It's Orchestra Season Again!

Tonight I resumed playing with the Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra--my musical pals since the beginning of 2007. Each year, from September to June, we gather on Tuesday nights at the middle school and rehearse for two hours each week, preparing for our three concerts per session.

Tonight we played a Mozart Double Piano Concerto that featured one of the most out-of-tune pianos I've ever heard. It made the great composer sound like the entertainment in a honky tonk bar despite fine playing by Tom. We also went through a piece this same fine piano player composed that will be a treat for anyone attending the upcoming concert on Sunday, October 23.

We tackled another Mozart piece, Symphony No. 31, which, unlike the Double Piano Concerto, I had never laid eyes on before. I was gratified at the amount of notes I was able to play on the first time through, sightreading. Part of the reward of playing in a community orchestra, besides the beauty and the camaraderie, is seeing yourself grow and improve over time.

Josh, our beloved and very hard working conductor, recommended playing chamber music to improve your sensitivity to other players, and I couldn't agree more. I belong to the Chamber Musicians of Northern California, which puts on three weekend workshops a year for players with at least some experience playing. I've attended about a dozen so far. The next workshop is the weekend of October 15-16, but you should join the group and apply now if you're interested.

Glen Campbell's Farewell

I saw Glen Campbell on TV last week talking about his Alzheimer's Disease. He still seemed like himself, but apparently he is starting to forget a lot of things. He's 75, and has released what he calls his final CD, Ghost on the Canvas, which is due out today. I'm sure I'll have to get it and listen to it (and write another blog post about it).

For me, Glen is the man who sang the hauntingly beautiful Wichita Lineman, one of my favorite songs ever. The Jimmy Webb ballad spent a month atop the charts in 1968. Glen also is famous for Gentle On My Mind from the year before and a few other great songs. He had his TV show, which I didn't watch, although I believe my grandparents enjoyed it. He had great looking hair.

I recently found out more about his time with the Wrecking Crew, a group of studio musicians in L.A. He played guitar on a good number of songs that you've heard, such as Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys and Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds, for example.

Glen has lived large, with four marriages, great success, a few scandals, and now, he's saying farewell graciously, cared for lovingly by his longtime fourth wife and his family.

Thanks for the music, Glen (especially Wichita Lineman).

Electric Car Sightings Update

Well, electric cars are starting to make it onto the roads, but it's still a trickle. As I drive my two hours a day around the central San Francisco Bay Area I am seeing a Nissan LEAF at least a couple of times a week (see photo). I've seen one Chevrolet Volt in the last month.

Last week, I saw two of the $100K + Tesla Roadsters on the same day -- one in the morning and one in the evening -- both with custom plates. I wrote down the first one: NIL CO2. Cute, huh? I also saw a gas-powered car with a bumper sticker that said, "My next car won't have one of these"--and there was an arrow pointing down to its exhaust pipe. The sticker had a Tesla logo on it. That car may turn out to be a Tesla Model S--due next year.

The fact is, it is going to take a while before you see a lot of electric cars on the road. The batteries are still expensive and the quantities of cars that the manufacturers can turn out and deliver is very limited. And, folks want a car that does everything, and electric vehicles still have limitations--mainly range issues.

Meanwhile, Costco is in the news for saying they plan to shut down their electric charging stations. I've heard a lot about this from a surprising number of people. From what I can tell, the stations need to be upgraded and Costco is balking at the cost--because they, rightfully or not, don't believe that there is much call for electric car charging at their locations.

I say, without knowing all the facts, that it is probably a good short-term business decision to shut them down. But, it's a terrible public relations move, and puts the company at the back, rather than at the front, of the wave of the future. I think that public charging availability is part of what will extend the functionality and acceptability of electric cars.

Also newsworthy: The Nissan LEAF all-electric car will have greater availability with its 2012 models. About 4,000 LEAFs have been delivered so far in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Oregon, Texas, Washington (state) and Tennessee (Nissan is based there). Now, Nissan is expanding into Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Also, the new 2012 LEAF will come with a quick charging port (480 volts) and a cold weather package, which includes a battery warmer, heated seats and a heated steering wheel.

Stay tuned!

Acura RL - Honda Goodness--Multiplied

What to make of the Acura RL? A modern descendant of the original Acura Legend, it takes all the goodness of Honda cars--sturdy, reliable, efficient--and stretches them out to luxury proportions and is loaded with every feature you'd ever want.

The pluses are many--from the handsome, tasteful styling (although it is looking a little dated now) to the gorgeous sweep of wood across the dash. The road feel is taut, the steering is communicative and the car drives smaller than it actually is.

Where it loses steam is against the Lexus LS models, which offer V8's (even though you don't really need one) and are just a tweak bigger. The Acura's 3.7-liter V6 offers an even 300 horsepower and an average of 20 mpg (although I got 18.7 in my testing). No problem with that.

Somehow, even though the Acura Legend came first, Toyota has gotten folks to equate Lexus with "top drawer" while the Acura is "very nice." I personally prefer the Acura, but then again, if I were buying an Acura I'd more likely want the TSX wagon or even the TSX sedan with the manual six speed. And I'd probably take a long look at Audis and BMWs too while I was shopping.

But for a luxury car that's big not not too big and luxurious without being ostentatious, it's hard to beat the RL. It's not as popular as some, but you can think of it as a well-kept secret.

20Q Game Versus Me--I win Once

Sitting on my friend Chris' desk at work was a shiny little blue object that looked like a fat Duncan Imperial yoyo. I picked it up and read "20Q" on it. It's a game, it turns out.

The 20Q is an electric (and solitary) version of the old 20 Questions parlor game. In that scenario, the collective wisdom of the group ferrets out the object you're thinking of and tries to guess the answer. You win if you can fool them. And it's a good way for people to enjoy time together.

The device I played with is a handheld version of something that also exists as a website. The website is not a repository of facts, but an actual interactive artificial intelligence creation that can learn and use the questions to narrow down to find the answer. The handheld device carries only a fraction of the intelligence of the website and can't learn in the same way, but it's still pretty amazing for a toy that sells on Amazon for less than 7 bucks.

I tried it twice yesterday with a simple object (an elephant) and a more obscure one (an IUD birth control device). As I expected, it guessed the elephant with no problem (the first question is the animal/vegetable/mineral/other one). However, it didn't get the IUD, even after it took an extra five questions--apparently the method.

The device "talks" to you, saying things in the middle of the questions like, "I'm keeping an eye on you," and "If you're quiet you can hear me thinking." It is not happy when you beat it, but gloats when it wins. Of course, it always asks you if you want to play again, and if it loses, it says "I believe in second chances," almost begging you to let it redeem itself.

I tried thinking of the word "tattoo" today and it got that one. So it's 20Q 2, Testdrivinglife 1 at this point.

Interestingly, I tried the elephant and IUD 20-question run again today and it asked some different questions. So this little toy has more brains than you might think. I'm about ready to try it again--it seems like one of those addictive, time-filling little gadgets that the world is so filled with today.

New Toyota Camry Arrives

The Toyota Camry isn't a car that one gets wildly excited about. After all, it's been the best selling car in the U.S. in 13 of the last 14 years and more than nine million have gone to happy owners since its debut in 1983. But they've just announced the brand new 2012 model.

The thing is, the Camry is ubiquitous and everpresent. I always seem to be behind one on the bridge on the way to work. They come in neutral colors. And this new one, while contemporary, breaks no new ground. It actually seems more simple and conservative than the previous model, which flaunted some unusual body detailing, especially around the wheels and at the tail.

Of course, I'll have to test one in person and see the car in three dimensions. Something tells me that this essentially all-American car, built in Georgetown, Kentucky for a quarter of a century, will rack up another best-selling year.

Besides, the new Camry is set to be the pace car for next year's Daytona 500! How all-American is that?

Reading the Newspaper -- on Paper!

Yesterday, I found myself at lunch without my book and, to entertain myself, bought a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle--right off the rack. It costs $1 now, but I remember when it was a quarter. Actually, when it was 15 cents. But enought about that, grandpa.

Reading the newspaper is a forgotten pleasure. No matter how much I get news from the Internet, there isn't really anything quite like the feeling you get when you open the fold and spread out several stories at once. Photos lead your eye around--big ads scream for attention, and somewhere in there, a story begins.

You can click your way around the online version, but it doesn't show as much acreage at a glance. Actually, a good example of the difference is the way you buy a book from Amazon.com versus browsing at Barnes and Noble. Think about it. Despite the fact that you're much more likely to actually find the specific item you're looking for at Amazon (if they don't have it, they know someone who does), the experience of scanning the shelves--wandering around into unfamiliar areas of the store, meeting someone who also is interested in your books, chatting with the help desk. It's not the same.

You can't help but feel nostalgic reading the paper. You know that newspapers like we have today will surely be completely gone before long. I still remember reading the paper at an Adeline's donut shop in San Francisco with a cup of non-Starbucks coffee and a glazed old fashioned before heading for work. That was back when the paper was wide, and the second section had Herb Caen on the left. I often started there first. Now, I realize that Herb used to wax nostalgic about old San Francisco--from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Now I can reminisce about reading him!