Week 26.5: Guest Post

Hi. I’m the Antisocial Violinist’s Partner in Crime, doing a guest post in the middle of the week as predicted.  Anywho, AV said that I could write about anything at all, from cello playing to how she threw me against the door handle and gave me a lump on my elbow - so here goes nothing at all, just a post about the Uninteresting life and times of AV….

When we were on the airport train, my long hair came in handy. I tried to get off at a stop that I thought was right, but *cough* actually wasn’t *cough*, and if I hadn’t had the hair for AV to grab and pull me back on with, I would have been abandoned on some obscure stop. For some reason I can navigate perfectly well when there’s no one to tell me where to go, but after that, well, things like the above mentioned happen. Well, it provided entertainment for the other train-riders.

My first day, AV took me on a 6-stage multi-cache: the Maltese Falcon! It’s my favourite movie.

Saw a real Maltese falcon, a copy of the original

.

We stopped by Chinatown on the way and I got some seaweed. Now I have to eat it all before I leave, because AV doesn’t want it to stay here; she doesn’t like exotic stuff like that.

Old St Mary's in Chinatown

Canada: the Great White North!

Yum!!

On a side note, I washed her slow-cooker and cleaned her microwave. Now she can’t complain about me eating her food. I guess I do that too, but it should cancel out (sort of) now.

Lunch

We don’t always eat her food, though. My second night, we went out to Sam’s diner and swiped all the orange marmalade. Oh, and we also had dinner there.

 

On my last day, we visited the Sutro Baths. At first when AV mentioned this, I thought that this was a real bathhouse that was still running. But this was something much cooler (in both temperature and awesomeness); RUINS!! Real, live (okay, maybe not live, but real) ruins of a bathhouse!! Photos don’t do it justice at all – it was amazing. 

AV wanted me to take a picture of a dead dragonfly that was floating in the water, but I took a picture of her instead

Weeeee!!

"Hazardous" is one of AV's favourite words

Light at the end of the tunnel

And now it is time to bid you, dear anon, farewell as my visit is nearing its state of termination. Also, I want to go eat more seaweed.

Byeeee!!

~PIC

Week 26: March 23

Discovered another of SF's secret-cool-spots this week.

Most fun I've had in over a month

For bibliophiles: I picked up Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, finished it and am looking forward to Year of the Flood. If you know this trilogy, feel free to email me with your thoughts. If you don't, I highly recommend checking them out.

Elisabeth Reed (viola da gamba teacher) brought in one of her own tenor viols for me to use. When I first tried it (in her words): "Wow, suddenly you don't have a cold anymore!!" So, new viol for me. Yay!

This is one bad-*** case

Shiny!!

This morning I went to the airport and picked up my partner-in-crime. I had to take her to a cello lesson in Forest Hills this afternoon, so I seized the opportunity to drag her up Mt Davidson, which, believe it or not, is the highest point in the City and County of San Francisco. A lot of hills are more famous (Telegraph, Russian, Nob, Bernal, Twin Peaks) but little overlooked Davidson actually has the greatest elevation above sea level.

The partner-in-crime loves photobombing

At the peak

"I can see my house from here!"

Partner-in-crime digging for a cached treasure

Partner-in-crime lost her balance

PsIC

They have a "Sunrise Service" here every Easter. At 5:30am or so. Tempting.

Memorial to the Armenian genocide. There's Armenian on it. Can you hear me, Eva??

The PIC got crowned with a stick

PIC wants to make sure I say that SHE spotted this.

We had a good time. I will probably let her write a guest post in about the middle of the week.

- Antisocial Violinist

Week 25: March 17

This week we had orchestra "readings", which consist of working on pieces for study purposes rather than performance purposes. We studied some Schumann and Wagner.

I find this funny because I'm immature

On Friday I went down to the Mission District, got a cache and celebrated Pi Day with a slice for $3.14. I like the Mission. It's a Hispanic/Mexican neighbourhood, with more Spanish than English on the shop signs, and murals everywhere you look (they're a Mexican tradition). Lots of interesting things to see, that you won't find anywhere else.

Houses in Mission

Mural 1

Mural 2 (there are a lot more of these, but I didn't take pictures of them all)

Sidewalk decorations

Found my lil cachey (yes, that is really it)

Told you!!

These guys had a Pi Day special.....

$3.14 a slice, and the New Yorker was free.

On Saturday I went to Noe Valley. I had never been to Noe Valley before - it's a quiet and pretty neighbourhood. Lots of families live here.

Looking down into Noe Valley

Pretty house on the way

Another pretty house on the way

The Noe Valley Branch Library, my mission destination for today

Miniscule little nano cache in front of the library

Miniscule little log sheet that was inside the cache

Saturday night I performed in my second ever Handel opera. I had never played a Handel opera before in my life, and now somehow I did two in the same week. I guess when it rains, it pours. This production was organized by an SFCM student, and everyone playing and singing was either a student or an alum. We performed in a tiny little black-box theatre whose entrance is hidden in an alley in a very seedy part of SF.

Our promo

 There were eight players in the orchestra and we were sitting on a series of boxes that were stacked up.....four different levels in all. I tried very hard to get a picture of this unusual little venue, but the lighting made it impossible. Luckily a real photographer had come to the dress rehearsal and so I can show you what it was like.

Credit to Cliff Romig. Apologies that this is the only picture with background. The rest are closeups of the singers or of our instruments.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to Yerba Buena Gardens to get a letterbox. I have been to YBG many times, but I had never explored the area where the letterbox was. You can always learn new things about old friends.

I found this quote funny because it seems to imply that all low notes on a keyboard are black and all high notes are white.

I never knew you could get BEHIND the waterfall!!

Stamps are the defining characteristic of letterboxes. This was the YBG stamp.

The "Wishing Tree" garden

Apologies for the late post. I am trying to write an analysis paper which counts as my music theory midterm and is due on Wednesday. Usually I don't write about things like that in my blog posts because I know that you guys are not interested in my homework, in my practicing, or in my complaining (which, collectively, take up a much larger percentage of my life than the awesome stuff I write about here). However I feel the need this week for a lame excuse to explain why the post is late.

- Antisocial Violinist