A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
The Dartmouth Middle School Band (where Alex plays trumpet in the Concert Band) presented a Winter Concert on December 15, 2015.. . . . Alex played trumpet in the Jazz Band and then in the Concert Band.. . . . The band played the following compositions:. . Jazz Band. Flat Tire Shuffle by Dean Sorenson. Pollo Rojo, arranged by Les Sabina . Fat Burger, arranged…
Read More: Winter Concert at Dartmouth Middle School
Ever since I discovered Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox on Youtube.com, I have enthusiastically supported his modern song arrangements.. . When I attended Lehigh University, one of my electives was to study Jazz. I enjoyed the music of the '20s and '30s, especially Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday. It was disappointing to see how current Jazz had turned into elevator music, ala Kenny G.…
Read More: Review: Postmodern Jukebox at Warfield
I have been relatively disappointed with the past few productions at Berkeley Rep, so I had reasonably low expectations coming into seeing "Disgraced" - a play I knew very little about. . . . . . Cast. Isaac: J. Anthony Crane. Abe: Behzad Dabu. Emily: Nisi Sturgis. Amir: Bernard White. Jory: Zakiya Young. . Wikipedia describes it as follows:. . Disgraced is a 2012 play…
Read More: Review: Disgraced at Berkeley Rep
Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted to ride a dirt bike. For one reason or another, there was never any opportunity to do so. Something always stood in the way of my ambition: money, time, lack of equipment, etc.. . Finally, after doing the Intro to Dirt Two-day riding workshop with Brian Garrahan, I decided to purchase my own dirt bike. What…
Read More: Taming the Wild Beast
Having been an active user of Home Theater Personal Computers for many years (running Windows 7/8.1), I was looking for a front-end device that could replace the cumbersome keyboard and mouse. I prefer to have all my media on a separate NAS, like the Synology DS1815+, instead of a big, noisy PC.. . . . . My first significant replacement came with my adoption of…
Read More: Review: nVidia Shield TV
. Today, we saw a musical version of Jane Austen's Emma in the Lucille Packard Theater. The music and lyrics were written by Paul Gordon. The stage was beautifully designed.. . Miss Emma Woodhouse, played by Lianne Marie Dobbs, acted delightfully as the ingenue matchmaker, whose initial success in matchmaking is overshadowed by her later failures. Although obsessed with romance, Emma is clueless about her…
Read More: Review: Emma at Lucille Packard Theater
We have always enjoyed dining at the fabulous Solbar Restaurant in Calistoga, especially when we spent time at the Indian Springs Resort. We have never stayed at the Solage Spa, but Inna wanted to try it, so we booked the "Just the Two of Us" promotion for the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.. . We arrived on Friday afternoon and checked in. The drive from San Jose…
Read More: Relaxing at Solage Spa in Calistoga
Inna purchased two front-row tickets to Riverdance at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts for my birthday.. . I didn't know what to expect, as I had never seen it before and knew Michael Flatley no longer danced in this show.. . We had a great view of the performance from the front row and enjoyed the dancers' energy. It was well-performed and…
Read More: Review: “Riverdance” at San Jose Center for Performing Arts
I usually don't windsurf in November due to the cold weather and lack of wind.. . However, yesterday, I saw a forecast for 25+ knot winds, and I started to get tempted.. The air temperature was 59 degrees Fahrenheit, and I noticed the Pacific water temperature was also about the same (unusually warm).. . I tried it and drove to Coyote Point, my closest windsurfing…
Read More: Windsurfing Coyote Point
As the weather was sunny and mild, I decided to try to mountain bike the Saratoga Gap and Peters Creek trail in Saratoga (starting at the Vista Point parking lot at the intersection of Highway 9 and Skyline Boulevard).. . Initially, I wanted to ride this trail with the South Bay Mountain Bike group on meetup, but there was no space (8 people had already…
Read More: Biking Saratoga Gap and Peters Creek
I have been riding my old 1997 Specialized Ground Control on all sorts of trails for 18 years. It cost me $1,399 back in 1997 when I lived in Sacramento and biked on nearby trails and near Lake Tahoe.. . . . Recently, when it came time to do maintenance, I took it to the nearby Summit Bicycles. The mechanics there told me that my…
Read More: Specialized StumpJumper FSR
I became interested in learning to ride a dirt bike in August and enrolled in the Intro to Dirt class at Garrahan Off-Road Training.. . The two-day class takes place in Hollister, CA, and Brian Garrahan provides all the dirt bikes.. . Day 1 - Saturday, October 24, 2015. . I got up early, around 6:30am, to prepare for the drive to Hollister. My iPhone…
Read More: Intro to Dirt at Hollister Hills SVRA
I have been a big fan of Roku3 and Home Theater PCs for a long time. Although it does not support many video formats, it works well with my Plex server on a Synology DS1815+ NAS. Plex can transcode any current movie/TV format to whatever format Roku (or another front-end supports. . . . . I was excited that Amazon released a Fire TV version…
Read More: Review: Amazon Fire TV and the battery compartment from hell
Dad, or as I affectionately like to call him - Grandpa Neal - first learned of his lung cancer in October 2014, when he was only 72 years old. He had a cough that would not go away, so he went to see his Kaiser Permanente doctor. After doing a chest X-ray, he discovered that he had a tumor in one of his lungs. He…
Read More: Grandpa’s Struggle with Lung Cancer
Wow, this has been a month of many changes. In short, I sold my lovely 2009 Mini Cooper "S" convertible, affectionately named "Chili," my trusty Canon 5D Mark III camera, my MSI GTX 970 graphics card, and my GoPro Hero 3 Black action cam.. . After a few weeks of trying to sell my 2009 Mini Cooper "S" on Craigslist, I tried the Cars.com website..…
Read More: September of Changes
It's been a while since I visited Manresa State Beach - one of my favorite beaches near Santa Cruz. Unlike most beaches, it's relatively close (within a 60-minute drive) and has beautiful white sand.. . . . I hoped for a beautiful family beach day, and the weather did not disappoint. Although cloudy initially, the weather cleared up, and the warm summer sun emerged.. .…
Read More: Enjoying Manresa State Beach
Having seen Phantom of the Opera multiple times before (the first time in Houston in 1993), I was not initially excited about seeing it again at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco. . . However, this new Phantom of the Opera production impressed me, and I was thrilled to see it. It was staged differently from the Phantom productions I've seen in Houston and Las…
Read More: Review: Phantom of the Opera (Orpheum Theater)
"Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty", sings Matilda in her second song. It's one of those memorable lines that are not easily forgotten.. . Inna and I finally got to see Matilda the Musical at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco on July 23, 2015. I frankly wasn't sure that I was going to be able to attend the performance, as I…
Read More: Review: Matilda in Orpheum Theater
The drive from Montreal to Mont-Tremblant took about two hours. Mont-Tremblant is one of the major ski resorts near Montreal, and we wanted to see what it looks like and what activities it offers in the summer.. . When we arrived in the afternoon, we did not realize that Mont-Tremblant had a Blues Festival. I was surprised that a small ski town could host such…
Read More: Ziplining on Mont-Tremblant
We were not originally planning to visit the Botanical Gardens in Montreal on July 4, 2015. However, having finished exploring the nearby Biodome, we decided to take a closer look at the beautiful gardens.. . . . . It was around 5:00 p.m. when we arrived, and the indoor garden exhibit would close at 6:00 p.m. We decided to go in anyway. I am thankful…
Read More: Botanical Garden, Montreal, Quebec