Philip Glass Concert

Wednesday night I got to go to a concert by Philip Glass at the Mondavi Center in Davis. It was a nice selection of Mr. Glass's work from the span of his career. Some pieces were solo piano, some pieces were solo cello and some pieces were piano, cello and percussion.

I had great seats right in the middle about 10 rows back and it surely is fine to hear someone play a concert grand in a great hall like the Mondavi Center, not to mention the Cello which is one of my favorite instruments.

The cellist was Wendy Sutter a stunning women in her 40's who just so happens to be romantically involved with the 70+ years Mr. Glass. That aside, she was playing this beautiful Stradivarius Cello made back in the early 1600's and which has spent most of its life in the Vatican. You can read about it on her site, but what a history this intrument has had. Thankfully, Wendy Sutter's Cello, unlike Lance Armstrongs bike, did not get stolen in Sacramento.

I think it is time to revisit those Philip Glass movie scores - Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, The Thin Blue Line, Kundun. He has been quite prolific.

Tour of California - 2009

Today was the start of the Tour of California here in Sacramento. It was a pretty big deal, at least in the cycling world. This is the one of the best lineups of riders for any race on American soil that I am aware of. Of course having Lance Armstrong in his first race in the US since coming out of retirement and a hopefully clean Floyd Landis trying to re-establish himself with his new hip and new team helps an awful lot.


It was a little cool day, certainly for the spectators, but it was great to see these guys powering down the streets. Actually what was even more impressive for me was the motorcycle riders accompanying the cyclists. While the bicyclists just go as fast as they can and assume all will be clear in the road ahead, the motorcylists have to stay close, but not interfere in any way, while all the time on the watch out for errant spectators wondering into the streets - very impressive riding on their part.

There was a lot made of Lance's return to racing and there is a big media machine around his Livestrong organization. The scene around his team's warm up area was just ridiculous, with people climbing on vehicles, climbing up trees, just to get a glimpse of the man doing his warm up. The price of celebrity is a high one. Here he is in the photo below.


I actually got some half way decent photos after figuring out how to anticipate where the riders would be when my shutter clicked open. The first few I missed the rider completely and got the trailing cars.

The old guys go skiing...

This weekend we aged and somewhat decrepit guys went skiing up in Tahoe. While George and Dave skied more days, Bill and I were quite satisfied with two half days on the slopes. I did an afternoon at Homewood on Friday, and an afternoon and evening at Squaw Valley on Saturday. Quite enough for my old body. And while I used to relish the challenge of the black runs, these days I really enjoy the easier way down.

That being said we represented ourselves pretty well in the speed department. It's all about conservation of energy and if you avoid the turns and just point yourself downhill it takes a lot less effort. However, it's perhaps a little scarier as I am led to believe our bones are a lot more brittle at our age.


As you can see it was overcast and pretty cold, but nonetheless when the clouds cleared it was quite beautiful.


While there is very little snow up in the mountains this year (we are surely heading for a drought this summer), there was fairly good coverage of man made snow on all the runs. Homewood was nice but Squaw Valley was one impressive resort - I had never seen a 6 person chair lift before - they can move a lot of people up the hill very quickly. And RFID lift tokens were something new for me too - what is more, they seemed to work, most of the time.

Motorcycle Show

This weekend there was a Motorcycle Show in Sacramento, so being a motorcycle owner I thought I would drop in and see what it was all about. Of course, I am a BMW owner and the show was almost entirely Harley Davidson's and custom motorcycles - not the kind of bikes that appeal to BMW owners.


I just don't get the custom motorcycle thing - sure some of them are amazing feats of construction and they are perhaps wonderful to look at but they are not built for comfort and not for speed and there's no way they can be safe. Of course I admit, I was in the minority here. There was hardly a BMW owner to be seen; just noisy Harleys all over town this weekend (I don't get the noisy bike thing either - the quiet purr of my engine is much more appealing). And yes the bikes weren't the only interesting sights - the riders and their partners were equally 'interesting' but I am afraid I need to find a BMW show, that would be more my style.



More photos here.

The Sacramento Bee

Yesterday afternoon I got the opportunity to tour the production operation at our local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee.


We were shown the whole process from the bulk paper and ink coming in on one side of the building, the content being written in another part of the building, this content magically being transferred to the drums of the printing presses and then thousands and thousands of folded newspapers coming out at the other side.

The printing presses are huge complicated machines - lots of heavy moving parts moving in a very coordinated and precise fashion. The adjustment of the alignment of the paper in the press is measured in thousands of an inch - that's a pretty amazing tolerance for such a heavy piece of machinery. I was surprised to find out that the most modern printing press at the Bee was actually manufactured in England, in the Midlands, not far from my home.



The Bee is a strange name for a newspaper, I know, but it is supposed to reflect both the industriousness of the bee and the sting in the bee’s tail. You will probably not be too surprised to learn that The Sacramento Bee is actually the largest circulation newspaper named after an insect – how about that for a claim to fame.

The Infostat Christmas Lunch

Today was the Infostat Christmas Lunch. Yet again we went down to Il Fornio's in downtown - its becoming a tradition.


For this momentous occasion, it was certainly a terrible morning in the office. Just one of those days when lots of support calls came in and we didn't seem to be making any headway. This too shall pass. Happy Christmas everyone.

Pre-Christmas Dinner

Things have been quiet for a while. Not much to report - a trip to the UK over Thanksgiving but nothing memorable to report.

But it's now that time of year when dinners and parties abound. Last night we all got together for a Christmas dinner at Lucca's here in Sacramento. Ostensibly to wish bon voyage and Happy Christmas to Anna, who's going to England, and Jeff and Nancy, who are going to Texas.

Here we all are ....

Oklahoma City....

I just returned from a trip to Oklahoma City. Not one of my favorite places, but when it’s the headquarters of our largest customer, then you have to do what you have to do – besides the people are nice there.

I often wonder what it would be like to live in a place like Oklahoma City – I am sure there are things of interest there but other than the art museum and the memorial to the OKC Bombing I haven’t found them. So my evening’s entertainment was to go to Border’s Books and browse the shelves. I did find a book on the places you should avoid when traveling this world (titled - Don’t Go There). I was intrigued to see if there were any reasons I shouldn't visit Oklahoma City - and yes there were two. One because it is one of the most likely cities to be hit by a tornado, and two because it is a place where the inhabitants have an unhealthy diet (apparently it always features high on the list places where fast food is the staple of the diet). Well we didn't have a tornado, but I did eat at Quizno's.

So anyway after a reasonably successful trip, I escaped back to California. I got to fly first class this time, and, I must admit, I much prefer that mode of transportation. They still feed you, and the wine and drinks just keep flowing the entire time. It’s not that we at Infostat travel first class for business, it’s just that upgrading is the best thing to do with air miles these days – I never seem to be able to cash them in for a free trip, but I have been lucky with using them for upgrades to first class.

Here's a picture of Denver airport - which I always think looks interesting with all those tent like stuctures, and in the late afternoon sun the other day it looked particularly beautiful.

Finally, it's over....

At long last, the deed has been done, and I cast my ballot this morning for Mr. Obama. I am optimistic about the results and I believe this will truly be a significant day for us here in the US.


I was at my polling station by 6:45 this morning and there was already a long line, which all bodes well, I think. However, I couldn't believe after all this fuss about scrutinizing the voting process, at 7:05 they were slowing up the line because they didn't have enough pens. Really wouln't you think that the standard kit would be a box of pens just in case they needed extras? .....Apparently not!

David Sedaris

Last night David Sedaris, the writer and humorist, gave a reading in Sacramento.

I have been a fan of his since the Santaland Diary days on NPR, but had not heard him live before. I must admit I didn't have very high expectations of the event - its just a guy on stage reading from a book for heaven's sake - how interesting can that be? However, he is seriously funny and he had the audience rolling in the aisles. I love his deadpan style of delivery and his almost whimpy nasally voice and he certainly is the master of his craft of a humor writer.

He gave some readings from his own works, most of which, I think, were works in progress, all of which I had not heard before. You could see him penciling in notes as he was reading - I guess he fine tunes his work by reading it over and over again to audiences and then goes back and edits it each night until it is ready for publication.

He also read from a book by another author George Saunders' The Braindead Megaphone. To give a reading of your works and then to branch out for 10 minutes to read someone else's work was unexpected and probably a little unusual. Nevertheless, he had high praise for the author and the book and it too sounded well written and funny.

This was the third performance event of the week - Eliza Gilkyson on Sunday, Laurie Anderson on Wednesday, and David Sedaris on Thursday. Just like London buses, they all come together, now there will be nothing happening until next year.