Greetings from New Orleans

March 11th, 2010

I made it. Something doesn’t want me to be here. The day before I left, the disc drive in my server died. No time to fix that but at least everything is backed up. Provided that disk is good.

Then I nearly sliced the end of my finger off. TOP TIP: if you drop a razer, let it fall.

On the way to the airport, the shuttle bus I was in caught fire.

But I got here today and tonight was recording “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”. It was awesome! Panelists were Roy Blount, Jr, Amy Dickenson, and Mo Rocca. (Amy wins – listen Saturday).

Lots of fun in spite sitting behind the squirmy family.

Haven’t figured out how to post photos from the iPod, so I’ll do that later.

More health care

March 7th, 2010

Two more tales illustrating why those who think the current system is just fine and we have no need for health care reform are idiots. I don’t like the current proposals either, but “just say no” is not a helpful course.

Biking Diabetic says:

First off, I had a doctor’s appointment at 10:40 a.m. This called a fasting for blood work, since I hadn’t been insured for quite some time and hadn’t been to the clinic in quite some time. Since I recently got health coverage, I went in for a long overdue checkup. That’s when the proverbial sh#t hit the fan. The receptionist that check me in informed me that I would have to pay for this visit and try to get reimbursed from my insurance company. What? I had listed this clinic as my primary care facility, but my card listed some Warshowski outfit thirty miles away. A quick call to the company revealed that even though their forms listed this clinic as eligible, they were contracted with this other system. I would have to go there since it was “near by”. If i wanted to appeal, it would take about thirty days to change things. No physical for me. Not yesterday, anyway.

Next, a trip to the pharmacy to get test strips for my glucose meter. They don’t give them away, being around a dollar apiece. I use One Touch Ultra strips, probably the most common one out there. Now wait for it….. My new insurance company strikes again!! Here’s this tale of red tape and no common sense: The strips I use aren’t covered, I have to switch brands. Yes, they will buy me a new meter and strips, but here’s the rub. No alternate site testing. This is not good, since I test on my fore arm, not my fingers, since peripheral neuropothy has made my finger tips overly sensitive to things like finger pokes. And for the more serious problem with this whole affair, the meter they want me to use isn’t even available at this time. It’s on back order, as are the test strips. Do you thinks my insurance company would authorize the strips I currently use temporarily. No way, they will not budge. So there went another $100.00 out of pocket.

Second, “Phil” from Canada (who moved to New York to re-marry after his wife died of a particularly virulent form of breast cancer) says (unfortunately, this one is on a private forum and is not linkable):

1995 Phil [that is, Phil in Canada] earns a hundred dollars.
He ends up paying somewhere around $60 to various governments and walks away with an (off-brand) hockey jersey.  Go Leafs go!  He has $.47 left, which he throws on his coffee table and forgets.  Real men don’t spend change.  A week later he gets in a car accident.  He needs several surgeries and months of rehabilitation.  His critical surgeries are done immediately, and the rest over the course of the following months.  He stays in physio until his therapist and doctor agree he is 100% recovered.
2010 Phil [that is, Phil in New York] earns a hundred dollars.

He ends up paying $30 to various governments and treats himself to a copy of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii.  He also picks up a new Wii remote to replace the one his wife’s friend’s kid threw in the midst of a sugar tantrum rage.  A week later he gets in a car accident (unlucky, I know.  That’s Buffalo drivers for you).  He needs several surgeries and months of rehabilitation.  His surgeries are done within the course of a month, and he begins physio.  Three weeks in someone sitting in a cubicle at his HMO decides Phil is recovered and refuses to pay for more therapy.  Phil will spend the rest of his life with a pronounced limp, unable to walk more than half a mile without stopping to rest.  He’s lucky enough to have a desk job, and as such will not have to spend the rest of his life destitute.  Still, he’s going to struggle to pay his roughly $3000 in co-pays on top of his regular bills.

Nope. We have no need for reform. None whatsoever.

I can only guess what my new insurance company is going to be like.

OkGo does it again

March 2nd, 2010

Whatever you think of their music (some of it is pretty catchy pop tunes), OkGo makes some of the best music videos around. From the dance routine that’s now de rigueur at weddings and proms, to an incredible treadmill routine, they now have the most awesomest Rube Goldberg device I’ve ever seen.

They had help and it’s also clear they went through several takes!

Pretty awesome stuff.

More insurance

February 27th, 2010

Blue Cross was successful in shoving me out. Premiums up 100% over the last three years will do that. Then I see they’re whining in the paper today about losing so much money and blaming it on “falling membership” (and only mention in a side note that 2/3 of the loss is because of accounting methods).  Boo hoo hoo. Maybe they should stop paying their CEO $16M in retirement at the same time as paying him consulting fees.

I got a quote from Neighborhood Health for essentially the same plan for $100/mo less than BC/BS. Even with having to join the co-op to join their group, I think it’s the best deal I’m going to find. The organization is NASRO (National Assn of Socially Responsible Organizations). I’ve talked with Robert Gaw, the CEO of the group and he certainly seems like a stand-up guy, so here’s hoping for the best.

I sent my application in last week and need to let BC/BS know soon that I won’t be renewing.

I also changed plans to increase my co-pays and deductibles and was able to reduce my premium by another $100/mo, so my cost is now $450/mo. Here’s hoping for the best. Any hospital stay will be extremely expensive ($500 co-pay each), and non-generic drugs are now on a 50% co-pay. Yikes.

Red Riding 1974

February 24th, 2010

[IMDb]

A friend’s birthday was Monday, so the group went to see Red Riding 1974 at Kendall.

I’ve been trying to think of what to say about it for two days. I can’t think of anything that’s changed since my first thought, which was: “It’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but it might be the second.”

I even tried reading other reviews to see if there was anything I missed. There wasn’t.

The plot, in a nutshell, is there is an apparent serial killer in Yorkshire raping, torturing, and killing small girls. Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield), a loser newspaper guy starts to look into things, sort of. Queue bleak newspaper hacks, bleak corrupt and (ultra) violent cops, bleak and hopeless loser locals, a bleak gypsy camp, bleak architecture, bleak weather, bleak filming, and what you’ve got is a movie that’s so bleak it’s oppressive.

The reviews I looked into say it was filmed in 16mm which gives it a bleak grainy quality. The 70s fashion doesn’t help, but I remember 70s fashion as colorful (if  colorfully polyester) and not bleak.

The film is also trying to be overly stylistic, beyond the point of distraction. Close ups are far too close up. Smoking was non-stop, even during the sex scenes. There was also this really annoying technique of zooming close up and out of focus, then focusing, but as it’s 16mm, it never is clear. You see this sort of thing in mockumentary type shows, but after the first several dozen, it’s very annoying.

The books are called “Yorkshire noir” and the author is likened to James Ellroy, but having never read LA Confidential, I can’t speak to that myself. But I sure hope the books are better than this film. But from what some people have told me, I don’t expect that’s the case.

New logo

February 20th, 2010

Here’s the new company logo.

It was done by Abby Getman.

I love it.

Boston Organics

February 16th, 2010

Last week I subscribed to Boston Organics and today was the first delivery. If this is the sort of stuff they always deliver, I’ll kick myself for not signing up earlier. Just really, really nice looking produce.

They deliver to my neighborhood on Tuesdays, which, up until a couple of months ago, was my day to work at my client site, and I just wasn’t sure what would happen if I left the stuff hang around in the foyer all day. Now that that’s changed and I no longer work on site, I can take delivery and get the stuff inside before anyone takes off with it. Not that they would, necessarily, but, who knows.

The other thing that sort of made me nervous is I’m not sure I like the idea of having someone else pick out my produce for me. You never know if you’re going to end up with the dregs or something. But this stuff is really nice.

I opted for the 2/3 vegetable $29 box every other week. I think that will be plenty for me, although some of it will not last two weeks (lettuce, for example). It certainly fills the fridge.

It comes in a green saw-tooth top box.

You give them a key or door code and they drop it off inside. (I suppose if you have a porch, they’d leave it there too.)

Open it up and it has

This box has green leaf lettuce, broccoli, dandelion greens, carrots, potatoes, oranges, apples, pears, onions, turnips, bananas, and cabbage. All organic, of course, and it’s supposed to vary by week.  I’m not really sure what to do with turnips, but that’s part of what I’m after as well. I’m hoping they send some things I’m not familiar with so I can learn things to do with them. The larger box this week has celery root which is also something I’ve wanted to try. On their website, you can check off things you never want (for me, that would be grapefruit, mangoes, and grape tomatoes.

I don’t think the price is bad at all. It’s no more costly than the farmer’s market, and it comes right to your door all year long.

So we’ll see how it goes. It’s pretty sweet so far. Now I just have to figure out where to store this box for the next two weeks.

Chamber tea

February 12th, 2010

Today I went to the “Chamber Tea” at the BSO. On some Fridays (about once a month) they have a small chamber concert in the Cabot-Cahners room and serve tea and finger sandwich things and pastry treats.

The food was sort of meh. Bigelow tea, sort of okay tiny sandwiches. Pastries were okay.

The music, though, was quite good, as you might expect. Performing was the Hawthorne String Quartet, four members of the BSO and for this performance, with an additional guest, clarinetist Thomas Martin. The HSQ consists of

  • Ronan Lefkowitz, violin
  • Si-jing Huang, violin
  • Mark Ludwig, viola
  • Sato Knudsen, cello

From the program notes: “Named for New England novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne,” and “It [the HSQ] has distinguished itself internationally by championing the works of composers persecuted during the Nazi regime, with an emphasis on the Czech composers incarcerated in the Theresienstadt concentration camp (Terezin).” (Philip Greenspun has a photo collection of Terezin).

I’m not sure the relationship, but I assume the HSQ is part of the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation. (Whether the Quartet is a member, or the members of the Quartet are member or exactly what, I’m not sure.)

The program was:

  • Franz Krommer (1759-1831): Quartet in B-flat for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, Opus 21, No. 2
  • Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): String Quartet in D minor, Opus 76, No. 2
  • Gideon Klein (1919-?1945): Trio for violin, viola, and cello
  • George Gershwin (1898-1937): Three Preludes, arranged for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello by Thomas Martin

There were a couple of interesting things about the performance. The order of the program was changed a bit, swapping the 2d and 1st pieces because Lefkowitz was ill and wanted to play and go. I understand the idea that the show must go on, but really, you’ve got a room full of ancient old ladies, is it really smart to come into a room like that when you’re not feeling well?

There was a kind of funny moment as well. I was caught by surprise as was everyone else in the place. I finally figured out what happened when I got home.  Take a look at this section of the program:

How many pieces is that?

I (and everyone else) thought it was three. But at the end of the second piece, no one clapped. The players all looked at each other, and stood for a bow. The audience applauded, and looked confused. I really think it’s an unfortunate word wrap between the 2d and 3d lines. (Especially because in the entire rest of the program, the movements are only given as tempo.) So, I think (now) that there were two pieces, with the title of the 2d being, “Variations…Molto vivace”. OTOH, it does say “Trio for …” which implies three pieces. Or does Trio mean three instruments? So maybe I’m wrong in thinking two. Maybe they just played through with no break? I thought I saw one of the player’s scores when they started the 2d piece, and I could swear at the top of the page it said “III”. Whoever heard of a piece with only two movements?

Then again, AMIE Street lists only two movements, so it looks like there are two. 1st Movement; 2nd Movement. I think everything would have been clear had the word “Molto” not been capitalized.

Lastly, I’m not entirely sure which of the three Gershwin pieces they played. The three listed in the program were:

with a note “Selection to be announced from the stage”. If it was announced, I missed it. Now that I listen to the YouTube clips, I’m pretty sure it was No. 2.

For Krommer, the only thing I can find is a few clips here.  (The third group down on Disc 1: Opus 21, No 2).

A YouTube clip of the Haydn piece is here.

A fun afternoon. Way better than working.

The bar next door is renovating

February 9th, 2010

I hope, hope, hope, hope they’re not putting a bandstand by the back door again. The last time (about 10 years ag0) it took a huge neighborhood fight to get them to move it downstairs away from the outer doors. See, the back door is on the alley about 10 yards from my bedroom window and the last thing I need is yet another fight about being rocked out at 2:00 AM night after night.

Cross your fingers.

livestrong.com

February 8th, 2010

Something has to change, so I joined livestrong.com, (one of) Lance Armstrong’s commercial enterprise. It’s a thing where you can track your calorie intake and exercise output, set goals, that sort of thing. (Not to be confused with livestrong.org, his non-profit charity foundation.)

At first, I was tempted to open an account at nutritiondata.com. I’ve had a few interactions with the guy that started that, and really like what he’s doing. Then I found out the whole enterprise was sold to Conde Nast, so I’m not so keen on that any more. Not sure why, really, but there it is. Besides, it seems to track only food, not exercise.

While I’m sure that Armstrong has almost nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of livestrong.com (he has a staff for that), he’s lent his imprimatur to it, and from what I know of him, if it weren’t up to his standard, heads would roll.

That said, it’s a little buggy. As far as I can tell, it’s a website they either purchased or have gone into partnership with called TheDailyPlate.com. The idea, they layout, and the way it works is intuitive and well laid out. One of the buggy features I’ve run into so far is the Recipe creation thing.

What you’re supposed to be able to do is create a recipe of stuff in the database, assign portions and yields. The site calculates the nutritional breakdown of the recipe from the ingredients, then you can track servings of that thing in your meal record. But once the recipe is created, it’s impossible to edit it. I could swear I was able to edit it yesterday, but not today. When trying to add another ingredient, for example, the amount and units fields are not editable, and the new ingredient is not saved.  The same for trying to edit an ingredient already included (to change the amount, for example). It’s not saved. I’m sure it’s a bug, but it’s strange.

Then second weird thing is you can enter new foods that aren’t on your list, which is great. Their database is extensive, but not all inclusive. How could it be? When you add a new item, you either provide them with a scan of the nutrition label from it, or a URL to the manufacturer’s nutrition data. A great way to do it.

But if you don’t want to do that, they have a “generic calorie” which you can add in an ad hoc fashion. I went to the MFA on Friday and had lunch there, so decided just ot ball park what I had based on similar things in the database. Since I don’t plan on doing that very often, and have no way to obtain the nutritional information, it seemed best to do it that way. So I took a guess, and added 350 “servings” of a generic 1-calorie. I came back the next day and the calorie content of the “generic calorie” was changed to 1355, making my 350-calorie item now worth almost 500,000 calories. Yikes! That throws the scale off a bit.

But so far, it seems to be interesting if nothing else. I do like the way it works.  You enter your height, weight, age, and goal (lose 2lb/wk, lose 1lb/wk, maintain, gain 1lb/wk, gain 2lb/wk, &c), and your daily activity level (sedentary, mildly active, very active, &c), and it calculates a calorie goal to achieve that goal. You enter additional exercise above and beyond the “daily activity level” separately.

They also have a lot of advice on other health aspects (sleep, stress, &c) and a youtube channel with tons of videos on eating and exercise and whatnot.

The food tracking thing comes in several flavors that you can switch between. One of them is diabetes specific in which you can track blood glucose. It provides some graphical information that’s really helpful in illustrating how certain foods and exercise affect your BG levels. Very nice.

The side provides a lot of support and interactivity in the sort of social network milieu that I’m not particularly interested in and won’t be participating in, but it does show a commitment to meeting the needs and desires of their user base. This is something the ADA should have done long ago, and they did sort do a half hearted stab at it, but I can’t even find the site any more.

So we’ll see how it goes. It’s been less than a week, but it’s interesting so far.

Verizon is the devil

January 27th, 2010

I knew it. I knew it.

When Verizon cut my line last Friday, and I was able to force him into “fixing” it, he just grabbed any old line and hooked it back up. But, of course, it’s a bad line. The connection has been dropping at least once a day since then. Normally, I wouldn’t care too, too much about it since it’s a drop and quick re-sync.

But now I have VOIP and the line has dropped at least one phone call so far. I don’t use th phone all that much, but when I do, the calls tend to be very long (conference calls, and so on).

So I called Speakeasy to ask what, if anything, could be done about it. Again, they are the best ever. He ran his various tests and found “excessive DC voltage to ground”. I don’t quite know what that means, technically, except that it’s a condition that should not exist. What it also tells me is the guy who cut my line didn’t put any care into fixing his mess.

So now I have to wait for yet another house call from either Verizon or from Covad with a potential $200 charge. (I don’t think the charge will apply, though, because the problem is clearly outside the house.)

Still…

Oh. My. God.

January 26th, 2010

Got my health insurance renewal rates today.

Current plan: $581.20 per mo. or $6,974.40 per year.

Same plan starting 01-April: $662.22 per mo. or $7,946.64 per year.

For those math challenged, that’s an increase of $81.02 per mo. or 14%.

No, we don’t need health insurance reform at all. No. Nope. And it’s really nice to see the Massachusetts universal health mandate lowering insurance costs, as promised.

And it’s really nice to see the Massachusetts universal health mandate lowering insurance costs, as promised. We’ve gone from the most expensive health insurance cost in the nation to …. the most expensive health insurance costs in the nation.

Note this is $50 away from being a “Cadillac policy” which would then be surtaxed at 40%.

A “Cadillac” policy which incurs additional costs of:

  • $25 per office visit
  • $150 per ER visit
  • $15/30/50 per 30-day Rx (generic/preferred/name brand)
  • No dental care
  • No vision care

This totals to about another $1,000 out of pocket per year assuming I don’t need a new pair of glasses or a filling.

Defining a “Cadillac policy” based on the amount of premiums you pay is insane.

MFA

January 24th, 2010

Bought a membership to the MFA yesterday. I haven’t been there in a few years.  I was looking for something to do yesterday so I decided to go check out their new Egypt exhibit “The Secrets of Tomb 10A“.

It was pretty interesting. Crowded. A 1915 expedition uncovered the plundered tomb of a very wealthy provincial governor of the Middle Kingdom. All of the gold and jewels were gone, but everything else was left, although the ransacking had damaged much of it. What was left was acres of supplies (food, tools) and model ships, apparently to convey the dead through the afterlife.

I wonder what ancient Egyptian beer tasted like.

After Egypt, I just sort of moseyed and eventually ended up in Europe. For the last several years, the MFA has come under increasing pressure to investigate the provenance of some of the artwork. Some may have been looted or seized from Jews during the Holocaust.Their answer is the WWII Provenance Project.

It’s kind of hard to say, apparently. It some cases it’s clear, in some cases it’s not. I hadn’t thought of it before, but take the example of one piece. One piece of art was known to belong to a Jewish art dealer at one point. That dealer later died in Auschwitz. The question is: was this art stolen by the Nazis or had he sold it earlier? He was a dealer after all, and bought and sold artwork as part of his business. It’s entirely possible he had bought this piece on someone’s behalf, or possessed it for as little as 20 minutes before selling it. It’s also entirely possible that it was among the items stolen. Theft is one are where the Nazis weren’t as exacting in their record keeping as they were in other areas. Items undergoing provenance discovery are labeled with an informative information sheet describing the situation.

As I think about it, it’s a really difficult situation. On the one hand, if the art were stolen, it should be returned to the rightful heir. But to effect that return, there should be proof that it was actually stolen. You don’t want to give up a multi-million dollar piece of art without some proof. On the other hand, proof may not exist. What to do in that case? Can you just turn over millions of dollars on request? With no proof, how do you know it’s not a fraudulent claim? That’s certainly not unheard of either.

So in the short term, I suppose this is about the best compromise possible.

It was an enjoyable day. I’ll go back.

Verizon free? Hah!

January 22nd, 2010

So this morning, Verizon came out to work on some neighbor’s phone line (it’s in the punch box in our cellar) and what do they do? Cut my line. Dead.

So if a line doesn’t have a dial tone, it’s not being used, right? Dolt.

I had to explain to him how a DSL line without voice works. “I’m an old tip and ring guy,” he says. This will work out well.

It takes him an hour and a half to fix it (luckily I was able to catch him and force him to fix it before he left). He was adamant that he had not cut the line. I told him that that’s what the problem was the last dozen times VZ has been here. When it was fixed, I asked him what the problem was. “I don’t really know.”

Er. Um. You fixed it but don’t know what the problem was. Nice. Clearly he just doesn’t want to admit he screwed up.

Anyway, I lost the whole morning, but I’m up and running again, at least.

OTOH, again, I can’t recommend Speakeasy highly enough You call them, and a person who knows what he’s talking about answers the phone. Very proactive. They talk to you like an adult. Just A+++++ all the way around.

The election is over

January 20th, 2010

Update: The OnPoint show: OnPoint 20-Jan-10


and you all know what happened.

The ones most likely to take the wrong message away from the result: the republicans.

IMO, this had very little to do with the republican agenda (assuming they have one other than “no no no”). This was meant as a kick in the teeth to the arrogant, ineffective, and insufferable democrats. (And I say this as one.) It’s a slap at the senate’s obscene health care plan that makes sure the drug and medical corps are taken care of, Nebraska has its medicare paid for, the unions are exempted from the insane surtax, and everyone gets what they want except those of us who are struggling to pay for the stuff. Is reform necessary? Absolutely! Is the senate’s plan better than nothing? I’m not so sure.

This is about a $700B bailout to the banks that destroyed the economy who then took that money to give themselves bonuses. Yes, the republicans created this mess over the last 12 or 16 years. But the democrats have only made it worse.

This is about a president who courted and won the gay vote as a “fierce advocate” yet after the inauguration has done less than nothing. Repeal DADT? “It’s not the right time.” Imagine if Truman had that attitude. About Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill he has nothing to say, but sends Secy Clinton to “express concern”.

Where is the leadership? I see none. Where is this generation’s Tip O’Neill? Where is the new Patrick Moynahan? For that matter, where is the republican leadership? Where is the new Nelson Rockefeller? Where is the new John Chafee?

But this is also about local issues. It’s about a legislature that games the system for its own purposes, twice changing the senate succession rules for no good reason. It’s about an attorney general who, in spite of the previous four speakers of the (state) house resigning under indictment, sees no corruption on Beacon Hill. It’s about  city hall and liquor board that has violated, and continues to this day to violate, a whole host of laws, yet she sees no problem anywhere.  It’s about state senator stuffing her bra full of bribe money who is caught by the feds, not by her. It’s about state senate president’s being indicted for bribery and influence peddling, again, by the feds, not by her. It’s about her being able to recover about 2 cents worth of big dig money. The list is endless.

It’s about a campaigner who considers meeting the public and debating issues to be beneath her. Contemptibly beneath her.

This campaign, IMO, had very little to do with Scott Brown. (Note that he never called himself a republican in any ad or appearance.) It had everything to do with the ineffectiveness and ineptitude of the democrats. It had to do with voter anger and revulsion to what’s happening in Washington.

The best analysis I’ve heard to date is today’s OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook on NPR. Their site says they post the recording of the show after 6:00 PM, so I’ll post the link to it once it’s there.

In the mean time:

Four hours

January 19th, 2010

It took four hours for the Harpoon B2B ride to fill 800 slots!

I got up this morning and there was a message in my inbox that said registration started at 7:00 AM today. I got another one a few minutes ago (11:20) that said it was full.

Pretty impressive!

Some day I’ll do that ride. But it’s always the same day as Outriders which I really enjoy (and stay the weekend). I also think my condition has deteriorated to the point where I doubt I’d be able to do B2B within the allotted time.

Someday maybe. Most of the route is about the last day and a half of NEC (but in reverse), so I’ve done most of it even if I’ve done it in the other direction.

Free!

January 18th, 2010

At long last, I am Verizon free! As of last Friday, my VOIP phone was turned with my transferred number. Verizon turned off my dial tone, and I’m free of them. No more taking two weeks and a hundred calls to get a repair, no more letting burglars in the house. Nothing.

I just hope they don’t screw up the final bill.

The really nice thing is that the new service has Caller ID (which I’ve never had before) and I now have the ability of not answering the phone when these pollsters and robocallers try to tell me who to vote for.

Too bad I’m still getting spam about that. At least it’s only one more day.

But YAY! No more Verizon!

Symphony : Mozart and Elgar

January 17th, 2010

Saturday was the latest in our Boston Symphony subscription series.

The program was:

Guest conductor was Sir Colin Davis, guest violin soloist was Nikolaj Znaider of Denmark.

Full program notes

Overall, it was good. It was certainly technically great. But, like the Saint-Saens piece a few weeks ago, it was missing something. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the playing, but some emotion or something was missing. After leaving the concert hall, neither my friend nor I could hum either tune. Davis has a strange conducting style, and Znaider is, perhaps, the tallest person I’ve ever seen!

Maybe I just don’t absorb melodic music that well. (My favorites this year have all be the out there stuff like Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Bartok’s Mandarin.)

I’m still in awe of Symphony Hall, though. The acoustics are second to none.

We also found out about something the BSO doesn’t really advertise, I suppose because the audience size is so limited, but they have “Chamber Teas” on some non-concert Fridays. I may see if I can get into one of those.

Next up: Debussy, Lieberson, and Schubert. But it’s not until MARCH 27!!! I may not be able to last that long without doing something. And through the absolute worst part of winter, too! I see the Opera Boston is staging a world premier in February. Maybe I’ll go see what that’s about. Or maybe something else is going on.

DUA

January 15th, 2010

Someone had the same experience I did.

Haiti

January 13th, 2010

Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, looks to be in very, very rough shape after the quake.

There are lots of good charities out there, please consider donating to one. If you’re unsure of one to pick, I’d like to ask you to join me in supporting:

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières

Support Doctors Without Borders in Haiti

Click->> MSF Haiti Press Conference

MSF have always done and continue to do outstanding work. They’re a responsible, efficient, and effective outfit, with an astonishingly low 13% admin and cost of fundraising (according to Charity Navigator; self reported numbers are slightly higher). Founded in the early 1970s in France specifically to help with the Biafra secession, it is now based in Geneva with 19 “associative organizations” (national branches), the US branch was founded in 1990. They are the recipients of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Peace. They are one of the first, if not the first, organization to respond in a crisis, and are unafraid to enter areas of disaster, war, famine, and drought to deliver acute medical care.

In Haiti, all three of their facilities have been damaged and cannot be used. Supplies  and staff are scarce. Urgent support is needed, and there is no better organization than this one.

Google News

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