March 22, 2011

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Image ... Chy-chy Loving. Roxbury, Mass.

September 18, 2010

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Image ... Mural. Roxbury, Mass.

August 6, 2010

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Click on the image to see it full size. It will open in the same window, so use the Back button to return here.

Finished the Beacon Hill garden job. Forgot to take photos I was so anxious to get out of there. A Zen attention to detail which, fine at first, by day four had gotten quite wearing. Anyway, it looks great and the client is well pleased. A clean, elegant simplicity was created.

Needs a few choice pieces of art on the brick walls though. Nice stuff like we used in the Bailey's Italian roof garden. I'll keep my eyes open. Shopping at McVey and Mahoneys this weekend for the Yarmouth Street job. Will look around.

Quote of the Day
Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

Image ... Pocket Park. Roxbury, Mass.

July 25, 2010

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Definitely check out the front page article in this week's Bay State Banner, An heir of expectancy, about Guru of Gang Starr. He's the crucial hiphop artist from Roxbury who first fused the then-nascent form with jazz and then kept deepening the connection throughout his career, sadly cut short this spring by cancer.



And here's Hank Jones, who also headed home this year, live at the Village Vanguard in 1977 performing Favors with his Great Jazz Trio. Maybe Hank and Guru have hooked up and are jamming together. If so heaven, or perhaps the other joint, is certainly swinging.



I dig this tune but keep waiting to hear Miles' horn kick in. So what?

Walked up to Ashmont last night, looking to get a bite, and discovered the Ashmont Grill, right in the square. Seated on the beautiful rear patio. Tall stone rubble wall topped with one of brick. The opposite of bamboo. Surrounded by raised garden beds overarching with river birch.

Waiters, etc. came and went ignoring me for fully 15 minutes. Had plenty of time to study the place, feel the rudeness and absorb the ambience. Biggest turnoff - obtrusive music. All stuff I like (Cure, Marley, etc.) - but not for dinner. I'm absolutely adamant about restaurants not playing music. Big mistake, huge negative. It's a social space where you sit and chat and music in that situation is mere needless noise.

As usual when trying out a new place I go for the simple stuff - say a soup and/or salad. That's the true test. No one can foul up things faster and you don't lay out a huge chunk of change to find the lay of the land.

So I got the half Grilled Caesar for $8. Grilled? WTF? A plate of romaine, one central stem grilled, the rest raw. No croutons, one slight slice of garlic baguette, no anchovy evident. The lettuce not fully dried - a major sin in salad making.

I'll give Ashmont Grill another try but I have a sour taste in my mouth. And it wasn't from the menu's described lemon-garlic vinaigrette.

Quote of the Day
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn

Image ... Central Park. An image, extensively edited, from the YouTube video Hank Jones / The Great Jazz Trio - Favors 1977, but uncredited.

July 3, 2010

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Quote of the Day
Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.
A. J. Liebling

Image ... Apple tree at Puddingstone Farm, Roxbury.

June 13, 2010

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Image ... Chychy Loving. Roxbury, Mass.

April 18, 2010

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Writing about bouldering. An unexpected and exciting subject, a forgotten passion from childhood. Sparked by three sites - the glacial erratics in Franklin Park, cliffs at Roxbury Crossing and the Puddingstone formations in the park at Walnut and Townsend Streets in Roxbury. All of which I'm curious to climb, just like a kid.

Started a new Radio Roofscape show, Ambient Air. The first installment is the Ibiza Mix - Oakenfold to Ligeti with lots of strange, chill stops in between.



Image ... Mural. Roxbury, Mass.

April 17, 2010

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There's a new pocket park in Lower Roxbury at the corner of Warwick and Greenwich Streets (I think), close to the corner where Tremont and Melnea Cass meet. It was designed with care, obvious community input and executed with class. There are places to stroll, picnic, swing, play and sit. There's even a garden shed which signals that ongoing maintenance is planned for. I noticed that they didn't restore the oil drum BBQ grills which had previously been prominent in the park. Perhaps a Weber is planned to stow the shed.

Pocket parks are a major urban amenity. Small - as their name implies, often just a few former house lots - pocket parks anchor neighborhoods by providing pleasant places for relaxed neighborliness. They offer a very different experience, more distinctly local and personal, than large city parks and urban park systems.

Programmed the Sunday Gospel Set. The theme this week is the coded communications that were hidden inside the slave's spirituals.

Image housekeeping, primarily from camera. I've been taking a lot of pictures lately in my travels around town. I always swear things will never again get out of hand and of course they always do. But now I'm caught up. Although let me just check the camera. Ah, free and clear. Compared with most photographers I'm absolutely parsimonious in making pictures - every frame has to count. How can they possibly cope?

On to the new Roofscape cover for 5/15, so it's late. Wretched weather. Rain, RH about 100%, low 40's, damp easterly wind off the ocean, wind chill near freezing. A good day to stay home, take care of business and rest up for what will be a crazy coming week, hopefully wit' mo' betta' weatha'.

Image ... Pocket Park. Roxbury, Mass.

Square Fooot Gardening Tips for January | Garden Girl TV . 2

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Patti Moreno, The Garden Girl, and Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, discuss planning a new vegetable garden for the upcoming year.