Armagiddion War (John Peel Sessions) by Culture on Grooveshark

Check out the bass line.

My favorite all-time music documentary is The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s film about The Band’s last concert in San Francisco.

   Just last week I saw two very different music documentaries that I’d rate right up there along with The Last Waltz:

1. The Inside Llewyn Davis Concert Film, which took place in New York this September, songs from the movie, which is just about to open, curated by T-bone Burnett. All acoustic, an incredible and wonderful concert. Look at the lineup. It was on Showtime.

Click here.

2. Blues And The Alligator: The First Twenty Years Of Alligator Records (2011) I found this in Amazon Prime by typing in “music documentaries” in the search window. (I find a lot better music of this nature in Amazon Prime than in Netflix.) The trouble with most music documentaries is that they’re heavy on the talk and light on the music. Not so here. So good. Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Hound Dog Taylor,  archival footage of Sonny boy Williamson, a charming bunch of 10-year-old kids singing the blues in a classroom…“Blues is a healing music!”, (Blues Iglauer) explains, “and as long as there’s a need to be healed, the Blues will live on.” PLUS, the photography is brilliant. Hail to Jim Downing, the creator! I just ordered the DVD.

Click here.

From Lew Lewandowski

The crabs are hoppin,

Leaves are droppin,

and rain drops are starting to fall.

It looks like a monster crab season. Not only are there a lot of them, but they are both large and meaty. The sport fishermen have been hauling in limits (10 per person) for 2 weeks, and the commercial season started Friday…Leaves on trees finally dropping; we’ve got enough trees on our land that we have a local source for the compost pile. Nothing better than oak leaves in compost. Plus I’ve got a healthy population of hungry red worms transforming garbage into sweet-smelling black soil…And, after too much dry weather, we’re finally getting R-A-I-N! “GENTLE ISENTROPIC LIFT SHOULD PROVIDE SLIGHTLY GREATER PRECIPITATION VALUES ALONG THE COASTAL HILLS WITH EXPECTED TOTAL PRECIPITATION ALONG THE NORTH BAY HILLS AND BIG SUR RECEIVING 1.5 TO 2.0 INCHES. THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA MAY SEE 0.25 TO 0.50 INCHES OF TOTAL PRECIPITATION…Yahoo!…The air smells sweet right now with the first drops, with the real action to start this afternoon…If I don’t wimp out, I’m going to hike in the rain tonight along the coast…

Loop De Loop Mambo by The Robins on Grooveshark

I have an affection for this song. The first time I went to LA, 18 years old,  in my roommate’s Ford convertible, this was playing on the radio as we drove along the coast at Malibu at 5 AM. I’ve loved LA ever since.

Three O'clock Blues by Eric Clapton & BB King on Grooveshark