So this past week my Mother was visiting my Grandmother in LA, and on Saturday they drove up to Fremont to see my Aunt. After a phone call around 6:00pm, I took the BART down to Fremont, and after a small dinner, the four of us went to Cache Creek, a reservation Casino about an hour and a half outside of San Francisco.

Arriving around ten, we played mostly slot machines until nearly 4:00AM, at which time I was exhausted, practically passing out while standing. At that time, my mother tricked me with “Okay, here’s the key to the car, go to the car and we’ll be right there”, which I did and fell asleep in the car, only to wake up at 8:00AM, thinking “What the…?” and then falling asleep until 10:00AM when my Aunt came by to get me and say “Let’s go get breakfast.”

So… we had breakfast at the buffet there, then after that, my Grandmother says “Let’s play just one more hour.” I was blown away! I had slept 6 hours in the car and was still pretty tired, but here they were, all three of them still going. In the end, after losing my Aunt for a while, we ended up leaving at 2:30PM, back to Fremont.

I have to say, all in all, I enjoyed spending that time with my family and enjoyed watching them all have fun with the different slot machines (my Grandmother’s favorite was “The Price is Right” machine; I remember growing up–I must have been 4 or 5 at the time–and watching that show with her), and in general just being with them.

Other Observations

The building was quite a beautiful building, if you could imagine it without all the madness of the slot machines and card tables there. Marble floors with beautifully colored carpets, the wood lining the different shops all that very classy dark stain, with gold trim on store names. The windows of the casino all revealed the beauty of that reservation, the hills in gold, the deep blue sky…

The wash of sound in the casino was curious, the way the slot machines would emit beeps that were the first, third, fifth, and octave of a scale, over and over. Some machines would also play half-phrases of music on one spin, then the other half the other spin. I have to believe there’s a psychology to it all that only draws in the customer to keep spinning, perhaps all in desire for a resolution to the group chord…

p.s. It guess it wouldn’t be a trip to a casino without seeing the lady with the O2 tank hooked to her nose, sitting in the smoking section! =o

I recently watched Tron with my friend Nick, the first time I had seen the movie in a very long time. I was really blown away by the movie: the visual style style was absolutely gorgeous, the story being much more curious than I remember, and the music and sound effects were fantastic. “The Making of Tron” documentary, included on the DVD, was also very interesting to watch as it really shows how groundbreaking the movie was in its production.

I don’t think I even knew who Wendy Carlos was when I first watched the movie. The music and sounds from the movie really made quite an impression on me… I’m listening to the soundtrack now and find the timbres that Wendy Carlos used to be so rich and organic, the blending of the digital, analag, and natural instruments done so tastefully. I’m definitely interested to go back and listen to more of Wendy Carlos‘s music with this fresh perspective.

Looking around Wendy Carlos’s site, I came across this picture, an absolutely wonderful shot of a modular synthesizer in her early studio. It really amazes me at how complex patching seems to be in all of these old pictures I’ve seen of synthesizers, and it makes me wonder if my own instrument patches are really complex enough to give them a really organic sound…

Today our friend Therese from t’ai-chi class invited us to go see Pete Escovedo and his Latin Jazz Orchestra at Yoshi’s in Oakland at Jack London Square. The jazz club–it was our first time there–was absolutely wonderful, one part being an excellent Japanese restaurant with beautiful decor and a warm atmosphere, the other part being a perfect venue for jazz music. Pete Escovedo performed with his Orchestra as well as his two sons and his daughter, Sheila E.. The whole family was fantastic, the music sizzling and absolutely alive with energy, and the night altogether a pleasant experience. I’m looking very forward to spending more evenings at Yoshi’s.

(I often feel grateful for having found t’ai-chi as the community of people with whom I’ve had the great privelege in getting to know has often enriched my life in so many ways. I’ve found many new friends of all stages in life–most of whom I don’t think I’d ever have the chance to meet otherwise–through t’ai chi, and many of their interests have become my own. Tonight I am glad our friend Therese had invited us out to share this experience with her.)

While reading this month’s issue of T’ai-Chi magazine, an old gypsy adage was mentioned which I liked very much:

Tradition does not mean to guard cold ashes but to keep the fire burning.

I’ve always found the voice of sopranos and mezzo-sopranos to be very dear to me… I’m listening to Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables at the moment and was struck by how beautiful the writing is, how lovely is Olga Pasiecznik’s voice…

My brother asked me the other day if I knew how to play baduk. Not knowing much about it, I scoured the internet and became very interested in the game. I purchased an introductory book this weekend and already find myself drawn to the game. Contemplating the positions has that same intensity and focus as the evaluation of a position in chess, yet something about the simplicity of the playing of black and white stones has such a beautiful elgance to it. I’ve always enjoyed chess and I expect that I will find myself spending quite a bit of time in the coming months learning and contemplating this wonderful game.

I’ve always enjoyed Chinese poetry (in translation at least, as I am unable to read Chinese) by Li-Bai and others. It’s been a while since I last spent time reading poetry so I decided I would like to find some on the internet so I could convert them for my PDA (I’ve been reading texts on it quite a bit lately). I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of websites having translations of “300 Tang Poems” (here and here). I’m looking very forward to exploring these poems once again. =)

Last week I changed my morning route to work and instead of taking the bus all the way I’ve been getting off half-way to work and walking the rest. Stopping by the tea shop, now a part of my morning routine, I picked up a cup of lady grey and walked down the street, looking ahead towards the bay, a cool gentle breeze, an intensely deep blue sky–I was satisfied.

I find myself returning to Rachmaninov’s “Isle of the Dead” everyone once in a while… today, I marvelled at how long it is before that wonderful opening returns, accompanied with a lovely floating violin line. The swells of sound that move with the piece’s lush harmonies, the delicate textures which arise from the mass of sound, the almost unending delay of the inevitable in the return of that opening… I think it is Rachmaninov’s orchestration of his harmonies that have made the most impression on me, the choice of timbres and open spacing.

I don’t know his music as well as I’d like, and perhaps this reaction to this latest listening of his music is a sign I should I be spending more time with it…