There's free food everywhere...

Have I mentioned there is free food everywhere here?  Everyone has more oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes and grapefruits than they can eat, so there are bags of them for the taking everywhere I go.  Panera, the local coffee shop, brings day old - but perfectly good - breads of all sorts to the senior center where I go for zumba.  At a local community center the other day, pounds of cheese - they had been given an over supply - was being given to all comers.  And, of course, there is the Seniors Farmers Market every Thursday, where all the produce is free to seniors.  (If this happens in Vancouver, I haven't discovered it yet!)

What else can I tell you?  The Metropolitan Opera in the Movies (as I call it) was showing Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea, an opera - and a composer - which I had heard of but not seen.  It had a stellar cast that only the Met can deliver (Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Bczala) and wonderful staging and conducting.  A great hit, and I am happy to say I have found a pal who will go to these events with me.  I am good going by myself, and (this being America) lots of fellow audience members to talk with who don't think you are a crazy old lady for talking to strangers, but still, it's nice to have company.  I met Sue at bridge - another snowbird, from Michigan - and we have already made arrangements to go to LA to see the LA PHIL in March, to go to a local philharmonic concert next week, and of course Carmen, the next Met offering.  I'm actually quite excited to have a fellow traveler, so to speak.

Classes started as well, just a few one-off - and free- teasers.  One, called Where Does the Dough Go? - was by one of my favourite instructors (in spite of his former occupation as an economic adviser st Goldman Sachs). It was about the Federal government, where it get's its money and where it goes. I'm taking a six week course from the same instructor starting next week, as well as a course on Shakespeare, a philosophy course on the devil in history, and a film course.  And people wonder what I do in the desert!!!!

But back to the present.  I added a new restaurant to my repertoire - it is called simply Michael's, and is a local brunch place quite near my house.  I went with John, my friend who recently lost his partner.  It was the first time he had been there - where he and Jim had been regulars - since Jim died in December,, and it was hard to watch him tear up when asked where Jim was (it happened at bridge also...).  So sad.  However, a great diner-type place, where I will definitely go again.

The 21st of January was friend  and bridge partner Alex's 80th birthday.  There was a party, to which his son and daughter-in-law from Spain came, as did his daughter - from somewhere - and ex-wife - as well as a number of friends.  Wish I had had my camera to the ready - Alex doesn't look anywhere near 80.  (But then, I don't feel like I look 72 either....)

Back on the cultural front, I went to the art museum again on Thursday, for a lecture, part of the Architecture and Design Series, entitled The Third Los Angeles.  Aside from the joys of the museum at night...

... the lecture was fascinating as well, about the architectural and transportation plans for the next LA.

What else?  Lots of bridge - and I am on a winning streak, scoring master points on 5 out of 6 outings.  (I am sorry to say that the streak was broken yesterday - Alex and I were abysmal - but there is always tomorrow.)

Books.  I finished Dorfman's Darwin's Ghost.  It really was a fascinating book, a dark fantasy based on the premise that a native - captured, taken abroad and abused hundreds of years ago - came back to haunt a current day progeny of two of the past abusers.  It left one thinking about the ramifications of abuses such as those perpetrated on previous generations. I take it back - Dorfman is every bit as good as Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Marquez.  Dorfman's play, Death and the Maiden is next up on my nighttable.   I rejected Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke - I thought it would be a Chinese The Master and Margarita, but no such luck.  Francis Duncan's Murder for Christmas was as good as his previous two, formerly mentioned.  Alan Holinghurst, on the other hand, I don't need to read any more.  I finished The Line of Beauty, which won the Man Booker prize, and an earlier book, The Swimming Pool Library. The Swimming Pool Library was interesting as a view of gay life in England pre-Aids, a life that will never be lived that unthinkingly again.  The Line of Beauty, on the other hand, was set in the 80s, in Thatcher's England, and reflected that and the Aids crisis as well as anything I have read.  On the other hand, that gay life was depicted as shallow and brutish - I wasn't much enamored with it, much as I espouse everyone's right to have the sex life of their choice!

Well, I'm off to cook up some of that free food!  More anon!!

2019 begins with a whirl.....

The day after I wrote last, friend Paul arrived for his first visit to Palm Springs.  That is, his first visit to my place; he had actually visited the city some years before.

He was impressed with the view....




....and the juke box....

(Okay, I give up.   I thought I had done so well, moving these pictures that Paul took from my email to somewhere I could actually pick them up for the blog. I thought I had flipped these pictures.  Apparently not, and I can't do it on this page.  Turn your heads, would you?  There are actually some good pictures of me, for a change.)

We went everywhere.  Down town, where I actually haven't been yet this season....

....to the art museum in Palm Desert.....

.....to El Paseo......

......and to the Thursday night market, passing these guys along the way.  (We both loved the image of them looking as though they were playing in a sandbox.)

....and went to the Palm Springs Art Museum while we were down there as well.  (Paul was suitably impressed.)

Not pictured are the market at College of the Desert on Sunday, or the two dinner and bridge evenings at home.  Paul is re-learning bridge after many years of hiatus, and kitchen bridge is a great way to do that.  I don't think I've converted him to duplicate (he says he doesn't have time for another addiction).

And, finally, a new addition to my touring repertoire:  the Art Crawl.  It happens on the first Wednesday of every month from 5 - 7 P.M., actually not too far from my place.  A bunch of artists have set up studios in a light industrial area (behind the car dealerships, actually; Palm Springs doesn't have an industrial area, as far as I can tell), and hold an open house at the aforementioned time, including wine, and nibblies, and some interesting art.  We quite enjoyed it - Paul is an artist himself, and provided some interesting insights.

Another new discovery  - this is why we have visitors, isn't it - was  the Tommy Bahamas bar downtown.  It is attached to the new (beautiful) Rowan Hotel downtown.  It is outdoors (with sufficient heat lamps for the evening chill), with a generous pour and great happy hour prices for both drinks and food.  Ask for it when you come!

And a new restaurant to add to the list.  I actually haven't gone out to eat much this year - no particular reason, really - but we were wandering along El Paseo, looking at the galleries and cruising the shops (Paul's quite the shopper; it's actually fun to do this with a shopper, which I am not), and needed a place to stop and rest and grab a bite to eat.  The Beaux Artes Cafe had been recommended to me, and it presented itself to us, so we tried it.  Obviously, a popular spot - crowded even well past the normal lunch hour - but the service and food were both excellent, and the prices were quite reasonable.  Andrew, Elaine, why didn't you guys tell me about this place before?

Paul also took advantage of the hot tub every day (another thing I haven't done yet this season), and, in general, seemed to have a good time while he was here.  I enjoyed having him as well, although the longer I live alone, the harder it is for me to accommodate living with someone else.  I find that distressing, really.  I pride myself on being opening and welcoming and generous with my friends.  I really don't want to turn into a crabby, pinched, crotchety old lady.  Just shoot me, someone, when you start seeing the signs.....

Paul left on Tuesday, but even starting on Monday, the week was nothing but bridge.  On Monday, I played with John.  He's the one who lost his partner (life as well as bridge) to COPD a few weeks ago, and I wanted to make sure he was going out and playing (he was included in one of the dinner and bridge events the week before).  Tuesday, I played with regular (and favourite) partner Alex, and Wednesday with Robin (we started playing in law school, why give up now?).  And Thursday through Saturday was yet another tournament, this one the Non-Life Masters tournament.  Played on Thursday with friend Sue, and Friday and Saturday with Alex again.  And, believe it or not, I will be playing again later today with a new partner (Bob approached me at the tournament and asked it I wanted to play) at a new venue.

Yes, you read it right, that's seven times in seven days.  I know, it's too much; my latest analogy is that we are a bunch of adults working towards merit badges (otherwise known as points) - and paying money for the privilege.  I console myself by saying that this is an anomaly (and it is), and that, starting at the end of the month, I will only be playing three days a week - I am taking four academic courses this winter (more on those in due course), and that will be all I can manage.  I must say, though, it has been a great week.  The hands were interesting, the people were great, and even though we didn't make much in the way of points, a good time was had by all.

What's left to report?  My reading list and my mood, I guess.I don't know whether I mentioned The Wagners, by Nike Wagner (the great grand-daughter of the man himself, and the great great grand-daughter, of course, of Franz Lizt)?  It is a strange sort of book, part autobiography, part essays on the operas themselves and Bayreuth, and part her take on the succession battles in which she took part.  The book was probably a couple of steps above my pay grade, but I muddled through it, and am very glad I did.  (I read just about anything that comes about about Wagner or Shakespeare - I am fascinated by them both, and, as obsessions go, there could be worse.)

Sidebar:  Peter left me the book, which he got used.  It was full of underling and notes, which neither Peter nor I could read - and we were both tantalized by what a previous reader - with perhaps more insight that we - might have thought.

And yes, I had time to read more.  Michael Lewis has a new book out, called the Fifth Risk, about the beginning of the Trump reign, what government does, and how Trump and his acolytes really don't care. This was recommended to me by a friend - I wasn't even aware of it - and I have been anxiously awaiting it from the library, where two previous readers had it on hold.

(Michael Lewis, for those of you who don't remember, was the one who wrote Liar's Poker, and Moneyball, and The Big Short, and Flash Boys).  It is not one of his better efforts, from a literary point of view, but (because of its subject matter) fascinating nonetheless.  Just one example:

Here is where the Trump administration's willful ignorance plays a role.  If your ambition is to maximize short-term gain without regard to the long-term cost, you are better off now knowing the cost.  If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problems, it's better never to really understand those problems.  And there is an upside to ignorance, and a downside to knowledge.  Knowledge makes life messier.  It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview..

Well worth the read.  On a lighter note, I found a new mystery writer, Francis Duncan.  Not new, really, he apparently wrote in the 30s and 40s, but is currently being reissued.  Sidebar; the name was a pseudonym, and no one had been able to figure out who wrote these very popular books.  However, on the reissue, a woman saw them in a bookstore and said, Hey, those were written by my father....  I think that's a great story, very much enjoyed the two that I read, Murder has a Motive, and So Pretty a Problem, and am looking forward to more.  (It's so great finding a new author, and anticipating many more hours of reading pleasure...)

Finally, I am now reading a book called Darwin's Ghosts (attracted by the name, I guess), by Ariel Dorfman (another apparently famous author with whom I was unfamiliar).  They compare him to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, both authors with whom I am familiar and like very much.  I am not quite sure he is that good, but I am certainly liking it well enough to keep reading until the very end, and to get his other books as well.  

Sigh.  So many books, so little time.  (Oh, have I said that before?)

Finally, my mood.  I am amazingly content.  I don't want to be anyone else, or to be anywhere else, or to be doing anything else.  And I, somehow, have been able to shed the Jewish thing of, when things are going well, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.  When it does, I'll deal with it....

Ta ta, for now.