lovely weekend

Last spring at our annual Passover celebration, several friends asked Robert when we were going to Tanglewood this summer. Robert was taken by surprise -- was it already time to think about our trip out west? Yes, as it turned out. I'd been asking him to pick a weekend, I'd conspicuously left the brochure out, and after a few reminders, had given up and decided that we'd try again in 2008.

Robert was so mortified that he'd missed all this attempted communication that he sprang into action. He found the brochures, which I'd finally put away, and picked some concerts. He ordered tickets and reserved a spot at one of our favorite B&Bs.

And this past weekend we went!

We saw two concerts at Tanglewood, both conducted by Kurt Masur, who seemed to be in top form. KM is a favorite of both the BSO and its fans. The soloist Friday night was Joshua Bell, another of our favorites, and well-loved by the audience. The "guest artist" on Sunday was Kurt Mazur, himself, in honor of his recently-celebrated 80th birthday. And the music was lovely. On Friday, the orchestra placed two pieces by Prokofiev (surprisingly listenable) and Beethoven's 1st Symphony. On Sunday, we heard three Mozart symphonies, 39, 40, and 41. The latter is also known as Jupiter.

On Saturday night, we went to Jacob's Pillow for a wild "variety show" of a brand-new all-male troupe, Bad Boys of Dance, led by the ballet-trained Rasta Thomas. There were beautiful balletic leaps and twirls, vertical and horizontal splits, the macarena, hiphop, tap, and references to the Wizard of Oz, all mixed into one of the most enjoyable evenings of dance that I've seen in ages.

We also dashed off to the Norman Rockwell museum and the Clark, which is currently showing a terrific exhibit of the "Unknown Monet," pastels and drawings from early to late years. A delight from both museums was seeing pencil sketches that were later turned into paintings, so you could look at the process from rough draft and scattered ideas to finished piece.

And it turned out that Jacob's Pillow was holding an open house this weekend, so we went to that too. We went for the dance, but stumbled on a couple of presentations about African American Heritage in the area, and related to the Pillow. One of the presenters talked about the Underground Railroad in the area and her research to learn more about it; the other talked about his uncle who was a lumberman and who provided the beams for the main theater at Jacob's Pillow. We later chatted with the presenters and other representatives. Robert bought their recently published book and I learned that the daughter of the woman who spoke about the Underground Railroad was Norman Rockwell's model for The Problem We All Live With.

Oh yes, and we bumped into friends, picnicked with other friends out for the day, and caught up a bit with the lives of our innkeepers. A full weekend; I'm a tad exhuasted, but otherwise quite happy.

hbd, Mark

My friend Mark Stanley would have been 50 years old yesterday. He's been gone twelve and a half years already. Were he alive today, that would amount to a full quarter of his entire life. It's two and a half times longer than I knew him, though I felt like I knew him for a lifetime.

I already feel a bit wistful about my upcoming birthday. My birthdays can be quite joyous, but also laden with people long gone, as if I'm celebrating for all of us, not just for me.

a feather in my cap

I'm not the trendiest of people. I live in the suburbs, I'm married and cook for my husband, I drive a five-year old sedan (albeit a sporty German car), and I make googoo eyes at my cats. I contra dance and go to classical music concerts. But every now and then, I feel right proud of myself for being ahead of the curve, if only slightly.

Several months ago, I stumbled on a web site that is so cute and so funny that it has become a guilty pleasure, a little like the small squares of chocolate I eat every day. I'm talking about yes!~ lolcats ~ in the form of ICanHasCheezburger (the image that started it all is on the left).

Well, Time magazine has just discovered this site and has published a short and very fun article about it. (Apologies if the link does not persist.) But for once, I discovered something before Time did.

OK, back to my standard-issue life...

But did he have another cat?

I'm walking in a beautiful town in Italy and meet a man pushing a rather fancy baby perambulator. When I peek in, I see an enormous cat that he's taking out for a stroll. I pick up the cat to hold it and realize that there's a smaller cat underneath (mini-me-ow?). I start talking to the man and he says that he and his partner each have one cat, but their two cats each have their own personal cat. I reply "Do you have any other cats?"

Apparently, asking this question out loud woke Robert up. He hopped out of bed, and I never did get an answer to my question. Darn.

more pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/koathe/NikonD40DayThree, click Slideshow.
Preview: More cats, more plants, a sunset. Big Yawn!!!

way too much fun, day 2

More pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/koathe/NikonD40Day2

and click Slideshow.

it's here! it's here!

My new camera arrived yesterday. I played with it a bit today. I'm now familiar with the most automatic of automatic features, including the "point-and-shoot" features. I'm planning to read up on the documentation (yes! rtfm! and a few books!) and figure out the less automated side soon. In the meantime, here is a small selection of the mostly-good 150+ first photos I took today. Wow.

For best viewing, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/koathe/NewCamera and click Slideshow.

There are some features I already like a lot -- fast startup, fast focus, and much better flash than I'm used to. Also, if you're in a menu or reviewing photos, you don't have to get out of that mode to take more pictures -- you just start focusing and you automatically switch to taking pictures. I imagine there will be more to report as I learn more.

the ever elusive koa, just chillin