Jeff Lubeck

Midnight Sun – Nine Years is Worth the Wait

To suggest that Brian Clarke Lubeck’s Midnight Sun is a highly listenable album would be selling the work short. It is much more.

In an era where artists that are members of the Smooth Jazz or XM Radio Water Colors club seem to produce the same old music on auto-pilot, Lubeck’s Midnight Sun feels fresh.

Nine years removed from the otherwise excellent Tuscan Sky, Lubeck’s Midnight Sun possesses the strength of the Spanish Guitarist’s Jazz underpinnings while adding a variety of sounds and themes that contrast and complement.

For fans of Lubeck’s previous works, Sun Dress and Invincible will prove to be a reminder as to why you liked him in the first place. However, Road to Mackinac and Adirondack offer a distinctly different feel. Both provide a feel of reflectiveness and sincerity that provide outstanding balance to the album.

I am not a fan of Jazz renditions of popular music – especially of songs I really like. So when I saw Sara Smile (Hall & Oates) as one of the songs on the album, I was expecting to be disappointed. Okay, so I can be proven wrong on occasion – as I was here.

Midnight Sun if explored – will prove to be well worth your time.

The album is available for listening [here]

The Daughters of Yalta – a terrific telling of a backstory that facilitated a front-story in history

Catherine Grace Katz’s non-fiction book The Daughters of Yalta – The Churchills, Roosevelts and Harriman’s: A Story of Love and War is a superb piece of work.

Katz reveals a story about three daughters – accomplished in their own right – who provide key support (and leadership to be frank) to their powerful and important fathers during the establishment the Yalta Agreement between The United States, Great Britain and The Soviet Union in World War II.

Katz paints a picture the reveals the details of human strength, frailty, and (killer) coldness at a pivotal time in modern history.

For lovers of history this book is a great take on a monumental event from a decidedly new and different perspective. Oh… and for those who want to read a Romance Thriller with intrigue… this book is for you as well.

—- Jeff’s Thoughts and Other Worthless Trivia —-

The Harriman family influenced me and the life I have lived in an material fashion. I have lived the bulk of my life – by choice – in Sun Valley, Idaho. While my late (and great) friend Warren Miller, Pamela A. Morris, and Gerald N. Seiffert got me and Linda here, Sun Valley was created from the vision of Averill Harriman. He wanted to create America’s first Destination Resort in the mountains. The story behind identifying and creating Sun Valley is legendary and not needed to be told here. Opened in 1936, throughout the decades it has been considered the best ski resort in the world – its holds the mantel in 2021 (according to SKI Magazine and its readers). What I learned (new) from the book, is the role Katherine Harriman played in its early success and that Sun Valley became the love of her life.

The details of this storyline continue to remind me that: The more things change, the more they stay the same. In this case: Countries/Powers negotiating for wording of agreement, actual wording of agreement and honoring of wording of agreement in documents prove to be fairly worthless and unenforceable through standard channels outside of pure force.

Around The Yard in August

I decided to stop, step back and take in what is going on in my current surroundings. I captured these photos of my yard. Take a moment and do the same. Did you find anything that surprised you?