The Violinist

By seven-thirty, the hubbub of the arriving concertgoers fills the great auditorium. People are directed by the mostly silver-haired ushers to their assigned seats. They settle in to read their programs, but must occasionally rise to make room for latecomers to reach their seats. An air of expectation animates the concertgoers, as this is the first time in several years that the renowned violinist has come here to the Bay Area.

The audience in the Zellerbach Hall on the Berkeley campus of the University of California falls silent as the house lights dim. At five minutes past the hour, applause begins, and increases in volume and enthusiasm. Itzhak Perlman shuffles onto the stage, followed by his accompanist, pianist Rohan de Silva, and a young woman who will be the page-turner for de Silva.

As the applause rises, Perlman bows in acknowledgment, and then de Silva does the same. This brings on louder applause. Perlman grins and shuffles over to his chair.

The violinist eases himself onto the chair, drops his crutches neatly to either side, and de Silva passes him the Stradivarius and then the bow. Perlman takes his white handkerchief from the pocket of his tuxedo, and places it on the chin-rest of the violin. De Silva sounds a note on the piano, and Perlman plucks a string on his violin. They exchange looks, smile, and launch into Schubert's Rondeau Brillant for Violin and Piano in B minor, Op.70.

Then comes Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major — a CD of which I happen to own — which is possibly one of the best-known of Franck's works after his Symphony in D minor.

After the intermission, the pair performed a contemporary work by Lukas Foss, Three American Pieces for Violin and Piano, which we had not heard before, but which we found to be quite listenable with its subtle rhythms and hints of Broadway.

When the applause had died down, Perlman and de Silva returned for several encores, either transcribed, composed, or informed by Fritz Kreisler. Perlman, with his customary understated humor, offered commentaries before each encore that further delighted his fans.

We last enjoyed a performance by Itzhak Perlman twenty-two years ago at the old Paramount Theatre in Oakland (since beautifully refurbished) and, like a fine cognac, the guy has only improved with age.

Sprinkles Only

Sunny Northern California had a few showers the past couple of days – enough to dampen the lawns and cause a few traffic snarls, but not enough to make a noticeable contribution to our state’s water needs.

We are way short of our annual rainfall totals for this time of year. Where, oh where, are the storms of yesteryear?

Recycle

Recently we were away from home for five days. A friend came and picked up our mail for us, placing everything in a paper carton in our garage. I had forgotten to stop the newspaper delivery, and he was kind enough to pick up the paper as well.

So on our return, there was this carton filled with mail and newspapers. Amazing how much mail arrives at our house in less than a week. Most of it is junk mail, of course, advertisements and the like.

You go on a cruise, let's say, and soon afterwards, thick glossy brochures show up in the mail not only from the company whose services you recently used, but also from their affiliate companies, and even from their competitors. It seems as if, all of a sudden, every cruise line in the world has discovered you as a potential candidate for their future itineraries. Some with special offers and discounts, even. Amazon River cruises, Round-the-Horn twenty-one-day junkets. It's enough to make any ordinary taxpayer feel like a bigshot politician being seduced by special interest lobbyists.

Then there are the beautifully illustrated booklets from department stores and mail-order houses. Sales and discounts are offered on everything from designer outfits to garage doors. Limited time offers. Act now. Toll-free number. Have your credit card ready. It's bad enough we are bombarded with all that stuff in television commercials — their purveyors also seek to remind us with a profusion of paper.

And then there are the solicitations from charitable organizations. Two from the same organization in one day, one addressed to me and one to my wife. How do they manage to keep track? Are the funds they receive being used for the purposes advertised in their own literature? Or simply to print more solicitations?

Is it any wonder that the recycling industry has now become a multi-billion-dollar enterprise?

A Little Bit of Suburbia

Pastel dwellings in Daly City

Into The City

This, even on a Saturday afternoon

California Street
(If you click to enlarge the picture, you can spot the flock of pigeons in the air.)

Sneezing at the sun

This is a phenomenon from which I have suffered (?) all my life, and I only now learned that one out of every four people in the world is similarly afflicted. Here's what a doctor has to say about it:

Achoo Syndrome

Vancouver

Just returned to a milder Bay Area after having spent almost a week in below-freezing weather in Vancouver, B.C. We were there to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday, and his grandson's christening. Vancouver's a nice city to visit, especially when you have relatives and friends there, but the middle of winter is not the time to go. At our time of life, the danger of slipping on icy sidewalks is something to be reckoned with, and driving on unfamiliar roads at night (never a pleasant experience in any event) becomes markedly less pleasant when road conditions are perverse. Powdery snowdrifts turn to slush and then to brittle ice, and your shoes tend to track all that stuff back indoors.

The security staff at Vancouver International airport, I regret to say, was notable for lacking professionalism in the performance of their duties, being extremely slow-moving while expending most of their limited energy chitchatting and bantering among themselves, and displaying not a whit of courtesy towards the passengers. I have been through many lousy U.S. airport security checkpoints (the one at Chicago O'Hare ranks close to the bottom in my estimation) but Vancouver was one of the worst I had experienced.

Well, so much for my gripes. It's great to be back home.

Travel blogs

An early start this morning. Enjoying a pleasant digression - reading other people's travel blogs. With pictures even. At the link below.
RealTravel

Wanchai, Hong Kong

Daly City, California

An Unfortunate Sneeze

A relative of mine ended up in the emergency room a couple of days ago after a very bad sneeze.

The violent sneeze threw his back out, and the resulting spasm of severe pain rendered him unconscious, and he collapsed on the floor. When he finally came to, it was all he could do to crawl to the phone and call the hospital, who advised him to dial 911 for an ambulance.

We visited him today at the rehab center where he is undergoing physical therapy. He doesn't know just what might trigger another incident, as even actions taken very gingerly might cause one.

Epiphany

Today marks the end of the Christmas season, or at least it does according to the traditions with which we grew up. It's the Feast of the Epiphany, or of The Three Wise Men, the Magi.

Here in Northern California, the skies are blue, the air is dry, and it's the perfect time to take down all the Christmas decorations. My first task is to get the boxes from the garage, so my wife can remove all the precious items handmade for the Christmas tree by her late mother, followed by each of the many shiny glass balls, and tasselled tinsel, and small, colorful wooden toys which have graced our tree every Yuletide season.

It never ceases to surprise me how much of the stuff we have managed to accumulate over the decades, and yet every December they appear to be as fresh as ever. We say we do it for the kids, but really we do it as much for ourselves.

As for the outdoor lights, my wife keeps adding to the collection year after year. They are draped or wrapped around the bushes in our front yard, there to offer a welcoming brilliance to the front of the house. These lights have all to be taken down carefully, so as not to damage the tiny bulbs, and to avoid getting the wires tangled or mangled.

Only after all these preliminary chores are accomplished can our artificial fir tree with its segmented trunk and built-in lights and folding branches be restored to its place of hibernation for the next eleven months.

Whew!

Remodeling

The overcast sky and the film of mist hugging the Bay as I drove over the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge made a fine subject for an arty photograph. Alas, there was no stopping on the freeway to give in to crazy creative impulses, thus no picture for today's posting.

The bathroom remodel in the condo is proceeding well. The new tub is in, and in short order the walls and floor will be ready for new tiles and mirrors. There's still a couple of weeks' work before we can put 'finis' to that project. And then more shopping around for the right furniture and flooring.

Party

Rang in the New Year at a dinner dance at a hotel near San Francisco International airport. We shared our table with some old friends and some new ones. The chemistry was right from the beginning, the dinner was good, and the conversation animated. We danced, chatted, and had fun. Two people at our table won door prizes. At midnight we made a lot of noise, sang "Auld Lang Syne" and then went around greeting everyone on the dance floor, some of them more than once. Fair to say that a pleasurable evening was enjoyed by the crowd of fourscore and seven, at this dress-up affair that at first we had some small misgivings about.

The family came over tonight to have dinner at our house. I had made a digital movie showing the granddaughters as they were thirteen years ago, when they were just five and three. Laughter and comments reassured me that the hours invested in the production were well spent.

Today the weather was fine and brisk, and tomorrow promises to be no different. The New Year is off to a promising start.

Hong Kong at Night

Best wishes to all my readers for a healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2007.

This picture was taken with a 3-year-old Nikon Coolpix 4500.