The pickle blues

Last weekend was what passes for a Party Weekend these days. We went dancing Friday night and all day Saturday, and then Sunday I cleaned house and put up pickles. And hobbled around a bit while I did that. More rickety than "naughty", drat it all.

Friday was the outdoor FREE concert in Pt. Richmond, which is about 20 minutes from where we live. It's a cute little town right between gritty old Richmond and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Once a month during the summer, they block off a street downtown and have live bands, food from nearby restaurants, wine, and dancing in the street. This Friday we got there in time to catch the last couple of tunes by Irie Fuse (catchy name), a hot reggae band, and then danced our butts off to Andre Thierry and Zydeco Magic, who play (duh) fabulous Louisiana zydeco.

Saturday we drove out to Isleton, a little burg of 923 people about an hour into the Delta, for the Isleton Cajun and Blues Festival. For this weekend Isleton becomes a city of 20,000 people and it was great! What a sweet place! The festival headliner was Elvin Bishop (fabulous!), but we also enjoyed several other groups: Kyle Rowland Blues Band, Magnolia Sisters, Terry Hanck. It was hoppin', and even though my legs were just a tad creaky from all that boogyin' the night before, we still cut a rug. Of course we had to sit down and rest once in a while; guess I'm not the party animal I once was. It sure was fun! I had to pass on the crawfish though...can't do those heads.

When Sunday rolled around and we finally rolled out of bed (before noon, but not much), I started cleaning. Lordy, I dislike cleaning house but I wanted it to be clean so there you have it. Partway through, I took a break and put up six jars of pickles using our cucumbers from the front yard, so prolific they threatened to take over the fridge. Here they are, those bad boys!

Love these party weekends!!!!

Groovin' in a four-car garage

There we were, Wayne and I and our friend George, lounging on a leather sofa in a garage in Berkeley, groovin' to some pretty fantastic live blues along with maybe 50 other people. Outside, rain poured down. Inside, young guys popped cans of beer and older gals like me pulled bottles of wine out of cloth bags.

We were at Birdland Jazzista Social Club. A guy in Berkeley, a professor at City College, has opened up his four-car garage, outfitted it with a stage and a sound system, booked bands, and even fired up a grill and smoker in the front to feed his guests. He calls it Birdland (he makes birdhouses, which are all over the garage). It started out to be free, because that's the custom of the guy's homeland, the Phillippines. Then it got so big that people spilled out into the street, and of course the city of Berkeley got involved. I know, you're thinking, well Berkeley - everything goes in Berkeley. Apparently not partying in the street all night!

Anyway, the guy turned his weekly party into a social club and limited it to whomever could fit into his garage with the door closed, and into his little backyard behind the garage. It costs $10 to come in, and that pays for the bands. The BBQ (chicken legs, smoked ribs, sausages) is still free, as is the rum bar in the back of the garage. Otherwise its BYOB.

We left about midnight after hearing two great bands, and even boogying a bit in the aisles! Ernesto had just announced that the third band would come on shortly and would probably play till 3a.m. Yikes, just a little too much action for us, but what a deal!

We slid into the rainy night and back to reality.

Here's a link to Birdland's website, and the history of the Social Club (kind of long-winded). http://birdlandjazz.org/about/history/. It's been going on for two years, and will now end in a few weeks when Ernesto returns to the Phillippines. Maybe he'll be back!