfast.

Cullum opens Newport Fest with a bang

12:08 AM Sat, Aug 07, 2010

Concert Jamie Cullum,

The Grace Kelly Quintet International Tennis Hall of Fame,

Newport Friday night

BY RICK MASSIMO - Journal Pop Music Writer

NEWPORT - "Seats are for jazz concerts," Jamie Cullum shouted Friday night at the International Tennis Hall of Fame as he encouraged the audience estimated at 2,300 to get up and crowd toward the stage. Well, this was the opening night of the CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival, so one could be forgiven for thinking it was a jazz concert.
Judging from the opener, a smooth, swinging "Just One of Those Things," you'd certainly think so. The 30-year-old pianist-singer took a fleet piano solo and sang in the style of young revivalists such as Michael Buble.

Then again, there was that cover of Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music," and the one of Radiohead's "High and Dry" (with an arrhythmic bit of "Singin' In the Rain" with dissonant piano echoes), and the one of Jimi Hendrix's "And the Wind Cried Mary" - all done in piano-jazz style, but with a rock spirit.

And the bouncy piano pop of "Mixtape," during which Cullum got the crowd to bounce like it was a Good Charlotte show, sounded and felt like a manifesto ("My love can paint a million tones/ From Nine Inch Nails to Louis Armstrong").

Cullum last performed at Newport in 2004 and was an even more energetic performer Friday, standing on and leaping from the piano, doing his patented cross-stage running leap during his breakout hit "Twentysomething," and taking the band into the middle of the audience for a semi-unplugged "Caravan."

But for all the dazzle, the emotional center of the show was "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" and "I Get Along Without You Very Well," both done solo, in classic pounding and crooning (respectively) style, and preceded by the story of hearing Harry Connick Jr. and realizing that "you can be a rock star and a jazz musician."
By the time Cullum had finished a hooting, howling, scat-singing version of "I Get A Kick Out of You" accompanied only by bassist Chris Hill, his ability to inhabit standards and Top-40 hits and twist them each to suit his purposes made the old feel as new as the new had felt old.
Grace Kelly, the 18-year-old Boston-based sax-and vocal phenom, and her quintet opened the show with a sweet reworking of "Summertime," and made some real fireworks on the original "101" (helped by the powerful trumpet of Jason Palmer). Her vocals were strong too, but the nuances of her sax tone during "Round Midnight" (also accompanied only by her bassist, Evan Gregor) were gorgeous. She also joined Cullum for "These Are the Days," during which she got to show a roadhouse-style grit on the double-time section.

Source

*Update: I have added an excellent video already up on You Tube this morning,

from when Jamie and band were out

in the middle aisle doing "Caravan"(although it is incorrectly titled Newport FOLK Festival--that happened last weekend)

And one more, from someone in the crowd who must have been very near to where we were sitting because this view of the stage is basically what we saw(I did notice a woman with a phone/camera aloft to the front right of us for a good portion of the show). The crowd "sing-along" part of "Mix Tape".

"I want everyone in this "tennis center" to JUMP!"