Two of Us at the Hayward Farmers Market

The Beatles' music lives forever, as shown by the appreciation of the farmer's market shoppers today, who put $93.70 in my music partner Frank's guitar case. As the Beatles duo, Two of Us, we ran through dozens of Fab Four favorites, including everything from Please Please Me to the concluding section of the second side of Abbey Road (by request).

The weather cooperated, with temperatures in the high 50s and no wind, so we weren't uncomfortable. Several of our local friends and fellow musicians dropped by. Gary Howe was good enough to join us on one song.

The beauty of playing in this kind of venue is that you can try out stuff and nobody minds if you screw up. We had plenty of false endings, wrong chords, shaky harmonies, and the like, but we are getting better ("all the time") and are looking forward to another outing in February and next summer.

SPECIAL NOTE:

This post completes a commitment to blog daily in 2011, and is on a theme, music, that was popular as a blog subject. Test Driving Life is about trying everything as a "test drive," but music and cars were the main stars. I'll publish a review of the year of blogging tomorrow, when all the numbers are in. I do know that December 2011 was the most popular month ever for Test Driving Life, with more than 6,000 view. It's amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it.

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog. It will continue, but may not have a daily entry, in 2012. See the Jewish Roots Project for the blog that will be my primary focus next year.

Robert Schoen Quartet: Memorable Memories

Last night I had the pleasure of hearing Catherine DeCuir sing 21 beautiful songs accompanied by Robert Schoen's Jazz trio. I have known Ms. DeCuir and heard her fine voice for many years, but finally she's in the perfect setting to highlight her considerable talents.

The highly skilled band, which played a few numbers on their own to give Ms. DeCuir a break about 2/3 of the way through the two-hour set, is led by Robert Schoen on keyboard with Jamie Dowd on bass and John Remenarich holding down the drum duties. These guys obviously have been around and know their stuff. Photo, left to right: Schoen, DeCuir, Remenarich, Dowd.

Ms. DeCuir adds a powerful vocal element that, if you squint and ignore your cell phone, would put you right into the past. She sang 21 songs ranging from I've Got Rhythm (Gershwin) to Under the Boardwalk (classic Motown). She sang just as well in Spanish and in French ("La Vie en Rose") as she did in English. She also sang in Portuguese for two Brazilian songs ("Mas Que Nada" and "Tristeza"). It was heaven.

This all took place in a warm and friendly Thai restaurant, Saysetha, on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland near the Berkeley border. My spicy chicken with cashews went well with a nice Singha Thai beer.

The music ended too soon, but you can hear the quartet at Saysetha almost every Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The Music Machine is Broken

I just learned on a tweet that Sean Bonniwell, the leader of the Music Machine, had died. The band's song, Talk Talk, was a hit in 1966. Bonniwell was 71, so that's not that unusual, but his band is one of those one-hit-wonders you hear about sometimes.

The Music Machine was local, more or less, for me, being in San Jose, California, but I never went and saw them. I just heard the song as I was starting high school. It had just the right psychedelic rock sound at the time and I remember it viscerally.

There surely will be more of these memorials as time marches on, but I'm taking a few minutes today to remember that song--and my 13-year-old ears that heard it.

Nissan Maxima - Maximum Nissan

A Nissan Maxima has served me well over the last week as a commuter, family hauler and bass schlepper. Nissan's flagship, dubbed the "four door sports car," has the style and the muscle to justify that slogan.

The Maxima has been around awhile, originating as the Datsun 810 before becoming the Maxima as Nissan shed the Datsun name in the early 1980s. It's been Nissan's flagship ever since and is now in its seventh generation. The one I drove is actually built in Smyrna, Tennessee.

This latest Maxima is a large vehicle, with a dramatically sweeping treatment of the sides and a surprising ridged edge to the rippled hood. You can see this from the driver's seat, and it makes you more aware of road presence of the car from the inside--a nice trick today.

The interior fittings are much like the upscale Infiniti division, with a "floating" dash and well-equipped console. The whole experience is luxury without excess and nothing amiss. After a week driving it I can hardly remember the car--I just know it's very pleasant to drive.

There's plenty of power from the 3.5-liter V6--290 horsepower and 261 lb.-ft. of torque do the job admirably. The automatic is a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), showing that Nissan is putting this kind of "gearbox" into practically everything it builds now. I couldn't hear the transmission much, but on acceleration sometimes the engine rpms would climb more than they would in a standard, geared automatic. It all added up to 20.4 mpg average. The EPA says 19 City, 26 Highway (22 average). That's pretty close, I guess.

My car came to $40,055, including shipping and the Sport and Sport Technology packages. These significantly upgraded the car's looks and feel, but that price is really encroaching on luxury car territory.

Funny, but the XM NavWeather feature in the Sport Technology package kept warning me that it was freezing someplace within five miles of the car. I finally figured out that it must be five miles directly above in the atmosphere.

Afikomen Judaica - Home of Rabbi Harvey

I took a trip over to Afikomen Judaica today. I hadn't been there for awhile. It's a fully equipped spot for all your Jewish needs, from mezuzot (for your doorpost) to books of all kinds to yalmukes for your head to toys for the kids! Of course, at this time of year, it's packed with stuff relevant to Chanukah, the eight-day winter holiday that is like the "Jewish Christmas," except that it's a completely different holiday.

There aren't many places like Afikomen because it's a specialized business. It's where you stop if you need a gift for a bris (ritual circumcision) or a bar or bat mitzvah (adolescent coming of age ceremony for boys and girls respectively). Or--they had lots of different versions of the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament) in Hebrew and in English. The store's motto is, "Contemporary Judaica for Inspired Living." 'Nuff said!

I bought a bottle of Barkan Classic Chardonnay. I normally like red wine, but this bottle was made from grapes from Kibbutz Hulda, where I lived for 10 months in 1974. I actually walked in those vineyards! Back then, the kibbutz wasn't making wine, but things have changed in 28 years. We'll see how good it tastes soon.

Afikomen is actually a word associated with the Passover seder (ceremonial meal). The afikomen is a piece of the special matzos (unleavened bread--like giant saltines without the salt). It's wrapped up and hidden, and when the kids find it there's a special prize.

At Afikomen I found the graphic novel, Rabbi Harvey Rides Again. Steve Shenkin is making his second effort at an oddly compelling "comic novel." I may write more about it when I finish it.

Time

Sometimes, time passes quickly. It's December 26th--where has the year gone? I'm on 2011 blog post number 362. That sure felt like it added up fast. And by the way, how can it be 2012 already? I remember when we finished up with the '90s and it seemed like a big deal.

Here's what's playing in my head right now--I love this song.

Why does it feel like forever when you're waiting in line at Chipotle to have your burrito made but when it's your turn, everybody's hands are moving like lightning and the coordination is perfect? Suddenly, you're halfway to your car in the parking lot.

Yesterday, I spent nine hours with my family celebrating the holidays. The 1-1/2-hour drive there and back felt longer than the span we spent eating, talking and laughing.

Does life feel different when you're 6 from when you're 60? I've been one and am almost the other, yet I can't really say. A Sunday working on the project for social studies in the 6th grade is interminable but a week at a college campus playing chamber music flies by.

It must have something to do with our perception. As an English major and not a scientist (or a philosopher) I can't say what that might be. Maybe your level of consciousness is somehow involved. Then it can become a matter of increasing your awareness of yourself and the world around you to get the maximum enjoyment and value out of life. Uh oh, we're slipping into scary territory, because it's very hard to say what our purpose of living at all is, and who wants to imagine it over? We're just here. But just maybe, we have something to do here.

I don't know, but I do know I've been very busy, and that doesn't seem to be in danger of letting up soon. That gives life a pleasurable density and a sense of momentum. And I've started to refer to my future as "the third third." That seems to limit me to 90 years, though--that may not be a good idea. 8-)

A Little Christmas Tree Decorating Music, Please

As I prepare for my Jewish Roots Project, I spent part of last evening decorating the diminutive holiday tree we bought a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I have an interesting household--and life.

We pulled out the boxes of ornaments, and to set the mood, put on Now That's What I Call Christmas, from the Now That's What I Call Music folks. It's a two-disc CD containing 36 songs of the holiday, from Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song to Boyz II Men's Silent Night.

Yes, the CD is ten years old--NSYNC is there too, along with Britney Spears--but it covers the range of popular favorites with less emphasis on the religious songs, from White Christmas (Bing, of course), Burl Ives' A Holly Jolly Christmas, and John & Yoko's Happy Xmas (War is Over).

There were some classics, like O Come All Ye Faithful (done by Luther Vandross) and Away in a Manger (Mannheim Steamroller.)

I discovered that there have been FOUR of these Christmas compilations, with the latest, from 2010, available from iTunes or Amazon (see photo). It has Rihanna and Lady Gaga on it--a bit more up to date. Maybe I'll get it for next year's decorating party.