Vegetable Stock / Dinosaur Jr.
Today was a good day to make a vegetable stock. I have been saving scraps all summer and the bag in the freezer was full to bursting. Here is some history. It smells great and will make a nice risotto.
My friend Tom from Outer Stylie told me last week that Dinosaur Jr. would be playing an unannounced set on the Amherst Town Common today at 3.00 as a warm up for Riot Fest in Chicago.
I have been wanting to see these guys locally for a long time. J Mascis grew up in Amherst and started the band just after high school. I see him around town all the time riding his bike or at the coffee shop or walking his dog (this is a great video).
They are LOUD live. They played a gig on the top floor of Laughing Dog Bicycles once that I missed but that apparently shook the building to its foundations.
J plays these great old Fender Jazzmasters.
Lou Barlow plays his bass almost like a rhythm guitar. Love the hair.
They were set up on the town common under some trees, and Murph’s drum kit kept moving around. At one point his tom fell over and this symbol lost its footing. Some guy came up from the crowd and reset it for him.
It was particularly exciting to see a band that is so seminal in rock and really quite famous setting up in the middle of town and playing a set for anyone who happened by. It is nice to be reminded that well known, creative people live lives very much like the rest of us. They live in towns, they have families and friends, and occasionally they play a very loud set on the Amherst Town Common. I wonder what the folks staying at the Lord Jeffrey Inn thought.
Butterfly
This beauty was fluttering around Amherst this afternoon and was nice enough to alight so that I could photograph it. The flowers in front of Pasta E Basta do more than just look pretty.
Tom Schack / Outerstylie
My good bud Tom Schack just got the first pressing of his band Outerstylie’s new CD. He was kind enough to give me a copy (#2) which he is holding in his hand. He was totally stoked to finally have it. I’m listening to it now and it sounds great. Here he is at his “day job”.
Thank You
Thanks to all of you who have sent condolences following the Pearl’s death. Hearing from you has meant a great deal to me. It is a week since the she died and we still haven’t come to terms with it. But we really are trying to move on, while keeping her lovely spirit in our hearts. / The recent weather here has been beautiful, and on Sunday Cris and I had a great long bike ride through Amherst and Hadley. This shot was taken less than a mile from the busy Route 9 corridor facing the Holyoke Range. Moodybridge has always been one of my favorite roads in the valley.
Transit of Venus
Cris and I took the Pearl for a walk early this evening and we stumbled upon an interesting crowd at the UMASS Sunwheel. It dawned on me pretty quickly that it had something to do with the “Transit of Venus“.
Some of the UMASS astronomy people were handing out these cool little eclipse viewers. Cris had a hard time seeing the dot, but I was able to pick it out at about the 1 o’clock position on the sun. (If you click the link above and look at the Wikipedia page, Venus was in a similar position.)
It is so great to live in a community where you can come across gatherings like this one, and it was so nice that the rainy weather cleared out just at the right time.
John S. Lane & Son, Inc
I went here once many years ago with my neighbor Dan to get trap rock for my driveway. It is a very cool business in an interesting location. I drive past on occasion and just recently noticed how lovely the sign looks at night.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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