Last gasps of Indian summer

I'm glad I've been too lazy to put the bike into storage. Looks like two more days of nice weather have appeared before autumn returns.

Nebraska? Check!

Yesterday a bunch of us from the orchestra ventured down to the Argosy Casino in Sioux City for an afternoon of entertainment. I lost forty bucks playing craps, but at least I understand the game now. I was up $30 at one point, and should've pulled my original $20 from the table. Oh well, lesson learned.

Sioux City is a depressing place. Very blue collar, kind of dirty, pretty run down as cities go. The kind of city that you can tell used to matter, at least a little, and then the economy changed and all of the good jobs left. Never has a city been more deserving of its three-letter IATA identifier - SUX. Casinos, as always, smell like stale smoke, old people, and hopelessness. But this whole city smells like unfulfilled dreams and despair.

Sioux Falls feels like a cultural mecca compared to its downriver neighbor. But on the plus side, two big developments made the trip worthwhile.

First, Sioux City is home to the nearest Chick-fil-A.



Now, if I had a Chick-fil-A closer to home, I would feel more comfortable experimenting with the menu. But as it is, I opted for the classic chicken sandwich, a tasty breaded filet on a golden wheat bun with nothing but two pickles adorning the lower bun. Some waffle fries and cole slaw, mmmmm. Perhaps I shall work on opening a Chick-fil-A here. Except it might need a buffet to go over big in these parts.

So I ate mor chikin, and it was good.

And on the way home, a clever detour off of I-29 allowed me to pwn Nebraska. It thought it was going to escape, but there was no way I was venturing down to this national armpit of economic tragedy without the Cornhusker State become victim number 31 on my quest to see the 50 states.


Time to update the map...

All hail technology

Nearly a year after buying it, I have finally put my Airport Express to complete use. My new speakers arrived yesterday. And I must say that if you don't need a million ports on your router, it is a thing of simple perfection.

I had started shopping for speakers when I was in Spain, but thankfully held off on the purchase. When I was looking at computer speakers and home audio units, a good friend of mine suggested that instead I look at buying a set of powered monitors. In his own words:

The point of monitors is that they are flat response, so you hear what they heard in the studio when they mastered the record - or as close to it as possible. Go listen to those Logitech speakers. I bet you 300$ if you put a rock record on, you can't even tell what note the bass is playing. All it will sound like is BOOOOOF. And rattle your nuts.

I'll eventually build a system, after I buy a place. For the time being, I just needed a nice set of external speakers to play things off of my computer. And as that goes, I couldn't be happier with my little set of M-Audio StudioPro 3 desktop monitors. They put out more sound than I'll ever need. They're well-balanced, don't take up a lot of space (8" x 5.5" x 5.9"), and the bass doesn't sound like... well... BOOOOOF. They sound nice playing Santana or Satie. And at just $87.70 on Amazon with free shipping, I felt like someone was begging me to take them.

So for those of you who just listen to stuff off your computer or iPod most of the time and would like something to help you do that at home, desktop monitors might be a worthwhile investment.

They don't come with a radio or a cassette player, but seriously, when's the last time you used that stuff anyway?

Sioux Falls: catch the excitement!

Among the big stories in today's Argus Leader was news that Sioux Falls is set to have two new Pizza Ranch restaurants. Oooh, with photo!

Of course, it's been talked about for weeks, so it's not really news. But they are finally about to open. They will join Valentino's Pizza, the KFC on 11th St., Coyote Canyon, and what seems like dozens of other buffet-style restaurants in the greater SuFu area. (Don't ask me why, that's what the kids call it these days.) Just can't get enough of that "all you care to eat" action around here.

It joins the rest of the day's headlines, including "County goes all in on parking lot," "Pheasant cleaner puts heart into taking guts out," "Sioux Falls bishop to celebrate one more year," and "Iowa jurors get pay raise."

Then again, I suppose I should be somewhat thankful that the paper isn't littered with stories about rapes, murders, and gang activity.

Stephen Colbert more popular than Barack Obama.

I took the following screen captures at 12:47 today:



The funniest people I know are also the smartest people I know. And I don't think that's a coincidence. So I have no problems announcing my intention to support Stephen T. Colbert in South Dakota's famous "last in the nation" primary on June 3, 2008.

Frankly, I'm just happy to know that I have someone I can write in that I can support 100%.

Oh, and FYI, after much deliberation, I intend to register here as a Republican.

And the rest of things...

I have another writing project that I pursue on a more regular basis, and I feel badly because sometimes this blog is like my neglected child. Thanks to those of you who have stuck with it.

The apartment is finally being to feel a bit more homey. All the big pieces are in place. Now we're down to things like kitchen appliances, plants, bookcases, things like that. The wall art has been picked out, I just need to get the photos printed and and canvases ordered. I joked that I hoped I would be ready to entertain by the time Tosca rolled around in mid-November, and I think that is a reasonable goal at this point.

The Nintendo Wii was procured last week, and has provided a good deal of amusement in the intervening time.

I spent three days in Watertown this last week, playing concerts at public schools and retirement homes. I enjoy the interaction I have with the audience during those performances, which is something I missed the last few years. Sitting in a hole in the ground isn't exactly conducive to establishing rapport with your audience.

Oh, and speaking of water and the old hole in the ground, it flooded. I guess there was a lot of rain in Valencia last week, and the levels below ground at the Palau were pretty much submerged as a result of the reflecting ponds backing up into the HVAC system. Now, here's my gold star to the idiot who thought installing vents inside dry areas contained within the reflecting pools was a good idea. In speaking with old colleagues, I guess a bunch of sets and costumes were damaged, the elevators are shot, the motors on the stage lifts may have burned out, ticket sales have been suspended, the building has been without electricity for over a week, and the orchestra is effectively homeless for the time being. Their first two productions may well meet a similar fate as last year's staging of Don Giovanni.

For more details, practice your Spanish here and here (with video) and here. My favorite part is in the third article, where it is mentioned that because of the genius involved, all of the water that drains into the Turia ends up in the lowest spot - the basement of the Palau. And apparently, the smallest hall underground is underwater up to the third row of seats. That's a lot of water, folks.

Frankly, it couldn't happen to a nicer group of jackasses in administration. Karma's a bitch, no? Congratulations on having a really pretty, 450 million dollar hall that doesn't work for shit. A brilliant metaphor for Valencia, a land where pretty condos with paper-thin walls sell for $300 grand. Appearance is more important than function, I guess. Now someone pass my old colleagues some buckets.

Meanwhile, over here, things are going swimmingly, but only in a metaphorical sense. Our performances of Beethoven 3 went very well last weekend. I only received two marriage proposals as a result of my efforts, but perhaps one of them will be sincere in the end. And from what I hear, all of the talking behind my back is extremely positive. I just try to do what I do. I'm glad people are happy with my efforts.

Now someone give me tenure so I can find a realtor.

It's supposed to be 70 tomorrow. One last bike ride for the season before the weather again takes a turn for the worse.

All for now? Apparently.

The more things change...

I've always enjoyed cooking, but as a single person living alone, getting up the effort to actually make something from scratch has always been a challenge. If you scale a recipe down, it ends up being a lot of work for very little product. If you don't scale the recipe, it better be something you can freeze, or else you'll be eating it for a week.

So tonight I decided to make this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie that I found on Allrecipes.com . Here is photographic evidence of my endeavor:




I talked to KS tonight and mentioned this, and then had an amazing revelation about my culinary efforts.

The difference between me at 20 and me at 30 is that now my pot pie is five times bigger, and I made it myself.

Wyoming? Check!

Today was our first of two days of school programs and recitals in the western part of South Dakota. We arrived in Spearfish on Tuesday night, after a daylong drive that involved a pleasant diversion through Badlands National Park. Some of the things there are absolutely stunning. A lot of it reminded me a great deal of the things I saw when I was in Arizona last year. I have photos up on my Facebook profile, but if you're not on Facebook, you can see the photographs by clicking here.

Today we did two school concerts, and then split a recital with the quartet at Black Hills State University, a school with just 4,000 students and a recital hall that completely shames any of the music facilities at my alma mater.

Afterwards, we went to Roma's for some wine. Now, I had made mention earlier in the trip of my desire to take our Ford Expedition 12 miles west, so that I could check Wyoming off the list of states I have visited. As you can see from the map below, we are practically in Wyoming already.


View Larger Map

I would have been perfectly content to make this sojourn by myself. I mean, I wasn't going to Wyoming to see anything. I simply wanted to go to Wyoming for the sake of going to Wyoming.

But after a few bottles of wine went around the table, it was clear that I would not be going to Wyoming alone. So the quintet piled into the vehicle, and off we went to Wyoming.

Given the limited scope of the voyage, the trip was wildly successful.



Now, JP, our oboist, pointed out that this picture does not prove that I am in Wyoming, since that picture could theoretically be taken from South Dakota. So I also offer you the following photographic evidence of Exit 199, which is a full seven miles into the Equality State.




And with that, I need to update my map...




I also got to see the most amazing night sky, easily the best I've seen since I left Banff a few months ago. There are so many stars visible that it actually becomes difficult to find the constellations.

Montana is just fifty miles from me, but that will have to wait for another time. Tomorrow it's off to the cities of Lead and Deadwood for three more shows, with a possible trip to Mount Rushmore later in the afternoon.

On the road...

In a little over six hours, I'll be heading west with the other members of my quintet to spend a few days in Spearfish, working with kids at a few middle and high schools and playing a recital.

It should be a good time. I'll finally get to visit Wall Drug, and hopefully get a chance to see Mount Rushmore too. And if I'm really lucky, a brief trip into Wyoming so I can check it off my list of states.

If I'm not able to post until after I get back, I will leave you to ponder one of my favorite quotes, from George Bernard Shaw:

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."