Sunday September 23 2007 - US Trip

I’ve noticed that in the past few months I’m actually writing more about times when I’m NOT in Hong Kong, instead of when I’m there. That seems to be as good an indicator as anything that HK as actually becoming more and more like home to me.

This was a fun trip to the US. I actually wasn’t looking forward to it that much, except for seeing the kids. It seemed like we had just been there (and in fact we had, in July) and I really wasn’t looking forward to that long overseas flight. But we did enough things that were different and enjoyable that it turned out to be well worth those days in the air.

I’m going to split this into several entries. This first entry is mostly about my trip to Seattle to visit my wonderful Texas-artist friend Cynthia.

We landed in San Francisco on Friday night, September 8^th. We spent Friday night and all of Saturday there. San Francisco is as beautiful as ever, and we stayed in a lovely area, Pacific Heights, in another little boutique hotel. I kept expecting Mrs. Doubtfire to come out of one of the nicely restored townhouses in that area! We spent a lot of time both Friday night and Saturday just walking around, trying to get as much sunshine as possible in order to beat our jetlag into submission. The hills DO compete with Hong Kong in some places in steepness, although it seems gentler, since it’s a series of hills, instead of one big mountain in the middle of it all. And, we were both really put off by all the pan-handlers and homeless people in San Francisco. It just seems like a huge failing on the part of the US government that these people aren’t taken care of better. I think it’s more of a cultural difference, but in Hong Kong you just don’t see homeless people on the street, and beggars are few and far between.

On Saturday we took BART over to Berkley and met Dorsey, Katherine and Little Dorsey Bass (not so little anymore) for lunch and conversation. The younger Dorsey was trying out for the San Francisco Jazz Band at the Berkley Music School. We had a great time catching up. It had been several years since we had seen each other. Then, we hopped on BART again and took it over to Pleasanton, where Corry Painter met us and drove us to their home in Livermore for dinner. Corry is another one of my Texas friends. She and Jeff work for Livermore Labs. They are the owners of the fantastic house on Cushing Island in Maine where I went last September. Later this fall Corry and Jeff will be coming through Hong Kong on their way to the Philippines and will stop and visit with us for several days. Then after thanksgiving Lee and I will turn around and visit with them in the Philippines and go snorkeling in Palawan.

Corry and Jeff have an amazing backyard, filled with fruit trees that produce real apples, peaches, oranges, etc. In fact dinner included a pie made from apples from their own back yard. They also had several bottles of wine for us to sample from local vineyards. They were really good too. We drank both of them before we ever left the US, the Merlot in Austin with the kids, and Cynthia and I drank the Chardonnay in Seattle.

Sunday morning Lee and I went our separate ways for a couple of days. He went to Austin to work, and I headed up to Seattle to visit Cynthia, the illustrious Dr. Seattle-with-her-Fort-Worth-Accent and her heart of gold. Cynthia is an artist, and her beautiful house in Woodinville reflects her creativity. I had so much fun just wandering around noticing all the little touches. It was also just AWESOME to see in person things like the swimming lady in the backyard for real and in person!  I’ve seen pictures of Cynthia and her house, but had not actually met her in three-dimensional reality. It’s kind of like having an incomplete picture of someone, with little pieces missing. Meeting her in person filled in some of the missing pieces, and also gave the overall Cynthia more depth and “realness”. One of the nicest things was that meeting the “real” Cynthia didn’t change my actual impression of her much at all. I was very pleased about that. I think it shows some honest and good work on both our parts – because the Cynthia I imagined in my brain from reading her postings and seeing her pictures really matched the Cynthia I met in person.

Cynthia was a great host. I had never really been to Seattle before, just around it on our long-ago camping trip up the West coast, so she treated me like the eager tourist that I was and showed me the highlights of the town. We had wonderful weather, rather warm for Seattle, sunny and bright. I lost the last of my jetlag somewhere overlooking Lake Washington.

We both grabbed our cameras and had a blast taking pictures. Seattle is a very art-friendly city. There is art everywhere it seems – in the sidewalks, on the whimsical pigs that can be found all over town, in the strangely shaped building by Frank Gehry over by the monorail…it was easy to take pictures of the whirling wave sculpture at the locks, or the odd totem pole structures where we stopped for cupcakes one afternoon.

One day Cynthia took me to the Pike Street Fish Market. One of the highlights of this day was going back into the alley behind the fish market and seeing the GUM WALL. This is a huge brick wall that has been covered with multi-colored chewing gum. It makes a mostly abstract artistic vision from about 20 feet away. Then if you start looking closer there are all sorts of little mini-gum pictures, words and names. It was really pretty, in a gross sort of way.

On another day we went to the Seattle Art Museum. They have a really good modern art collection, with a wide variety of art. I was excited to see a Jackson Pollock, an Andy Warhol, a Lichtenstein…

Cynthia and I had such a good time together. It was hard to believe we hadn’t met before. It was like we HAD met, but in some alternate universe. It didn’t take that long for the strangeness of three-dimensionality to wear off however, and then it seemed like we really had known each other for years, which in a sense we have.

Cynthia is one of those people (like dear Gail in Nashville) where I just wish there was some way to have a same-city relationship, where weekly lunch dates would be the norm. When I think about returning to the US, I do imagine that where-ever I live my life will include fairly frequent, short trips around the US to visit with my dearest friends.

ACL Sept 12-17

On Wednesday, September 12^th, Cynthia put me back on an airplane, and off I flew to Austin. I had Thursday to run around like a mad-woman, getting laundry done, picking up ACL wristbands and checking us in to our b&b, before picking up the kids that afternoon. Daniel and Sarah were on the same flight, and Sarah’s friend Molly flew in 30 minutes later, so things worked out perfectly.

Our b&b was cute, but nothing fancy. It was a good location for ACL, which was our main objective. It was on Blanco Street, which is a couple of blocks west of Lamar, close to 9^th Street. We had two suites, which really worked out great. The kids had their own suite so they could come and go as they pleased and didn’t need to worry about disturbing the old folks.

Thursday night we ate at Uchi’s, our former favorite Japanese restaurant in Austin. The food is still really good, but now I’m comparing it to Tokyo Joe’s in Hong Kong, and honestly I might prefer Tokyo Joe’s. I think I’ll have to do a taste test when we get back to HK, just to be sure!

Friday, it was off to day one of ACL. We tried walking to Zilker Park, but as it turned out it was a forty minute walk, and in the Austin heat that proved to be a little much for most of us, especially the Minnesotan wimps! But of course the music was great. Lee and I started off with Asleep at the Wheel, which just made me feel relaxed and happy and got me in the spirit of things. Next was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, which was jazz banjo (I think). It was interesting but way too intellectual for us.  We wandered over to try to listen to Peter Bjorn and John, but it was too hot to stand in the sun, so we decided to sit in a nearby beer garden instead. The location wasn’t any good for music listening, since there was cross-over from another stage, but me managed to sit down right next to one of Lee’s cousins! That was sure a surprise, to run into Bruce and Stephanie among 65,000 people! From there walked over to hear Joss Stone, who turned to be amazing! She sings old fashioned rhythm and blues, and sounds like either Diana Ross, or a 50 year old black blues singer, but really she’s a 20 year old lovely young lady from Britain. She was one of the highlights of the festival for us.

After Joss Stone we listened to about 5 minutes of M.I.A on the kid’s recommendation but that was WAY too weird for us, so we went over to the blues/gospel/world music stage and managed to hear a group from Belize that was really good – Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective. We ended up the day listening to the Mighty Clouds of Joy. They were old-fashioned gospel at its finest, but sadly in the week or so since we heard them, my main memory at this point has become their sound system, which was turned up way too loud and was downright painful.

Friday night we left earlier than the kids. We trudged back to the b&b (this was the only day we attempted to walk), rinsed off the dirt, and headed for a late-night meal at Z Tejas. The copious rain that Texas has received this year proved to be a real boon to ACL. It wasn’t nearly as hot as two years ago, and there wasn’t nearly as much dust. We were dirty and sweaty, but not absolutely filthy, which was a relief. Z Tejas really hit the spot that night. It is one of my favorite restaurants in Austin. I just love their take on Tex-Mex, and their margaritas are GOOD!

On Saturday, we were wiser about walking. We discovered that we could drive to Barton Springs and pay a fairly reasonable amount ($25) to park in one of the business’ parking lots. We also discovered that it really wasn’t a problem to find a good place for our chairs and just leave them there for the day. We put our chairs in the shade up by the AMD stage, and one of us was usually there. And we didn’t mind if someone wanted to sit in them when we weren’t using them. It was a lot better than lugging them around all day.

I’m having trouble remembering what we saw on Saturday that we liked. We started out with Paolo Nutini, who was really cute, but not that interesting in concert, at least if you weren’t familiar with his music, which we weren’t.  From there we went to listen to Steve Earle. He did a mostly solo set this year and I really, really enjoyed him. I liked his show better than any other time I’ve seen him. I think I like his slower more melodic newer stuff better. I definitely like his lyrics and I like it when I can understand them. After Steve we just went back to our chairs and hung out until it was time to go stake a place up close to the Indigo Girls. They were the highlight of the festival for me. I went early to their stage; they were the one group I wanted to try to get close for. I staked out a good spot where I could take pictures and sing along! They are so good…the only thing was I wish their set could have been longer. But that’s the tradeoff at a festival I guess. Lots of music, but not a lot of any one thing.

We ended Saturday listening to Arcade Fire with the kids. They were good – very musical. I’ve bought their CD because I’d like to listen to them more closely now. Sometimes that’s the best thing about ACL to me. I get a taste of something and then I want to experience it deeper, so I buy their music. It’s great to have new music to explore now for awhile.

Saturday night we went to Shoal Creek Saloon. Once again this is one of my favorite Austin hangouts. And it was right down the street from the b&b, so it was very convenient for some starving music-goers.

Sunday had some of the most interesting music we heard all weekend. We started out listening to Yo La Tengo but they were boring so I wandered over to listen to Ryan Shaw. He was a James Brown-like R&B singer that put on a good show. He was kind of corny, singing about LOVE being the answer and all, but he was entertaining. It was really enjoyable to hear Robert Earl Keene again. He puts on a good show. I went to hear Bloc Party with the kids. They were too metallic for me, although their lead singer had some very nice dreadlocks. After that it was back to AMD to hear Wilco…they are just amazing. I’m just getting into them (yes, I’ve never been one for being right on top of things). I’m fascinated by their mix of rock, jazz, electronica and country. They remind me of the Byrds. And Jeff Tweedy is definitely cool!

Finishing up Sunday by listening to the Decembrists was just perfect. They are my favorite thing that the kids introduced me to at the festival. I promptly went out and bought two of their CD’s (as recommended by Daniel) and I’m really enjoying listening to them.

It was sad saying goodbye to Sarah on Monday. We won’t see her again until December, which seems like a long time. We flew back to Missouri on the same flight as Daniel, and headed straight for Columbia, because Lee needed to work there for a couple of days. While he worked on Tuesday and Wednesday, I ran errands, did laundry, bought CD’s, fed Daniel, loaded pictures to my pc, and in general relaxed. I was able to eat lunch with Lee Black on Wednesday. We had a great time catching up on what’s going on in our lives. She seemed to be doing well. Her old folk responsibilities are under control, and Miranda and Michael are a happily married couple! We saw Mark, Mary, Elsa and Blake for dinner one night. Elsa is a senior at Rock Bridge this year, visiting colleges, and working as Ad Editor on The Rock. It brings back memories….

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Finally, we ended up our journey in St. Louis. I went to Yom Kipper services with my mom. Friday night we went to CRC – Central Reform Congregation, which is the only Jewish Congregation in the city of St. Louis. It was really an experience. They held services at The Chase Park Plaza Hotel, in one of their ballrooms. There was a HUGE crowd. I’ve never seen that many people at a Jewish religious service. There were easily two thousand people there, maybe more. They have a wonderful choir and their rabbi has a very loyal following. I was really impressed. If I was going to live in St. Louis (nonono) and if I was ever going to join a congregation, I would definitely investigate them.

Spiritually it was kind of a strange experience. They’ve written their own prayer book and it contains the old prayers, but it also has lots of poetry, new music, new writing. There were references to Native American religious beliefs. It got me to thinking. When I was in college I was SO attracted to Native American history and culture. I remember wishing that I belonged to a tribe. It eventually dawned on me that I DO belong to a tribe…the Jewish people. But I never feel like I really fit in there. My feelings about Israel don’t match the “party” line. If I’m trying to feel something deeper and bigger than myself a Jewish religious service doesn’t really do it for me. It can make me feel closer to my roots and nostalgic, but more “one” with the Universe? Nah. But I had to wonder if a congregation like CRC would be more to my liking. I kind of swung between enjoying the music and the prayers and being freaked out by the huge crowd, and being squished by the rather large lady next to me that practically sat on TOP of me at one point!

My mom joined CRC because they hold a Friday night service at the JCA every week. She and dad used to go to Traditional, a conservative congregation in St. Louis. She remained a member there for several years after dad went into the JCA because she really liked the rabbi (I did too) but he has retired. She told them when she left the congregation that she was changing to CRC because no one from Traditional ever went to see dad at the nursing home. Good for her!

Saturday morning mom went to services at the JCA. I had just spent some time with dad on Friday so I didn’t go. But Saturday afternoon we went to the memorial service at Nancy’s synagogue (my mom’s cousin Nancy Baum). Their rabbi was also very intriguing. The service was all poetry and music. The music was more middle-eastern, with guitars and original lyrics as well as traditional Hebrew. Again I was surprised and impressed. This was a small congregation, but it’s really gratifying to find people really attempting to connect with God within a Jewish context, instead of just following the age-old formulas.  I guess I’m not the only Jew out there that doesn’t connect with the old methods of prayer and is searching for something different. Right now I’m content with Yoga and a little meditation here and there, but I like to keep that Jewish door open…

Now here I am, back in Hong Kong. It’s funny that I don’t mind this peripatetic lifestyle at all. I really enjoy (for now anyway) being footloose and free, and I have Lee to thank for this. It won’t be long before we wing our way to Sydney, Australia for 5 days in mid-October. Stay tuned!