I’ve decided to keep the new cello! You can click on the picture for a bigger view of it. The cello that I had been playing for the last decade has been in the family almost as long as I’ve been alive. Roz played it before me, and when I graduated to a full size cello, [...] » Read more

A lot can happen in one hundred and nine days. Susan has been sick the last few months, and is still sick. She’s had to go to the hospital twice. We were lucky to have her discharged just prior to Christmas, and her parents flew out to help make it more festive here, but it seems [...] » Read more

We spent last weekend in Southern California, sweltering through a heat wave at Disneyland, being tourists in Hollywood, and attending the world premiere of Wall-E at the Greek Theatre. Getting to go was Susan’s privilege as a lead on the film and I got to tag along and pretend to be famous. Although not your [...] » Read more

So there’s that orchestra thing I do, every Wednesday I lug my cello to Cal State East Bay in Hayward, dump fourteen quarters into a parking meter, and practice for a couple of hours. Our spring end of quarter concert is coming up next Wednesday, March 5th. We’re playing Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Brahms’ Variations on [...] » Read more

A bit late, since the official notice went out when I was in London (more on that later when I get film processed), but if you’re free this Thursday evening: California State University, East Bay Symphony Orchestra Buddy James, conductor December Concert Program: Johann Sebastian Bach – Orchestral Suite #4 in D Major Aaron Copland – Quiet City Ludwig van Beethoven – [...] » Read more

It’s one of those times in my life where I have too much going on. Came down with a cold, but mostly recovered in time to spend last week in Vancouver with family; Dad included, first time in seven years. Dad gave me a Leica M6 camera and lens, and I’m now faced with the [...] » Read more

Practiced a bit of cello tonight. I hauled it out and blew the rosin dust off it a couple of weeks ago, in part because I signed up for the June chamber music workshop at CMNC; in part wanting to honour the memory of Mstislav Rostropovich, who passed away recently. I’ve never met or seen [...] » Read more

I keep getting asked about the Punk Rock Orchestra. Short answer: there isn’t a functional PRO at this time, or if there is one, I’m not a member of it. Soon after I joined, there was a management crisis and several last minute rehearsal cancellations, leading to disgruntled musicians. Our last practice was in [...] » Read more

I’ve had a radio-less stretch of a few months, ever since it got stolen from my car, so listening to FM on the way home from Vegas was refreshing. During the trip, the heavy metalish remake of “Land of Confusion” by the band Disturbed came on. I find it quite an improvement on the original [...] » Read more

Still sick today – gotten worse in the last couple of days. Susan has been running a fever for a week now. It’s been very nasty, although Patient Zero (the woman on the tour group who gave us this cold) was hospitalized for pneumonia, so I suppose it could be worse. [...] » Read more