A quick perusal of the itinerary of this great trip to Vienna, Venice, Lake Como and more this May and it will be clear why I’m so excited!  We’ll be hearing our SF Symphony perform live in Vienna, stay in a castle near beautiful Lake Bled in Slovenia and enjoy an opera at the legendary La Fenice Theater in Venice.  The trip includes city tours led by local experts, wine-tasting, great meals, 4-star hotels.  The list goes on and on.  Hope you can come with!

Dianne Nicolini

One of the several ways in which I am still like a 5-year-old girl is my need to have fun things to look forward to.  Currently fulfilling that need is a spectacular trip to Europe coming up this May. The details are here and all I need is you to join me!-Dianne

Hear Vivaldi's Four Seasons in Venice!

For lovers of art, birds, and publishing history, this is one for the ages.  A well-preserved edition of James Audubon’s 19th-century masterpiece Birds of America fetched $10 million dollars at auction today. Each page contains a hand-painted, life-size painting.  Check out the stunning images below.

Birds of America

A new book by Thomas Larson explores the legacy of Samuel Barber’s most famous piece during this, his centennial year. In The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings,  Larson writes “The Adagio’s sonorous intensity also speaks of the turbulent inner life of its composer.”  The author is in town for book signings this week. December 7 at San Francisco’s Books, Inc. and December 8 at Book Passage in Corte Madera.  Here’s a link to the author’s website.

Composer Samuel Barber

My old friend Patty was one of the lucky audience members on Oprah’s Favorite Things show during which Ms. O gives away a ton of great stuff to folks who have made a positive difference in the world.  Patty’s cause is our local Muttville Senior Dog Rescue and virtually all the cool things Oprah showered upon her are now up for auction on the Muttville website.  Check out Patty’s amazing experience here!

Mighty Ms. O

SF Opera is looking for a few good men to show off their strength and overall fitness  in a production at the Opera House this Fall.  The call has gone out for 10 men who are particularly good at push-ups and chin-ups.  I can’t wait to find out what opera this is for!

Is this you?

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal talks about how those bicycle-riding Dutch refuse to wear helmets.  Only 0.1% of Dutch riders wear helmets as opposed to Americans at 38%.  Some Dutch health advocates are pushing to get kids to wear the protective head-gear, at the very least, but it’s still seen as “not cool”.  Read the article.

Look Hans, No Helmets!

A very excited Anne Akiko Meyers is the new owner of one of the most famous violins in the world., the Stradivarius violin know as The Molitor.   My new BFF (after her appearance on our KDFC @ Yoshi’s Concert Series October 4th) is basking in the glow of what she describes as “Love at first sound”.  What did this 300-year-old instrument set her back?  A mere 3.6 million dollars!  Here’s the entire story and a musical demonstration from last night’s Keith Obermann show.

Once you help us put together the ultimate KDFC Summer Soundtrack, we will slap the Top 100 suggestions onto an iPod for you just in time for some very musical summer fun.  Rumor is that gas prices will actually go down this summer, making the proverbial summer road trip more affordable than it’s been in years.   Here’s a list of Top 10 Road Trips compiled by Yahoo that will have you singing America the Beautiful:
 http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-3434…

Our Beautiful Big Sur

Hope you’ll join Hoyt and me for our 3rd annual Family Day at the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose on Saturday March 20. The museum is free all day and is one of the great family experiences in the Bay Area.  Still on view is the Star Trek exhibit and also on view Saturday the 20th will be Hoyt and me doing a live broadcast from The Tech.  This is a wonderful opportunity for us to meet our South Bay listeners (and you are legion).  So grab the kids and come on down for the live broadcast and stay for live music and dance performances to follow!

The Tech's bright purple dome