The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (Shepperton Studios / 1978) - Happy 80th, Pete Townshend

This performance of a perhaps timely song shows Pete's guitar and vocal heroics at their most manic, with Roger Daltrey singing and doing his frenetic thing as well. John Entwistle is steady on bass. Sadly, it was drummer Keith Moon's last performance before his untimely death. I wondered who did the synth. According to Google's "AI Overview" (which seems an appropriate source for something about a synth), it was Pete himself:

"He used an EMS VCS3 Mk1 synthesizer to process the sound of a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 organ. The organ was played with a marimba repeat effect set to fast, and then the output was fed into the synthesizer and a LFO (Low-Frequency Oscillator) to create the arpeggiated sound. The intro to the song, including the synth part, was recorded using a backing track." 

Rock on, Pete! 

Another Finger Lakes Venture; This Time for Tea, not Wine

On Thursday, April 24 our friends Chris Bennem and Lisa Moore took Martha and me in their car from Brooklyn to Glen Hollow (photo at left), their "fairy-tale farmhouse reminiscent of a European country cottage" situated on a hillside overlooking Canandaigua Lake and in New York State's Finger Lakes winemaking region. We've made two previous visits to Glen Hollow. The first, in June of 2021, included visits to the tasting rooms of several wineries, and is described here. The second, last November, provided us with an extensive tour of Dr. Konstantin Frank's vineyards and winery, followed by a paired tasting.

This visit, however, wasn't motivated by wine. We went because Martha offered to help Lisa, who serves as President of the Board of Trustees of the Bristol Library, to prepare and present an English tea at Glen Hollow as a fund raiser for the library. Fortunately, many had responded to the invitation, so there was much work to be done. Cuts in federal funding for arts and literacy organizations like libraries made efforts like this an urgent task.

Here's one of several long tables set for the tea.

/

Here's Nicola (Nikki) Lund, Secretary of the Library's Board of Trustees and a native of the Sceptered Isle, explaining the traditions of the English Tea. 

 

Here's Paytan Mann, the Library Director, enjoying her tea.

This trip may not have been about wine, but there certainly was wine to be enjoyed. In the photo are three fine examples of Finger Lakes wines that we had to complement the delicious meals Lisa and Chris provided. At the left of the photo is Boundary Breaks' 2022 Cabernet Franc; in the center is Ravines Wine Cellars' 2021 Sauvignon Blanc; and on the right is Heron Hill's 2021 Reserve Chardonnay. Heron Hill's Ingle Vineyard and tasting room are a short ride north of Glen Hollow. After our arrival on Thursday we attended Heron Hill's "Friends and Neighbors" free tasting and buffet dinner. I especially liked Heron Hill's gewurztraminer, an Alsatian varietal that does well in the Finger Lakes climate, and produces a white wine with a unique, slightly spicy flavor.

It won't be too long before there is wine with a "Glen Hollow" label. The photo at right is of the vineyard, planted with chardonnay, recently acquired by Chris and Lisa. It may not look like much now, but by fall it should produce a crop of grapes. Chris and Lisa have an agreement with Heron Hill under which those grapes will be made into wine. They have long term plans to acquire grapes from other vineyards and expand their wine offerings to include other varietals such as cabernet franc and riesling.