SonicBloom
Our friends A&M came to visit and made sure that for once we spent the weekend exploring our adopted city. Our evil bosses conspired to prevent us, yet again, so that we both spent most of Saturday in the office while our guests roamed around by themselves, but nonetheless we escaped long enough to pass two memorable evenings.
On Friday evening we went for dinner in the oaky antique elegance of the
Gramercy Tavern. It was selected by our guests, committed foodies, and not only was the food surpassingly wonderful, the service was quite perfect. Coming into the air-conditioning, Janet found it too cold so at a word the restaurant furnished her with a shawl. The four of us chose two excellent wines, relying on our French travels for the white and our friends' Italian expertise for the red. There was an
amuse bouche at the beginning and a second they called the
amuse déssert. We left with a little raspberry coffee cake each for the morning.
On Saturday evening, we went to the
Blue Note to see
Hiromi Uehara with her band, SonicBloom. Our friends are both pianists and jazz officianados, so this was in fact the reason for the trip. We were seated disastrously, in the wings of the room and behind the drummer. We had to strain to see Hiromi peaking above the piano on the far side of the stage, but there was nothing wrong with the acoustics. Most of the show was her own compositions, but her rendition of Gerswhin's "I've Got Rhythm" was particularly amazing, managing to give it a hopped up "flight of the bumblebee" spin without losing the original song.
After the show we walked down Bleecker Street, then took a cab to the Lower East Side for a couple more drinks. But we're all fortyish and working too hard, so were home by midnight.
Catskills Training Hike
Last weekend we laced up our boots for an assault on
Slide Mountain, the highest mountain in the Catskills (see
stats). Okay, the Catskills aren't the Andes, but we've been deskbound since Switzerland last summer. A gentle practice run for our Rockies trip was called for.
We made base camp at a hotel in Kingston, NY. No alpine start the next morning, but a leisurely hotel breakfast before heading out at the crack of noon. The winding drive through the hills made us feel very remote from nearby Gotham. The hike itself was a well-made shady trail (we took the
Curtis-Ormsbee Trail route) amongst leafy ferns and over mossy boulders. It was steep and rocky enough that our knees objected on the descent, but otherwise it was only strenuous enough to provide the needed exercise.
Janet, at a viewpoint near the peak
One of the things that made the trip such fun was my brand new
GPS. Not completely brand new, I suppose, since it was a very generous Christmas present hence I've had it half a year, but this is the first opportunity we've had to really give it a whirl. What a perfect navigator she is. I say 'she' because it has an authoritative female voice that tells you what to do at each turning and branching of the route. We christened her Barbara.
Waterfalls of New York
The first time I heard about this, I thought it was a joke. The New York Water Taxi was offering
tours of the city's waterfalls, along the East river yet, har har. But it turns out to be true, a city-sponsored art installation that will run through the summer. I took some pictures on my run yesterday morning.
Waterfall beneath the Brooklyn Bridge
Helicopter landing at the Wall Street heliport, with the waterfall on Governors Island in the background
Waterfall in Brooklyn
There's one more, a little further up the East River, on the Manhattan side. To be honest, I think the whole idea works better on paper. People (and the
NY Times) seem to like the idea - and it is remarkable, as a piece of frivolous engineering; but the scale and the scaffolding doesn't stand comparison to the real thing. Nature's waterfalls convey power and majesty; these are only an echo, enough for a little refreshing spray only.
New Camera
A little while ago my Canon
Powershot S200, which I have had for at least six years and been very happy with, developed a problem with the display on the back. The image was scrambled, and it wasn't just the display because I tried taking a picture using only the optical viewfinder, and the resulting image was no better. Well, when you have an electronic gadget that has covered as many miles as that one had (France, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Spain, Thailand, plus Owen Sound, White Rock and the Canadian Rockies, to hit just the photographic highlights) it's easy to be philosophical and get ready to go shopping.
However, I am my mother's son (who is her raised-in-the-dust-bowl mother's daughter) and I couldn't toss it without at least trying to have it repaired, so looked up a 1-800 number for
Canon service, where I reached a very helpful fellow who told me that the problem sounded like something they fix for free. That surprised me because it couldn't possibly be still under warranty; but they sent me via email a UPS shipping label enabling me to send it to Canon on their dime, and so I did. Very shortly after that I got an email and a letter telling me that they had received the camera and it did look like the thing that they fix at no cost.
Now at this point I was pleased, but I have to admit, I had started looking at flyers advertising the new cameras and had mentally prepared a set of specs and a price range, in pleasurable anticipation of a trip to the camera store. I fully expected that the next note from Canon was going to advise me that because of other defects/I had dropped the camera/I'm over forty/too many odd numbers in my zip code, they were going to charge me at least $150 to get the camera back - at which point I would say for such an old camera, thanks but no thanks, I'll just go buy another - which is what I figured we both really wanted me to do anyway.
But a week went by and I received another email telling me that the camera was on its way back to me, and a day or two after that the box arrived. The note in the box had an invoice with the magic figure of $0.00 on the bottom line - and one little note at the very end explaining that since they didn't have the parts they needed on hand they were sending me another camera of equivalent features and value. The device I pulled out of the box had a sticker on it saying "refurbished" but otherwise appeared completely new. It is a
Powershot SD700 IS, which means that it is smaller, has a longer zoom, much larger display, better software and more features than the old one. I got my new camera with very close to my desired specs completely for free. So thank you, Canon! I'm not sure if this is a good business model, but top marks for customer service.
First picture with the new camera: Emma in repose
