Skip to main content

Sort of went to the Opera

July 4th weekend.  Time to unwind and enjoy the summer.  We did a trip to the city to soak the Vitamin D - a trip to Ocean beach to start (westernmost point of the city of San Francisco) followed by a visit to the Legion of Honor (an art museum occupying the estate of a former sugar baron).
MUNI - a tram car to Ocean Beach

Time for another sweep - sand often chokes up this roadway next to the beach

Dunes at Ocean Beach

Art museum also featured a special exhibit of the dead.  Specifically Egyptian mummies open to all parents and their children.

Holocaust Memorial at the Legion of Honor

Rodin's Thinker


1,000 year old Egyptian priest or what's left of him and his coffin

Skinner Organ - amazing sound fills the museum rotunda at 4 pm when the organist uses his organs to tweak sound from this organ

Then culminated with a visit to a live broadcast at a baseball stadium of the 'Opera Carmen' which was being played at a nearby theater.

Opera for those that are uninitiated are a series of high pitch screaming events with some melodramatic and exaggerated movements that tell a story from yesteryear.  These screams or arias are coupled with people mostly wandering back and forth in costume without much by way of stage action.

This was a story of a femme fatale set in late 19th century in France acted on stage for its current showing in San Francisco.  A tale of lust, murder and some other deadly sins it is sung in French but the video broadcast had the advantage of English translations.

Nonetheless the story told through these arias moves glacially slow with those that appreciate costume, stiff upper lip audiences that are dressed up (if you are at the actual venue) and expensive parking.
Jumbotron at the Park

We lucked out to at least experience this event without doing either.  The crowd at the ballpark was raucous, in shorts and casual wear, mostly aged, drunk, but shivering given the cool SF evening air.  The event was free and since we took public transit we did not have to worry about the parking mess.

Long and tiring and not inclined to see any more operas we headed to a favorite fast food joint for much needed rations.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more