Gotta Move!

Maya performed for a group of children today as part of a dance and music program called Gotta Move!  Apparently grammar and spelling were not part of the program.  She did a great job and the audience surely appreciated it.  Here is a shot just as she was getting ready to start.  When she was finished playing the kids had several questions as did the lady leading the program.

Here is photo of a Magpie that was in Paepcke Park as I walked to the bookstore today.  We call her Maggie.  She seems to be everywhere we go.

Yesterday, again

It feels as though yesterday was a very long and active day yet I don't think we got all that much accomplished. We had a nice breakfast then took Matthew and Christine to the airport.  In contrast to their journey to Aspen they were able to make it back to Chicago on time. Yeah for them.

The cleaning team was supposed to be at the condo in the afternoon so we spent much of the day just running errands and  checking out the shops here in fantasy land.  I had dropped Appachen and Ammachey off in the heart of the town then went by the PO to check for mail.  I'm starting to get to know the clerks there: one is from a small town near Vermillion, SD; one is recovering from knee surgery for a skiing injury, one is generally grumpy and best avoided, and so on.

I parked the van at the condo and walked into town and for the most part just roamed around or sat around watching the people.  Met a couple of nice dogs, said hello to Choepel, the American Monk.  Checked on the mandala progress.  Picked up violin and viola strings we had on order.  Went to a watch shop to look at some $60,000 watches guaranteed to display the correct time at least once a day.

Here is a view of the mandala as of about noon yesterday.  The gang was off to do a ceremony in Glenwood Springs all afternoon so won't be back at work until Friday.  Appachen purchased an Indian statue which weighed 52 pounds.  We took it to a packaging and shipping place to have it sent back to Mountain Home.  Also Jamuna was able to work a bit with the tools of the trade.  One puts the sand in a conical tube with a very small opening at the tip.  Then by dragging another object along the ridged side of the cone the vibration causes sand to flow out the tip.  It takes a bit of practiced coordination but she is getting the hang of it.  As with any photo in the blog, you may click on it see a larger view.

By late afternoon the cleaning crew was just getting started so we continued to find reasons to stay out of their way.  Appachen and I went to a lecture on quantum computing presented at the Aspen Center for Physics by a physicist from Israel.  The room was stuffy which made it hard to stay focused on the already bizarre topic.  Again, I enjoyed it but was glad to get out of the room when the lecture was over.

We met Serina Huang and her brother and parents for dinner at Asie's.  When we eat there we don't even look at the menus but rather just ask the manager to surprise us.  That has worked out well for us in that we have always enjoyed the dishes.  The other surprise generally comes at the very end of the evening, and I don't mean dessert. We had a lovely waitress named Allison (not sure about that) who is of mixed heritage (Chinese father, American mother - very pretty and exotic looking) who lives in Beijing while completing her master's degree in "sustainable development".   She does consulting for the European Union and Soviet Union.  I guess she is just having fun this summer waiting tables in Aspen.  After dinner we walked our way back to a clean and tidy condo, and hit the hay.


Today Maya is going to play some music for a group of children who are in a class called "Gotta Move", at the music school.  The only other big event is a concert tonight in the tent featuring a young cellist by the name of Sol Gabetta.

Monks on tour

Last night we stayed in for a delicious dinner of biriyani prepared by Ammachey.  After that we went to see a recital by violinist James Ehnes and pianist Andrew Armstrong both of whom treated us to a spectacular show.  Mr. Ehnes played a few familiar pieces one of which both Jamuna and Maya have played (Praeludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler).  We ran into a few of our Aspen acquaintances which is always fun.

Today Prema, Maya and Ammachey went to the rec center and Matt and Chris went for a run.  I walked to the bakery only to be disappointed that all the day-old bread was gone (maybe there wasn't any left from yesterday).  I selected an assortment of breakfast treats so the trip was not wasted.  Prema and Maya headed off to the music campus for rehearsal and studio class.  The rest of us roamed around town for a while and had a nice seafood lunch.  We stumbled onto a shop that is now occupied by a touring group of Buddhist Monks who are in Aspen for just one week.  I'll report more on this but the main attraction is that they are creating a mandala which is a ritual-based sand painting.  The "painting" is created by careful placement of colorful sand on a board, each line, pile, curve, and color representing a significant spiritual meaning.  Above is a an overview of their work of two days.  Below is a close up.  One gust of wind or errant Frisbee would ruin this beautiful creation.  We will be following their work and reporting more over the next few days.  I'll also tell you about one of the Monks with whom I had a nice conversation.

I'm rushed for time now as we are going to leave in a few minutes to meet some friends Prema and Jamuna met at the Colorado Suzuki Institute Camp several years ago.  We have seen them a few times since then.  They live about 40 miles north of here so we are meeting in Basalt which is about half way between Aspen and Carbondale.

This afternoon Matt, Chris, Abe, Jamuna and I went to the rec center for the usual while Ammachey and Appachen did some window shopping (and Maya practiced even more).  Here we are waiting for the bus.

There was a nice rain storm on our journey back from the ARC affording us the chance to walk in the rain (very light rain but rain nonetheless).  On the bus ride I had a nice visit with Eric, a percussion student we met a few weeks ago.  His girlfriend who's name I cannot recall is second chair in the Aspen Chamber Symphony and will play on Friday at the concert we will attend.  We will try to say hello.

Maya is playing for us as I type.  Then it's off to Basalt.

Wet, and a little wild

Today was full of fun.  Before we left for the raft trip Matt, Chris, Abe and I walked down to drop off some recyclables, walked through the John Denver Memorial, picked up a few groceries then headed back to the condo.  Also along the way we bought a pound of dolmades from a Mediterranean deli.  I noticed at the grocery store that the salad bar had dolmades for less than half the price at the deli so I selected several and brought them home.  We had a blind taste test and now realize we don't have to spend so much for this treat in the future.  We had a light lunch, split  up and headed our for the afternoon.

Above is a pic of Abe and Aunt Christine spotting some trout in the creek by John Denver's Memorial.  Also along the way we walked past an elaborate skate boarding park.  Here is a view of that.



Maya, Prema and her folks attended a master class led by Mr. Robert McDuffie.  The report was that the event was awesome both re the student talent and the tutelage.


The Blazing Adventure experienced by the rest of us was a lot of fun.  We floated down the Roaring Fork River for over an hour, starting south of Basalt and getting out somewhere on the other side of the town of Basalt.  Along the way we saw a lot of basalt, the igneous rock.  The water was classified as Class II which was just perfect for us.  There were several spots along the float where we went over some big, thrilling drops.  The water level was low so we became hung up on some submerged rocks.  The impacts made it challenging to stay in the boat, but we all did.

Near the end of the float we went over a "waterfall" drop of several feet.  Surprisingly, there was someone there to take photographs.  He was kind enough to print the photos and offer to sell them to us at the take out location.  We rewarded his selfless generosity by purchasing one of the photos he had taken of our boat.  Here is a photo of the photo. It is blurry due to my photography technique; the original looks fine.

Our guide was Brie, a college student who attends the University of Connecticut, majoring in anthropology.

I don't recall if I posted a photo of this man before, but I pass him every day I take the short-cut to the post office.  He is quite the avid reader.

While I was on my walkabout Uncle Matthew and Ammachey were reading/resting.  Everyone else went to the rec center for various activities.  We all eventually convened back at the condo to eat leftovers.  Matthew and I took a quick trip to the bookstore for a 20 minute browse session. The cat, Cashmere, who lives at the bookstore was actually curled up on a different chair for a change.

When we returned Abe was watching The Spirit DVD which arrived from Netflix. This is the movie for which the AMSF composition students wrote original scores for the opening credits.  I mentioned this last week.  We wanted to hear the actual professional score.  I haven't heard it yet but Abe said the student versions were a lot better.

After everyone started to settle down Matt, Chris, Prema and I took a stroll into town hoping to find a nice place to sit for a few minutes.  We ended up a Mezzaluna, a local restaraunt, for something to drink and an unnecessary appetizer.  The condo was almost asleep upon our return.

Today is starting out nicely.  Ammachey and Chris have already returned from a nice walk.  Stefani Collins is here to practice with Maya.  Stefani lives in Cleveland and is a student of Mr. Kantor's at Cleveland Institute or Music. She will be working with Maya a lot this week and then hopefully a bit off and on for the rest of our time here.

Here is a shot of her playing a couple of pieces for us while Maya finished her breakfast.

On the docket for today is more practice for Maya (and Prema), relaxation for Ammachey and Appachen, and a rafting trip for the rest of us.  Will report back later re the white water.  We are going with Blazing Adventures, on the Roaring Fork River.  It is actually going to be fairly mild water today.  See the link to the right for more info re Blazing.

Tourists are here

The Aspen old-timers showed the tourists around a bit yesterday and today.  Yesterday we just spent some time hanging around the music school campus then town center for a while then had supper outside while listening to Umberto Fuentes sing some songs.  We wound down the day by watching an extremely mediocre movie called Leap Year.

Today Matt and Chris went for a high-altitude run and apparently did well.  Then Matthew walked over to the bakery to get some starch and sugar for all of us to eat for breakfast.

Maya stayed home with Prema to practice while the rest of us went by bus to Maroon Bells.  Appachen and I took the slow walk while the remainder of the group took a short loop hike.  It was quite a nice day up Maroon Canyon.  We ran into Miriam and Bruce, a couple of nice people from Florida whom I had met a few evenings ago at a concert.

Later we had lunch at Aspen Highlands and met a nice family from Denver.  The mom was from Thailand and is an allergist, the dad is a pulmonologist.  They had two young children in tow.

We are now at the condo saving up our energy for dinner.  Maya continues to practice with a young lady named Stephanie. She is a student of Mr. Kantor's who is in Aspen on a fellowship.  He obligation to the fellowship is to help other students practice.

I am going on my walkabout to the usual: PO, Clark's, library.

Low Key Sunday

Everyone arrived yesterday but not without delay.  Thankfully the delays weren't too long and we all had dinner at a recommended Italian restaurant.  I think everyone enjoyed their meals but the place was very loud and surely overpriced.  It's too bad that restaurants typically give so much food per person that when you go to one that actually serves a reasonable amount one gets the feeling they're getting short-changed.  That's how I felt last night.  Anyway, a nice time was had by all.

The morning is slowly ramping up.  Maya is warming up her strings and we will be leaving soon to take her to her lessons with Mr. Kantor.

For lack of anything more interesting, here is a view of the "trailer" (temporary building that has probably been there for a decade or so) in which Maya has her lessons. It is located at the music campus up Castle Creek Canyon.

ASE

ASE is the airport code for the Aspen airport.  It is a nice little facility which is very customer-friendly.  You can back right up to the curb by the "Arrivals" door, park there and walk away for 30 minutes (or more).  I dropped off Mrs. White this morning and picked up Prema's bag which arrived on the last flight of the day yesterday.  I'll be back there at least two more times today to pick up Uncle Matthew and Aunt Christine who will be visiting for about five days.  Ammachey and Appachen (Prema's parents) will also arrive today.


I just cooked a couple of eggs, sunny-side up, for Maya on the .....

Had to drop everything to take a call from Mr. Kantor who was expecting Maya at 9:30 this morning.  We had her scheduled for a 10:30 appointment with him and upon reviewing the email we had received we did have the right time but, oh well.  We were out the door in about four minutes and at the "studio" in 13 minutes.  All turned out well.

So, I was going to mention that there is a gas stove here at the condo.  We have an all-electric house in RC but Prema is having some changes made in the kitchen while we are here in Aspen (new counters and cabinets) and is replacing the old appliances.  One big change will be a switch to a gas stove.  That should be nice.  I hope it is all completed by the end of August.

After we returned from the music campus Prema and I walked over to the bookstore and bakery.  The bookstore seems to have an much greater assortment of math and science books than Borders in RC.  I suspect this is because of the local Aspen Center for Physics.  They also have a robust music section.  We just browsed for about 20 minutes then picked up a couple loaves of day-old bread.



Above is a shot of Maya with Mr. Kantor.  We are all very fortunate to have him as Maya's teacher this summer.

Here is Prema sitting outside the studio room, eavesdropping.

Life should be calm for another five hours or so after which I'll start making trips to the airport.

Running on fumes

I'm beat.  We're back from the music events of the evening and now waiting to hear from Prema.  As usual, her travels are delayed.  This time it is her RC to Denver flight that departed late which means she'll miss her flight up to Aspen unless it is also delayed.  There is a later flight so maybe she can get on it.

We did get to meet Mr. Nel and he seemed delighted to meet some of Nicolette's students.  He said he knows Nicolette quite well - I think he said they "grew up together".  Unfortunately he is leaving tomorrow so will not be here with the van Wyks arrive.

The music tonight was nice. I think I'm burned out and didn't appreciate it tonight.  I think there is nothing on our schedule for tomorrow other that Maya has an extra class with Mr. Kantor.

We (I) accosted Mr. McDuffie tonight as he was standing outside the tent after the main concert.  I gave him effusive praise about the performance last night.  He said he never gets tired of playing it.  One cool dude.

Here's a couple of views of the interior of the tent tonight as the orchestra was getting set up. Yawn.

UPDATE: Prema just texted that she made the connection in Denver and should be here in 30 minutes.

The American Four Seasons

Last night we attended a concert at Harris Concert Hall (not the tent as I was expecting). Before intermission we were treated to a couple of duets each performed by Robert McDuffie and a student.  The second duet included Libby Fayette.  I may have mentioned her before as the winner of the Mozart Concerto competition a few weeks ago. She is excellent and I suspect we will be seeing more of her in the future (not just at AMFS).  After the break Mr. McDuffie and an ensemble of about 20 players (including digital piano/synthesizer) played the US premier of The American Four Season.  It was truly breathtaking.  Even Abe whispered to me that he wondered if we could get that on iTunes !  The audience went crazy with applause and the performers eventually readied their instruments for an encore then burst into a rendition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Summer.  It was fantastic.  Sorry, no photos.

This morning I walked down to the box office to get tickets for a couple of events we want to go to tonight.  One is a pre-concert recital by Sylvia Rosenberg and Anton Nel.  Mr. Nel is a friend of Nicolette Solomon, one of the kids' violin teachers.  We will try to go backstage and say hello.  We have already met Ms. Rosenberg a few times and will say hey to her too, if we can.  The main concert which will be in the tent is the Aspen Chamber Symphony with special guest Valeriy Sokolov.  He's the Justin Beiber of classical music.  If you don't know who Justin Beiber is, congratulations.

After I left the box office I found a trail that led down to the Roaring Fork River.  There is a foot bridge there that provided access to the Rio Grande Trail which I followed to the post office.  Along the walk I met a family from Denver and provided a creek-side consult about the woman's octogenarian father who was having some health problems and the man's nonagenarian mother who has macular degeneration.  They have a son who is in medical school but he wasn't with them.

Next I picked up copies of the two daily local newspapers then got a few items at Clark's Market.  Dropped a book off at the library on the way back to the condo.  While I was gone Jamuna was doing some journaling. Here is a shot of what she produced:

Made (burned) grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Abe and Jem are/were practicing.





Right now Mrs. White and Maya are taking a break from some intensive practicing this morning and here I sit for a few minutes.  Next I will head over the the Grateful Deli to get some sandwiches which we will take for our evening meal between the pre-concert and the main concert.  We have not tried this picnic idea yet but I think it will be nice. The weather looks promising.

Here is a view from the kitchen toward the main entrance showing the super computer on which this blog is produced.

Highlight Day

Not sure where to begin on this wonderful day full of many great experiences.  Maya had another excellent rehearsal with Tamara while Jamuna practiced her violin in one of the practice rooms at the music campus.  Abe and I programed some stops into the van navigation system.  Shortly after 10 AM we headed toward Paonia.  It was a beautiful drive and we arrived just a few minutes late for our lunch appoint at The Flying Fork Cafe.  We had a delicious lunch, met a playful kitten named Peek-a-Boo, and put on a little show.

   The highlight of our day was meeting and spending time with Ms. Maria Hodkins, a highly talented artist and journalist.  We were so fortunate to get to spend a few hours with her.  She travels around the country presenting workshops on nature journaling and other artistic endeavors to groups of paying customers, and we had her all to ourselves today! In addition to her journaling work she is a volunteer DJ at the Paonia NPR affiliate KVNF.  She took us on a tour of the studio and the idea of including the kids in an episode of their "Talkin' Music" program came up.  The facility is about as sophisticated as a radio studio can get, and the shelves of music CDs and LPs seemed to go on forever.  Take a look:

Here, on the left is a shot of the kids in the control room during a broadcast, and on the right Abe and Jem look down a long hall which is completely covered with CDs from floor to ceiling.

After the tour we headed to a nearby park only to find it packed with BMW motorcyclists due to a rally of some sort.  We proceeded just a bit farther to a neat winery called Black Bridge Winery.  We sat at a large picnic table under shade-giving trees by a soothing creek.  While there the kids received a lesson on journaling, sketching and water coloring.  A great time was had by all.  I'm rushing through this so I can get it posted before we walk to the tent to see Robert McDuffie play the US premier of a Philip Glass composition called "American Four Seasons".

I'll have to write more about this day as there are a lot of details worth remembering.  Here are some shots of the afternoon:

Western Slope, here we come...

We are heading out in a few minutes so Maya can have a 30-minute rehearsal with Tamara.  After that we are heading directly to Peonia, CO, to visit a nice lady I met in Yellowstone.  I'll tell you more later today.  She is a journalist/artist who was leading a class at the Yellowstone Association Institute while I was there taking another class.  We will have lunch with her then spend some time looking at her journals.  Then we will head back here for more practicing then a concert tonight.  On the way home we have to stop at the UPS office in Glenwood Springs to pick up a package being  held there for us.  That's a long story.

Here's a random photo:

This is the kitchen in the condo.

Rainy and cool

Today started out somewhat cool and damp after a bit of rain overnight.  I walked to Main Street Bakery this morning around 7:30 am, before the condo came to life.  I thought bakeries started work ultra-early so fresh bread was available first thing in the morning.  I guess that is not the case in the world of Aspen.  Here the daily bread comes out around 10:30 am.  I bought some "day old" bread for just $2.00 per loaf - I figured it really wasn't even a day old when I got it.  Also picked up a few sweet items as a treat.

I drove Maya and Mrs. White to the music campus where they spent the entire day.  Rehearsal, studio class, and practice.  Jem, Abe and I spent a couple of hours doing stuff around the condo and tidying up before the cleaning team showed up then we went to the rec center.  They re-discovered a place within the rec center called the Aspen Youth Center which includes the game room which I may have mentioned before, and a range of other distractions.  Today they played games and watched a movie while I did my laps and read The New Yorker.  The original plan was that they were going to skate and swim but passive entertainment intervened.

We ran by the fruit/veggie stand on the way to pick up Maya and Mrs. W.  Every time I drive up to the music school (vs. taking the bus) I notice an attractive plant along the edge of the parking lot. I nearly have to step on it when I get out of the van.  It is called Horsetail or Equisetum.  I first learned about this plant during my Yellowstone trip about a month ago and now it reminds me of the beautiful spot where we rested and watched a muskrat take a bunch of it in its mouth across a beaver pond to its lodge. No beavers there anymore.

We then drove directly to the weekly Physics in the Park event.  This program seems to have found the absolutely perfect balance between the forces causing me to never want to go back and the forces that cause me to be glad we went.  The Soylent Green-like food and pre-lecture activities were lame but I thought the lecture was interesting.  It was presented by an MIT mathematician/physicist and involved the language of mathematics as applied to everyday things like radio waves, gravity and time travel.  Before the lecture started Abe single-handedly arranged an impromptu volley ball game which even included the MIT dude (not shown in this shot).

Here's a shot of the attentive students and one of the professor trying to write some equations in terms that were easy for the young audience to understand.

Jamuna made another 3-D structure which seemed to be quite a hit.

There was a mom there with her family.  She was wearing a T-shirt that said "Starfleet Academy" on it.  I liked that.

Oh, and it rained a lot today and was cool.

Rough as a cob...

All I can really remember about today is losing my temper and doling out some pent-up wrath.  Abe and Jamuna will be going gadget-free for a few days. I think this will have the greatest impact on Jamuna as she seems to spend so much time on Facebook, Gmail, and texting.  It will be a nice break for all of us.  So, Maya and I had a nice walk to the library today and Maya enjoyed a totally private ice skating lesson today.  Abe and Jem sat and watched, and I swam some laps.

I have been collecting photos of unusual modes of travel we see in Aspen.  There are quite a few.  I plan to post a photo-montage one of these days (if there is ever a dull day around here), but here is one we saw outside the library today.  It may be hard to tell this is a 3-wheeler.  Vehicles like this barely get a second look around here, except from small-town folk from South Dakota.

A picture doesn't always tell the whole story.  I think Maya was traveling about 90 MPH here.  I could be wrong.

Oh, about the cob.  Not only was it a rough day in terms of discipline, we had some delicious local corn with supper last night. We bought it at the fruit stand.  My complaints about taxonomic incongruity fell on deaf ears.

We did attend the Opera Aria Master Class tonight.  I was surprised that the program was nearly sold out when we arrived to get our tickets.  FYI, many of the programs that are open to the public have admission fees ranging from $40-$70 or more but if seats are available within an hour of start time we can flash our AMFS ID cards and waltz right on in.  It turns out that the "master" tonight is apparently quite famous in the opera conducting circle.  His name is James Conlon and he was quite entertaining and the student talent was again outstanding.  We didn't stay for the duration but I'm glad we went.

Somewhere in this day I walked over to the market with my medium-size backpack and picked up some stuff for dinner.  On the walk back it started to rain.  It was quite pleasant and refreshing.

I saw this sign on the way to the grocery store and collected these photons.  I hope to understand it one day soon.

Score !

Here is a mailbox, Aspen-style, that we ambulate past on a regular basis.  That's the Sears Catalog that he's reading.

For the record, we did go to the ARC yesterday and as usual the kids all ice skated.  They are now equipped with wrist guards in the unlikely event they slip and fall.  I am up to 20 laps in the pool.

As one would expect, we have had many wonderful musical experiences here.  For me, last evening was especially noteworthy for two reasons.  We walked down to the tent as planned and heard the schedule of music.  Mr. Kantor's trio played a piece composed by a still-alive composer named Krzysztof Penderecki.  At first I didn't like it very much but as it progressed I could appreciate the complexity of the music and how difficult it was to play.  I suppose you had to be there.  We did go backstage to congratulate Mr. K. and so Maya could get him to autograph her program. He was happy to see her and gladly signed it with his special fountain pen which he explained was made from pernamubco (actually just the barrel was made from the wood), which is the wood from which the best violin bows are made.

Then the really fun part started.  We occupied ourselves outside for about 20 minutes before entering the depths of Harris Concert Hall to experience the Film Scoring Showcase.  It was what we expected which is to say that composition students wrote music for film clips.  It was incredible, however, to learn that after a short crash-course about several highly technical and sophisticated music and video software applications these students were given the a video clip they had never seen before.  Then they spent about two weeks conceiving and producing their music to run with the clip.  The end results were fantastic.  We saw the video with nothing but dialog and sound effects first then watched it again and again with each of the students music. I think the talent on display was remarkable.

One side story, for the record.  One of the students in the showcase (actually our favorite) was Gabriel Lefkowitz.  When Prema first flew to Aspen a few weeks ago her flight had to turn back to Denver due to bad weather.  On the plane was a young man who had commented that he was going to AMFS so Prema started to talk with him.  The young man was Gabe, who we all later met at a bus stop a few days later.  Anyway, it's a small world up here.  Remember Gabe, I think we'll be hearing about him in the future.

Enough rambling for this morning.  Ice skating lessons later today otherwise no big plans. I see that there is an opera aria master class at Wheeler tonight so maybe we'll drop in to see what that is like (and then check to see if Paradise Bakery (ice cream shop) is still in business).

Week 4

We are now into our fourth week in Aspen and really feeling like we know our way around.  Today we did discover something new which we had never seen here nor anywhere else, a "Thumbing Station".  We are fortunate that this location is only a couple of blocks from the condo.

There's that shirt again!















Yesterday evening we took a stroll into town and I noticed this large popcorn stand which is currently out-of-service due to remodeling in the area.  Abe is a popcorn-lover so is extremely anxious for the business to start popping.

Yesterday I mentioned the Wheeler Opera House.  Here is a photo of the building.  Notice the proximity to the infamous town fountain, an easy five-minute walk from the condo.

Tonight we are going to have a delicious skillet meal at the condo then walk to the music tent to hear a variety of performances including a brass group, two violin trios (Mr. Kantor playing in both), and a clarinet group.  After that we plan to stroll across the sidewalk to Harris Concert Hall to investigate a "Film Scoring Showcase".  We're not sure what this is but since there is a music composition component to AMFS we suspect this may be an exhibition of original scores composed to accompany movie scenes.  Will keep you posted.

Earlier today I stopped into Explore Booksellers to test out a gift card I received from B-Squad Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop (my parents).  I bought a book I recently learned about called The Disappearing Spoon. I have to finish another book before I really dig into this one, but I'm looking forward to it.  I also made a run to the local drugstore/wine shop and picked up some essentials (foot cream, Merlot, Pinot Noir). Jem, Abe and I later this AM walked to the PO, grocery store, and library.  Oh, and very early today I drove Prema to the airport -she is already hard at work in RC, supporting this whole summer of fun.

Grounded, again...

Nothing terribly exciting happened today nor did I take many photos.  But, here is a picture of the bed in which Prema is likely to sleep tonight.  It would be reasonable to wonder why I am making a point of this (and for showing a somewhat messy room).  The reason is that Prema was scheduled to return to RC this afternoon but AGAIN her flight was canceled due to wind.  Actually, the take-off from Aspen (ASE) was delayed due to wind and during the delay the Denver airport (DEN) was closed due to weather.  So, she is back at the condo and rescheduled to leave in the morning.  We are glad to have her here with us a bit longer but I know this creates a hassle with her practice.

Last night I was planning to stay home and relax but literally at the last moment I decided to accompany the rest of the squad to a performance of the opera The Barber of Seville.  I'm glad I went as it was a great show.  The kids seemed to truly like it.  I noticed that there were no other children there.  Seems a shame.  Abe and I had to slink out a bit before intermission because he forgot his glasses and could not read the supra-script translation of the Italian.  We made it to the condo and back to Wheeler Opera House in 13 minutes, arriving even before intermission started.

Speaking of intermission, we witnessed a near-terrible event in the balcony.  Thankfully, as far as we know, no one was injured.  A woman on the other side of the balcony fell backwards into another elderly woman.  They both crashed down the stairs leading to the front edge of the balcony.  Had they been one or two steps closer one or both surely would have gone over the edge - no kidding.  The balcony rail is so low it is dangerous.  I sprinted up and around then down to the scene in about five seconds but even by then others were helping one lady to sit up.  I tried to slow down the movement process and verbally assess the situation. I asked the elderly lady if she had any neck pain (had you seen her at the moment of impact you would have thought she was seriously injured) and she said "no" and demonstrated frighteningly quick and full range of motion.  I cringed think she was going to go limp with quadriplegia at any moment.  By then the theater manager arrived and all seemed remarkably in order so I just faded into the background.  I sure hope they are all OK.

Another boring opera story.  There was an elderly man with a young blonde on his arm (actually he was hanging onto her and despite his cane was wobbling all over the place and heading down the steps toward the balcony rail (Oh no!).  I offered to assist them and he was happy to let me walk ahead of him just in case he fell, which he did not.  As he turned into his front row his companion said something to me that started with "I was talking to a couple of his other girlfriends last week..."  I don't recall what she said after that as I was too distracted by that concept.  He said that when I was 93 years old he would return the favor.  At the end of the opera I again helped him up the stairs and learned that he is Kurt Bresnitz, one of the founding fathers of Aspen and a contemporary of a lot of the individuals for whom many places are named in the town. (Here is an interesting introduction to Mr. Bresnitz). He was the first jeweler in Aspen, having opened his business some 60 years ago.  He was born in Vienna.  His lady-friend said he is a town icon and everyone just calls him "Kurt the Jeweler".  I didn't notice if he was wearing a watch but if I run into him again I be sure to check.

Today Maya had her usual Sunday rehearsal and private lesson.   After lunch we dropped Prema at the airport then went to the local fruit stand then rec center for ice skating.  I swam about a half mile of laps.  We arrived back at the condo only to get a call from Prema. Now we're going to celebrate with a dinner out.

Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to show and report tomorrow.

Stone Age Living Skills

Today was Stone Age day for Jamuna, Abe and me.  More in a minute.  For the record, last night we attended a performance by the Aspen Chamber Symphony (mostly AMFS students) with special guest Julia Fischer.  All I can say is that it was yet another fantastic experience.  We are getting to know a bunch of nice people at these events which just adds to the fun.  After the program we had sushi for dinner then said good night and good bye to Dr. Goza. Prema drove her to the airport early this morning.

So, the big event today was the ACES class re stone age living skills.  This all-day activity was taught by Robin and Mike, two local experts on the topic.  There were about six families involved (some left early).  Unfortunately Maya had to stay home and practice a lot today.




The first skill we learned was how to select and prepare combustible material from old logs.  We gathered strips of inner bark and twisted it up in our hands to make a pile of small pieces and "dust".  We then made a nest-like structure out of the strips then placed the small stuff and dust into the center.  We then learned several ways to create the heat which ignited a small ember which was then placed in the nest.  After a little bit of huffing and puffing, fire erupted.  Here are some photos:

   Here is Abe breathing life into this ember-laden fire nest.  After we all had time to make our own fires (or convince ourselves that we could do it if we had to) we had lunch and them made those graham crackery, chocolately, marsmallowy things.  They we so good everyone wanted some more.

After lunch we learned how to make string/twine/rope.  It was fairly simple but there are a few details that are essential to success.  I'd would tell you, but.......

Next was flint knapping.   This is a process to create razor sharp shards of rock which can be used in numerous ways.  Note the glaring absence of eye protection here (no one seemed at all concerned about that except me, oh well).  I suppose a key ingredient to success in this skill is the selection of the rocks.  The striker rock was actually a softer material and the target rock was basalt.

We ended the day with finger painting with rock and soil-derived pigments.

By the end of the day, a good time was had by all.

                                                                                                          

                      

Abe and Jamuna on the walk back to the condo, still loaded with energy.