Klarinet Archive - Posting 000577.txt from 2000/04

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Lelia's landfil
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 17:41:26 -0400

Neil Leupold wrote,
>I always hated Stinson Beach while growing up anyway -- too darned windy. I
became partial to Bodega Bay. And the Marin Symphony...ech. I played with
them just when they got their latest "conductor" -- Gary Sheldon. >

My parents and brother and I used to dig some mighty fine clams and harvest
buckets of mussels at Stinson, before a monster storm changed the beach in
1957. It never was the same after that -- and then the residents decided to
keep the riffraff out with their restrictive parking. My father taught me to
swim there. We used to call it Stenchin' Beach when a storm would wash out
the tidepools and leave gooey things flopping (or, worse yet, *not* flopping)
on the sand. I preferred Drake's Bay. Back then, bonfires were legal, the
cops rarely cleared people out at night and there were no paved parking lots
or buildings (except an outhouse full of spiders) at Drake's. Misspent a lot
of my youth there. A good pal of mine, John Hart, who still lives in Marin,
wrote a book about the ranches and the ecology out at the beach, called
_Farming on the Edge_, that for me really captures the feel of that place.

I remember the Marin Symphony from the years when Hugo Rinaldi conducted it,
as a semi-amateur orchestra. As a kid, I thought it sounded fabulous! I
hardly noticed the clarinets, but couldn't get enough of watching that guy
pounding on the kettle drums. Can't be too many people happier than a
tympanist with a Borodin score.

>I've discovered that certain pieces of music are much more enjoyable to play
than to listen to, and vice versa. Take Bolero. I used to listen to that
piece in rapture as a child, it so enchanted me. After rehearsing and
performing it for the first time, I almost threw the away the CD. >

Bolero sounds autistic to me. I don't mean that sarcastically. You know how
some autistics repeat the same small motion over and over and over and over
and....

>By the way Lelia, every Star Wars fan in the world is groaning at your
Spielberg remark (not to mention all the members of the Skywalker Symphony).
George Lucas is in Marin, not Spielberg!>

Oh, no, I'm groaning, too. I *can't believe* I wrote that, especially since
Skywalker Ranch is right there on Lucas Valley Road, where I used to ride my
bike. (The road has been named that forever, BTW -- from before George Lucas
was born. I don't know whether the name of the road had anything to do with
Lucas deciding the Universe wanted him to buy that particular piece of
property.) Thanks for the correction. They'll kick me off the _Scarlet
Street_ staff for this and condemn me to watch old Doris Day movies....
;-)

Walter Grabner wrote,
> > I worked for a company headquartered in Marin, in Larkspur
Landing.....could
> > take the ferry right into SF.. Yes, there is an "underbelly" to
Marin....and
> > not all glistens.....

Neil Leupold wrote,
> And you considered this part of LaLa land? I always thought "LaLa" was
> a euphemism for L.A., i.e.; Los Angeles. Southern Cal.

We called L. A. "LaLa land" when I was growing up in Northern California, and
my in-laws who live in L. A. still call it that, but I notice that a lot of
people, including Californians, now refer to the whole state as "LaLa land."
That started right around the time when politicians farther north started
with the bumper stickers that say, "Don't Californicate Oregon." Kind of
goes with the old saying, "God picked up the USA by the corner and shook it,
and everything loose rolled down to California." Yeah, maybe, but then the
Devil picked up the USA by the other corner and shook it, and everything
loose rolled back East....

Lelia
(still on the loose)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org