Santa Monica Promenade & Pier

After plans to visit the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades on my day off fell through due to its being closed on Tuesdays, I ventured to downtown Santa Monica – DTSM – and the beach. At first I thought I'd wait for my monthly rundown before blogging any of it, but I got more good pictures than a summary blog can accommodate and I needed to write about the Third Street Promenade.


Third Street Promenade

During my first year in LA, Third Street Promenade was one of my best and favorite places to have fun; it was well-landscaped for pedestrians-only shopping and dining, packed with national retailers and some local ones, and included many spots along the way to sit, lounge, or socialize. Its current City of Santa Monica website describes it as world-class, and back then it probably qualified—or close to it.

Third Street Promenade in Spring 2016
Since 2016, online shopping has taken more of a hold (understatement), as it probably would have even without help from the Covid pandemic, so that's an obvious factor in what I saw on Tuesday. Related more specifically to Santa Monica, after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, riots and looting in contiguous Los Angeles spilled over into Santa Monica and a police department that may have been capable of controlling and dispersing more conventional crowds and uprisings, but… this was different.

"I'm so old" I used to love browsing, shopping, and hanging out at malls, but as I recently blogged, the decline and death of the North American mall has disenchanted me and I'd basically quit the habit, anyway.

Returning to "what I saw on Tuesday." A ghost town trying to act brave. A dead mall that hasn't been buried or converted to another use necessarily pretending it won't always be like this. I didn't even try to count the number or percentage of storefronts without tenants. Though I don't recall Third Street Promenade ever being packed with people any time I visited, "sparse" is too generous a word for the current decimation of everything.

I didn't recognize the names of most of the stores! The only brands represented that I'd ever buy from were Barnes & Noble, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters. There was a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf I determined to return to before I left, but instead I got a hazelnut frappe at CB&TL when I visited the pier after leaving the promenade.

In the category of "what can we make of this," although Tuesday was January 13th and Christmas is long over (even if you include January 6th, the day of Epiphany as part of the Nativity season), both brick and mortar and online retailers have taken down their Christmas trees, reindeers, and jingle bells because it's time to sell and shop for Valentine's Day, with maybe a thought for MLK Day and Black History Month along the way. But Third Street Promenade still was about trees and lights.

You don't need to search deeply to find articles that analyze all of this from almost any perspective. It doesn't make me feel nostalgic; it just makes me sad. It feels like an icon of so many pasts we knew yet don't truly want to return to, but we don't know what to do with the memories of those pasts or the realities of this present.

Santa Monica Pier

Because I was close to the beach, a visit to Santa Monica Pier was logical. I could pretend to be a tourist! Maybe you already knew that's where Route 66 ends?

I'll wrap this up with some pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

On the way back from the pier I met a flock of seagulls, but I was only quick enough to picture this one.

Cat Yard

Delights USA 20

• Delights USA 20 •

Nebraska Sun

Farm Scene

Victoriana

Apple Pie

Red Hot Christmas Blues

Sounds like… community Christmas at the cathedral!

Released in August 2007 and featuring producer Mark Baldwin's guitar that often sears, sometimes sings and at times laments, Red Hot Christmas Blues reminds us of the frequent messiness of life, the apocalyptic hope of Advent and the surprise of God's Nativitytide appearance in the Bethlehem manger. Except for the introductory "Christmas Blues" vocal bewailing wintry conditions of broken life and broken bank account, playlist titles are Christmas carols you get to sing in church and listen to on radio and MP3 throughout the season.

However, in liturgically logical order:

1. Christmas Blues
2. What Child Is This?
3. Silent Night
4. Go Tell It On The Mountain
5. I Wonder As I Wander
6. O Holy Night
7. Angel Shuffle
8. The First Noel

…jazz illuminations carry a revelatory twist and provocative style you don't often get on the radio or at church. I cannot help but imagine Christmas Eve at the downtown cathedral or tall steeple, or just as easily these offerings could be from a smaller nearby parish with wide-open doors that invite and include all comers.

In 4 minutes and 47 seconds "Angel Shuffle," a wildly improvised version of "Angels we Have Heard on High" probably is my favorite among favorites on this CD. I won't try describing it but can assure you it's worth the price and the storage space—from someone (me!) who doesn't buy many CDs these days and gave away quite a few quite a while ago. Walter Bruggemann says only grief enables newness (something about getting out of denial, maybe?) and "Angel Shuffles" brings together sorrow, regret, loss and anger with the surprise of God's renewing presence in our very midst.

And would you believe, bible specialists Thomas Nelson published this music CD?! Not surprisingly, I love the artwork and package design by Christie Knubel. Finally, you easily can find Red Hot Christmas Blues on eBay and Amazon, so go for it!

• my amazon review: sounds like… Community Christmas at the Cathedral!

Cool Jazz Christmas

Eric Darken and company bring an enjoyable Christmas music collection with another project from Nashville, Tennessee in

• Cool Jazz Christmas, Refreshing Holiday Instrumentals.

For the most part the music conveys a sort of New-Agey, cool, casual and offhand sensibility that passes time pleasantly with an occasional sequence or riff that makes you want to listen again because it was unusual, unique and... repeatable. The sound is excellent and over all Cool Jazz Christmas is well-produced, but it's more the kind of performance you have playing in the background instead of sitting down with to savor every sound. However, "O Come, All ye Faithful" with Mark Baldwin on keyboards and sax by Mark Douthit is worth the price of the CD--I wanted to say there was a best out of all of tracks, and happily there is. The playlist is church, mall and radio standards, but even with quite a few newer songs and carols, what would the season be without these?

1. Winter Wonderland
2. Joy to the World
3. Deck the Halls
4. We Three Kings
5. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
6. Here We Come a Caroling
7. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
8. O Little Town of Bethlehem
9. O Come, All Ye Faithful
10. Pat-a-Pan

Front and back cover designs are beautiful enough (almost) to make me want them in LP-album cover size—remember when we used to leave our currently best and favorite ones out for show? The credits conclude with, "Above all, thanks to the Creator of such wonderful and meaningful music. Merry Christmas!" Amen!

• my amazon review: For a Cool Jazz Christmas

Christmas on the Border

• Christmas on the Border on Amazon

...A Spicy Holiday Recipe of Texas Blues, Hot Country, and Mexican Salsa as well as a project and production from the town of Nashville, Tennessee, a place doesn't exactly border Mexico (or Canada, for that matter). "O Holy Night" and "What Child is This" are rocked-up essential classics; I could listen endlessly to a memorably haunting "The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy" or "I Wonder as I Wander." The style of "Joy to the World" and "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentleman," both just enough different from what you're used to that you listen more carefully all make for a CD to play over and over and recommend, too. Except for the definitely secular "Up On the Rooftop" the songs are classic North American (USA and Canada) Christmas worship, church pageant and radio top-40 favorites.

Since I included playlists from my other two Christmas CD reviews, here are the songs on this one:

1. Children Go Where I Send Thee
2. Joy to the World
3. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
4. Go Tell It on the Mountain
5. The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy
6. O Holy Night
7. I Wonder as I Wander
8. What Child Is This?

How apt and how fun this is as an example of contextualizing the Gospel and incarnating Christianity with cross-cultural musical styles, a little of this and a little of that, each still in its original idiom yet woven into the other idiom. It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis Dawn Treader quote on my Facebook page: "...said the Lamb, "For you the door into Aslan's country is from your own world." ... "There is a way into my country from all the worlds," said the Lamb...and he was Aslan himself..."

I have the impression the CD title is supposed to reference Tex-Mex style and culture, but cross-culture border styles of Southern California/ Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona/ Northern Mexico I'm familiar with aren't exactly like this CD. "Christmas on the Border" and chili pepper art both suggest songs sung in Spanish or at least partly so--in these here parts we've been known to have macaronic English/Spanish liturgies and many of us speak passable Spanglish. That's simply a passing comment, though, and I predict you'll enjoy the energy, twang, and harmonic color of Christmas on the Border (the CD).

• my amazon review: A Christmas Keeper!

Pop Rock Christmas

• Pop Rock Christmas CD on Amazon.

These days I buy very few CDs and even have given away quite a few, but I got this CD after Christmas for a great price and I'm glad I did. "The First Noel" alone is worth far more than the price I paid and well worthy of many, many listenings; "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" isn't far behind. In 1998 Tom Wanca produced and arranged as well as playing keyboards and organ and singing background vocals for Sheer Panic. With a touch of rock and more than a hint of classic country, the designation "Pop Rock" fits well as the arrangements basically rock the rhythm and skew the harmonizations most people are used to.

Liner notes provide performance and production details and in the interest of accommodating anyone who may have turned off browser images and/or are relying on an app to read the screen to them, here's the playlist that you can see contains non-exotic secular and more sacred songs for Christmas:

1. Angels We Have Heard On High
2. Up On The Housetop
3. Over The River And Through The Woods
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
5. The First Noel
6. I Saw Three Ships
7. Jolly Old St. Nicholas / Jingle Bells
8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
9. Silent Night! Holy Night!
10. What Child Is This?

• my amazon review: country, rock, and pop for Christmas

Soul Picnic

• Soul Picnic CD on Amazon

Would you believe I bought another CD majorly on sale? And it's another major winner! ... btw, this is news since it's been a few years since I've routinely brought new CDs into my living space. The playlist includes tracks with fun, casual titles:

1. Down to It
2. Soul Picnic
3. Made in the Shade
4. Some Like It Hot
5. Wanna Be There
6. Barbeque
7. Cool 'N Easy
8. Sweet Love

"Made in the Shade," "Wanna Be There," and "Sweet Love" all are so very joyful and forever listenable! The music and performances are way far too smooth to describe as funky, but the contained energy and clear recorded sound makes up for that and besides, who says all the music on Soul Picnic needs to be funky even when that's my mood? Highly recommend!

• My Amazon review: forever listenable

Santa Fe Trail

• Santa Fe Trail on Amazon

1. The Santa Fe Trail (Theme)

2. Independence Missouri (Trailhead)

3. Human Beings (Osage, Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Apache)

4. Incident at Council Grove

5. Vengeance on the Plains

6. Sorrow

7. Race Across the Colorado Desert (Timberwolves and Coyotes)

8. Taos

9. Sangre de Cristos

10. Americana Santa Fe (Terminus)

I've been enjoying the Natural Encounters CD series very much; I especially love the historical narrative in the liner notes for this Santa Fe Trail album! Ten instrumentals describe a journey along the Santa Fe trail from Independence, Missouri ("edge of the frontier"), finally into Santa Fe New Mexico ("wilderness of the American West"), appropriately riding the last phase of the trek alongside the Pecos River.

The notes tell us the music celebrates "all that is American Indian, Anglo, Latino" coming together to share the fruit. Musical style and scoring are bright, colorful, reflective, and evocative, without becoming wildly dissonant. You might want to stop for a while to listen, or play Santa Fe Trail in the background as you work through other tasks. This CD is © 1998.

• my amazon review: journey into a wilderness

Song of the Mississippi

• Song of the Mississippi by "various artists" on Amazon.

I chose this CD (because it was on sale) and because the title included "Mississippi." A song is music a river, a person, or an idea breathes and its surroundings hear; this song collection includes lovely, sometimes lively music with a classic "Americana" sound that easily helps you imagine river scenes, literature, and art along the vast range of the Mighty Mississipp, a river that carries legend, myth, individual stories and family histories along its lengthy course and upon its banks.

I was born in the deep South of the USA – in many ways born a child of the river – but left before I started forming memories. However, I clearly recall my first adult encounter with the River Mississippi in front of the hotel where I was staying for a conference in St Paul, Minnesota. I walked across the street, stood beside the river, and wept at its beauty.

The Natural Encounters playlist includes a lot of "Only in America" titles:

1. As the River Runs
2. Slow Water Blues
3. Madame Rosie's Poker Parlour
4. Harmonica Hoe-Down
5. Catfish Tales
6. River Fiddlin'
7. Sweet Prospect
8. Reverend White's Get Right Revival
9. Mighty Like a Rose
10. Piano Jive
11. Riverboat Rag
12. Mississippi Moon
13. Jaw Harp Jam
14. Snag Boat Blues
15. As the River Runs (Reprise)

The sound is open and clear, with enough presence to fill the room. This is the kind of music you can leave playing in the background or stop a while for some careful listening. There are several additional CDs in the Natural Encounters series that I hope to find at an affordable price, trusting they'll be as listenable and re-listenable as "Song of the Mississippi."

• my Amazon review: Song of the Mississippi

Harris & Copland: 3rd Symphonies

• Copland, Symphony #3; Harris, Symphony #3



With trilingual liner notes in English, German, and French along with strikingly bright cover art featuring a DC-2 hovering above a horse-drawn stagecoach, this recording of two classic American symphonic standards is well-prepped for export! For both pieces Neeme Järvi conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It's fair to say Roy Harris' Symphony No. 3 in one movement and five parts is an icon of twentieth century American music, and especially given that the final, 4^th movement of Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3 is a version of his "Fanfare for the Common Man," his third symphony isn't far behind in the category of iconic.

Basically I like the orchestra's playing under Maestro Neeme Järvi, who served as DSO Music Director from 1990 through the end of the 2004-2005 season. However, at times the music simply sits there, so in general I'd like to feel a greater sense of the narrative moving along and greater passion shaping the phrases. Not surprisingly, the luminous sound of the Chandos recording is a joy to the ears! Do I recommend this CD? Definitely! It will give you another perspective on a pair of major orchestral works that are among my very favorites, and maybe yours, as well.

• my amazon review: solid performances, clear sound