Busy October

      Once our busy September was over and England and my week up north were just memories, I thought we'd be able to relax some and get into a comfortable pattern of life.  But there is always something going on at the university and our calendars fill up quickly.
      Duke makes it very easy for faculty, staff, and their families to purchase season tickets for sports.  As a result I purchased a season ticket for football.  Now I know you'll say that based on Duke's football history I was just throwing my money away, but it turns out we won some games this year and are bowl eligible for the first time since 1994.  In October we beat Virginia and UNC.  The game with UNC was incredible.  We were leading all the way until UNC scored with less than two minutes to go on a fluke fumble recovery in the end zone. We got the ball back and drove the length of the field and scored the winning touchdown with 13 seconds left.  The place went crazy.
     I also attended a field hockey match between Duke and Virginia.  Our field hockey team didn't do very well this year. A part of that has to due to the fact that 6 of our players were chosen to play in the world cup matches and returned to campus mid-season.  I admit I don't really have a grasp of the rules, but appears that the best opportunity to score comes on fouls which occur close to the goal.  Anyway, we played nationally ranked No.7 Virginia and only lost 3 to 1. Our men's soccer team was scoring challenged this year.  I went to see them play No. 1 ranked Maryland and they played well, but lost 2 to 1.  The only women's game I got to in October was a tie with Wake Forest.  Expectations have been high for the women's team since last year they played in the NCAA finals against Stanford and had most of the team back.  They haven't played quite as well this year, but did better than the men's team.
     The final sporting event I went to in October was an exhibition women's basketball game between Duke and Shaw University.  Shaw won the NCAA Division 2 championship last year.  Unfortunately for Shaw most of the players from that team graduated.  It was tough to watch - final score Duke 138 Shaw 32.  Due to injuries Duke suited-up only 9 players including two freshman and a walk-on.  The freshman and the walk-on played quite a bit and the score still was out-of-hand.
     On the arts side of our activities, we attended two concerts - The Duke Symphony Orchestra's and The Duke Jazz Ensemble's.  The orchestra played symphonies by Hayden and Schumann and a concerto by Mozart.  The Jazz Ensemble was great.  Their conductor, John V. Brown, Jr.  is an accomplished bass player and well known in jazz circles.  He has been able to bring in some high level talent as guests to play with the ensemble.  This concert featured Wycliffe Gordon, who has been named "Best in Trombone" by Downbeat Critics Poll for 2012.  It was a trip.  He was great.  The energy was tremendous and he made music at a level I've never heard before.
     One of the more interesting things we attended during the month was a part visual art, part theatrical experience entitled "How to Build a Forest"(http://pearldamour.com).  Over an 8 hour period the "cast" constructs and deconstructs a forest made of synthetic materials.    As a member of the audience you are allowed to move about the stage as the construction is going on.  It was a fascinating experience.

      Of course no October is complete without a Halloween Party.  Nan's friends Patrick and Jon hosted a night of good food, games, and great costumes.  I went as a lumberjack(and I'm OK) and Nan went as our dog Hattie.

Quick Trip Home

     When Nan and I came down to Durham from New York in August, we drove down together using Nan's car and leaving mine home.  The plan was for me to head north after our trip to Wales and take care of some business involving certain legal matters I'm involved in and to meet with our contractor to discuss renovations that are to be completed before we get home in December.  Nan's broken foot made me think twice about leaving her alone, but she got clearance to drive two days before my scheduled flight and we were able to get some dog walkers to help her out.  So I went north.  I did shorten the length of my stay however.
     It was a busy week and a half.  After taking care of the business part of the trip, I played a bit.  September 22nd was a busy day.  I started by driving to Cobleskill to run in the Fam Fund 5k.  It's sort of a tradition and gives me a chance to see some of the people and friends I used to work with in Schoharie County.  It was a warm day and my time was slow, but it was fun to see old friends, particularly Tim Holmes, law librarian at the Schoharie County Courthouse.  He got me up-to-date about the renovations underway repairing the Courthouse from the flooding caused by hurricane Irene last year.  The first floor of the Courthouse remains uncompleted, even after all this time.
     On my way back from Schoharie, I stopped off in Albany and bought a ticket to the Albany Symphony Orchestra concert scheduled for the evening.  While in Albany, I visited an all-day street concert called PearlPalooZa and listened to a couple of groups.  The first was The Royal Concept from England.  They were all right, at least I could recognize a melody line.  The second was a country western group and it was too much for me.  So I headed home.  Here's a pic of The Royal Concept.

     The ASO concert was tremendous.  They featured Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.  Both were exquisitely done.  The piano soloist was Valentina Lisitsa.  According to Wikipedia(I can't believe I'm actually citing Wikipedia), she was born in Kiev, Ukraine and began playing piano at three.  She now lives in North Carolina with her husband who is also a pianist.  Interestingly, she started her career via social media rather than by having a tour promoter or a record contract.  She was great.  If you're interested, her website is www.valentinalisitsa.com
      My son David is living in our home and working trying to get enough money to try and find work in California.  We were able to get out and play golf twice: once at Burden Lake and the other at Wabeeka Springs in Williamstown.  We didn't shoot all that well, but the weather was nice and the trees were starting to change.

           In addition to golf, I got to spend an afternoon with my sister Suzanne as she performed her duties as Assistant Director of the New York State Writers Institute at SUNY Albany.  I went to a program featuring Paul LaFarge author of a book entitled Luminous Airplanes. The book is supplemented(probably not the right word - but) by a web-site which continues and adds to the story presented in the book.  It was interesting to hear him describe the concept and how it was created and continues to grow.
          The trip gave me a chance to see a few people who I missed seeing over the summer, particularly Jim Miller and his parents.  The Miller's home was behind ours in Averill Park, and we all grew-up together.  Jim's parents are in transition to assisted living and it was good to see them.(This is particularly true since Jim's dad died last week.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim and his mom.)
          The trip back was long, as it was rainy and foggy from Oneonta though Harrisburg.  Anyway mission accomplished and I'm back in my daze.

Trips End - London

     The main purpose of returning to London, other than heading back to the US of course, was to do some research at the British National Library.  The Library was originally part of The British Museum, but was split off in 1973 and moved into its own building in 1997.  The Library is located by St. Pancras Station on Euston Road in London and we stayed at a hotel within walking distance.  As a researcher you have to pre-register in order to gain entrance to the reading rooms.  Fortunately we had done so on-line.  What we didn't know was that 90% of the library's holdings are kept in York, England  and thus it takes several days to get manuscripts to London.  Fortunately, several of the books we were looking for were stored on site, so our first day there was not a total waste.

                                       
                                                                 British National Library

     The fact we had to wait a day for the rest of our requested material to arrive did give us the time to see some of the tourist sites in London.

      We were able to get around by cab fairly easily and had some interesting conversations with our cabbies.  One of them told us that despite press reports stating otherwise,  downtown London was a ghost town during the Olympics.  Most of the venues were outside the center of London and people just didn't come downtown  He told us that he had cancelled his family's annual holiday to work during the Olympics figuring that he would make a bundle, but found that most days in central London were "like Sundays, nobody was about."  We also found out that the Olympic sites were closed immediately after the events ended.  They weren't even kept open for tours. 
     We did get a chance to see a play at the National Theatre.  We saw Shakespeare's Timon of Athens starring Simon Russell Beale.  Timon is one of Shakespeare's last plays and is very uneven.  The production was set in modern times with Timon as an altruistic capitalist, who after giving away his wealth is hounded and pursued by the 1% to whom he owes money.  He seeks refuge not in a cave in the Wilderness, where Shakespeare sent him, but in an Occupy Movement encampment under cardboard boxes.  The concept worked well.  The second act of the play however seems more of a rant against humanity in general which gets a bit tedious.
     Our last day in London  was spent back in the Library pouring through manuscripts and play reviews from the 1840s and 50s.  I took some time off to go through the permanent exhibits at the Library and catch a look at a copy of the Magna Carta.  Turns out that the nobles who forced King John to sign it were more concerned about the King vowing allegiance to the Pope than establishing a constitutional monarchy - but that's another story.