July 1st
Got up late as we didn't get to bed until around 2.30am! Had a lazy morning watching Federer v Karlovic at Wimbledon. Federer looked in good form and I'm certain he will win the tournament and break the record. Next we watched Lleyton Hewitt v Andy Roddick. This was a very close match which could have gone either way but Roddick prevailed. He will face Andy Murray now in the semis.
I love being able to watch Wimbledon at a civilized hour! Once it finished we turned the channel over and its still all Michael Jackson!
July 2nd
It was another humid day but we managed to have a walk by the beach before showers set in.Later we went shopping in Brighton and in the evening watched the Michael Jackson special! Later we watched John's favourite movie Scarface!
July 3rd
Today was a beautiful warm day. We hung out at the beach this morning and later set off for the Upper West Side where we were going to see jazz organist Dr Lonnie Smith again on his birthday. We saw him last year and were lucky enough to chat to him. Since then I have interviewed him on my radio show. We met up with John's friend Ricky and his girlfriend Suzie. All the jazz clubs in New York make more money by having two or sometimes three sessions in an evening so we went to the first session which went from 8pm to about 9.30. Dr Lonnie was great as usual and I was able to give him a copy of the interview.Its a long journey there and back so we arrived back around 11.30 and got our things ready for our trip to Jersey on July 4h.
July 4th
Last year we went to the Hot dog contest at Coney Island on this day but this year we went to spend the day with John's sister Rosemarie and her husband Anthony in their beautiful new home in New Jersey. Anthony picked us up and Louise, John's mother.
The journey there took over two hours as the traffic was really heavy and apparently a car had blown up on the Verrazano Bridge! This bridge connects Brooklyn to Staten Island and Staten Island to New Jersey. Once we were through Staten Island and on to the New Jersey Turnpike the traffic thinned out a bit. We arrived at Rosemarie ad Anthony's home about 2.30. We had been hoping to use their pool but it was not quite warm enough. Apparently the whole Summer so far has been cooler and wetter than normal so everything looks very lush! After a guided tour of the house, which was greatly admired, Anthony started the BBQ. John's niece Gina and husband Josh arrived with Nicholas their two year old son and Isabella, just one month old. We spent an enjoyable day eating and drinking plenty and catching up on news. Later after dinner and some delicious chocolate cake we went out to the street to watch some local fireworks. The big display is the Maceys show in Manhattan but it was fun watching the local fireworks on the quiet street with Nicholas really enjoying it all!
July 5th
Having arrived home so late last night we got up late and then settled down to watch Federer v Roddick play the Wimbledon final. Last year we had watched the whole Nadal v Federer match and agreed with the commentators that this was the best final ever. The 2009 final came pretty close though. Federer won 16-14 in the fifth set but it could so easily have gone to Roddick!
July 6th
The weather is still beautiful here so we are making the most of the beach. I'm still adjusting to New York time. All the TV stations seem to be showing nothing but Michael Jackson! Tomorrow is the Memorial concert. In the afternoon we called in on Louise, John's mother, did shopping and later we decided to watch a movie and settled on `Duets' which I'd seen before and enjoyed again.It's an offbeat kind of movie that focuses on a group of people entering a karaoke contest and features some very good karaoke from Huey Lewis, Andre Braugher and Gwyneth Paltrow but there was also some bad karaoke!
July 7th
Today it was all Michael Jackson. We watched the Memorial concert along with millions of others and found it very moving. This man had such a huge impact on pop music. He became popular at a time when videos were being used as a promotional tool and he had a very visual stage act plus great tunes. All the performers were outstanding especially Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Hudson and the speech by the Rev Al Sharpton really resonated!
July 8th
We decided to make the most of the beach today and took our bats and balls and had some fun. Later we watched `Cadillac Records' a movie about the history of Chess Records. It wasn't an accurate portrayal of what happened and it omitted a lot but some of the music was good. I thought that casting the ubiquitous Beyonce as Etta James and using her voice in the songs was not a good move. Her voice wasn't strong enough and she was too good looking! Adrien Brody playing Leonard Chess did not look 52 when he died! Also it showed Muddy visiting the UK in `67 when he first went there in the late 50's! I bought many Chess records in the 60's so it was probably more interesting to me than many others but I still felt more could have bee done with the story.
Got up late as we didn't get to bed until around 2.30am! Had a lazy morning watching Federer v Karlovic at Wimbledon. Federer looked in good form and I'm certain he will win the tournament and break the record. Next we watched Lleyton Hewitt v Andy Roddick. This was a very close match which could have gone either way but Roddick prevailed. He will face Andy Murray now in the semis.
I love being able to watch Wimbledon at a civilized hour! Once it finished we turned the channel over and its still all Michael Jackson!
July 2nd
It was another humid day but we managed to have a walk by the beach before showers set in.Later we went shopping in Brighton and in the evening watched the Michael Jackson special! Later we watched John's favourite movie Scarface!
July 3rd
Today was a beautiful warm day. We hung out at the beach this morning and later set off for the Upper West Side where we were going to see jazz organist Dr Lonnie Smith again on his birthday. We saw him last year and were lucky enough to chat to him. Since then I have interviewed him on my radio show. We met up with John's friend Ricky and his girlfriend Suzie. All the jazz clubs in New York make more money by having two or sometimes three sessions in an evening so we went to the first session which went from 8pm to about 9.30. Dr Lonnie was great as usual and I was able to give him a copy of the interview.Its a long journey there and back so we arrived back around 11.30 and got our things ready for our trip to Jersey on July 4h.
July 4th
Last year we went to the Hot dog contest at Coney Island on this day but this year we went to spend the day with John's sister Rosemarie and her husband Anthony in their beautiful new home in New Jersey. Anthony picked us up and Louise, John's mother.
The journey there took over two hours as the traffic was really heavy and apparently a car had blown up on the Verrazano Bridge! This bridge connects Brooklyn to Staten Island and Staten Island to New Jersey. Once we were through Staten Island and on to the New Jersey Turnpike the traffic thinned out a bit. We arrived at Rosemarie ad Anthony's home about 2.30. We had been hoping to use their pool but it was not quite warm enough. Apparently the whole Summer so far has been cooler and wetter than normal so everything looks very lush! After a guided tour of the house, which was greatly admired, Anthony started the BBQ. John's niece Gina and husband Josh arrived with Nicholas their two year old son and Isabella, just one month old. We spent an enjoyable day eating and drinking plenty and catching up on news. Later after dinner and some delicious chocolate cake we went out to the street to watch some local fireworks. The big display is the Maceys show in Manhattan but it was fun watching the local fireworks on the quiet street with Nicholas really enjoying it all!
July 5th
Having arrived home so late last night we got up late and then settled down to watch Federer v Roddick play the Wimbledon final. Last year we had watched the whole Nadal v Federer match and agreed with the commentators that this was the best final ever. The 2009 final came pretty close though. Federer won 16-14 in the fifth set but it could so easily have gone to Roddick!
July 6th
The weather is still beautiful here so we are making the most of the beach. I'm still adjusting to New York time. All the TV stations seem to be showing nothing but Michael Jackson! Tomorrow is the Memorial concert. In the afternoon we called in on Louise, John's mother, did shopping and later we decided to watch a movie and settled on `Duets' which I'd seen before and enjoyed again.It's an offbeat kind of movie that focuses on a group of people entering a karaoke contest and features some very good karaoke from Huey Lewis, Andre Braugher and Gwyneth Paltrow but there was also some bad karaoke!
July 7th
Today it was all Michael Jackson. We watched the Memorial concert along with millions of others and found it very moving. This man had such a huge impact on pop music. He became popular at a time when videos were being used as a promotional tool and he had a very visual stage act plus great tunes. All the performers were outstanding especially Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Hudson and the speech by the Rev Al Sharpton really resonated!
July 8th
We decided to make the most of the beach today and took our bats and balls and had some fun. Later we watched `Cadillac Records' a movie about the history of Chess Records. It wasn't an accurate portrayal of what happened and it omitted a lot but some of the music was good. I thought that casting the ubiquitous Beyonce as Etta James and using her voice in the songs was not a good move. Her voice wasn't strong enough and she was too good looking! Adrien Brody playing Leonard Chess did not look 52 when he died! Also it showed Muddy visiting the UK in `67 when he first went there in the late 50's! I bought many Chess records in the 60's so it was probably more interesting to me than many others but I still felt more could have bee done with the story.
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