Folk Music Center Open Mike Night

I have lived in Claremont for almost 25 years, and I have never been to the Open Mike Night at the Folk Music Center, until last night. On the last Sunday night of the month, this Claremont treasure opens its doors at 6:00 to all comers and charges a dollar a head. The people signed up to play are given 5 minutes for each act. Most people had a guitar, but we also saw a kazoo, a harmonica and a ukelele.

The performers range in age from young to old, male and female, with a wide range of abilities. The small store was overflowing - about 90-100 people in attendance.

Euro Cafe

Sometimes it's hard to eat healthy with fresh vegetables when you go out to eat. While pondering lunch options today, I thought about soup and salad at the Euro Cafe in the Vons shopping center on Baseline and Mills.

I chose the Euro Mixed Green Salad which was pretty tasty with the feta cheese. But I particularly liked the Tudo soup which means everything. (I think it's like the Spanish "todo" or Italian "tutti".) It did have a a little of everything in it, and it was quite tasty.

After our meals came, our server said that because we waited so long, she was going to give us a dessert on the house, and that we could have it to go, if we wanted. So I chose the bread pudding which is highly touted on yelp, and it is waiting for me to have dinner to try it out.

Orff Workshop Day

Up for fun this morning - an Orff workshop at the University of Redlands. As usual, I came away from the time with some ideas that I can use right away in my music classroom. Those of you who know me from church might recognize one of the workshop participants in this photo....

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Time for some nonfiction reading. I heard about this book by Rebecca Skloot from my daughter, a biologist, and then from a fellow violist in the orchestra. In the 1950s, a young black, pregnant woman in Baltimore went to Johns Hopkins Hospital and was found to have cervical cancer. The tumor was so invasive that the doctor found it interesting and took some of the cells to study. Henrietta had no idea he had done this.

These cells, called HeLa (for HEnrietta LAcks) not only survived in culture, but were so amazing that they reproduced easily and ended up being used in hundreds of thousands of experiments - even to this day.

Skloot took ten years researching and writing this book which is part biology, part biography, part ethics, all rolled into one quite interesting story.

Naughty Kitty Cat?

As I walked a student and her mom to the door today, we noted this cat on the porch. Um, kitty, what bird did you eat, and do you plan on cleaning up after yourself?

Upon closer reflection....the "feathers" look more like patches of fur, so it looks as though kitty was in a fight, which I didn't even hear.

Lusty Monk

Jane from my book club told our group about Lusty Monk Mustard, and I just had to try it. I ordered two varieties - Original Sin and Burn in Hell Chipotle Mustard. With names like those, how can you resist?

When they arrive in the mail, you must put them in the fridge right away to maintain their flavor. I have yet to try the Chipotle one yet, but the Original Sin is mighty flavorful!

Magic of 50

Two joys of turning 50: an invitation to join AARP (although I think mine was lost in the mail) and a screening colonoscopy. Yesterday I found that the prep is inconvenient, but really, it wasn't that bad. I came away with a party favor - 4 pictures of procedure, all clear and healthy. (Sorry if this is TMI.)

Girl With Glass Feet

I heard about this book, The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw, in the New York Times. I am always interested in magical realism and fables, and this story with a nod to the myth of Midas and the golden touch, piqued my interest.

The setting of the book is flavored of Old World, but the boy (Midas) is a photographer and he uses a digial camera, so it's in modern times. The girl, Ida, is hiding the fact that her feet have turned to glass, and is trying to find a cure before the condition takes over her body. Throughout the course of the book, we learn more about the people and their complicated relationships on this small island which has a monochrome patina.

Parts of the book I found intriguing, but then the descriptions would bog down the flow. It's a first novel, so perhaps Ali Shaw will fine tune his craft with the next book.

Renewal

Many years ago when my children were young, I went on a retreat with women from the church to a convent in Orange County. I cherish those memories of a time away to rejuvenate and relax.

This weekend I went with some of those same women and a number of different ones on a church retreat at the Glen Ivy Center near Corona.

Our theme was spiritual friendships, and 34 of us enjoyed a tremendous amount of energy and laughter together. The Glen Ivy Center is a lovely venue with plenty of orchards, a cactus garden, a labyrinth with herbs, a stream, and plenty of places to just be. We all thought it would be great to make this a yearly tradition.

Old Courier Building

The old Courier Building on South College Ave. is slowly being dismantled to make way for affordable housing...