2018 Farewell

If you don't count Donald Trump, the worldwide refugee crisis, continued global warming, Brexit, the rise of the extreme right, the low Canadian dollar, the increasing chance of a worldwide bacterial outbreak, the death of Ursala LeGuin, the death of Anita Groundwater, and the fact that it was the cloudiest year for astronomy since I got my 12" telescope, it was a great year!

I managed to memorize and perform a piano program, and then learn and memorize a new one.  Deb managed to create several new short films, get many new screenings, and win several major awards.  We even managed to get through December without a major snowfall.  In fact, this month we are finally feeling the effects of El Nino, which is supposed to give us a relatively mild, damp winter.  And damp it has been.  Once again it is pouring rain, this time on New Year's Eve.  Meanwhile in Sudbury, they are getting yet another major snowstorm!  They can have it!  I'll take rain anytime.  We had a green Solstice, a green Christmas, and now a green New Year.  Not unusual for this part of Canada, and not everyone welcomes it with open arms like we do.

Once of the best things about Dec. 31st is that we are already ten days closer to Spring Equinox!  Our love for January and the first part of February is sorely lacking again this year.  The sooner the light comes back, the better.

2018 saw us visit more travel destinations than ever before.  April brought us to London.  June brought us to Columbus.  In July came Sudbury for me.  August was Lindsay for Deb, then Cincinnati for both of us.  New Mexico was on our hit list for two weeks in September, and lastly but not leastly came Vienna and Bruegel, a trip that is still resonating very loudly in my mind.  Speaking of Vienna, both parts of that blog are now on-line (see the London and Europe link, far left). 

Travel plans for 2019 are minimal at present.  There could be a visit to San Diego in August, to attend the Mythcon conference there, as well as to visit their art gallery.  There could be a trip to New Mexico in October, with our telescopes.  That's been on the bucket list for some time now.  

My Avon/Equinox reading project continues with great success, with about 150 books read and reviewed last year.  I only have two authors remaining in the series, and then it's just a matter of reading all the novels of those authors not already completed.  Recently added is J.G. Ballard, and still to come is Barry Maltzberg and James Blish, both quite prolific. 

The listening program continued.  We are studying Haydn's 104 symphonies, the complete works of Brahms, the complete works of Britten, the piano concerti of Mozart, and the organ works of Buxtehude.  More on this project soon.

Nothing big is planned for early 2019.  Our Detroit concerts resume in March, so we will be homebodies much of the winter.  I hope to get back into learning to draw with pencil (I want to be as good as Bruegel!).  I also hope to get back into recorder playing.  And I will continue to practice piano a few hours each day.  Since suspending my Iaido studies, I have had no issues with my elbows or shoulders.  This is good.

It was warm and raining tonight, so we did not have a New Year's Eve wood fire.  We listened to some Beethoven piano variations, some Buxtehude organ works, and then watched most of "Fists of Fury."  On the menu was home made pizza, and some damn fine craft ales.  We will be in bed before midnight, passing on the tooting of horns and flinging of confetti.

So goodnight, and Happy New Year to my thousands of loyal readers!
Mapman

Holidays Are Here Again!

It's nice to consistently have nearly enough time in a day to accomplish most of the things you want.  Practicing piano, for one.  Things have been going pretty smoothly since getting back from vacation.  Sometimes a week away from the pieces does some good, especially for a clearer perspective on interpretation.  Even when not physically practicing, the pieces are always running in the background.  Reading, for another.  I have currently embarked an an epic 643 page novel.  Called Russian Spring, it is a kind of alternate history, where Russia was accepted into the EU in the mid 90s, leaving the USA high and dry.  The story centers around the space programs of the USA, which is now entirely military, Russia, who has a permanent moon base and now wants one on Mars, and the EU, who are trying to get a hotel in orbit and shuttles to serve them.

Another thing there is time for is writing up the Vienna journal.  I am nearly done as of now, and should finish up sometime tomorrow.  The problem here is that I simply cannot write for long periods of time.  After 30 minutes my hand is cramping up and I have to stop for a time.  But very soon I will be posting photos of our journey on my London and Europe blog.

We should be seeing Amanda later in the week, and possibly Randy.  Next week we might be meeting up with Jenn.  Thursday is Detroit day, so I will report back after that.  It is supposed to be a mild day.  I leave you with two Christmas images.  Peace on Earth, and all that good stuff! 

 St. Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna.

 This year's Christmas card from cousin Cathy!

Final Teaching Week of 2018

It has been a highly unusual Autumn as far as teaching goes.  Two weeks off in September to go to NM, and another week off in December to visit Vienna.  It's been lovely!  After tomorrow I will have earned another 19 days off before resuming duties in January.  I am hoping to really dig in deep to my piano pieces, and should have them ready to perform by early January.  As to when they will actually be performed, that is hard to predict just now.  January is already a very busy month for us, but I hope to play before my eye surgery.  I should know when that is by mid-January.

Work has begun on the written journal.  I went to town Sunday to get some prints developed, but the machine was down and out of service.  By Monday evening I was in business.  The Bruegel exhibit continues to resonate strongly with me, and it has barely sunk in that I got to view 31 paintings, including 17 I had never before seen.  There were a total of 15 works from Vienna, three of which we had never seen, as well as 16 loans, of which I had previously seen two in London.  That means I have now seen 35 (?) paintings by Bruegel, which is most his work.  It doesn't get much better than that.  And the exhibit only cost 5 Euros extra, above the regular admission, so it was a real bargain, too.

As a bonus, we saw Vienna in December, and it even had snow upon our arrival.  However, the rest of the week was mild, and we enjoyed each of our days to the fullest.  We both truly love the city.  The interesting bits are very close together, and we really know our way around now, including short cuts and direct routes.  It is very easy to escape the maddening crowds of tourists, and we often found ourselves alone on wonderful and narrow back streets.  We never made it to any of the famous cafes this time, though the cafe at the art museum has probably the finest setting in the world.  I made it to two craft beer places; we made it to a craft coffee shop 3x (two different ones), and we ate out 4x at three different vegan restaurants.  We rode two streetcar routes end to end, and made a triumphant return to Kahlenberg, at the top of the Vienna Woods.  The trip was a huge success.  The web version, with photos, should be underway by this weekend.  Right now, we are preparing for Winter solstice, on Friday.

 We flew Lufthansa from Toronto to Frankfurt to Vienna, and back on the same route, in the same type of jumbo jet.  All flights were packed.

Head Cold Season

I started with a scratchy throat on Monday evening, and was sick by Tuesday.  No doubt spending 9 hrs. on a fully packed plane Sunday had something to do with it.  Luckily, 3 students did not show up this week, saving me 2 1/2 hrs. of teaching and talking.  My head cold peaked on Thursday, and by Friday I was improving.  Tonight, exactly 5 days after first symptoms, I am better.  Deb is fighting it off better than I.  I had to go out for three hours on Thursday, which no doubt caused some backsliding.  But all is well.  However, it was a bit of a lost week.  No piano except Tuesday, and then resuming today.  No work on the written journal of our Vienna trip, though I managed to mostly edit the photos, and select a batch for printing.

We are going to take things very easy in 2019, as far as travel goes.  Definitely nothing European, and never again with connecting flights in Europe.  Frankfurt airport, like the one in Warsaw, is very overcrowded, and most flights have to be accessed by buses.  Vienna has a pretty decent airport, and we had booked a direct flight from Toronto.  However, that flight was cancelled by the airline two weeks before our departure, and we were forced to go through Frankfurt.  Never again.  If the plane does not go directly from Toronto or Detroit, we will not be going.  In other words, we might go to Frankfurt someday.

Vienna is an amazing city, filled with marvellous architecture.  One is always having to look up, for often the buildings seem rather bland at eye level, but become totally amazing the higher one looks.  Most churches were often for inspection, but their vast interiors were beyond cold!  The week prior to our visit had been seriously chilly, and the churches were retaining the cold air.

Vegan Vienna continues to impress us, with more easily accessible vegan restaurants than London or Detroit.  There was always room for us at a table, too, something that can be frustrating in London.  The little shops usually had some vegan food, too.  The Hotel Azimut is the best hotel one could ever hope to find, close to trains, trams, and subway.  It is literally a 60 second walk to the vast indoor transport and shopping complex that is Hauptbahnhof.  It is amazing how much of Vienna is underground, including a second vast complex at Karlsplatz.

Of course the journey was all about Bruegel.  I am currently reading the catalogue of the exhibit, and wishing I could return a few more times to visit.  His paintings are so detailed and involved, that two visits barely scratches the surface of his art.  However, there is an incredible on-line resource affiliated with the exhibit, and I will talk about it in a future post.

Kunsthistoriche, Vienna.  I can hardly believe I was actually there.  Four times now!

 

Back From Wien

After an epic, 4-stage trip home, we are back.  Sunday was a very long day, with two flights and a long drive home.  Everything went smoothly, and we were in the house by 9:35 pm.  Using the same time zone, we had left for home at 12:30 a.m.  It was quite a ride.

Vienna was simply awesome, and we had a very enjoyable 5 1/2 days there.  We visited the Bruegel exhibit on two different days, and it was fabulous.  Never again will there be so many works by Bruegel in one museum.  One recently discovered work, from a private collection in Hungary, did not receive customs clearance from that country, and did not make it to the exhibit.  All others promised were there, including some from private collections that may never be seen again.

On our free days we walked the city, and made a return visit to the Vienna Woods (should be called the Vienna Mountains instead) via Grinzing and Kahlenberg.  The weather was incredible for December, with a few days being very mild.  There was some snow on our arrival, as it had been very cold the week before.  Christmas in Vienna is a big deal.  There were vast Christmas markets in key areas, and smaller ones in lesser plazas.  There were lights everywhere, and as it was dark by 4:30 pm, we got to experience them a lot.  It only rained miserably on us once, as we left the Kunsthistoriche Museum one day.  All in all, it was a wonderful journey, worth the significant expense and hassle of getting there.  The Bruegel exhibit was always packed, but with patience you could get right up in front of any painting, and stay as long as you wished.  Some of the best paintings were very small, and often no one was in front of these.  Luckily we had spent a lot of time with the Vienna Bruegel paintings a year ago, so we were able to concentrate a lot of our time on the visiting works.  I bought the catalogue and poster.

After I get the written volume complete, I will update the London and Europe blog with images, both from Vienna and the exhibit.  Photography was allowed of most works in the exhibit.  I only wish the Detroit Wedding Dance could have travelled.  It would have been stupendous to see all three peasant paintings on the same wall.  Sometime next year Detroit will mount a small exhibit on the Wedding Dance.

 Deb stands before an Assyrian sculpture in the Kunsthistoriche Museum, Vienna.  

Mapman Mike

All Things Great, Small, And In Between

We awoke Thursday morning pretty certain that the Vienna trip would be called off.  Mogollon, one of our two cats, has glaucoma in his right eye.  He gets drops in it twice a day.  Things have been perfect for over three months now.  Sometimes he gets what I call migraines, where his eyes close, he wants to be left alone, and he stays in the dark.  He stops eating, drinking, playing, and everything else he normally does.  These usually last 4-6 hours, and then he is okay again.  But Wednesday's migraine stayed all day and all night.  So Thursday morning we headed out to the vet with him.  We had been warned before that his eye will eventually have to come out.  We were thinking that today was the day, or Friday, or Monday.  Which meant no Vienna.  The usual Doc was away, so we saw his partner.  Now both eyes are bad, though the bad one is way worse.  The pressure is at a dangerous level.  Drops in both eyes.  Lots of drops.  Ever try to give eye drops to a healthy cat?  How about a sick one?  3X a day.  Uggh.

Anyway, we have a ten-day reprieve before we return to see the vet again.  Theresa, our pet sitter, comes to the house.  She is a vet tech who works in a Windsor vet clinic.  But she only comes twice a day (expensive enough).  Hopefully she will get the drops in at those times, but Mogi can get rather wiggly at the critical drop-in-the-eye stage.  Deb and I together can barely get the job done.  So we are going to Vienna.  Even tomorrow's weather will cooperate, as we get the one warm day of the entire week.  Monday turns cold again, and will remain cold the entire week.  Hopefully there will be no major snow event, and the old boiler will keep on boiling.  Vienna looks to be mild next week, after they just had a week of bitter cold temps.  Their latitude is 48 N., 6 degrees further than Windsor, and 2 more than Sudbury.  So we are expecting some dark times, with rain.

Our arrival day is Monday, and the first of two visits to the Bruegel exhibit is Tuesday.  Wed. is open, and Thursday its back to see the show again.  Friday and Saturday are open, and we fly home Sunday, getting back to A'burg before midnight, weather permitting.  We are not planning anything on the open days yet, until we see what the weather brings.  We have a self-guided walk tour ready to go, and we would also love to get back up to Grinzing, at the foot of the Vienna Woods.

Just after getting back from the vet on Thursday, Randy G. dropped by.  He had just come from a family funeral in A'burg.  We hadn't seen him for two weeks, since Anita's funeral.  He has had a lot on his plate since then, including the death of a nephew, as well as an elderly lady he was looking out for, 75 km away.  He also had attended her funeral on the Wednesday, and had been arranging her funeral and burial.  There were complications.  As I said, he has had a lot on his plate.  Three funerals in two weeks.  Needless to say, he has not even had time to deal with his wife's passing.  His life should simplify in a week or two, once some of the legalities have been put to rest, mostly regarding the elderly woman's estate.  Now here's the kicker.  If anything should happen to us next week, he is our will executor.

Today is laundry day, cleaning, and packing, as well as running around town for last minute things, such as fresh greens to leave for Ludwig the tortoise.  On top of that, we have a concert in suburban Detroit this evening.  I knew when I bought the tickets that it was the night before our departure.  What I didn't know was that there would be heavy rain and storms arriving for our evening drive.  Detroit freeway driving at the best of times is a white-knuckle affair; during a heavy downpour it is something not to experience.  It is going to be a fabulous concert, I keep telling myself.....

Mapman