It's called a FOOTpath!

Cyclists out there - get off the footpath and onto the road where your wheels belong! As a pedestrian I reserve the right to walk along in my own little world, wandering freely from the left side of the footpath to the right, and then back again, without worrying about some douchebag cyclist zooming up on me from behind and mowing me down.

The vanishing post

I just put up a new post, but it was an extension of a draft I started in January, so it's appeared under the January heading - look out for it, it's called "You say tomayto, I say ANGER!"

A Californian Holiday

After a week of music making in Berkeley, San Francisco, I am now sunning myself down in southern California before my friend Mike's wedding on the 20th. This is my first time in this part of the state, and it's really pretty. I took the train and bus down from Berkeley to San Luis Obispo, where Mike picked me up, and we drove 15 minutes to nearby Los Osos, close to the beach. The beach at Morro Bay is notable for a giant rock, similar to Piha beach in New Zealand, which I coincidentally went to recently on a day off with the Wallfisch Band.

The time in Berkeley was fantastic. Although I was being put up at a friend's place in neighbouring Concord, all the music making happened at various locations in Berkeley, a wonderful area with boutique shops and a friendly atmosphere. There is a great shop there called The Musical Offering, which specialises in an awesome collection of period instrument CDs. I also got carried away in a local book shop...aahh, if only I had a million bucks, I would buy both shops and not let any customers in, so that I could just live there.

The concerts went very well, and the audiences seemed to love us. We had our own concert on the 10th, which was well attended, and then the festival finale, which featured all the different groups that had played throughout the festival. The finale programme was LONG - 2 hours and 15 minutes without an interval, as it represented a Vespers service. I was glad I didn't have to make a dash off the stage for the loo, as I did towards the end of the first act of Parsifal several years ago with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. That was only an hour and fifty minutes long, but within the first ten minutes of the act I started getting increasingly busting, and I could only hold on for about an hour and ten minutes before I had to make a quick exit. Fortunately I was at the back of the orchestra, so could be fairly discreet. But anyway, this time I was fine, and survived the whole concert. Each group played about two pieces on their own at various stages, and then there was a final combined performance of Vivaldi's Magnificat.

There was some nice time to relax during the week as well. One day I went on a trip with a few other people to the Napa wine region, where we enjoyed some wine-tasting at a couple of local wineries, then had a fantastic meal at a wonderful restaurant in Sonoma called The Harvest Moon. They have a menu that changes daily, with all-organic foods, and an amazing dessert selection. The owner/chef of the restaurant married a pastry-chef, so they're the perfect husband and wife team. It was some of the best food I've ever had.

So, now it's time for some more relaxation down in Los Osos! More details at the end of the week...

I am not a danger to your country, I assure you!

After a 15 hour plane journey, I'm now in Concord, CA, getting ready for a concert of 17th Century Venetian music with ¡Sacabuche!, Paul Elliott and Nigel North this Thursday night:

¡Sacabuche! at the Berkeley Early Music Festival

So, if you're in the Berkeley area, come along! Tickets are apparently selling quite well.

The Wallfisch band came to a close on the 24th of May, which was sad. By the time we played in Auckland -the final venue - we had really started smoking! LW was such a great leader, with a perfect blend of positive inspiration combined with the nitty-gritty orchestral hygiene stuff. Individually, I think I made a fairly good impression, and I'm starting to think of the idea of heading straight over to Europe after I finish in Indiana to get work. But there's still plenty of time to plan!

A week and a half later, just before I left for the US, I performed a concert with Douglas Mews on harpsichord. I got in some good last-minute advertising on the radio and on the Chamber Music NZ online newsletter, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to get a particularly large audience along. Those who came, though, seemed to enjoy it, and I made a little bit of money out of it. The programme turned out to be really good too; a 17th century first half, an 18th Century second half, with a combination of accompanied and unaccompanied music. It was great to play with Douglas too; no matter what I did, he was right there with me!

This time on my travels, I came into the US through San Francisco, which was a welcome change from Los Angeles. The immigration guy that I went through was still quite tough though - he questioned me on what I was doing in that irritating 'you-are-a-danger-to-my-country' way that they have all cultivated so well, but in the end I was let through with no secondary inspection. HOORAY! Either the situation has genuinely been resolved this time, or the LA customs inspectors are just less lenient. I guess I won't know until I go through LA again, which hopefully is never. Actually, I'm not sure when the next time will be that I even come into America again, given that this is the last chunk of my studies.

I was picked up in SF by a lovely woman who is a friend of the woman who organizes the Berkely Early Music Festival, and she drove me all the way to Concord, about 30 minutes out, where I'm staying for the next week. The weather is about as different from Wellington as you can get - hot, sunny, birds chirping. Goodbye to the incessant rain and misery that is NZ at the moment!