Bridge, bridge and more bridge.

I tried to go back to the previous post to download pictures.  I really did. I even tried to complain to Google - they didn't let me (since they know everything,maybe whey will contact me after reading this post...).  No luck, so you will have to make do with prose, until someone finally lets them know that the programmers, once again, have "fixed"what wasn't broken.

Pity, too, as there were some good photos for this post,  Oh, well.  A planned smallish cocktail party at my place turned into a holiday party - if you are going to make appys for 4 you might as well make them for 14, I figure.  I made my signature sweet and sour meatballs (ah, that used to be David's job, making the meatballs....), deviled eggs, spinach and avocado dip and (too much) more.  A good assortment of people, the juke box playing Christmas music, good food, good wine, and a general appreciation that all was well in our benign little world.  Also, a realization, by some of us, at least, that we have to be better, on a day to day basis, about keeping up our friendships.

This was the also week of the bridge tournament, and I played six days out of seven - and scored points every day!!!  I played with different people every day too, and that was interesting.  Palm Springs puts on what is considered to be the best of the regional tournaments, and it really was a blast.  Not the same without friend Art, though, who continues to remain under the weather. Everyone asked about him, and we all hope he will be back to the game in the new year.

In between, there were two more social occasions.  I had dinner with friend Ken (who was also at the party, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him) at our favourite local Mexican joint, Las Tablitas.

 We were supposed to go to Opera in the Movies after, but after busy days (he, giving tours at the Palms Springs Art Museum, me, playing two sessions at the tournament) we were both bagged.  We spent time lingering over margaritas and fish tacos instead, glad to have time to reconnect.

And on Friday, friend Howard (our fearless leader at the gym circuit every morning) had a few people over for brisket and potato latkes, a sort of belated Hannuka party.  He's just moved in to a new place, in a lovely complex not too far from from mine (oh, for some pictures...), and it was fun to inaugurate his new place.

And, of course, bridge or no bridge, the reading goes on.  Alexander McColl Smith (he of the First Lady's Detective Agency fame) has a new book out, his take on Jane Austen's Emma.  It is a lovely, gentle book, which I very much enjoyed  T.C. Boyle, another of my favourite authors, also has a new book out.  It is called The Harder They Fall, and gentle is not exactly the adjective I would use.  However, it is a brilliant take on the violence of the American character, and it is another book that gets two thumbs up.  Next was Phillipa Gregory's The Taming of the Queen.  Historical "chic-lit" fans will know that she writes historical pot boilers about British royalty, this one about Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife the one who lived to tell the tale.  Atrocious writing; nonetheless, I couldn't put it down.  Finally another Geraldine Brooke offering, this one called The Lost Chord, the story of King David (I have read two of her previous books, The People of the Book and March, the latter about The Little Women's father, both of which I enjoyed.  Another good one.

In short, a week of sunshine, good friends, good bridge, and good books.  What could be better?

Friend Peter is coming from San Francisco on Tuesday, always a welcome guest for our now traditional end of the year visit.

Meanwhile, to all a happy non-denominational holiday, and a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.

Happy Birthday, Davie

The title of the post was originally going to be "Sayonara", as I was planning on ending the blog.  I was beginning to bore myself - I can only imagine how bored you guys are with my repetitious (god, I spelled that right on the first try...) life.  However, if you have stuck with me so far, I will try to stick with you guys a bit further.

Now, where was I when I left you all the way back in mid-November?

Well, I am still going to the movies - this is Palm Springs, after all.  There are all sorts of opera offerings, the Met, of course, but also others who have made the films of their operas available.  The two most recent are Flying Dutchman, done in Sweden, with Bryn Terfel and Mattie Salminin.  Mattie is getting a bit long in the tooth - I first saw him when he was playing in Kovanchina in the 80s in San Francisco (I was super-ing, my usual typecasting as a peasant), but still in fine voice for this role, and I liked the production.  I also was able to catch the Met encore of Berg's Lulu, which I also liked, much to my surprise (this was my first hearing, much less seeing, of the opera, and it generally speaking takes me a while to "get" modern operas.  But this was gripping, both musically and staging, and I was pleased with myself for going out of my comfort zone without someone dragging me there kicking and screaming.))

As for new movies, I saw Tab Hunter Confidential and Trumbo (this being Palm Springs, both were available for Q & A on opening night - I love that about Palm Springs), as well as Spotlight.  All three very good films, Trumbo definitely being Oscar worthy.  (Bryan Cranston, who played LBJ on Broadway, in All the Way made the movie.)  I don't know whether I have told you about my favourite local movie house - the Camelot?  Yes, I think I have, and I still love it.  Given a choice, it is where I will go.  Aside from being $7.00 a ticket (Canadians, eat your hearts out!), I have never seen a child there.  How much better can it be?  Oh, yes, they serve wine and beer.Another thing to add to your lists when you come to visit.

What else?  How about some pictures of the neighborhood....

...or maybe not.  In my absence, they appear to have let the programmers at the blogger web site, and the picture downloads don't seem to be happening.  Oh, well, you will get them next time. Or not.

Friends Art and Wally invited me over to see their new digs - they have moved out of our park for a number of reasons - and dinner with them and Art's brother Danny.  I had met Danny this summer, during Art's illness, and it was nice to see him under better circumstances.  And what can be bad about a rib-eye done to perfection on the grill?


Here's brother Danny...

Wally and Salty, with Art in the background...

....and the lovely table...

On November 19, I headed for San Francisco for some opera and other cultural activities.  The flights are cheap from here, and - well, I wanted to.  On Thursday, I arrived early, and, leaving my bags at the B & B (The Grove Inn, previously reviewed in these pages, I met Peter at the Asian Museum.  They were doing an exhibit about the influence of Japanese art on Western art - and vice versa.  It is the type of thing that fascinates me - like all the Dutch genre painting that all of sudden started showing Chinese artifacts when the travel to those places began.  Anyway, very well done exhibit, followed by lunch at Peter's new favourite Thai restaurant.  Friday, I was on my own at the DeYoung Museum, that had, in addition to the regular collection, an exhibit on the Panama Pacific exhibition of 1915.  Also interesting - again, art affected by current events, things unable to travel because of World War I, things "quarantined" in SF after the exhibition, etc.  Not something I would have made a specific trip for, but interesting nonetheless.

Well,the trip was for the opera.  The Mozart - Magic Flute - was beautiful, musically.  Costumes also good.  Staging and libretto - not so much.  And Saturday was the marathon - a five hour seminar on Wagner's Meistersinger von Nurenberg - followed by a 5 hour and 45 minute performance of
 the Meistersinger von Nurenberg.  And I am here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that I did not want it to end.  It was fabulous!!!!!!

Sunday, Peter and I went to Yank Sing, the only place I will have dim outside of Vancouver, and, of course, Hong Kong.  It was delicious, but way, way more expensive that Vancouver, and I don't just mean because of the 74 cent Canadian dollar!

The weekend was topped off by dinner at friends Geoff and Marvin's.  They are friends from Palm Springs (I met Geoff at the gym) who also love the opera and have a place in SF as well.  And a lovely place it is too, and Marvin is a great cook.  Great conversation, wonderful evening.

And by Monday, I have back in Palm Springs, just in time to get the Thanksgiving turkey.  Yes, once again it was my task to do the Thanksgiving turkey.  They say I do the best turkey, and it certainly gets eaten to the last morsel.  If I do say so myself, the stuffing and gravy were not too bad either.  Others did their share, and the dinner - held in our clubhouse, the better to accommodate 25 people - seemed to be a big success.

All this was interspersed with the usual round of bridge and classes, of course.  I was actually very pleased with the classes, particularly the ones on American and Islam, and, of course, the ones on the movies.

Final outing of note - neighbor Michael and I went to the Festival Lights parade last Saturday.  It is Palm Springs version of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, kind of hokey, but we like it.  I did way too many pictures last year - it didn't change that much!



What else can I tell you?  I was sick with a cold (or something) for two weeks in there - possibly at least one reason I wasn't all that interested in writing, but seem to have recovered - I can tell because I am back to feeling like the luckiest person on the planet, between the sunshine, living in a movie set, having lots of friends and acquaintances here, and generally having a good time.

Lots of reading, in between everything else.  Finished Salman Rushdie's newest offering - Two years Eight Months and Twenty Eight nights (for those of you who are mathematically challenged, that is a 1001 nights), which was an incredible - I don't know, satire maybe - on our modern predicament, set out as a phantasmagorical war between religion and reason.  Gee, I wonder what he was talking about?  This was followed by Ian Rankin's Saints of the Shadow Bible, the latest Rebus mystery, which I also quite liked.  Finally, I found a biography of Tennessee Williams at the book exchange at the club house.  (The Kindness of Strangers, wonderful title, isn't it?)  It was very well done, and sent me scurrying to the library for a book of his plays, to reread The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly Last summer, The Rose Tatoo, and Night of the Iguana.  I'm Williams'd out now, though, but have no fear, I have a pile of other good stuff at the library, not to mention what I already have on my bedside table.  I don't think I will run out for some time.....

So, tomorrow is Davie's birthday.  He would have been 82.  As most of you know, I commune with Davie on his birthday, and on the anniversary of his death.  We have dinner together, prime rib and bourbon, his favourite food groups, and I thank him for taking such good care of me.

Between Davie and my wonderful friends, I feel very well taken care of indeed.

Once again, my apologies for taking so long to write, and, once again, my vow to be better.