Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Lots of rain yesterday, including a prolonged thunderstorm that seemed to go on for hours. It rained all night and into this morning. That’s fine with me, as my gardens and lawn needed it. It will start to dry up this afternoon. Hopefully, it will be dry enough to get some mowing in on Wednesday and Thursday – everything is overgrown because the excessive heat kept us from doing anything outside.

We didn’t get home from Sunday’s concert until well after midnight, which means I didn’t get to sleep until 1:30 am, which means I was tuckered out, and so I took the day off from posting.

We had such a great time! We rarely go out nowadays as we’re on a budget and find it less expensive to eat at home and watch movies on our television. But we bought the tickets for Tommy Emmanuel several months ago and were ready for a ‘date night.’ The concert was in Englewood, NJ at the Bergen PAC, a smallish and intimate space, a former movie theater built in the 20s. We got there a little early – it was still 95 degrees at 6 pm – so we found an Argentinian restaurant and ate spinach empanadas and grilled vegetables.

Tommy Emmanuel, if you haven’t heard of him, is a virtuoso guitar player who was mentored by the late, great Chet Atkins. Emmanuel hails from Australia, but as he informed us, just became an American citizen. He’s charming, a great storyteller, and a brilliant musician. He uses acoustic guitars and speakers. That’s it. He also uses percussion effects, but all of them are supplied by his hands rhythmically slapping the guitar. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it. He write some of his music, but also pays homage to a large canon of influences. He opened with ‘Blue Moon’ (I posted a little recording from that performance on my IG Stories if you’re interested. It won’t be there much longer.) He played the Beatles. He played Classical Gas. He played ‘Secret Love.’ His own compositions are beautiful. I couldn’t believe what he could get out of a guitar. Stunning.

We cheered and cheered and were inspired and elated and I’m a huge fan now. He’s also a teacher and has made lots of videos teaching his techniques, his fingering, his way of creating sound. Those videos are what Don has been studying for several months now. He tours all over the world – approximately 300 days of the year.

I had the best time.

If you are a fan of acoustic guitar and ever have the chance, I urge you to go to one of his concerts. You will love him.

Don had to get going early yesterday morning because he had to be in the city for an audition. I grabbed our huge grocery list and went to the store. And then I turned on the A/C – it was still muggy, though the temps were lower – and sat out the storms with a book in hand.

We watched Teahouse of the August Moon  last night on TCM. Neither of us had ever seen it, though I’ve seemingly always known about it. My initial response to “Should we watch it?'” was no, because Brando plays a role that should be played by someone who is actually Asian and I thought it might be cringeworthy. But we watched a bit of it and, even though casting a non-Asian in the role would never be done today, Brando was really, really good. His dialect was spot on. And he was funny, something we rarely got a chance to see from Brando. Glenn Ford and Eddie Albert were having a great time, supported by the great Paul Ford and a lovely and funny Japanese actress named Machiko Kyō. It’s a satire about the American occupation of Okinawa after WWII. It was surprisingly delightful.

We’re taking it easy today – hanging out in the cottage.

Happy Tuesday.