Playing with iMovie

Every summer I write down a list of things I need to get done during vacation as well as a list of things that would be fun to do. Somehow the "need to get done" seems to get in the way of the fun, but I took a few minutes today to do one of the things on my play around list. I haven't really worked with the latest iMovie '11 yet, and I wanted to see if I could learn something new. I have been taking pictures of the progress of the bank building in the Sprouts parking lot, standing in the same spot every time I go to get groceries there. I put the seven pictures into iMovie and found that I could play around with various effects, including aged film, cartoon, day into night, b&w, sepia, negative and x-ray. Here is my 14-second clip of special effects.

Charity Thrift Store

In case you have not seen or heard, the Staples store at Foothill and Towne has moved to LaVerne. In it's place is the Charity Thrift Store. Since I love a good treasure hunt, I am a fan of thrift stores. I often don't end up with anything, but I sure like to look.

This new store may need a little while to get its inventory up to speed, although it seems to have plenty to get going. I will return to it in a month or two to see if the donations have increased.

The Year of Magical Thinking

So. After finishing Blue Nights, I just had to go get Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. I had been refraining from reading this book because of the subject. Who wants to read about what it's like to lose your spouse (unless, I suppose, you need company for your own similar journey, which I don't right now)?

If Blue Nights is not straightforward and chronological, then this one is. At least it's chronological in the way that my mind works. You know how you are talking to someone about one thing, and a tangential thought crosses your brain, and you take that path for a moment (or several) before returning to the original trajectory. Yeah, like that.

For book club a number of years ago we read Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and now after these non-fiction works, I am ready to read some of her fiction. Her beautiful sentences make me want to read more.

Random Friday Photo

If this is not a door, I wonder what it is?

seen at Pomona College

Treme - Season 2

Thanks to the LA County Library (and inter-library loan), we just finished watching the second season of Treme, the HBO show about the life of musicians (and a few others) in post-Katrina New Orleans. I love this show. I love the music, I love the characters, I love the slow pace (which is never boring, for some reason). It is not for children, and some of the content is gritty (although the worst parts are implied and off-screen), but even in the worst of times, I feel uplifted by the spirit of the place.

Now, thanks to Kris and her loaning us her DVDs, we are about to embark on the second season of Downton Abbey.

Blue Nights

Seems I'm getting into the habit of reading a book club selection well ahead of time. I think I picked up this thin book from Honnold so quickly after learning we will be discussing it in August because I have just started a very long book and feel I need to intersperse shorter books in-between.

Nonetheless, I'm sure I will reread at least a good portion of Joan Didion's Blue Nights again just before book club. What struck me as I read this book, an account of Didion's state of mind after the untimely death of her daughter, is that it reminded me, in ways, of Calvin Trillin's book about his wife, Alice, which I read not too long ago. (Turns out that Didion and Trillin are friends.) Didion's style leans away from Trillin's light into her own shadows, but this is not a gloom and doom book, nor is it a straightforward description of her daughter's illness. Rather, it roams through her memories, her thoughts and darker corners of introspection. In some instances, I could readily identify with her, but mostly her life is so different from mine that it was like traveling to another place.

36 Hours in Claremont

I am a fan of the Sunday NY Times travel section, and I usually look over their column entitled "36 Hours in XXX". Usually I find that their ideas of what to do in a city are pretty different from mine, so I decided to make my own column about what I would do for a weekend if I were just to have fun, eat out and enjoy this little town. 

What would YOU recommend for a 36-Hours Claremont stay-cation?

Garden Update

Summer harvest is in full swing.  Here is a little garden update in photos.

The peaches are nearly gone, and great while they lasted.

We are having success with butternut squash this year - first time we've grown it.

 The tomatoes are doing well. I LOVE homegrown tomatoes. They make me buy bacon for BLTs.

 This pepper plant is still growing from last year!

 This year we are getting nectarines from the fruit cocktail tree!

S'more Singing

Right now, I am told, I smell like a campfire. Yet, we have not been camping this weekend. Tonight we went to our first annual (?) S'more Singing at church which I helped organize. We took our fire pit, my guitar, fixings for s'mores, songbooks, etc. and about 20 people from the age of infant to well-into-retirement types, came for marshmallow toasting and singing around the fire. We started out with a song list, but pretty soon people were calling out requests, and we decided that instead of looking up the specific chords to every song, we'd just sing in D Major, and when all was sung and done, it was a good 30 minutes past the time we said we would end, and we had to pack up our stuff in the dark.

Claremont Colleges Photo Scavenger Hunt

Here is an invitation to participate in a free scavenger hunt at the Claremont Colleges. This is the story of how it started.

A while ago, while walking through the colleges, I noticed this relief of an old telephone on the outside of a building. I decided to take a picture of it. As I kept passing by this telephone several times a week, I thought, "I wonder how many people have noticed this?" Then, "I wonder what other things around the campuses are unique or interesting that people may not have seen, even when walking past?"

I thought I would create a little scavenger hunt. People could go to this photo album here and walk through the colleges looking for the items in the photos. For interaction sake, after people would find these items, they could take their own photo of each one and post them online in their own photo album. Better yet, people could create their own scavenger hunt.

Here are some of my observations:

• I did not do this in one day. No one should feel they have to. This could be an ongoing mini-project.
• Pomona, Scripps and Pitzer campuses have so many interesting things to photograph that I had to limit the pictures I put on the site for those schools.
• CMC has a complete dearth of interesting things to see (I had never paid much attention to how ugly that campus is - sorry to you folks at CMC - but really, you need some art, or something interesting for the eye).
• Some of these items are easy to find - some are hard.
• All items are outside, so you don't need to rely on a door being unlocked.

Have fun!

Random Friday Photo

It's easy to follow this advice on a Friday in July!

Home Performance Matters

We are in the initial stages of having our home retrofitted and shored up to use less energy and to feel more comfortable in the hot or cold weather. H found out about this local company, Home Performance Matters and we had them come search every inch of the house maybe about a month ago. From top to bottom, it felt as though our home was having a colonoscopy. A few weeks ago they came by with a report of what they found (lots of leaks to the outside, as we expected, leaks in the ductwork, which we hadn't thought about). This morning they came by to take more measurements of exactly what it will take to redo ductwork, close gaps, etc, and to sign papers to get the ball rolling on energy rebates from the utilities (which they take care of for us). I think the next thing will be to have a report saying just what it is they plan to do and how much it will cost.

I look forward to being warmer in this old house next winter and not paying more money for it!

Defending Jacob

A month ago, or so, the person in my book club who is going to host the September meeting told us that she had chosen this book, Defending Jacob by William Landay, and because it is recently published, she gave us the title well in advance so we could get on the waiting list at the library for it.

Well, I went from being 26th on the list to getting a email saying that it was ready for me to pick up, so I did. I usually worry that when I read a book too far in advance of the meeting that I will not remember too much about it, especially not the details.

I think I might remember this one, though. It has stayed with me for this past week since I finished it. The father in this crime thriller is a DA who must defend his 15-year-old son, Jacob, who is accused of a brutal murder of another 14-year-old boy. (Okay, they hire another attorney to actually represent Jacob, but the father is part of the courtroom drama.) Although I found problems with the character of the father that bothered me, I could not put this 400-page-book down and had to find out what happened.

The primary focus of the book is about the idea that there might be a "murder gene" - a predisposition to violence through genetics. I don't know what biologists/psychiatrists have to say about that, and I could nitpick about some of the other things in the book, but it boiled down to a fun (well, maybe not fun, exactly, but a light and easy) summer read for me.

Joe Platt

Last week Harvey Mudd College lost its founding father, Joe Platt, the first president of the college. We were fortunate enough to have known Joe, and his wife, Jean, since we moved to Claremont 26 years ago. You can read about his achievements in the LA Times obituary here, but I can also add that we consider Joe and Jean to be our role models. We loved his warmth, his quick wit, his graciousness, and the way he gracefully aged, staying active in the community, the church and in exercising.

My favorite Joe story is how he helped HMC become co-ed right from the start. In the mid 1950s the board of trustees was discussing this with him, and someone made the comment that HMC wouldn't really want women in the classroom because, "who would want to marry a woman mathematician?" Without missing a beat, Joe said, "Well, I did." So there you have it.

We'll miss you, Joe.

Wedding Shower

We're just winding down from a fun weekend having flown L down to Claremont from Oregon to throw her a bridal shower yesterday. With 20 people in attendance, we really only had room for everyone outside, and we were thankful that the weather was not nearly as hot and muggy as it had been the two previous days. The borrowed E-Z Up helped keep us shady.

What fun to have worlds collide as we gathered people who have known our daughter since she was one and have watched her grow up, to softball friends, to besties from jr high and high school to a friend from grad school. It's times like these that help us pause and reflect on the bounty that we have in our friends - our community.  We are very blessed.

I don't really enjoy silly games at showers, so we only played one game - How Well Do You Know the Bride? People filled out the questionnaire which had choices such as - Does she prefer Mountains or Beach? Pizza or Burritos? Christmas or the 4th of July? We had 20 such questions, and the two top winners were the friends she walked to school with nearly every day at El Roble and CHS (one of whom who was even a college roommate!). Mom and sister did not play - it wouldn't have been fair.

One of the tricks was figuring out how to get her lovely presents back to Eugene on the plane, but I somehow had an old suitcase (so old it doesn't have wheels) that I kept meaning to give away, so it was perfect (and big enough) to handle the bulk of the loot gifts. We have a little time to figure out how to get the rest of it up the road.

People have been asking me if I am frenetic with wedding plans, as mother-of-the-bride, but since the wedding is in Oregon, L has been making all the plans herself, so this shower was my biggest job, and I am so glad that it was such a lovely event.

Avocado vischissoyice

Looking for a simple and cool recipe for this hot summer night? Try this  vischissoyice which I found in the NY Times magazine.  C has alerted me to the recipes of Mark Bittman, and it seemed that this recipe might be too bland or simple.  It is not.  It is delicious. You will probably have to click on the recipe to enlarge it.

Random Friday Photo

This is what happens when you can't leave well enough alone and take two fortune cookies after dinner.....

Hidden Claremont: Last Drop Cafe

I don't suppose that the Last Drop Cafe is really hidden, but it is quite small, and being that it is on Harvard and not Yale, foot traffic is a little lighter on that block. Nonetheless, this little gem of a cafe produces not only great coffee, but also a tasty lunch. With only a few tables inside and out, C and I had to take our lunch to one of the benches in the little breezeway between the cafe and The Press, but the shade was lovely and the lunch hit the spot.

I had the half sandwich with soup special (comes with a great little chocolate chip cookie). The sandwich was the vegan one which has a very flavorful dressing. The soup was a perfect watermelon gazpacho.

On Plums

The Annual Plum Post

Not too many plums on the tree this year. Not very much plum splat. No plum jam or chutney. 

I thought I'd try a new recipe and found something called Plum Clafoutis - no dough which seemed very simple. Of course, the hard part is "quarter the plums". Anyone know a good way to cleanly get those darn pits out? I marinated the rather squished plums with lemon juice, then cooked over low flame in butter sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnamon.  I don't think this is what is was supposed to look like, but plums over vanilla ice cream wasn't all bad.

The Soloist

I may choose this book sometime for a book club. This is not The Soloist by Steve Lopez about the schizophrenic musician on the streets of LA (although this book has a character with schizophrenia AND it takes place in LA and has to do with a cellist - hmmmm....).

I really didn't know what this novel would be about, except that I've read some of Salzman's other books, and it surprised me that most of it is about a murder trial for which the main character is a jurist. It's also about the protagonist's journey as a concertizing musician gone south, and I am still mulling over the parallels of the two stories, plus the addition of a budding cellist who enters the story.  I would have actually liked more of that story.

I think that book clubs would have much to discuss about this novel, especially about the trial and the idea of insanity and murder.

Hoppin' Friday Night

Friday Nights are where it seems to be happening in downtown Claremont. On Friday I wandered the Village with friends because we had heard that Steve Rushingwind was performing (part of the Friday Nights Live!) at City Hall. So many people were wandering the streets that it almost felt urban, or at least like Colorado Avenue in Pasadena.

We also knew that another friend of ours was having an art opening in the Packing House, so we had to wander that direction also. His artist name is Stephen Patrick, and I didn't even know that he was an artist. His photographs are quite beautiful, and this exhibit will be up through the month of July, so I would recommend that you take a stroll to the Prison Library Project Bookstore in the Packing House (which has a fabulous selection of used books for sale).

So many talented people in our community, and this is just the tip of the tip!

More Murakami

I have been working my way slowly through Murakami's books, trying to savor them as long as I can. I think it will be awhile before a new one comes out since 1Q84 took so long. Anyway, I was enjoying this book, but a little confused by the plot until I read that there are two stories. One is titled Hard-Boiled Wonderland, and the other is The End of the World. Both are told in first person, and I didn't pick up on the subtlety that one is written in present tense, and one past. For me, it is just a pleasure to read Murakami, and I enjoyed this one of his earlier works.

Random Friday Photo

I just liked the way these trikes looked, all lined up and ready for preschool action!

Claremont's 4th

Here are a few of my favorite shots from yesterday's 4th of July celebration here in Claremont.

The field at CMC is under construction, so a few people came early and saved some of the spots for fireworks viewing.

These two little guys seemed completely unimpressed with being in the parade.

Marriage Equality

Steve Felschundneff of the Courier is busy at work

The only "horse" in the parade this year....

Tie-Dye Baby Shower

Where else but in California would you go to a tie-dye baby shower for your yoga teacher?

Little Free Library

About a month ago I blogged about a cute little library on the corner of 9th and Cambridge. Last week the Courier wrote about a Little Free Library that now exists by The Press on Harvard. Perhaps the two little libraries are linked, not only because they both exist in Claremont, but because they are both inspired by LittleFreeLibrary.org? The website has a map of dozens of such little libraries across the US, Mexico, Canada, Africa, Europe, Australia and even Haiti. It even offers a catalog where you can buy your own little box, plans for building such libraries and a place to register your own little book-lender. I wonder how many more will pop up in our neck of the woods?

Shifting Rooms

The other day I was looking at our two bedrooms which we use as my music room and H's study (due to empty nest), and I realized that one room was bigger than the other, and that the piano and pump organ were in the smaller room.... I got it into my head that we should switch the two rooms around. I set up an appointment with my piano movers for them to come help with the heavy lifting and soon the switch was made! Of course, we discovered that both rooms are still pretty small, this being a 1922 bungalow made up of a cluster of small rooms. Now I have the opportunity to think of decorating each room to give us the illusion that we have a new house!

Documentaries

While H was spending a long weekend umpiring in Oklahoma City last weekend, I decided to get caught up a little bit on my Netflix streaming queue.  I watched five documentaries, three worth blogging about. My favorite one, Chops, is about a high school jazz band preparing for a major competition.  I wrote more about that one on my music blog on Monday, June 25.

Last year sometime I heard Kevin Clash on NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me. He is Elmo's puppeteer, and when I saw that there was a documentary about him, I thought it would be worth watching. It most certainly was. Being Elmo is about as charming as you might imagine.

For some reason I had a documentary in my queue (perhaps it was suggested by Netflix, I'm not sure) entitled Bill Cunningham New York. Not really knowing anything about it except that Netflix thought I would rate it a 4, I started it up and then found out it was about the photographer for "On the Street" in the Sunday NY Times. These are the photos of people who are wearing similar kinds of clothing. Bill  Cunningham rides his bike through the streets of NY looking for style and taking photos on the fly.  I also recommend this film about an interesting character.

So, when the heat gets to you this summer, three recommendations for ways to amuse yourself.