Thursday, July 31, 2003

Have you heard the term and the street theater trend, Flash Mob?

The SF Chronicle article says:

"Since the first mob gathered in New York City in May, the phenomenon has spread to San Francisco, Minneapolis, Vienna, London and Rome. Every flash mob is unique: At one Manhattan gathering, 200 people occupied a Hyatt hotel lobby to applaud at nothing; at another, hundreds converged on a SoHo shoe boutique pretending to be tourists from Maryland. Three hundred mob-sters stood in Central Park to chirp like birds. The first San Francisco mob took place on July 18, when 200 people spun clockwise across Market Street for the requisite 10 minutes and then vanished into the sunny evening."

Some people tried to stage another flash mob in San Francisco yesterday, but only a couple dozen folks showed up. I think this latest event needed a better theme than that old chestnut, "christmas in july". If I had known about it, I might have shown up, if only to play the kazoo. You don't often get to do that in public. But I would much rather play anything but Jingle Bells.

There's also a great article in the paper this morning about SF accordian player, Tom Torriglia. He makes his business making people smile with "That's Amore" and "Lady of Spain". What a great life!

Leah Brooks at 9:40 AM

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Jan sent this to me this morning, and it resonated. You can ignore it if you find email like this too cloying.

The most destructive habit......................Worry

The greatest Joy...............................Giving

The greatest loss................Loss of self-respect

The most satisfying work...............Helping others

The ugliest personality trait.............Selfishness

The most endangered species.........Dedicated leaders

Our greatest natural resource...............Our youth

The greatest "shot in the arm"..........Encouragement

The greatest problem to overcome.................Fear

The most effective sleeping pill........Peace of mind

The most crippling failure disease............Excuses

The most powerful force in life..................Love

The most dangerous pariah..................A gossiper

The world's most incredible computer........The brain

The worst thing to be without................... Hope

The deadliest weapon.......................The tongue

The two most power-filled words..............."I Can"

The greatest asset..............................Faith

The most worthless emotion..................Self-pity

The most beautiful attire......................SMILE!

The most prized possession................Integrity

The most powerful channel of communication.....Prayer

The most contagious spirit.................Enthusiasm

Leah Brooks at 10:26 AM

Monday, July 28, 2003

My life is just so full of events. Our chorus long-range planning committee met last week, and we blocked out dates three years ahead. So I understand how this comes to be, that every weekend coming up for the next month or so is booked.. and how the summer can gallop by, and before we know it, the fall will be looming in front of us.

I'm finding, however, that the digital camera is helping me slow down the progress, by giving me the opportunity to chronicle the events that can so easily fall together into a summer heap and get lost in the jumble.

Aidan & Jeremy camped out in the backyard this weekend. Remember how much fun it is to play with a flashlight in a tent?



Carole Kirkpatrick coached our chorus on the two newest songs that we have learned, "My Buddy" and "This Joint is Jumpin". I had forgotten how much fun it is to work with new material. We could really shape the songs. I just can't wait to sing those songs in our yellow zoot suits in Indianapolis in 2004.


Leah Brooks at 2:58 PM

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

What cool mosiacs! I can only dream that our panels and projects might get so sophisticated. It's still not too late to send any pieces for inclusion... as this week, I've had meetings every night and haven't been out there to work on it.

I'm a regular reader of vagabonding.com, the online journal of a guy from Chicago who is going around the world. He has some very interesting pictures of Petra, an ancient city in Jordan. One of the shots is of a very old mosaic. It is the floor of a church that was built over Nabataean and Roman remains in A.D. 450-500.

Barb & I dream of vacationing in Italy, where we've heard there are some towns that are just full of mosaics.
Leah Brooks at 1:49 PM

I was looking around for something to send Leah for her Mosaic, (I hope I'm not too late) and I remembered an interesting mosaic I saw a couple of years ago in D.C. and looked for the images. I posted all the related pictures to give the atmosphere. >Here it is. <
R.G. Brooks at 12:49 PM

Monday, July 21, 2003

After such a cool beginning, our summer is sure cookin' now. A whole weekend of scorching heat. Aidan and Jeremy helped us with household & yard chores and earned some spending money. We swam in Tina's pool. We saw the movie "Swimming Pool" and discussed it quite a bit. On Sunday On Q sang at the farmer's market and then at Spring Lake Village.. we had a great time. Here are some pictures.

The mosaic is coming along.. but now I'm filling in the cobalt blue background, which is not nearly as interesting as mixing colors together for planets, icecaps and continents. It's all about shapes and not so much about colors. But it is going to look so fantastic.


Leah Brooks at 10:40 AM

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

We spent a wild weekend "down under" in Los Angeles, where I always have to vent "gosh I hate LA" as soon as we land, much to Barb's chagrin. However, the people who live there (at least the ones we know) are so wonderful that within the next hour I am loving every minute we spend there. The wedding was luxurious and well thought-out. It was elegant and generous. Those of us lucky enough to be the guests could barely roll ourselves out of there. The bride and groom were stunning, the attending group of family and friends was perfect, the ceremony made us cry and we all danced to "shake your groove thang."

Back at our (got it on priceline) hotel, Barb almost saw Little Richard in the lobby. Well, they said he was there, but she didn't see him. After a brief respite, on to more partying at Brad & John's house. There is probably more than one thing that they can do very well, but the one thing I can vouch for is that those men sure know how to host a big party that makes their little house seem so comfortable and spacious. More food, and cute bartenders, too.

By the time we managed to totter back to the hotel, all we wanted to do was to sleep and then sleep some more. But one small detail was preventing that: Sunset Strip! outside our balcony. On other trips, we have tried to sleep in New Orleans in the French quarter. We have tried to sleep in Miami on South Beach. We have tried to sleep in Boston with someone slapping something next door for hours on end. But this Saturday night on the Sunset Strip out-decibled them all. At 3 am I could have sworn that a herd of elephants had joined the partying masses on the street, but when I went out to look, all I could see was a mass of Hells Angels on bikes, roaring away.

Photos are at fotopages.
Leah Brooks at 3:44 PM

Far be it for me to mock foreign english, since I'm so terribly mono-lingual. When I listen to the Spanish channel on TV, I pick up a lot of words, but usually can't tell what's going on. However, I love puns and sly humor so much that this "Engrish" page hits my funny bone. Go to the Toiletries and see the "My Fannie" toilet paper, for example.

R.G. Brooks at 1:17 PM

Tuesday, July 08, 2003

Five of us went to see the Giants beat the St Louis Cardinals last night. Loads of fun, but very chilly. We sat in the arcade, which means the stands right behind the outfield. Once, someone hit a ball that looked like it might come right at me, and I screamed. But when Barry Bonds hit his required homerun, it hit the back wall to our right. The fun parts:

-whenever someone hits a homerun, water sprays the crowd
-"Go home, Jerome!" the rookie pitcher Jerome got his first hit and came home, too!
-the angry fan behind us who yelled "get outta my town!"
-the Dodger fans - boys from LA - next to us who bravely booed Barry Bonds

Not fun: getting there and home again. Didn't we vote against Pac Bell Park because of traffic concerns? We should have taken the ferry.


Leah Brooks at 11:45 AM

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

What do you remember from when you were 6 years old?

That was how old I was when Kuni lived with our family. We took a trip to Gettysburg and Washington DC as a family that year. I don't remember much about the sights, but I remember writing notes to everyone in the station wagon as we drove, and addressing them (TO: Kuni, the back seat, our car, USA, the Earth) and drawing a stamp on each one. I must have just learned to write. I was thinking about that memory as I sat on the plane to Disneyland with Jeremy, age 6, and we wrote words back and forth on a little pad. Will he remember riding the Matterhorn? or the writing pad? Will they remember the Haunted Mansion, or the room service in the hotel?

You can't tell what memories are imprinting, even your own memories, as time rolls by. Don't you wish you could trap the ones you want, and leave the rest behind? But who knows which ones you will need later on? What is meaningful and what is important?


On the Disneyland train:


Leah Brooks at 3:49 PM