Shana Morrison

Saturday Evening I saw Shana Morrison (Van Morrison’s daughter) and her band (Caledonia) play. The band was excellent, and Shana wasn’t too bad either – she has a very strong voice and tends to wail a bit too much for my liking, but, all in all, it was a good show – I particularly liked the 2 or 3 of her dad’s songs that she did.

Dallas, Texas

I just spent a couple of nights in Dallas this week on a quick business trip. I had not been to Dallas for a long time (in the early 90’s I used to visit quite a lot) and I realize that I haven’t missed it one little bit.

When I got in my rental car at the airport, I was struck by the number of religious radio stations at the bottom end of the FM dial. Usually when I get into a rental car I tune the radio in to the local NPR station and, without exception, these all seem to be at the bottom end of the dial. In Dallas it seemed like there was an awful lot competition from religious stations in that part of the spectrum. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it did make me realize that I was in the Bible belt.

The other thing I noticed was the frigid air conditioning in my hotel room. It is just another characteristic of Texas as far as I can see - warm muggy weather outside, and frigid air-conditioning inside. My hotel room was particularly extreme in this respect. I wore a sweater in the room, and took it off when I went outside.

Another issue I had, and I don’t mean to be picking on Texas, but when I came to the rental car counter I was offered my choice of a compact Chevrolet for $69 per day, or a Hummer for $99 per day. Now I have never been offered that before, and I bet you can’t get rental Hummers in Sacramento at all, never mind at only a $30 premium over a Chevy. There’s just something wrong about that.

That’s just a few of my gripes about Texas, I am back home in California now, where I know where my NPR station is and where I can control my air conditioning and where I can still grumble about Hummers.

The Bizz Johnson Marathon

This last weekend I ran perhaps the best marathon I have ever run. It wasn’t the best in the way of a personal best time, in fact it was quite slow, but it was the most scenic one I have ever done. It was the Bizz Johnson Marathon in Susanville. It was a trail marathon on an old railroad bed that was just stunningly beautiful from start to finish.

The Bizz Johnson Trail is more normally a mountain bike trail that winds down from just outside Westwood to Susanville. The nice thing about running down an old rail road track is, one it is in the down direction, and two none of the grades are very extreme (a steam train cannot go up or down and steep grades so everything is nice and gentle). The tunnels were pretty cool (in more ways than one) to run through too.

I have never really spent much time in the North Eastern part of California, but the area is quite beautiful and, being in a remote corner of the state, it is not as developed as some of the other areas. So nothing but rave reviews of the Redwood Trails marathon in Susanville, and equally good reviews of the Bizz Johnson trail and Susanville (worth another visit and perhaps a cycle trip down the trail next time).

Eliza Gilkyson

Eliza Gilkyson played at The Palms in Winters last night. It was a great show and I higly recommend her music. The Palms is surely one of the treasures of this area, I can think of no other club that offers such a small intimate venue to see such great music – unsurpassed not even in the Bay Area, to my knowledge.

I didn’t know much about Eliza, other than she had a great voice and that she did a wonderful track on that Nod To Bob album of a few years back to commemorate Bob Dylan’s 60th birthday (a great album by the way). I thought Eliza was some young upstart singer from Austin, but, no, she was my age, an old gal who has been around for quite some time (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Her encore song was a sing along version of “Bear Necessities” from the soundtrack of Disney’s Jungle Book. It worked great – and as I later found out (I know I need to get a life instead of searching the internet for the music to Disney songs) Bear Necessities was written by Eliza’s father, Terry Gilkyson,. I guess the musical talent was passed on in the genes.

No Direction Home

How I enjoyed the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home the last couple of nights. I really reminded me what a prolific a writer he was in those early days - the songs just seemed to pour out of him and he was moving forward at such an amazing speed. It kind of reinforced my feelings that he wasn't a very political person; he just wrote the anthems of our age and, while he no doubt cared about stuff, he perhaps wasn’t as committed to the political struggle as were his early mentors Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger or even Joan Baez. What didn’t come across too was his sense of humour, he just does not appear to have a great sense of humour - the interviews with him were, for the most part, pretty dry stuff.

It also showed what an immense burden was placed on him, in those days – he writes these wonderful songs like Blowing in the Wind, The Times they are a’Changin’, etc, etc and everyone expected him to be the spokesman for our age. That’s a lot to expect of someone in his early 20’s who just happens to have a knack for writing great songs.

I loved all his stuff back then, I still love it now and yes, I agree "Like a Rolling Stone" is the best song of all time....

San Pablo Bay Trail Run

Today I ran the San Pablo Bay Half Marathon – a trail run down in China Camp State Park (near San Rafael). It was one of the races put on by the Redwood Trails group. They are a pretty informal group (I think it might be one guy with a few helpers that put on a series of trail runs in and around the Bay Area). They are a low budget thing as far as aid stations and facilities go but the races aren’t large (perhaps only 100 or so in the Half Marathon) so there’s perhaps not much money in it.


Nonetheless, this race was great. The trails were good, the views of the San Francisco Bay were wonderful and the weather was perfect. China Camp State Park is a beautiful area, just a stone’s throw from San Rafael and San Francisco. I had never been there before and never thought that there was anything quite that wild on remote so close to the city. Well worth a visit, though I think it is the domain of the mountain bikers at the weekend - so be careful.

The not so Great North Run (for some)...

This last weekend was The Great North Run in Newcastle, England. It is a half marathon distance run that generates a lot of interest and of the order of 50,000 entrants. I did it a few years back, me and Paula Radcliffe, though I didn’t see much of her, she was up front somewhere.

Anyway, in this year’s event, a total of four people died. That’s a lot of casualties for one race - probably a combination of a warm day, unprepared runners and a bit of bad luck. Anyway, it is more fuel to those who think this running game is not entirely the best thing for someone (especially for someone of my age) but I am having none of it.

Running at the extremes...

My interest was piqued by an article on the BBC site yesterday about a 3 year old marathon runner from India. It is a tragic and sad story about a young boy of 3 and ½ years who is being coached to run long distances (as much as 30 miles at a time) with a view to getting him in the Guinness Book of Records. Now there are all sorts of warnings about young children not running long distances until their bone structure is fully developed, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue for this young lad’s owner (yes owner – the unfortunate child has been twice traded for $20 and is now owned by someone who is out to exploit his running skills).

In my industry, we hear so much about the booming Indian economy and the educated work force in places like Bangalore that we forget that India is still very much a caste-based society where some less than savoury things, like the trading of young children, go on. I wonder whether we will be seeing this young runner, Budhia Singh is his name, competing in Boston in about 20 years time. I very much doubt it.

Indians don’t usually have a reputation for long distance running, but there was another article on a marathon runner from India at the other end of the age spectrum. A 94 year old ran in the Edinburgh Marathon this year. He has the over 90 world record at 5hrs 40 minutes set in Toronto. Running in your 90’s seems a bit more inspirational than running as an infant.

The Ashes return to England.

I couldn’t let it pass without a comment. As you all must certainly know by now, England won the latest Test series against Australia and regained The Ashes. You can read all about it on the BBC.

Perhaps some of you on this side of the Atlantic were not quite as tuned into this epic cricket match between England and Australia that has been captivating the English all summer. Yes all summer – there are 5 matches each of 5 full days, so it is by no means a trivial exercise.

Also perhaps some of you are wondering what "The Ashes" are – well they are (allegedly) the burnt remains of a set of cricket bails encased in a small urn. They mark the first win by Australia against England in a Test series in 1882 and are symbolic of what was thought at the time, by the Australians at least, to be the “death of English cricket”. Fortunately it wasn’t the death of English cricket and England and Australia have been fighting over The Ashes ever since.

With the win yesterday (actually it was a draw in the match but a win in the series), there has been much joy and jubilation in the country - the St George's Cross has been flying, the patriotic hymn Jerusalem has been sung, and more than a few beers have been drunk, I am sure.

Bees Make Honey....

This weekend I took the top box off my bee hive and retrieved 10 perfect full frames of honey.

The bees were amazingly calm. I was fully suited and I had the smoker ready but I didn’t really need any of that. The bees calmly accepted me removing frames one at a time and carefully brushing them off. This is such a far cry from my hive of a few years back – they were so aggressive I couldn’t even get close to the hive without getting stung. Now I can remove frames without any worries. The difference, apparently, is the Russian queen I purchased a couple of years ago. At least this Russian queen has calmer offspring.

So now the kitchen is overtaken by the honey extraction process. Since I don’t have an extractor (a centrifugal device) I just mash up the honey comb – wax and honey and all - and filter it through a mesh into a big bucket from where it is bottled.

At approximately 5 lbs per frame that will be 50 lbs of honey. What on earth am I going to do with all that? I don’t really like honey that much. So let me know if you want some!