Food I'm Eating: Olives (2013)

I picked olives from our tree the day before yesterday, hoping to repeat the success I had two years ago making olives for the first time. Last year most olives trees in the area produced virtually no fruit. Olives seem to alternate heavy crops and it rained heavily during flowering last year as well. Picking now was a bit late. The fruit appears more than optimally ripe (a lot has fallen and what was left on the tree was beginning to shrivel a little). On the upside, the olives are somewhat bigger than two years ago, when I picked in mid-January. My neighbor's tree is a much better variety, with bigger, meatier fruits. They allowed me to take what was left on their tree as well.

So, I have about eight quarts or so of two varieties (both unknown) now soaking in brine, using the same solution I used two years ago (a quarter cup of kosher salt to one quart of water). I slit the olives with a knife before brining them, as the recipes instruct. The break in the skin allows the salt to soak in and the bitter components in the olives to leach out. We'll see how it goes.... Meanwhile, my hard cider is still bubbling away on day 11 of fermentation. Testing the liquid, it tastes of alcohol, but is still slightly sweet. I'm guessing it will take another five to six days or so for the fermentation to go to completion. Then I'll need to rack the cider a couple of times to clear it of solids and then bottle it, dosing it with a touch of sugar before putting the caps on, which will cause a secondary fermentation in the bottle, adding that touch of carbonation that makes a good cider refreshing--that's the theory anyway. Cider is a new realm of exploration for me.

Rain: Belatedly

It rained last week, on Thursday (February 7). We got an additional 0.25 inches of rain. That brings our total to 22.45 inches for the 2012-2013 rain year. The historical average for today (February 10) in Santa Rosa is 23.11 inches. So, we are now slightly below normal for the year, having been about 10 inches ahead earlier in the season.

[Update: A heavy downpour on the morning of the 15th added 0.45 inches of new rain, bringing the total for this season to 22.90 inches.]

Music I'm Listening to: Charles Dutoit Conducts the San Francisco Symphony, with James Ehnes

On Thursday, January 31, I attended my second San Francisco Symphony concert at the new Green Music Center. Charles Dutoit was the guest conductor. On the program were Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole, Lalo's Symphony Espangole, and Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Dutoit never really disappoints. The entire concert was clean and enjoyable and enhanced by the beautiful clarity of sound in the new hall (apparent particularly in a passage in the Enigma Variations that involves extended low notes in the violas; and it's worth mentioning that the solo work by the principal viola elsewhere in the variations was notably fine).

James Ehnes was soloist in the Lalo. He gave a precise, energetic performance that was hard to fault except that it came across as rather too tame. The Symphony Espagnole, it seems to me, requires a bit of fire to be really successful, and that was lacking. The violin Ehnes plays (according to the program notes) is the 1715 "Ex-Marsick" Stradivarius, lent by the Fulton Collection. It's a rather delicate, sweet-sounding instrument with little throatiness in the low range, and I suspect that added to the impression. It's always a pleasure to hear the fine musicians of the San Francisco symphony, but, on the whole, this concert lacked excitement.

Photos of Charles Dutoit and James Ehnes courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.

Wines I'm Making: Hard Cider (January 31, 2013)

At Whole Foods (the Coddington Mall store) yesterday I noticed a growing section devoted to brewing supplies. I was intrigued by a vial of "English cider yeast" I found there. I made the assumption that it was a strain of yeast particularly suited to making hard cider. On the spur of the moment I bought the yeast and three gallons of pasteurized (but preservative-free) apple juice thinking I'd try to make my own cider. I have no idea if it will be any good or not, but, being used to fermenting grape juice to make wine, and having all the equipment already at hand, I thought I'd give it a try. I inoculated the juice last night (on the 30th) and a frothy fermentation is already under way. Stay tuned....

Books I'm Reading: Drink: A Social History of America (January 30, 2013)

While this is somewhat out of date now, having been published in 1999 (Carroll & Graf), it remains an interesting discussion of how the role of drinking--specifically the drinking of alcoholic beverages--has evolved in the United States during the past 200 years or so. Barr makes it plain that--as in so many things--the US is rather out of synch with many of its counterparts among the developed countries of Europe. Our attitude toward drink has been rather unusual from the outset--the result of peculiar circumstances and later the effects of prohibition. First, because of the difficulty of obtaining fresh, wholesome beers and light wines (as opposed to fortified wines) in early colonial times and the difficulty of storing these perishable items in a comparatively hot climate), American colonists early became dependent on rum and madeira, the former because it didn't spoil and was cheap and easy to make, the latter because it survived (and even improved) on long ocean journeys.

The heat of the southern colonies and the long distances between settlements in colonial times contributed to a reliance on rum and madeira rather than on the beers and ales favored in Britain or the unfortified wines common on the continent, both of which perished quickly without refrigeration. It was no help that despite the abundance of wild grapes in the United States (none of which made good wine), European grape varieties stubbornly refused to take hold in the New World, repeatedly falling victim to the vine diseases that attacked the native varieties (which have developed immunities European grape varieties lack).

As a result, Americans on the whole never developed a solid tradition of drinking light alcoholic beverages (beers and wines) with food, as an ordinary part of a leisurely meal. That tendency, exacerbated by prohibition (and the partial prohibition of alcohol to teens and into the early 20s that continues today) has left most Americans with a binge drinking mentality focused mostly on hard liquors that, ironically, was precisely what the original prohibitionists aimed to combat. I've long thought that college binge drinking and other abuses would be far less prevalent if we taught our children about responsible, pleasurable, moderate alcohol consumption from the early teen years. Barr makes this same argument cogently and with much evidence to back up his claims. Chock full of interesting detail about drink and our attitudes toward alcohol. Well worth a read. Recommended.  

Food I'm Eating: What Was that Cheese?

No pun intended, but I'm feeling a little sheepish. I've teased many friends and acquaintances over the years when they come to me asking about wine, which, knowing my interest in wine, they fairly often do. I tease them during conversations that typically go like this:

Friend: "I had this wonderful wine the other day..."
Me: "What was it?"
Friend: "I don't know, but it was REALLY good."
Me: "Where was it from?"
Friend: "I forgot."
Me: "Why didn't you look at the label and write down what it was, so you'd remember, or keep the label, or take a photo of it?"
Friend: "Well, you know, we were all having a good time and talking, and by the time we'd paid the bill, the waiter had already taken the bottle away." or "Yeah, I didn't think to do that. That was last week. I think the trash has already been collected...."

I never have this problem with wine. First, I know an awful lot more about wine than I do about cheese. There aren't that many wines I've never heard of or for which I have no points of reference. Second, I'm not shy about securing evidence when necessary. I never hesitate to take the empty bottle home from a restaurant or to set it aside at home or to remove the label from the bottle, for future reference. If an unfamiliar wine is different and compelling, I usually write something about it--on this blog, in many cases--which preserves the information. When it comes to cheese, however, I'm much less careful, too often to my later regret. I've encountered countless delicious cheeses that are lost to me forever for want of information about what I was eating. Recently, I've tried to do better. Sometimes, however, the cards just seem stacked against me.

A few days ago I sampled a number of tasty-looking cheeses at the cheese counter of The Pasta Shop at the Rockridge Market Hall, in Berkeley (510) 250-6005, and bought a few that I liked. The problem with cheese is that the label on the cut pieces you buy at a good cheese shop are almost invariably slapped on to the package at the folds, to hold the wrapping closed. As a result, the label usually has to be ripped to pieces to open the cheese. In this instance, I particularly enjoyed a smoky, pungent blue cheese I bought, that, judging from its color, is a goat cheese. Thinking myself very smart this time, I retrieved the paper it had been wrapped in as soon as it dawned on me that I especially liked this one. I was determined to remember the name of the cheese, but I picked the paper out of the trash only to find that the tasty little brick had been labeled "Cheese!"

Not very helpful, to say the least. With an exclamation point, no less. I was being mocked.

I want to believe this was just a freak error on the part of the helpful young woman that wrapped the cheese for me, but I'm feeling vaguely persecuted. The other two cheeses (a Cabot "Cheddar" from Vermont and a French cheese called Brebirousse d'Argental) were properly labeled. I grant you that. Still, I feel laughed at....

Rain: 0.55 inches (January 22-24, 2013)

Showers in the past couple of days have added 0.55 inches to our total for the 2012-2013 rain year. We now stand at 22.20 inches. The historical average for this day in Santa Rosa is 19.86 inches, which puts us more than two inches ahead of normal at the moment. Average annual rainfall in Santa Rosa is about 36.3 inches.

Plants I'm Growing: Pink Flowering Plum--Prunus Mume (January 24, 2013)

I belatedly note that the pink flowering plum at the front of the house started blooming on January 20. This little tree has been suffering from an infestation of scale, so it produced very few buds, but the buds that are there have mostly opened. The white plum (same species, Prunus mume) is now pretty much in full bloom.

Books I'm Reading: Triumph and Tragedy (January 17, 2013)

At nearly 600 pages, Triumph and Tragedy, the sixth and last volume in Winston Churchill's history of WWII, is one of the shorter volumes. It moves at a much faster pace than any of the earlier ones, with more about politics than military operations, but it's no less interesting for that.

Triumph and Tragedy is in two sections, the first, beginning with the D-Day invasion, takes us through the end of the fighting in Europe and then the final stages of the war in the Pacific. The second treats the aftermath of the armed world conflict, particularly dealing with Stalin and the question of how to balance Soviet claims to Polish territory with Polish claims to German territory. In other words, Churchill describes the triumph of the victories over Germany and Japan and the tragedy of how the aftermath of the global conflict played out. He makes it clear that he feels the partitioning of Germany into zones of influence administered by Germany, France, the US, and the Soviet Union could have been handled far better than it was. The second half of the book is largely a chronicle of Churchill's frustration. Throughout the six volumes, but particularly in this one, the clarity of his vision regarding the Soviets is remarkable. He saw the falling of the iron curtain long before it happened, and it happened much the way he warned it would.

Birds I'm Watching: The Common and the Not-so-common (January 10, 2012)

Last month was the busiest December I've had work-wise in my 12 years here as a freelance translator. Usually, December is quiet. As a result, I've had little time for chasing birds recently, but a quick trip to San Rafael on Tuesday (January 8) on a tip about a Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) was worth the dash. What a magnificent bird. They are rare here. Not more than one or two show up each year in the area--if that. So, I was pleased to be able to add this fellow to my life list.

I also got some interesting photographs of the many Yellow-rumped Warblers that were flitting about. These are our single most common warbler. They are abundant in the winter months. Some birds are not well named. Others, like the Yellow-rumped Warbler, are rather aptly named, as the photo below should demonstrate.

For information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Found Art: Malevich's Circle (January 8, 2012)

If Malevich had used a circle instead of a square, "White on White" might have looked something like this. But no--too much adornment here. Not simple enough. Not pure enough. Still, this San Francisco street detail looked like art to me.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Wines I'm Making: 2011 Cabernet Bottled (January 4, 2013)

Finally got around to bottling the 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc. It was a small batch last year. We produced only 33 bottles of wine, but it's quality that counts. I had a tough time of it this time around. First, I used a slightly larger diameter tube for siphoning the wine and a shorter length--mostly because when replacing my siphon I couldn't remember what size I had used in the past. The large size made the wine flow much faster than I'm used to and the shorter length combined with cold weather made the tube stiff and unwieldy. The result was much more spillage than usual. I estimate I lost more than a bottle. In a commercial winery that might be a miraculously small amount of spillage. Here, making wine from the grapes we grow in the back garden, it's 3% of annual output. Second, the crushed Campden tablets failed to fully dissolve. It really is important to see to it that the sulfite is evenly distributed throughout the wine. Finding much left at the bottom of the carboy, I had to laboriously siphon thirty bottles back into the container and then rebottle them. I didn't want some of the bottles to be unprotected and others to have much too much sulfite. Two lessons learned the hard way. Anyway, the wine is now in bottles awaiting capsules and labels (which I have yet to design and print). Judging from what I consumed while siphoning, the 2011 wine will be good, but it is more tannic than usual and has a bit more acidity, suggesting that it will take time to open up. I estimate it will start showing well around 2018.

I also did the first racking of the 2012 wine. Working on the assumption that enough time had passed to allow malolactic fermentation to go to completion, I sulfited the wine lightly and transferred it to clean containers, leaving behind the gross lees. I added oak staves, as usual. The wine (8 gallons, or 40 bottles) is now resting.

Rain: Additional 0.4 inches (January 6, 2013)

Since last reporting, we've had another 0.4 inches of rain, bringing our total for the 2012/2013 rainy season to 21.65 inches (at least at my house). As 15.4 inches is average for this calendar date, were are about six inches above normal so far.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Daphne Odorata (January 2, 2013)

Swamped with work, I've been stuck at my desk for the past few days, but I belatedly report that the Daphne in the back garden started blooming on January 2 this year. Daphne odorata, as its Latin name suggests, is wonderfully fragrant and one of the few flowers that blooms in the middle of the winter. So, its appearance is always welcome.

Miscellaneous: Odd Connections (January 2, 2013)

This blog has been running for several years now. I write as the mood strikes me. I write mostly to record impressions or store information and ideas that might otherwise be lost. The writing therefore covers disparate topics. I range widely.

About three years ago now, I wrote a short entry about a couple of interesting Victorian houses in San Francisco (the original post is here), a pair of houses at the corner of Filbert St. and Webster St. in that city. I have tracking software on the blog that shows me where visitors come from (in the most general terms--usually indicating only country and city). Occasionally an old post will suddenly get a flurry of hits. Sometimes the reason is clear. This has happened most often when a halo around the moon is visible somewhere and a post I wrote on the subject of that phenomenon suddenly gets many hits all at once. Sometimes the reason is more mysterious. Today my post about the houses in San Francisco is getting dozens of hits, mostly from the US and Canada, but from as far away as England, India, and Vietnam. I wonder what has prompted the sudden interest in the subject?

Books I'm Reading: Winston Churchill's Closing the Ring (December 26, 2012)

Closing the Ring, volume five of Winston Churchill's six-volume history of WWII, The Second World War, is the shortest of the six volumes, at about 640 pages, but it is as interesting as the preceding volumes. Closing the Ring takes the reader from June 1943 to June 1944--to the eve of "Overlord," the Normandy landings that opened a second major front in Europe. Perhaps the central event of the period was the shift of Italy from the Axis side of the conflict to the side of the Allies, with the successful invasion of Sicily and the overthrow of Mussolini. In the Pacific theater, Japan is no longer expanding but instead struggling to maintain control of the vast area her armies had conquered.

Much of the volume deals with the conferences among the allies at Quebec, Washington, and Tehran held to unify strategy, mostly centering on the ongoing preparations for the Normandy invasion. Sections dealing with actual fighting focus on the above-mentioned progress against Japan and events in Greece and Italy (mainly Anzio and Cassino), as well as the fighting around Imphal, in India.

Perhaps of greatest interest in this volume is the drama surrounding the British, US, and Soviet discussions about whether to stage a diversionary attack in the south of France (up the Rhone Valley) in conjunction with the Normandy invasion and the timing of such an attack. The southern invasion was conceived at the Tehran conference as a means of keeping German forces pinned down in the south and away from the struggle anticipated on the northern beaches of France as "Overloard" began. Churchill sees a stubborn US attachment to the southern invasion plan, known as "Anvil," at the expense of making further advances in Italy (and after conditions have changed) as a mistake in strategy (conditions were no longer what they had been at the time of the Tehran discussions--in particular, progress in Italy had been much slower than anticipated). Churchill believed also that the Rhone Valley was too far from Normandy to be an effective diversion anyway--better to press ahead in Italy while concentrating in France on "Overlord." In this volume, we begin to see growing American muscle overshadowing British contributions, and Churchill's frustration and annoyance at US influence are at times palpable--which is not to say that he is ungracious; he remains single-mindedly focused on winning the war by whatever means--but ultimately the US view prevailed over what Churchill saw as a superior plan. Closing the Ring, like the preceding volumes is well-written, detailed, and insightful, but I sensed Churchill's energy beginning to wane, and he paints with rather broader strokes here than in earlier volumes. Nevertheless, another worthy installment. On to the sixth and final volume....

Plants I'm Growing: Outliers (December 25, 2012)

Recently I noticed a couple of plants in the garden blooming earlier than usual. First blooms on the dainty little cyclamen Cyclamen coum under the Japanese maple at the back of the house opened the day before yesterday (December 23). This is usually the first flower to bloom each year. Typically the earliest buds open in the first week of January. They bloomed on December 23 also in 2010 (which I counted as 2011), so this is not unprecedented, but on January 8 in 2009 and January 3 in 2010, so still earlier than usual (photo above).

The white flowering plum (Prunus mume) began blooming on December 21 or so, which is considerably earlier than usual. This plant bloomed on January 4, 2011, January 19, 2010, and January 20, 2009. Perhaps early because of all the rain this year?

  

Miscellaneous: Take Back the 2nd Amendment (December 22, 2012)

It seems to me that to take back the 2nd Amendment would be to restore its reading and interpretation to what it has been through most of US history--that the government shall not have the right to prohibit the creation and maintenance of a well-regulated militia. The current pro-gun, NRA-created and abetted view of the 2nd Amendment that claims all Americans have the right to own as many guns as they like and guns of any type whatsoever, regardless of their redundant lethality is recent and anomalous, as far as I can tell. With this in mind, I Googled the phrase "Take back the 2nd Amendment." Should I have been surprised to find a Facebook page with that name and that it's a page run by gun advocates? I'm baffled. What do they mean by taking back the 2nd Amendment, I wonder?

Rain: And Thunder and Lightning (December 21-22, 2012)

An electrical storm last night (unusual here in Santa Rosa) dropped another 2.85 inches on us. That brings our 2012-2013 rainy season total to 17.70 inches. Normal for this date is about 11.5 inches, so we are way ahead so far. Historical average annual rainfall for Santa Rosa is about 36 inches, we're half way there.

[Update: Very heavy rain fell during the morning and early afternoon today, December 23--some of it about the heaviest downpour I've ever witnessed. We've had another 2.30 inches since the report above. That brings our total as of the evening of the 23rd to 20.00 inches.]

[Update: More rain on Christmas Day added another 1.25 inches, bringing the total to 21.25 inches.]

Movies I'm Watching: Lincoln (December 18, 2012)

I've just seen Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, and many others. I enjoyed the film. It never felt like it was dragging, despite its length (150 minutes), but it could have been much better, it seems to me.

The period is nicely re-created. The props and costumes seem carefully researched and accurate. The use of a muted color palette--colors that look slightly faded--is an anachronism, but it works, somehow making it easier to believe that we are back in 1865. Although it's nonsensical to think color would have been any less vibrant then than it is now, the subdued tones somehow make it easier to suspend disbelief, despite the logical contradiction involved. It is the one anachronism in the film that seems worth the sacrifice of truth. The device is used particularly in some of the outdoor scenes.

For the most part, the cast seemed of the period. The rather colorful goings-on in the House of Representatives and the flamboyant language used seems consistent with the history I know (imagine how much better C-Span ratings would be if our representatives spoke with the same forthrightness, animation, and verbal invention today). Daniel Day-Lewis is entirely believable as Lincoln, and the long shots of him, in particular, beautifully capture the tall, lanky form we associate with our 16th president. As usual, Day-Lewis delivers what seems a pitch-perfect performance. David Straithairn (as Seward) and Hal Holbrook (as Blair), are stand-outs among the supporting cast. Sally Field gives a fine performance, but her face is so strongly associated in my mind with her early TV role as "The Flying Nun" that I'm afraid I found it hard to completely accept her as Mrs. Lincoln--a curse of my generation. No fault of Ms. Field's, of course. The boy playing Tad (Gulliver McGrath) seemed right as well. It would take a second viewing to connect all the names of the various other actors with the many well-played smaller roles. The end credits rolled by much too quickly.    

Above I've listed some of what seemed right about Lincoln. A few scenes seemed out of kilter with the rest of the movie, however. The bloody opening scene, in particular, seemed entirely unnecessary--a gratuitous reminder that the Civil War involved a great deal of bloody hand-to-hand conflict with comparatively primitive weapons, a point that no longer needs to be made. This seemed an overdramatization. Spielberg never seems willing to give his audience credit for any intelligence, but perhaps this particular choice was more the fault of the script than the director. The early scenes seem to be designed also to make the point that former slaves and freedmen were fighting as soldiers for the Union, a point that could have been more subtly made.

I found it hard to accept another early scene that had Lincoln talking to soldiers, both black and white, that recite by heart his Gettysburg Address--a piece of writing that is rightly revered, but a speech I doubt was accorded then (scarcely a year after it was uttered) the same almost worshipful appreciation it enjoys today. It was admired among the president's political supporters (although ridiculed by newspapers unsympathetic to the president) and it was widely printed and disseminated, yet it seems unlikely that so many soldiers would have known the lines by heart that a randomly chosen handful would be made up entirely of men that had mostly committed Lincoln's now-famous words to memory. Perhaps I'm wrong about this. I don't know.

A later scene involves the president arguing with his oldest son, Robert, who wants to enlist and fight (President Lincoln and his wife, still grieving from the loss of another son, have done all they can to keep Robert out of the army). Robert feels his non-participation is an affront to his manhood. He is finally prompted to defy his father by the sight outside a military hospital of two men pushing a wheelbarrow dripping blood. Robert follows the men to the back of the building where they dump a pile of amputated limbs into a pit already partly filled with arms and legs. What seems wrong about the scene (if it was necessary at all) is that a blanket or some such large piece of cloth is thrown over the wheelbarrow, hiding the limbs. After four years of bloody war and in an age when people were far less squeamish than we are, it is likely that no one would have bothered, and it takes little imagination as a viewer to guess what the men are transporting. Why be coy? This seems another example of overdramatization and lack of respect for the moviegoer's intelligence. Are we supposed to be surprised when the cloth is drawn away and the limbs tumble into the pit when it has been obvious from the outset?

Among the biggest failings, in my view, is the handling of the climactic scene--the roll call vote on the 13th Amendment to the constitution that abolished slavery. It's drawn out needlessly here. It's very simply preposterous to think that there would have been any kind of cliffhanger moment--that no one would have known the outcome until it was formerly announced to the speaker of the house. As the count came in, those present would surely have been keeping tally themselves. It would have been apparent that the amendment had passed as soon as the required number of votes came in—before the entire roll had been called. Another example of force-fed drama where a quieter, more subtle approach would have been sufficient—and ultimately more powerful. Repeatedly in this film we see Spielberg as magician reaching into his hat to pull out a rabbit, the magician seemingly oblivious to the fact that he's chosen a top hat made of glass: We can see the rabbit before the trick is done.

The end of the film, too, seems poorly conceived. The scene between Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) and his quadroon housekeeper in bed, for example, was somewhat baffling, as it comes out of the blue (unless you already know the history). Their relationship was a real one. The housekeeper was Lydia Hamilton Smith and apparently she and Stevens were lovers, but the relationship could have been more subtly suggested if there were no time to develop it as part of the story. Instead of trying to surprise us with this sudden revelation (another rabbit), why not explain what their relationship actually was? Throughout Lincoln there is an overt, well-intentioned surface effort to be respectful of the African Americans portrayed without any attempt to clarify exactly what these people were doing at the time, which, apparently, was far more than the film suggests. Spielberg's treatment gives the impression that free blacks in Washington and elsewhere were patiently waiting around for white men to hand them freedom--which is not entirely true.

Likewise, I fail to understand the point of the late clip of Lincoln delivering part of his Second Inaugural Address, which comes after we are shown Lincoln dead. The way it's presented, it has the feel of an outtake pinned to the film's backside just because someone thought it would be a shame to waste it. The assassination itself could have been left out, too, for that matter. We know that part of the story. The film would have been far more effective if it had concentrated on the drama chosen for its focus--the politics--letting that drama speak for itself.

Not a bad film. As I say, it's sufficiently interesting that it doesn't seem overly long, despite its two-and-a-half hour running time, but it suffers from perhaps the most common flaw of much Hollywood filmmaking: It is heavy-handed where it doesn't need to be. It assumes that its audience lacks intelligence and is incapable of enjoying anything but the crudest forms of entertainment.

Rain: More Drizzle and Rain--and More on the Way (December 17, 2012)

We've had more rain and drizzle in the past couple of days, particularly on the 16th. The rain gauge has another 0.9 inches in it. That brings our total so far in the 2012/2013 rain year to 14.85 inches, well ahead of normal. Today was clear, but more rain is on the way....

Found Art: Mud Ripples after Rain (December 17, 2012)

Last week, heavy rains caused Spring Lake, a nearby reservoir, to overflow, along with many of the channels that feed the lake. The overlow left behind mud and debris that was generally a mess, but in certain places, it created rather beautiful ripples of mud--mud that is now mostly gone. Ephemeral art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Miscellaneous: Yet Another Mass Shooting (December 15, 2012)

It is deeply disturbing, sad, and tragic that not two days after the mall shooting in Oregon, the nation--the world--is in mourning for 20 young children and six schoolteachers murdered with handguns in the United States, this time in Newtown, Connecticut. In addition, the shooter killed his own mother.

Enough is enough, isn't it? Let the rage lead to something this time. We are not impotent. Write to the president, your representatives, your senators. Make it clear that you want sensible gun control if that is what you want. It's what I want. There appears to be much support for arguments that point to a lack of adequate mental health services as a contributing factor in this and similar incidents--another area of policy that could use an overhaul.

Miscellaneous: "Typical for Mass Shooters" (December 12, 2012)

Yesterday, yet another killer armed with a semi-automatic weapon opened fire in a crowd, this time in a shopping mall in Portland, Oregon. He killed two people and wounded several others before killing himself. The shooter was 22 years old. How does a young man of 22--or of any age--get his hands on an assault rifle? It must be a fairly easy thing to do, which says something about our idiotic gun laws that no one wants to hear.

But we are used to such things by now. They have become positively normal. The tone of news reports about the incident is indicative. One report I read noted that the young man wore a ski mask and went on to quote former FBI agent (and ABC News contributor) Brad Garrett as saying "The shooter's mask is typical for mass shooters, who often dress up in costume or wear something other than their regular clothes when they open fire in public." Is it just me? Or is it not deeply depressing to hear a news commentator use the term "mass shooter" as if he thinks it a rather ordinary category of persons--like "golf player" or "gift shopper"? "Open fire in public"? It's what mass shooters do.

[Update: And today, December 14, a man armed with three guns walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed (besides himself) 20 young students and six staff members. Earlier in the day, he shot and killed his own mother. I know all the arguments, but it still seems to me that we REALLY need to do something about the availability of weapons of mass murder in this country.]

Music I'm Listening to: The San Francisco Symphony's Inaugural Concert at the Green Music Center (December 6, 2012)

Last night I attended the first performance of the San Francisco Symphony in the new Green Music Center. I had seen the main concert hall at the Center twice before--once before the seats were installed and a second time when Santa Rosa Symphony subscribers were given an opportunity to see the finished hall, a few months back. This was my first experience of a performance there. The new complex is in Rohnert Park, only about 20 minutes south of where I live. I'm used to seeing the San Francisco performers at their home base, Davies Symphony Hall, in San Francisco, a much longer drive. Naturally, I was most curious about how the main hall sounds--and I was looking forward to better sound than at Davies, which seems to have some unfortunate dead spots, but I was also curious to see how people moved in the new space, to test the seats for comfort, to check out the sight lines, to get a feel for how the audiences and performers felt there.

On the program were Richard Strauss's tone poem Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, the world premiere of Mark Volkert's Pandora, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Yefim Bronfman soloist.  Michael Tilson Thomas led the orchestra. Mark Volkert is the San Francisco Symphony's Assistant Concertmaster--and a composer, which was news to me.

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas appeared very pleased to be at the new venue. Following the opening piece, the Strauss tone poem, he addressed the audience briefly. He spoke mostly about the Mark Volkert composition, but also suggested that the San Francisco Symphony was excited to be performing at the Green Music Center. He referred to it as an historic night at "your new concert hall" and then corrected himself, calling it "our new concert hall."

I found the seats comfortable enough, although the arm rests are rather narrow and I wouldn't call the seating inviting, beautiful as it is to look at. The seats aren't ones you sink into a little for a feeling of pampered support. They are merely solid. I sat dead center in Row O, which has no seats immediately in front of it, so it was hard for me to get an idea of leg room or of the sight lines from the center portion of the main hall (I was wondering how easy it is to see over people's heads, as the pitch of the floor seems quite gradual), but a perfect location for attempting to judge the sound quality. During intermission, the central gathering area outside the performance hall proper felt decidedly cramped. Patrons lined up to get a glass of wine or coffee and a cookie filled the entire center of the room in two rows, making it difficult to walk across the space--or anywhere at all. There was no room to stroll about or watch people come and go (intermission's greatest pleasure), although on warm evenings it will be possible to enjoy the presumably less crowded entrance area outside the building, which is lined with rather impressive old olive trees.

I wish I were an acoustician. I can't make a professional judgment of the sound quality, but I noticed a few things of interest. In a word or two, the hall sounds immediate and clean with very little reverberation (to my ears, anyway). The result is that the sound has real presence but feels a trifle cold. The reflections are mostly lateral (with very little seeming to come from the very high ceiling) and very quick, which gives the sound great clarity and quite an amazing sense of dimensional precision--if that's the right phrase. What I mean is that you can very clearly hear where the sound of each instrument is coming from. Its position to the left or right side of the stage is quite apparent. For the most part, these seem to be good things.

However, the spatial clarity created a slightly disconcerting effect I've never experienced in a concert hall before. There was a disjunct between the actual and apparent sources of the sound of Bronfman's piano, for example. The actual origin of sound radiating from a piano, I suspect, lies in a small, somewhat diffuse range defined by the midpoints of the strings being struck by the piano's hammers at a given moment. I may be wrong. I'm not a physicist. It may be a range defined by the points of contact between the hammers and the piano strings. At any rate, it's inside the "box" of the piano, not at the pianist's fingers on the keyboard, which is where I think we expect it to be--however wrongly. In other words,  the actual sound source is about two and a half feet behind the keyboard, or, from the perspective of a listener with the piano placed at right angles to the seats in a concert hall, about two and a half feet to the right. Sitting in the fifteenth row (plus the aisle in front of me), I was perhaps 50 feet from the piano. The time difference between sound arriving at my ears from the apparent point of its origin (the keyboard) and its actual point of origin (to the right, somewhere inside the box) must be very small indeed. Ordinarily in such situations the brain easily tricks us into hearing the sound coming from where we expect it, which is at the point of the activity we see (fingers at the keyboard). The result of the very precise sound of the new hall was that Bronfman's playing was unambiguously radiating from inside the piano box, to the right, while his fingers seemed to be doing something entirely unrelated off to the left. That is, the acoustics are so precise that the brain has trouble connecting the dots. The effect was particularly remarkable when the pianist's left hand (further away and often not visible on the lower keys) was running up the keyboard in quick scales while the more visible right hand was playing a different line on the higher keys. The scales seemed like the singing voices of creatures alive inside the black piano case, quite independent of what Bronfman was doing at the keyboard. I regret I was unable to attend the pre-concert tour yesterday led by one of the men that designed the hall.

I imagine my position exactly at the center of the space had something to do with the effect. By pointing it out, I don't mean to criticize, necessarily. I mean it rather as a comment on the qualities of the new concert hall, which, generally speaking, I liked. It's certainly a huge improvement over the sound at the old Luther Burbank Center for the Performing Arts. It will require more visits to our new concert hall to get a real sense of the place, but, so far, I'm encouraged to think the experience there will be good. I deeply resent, however, being asked to pay $10 to park in one of the ample, immediately adjacent Sonoma State University parking lots that normally cost $2 to park in. Parking was free at The Luther Burbank Center. I believe it bad policy to do anything that supports the notion that the arts are for rich people only. Charging for parking helps make live music less accessible to people of ordinary means. It's bad enough having the name of Sanford Weill on the new hall.  

As for the performance, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas led the orchestra in what seemed a clean, correct reading of Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (the French horns stood out for their warmth and their fine unison playing), and Bronfman handled the Beethoven concerto with seemingly effortless aplomb. I wouldn't call Mr. Bronfman portly, but he's not a small man. Words like "nimble" are not the first that come to mind as he walks on stage, yet his playing is wonderfully quick and agile. I very much enjoyed his interpretation of the concerto.

The highlight of the evening, however, was Volkert's Pandora. Pandora is written for strings only and Volkert takes full advantage of the aural possibilities stringed instruments offer, using a range of extended techniques. The piece reminded me of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra--not because of any melodic resemblance, but because of the way soloists and small ensembles within the larger group are momentarily given a leading role before the flow of the piece is handed back or passed to another group or soloist. Although this is "program music" based on the story of Pandora unleashing myriad woes upon the human race, it can be enjoyed without any thought about the narrative content--like any good program music. All in all, an enjoyable evening.

Photo of Yefim Bronfman by Dario Acosta, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.

Tidbits: RIP--Dave Brubeck (December 5, 2012)

I see that jazz great Dave Brubeck died today, a day shy of his 92nd birthday. A long and full life. He performed into his late 80s, I understand. He's best remembered for his album Time Out (1959) famous for its use of odd time signatures (for jazz at least) and for the track "Take Five," in particular. "Take Five" is in 5/4 time, "Blue Rondo a la Turk" in 9/8 time. He's also often remembered as being the first modern jazz musician to be on the cover of TIME Magazine. I was always impressed by his humility when chosen for the cover. He rightly believed there were more deserving musicians who were black (like Duke Ellington). He was, in fact, deeply embarrassed to have been the first modern jazz musician on the cover of TIME (I base this on an interview of him I once saw in which he said as much).

Miscellaneous: Storms Fill Spring Lake to Overflowing (December 3, 2012)

I popped over to Spring Lake briefly yesterday to try to photograph an unusual bird reported there (which turned out to be a hybrid Red-naped Sapsucker x Red-breasted Sapsucker). Storms recently have dumped many inches of rain on us and Spring Lake suddenly filled to overflowing. The park was officially closed, but I walked in to look around a little. I wasn't the only one. The bird I was looking for had been made inaccessible by the flooding. Many of the trails were under several feet of water. A couple of guys on mountain bikes tried to stay on the trails, just for the fun of it. They somehow managed to stay upright (photo below). It was impossible to make a circuit of the lake, though. I contented myself with taking in the novel aspect of this familiar place. Before leaving, I spent a while watching and photographing Nuttall's and Downy Woodpeckers eating Chinese pistachio berries, which is somewhat unusual behavior for these birds. The storm added 2.45 inches of precipitation to our 2012/2013 total, which now stands at 12.65 inches (at my house anyway) as of December 3, which is well ahead of normal for this date (7.43 inches).

[Update: Subsequent rain added another 1.1 inches. The total was 13.75 inches as of 10:00PM on December 5.]

[Update: Since last reporting, we have had another 0.2 inches, bringing the total to 13.95 inches as of December 14, 2012.]

Wines I'm Making : 2012 Sangiovese Rosé Bottled (November 30, 2012)

Didn't quite make it for Thanksgiving, as we sometimes do, but the 2012 rosé from our little backyard vineyard will be ready for Christmas this year--actually, well before; I bottled the wine today.

It appears to be excellent. Good color--a deep magenta pink--with a soft, fruity nose, crispness on the palate and with a solid core of fruit behind the acidity. Delicious. Made only 15 bottles, which is typical, as we have only nine Sangiovese vines, but that allows us to drink a bottle every few weeks, and it's very satisfying to drink wine from grapes you've grown yourself, crushed and fermented yourself, and bottled yourself. Now it's time to design a new label.

Books I'm Reading: The Hinge of Fate (November 29, 2012)

The Hinge of Fate is the fourth volume in Winston Churchill's six-volume history of WWII The Second World War. It is much the fattest of the six volumes, at over 900 pages including the detailed appendices. This volume covers Japan's early victories, and, in the Mediterranean, the long string of defeats the allies suffered in North Africa. As in the preceding volumes, Churchill speaks in the first person and, naturally, from the perspective of the British experience. He again relies heavily on "directives, telegrams, and minutes upon the daily conduct of the war and of British affairs"--documents written by Churchill himself during the conflict, and on replies and responses to the many telegrams and reports he authored during the conflict. These are supplemented by the author's retrospective analysis. He again writes in minute detail and neglects no sphere of activity, even including a chapter on the situation in Madagascar. Madagascar is not a country I'd ever thought of as being involved in WWII, but I was wrong. A considerable amount of the writing involves political developments in England and there is a great deal of material that illuminates the personal characters of President Roosevelt and Stalin through Churchill's dealings with these men. It is particularly interesting to watch the development of Churchill's impatience with what he sees as Roosevelt's exaggerated opinion of the importance of the Chinese and with Roosevelt's somewhat naive approach to dealing with Stalin.

It's only at the very end of this long book that much hopeful news emerges. The allies finally stop the German advance in the deserts of North Africa at Alamein, and the US begins to have some success against the Japanese in the Pacific. Churchill says about the victory at Alamein that it will survive as "a glorious page in British military annals" because of the long odds against success the allied armies faced, but also because "it marked the turning of 'the hinge of fate.'" "It may almost be said," Churchill writes, "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat." Hence the title.

Books about war often dwell on details of clashes of arms, creating the false impression that wars are won exclusively on the battlefield. Churchill sketches battles only broadly, while focusing as much or more on the decision-making behind strategy, on politics behind the scenes, and on such mundane issues as supply and logistics and how they affected planning and the outcomes of the physical struggles we normally think of as the activity of war. I felt a little overwhelmed by the end of The Hinge of Fate. In places it even felt a little tedious. However, while Churchill's insistence on covering all of his activity during the war can be challenging, it ultimately has the positive effect of bringing home very clearly just how important the details are, particularly getting supply and logistics right, and in Volume V, there will much more of this leading up to the invasion of Normandy, a project of unprecedented scale and one that involved a great deal of delicate diplomacy.

Rain: Stormy Weather (November 29, 2012)

A series of storms has been moving through Northern California in the past couple of days. We've had 1.4 inches of rain so far yesterday and today. The wind has been sporadically fierce. The new precipitation brings our total for the 2012/2013 rainy season to 6.95 inches, which is a little above normal for this time of year (6.76 inches by November 29). Average annual rainfall in Santa Rosa is 36.28 inches. The "rain year" goes from July 1 to June 30 of the following year.

[Update: Still raining and pouring rather spectacularly at times. So far, as of noon on November 30, we've had another 3.3 inches of rain. The total--for the time being--stands at 10.25 inches, which is above normal for this date.]