January Leftovers

As we were walking home we found a jazz concert at Skyspace

drawing from orthopedic specialist explaining my meniscus flap

mini museum in basement of Mudd building

curtains from cocoa beans in Redlands chocolate store

treasure from sale at school

Those darn squirrels!

I loved getting a new red envelope from the library.

Campus Entertainment

 

A play within a play

The Play that Goes Wrong
Review by the campus newspaper here.

Men's basketball, away

Women's basketball, at home

Not only did I enjoy this concert, 

I enjoyed it in Garrison Theater,
a very nice venue that is close to home.

It is nice to live in a college town.

Weekend Entertainment

 

I have loved the book Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch since I first read it. You can watch this video if you want someone to read it to you.

I was excited to see that it was being
performed live and I could watch online.

Unfortunately, the Danish Melodi Grand Prix, to pick which performance would go to the Eurovision Song Contest, was at the same time.

I was able to enjoy both of them and use a third device to chat with friends in Denmark about which performers we wanted to see in the finals.

The next day we had a chance to see a live performance as part of Family Weekend at Scripps College and Scripps Presents.

The ABBA tribute band brought out a lot of dancers and many of us sang along.

The highlight for me was when the band invited an especially enthusiastic student to sing with them. She had a great voice and her passion and zest were infectious. She shouted, "I'm living my dream!" and everyone cheered.

Happy Event

I have vague memories of going
to the park to see The Happy Crowd. 

 

I felt funny taking a picture of the audience so here is a picture of the performers. My favorite part of the crowd was seeing the people even older than we are who were there because of their fond memories of being there with their kids. They had the tapes, cds, and videos and the songs were part of parenting.

Their song about mismatched socks is something that is so popular that in our town they are known as happy socks. Lots of people - kids, adults, the high school principal - showed up in happy socks.

So nice to see friends and other happy people.

A Full Day

 It started with an early-morning run in the drizzle and then time with the newspaper. No photo, sorry.

It was an exciting water polo game and at one point the Sagehens were leading by only two points. What I did not understand was why the losing team called a time out with 24 seconds left when they were down by five. Maybe tie-breakers in the ranks are broken by goal differentials? I also enjoyed watching all the college students and tried to picture my own in their place.

Next up was Village Venture, which was a bit smaller this year, but plenty big enough for me. I worked at the League of Women Voters booth and handed out lots of Future Voter pins. I don't know if any sweet dogs were adopted and I didn't buy any Tupperware, but it was a good event.

We had this great view on our drive to LA.

We parked at Disney Concert Hall and walked over to Grand Central Market.
I had an eggplant dish from Sari Sari, not only because of the license plates.

A friend won free tickets to see the LA Phil and our tickets were in the boat,

which had this view. Wow!

We were seeing Dudamel Conducts Mahler, which he did (without a score and without a safety railing), but he also conducted a string piece and the world premiere of a trumpet piece. What a treat! I wish you could have been there!

I also wish I lived right next door so I could crawl into bed right after the concert! I am glad we went and I am also glad for my dull evenings at home!

Weekday Outing

A neighbor knocked on the door and offered me two tickets to the Friday morning LA Phil performance at Disney Concert Hall. Even though I knew I had things to do and I couldn't possibly adjust my schedule, I also knew it was good for me to challenge myself and do new things. I said yes!

My fellow blogger and I caught the train in town and enjoyed not being in traffic or dealing with parking. The DASH bus was late, but we managed to sit in our seats just before the first downbeat.

Seen on the bus

What a great decision to accept the tickets and what great seats!

I knew Tchaikovsky was on the program but I did not know the piece by name (sorry, Dad). 

As soon as they began to play I knew the piece because it was on this record, which my oldest and dearest friend gave me for my eighth birthday. I felt transported to my childhood room, playing this on the portable turquoise and white record player. I played it again last night but it definitely was better in person.

The fun part of the Copland piece was getting to hear the anvil played. I thought maybe anvil was a musical term I did not understand, but they meant a real anvil, like the kind that lands on Wile E. Coyote.

After the concert we were not in a big rush so we walked through Grand Park (which my fellow blogger wrote about here), past a press conference held by L.A. Tenants Union Hollywood Local.

The current public art installation is a light
display that probably looks better at
night, but it was still eye-catching.

For the last part of our adventure we caught the Metro back to Union Station, had lunch, and caught the Metrolink back home. I had seen train cars with bicycle parking, but had never before noticed a place for surfboards. Finally, public transportation in LA that has a bonus I haven't seen abroad.

As time goes by

We were going to go to a movie as a family and then we talked about watching one and home and then we just played a game.

Ex LibrisD. creamed us but we still had a good time.

On Saturday A. had an all-day state-qualifying tournament for speech and debate. He did not break (break through, or qualify) but was fine with that. While he was gone D. and I got out and about before the heavy rain came and in the afternoon we walked to campus for a concert.

I am not sure I have ever seen Messiah Part 1,
but it did not prevent me from understanding parts 2 and 3.

We are lucky to be able to walk to concerts on campus

and to hear performances in a great facility.

On Saturday night we had planned to see a documentary by Ai WeiWei as part of a fund raiser, but we had not realized that it was over two hours long. With the time change and with alarms set for 5am we decided it would be better to pass and were in bed by 9pm.

Sunday was A's second bike race of the season and course was narrower and hillier. A. enjoyed the competition and teammates cheered each other on.  He doesn't mind the rain, but it is nice for the spectators to have a dry day.

I spent the day at Wilmer Amina Carter High School, named for a former school board member and California Assembly member. She still lives and works in the area and, according to her alma mater, she, "Is the first living African American woman in the Inland Empire to have a comprehensive high school named in her honor."

I was judging the final rounds of the state-qualifying tournament. As A. pointed out, it would be hard because these were the best people, making it harder to rank them. The good news is that instead of the typical one judge per event, there were three of us at each one.  I wish I could have given them all first place!

What we did not do was go to the LA Lakers game to see Cleveland play, but I really like this jersey!