The stretch of vitality

OK, after experiencing a bit of blog inferiority complex ™ after reading the blogs of ikioi, weiskind, and Jamie Sue, I want to post a more touchy-feely post containing no chronological narrative. So I just wanted to post that I feel at this instant a new plateau. I am full of vitality these days and feel like my overall skills at being me are at their highest level ever. I’m working well and hard on multiple interesting and important projects at work. I’m rock climbing enough to make some improvement. I’m finding extra Cannonball Adderley transcriptions to practice online. I haven’t been sleeping properly this week, but I still feel a strong clarity and can still multitask at high RPMs. I’m getting good at complex decisions and I think when I do settle on a city and a house to buy, I’ll be confident and happy with my choice. I am talking to strangers (and often trusting them with my life moments later while they belay me). I have ended my gosh-maybe-the-iPhone-is-the-thing-to-make-me-buy-another-Apple-product phase and decided to stick with my beloved Palm OS and get a Centro. I’m currently inspired by Derek Sivers of http://www.cdbaby.com and folks like Craig Newmark and NiN. The power of the Internet is awe inspiring.

Ack….type-A personality takes over….ack….stop that…. tomorrow I’m flying to HP headquarters in Cupertino and back to Boise on Friday night….stop….no….chronological narrative….ack…met another HP employee who is a printer firmware engineer and plays violin in the Boise Philharmonic….ack…bad type-A personality…bad…

Ha ha!  I have achieved local immersion – under deep cover I have infiltrated many layers of the complex Boise metropolis society.  Wednesday I had dinner in town with a very nice woman that I met here, and of course I grilled her on the local scene.  Friday I had an adventurous outing to a local rock concert hall called The Venue.  Apparently this place often hosts Christian Rock groups and their shows are all-ages with no bar so they are catering to a pretty young crowd.  But this show was regular irreverant rock music.  Now, much like my experience hanging out with the fans of the Lesbian Punk Rock band in Salt Lake, sadly my writing skills are just not developed enough to capture the true colors of this experience, but I’ll give it a shot.  So again via craigslist I met up with a group of local folks, and after a few minutes of conversation between seriously louder than a normal rock concert songs, it soon became clear that these folks, predominantly early 20s girls, were a breed I had so long been unfamiliar with during my many years in jazz bands – GROUPIES.  They had seen one of the night’s bands The Lauderdale  several times before in the Boise area, and were “friends” (self-described) with the band. So I heard a description of each band member and his respective radness, along with a description of the alcohol they planned to drink over the course of the evening.  The band played a very short set – The Venue seems to book about six bands a night and they each play thirty-five minutes or so.  Shortly after that, I went out with the groupies to meet the band at their van in the parking lot.  Ah, if I had only taken some writing classes in college…

So let’s see, we’ve got five skinny rock and roll kids, presumably early twenties but it’s hard to tell because they do seem a little road weary plus about eight or so groupies that started appearing from all directions. Mostly girls between seventeen and twenty-five, but with a few boy companions mixed in. The agenda seems to be to fit as many people into the van as possible, leaving a few standing nearby the open side doors, and then drink, smoke, and chat.  It was fairly cold out that night, but I guess overall tolerable.  The groupies range from seemingly sober to plastered to silliness.  One of the groupies is a touch older, perhaps a recent college grad, who at one point rattled off stories rapid fire for about twenty minutes.  During this time, I learned some interesting things about her, including that she used to work at the Tamarak ski resort, the Boise State basketball team spends a lot of time in her apartment, tales from several parties and various incidents of drunk/stoned people doing silly things, the details of several of her arrests and terms of her probations, and my favorite – the story of how some folks were keeping her awake one night smoking pot outside her bedroom window and she stormed out to chase them away screaming “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY WINDOW. I HAVE TO GO TO ANGER MANAGEMENT TOMORROW MORNING!”

After my initial fascination subsided and the cold started to set in, I went back inside and caught the set of Paper Mache , who were actually pretty good.

Saturday I was invited to a barbecue with some local folks, and of course I was giddy with delight to participate.  It was a fairly small affair and the hostess, who was indulging more heavily in the margaritas than the guests, lead most of the conversation.  Having been on the radio for about ten years, she certainly had the gift of gab and a funny personality.  The hosts had rescued three dogs, and the dogs also provided lots of entertainment. Jane, one was a Scottie, so they get extra stars for that. There were two work groups – several from a cell provider call center, and several from a hotel chain, so lots of funny work anecdotes were shared.

Sunday I met up with a friend of my Aunt’s for a nice long hike in the foothills accompanied by her dog Remi.  She had lots of good information, and moved to Idaho from Pennsylvania, so she understood that transition.  Afterward she cooked me a lovely dinner and I played some saxophone for her.

OK, time for an update from Boise.  I’ve now seen a good bit of the town and started to get a feel for it.  The climbing gym here is pretty good so I bought a month pass.  Twice I’ve climbed with a nice guy who works for the national forest service and comes to Boise for meetings occasionally.  My top rope climbing has suffered since I’ve been doing mostly bouldering, so my forearms are usually stiff and sore by the time I get to the top of the routes, which are pretty tall since it’s a warehouse size building.  

Last Friday I drove to the nearby town of Nampa for the Boise Philharmonic concert – Barber Second Essay for Orchestra, Beethoven Piano Concerto, and Tchaikovsky Symphony 5.  All good pieces and overall very enjoyable.  The program book had some notes on the performers.  One of the violinists is a firmware engineer at HP. Saturday I took a long bike ride along the green belt, crossing back and forth over the Boise River several times.  The availability of nice biking is just such a nice feature to have in a city.

Sunday afternoon I saw Miss Pedigrew Lives for a Day at the Boise Flicks (more hip/artsy) movie theater, then Sunday night was the Les Claypool concert. Lots of great people watching as the freaks come out in force for Les.  Lots of piercings, tattoos, white hippie girls with dreadlocks, and a girl with the band “Tool”‘s logo tattooed on her upper back.  Lots of Tool T-shirts as well.  I managed to find a spot at the front of the balcony where I could actually see the stage.  I was poked in the side by a ten year old boy and his five year old brother who wanted to sit down in front of me.  This was fine since they were probably some of the few people at the show I could see over.  Their parents were right behind and explained to me that “we jam out to Claypool all the time at home” and that the five year old was concerned about Les’s nose, not understanding that he was wearing a Pinoccio type mask initially.  It was a good show, and Les had some funny crowd interactions with a highly enthusiastic girl in the front row, who was quick to fill in the details Les omitted in his banter, earning her the nickname “Wikipedia Woman”.  At one point some fans engaged in a bit of fisticuffs, and Les stopped the show and asked “Are you guys having a little testicle party down there?”.  Of course, Skerik, the sax player who gets to tour with Les, wear goofy masks, and play tenor and bari sax through all manner of guitar effects petals is probably near the top of my list of musicians I’d be willing to switch places with.

Tuesday I met up with my Aunt Deed’s friend Joyce who lives here for lunch.  She gave me some more of the scoop on the local scene and abundance of great outdoor activities.  She suggested some drives to try if the weather is fair and hopefully we’ll meet up over the weekend for some hiking.

I can say with authority now that this trip has noticeably improved my sense of direction and ability to navigate around in a car.  I didn’t buy a local map until a few days ago and I’m already pretty much beyond the need for it.  Boise is small, granted, but I used to get lost every four blocks or so. Oh, and the fact that there are not angry aggressive drivers surrounding you at all times like in Manhattan makes things a lot more approachable.

w00t!  I’m all excited to be here in Boise.  My Park City landlord got home last night and we went to the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts to see Pacifico Dance Company do Mexican music and dance.  It was a nice show with a good mariachi band and great colorful dresses.  This morning I packed up and headed out.  It was a delightful drive.  I’m worried that these monthly long drives to a new town are becoming addictive to me.  I was so excited to get on the road – partially because I deprive myself of certain “road trip only” albums all month, and then I finally have carte blanche access to them in the car.  Initially I selected Miles Davis Miles Ahead and it was just one of those times when your whole being is perfectly primed to enjoy that one specific record.  I was loving it.  The drive is a simple straight shot on 84 West at 75 MPH the whole way, so I actually did it in one tank of gas and just under five hours.  The oil change last helped and the green machine got about 35 MPG.

Kate has always warned me about the perils of “The I States”, but I must test my mettle.

Got clouds?  “Big Sky” is supposed to be Montana, but since Idaho’s license plate is the oh-so-lame “Famous Potatoes”, they should get a slogan like “Our Sky Is Also Rather Large”.

When I arrived I met my landlord’s father Clark, who showed me the place.  It’s on a nice street with a real suburban feel with lawns and porches and so forth.  The apartment itself is (as was to be expected) a bit of a step down from Gunter’s ski house, but it’s OK.  It’s the basement of a duplex with the landlords, who are currently in Panama, living upstairs.  Of course, the Internet connection works great, which is vastly more important than anything else including heat or light.

Clark was very friendly and helpful to me. Again, somehow I seem to have pretty good craigslist luck.  He asked what outdoor activities I liked to do, said they would take me on a whitewater rafting trip in a few weeks, and immediately went home to get his old mountain bike, filled the tires, and lent it to me.  Then he drove me around the neighborhood pointing out the pedestrian retail pavilions, bike trails, numerous parks, how to get to the skiing at Bogus Basin, etc.  After he left and I made a run to get a desk and chair since the apartment didn’t have anything suitable for laptop work, I took the bike out for an exploratory ride.  Oh I should mention that I experienced instant spring as it was cold and piles of snow in Park City at 9am and here it was mid fifties and gorgeous Spring at 2pm.  Tons of people were out walking (many with dogs), biking (two tandem bikes spotted), skateboarding (there are numerous skate parks), and playing baseball.  I biked to The Green Belt, a long bike/walk path and I rode next to a golf course and the river a ways.  I grabbed a copy of Boise Weekly and was giddy to discover Les Claypool (alternative metal bass genius with application for demigod status under consideration) will be playing here on Saturday.

So far so good.  I’m completely unpacked (takes about 15 minutes for stuff plus 30 for computers, wireless network, etc). On first impression, Boise is equivalent to the bomb. 

So I had some great plans for yesterday in Salt Lake but the snow started coming down earlier than expected so I was trapped here in Park City.  But I did get a chance to catch up with both Thorp and Jamie Sue, which was great. I did venture out to the nearby theater for There Will Be Blood, which was worth the risk.  The weather report said three inches, but we ended up getting more like six in town and nine on the mountains.  This of course necessitated skiing today.  I skied The Canyons since it is close by.  I wanted to perhaps go to Snow Bird but I thought maybe the roads would not be clear enough for the green machine.  I later found out that they closed the road to Alta/Snowbird and the Cottonwood resorts due to avalanche danger, so I made the right choice anyway.

The skiing today was easily 9.8 out of 10.  The was powder everywhere and it was just fantastic.  The difference between skiing in good snow and skiing in huge piles of fresh powder is like the difference between swimming in the Atlantic versus the Caribbean. It was just heavenly, and I shredded the mountain quite thoroughly.  The “Little Burn” run at Copper Mountain has now been dethroned by The Canyons’ “Thrasher” as reigning champion of runs.  I skied it about five times in a row, pointing downhill with abandon as the huge piles of powder make it impossible to lose control and difficult to get hurt if you fall, so I just tore it up.  It was alternately sunny and delightful then cloudy and flurrying snow every hour hour or so all day.  The first two runs had long lift lines because the people who couldn’t get to Alta/Snowbird, etc, had all come to Park City, plus it was the first powder day in a while so all the locals were out in force.

I met a woman on the lift who was familiar with most of the towns on my list.  She lived in Louisville, Colorado briefly and her father moved from Colorado to Bend, Oregon, and she also knew Boise.  She confirmed that these were all good choices and highly “livable”.

I did take my first (I think, Elise may have evidence otherwise) official fall today.  I’ve hada few times in the snow this season, but they were more low speed toppling over and not so much out right crashes. As I careened down a steep run in the powder, my skis completely covered, I accidentally crossed my tips (which is easy to do when you can’t see them) and slid down on my back a good twenty yards or so.  But it felt like sledding and my skis stayed on so I just stood up and carried on.  I do have a fascination with the thoughts that go through one’s head during a fall when you are sliding or bouncing out of control.  I remember my last big fall a few years ago vividly and it lasting long enough for me to think (as I bounced each time): OK, not so bad, OK, not so bad, eventually one of these could hurt me, I’m probably breaking my camera.  During today’s fall I just sort of resigned my self to the out-of-control nature of the situation and hoped to stop sliding soon.  Overall I think I can safely say this was my best day of skiing so far.  I skied from about 9:30 to 4:00 and was beaming pretty much the whole time.

A few more photos here.