A Ticket to the Circus The circus is a very American institution and is a part of our cultural way of life. To be fair, the circus predates America and goes back as far as the Roman Empire. If we define the circus too narrowly to be all about clowns, trained animals ranging from elephants to small dogs and even fleas, and acrobats of all kinds, we might be too limited. Most circuses have musicians,…
Breakfast Hack This weekend, Kim’s nephew Josh, his wife Haj and their kids JJ and Leila are staying with us in order to launch a day at Legoland. Josh’s older brother Will is also staying even though he is more a local than not since he lives in Ocean Beach. The good news is that Kim and I get a pass on the whole Legoland deal and are only hosting breakfast and dinner with the…
Getting Tired We have two cars and I think its fair to say we feel like we need two cars. For short periods of time like when son Thomas was here for a visit, when he needed to borrow one of our cars, we can survive with just one car, especially because I have two two motorcycles in a pinch. Southern California is not New York City. In New York City you can survive on…
Move Fast, Stay Low It’s New Years Eve and we are having some 30 or so neighbors and their guests over for a party. I’m not sure why we feel compelled to entertain with some regularity, but we do and for the most part, we enjoy doing it. I think its fair to say that we enjoy it more than most people, and that is largely dependent on Kim and her wellness and desire to…
Apocalyptic New Year Auld Lang Syne is one of those songs that we all know (sort of) and sing at the passing of things like the old to new year, but few of us have a clue as to what it means and what the song is really about. The song is about 250 years old and was a rewrite of an old Scottish folk song, done by the long-time national poet laureate of Scotland,…
Babylon Revisited After two days of raucous holiday festivities on the hilltop (22 in attendance on Christmas Eve and 14 in attendance on Christmas Day), by late afternoon we were ready to crash hard as the day wound down and the travelers hit the road for points known and unknown. We were left with Tom and Jenna and Kim and I with the added knowledge that Tom and Jenna would be leaving in the morning…
The Quantum of Life I have written in the past about string theory and ring theory, but doubt I could give you an elevator pitch on either. I think I am a reasonably intelligent guy, and I’m certainly well-educated by most standards. Nonetheless, I know a fair bit about my limits. I hit some of those limits ( a funny mathematical pun which gets me right to my “limit” when it comes to mathematics) as…
The Enchanted Village Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and Kim gotta sing. Now that we live out here, Kim is singing with a choral ensemble called Encore. Technically they only have two big shows each year and one of those was last month in La Jolla, where she gave the Eleventh Hour solo, which was a big hit. Here we are a month later and Kim has volunteered with the group to sing in…
Where’s Waldo? I am thoroughly confused. I consider myself a very rational person. I am a sequential reasoner. If A=B and B=C, then A=C. What is so hard about all of that? Isn’t that what made America great? Well, I am once again staring at the clock and it says 4:44 and I don’t mean in the late afternoon. Both Kim and I were very tired last night after a long day traveling back to…
Polymals on the Loose I have a funky few days here in Manhattan this week. Usually I’m in New York either to see the kids or for Kim’s singing performances. We did the whole Lincoln Center gig thing last visit and the early kid Christmas activities were this weekend. I’ve been doing early Christmas with the kids for 33 or so years, so I’m pretty used to that program. My older kid’s mother is a…