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July 29, 2006

Rehearsal Studios

This is my own reference for rehearsal studios I like. Find locations at New York City Music Places.

NameLocationTelephoneURLNotes
Kaufman Center and Goodman House129 West 67th Street212-501-3308Kaufman Center WebsiteFirst choice for rooms with grands.
Ripley-Grier520 8th Ave @36th212-799-5433Ripley-Grier RatesAsk for 16C, $15/hr. If not available, you might get another studio at same price.
Shetler - 8th Ave939 8th Ave212-246-6655Shetler StudiosUsed 408B. $16/hr. More than Ripley and not as nice. 40% disc. if booked on same day, so only do that.

July 15, 2006

Assembly Required

Here's a picture of my new computer.

You see, I built it myself. My previous desktop died. I don't know why. (The old case is peeking up over the left. I salvaged some of the parts.) At first I thought it was the hard drive, but that wasn't it.

I wanted something that would protect me from data loss due to hardware failure and gutsy enough to support Jan's photography work. So I wanted sizable memory and fast processing as well as data redundancy. My requirements weren't really available off-the-shelf, and I hated the idea of painting myself in a corner with some candy-ass Crapple Computer. <-- Does Lee read my site? We'll see...

My uncle Don gave me the encouragement I needed to do it myself. Mark Rusch and my boss at work gave me technical guidance that was indispensable. The picture above shows all the pieces I picked out.

Here's what it looked like when I first turned it on. It booted to the BIOS the first time!

July 08, 2006

Which Way Did He Go?

Mom said she was trying to find us on the map. Try this link...

Location of our motel

The Tempest

On Thursday evening Jan and I attended our first concert at Tanglewood at Seiji Ozawa Hall. I took this shot in the afternoon when we were walking around the grounds.

This is the interior of the hall as we awaited Garrick Ohlsson. The concert we heard was the third in a cycle he will perform this summer of the complete Beethoven sonatas.

He opened this performance with "The Tempest." I used to listen to Dad play that while I was going to sleep as a kid. I was fascinated by the hand crossing in the first movement. Eventually I played that on my own first solo piano recital.

Ozawa Hall is an interesting venue. The rear wall opens up to the elements. Concert goers purchase "lawn tickets." They picnic on the grass and listen to the concerts. I took this shot during intermission.

July 07, 2006

Rehearsal

Friday night we'll hear James Levine conduct Beethoven's Ninth in the Koussevitsky Shed.

We caught him in rehearsal as we strolled through the grounds listening to the birds and smelling the pines.

Tanglewood Arrival


We got to Tanglewood yesterday. Very exciting.

Beautiful views. Very good for my head.


July 06, 2006

Breath of Fresh Air

Here we are in the mountains. After seeing the fantastic fireworks display in Manhattan, Jan and I escaped the city for the Berkshires.

Jan's inside unpacking. See her waving?

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures from Tanglewood. I've always wanted to go.