On Thursday, I played bridge with Robin and the group in White Rock. It was Polka Dot Swiss Teams (the polka dot only referring to the required mode of dress - everyone had to wear polka dots - and I am sorry that my camera was temporarily missing in action. It was great fun - even I found some polka dot attire, including polka dot shoes which were greatly admired!) I won't bore you with the details - the bridge players will know and the rest won't care - suffice it to say, a good time was had by all, and although we didn't do tremendously well as a team, at least Robin and I held our end up!
On Friday, I tried a new adventure, attending the Vancouver Film Festival. The reason that I never did it before is that I am too conservative to really like avant garde films; the reason that I did it now was that they were showing Midnight's Children, an adaptation of the Salman Rushdie book, for which he himself wrote the screen play and the direction was done by the Canadian director (whose name escapes me at the moment) who directed Slum Dog Millionare. I loved the book - I buy of his books just to show support, but think that this was his best.
[ Rushdie, interviewed recently after the controversy over the anti-muslim film, for obvious reasons, looked straight at the camera and said, "Tell me where it is written that we have a right not to be offended?" I just loved that. And, I might add, when civilized people get offended, they write letters to the editor, they don't go around shooting people!]
Anyway, the film was all I could have hoped for and more. The story, of course, was great, and the cinematography was spectacular. I am sure it will go into general release; see it if you can. Two thumbs up!
Unfortunately, Saturday night's experience was not so great. As you know, I volunteer for several theaters, and I had contracted to volunteer for one of the more experimental ones. (See above about my feelings about experimental anything - what was I thinking?) It was called Brief Encounters, and took 12 different kinds of artists, put them together in unlikely pairings (for example, the first pair was an astrophysicist and a puppeteer) and, having never met each other before, gave them two weeks to come up with a fifteen minutes to come up with a performance piece. Suffice it to say, I finished my volunteer work, sat down to the performance - and lasted through the first one (only because it was too small an audience to walk out, as I might otherwise have done). I mean, I do try to stretch my boundaries, but this was one step too far...
I actually do still work, and Monday and Tuesday, I attended a seminar on Mediation given by the B.C. Council of Administrative Tribunals, an organization where I was (briefly) on the Board of Directors. I'd like to have mediation as yet another arrow in my quiver of possible part time employment possibilities, so this was a great fit for me.
....friend Lisa, studious as always...It was a lively group, and the exercises avoided the "california woo woo shit" stuff that these things sometimes deteriorate into, and were actually quite useful in making you mindful of the assumptions one makes and the minefields that can occur in a mediation situation. After so many years in the administrative tribunal business, I know a number of the players, so, all in all, a good way to spend a couple of days.
And here comes the fast forward part; Wednesday night, dinner and bridge with the boys; Thursday, back to regular bridge in White Rock with Robin (this time we came in 3rd out of 12 tables of very good players, master points and strokes for us); and after a celebratory lunch with Robin, off to Seattle for dinner with Mariah and a brief sleep; and, on Friday morning at my usual crack of dawn flight, off to San Francisco.
[A brief digression. Long time friends (we are getting of an age when I can't say "old friends" any more) know that I had a rather chaotic childhood, to put it charitably. I suspect that is why I latch on to any traditions I can find. I did it with David (summer parties, Boxing Day at homes and the like), and now with friends. As you can imagine, Hank and I have developed any number of them.]
.....and our by now traditional lunch at Henry Hunan's, a local chain where, truth be told, we have been lunching since my banking days. Now, since I regularly take the early flight to San Francisco, we generally get a group together for a first lunch at Henry Hunan's.
.....Hank and Chuck...
...and Scott, caught in mid-sentence (sorry Scott! I know you are better looking that you look here!)
Chinese food always makes me sleepy, so I went off to Hank's for a nap while he went back to work (not to worry, he is on the countdown for retirement as well), and then off to drinks and dinner at Perry's, a local watering hold downtown near the Embarcadero (also thumbs up by the way, if you want to put it on your list) with sights along the way....
...although I must say, there was more drinking than eating going on....
Hank's friend and fellow U of Arizona alumnus, Holly
....and Nick, dittoI should have mentioned that the whole - by now annual, traditional - excuse for the trip was the Arizona/Stanford football game, so at least the first part of it was bound to be littered with U of A alums.
And Saturday was game time. The game itself was scheduled to start at noon, so the tailgater started at 9:30 A.M. My ostensible - and, again, traditional - role is to sell raffle tickets. I am told I could sell snow to the Eskimos (and it is my firm - although unverified - belief that there was a pushcart in my ghetto past), and so I did, snapping pictures along the way.
I know, I know, I don't believe it either. What can I tell you? However, I was a big hit, and sold over $1,200 in raffle tickets (with a bit of help, of course), a personal best!
Then, off to the game, where, at least one could sit down (and, the Stanford alumni, having more money than god, have rennovated their stadium to include backs for the seats - I guess they are getting old too!)
(You might ask, where did this green come from in the sea of red? It is friend Andy, previously seen in these pages at Ashland, and, hopefully introduced as a long time friend of both Hank and myself from the Bank of America. He has been helping Hank out at these tailgaters/games for way longer than I - perhaps 30 years? He will wear a piece of Arizona gear, but insists on his University of Oregon tee.)
A disappointing finish (i.e., we lost), but a great game (so they tell me - I still don't understand the game, but I am getting better at keeping track of the ball - like everything else, practice makes perfect!), and a good time was had by all!
And yesterday, another adventure. We went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, a free music festival, held over three days in Golden Gate Park, attended litterally by the hundreds of thousands. Hank had a specific agenda, though; we got there and settled down in time to hear Patti Smith, a legend in our day, sing her set, including - wait for it - her cover of the Springsteen song, Because the Night Belongs to Love. Truth be told, Springsteen does it better (and did it better as recently as a few weeks ago in New Jersey), and Gloria. I wasn't hugely impressed, but it was an event, and yet another belt notch, and was followed by a lovely dinner at my favorite local joint, Alama Square Bistro, where we decompressed and headed home.
San Francisco is always such an urban experience - crowds and public transportation and lots of walking, followed by good (and cheap, certainly by Vancouver standards) food and drink, and friendly people everywhere. I love it.
No real plans for the rest of the week (except for the opera with Peter on Thursday, about which more anon), but I will, as always, keep you posted. Enough for now.
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