Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona…….

Standing on that corner!

Good Friday April 10, 2009

 

Well, I finally made it and got to stand on that corner. But not without some effort. I had to make a 60-mile detour, ride across open plains while occasionally battling some fierce headwinds and get pulled over by a cop for going down a one-way street the wrong way. But I got to stand on that famous corner, next to statue they have erected to honour the song that made the town fsmous. In fact, the whole corner is an homage to the song with a red, flat-bed Ford truck parked right there. The sound of the Eagles greatest hits album wafts across the street from a souvenir shop. That corner is about the best thing that I could see in Winslow.

It seems a vaguely ridiculous thing to do in retrospect and something we decided not do  four years ago when Karen and I were here on a bike. It snowed  then too. Still, at least I did not keep going the extra 260 miles to Albuquerque just because Neil Young wrote a song about that.

Anyway, the policeman was very nice and friendly and shook my hand – or maybe I shook his. He didn’t really give me a warning but I think it was assumed that I would not do the same thing again. I had been looking to find the centre of town and just turned when I saw what looked like some shops. He said that I was the fourth or fifth person he had caught that afternoon. I am certain that the trip would not be worth a traffic ticket.

The open plains look like they might once have carried massive herds of buffalo and there is a location called Buffalo Range on the Navajo land. I thought I saw 5 buffalo on the way to Winslow but on the way back I saw some cattle, so perhaps I was mistaken.

Today, I came across from Sedona, where I stayed the night amongst the towering red rocks. It is very impressive and picturesque but plagued with the usual roadworks that has traffic at a snail’s pace on the single line road through the town. It is also very touristy but so is everything else around here and that is something you have to expect. Just make sure to book ahead for weekends.

Sedona is said to have a number of vortexes – strange concentrations of energy. I don’t know what they do but I do know that I had the best sleep of the whole trip so far.  It had been a difficult day. I had not slept well and had got up at 6.20am to record my one hour version of the program and send it back. I had to stop a couple of times for energy drinks and a walk around to freshen up. The La Vista Motel in Sedona was clean and cheap (compared to most other places) and I had my own little bungalow down the back, perhaps near a vortex. It has a great view out the front door and I havemany photos of large red, rocks.

After my detour to Winslow I headed back to Flagstaff and across to Williams, gateway to the Grand Canyon. As the temperature dropped I turned on the heaters for the handgrips and the seat. (Note to BMW engineers: a heated doona would be handy). As I write this it is snowing lightly and the bike is covered in a thin layer. They predicted rain in the late afternoon but it did not come and I could have got to the Canyon and back if I had left early, though when I arrived it was down to 50F and chilly. I have opted to stay two nights and catch the train out tomorrow, something I have never done before and which will avoid being stuck out there if it snows. I met some Germans on Harleys who planned to go out for sunrise and were surprised when I said snow was predicted. I constantly check www.noaa.org.

I had the cheapest steak dinner at a steak house down the road and ev. en managed to log on and listen to a bit of Off The Record beforehand. It sounded good. Brian seems to fit in perfectly. I wonder how many went to Chill City? I feel a bit guilty that I was not really able to do any  interviews about it before I left, not that it would need me to ensure its success. I heard Brian talking about the great Booker T and Drive By Truckers gig and am glad I will see them at Jazz Fest.

I am hoping the weather fines up for Sunday because I have booked a room at The Luxor in Las Vegas for the ludicrously cheap rate of $60 including tax!! From there it will be springboard to Zion if the weather is okay and then to Death Valley. Hard to believe I have only 4 more nights with the bike (which is now getting over 22km/l).

Let’s hope I can see the Grand Canyon tomorrow. When we came in 1985 it was snowed in and we had to go back the next day. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

The Hacienda del Sol: You check in anytime you want….but you can never leave.

Kerryn Tolhurst put me on to the Hacienda del Sol, set in the hills overlooking Tucson. He know sthe manage and I got the week day mates rate plus tax and so decided I had to stay there one night. Check it out at www.haciendadelsol.com. It is brilliant. Built orginally as a girls’ finishing school/ranch for the wealthy it became a hotel in the 1940s and was one of Spencer Tracy’s favourite retreats, where he was no doubt joined by Katherine Hepburn. Now it is one of my favourite places. I suppose the actors would have enjoyed the hotel each night and driven the 30 minutes or so across town up the hills  on the other side of town to the movie studio.

After the interview with Harvey Brooks, Kerryn led the way up the hill, introduced me and stayed for a drink and an interview. He says that Steve Hoy was going to come over to Tucson in these (school) holidays but had not made it and was hoping for a grant to come in July or September.

Kerryn also introduced me to met Joe Jones, actor and breakfast manager, who was to join me later for dinner. When Kerryn left, I went for a swim, a spa before dressing for a wine tasting in the lobby. I met one of the co-owners, Frank, and enjoyed some Calfornia white, generously poured by Max from San Diego who only realised it was a ‘tasting’ after he had filled our glasses several times over. I think we had the ‘guzzling’. I recall that it was a Napa wine but the most striking thing about it was that it came in a plastic bottle! is this kosher?

Having blown my daily budget and more on the accommodation I opted for the US$14 Angus beef burger plus salad for dinner plus one beer and a glass of white. The ever-affable Joe joined me and confessed that he needed to talk to someone from the Commonwealth. Nice as they are, Americans sometimes just don’t get it. My brief dinner turned into a few hours as I learned about Joe’s acting career, the reason he came to Tucson (love) and the reason he stayed there after a divorce (the children). He appeared to be drinking something akin to flavoured rocket fuel. Despite the fact that he tried to entice me to break my one beer , one wine rule by insuating that he would pay for the drinks he was unable to sway me. I must say that I was a bit worried about him driving his BMW 3 down the hills late at night but he seemed supremely confident and the fact that he was there next morning seemed to vindicate his self-belief.

Frankly, I could have stayed at the Hacienda del Sol for a few more nights but I felt compelled to continue my journey. I am threatening to return there in September.

Womadelaide 09 #2

I had initially thought that Womadelaide lacked a ‘killer’ headline act but Rokia Traore proved up to the task on Sunday evening when she took to the main stage. It was a much more up tempo performance than I had expected and was a fitting way to close out the event.

The other two African acts were also spectacular – musically and visually. Tony Allen (former drummer for Fela Kuti) and Suen Kuti (one of Fela’s sons) were the highlights for me. Dan Sultan, who starred here last year with the Black Arm Band, was also impressive. You can read the reviews at www.rhythms.com.au

I chaired the all-in press conference for The Audreys and Taasha Coates was her usual charming self. I also attended Seun Kuti’s conference, chaired by Stani Goma from PBS-FM, and he was interesting and forthright – despite a few duff questions from several of the community radio announcers. Luckily, he did not quite understand one of the questions which seemed to refer to his brother Femi telling people not to listen to him or go to his gigs. It was surreal.

What was even more surreal was the prelude to the conference I was supposed to chair on Sunday with Kaki King, young US guitar virtuoso. She was obviously not looking forward to it and, when we went to the relocatable to wait for others who were finishing off another session, she appeared to be sulking big-time. I explained that the others would arrive soon and she replied, ‘Perhaps my reputation has preceded me.’

Then she added,  ‘I don’t want to talk about technique, guitars or influences.’ Mmm, let me think about what is left? I mused. ‘What would you like to talk about?’ I asked. ‘Life, beauty and death,’ she said.

It was at this exact point that I realised that we could be in major trouble. I had interviewed her two years ago in San Francisco and managed to get a reasonable interview, then Dave Graney and Elizabeth McCarthy had interviewed her on Triple R the other week and she sounded quite reasonable. But this was something else. It suddenly dawned on me that this press conference could be a complete train wreck, especially if there was a question like the one put to Seun Kuti.

I politely suggested that, perhaps, we did not have to do this and I could relay the to others the fact that because they were late Kaki had to go. The publicist seemed to think that this was the most brilliant idea since Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and immediately agreed. Kaki swiftly disappeared and I explained to the couple of people waiting in the Media Centre others that she was unable to wait. They hardly seemed disappointed but I might have saved us all from an excruciating experience.

Now, as much as Kaki King has talent she might try to recognise that the media are actually there to help her and that it is difficult to promote a career being hostile and petulant to those who might actually play your music – unless you are Van Morrison.

Having explained all that, I have to say that the festival media staff did a brilliant job. I glanced at the number of interviews they had organised for the CBAA broadcast and it was incredible. Everything was exceptionally well-organised and the backstage area is the best of any festival I have ever been to anywhere!

It still amazes me that you can see the Premier Mike Rann walking around the festival with no bodyguard, no entourage and with almost no-one paying him any attention other than to offer a polite greeting.

You can read my review of Sunday at www.rhythms.com.au

Leonard Cohen Doco

There is a terrific documentary on Leonard Cohen at Radio National’s Into The Music page:

If It Be Your Will

The documentary was made by Norwegian producer Kari Hesthamar.

You can also read her interview with Marianne Ihlen – Leonard’s muse – at:

Marianne And Leonard

Jesus Just Left Chicago

Last Saturday I played the ZZ Top song ‘Jesus Just Left Chicago’ in a bracket for incoming President, Barack Obama. Not that it really had anything to do with politics, I was just reminded of Obama’s joke during the Al Smith dinner last year that, contrary to popular belief, he was not born in a manger.

I also played Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On,’ along with ‘Black Wish’ by The Last Poets and ‘People Get Ready’ by Pops Staples.

I am sitting up tonight to watch The Inauguration. It is strange that an event involving a foreign politician could touch us so strongly. It is almost as if Obama is becoming ‘our’ President as well. I suppose after 8 years of George W. Bush the world is looking for someone to give us hope.

I recall a conversation Phillip Adams had with an author who had an essay published in the Harvard Law Review while Obama was its editor. She claimed that he could have walked from that job into many exceptionally well-paid jobs in publishing.

Then I recall that on a flight across the US late last year I met someone who had taken leave from their high-powered job to work on Obama’s campaign. ‘He seems too good to be true,’ I said. ‘Believe me, he is the real deal,’  she told me. On the strength of one meeting at a local fund raising party she and her husband had put aside 6 months of their lives to devote to the Democrat campaign. That’s impressive.

Of course, he is not the saviour and the weight of expectations of a nation must be enormous. But as someone told me last September when I was in the USA, ‘Maybe, if he is elected I won’t have to travel with a Canadian flag on my pack.’ Just maybe, the rest of the world won’t dislike America and Americans quite so much.

If you have been to the National Civil Right Museum in Memphis you will certainly understand the significance of today’s event. The Museum is on the site of the old Lorraine Motel where Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. The facade remains the same as it was in 1968.

Along with a detailed history of the Civil Rights movement there is also display with a replica of the bus that Rosa Parkes sat on and refused to give up here seat. You can sit there and hear the voice of a driver telling you to get to the back of the bus. I have not seen anyone escape the display without being in tears.

There is also a recording of a phone conversation between JFK and the Governor of Mississippi made during the attempts to admit James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. I have to say that JFK’s reasonable tone, insistence on a principle and razor sharp intelligence is recalled when I hear Barack Obama.

Not that visiting the Museum gives us, as Australians, the right to be self-righteous. It did make me feel terribly guilty and made me think about what I should do for our indigenous people.

My one wish for the Inauguration is that Bono does not appear!

Welcome To The New Year

The older one gets the fewer the imperatives to celebrate the New Year. At least, that is the way it seems to me. Last night we ushered in the New Year in Mansfield. The town was buzzing in the afternoon as we arrived and I have never seen it busier. It seems to me that it ticks all the boxes for everything you would want a country town to be and, as usual, I talked about moving there.

We stayed at the Travellers’ Lodge, which has to be the best value, and least publicised, place in town. The rooms are large and immaculately clean, the hosts Sue and Seth are friendly and the rate seem cheaper than the competition.

There was a late dinner at the Mansfield Hotel (which was busy and bursting with bonhomie) and a chance to enjoy the stone cooked porterhouse; then, the opportunity to watch the festivities on TV while enjoying a sav blanc and planning the next trip to the USA.

Okay, it was hardly a wild night but it sure beats the New Year’s eve parties I have been to where most people seemed to sit around, get stoned or drunk and lament either the year that had passed or the state of their lives. There were a few memorable New Year’s eves at the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, the most vivid of which involved trying to avoid an elderly lady who had taken a shine to me.

So the chance to get out of town again was most welcome. I might try to get even farther away this coming December 31.

New Year’s resolutions? Only one personal one. I’ll keep it to myself.

One the other hand, I am determined to improve Off The Record. The additional hour has added an extra dimension to the program and, as well as a chance to play more music, it also affords me the opportunity to broadcast some of the interviews I do which often never make it to air.

In the recent vaults I have face to face interviews with Gary Louris & Mark Olson, legendary producer Jim Dickinson, CC Adcock & Doyle Bramhall, Jody Stephens (Big Star) and phoners with Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Jeff Beck, Chick Corea, Black Joe Lewis, Glenn Mercer (The Feelies), Will Courtney (Brothers & Sisters), Joe Henry and more!! So I think a few music specials are in order.

There is also the chance to expand a few segments (the Cellar of Sound) and introduce some new elements. Of course, this all depends on the response from listeners so let me know your feedback.

I hope you have a happy and fulfilling 2009.

Greetings from Dunkeld!

Greetings from Dunkeld, where I am holed up at the Royal Mail Hotel on the last leg of a road trip that took me first to Mildura. The Grand Hotel there is excellent. The meal at the Spanish Bar & Grill was superb (Stefano’s s closed on Sundays). This is a great place too. Modernity in the middle of nowhere. 

I am about to post a review of Enough Rope and will also post today reviews of Jo Jo Zep and the Queenscliff Music Festival.

I’ll also post a few photos as son as I figure out how.

Shine A Light – The Verdict

I listened to Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out yesterday and still believe it to be the greatest live album of all time. Shine A Light might be 40 years removed in time but it is also light years away in terms of feeling. It’s the feeling I got when I also listened to the X-Pensive Winos and Ronnie Wood’s excellent live album, Slide On Live the other day.

You can read my detailed review at the Rhythms website. Should you see the movie? Yes, it is spectacular and possibly one of the best filmed concerts ever. Here are some thoughts.

SOME THOUGHTS ON SHINE A LIGHT

It’s a lot cheaper than buying a ticket to an actual Stones concert and you’ll get a better view!

You’ll wonder how Mick Jagger, a 63-year old at the time of filming, could possibly have so much energy and agility without drugs.

You’ll wonder how come Keith hasn’t got so much agility when he has been taking drugs! (And if you look really closely at his upper arms you can really tell he is in his 60s. Do the words ‘chicken wings’ ring a bell?)

At some point you’ll notice all attractive young ladies in the front row and wonder if any of them actually bought tickets.

Some of the archival footage is amusing, especially when Jagger is asked if he could see himself performing at 60 and answers, ‘Oh yes, easily.’

The real star of the show is Charlie Watts and he hardly says a thing! But when he does it counts. ‘I don’t really know,’ he says when asked the reasons for the band’s success.

About half way through, after Keith does ‘You Got The Silver’ and ‘Connection’ you start wishing he would do more songs. Shortly afetr this, you wish Ronnie Wood could do some numbers too.

When Buddy Guy appears for the film’s highlight ‘Champagne & Reefer’ you wish the Stones would make a blues album.

When Christine Aguilera appears on ‘Live With Me’, you just know it was Mick’s idea and you wonder if this is the best female vocalist they could possibly enlist at the time?

Homeward Bound

The total journey home – from the time we left Oxford to landing in Melbourne – took 33 1/2 hours. It felt like it but at least all the flights connected on time (though we just made the Sydney flight two minutes prior to boarding). The actual flight time via Chicago, LAX and Sydney was about 21 hours.

I now realise that getting cheap fares sometimes means you miss out on direct flights. Certainly this applies to frequent flyer miles: Tony was flying to and from Australia via Bangkok and Rob was flying via Norita, Japan.

The flight across the Pacific could have been horrendous when there was a faulty seat in front of me and the chap in it kept pushing it back onto my legs. Somehow Graham and I had missed out on getting Economy Plus seats – something that I thoroughly recommend (unless you are a dwarf). Luckily, one of the flight attendants found me a much better seat further up the cabin in a row of three with a spare seat in the middle. I slept most of the way, despite being next to Geeky Guy who spent a long time at his laptop, which took up the spare space. (I didn’t mind, I was so glad to be away from the other seat).

The fourteen hour Pacific flight is not helped by the ancient entertainment system (if you can call it that) on United – a couple of screens on bulkheads and some smaller screens hanging from the ceiling. Not that this mattered much: the movies were generally awful. Worst acting performance award goes to Hayden Christensen in Jumper, a silly science fiction flick that I thought might have promise. A cardboard cut-out could have done better. I am reminded that Christensen gave what I consider to be the worst ever performance by an actor in a major movie when he appeared in the last Star Wars film. The Golden Compass, Water Horse and 27 Dresses looked unappealing and I gave them a miss. At least we got to see the mildly amusing Jack Nicholson / Morgan Freeman vehicle The Bucket List on the LA flight.

Fortunately, I have developed the ability to sleep on long flights and managed to get about 8 hours, the remainder of the time reading Colin Escott’s Hank Williams biography, which I purchased in Nashville after seeing the display at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Due to my new knee I have become accustomed to the full search and pat down. The security staff in Memphis turned out to be the most polite, caring and amusing of all – maybe they should give some classes to staff in other airports on attitude. Though, in fairness, most were good and probably cop a lot of abuse. The Sydney check seems totally redundant, as all you do is walk from the aircraft to the transfer lounge and many complained about this – not as loudly as the American man who wanted to know why his scissors were being confiscated. Hello! This comes second to the elderly Dutch man I encountered a few years back who tried to bring a Swiss Army knife on board!

It was nice to be back in Melbourne, although not much appears to have changed, which is probably a good thing. Graham was sped off by his loved ones to getting cracking on preparations for next week’s wedding of his daughter Renee. I caught some of Off The Record with Pat, Jeff and Billy as we headed home and look forward to playing all the interviews I have gathered and all the new music I have bought home. Tonight, Karen and I went to the Steak Bank in Ormond where I enjoyed the best steak I have had in over a month.

It felt strange not to be going to a gig, though there were a few great ones to choose from and the scene here is a lot more exciting than Lafayette or Memphis.

It was my fifteenth trip to New Orleans and my 14th Jazz Fest. Each Fest has its own character so it is difficult to choose a favourite but in recent years the line-up has been consistently good. Seeing Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, along with CC Adcock/Doyle Bramhall & The Lafayette Marquise (three times) made this one pretty special. Bettye Lavette. John Hammond. Al Green! The list goes on. (And that doesn’t include the gigs I missed).

The tour went off without any technical hitches, so I am glad that I spent all those hours on the phone in the months beforehand trying to get things organised right. It is amazing that, despite numerous emails, faxes and phone calls, there were still details that had to be fixed up. I even made sure I got to Clarksdale and Memphis early to check all the details before the group arrived, so that proved to be worthwhile. I think I was exhausted before the tour started!

Next year? I am already thinking about that.

I think we need to arrive in time for the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale. Guy from the Shack Up Inn says they are booked out for the Friday and Saturday but we could stay somewhere else for two nights and then come on over on Sunday. That sounds good. Maybe we could get an Aussie musician to play at the Shack Up as well.

After fishtailing down the interstate at 70mph with 9 passengers aboard the Econoline I have given up the plan of using 12-seater vans again. I think a big bus with a driver is in order, or smaller vans, even if it does cost a little more. Oh yes, I need to be more prescriptive on how much luggage people can bring!

Ace Atkins could not join us this year because he was ill when we were on the Delta but he is keen for next year, though his criterion that the tour should consist only of 21 – 35 year old females (because he once had an Australian girlfriend) could be hard to meet. Ace says that he can also put us on to some good ‘juke joints’ in Memphis

Stephen LaVere, who runs a blues museum in Greenwood, was away this year so we could meet up with him. We didn’t go to church in New Orleans on a Sunday, mostly because I was too tired or busy to get up early. That is something we should do. I was impressed with Nashville and wouldn’t mind including a couple of nights there in the itinerary.

Lots of ideas and a few more months to plan it. So it is all happening!

Somehow I have managed to keep this blog up to date and also had a great time. At the start of the trip I also had to finish some articles and reviews for Rhythms and managed to do that too. At least it is not as hectic as when I was actually editing the print version and would be up at 7.00am every day, writing and emailing. Thank goodness Marty Jones is now doing that. A couple of times when I was staying at Marie-Francoise’s in Ursulines Street I would have to string a 100 foot phone line along the balcony to the foyer so that I could get online!

I hope that it is has given you a taste of what I got up to during the month away and what happened on the tour. Of course, you don’t need to join a tour group to do all this you just have to have the will. Some say see Venice and die. I always say that if you are a music fan you should go to Jazz Fest at least once in your life. These days I don’t even think about it anymore because I know I am going each year.

One of the best things about this trip for me has been meeting up with new friends like Ace, CC Adcock and Anne McCue  or meeting up again with old friends like Doyle Bramhall. Talking to people such as Cosimo Mattassa and Jim Dickinson was a delight and a privilege. Seeing how excited people on the tour or those like Woody or Michael got at their first Fest was also a thrill. It is those things, as much as the music, that makes the trip so worthwhile

Nashville Skyline #2

Today we are a bit over Nicole and Keith. We can see the building where they have a penthouse but they seem to have snubbed us. No invite to lunch or dinner yesterday on arrival and we had to walk around last night instead of getting a ride in Keith’s limousine. It is fairly dispiriting that they have treated us this way: after all, we have come all this way to drop in on Nashville and they don’t seem to care. I have crossed them off my Christmas card list and Graham is refusing to send them an invite to his daughter’s wedding on May 17. Our feelings have been hurt and there is not much that will fix that. We both agreed that even if Keith offers to try and make it up to us we would have to have a few harsh words with him!

So we were up early today and at The Ryman Theater by 9.30am for the guided tour, conducted by an elderly but spritely gentleman called Art, who had seen many of the legends of the Grand Ole Opry (held here for many years) in the 50’s. Art’s commentary was constantly entertaining and, because he comes from Georgia, was sometimes unintellgible. I recorded most of it and will play on the show. Graham was disappointed that there was no mention of Neil Young, who recorded the Heart Of Gold DVD here, and there was nothing about him in the museum.

Of course, there is also my family connection through fiddle player ‘Chubby’ (Robert Russell) Wise, who played here with Bill Monroe, as a member of the Bluegrass Boys, and also co-wrote ‘Orange Blossom Special’ (in the early 1940’s) which was recorded by Monroe and, later by Johnny Cash. Chubby also co-wrote ‘Shenandoah Waltz.’ No doubt this is where my predilection for music was first generated and passed down through the family. There is a mention of Chubby on a plaque outside the theatre but no mention inside. He died on January 6, 1996 at the age of 80.

Next it was a quick stroll to the Country Music Hall of Fame where we started with the tour of RCA Studio B, where Elvis recorded more than half of his entire catalogue. The studio is called the Home of 1000 Hits and that is a pretty accurate description. No mention, until I raised it with the tour guide, that Gillian Welch recorded Time The Revelator here in 2001. I guess Gillian cannot quite match Elvis yet. Like Sun Studios it was an eerie experience to stand in the place where so many greats had recorded.

Back to the Hall Of Fame, which is a massive building with a huge central feature (this year) on Hank Williams. It is a rather wonderful display and the whole building is impressive but we were a little annoyed that Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, astonishingly, did not have some kind memorial to it. Townes Van Zandt only rated a small mention in a brief blurb on Steve Earle and he is not in the Hall, which has a large display almost as big as The Pantheon in Rome. I reckon that they are totally blind to the contemporary country and alt.country scenes. A pity. Of course, Chubby Wise should have had an entire section to himself.

After this, it was time for some lunch in the form of some pulled pork sandwiches at Jack’s BBQ which we enjoyed despite encountering the surliest waitress/counter attendant so far on the trip. A sign boasts that Jack’s staff are the friendliest anywhere. It must be a very old sign.

A shopping expedition followed and that yielded the cowboy boot deal of the century where we were able to avail ourselves of the Buy 1 Get 2 Free Deal at Boot Country. Three for US$174 including tax was pretty hard to beat (even if they are made in Bangladesh and India). I got two and Graham took one (because he has less room in his suitcase). A western shirt at Nashville Cowboy on 2nd Ave. completed the outfit for me.

We went back to The Station Inn to see the Doyle and Debbie Show – a take-off on Nashville that was very funny indeed – and then finished the night by meeting Anne McCue for dinner at Demo’s.

A great day.