OCRS

The Orange County Recorder Society had a tricky way of having me attend their monthly meeting last night. They played my Zip Code Boogie and wanted me to conduct it. I had heard about this chapter of the ARS (American Recorder Society) since a number of my friends go, but I had never been. 

A meeting consists of a small group playing a prelude, or introductory piece. Then the whole group of people play music that has been emailed to them. I sat in the soprano recorder section. About halfway through the two hours, we break for snacks, which is a little funny since it's probably not great to blow into your recorder after eating a cookie or some pretzels. I stuck with the cranberry juice drink.

Sarah Canary

Earlier this month I guess I really enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler's book enough to see what else she has written, and now that I am finished reading her first published book, Sarah Canary, I will continue to read her books.

Fowler's style is hard to pinpoint - realistic fiction, historical fiction, a little magical realism (not much, but some), mystery and more all blended together. When the world's ugliest woman wanders into a camp of Chinese railroad workers in the 1870s Washington Territories, the workers are not sure what to make of her (she doesn't speak any known language, just funny noises), but they can't just let her go.

I found this review particularly good, and I think I will choose it for a book club at some point since I think it would offer up a great discussion.

The Season's First Rain

There is nothing like being inside, listening to the rain (which we always need) after coming home from teaching. It is especially great since it didn't happen to be raining whenever I was outside with all my music stuff!

Soup for dinner tonight!

Fall

Football weather, pumpkin spice lattes, soup for dinner, sweaters, extra blanket at night. Yes, these are things I love about the changing of seasons from summer to fall. I had to get used to the type of Southern California fall from the Midwest version where I grew up, and with the temps in the 80s today, I might not have considered it fall years ago. But nights are in the low 50s and the mornings are cool, so it definitely feels different than it did just a month ago.

I tried a new soup recipe last night - Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup. After reading the comments below the recipe, I decided to use half vegetable stock instead of water and also put curry on the cauliflower. It was very good, and perhaps tonight I will make some quinoa to put the soup over to add more protein.

Slow Dancing

I think it's too late now for you to go see the art show Slow Dancing projected on Bridges Auditorium in the evening, but I managed to hear about it in time to go see it last night. Three large screens at the front of Bridges each showed a hyper-slow-motion video of a dancer. I got there just before sunset, and the projections were barely visible. By the time I left about 40 minutes later, the dark skies helped  show the colors of the video. 

View of projectors

 Front of projectors

Students walking by hardly looked up at the large screens. Maybe they had already seen it.

Getting darker

Look closely at this photo and see what looks like ghosts walking in front of Bridges. I was playing with settings on the camera, and this is what happened. I thought it was cool.

Full color coming out

Of Rummage and Pinterest

I had pinned this website to my "miscellaneous" pinterest board because I like the various ideas for hanging photos in interesting groupings. However, I am unlikely to be hanging new photos on my wall in the near and even far future, so I took some photos from this morning's Riches and Rummage Sale at CUCC and made this collage, inspired by the layouts.

The sale continues tomorrow from 8-2 where more Riches and Rummage are still to be found.

Santa Ana Winds

The Santa Ana Winds do not come from  Santa Ana, but they ARE very windy. 

Here's a little example of the blustery out at Victoria Gardens earlier today.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

If you decide to read this book (and I recommend it), I suggest you not read any book reviews or press about it, at least until you are just over 1/4 of the way in so as not to hear the main spoiler. I chose the book because our book club is discussing it, so I didn't read anything about it before digging in.

Having just finished it, I heard the NPR interview with the author, read the NYT review (written by Barbara Kingsolver) and read the Q & A on Fowler's website which all reveal the surprise.

This is the most interesting book I have read so far this year (besides Cloud Atlas) and will provide for very lively book club discussion. I think I connected immediately with the narrator when she told part of the story from her 5-year-old perspective. First of all, I really enjoy writing that can get at the heart of the thinking process of young children*. But Rosemary loves to talk, and I know she is not alone in that.

"Fair warning, as it turned out - kindergarten is all about learning which parts of you are welcome at school and which are not. In kindergarten, to give you one example out of many, you are expected to spend much, much more of the day being quiet than talking, even if what you have to say is more interesting to everyone than anything your teacher is saying." - p. 26

*That's why I really like the commericals on tv these days of the guy talking to the group of children. Who else but a kid would think of taping a cheetah to the back of their grandma to make her faster?

Another Little Free Library

When we went into LA for our Peruvian reunion, we met our friends in Grand Park by the fountain which is also right by a Starbucks. In front of the Starbucks and in at least one other place in the park I found these pink Little Free Libraries.

Unfortunately, this little library had only one book. Or maybe that means that people took books out and are reading them, which would mean that it was fortunately.

Mo-Chica

Because we enjoyed the camaraderie of the people on our Peruvian tour so much, we have now officially carried over our friendship into our North American lives. We checked our calendars and found a date that all six of us were available and then chose a Peruvian restaurant in downtown LA in which to continue our friendship and adoration of Peruvian food.

We chose Mo-Chica, a fusion restaurant (with Italian overtones) partly because the menu looked interesting, and partly because they serve pisco sours.

The place was crowded, so I'm glad I made reservations, but that also meant that the noise level was high. Our service was excellent, the food (which are like tapas - small plates to be shared with everyone) was very delicious, and the pisco sours were delcious, but very small and quite expensive. The plates were also on the pricey side, but we decided that it was much less expensive than actually going to Peru.

The pisco sour with the restaurant logo in the egg white foam