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Unexpected delights
Jan. 27th, 2006 10:27 pmOn a whim, Russell took me out to dinner tonight at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, the Helmand, which serves Afghan cuisine. The food was top-notch, as always, which is why it remains one of our favorites. In fact, if I'm entertaining someone from out of town, I make sure that we have dinner at the Helmand if they haven't already had the pleasure. And if they want to go back, I'm always ready for that as well!
After dinner, we were walking back to my apartment when I peeked in a house window to see a couple of men playing music on viol-like instruments. I recognized one of them as Dan, the man who accompanied Gene on the piano as the rest of us attempted Christmas carols at Gene and David's Christmas party last month.
They almost immediately reached some stopping point, and I tapped on the window to get their attention and waved a hello to Dan and then waved a goodbye, intending to just say "hi" and move one without interrupting them too much. Just trying to be friendly.
Instead, the other man, Jeffery, invited Russell and I into his home and he and Dan treated us to a brief impromptu recital of the music they were playing. As they played, I found myself thinking that I know some really amazing people and that this was a wonderful way to round out the evening. I also reminded myself that life is very good.
By the way, Dan did not play a viola de gamba at the Christmas party, as I had reported. It was merely a 300-year-old cello. But he and Jeffery were playing the viola de gamba tonight, wonderful recreations of instruments from the 1800's with fantastic carvings. Each of them had a little figurehead on the head of the instrument, finely detailed.
Russell managed to get them to agree to listen to a couple of selections from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, a project of the University of California in Santa Barbara. The Project has digitally recorded almost 6,000 cylinder records from the turn of the 20th century.
So we trooped upstairs to Jeffery's rooms and coaxed Google into locating the cylinder library for us and Russell specified a couple of selections. Jeffery and Dan seemed to enjoy the music. Even more, I think they enjoyed the thought of such a large library of music at their fingertips!
I managed to give my phone number and email address to Jeffery and Dan and asked them both to give me a call some time. I also got Jeffery's information in return.
It's nice to meet a couple of interesting guys in my neighborhood. Jeffery literally lives right around the corner!
All in all, a wonderful evening!
After dinner, we were walking back to my apartment when I peeked in a house window to see a couple of men playing music on viol-like instruments. I recognized one of them as Dan, the man who accompanied Gene on the piano as the rest of us attempted Christmas carols at Gene and David's Christmas party last month.
They almost immediately reached some stopping point, and I tapped on the window to get their attention and waved a hello to Dan and then waved a goodbye, intending to just say "hi" and move one without interrupting them too much. Just trying to be friendly.
Instead, the other man, Jeffery, invited Russell and I into his home and he and Dan treated us to a brief impromptu recital of the music they were playing. As they played, I found myself thinking that I know some really amazing people and that this was a wonderful way to round out the evening. I also reminded myself that life is very good.
By the way, Dan did not play a viola de gamba at the Christmas party, as I had reported. It was merely a 300-year-old cello. But he and Jeffery were playing the viola de gamba tonight, wonderful recreations of instruments from the 1800's with fantastic carvings. Each of them had a little figurehead on the head of the instrument, finely detailed.
Russell managed to get them to agree to listen to a couple of selections from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, a project of the University of California in Santa Barbara. The Project has digitally recorded almost 6,000 cylinder records from the turn of the 20th century.
So we trooped upstairs to Jeffery's rooms and coaxed Google into locating the cylinder library for us and Russell specified a couple of selections. Jeffery and Dan seemed to enjoy the music. Even more, I think they enjoyed the thought of such a large library of music at their fingertips!
I managed to give my phone number and email address to Jeffery and Dan and asked them both to give me a call some time. I also got Jeffery's information in return.
It's nice to meet a couple of interesting guys in my neighborhood. Jeffery literally lives right around the corner!
All in all, a wonderful evening!
