Blue Nile - Hats

If you ever need to set the mood, this is the record. In fact, this record is so good it may even make people who don't like you want to make out with you.

Blue Nile don't make many records, so you have to savor each and every one. This is the best of a small group. Although this record was released in 1989 in the UK, I first heard a single off it on the TV show Twin Peaks the next year. I was so mesmerized I paid full price for it the next day - this was back when I lived in LA and I did not have a full-time job yet, so any record I was able to buy should have come from the second hand shop.

The only thing that could make this record better is if there were more than seven songs.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Here is an interesting fact that you should know before you start reading this book. The novel begins, the same way that Philip Roth launched The Plot Against America, with a fascinating historical footnote: what if, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed on the eve of World War II, a temporary Jewish settlement had been established on the Alaska panhandle? Michael Chabon jumps right into the story and you quickly understand that Sitka, Alaska, the temporary homeland established for displaced World War II Jews is about to revert back to American control, but FDR is never mentioned and I had no idea this could have really happened. Of course it didn't and that's the major flaw in this story. It all seems so far fetched that the story doesn't really work.

The brilliance of the Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is that you felt the story was real. I remember having a couple of discussions with fans of the book who thought it was a biography.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is a bizarre mash-up of a Philip Roth novel, with a crime noir plot in a Twilight Zone other world setting. There are long stretches when you can't put the book down, but the problem is in holding the entire story together, it's almost as if there are too many balls in the air. Meyer Landsman is an alcoholic cop. His partner is half native, half Jew. His boss is his ex-wife. He is investigating a murder that his superiors have basically told him to forget as they are about to turn the entire jurisdiction back to the Americans in a month anyway. But of course this murder is bigger than just one man, it engulfs the unexplained disappearance of Lansdown's sister, the future of the Jews and ultimately the return of the Messiah.

Frankly it's an interesting crime story for the New Yorker fiction section that has been extended into a novel with a lot of character exploration that doesn't really go anywhere.

Led Zeppelin IV

What is this record called? Four, IV, ZOSO, the "rune" album? Doesn't matter, still one of the best records ever made. These are the tightest eight songs Zeppelin ever put on a record. And who doesn't have fond memories of slow dancing to "Stairway to Heaven" in high school. This is the record that took Zeppelin from a big band to the biggest band of the 70's.

Ponder this: If you had the opportunity to turn back the clock to the early 1970's and join a rock band, who would you want to hang with? My choice is Zeppelin. I can't imagine a band that partied harder and had more fun being rock stars. The Stones were probably more famous and richer, but they never looked like they were having fun after Brian Jones died. Zeppelin also seemed like they cared about the music more. Forty-five minute drum solos seem indulgent now, but at the time they were mesmerizing.

Look up rock star in the dictionary and Led Zeppelin should be the only two words you see.

Barbara's Birthday on the Oregon Coast

To celebrate a major milestone in Barbara's life (coincides with Bastille Day), we recently enjoyed a relaxing weekend getaway at the Oregon coast and got to introduce Brodie to the beach.

Luckily I was able to secure Susan Hoffman's house in Gearhart (her husband spent a week in Scotland a few years ago so this is payback). Last time we stayed there we easily fit three couples in the house, so needless to say there was plenty of room for us to spread out with just the two of us.

Gearhart is also my favorite town on the Oregon coast. It is a small upscale area where most people have their second or third homes. There is a small grocery store, ice cream shop and a great restaurant/bakery about 10 minutes walk from the house and the beach is literally a straight shot out the back door. If you want more adventure you are only 10 miles from Seaside which is a bigger tourist town with all the seaside tourist traps as well as some nice cafes and the much visited outlet stores.

Another great thing about Gearhart is that they have a golf course about five minutes from the house. On paper it looks really easy, about 6,600 yards from the back tees, but in practice it is a very tight course with a lot of trees and very small, undulating greens. Luckily we were paired with a local so we got some insider knowledge; otherwise this course would have been a killer.

Apart from our golf and shopping trips we also had a couple of great meals at the Pacific Way Cafe and Bakery (see review posted Monday, July 16th) and took a lot of walks on the beach. Brodie loved chasing the ball and I have never seen him so tired as when we got back from the beach. We had to keep checking to make sure he was still breathing!

We also got a great dose of Oregon weather on the trip. On the way to the coast we saw some of the most dramatic lightening I have seen in Oregon and huge rain drops (we normally get mist). Then Friday and Saturday were amazing, somewhere in the high 80's. Sunday morning brought the famous fog and mist, but luckily it burned off by the afternoon.

The one drawback of the coast is that the water is really cold, so you don't really get much chance to swim or body surf unless you have a wet suit. I guess that is why Oregonians always call it the coast and not the beach; we don't want you to confuse it with Malibu. So instead of just laying around Oregonians are pretty active. You see a lot of kite flying, clamming, sand castle building, and jogging. But my all time favorite coast activity is storm watching. This is not a joke. In the winter people rent places on the beach or build bonfires to watch storms roll in. I think I would prefer to be inside if I had my choice.

Apart from golf we also got a little exercise riding bikes around all the neighborhoods wondering if we could afford a house of our own. Unfortunately a look in the window of the real estate office threw some cold water on that idea. Turns out the little two bedroom fixer uppers that are several blocks from the water are starting at $300,000. Oh well, hopefully we can continue to count on friends to borrow a place or find a nice rental for the twice a year we actually would ever make it down here.

Pacific Way Bakery & Cafe

The Oregon coast is home to a lot of quick and not so good food. One of the mainstays you see advertised a lot is the Pig 'n' Pancake. There is nothing wrong with the PnP, in fact it can be the perfect place for breakfast after a long night. However, if you are ready to step it up, I highly recommend the Pacific Way Bakery & Cafe in Gearhart.

Gearhart is about 10 miles north of Seaside on the Oregon coast and 1000 miles away when it comes to taste. Seaside is your typical tourist town, with the arcade, the T-shirt shops and a couple of good little cafes tucked away amongst the pubs and fast food places. Gearhart is a more upscale area where people have second or third homes. The town itself is very small. Just a grocery store, antique store, ice cream place, real estate office and the Pacific Way Bakery & Cafe.

In the morning the bakery is packed out with locals and visitors getting their coffee and loading up on excellent pastries. The cafe is open for lunch and dinner and it was full the entire weekend we there (granted it was the middle of summer) so you better make a reservation. The reason it's full? The food is excellent - as good as anything in Portland - and the service is great. We had the shrimp scampi and the steamed clams as starters and they could have been a meal in themselves. They were accompanied by amazing home made bread from the bakery. The entrees were equally delicious (and large), we had the halibut parmesan and the scallops. Since we had birthday cake back home we passed on what looked like an amazing desert tray.

We returned the next night for some lighter fare! We opened with the Cesar salad and then had the peperoni pizza as an entree. This pizza was loaded with cheese, fresh tomatoes, peperchinis and an amazing tomato sauce base. It was one of 10-12 pizza options and the decision was not easy. We went with the 10" which was the smallest they had and still had pizza to take home with us.

So next time you are on the coast drive a few extra miles up to Gearhart for lunch or dinner, it is worth the trip.

Pacific Way Bakery & Cafe
601 Pacific Way
Gearhart, OR 97138
503-738-0245

The Knack - Get the Knack

Not every record can be the coolest, hippest record of all time. Some of these are going to be embarrassing. So I admit, I love this record. I actually wore it out I played it so much when I first got it. I new every word to every song.

Yes, I know this is a cheap rip off of the Beatles, but honestly, I am not a huge Beatles fan, so I have no reverence for them. If you think about it, the Beatles were the ultimate pop band for their time just as the Knack was for theirs. In fact these are the songs the Beatles would have been playing if they were invented in 1979 instead of 1959.

Unfortunately the Knack never grew to be wise old sages like the Beatles and never released anything like The White Album or Abby Road, but for classic pop this is right there with Please, Please Me or Hard Days Night. So, take the ultimate ride back to high school, turn it up loud and admit that you liked some of these songs too.

Binkey and Bongo

In 1992 Barbara and I decided we wanted to add a dog to our family of two cats. We talked for a while about what kind of dog we wanted, and spent some time checking out the dog park to see what breeds we liked. We decided on a Westie as I remembered my great aunt's dog Minty very fondly and we wanted a small dog.

We were living in LA at the time and I found a breeder in the paper that just had a litter. I had to drive about an hour out to this interesting house where they were going a little overboard with the Christmas decorations. I fell in love with a male called "Taco" but I couldn't take him home right away. I arranged to pick him up after Christmas when we got back from our traditional trip to Houston and New Orleans. I missed him already even though I had only known him for an hour.

When I went to pick him up, he had grown quite a lot, he was 10 weeks old at this point. On the drive back he was not too happy to be leaving his parents and he cried a lot. When we got back to the house we were a little worried about how he would interact with the cats. Our worst fears were realized when he immediately started chasing them around the house as soon as we put him on the ground. We also found out he liked to eat out of their litter boxes, so we had to have designated cat areas where they could feel safe.

We also found out it is a lot harder to have your own dog than to have a family dog where your parents really do most of the work. House training him took a lot of time as we both worked and he liked to bark a lot so we were always worried the neighbors would complain. However, Binkie soon became a beloved family member. So much so that we thought we would get him a dog sister. About a year later, I called the breeder we got Binkie from and they had just had another litter. We drove out there and Binkey did so well with the puppies that we felt comfortable taking Bongo home with us. The funny thing is, even though Binkey is older, Bongo was always the dominant dog, bossing him around and being queen bee.

We will miss them both very much.

The Summer Shift

In hockey the guys on the ice at any one time make up a shift. When you see a group of guys jumping over the wall and a new group coming on to the ice, that's a shift change. OK, now you know as much about hockey as I do.

In this commercial we feature players from the Canadian Juniors team training in the off-season to get better and hopefully bring the fourth Junior World Championship in a row back to Canada.

Since they are training in the summer as a team, we coined the phrase the "Summer Shift."

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

This one is a no brainer. A record that is on everyone's top 100 list.

I bought this record after seeing Bruce Springsteen in concert at the old Hoffinze Pavilion in Houston, pretty much by accident. A friend had an extra ticket because his older sister could not go. Neither of us had heard of Springsteen. After that three hour show, we'd never forget him. I have seen him in concert a few times since, but it is still amazing to think that we were blown away by a guy we did not know, and had never even heard any of his songs (although the Manford Man Earth Band did cover that one song off his first album).

This record is another one you have to play start to finish to get the full effect. Buying a few singles off iTunes will not do it justice.