Jan's and John's Peripatetic Adventure

King Arthur in California

John is in Japan and I'm in California continues...

This evening, my friend Teresa and I went to see Purcell's King Arthur at Zellerbach Hall at the University of California.

It's the same production John and I saw in London at the English National Opera this past June. The Mark Morris Dance Company is always fabulous, I just love them. This time the orchestra was our favorite Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, which includes many of our friends so that made it even more fun.

No reception afterward this time, or none that I was invited to, so I didn't get another photo op with Mark Morris. I'm sure that was fine with him (smirk).

Tomorrow: London!

More John in Japan

... and I'm in California continues.

John and I talked via Skype this morning (night time for him) until it mysteriously stopped working so then he called me on the phone. His visit to Japan sounds fabulous and he's meeting some of the nicest and most interesting people ever.

I found some photos on flickr.com of John's Q&A after his presentation, including photos of their dinner at the German restaurant afterward that John mentioned in his blog.

There are quite a few photos of John in various places on flickr.com, which is one of the coolest web sites ever, btw.

Lessons Learned

John is in Japan and I'm in California continues...

It's always weird when John travels and I stay home but the past month has been particularly boring, with a few notable exceptions.

I did learn some important things in the last month however:

1. Go to the bathroom before you weigh yourself. The difference can be a very important 1/2 pound.

2. An apple a day is a nursery rhyme, not a diet plan.

3. Too much diet soda will make you feel like crap. I guess it's the aspartame. One day I drank a lot of soda and got a headache and was nauseous for an entire day afterward.

4. Lean Cuisine is fabulous until you have it every day for a month and then you don't want to see it ever again.

5. Netflix is the center of the universe.

6. Project Runway is one of the best tv shows ever and Wendy Pepper is one of the biggest bitches on the planet. Since Jeffrey Freakshow got into season 3's final 4, I am convinced the producers of the show manipulate the voting to keep the creepy people until the end for the purpose of "good" television. Like they did for Santino in season 2. Yuck.

7. Stargate SG-1 is one of the most compelling, addictive and badly acted tv shows ever produced. How it has stayed on tv for 10 years but they cancelled Farscape is one of the mysteries of life.

8. A high IQ is no guarantee you can make good espresso or figure out how to replace the printhead on a color inkjet.

9. Cats are sentient and actually understand every word we say to them. They ignore us because they don't give a damn about what we're saying.

10. There's no point in cleaning the house because a week later you just have to do it all over again so you may as well wait until then.

John in Japan

... and I'm in California continues...

John called last night so we got to talk for a long time which was fabulous. Video Chat is great but doesn't work 90% of the time, we assume because of the unreliability of our California dsl. But we're also instant message maniacs and sometimes IM each other several times a day when our awake-time overlaps.

He's having a great time! He presented at a conference but since the website is only in Japanese I can't elaborate. He has met many really interesting and fun people which is always the best part of conferences.

The only hard part is the language barrier because, unlike Europe, very few people speak English. But the new people he's meeting are terrific and he has plans to hook up with friends and friends of friends so he will have a great time.

The photo above is from John's presentation and below are the view from his hotel window and his hotel room.

You can read more about it in John's blog here, and about his presentation in Berlin here.

The 51st State

John is in Japan and I'm in California continues...

OK, now you know I'm totally bored when I start writing about nothing. But that always happens when I'm about to travel. I get really itchy and start blogging about nothing. Well, it's my blog, so there. BTW, the photo is some champagne glasses that are discontinued so I just bought the last ones.

I wanted to mention a hilarious story about our credit card. Well, hilarious is one way of looking at it. When John was in Germany, Visa froze our credit card. No surprise, really. Visa freezes our credit card often. So, I called them and got their security department.

They have a new security routine. Be afraid, be very afraid. They asked me three bizarre questions and if I got even one of them wrong they would not unfreeze my card. I was a little concerned because I didn't want John to end up washing dishes in Germany to pay his hotel bills.

First question: "Which of the following counties have you never lived in?" Yikes. That means they are looking at my credit history report that shows everywhere I've ever lived. Talk about privacy invasion! I got that one right, in spite of her crazy mispronunciation of Alameda County where I currently live. I can't remember the second question; it was wacky but I got it right.

Then the third question: "Which of the following is the birthdate of Mark Hanford?" I said, "Who the f*ck is Mark Hanford?" (By then I was fed up with the nature of their loonie security questions and was afraid of my card not getting unfrozen and then not being able to buy any more iTunes downloads and my life would be a misery.) She said: "Correct, ma'am, none-of-the-above." It was a trick question, they made up a name of someone I was not related to. Do they have a list of the names of my family? Privacy invasion, definitely.

Now the best part. After passing their three bizarre privacy-invasion questions it was time to verify some recent charges. This is always my favorite part because I have no idea what John is buying and he has no idea what I'm buying so there really is no way for us to verify anything. By "my favorite part" I mean the worst part because I enjoy sarcasm. You didn't know that about me, did you?

She read off my recent iTunes purchases which were declined, my J. Jill purchases (crack addicts tell me how cute I look thanks to J. Jill) and then a third very large dollar amount from a source that was not easily understood. I asked her to spell it. She tried but since she was the female equivalent of a neanderthal (at least she was in the U.S., I think) she had a hard time. There was a lot of mistaking s for f and t for p, etc. Finally it rang a bell and I said, "Oh, that must be the hotel my husband was staying in. Is the charge from Germany?" Her answer: "It doesn't say what state it's from, ma'am."

She got me, I was speechless.

I did reply, "Germany is a country." Omg, she said again that it didn't list what state the charge was from. I told her it was fine, it was the hotel my husband was staying in and the charge was correct. Then she said, "Oh, is he traveling? Where is he traveling?" And I said: "um.... Germany. You know, the state that you said wasn't listed on the charge."

"Well, I hope he's having a nice time. You can tell him I reactivated his credit card. Have a nice day, ma'am."

John is in Japan now and, so far, my credit card is still working. Fingers crossed.

Countdown to London

John is in Japan and I'm in California continues...

But not for long! This is my final solo week in California. Whew! One week from today I will be in London. On Sunday I fly to London and then John meets me there the following Friday. I can't wait! He's in Japan now and we haven't had a chance to instant message yet because of the extreme time difference and his probably severe jet lag. But I did get a voice mail from him last night that he arrived and is well.

This evening I had dinner with Sarah, one of my favorite friends. She's one of the first people we met after we moved to California and she even went to our wedding! She is fabulous.

I took the Bart as I always do because I just can't face driving into San Francisco. We had dinner at Delfina. We had a great time, the food was incredible and the conversation was interesting and hilarious. Yea, I love London but I'm going to miss my California friends.

The restaurant is in the Mission District which I had been to for the first time a couple weeks ago. It can be a little scary but I discovered that the secret is to get off Mission Street immediately which is full of drug addicts and just generally scary people. I had a woman drug addict tell me how pretty my clothes were. Well, at least they're polite and apparently have great taste!

Anyway, I wasn't kidding myself and diverted up a number street to find the restaurant. Once I got off Mission Street the neighborhood seemed safe and I was surprised by the number of professionals with blackberries walking around as well as couples with toddlers. I'm pretty appalled by the fact I can judge the safety of a neighborhood by the number of blackberries I see but I guess that's the world we live in now. There are also many funky/cool shops and cafes and it really looks like a fun neighborhood. Actually, downtown Berkeley has a lot of scary people so going to Mission Street really isn't that different. In fact, no one on Shattuck Avenue has ever complimented my outfit! Seriously, Mission Street is way scarier than downtown Berkeley but it could be Berkeley's future if they don't get their act together.

BTW, there is a photo of Clyde who just can't resist looking out the window.

The countdown continues...

Fun in Frankfurt

John is in Germany and I'm in California continues...

John sent me more photos! Some of the photos are more of Frankfurt, including the amazing restaurant owned by techno artist/DJ Sven Vath that I mentioned previously. It looks very pink and completely fabulous. I can't wait to go there.

After Frankfurt they went to Saarbrucken, passing through Heidelburg which the photos below are from.

In Saarbrucken they went to a concert by Porcupine Tree, one of our favorite rock bands. John said they were amazing and he and Steve had a great time. Ok, now I'm jealous.

At some point (I don't know the chronology) they also went to Luxembourg. They had dinner with Laurent Kratz from Jamendo, who John and I had dinner with in Paris this past June. John said Luxembourg is really nice and it recently went non-smoking which makes it a definite destination for us in the future.

Today they are on their way to Paris for one day/night and then John goes to Japan tomorrow and Steve returns home to the U.S. I don't know if John will be able to send photos from Japan because his schedule is pretty full and we don't know what kind of internet connectivity he'll have, so, fingers crossed. Japan! I can't wait to hear all about it.

Delirious on NPR

Today, NPR played some of my music as the first interlude on All Things Considered. I'm so excited to have my music played on such a prestigious and popular program. And they played two tracks; one leading out and the other leading back in. Wow!

When the producer contacted me to send my cd's I assumed they were interested in my piano music. I don't know why I thought that; I guess because that's what most people ask for and my electronica is completely different. I'm so glad I was wrong and sent both cd's and that they played my electronica.

Break out the champagne, I'm a star! Sorta.

Breakfast in Berlin

John is in Germany and I'm in California continues... We get to talk via video a little bit but since bandwidth is usually unreliable it doesn't work half the time. But when it does it is so much fun. In the meantime, we yahoo instant messenger at least twice a day. Because the time difference is 9 hours, I'm going to bed when John is getting up and he's going to bed when it's the middle of the afternoon for me. But we're definitely finding it easy to keep in touch. He sent me some more photos which he divided into subfolders so I would know what city they are. First is Sanssouci palace outside Berlin. That's a lot of gold!

They also visited the famous Bauhaus.

After Berlin, they visited Hamburg, where they got to see our friend Rob Kaye, from Musicbrainz who just happened to also be there.

Then they went to their next destination for a couple days: Frankfurt. John somehow got the hotel's Presidential Suite, in which actual Presidents stayed. (I told him to check for stains on the sofa.) It looks like the furniture hasn't been changed since 1965. Notice in the photo of the bathroom there is a car-stereo installed under the countertop. That's pretty funny. And the formal dining room with the chandelier is a bit much.

They went to Sven Vath's restaurant which is a futuristic extravaganza. John went nuts over it and wants to take me there. Sign me up! Lastly, John told me about a museum they went to where the exhibit was nothing. Actually nothing. And it's 6 euros to get in. Now that is funny.

In the meantime, Clyde keeps me company most of the time and takes many baths in his new favorite chair. Since all I had to eat on Monday was an apple I decided it was time to go grocery shopping. I don't know how to cook (John is the cook around our house) so I stocked up on Lean Cuisine. It's actually pretty good but I discovered that it's not really low-cal if you eat 4 of them a day. It sure beats an apple.

A Visit with Bach

John is in Germany and I'm in California continues...

The part about John's trip I'm most envious of is his visit to Leipzig, the final home of J.S. Bach. As all of my friends know, I am a Bach fanatic. John sent me some great photos that his friend Steve took, including a Bach manuscript and the famous portrait. I think he visited Bach's grave too. I'm not sure I could do that, I might get completely verklempt.

Here are some other photos of John and his friend Steve's trip. I don't know where all the locations are except that the hotel photos are when they stayed at Pflaums Posthotel Pegnitz, near Nürnberg. They said it is one of the most beautiful hotels they've ever seen, with spectacular design and artwork. It looks like something out of Star Trek. I don't remember what city John said the photos of the fountain are from. Outside Leipzig, I think.

There is also a photo of John with Dirk from Magnatune artist The Kokoon. John was so glad to be able to get together with Dirk again. We had met Dirk and his wife Simone in London a couple years ago. They are so nice and incredibly talented and we're really happy to see them doing so well back in Germany. He gave John a copy of their upcoming new album for release on Magnatune. I'm listening to it right now and it's fabulous!

So, John and Steve have been in Berlin for the last few days (they love it) and then today are leaving for... I have no idea. I know that they are passing through Luxembourg, going to a Porcupine Tree concert in Saarbrucken and ending up Paris. Then Steve returns home to Seattle and John goes on to Japan. Whew! I'm tired just writing about it!

The Big Chair

John is in Germany and I'm in California. Yea, it's boring.

Clyde visits every day. He usually sleeps on the sofa in the living room. Often all day. I spend a lot of time reading so we're together on the sofa a lot.

But since I'm a nerd I also like to spend time upstairs in my room surfing, working on my web sites, watching my favorite tv shows, etc. Sometimes Clyde gets tired of waiting for me to come back downstairs and he starts walking around the house screaming. He knows where to find me and in he walks, annoyed and demanding attention. I can't resist him.

So, I decided it would be better if he were upstairs with me while I was at my workstation. A few days ago I moved a big chair that we never use from another room into my room. At first he was too freaked out about being in a different room and wanted to explore. He's particularly fascinated by the view from the window. He got so rambunctious I ended up putting him outside so I could go back to what I was doing.

But tonight, he decided he loves the chair! He did his usual dance of walking in a circle and butting his head against the chair. I did my usual chant of what a good boy, a pretty boy, he is. Then he curled up and there his is. Problem solved.

Now where was I? Oh right, back to one of the worst sci-fi shows I've ever seen but I'm addicted to it anyway: Stargate SG1. But Clyde is purring.

Calling from the Future

Ok, now I feel like I live in the future.

John is away for a month which is the longest we've ever been apart. Today he came up with the perfect separation remedy: video conferencing!

Apple iChat is amazing. The webcam also does the audio so you just log in and start talking. I was dubious when he suggested it because so much technology just doesn't live up to the hype. This does! There we are having a conversation with me at home in California and John in his hotel room in Germany.

The video quality is excellent, even in full-screen mode. He made some fun faces which he knows always cracks me up. It did. We had a fun conversation as well as solved some technology problems here at home.

Now we can talk and see each other no matter where he is on the planet. And he's going to be in a lot of places in the next month. It's like we live in the future. At last.

The Solo Month

Today, John went back to London. Sniff, sniff, sigh... I'll be going to London on October 1 and John will meet me there a few days after that.

He's speaking at a couple conferences and then just basically driving around Germany and France with a friend of his just for fun. He did the same thing a year ago. Unlike last year, he will not be blogging from the road because it's really hard to do. But he will hopefully email me the occasional photo and description for me to put up on the blog.

After Europe he's going to Japan to speak at a conference. Japan! He's very excited about it and will take lots of photos.

The suitcase in the photo is filled with mostly my new clothes. John kindly offered to take back all the new clothes I bought for London so I don't have to carry any luggage when I go in a few weeks. He's a saint! Hopefully the airport people won't give me attitude because I don't have luggage, as they have previously.

There in the photos is John getting in some last minute programming on Bookmooch. In the morning he likes to work in our sunroom because the garden so pleasant. There is a photo of his empty workstation, sigh.

And then, of course, there is Clyde. Lately, he's been climbing onto my lap instead of just curling up in his favorite corner of the sofa. It's adorable. He likes to rest his head on my tummy, which is a new thing he's doing. When I talk to him he purrs particularly loudly. I think he can feel the vibration of my talking through my tummy and he just can't get enough of it. He's breaking my heart. After a while I need to move around so I put him in his sofa corner and he sleeps there the rest of the day.

So, for me, the next month is going to be... boring. I guess I'd better stock up on Lean Cuisine pizza and diet cream soda. John is going to have a fabulous time and I can't wait to hear all about it!