Steve Jobs dies

and i am sad...

and yes, my first computer was a Mac

a Macintosh II

and even though i don't have a Mac anymore

nor an iPhone, i think the world has missed a genius

RIP Steve Jobs

if you had an old Mac, you'll recognize this icon

it was the 'bluescreen' for the Mac...

if you got one of these when you turned your computer

it was dead!

the classics

this little post
i started so many days ago
life taking over the blog again
but today, i need this little classic break
'modern' people seem to forget
the beauty of 'classics'
for me, any 'old classic' art
brings a breath of timeless breath
i think of Dickens, when i read this little
ghost story, walking around London so long ago
and Mendelssohn writing his music
and i like to think
that so many lives has past between them and me
that i feel little, but in a good way
and my maladies seem small, not big
so here here sharing today this
"Song" Lieder, Op. Posth Pagenlied, Felix Mendelssohn
singer: Maria Mohrmann-Messing



the Charles Dickens Ghost Story
To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt
or The Trial for Murder as it's called here
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/3ghst10h.htm#3

from this wonderful little collection
The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
Selected and Introduced by Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert

secundaria femenil

junior high
Mittelstufe 
secundaria

one of the good things about Facebook
is that you can connect with old friends
really really old friends!
from age 12 to age 15 i attended an all-girl Catholic school
in Guadalajara, Mexico
today some of my girlfriends posted a picture of us
i wonder if you can recognize me... great memories!

9/11/11

remembering after 10 years
you can visit the memorial online
http://www.911memorial.org/

find the names
visit the site via photos & animations
back in 2001 in 9/11

near Ground Zero, Sept. 9, 2001

i was working at the San Diego Blood Bank
the reaction of blood donors and help from Sandiegans
was impressive, people formed such a long line
that went all around the Blood Bank, it was like that
for many days, demonstrating the strength and unity
of the American people

9/11 Memorial, Sept. 9, 2011

the San Diego blackout of 2011

i am sure this is how yesterday will be remembered
yesterday around 3:30pm the lights just went off
i was in the office, doing some Photoshop
when the screen went black, i am a compulsive 'saver'
so i didn't loose any changes...

around 4:10pm we decided to leave the office and go home
when we realized we were not the only ones without power
and good thing i left then 'cause about 2 hrs into the blackout
the freeways started getting jammed, with no street lights
and tons of police officers deployed to more 'serious' emergencies

thanks to my little battery operated radio and to the AM radio transmitting
from KOGO 600 AM, i knew that the outages spread to all of San Diego county,
western Arizona and even northern Mexico! wow, now that was massive

right away all the big stores closed, so the San Diego airport
hundreds of people were trapped on elevators in buildings downtown
but unless there was a health issue, the police just won't have
the force to unlock them all...


my little triple A battery radio, great help!

around my home, on Adams Ave. while daylight still reigned
a lot of people were hanging out on the streets, two liquors stores
were still open, using calculators to charge for water, beer, ice
these were the items most people were buying

there was a certain mix of feelings on Adams Ave. some people seemed
cheerful but other seemed confused, buying gallons of water
fearing the worse, i guess...

by the time dark settled, the silence reigned in my neighborhood
all the kids went to bed and the crickets were much louder
there was a beautiful very bright sky! we were able to see
the stars and the moon was so bright that i wondered why we
ever invented electricity (heh heh)

a recount of news gathered by the L.A. Times

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/blackout/

around 11pm power came back home, but still a couple of areas
have no electricity, San Diego is pretty much back to normal today
ah! except for schools, all schools canceled classes today
and thankfully the heat wave is over too! so no more sweating
all it's in its right place now, and i just worry
about my food in the fridge and to buy more triple A batteries
for my little radio, it was great company!

i forgot to mention, right after the blackout, ALL the radio stations
were gone! including Tijuana Mexican radio stations, only KOGO
kept on transmitting...

a little adventure indeed, and it reminded me my days of
childhood in my Grandma's town, Autlan, when i was 10 years old
and visited during the summer, the blackouts were sort of common
after the usual electric storms of the summer, time to read and play
shadow games with candles with my cousins

for more info on other areas of San Diego, read mister Smorg's post!
http://smorgzone.blogspot.com/2011/09/eventful-thursday.html

and here some interesting photos
http://framework.latimes.com/2011/09/08/massive-blackout-san-diego/#/0

mixed teas and a little piece

it's been so long since i wrote here

life took over

the summer, my mom's visit

the search for a new home, Monday organ concerts,

cats, work, walks

but one thing in common had my summer nights

trying new mixed teas, herbal loose teas

or technically correct, infusions

my mom found this Rose tea (made of little rose buds)

at 99 Ranch, the all-Asian store

and i started mixing it with chamomile, lavender,

even green sencha tea

the results, marvelous!

the rose buds tea has many properties, throat soother

mood enhancer, etc. and with a bit of honey is great

green sencha tea with rose buds and tea bag

fluffy tea bag with fragrant tea

pretty and tasty tea, the discovery of the summer

chamomile, the good old remedy

chamomile, the good old remedy, a perfect mix for rose buds

chamomile and lavender, another fragrant elixir for quiet nights

lavender tea is another long-time remedy with many benefits

one of my favorite cups to brew tea

ah! and here 'A Little Piece' literally

from a lovely compilation of classical music

for the piano designed to soothing your pets

(Herr Gato and Frau Kitty sure seem to like it!)

Music My Pet

this piece is called Stückchen,

Album For The Young in C Major, Op. 6: V. Stückchen

that means in German, Small Piece

written by Robert Schumman

enjoy! if your dog or cat is not relaxed already

i hope you are!

mesmerizing Liszt, masterful Romero

yesterday i saw one of the best piano concerts
i've seen in my life!
a selection of Franz Liszt works by pianist Gustavo Romero

[i have a life-long love relationship with classical piano playing
i started studying classical piano, fortuitously, almost not by choice
at age 8... one day i was very sick and my mom thought
i needed something to cheer me up
3 houses from mine in Mexico City, there was a small piano study,
Ludwig Van Beethoven, was called and Dolores Solís Amezcua
was my teacher for many years to come...
but back to Liszt and Gustavo Romero]

so yesterday my mom and I, along with our friends
M & J Conner, we were able to attend to one of the
4 concerts series organized by
La Jolla Athenaeum commemorating the bicentenary
of the birth of Franz Liszt



the selection of Liszt pieces varied from the romanticism
and beautifully spaced pieces that Liszt composed
to the incredibly hard and complicated compositions
that made of Liszt so well know for his technically advanced
almost impossible to play pieces, such as the Hungarian Rhapsodies

the complete program for Sunday, July 24, 4 PM

Cantique d'amour (S.173/10)
Andante lagrimoso (S.173/9)
Invocation (S.173/1)
Funérailles (S.173/7)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
----
Sonetto 47 del Petrarca (S.161/4)
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (S.161/5)
Sonetto 123 del Petrarca (S.161/6)
Harmonies du soir (S.139/11)
Spozalizio (S.161/1)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 "Rákóczi March"

more than ever, now I know why Liszt is considered one
of the greatest pianist of all times, and why Gustavo Romero
is considered one of the best piano interpreters alive
his interpretation is just stellar! technically superb
while soulful and introspective
I am lucky to have seen him play!

the opening piece, Cantique d’amour, brought back such emotions
and memories of piano playing to my heart that literally
brought me to tears... thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoqJ46ljjVI

you can read yesterday's notes here
http://www.ljathenaeum.org/musicfest.html#three


Gustavo Romero photographed outside The Neurosciences Institute


my mom, yesterday outside the Neurosciences Institute too


another view

Liszt and Romero, what a pair!

I had tickets for only 1 of the 4 concerts
but I think I am repeating next week...
last week Romero played a selection of obscure Liszt piece
that sadly i missed, but next week's closing series
sounds rather promising, includes the famous Liebesträume No. 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebestr%C3%A4ume

it's that amazing
if you live in San Diego, you must attend to at least one
of this concerts of the summer series, last year was Chopin
and before Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden and Mendelssohn
i think i just found out what to do every summer around here

a list of past Athenaeum Summer Festivals by year

1999 Chopin
2000 Bach
2001 Beethoven
2002 Beethoven
2003 Mozart
2004 Mozart
2005 Schubert
2006 Schumann
2007 Brahms
2008 Ten Years, Seven Composers, One Pianist
2009 Haydn and Mendelssohn
2010 Frédéric François Chopin
2011 Franz Liszt

I wonder who will be interpreted next year?

by the way, these were our seats
apart from being able to see exquisite Romero's hands playing
we could hear him breath...

Monday nights with an outdoor organ

Balboa park is hosting this lovely summer organ festival
http://sosorgan.org/festival2011sked.htm
Twilight in the Park



it is free with many international guests
on July 11 we saw Scott Dettra
the Organist Of The National Cathedral, Washington, DC


he was delightful to listen to, and he introduced every piece he played



these free concerts are a wonderful way to end a Monday night
they are still through the end of August

[click on the panoramic to see full size]

La la la (etc.)

i haven't posted any tea-tags advices in a while
maybe because i haven't been drinking bagged tea
and the few i drink, don't have a tag

but today on this Detox tea
there is one, and yes, i usually follow my heart myself
that's why i come across as emotional,
a bit hysteric, and a lot sensitive, or so i feel like
do you follow your heart? your stomach? or your head?



a little song by Low to go with the tea, and the post



As a child I hid between the pages
Cutting secret phrases overhead
But things we turn our back on when we're older
Only drag us back into our bed

Something's turning over
You'd better get out while you can
Something's turning over

Angels setting fire to the ocean
Pirates making liars out of men
No, I don't think we'll ever see their faces
I don't think we'll ever see the end

Something's turning over
You'd better get out while you can
Something's turning over

Get out while you're young

Every now and then I feel them breathing
Moving through the rooms so quietly
And just because you never hear their voices
Don't mean they won't kill you in your sleep

La la la, [etc]

infection

i am not happy
i have a kidneys infection
apart from the back pain and other maladies
i have a bad case of the blues

blues blues blues

ah [sigh]