November 29, 2015

This week I got to go on an awesome camping trip on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County. We stayed at a walk-in campground that's pretty central to the park and went on some fun hikes. The first day we went down to Steep Ravine cabins at the ocean, hiking down on Dipsea and back up on Steep Ravine.

Panoramic shot

Gnarled tree

Steep Ravine cabins

Cliffside by ocean

More cliffs

HA!

Someone left a rose  in the streambed....

The second day we got an earlier start and did a big hike up to the East Peak of Mt. Tam via Northside Trail and back via Fern Creek and Old Railroad Grade Fire Road. Apparently in the 1880s up til 1930 there was a Scenic Railway that would take you in a train up to the peak, and you could ride a gravity car down. I wish I had a chance to do that. From the peak you can see for miles in every direction, the city and all of North Bay and way out to sea.

Arbutus?

From the peak

Also from the peak

What we called "blood trees"... Is this really bark??

Water pump at "Water Pump Trail"

View from the fire road

Sunset

The third day we took it easy, packed up in the morning and went on a hunt for airplane wreckage. In 1945 the Corsairs were practicing squadron formations and two of them crashed midair. Both pilots parachuted to safety, but the planes were smashed and scattered over a wide area on Mt Tam. A lot of the wreckage has been plundered by souvenir hunters, so the wreckage sites are now national property and it's illegal to remove pieces. Fortunately someone decided to make a multi cache out of some of them and gave directions (not coordinates) to the sites on unmarked trails.

Engine

It took us a while to figure out the right numbers and get final coords, but so worth it to snag the cache, which was way off any marked trail (we reached it via game trails and bushwhacking). The final was at the top of a big meadow, so we took a shortcut down through the open territory and joined the main trail at the bottom. Caching will take you so many places you'd never see otherwise.

Not the cache, but close

 It was pretty cold all three nights and we cooked dinner in the dark and went to sleep at 8 or 9 because we were so tired from hiking and because there was really nothing else to do. Ideal life. Back to school now, sigh....

- Antisocial Violinist

November 22, 2015

Finally we're on Thanksgiving break, and finally SFCM is giving us the whole week off!! I had a productive school week of getting up early and working hard. Finally on Friday evening I spent a couple hours reading Bach sonatas with a pianist friend, and then headed back to the dorm for a little dinner party. I had a great time with fun people and got home late. Walking along Ocean Ave I spotted this gem.

Pretty sure that's neither Franco-Flemish nor Russian

Yesterday I cleaned my house because my housemates are finally gone and so I can clean undisturbed and know that my efforts will not be for naught. Since none of us have a vacuum cleaner I had to go over the whole carpet with a lint roller. If anyone wants to laugh at me, please provide me with a better solution.

Saturday morning I volunteered to help with a turkey drive at church. We collected about 250 turkeys (counting cash donations) to feed over 3000 people.

Dressed for the occasion

Then I went caching along Embarcadero to Mission Bay. Got about five caches and saw the sun go down.

Sunset over Mission Bay

Too good not to post

I'm looking forward to an excellent break, starting with my mother's arrival shortly.

- Antisocial Violinist

November 15, 2015

This week I had a couple gigs ushering for Philharmonia Baroque. They were playing Brandenburg concerti and there was an interesting observation in the program notes:

Friday I organized a group expedition to Golden Gate Park. There were five of us, a nicely sized group, and we had a very enjoyable dynamic.

M "smacking" a packet she found in a cache. When you smacked the package it was supposed to explode and a balloon would jump out and inflate. We are all standing back.

M on top of a tree stump she insisted on climbing

View from the tree stump (we all made it up eventually)

This guy isn't a cache!

Some tree sap icicles

Majestic

I am currently reading three books and they are all non-fiction, new for me. The first is a huge book about Stravinsky and the Russian traditions that I read at home because it's too big to carry around. The second is a book about solo Bach; it's a performance guide with music history mixed in. The third is about wildlife in rivers. There's crazy stuff in there. Life is just crazy. So alpine brooks flow really quickly and are always falling over rocks; they have no backwaters, no surface film and very little sediment on the bottom. But the larvae of some insects can live in brooks by spinning little silk mats on rocks to hold onto, or spinning nets that catch food particles. Caddisfly larvae build protective cases from rocks or twigs that also act as anchors in the fast water. Cases that are made of rocks include long narrow stones inside for ballast, and twig cases have "rudder" twigs on the ends that keep the case facing upstream towards the food. And all this is high up in the mountains where you wouldn't think anything could live. Crazy. The whole book is like that. It's better than a novel.

Yesterday I went to Berkeley early to do some caching on the UCBerkeley campus before my ushering duties.

The University Library

Tree's leaning on the concrete

This afternoon I performed a Vivaldi concerto (Il Favorito) with the SFCM baroque orchestra (on a concert with three solo and three orchestral concerti). It went over really well - a highly successful performance. Even Ian liked it. The patrons were very enthusiastic and I fielded many compliments. The band has really pulled together and it's awesome fun to play together.

- Antisocial Violinist

November 1, 2015

Guys, remember the article I mentioned last week, about how A-440 is Nazi tuning?? Well guess what, on Friday there was a group of people outside SFCM who were lobbying for A to be lowered to 432!! I was in class all morning and did not get to see or talk to them, but I heard about it from friends. Apparently they had set up a table and were handing out brochures. I couldn't believe it. Once I get over feeling confused, I'll probably think it's really funny.

On Monday Ian wanted to have a studio pizza party so we did. This is us playing charades on someone's phone app.

We tried to participate in "SFCM Spirit Week" by wearing matching Bach shirts on "Twinning Tuesday".

Friday was not a dull day. Besides the Schiller Institute people lobbying for A-432, there were all sorts of costumes at school.

M as Charlie Chaplin

I rehearsed a Handel aria entitled "Thou Shalt Break them with a Rod of Iron". The tenor was singing it while dressed like this.

Then there were these decorations at the symphony (M and I went to see Gidon Kremer play Bartok 1).

 On Halloween, A and I went on a ferry ride to Sausalito. We had lunch/dinner and cached around having a great time. The last cache we went to find was in a residential area (I made a foray into someone's backyard - oops) and it took us a while to find it. We became agitated as the sun went down and the 6:45 departure time for the last ferry drew near. Finally I located the cache with my flashlight app. We then jumped over a stone wall to take a short cut and RAN all the way back to the ferry terminal. Made it just in time. My best Halloween yet.

- Antisocial Violinist

October 25, 2015

Last Monday was open classroom day, which was stressful. All these strangers walking around and watching classes. We had seven people sit in on our literature class, which is more than the number of students. Also we had to set up the orchestra in the most awkward way ever, with extra chairs scattered throughout the orchestra so that donors could sit amongst us if  they wished to. They did not seem to wish to and most of the chairs went unused (there was one tenacious old lady who stuck next to the cello section for the entire rehearsal). Sigh...

Partial map of the orchestra setup - the green chairs are extra donor chairs

I went to opening night of the Magic Flute. It was in English, which was a shock, and the sets and costumes were very modern and abstract-looking (the sets consisted of floating circles or coloured stripes or squares projected onto film). Lots of bright colours, primary colours. It looked like Alice in Wonderland; a fantastical crayon world. I liked it. Very imaginative.

On Saturday I was presented with two highly interesting but just as highly suspect tales from the music world. One was that Shostakovich was shot in the head while serving in WWII and had a piece of metal lodged in his brain for the rest of his life. According to the yarn, Shosty didn't want the shrapnel removed because it enabled him to hear melodies when he tilted his head, which he then used in composition. However there is zero evidence to support this story.

The other fascinating article I read was about how A-440 is Nazi tuning and A-432 promotes world peace. Lots of evidence for this one, but much of it seemed somewhat circumstantial. I have my doubts, but it would be cool if it were true.

This morning I played in a handbell piece in a Presbyterian service. So cool, and the organist has mad skillz (he's the director of ABS).

Foggy morning

Handbells

And of course, keeping you current with SFCM life...

I feel like student council is trying really hard to turn us into a "normal" college...

What is "applied violin"?

- Antisocial Violinist

October 19, 2015

A week of intensive rehearsals culminated in an "open rehearsal" on Sunday. Our conducting student was on the podium and Scott was coaching all of us. It wasn't a concert, just an opportunity for the public to see what a rehearsal is like. I've been keeping busy with research and rehearsals but need more practice time. On Saturday night I made some Bach and Rameau aria recordings with a singer (she needs them for auditions). I am pleased to be doing more Baroque projects and making more connections.

Here are some random photos from school and around.

We must be at a music school

Yet another way to spell Tchaikovsky

These people are in a MASTERCLASS. Someone is PLAYING. Why are you on your LAPTOP!!!

Prokofiev's account of premiering his Second Suite from R+J...

!!!!!!

I'm  trying to teach A to play the gamba, but that foot positioning can't be right....

- Antisocial Violinist