I am a blog slacker

and I am sorry.

It was only yesterday that I finally had a day off, a true day off, with nothing to do; it's been a good run of concerts, having my mom in town, and more concerts, going all the way back to December 22.  Nearly a month.  And now I've got just a week and a half before I go to California for the Codex Bookfair, and some much-needed hanging-out in the Bay.

Things I failed to write about:

New Years Eve, complete with a tiny bottle of champagne (too tiny?) and some adorable tiny glasses;

taking a walk the next day to my new neighborhood, near this nice river and park called the Lange Erlen (cold and snowy now, but just wait for summer! Yes!),

(the river is called the Wiese)

then going the next day to the largest canton in Switzerland, in the far eastern part of the country, called Graubünden. Cantons are about the size of counties in California, but they function like states.  There are 26 in the country, each with their own customs, dialect, holidays, flag, etc.  Graubünden borders Austria and Italy, and has the mountains to prove it.  Check it out.

 looking toward Italy, from somewhere around 6900 feet

the view above we got leaving the village of Bergün, where we stayed a night. In order to get there, we rode the Rhaetian Railway, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; it's truly spectacular.

 view of a viaduct, from our railway car

The photo above is of the town of Bergün.  The large hotel you see in the center top of the photo is called the Kurhaus, and is full of Art Nouveau architectural details: chandeliers, painted ceilings, stained glass, built-in cabinets. Here's a photo of the Speisesaal, or dining room:

Though we didn't stay at the Kurhaus, we did have dinner there.  This (below) was our table (in a different dining room):

 Yes, that is an apple, impaled by a fork, with angel wings, stuck in a creamer.  I can't explain it to you.

Walking around Bergün you find charmingly painted houses, like these:

 note the goat above that center window: it's the symbol of Graubünden, found on its crest & flag

some crooked painting here

Needless to say, it was a really nice trip. So nice that after we got home I knew nothing could beat it, so I got sick. Nothing serious, and it didn't last too long, but it did prevent too us from making too many more excursions around Switzerland, or even Basel. We did, however, get the chance to look around at the Brockenstuben (Brockis!), the thrift stores, for useful items for my new place. The goal was to spend less than 100chf and we didn't do too badly, if you don't count the furniture we got, which I'll be able to resell when/if I move away. Now all that stuff is sitting in my cellar, waiting to get moved into the new flat, and it's going to have to wait a little longer because the current occupants of the flat -- friends from Druckwerk -- are taking a long time to move out. Not that I blame them; with two kids and tons to do, I'd take a long time, too. But I'm getting impatient! I'll be living with my friend Diego, who plays viola, and a Swedish guy, Lukas, whom we found through the magic of the internet. Lukas is coming to Basel to be an intern at Herzog & de Meuron architectural firm. You know, the guys who designed the Tate Modern, the de Young museum, and the Walker Art Center, just to name a few. Fancy! I hear there will be lots of cocktail parties ("Aperos") that I should try to get myself invited to. Okay, yes, I agree to that.

Overlapping with my mom's last days in Basel was the start of a concert set with the cellist Christophe Coin, famous in the historical performance circles for his recordings, several of which are considered definitive. He also teaches at the Schola. In the concert he led two pieces from the cello, an overture by Haydn and a concerto by Romberg, and then ditched the cello to conduct Schubert's Symphony #5. The concert was wonderful! It was a pleasure to play 19th century music for a change, and to really get that lush string sound you hear in later orchestras, and working with Coin was a real pleasure. I'll stick in a video of him playing Vivaldi, and here is a link to a video of a piece by Mozart, which shows (in bits and pieces) my teacher, David, playing bass in the background. I knew it was him because I recognized his bow, and that's about all we see of him. Anyhow. The Vivaldi. Oops, it won't let me embed the video. You'll just have to go watch it yourself.