For lunch - Farinata, also called Socca, a pancake made with chick pea flour, water,  olive oil, rosemary and salt. Gluten free and delicious.

Looking at my notes on the kitchen from the past year, I notice that Jane sure likes chicken. We've been getting birds from Pine Mountain Ranch, a grass farm near Bend, Oregon that has a table at the Beaverton Farmers Market. http://www.pmrbuffalo.com/index2.htmlWe've also had their Elk and their eggs - Jane is extremely particular about eggs.

Today I'll be stewing a 3 and a half pound chicken, which we'll eat part of tonight. The rest will be the basis for a chicken barley soup that we'll dine on through the coming week -along with roasted peppers, I have a big variety of peppers again this week. The hot little ones I'll stew for tonight.
Chicken barley soup is one I've been making for many years, a variation on my Mom's Thanksgiving turkey use-up dish. Jane enjoys it.

Yesterday we had pints at various and sundry locations around Portland - my first drinks since my birthday back in July -and shared a Pizza at the Mellow Mushroom. We had the perfect post-pub dinner waiting for us at home, a pair of  Sunday Roast Lamb Pies from Pacific Pies. Kind of a heavy day for the processed carbs.

Over the past few years the focus has shifted in my life and in my art
and my blogging should reflect that. This was started mainly to record my musical adventures, anecdotes and updates from that part of my life. Over those years, Farmers Markets have become my favorite gig. There were many shows at the  Noe Valley Farmers Market in San Francisco, where the neighborhood organised to create their own market when a beloved local grocer closed its doors; they insisted on a strictly acoustic music policy that fit my style and musical agenda to a T.
The El Cerrito Farmers Market, just a few blocks from our home when we lived in Albany, California. where I first met Captain Mike Hudson and his wife Yvette, who introduced us to the world of wild salmon by dropping gigantic red steaks in my guitar case and saying "You're going to have to invite some people over to help you finish them". http://hudsonfish.com/
We did - our friends Mike and 'Steena Glendinning came over and we shared a meal together. Both of the "Mike's" in this little story play guitar more than a little, Glen'dizzle being the highly combustible father of Grunge Jazz http://mikegrungejazz.com/ while Captain Mike and his band Superboogie http://www.reverbnation.com/superboogie tear down the walls at the Boom Boom Room with house rocking blues.
Since our move to Oregon, I've been playing Farmers Markets from Forest Grove to Gresham. During this same time, I've been making a greater effort to eat better, to avoid overly processed food. To stop eating meat from the factory conditions of CAFO and battery.
A chronic hip condition lead me to consult with an Orthopedic Surgeon, who - among other things - recommended that I read Michael Pollan's book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma". Possibly the best prescription ever - the pain relief I've experienced from the effects of changing what we eat are greater than the effects of  anti-inflammatory shots into the joint - and those worked like magic.
This year, I'd like to start including notes from my kitchen in this blog from my music studio. Visits to Farmers Markets while I'm not performing, where I'm weighing and squeezing and selecting from the beautiful Oregon seasonal vegetables. Some recipes, some notes on what I've learned. We're coming to the end of the magical spring and summer bounty of greens and fruits, unbelievably fragrant mild onions that carried me back to fresh broken earth smells from childhood, basket upon basket of uneven, bursting tomatoes with a smell to them, real, ripe tomatoes that had never been gassed, tomatoes too nice to do anything to except cut them up and eat them with a little drizzle of olive oil and vinegar, a little salt.
Pots of minestrone, a rich vegetable soup full of seasonal vegetables that has been reflecting those seasons, year after year, all the way back to ancient times. Pots of even more exotic things - this week I made  Curry Goat,  a recipe I was taught by a Jamaican friend in London during the days of "Mad Cow Disease". For the first time, I discarded the instruction to use Halal goat , using instead a cut from Fairview Farm, from their table at the Beaverton Farmers Market. http://www.fairviewfarmdairy.com/the_farm.
This was rich and flavorful meat, with a snowy layer of fat and marrowful bone. I went easier than usual on the curry spices. This goat was not particularly gamey and had savory flavor that I didn't want to cover up with powdery turmeric and cumin. I made a 5 quart pot full on Monday and we've been eating it with brown rice and roasted peppers (Big bag of assorted peppers! A Bargain! Same Farmers Market!). Don't know what next week will bring.

Bringing my guitar to the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland at 5 pm this evening - a cool area, a great market.

Sunday July 1st broadcast French Quarter

Sunday July 1st broadcast French Quarter Here's a link to Soundcloud - a little over an hour of guitar and singing.

This Friday I'll be at the Kenton Farmers Market in North Portland from 5 PM - and on Sunday I'll be playing a live broadcast from the "French Quarter " in Second Life from 6 PM. So join us in this world or that for slide guitar specials served up hot and spicy!

Enjoyable but breezy first Farmers Market of the year at Buckman School.

My set up

A short tour through the gear I use to bring my live blues to worldwide audiences.

The whole setup is built around a Whisper Room isolation booth - 7 foot high, 5 foot by 3 foot, carpet covered room with doubled windows. Inside are two microphones - a Shure sm58 for vocals and a Shure sm57 picking up the guitars.

These are running to a control station outside the booth - an Alesis Mictube duo preamp brings them into an Alesis Multimix 8 mixer, with two channels going straight to USB, into a Dell studio xps running Windows NT. Here, Shoutcast for Winamp is used to stream the audio signal and Audacity can be used to record.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

You'll find a new song - "Just Like Christmas" - on my SoundClick player in the column to your right. Enjoy!

UpDate

Lots going on here at the studio these days with a short film opening this week with music that was recorded here - and more sound track projects waiting.

Don't forget, you can listen in to my Second Life broadcasts from outside Second Life here; http://74.208.195.204:9140

Played the King School Farmers Market last weekend and had a wonderful time - came home with a couple pounds of Willepa Bay Clams into the deal!

Video from a recent broadcast

Blast from the past

A picture of the "Dan Lange Band", based around Berkeley California, around 2001. left to right it's Dan and Dan on guitars, the late Chris Beacham on bass and Victor Arre on the drums. We also occasionally added a keyboard player and a harmonica.

Video From The Muffin

This Years Meadow Muffin

Click to watch Derwoody's video of some of the high points. We had a LOT of fun!

PSU Farmers Market this Saturday!

Very Excited - I'll be playing the first market of the season, from 11 AM until 2 PM. Hope to see you there!

Original song entered in Second Life song contest

Dublin, Ireland – November 15, 2010 – Popular voting is now open for the Is One Life Enough Theme Song Contest. Artist awards include recognition and prizes from Dublin Institute of Technology in Dublin Virtually Live. Voter awards include great music and “I Voted” in-world tee-shirts. All Second Life Residents are eligible to vote at the IOLE Song Contest Web Site [http://www.siterma.com/iole/]. Winners will be announced December 1st. Virtual Environments: Is one life enough is an award-winning, university-level course on the professional use of social media.

Check out the entrants here;

http://www.siterma.com/iole/

When you visit the Crossroads on Second Life, be sure to visit Chriscloud Loon's Blues Museum.

At the Bluffs and backstage at the Crossroads

Triumphant return to SECOND LIFE

If you want me to play your Virtual Venue, please contact Votslav Hax and Symbiotic Productions in Second Life.

If you're interested in having me play your Real Life venue, email me at danandjane@yahoo.com.

If you're confused about the difference, step away from the computer.