Today my "Weekend Adventures" took me to Muir Woods. An incredible area filled with redwoods and with the Redwood Creek flowing though Redwood Canyon. The 560 acre park includes 6 miles of trails. Unpaved trails out of the canyon connect with trails in Mt. Tamalpais State Park. I took the 2 mile loop hike. It was a very nice walk with the talking creek as my soundtrack. I of course took pictures. Two of my best are below. The rest I put in My Photo Gallery. Can you hear the creek?
I took a drive to east San Rafael and saw a great view of the San Rafael Bridge and in the distance behind it was the Bay Bridge. It was just past sunset and I had to take pictures of this incredible view. I took a series of pictures with different apertures and shutter speeds. Each picture has different feel and atmosphere.
Here are a couple of nice shots.
The rest are in My Photo Gallery.
The links within the column "Let's Talk About Me For a Minute" now work. They are:
"My Professional Web Site" - which is a link to my composition and conducting site which includes my cv, my works list and soon audio and score examples.
"All About Me" - which includes my favorite musical compositions, other favorite things and Ericisms.
"Dabbing into a Little Poetry" - which includes some of my poetry I have written that I would like to share.
"My Photo Gallery" - which are pictures I have taken around Northern California.
Enjoy!
My dad had asked before I came down if I would sing with his church choir. It seems like something he wanted me to do and to me it seemed like it had some meaning to him for me to be there. My dad, which I call DD (a story for a later time) will do almost anything I ask him to do and hardly ever asks for anything. So when he asks for something it usually is something he really wants. So I agreed and I went. The music was pretty easy. I sight read most of it and the rest I had sung before. Then back to DD's apt for a goodbye to my family and send off for the journey home. Half the trip was spend talking on the phone to our good friend David so he would not feel left out of our exciting road trip. Of course he was enjoying it at home were he can walk around while we were stuck in a car for over 7 hours. One of which was trying to get out of LA. It seems like every time I go back there the traffic gets worse and worse. I got home between 9 and 10p, got ready for bed and crashed. I did not get up until 12 hours later.
Here are a couple of pictures of the grapevine.
Today was lunch with my Mom's side of the family at Souplantation. This place was (and still is even though I am not down there anymore) a regular hang out for B-Days and holidays. I really like their tuna tarragon, chicken noodle soup and their chocolate pudding (when they have it). Then went back the home I grew up in and played on the piano I grew up with. I sometimes miss my piano. The evening was a concert by azure rising. A group consisting of my brother A. C. (which is his performance name) and his wife Jenn. A great concert. I still really like the sound of Jenn's voice. Then to the Hof's for the post hang out.
I went out with my only brother, Adam, for lunch. We went to BJ's Pizza in Seal Beach. We were seated by the manager. A server got our drink order, left and came back with our drinks. She then asked if we wanted to order sandwiches since their pizza oven is broken. Adam then said with air quotes, "But this is a pizza place." I died laughing. So we left and decided to walk on the pier before heading to the BJ's in Cerritos. The one in Cerritos is new. It was build before I moved up here a year ago. It still has the 2 things I like about BJ's. The great Chicago style pizza and cute waitresses. The great conversation with Adam during lunch made the trip down worth it. That evening I went to a single dance that was hosted by St. Cyprian's SAM, a group I was in charge of when I lived down there. I ran into a lot of people I had not talked to since I move up here. I also had a lot of fun dancing.
This week's "Weekend Adventure" began with the over 7 hour drive to LA. My friend Jules was planning on going down there for business stuff as well a her Spring Equinox party and asked if I wanted to go down with her to keep her company. Since most of my family lives down there and it will give me a change to visit them I said sure. It was a fun trip down. We played music, some of my CD's and some of her's. We both love to talk so there was never a time were neither of us were talking except during a sing along. It was so smoggy that we could not see the mountains of the Grapevine until we were almost in top of them. Getting into LA sucked. We hit "parking lot" on the 405. Since Jules lived in that area and she knows the back roads we exited Santa Monica Blvd and took side streets. We finally got to my Dad's apt and she went on to were he was staying. I was tired and I imagine Jules was even more tired.
This week's "Weekend Adventure" took me to the top of Mt. Tamalpais or as they call it here, Mt. Tam. A 45 minute drive to the top. I took a small detour and hiked up a short trail to the outdoor theater before driving up to the very top. Shakespeare plays and musicals are performed at this theater during the summer. After viewing the theater I drove up to the very top and parked in the parking lot. I then started my hike up to the very top were the lookout tower is located. It is a rock trail for about .03 miles to the top. Once I got there, what a view. Stayed there for about 2 hours before heading down. Here are some pictures of the view I saw.
Here is a view of San Francisco.
Here is a view of my Apt.
A really nice picture. It was taken facing west toward the ocean.
Another person died on Monday who filled the screen with his presence. Paul Winfield also had a powerful and authoritative voice. I personally remember him most as a general and Dr. Franklin's dad on the great science fiction series Babylon 5.
Here is an article about him:
Paul Winfield
Here is a sound file of him from Babylon 5:
Paul Winfield from Babyon 5
I found out this past Tuesday that the master American monologist Spalding Gray had died. It is amazing that there are people performing on stage with all these lights and special effects but are communicating nothing of substance to the audience. If one strips the performer down to just themselves alone on the stage, the performance would actually be boring. Spalding Gray had something to communicate to an audience whether you agreed with him or not and he did it just by sitting behind a desk.
Here is an article about him:
Spalding Gray
Here is an interview of him in back in 1998.
Interview
Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines
One of my favorites this week:
Click to enlarge
I went up on the 101 to Novato because I was craving a Carl's Jr. vanilla milkshake and the only Carl's Jr. in all of Marin County is in Novato. (But yet they have 7 Mc Donald's.) After getting the milkshake I kept heading north on the 101. Before entering Petaluma there was a small side street that looked interesting. By now the sun had set and there are no street lights on this side street. I stopped once to take this picture.
Click to enlarge
Looked too cool to pass up. I then continued on "Bob's Road" seeing outlines of the hills against the slowly darkening sky. After about 9 miles I saw a sign pointing at a street that heads towards Novato. So 11 miles later I was back in Novato and headed home.
