Category: Travel

A Journey to the East, Part II

We got off the train in Innsbruck. The train station was very nice, slick and modern yet still welcoming. It was a few blocks walk to the hotel. We’d all gotten new luggage with wheels, which made it pretty easy. The lobby was sleek, classy and warm, all decorated in stone and wood. The hotel was pretty big relatively, maybe the tallest building in the city. We were all the way up top on the 14th floor. There was a balcony at the end of the hall and it was worth a look. Innsbruck is surrounded on all sides by mountains.

Our fist stop was Schloss Ambras, a castle in the hills on the edge of town and former seat of power of the Tyrolean Hapsburgs, notably the Archduke Ferdinand II, Emperors Maximillian I and later Leopold I. The first thing we did when we arrived we get some lunch. Since we were in Austria, it was the first of many wienerschnitzel, served here with potatoes and beer. Very yummy.

The castle itself, like most castles in the area was rebuilt several times, with much of what you see constructed in the 19th century atop older layers going back to the 16th century and parts going back hundreds of years before that. Schloss Ambras is notable for its collection of art and artifacts. One wing was full of paintings mostly of nobles (and their dogs). There was a fully preserved and/or restored chapel with magnificent paintings and carvings on all available surfaces.

Another hall contained a huge collection of arms and armor, with over 50 full suits of armor for foot and mounted combat, and armor for horses as well as humans. Apparently Leopold had a giant in his service at one time, because one suit of armor was for a man eight and a half feet tall! He died died around age 30 from complications of his giantism.

Another gallery, called the hall of wonders, contained all kinds of crazy artworks and artifacts. Sculptures carved out of red coral were really trendy for a while. Also 500 year old taxidermically stuffed exotic creatures including sharks and crocodiles.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were in need of refreshment, so we hung around the bar enjoying schnapps and Austrian beer. A little later we went out for dinner, again walking around and exploring the old town. The pattern in all these European cities is the same; since they’re so much older than anything in the States, predating the invention of the automobile, the new city has grown up around the old town, and it’s surprisingly well integrated. The old towns are all very charming, clean neat and safe, with shops and restaurants for locals and tourists alike. Everyone speaks English and is super helpful. It’s almost like a real-life Epcot.

We had a restaurant in mind, but when we got there we discovered it was closed until September. By this time it was getting late, so we ended up at the local Hard Rock Cafe. I was able to get an Austrian-style burger, with bacon and a fried egg on top of everything else.

…

The next day we explored the Alps. I’d never been there before and had really underestimated the scale and grandeur. I’ve had several friends who’ve been there in the winter and told me that’s the time to go. Obviously Innsbruck is famous for it’s Alpine skiing, so it’s on my bucket list.

We started again by walking thru the old town, one end of which was just a block from our hotel, and getting breakfast as a sidewalk café, cappuccino and croissants. From there we walked to the edge of town (it’s a small town) and caught a ride up the funicular railway into the hills. Funiculars are a big thing in Europe; basically halfway between a train and an elevator, it’s a pretty evolved technology. From there we took a gondola up the mountain and a second gondola up to the summit.

The views were spectacular. The clouds came and went with several opportunities for clear, long distance viewing. Just breathtaking. The mountains are wild and rocky, and you could look down into valleys where sheep and goats and cattle graze, and giant golden eagles circle lazily overhead, with the occasional lone cabin, and beyond that dense forest and beyond that even more mountains until forever. You really felt as if dragons might live on to this day somewhere in there.

We hiked around until we had our fill, and took the gondolas and funicular back down into town. Then it was back to the train station and on to Salzburg.

A Journey to the East, Part I

After months of planning and preparing, we took off on a Thursday night from JFK airport for our big trip to Europe. We arrived in Zürich, Switzerland the following morning. The plan was to work our way east via rail thru Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest. I should point out that Jeannie handled all the research on logistics and the reservations, and deserves special thanks, especially cuz almost everything came off without a hitch and turned out awesome.

The flight itself was comfortable and uneventful. The movie was about superheroes that had lots of explosions but made no sense to me cuz I didn’t see the other 20 or so movies involved in the setup. Something something time travel and a do-over for the apocalypse. Since I’m six and half feet tall and have accumulated tons of air miles over the years I decided to splurge and go business class, and so I was actually able to stretch out a bit and get some sleep. Plus they had some really fine whiskey. When I woke up we were just coming off the ocean over France. Looking out the window you could see how the land usage patterns were different than the States. Much less rectangular, with lots of little villages dotting irregular patches of farmland and forrest like constellations. Eventually the terrain became more and more mountainous and soon it was time to land.

It was a pretty quick cab ride from the airport to the hotel, and so we checked in. Amazing that four people and our luggage fit into a Prius wagon. The hotel was really nice; we had a two-room suite with one room for Jeannie and me and the other for the girls. It was a European style hotel with only four floors or so and a handful of rooms on each floor. We were all tired from the flight so we took a bit of a nap, and then got up and went out to explore the neighborhood. I was expecting a thoroughly modern city, but we were staying in the old part of town. So it was a mix of new and old, with a charming and laid-back vibe, with hills and streetcars, much closer in tone to San Francisco than New York City. We walked past the university, which was up on a hill some nice views. Within a few blocks we got to the historic district which was mainly closed to vehicles, and full of 500 year old buildings and little town squares with fountains. We stopped for lunch, which was quiche and cheesecakes and cappuccinos, in a little outdoor café. Very lovely.

Our destination was a few blocks more: the Kunsthaus Zürich, one of the city’s art museums. I’m a big fan of Albrecht Dürer, and they supposedly had a big collection of his work there. Unfortunately it turned out that most of it was lithographs and because the paper is old and sensitive to light, that stuff is not on public display and I would have had to call ahead to arrange a viewing. Ah well. There was lots of other cool stuff including Mondrian, Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, alot of Dutch Masters from the Renaissance, and alot of paintings of chalets and mountains and cows by Swiss artists. Some interesting sculptures too. Lizzy said it reminded her of the Albright-Knox gallery in Buffalo, and it was of the same scope and scale. All in all very cool.

It was raining when we were done so we took an uber back to the hotel. We were a bit jet-lagged out so we took another nap. When we went out again it was time to look for dinner. At first we were thinking of getting fondu. The hotel restaurant was listed in the city guide as a great fondu place, but unfortunately it was closed because, you know, August in Europe. So we walked around the city to see what we could find.

At first we went down to the river, just a few blocks away, and followed that out the mouth of the lake, where there was a park where we watched the sunset. Quite beautiful. After that we headed back into the old downtown, where there were quite a few restaurants and cafés. We did find a fondu place but they couldn’t seat us for almost and hour, so instead we went to an Italian place nearby. The food was really excellent, and not very different from the Italian food you get in the States. With a nice bottle of wine it was just the thing.

Of course we had to stop in a shop and load up on chocolate.

…

We only had one day in Switzerland. So even though we’re all about clocks and chocolates and cheese, and were especially passionate about neutrality, next day were up bright and early to catch the train to Innsbruck, Austria.

The plan was to take trains each leg of the trip, and I must say it worked out great. The train stations are all right downtown, a short walk or cab ride from the hotels and all the interesting stuff. And there’s not alot of waiting around and standing in line like there is in an airport. So, quick and easy.

The train system was Austria Railjet. The trains are fast too: they get up to 200 km/hr. And they’re very smooth and comfortable compared to Amtrack, Metro North or the Long Island Railroad. Don’t even mention the New York City Subway.

Switzerland, Austria and Hungary are each smaller than New York State in both area and population, so everything is pretty close together. The total distance from Zürich to Budapest is about 1000 kilometers, about the same as from New York to Detroit. This first leg was the longest leg of the trip, about three hours.

And it was a spectacularly scenic leg of the trip. We could have paid extra to be in the observation car, but it was pretty amazing as it was. I’ve never been to the Alps before and had no idea what to expect. I’d compare them the the Sierras in California and Nevada in terms of height and scale. But they must be very new as far as mountains go; erosion has not had time to do much work. The peaks are very jagged, like rows of crooked teeth, with cliff and ravines everywhere. Add to that the fact that this place has been settled by humans for thousands and thousands of years, so the land was not blank like the mountains back home. Instead there were little villages in the crevices and less steep hillsides, and the odd house or church or ruins of a castle in the most improbable spots. Overall the effect was surreal.

We passed thru Liechtenstein on the way. When we were planning the trip we’d considered having lunch there just to say we did it, but there were no train stations in Liechtenstein. There was one on either side of the border in Switzerland and Austria. So then the plan became to head down to the bar car and have a toast. But the country came and went so fast we didn’t even have time for that. Ah well.

Mind Your Language

We’re taking a trip to Europe later this summer for vacation. Last time I went to Europe was quite a few years back, when my cousin Tommy was studying for his PhD at Oxford. Jeannie and I visited him and went to London and around southern England, and to Paris via the Chunnel, which was pretty new at the time. Tons of fun.

This time we’re doing central Europe starting in Switzerland and working our way East thru Liechtenstein, Austria, and maybe Bavaria to Budapest, Hungary. There are several reasons for this itinerary. One is that Jeannie really likes mountains and has always wanted to see the Alps. Another is that it’s an interesting part of the world with lots of history. In particular the Szingers are from Hungary, and before that are of the ethnic enclave known as Transdanbian Schwabians, which means we came over from southern Germany and settled in Hungary sometime after the Battle of Vienna and before of Austro-Hungarian Empire, sometime in the 1700’s as far as we know. Apparently whole villages just packed up and travelled on rafts down the Danube. This is on my Dad’s side. On my Mum’s side — well Hungary has a long, rich and diverse culture, so there’s alot to trace back. Anyway, while Jeannie has been doing practical research on things like flights and hotels I’ve been taking a deep dive into the history of the region, to get a sense of context.

One really interesting part of it is the prehistory of the Magyars in the time the were an semi-nomadic Asiatic tribe of horsemen, and only migrated to (or invaded) Europe sometime around 1200 years ago (or 1600 if you count the Huns and Magyars as brother tribes, as the legends hold). All this stuff is really fascinating and try I’ll get to it in a future post, or perhaps make a concept album out of it. We won’t be going to Asia on this trip, but it’s important to help understand where the language is coming from.

For now the important thing is I’m trying to learn a bit of the languages we’ll encounter on our trip. I’m learning both German and Hungarian at the same time. I found an app called Duolingo which is very well designed and effective, based on daily practice of drilling lessons, much like learning a musical instrument and a repetoire of songs.

I feel like I have a pretty good aptitude for languages. I know at least twenty computer programming languages, I know a bunch of musical instruments and genres, and I’ve studied linguistics back in the day. As for human speech, I picked up a smattering of Spanish when I lived in California, and a bit of French before went there, but nothing approaching fluency. But of course it takes time and practice and repetition and most of all exposure. I’ve always admired people who speak multiple languages, but as an American, well we live in a huge country with mostly one language, and no regional media to speak of, so there’s not much everyday opportunity. Even at work all the foreign-born people speak their own language amongst themselves and don’t share very much. I learned “lak” means 100,000 in some parts of India.

I must say German is much easier to learn than Hungarian, at least at the level of using the training app. German mostly the same rules of grammar as English, and most of the words are single substitutions. Many of them are almost the same: Mann is man, Brot is bread, Wasser is water, and so on. Der Bär trinkt ein Bier. Just say it in English with a German accent and your halfway there. Only thing you gotta watch out for is there’s four different ways to say “The”.

Hungarian is completely different. As I mentioned before the Magyars came relatively recently to Europe, so it’s one of the few European languages that’s not part of the Indo-European language group. It’s related only to Finnish, Latvian and maybe some tribal languages deep in the steppes of Asia. Hence the reading up on the history. It’ helps that I’ve been listening to Hungarian all my life. Everyone in my family spoke it growing up and I still remember some words and phrases from when I was a kid. But even though I have an ear for sound I’m far from fluent.

Like I said, everything is really completely different. The grammar, the sentence structure, the pronunciation, the spelling and writing, the roots of all the words, the sound and rhythm, a few loan words from French and English aside, just everything. I’ve gotten far enough now to appreciate the logic of it, and to begin to be able to understand it on it’s own terms. But translating from English to Hungarian or vice versa is alot more work than German. You have turn the sentence inside-out, and often a single word in Hungarian translates to a whole phrase in English, and usually there’s more than one possible way to translate a word, phrase or whole sentence. Often there’s not a one-to-one mapping of a word. Shades of meanings and different ways of splitting up a field of related concepts.

All this has got me thinking about my own language on a whole ‘nother level. It reminds me of studying English in second grade or so, when the focus as on grammar, spelling and vocabulary. I’m also thinking alot about how concepts map to words and how language is such a powerful and flexible tool. And like I said, the way words and thoughts map from one language to another.

It’s also really interesting to see yourself get better at something in a short time. Sentences that were impenetrable to me a month ago then became something I could pick thru and understand, and then on to something I just recognize and know. This is the way I practice music too. There’s usually some very specific thing to learn like a song or a new pattern, and a larger background of deeper skill, understanding and proficiency.

So I’ve been studying two languages every day for a couple months now. So I’ve gotten past the barest beginning part and starting to get into the real depth. Turning the corner to building vocabulary. I’m sure I’ll be nowhere near fluent, cuz holding a real conversation is a whole ‘nuther level. But hopefully I’ll be able read and hear and understand a bit, and communicate when necessary. Maybe someday I’ll be able to read more of their poetry.

Take Me Home Country Roads

I just got back from a nice trip upstate, visiting my parents and celebrated the 4th of July. Lots of good barbecue and even cabbage rolls. Martin and his family were up there too. The weather was very hot.

I’m planning a trip to Europe later this year that includes a visit to Hungary. I’ve been learning Hungarian (as well as German, more on all this in a future post) and my Dad, being fluent in both languages had been helping me out. He translated a poem by the famous poet Sándor Petöfi for me, although right now I only recognize about one word per line and am still working out the basics of the grammar and nuances of the usage of common words. But I was able to pick thru it.

My Dad has a cousin living in the town he grew up in and I made contact. I discovered the house he used to live in is still in the family. It was destroyed in WWII but apparently they built a new house on the old site. So my Dad started making me a handdrawn map, and I pulled up google street view. The whole thing was kind of mind blowing.

On the 5th we went up to Niagara Falls. It was very crowded. We went to ride the Maid of the Mist. The lines were long and the management of the situation was very bad. I’d been there years before and at that time they gave you a ticket with a time to show up and it all ran very smoothly. Now there’s apparently new management and they just have you wait around in a single giant crowded queue for hours with no shade and no place to sit. It was so bad Michelle fainted and bumped her head and had to go cool off in the Visitor Center, and missed the boat ride altogether. And afterwards it was even worse, with another chaotic queue just to get back on the elevator to go back up the cliff, with people cutting line and hopping over fences and very bad crowd control. Oy!

That evening we visited my friend Chris down at Lake Chattaqua. I hadn’t seen Chris in years and it was good to catch up. He was the former keyboard player in my 80’s and early 90’s prog fusion band Event Horizon. He’s looking well and still playing music, going thru changes in life as we all are. He’s in the process of buying a grand piano and putting together a new home studio.

The scene at the lake is very nice, total cottage country. There was a little row of restaurants and bars on the waterfront with live music. Reminds of Lake George. There was a band there, a power trio and everyone sang. Excellent harmonies, I wish my rock band sounded that good. The surprise hit of the night was Never Been Any Reason by Head East. They totally nailed it.

On the ride home we were caught in the jaws of a huge stormfront for most of the drive. Hours and hours of the most torrential, tempestuous downpour you’ve ever seen. Very nasty. Finally we broke free and it was nothing but blue skies. But then after we stopped for lunch the storm caught up to us and the last part was raining again.

Just Like Heaven

I’ve been putting in a ton of effort recently for the Global Jukebox, for an upcoming push to live and a designing and spec’ing a subsequent new feature set for education that we’re planning to deliver this summer. I’ve also finally had the time circle back and properly learn the keyboard parts for a bunch of tunes that we’ve recently added to the rock band set list, and practicing vocals too.

But the main event for this post is that I just got back from Origami Heaven in Stonybrook Long Island. This is a regional origami convention that his been more fun and interesting for me every year. Unfortunately, it sounds like this will be the last year because it’s alot of work for the organizers. Thank you Shri and Rachel for putting on a great convention all this time.

I spent most of my time hanging out with Ryan Charpentier and Paul Frasco. Plus there was a group of people from L.A. and Pennsylvania who turned out to be interesting and alot of fun and coming from the ComiCon scene.

I taught two classes. One was my blimp. This time I took a two-hour session and it worked out well. The class was smallish and there were a few non-expert level folders, but I was able to give everyone enough instruction that they all ended up folding a nice model. The other model was my Platypus, which also went over well.

Saturday night a few of us were hanging out at the hotel bar, and the chef who was preparing the dinner came out and asked us to fold a couple models for him. One was a dinner plate, for which I came up with a new, nice design.

A few of us stayed up talking and folding well into the night. I created another new model, a Catamaran, inspired by our recent sailing adventures in the Caribbean.

An aside — by coincidence, the night before Jeannie and I and Jay from my jazz group wen to see T. S. Monk at a place called the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown. They’ve been open about a year and I’ve heard it’s a great place. Jay does a better job than I do of keeping up with what music acts are coming to town, so he often invites me to shows. The T. S. Monk band was great, and featured a lineup of three horns, a tenor and alto sax, and a trumpet, plus a rhythm section, and they brought out a vocalist who could scat like Ella. T. S. himself plays the drums, and they did alot of tunes by his father famed piano genius Thelonious Monk. The piano player in the band had a very unMonklike style, smooth and lyrical rather than angular and percussive. It fit the music very well.

Anyway on the way out of the venue we ran into my friend Bob who was waiting to get in for the late show. It turns out Bob, who is big into sailing, had just got back from a trip to the Caribbean too. He was sailing for two weeks on a 40′ Catamaran that he hired with several other couples. He described it as “an RV with sails”.

So I had sailing on my mind, and was vaguely toying with the idea of making an Origami Sun and Sea book to follow up my Origami Air and Space book. I’m very happy with the way this came out. I can be folded in less than ten minutes and works with all kinds of paper.

Michelle joined us Sunday morning and at lunchtime we walked around the Stonybrook campus, to the weird torus mandala sculpture. She had a robot competition Saturday, and her team qualified for the nation finals. They would need some kind of (probably corporate) sponsorship to get there, to pay for transportation and lodging. I think I’ll ask my boss if the company is interested.

Meanwhile the ComiCon people asked me if I was interested in design an origami model for the Funco Pop figures. I guess one of them works there. That might be interesting…

Island Time

Happy that we’re now into the second half of winter. Lots going on.

First off, Jeannie and I enjoyed a long-weekend getaway to the Bahamas last week. We stayed at a little resort right on Cable Beach in Nassau, right next to where they filmed the movie Help!. This the the third time we’ve been down there, and all three times it’s been when Jeannie’s birthday falls on a Monday. Interesting to see how the place changes over the years. The big new thing this time was a giant resort popped up right down the beach. Last time it was under construction; now it’s fully operational. Luckily our cozy, sleepy stretch of beachfront remains undisturbed.

The trip was lovely, a perfect and total break from everything to shake off the winter blues and relax in the sunshine, gain back some health and enjoy the food, drink, music, pool and hot tub, and the beach and the sea. The weather couldn’t have been better. The food was yummy and interesting, with everything having a local flavor. A good example was the jerked chicken sushi roll. Also lots of fish. And unlimited open bar the whole time, with lots of frozen rum concoctions and local beer.

We went out sailing, which was super fun. The resort lets you take out a small Hobie Cat and breeze around the bay. I haven’t operated a sailboat in years, probably since the last time we were at the resort. But I got the hang of it again soon enough, and it was fun and relaxing.

We also went on a boating expedition with diving and snorkeling. Got a drive-by of a handful of local islands and saw some dolphins. Then we swam around a reef and saw some coral and colorful tropical fishes. The colors were predominantly yellow, blue and purple, very different than an above-water palette. Very cool. The last stop was another reef on the edge of the bay, beyond which was deep water. For some reason sea turtles like to come up out of the deep and hang out at this spot, so we had close encounters with several of them. Super awesome!

…

The night before we left my jazz group Haven Street played a gig at a place called Silvana in Harlem. This was my first gig in Manhattan since the 90’s. Things haven’t changed, there’s still five bands on the bill and you only get to play for an hour. That said, it was a cool venue and the people dug the music. We played one condensed set of our best stuff, which we know inside and out. We have no jazz gigs lined up in the next few weeks, so I think we’ll be focusing on new material. I have a couple new songs to bring in.

We’ve also played another rock gig one we got back home, this one back at Victor’s. Pete is now getting more comfortable on drums, and we introduced three new songs. I like the fact that we add several new songs every gig. Continuing to get tighter and tighter, too, refining the arrangements.

Still more news to come, must save for another post.

Wonderful Christmastime

Okay let’s see. Out with the old and in with the new year. 2019 wow. Our troubled world keeps on spinning, weaving its joys and sorrows into the fabric of our lives. We’re back into the groove with the new year, with its new demands and challenges. Things already happening fast. Work has been busy, I guess you could call it a kind of comfortable chaos, the Devil you know. Lizzy had been showing initiative, getting things done during her winter break, painting furniture, redoing her room, throwing away stuff. She told me she wished she could find some kind of work for a few weeks, and Anna said she needs some help with the Global Jukebox. So now she’s interning there.

Rewinding a bit, we had a nice break for the holidays. Christmas Eve mass at Christ Church was absolutely beautiful with the choir doing Lessons and Carols. On Christmas day we visited family on Long Island and watched the classic Christmas movie Die Hard, which doesn’t really hold up well and makes no sense. Jeannie and I watched a few of the old Rankin and Bass holiday specials too, including the one with Heat Miser and the one with Burghermeister Meisterburgher. It turns out the actual animation for a lot of those was done in Japan. One of their last productions made was the 1977 cartoon of the The Hobbit, which was the thing that got me into Tolkien and Middle Earth as a kid. (Compare cartoon Gandalf to the Winter Warlock.) Shortly thereafter the animators founded Studio Ghibli and began production on Nausica: Valley of the Winds.

We went upstate after Xmas to visit my parents. Martin and his family were there too, so it was a really full house. When were unwrapping presents my Mum mixed up my little 3- and 5-year-old nieces names and chaos ensued. Ah, fun times. I got to play chess with Martin and my nephews too. I haven’t played in a long time, wish I could play more.

We met up with Larry and Jackie one night and went out to a restaurant in Hamburg called Grange that had a Cheese Describer to enumerate and describe the cheeses in our appetizer. One was described as “the most adventurous” along with a slew of adjectives. They also had raw scallops and other weird food, all really great! Michelle got a plain pizza. We visited Denis and Sarah while we were up there too, which is nice cuz we haven’t done that in a couple years and their kids are getting bigger.

Unfortunately I’ve been sick off-and-on since the day after Christmas. One thing after another. Shoulder, stomach, back, head cold. Comes and goes. It’s the cold and dark time of year. But you know, emotionally and spiritually okay. Now my feet are hurting again after being basically okay for over a year. Hope it passes soon. I’ve been trying to relax and take it easy. Luckily I had a few days off and I can work from home when I need to.

We had to give up on getting the Honda fixed at the Honda dealer. We took it there three times and they didn’t do anything, and lied about the service they performed, wanted to charge us $600 to change the spark plugs. Bad scene.

After we got back we had Nick and Lisa over one night, good to catch up and good fun. New Year’s Eve was fun too. Jeannie and I went out to dinner with Gina and Andy from the rock band to see our friend’s band Sue and the Fun Ghouls featuring the inimitable Shredder on guitar. I knew Sue, Shredder and the drummer George from ICS. My other friend Mike is gone and they have a new keyboard player, and she’s really good too. They’re one of the best local bar bands in Westchester and they played a great set. Good to see them and it was a great time.

I got my record made and it’s now available online. More on that next post.

Also a reminder my jazz group, Haven Street, is playing this Saturday night at the Green Growler in Croton-on-Hudson. Last rehearsal, first time back in the new year, we put together a set list. Everything sounded great. Not just my playing, the whole group was really on. Jazz is funny cuz improvisation is so central the whole thing. You memorize all this stuff to have at your command just so you can forget about it and be in the moment. When you’re not playing you’re best you get the feeling you’re falling back on canned riffs, and it’s still pretty good. But when you’re really on it’s like magic, taking flight, beautiful and expressive and spontaneous. We’ve been able to hit that level more and more consistently, so I’m expect it’s going to be a good show.

What Keeps the Planet Spinning

Been busy. A week ago we went upstate to visit my parents, and also Lizzy at college. It was a fun trip, and Lizzy is doing well and having a good semester. While we were up there we took a trip to my uncle Ron in Welland and celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving along with that side of the family, including my cousin Tom, whom I haven’t seen in years.

We all caught Lizzy’s cold on the trip and been trying to shake it off ever since. Meanwhile back home Gina caught cold too, so we had to cancel our gig last weekend. We also had to kick out our guitarist, so now we’re looking for a new guitar player again. We don’t have any gigs for about six weeks, then it’s a run of four gigs in a row in late November thru mid December. Hopefully we’ll find someone.

The weather is turning cooler and it’s dark in the morning when we get up and in the evening by suppertime. We finally took out the air conditioners and had to start running the heat in the morning. And there’s been a ton or rain. At least Sunday was nice and clear. I took the Mustang out and Jeannie and went for a hike, first up around Kensico Dam and then a woods nearby called Cranberry Preserve, which has a stone quarry that looks to be where they got the stones to make the dam.

OrigamMIT is fast approaching. I’ve been diagramming my new Blimp, which I’m going to teach there and contribute to their collection, and is going to go in a future book.

The Black Pearl

Well summer is ending and fall is coming. The kids are all back to school, and today for the first time the weather dropped down into the 60s after being pretty much solidly in the 90’s for the last three months. We ended the summer with a trip to Ocean City. We used to do this every year but haven’t been in a few years, so it was nice to go back. It’s not the same now that the kids are older. Lizzy wasn’t there at all, and the amusement park and water park isn’t really a thing anymore. Still we had a good time, swam in the ocean, walked down the boardwalk, had a couple nice dinners and hiked around Assateague National Seashore.

One bit of business left from the summer we finished up this weekend was the D&D adventure. The module is the classic The Isle of Dread, adapted to 5th edition rules. If you recall we started it on the cruise back in July. By the end of the cruise the party had reached the entrance to the dungeon on an island in a lake in a volcanic crater on a mountaintop in a jungle on an island in the far reaches of the tropical ocean. It was the setting for the final climatic chapter. We played on session in August in which the part cleared out the cannibals living in the upper level of the ancient temple and found some treasure and secret door leading to the hidden chambers underneath. It was here that the final session began.

The macguffin for the entire quest was a giant black pearl. The lower level of the dungeon was filled shoulder-deep with water, so the players knew they were getting close. They happened upon a giant flooded chamber in the temple inhabited by sharks, but were forced to turn back. A little while later they opened a secret door which drained the water from most of the corridors. They were able to return to the shark room and now stand at the top of a stairway in water up to their knees or so. The sharks attacked but the players could fight back. Meanwhile on the other side of the room the party spotted a giant oyster, which must surely hold the pearl.

Abby, a halfling rogue, attempted to scale the walls to reach the terrace with the oyster, but unfortunately failed her dexterity check and splashed into the pool. Meanwhile the sharks turned out to be tough opponents, and even standing on stairs the party was fighting at a disadvantage. They threw everything they had at the sharks: hammers, axes, maces and magic, slings and arrows. Interestingly the two front-line combatants for this melee were Lou, playing Carmine the Invincible, a dwarven fighter whose main weapon is an axe, and Michelle, playing a cleric acolyte of Thor, who usually wields a hammer but for this encounter was trying out a newfound +2 mace. No swords. Michelle has studied the rulebooks and figured out how to maximize her spells and special combat abilities, and is already pretty formidable at second level.

It took a few rounds but Michelle had killed one shark and Lou had reduced the other to a single hit point. Meanwhile Abby had swum to the giant oyster and attempted to snatch the pearl but ended up getting trapped inside the oyster and was presently trying to stab her way out with a pair of daggers. That same round, as luck would have it, both Lou and Michelle rolled a 1 on their attack, and so had to make a dexterity check or fall off the stairs into the depths of the pool. Both failed their check fell in, and both were wearing metal armor, so they couldn’t swim except at a great handicap. Lou was then attacked by the shark and reduced to zero hit points. Katie and Valerie dove into the water to attempt to rescue their drowning companions.

This left Philip, the party’s wizard, as the sole front-line warrior. He had used up all is spells and his daggers were lying in the bottom of the pool. His only remaining weapon was a triangle. Now normally a triangle is really a musical instrument, but I figured the situation was desperate and anyway it’s made of metal, so I’d allow him to attack with it for 1-2 points of damage. So Philip dives in and clocks the shark right between the eyes, finally killing the monster! Soon after Abby succeeds in escaping the oyster with the pearl. Wow, what a great combat.

I had thought about all kinds of nastiness or twists of fate the could befall the party on the home voyage, some event to launch then into the next adventure, but I sensed everyone was eager to see the story come to its resolution. So I was nice and they returned without further incident to the very harbor town seaside pub in which the quest began, again sitting face to face with the aged and grizzled pirate Rory Barbarosa. He kept his word and paid them handsomely for the pearl, and let them keep the rest of the treasure and magic items they gained.

Now Michelle wants to DM, and wants to create her own module, so we’ll see how that goes. She’s got to do a bunch of reading and design if she wants to go that way. I’ll probably end up helping her. Hopefully we’ll be ready to play sometime this fall. I’ll need a character to play. I’m thinking of using Barbara Barbarosa, a.k.a. Babs. She was an NPC in the campaign, Rory’s daughter and the captain of the ship the party sailed to Isle of Dread, recently converted by Michelle to the cult of Thor.

Don’t Ask Me Why

Well we’re getting into the home stretch of summer. Lizzy is back to school; Michelle has one more week of vacation. Things have been pretty mellow and relaxing, but at the same time really busy.

One thing we wanted to do this summer was go camping. We didn’t get a chance to go last summer at all, and the summer before it was just one quick trip. Now the kids are older and the other families we used go with, well their kids are older too. So this time it was just me and Jeannie, like when were in California. We were up in the Catskills, so Martin and his kids came by for the afternoon. And we did get to build a fire and go walking in the moonlight and do a little hiking and commune with nature and have a nice trip thru the countryside. Well hopefully we’ll have a chance to do more of it next summer.

Our streak continues — six out of the last six bands we’ve seen have had a trombone player. We saw Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden last week, his hundred and first show there. Lizzy was originally supposed to come, be Jeannie’s sister Mary came instead. It was a good time. I worked in the city that day and we all met up for dinner. The show itself was great. We him recently, or at least it feels like it; it was four and a half years ago. So it was basically the same band and the same show. The band of course is excellent, nine players including horns, percussion, multiple guitars, a second keyboardist, faithfully reproducing all the sounds on all the records, and jamming it out and bringing it alive. And Billy Joel has become a much better singer since the days when he was making records. In the first half of the set he tends to mix it up and play alot of his deep cuts that I’ve never heard live before, and sliding into a batting order of hit after hit by the end. Billy is also a monster pianist, but because the songs are so tight most of his virtuosity comes out in random snatches of improvisation between songs, where he’ll suddenly riff on some Art Tatum or Rachmaninov.

Work has been busy. We’re preparing for a major release and it’s all bug fixes and chaos. I guess it’s not as bad as it was this time last year. And you know, at least I’m healthy. We’re also really active with the Jukebox these days, preparing for a major release with alot of new feature work and far less chaos.

The jazz group Haven Street has a few gigs coming up, including one in Brooklyn in October. We’re also starting to plan out or next album and recording date. Everyone is going to be missing a rehearsal or two the next couple weeks but we’ll hitting it in September.

And the big new thing is my new rock band G! Force. We’ve been rehearsing for a couple months and have thirty songs down. Our first gig is in September and we have several more after that. More on the group, the lineup and the setlist in a future post. But for now I’ll tell you it’s a fun and very exciting project, and it’s sounding great, and it’s going to be a busy fall for music