I Survived Austin City Limits

I got my first real taste of the Austin music scene this weekend. Our first weekend in town was the date of the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival--a three day, eleven hours a day, nonstop music event on eight different stages (including one for just the kids). For someone as indecisive as I am, it's a real trial--there were so many acts I wanted to see and it always seemed that two (or more) of them were opposite one another. (The schedule for this year's festival is here: http://www.austincitylimits.com/schedule/day1.htm.)

All this was complicated by 90+ degree temperatures and my nine year acclimation to a more northerly climate. The first day was the worst (and I probably overestimated my ability to withstand the weather, as well) but things got progressively better during the weekend, comfort-wise. I think I paced myself better and sought the shade when I got too hot.

The Austin music crowd is as eclectic as they come and not just because a lot of people like a lot of different kinds of music. In Austin, a lot of people like all kinds of music. There were a lot of teenagers and 20-somethings at The Preservation Hall Jazz Band performance and a lot of older folks at Arcade Fire (I was one of them, but more on that later). The list of performers ran the gamut from folk to outlaw country to rap to Bjork (one of the headliners) to Reggae (not one, but two Marleys--Ziggy and Stephen) to Cajun to stuff that was really weird. In short, if at any time during the festival you couldn't find something appealing, you weren't trying very hard.

For me, the best thing about the concert was that I got to hear a lot of performers that I might not have been willing to pay to see by themselves, but whom it turned out I liked--sometimes a lot. I did get to see the Indigo Girls, Charlie Musselwhite, Asleep at the Wheel, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and, of course Bob Dylan and His Band--any of whom I would have paid to see. But I also got to see Heartless Bastards, Joss Stone, Raul Malo, Kaiser Chiefs, Kelly Willis, the Decemberists and Arcade Fire--any of which I'd pay to see now. All in all, I saw all or most of 24 acts over the three days.

My favorites were the Indigo Girls (who gave an unbelievable performance--they can really rock), Charlie Musselwhite (I love Blues harmonica), Raul Malo (great voice, a sort of Cuban/country/Salsa--in the program he was described as a blend of Sinatra, Orbison and Tito Puente.), Arcade Fire (I never saw so much energy on stage before--they blew me away. They--I'm still not sure how many of them there were; the program said seven, but the reviewer said 10 0r 11--played every instrument from a steel drum to a real pipe organ, including violins (two), french horns and trumpets. They were fabulous.), and Bob Dylan (I think I liked him more than most of the crowd. He was at his vocally impenetrable worst, but the music was sublime. His side men are some of the best in the world. Everybody complained that they couldn't understand what he was singing and to be fair a lot of it was hard to parse, but on the other hand, I could hardly understand anything that Arcade Fire sang, but that didn't keep me from appreciating the experience. People seem to have different standards for different groups. The performance was complicated by the fact that the two jumbotrons on either side of the stage showed nothing but wide shots of the band--no close-ups of Dylan or his band. It was so different from the other performances that I figure it had to be at his request. I loved the performance (I was able to cross something off my list of things to do before I die--see Dylan live) but it wasn't as satisfying as it could have been.

It was a good start to my Texas experience.It may take me a week or so to recuperate, but at least I didn't have to go to work this morning.

Goodbye Chicago

This has been a tough week. Tomorrow the truck comes to take our stuff to Texas. We'll leave on Wednesday. I knew this was coming and I have been surprised that I wasn't feeling odd or sad or stressed for most of the summer. There were a lot of things going on at work and enough happening to keep my mind off the move (for the most part). But the last week has been hard.

Wednesday and Thursday I said good bye to all my friends and colleagues at work. They have been a big part of my life for the past nine years. Some have left and new people have arrived, but the people I work most closely with have been a real source of strength for me, both professionally and personally. I hope I can manage to stay in touch now that we aren't interacting every day. We accomplished a lot of really good things in the last few years, things that will last beyond my departure because of the high quality of the people who remain. I wish them all the best.

Tonight we said good bye to our closest friends away from work. Over the past few years, we've spent a part of nearly every weekend with them. They have been our movie and restaurant buddies and have provided me with a dog to pet when I didn't have one of my own. We will miss them dearly. My friend Gino remarked that they never expected to find such good friends so late in life. Nor did we and having their friendship has been one of the best things about coming to Chicago. It's tough to know that they'll be a thousand miles away.

Tomorrow will be the worst. We'll say goodbye to our son and daughter-in-law and our grandkids. I came to work in Chicago just a week before my first grandchild was born. We've been here for the arrival of our other three grandchildren and watched them all grow. It's been an unbelievable experience. Not seeing our son and daughter-in-law and the kids on a regular basis will be very hard for me. They've always been around and always been a joy. One couldn't ask for a better bunch. We have been very lucky to have so much time with our son, his wife and our grandchildren. I love them all more than I can say. Tomorrow will be sad.

On the bright side, we'll have both of our daughters in Texas, as well as the best son-in-law imaginable and our newest grandchild. Family is very important and I'm glad we will still have some family close.

Even when you know changes are coming, it isn't easy. I'm not much given to outward displays of emotion, but some of the partings have been hard. I hope everyone knows I will miss them.

A vision of future blogs

If you are interested in what my blog is likely to morph into once I have more time to pay attention to it, here's a sample. I was struck by an editorial in the Tribune today (really just a selection from Thomas Paine's "The American Crisis"). I doubt that I took it the way the rightwingers at the Trib expected. This my letter to the editor.

I wonder if the irony of your posting of Thomas Paine's words from "The American Crisis" will be recognized by many of your readers. (Or perhaps the irony was intentional on your part.)

While written near the beginning of our country's struggle to throw off the military and economic presence of a government thousands of miles away, one does not have to alter very many of Paine's words words to assume the perspective of a Iraqi citizen today. Consider: "[The United States] with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has the right..."to bind us in all cases whatsoever" and if being bound in that manner is not slavery..." or "Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds [George Bush] can look up to the heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a housebreaker, has as good a pretense as he..." The latter quote from Paine is doubly ironic, given its similarity to the phrasing often used by Muslims today to describe the international behavior of the United States.

We have become accustomed to believe that ours is the only perspective that matters. But other people live in the world. Paine, Jefferson, Madison--even Hume and Rousseau--wrote for humanity, not the narrow parochial interests of a single nation. Today, Paine would be writing for the Iraqis, not the country that began to lose its way seven and a half years ago. Perseverance and fortitude are undoubtedly required today. With them we can take back our country from those who have stolen it and trampled on the rights that Thomas Paine defended so eloquently in 1776.

Craig West
Bloomingdale

New Grandchildren Pictures

I promised some pictures of all the kids together and here they are with us. I'm holding my son's daughter and Susan has our daughter's little one. Both girls have really in grown in the time since this picture. They seem to be thriving.



We had a great time in Texas. Our son and daughter-in-law made the trek in their new van and everyone still appeared to be human when they arrived in Austin. Susan and I flew down, so we had an easier time of it. We were able to check out the last of the landscaping at our new house and see how the patio turned out. Here are some pictures. First, the front of the house.



Here's the patio. As you can see, it it will be shaded during part of the day by the house. It also gets shade from the big pecan tree in back later in the day.



Here's what the land behind looks like in late spring (it's been very rainy in Georgetown this spring). Although you can't see them in this picture, the field is spotted with wildflowers.



We are quite looking forward to settling in later in the summer/early fall.

Two New Granddaughters

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. On April 25, our son and daughter-in-law (as well as our three existing grandchildren) were joined by a new granddaughter. Our new arrival held on until the last minute, so she is a very mature looking baby. She weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces. Our daughter-in-law is a petite five feet, so you can imagine that getting this one born naturally was quite a process. There's something to be said for big, on-time babies, because our new granddaughter looks great. Here's an early picture (there will be more later).


She is a real cutie and apparently loves the water. Here's a picture after her first bath. Isn't she beautiful? Her siblings have really taken to her, especially her big sister. Here's a picture of the two of them together.


We expect that our new granddaughter will be as cute as our other grandchildren. Here are the boys. Our oldest turned 9 on May 18 and the younger one is 7. They are very active and a lot of fun for a grandpa.




And then....

Our daughter and son-in-law's Texas baby wasn't expected until late May, but she decided to make an early appearance on May 10. Because she was early, she was much smaller than her cousin, but that also made the delivery much easier for our daughter. Our new little longhorn weighed in at 6 pounds and 14 ounces.

Here are a couple of early pictures. Two beautiful babies. It's going to be fun.


Here's a proud grandma with her new granddaughter. We're going back to Texas the first weekend in June, so there will be more pictures. Our son and his bunch will be there, too, so I should have some pictures of all my grandchildren together.

Post Number 3--Beijing Photos III

Before we went to the airport on Saturday, our hosts took us to see the only UNESCO World Heritage Site we hadn't visited--the Summer Palace. I thought it was the most beautiful of all the places we visited in Beijing. It's an hour or so outside the city and from its name you can probably guess that it's where the royals went for the summer season. The current Summer Palace is not the original. It was sacked twice by foreign armies--the English and French in 1860 and the eight allied powers during the Boxer Rebellion. It is also famous as one of the earlier examples of misappropriation of government funding. The Dowager Empress Cixi is said to have diverted millions from the navy's appropriation to rebuild and expand the complex. This diversion of funds is seen as a major contributor to China's becoming a second rate Asian power (to Russia and Japan) at the beginning of the 20th century.


Here are some shots from the Summer Palace.


A bronze statue of a Chinese lion.

















Dancers in traditional Chinese dress. This had to be our substitute for the opera. It made me glad we ran out of time Friday night. A short performance was sufficient.
















A young woman in traditional Chinese dress. She was a decorative guide inside the building behind. I wasn't allowed to take a picture inside the building, but with the help of our hosts, I was able to persuade her to stand in the doorway for this shot (there's also one of me standing beside her, but you won't see many shots of me on this blog).



















Chinese emperors apparently have this thing about strange looking rocks. One emperor found this rock some distance from Beijing and was bringing it back for display. However, along the way he ran out of money to pay the people who were transporting it for him, so it was left by the side of the road. Decades later a different emperor saw the rock as he was passing by and arranged for the rock's journey to Beijing to be completed.
















This picture shows some of the detail and craftsmanship of the buildings at the Summer Palace. It was by far the most well maintained of all the sites. They may have just finished their refurbishment, because there was almost no work going on here, in contrast to the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.





















This photo is of the main tower of the summer palace.





















Some more details from the decorations at the Summer Palace.

















A corridor from the Summer Palace. The painting is beautiful, but also served to preserve the wood. Very few of the historical buildings around Beijing are made from brick or stone.




















Details and a painting of a Chinese general on horseback.





















This a painting of a very wise Chinese philosopher/general. One of our hosts delighted in telling the story of one of his victories. During a battle with a Chinese warlord, this philosopher made a strategic retreat to a nearby city. His army continued to retreat, but he stayed on the wall of the city overlooking the main gate, which he instructed his staff to leave open. He then proceeded to play a solitaire game on top of the wall in plain view of the advancing troops. The warlord saw the philosopher and the open gate and because he couldn't believe that the philosopher was surrendering, thought it must be a trap. Fearing the wisdom and cleverness of the philosopher, he withdrew his troops.







This is the last shot for this post. As we were moving toward the gate, we saw a large crowd gathered on the sidewalk, so we stopped to see what was going on. The draw (literally, as you'll see) was an elderly Chinese gentleman drawing Chinese characters on the sidewalk with water. The walk was dry and rather dusty and he was using two pieces of PVC pipe with regular water bottles at each end. On one end the bottles were attached to a brush, which looked exactly like a giant calligraphy brush. What made this interesting was that he was writing with both hands at the same time. When we stopped to watch, he asked us if we were Americans. He said he was a professor of literature at Beijing University who came out on the weekends to do his drawings to balance his right brain and his left brain. He drew another series (in English) that said "Welcome"--again with both hands at the same time.



This was typical of the reception we got wherever we went. We were either treated as unexceptional or made to feel very welcome. I never experienced any negative vibes during the whole trip. It's probably the last trip I'll make overseas for the Fed and I think it was the best of all.

Post Number 2--Beijing Photos II

Monday through Friday was packed with instructing the 82 participants in our seminar and interacting with our hosts from the China Banking Regulatory Commission. It seemed like every meal brought a new dignitary who wanted to have a conversation with us. It was flattering, but as much as I like Chinese food, 10 straight meals made me wish for a cheeseburger. We finished up with the seminar about 3:00pm on Friday and renewed our sightseeing at the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is another large site in the middle of Beijing where the emperor went to pray for good harvests and other desirable events. It was a beautiful, relatively peaceful place (maybe because we got there about closing time). Here are some pictures.

This is the front gate


















This is a view of the inner courtyard













This is one of the main prayer sites. It may look familiar because it is often used as an international symbol for China.











This is some detail from the ceiling of one of the buildings












This is a picture of me with Mr. Pan Guangwei. Mr. Pan is the deputy director of the HR department at the CBRC. It turns out that in the Chinese bureaucracy titles can be misleading. The most important person in the organization is the Director of HR--he has the dossiers on everyone. The second most important person is the International Director because he speaks for the government. I figured this made Mr. Pan the third most important person at the CBRC-- everyone certainly deferred to him. All the people were exceedingly nice to us, but an edgier side sometimes came out when they were dealing with people on the outside.

This is the way the emperor and his court dressed when they came to pray at the Temple of Heaven

















After we went to the Temple of Heaven, we intended to have dinner at a famous Beijing seafood restaurant and then go to the Beijing Opera. We had received mixed reviews of the opera, but we figured that a little culture would do us good. Alas, Beijing traffic struck again and it took over an hour to get from the Temple of Heaven to the restaurant (which didn't live up to its billing in my opinion). As a result, we were too late to go to the opera. It turned out that Mr. Pan was relieved--he told us that he had lived in Beijing all his life and had never been to the opera--he also had no plans ever to go.

We ended up walking "Bar Street", which is a chain of bars and restaurants circling a lake. With all the lights and people, it was very pretty and probably more entertaining than the opera. There was every kind of bar, with every kind of music--from traditional Chinese to Simon and Garfunkel (not them actually, but some Chinese musicians playing their music). There were also many different kinds of restaurants. We passed one that said "Genuine American Food". They had to grab me as I made a break for the door. After we circled the lake--probably about a mile all the way around--we headed back to the hotel.

In my next post, I'll load some pictures from our visit to the Summer Palace--my favorite of all the places we visited in Beijing.

Post Number One--Beijing Photos I

Well, this is my first blog. Chris has been pestering me about starting one and given that I want to post some pictures from my recent trip to China, I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's picture of one of the buildings at the Ming Tombs where we visited on our first day in Beijing. The tombs are one of the five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in and around Beijing. The Ming Tombs are the burial place for 13 of the 16 Ming Emperors. They are mostly intact and because of the archaeological challenges of digging them up, they are mostly undisturbed.


This is a photo of a map that shows the valley where the Ming Tombs are located. Although Beijing is in a relatively level plain, the mountains start up very quickly just outside the city. The Tombs are located in sort of a bowl, as you can see from the map. It's a couple of miles from the entrance to the main tomb at top center (where my photo is from) and no one was allowed to ride inside the valley.





The same day that we visited the Ming Tombs we also went to the Great Wall. This was the one thing that I thought was a "must see" while I was in China. The wall runs from the sea northeast of Beijing to the desert in the west. It took 300,000 men over 10 years to finish. There are several sites near Beijing that are in good repair. The most famous one is at Badaling, where Nixon visited during his trip to China. It is the one most people know from news coverage of that trip and from movies. That was where our tour was going, but because of a horrific crash on the expressway we couldn't get there. We ended up at another nearby site (there are at least four accessible sites near Beijing) at Juyongguan Pass. This a picture of my friend Mark and me before we walked up the portion of the Wall you can see behind us. We actually made it only to the first tower, because it was so crowded we ran out of time. That was quite enough of a climb for me. If it took them six hours to move accident victims off the major expressway leading out of Beijing, I figured they'd probably just bury one American with a heart attack right where he fell.

On Sunday, we met with our hosts (at the local Starbucks) to get acquainted and work out some logistics. We went to lunch at Mao's favorite restaurant (it serves food in the style of his home province). Afterwards they dropped us off at the Forbidden City, which is right in the middle of Beijing. We got our first taste of Beijing traffic. The Forbidden City wasn't more than a couple of miles from our hotel. but it must have taken nearly a half hour to get there--on a Sunday afternoon! We started our visit from one side of the Forbidden City and walked through to the other side. Most of the large tourist sites around Beijing provide GPS enabled audio guides for which you pay a deposit that you get back when you return them. They worked very well. Here are some pictures from the Forbidden City. A lot of it was being restored and you'll be able to see the difference from sites I visited later which were in much better repair.






On the side of the Forbidden City where we exited is Tiananmen Square. It's supposed to be one of the biggest in the world, but it's so broken up with buildings, monuments and statuary that it's hard to see the expanse. It's most famous for the uprising that happened a few years back and the photo of one man standing in front of a tank. Today it's full of people flying kites and about a million capitalists hawking Mao watches and copies of "Quotations of Chairman Mao." I bought a copy and decided it would have come in handy when I was starting my management career. Here are some pictures:



That brought me to the end of the weekend. Then it was down to work. I'll publish some photos from the rest of my trip in the next installment.