199. Opera In the Park

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Opera In the Park

I think we can all agree that the only reasonable conclusion is that the people managing this event read my last blog post and were offended by "Caterwauling in Sharon Meadow." I don't know why. Here's what happened.

It was yet another of our freakish, one day, Sunday heatwaves. Not a cloud in the sky and the SF official high temperature was over 90F. I took some photos of Sharon Meadow when I arrived at Noon, with the expectation of taking another set later in the day when the crowd had filled in, instead, the crowd was sensible enough to hide in the trees bordering the meadow all day. It was actually kind of amusing: Were they driven into the trees by the caterwauling, or were they ashamed to be seen at an opera event?

View from the cool of the trees with stage on the left and part of Hippie Hill on the right. The bike storage area in foreground.

My plan had been to take my lunch break right after the intermission, and then be ready to man an eco-station before the music came to an end. (Recall how I cleverly read the situation last time and was in the right place at the critical time?) Unfortunately, it took me longer to sort and clean out the big eco-station that was in the crowd during the break, and then to work my way through my area getting all the other stations in order before I took my lunch break. By the time I made it to our HQ (behind the dumpsters, as usual) it was after 3:30 and the concert was scheduled to terminate at 4pm. I was only half way through my sandwich when they wrapped up with some stirring tune or other and the crowd started streaming out. And at least half our crew had followed me to lunch.

I aborted my lunch and fought my way through the departing salmon to the eco-station that traditionally gets hit hardest. Because it was a double station, and I had just cleaned it out on my way to lunch, I was able to keep it functioning -- though the wine bottle filled recycling bags got too full to pull easily.

The good side of this being a too calm, 90F day, was that the wind didn't blow all the trash around at the end of the day. 

Book Club

We met today to discuss The Light of the World. I really did like the book, and it's something I can recommend to more people than usual -- though probably not to the person I know who's situation is most like the author's, as I have no idea if this would be helpful or not -- but I ended up with a record low quantity of notes for discussion. There was nothing about the book that I would have changed. There were a couple things I wished I could ask Ficre, and I'm still curious about that poem by Lucille Clifton, but otherwise there's not much to say.

Or there is, but I'm not comfortable bringing it up with people who are in married relationships. Is it better or worse to find your soul mate if you're then going to lose that person? The odds of finding that person are always slight, but Ficre and Elizabeth seemed to know almost immediately what they had and never grew out of it. Or to put it in the terms of Le Petit Prince, is it worth it to learn to be tamed if you're going to be left on your own later? 

I don't think Alexander would choose to have acted differently, but there is no equivalent for the survivor to what Clifton wrote in her poem about the person dying, 

"...there was all around not the
shapes of things
but oh, at last, the things
themselves."

And even that boon is imaginary. A wished for eschatology. Another story we tell ourselves so that we feel better about what we don't understand and never will.

Thunderstorm!

Not much rain, but we are getting some lightning and thunder. This hardly ever happens here so is always exciting... until the power goes off. Doesn't happen every year, but when it does it is around now, as it's a function of hurricane season. The best year for thunderstorms, since I've lived here, was 1999, the summer after my dad died. One night the show seemed to go on for hours.