Brave New World?

Mark listened to a podcast about a new musical group - Pomplamoose. He was so impressed that he bought their "album".... but he had nothing to show for his purchase. The "album" was an MP3 file on iTunes. And this couple make all their own recordings in their San Francisco home/apartment. Once they finish a song - a 1-2 day project - they upload it to YouTube. The video is also done by them - a new style of what-you-hear-is-what-you-see. To check it out - click here for Pomplamoose. And NPR has had several stories about authors who now publish their own works - either through a small company that prints on demand or as electronic media. On this last trip, when I inched my way down the aisle on the plane to the bathroom, I noticed how many people had laptops, iPods, Kindles and other electronic stuff. My seatmate had a new iPad. BTW, he played games the whole time. All this makes me realize that I am living in a time of vast changes. My grandmother was born at the beginning of the 20th century and died almost at the end. I marveled at all the changes in the world that she had lived through - cars, airplanes, space travel, computers, TV..... and many more. How did she handle all that change and not feel overwhelmed? And now I find myself in the same boat. The old record store, the morning newspaper, the land line telephone are all fading away. And I am just fine. I guess that you have to embrace the change or cling to the past. So I am shifting my paradigm and moving forward. We don't buy CD's anymore - we buy MP3 files. I don't buy books anymore (well, rarely) - I use the library and downloads. If I need to learn something, I check out Google. My laptop (not my desktop) gets hauled around the house like a magazine. If I need to know the capital of Botswana, I can find it on the Internet - not in an encyclopedia or atlas. I need a recipe for the cauliflower Mark picked in our garden - I look online.  And in a tiny house where space is a premium and we have very little room for bookcases, no books is not so bad. We opted to not get a land line for the phone when we moved.  I like this better as I can put my cell in my pocket and never miss a call. Well, if I feel the vibration, I don't miss it. We rarely watch one of the standard TV stations. We download programming through our Tivo box and watch - COMMERCIAL FREE - what we want when we want. All these changes are great! And, just think - my granddaughter will know no different. This will all be her normal. It is not a good or a bad thing..... it is just a thing that is happening. But I do worry that as we move on, we will lose some of the wonderful parts of the past..... like the smell of a library filled with books. So I guess I will think about what will be gone for awhile.

Montreal is Far from NoCal

We left the sunny NoCal climate and came to Montreal where it was cold and raining. At first, I was excited. REAL weather and REAL cold. But soon, the thrill wore off. Mark and I were here to attend Dylan's final recital. He graduates from McGill this June with a degree in Early Music. His specialty is harpsichord. The concert was held in Redpath Hall on the McGill campus. The lovely granite building built in the 1890's used to be the library. We sat in a vast hall surrounded by lead-paned windows, dark wood trim and a spectacular German-built organ towering in front of us. The first half of the recital included solo pieces.

In the second half, Dylan played a piece for two harpsichords that he arranged and a Bach concerto with a Baroque orchestra. The entire evening was a real treat. As I sat listening to the beautiful music in the beautiful space, I was taken back to Dylan's early musical career. He began by sitting next to our church organist watching eagerly as Jon adjusted manuals and pedals and played two keyboards. But to play the organ, he had to start on the piano - not his idea of a fair deal. So he banged and wished for time on the organ. As that memory faded, I watched Dylan's fingers fly over the two keyboards making music that was tender and soulful and lively and sparkly. And full of his love for the sound and the instrument. He has come such a long way. And we, his family, are so proud of all he has achieved. And we look forward to all he has before him. And more concerts too!

Montreal is not NoCal for sure. First, it's a big-city city....meaning that is has lots of tall buildings and streets full of cars. I know that San Jose has tall buildings in the downtown. But it is a small part of downtown. And I never feel overwhelmed by the size or amount. Montreal has a great metro system. Unlike San Jose, Montreal's metro is underground. And surrounding many of the stops is the Underground shopping experience. This is really amazing. It goes on and on for many miles and many layers. This is because in the winter, no Montrealer in his/her right mind would spend a spare second OUTSIDE shopping. The only reason to be outside in the winter is to play hockey. And whether you are 7 or 70, you played, play, know someone who plays or played, wish you could play, or just hope someday to play. the Montrealers all love their team - Canadiens or Les Habitants (the Home Boys). Or, if you are a local, the Habs. And this is Stanley Cup playoff time. So EVERY NIGHT there is SOME team playing some other team. And all Montrealers are watching or talking about the last game played or the next game to be played. Makes for exciting dinner conversation. It will be good to get back to reality in San Jose. Where all they talk about is...... the Sharks and hockey. Oh well.

Gardens in NoCal

We live in Japantown. And the gardens in our neighborhood show the influence of the Japanese culture with some beautifully landscaped spaces. The best example is the Buddhist temple.

The combination of textures and materials and shapes are pleasing to the eye. But not all the landscape here is as well done..... In fact, some of the "landscape" is a bit bizarre.
People seem to avoid landscapes and plantings that require any sort of maintenance. It is not uncommon to see plantings like this. The cement IS textured.... and the bush IS sculpted...... sort of. But look - no grass to mow. How practical. In fact, some home owners dispense with ALL grass -

  This saves time mowing.... and gives you more place to park - I kid you not. And can even be carried out throughout your ENTIRE backyard. How nice. And weird. This front yard does have a wall around it to separate the yard concrete from the sidewalk concrete.
But, best of all, are the street tree trimmings. When walking to and from the light rail, I pass MANY trees that look ..... well, you decide.

This is one of those poor trees at night. Pretty scary when seen in the dark. And imagine MANY of them in a row with orange street lights and long dark shadows and a bit of a wind......

Across the street from our house, the neighbor just trimmed her trees. They were so pretty and the leaves were just starting to come out - that lovely spring green. I asked Ron-who-knows-all why people do that. And the answer? Hold on....... according to Ron, SO THEY WON'T HAVE TO RAKE LEAVES. I don't get it. Why have the trees in the first place? Well, the city requires each house to have two street trees. But who wants to rake? So grow the tree and keep the branches and pesky leaves cut off. Voila!! I feel so conventional with real grass and real trees with leaves. It must be a Maine thing.

Whining/Wining in NoCal

When you live in California, you must drink California wine. And when you live in NO Cal, you must go to California wineries. After all, the Mecca of California wineries - Napa and Sonoma - is just 1.5 hours away. Mark and I belong to 3 California wine clubs. When living in Maine, we had to receive shipments at our PO Box in New Hampshire. So, when we moved here, the wineries suggested we just drive up to pick up our club wine. What a great deal! We would save hundreds of dollars in shipping and we would have a good reason - other than because we live here - to go to the Wine Country. So, on a rainy cold not-so-special Saturday, Mark and I jumped in the car and headed up. There are several options for "heading up". If you stay on the peninsula, you must plow through San Francisco and cross the Golden Gate bridge. Very scenic but LOTS of traffic. And if you head up the East Bay, you must plow through Oakland. Again, lots of traffic and not so scenic. So we went out of our way a bit and took 680 at the base of the brown-now-green hills to the East north. Mark and I enjoyed it..... Garmin Nuvi did not. We had asked it to get us to Frog's Leap in Napa by "the fastest route". And 680 was not it. I was driving and finally asked Mark to just turn her off. Even without Garmin Nuvi, we managed to arrive at our destination. The vines were mostly bare with a few green leaves bravely daring the gray cold and easing their way out. I figured who would possibly come up here on a day like today....... Then we tried to find a parking place in the lot at Frog's Leap. It was beyond full with cars parked off the lot on grass. And limos..... s-t---r-e----t-c--h limos hovering around the entrance. We parked (barely) and entered the tasting room. It was a ZOO. Mobs of people everywhere... all tables, chairs, couches, corners full of people clutching wine glasses and laughing and talking LOUDLY.  We finally found someone who could get us our club wines and even offered us a taste of what they were pouring. We straddled our box of wine clutching our tastes of wine to our chests and mobs of people pushed past us. I thought that this was silly - it must be that Frog's Leap just has a great reputation for a good place to taste wine. Yes, they have great wine. Yes, they have a beautiful tasting room with lots of atmosphere. Yes, they even offer tasty little nibblies to have with your wine. So that must be it. I grabbed Mark and the wine and headed for the car. On to #2...... And THAT parking lot was full too! Joseph Phelps is a bit more expensive and I thought that fewer people would be there tasting. HA! There were even MORE stretch limos out front - a traffic jam of them. And the tasting room was hopping. So we tasted a bit, collected our stuff and headed out. We drove over the hill to Sonoma and the final wine club winery - Armida. You couldn't get TO the parking lot for the cars and limos. And it was three deep at the tasting counter. I looked around flabbergasted at the number of people tasting wine..... I'm not sure that they all were OLD enough to be tasting wine. My image of a quiet afternoon with a few elderly people (like us) tasting wine leisurely was totally wrong. THIS is what all the young people in NoCal do on a weekend - visit OUR three wineries! Again, we straddled our box of club wines, tasted a bit and headed out...... Well, not really. I know it sounds like we just sipped and ran. But we didn't. We sipped.... and, oh. That one is quite tasty. And very reasonable...... should we get a case or just half a case? And a few bottles of the other one too? Why not! So our trip to the car each time was under the staggering weight of SEVERAL  boxes. And the trunk was getting full... So we decided it was time to head home. In the bumper-to-bumper traffic with everyone else. Did we save money by NOT shipping our club wine. I think NOT!