This poem was written on a trans-atlantic flight from Paris to Atlanta. After you switch to the internal flight to Shreveport, the drinks are no longer free. I'm not sure which leg I wrote the poem on, but I had two other poems on the same fascinating subject, on the same day.
This may be the second of three or the third of one.
Flight
Why do we meddle with everything? Why couldn't we leave flight to things that fly —
insects, birds, clay pigeons and teacups?
God meant some things to fly, but why did he include darts, arrows and ping-pong balls,
for instance?
Balloons were nice, when they were
The Fliers.
Very unassuming, a balloon; very.
We tried to leave god in charge but he over-exhibited humility.
Welcome to my whine blog. Maybe it's your first time here. Don't worry: it's my first, too, and maybe my only. There is only so much you can say about my basic subject — the box — and if I have any more to say, I will publish number 2 in the series. In the meantime, here is number 1.
I don't know when the box got started in Wine world. When Marsha and I went to France for the years of April 1994 to April 1995, there was no such thing in Provence. Or if there was, they kept it hidden from me. What they did have was the cube. The cube came in different sizes: 5, 10, and 22 liters. The cube was a plastic jug which you took to the "Cave" (where they stored the wine) and got it filled up. It looked a bit like getting a gas can filled in the USA.
Years later when I started visiting caves in France again, I noticed they had adopted the box. Same idea as the cube: wine in quantity. But of course the bottle is hard to overcome, and why would you want to? That first time we bought a box in France was in Bordeau wine country. People who lived nearby were putting us up for the night because our VW camper was broken down so we supplied the wine from a nearby cave. Our hosts felt they had to decant it into bottles. An understandable error: it may have been an early encounter with the box.
That was French red wine from Bordeau, so the wine was pretty good, but I was deeply disappointed with my first few boxed wines. I thought the price was right but the product was not. I looked down upon the wine.
However, I have found a red and a white which are quite drinkable and I'm going to pas them on to you. If you don't care for wine because it gives you a headache, either you are not meant to drink wine (unlikely) or you've been drinking crap wine. Either sweet (only for very unique occasions) or having less than 12% alcohol. I may have to elucidate in future blogs.
If you can find a good red and a white you can tolerate and even enjoy, you are a lucky wino. The Chardonnay by Franzia is an answer to the "white." It's five liters and usually costs about $15. You may be surprised by my choice, but it's cheap and drinkable. The "red" is a little more obscure and it's only a three liter box, but it's more important to get a decent red: it makes you look like a more serious wine drinker.
It's called "Nighthawk Black" Cabernet Sauvignon in a Bota Box. If you know boxes, you'll have heard of the Bota Box. Otherwise, you should be able to get this box at Wal-Mart. It costs about $18. I know: 2 liters less and $1 more, but it's still pretty cheap and Cabernet Sauvignon (the name of the grape) is my favorite. Other red grapes include Merlot and Pinot Noir, to name only two. Of course.
That's it for this blog. There may be more down the Long and Wine-ding Road.
Mick Eve, sax player for Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames, was mooching around the musical instrument shops in London’s Denmark Street — as one did in 1966. His friend Chas Chandler, whom Mick had known as bassist for the Animals,BUT WHO HAD RECENTLY RETURNED FROM A TALENT-FISHING TRIP TO AMERICA, RAN OUt of a guitar store and said excitedly in broad Geordie: (his newcastle accent) “Mick, Mick! You got to come and hear this bloke play; I found him in New York!”
“I don’t need to go into the shop, Chas,” replied Mick in droll Cockney, “I can hear ’im from ’ere;" which he certainly could – a restlessly remarkable, eerily savage sound emanating from within. This was the afternoon of 22 September, Jimi Hendrix’s first full day in England.
On 22 September 1966, Jimi's first day in London and he was already making a big impression on the music scene: he was in Soho, the heart of London's entertainment district. Within days he would be meeting the likes of Eric Clapton ("You told me he was good. You didn't tell me he was this good") who let him sit in at a gig. Clapton wasn't used to being shown up.
London is where Hendrix really took off. Born in Seattle, he'd been playing gigs since his mid-teens, had toured around the USA quite extensively, had played with the likes of Little Richard, but had yet to establish himself as a solo artist when Chris Chandler found him at a club in New York's Greenwich Village. He was still only twenty-three years old when he landed in London, but he had a world of experience behind him; he was unique, too.
He recorded hit albums (Are You Experienced?) and appeared on television and on radio. London is also where he died; but that's another story.
Before the year was out he'd got a gig on BBC's "Top of the Pops" for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a band composed of Jimi and two English musicians, Noel Redding (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums). That was a pretty quick rise, from trying out guitars in a music store in late September to appearing on Top of the Pops — the top TV showcase for British pop stars of the Swinging Sixties — in three months. Basically he did it during the Fall of '66. Of course he was no novice in the music biz, but he was new to London where basically he hadn't known a soul there before he arrived. His playing was that impressive.
He took the band over to France in October where he opened for Johnny Halliday, the French rocker, for a couple of weeks. He got a glowing review in the 'Record Mirror' ("phenomenon') and showcased at the "Bag'o'Nails" London nitery with Lennon and McCartney, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, etc. attending. London had discovered Jimi, and they never let him go. He had three hit singles in his first London stay: "Hey Joe," The Wind Cries Mary," and "Purple Haze."
I was living in London at the time but not involved in the music scene: the occasional concert, some clubs, but my job at the BBC had nothing to do with music. Outside of work I had friends who were into the scene known as the London Underground (not the Tube) — artists, performance artists, writers and the sort of musicians who were into psychedelics: they had their own newspaper (IT: International Times) and protested the VietNam war.
In the middle of 1967, this diverse ensemble put together a festival-like event at AllyPally. That's the nickname for Alexandra Palace, a big rambling building in North London that has never quite figured out what it's there for. It was the original site, for instance, for BBC-TV, which broadcast from there before World War II. It is palatial, and I believe there was a Queen called Alexandra and apart from that, you could google it. It was a great location for an International Times event know as "The 14-Hour Technicolour Dream," non-stop music by bands like Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine, two of my favorites. They had the best light shows.
"The Dream" took place on April 29, 1967. Attendees (reportedly) included John Lennon and Yoko Ono separately, and Jimi Hendrix who came to listen and dance. I don't know about Jimi, but Lennon was there, caught on camera. It was a successful fundraiser for the IT, so they thought of having another, similar show; it would be known as "Christmas on Earth Continued," and this time, Hendrix would be one of the bands.
The location of the Christmas show. (Dec 21) was the Kensington Olympia, a double Exhibition hall, album "Bold As Love" Dec 1, '67. 2nd Album released in UK.
A Cajun Christmas
What do I know about Christmas in CajunLand, which is what we call that area of Louisiana which surrounds the city of Lafayette and heads off into the bayous and prairies of South. It was mostly an economy of farmers and fisherfolk who emigrated from France, primarily but not immediately. Many of them had first emigrated from France to Eastern Canada — Nova Scotia/Acadia — went back to the Poitou district of France, and eventually found their way to Louisiana in the mid-eighteenth century. There were other ways of getting to Louisiana but the most historically dominant way was France-Acadia-Louisiana. The name Cajun is derived from the word Acadian.
A Cajun Christmas is a song or a one-hour radio program in English with Cajun accents. Monty Brown produced the program for Red River Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana, and it was first aired in 1991.
