Marty Kaplan's Blog

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I am thinking that the cold that has attacked everyone else we know is now trying to settle into my body.  My throat is scratchy and a touch sore.  I will closely monitor how things progress during the day because I have a 4:00 o’clock English session with Nico and we also have theater tickets for this evening.  As I write this we are waiting for a repairman from the cable company to come and look at the router that keeps dying on us and needs to be unplugged and reconnected.  Hopefully, they will replace it with a new one and that will solve our problem.

Our doorbell rang at 10:30 yesterday and it was the mailman.  The package that Rachel had mailed to us on December 20^th had finally been released from customs where it had been lingering for the past month.  It had taken a series of e-mails to get it released and, in spite of a promise to update us on the progress of the process, that notification never came.  We had to pay duty on the package because it contained an imported electronic device, Susan’s Fitbit. The package also included some Celestial Seasonings teas direct from their factory store.  Thank heavens we have solved that issue.

Our only activity yesterday was lunch with our friend, Rafael Benatar.  We met him at his hotel at 12:30 and we went in search of a place to have an early lunch.  We ended up at La Taberna Española, which is around the corner from The Ginger Loft.  The Ginger Loft was not yet open and since Rafa had a date later that afternoon to play tennis we did not want to spend too much time looking for a place to eat.  It was such a nice day we decided to take a seat at an outdoor table.

We each ordered the menu of the day that offered us four different appetizers and our choice of five entrees.  We started with a salad, some charcuterie, croquetas and some patatas bravas.  Rafa and Susan chose paella for their main course and I chose a mixed grill.  The food was nothing to write home about, but it was a decent accompaniment to our conversation.

Rafa is busy these days translating a book that will be published later this year.  He is also getting ready for a lecture tour in England and in May he hopes to complete a month long trip across the southern tier of the USA, starting in Florida and ending up in California for his two week stint at The Magic Castle.  He will be doing lectures along the route and Scott Wells is booking his appearances for him.  In addition to being an excellent magician, Rafa is an outstanding musician.  His instrument of choice is the lute and he also plays the five-string Spanish guitar.  He has offered to play a mini-concert for us when we visit Madrid at the end of February.

We chatted until it was close to 3:00 and that was around the time that his friend, Sergio, was to pick him up and drive him to his tennis academy.  We accompanied Rafa to his hotel and chatted for a few more minutes before we said our goodbyes.  In the course of our conversation Rafa asked me if I would be willing to proofread the book he is currently translating and I told him that I would be more than happy to do so.  I worked with Rafa on the Ascanio project that ended up as a four-volume set and most recently I proofread his lecture notes.

I took life easy for the remainder of the afternoon and the evening.  Susan slipped out to sign up for next month’s Pilates classes.  She will be taking three next month and currently is scheduled into the 2:30 class.  Next week, if there are any openings in the morning classes, she will be able to switch into one, two or all three of them.  I managed to finish my Marc Levy novel, which reads like it was written with the intention of turning it into a movie script.  I did not finish it until a little after midnight at which point I shut off the lights and went to sleep.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

We are having lunch with good friend and magician Rafael Benatar today.  Rafa was in town to talk with Pepe about Magic Agora and to do a lecture at last night’s CIVAC meeting.  He heads back to Madrid this evening after what promises to be a busy day for him.

Susan was a bit done in by all our weekend activities so she decided that yesterday would be a good day to rest and recover.  She spent the day reading, watching TV and making an absolutely scrumptious chicken with artichokes that she served over pasta.  Outstanding!  I got to the gym and did a good hour’s worth of cardio and had worked up a good appetite.  As I walked through the door, Susan was putting the finishing touches on her chicken dish.  We had lunch and we spent the remainder of the afternoon reading our respective novels.

I left for the CIVAC meeting a little before 8:00.  There was a good crowd this evening because of Rafael’s lecture.  I chatted with a few magicians and at around 8:15 Rafael walked in.  We greeted each other and chatted for a while and then he chatted briefly with a few other magicians and got ready for his presentation.  His focus last night was close-up magic.

In the course of presenting a number of tricks Rafael talked about naturalness and misdirection.  How and when we misdirect the attention or gaze of our audience are key elements in a performance.  Last night we learned that any time we do that there needs to be an action that justifies any movement that we make.  He concluded his lecture with a demonstration of the Top Change.  Rafael is a master of that move and his advice was eagerly listened to and appreciated by those of us in attendance.

After the lecture we all sat down to sandwiches that Pepe and Paquito had busily assembled while several magicians chatted with Rafa about this and that.  We then took our seats around the table and polished off our sandwiches while we enjoyed each other’s company.   I left for home a little after 11:00 having made arrangement for Susan and me to meet up with Rafa for lunch.

Monday, January 23, 2012

The only thing missing from yesterday’s adventure was for us to dream about Chinese food because, as fate would have it, we had Chinese food for brunch and for dinner.  This is how it all came about.

At 2:00 PM yesterday Brian, Ofelia, Susan and I took our seats at an upstairs table at The Ginger Loft in anticipation of our Chinese New Year’s brunch.  Mike did not disappoint as plate after plate of rolls and dumplings made their way to our table.  For dessert we all had a Mandarin orange and then a plate with three different desserts on it appeared in front of each of us.  It seemed as though every table was filled and we were glad to see that for Mike and Santi’s sake.  As we leisurely sampled each new offering Brian and Ofelia filled us in on some of their State Department adventures.

Brian had a number of different posts during his career.  He started with a two-year stint in Lagos, Nigeria.  From there he went to Lisbon for a more pleasant stay.  His other assignments, in no particular order, included Rome, Sri Lanka, Bogotá, Milan, Washington, DC and his final assignment as Consul General in Lisbon.  He and Ofelia met in Rome and she has shared most of his adventures, including those in snake-filled Sri Lanka.  Brian will be visiting the States for a couple of weeks and he leaves on Wednesday.  We know he will have a great time.

It was 4:30 when we left The Ginger Loft and on our way back home we stopped at Carusel.  Jordi was still there and so were Carol and the baby. We chatted for a few minutes and as we were leaving Jordi insisted on giving us a “few” oranges picked that morning from his very own orange trees.  A “few” turned out to be two dozen and I must confess they are some of the juiciest oranges I have ever seen.  When we got home we took life easy in preparation for our evening adventure.

Dani Daortiz, in my humble opinion, is the best card magician in the world today.  He is in demand all over the world and has recently travelled to England, Chile and China to do his thing.  He also appears regularly at the Magic Castle as both performer and lecturer and has performed at a number of different venues throughout the United States.  He heads his own company called Grupokaps that publishes a magazine and produces DVD’s and downloadable videos.  He leaves for Argentina and Chile in a few days to make appearances at two different conventions.

I met Dani some eleven years ago in Málaga, Spain.  I was there to see the first edition of Ja, Je, Ji, Jo, Ju a magic show to benefit an organization that brings magic and laughter to kids in hospitals.  It was there that I also met Jorge Blass.  A group of us went out to eat after the show and I had a chance to chat with most of the performers in that show.  It was there that I also met Juan Escolano who is both a friend and contemporary of Spain’s most famous living magician, Juan Tamariz.  Escolano had invited me to visit him at his home in Puerto de Santa María, near Cádiz, and I did just that some eight years ago.  Dani came by to visit and at that time he was doing a weekly show on a local station.  He ended up interviewing me and, in the process, filmed me doing a couple of magic tricks.

Dani and I have kept in touch over the years and I have seen him perform at a number of conventions in Spain and, of course, I have seen him every time he has appeared at the Castle.  I recently wrote an article for his magazine, El Manuscrito, and there is a chance that I might be translating the monthly column that he will be writing for Genii magazine.  The editor is considering my offer to do so.

Dani was appearing last evening at a venue called La Protectora, which has recently been renovated and now hosts a variety of events.  This was the first close-up event it had hosted and, to be honest, it is really not a great venue for close-up magic.  However, since we were seated in the second row, it was not a problem for us.  It was pen seating, but one needed a reservation to buy tickets and the event had long been sold out.  My guess is that there were about one hundred people in attendance.

Dani is a study in charisma and skill.  He is disarmingly funny and his magic is truly magical.  His show was divided into two parts.  The first part was dedicated to his effects that have a strong impromptu flavor to them, in that these are effects he does at all performances that require audience input and that input is what is always different.  In one of his effects he has three cards selected by three different members of the audience.  He finds the first card and tears it into four pieces and places it on the table and has the second spectator cover the pieces with her hand.  She lifts her hand and the four pieces have changed value and the card is her chosen card.  He then hands the pieces to a third spectator who holds the pieces in his closed hand.  When he opens his hand, the card has been restored and it turns out to be the third spectator’s chosen card.

Hi first set lasted some forty five minutes and he returned some fifteen minutes later to do another thirty minutes of unbelievable effects and ends the set with his version of a classic effect called “Triumph”, an effect in which a deck that is in a state of chaos with cards face up and face down is restored to an ordered state with all cards face down except for the chosen card.  What is different about Dani’s version is that all the cards are shown in their chaotic condition until the very end when he closed the spread and when he respreads that cards that have all turned face down except for the chosen card.  This was and is magic at its finest.

After the performance and after having posed for a lot of pictures, Dani was ready for some dinner.  A group of us headed out in search of a restaurant that was open and, at that hour, the only one open was a Chinese restaurant called Ruby.  The nine of us piled in as the restaurant was closing and we took our seats while from the kitchen came the protests of the chef who thought that he was done for the night only to be told that there were more customers.  We studied the menu and everyone ordered whatever he or she wanted.  The food was okay and the good news is that it was both filling and cheap.  I picked up the bill because that’s the kind of guy I am.  It was well after midnight when we left the restaurant and said our goodbyes.  Susan, Dani, Juanma – a magician friend of Dani’s whom I met eleven years ago in Málaga – and I piled into a cab and headed home.  Susan and I stayed up until 1:00 to let our dinner digest a bit more and then we headed for bed.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

In a few hours we will be off to The Ginger Loft for a Chinese New Year’s brunch.  Mike has promised some interesting surprises and we are looking forward to it.  Ofelia and Brian will be joining us. Later in the day I hope to catch up with long time friend and fellow magician, Dani Daortiz.

Yesterday was intentionally a day of little activity.  Susan did a morning workout and I got to the gym for an hour of cardio.  After taking a shower, I got dressed and we went in search of lunch.  We ended up at El Molinón and were not too daring in our choice of food.  We ordered the house salad, the meatballs and some patatas cabrales, which are like patatas bravas except they are covered with a cabrales cheese sauce.  We had some cheese and quince paste for dessert.  We finished our meal with coffee and a liqueur.  Quique has added a new wine to his offerings.  It is a Valencia wine called Capricho.  If it were available in the States it would be worth looking for.

We headed back home after lunch and I returned to our apartment.  Susan, on the other hand, went in search of a new dish drainer.  The wooden one we currently have is getting a bit gross.  While she was out I worked on a new presentation for an old magic effect.  This is the third handling change that I have made and that is always dangerous because the old handling is still in my sense memory and every once in a while it gets in the way.  I have also added another phase, but it may be too much.  I will have to try it out soon to see how it plays and if it plays well.

We briefly toyed with the idea of seeing the new George Clooney film, but Susan was happy to stay at home and read her book.  We turned on the TV at about 9:30 to watch an episode of Masterpiece Theater’s “Lewis”.  This season’s episodes are called “Inspector Lewis” and we have access to the previous season’s episodes.  We also watched the pilot episode of “Smash”, which will debut on February 7.  It deals with a songwriting team that decided to write a new musical for Broadway called “Marilyn”.  It stars Deborah Messing of “Will and Grace” fame and it looks very promising, especially for those of us who are Broadway musical fans.  While we watched we enjoyed a light supper and since it was a bit after midnight when we shut off the TV, we decided that it made sense to get ready for bed so that we can be well rested for brunch.

Queso y mebrillo

Ronmiel

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Yesterday brought a surprise or two.  Let’s see what the world has in store for us today.  At the moment, the slate of activities is totally blank.

Yesterday I responded to an e-mail from Salva Pellicer who, along with Pepe, is the co-owner of Magic Agora.  He was looking for someone to dub the English version of a couple of promo spots that had been shot in Spanish.  It needed to be a female voice.  He asked me if I knew anyone who might be able to do the work.  I spoke with Susan before I offered her services and she was agreeable.  I let Salva know and he asked what afternoons we were free.  I gave him three possibilities for next week, but it tuned out that the recording studio was booked those days so he asked if we could meet him at 4:00 that afternoon.  We said yes.

After such exciting news the rest of our late morning was mundane.  We walked down to Prácticas and bought a waste can and a toilet brush.  After we set both in place, we decided that it would be best to have lunch at La Fórcola and we sat down at our table at 2:30.  The place was filled to the rafters.  We chose the menu of the day and both Susan and I started out with the avocado and shrimp salad that had a base of a variety of lettuces, some tomato, onions, avocado and shrimp.  For the main course I opted for a vegetable pizza and Susan had the bowtie pasta with ham and Brie.  Ice cream was the dessert of choice today.  I chose chocolate and Susan had pineapple.  We finished our coffee and headed out to find a cab.

At 4:00 PM the cab dropped us off at Triton Media where Magic Agora does its post-production.  While Pepe worked on editing a video that was shot at the beginning of the week, Salva, Juan, Susan and I worked in the recording studio.  It took about two hours to record two one-minute spots and a 30 second promo.  I had translated the script into English a while back and now the challenge was to match up the length of each English phrase with the length of the Spanish phrase.  The task was made all the more daunting because Spanish is a more poetic language than English and flows more easily.  The Spanish spot starts with “Soy maga” and the English starts with I am a magician”.  Obviously the meaning is the same, but the emotional undercurrent is totally different.  We reworked the script in a number of places and finally we were all happy with the result.  We hopped a cab and were back home a little before 7:00.

At 7:30 we were back on the street heading for the Cines Yelmo to see “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” in its original version.  There were eight of us in the theater.  We enjoyed the film greatly, especially Gary Oldman’s performance.  On the way back we stopped at Olaya and had some calamares and some shrimp in garlic sauce.  It was past midnight when we finally crashed.

Salad

Pasta

Pizza

Ice Cream

Friday, January 20, 2012

The sun has returned to Valencia and there is a slight warming trend predicted for the next few days.  As always, we will take the weather forecast with a grain of salt.  We are giving some thought to seeing a movie today, but we shall see how our day plays out.

Yesterday we both did a home workout and took our showers so that we would be ready to leave when Rosa showed up to clean the house.  Rosa called a little after 12:30 saying that she was still not feeling well and would come on Friday instead.  Since we were planning to eat out today and had not taken anything out of the freezer, we decided that we would keep to our original plan.  On Wednesday Mike had mentioned a restaurant to us by the name of Basílico so we thought that we would give it a try.

Basílico is located on Calle Cádiz and is about a five-minute walk from Brian and Ofelia’s place.  We decided to walk to the restaurant and we got there in less than thirty minutes.  The restaurant is very small and it is difficult to get a table at lunchtime without a reservation.  We got lucky and they broke a four-top into two two-tops and we took our seats close to the door.  Alex works the floor of the restaurant and Arif does the cooking.  Alex, I think, is from Valencia and Arif is from London.  Lunch is a set menu and is priced at a very reasonable 9.90 Euros.  The menu yesterday was a mushroom and spinach soup, a bruschetta made with fresh tomato and basil, Peking duck and, for dessert, a warm apple crumble served with vanilla ice cream.  The Peking duck was served in the traditional style with the pancakes, the duck, the vegetables and the duck sauce and we each got to make our own little Chines duck tacos.  Everything was very tasty and we know that we will be returning to try their evening menu.

As we left the restaurant we decided that we would pay a visit to the Corte Inglés to see if they had any black leather jackets that might catch my fancy.  Nothing did catch my eye, but Susan found a fluffy blue bathrobe so our visit was not a total failure.  By the time we got home it was a bit after 6:30.  I was hoping that I would find a message from Pepe about whether there would be a meeting of the veteranos or not.  It turned out that Paco D’Andres was still not up to receiving visitors so the plan for the evening was to gather at Pepe’s to watch Valencia play Levante in one of the opening rounds of the Copa del Rey.

I got to Pepe’s a few minutes before 9:00 and Paquito and Gurrea were already there.  Pepe was in the process of making sandwiches, a delightful combination of smoked red peppers, eggplant and tuna.  We each grabbed our sandwich, poured ourselves a glass of wine and watched Valencia beat Levante 4 to 1.  The game ended a little after 11:00 and we all left together.  We parted ways at the front door of Pepe’s apartment building.  I walked home and was back in the house some ten minutes later.

We did an extensive amount of walking yesterday – close to 7 miles.  Since I have been in Valencia I have logged 385.66 miles between the treadmill at the gym and our daily jaunts through the city.  Needless to say, my legs are in the best shape ever.

Olivas

Mushroom soup and bruschetta

Peking Duck

Apple Crumble

Thursday, January 19, 2012

It’s nice to know that politicians are politicians all over the world.  The President of the Generalitat, Alberto Fabra, is blaming the government of the previous Prime Minister of Spain for the Generlitat’s delay in paying both their bills and their employees.  The Generalitat is the governing body of the province of Valencia.  Two weeks ago all the pharmacies in town went on strike because the Generalitat was months in arrears in their payments to pharmacies for medicines dispensed to those who have state sponsored health insurance.  Prior to the strike the pharmacies were forced to stop dispensing medication to those on the government insurance plan unless those individuals could pay for their prescriptions.  The current crisis affect schools at all levels, including the universities.  The government currently owes these institutions 140 million Euros in back payments.  Fabra’s claim is that the national government has delayed their payments to Valencia.

Fabra has failed to mention that the 150 million Euros spent to build an airport in Castellón, an airport that will most probably never open.  He also has failed to mention the 30 million Euros that have been spent publicizing the airport.  He has also failed to mention that the only activity currently at the airport is an 80 feet high statue of his likeness that is being erected at said airport.  The cost of the statue is estimate to be 300,000 Euros.  He has also failed to mention that this past fiscal year the Generalitat overspent its budget by 20% and in the most indebted autonomy in all of Spain.  He has failed to mention hoe the national government caused Valencia to overspend to such a degree.

Yesterday was a relatively quiet day.  We did go to the market in the morning to pick up some shrimp for dinner last night.  We also paid a visit to Solaz to pick up some ham and turkey. After a round of our usual morning activities, I headed out to the gym for my workout and shortly afterwards Susan went to her Pilates class.  As I have mentioned previously, we both fend for ourselves for lunch on Monday and Wednesday so I stopped at a Colombian restaurant nearby called La Paisa and got one of their platters to go.  It had a little bit of everything – arepas, fried plantains, ribs, sausages, salad and fries.  I ordered the platter for one to go and ate as much as I wanted.  I barely made a dent in the to-go box.  I left what was left for Susan since she had not had lunch before she went off to class.  She ate her fill and since what was left over would not survive a visit to the microwave very well, we trashed the rest.  To be honest, the food was filling, but not very tasty.

At 4:00 I met up with Nico who is one of the pizza makers at La Fórcola.  Nico is originally from Sardinia and has been living in Valencia for six years.  He has a girlfriend and the two of them hope to go to London in May and live and work there for a couple of years with the goal of learning to speak English fluently.  Nico has been taking an online English course for the past four months and has wanted to meet with me to work on his conversational skills.  We spent 45 minutes together chatting about various topics and I helped him out with some vocabulary and explained a couple of grammar points to him.  At times, Nico, who is shy, struggled to express himself, but he toughed it out.  We will meet again next Wednesday to continue our work together.

Speaking of La Fórcola, we ran into Antón yesterday.  Antón is the owner and just before New Year’s suffered a heart attack.  He has been told by his doctors to rest, stop smoking and stay away from work.  They have also made some changes to his diet.  He has an appointment with his cardiologist on Friday and regardless of what he is told, he has made the decision to retire from the daily grind and will help with the administrative tasks at the restaurant and at most will spend an hour a day there.  His plans for the future call for extensive travel.  There is a possibility he may become my third English student.

We decided to go for a walk a little after 6:00.  We planned to stop in at the Nespresso store to pick up some coffee and, in the process to see if Linares had indeed out of business.  Our favorite gelatería is still shuttered and that has been the case for almost a month.  Damn!  We purchased our coffee and on the way back stopped off at The Ginger Loft for a drink and some conversation.  Mike is getting things ready for a Chinese New Year Brunch this Sunday.  We will be there along with Ofelia and Brian.  It looks like it will be a lot of fun. It was a little before 9:00 when we headed back home so that Susan could make dinner for us.

Last night’s dinner started with sautéed artichokes topped with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Next came those lovely, plump shrimp we had bought earlier in the day that had been sautéed in garlic sitting atop a nest of black pasta.  This was a restaurant quality meal.  We finished off a bottle of Martín Códax that we opened the other day and chatted over a cup of coffee.  We caught up with Rachel after dinner and then worked on the computer for a while before we retired for the night.

Alcachofas

Shrimp and black pasta

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

No grand plans for today.  Susan has her Pilates class in the afternoon and I need to get to the gym for a workout so that means we will have lunch separately.  I have an English class this afternoon at 4:00 with Nico who is one of the pizza makers at La Fórcola.

I am still going back and forth with customs at Barajas airport.  In spite of the fact that I have written them several times to tell them the contents are a gift they keep insisting that they want to see my sales slips.  I hope to hear from them today and discover what new insanity they have concocted.  The worst-case scenario is that they will return the package to Rachel and she can deliver the contents in person when she comes to visit in March.

Susan’s 2012 calendar arrived yesterday.  She had it printed by Kodak and it features a number of her food shots.  The calendar has a very dramatic dark border and it makes the pictures stand out even more.  I picked it up at Miguel’s office, before I headed off to the gym for some cardio.  When I got home we began to think about lunch.

A number of restaurants are either closed on Tuesday or not open for lunch on Tuesday, so as we ran through the list of possibilities we decided on Canela.  Because their tasting menus offer the diner much too much food, we decided that we would order an appetizer, a main dish and share a dessert if we were in the mood.  After ordering some wine we started our meal with some olives and some tomate rallado that was to be spread on the rolls that were set down with the olives.  Next came a complimentary zucchini soup that was most tasty.  Our appetizer yesterday was a dish of artichokes that had been prepared with a mushroom reduction and crowned with foie.  For our entrée we enjoyed an arroz meloso with shrimp, octopus and vegetables.  It was cooked to perfection.  We shared a profiterole for dessert and finished our meal with coffee and a complimentary chupito of mistela.

Susan headed off at 6:00 to meet with Vilma and I took the opportunity to do some tasks on the computer.  When Susan returned we went to a travel agency, Viajes Halcón, to renew our tarjeta dorada that gives us a 40% discount on train travel and to buy our tickets for Madrid.  We will be spending several days in Madrid arriving on February 27 and returning on March 2.  That will give us a chance to visit with our Madrid friends and to see a few shows.  We were able to get web special pricing for our tickets on the Ave and our round-trip tickets cost us 70 Euros apiece.  Such a deal!

Ofelia came by the house at 10:15 and she and Susan headed off to Radio City to see some flamenco.  I spent my evening editing an article for Magic Agora and starting a new book.  I also had a chance to chat with Rachel who is still trying to get her new work computer up and running.  Susan got back home a little after 1:00 having enjoyed her evening out.  It was 1:30 when we turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Olivas y tomate rallado

Crema de calabacín

Alcachofas en crema de boletus con foie

Arroz meloso con gambas, pulpo y verduras

Arroz meloso 2

Canela interior

Canela interior 2

Profiterol

Radio City Interior

Ofelia

Susan and Company

Olé!

Augmented Flamenco Troupe

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

For those of you who guessed that the prediction for patchy rain for yesterday would miss the mark, you win the prize.  There was patchy rain in the morning, but around the time I headed out for a haircut, it began to rain like all hell.  Torrents of rain fell amidst claps of thunder and bolts of lightening.  Sidewalks were flooded and sewers were having difficulty swallowing all the water that was coming their way.  Traffic was backed up and tempers flared.  The walk home was time enough for the rain to thoroughly soak through my jacket and my workout pants.  I am hopeful that my sneakers will dry out in the near future.

Yesterday morning saw me translating a letter that Magic Agora intends to send to all magic clubs in the USA, Canada and Great Britain.  Roberto Giobbi is in town shooting the video for the first of many classes he will offer through Magic Agora.  Danny Daortiz will be in town this Sunday and he and Pepe will discuss his participation in Magic Agora over lunch.  Rafael Benatar will be in town next Monday to discuss his role as the ambassador for Magic Agora, a role well suited to him because of his travels throughout Europe, the USA, South America and Japan.  The first courses are supposed to be launched in the next few weeks and the pace of work has quickened noticeably.

Susan’s knee was hurting her so she decided to take things easy yesterday.  She did a lot of reading, worked on the computer and watched some TV.  She made a delicious salad for lunch and then went back to reading her book.  The rest of our day was truly uneventful.  I passed up the meeting of the CIVAC because I was still drying out from my rain experience.  I spent most of the evening reading my book and we both turned in a little before midnight.

This is an actual FORCOLA from a gondola in Venice now on display at La Fórcola

A series of street shots courtesy of Vistas de Vida

Monday, January 16, 2012

Today is the first rainy day in over a month.  I have been watching the forecast for today change daily.  Originally the forecast was for heavy rain and then it changed to moderate rain.  Yesterday the forecast said there would be light rain today.  The current forecast is for patchy rain.  So much for the science of meteorology.

Yesterday both Susan and I did a morning workout at the Kaplan Gym and Spa.  I spent the remainder of the afternoon writing up a new effect that ended up being six pages long.  Now all I need to do is try it out to see if it works and then make any necessary editorial adjustments.  I also read a bit and so did Susan who is finishing up El prisionero del cielo.  Around 5:45 we got dressed and headed out for the Palau de Música at 6:15.  Since we had done very little during the day, we decided that we would walk the three miles to the Palau.

We arrived a little after 7:00 and had a glass of champagne before we entered the Sala Rodrigo. The Sala Rodrigo is another performance venue at the Palau.  It is considerably smaller than the Sala Iturbi and, as a result it is more intimate.  It seats 423 in contrast to the 1813 that the Iturbi seats.  The acoustics of the smaller hall are outstanding and it is the perfect venue for chamber music.  The artists this evening were The Emerson String Quartet and we were seated dead center on the second row.

Their program was very varies.  They started with Mozart’s Quartet Number 23, followed by Beethoven’s Quartet Number 16 and finished with Bartok’s Quartet for Strings Number 5.  They played one encore after five curtain calls.  The audience was most appreciative and none more so than the two of us.  When the concert ended we decided to walk a bit more in hopes of finding a place to have a light supper.

As opposed to Saturday night, Sunday night is not a very busy night for bars and cafes.  We stopped at Aquarium, which is a bar from out of the past decked out in a ship motif with lots of wood on the walls.  The waiters dress in white jackets and they are professional waiters.  They remind me of the waiters at Café Gijón in Madrid.  We had no problem finding a table, although the place did fill up as we enjoyed a drink and some fried calamari, some boquerones and two croquetas de bacalao.  After we paid our tab, we walked a bit more and then decided that we really shouldn’t push it too far, so we took a cab home.  According to my pedometer our evening stroll was close to five miles.  We read for a while before going to bed and by that time it was almost midnight.

Susan's Sunday Selection of Fruit

The Emerson String Quartet

Orange McGlad and Dickie Duck

Another collector of fuzzy characters