Staying Local

I’m “on call” this weekend, so I can’t venture far afield – but I can always find something to do locally. A couple of weeks back, I discovered an old VHS tape that Lucy had recorded, of me on Breakfast Television in Cayman. I brought it to the States with me, with the intention of getting it transcribed to DVD, and thence to AVI format. As luck would have it, at last week’s Diwali festival, I saw a video/photo company advertised. One of my Indian colleagues tracked down his address, and I set the SatNav with the address this morning. To cut a long story short, I finished up outside his house, and he’s transcribing it for me. It seems that he (Krishna) was responsible for all the video at the Diwali festival – quite impressive.

 

There are no movies on that I want to see, so I headed over to Dallas to the Farmers’ Market to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables. As well as getting lunch – two “brisket tacos”, with soft tortillas, barbecued brisket, avocado and pico de gallo – I bought blueberries, corn and pears. As I made my way back to the car, I passed a country band, playing C&W music (you never see anyone of this age busking in England – I suppose we’re too reserved, which is a shame), and then a guy on blues harmonica. He was very good, and I told him so. He detected my British accent, and asked if I had ever heard of Larry Adler – of course, I had, and he was bowled over. We chatted for quite a while about what an influence Larry Adler had been on him, and he told me that, after Adler had escaped from the US after being hauled up in front of McCarthy’s witch hunt, he came to England. He never left, and, among other things, performed privately for the Queen Mother every New Year. I asked if he could play Sonny Terry’s “Whoopin’ the Blues”, and he tried very gamely – it was good, but it wasn’t Sonny Terry!

They’ve had “mid-term” elections here this week, with disastrous results for the incumbent Democrats. The electoral system seems to be designed to almost guarantee constant gridlock. What little Obama has done over the past two years, the Republicans have vowed to undo. I have no faith in any of them (any more than the politicians in England). As the saying goes here, “They couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the sole!”