Juneberry [rave]
 

According to M-W Juneberry is another name for Serviceberry; that information didn't help me, as I've never heard of either. Enough of my prattle.

Go!

I remembered to say "Rabbit Rabbit" first thing this morning so I will have good luck all month long!


also, the flowers blooming around town are incredible. May was bustin' out all over already and now June is just ridiculously pretty. plus I have AC for when it's hot and we've only briefly had wildfire smoke in the air. life could be worse, just at the moment.

I planted white petunias and another white flower, some sort of tallish spikey thing, in the big pot in our front yard. They're both blooming vigorously and look like a big white wedding bouquet. Very pretty! And our big planting bed full of Hot Lips salvia is also blooming, and the flowers are crimson and white. In another bed, we have some salvia that blooms royal blue, and that's also flowering healthily. The hummingbirds will love us this year.

Mrs. Larsen wanted to go to the Indian restaurant I stumbled across last month. So we went there for lunch. The lamb was still really good.

My covid stricken family of choice are all on the mend and I have had a few (contactless with humans) dog walks amongst ancient trees and roos. My little ebike combined with train makes it so easy, I am not sure they really understood that before now. Timed right it is much faster than driving between our places. It has been lovely to feel useful, I don’t get that much.

This is a t post script raving, as it pertains something happening May 30. But it's taken me a little while to digest.

I went to see Peter Gabriel, who is currently touring Europe and will hit the US in the fall. No idea about Straya, @thylacine, sorry.

I've been a fan since before he left Genesis. I cannot stress enough how much his music has been a part of my life. And so I went in with some trepidation. The man has in his life put on some of the absolute best stage shows ever; not in a gargantuan way, but through aesthetic and eclectic stage and light design, superb sound and actual storytelling: the order of songs and the way the shows play out are very carefully planned.

But the man who invented stage diving is 73 years old. I had no illusions that his stage show would include anything resembling the acrobatics of the past; during the last major tour he used a bike to pedal around stage.

But h still has some things going for him:
His voice (and what a voice) is fully intact live.
The band, which has had the same core for almost 40 years* is extremely tight and the newcomers are not left in the shadow by the veterans. Although Levin has a semi-star status.
Gabriel is still releasing new - and good, intriguing - music. Where a lot of his contemporaries have turned into tribute bands of themselves ( e.g. Queen, Stones) Gabriel is still exploring new stuff. He had one guy in the band who played trumpet and french horn; a cellist and violinist did double duty with back-up vocals, chorus and one of them did Don't Give Up.
It was showtime at 8 p.m. and PG entered stage on the dot, alone, with all the house lights on. No support act.
He played for 2h10m add a pause for about 20 minutes. A 73 year old needs to take a leak and catch his breath. Especially since Sledgehammer was the last song before the break.
The light design was absolutely fantastic.

As for the less stellar parts:
Royal Arena in Copenhagen has been built specifically with musical venues in mind. There are way more concerts than sporting events there in a given year. But the sound still bounced around in a way that was not optimal for my cheapo seat (about $100). Gabriel has done things to mitigate that in previous tours, having a set of speakers over the main floor. Not this time.
The less we say about his 'moves' during the up tempo songs, the better. He knows his age, we in the audience know and are around the same age. But he somehow felt that he had to get up for Sledgehammer and attempt to put some energy into it. It wasn't pathetic, but a little bit... sad, maybe.

If you're a fan of Gabriel, do go and see him. I think this will be his last tour. And do yourself a favor and check out his new releases (they are all on YT). I don't love them all, but he gets a lot of respect from me for still being being curious and still exploring, innovating.







*Manu Katche, Tony Levin David Rhodes.

Tony Levin was in Black Light Syndrome with Steve Stevens and Terry Bozzio.

Tony Levin is amazing. Maybe the second best bassist in Rock. (After the late Chris Squire of Yes.) In fact he was the bassist for Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe. Great concert.

He was a member of King Crimson. I also saw in with Pink Floyd for the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. and over the years he's played with almost everyone it seems.

Also the expert at the Chapman Stick.

the older I get, the more I understand how important that is. and how rare, with increasing age.

it's a poor choice to give people nothing useful to do JUST when so many things need doing. :shame:

thank you for your thoughtful review; I am a fan of PG and appreciate it. if my googling is correct I guess the closest he is coming to me is Seattle so unlikely I will get to see him.

but I'd like to.

meanwhile, I will check out his latest on youtube.

Tony Levin just exudes coolness (or whatever kids call it these days). He's still the towering & imposing guy we all remember with the only thing betraying his age a bit of old person neck under the chin.

And yes, he played the Stick, an instrument that seems invented specifically for him.

Here's a link to his YT channel and the playlist for all his new releases so far this year. He drops one new song every month for the upcoming I/O album:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...jcfA6jvttAVxWE

Kitchen Cabinets are finally here. Hopefully they'll be installed today.

Kizzy loves going to class, but the next level of agility doesn't start for a few more weeks. So, my gf has been taking her to an obedience refresher course. Last night she was tested for Canine Good Citizen Certification and she passed with flying colors. She passed last year also. What a good girl!

Hooray for Kizzy CGC!

Pencil, you've almost got me convinced to buy tickets for when PG comes my way in September. My favorite album of all time by any artist is "Us," but I didn't care for the one he put out in 2002 and the single I've heard from the latest ("Panopticon") sounds like more of the same. Will have to think on that.

My rave: It hit 87°F yesterday, predicted to hit 90°F today, with tomorrow's forecast being record high. But! Thanks to the new, fully ventilated roof and insulated attic, my non-air conditioned house has been really comfortable even upstairs.

@Solfy
I'm with you. There were 3-4 songs were I zoned out. I don't begrudge him playing new stuff, since I just raved about him still innovating. Panopticom is one of the new I'm not too crazed about. Playing for time and i/o are good and will grow on me. The Court - not so much. Here's the set list:

Washing of the Water Growing Up Panopticom Four Kinds of Horses i/o Digging in the Dirt Playing for Time Olive Tree This Is Home Sledgehammer Set 2: Darkness Love Can Heal Road to Joy Don't Give Up The Court Red Rain And Still Big Time Live and Let Live Solsbury Hill Encore: In Your Eyes Encore 2: Biko

That's a nice mix - thanks for sharing.

how I love Solsbury Hill and In Your Eyes! :heart:

Just for Jackie:

From PGs own YT channel, so this is official, here's a supercut spanning 35 years: Rockpalast (1978), Live in Athens (1987), Secret World Live (1993), Growing Up Live (2003), New Blood Live (2011) and Back To Front (2013)

I love that he just keeps going over the decades, and wish we all had a career that could do that.

I feel a bit sad that When You're Falling isn't on the list.

Switching Rave Topic:
As of June 1st I'm now down to 14 months to retirement.Yay.

Replaced the battery in a watch I hadn't used in years and years and it is working well now.

So; Andalusian cortijo, alpine chalet, Paris townhouse, or Aegean island?

Andalusian cortijo.
And a camper van.

Tonight, I ate potatoes that I grew in my own garden. I planted a dozen of them in early March and yesterday I dug them all up. I planned to wait another week or two, but something ate 4 of them down to the ground, so it seemed to be time.

I got about 10 lbs of various sized red potatoes and tonight I used the smallest of them to make new potatoes in cream sauce. A dish I haven't had since I was a kid. The sauce turned out thicker than I would have liked, but it was otherwise excellent.

Tomorrow night - potatoes au gratin!

a have a friend with a pool and we spent the last 2 hours floating around in it on floaties with another woman from our book group. it was the best thing. :)

The fireflies are out tonight. I saw one a couple weeks ago but this is the first night this year that I've seen lots of them. I was listening to the Beatles "Revolver" on the radio and just looking out the kitchen window, and there they were, all around the house.

Fireflies are completely awesome. I should put my firefly simulator out on the back deck. (It flashes small LEDs of the right wavelength at random intervals.

Today's rave is Shoe Goo. As we got back from the trip to the mountains, I noticed that the heel of my hiking boot was coming loose. I like these boots, so I got a tube of Shoe Goo and glued it back on. Should be able to get another couple of years out of them.

MD needed steel toed shoes for working stage crew. They're pricey but I am a cheapskate. The first ones I bought her didn't last a year, so I found some new-with-tag Iron Age ones on eBay. I know they're a good brand because that's what I wore when I had a job that required them (but that job paid for them). But these ones must have been sitting around for ages because the adhesive on every sole surface has given way over the course of the year. Shoe Goo takes care of each bit that gives way and seems to be a permanent fix.

I learned about Shoe Goo when I was fencing. (The start/stop action as you lunge, advance and retreat just rips shoes apart and they aren't cheap.) Had a pair that was more Shoe Goo than original sole, but they kept working.

Today's Rave: I got my front license plate back.

So back in December we hit a deer. And in January we took the Santa Fe to the body shop. And what was supposed to be 10 days, turned into four weeks. And we were getting really close to the day we had to head out of town because the house was going to be staged for sale. And they delivered the car about 30 hours before our drop dead out of the house time in a howling blizzard. And 30 hours later we were on the road.

And we didn't notice until we were in Alabama that the front license plate wasn't there. A phone call verified that they had it.

We got back from Florida and did the close on the house sale and then had to find a new place to live. And get the house emptied and everything moved. And by the time the madness started receding, it was June.

The reason this caused a certain amount of tension is that a front plate is required in this jurisdiction. But given the number of Tesla's I've seen here with no front plate, that rule isn't enforced. But I bet if I got stopped for some other infraction, they'd add that one to the ticket. The fine for non-conforming plates is $100.

And so today we called the place and asked if they still had the license plate. And at first they couldn't find it, but it turned up in the service writer's (who didn't work there any more) desk. And I went and glommed it and put it back on.

I had never heard the word serviceberry before this post. Today I read an article about wild apples and baking, and the author mentioned serviceberries! (To add into an apple pie.)

What a coinky-dink!

berry interesting!

actually, I'd heard of serviceberries and didn't know they were also called Juneberry.

I planted some butterfly flower (milkweed) seeds a while back, and they're popping up! They are supposed to attract Monarch butterflies, and hopefully some hummingbirds.

And my VERY late to the party - cilantro and Italian parsley seeds are coming up too. I'll plant them in my herb garden when they get bigger.

We have an entire hillside of milkweed. It is great for the butterflies, but a lot of work cutting the plants down at the end of the season.

Speaking of flowers...

My very first zinnia plant has decided to show their color!!!

Spoiler alert: She's pink!!!!!

Now, there seem to be a few different colors these could sprout in. Red, orange, yellow, white, pink, and fuchsia. Contrary to the image, this little lady seems to be presenting as the fuchsia color instead of the lighter pink, but I think it's still a bit too early to tell for sure.

I'm just over the moon, though!! My very first flowers I've grown from seed!
:magic: :haw:

In even more amazing news, I was approved for an apartment in Michigan and I signed the lease yesterday!! Keys are being picked up today by a family member!!! Gas and electricity will be on come the 22nd! I am even MORE over the moon!!! I'm comin' home!

:fireworks:

Congrats you n your new digs and the sweet flower! I hope she likes Michigan. 😊

I'm very glad for you; when do you actually leave?

Not positive on when we actually leave just yet, but it's likely going to be the third weekend of the month this month! Absolute latest would be the 30th of June, but I definitely think we'll be outta there much quicker than that. :thumbs:

I hope I can take my plants to Michigan in the moving truck and have them still be alive by the time we get there!!!

Finally finally finally we moved our boat back to our marina. We spent the last 2 months in a boatyard having some work done - we thought it would only take a month. FCD told the manager "No rush" and he took that to heart, dealing with other customers who wanted their work done NOW!!! But it worked out for us - we got a lot of work done ourselves, so it wasn't totally lost time.

When we were headed back to our slip, I played around with the bow and stern thrusters - they are tooooooooo cool! Turn one to the left and the other to the right and you pivot in place! And it made backing into our slip amazingly simple - no cussing, no crashing, no problems!

So Happy Dance!!! :party:

Woot woot, FCM!!! :confetti:

wow, very cool! :wow:

I visited a friend for the second-to-last time before I move, and it gave me an excuse to do my makeup! Normally this wouldn't be rave-worthy in my mind, but it came out especially great today!

Normally, I don't wear eyeliner. I can't apply it correctly, due to essentially being half blind when I do my makeup, and how unruly liquid eyeliner is. Today though, I figured out how to fudge black eyeliner with black eyeshadow and a flat brush and make it look perfectly even!! It really made all the difference! :buddy:

It has been eleven months since I sat behind the electric drum kit that had been on my wish list for fifty years. I've been a drummer for almost a year. :wow:

I'm not a videographer so I apologize for the lack of proper lighting. Also apologize to Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson...sorry guys, but thanks for making a song that's a blast to play!

Noice! :thumbs:

Thanks, Rando :heart: Obviously I'm a beginner and have a lot of work to do. But holy cranberries, I'm having more fun than I did during the entirety of my twenties...and those were some awesome years, from what I remember.

Amazing! I love it!

Fuckin' hell yeah, Hoser!! Keep it up!!

:party:

I got those final labs taken!!! With no (nearly) passing out!!!! WOOT!

I am 6 days away from moving back to the D. Boxes are piling about as quickly as my excitement is growing!!! :woop:

Also, I have a SECOND fuchsia zinnia, as well as one that in about a day or so, I'll be able to tell what color it is! It looks different from the last ones... My guess is white!

I've been really wanting a road trip and yesterday managed to get myself to a lovely state park where among other awesome beauty I saw a Bullock's Oriole.

(Central Oregon has got a lot of empty in it, but you get down near Redmond and holy moly the traffic was horrific in spots)

today I am going to a "U pick" for cherries!

CHERRIES!!!!!! :wow: