To completely rip off Eric Baker posting for Design Observer, here are yesterday’s images:
Elizabeth Kennedy Bayer
composer/blogger
Category Archives: Travels
Have you seen Water Wheel Falls?
I’m really not the one who should be writing about this, Devon is the real explorer (the following photographs are his)… but here goes.
Not even 2 hours outside of Phoenix sits Payson, AZ and Water Wheel Falls camp grounds. It is a rocky by relatively easy hike to the cool pools of blue water interspersed along the trail. I forgot my jogging shoes at home, so the trail wasn’t easily navigated by me. Crocs and rocks do not make good friends. The trail begins winding under large Birch (I believe) trees. The path is more actual dirt than sand- a much needed change after my first few days back in the desert. We follow it- Fig pulling on his leash all the way- until cliffs begin to jut out of the ground. We all scramble over the rocks, the more experienced hikers in flip-flips leading the way. First- a small, jubilant stream. Then the sound of splashes as people jump off of large rocks into the blue water below. I’m amazed that a place is beautiful is so close to Phoenix. We keep walking, jumping over pools and streams, eager to get to higher ground. We stop at a pool shaded by a cliff. The water is cold and blue and full of small fish. Fig and Sydney are terrified of the water, but that doesn’t stop Figgy from jumping in and trying to ’save’ some of the swimmers. I usually don’t like to swim. Growing up in Texas, getting out of the water means getting back into the humidity and the inability to dry completely. Since this is Arizona, clothes dry in minutes and hair in even less. It was a perfect excursion.
Next time, I’m bringing my bathing suit and my jogging shoes.
You can read more about it here.
One more reason to Visit Canada
BIXI public bike system concept
C’mon, America’s Hat… may your public bike concept flourish so that you may pass on your public bike wisdom to the States.
Road Noise
(forgot I didn’t post this a few days ago… I’m still in LJ)
I am back at CG drinking a Mexican High Grown something bled. It’s smooth texture and nutty after-tones are just what I need after not much sleep. I miss Tempe, because back in Tempe the majority of our social gatherings/parties are held at my house. That means if I get tired, I can march to my room and go to bed. Visiting with friends last night was quite the opposite.
Anyway, I came here to talk about my current lack of driving music. I began the journey to Dallas from Houston with the Fireworks Ensemble Rite of Spring CD and three “Classics YOU should know!” type CDs. You know, the usual classical music selections of Four Seasons, Jupiter and Mars of The Planets, Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite, New World Symphony and the like. There was only one piece that was new to me, a classical guitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo. Rodrigo passed away a decade ago as of the 6th of this month. I’ve really taken a liking to it. The first movement is very playful and joyous. Here is a YouTube video for the first movement alone- it’s the best one I could find. Regardless of this fun new find, I had exhausted my musical options by the time I reached Dallas. While I was in Dallas, I stopped by a Half Price Books and picked up a Polyphonic Spree album, a Les Nubians album (heard them in Stern Grove in San Francisco) and a new Medeski, Martin and Wood CD (really, I thought I had them all). Beginning Stages of… is a great album, you might be familiar with the tune Light & Day.
(now moving to June 28th in Lake Jackson)
The new additions proved to be of even more help when my sister and I drove home from seeing Pirates in Houston. I made sure I had a Radiohead CD with me, and hid the only other CD in the car… an ABBA compilation. I kid you not. I read to MG the lyrics for Subterranean Homesick Alien and she gave me weird looks. And since we were listening to My Iron Lung, it only heightened my desire to arrange Creep for mezzo-soprano and piano. I started sining and toying with some ideas the first time I heard it coming from my car stereo and not from a game of Rock Band.
Anyway, so right now I am uploading all the great Christmas albums I could find in the house. I found my Diana Krall album, a Stan Kenton Christmas, some English madrigals, and this compilation choral CD that I have been listening to since who knows when. Probably forever. It’s the Roger Wagner Chorale and they have some of the best (the best!) arrangements of classic Christmas songs you will ever hear. For example, after almost two decades, I am still not tired of the Wassail Song and Sing we Now of Christmas.
I also found The Boy from Oz album starring Hugh Jackman. Not at all Christmas themed, but I always assumed it was a Broadway play and not a musical. I mean, I’ve seen Hough Jackman host the Tonys, but it still didn’t click that Oz was a musical. I have it in my iTunes now, but I am going to wait and listen to it in the car on my way to Austin in the next few days.
Keep Listening,
-e
