Returning to Concerts

This past Saturday was the first time I had attended a classical music concert in over a year, and I chose to attend the Seattle Symphony's opening concert of the 2014-2015 season. Program as follows:

Opening Night Concert & Gala

Saturday, September 13, 2014

4PM

Suite Symphonique "Paris" - Jacques Ibert

Le métro

Faubourgs

La mosquée de Paris

Restaurant au Bois de Boulogne

Le paquebot "île-de-France"

Parade foraine

Gymopédies Nos. 3 and 1 - Erik Satie (orch. Debussy)

Lent et grave

Lent et douloreux

Havanaise for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 83 - Camille Saint-Saëns

Gil Shaham, Violin

Méditation de Thaïs - Jules Massenet

Gil Shaham, Violin

-Intermission-

Selections from Suite No. 2 from Coppélia - Léo Delibes

Entr'acte and Waltz

Prelude and Mazurka

Carmen Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25

Gil Shaham, Violin

Selection from Orphée aux enfers - Jacques Offenbach

Ballet des mouches: Galop

Couplets des baisers

Duo de la mouche

Overture

Alexa Jarvis, Soprano

Charles Robert Stephens, Baritone

Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Flying Lufthansa Long-Haul (AKA United, Step Up Your Game)

Adapted from my trip review I wrote in Flyertalk

Firstly, I'm not one of those people who fly all the time, whether it be for work or pleasure. Nor do I generally fly premium cabins or have access to lounges. However, I have flown some and have achieved some low-level elite status (that doesn't really get me much), and now I understand the system much better thanks to places like Flyertalk. (I'm also not quite as smitten and exited when I do occasionally fly domestic first class on US-based airlines, unlike my other flight review, which was my first time in any premium cabin.)

This flight, as part of my trip to Norway, was a lot of firsts, which I will be highlighting. Beginning with: first long-haul flight on Lufthansa!

 Airbus 330-300 (Click to Enlarge)

On Perception

Oftentimes I observe those who ride public transportation with their bikes to garner clues about how far their commute is. I can understand if you live far enough from major public transportation (like a local train that travels across town) that biking is essential to reduce the commute to a reasonable time. What I don't understand, is, if you are one of my neighbors, you ride the bus with your bike to a workplace that's only a couple of blocks from the bus stop. It also takes me two minutes to walk from my apartment to the bus stop.

It's interesting how much we care about how other think of us and the lengths we go to try to change who we are on the outside. It's not really going to change who you are, and I feel that going out of your way to impress people just doesn't get you anywhere.

Just my two cents...

Norwegion Fjords

(Click To Enlarge)

The Downtown Tunnel Station and Murphy's Law

Early I wrote about how I see weird things on the bus, and I continue to chronicle my bus adventures. Recently, most of my trips that involve the downtown tunnel stations seem to result in some kind of issue/incident.

My Murphy's Law experiences began in May, when I was trying to go SEATAC airport. A bus had broken down at the first tunnel station (Westlake) going southbound, and the bus wasn't towed into the middle area of the tunnel (between the two lanes) for about 20 minutes. My bus going downtown showed up right after the bus had been moved out of the way and they were boarding passengers into the alternate bus. This meant that the light rail (train) that goes to the airport can't run, so the resulting fiasco resulted in three trips worth of commuters trying to cram into a single train. It also didn't help matters that we had to depart the train one stop away from the airport and board another train because the train was beginning to overheat. My return on that trip featured the "phantom bus" that never showed up.

More recently I ran into another similar incident coming home from downtown. In this case I didn't see any cause of an incident, but there were at least 3 full busloads of people waiting for the university express, which is not a normal sight. After the next university express bus arrived, only a small handful of individuals boarded the bus. Since this route is run every 15 minutes, it would have taken over an hour to board a bus. Instead I boarded a bus above the street to head back to campus. However, while we were going up Broadway in Capitol Hill, we were temporarily slowed by a small march speaking against the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, further delaying my return to campus (and work :P).

Granted I take the bus most days to and from work without incident (though today something happened which resulted in all the buses I could take home from the office between 6 and 7 to arrive at 7), but apparently I seem to attract mistakes when I take pubic transit downtown.

Pickleball

The first time I heard of pickleball was when I was in high school, where I was introduced to it during gym class. It felt like a weird combination of ping pong and tennis, though more like giant ping pong trying to be more like tennis. At the time I thought it would be the last I ever heard of the game (similar to when I played sproutball at Interlochen).

I first noticed the popularity of pickleball in the Seattle area when I saw a pickleball court at a public park while I was riding the bus to Northgate. I was further alerted to the activity's presence here when I moved into a new apartment and the swim and tennis club next door had a pickleball court. Every once in a while I can hear the unmistakable sounds of pickleball being played throughout the summer.

I did a little research and learned that the game was invented in (very) close-by Bainbridge Island. There are even local rec leagues and a good number of parks/community centers/etc have pickleball courts that are accessible to the public. This feels so random...

Frustration and Jehovah's Witnesses

Frustration is a funny thing. It can be as gnawing as anger, but tends to be much more subdued-until a breaking point is reached. As such:

Apparently Seattle was the host to an international Jehovah's Witness convention this past Friday through today (Sunday). The article states that the convention (not usually an international convention) is usually held in Tacoma, but was held in Seattle due to the sheer number (as can be seen here). Apparently over 38,000 (yes, thousand) of them from 4 states and 40 countries descended upon Seattle and the UW campus, taking over the football stadium and bringing traffic to a standstill on and around campus before and after their events each day, and that's where the frustration begins to set in.

Usually the drive from my place to the airport takes about 20-25 minutes. Instead, I got caught in the traffic leaving campus Friday evening and I was stuck in the same spot for 30 minutes before I somehow took a turn onto a side road and drove around the entire standstill to reach the airport. Needless to say the bad driving habits of many of these individuals (including but not limited to not signaling while trying to cross two lanes to make a right turn at the next intersection less than 10 feet in front of you...and doing the same thing at the next intersection). Also, it took me half an hour to drive to work today (usually a 10-minute drive) and it seems like they took every last parking space on campus. UW is not really well-designed to host any large event, including their own home football games...

Moved In!

So I've been a little busy but now I've moved into a new apartment in a much quieter side of town (thank goodness for that). In the meanwhile some interesting sights:

There was a metro bus with a Dianetics advertisement (on the inside). For those of you that are unfamiliar, Dianetics is the book written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology about the metaphysical relationship between mind and body (or at least in his mind). I've had the "opportunity" to visit the L. Ron Hubbard Museum in Hollywood and I spent most of the time trying not to laugh at the poor guide, who was utterly brainwashed in the workings of the cult.

IKEA now stocks the Daim candies again-there was a period of several years (up until a few weeks ago) that the candies were not sold. As an IKEA fan, I was glad they brought them back. Now if they would only restock the dessert cakes that had broken Daim pieces in them. Speaking of random foreign foods, I'm half-tempted to order a case of Guarana soda.

"Let Your Best Photo Travel The World"

I know a fair number of people who really like to take pictures, and I figured this contest might be interesting for a few of you. Basically the contest, run through Flying Blue (the frequent flyer program for Air France, Air Europe, Kenya Airways, Aircalin, and Tarom), consists of uploading (up to 10) travel photos to the site and the judging panel will select three winners. The winners will have their photos used on luggage tags that are given to elite members for up to two years. Additionally, winners will receive a one-year membership to Flying Blue's platinum status (which includes SkyTeam Elite+), 200,000 Flying Blue miles, and a luggage tag with their winning photo. The contest is available here and runs until midnight on July 9 (it says inclusive, so I'm assuming at the end of the 9th) Paris time (GMT+2). Currently one of my pictures is featured in the gallery. :)

For those of you that are concerned about rights and licensing (which of course is a legitimate concern):
Flying Blue only has the rights to display your photograph in the gallery during the contest period. If you don't win nothing else will happen. If you do win, in exchange for the prize, Flying Blue is essentially granted irrevocable rights to your photo for the luggage tags and for use on its website and social media pages for two years. This also includes image modification and text overlay for purposes including advertisements.

Taking The Bus

My bus rides are never as weird or interesting as the one depicted by Cyanide and Happiness, but I tend to find that riding the bus exposes me to the greatest range of people around, ranging from the downtrodden castaways to the clean and well-dressed. Since it is a means of public transportation, however, there have been a fair share of uneasy times.

A few weeks ago I was taking the bus to Northgate Mall on a weekend and a (somewhat not right in the head) gentleman gets on at the same stop at which I'm getting on the bus. However he starts to have a long discussion with the driver, and soon enough, our bus gets stopped by the police and the man is escorted off the bus and detained. I'm not sure what was going on, but my guess was that the driver was not happy for some reason to have the police come on the bus and physically remove the passenger. Several months ago I was also on a bus downtown with a belligerent passenger who kept cussing out the driver before getting off after being on the bus for only one stop.

In addition to the belligerent, there are the passengers who try to talk to everyone about their lives and their inflated sense of self-worth (or perhaps they just like to hear themselves talk). Most notable was several weeks ago on the light rail to the airport during the afternoon rush there was a fellow who tried to have conversations with everyone about their private lives. I can understand a little bit of small talk, but on a jam-packed train that's carrying twice as many passengers as usual due to a bus breakdown in a tunnel station preventing traffic for 20 minutes? I think talking to a stranger who likes to hear himself talk is the last thing anyone wants to do.