Jackie Jocko's Piano Comes Home

 

Today lounge pianist Jackie Jocko’s piano came home to its old location. It is sitting in the corner of the Hyatt in downtown Buffalo where it used to sit. That corner is in the lounge of the new steakhouse Johnny D’s. When Jocko played there the restaurant was called E.B. Green’s.

I am explaining all this for the benefit of non-Buffalonians. Jocko is special to us in Buffalo still, even though he has been gone for a few years now.

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Howard is going to be playing Jocko’s piano most nights of the week as we go forward. I am going to be playing it the leftover nights. I am guessing I will have the low-rent nights such as Monday and Tuesday. That is fine by me! When I worked for The Buffalo News I used to like it when they ran my columns on those days. I figured they did that to get people to read the paper on a day when they might not otherwise.

The expert piano technician Thomas Miller did the honors of moving and tuning the piano. Here it is in its new/old spot. Before he tuned it, Howard played it. I stood by the piano and listened. I grew nostalgic thinking about how many times I stood on that spot, talking with Jocko.

“Mary!” Jocko used to beckon you over to the piano. And you would stand there.

Sometimes if he had something really juicy to confide, you would sit on the piano bench with him.

Ah, the memories. They light the corners of my mind!

I played for the restaurant owner. Howard told me to do something classical so I played Chopin’s Aeolian Harp Etude. I was happy I got through it from memory! I had not expected to do this. Grand slam! Yay me! After that I played “Over the Rainbow.”

The owner loved “Over the Rainbow.”

“I like songs I know,” he said.

So, I will be playing songs he knows. That is fine by me! I love playing classical music, it’s my thing — however you have to watch what you would play in an atmosphere like this, in a beautiful restaurant. You can’t play anything too loud or, well, anything too deep. The Beethoven “Moonlight” sonata, everyone knows it, however it is just too deep to play in this environment. You don’t want to distract people from their dinners. A lot of Mozart also falls into this category. It’s quiet, it’s simple — but it’s just too deep. Maybe I could do piano treatments of a couple of arias. I do not rule it out. However I aim to please, and I aim to please myself too, and if it’s a toss-up between Chopin and Harold Arlen, I am happy to do the Harold Arlen.

Today is a long story however the adventure ended with me taking the subway and then riding a Reddy Bike down Amherst Street in a long cheetah-print dress and sandals. This killed me — as I was nearing Delaware Park, I passed some parked cars, and this being Buffalo, a voice came out of one of them.

“Mary!” It was a woman, is all I know.

I did not want to know more! It was probably someone I love, however sometimes you cannot, you just cannot. Excuse me, I am riding a Reddy bike in a cheetah print gown and sandals.

Do I look as if my life is normal?

A thorny situation

Since going to see Jackie Jocko last week something terrible has happened. I wound up with the theme from "The Thorn Birds" on my brain.

Jocko plays that theme all the time. It is this wistful waltz by, I looked it up, Henry Mancini.

Being a little under the weather and not out and gadding about I got on YouTube today to check out "The Thorn Birds." Just to get a glimpse of it. I kind of remember it from years ago but I was never a TV watcher. One thing I remember, my Auntie Rose was at our house, at my parents' house I mean, visiting or something, and she would watch "The Thorn Birds." Auntie Rose was my dad's black-sheep sister who lived in California and when she came into town the rules on TV watching were relaxed considerably.

Richard Chamberlain played this priest on "The Thorn Birds," I remember that, and the priest was in love with Rachel Ward. Auntie Rose would laugh about that. Whenever Rachel Ward would come into view my Auntie Rose would say, "The priest can't be far behind." And we would all laugh.

Then the priest would come into view and Auntie Rose would say: "I told you. There he is."

Ha, ha! At the same time we were having those conversations Leonard Pennario was watching "The Thorn Birds" too. He watched it on the hotel TVs while he was on tour. I did not think to ask him his thoughts on Anton Rubinstein's piano concertos but naturally we covered this ground.

I honestly never saw "The Thorn Birds" so I did a YouTube search.



 A couple things struck me.

One, I did not recognize Richard Chamberlain. When the guy says, "I've brought your husband!" I thought they meant her husband in the series, played by Bryan Brown. Because I remember in real life that was who she married. She fell in love with him, making "The Thorn Birds."

OK. So that is Richard Chamberlain. That is the priest character. One comment on the video read something like: "I wish we would stop glorifying this. This is not a fun situation." I agree.

But the biggest thing I found myself thinking about was:

The whole thing had such a dated look. The shot of Rachel Ward at the top of this post, her dress looks kind of '70s. It just looks as if it is made from polyester. And look at her shoes. The filming is not as perfect as filming is now. People do not look as perfect.

With which (that is an expression I got, by the way, from my Auntie Rose) ... you do not realize how skinny people have become!

You could never get away now being the size Rachel Ward is in this video! I freezed it at 0:43 and just studied her.

She is beautiful and healthy looking but you are not allowed to look that way now.

Alas.

Messages from Mars

 In the department of Why Do We Live Here? lastnight Howard filmed this video up above of Jackie Jocko teaching him in Lounge Academy.

Why do we live here?

Look at all this snow!

That desolate feeling!

It is like my video of a few years ago of Leonard Pennario's Chopin etude.



In both videos a bus goes past. I love that.

Also in both videos the city looks just desolate. Like Mars.

Why do we live here??

The Oscars

We stopped by Jocko's tonight, in part to celebrate because E.B. Green's was written up in the Gusto today by my friend Toni.

The lounge was crowded. This family shows up and the dad brings a toddler up to the piano.

"What's her name?" Jocko wheedles.

The man said: "This is Oscar."

"Oh, it's a little boy!" Jocko said. And he got little Oscar to sit next to him and play notes.

It was funny because not long ago we had that other Oscar, Oscar Torres. He works for the Federal Reserve but they sent him to Buffalo and so Oscar Torres missed Hurricane Sandy because he was lounging in the lounge of the Hyatt watching Jackie Jocko.

Now there is this kid named Oscar!

Later little Oscar comes toddling up to Jocko.

"Oh, hi, kid, go eat your food," Jocko said. He can take kids only so long. His grouchiness on occasions like that is one thing we love about him.

That, and he always plays us "Midnight On the Cliffs."



Luckily Jocko is more patient when teaching Howard.

Who gives a flying Wallenda?

I do!

I did not think I would but I did.

Howard and I watched Nik Wallenda walk the walk over Niagara Falls on the television at the Hyatt along with Jackie Jocko the great lounge pianist. At first we were all scornful but then we got caught up in it.

You could not help it! Wallenda was so likeable for one thing. The praying was what won Jocko over. Before the walk Jocko was saying, "I hope he falls in the Falls." But then Jocko was totally won over. "Did you hear that?" he said to us. "He thanked Jesus!"

That is a very daring thing to do, in front of thousands! Well, Wallenda is a daredevil.

That is a great old word, daredevil. And a great name, Wallenda. I had no desire to join the huge crowds in Niagara Falls but even when I was scorning this whole thing, I liked the thought that the name Wallenda was once again on everyone's lips.

"Who gives a Flying Wallenda?" I had a long-ago roommate who used to say that.

That name was once legend and it is nice to think it might be again.

If you have never read up on the Flying Wallendas, they are a great old German circus family and their name in German, "Die Fliegende Wallendas," was a play on Wagner's opera "Der Fliegende Hollander," "The Flying Dutchman." A fine excuse to listen to the wonderful overture for this haunting and atmospheric opera.



Karl Wallenda was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1905. They talked on the television last night about how he fell to his death from a wire. So sad. I do not remember hearing that he was 73 when he made that last walk. Perhaps at 73 you are tempting fate more than normally on a high wire, but that is the kind of family this is.

Last night at the Hyatt it was fun to watch the walk because the staff was lined up behind the bar, watching, and at the table where I was watching were Howard and our friend Jim Corbran the automotive columnist at Artvoice, and the magician Bob Davis. We kept expecting Bob Davis to materialize on the wire behind Wallenda! All of us as we watched were nervously eating Jocko's trademark jelly beans.

Bob Davis who knows about thins like this said that with the tether Wallenda probably would not die if he fell, but he could be hurt. It occurred to me that he also stood to make a big fool of himself, so there is a big risk there too.

I really did want him tethered, I have to say that. The thought of a man dying like that, I could not stand to watch it. I did not turn toward the TV when they ran footage of Karl Wallenda falling. I did not want to see that.

As we watched we reminisced about Kirk Jones who threw himself over the falls trying to kill himself and lived. He told Howard that he had really been trying to kill himself so that is how we know. He said that to Howard the night after it happened, when we were at the Hyatt together. He was a sweet man, Kirk Jones. We liked him. Well, that is a whole other story.

For now, kudos to Nik Wallenda, the Leonard Pennario of high wire artists.

He walked the line!

Friday night fever

Tonight I went with my mom to the Wehrle Restaurant and then we walked for a while around the new Tops picking up this and that. We had to walk a little because we had both absolutely cleaned our plates and needed to move.

My mother said it was her first time she had ever gone grocery shopping without a list.

"Hahaha," I said. "Welcome to my world."

I never have a list when I go shopping! I told my mom, "That's why, after I call you up from Tops or Budway's to see if you need anything, and you tell me what you want, that's why it takes me an hour to get to your house. Because I am in supermarket going 'Uh....'"

Usually when I go food shopping it is after work and Zumba and I am hungry and zoned. I get overwhelmed with all the choices. But I forgive myself. You cannot go to work and Zumba and also be the authorized biographer of Leonard Pennario and always remember your grocery list. Sorry Charlie.

After the Wehrle Restaurant and Tops I went and met Howard at the Hyatt. I almost did not go down there and then when I got downtown there was no parking. I parked about a mile away by TGIFriday's. Well, it was Friday! So, appropriate.

When I got to the Hyatt all kinds of people were there. Howard was sitting with our friend Gene. Also sitting at neighboring tables were our friends E.O. Smith, the great Buff State history professor, and Gerhardt Yaskow, who owns Gene McCarthy's Tavern. That is a place I should take my mom for a fish fry, McCarthy's. Remind me, someone, otherwise I will just home to the Wehrle.

Then we were joined by another group including the priest from my church, Father Secondo, and our friend Lucy, the Vice Consul of Italy, and her husband, historian Martin Ederer. And a friend of theirs, a guy visiting from Italy. I love dropping the title Vice Consul of Italy, you know? And it felt chic to have the padre there. At Jocko! We were laughing about it.

It was all over too soon but I got to tell the visitor from Italy ...

... which made me feel cool.

And now it is the weekend!

Bright lights, big city

I am sorry I am late checking in for Thursday but I was out at Jocko. We had a wonderful evening that did not end until after midnight.

I will say one thing, I was overdue to get out of the house! All day I had been working. It was one of those days when you do not move from your chair for hours and hours. I was going to go to Zumba but the traffic for the Corporate Challenge made it impossible to get out of my driveway. So, more work, more sitting on my behind, more going over Leonard Pennario's life, more drinking Shur-Fine diet pop. Well, this is what I love!

Finally around 9 p.m. Howard called and he was at Jocko so I busted out of the driveway and joined him there.

Jocko had his groove back! He has been getting over a bug but now the bug is gone and after his gig ended we all sat around talking into the night. This was our friend Paul and our friend Diane and Howard and me and Jocko.

There was so much to talk about!

Elvis was in the building. That is the Elvis who is going to be at the Philharmonic tonight! His name is Kraig Parker. Howard had spotted a guy earlier who he was 99 percent sure was that Elvis. With sideburns, and everything! We think he is staying at the Hyatt and that was he.

Everyone sat around weighing our buddy Mark Croce's chances of success as he moves ahead with the nearby Statler Hotel. Has anyone else seen the flags Croce has hung outside the Statler? Suddenly it looks like a grand hotel again and that is thrilling. Go Buffalo!

Booze fueled local small-town gossip. Paul passed along a scurrilous story attributed to a reliable source he could not name, and then Diane did the same thing.

Both stories were countered with the others of us protesting, "That can't be true!"

"Reliable source!"

The Mayor ...

... stopped by our table and hung around for a while. He complimented me on how I looked without my braces. "You have a beautiful smile now," he said.

"Thank you!" I beamed. That is a most excellent thing in a mayor, when he notices you no longer have braces on your teeth.

Jocko asked the Mayor when his birthday was. The Mayor told him.

"Oh, you're a Libra," Jocko shrugged. Or whatever sign he is, I forget. "You don't have anything to worry about!"

Diane said: "I'm glad you stopped by. I need to ask you about that guy Johnson."

The Mayor looked blank. "The schools guy," Diane said.

"That's James Williams," I spoke up helpfully. We all know James Williams because he used to come in the lounge and his song was "Satin Doll."

"Williams. Whatever," Diane said, unembarrassable. She went on to give the Mayor a long and un-P.C. list of reasons why Williams was not up to the job. The Mayor said he had not appointed Williams but he listened patiently to her.

Diane then asked Mayor Brown if he was a Republican or a Democrat and when his term is up. He stood there handsome and dapper and patient, answering her questions. We all started clowning around and taking pictures.

After the Mayor left, or maybe before then, we got more wine and the talk turned to the police commissioner, H. McCarthy Gipson. Everyone knows him too and so he was ragged on, defended, ragged on, defended.

We got to ragging on past presidents starting with Harry Truman. Diane said there were good and bad things about every president. Jocko did not mind Truman other than that Truman had called him "Jacko" which can get on a person's nerves after a while.

And so the evening passed in the lounge.

A long and restorative evening!

Arthurian myth

Last night I dreamed that Arthur Rubinstein, pictured above, was around and that I met him. He was in the Jackie Jocko crowd in my dream. That is the crowd of people who go to E.B. Green's to hear Jackie Jocko play the piano.

As I dreamed it, Arthur Rubinstein was a very nice guy as I am sure he was in real life. I mean, Leonard Pennario liked him. In my dream Rubinstein liked me, no big surprise there, and I hatched this plot to write a book about him, just a kind of quickie, to get out there and establish my reputation and make some money and make it easier to finish my book on Pennario.

My book on Rubinstein was going to be called, "Arthur Rubinstein: Up Close And Personal."

Hahahahaha! I would like to think that in real life I would come up with a better title.

Reviewing these plans in the cold light of day I was not sure what Rubinstein would have confided in me that was not revealed in his other books, "My Young Years" and "My Many Years," both of which were forthcoming to a fault.

But in my dream I was pretty sure he had stuff to tell me.

Oh well, I woke up. No Rubinstein. No quickie book.

That and, I had this big day ahead of me, including catching up with work, running errands, scoping out the soup kitchen to see what I am going to make, and taking my mom to the brand-new Tops that opened near her house. I was looking forward to seeing that Tops myself but I felt a twinge of regret, I have to say, that Rubinstein was not around to be my meal ticket.

That was a good plan and it was going to work out so well!

It is not easy, being a nerd.

You have nerd dreams!

The ghost of Liberace

Lastnight at the Hyatt the talk turned to Liberace. I started it, because I had been reading something about Liberace. We were listening to Jackie Jocko and I asked Jocko what Liberace had been like, in his experience.

You do not have to ask Jocko if he knew Liberace! You know he did.

In this case though Jocko said he did not know him well. But he said, "We had some good conversations."

He said Liberace confided in him, "Jocko, I am not a good pianist. But I know how to market myself. I know how to be a good showman." Jocko said, "Oh, he was a beautiful guy!"

Leonard Pennario did not like Liberace and we explored that subject next. Liberace bugged Pennario because here Liberace was, Italian and a pianist, so I guess people would compare them. And Liberace stood for everything Pennario did not so it used to make Pennario mad.

Last night I saw what the problem was. Because Jocko asked me, "Did Pennario ever play the Town Casino?"

The Town Casino was a legendary old Buffalo cabaret. Here is a program from the Town Casino featuring ... guess who?

I said: "NO PENNARIO NEVER PLAYED THE TOWN CASINO!"

Zut alors, alors, alors!

These Italians!

How did I get mixed up with all of them?

Bruce at the bar

Last night Howard and I were down at E.B. Green's having drinks with Bruce Springsteen. No kidding, he was there at the bar, listening to Jackie Jocko.

Howard saw him first and he whispered to me, "Is Bruce Springsteen in town?"

"He's giving a concert tomorrow night," I whispered. Bruce is in town tonight, giving a concert.

"Then that's him at the bar," Howard said.

Howard's middle name is Bruce and that is why he is good at spotting other Bruces.

Springsteen was sitting in a seat where you would sit if you did not want to be seen. That is the seat at the end of the bar behind the wall near the door. The Hyatt is used to celebrities so it would make sense that no one would call your attention to him. Dave Matthews was there one night. We all left him at his table undisturbed. Last week it was Metallica. When we had Leonard Pennario in there people did not leave him alone but then he is from Buffalo so everyone saw him as public property.

How did I get onto talking about Pennario? I was talking about Bruce Springsteen.

The only reason there is a chance it might not have been he is that the Springsteen we saw at the bar lastnight seemed less beat up than the one you see in pictures. He did not look like this.


He looked more like this.


But maybe he can adjust his looks depending on the situation. If he does not wish to be recognized perhaps he can clean himself up so he blends in. As the poet Ogden Nash wrote:

If there is nothing on the settee
It is the chameleon that you see.

Now that we are bar buddies with Bruce Springsteen here he is singing "Shenandoah."

Portrait of mystery

In the Strange Problems I Have department there is now this. There is this art exhibition opening Oct. 10 at Gateway Gallery, 141 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, and it includes a painting of Howard and me. But the painting is not us!

It is of a whole other couple!

That is the painting up above. They are even using it on a promotional postcard for the exhibit. I propped it up on Howard's computer keyboard to take the picture which explains the letters at the bottom.

Does anyone know who those people are?

The exhibit is by the painter Rick Williams. He is a judge in Washington, D.C. but now he is retiring. Like Leonard Pennario he is from Buffalo originally. And he is going to be moving back to Buffalo with his wife and spend part of every year here.

The first thing Williams is doing back in Buffalo is having this exhibition at an Elmwood gallery he owns and the exhibit is going to center on Jackie Jocko and his circle. Howard and I are part of Jocko's circle which is how we wound up inadvertently in this exhibit.

But there was some kind of mix-up. Jocko told us the painting above is of us. But it is not of us.

They may as well substitute a picture of the Duane Paddocks.


What a situation!

Lastnight Howard and I could not go to sleep because we were worrying about it. It is a serious problem because the exhibition opens in a scant few weeks. And there will be a tag on this picture saying it is us.

Finally Howard rolled out of bed. "I am going to get this straightened out," he said.

He sent an email to the artist. But we still have not heard back.

We do not know what will happen!

Jocko's holy connections

Last night Howard and I went to see Jackie Jocko and the lounge was full of people in town to hear Father John Corapi speak at HSBC Arena.

Darn, I should have dodged my garage sale-ing responsibilities and heard Father Corapi speak. Many times I have sat motionless at green lights listening to Father John Corapi talking on Catholic radio. He is a trip!

What fascinates me about Father Corapi is he has seen everything and done everything and consequently he knows everything. That is what Jocko says is great about him. Jocko was pontificating freely in the lounge lastnight to everyone about that he knew John Corapi before it was Father John Corapi. Jocko knew him when Corapi was in charge of the Tropicana in Vegas.

"He's a (Italian slur)," Jocko said. I am glad Leonard Pennario was not there to hear that! But Jocko is Sicilian and so he is allowed to talk like that.

Jocko was the first show when the Tropicana opened and that was where he met John Corapi. That is what he told us as we listened wide-eyed.

Here is a picture of Jocko with our friend Julie.


Here is a picture of Father John Corapi.


I know, I should have figured they knew each other. Jocko knows everyone. The question is not whether or not he knows someone, but rather how and how long.

At first Father Corapi got on my nerves on the radio but then once I tuned in when he was talking about his cokehead past, about how he made a fortune as a real estate hotshot in Beverly Hills and drove Ferraris but then got hooked on cocaine and lost it all. After that I was a fan.

It was not really the story that grabbed me. It was how Father Corapi told it, which must have been something like this. Well, this clip covers only the second half of the story. But it gives you an idea of Father Corapi's personality.

He is so funny and human and that is why I wish I could have seen him at HSBC Arena. The way he talks. Once on the radio he was talking about birth control pills and all the trouble they have led to. He started talking about it from personal experience. He said, I know that when I was leading that kind of life, if a girl was on birth control pills, then let the games begin!

That "let the games begin!" killed me. I was in the car and I laughed out loud.

Also,as you can hear in that clip, Father Corapi is like me in that he went back to confession after 20 years and he got a really old priest just the way I did. So we have that in common.

Besides being a Beverly Hills hotshot and then a cokehead, Father Corapi was also a college football star, plus he was in the military for a while. So you just sit there and listen to him talk about football games he was in and guys he knew in the army and parties he went to and ways in which he drove his parents crazy.

And when he is talking about being a priest it only gets better. Once, Father Corapi heard his own father's confession. That was right after he became a priest. Another time he had to deal with a coven of 13 witches. There was also a time when Father Corapi was summoned to the bedside of a dying mob boss and the mob boss wanted him to baptize him. I cannot quite remember how that situation sorted itself out.

We will have to revisit some of these matters when October rolls around and we talk about the supernatural the way we did last year.

Because of Father Corapi I know what prayer I should say for purposes of exorcism (the Our Father works well, partly because of the line that says "deliver us from evil") and whether or not Timothy McVeigh got last rites (he did). These are things people ask Father Corapi about and he knows.

I wonder what he remembers of Jackie Jocko.

I wish I could take him out for a beer and ask him!

Out on the town

JoAnn Falletta is the conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and lastnight we went out with our husbands. We went to see Jackie Jocko. That is JoAnn in the picture above with Howard and Jocko.

Jocko gets a kick out of JoAnn. He was reminiscing with her later that night and he said, "The first time I heard they had put a girl up there as conductor ..."

AHAHAHAHAAAAA!

JoAnn was laughing and laughing. That is how cool she is.

I am thinking writing that how funny it is that here I am the, ahem, music critic, and there is JoAnn as the conductor, and I do believe this is the first time in history this has happened, in any city. Normally I am not prone to feminist observations like this but it did enter my mind.

A few weeks ago when I was talking to Leonard Pennario's record producer she admitted that she was pretty much the only woman in a man's business. Then she asked me, "How is it with you?" We were laughing about that.

Well, times are changing.

I had a lot of fun lastnight. Actually I think I had too much fun because JoAnn let me talk about Leonard Pennario way too much. She is probably waking up today telling her husband, there are two words I never want to hear again and they are Leonard and Pennario.

Because zut alors, I do talk.

Particularly with a glass of wine in my hand!

Blah blah blah blah Leonard Pennario blah blah blah Pennario blah blah blah blah blah Rachmaninoff blah blah blah Monteux blah blah Kapell blah blah blah Leonard blah blah St. Anthony's Church blah blah.

That is me!

It is a miracle I have any friends!

Jocko had tons of fun with JoAnn. Right away he asked her if she was Sicilian. Then he got straight which sign she is and which sign her husband is. "Oh, you are good together!" he said.

He asked JoAnn what time of day she was born. She said early morning, around 1 a.m. Next thing you know he will draw up her chart. If you become Jocko's friend he sometimes draws up your chart. He did that for me once!

Then Jocko filled JoAnn in on all the losers I had gone out with before I married Howard, and how he could tell that none of them was any good.

We also hashed over embarrassing incidents I have had at the Hyatt including the time I inadvertently met the flutist Emmanuel Pahud.

Such experiences I have had at the Hyatt! We closed the place lastnight.

They were turning out the lights when we left!

My ship comes in

After setting down yesterday all the things I wanted to do this summer, I got right on it! The first thing I did was go to the Hatch for a glass of wine.

I may have said I would go to the Hatch for a beer but the glass of wine, it had to be done. When in Rome do as the Romans and when at the Hatch do as the Hatchlings, so I ordered Chablis. You could see them pouring it out of a huge jug. It is $4.50 for 8 ounces. No little wimpy 3 ounces for us here in the big bad city of Buffalo, N.Y.

While I was sipping my Chablis we watched a tugboat tugging this big Great Lakes freighter named LeFarge into the harbor. Very cool.

Here is the freighter getting closer. It is from Montreal! 'Tis a fine brooding sky.


Everyone at the Hatch was lined up at the railing and waving to the Frenchies on the freighter. In Buffalo we get used to always knowing each other. It is in the water here! I mean, look, when I met Leonard Pennario we immediately began talking about shared childhood experiences and priests and nuns we both knew. Do click on that Pennario link. It is appropriate!

After watching the freighter Howard and I took a walk to Nussbaumer Beach. Then we went to the Hyatt and heard Jackie Jocko. Here is a picture I took at the Hyatt of our friend Brenda with our friend H.


H. used to own a bunch of stores in Buffalo and he and Jocko were reminiscing about the time one of them was shut down by the FBI. They also reminisced about the time the sprinkler system in one of the stores went off in the middle of winter and Jocko was mopping and mopping.

Today I am wondering how Brenda is doing because last night was the night she and her sister were going to drive all night to New York so they could get in line to compete for "So You Think You Can Dance." That is where she is this morning! She promised to check in and let us know how things go.

I will report!

Where the wily things are

Is anyone else on the lookout for coyotes? I am. I am on complete Coyote Alert.

Here it is this beautiful morning with mourning doves cooing and other birds chirping and not even any boom cars in front of the house yet. But I am thinking about coyotes and warnings I have read against them. They are becoming bold. And, as The Buffalo News wrote, wily! That is Wile E. Coyote pictured above.

What about Jon Wile? He is a friend of Howard's and he is a lawyer which, I always think Jon Wile is a great Dickensian name for a lawyer. Jon While is new on Facebook and for his official Facebook picture he uses a picture of himself with Jackie Jocko. Ha, ha! It looks as if Jocko is holding Jon Wile's head on a plate!


But back to the wily coyotes.

Remember a few years ago, we had raccoons. There were all these warnings about raccoons taking over the City of Buffalo but I never thought much about it. This was about a year before I met Leonard Pennario so I do not know what I was thinking about. Do click on that Pennario link and you will hear him playing the finale of this Chopin sonata that he played better than anyone. It is ominous music. It is where the wild things are!

Which brings us back to the raccoons. As I was saying, I did not think about the raccoon warnings.

Until one night!

Howard and I were on the back porch. We have this postage stamp-sized back porch we like to eat out on in the summer and we were sharing this roast chicken.

And all of a sudden an animal approached!

At first I thought it was a cat. There is this fat sleek pretty cat that wanders our neighborhood and sometimes it comes up our driveway and a few times it has jumped up onto the porch. But this was not a cat!

It was a raccoon! It was like the cat, only bigger. Fat and sleek and pretty. Howard and I agreed later it was a beautiful animal.

But at the time we just sat there frozen. We didn't know what to do.

The raccoon was giving us this friendly look as if to say, "Hi, neighbors. I heard you out here, thought I'd drop by for a bite of chicken."

Then Howard and I made the instantaneous decision to start making noise and yelling at it. And the raccoon's face changed. It got a hurt look. As if to say, "What? What's wrong? You don't want to see me?"

Then it scooted.

But the story is not over!

A few nights after that we were back on the porch. And a raccoon came out onto our garage roof. We have a garage that is separate from the house and sits a ways back. But the raccoon could see us from there. We saw him looking at us.

Then another raccoon joined him. And another! And another! Soon there were about a dozen.

The garage roof was full of raccoons!

They all were in constant motion, parading up and down, tracing loops this way and that. It was the most unbelievable sight. It was like a raccoon show of strength. I am haunted by that image, I have to say that. So often now if I look out toward the garage I remember when it was covered with raccoons.

I wonder if that will happen with the coyotes.

They are out there!

Tales of LP and LPs

Good morning! Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekend?

One highlight of my weekend was that on Saturday I went to the Salvation Army with my mom. The atmosphere was really obnoxious with the sound system blasting static-filled Bon Jovi, but hey, I knew I wasn't at Lord and Taylor. And here is the good news: I scored a great dress which I was able to wear that very night to go hear Jackie Jocko. Jocko told me into the microphone in front of everyone: "That dress fits your body perfectly." Thank you, Jocko! Thank you, Salvation Army!

Also, while my mom wasn't looking I was able to scope out the records department. My mother always yells at me for buying records because I have so many already and I know it's stupid, but she has actually prevented me from buying a few things that now I wish I had bought. Saturday, I slipped from her grasp and somehow I even managed to check out my purchases without her seeing.

Here is a picture of my mother.



The records I bought were so geeky as to boggle the mind but here they are anyway:

1. Two LPs of "Erich Kunz Sings German University Songs." Besides having my name, Kunz was a great baritone -- his version of "The Merry Widow" with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was considered the definitive. He was also a great Beckmesser in "Die Meistersinger." He belts these drinking songs and they're a riot. We had records of them when I was a kid. This was the kind of household I grew up in and why I turned out the way I did.

Wow, check out that You Tube link! Can't beat those graphics.

2. A Vox box set of Ambrosian Chants, sung by the Choir of the Polifonica Ambrosiana. The priest at my church, Father Secondo, is from Milan and he has told me that he would like to do Ambrosian chant at the Latin Mass I go to. Now, when he does that, I will be ready!

3. I saved the best for last. I found the soundtrack to "Song Without End: The Fabulous Life, Loves and Music of Franz Liszt." For 99 cents! This is a foldout album with pictures and everything. I am poring over it right now. Dirk Bogarde played Liszt. Genevieve Page plays Marie, who I am assuming is the Countess Marie d'Agoult. One of the pictures is captioned: "Liszt finds he is bored with Marie." This is great! I will have to see this movie. Jorge Bolet plays the piano. I wish Leonard Pennario was around so I could tell him about this find and we could laugh about it.

Incidentally I have yet to find a Pennario album at a thrift shop! I used to tell Pennario that and we would gloat together about it. Howard says that Pennario albums are heirlooms and people do not throw them out. I think that is right. Of course, if I found one, I would happily grab it.

I had a good weekend for music. Not only did I hear Jocko but I got to go out with my friend Michelle on Friday night and hear Beethoven's "Harp" Quartet. I love the slow movement of that quartet and looked forward to hearing it so much that I even dreamed about it the night before! Ate falafel before that at Byblos, washed down with a glass of box red wine. Life is good!

Today is the day I interview the soprano Leigh Munro about Pennario. They were very good friends and went all kinds of places together. Miss Munro is known for her starring roles at the New York City Opera and she also sang extensively on Broadway, including in "Phantom" (I believe she played the witchy soprano, not Christine).
I got a little sick of hearing from Pennario all about how great looking she is but I am looking forward to talking to her just the same.

Anyhow, welcome, work week!

What better way to begin it than by listening to this?