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I had a quick tour backstage with the symphony’s Jean Shirk. Here’s what the bass fiddle players see.

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Ever wonder what the broadcast booth looks like? Here’s a little glimpse with Dianne and Rik, telling us about their view for the night…and their secret jealousy for yours truly.

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What is John Goldman, President of the San Francisco Symphony, excited about this season?

Live from San Francisco…We’re broadcasting the San Francisco Symphony’s Gala with special guest soprano Jessye Norman.  If you couldn’t make it to Davies Symphony Hall, tune in to 102.1 KDFC and enjoy it on the radio, then check out my blog for updates all night!

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For instance:

Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail

There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.

Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.

It’s a yearly and fascinating exercise that is designed to help the professors understand a little of how their new students see the world.  As this years Mindset posting says of the Class 0f 2014 “They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them.  A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of scholarship. They will discover how to research information in books and journals and not just on-line.”

Read the whole Beloit Mindset list here.

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Jacquie at the controls.

Just after landing at Nevada City.

I’ve chatted from time to time about my wife and her travels as a flight attendant with United Airlines. One listener, Bruce Bolla picked up on that and got in touch. Bruce works the “front office” on a United Airbus out of  SFO and also picked up on my love of flying. Flying a “bus” is his job, but for the shear fun of flying he has a “sports car”, a dazzling classic in blue and white. It’s a 4-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza and he and wife Karen took us on a little sightseeing and dinner trip to Nevada City on Tuesday the 10th. It’s always fun to get my hands on the controls of a “real” plane rather than my virtual Microsoft one. Here are a few pics from a sweet little tour of our golden state.

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Fun for four.

Flying north over Richmond.

Our Captain, Bruce at the wheel of his "sports car" in the sky

American psychologist Rollo May said “Depression is the inability to construct a future”. It also doesn’t leave you with much of a past either. There have been significant advances in pharmacology aimed at treating depression, but now there may be another, non medical fix. A newly published study from Mexico reports repeated listening to certain classical works — including one by Mozart — helps ease the debilitating symptoms of clinical depression. In a recent study participants from a Oaxaca clinic were divided into two groups. Half the group took part in a 30-minute weekly counseling session with a psychologist; the other half listened to a 50-minute program of classical music each day. Their recorded concert featured two baroque works (Bach’s Italian Concerto and a Concerto Grosso by his contemporary, Archangelo Corelli) and Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos. Each week, participants reported their levels of depression-related symptoms using a standard scale. By the fourth session there was more positive change from the music therapy group that the counseled group. Read the whole article here.

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Here is the proof (en Francaise, naturellement)

Amazing. I haven’t tried it myself, but the video looks authentic. Maybe I’ll experiment on a bottle of Two-buck Chuck.

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