Eating and going Wi-Fi at the Plum Tree Inn...

One website that I like is blogdowntown L.A. and I especially love their unique Touring Downtown WIFI posts. Touring... looks at coffee shops and eateries that offer free wi-fi service to their customers. What a clever concept, huh?

Here's a sample Touring post that examines the Plum Tree Inn restaurant, located in downtown Los Angeles - naturally - at 913 N. Broadway in Chinatown. Happy eating and web-surfing!

http://tinyurl.com/qlltrg

See also:

http://blogdowntown.com/

Ol' 55: A review of the book Lowside of the Road

There's a new book out, Lowside of the Road, concerning the life and musical career of Tom Waits, author of songs like "Time" and "Ol' 55." Click on the link below to read this review of Road from the Denver Post.

http://tinyurl.com/q5dlcv

Looking back at a classic album...

Now we're looking back at a classic - some would say essential - album that I rate at 89.9 on a 100 point scale. I would like to rate it higher except for a flaw that I'll discuss when I get around to posting my own retro review. In the interim, here's what some high-placed critics had to say when it was released (and subsequently with the benefit of hindsight)...

I'm adding my own comment here, in italics, at the end.

The New York Times

Each of Mitchell's songs... is a gem glistening with her elegant way with language, her pointed splashes of irony and her perfect shaping of images. Never does Mitchell voice a thought or feeling commonly. She's a songwriter of genius who can't help but make us feel we are not alone.

The chord changes are mind-boggling.

Rolling Stone (Stephen Davis)

Love's tension is Joni Mitchell's medium - she molds and casts it like a sculptress, lubricating this tense clay with powerful emotive imagery and swaying hypnotic music that sets her listener up for another of her great strengths, a bitter facility with irony and incongruity.

Gorgeous piano lines.

The Village Voice (Robert Christgau)

Sometimes her complaints about the men who have failed her sound petulant, but the appearance of petulance is one of the prices of liberation.

allmusic

On For the Roses, Joni Mitchell began to explore jazz and other influences in earnest. As one might expect from a transitional album, there is a lot of stylistic ground explored, including straight folk selections using guitar, overtly jazzy numbers, and hybrids that cross the two.

Arrangements here build solidly upon the tentative expansion of scoring first seen in Ladies of the Canyon. "Judgment of the Moon and Stars" and "Let the Wind Carry Me" present lengthy instrumental interludes. The lyrics here are among Mitchell's best, continuing in the vein of gripping honesty and heartfelt depth exhibited in Blue. As always, there are selections about relationship problems, such as "Lesson in Survival," "See You Sometime," and perhaps the best of all her songs in this genre, "Woman of Heart and Mind."

This excellent disc is a top-notch listen in its own right.

Amazon essential recording

Sandwiched between the solitary, heart-on-her-sleeve confessions of Blue, and the ravishing pop of Court and Spark, 1972's For the Roses captures Joni Mitchell in a deceptively subdued period of transition. Still hewing to a spare sound, Mitchell ventures beyond the elegant folk sources of earlier records to explore her love of blues and jazz-based harmony, writing as much on piano as guitar ...the earnest reveries and heartbroken dirges of before give way to a more detached even journalistic perspective...

Exactly, Joni here was the musical equivalent of writer Joan Didion, looking at life with a bitterly cool laser focus; seeing all, forgetting nothing and forgiving some people for some things but not everything.

Because, yes, we still need cute animal photos...

Here is an exclusive photo of Ginger the bookstore cat. Ginger lives and works at Orinda Books. We'll have a new feature about Ginger in the coming weeks. If you happen to have missed the story - the true tail - of Ginger, you can read it here:

http://tinyurl.com/m5rks6

Am I the only one who has thought about buying this book because of its cover?

Click on the orange link below to read a New York Times review of the book Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn. This review was written by Jincy Willett.

http://tinyurl.com/plasu

'Tis A Good Season for Music Biographies...

Four - count 'em, 4 - new music biographies are now out, detailing the careers of Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Cat Power and Tom Waits. Click on the orange link below to read the brief reviews from The New York Times.

http://tinyurl.com/lonlrw

A Very Good Place for Beer and Burgers in the Hashbury (Haight-Ashbury), San Francisco

In the past, Mrs. Bear and Pook and I have had lunch at the then-Magnolia Pub, which is now known as Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery. Here is an abridged look at the current-day Magnolia G&B as detailed by Tara Duggan of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Magnolia Gastropub & Brewery:: There is something quintessentially San Francisco about this Haight-Ashbury restaurant and brew pub. The building has enough history to give the place a weathered feel, even if the distressed walls and ceilings are painted on. More important than the look, it has the weight and solidarity of a longtime hangout.

More than a century old, the building still shows signs of its former life as an apothecary shop with drawers behind the bar used to hold cutlery. More recently, it was simply called Magnolia Pub, but a year ago the owners elongated the name when launching a more ambitious approach to the food. The result is a flexible menu that meshes well with impromptu visits - there are no reservations - and the extensive list of house beers.

The vibe: High, dark wood booths in the center of the room create an English pub feel, and windows along both the Haight and Masonic bring the street scene inside. A large bar area has lots of room to stand up or sit and eat.

The crowd: Fashionably unkempt in a way that only San Franciscans can be. The ironically mustachioed staff channels NASCAR fans from faraway lands.

Best seats: Head to the communal bar table facing Masonic Street, or take a seat at one of the window tables.

Killer app: There are a lot of grazzing opportunities (such as) small plates of fried chickpeas ($5). The plate of house pickles ($5) includes seasonal tidbits such as pickled ramps, the garlicky shoots that are only around in spring.

Signature drink: House beers are made in a downstairs brewery, with the likes of a hoppy amber-colored Prescription Pale ($6) and the 9-ounce Kalifornia Kolsch ($3), inspired by the refreshing brew of Cologne, Germany and served in typical slender glasses.

Also on tap: Some of the draft beers are also available as cask ales. These are kept downstairs in a 56-degree cellar in traditional English firkins (small barrels) for three weeks and served fresh.

Bonus: All day on Tuesdays, house beers are $3, and Thursday is fried chicken night, from 5 p.m. until it sells out.

Vitals: 1398 Haight St. (at Masonic), S.F. (415) 864-7468. Noon-midnight Mon.-Thurs., until 1 a.m.; 10 a.m. - 1 a.m. Sat., 10 a.m. - midnight Sun.

Note: A look at the Yelp! reviews indicates that while all the former customers of Magnolia Pub are not thrilled with the transition to Magnolia G&B, the burgers are still being served and are still highly rated, with or without cheese!