The Hot Ears

They're back!! It's an odd phenomenon that comes and goes in waves. Suddenly one or both of my ears will become bright red and hot. It lasts between a few minutes and a couple hours. It's not at all pleasant, rather somewhere between mildly annoying and very uncomfortable. It happens in the afternoon or evening, rarely if ever in the morning, and it can be very difficult to fall asleep with hot ears.

There's nothing I know of that triggers it, it just happens. And as I said it's not fun, not like it's an ear-ection or anything ear-otic.

I once asked my dad if it ever happened to him. "Oh yeah." So perhaps it's hereditary?

I looked some years ago for information on the Internet and didn't find very much. Of course, now that I've divulged it to the world, it will be highly correlated with some deadly disease, or maybe some deviant behavior. They will have to come lock me up for sure.

Where's the One?

Yesterday, the iPod Shuffle Djinn served up "BNH" by the Brand New Heavies (iTunes), one of my all-time favorite grooves. The remarkable thing about this song is that almost nothing happens on the downbeat. There's no kick, no bass. Maybe a closed high hat or a shaker, but that's it. And yet it feels completely natural. When the other instruments come in, they avoid the downbeat too. It's a very good thing.

"From 10"

Some months ago, I bought lunch at our company cafeteria. As the cashier registered my lunch, I put my money on the small counter between us.

"Oh, putting your money on the counter, are you?" she asked facetiously.

"Excuse me?"

"It's rude," she said, looking me square in the eyes.

I was shocked. I said nothing more, just walked away looking terribly confused. Was it rude? I had never thought about it. I admit, I did that a lot, putting money on the counter for some cashier to pick up. I never did it to spite anyone, I just did it.

Back at my desk, I got on the Internet and searched for an answer. Was it rude? If it was so obviously rude to this cashier, then certainly someone somewhere has codified this protocol, or at least asked about it. I expected lots of results, and a clear consensus. I searched for "cashier etiquette", and looked at many many sites. Finally I found just one relevant answer: according to this etiquette expert, it is rude to put cash on the counter. (Just found this discussion on Yahoo Answers - there is some distribution of opinion here. And WOW some people are really uptight about this!)

I have worked as a cashier, and I'm certain that I picked up my share of money from the counter. I never once thought of it as rude. In Germany, it seems rather normal to exchange money on the counter. In fact, there's often a shallow dish at the cashier specifically for this purpose. Many cashiers will leave your change there for you, the customer, to pick up.

Now I ask, which is more rude? My putting money on the counter, or the cashier calling me rude for it? I haven't returned to the cafeteria since that day, and I don't plan to either. Still, I am oddly grateful to her for this learning opportunity.

Maria and I traveled to Japan a couple years ago. Even in the lowliest convenience store in Tokyo, the exchange of cash has the ritual feel of a tea ceremony. When the cashier hands you your change, it is with both hands, and a bow! It is remarkable, and this behavior was absolutely consistent wherever we went.

So now, as often as possible, I hand cash to a cashier with both hands, Japanese style. This often provokes quite a reaction. Try it sometime!

Old Chicago

The other night, I was curious about what the expressways displaced in our part of Chicago in the 50's. So I started looking around the Internet for old maps of Chicago, and I found a real gem. It's a high-res scan of a 1914 map of Chicago. Among other things, I learned that in 1914, about the time our house was built, there was a train line less than one block away!

Christkindlmarket

Yesterday we went to the Christkindlmarket for lunch. The Christkindlmarket is a remarkably accurate version of a traditional German Christmas market in the middle of downtown Chicago. It started small, eleven years ago, and has become rather popular. Maybe too popular. It was like Taste of Chicago popular yesterday, so it was nearly impossible to get around it. And it was COLD. So we took one lap around Daley Plaza, and then headed back to Hannah's Bretzel instead. The sandwiches are darn expensive, and so worth it too. And they have by far the best pretzels in Chicago.

Razzberry M&Ms

Have you tried them? Tasty!

The Serious Tower

Before I forget... For a couple years at least, Ella has called the tallest building in Chicago the "Serious Tower". I love that. Well, it is a serious tower.

A Fever

Whenever I get a good fever, it's like I have severe brain damage. While I'm absolutely aware of my identity, my condition, and my location, I am simultaneously, overwhelmingly preoccupied with one fiction or another. It usually takes the form of a feeling that I need to complete some kind of work, something vitally important, but bizarre and indescribable. Last week the whole family had a 24 hour bug, and this time while I was incapacitated, I had the sensation that I had discovered some essential truth. It was something I was convinced would thoroughly impress my family and many other people if only I could commit it to memory and articulate it after my illness. I remember that much quite clearly. It was something scientific or mathematical. Aside from that, I have not the slightest idea what this idea was.

Finger Eyes

Last night I was thinking about the flexibility of the brain, specifically the sensory input substitution discussed by Hawkins in On Intelligence, such as the Bach-y-Rita tongue vision experiments. I wondered, did they put a camera on the person's head, so that the mental image would be like seeing with your eyes? What if there were multiple cameras, facing in all directions? Ignoring the practical issues, assuming it were possible - what would it be like to see in all directions at once? What would the mental image be like, to be in the center of your own field of vision, looking out in all directions?

And what if the camera were elsewhere, like a handheld camera? OK, one more step - what if you had eyes in the tips of your fingers? What would that mental image be like?! Would there be one coherent overall mental image, only illuminated in the directions you happened to be pointing your fingers at that moment? Or could the mental images from one finger, or a group of fingers, be separate from the others?

Z

The letter Z. The English call it "zed". We Americans call it "zee". When I first told Maria that we say "zee" she thought I was joking. (It's "Zed" in German too.) So why did it change here from "zed" to "zee"? Is it the alphabet song? If you sing the alphabet to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "zed" doesn't rhyme. Do English kids not sing the alphabet song? Or do they sing "zee" but say "zed"?

Parisian Thoroughfare

An amazing Bud Powell song. Kocour played a nice version of it at Pianoforte last weekend. It was stuck in my mind this morning, so I dialed up Jacky Terrasson's version when I got to work. This energetic version is in 7/4 meter. I frightened a colleague with some enthusiastic desk drumming. I love irregular meters when done well, for their continuous tension through syncopation.

Tiefschwarz

From the last-to-know department: last week's Buzzin' Fly guest mix included a song "Damage" by Tiefschwarz with vocals by Tracey Thorn (iTunes). This song would have sounded right in place on Out Of The Woods. It doesn't rank with "Protection" but I had to get it anyway. No regrets. Tracey's voice is quintessential.

Michael Kocour

Yesterday afternoon Maria and I saw Michael Kocour perform at Pianoforte. It was not a remarkable show, but a very pleasant one.

Kocour played all standards, plus one original. He was quite capable of incorporating different styles into his playing - at times his playing was sparse like Ahmad Jamal, at other times dense. There didn't seem to me to be anything particularly unique about his playing. Still the performance was entirely enjoyable.

I'm happy to report that the audience behaved far better than last time.

iPod Non Sequitir

A diverse playlist put on shuffle can make for some amusing iPod non sequitirs. This morning, I listened to a clip from Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. She was talking quietly with Dizzy Gillespie, discussing which song they would play next. "Let's play 'On The Alamo'." "OK." Then suddenly, the opening riff to The Who's "I Can See For Miles"!!

Milk and Cereal and Speed Bumps

It was a pretty decent week on the home front. Martin has been cranky again since he got his 1 year vaccinations, and I've been fighting some kind of cold. But three great things happened.

First, we got our first milk home delivery. When I was a kid, we got Oberweis milk delivered, until they stopped delivering (early 80's?). They've been delivering again for some years now. In the last month, since Maria weaned Martin, we've been going through milk like crazy. We checked with Oberweis, and found out we could get home delivery for about the same as buying the Oberweis milk at the Jewel. Done!

Then the speed bumps came. I have wanted them on our block since we moved here, six years ago. Some people seem to think that our block is a little known spur of the Kennedy expressway. This summer, Maria talked with our neighbors, and found that the speed bump sentiment was basically unanimous on our block. She found out how to petition for them, and she and some neighbors collected signatures. A few phone calls to remind the ward office, and now they're finally here!

And then the cereal came. A couple weeks ago, I found out that Amazon lets you subscribe to delivery of non-perishable groceries at decent prices. I could get Smart Start delivered to my home for far less than it usually cost at the Jewel. Now the milk and cereal come to me! It's like a dream.

Autoflush

Autoflush urinals? Fine. I prefer them, especially if there is a manual override button.

Autoflush toilets? What the hell?! Bad, bad, very very bad!!

There are some autoflush toilets where I work. I can usually avoid them. But today I found myself on one of these, and as I sat, it flushed no fewer than four times. I generally do not enjoy sitting on a flushing toilet, particularly when it flushes automatically and without warning.

Do I sit wrong?

And is it really such a chore to flush a toilet when you're finished?

Minor tangent - I once owned a shirt I called "the stealth shirt" because the autoflush urinals at work would not flush when I wore it. It was a black, textured polo-style shirt with, apparently, some unique optical properties. Not sure what happened to it.

New York Is Red Hot!

A combination of factors has completely changed the way that I listen to music over the past several years. Before Maria and I had kids, I used to actually put CDs into the stereo and play them out loud, all the time. If I was at home, there was always something playing. Now most of the music I hear is on the iPod, either while commuting or at work.

When I first got an MP3 player, about six years ago, I started ripping my CDs. Since then I would rip any new CDs right away, of course. The older ones I would rip in waves, first the essential ones, especially the electronica and ambient ones that were well suited for work and travel. After a few years of this, I'm not yet done. The result is that some really decent CDs have slipped through the cracks, and there's some great music I haven't heard in years.

This morning, I ripped my old copy of Reachin' by Digable Planets, and played "Pacifics" on the computer. Damn!! How did I survive these years without hearing a killer bass line like that?! I can't believe it's been that long. What else is waiting there for me to rediscover?

Best Costume

Just in time for Halloween, you can dress as a Japanese vending machine. I want one!

The Bird And The Bee

My new favorite new band, new to me anyway. I don't remember how I first heard of them. They're like a Saint Etienne that talks dirty. I cannot get "Again & Again" out of my head. So far that's OK--don't know yet if that will become a problem.

The Way I See It

During a recent review of our family finances, my Starbucks habit came under intense scrutiny. With my Starbucks card set to auto-reload, they had made it obscenely easy for me to perpetuate my habit while remaining blissfully ignorant of the cost. Over the past few years, I have slowly jeopardized my children's college educations, one grande mocha at a time.

With a little effort, Maria and I have started to loosen the chains from my ankles. Last week, our Bialetti stovetop espresso pot arrived, along with a manual glass tube milk frother. While I eat breakfast, I brew a pot of espresso and heat the milk. Put both into a thermos with a squirt of Hershey's syrup, and I am set for the day at a fraction of the cost. So far I don't mind the ritual, including the cleanup.

Your Brain On Music

I was really, really, really looking forward to reading This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin. And it was ... OK.

When I saw this book at B&N I immediately picked it up, read most of the preface, and bought it. This book seemed written specifically for me like few others. I read about Levitin's headphone epiphany as a teenager--I had the same experience! I was about ten when I borrowed my sister's headphones and heard "Swingtown" by Steve Miller Band in all its stereophonic glory. The auditory imaging had drums and synthesisers that sounded like they were right inside my head. I loved it, and I was hooked. After that I spent many, many hours of my youth listening, actively listening, to music with headphones. After reading about Levitin's experience, I thought he and I were certainly resonating on the same frequency.

One problem I had with the book is that it came to me far too late. I studied electrical engineering in college, where we dissected waveforms of all flavors to death. I also studied music theory. So much of the book was review.

A much bigger problem, though, is that the book is poorly edited, at least the first edition copy I have. One of the earlier chapters is particularly bad, with a number of misspellings and a missing word. While the editing did improve later on, I almost couldn't recover. It's very hard for me to read for pleasure when I expect to mentally edit the text myself.

My last beef is that Levitin obviously feels he has to impress the reader with his name dropping. OK, you met Francis Crick and had lunch. Congratulations. But not every detail of this encounter is relevant to your book. Get to your point and spare me the rest already.

The book had a few nuggets that almost made up for its shortcomings. For example, it forced me to reconsider hearing (and music) as a subjective experience. Just as the red I experience in my mind when I see something red may be different from your red, my experience of an octave, a pitch, or a timbre may be different from yours. They're probably similar, but not necessarily. Another nugget: the reason that octaves, fifths and other intervals from the harmonic series sound "harmonious" is likely because it would help the brain to relate different sound frequencies into common sources. This could be very advantageous--the many bits of sound I hear now are actually one sound, namely that hungry tiger over there!

Overall, this book has its moments but falls short of my (perhaps too lofty) expectations.

On Intelligence

Contrasting neatly with Hofstadter's book is On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. I had seen the book mentioned in several places, but it was Steve Gibson gushing over it on his Security Now podcast that catalyzed me into action. I brought the paperback with me on a recent trip and got nearly through it all on one long flight.

The meat of Hawkins' book is exactly the territory where Hofstadter are not tread. Hawkins shares the same fascination of the emergent qualities of the mind with Hofstadter, but he also has a deep background in nuts-and-bolts neurology, and a passion to connect the two.
Hawkins delivers a speculative yet compelling schematic of the neocortex that, at worst, should inspire debate, research and careers. It is the sort of brain book I wish I could have read in high school.

I had heard a lot about Numenta's HTMs, a software implementation of Hawkins' model, and expected the book to be more of an HTM primer. The book hints at Numenta's active research but makes no mention at all of HTMs. So while the material may be a good prerequisite to starting work with HTMs, don't expect to learn about them here.

Jazz Showcase Benefit Concert

Just found out that Jazz Showcase is holding a benefit concert next Sunday, October 21, to raise funds for the club's relocation.

Strange Loops

Lately I have read a few books on mind and brain. Earlier this year, I read Douglas Hofstadter's latest book I Am A Strange Loop. One of the premises of Hofstadter's book is that the thing we typically call a "soul" is the inevitable by-product of a brain of sufficient power to represent concepts of arbitrary levels of abstraction. Once this happens, a sort of feedback he calls a Strange Loop occurs and - presto! - the soul emerges. Chapter One is Hofstadter's accidental vegetarian manifesto, in which he argues it is immoral to consume a being with a Strange Loop. Later on, Hofstadter presents a very real version of life-after-death in which a copy (albeit not identical) of one person's Strange Loop lives on in the brain of another. Hofstadter appeals to me as a software guy. To understand the mind, he says, it is not necessary (and may be a real distraction) to sort out the precise mechanics of the brain.

Heathrow

If you ever wanted to know how a cow feels headed to slaughter, just catch any flight connecting through Heathrow. Last month, Maria and I flew to Germany through London. Our connections were about two hours each way, and we only barely made them both. On our first arrival, the plane deposited us on the tarmac, where we boarded bus #1 to the terminal. All buses are jam-packed with people Tokyo Subway style, plus carry-on luggage. Plenty of stairs in the terminal, so good luck if you've a baby stroller along, or a tough case of thrombosis from the flight. Thence directly to moo-queue 1 to board bus #2 to another terminal, the "connection centre". In this terminal resides a series of queues which combine to form the mother-of-all-moo-queues, the likes of which have never been seen at Disney or anywhere else I'm sure. It all starts with a queue for the escalator, because the queue at the top is completely full. Once up the escalator and through the next queue, it's my favorite part where the queue fans out free-style and narrows again, to inspire competition and ill-will amongst all your fellow travellers. From here, the cattle are allowed to emerge in bursts of 40-50 at a time, through a zig-zag and ... wait for it ... more queues! Alas, here you get to see the reward for your patience. It's the security checkpoint that's needed here because the check at your original airport certainly wasn't sufficient. (Perhaps you've collected more than three fl.oz. of flammable liquid in transit? Or maybe you've built a lethal weapon from stray parts since the last check?) Well, finally through security and with fifteen minutes left to find and catch the connecting flight, at least there are no more buses. (Did I mention I had to pee the whole time? No?)

Buzzin' Fly

I love listening to Buzzin' Fly. A fresh hour-long mix of house music every week, from Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl. Groovy!

0 + 0 = 0

Ella, 6, was working on some math homework last night, and let out a laugh. "Dad, this is a funny one. Zero plus zero equals zero!"

That she found this problem funny and worthy of sharing with me is just bliss.

Larry Vuckovich

Maria and I saw Larry Vuckovich play at PianoForte last Saturday. It was a very pleasant performance. Vuckovich plays in a rather standard jazz style, which Maria appreciated especially. He talked quite a bit between the songs, introducing them and adding some of his personal history. We both liked how he included some music from his native land, former Yugoslavia, in addition to many standards. His playing reminded us both of Vince Guaraldi.

The show was nearly overshadowed by some remarkable displays of rudeness and tactlessness among the patrons. This is a small, intimate performance studio where people go to listen to the music in a way that can't be recreated in a larger space. And yet the audience, which was certainly fewer than 40 people, included:

• The woman in the back who fidgeted with a noisy plastic bag, over and over again;
• The woman chomping on her gum, open-mouthed; and
• The woman who arrived late, pulled a chair up to the front, and then got out a book and read it during the show!

Mr. Vuckovich, on behalf of those of us who actually came to listen to you play music, I apologize. I hope you did not notice these transgressions, and if you did, kudos to you for continuing professionally with your performance.

First Birthday

Today is Martin's first birthday. It feels like he was born yesterday; it feels like he has been here forever.

They say the first birthday is a celebration for the parents. Maria truly earned this birthday. For a year of breast feeding. For a half year of cleaning Martin's orthopedic helmet every day. For enduring the many moods of Martin, finely tuned by millenia of natural selection to inflict maximum survivable discomfort in the evolutionary struggle for resources between mother and child.

Martin, who had a rather severe plagiocephaly, has improved nicely. He had his final scan this week and no longer needs the helmet. Hooray!! Maria says his mood has improved considerably since then. Your mood would improve too if you could finally remove your motorcycle helmet after wearing it 24/7 for half of your life.

The cruising is now proto-walking as Martin takes half steps between the sofa and the coffee table. He is so excited at his emerging mobility.

Ella has been an amazing big sister. She is still crazy about her little brother, and that sentiment is definitely mutual. I am so happy for both of them that they will have each other to grow up together.

Till Brönner

Last weekend, we traveled to my brother-in-law's wedding near Stuttgart. A nice side effect of this trip was that we got to see Till Brönner in Esslingen last Friday night. The setting was idyllic. It was a gorgeous evening. For the jazz festival, they had set up a really large tent in a plaza in the Altstadt (old city). There was excellent food and plenty to drink. The varied crowd assembled and were quite nice. The opening band was that of Joo Kraus, and they seemed to play light jazz versions of tired 80's songs (like Toto's "Africa") which were pleasing and not very challenging to the ear. We also thought that perhaps the sound was a little too similar to Brönner's, and maybe the festival would have better booked a more different band. Brönner came on right at 9 (how punctual, how German!) and really cooked. The sound was excellent, just right to fill the plaza. The first song was the first track from Oceana, and a good set opener--A mid-tempo ballad with plenty of room to stretch. On the second tune, Brönner sang a quick, scatty lyric with his Michael Franks-like voice, then the band took off like a rocket. He has the chops. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the jet lag threatened to crash the car on the way back, so we couldn't stay nearly so long as we wanted. Till, please come tour the states mate!

Festival of Maps

Yesterday my father's spirit took the form of a full-page ad in the Red Eye, informing me of Chicago's Festival of Maps. A couple dozen museums and universities are all presenting map-themed exhibits this fall. The web site is a little annoying--the map moves around a little too much, and it's hard to click on a site to see what's happening there. I will definitely go see the Paris maps at the Art Institute.

Speaking of maps, I am almost violently ambivalent about driving with GPS. When Maria and I visited DC a couple months ago, we borrowed my mom's Garmin and set it up in the rental car. We needed to go quickly from BWI (where I'd never been) to a friend's house in Rockville (ditto), and the GPS was fantastic, turn for turn to the driveway. Then we drove to downtown DC, and the GPS led us there via a beautiful stretch of road, through a forested area, along a canal. I'm sure the locals know about this way but I certainly did not.

Still, an essential part of traveling, for me, is the struggle with a map, and the development of my own understanding of an area, so that I know where I am and where I'm going. This is either gone entirely with a GPS, or it changes in a way I don't yet understand. Surely it is possible with a GPS to navigate around a strange area without learning the area at all. That may be fine for some, but it is not what I want.

Jean-Michel Pilc

Yesterday we saw the first concert in this year's Jazz Salon series at PianoForte. It was Jean-Michel Pilc. I had heard of him before, probably from an Amazon recommendation. And I came very close to getting a CD of his at the Tower Records fire sale.

The first thing to notice about Pilc's playing is his use of dynamics. He likes to play softly, and he likes to play REALLY LOUD, but he also has marvelous control of the dynamic shape of a phrase. Anyone can crescendo; it's hard to decrescendo well, and he does really well.

Then there are the harmonic adventures, and they were adventurous. Maria didn't always like how they turned out, but I usually did. In any case, I appreciate an artist for taking risks. Some adventures turn out better than others. When they turned out well, they were fascinating.

I told Maria before he started, it would be nice if Pilc played about an hour, that would be just the right amount of music for the setting, I thought. And when he arrived, he announced he would play one hour. Bingo! Sandwiched between two improvisations were liberal interpretations of standards. I did like it when he whistled a Getz saxophone part to his own accompaniment. An encore of "My One And Only Love" was a nice ending.

Afterwards, I bought Pilc's latest CD, New Dreams, and Pilc eagerly signed it for me. He spoke with Maria and me for a couple minutes. A very nice fellow, and an all-around lovely Saturday afternoon in the city with my wife.

Would Like To See

Here are some musicians that I would like to see and never have:

• Tony Bennett
• Bill Charlap
• Al Green
• Salif Keita
• k.d. lang
• Charles Lloyd
• Meshell Ndegeocello
• Aaron Neville
• Jacky Terrasson
• Tracey Thorn

Stevland Morris

Last week we saw Stevie Wonder, two nights in a row!

He was playing at an outdoor theater. The first night it rained and rained. Stevie came on stage long enough to say "show's cancelled, come back tomorrow." He said it better than that of course.

So we came back, and we were not disappointed. He played at least two hours without a break. There were a bunch of songs from Innervisions, my favorite album of his. He must have played at least one verse of forty songs or more. The band were a drummer, two percussion, bass, two guitars, two keyboards, and three singers; all young musicians, and good players. There were a couple crowd sing-alongs that went on too long for me. And what's up with "I Just Called..."? It's a terrible song, and still the crowd went nuts for it. But I would gladly endure it once for some "Sir Duke", "I Wish", "Higher Ground", "Visions", and on and on.

I never saw Ray Charles play, nor James Brown. Thankfully I haven't made the same mistake with Stevie.

The Pit of Despair

Martin is now in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night and screaming from his crib. When this happens, I feel like Westley in the Pit of Despair, strapped to the Machine, with Count Rugen over me, calmly saying, "I've just sucked one year of your life away..."

And in the morning, he is so damned cute.

Around the World

Finished reading Jules Verne's Around The World in Eighty Days. While I read it, I also re-watched Michael Palin's series of the same name, which is amazing. About seven hours in all, I must have watched it a half dozen times, and I could watch it a million more and never tire of it. But I had not yet read the book until now.

Spoiler Alert

Could one truly have sailed across the frozen Nebraska prairie in a sled? That part seemed least plausible to me, more so than the elephant.

Also curious to me was the disparity between the "status quo" attitudes with regard to savage natives in India and America, and the interracial marriage of Aouda and Fogg at the end.

Diet and Economics

There's an interview with Marion Nestle about diet and economics in this week's Science Talk podcast from Scientific American. I hadn't thought before about how poorer people are inclined to buy unhealthy food because it's loaded with calories; or about how large food companies, under intense pressure to report growth every quarter, are compelled to sell us more and more food in any way they can, and how that influences our food culture.

Baby Entropy

Martin, 11 months old (today!), has reached the stage where he is the Second Law of Thermodynamics personified. His favorite activity is to remove every toy from the basket and distribute them evenly throughout the room. Mama or papa return all toys to the basket. Go to step 1. Repeat.

Ship Simulator

I saw a copy of Ship Simulator at the Office Depot the other day. This game apparently lets you pilot ships all over the world, and includes "models" of various ships, including the Titanic and a modern ocean cruiser, and many other smaller boats. My dad would have gone completely nutso over this game, at least for an afternoon or so. After that, he would have made a long list of the essential ships that were missing: the Queen Mary, the Normandie, the SS United States, the Lusitania, several newer ships, and so on and so on.

N.B. I do not want to play this game myself, even if I had the time, which I don't. Family, please do not buy this for me for Christmas.

Lakefront Path

On Saturday, we took another family bike ride, this time along Chicago's Lakefront Path. We started at 31st Street and went south, just past the Museum of Science and Industry, where we stopped for lunch next to a small marina. As we set out again, Ella wiped out going down a curved incline. I was sorry to see it, but it had to happen sooner or later. After a minute, she was OK. We stopped for an ice cream, then biked back to 31st and watched some skateboarders at the Burnham Skate Park.

Decimal Time

What time is it?

Some units of time are strictly imposed on us by nature, like the day and the year and, to a lesser extent, the month or lunar cycle. Anything smaller than a day, though, is arbitrary and by convention. Why chop up a day in 24 parts, and then in 60, and 60 again? Why not use the metric approach and divide a day in ten, in ten again, and so on? That's the premise of decimal time, and I find it quite simple and appealing.

As I type this, it is .814. No AM/PM, just .814. I can't tell you what time zone though. That gets weird.

Ode to Smart Start

It is time to sing the praises of the supreme cereal of all breakfast cereals. I am referring, of course, to the original Smart Start. What's not to love?

• Nutritious, with 100% RDA of several vitamins and minerals, and very low fat
• Tastes great--sweet, but not too sweet
• Satisfyingly crunchy, but not so crunchy that it rips up my gums like Cap'n Crunch does
• A variety of textures, very pleasing to the tongue

I was a fan from the moment I saw the first box. Well, the only thing I don't like is that it's now called "Smart Start Antioxidants". Ugh, how unappetizing! What's next, "Smart Start Colonoscopy"? I suppose you have to do something to distinguish it from the newer, lesser Smart Starts. Why not "Smart Start Classic" or "Smart Start Original"?

Busse Woods

Just got back from a quintessential experience, the first family bike ride with Ella, 6, on her own bike. We drove to Busse Woods near Schaumburg. We started by Golf Road, near the 1 Mile marker on the black trail, rode down to the main (red) loop, went all the way around clockwise, then back to Golf Road.

For Ella, who learned to ride just a few weeks ago, we wanted a non-trivial ride on an uncrowded path and few street crossings. She rode the ten miles in about two hours. Maria and I were very impressed. We stopped about halfway for lunch. I pulled Martin in the trailer, and he slept most of the way.

I had never been to Busse Woods before. I was very happy with the trail. It was just what we needed for Ella. No real hills, and only one busy street crossing. There's a nice mix of landscape, with meadows, marshes, forest, and the lakes. Most of the trail was cleared of branches and other debris from the big storms last week, but we did have to get off the bikes a few times in one stretch to go around fallen branches. Ella really liked riding on the "big" bridge over Higgins Road.

Jazz Salon

Maria and I are looking forward to the Jazz Salon season at Pianoforte in the Fine Arts building. It's a unique, intimate place to hear fine musicians.

We always enjoy seeing Patricia Barber. She played at the Green Mill the night that Maria and I first met there. So her performance at Pianoforte on 15 Dec will be a special treat.

Updated 8/28: Just found out that the Patricia Barber performance at Pianoforte is rescheduled for 23 Feb 2008.

1927

About a block from our house, on the northwest side of Chicago, there is a section of sidewalk that I pass most days. On it, one can clearly see the company imprint and the year it was laid, 1927. This was the year of Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic. Standing on this sidewalk now, on any given day, one can often see dozens of aircraft on their final approach to O'Hare; enormous vessels among them, arriving from Europe and elsewhere.

I often wonder if we, now, are near a historical peak in global mobility. In two or three generations, will people still jet around the planet? How?

IndeBleu

Last month Maria and I went to DC on a Saturday to attend a friend's wedding. It was also our ninth anniversary. I looked around a little for DC restaurants. As we both like Indian food I happened on IndeBleu.

It. Was. Awesome.

The samosas were my favorite. Sensational contrasts of flavor. Everything about the meal was just right--the cadence, the presentation, the service. And after I told our waitress it was our anniversary, everything went up yet another notch. I can't say enough about what a great time we had.

Last Ten CDs

Here are the last ten CDs purchased:

They Might Be Giants, Then: The Earlier Years
Kurt Elling, Flirting With Twilight
Ryuichi Sakamoto/David Byrne, The Last Emperor - Original Soundtrack
Joshua Redman, Back East
Stefano Bollani, Piano Solo
The Sea And Cake, Everybody
Enrico Rava, The Words And The Days
Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters
Bill Frisell, The Intercontinentals
Max Richter, Songs From Before

My wife thinks CDs are an anachronism and I should just get over it already.

Last Ten Books

The last ten books I read:

Friedman, The World Is Flat
Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Hofstadter, I Am A Strange Loop
Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Obama, The Audacity of Hope
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Greene, The Elegant Universe
Allen, Getting Things Done
West, Democracy Matters

I just started reading This Is Your Brain On Music by Levitin. Always have a half dozen books in the queue, and a list of a few dozen others that I may get to someday. Meanwhile I'm trying to make use of my PDA and catch up on some classics I should have read in high school and never did.

Triprolidine

How to begin? Something has to prompt the first post.

Last week I was delighted to discover that Walgreens still sells an antihistamine, Wal-Act, with the old Actifed formula. My favorite antihistamine, triprolidine hydrochloride, I had given up for lost when Actifed changed their formula about a year ago, and all the "generic Actifeds" followed suit (or so I thought). A couple times a year, when the mold count is especially high and my daily Claritin isn't cutting it, the triprolidine works wonders for me.

I have since found plenty on the Internet about Wal-Act holding its ground. Wish I had done that sooner--and I hope enough people bother to go to the pharmacy counter and sign for Wal-Act that they continue the old formula.