On Monday evening, we enjoyed a terrific performance by Shoji Tabuchi at the Savannah Center. Shoji is a Japanese-American violinist who immigrated to the USA in 1968 and became an American citizen. He is an extraordinarily accomplished violinist, originally trained in classical music, who now specializes in country and western music. He also has an extensive collection of rather gaudy sequined jackets; I think he made about 12 changes during the performance, but fortunately there were no wardrobe malfunctions…
Based in Branson, Missouri, Shoji also makes road trips, and this trip to The Villages was his first. Accompanying him were his daughter Christine, two other dancers/singers, and six musicians. I am sure he will be back, because his performance was very well received. He made his violin produce sounds I could never have imagined, like a train, a cow, and a car horn… and his final piece, God Bless America, had the entire audience on their feet singing.
Word of the Day: Great Attractor: n. a large aggregation of galaxies, approximately 150 to 350 million light years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellations Hydra and Centaurus. Its gravitational pull might account for the unexpected motions of many galaxies, including our own. It is estimated that the Great Attractor reveals the existence of a localized concentration of mass equivalent to tens of thousands of galaxies. (Thinking too hard about those numbers and distances gives me a headache, but also makes me think that it’s a pretty good bet we’re not alone in our journey through space…)
Have you ever loaned tools to a friend? Of course you have. That’s what friends do. That’s why, after loaning My Good Buddy Bob my air compressor to top up the tires on his motor coach, I was somewhat taken aback to hear him ask, as we passed my various fishing rods in the garage, “Hey, Ty, what are those for? Snicker, snicker…” I suspect that he was trying to make jest of my fishing prowess, which had admittedly undergone some trials and tribulations during our recent summer trip out west… but just the other day, I returned from Lake Sumter with two nice steelhead. (Well, I guess full disclosure requires an admission that I actually exchanged some currency for the fish at our local grocery, but I left the house to get fish, and I returned with fish. How much more successful can any fisherman be?) (And as for My Good Friend Bob, well, let’s see how he deals with six deflated tires tomorrow morning and my compressor locked up in my garage next to my fishing rods!)
Our Fish of the Week is steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), also known as the sea-run rainbow trout and as salmon trout. Steelhead are anadromous, which means that they originate in fresh water, where they spend about a year as smolts (young fish), then spend 2-3 years cruising the ocean, and finally return to their original hatching grounds in fresh water to spawn. Steelhead have pink meat, like salmon, and are much more flavorful than the light colored meat of rainbow trout. In fact, the aforementioned steelhead that Your Faithful Correspondent acquired recently were grilled and served over wilted spinach with a pesto aoili, along with roasted potatoes and Cherries Jubilee, to our good friends Mike, Cheryl, Bob, and Jessica at Das Blogmeisterhaus.
1 Comment
Jennifer
This violinist looks like a lot of fun!