Last Saturday night we had the Saturday Club here at our house for an intimate concert with Camellia Camerata. I think we did quite a creditable job on our concert, and it was really nice to get to do it right here in our living room with the harpsichord we're used to doing it with. The next day, Sunday, John and I went to SF to go to the Crafts fair (at least I think that's the official name.) It's a really nice juried event that has a lot of glass, pottery, fabric art, and jewelery. This is part of a permanent outdoor sculpture exhibition at Fort Mason, so of course, I couldn't resist.
On the fun side, I got to spend the morning with Rina while her papa went to take care of stuff at the theater. She is, of course, the world's smartest child. Since the previous week when I saw her, she has grasped the concept of color -- as in "There's a blue car." So I said, "Show me what else is blue." and she proceeded to show me a mark on the street, the blue on my shoe and some other disparate object. It's so amazing how fast they start grasping rather abstract concepts. 
One of the jobs that's been sitting around here for a long time is to clean out our fountain. It's made from a stack of increasingly larger pots from top to bottom. Unfortunately,it tends to get a lot of algae and stuff in it, which after ten years could no longer be removed by simply putting algicide in it. So John AKA the stong man, took it apart, and I started trying to scrape the algae off. Yuk. We had a little discussion about whether I was cleaning it too well, because it is not as shiny as it was originally, but I think that's really the result of too much hard water running down the outside. Last Wednesday, March 17, was an absolutely wonderful experience, and it had nothing to do with leprechauns, green beer, or corned beef.
We arrived at 6:50 for an 8 p.m. concert to find this line to hear Jordi Savall. Luckily for us, our friend Bruce had arrived even earlier and was willing to save us seats. Jordi Savall is probably the best viola da gamba player in the world, and a pioneer in the early music field, was right here in Sacramento. He played a concert at CSUS of solo viola da gamba music. The program included music in the English style -- focused on technical extravagance, French music -- focused on taste and refinement, and Celtic music, focused on fun. Among other things, I have never heard a viol player play pizzicato so "guitarishly." When he played those plucked strings, it totally sounded like all the best things you would hear from a guitarist. The stage setting consisted of a chair and a table lamp which was set on a piano bench. That was the entire lighting in a darkened theater, which meant your eyes were basically focused on the viol itself. 
There was supposed to be a reception at Lorna's house after the concert -- a quickie put together that day. For a brief hour or so, I thought I was to be Mr. Savall's chauffeur to that event, but in the final analysis he didn't want to go as he had an 8 a.m. flight the next morning. He did attend the short reception at CSUS, and was very gracious, signing programs and CD covers and chatting aimiably with concertgoers.
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