Thankfulness

Today, thinking about thankfulness, I realized that I don't feel genuinely thankful very often. Of course there are special events, such as receiving a gift, that prompt the giving of thanks, but the overarching feeling of being happy to be alive, the feeling that life has given us so many wonderful things from music to waterfalls to travel to most everything I write on this blog and quite a lot I neglect - that feeling is hard to come by naturally. It has to be induced.

That's a big reason I like the Thanksgiving holiday weekend so much: a non-religious holiday designed for people to feel thankful (and even if your heart's not into it the four-day weekend isn't too bad either!). Of course there are religious holidays that serve the same purpose, as I feel is the case with Passover especially. But the point isn't about spirituality for me. It's about feeling how there are things in our lives that could easily not be there, about celebrating that we have it pretty good in this life.

So today, on this obligatory day of remembrance, I feel the best homage would be to feel thankful for what we have, what could not and did not get taken from us, either ten years ago or at any point in our lives when we faced whatever external threats we faced. Most of all I want to feel thankful for safety - not security, as in "national security," mind you, but for the safety of my friends and loved ones. Safety not in the sense that they are being protected but safety as a state of being, a characteristic, ranging from the caution they use when driving to the ease at which they fall asleep at night comfortably assured that they're outside of harm's reach. The safety, in other words, that you can only feel by living.

Feel free to share what you're thankful for today in the comments section.

Yesterday was Labor Day.

I know, I didn't notice it either. Because almost every shop was open.

This really irks me. It's a holiday celebrating the workforce, and yet so many people seem to be working as if it's any other day. Except for students, for whom this holiday marks the end of freedom, Labor Day barely existed. So it's barely a holiday at all, in that case.

Photos from a Turkish Passover Seder

After literally a day of preparation and feeling the same nervous pressure my mother must have felt for years, I successfully put on a passover seder here in Turkey, cleaning the house and making dinner for everyone as well as leading the readings and remembering everything that goes on the seder plate. I had to learn a few Turkish words - Horse radish doesn't exist here (acı turp) so I had to go with the much milder arugula (roka), plus I learned cinnamon (tarçın) for the charoset. I made three new recipes for the first time: Matzoh, charoset, and sweet quince (ayva tatlısı), plus I made dolmas and potato latkes. Only 4 people came, but that made it much easier to feed everyone. And there were no leftovers! Now I feel like I can do anything.


Calloway (Rosie's dad), Can, and Rosie with the food. Yes, Rosie's giving the cat bunny ears.


Here are some pictures of the event. Many of them were taken by the little girl, Rosie. It was a big day for her - today is also Children's Day in Turkey and there had been a big celebration at the school earlier, which I would've had to go to if it weren't for religious exception. Yippie!


Socrates's 4th glass of wine (photo by Rosie)



Too much wine for the cat!* (photo by Rosie)



Can and me (photo by Rosie)



A terribly ugly picture of me eating the afikomen with Can in the background (photo by Rosie)



Can holding Socrates while we open the door for Elijah (photo by Rosie)



Can holding Socrates, me partly off-camera eating the afikomen (photo by Rosie)



Rosie



Rosie and the cat



Rosie and Liza (her mother) reciting a poem about homes



The end of the seder with Can, me, and Liza (photo by Rosie)



Calloway (Rosie's dad) and Rosie next to the food tables. Calloway had hurt his back, so he sat on the couch. Check out how I packed the little tables I have with as much food as I possibly could! The afikomen is wrapped in a pillowcase... many of the dishes belong to my neighbor including all the wine glasses... I'm using the little ledge on my balcony as refrigeration space... but I think one of the most exciting things about passover is that you're not supposed to get everything perfect, but you do as much as you can with what you've got. That's the challenge of hosting a seder in a foreign land!



Rosie


P.S. As I've just discovered, my blog is no longer censored! I guess the government figured I wasn't attracting too much rebellious attention... Anyway, my site is back on the air for the Turkish people! Yet I still don't have internet at my apartment (I'm writing this from school), so I still won't be able to update regularly and enjoy my uncensored-ship. Maybe I should get an intern to do it for me...

*No cats were harmed in the making of these pictures. We didn't actually give him wine...

Happy New Year Postponed

In America, the New Year is at a very strategic place, namely half-way through the school year. That means there's been a little bit of relaxing vacation time, and therefore time to think about the great and not-so-great events of the past year and our grand hopes for the year to come. New Years Resolutions abound, self-reflection ensues, followed by a strange mixture of optimism and fear.

We don't get that here in Istanbul. I worked today, New Year's Eve, and it turns out people work tomorrow too. In fact, we don't have a semester vacation until the very end of January. We're still right in the thick of things, making it a little harder to find a clear mind and enough time for some serious heavy-duty reflection.

When we in the English department exchanged gifts, we each shared a one word wish for 2011 (someone had already chosen peace and health, so I, put on the spot, went with "fun"*). Many people chose health or wealth, making me wonder if their Turkish connotations are similar.

Anyway, if you have a moment to add a comment, please be so kind as to share a one word New Year's wish with my other readers. I'm curious to know what you all want. And while we're at it, think of a one-word New Year's Resolution as well - mine's "patience." Thanks!

I should say before I sign off, when I say I "worked" today, I use the word in the loosest sense. Today was a half day, and there were no lessons, just a dance party, a raffle, and a concert. All I had to do was watch and mull over how dumb it was to forget my camera (I'm going to borrow some photos another teacher took, so hold your horses folks). Plus it was casual day, so everyone dressed in jeans - but it was announced in Turkish so I came dressed as always, suit and tie. I wore the shirt my "secret Santa" gave me, but later untucked it and yanked the tie off to fit in more with the other casually-dressed teachers. Some of my students took the initiative to dress sloppily, while others, largely the girls, wore the jewelery and dazzling clothing they'd always wanted to. Having to wear a uniform to school each day must be a real drag.

I can't believe I forgot my camera.

*P.S. I think it's definitely a symptom of my generation to rate "fun" so high on the priority list. Sometimes I think it's strange that we live in a world where one of the worst things to be is bored. It's even strange to me that boredom exists at all; it's not natural.

Holiday Season

Besides the horribly long parents meetings I've been in all week and the illness that the stress has been bringing on me, this week has been fairly good, especially the weekend. Namely I got to do some major-league celebrating.

On Friday Hazal came over and we made potato pancakes, just as we were supposed to before the snow ruined our plans. Unfortunately I have no pictures, but we lit a candle and I sang a prayer and we ate. Plus I think I got her to fall in love with my cat, which I hope her to do more of because then maybe she can keep him after I leave. I'm only about 75% kidding here. We were both very tired and spent most of the time listening to music.


Taksim dressed up for the holidays (I've found that many Turkish people don't know the difference between Christmas and New Years)

Then on Christmas Day, Can's mother was celebrating the opening of her new acupuncture clinic, so I went into the city to Kadıköy to celebrate with them. I was supposed to stay the night, but I'm feeling a little too under the weather. I got to meet his father, who's in the military, and congratulate his mother on the opening. It looks nice - apparently Can and his sister have been fixing the place up all week, which would explain why Can was so tired. We both went to bed earlier than planned that night.


Can and Damla on one of the patient beds

Every time I see the Bosporus I feel like I've made a good decision to live here, my only regret being that I can't be closer to it more often. Today as I made my way to the ferry from Taksim, I was actually giddy with excitement, peering around the corners of the side streets in search of the body of water. Here was my first look:



It was, sadly, a little disappointing - it was grayer than I remembered, and a little smaller as well. It's that time of year, I suppose, when the blue fades from the water and a winter haze sets in over the city. When the Bosporus is gray, it feels like all of Istanbul has lost its color.


Seagulls followed the ferry as it made its way from Beşiktaş to Kadıköy

But stepping onto the ferry and boating alongside Dolmabahçe Palace, being actually on the Bosporus, the beauty floated back in with the orange glow of the sunset.

I Thought I Could Get Away

There's a Christmas tree on the ground floor of the school.

There's a Christmas tree in the school!

What the f***, man! I thought by moving to a Muslim country, I'd have gotten away from that sort of thing!

City Love and Potato Pancakes

Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you the third installment of my latest musical project: "City Love," which you can now find on my MySpace page. I'm especially proud of this one. I've been learning more about mixing techniques and recording procedures, and the last two pieces ("Plant The Seeds" and "Old Liar") allowed me to get some experience with these new techniques before trying it out on a song I've had in my head for a long time.

Not to take away from the other songs. I'm proud of everything I put online. But this one's got "single power."

In other news, just because the recent snow in Istanbul forced me to cancel my Hanukkah plans for yesterday didn't mean I had to miss out on eating potato latkes (how the hell do you spell that?) this year. I made them myself for the first time this evening, and some of them even came out! I had a little dish for dipping yogurt and another for dipping jam; lit some candles, making sure to keep them out of the cat's reach; and sang a song or two.

Hanukkah: consider yourself celebrated.

Hanukkah Thoughts

Happy Hanukkah, everyone! The holiday came by early this year, and I'm... well, not so ashamed to say that I forgot about it completely. It's not like it's a very important holiday, even for Jews (you can bet your car that I'm keeping Passover, though). And even important holidays I'm used to, like Thanksgiving, have passed by quite a bit differently in this country. Even Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays, was postponed, and when I did celebrate it, it wasn't the family affair I remembered it being back in the States.

The important holidays here are the Bayrams, some religious and some otherwise. While I didn't do any of the religious sacrifices associated with Kurban Bayram, I celebrated the hell out of it, and I did commemorate Istanbul's Independence on an October Wednesday - by going out for dinner and a drink with my coworkers.

If I were a different person, I would bring my traditions to the foreign country I live in and introduce them to my friends, throw a Hanukkah party here in the apartment and spin dreidels for chocolates and teach myself how to make potato latkes (I've heard they're not hard). I still might do these things, but I personally find it difficult to celebrate a holiday in solitude. I won't remember it on my own; holidays exist for family. And when everyone around me sees the unimportance of it all, it's harder and harder for me to contradict them. I'm a horrible Jew, even though I'm a good nomad.

And this goes against all the discomfort I personally feel about the "organized" part of organized religion. How come I need people around me to feel the power of a holiday but feel slightly nauseous whenever I step into a service? I mean, I can answer both these questions, but that's a little contradictory, don't you think?

Does this mean I'm feeling alone out here?

Hm.

Perhaps.

I'm going to start organizing that Hanukkah party now.

Thanksgiving in Istanbul

First of all, happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Thanksgiving was always my favorite non-religious holiday (a close second to Passover), and it was a shame to miss it this year. I don't have any regrets about missing Halloween or my birthday or Saint Patrick's Day or any of those other dumb American holidays - sadly, I won't miss Valentine's Day, as it exists in this country as well. But missing Thanksgiving was more difficult for me. The last couple of years I've gone to Detroit and with the whole extended family I supped on the delicious Thanksgiving sweet potatoes and turkey stuffing I never had growing up, and now that I'm getting used to it I decided to live in another country. Plus I have absolutely no idea how to make these foods.

Originally the plan was to celebrate with a coworker, but she got sick and had to cancel, so I went out with Can and his girlfriend last night for a chicken sandwich and a strawberry mojito in Taksim. It was a good time, and it gave me a moment to be thankful for things.



And isn't that what the holiday is really about? Isn't it important that, at least once a year, we think about all the things in our lives that are wonderful and special, the things that make us excited to wake up every day and make each breath and each heartbeat pay off? For me, Thanksgiving has always been about the joys in my life that I'm lucky to have compared to the many people who don't have that luxury: that I can eat three meals - or more! - each day, that I have a wonderful job and the finances to support myself, that I have a wonderful family and a great group of friends who stick behind me through everything, that I have the ability to write stories and play music, that I'm healthy and young, that I have warm and friendly coworkers, that I'm living in a beautiful place and that I can live in this beautiful place even though it's far away from my home, that my family and friends support my distance.

I could go on and on. But even more profound for me is that I'm forced to think about the people who don't have these things. In this way, Thanksgiving is like Passover, when we're meant to be grateful for our delivery from bondage but recognize that so much of the world is still trapped in slavery and always will be. On Thanksgiving many people do not have the means for a big Turkey dinner with a loving family, or a chicken sandwich in a bar with a kanka (Turkish for blood brother, or dude). Thanksgiving is the time of year for me to forget about how tired I am from work, how distant my friends and family are, or any of my small problems and concentrate on how wonderful my life is.

So I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, a wonderful meal, and the chance to contemplate the best things in your life. It's really a beautiful experience.

Teacher's Day

Sorry I've been out of contact lately. Last week was a holiday in Turkey, Kurban Bayram, and I was out of town in an undisclosed location (let's just say I'm a step closer to becoming a honest-to-goodness secret agent, and I'm jet-lagged like crazy right now). Kurban Bayram is a religious holiday where the family adopts an animal, usually a cow or a sheep or something like that, and raises it for a week. After growing attached to the animal, a part of the family like a pet, the holiday ends in its sacrifice. From what I've heard, this is meant to add weight to the sacrifice made to God.

I don't want to spend too much time talking about that. I've actually very little clue as to the nuances of Muslim religious practices, and I don't want to pretend anything different.

Anyway, I come back to discover that today is teacher's day in Turkey, one of Atatürk's great gifts to the Turkish Republic. I was given a sunflower, a seashell key-chain, a bag to hold coins, a refrigerator magnet, and lots of kisses and hugs from my beautiful students. It was kind of warming, actually, even if the students thought that their giving thanks to their teachers gave them license to act out in class.

Speaking of giving thanks, happy Thanksgiving, all you Americans out there! I had completely forgotten what is my favorite non-religious holiday (Passover being my ultimate favorite). Tomorrow I hope you all eat well, and please take a moment during your meal to be thankful that you have the opportunity to feast and that there are many people in the world who don't share that good fortune. And be thankful for lots of other things, too, of course.

And this brings me to another point: I've got some comments about the "Plant the Seeds" song and how depressing it was. Honestly I don't expect my readership to like it because it's so electronic; I gotta work with what's available to me. But I'm working on a new song that's going to be a much bigger crowd-pleaser, a cute love song. Keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Where in the world did that idiom come from? I don't want my eyes peeled! Gross!

The Important Holiday

Ciao, Tutti!

There's an important holiday coming up that I religiously observe with love and passion, a holiday so central to the lives of men and women around the country that I feel obligated to discuss here. I'm talking about, of course, President's Day. As far as I know there aren't any other holidays approaching, right? Good. That would distract from the importance of President's Day.

If you're not convinced that President's Day is important enough to mandate days off school and some workplaces, think about this: What's more important, snow or the nation's presidents? What's more important, Labor Day to celebrate the workers of the world or President's Day to celebrate the 43 presidents that made work suck for them on all other 364 days? What's more important, "I have a dream" or the Gettysburg Address? Independence Day or the chief beneficiaries of the political system it created?

And if that hasn't convinced you yet, just think: we get a day off to revere presidents in the past, but we don't get a day off to elect presidents in the present.

Um... That didn't come out right.

Anyway, to demonstrate my devotion to President's Day, I will do what I do every year for President's Day. That used to be trekking to Washington D.C., failing to find D.C. Comics, then TPing the White House. But after being arrested one too many times (when I was 12), I decided to do something more festive. Ever since I've been celebrating this important holiday by mimicking as many follies of past presidents as I can manage. This includes, but is not limited to:

1) Sleeping with an intern

2) Robbing a hotel

3) Forcibly evicting scores of Native Americans

4) Spying on people

5) Bankrupting the world economy

6) Invading

7) Building a giant dam

8) Sleeping around while my wife is out (since I'm not married, this folly is difficult to mimic)

9) Extracting polio

10) Getting shot at a play

11) Giving birth to a moron and letting him take my job once I'm done, as well as letting my other idiot son have Florida. (That one's hard, too)

12) Giving money to terrorists

13) Giving speeches

14) Selecting a running mate

15) Kissing babies

16) Having my face carved into the face of a cliff in some North-Midwestern state no one's ever heard of

17) Dropping a bomb

18) Being a racist

19) Mistreating, among other Central American countries, Panama

20) Always thinking I'm right even though I probably broke the world

Needless to say, this President's Day is going to be epic. Epic, I say! My goal is to replicate five follies, but in 2003 I was able to complete 9, including ticking off Frenchmen, spending money I didn't have, and appointing neoconservatives to the Supreme Court. Don't ask me how that last one happened; it's a long story.

So have a wonderful President's Day, everyone. One last order of business: A lot of people, especially in my family, have been sending me pink cards with hearts drawn on them and mushy insets. While I'm glad that you're spreading the love of the season, I've been disturbed by the spelling of "President's Day." In fact, the spelling is almost unrecognizable. "President" is not spelled "Valentine," okay, folks? They're not even...

Oh, crap.

Suddenly it all makes sense.

-Sam goldsmith

2008 Best CD's

Ciao, Tutti!

Happy Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanza, Solstice, New Years, Chinese New Year, and anything I may have forgotten. Love each other and kiss total strangers. It may help them get through the incredible stress of endless shopping, partying with people you hoped would have moved to Virginia by now, making food, and decorating. 'Tis the season.

My vacation has been exactly that: a vacation. The best part about college is the length of vacations. And yet I feel I should be hard at work. I'm still working on my fantasy trilogy of novels. My original goal was to finish with Book 2 by the end of the break. Ha! That would have been great. Plus I wanted to finish writing all the music for my recital next semester. Now I just feel inadequate. Not to mention my inability to read any or all of the great books I've received this season. Plus wanting to post more short stories on this blog, which hasn't exactly happened yet.

So work never ends. How come no one told me about this?

But today I feel it is my duty - No! My privilege - to post my top ten CD's of 2008. About a month ago I was wondering how I was going to even come up with 10. Now I feel 2008 was a pretty strong year after all for music, much more so than last year.

But first:

Where To Find My Stories

The other stories are in the archives somewhere along the left-hand side of my blog, intermingled with the pictures I took in Europe and shameless self-promotion.

"Sam Fails to Finish a Love Story" is under the post entitled "Sam Fails to Finish a Love Story" (duh) in the month of November.

"The VideoMag Proposal" is under the post entitled "The Day Before November" in October. It's a long post and the story is near the bottom.

"Cliche Central" is under the post entitled "Art Sharing Day" in October.

My brother's sudden fiction, "On The Way To Work," is under the post entitled "On The Way To Work - My Brother, The Storyteller" in November.

Enjoy!

Top 10 CD's of 2008

1) The Dodo's - Visiter Yes, that is spelled correctly. The title of the CD gives this Oakland-based group an apt portrayal of their homemade style, as does their childish album art. The acoustic, wry guitar-drums duo (no, not like the White Stripes or Black Keys) pounds groove and distinctive melodic qualities into the mind in one of the best complete CD's I've heard in ages. Everything's there. Great songs, like "Joe's Waltz" and "Park Song." A feeling of continuity throughout the disc. Innovative rhythm and harmony. Emotional vocals. The only complaint to be had about this CD is the occasional ill-conceived lyric. Otherwise, this is amazing. Please, go buy this CD right now. I'm waiting.

2) Dafnis Prieto Sextet - The Emotions Series: Taking the Soul for a Walk I may be biased here, since I personally know most of the musicians on this project and the leader, drummer Dafis Prieto, is one of the senior faculty at my school. Plus I saw the premier of this suite at the Jazz Gallery in New York City. That said, I've been waiting for this CD for about a year now and it did not disappoint. This is some of the most exciting jazz writing and arranging out there since Dave Holland, conspicuously absent from this list, accidentally relinquished the mantle. A unique fuzzing of Afro-Cuban jazz styles with fusion and traditional jazz, Prieto utilizes the colors of the sextet and his own virtuosic drumming to the extreme. It can be a bit much at times; Prieto's writing, like his playing, has the tendency to be dense. But it's worth it.

Talking to Peter Apfelbaum, saxophonist and melodicaist on the record and lifelong friend of mine, he said that the musicians brought their best to the studio that day. They were so excited about it that they considered not even remastering it. Now, how's that for chemistry? Magic? One of the few good jazz records of the year.

3) TV On The Radio - Dear Science You have to understand this as two CD's: one that starts on track 1 and the other that starts on track 6. If this were the second CD, it would easily be number one. Home of "Love Dog" and "DLZ," two of the best songs released this year, the second half of "Dear Science" is potent, gritty, and exciting. Other than "Dancing Choose," nothing else of the project resembles anything of the originality and drive of their previous records. When listening to "Crying" for the first time I felt like ripping my headphones out. It felt more overproduced than the Black Keys's new CD, produced by Danger Mouse. However, after a few listens I have been able to appreciate all the songs, including the over appreciated single, "Golden Age." If I sound down on the CD, it's only in comparison to TV On The Radio's other work. Compared to the rest of the bands out there, a mainstream, poppy TVOTR CD is still one of the best of the year by far.

After the first three there's a real drop-off. I like all the CD's in the top ten, of course, but these three were by far the best, and depending on your style, can probably be arranged in whatever order you want.

4) Flying Lotus - Los Angeles Add a vocalist and this dub CD would easily be with the top three in terms of quality. More songs like the second-to-last "Testament" would have been appreciated. But it's hard to complain here. Flying Lotus has an obvious niche, and it's not meant to be listened to with the same rapt attention as the music listened above. It's meant to be soothing or in the background. "Los Angeles" has the composition of a great disc, even if a bit long. It functions like a long suite, so listening to the whole project in one sitting is rather fulfilling. Still, if you only have the time for a few singles, "Comet Course," "Riot," "Breathe.something/Stellar Star," and the aforementioned "Testament" eagerly await. Exciting rhythm and bass flow create this well-crafted CD. Now if there were only a melody...

5) Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair If you don't know Antony And The Johnsons, you're in for an adventure. The man can sing, but his voice takes some time getting warmed up to. His falsetto and self-inflicted tremolo fit this band perfectly for two reasons: he doesn't have to sing so slowly that the tremolo gets annoying, and the two weirdnesses complement each other. This dance/techno/electronica/soul/funk/whatever group's sonorities are so distinctive that Antony seems necessary here. And he kicks butt. This perfect-length CD features three different lead singers, violins, brass (including solos!), bass synths, and drum machine beats. Most of the time it rocks, grooves, jams, and gets into your soul, especially "Hercules Theme" and "Blind." Easily interchangeable with Flying Lotus for 4 and 5, but I went with Flying Lotus because its beats are more interesting. Innovative rhythm and harmony won over innovative rhythm and melody. Perhaps the two bands should get together... yeah, no.

6) Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Continued If I had to choose one CD from this 2-disc set, it would be Microcastle, but there's really no need. This collection of music is not particularly innovative, but the sound of the band and its lead singer is so in sync that they pull off a great project. Using styles ranging narrowly from indie rock to alternative rock to classic rock, everything falls easily into place. "Never Stops" actually had me thinking deeply about tonic/mediant relations in harmony, though now I'd say I like "Saved By Old Times" best on this CD. There's nothing to say about this CD's newness, just that they did everything right, save for the boring segment in the middle of the CD.

7) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes Near the top of everyone's list for 2008, I had to check them out. And they are quite good. Americana, folk rock, a capella, Christmas carol sounding, etc. I was quite excited about them when I first put them in the CD tray. I am a sucker for cool vocal harmony, and they reminded me of a less innovative but fully welcome Crosby Stills Nash and Young. And the too-long CD is solid all the way through. I am particularly fond of the reverb on the singers' voices, giving the whole project a pastoral feel (as do the religious lyrics that are probably there but I don't listen to). But this is the first CD on the list without a single to brag effusively about. The 4th best song on "Dear Science" is better than the best song on this disc, to be honest. This disc is lined with undistinguished song after undistinguished song, all excellent, making up a fairly good unified work. And there is no rhythmic or chordal innovation here at all. The Dodos takes Fleet Foxes to school in terms of creativity, even if they would be grouped together under "acoustic rock."

8) Ambrose Akinmusire - Prelude: To Cora Another biased choice, Sam! While never overlapping with him in high school, we attended the same BHS Jazz Ensemble and know each other from there (okay, I doubt he knows me). The trumpeter cut this album right off his winning of the Thelonius Monk international jazz competition on trumpet, and he deals with the pressure of everyone watching him with the same gusto he had in high school. He plays trumpet, and I normally can't stand the way trumpets sound. Normally. He wrote most of the music, including the scary "M.I.S.T.A.G. (My Inappropriate Soundtrack To A Genocide)," one of my favorite songs to come out this year. Featured throughout most of the CD, giving it a distinctive sound, is a singer who sounds more suited for opera than for jazz, though it oddly meshes well with the trumpet here. She dominates "M.I.S.T.A.G." as well as a few other tracks by sounding out of place at first and dramatic at second. The vibraphonist (yay!) who shares a name with my middle school math teacher also lends his strange sound to the mix with his fast vibrato. The only shortcoming of the disc is its inconsistency. I could delete half of it, especially the superficially covered "Stablemates," and I wouldn't even notice. But try and take the whole CD and you'll have to kill me first.

9) Ben Allison - Little Things Run The World Bassist Ben Allison being Ben Allison at his best. The first track explains it all. "Respiration," one of my favorite tracks of ALL TIME from his record "Buzz," is the opener again for his jazz/rock/fusion quartet Man-Sized Safe. Done differently and featuring a burning trumpet solo that makes the new rendition worth it, the tone is set for Ben Allison the way we've always known him. Like Deerhunter, this CD is nothing new done very well. Especially appreciated is the added play of saxophonist Ted Nash on a few tracks. Ben Allison has, as always, a rock-steady rhythm section and characteristic methods of composing melodies and harmonies that have always distinguished him from his contemporaries. His low rank on this list is almost a competition with himself rather than other CD's of 2008. The composition of this CD is at least as good as Fleet Foxes and probably the best place to start if you don't know his work yet. But still, nothing quite like "Riding the Nuclear Tiger" or the original "Respiration."

10) The Matthew Herbert Big Band - There's Me and There's You This disc is by far the most original of all on the top ten. That made for weird listening the first time through. Perhaps this is why record stores don't know whether to put him in the jazz or electronica section of their stores. May I add a category? Soundtrack, anyone? The lead vocalist sounds plucked from Broadway and shoved into a brassy jazz big band with a sampler running behind them. It was hard to get used to. The tracks sounded like show tunes, though at times like jazz big band pieces, and at others avant-garde dub pieces. I couldn't figure it out. But I figured that any guy who's able to scrounge together 100 musicians (no joke!) for a project deserves a second listen, and I'm glad I gave Matthew Herbert that second chance. The songs are catchy, thanks to their show tune nature; rhythmic, thanks to their electronica nature; and groovy and hip, thanks to their jazz influence. It's got it all thrown together in a hodgepodge of sound. I like it. My mother hates it. It's a personal preference thing. I personally don't like the predilection towards brass, and the singer's voice gets annoying eventually, but songs like the first track, "The Story," show what kind of insane brilliance a man with a vision can come up with. This is recommended just to hear what people are doing with music these days. Wow.

Honorable Mention:

Dave Holland Sextet - Pass It On. Meh. All the playing is good. I've heard it all a million times already. Still, though. Some the best players in jazz playing what I've heard a million times. Why I'd listen to this as opposed to any other Dave Holland record is beyond me, though.

High Places - High Places Short and sweet electronic music that sounds like a forest. It's calming and unique, but they ran out of ideas. 30 minutes and every song sounds the same.

DJ Rupture - Uproot Some of this dub record is really interesting. It works well as a continuous piece, but it gets long and tedious. He's got some great ideas, like with the violins in the middle somewhere, but a lot of it I can do without. People loved this record, though, so I'm giving it another shot.

The Bug - London Zoo "Poison Dart" has a great chorus, and some of the songs rock out. Great beats in general, and I love the political Jamaican rap. But about half of the CD just blows. Such a good idea with choppy execution.

Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life If you don't mind punk rock with a guy screaming into the mic but mixed so low you can't even hear him, this is for you. The first song, "Son The Father," rules. Without it I would have never given the CD a chance. The music is actually pretty good, and they make it clear they have melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic sensibilities throughout the disc with different methods. "Crooked Head" is a good example. But do they have to scream? And do they have to mix it so bad?

Conspicuously Missing: Vampire Weekend

I never thought I'd have to justify not liking this CD to anyone. It's that bad. But here I am, trying to think of technical reasons to trash it. People loved this CD. It got about as much acclaim as "Dear Science." And it didn't deserve it. Every song sounded the same. It was tinny and wiry sounding. The harmonies sucked and the rhythms sucked even more. It was so damn bright I couldn't see a thing. It's not even innovative: The Walkmen are basically the same band (and their new CD was pretty bad, too, but it was better than Vampire Weekend, by a little). I'm sorry, world who likes that CD, but I just don't see it. This doesn't usually happen, but I really just don't understand the allure of that CD. I listen to a CD where people scream into the mic and the mix is awful, but I don't get this CD at all.

Seriously, don't waste your money.

Okay, I need sleep

No, really, I do. If you have any questions about the CD's or are having trouble finding them and need more information, just let me know. Or if you think I left something out and have some suggested listening for me, please please please PLEASE let me know! I love listening to new music! As well as, you know, making it.

Happy New Year.I knew it had to happen sometime.

-sam goldsmith

Short - Group Therapy

Ciao, Tutti!

For those of you who don't know, it was Thanksgiving last weekend. The holiday of food and family! Being far away in California all my life, it has mainly been a holiday of food and close friends for me traditionally, although I never really did develop a solid Thanksgiving tradition. However, now that I go to school in New York and I'm not so homesick that I have to waste my parents' money by flying all the way home for each three-day weekend, I was able to take advantage of the cheaper tickets and fly to Detroit for the holiday. And it was wonderful, even if I ate everybody out of house, home, apartment, trailer, or whatever it was they were all living in. Basically I ate. And ate. And ate. Food tastes good, you know?

Now we're back to school, and it's time to think about finals. It won't be time to do anything other than think until the day before, but thinking about them will force me to post less blogs. It's always something, isn't it? Nanowrimo, then schoolwork, all keeping me from writing. And yet I somehow manage to do it. Just don't look at my grades when they come in.

I'm just kidding. You can look at my grades as soon as I've fled the country.

Speaking of writing, I've finally finished my next short piece, the last one I drafted before November. I've had a hard time with this one and I still don't think it's quite done yet, but it's ready for the online community to critique. So here you are! If you're too full from Thanksgiving turkey to digest some more words, I understand entirely. Wait, no I don't. What does "too full" mean, anyway?

Where to find the other stories

The other stories are in the archives somewhere along the left-hand side of my blog, intermingled with the pictures I took in Europe and shameless self-promotion.

"Sam Fails to Finish a Love Story" is under the post entitled "Sam Fails to Finish a Love Story" (duh) in the month of November.

"The VideoMag Proposal" is under the post entitled "The Day Before November" in October. It's a long post and the story is near the bottom.

"Cliche Central" is under the post entitled "Art Sharing Day" in October.

My brother's sudden fiction, "On The Way To Work," is under the post entitled "On The Way To Work - My Brother, The Storyteller" in November.

Warning! This story, while not as vulgar as my brother's, has some potent language in places. Just be sure to note that before you read it out loud to your kids. Since that's what I assume you do as soon as I post a story. Don't deny it.

"Group Therapy" has been removed from the site by me, Sam goldsmith, for copyright reasons. Deal with it.

This is embarrassingly autobiographical. Basically the only thing in here that's not true is the crush on my therapist. I've had therapy before, but the therapist wasn't very attractive. And I never told her anything that personal, so I wasted my folks' money. Again. Damn, I'm getting good at that! Anyway, I've never had a therapy session quite like that before, but I do get hopelessly attracted to women who look like the girl who broke my heart. It kind of sucks. And I talk to myself. I'm doing it right now, in fact.

The important thing I'm trying to get across is the need for real love, not simple attraction, which is why I'm not too into her at the end and I try to use words that make it seem like we're fighting each other rather than in love with each other. Plus I sort of remove myself - the real me - from the picture.

Ha ha! Can you see the real me, doctor? Sorry, inside joke between me and The Who fans.

Anyway, let me know if I did a decent job getting that message across at the end. Did I at least make it clear that I didn't want a relationship with her even though I was hopelessly attracted to her? I didn't? Nooooooooo!!!!!!!

Anyway, time for Andy Milne Ensemble. Catch you all later. Happy finals period and crazy holiday shopping time! Yippee!

-sam goldsmith

Un Giorno Perfetto alle Cinque Terre

Ciao, Tutti!

Things are getting a little crazy around these parts as final papers start to come in, people begin to prepare for tests, the final concerts are coming up, and everyone who can't wait to get home gets antsy and people who don't want to leave get sad. After teaching last Wednesday, the teacher and I went over the next two classes I would teach before going back home, and it was more than a little disconcerting to think I would be gone so soon. The idea of spending a year or so here after graduating to teach English is becoming more and more appealing.


View from the Oberau Train Station

Before I talk about the perfect day in Cinque Terre (SHIN-kwe TER-a), I should mention my trip to visit with Shira and Billy, which was interesting since both Shira and I look quite a bit different than last time we saw each other. It looks like the baby will be here in about 5 weeks, according to my expertise in the area, or my calculations after hearing what the due date is. I was glad to have a chance to see where they live because there aren't many people who are going to be able to see the house where little Sophie is going to spend most of her first year. Plus, next time anyone sees Shira from out of town she will be a mother. I certainly felt like I was very lucky to be able to make this visit at this point in time.


View from Shira and Billy's backyard. The light made this picture hard to take.

The best part about the visit was the main reason I went, which was the passover seder. Last year I was in New York for the holiday, and I didn't get to celebrate it at all, though I do only have to blame myself for skipping the seder my friends were having. But it was so nice this year to be spending the passover with family, the way it's meant to be done, or at least the way I'm used to. Passover is an important holiday for me because of my version of the bar mizvah, where I spent a year studying the haggadah (not enough to spell it right, though) and learning how to lead a seder. It was just so nice and homey to be reading the story and singing the prayers once again with family. It was a small affair this year, only 10 once the stragglers showed up, which was probably a good thing for Shira. It was intimate, and we went at our own pace, allowing for the questions, serious or not, to be answered by the 4 Jews at the table. I had a great time, so great, in fact, that I completely forgot to take pictures, much to Aunt Marsha's probable disappointment. That says a lot, saying as I took 125 pictures at Cinque Terre. Taking pictures immediately makes one feel like an outsider documenting an event rather than taking part in it, and I was having too much fun to withdraw from that to get some photos to send back home. However, when I wasn't avoiding writing my paper, I did manage to get some good pictures of the house, plus I got some at the train station.


Another view from the Oberau Train Station

The small town Shira and Billy live in (whose name I don't remember) is very close to the foot of the Alps, which was evident as the mountains seemed to rise up from right in front of me. It was drop dead gorgeous, the whole scenery, the car ride, the train ride, and even the flight. They live in a small farming community which was very relaxing for me to spend the weekend after a semester of hard work, though it didn't help me tackle my paper. However, after a long stay, I can imagine it getting old. Still, I appreciated it quite a bit.


Shira and Billy's house

It hadn't stopped raining when I got back to Florence. the weather here has been very strange, and even the Florentines don't get it. I was really hoping for good weather before I left so I could see the Boboli Gardens in bloom as well as the gardens on campus. But, sure enough, spring arrived with T-shirt weather on Thursday, and, bounding with the temperature-induced energy, I figured I would get up bright and early at 6:30 to take a train to Cinque Terre Parche Nazionale and make up for the two times before I wanted to go but failed to do so.


View of Manarola from the mountains

It was completely worth it. My goodness, the place was so amazingly beautiful.

Cinque Terre literally means "five lands" or "five villages." It is located on the west coast in the middle of Liguria, the region north of Tuscany. It's about a 15 minute drive from Portofino and Santa Margarita, where I had visited about 3 years ago with my high school band. The five villages are spaced out along the coast and there are numerous trails that lead you from one to the other. Just behind the towns are rolling hills which double as a large farming community.


Manarola

Some initial observations: First of all, it was like the trip to Portofino back in the day, but many times more beautiful. The buildings were built in the same colorful style and the trail had the habit of running through random people's back yards. For example, we walked by a party going on in celebration of the Italian Liberation (I went on their version of Independence Day).


Note the crowd surfer. You can't really hear the loud music they were playing just by the photo, though.

Second, there were all sorts of tiny paths that didn't look like paths until you saw where they were going. A lot of times I had to double back in order to tell where that path began. These were usually paths that led up to farms or private residences. It was sort of like Venice, but the paths actually went somewhere instead of into the water. It gave new meaning to directions that don't use street names but "the third bush after the ninth tree" or something like that.


This door seems to be in the middle of nowhere, but there's actually a path that makes it important.


I think it's obvious it's a path because of how I took the photo, but it wasn't so evident as I walked by it.

Third, everything was so amazingly green! You can tell by the photos, but it was obvious spring had arrived and the farmers were happy. Combining the unnatural blue of the sea with the verdant green of the hills and trees made for a naturally vibrant hiking day.

The names of the five towns, in order, are Riomaggiore, Manarola (the one I got the best pictures of), Corniglia, Vernazza, and Montarosso. I got to Riomaggiore at about 10 in the morning to begin my hike. I wanted to get through all of the towns, and as a consequence I didn't take many pictures in Riomaggiore. I could have taken some looking back, but the sun was just rising in that direction and it was impossible.


Foot trails map

The path most traveled in the park is trail 2, which is not very strenuous and leads you along the coast so you can smell that wonderful sea air and get a good coastal view of all the towns you're going to. It's also the one built best for large groups of people, but even that wasn't enough to keep from congestion. As many of you know, I walk rather quickly, and this was the trail for families, and families don't usually want to walk in single file. I had originally wanted to do the hiking parts as fast as I could so I could have some time to explore the towns, but, as we will see, I ended up doing something much different.


Manarola

By the time I made it to Manarola I decided to try and take a trail above the rest of the people going on path 2, but I took one that took me about half way to Corniglia, then sent me back to Manarola, so I got to see it twice, which may account for why I was able to get better pictures of it. After the blunder I decided to walk seaside again to get views such as this one:



In Corniglia, on the way to the next trail, I saw a sign that looked like this:



So I looked at my hand held map and made sure the trail would eventually lead to the next town of Vernazza, which it did, so I whimsically went off trail and started the uphill climb, which turned out to be just about entirely uphill. There was an elevation gain of about 2,000 feet in about half an hour of hiking. All in all, the trail was 2.5 km long, so a mile of hiking that went up 2,000 feet. That means more than 2/3rds of the hiking was uphill as opposed to moving straight. Puts the trail at a 60 degree angle. My legs were shaking when I reached the road at the top of the mountain. But the view was amazing and it was totally worth it, though Mom would have hated how handicapped inaccessible it was.It made me worried, since I want to go to Yosemite this summer, but if I had such a hard time on this trail, I don't know if I'm quite ready to go all the way up to Half Dome, which is quite a lot more elevation gain than what I did in Cinque Terre.


Coniglia from above

This hike was the best part of the trip, even if my calves are still sore. It was very cathartic, very introspective, and I could feel my mind clearing. Suddenly I could remember things clearly, things from back in my childhood, and make connections to solve problems that had been forgotten by now (Flip Saunders needs to do this kind of hike). I was all alone in the mountains by the sea. It was an ecstasy, a mental cleansing, and I felt in a better, more optimistic state of mind that I can remember in a long time. I felt I could go back and finish Guest Artist in a sitting, that I could stop stressing about this movie score because I could just sit down and do it, that I don't have to worry about my exams because all I have to do is study for them. I even felt for the first time that I could talk to Mariel without anger, reserve, or fear. I felt like I could tackle all my problems as long as I was on that mountain, like my mind was sharp enough to handle anything set out for it to do. A feeling of "I can do this" about everything. Barack Obama would have been proud. He must do hikes like that all the time. All jokes aside, it was a profound experience for me, perhaps even as far as spiritual. And, of course, it felt like the perfect ending trip for this wonderful semester of mine, a feeling of closing up all the holes left open until this point. It was a truly wonderful feeling.

Part of the consequence of taking the long way around, other than the shaking in my knees, was that I approached the next town, Vernazza, from the back rather from the side, and the path winded down people's back yards, directly through the farming community next to a river. It was so green and full of spring that it was fairly obvious that the farmers were having a good time with the great weather. I liked seeing the little rails with carts on them used to transport things up and down the hills. The whole community seemed to take living on the hills in stride, though with all the uphill climbing they have to do as suggested by the crazy steep stairs, they must be very fit and worn out at a much younger age.



I just booked a hostel to Genoa for a couple days next weekend to celebrate May Day, which is a national holiday here. One last great trip in store for me before this whole adventure comes to a close.

Music Announcements

Very exciting news: The NYU in Florence jazz bands got a final surprise gig back in Marche in a town on the sea close to Macerata. This gig is going to be different than our normal club or cafe dates because we will be playing as a preview to their summer jazz festival in which two NYU groups are playing. This means they will give us a theater and 500 or so people to play in front of, as well as enough money for each band to give us a place to stay for the night and enough to pay the leader of the ensemble I'm in, a stellar trumpet player from Rome who takes our ensemble to another level, though we have yet to play with him in concert. This show will be on Saturday, May 3, so if any of you happen to be in Marche and in the city whose name I don't know yet, you might want to come and see the show.

Tomorrow, Monday, April 28, is the Jazz Party at Villa La Pietra where the bands will play for the students and staff at NYU's campus in Florence. The show should be nice, not that different than the one in the theater on May 3rd, though we have a pretty strict time limit. It is our last (sniff!) performance in Florence.

May 6th is the scheduled date for the performance of the film score. I suppose this means I have to finish it. This is the last thing in the school year that is pumping coffee into the butterflies in my stomach. I do have my friend Leo set to conduct it, and I trust him, but I'm most worried about leading a rehearsal because I don't really know how to rehearse this kind of thing. I hope everyone can sight read it. But if all goes well, the show should be like nothing I've ever done before. In a good way. And it has been fun doing this film score, but it's also been just about the hardest thing I've ever done. With hindsight I would have liked more practice with shorter scenes first, since writing 7 minutes of silent film music is pretty tough, but here I am!

Again, the shows for the summer, which will kick ass:

June 28 at the Bluesix Acoustic Room in San Francisco The first ever performance of Guest Artist, as well as a celebration of the year-birthday of my CD, "Summer Victory Dance." I will bring a repertoire of political music I have written as well to anticipate the end of Bush's final term.

August 17 at the Jazz School in Berkeley My last concert as a teenager will feature a different arrangement of Guest Artist as well as performances on many different instruments I have either never played on stage before or haven't for a while. I will take advantage of the electricity that Bluesix doesn't have.

September 25 at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City The Sam Goldsmith 20th birthday celebration concert. I haven't planned far enough ahead to say for certain what the focus of this show is yet.

Every show will feature the Inspiration Sextet.

More Tales from Greece!

Ciao, Tutti!

Now that I have a few minutes to catch my breath and use the internet, I will try the impossible task of capturing my week in Greece and the visit from my wonderful mother. There is just too much to talk about, too many good, strange, and delicious experiences to even try to accomplish the task of documenting them all. I wrote about 40 pages in my travel log in this week, writing as small as I could but still coming up to the end before finishing completely with the trip.

For the record, here is the top ten as far as I can remember it. Mom, feel free to correct me if I've missed anything.

1) Mom visiting from 10,000 miles away. Now is the spring break for the folks back in New York University, and boyfriends and girlfriends from all over are pouring into the NYU in Florence Villa. Having the bad experience last semester doesn't stop me from being able to share this European adventure with someone, and it was good to have a close companion with me rather than the trips to Ferrara and Venice with people I hardly know.

2) The cave where Zeus is said to have grown up, at the Lissithi plateau in Crete. I have never seen such a natural wonder as a cave before, and it didn't disappoint. This is probably the case because pictures in a dark cave are close to impossible, so I had no correct preconceptions of what it would look, feel, and smell like in a cave. I had been thinking about how much of human history I had been seeing and I wondered if I could see some natural beauty that I can't see anywhere else in the world, so Mom found out where this famous cave was and ventured into the mountains (see 5) so I could see it, and the caves closed an hour earlier than expected so the poor woman had to stay behind as I ran up the hill (difficult in 2000 meter elevation!) to procure a precious 30 minutes in the cave. The experience was indescribable, as experiences usually tend to be. It was surprisingly sensual rather than simply visual. There was a distinct smell of old damp rock, the sound of dripping water and the eerie echo, the welcoming cold without so much as a light breeze, the taste of recycled air and moisture. It was almost supernatural, and my initial desire to touch the rocks to see if they were actually rocks and not clay vanished, replaced by a degree of fear and uncertainty. I jumped when a stray drop of water pelted my shoulder from a rock ice sickle above my head, and I brushed it off like one would with a black widow spider. I slowly got more used to the cave and let may camera do its thing, though with flash not permitted and my body shaking all over from the sprint up the high altitude hill, not many have come out very well and none of them give the proper impression of what it was like down there. Again, it's a feeling that involves all senses. And to put the cherry on top, traveling on off-season made it sop I was the only one in the entire cave, arriving just after the stay of a group of backpackers.

Traveling in off-season would be pretty high on the top ten if I had anything all that good to say about it.

3) The Unexpected road trip in search of a good view of Psiloritis, the tallest mountain in Crete. After the trip to the ruins at Knossos, we whimsically decided to head towards that beautiful snow-covered mountain we saw from the road. We found a small town, Anogia, that seemed to be pretty close and not too long of a dive away, so Mom braved the long trek up into the mountains in search of Anogia. I was starting to get the hang of the navigation by then, and we would cross of the tiny one-street towns we passed as we continued toward the giant peak, enjoying the stares of mustached who clearly did not expect to see tourists. We were getting into Crete, away from our resort-style stay in Piskopiano, a city by the water. Mom could not look down, but I can assure you there were great vistas, and the exploration mixed with that to give beauty to the travel. Anogia turned out to be a city about 1000 people smaller than my high school, though Mom was surprised it was that big. There was one main street at the top of a hill across from Psiloritis, a street two cars could not really go down at the same time though they somehow did, and many smaller walking streets to the valley below where there were many churches, houses, a school, and other such buildings. Mom and I smelled a grill and had to stop for a grill, our first taste of the famed Cretan food (See 6). It was fantastic, grilled lamb as Mom had been craving since landing in Athens four days earlier. The restaurant had a window looking out on the glistening peak, and for the first time in the trip I didn't feel tired or hungry or anything other than just happy to be there. After lunch we walked through the town, visited a bakery owned by a woman who spoke very little English, who we had to convince to let us pay for the sweets we were buying. She was quite insistent on giving us gifts, and even when we forced the money in her hand she slipped some extra treats in that we hadn't originally requested. It is true what they say, that the people in Crete are really nice, even if they live in a town that's not used to tourism, like Anogia.

Crete was surprising. I had expected to spend every day in Crete swimming and relaxing, maybe writing some music. Almost none of that happened. In addition, we started our trip without knowledge of the language or where to find our hotel in the small town of Piskopiano, and we got lost on our way from the airport. We asked people who usually didn't know or didn't speak English, backed into a post with the car, a mistake that cost only enough to buy me that Greek guitar I liked so much in Athens, but we finally found our way to the town. Nothing was open. Nothing. Everything was boarded up, like a ghost town, chairs piled up randomly on the porches of restaurants bragging a roof garden view of the ocean, newspaper blocking the windows. Almost half the city was under construction. After finding the hotel and unloading our things, we went in search of a beach, finding signs to a "Famous Fun Sun Beach" by the town of Malia, which I liked but creeped Mom out. There were all sorts of free things, like swimming pools, trampolines, toys, etc, lined at the back of the beach, making it look like a circus, but everything was abandoned and the pools were empty, construction going on over to the right, just like in Piskopiano. I liked being at the beach and I thought the sand was pretty, but Mom was nervous about it, a theme of the trip for her (again, see 5), so we went back to the hotel and played backgammon, neither of us all that inspired by the island. It felt like we should put a note in a bottle and throw it as far away from our lone palm tree as we could, a deserted island. However, without this negative first impression, the surprises of Anogia, the cave, Lissithi, and the other great things we did in our next two days in Crete would not have been nearly as good. Crete defied expectations, then defied them again.

4) Flying a kite on the hill next to the Acroplis. We were in Athens for the final day of carnival before the start of Lent (see 8). The day after carnival ends is a national holiday when the kids go and fly kites all over the city. Mom and I could see them dotting the sky everywhere we looked as we made the climb to the Acropolis that morning, and I decided I had to fly a kite. We found some cheap kites being sold on the street and climbed up the hill across from the Acropolis to fly it. I was worried about being too close to the other kites and getting tangled up, though I guess I should have been more concerned that I have no idea how to fly a kite. It showed. Even with Mom's help, the thing refused to go into the air, usually preferring to dive for the nearby bushes whenever a Greek kite master looked our way or a sunburned tourist had just taken a picture. It got stuck in the bushes one too many times, and I was too frustrated and broke one of the wood poles keeping the thing together. Mom did her best to fix it, and we didn't give up trying to fly the thing, but it was lopsided and not very aerodynamic. We actually did get it up pretty high one time when I was on the verge of giving up (again), and Mom got the pictures, just before the kite dove back down again. The success was tantalizing, and I tried again and again but the poor thing was getting more and more tattered each time and we had to give up, saving what we could of the design and the tail for an eventual scrapbook. I was basically upset with kite flying after that, and Mom promised we would bring one to the beach this summer and learn how to do it right. I would have been able to get it up in the air had I not broken it earlier! Later that night when we climbed the rock at the foot of the Acropolis to watch the sunset, I found an abandoned kite on the ground (amid all the dead kites in the trees and ground) and tried to fly it on the crowded rock. The breeze wasn't so good, and I was having trouble doing it myself, but a German kid a few years older than me came and offered help. He found the string tied on at the wrong place, so he cut it off with a swiss army knife and re-tied it, a process that was quite difficult and took some time, making me feel stupid just standing there. When he finished, he and his friend tried throwing the kit over the edge, and the new knot came apart, sending the kite all the way down and rendering all the work for naught. Mom and I laughed and laughed as they apologized and sulked off. It's probably better that way. I still had some sunset to enjoy without giving the futile effort to kite flying. Ever since then we saw many kites stuck high in trees and other random places throughout Athens and even a little in Crete as well.

The pictures are having trouble loading right now. I'll get them up when I can.

5) Driving in Crete, Mom with white knuckles and numb toes, my nose buried in an unreadable map. This has to do more with the adventure of the whole thing and the surprise of Crete. One of the first things that happened when we were in Crete was that Mom pulled into an intersection without looking both ways, got beeped at, and the man in the other car even took the time to stop and yell at us from his car as we pulled into the supermarket to ask for directions. Then as we pulled out, the back of the car hit a concrete block, producing a scratch that kept Mom nervous for the entire trip, even though it ended up only costing about 300 USD. Mom said that Dad was the only one who drove in Costa Rica since she couldn't handle, so my confidence in her abounded. Plus she has basically no sense of direction, and I would have to give directions back to the hotel a lot before she memorized the route. It turns out she was concentrating on driving down these impossibly narrow streets and 179 degree angle turns and she could not pay attention to the surrounding landmarks, though she did know this one patch of sheep on a wrong road we took twice. She was quite a trooper, and as long as I had the map and knew roughly where we were going, she trusted me with the mentality of getting there as she handled the physical part. We were a great team, even if she would nervously jerks the wheel and then put her arm across my chest and mutter a breathless, "Sorry!" to which I would simply smile. This was even more so in the mountains, where Mom said the vistas would make her toes go numb, and as she described the numbness climbing up her body I wondered if she would be able to press the brakes or turn the wheel when the road forced such action. But despite these issues with the car, it was quite fun going on the road trip, something I haven't done in quite a long time, since Yosemite, actually. Driving through the mountains, looking down into the valleys, gazing at the sights, all this was very fun for me, and even Mom thought she had a good time, though I suspect for other reasons I would not quite understand. It was also empowering to be given the map and entrusted with the directions to wherever we were going on Crete, be it Anogia, Knossos, or Lissithi. There was adventure and yet also some sense of personal control, both whimsicality and
structure at the same time. I was a part of the vacation, I was not just there experiencing it through someone else's planning or even someone else's whims. It was really a cooperative effort to make the driving trip work, but with the map in my hand and Mom making the turns I told her to make, I felt like I was in control, a nice feeling.

6) Food!!! I love tasting the places I go to, which is why I went to three or four pastries in a single day in Barcelona. Everything we ate was very good, from the Anogia pastries to the gyros we had at the same place twice in Athens. It is impossible to chose a hi-light, but the most different thing I didn't expect was the quality of the grill. It wasn't quite barbecued, not quite grilled, and seasoned with tangy spices my mouth did not expect. I have not eaten much Greek food before except once or twice in Michigan and I didn't know what to expect when I got here. Everything was good, and it was always good to look forward to eating each day. Another good thing was how laid-back the food was. Unlike in Italy or the rest of Europe, or even in America, there was eating all day long. It would be perfectly acceptable to have two lunches, one at 11:30 and another at 2:30, or two dinners, one at 7:00 and another at 10:30. Mom and I didn't do this ourselves, as Mom's stomach bothered her ever since the scratch on the car, an incident that cost me dinner once and forced me to eat most of hers on a couple of occasions. However, we noticed that the restaurants in Athens were always open and always seemed to have people in them, no matter what time we passed them. A much more individualistic approach to food, where the most important thing is the diner's personal comfort in time. I liked that aspect a lot.

I will finish the top ten once I have more time. For now, here is the bare-bones list:

7) The Agora in Athens and the temple to Hephaestus.

8) The strange festivals/holidays Mom happened to be in town for, both in Florence and in Athens.

9) The Acropolis. Not just the walk up, but it's presence that even outdoes Florence's Duomo's, no matter where in the city you may be. That's right: one of the seven wonders of the world would not even make my top seven in a week of Greece. I didn't like the Parthenon as much as I liked the fortress-esque hill the thing was built upon. The whole thing was massive and rightfully the center of the city, the landmark that told you where you were at all times, both in the city and in the world. It was always watching over us it felt, and it was almost comforting that I could always just look up if I wanted to do any sightseeing. Mom loved it. It took her breath away. For me it helped me find my way and practice using my camera. Perhaps I will visit some day and the profound nature of the building will set in for me, but it didn't click this time, not the way Botticelli did in the Uffizi, for example. That didn't take away its meaning for me as a constant guardian of the city. It actually facilitated some thought about the importance of older music, like bebop or blues or baroque or what have you. In a metaphoric way. It was very comforting to see its stoic consistency when returning from the volatile stay in Crete.

10) The last day in Athens before the vacation-saturated departure, energy found despite profound fatigue.

Also when I have more time I will put captions on the photos and put them in their right places. I also must somehow find time to talk about teaching and the board game I made for class today. I also must tell the story of forgetting my bag on the train back to Florence from Rome, but don't worry, I got it back. And there is a lot more to say, but, as I said earlier, that task is impossible.