On the Road Again

I have been doing quite a bit of distance driving these past few weekends, most of it on my own. I have to highly recommend downloading the podcasts of NPR's "This American Life" to listen to on those long stretches of interstate. They really make the time go by quickly and are entertaining and informative. Plus, they keep you awake when you are on a dark stretch of road on a rainy evening. The one I listened to last night was called The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar, and it was fascinating.

One of my more recent treks was out to Lennox, MA to visit Edith Wharton's estate, The Mount, with my book club. We had read her novella Summer, and we decided to tour her house and gardens as part of our meeting. Despite the overcast day, the rain held off until it was time to go home. It was both charming and informative (Edith got a big thumbs up, while her husband, Teddy Wharton, got the thumbs down from our group), and I think worth the time in the car.

Something Straight Out of the Movies, but Better

From The New York Times:

“Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea,” Ms. Ling said in brief remarks to reporters, blinking back tears. “We feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard labor camp. Then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting.

“We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton,” she said, recounting the final moments of her ordeal. “We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. And now we stand here home and free.”

And of course I am crying just reading about it and imagining this scenario. It’s like having the cavalry show up at the last minute! For more happy tears, you should watch Laura Ling's statement over on The Lede, with video from Britain's Channel 4. I will be heading to the ladies' room to fix my eye makeup.

All I Ever Wanted, All I Ever Needed is Here in My Arms

(In the event that you are reading this blog through a feed or Reader application, you may not have noticed that I changed my blog around a bit, including the name. You are now reading The Casual Observations of a Casual Observer. It is a much more accurate title for these entries, since my days of 12 cans of Diet Coke in an afternoon are long gone - thank heavens!)

On Friday afternoon, JR and I drove down (JR drove, I was the navigator) in the rain to Great Woods in Mansfield (the more these places change their names, the more inclined I am to call them by their old, non-corporate names) to see Depeche Mode in concert. Our seats were in a great spot in the first level on stage right, and we had no difficulty in seeing the band. JR commented that the last time we saw DM in concert, we were so far back, it was like watching a music video, but this time, it felt like a live performance. There is nothing like dancing in your seat, singing along to the songs while the music vibrates through your whole body.

This was my first concert experience where a large majority of the audience was openly taking pictures using digital cameras, iPhones, and the like. It was pretty distracting, especially when the house was pitch black except for all of the illuminated LCD screens in front of us. We ended up commenting, "I guess it didn't really happen if you can't FaceBook it in real time?"

It got me thinking about the whole "living your life" vs. "documenting life" quandry in which we seem to find ourselves in this digital age. (This parallels the "talking in the movies syndrome" that some people seem to find acceptable; I don't, by the by.) Personally, I was at the show to rock out to one of my favorite bands. But there were definitely people there, including the very intoxicated and obnoxious Australian men in the row front of us, who spent more time recording the show than enjoying it, and I felt that they were missing the point.

Performance is one of those things that lasts within a specific period of time and is made up of the elements that are brought by both the performer and the audience. If the audience isn't giving the performer the courtesy of its full attention, why should the performer feel obligated to do their best? Why not "phone the performance in"? Or in this case, why bother having separate concerts at all when it would be easier for the band to film one show in a studio and just broadcast it in stadiums on different dates in different towns?

DM lead singer, Dave Gahan, spent a lot of time last Friday engaging the audience, getting people to sing and clap and wave their arms around. The unity of that kind of participation can reinforce some amazing positive energy, even from a venue that wasn't sold out. I hope that will never be lost, and I hope that audiences will put away their cameras and recorders and just relearn to enjoy the show for what it is, because Facebook is never going to be able to recreate that kind of interconnectedness, no matter how many people you friend.

Shopping

Last night on my way home from work, I stopped off at my favorite grocery store,the Shaw's/Star market at Brighton Mills, to pick up a few essentials. I love this store: it is convenient, well stocked, and the people at the deli are really nice and helpful (which is key).

I do wish that Shaw's/Star Market was a little more encouraging about having their customers bring their own shopping bags. They seem to be one of the few big chains left in the area that doesn't give a discount for bringing your own bag (both Stop&Shop and Whole Foods give you $.05 a bag.) I have four of recycled plastic bags from Whole Foods that I keep in my car for the sole purpose of food shopping.

And while it is nice to have a person bagging the groceries while I check out (so that I can make sure I get all my discounts), I suspect that the baggers haven't been trained about how to pack these kinds of bags. I routinely have all the heavy stuff packed into one. Last night in the parking lot, I ending up taking my bags apart as I split up the three cartons of milk (I like my milk) from one absurdly heavy bag into two. There is no way I could have carried them up the three flights to my place the way they were.

Sister K spent several months in high school working the registers at a supermarket, so I have both an understanding of and appreciation for the people who work at the grocery store. It isn't an easy job. I try to put my cart in the designated areas when I am done with it, and I have my coupons ready when I get in the check out line. But I do think it might be nice if the store considered giving their employees a little bit more training on the bagging to cut down the waste while improving the quality of their service.

Pip, Pip, Cheerio

My friend Diana informed me that this morning an English visitor to their office asked my friend Ellen (aka "my friend Ellen from work") if she had been "on holiday", which made me smile and reminded me of a similar incident...

When my family first went to "on holiday" England in the summer of 2000, we did a lot of sightseeing together. But by the third or fourth day, we were ready to explore different parts of the city. So my sister K and I split up from our parents and Sister B, who went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, while Sister K and I visited Westminster Abbey, walked along St. James’ Park to Buckingham Palace, and then walked to Picadilly Circus.


map borrowed from Lonely Planet

While walking the last leg, we stopped at a Starbucks for some coffees. As we were coming out of the shop, we were stopped by a man asking for directions to a local destination that we didn't know. When we told him that we couldn’t help, he said, “that’s all right, luv.” As he walked away, the two of us looked at each other and squeed, “He called us ‘luv’.” He totally heard us, but we didn’t care. A real English person called us “luv”. Hoorah!

With JR in JP

Last Thursday, JR and I went down to the Forest Hills Cemetery Lantern Festival after grabbing some supper at the Dogwood Cafe, where I had a fantastic French dip sandwich from the specials' menu. (Props to the Dogwood for toasting the roll; everything tastes better on toast.) Because we got to the cemetery on the later side, we missed taking pictures in the twilight, but I was able to capture a couple before my point and shoot camera's battery died.

Note to self: if you attend an event with the purpose of taking some cool photos (and trust me, JR and I were not the only ones. In fact some girl was asking JR questions about her camera because they had the same one, and she wasn't sure how to use it. Ah, youth.) double check that you have charged the battery. OOPS!

While I was a disappointed that I didn't get some better snaps, at least we didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes. AND we had a really fun time catching up at dinner, which really was the more important part of the evening.

Let's Get Away From It All

I took last week off of work and, while I didn't take a big trip, I did do a little bit of jaunting around New England.

First, I went down to CT to visit my family, and my Sister K and I stopped by to smell the roses in Elizabeth Park in Hartford.








Then I went down to the Cape for a few days to visit with my aunt in Harwich.






Then I took a boat across Nantucket Sound to visit JeGlide for a long weekend with some of our college friends.






After having such a delightful week coming back to work is a bit like coming down from the tea party on the ceiling in Mary Poppins. I wish that vacations could go on forever.