Magic Machine
What is this monstrosity in the photo above? Technically it’s a 24 input, 16 output Audiotronics mixing console from Ardent Studios in Memphis Tennessee. But for rock and roll geeks like me, it’s a magical machine. It was on display at the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis when I visited a couple of years ago. A lot of great music went through this thing. So I had to take a picture of it.
Are you a Blues Fan? Albert Collins, Robert Cray and various permutations of the Vaughn Brothers plugged in and made records through this thing. Rock? How about Cheap Trick, Joe Walsh and Led Zeppelin? Country musicians Waylon Jennings, Tanya Tucker, Marty Stuart and Travis Tritt. Soul singers like Al Green, Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers. Alt Rockers Big Star, The Replacements and The Cramps put their twangy vibes through this baby. Singer/Songwriters like John Hiatt, John Prine and (holy crap!) Bob Dylan put their voices and instruments through the thing. And great records came out on the other end. Isn’t that kind of cool?
It’s a little weird getting excited about a mixer, though, isn’t it? I’ve sat behind a few consoles in my time, but I still got a bit misty-eyed standing there and looking at this thing. It’s a big pile of metal and wires and knobs and potentiometers, a creaky analog machine for God’s sake, but the thought of all those musicians plugging into this thing one day and then you and I getting to listen to that music whenever we want now is kind of awesome.
In short, a lot of great music I’ve listened to (and still listen to) went through this board. Like I said, it’s a magic machine.
Hmm, suddenly I feel a need to hear #1 Record again. And In Color. And Toots in Memphis
Mystery Casino
If you’ve ever visited or lived in San Diego, you’ve seen the Coronado Islands, which lie about twenty miles southwest of downtown, eight miles due west of Tijuana. I mention the islands in my second Rolly Waters novel, Border Field Blues, but the islands play a bigger role in Ballast Point Breakdown, specifically the ruins of a casino that was built on South Coronado Island in the 1930s.
The casino was a joint venture between American businessman Frederick W. Hamilton and Tijuana businessman Mariano Escobedo. It was named the Coronado Islands Yacht Club and provided both liquor and gambling facilities for guests.
Prohibition was repealed soon after the casino was built, and gambling was made illegal in Mexico. The casino shut down eighteen months after it opened. It re-opened the next year as a weekend getaway hotel, with an emphasis on fishing and hiking as attractions, and remained in business until 1944.
There’s less of the building remaining than I described in the novel (artistic license!), but you can still see the foundations of the old hotel on Google Maps.
Celebrity guests are said to have included Charlie Chaplin, Errol Flynn and Al Capone. As an interesting side note L Ron Hubbard, while serving as captain of the sub-chaser USS PC-815, gave orders to shell the Coronado Islands for target practice one day in June 1943. Mexican soldiers and officials stationed on the island lodged a complaint with the US Navy and Hubbard was relieved of his command as an “officer lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation.”
Preservation Plus
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been around since the early 1960s, an outgrowth of the Preservation Hall venue in New Orleans. In its early incarnations, the band served as an essential employer for older New Orleans musicians and provided an important connection to the deep history of jazz in that city. When I was a kid way back when, my parents took me to one of their tour stops in San Diego. It was my first introduction to what’s now known as “trad” jazz.
Flash forward to 2015 and my first trip to New Orleans. My wife and I visited Preservation Hall and now it’s pretty much my favorite place in the world. Every time I go there it’s a religious experience, for both the music and the deep history. It’s the funkiest shrine you’ll ever find.
This was especially true for my first visit, when we were lucky enough to have what I’ll call the “A” team of the Preservation Hall Band on the stage. Aside from their stellar musicianship, what’s really fantastic about this group is the way they’ve updated the trad jazz at the heart of their sound with original compositions that incorporate more Afro-Cuban styles as well as a few modern jazz and funk inflections. Below is a great video concert (though not from Preservation Hall) that’s a great representation of their sound, mixing new and traditional.
The band’s most recent albums, That’s It! and So It Is are both fantastic. I also recommend the recent documentary Tuba to Cuba.
Give any of the music above a listen. I guarantee it will light (and lighten) up your life.
Blackout List
The Black Publishing Power Initiative is asking readers to buy two books written by Black authors during the week of June 14 – 20. If you’re looking for ideas, here’s a few African-American crime writers I’ve read and can recommend. I’ve met most of these authors as well, and they’re all really cool people. So if you’d like to support this initiative and are looking for something new to read in crime fiction, buy a couple of their books (or all of them). In no particular order, here’s some writers I think you should check out:
Rachel Howzell Hall
Alexia Gordon
Gary Phillips
Gar Anthony Haywood
Attica Locke
Walter Mosley
Kellye Garrett
There are, of course, many others. Below are some additional resources for discovering books by other crime writers of color.
- Crime Writers of Color
- Sisters in Crime – Frankie’s List
- Stop Your Killing Me – Diversity of Series Characters List
And if you’re interested in exploring some foundational works of African-American crime literature, you might also want to try books by Barbara Neely and Chester Himes.
Indigo Spring
Spring becomes indigo in my neighborhood and other parts of San Diego when the Jacaranda trees bloom. They’re the official non-native tree of our city. Below are some photos of this year’s bloom.
Jacaranda mimosifolia was first introduced here by Kate Sessions, our city’s founding botanist and the “Mother of Balboa Park“.
I’m working on a historical mystery (working title The Donkey Boy’s Dilemma) set in San Diego in 1891. One chapter takes place in the 30 acre nursery Kate Sessions leased from the city in what is now Hillcrest. The first Brazilian pepper trees she imported and planted in San Diego provide a valuable clue. Now I’m thinking I might switch the tree to jacarandas (the clues would work either way, with a slight rewrite).