Wonderful (planned) musical incidents in real-life places brought to light by WQXR new York … their “Q2” music by living composers is a treat! Listen and/or donate to WQXR to keep them going. This article has to do with their annual “High Notes and Low Tones for Classical Music in 2013” awards which led me to review some videos of music-related flashmobs. This was under their Frequent Flier Upgrade section in which players from the Philadelphia Orchestra performed onboard a flight before takeoff. More and more orchestras have blogs and other ways to keep in touch. [Read more…]
Optical Migraines in Advertising and Promotion
I was just so astounded to see these unique photos in an email promotion for the Del Sol Performing Arts Organization over the last month. I like Del Sol, and if you’re in the San Francisco area you should check them out (or get recordings), but the photos caught my eye because they (and especially the one on the right of Rick Shinozaki) look so much like what I see when I get an optical migraine that it’s totally astounding. [Read more…]
Space Shuttle Endeavour’s Last Flyover
NASA flew the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour through the San Francisco Bay Area this morning. It was a treat for tens of thousands of us who waited and watched for this very last flight of the Endeavour. It is one of four shuttles going into retirement in the form of permanent exhibits…with Endeavour ending up in Los Angeles.
Using amateur radio repeaters — there were lots of folks watching for the aircraft all along its route — I tracked the flight’s progress from Southern California up past Stockton, where it flew around the capitol building in Sacramento twice, then down the Sacramento River to the Bay Area. The craft made a pass by the Golden Gate Bridge, one around the Bay in a big loop, and then back out straight between the bridge towers. I joined hundreds of enthusiastic fans viewing from Twin Peaks (elev. 800+ ft) in the geographical center of San Francisco. We were nearly the same elevation as the aircraft, which flew between 1,200 and 1,500 feet during the entire maneuver. [Read more…]
Summer of Yosemite 2012
It has been my plan to make several trips into the Yosemite wilderness this summer in order to visit some places I’ve never seen before. Most tourists have seen Yosemite “Valley” and many have seen Tuolumne Meadows. Access to the wilderness areas is controlled by a “permitting” process that limits the number of people who may enter on a wilderness trailhead each day. There are a couple dozen trailheads, and they have quotas of one to two dozen camper-hikers per day per trailhead. Once you’re into the wilderness area, you can pretty much go where you desire, as long as you have the energy and the food. [Read more…]
SOTA—Summits On The Air
Since the age of 6, when I visited Estes Park, Colorado, whenever I see any geographical feature more than say 100 meters above me, I climb it. (Provided it’s not a technical climb.) If I can get there without hanging by my fingertips, I go.
Summits On The Air [SOTA] is an organization that operates mostly in Europe and the US, which encourages amateur radio operation from mountain peaks. In many areas these are really just large hills, but here the western mountains of the US, we have many hundreds of peaks that are truly mountains and not just high spots. [Read more…]
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