Strawberries!

Went strawberry picking at the Tanaka Farms last Sunday.


Monyo ate a whole bunch of carrots, and Pon ate half a stick of celery!

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 & A Hero's Life

Went to the Pacific Symphony concert last Saturday, and my wife took our daughter to the Sunday concert for "girls day".  :)



The Chopin is a piece I've wanted to listen to for a long time.

One thing I learned from the preview talk with Alan Chapman.

Film music is like program music, minus the counterpoint.

This is mainly because the composer has very little time, since the music is one of the last parts of a movie that get taken care of.

Little Drummers

♪ Pa ra pa pum pum!  :)

Growing Pon

Capable of doing more and more stuff!  :)

どんどん成長しています！

Dinosaurs!

Took the kids to the Pacific Symphony Dinosaurs concert last Saturday.

The program featured the search for a mystery dinosaur, which was named organoceratammatis (or something like that).

Dakota the triceratops was there from the National History Museum of Los Angeles.

Brea mall kid's section

Right below CPK, this is an awesome (and free) facility if you have little kids.  :)

しばらく行っていない間にこんなのができていました。

子供たちは超楽しそう！（笑）

La Traviata

Went to the Pacific Symphony opera concert on Tuesday.

So Verdi wanted the opera to be in a contemporary setting (1850s), but the premier set the time in the 1700s due to the censors.

The Pacific Symphony set the stage in a very current time frame, while still honoring Verdi's intention.

The prelude takes place in a modern hospital room, where Violetta is watching "Camille" on a TV set.

She is dreaming the first and second acts (I guess it is around 1850), which is depicted by the green hospital band on her wrist.

The third act also takes place in the hospital room, but her imagination is mixed with reality.

Borrowing Alan Chapman's words, "Ingenious"!

Verdiは初演のキャスティングにも不満がありましたが、

そのキャスティングも一部再現されているという声も聞こえてきたり、、、（笑）