Episode CXXIV: Seven Unsung Presidents

For the last five years, on and off, I have been working on a series of songs about unsung U.S. Presidents. Perhaps you remember one of those songs, Old Tippecanoe, featured on National Public Radio a few years ago.

[The artist as Old Tippecanoe]

I have continued to write and record in the intervening years, and am happy to report that I’m just about ready to release the finished product. The album will be called Seven Unsung Presidents, and I will use my musical pen name, Raise Jericho. So the album will be Seven Unsung Presidents, by Raise Jericho. Get excited!

My 30^th birthday present to myself will be to spend the requisite money to make this a professional-like product, including real-life CDs in real-life cases (maybe even shrink-wrap!), and digital availability on all the hip online places- iTunes, Amazon MP3, CDBaby, etc. My expected release date is 1/27/2014 (we’ll see whether or not I make it). I have set up a website at raisejericho.tumblr.com, where eventually there will be some fun things: sample tracks from the album, some videos, and info on album availability. Feel free to check it out.

Not excited yet? Here, watch my promotional video. If that doesn’t make you excited, I don’t know what will.

Episode CXXIII: French-Canadian 'Thanksgiving'

 

For the second consecutive year, Meg and I took a Thanksgiving trip to Canada, where- coincidentally enough- Thanksgiving is not celebrated (at least not in November). This time Meg’s parents came along as well.

We first drove west from Maine through New Hampshire, then through Vermont, before turning North and heading to Montreal, Canada. Interesting fact about Vermont: there is approximately nothing to see or do in Vermont. Even the state capital is barely there- it’s the smallest state capital in the nation (population less than 8,000).

One gem, though: the Ben & Jerry’s factory/tour, including ice cream tastings and the 'flavor graveyard' for retired styles (peanut butter and jelly anyone?)

So how was Montreal? First and foremost, it was cold. Freezing. The high was 18 degrees. That’s 18 degrees Farenheit. Montrealers have  ways to cope, however. For instance, instead of children being pushed around in strollers, they were being pulled around in sleds.

And in Downtown Montreal, a large portion of the city is accessible through the vast ‘underground city,’ a series of subterranean tunnels, shopping plazas, public transportation stations and escalators linking most important downtown sites to each other.

 [Seemingly miles and miles of underground shopping mall followed by nondescript brick tunnels]

To my mind, Montreal has neither natural beauty nor abundant architectural charm. What it does have, though, is cultural charm. Everybody is walking around speaking English with French accents (occasionally  even French with French accents!) And judging from my brief experience, there are loads of delicious local eateries. Some examples of fun things to eat:

First, of course, there is poutine-

Then there’s Montreal-style smoked meat-

In Chinatown, a cucumbuer-and-jellyfish salad (did you know that jellyfish is my favorite animal?)

And Montreal has their own style of wood-fired bagel. This particular location, as you can see on the packaging, made the 1^st bagel in space. It’s true! In fact, according to Wikipedia, it’s the only bagel that’s been to space.

Finally, an important matter. Canada is transitioning to bills made of a plastic-like polymer to replace their traditional pulp/cloth bills. At first I was disappointed that the notes would no longer have that pleasant money smell, but as I held the new bill up to my nose, I smelled… Maple Syrup!!! It was clear to me that these bills had been scented with maple, to go with the giant maple leaf on the bill. Perhaps it could double as an additional security device? However, neither my wife nor her parents smelled maple on the bills. Turns out I had stumbled on a bit of a national controversy- officials claim there is no maple smell added to the bills, but many Canadians insist they smell it. Alas, I have no resolution on the matter, and so must leave you with the unsolved Great Canadian Maple Money Mystery…

Episode CXXII: Bicycles,Boulders, Burger King and Boston Red Sox

Bicycles

Last month my bike was stolen, then the replacement bike I was about to purchase was stolen. Now I finally have a bicycle to call my own again. It has two pedals, functioning brakes, and a functioning 3-speed hub. But otherwise, it is quite similar to my last bike.

[The old bike]

[The new bike]

Boulders

A family from church who hail from the Granite State (New Hampshire) organized a group hike up Mount Kearsarge, a granite-top mountain in central New Hampshire. It was a lovely autumnal drive, followed by a pleasant hike, followed by some spectacular views.

Since the summit of the mountain was un-vegetated granite, it afforded excellent 360-degree views of the surrounding countryside- and it was just like the New England you see in postcards!

Burger King

Perhaps you remember that six years ago I spent a whole week eating nothing but Burger King for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well in the intervening years I have not eaten a single bite of Burger King. On a recent road-trip, however, a friend suggested we stop and get some Burger King, and with some trepidation I said OK. Perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that I was seriously nauseous for the next two hours.

[It's been a long time, BK...]

Boston Red Sox

And finally, the Boston Red Sox are this year's World Series winners, and the town is abuzz. A unique tradition the Sox have is hosting a victory parade in amphibious Duck Boats, starting at Fenway Park, driving through downtown Boston, and ending on the Charles River. We biked on down to the Cambridge side of the river, where we enjoyed a lovely day, and an amusing water parade.

[parade of the boats]

 [Meg on the lookout for Big Papi]

Episode CXXI: Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

Goodbye Summer

Did you know that Boston Harbor is teeming with smallish, uninhabited islands? One of them houses the nation's oldest lighthouse, another is covered in many feet of Big Dig dirt, and another is home to a massive sewage treatment plant. We recently took a ferry to Georges island, the bulk of which is taken up by historic Fort Warren, in operation from 1847 to 1947. It's now operated by the National Park Service, which allows visitors to do whatever they like at the fort- exploring the grounds, running through its cavernous interior, playing frisbee on its parade grounds, etc.

Our reason for being there was a work celebration. We all left from work, walked to the subway station (coolers of meat in tow), rode the subway to the harbor, and took a ferry to the island, where we grilled, played and gave a fitting farewell to summer.

 

[On the subway]

 [In line]

 

 [At the island]

 

[You can see Boston from here!]

 Hello Autumn

Apparently autumn means orchard season. Meg and I went with some friends to an apple orchard for some apple-picking. More importantly for me, we got to do some leaf peeping and some apple cider doughnut eating.

  [Fall is in the air at the apple orchard]

Some things never change

Also this month, my bike was stolen! As you may remember, my bike was so junky that it was essentially not useable. I therefore didn't even bother to use my lock when storing it at home in the side yard. But alas, someone (presumably the homeless guy who rummages through our recycle bins for bottles) decided they wanted my bike anyway. They were at least kind enough to take the lock out of my basket and leave it on the ground for me to use on my next bike.

 [There used to be a bike here. Now there's just a lock.]

So I went to Craigslist to find a replacement bicycle. I found a shiny newish bike, in just my style, selling for a great price. I contacted the seller and set up a time for me to drop by and purchase it. In the intervening handful of hours, someone broke into their garage and stole the bike.


And so it goes.

Episode CXX: Summer Vacations

This year my wife and I had TWO summer vacations in the month of August- first we went to New York City to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary, and then my little bro came out to visit us in Cambridge, which meant we got to be tourists in our own hometown for awhile!

1) NYC

 Bostonians have some good low-price options for getting to NYC, first and foremost being private bus companies. We took Bolt Bus, which was better than flying in almost every way- no security lines, no baggage limit, free WiFi and electrical outlets- plus we got round-trip tickets at $21 per person. And, the bus dropped us off in the heart of Manhattan, just minutes from Times Square.

We did a lot of typical touristy things in NYC, like checking out the statue of liberty, eating pizza, touring the 9/11 memorial and new One World Trade Center...

 ...walking the new High Line park, taking a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, playing chess on Wall Street...

...visiting The Rockefeller Center, eating unusual ethnic foods, and picnicking at Central Park:

NYC was fun, and exciting, and vibrant, but Meg and I agree we would NOT choose to live there if we had any say in the matter- it was incredibly congested (both cars and pedestrians), there was no personal space, no public benches to sit on or water fountains or restrooms, nowhere for dogs to relieve themselves (they were just doing it on the sidewalk in front of us [sometimes the owners cleaned it up]), and nowhere to escape the INCESSANT HONKING OF HORNS! I thought Boston/Cambridge was busy and congested and had lots of honking, but there's nothing like a trip to NYC to make you count your blessings, I guess. Here's some data I collected while sitting on a randomly-chosen busy intersection in NYC, compared to a comparably busy intersection in Boston, measuring how often on average you hear a car horn.

Your eyes do not deceive you- that's approximately 20X more honking in NYC than in Boston, according to this study. And a less formal study of mine shows that you are 1,000X less likely in NYC to have a bench to sit on while listening to the honking.


2) Boston and Environs

So Kyle had one final week of freedom before starting his new job, and he chose to spend most of it with Meg and I here in New England! And we had fun doing some touristy things we had never taken the time to do here. Such as:

Walking the Freedom Trail from the very beginning to the very end, including a visit to the statehouse and the USS Constitution:

Heading up the New England coast for a sampling of all things seafood from the birthplace of fried clams:

Of course, playing some volleyball at Harvard. (Did you know, by the way, that volleyball was invented in Massachusetts? It's true!)

And most quintessentially, we took a trip to Fenway Park for the first time- and for a Yankees-Red Sox game no less! And a good time was had by all.

Episode CXIX: July

Fireworks Spectacular

The 4th of July is a special time in Boston. The city takes its position as the birthplace of the revolution very seriously, with probably the most over-the-top celebration in the whole nation. For Meg and I, this year was our first 4th of July in Boston, and it was quite an experience. After a long day of BBQ and volleyball, we made our way down to the river (not far from our house, actually) where hundreds of thousands of people were staking out their positions along both banks of the river (Boston and Cambridge).

The official hub of the action was the 'Hatch Shell,' an outdoor theater along the river in downtown Boston. People camped out for hours (i.e. from sunrise to sunset) to get good seats. The action started around 7 pm with a couple of hours of music and performance from the Boston Pops and various special guests.

 

[The Hatch Shell, with outdoor confetti!]

When darkness falls, the real action begins. First, Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture is accompanied by cannon fire.Then Boston lights up with fireworks.

 

Some fireworks are shot from the Hatch Shell, but most of the damage is done from a barge in the middle of the Charles river. We fortuitously happened to camp out right in front of the barge. The picture below is taken approximately from the location of the Hatch Shell and shows the barge (I have added an arrow denoting our location on the Cambridge side.) Further back you can see blue fireworks being shot off of a bridge spanning the river. And even further back, though you can't see it here, fireworks are going off at Fenway Park. Boston truly gets lit up!

Also in July

Meg decided to take the two of us on a whale watch in July. This was a remarkable act, because Meg is deathly afraid of whales, as she is of all underwater creatures. But she conquered her fear, and had a lot of fun on the whale watch. This is the whale we saw- a Humpback named Nile. She was feeding near the surface that day so we were treated to a number of appearances from her. 

Meg was scared and fascinated and excited, and she looked like a little kid out there. Indeed, it was almost as much fun to watch her as it was to watch the whale. I'll close with a picture of us setting out from Boston Harbor. The sense of apprehension/excitement/dread on her face is almost palpable, isn't it?

Episode CXVIII: Business & Pleasure

I recently returned from a work conference held in Davos, Switzerland, where I presented my research to colleagues in the RNA field. I designed my own flight itinerary, which (in addition to being the cheapest ticket) gave me the chance to spend a day in Dublin, Ireland; then a day in Zuirch, Switzerland; before finally taking a bus up to Davos. 

The very first thing I saw once I made it through customs was this bit of culturally important information:

[At first I thought it was kind of a joke. But now I think it was serious. And important- it’s mind-blowing as a pedestrian to have cars turning the wrong way in front of you…]

Within moments of hopping off the bus in historic Dublin, I was standing in front of an edifice that was nearly a thousand years old. A while later I was looking at books about 1,200 years old. And a while later I was napping on the lawn at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Patrick himself was purported to have baptized his first converts over 1,500 years ago.

So yes, the city seemed old- but not too old. And it seemed small- but not too small. And the river was dirty- but not too dirty. And kindly enough, it didn’t rain a lick until I left.

Next it was a quick flight to Zurich, which certainly exceeded my expectations. Considering that it is one of the premiere banking centers in the world, I was pleased to observe that the city was relaxed, understated, classy, refined. There was enough activity to make the city buzz, but not so much that you couldn’t take a peaceful stroll along the river, or stumble across a lovely cobblestone courtyard with fountain and café patio. 

Continuing the theme of important Christian historical sites, here's the cathedral from which Huldrych Zwingli led the Swiss Reformation. Not surprisingly, there are no statues or paintings in this church building.

And finally, a bus ride up the Alps, up into the beautiful city of Davos, passing lakes, waterfalls, meadows, snow-capped peaks, pastures, hamlets, horses and wildflowers of every conceivable color. Indeed, if I was forced to design a modern-day Garden of Eden, it would look a lot like a Swiss Alpine valley.

[Panoramic view from my hotel (click to enlarge)]

[The waterfall I passed every day on the way to the conference]

[The cows I passed on the way to the conference (cow bells and all!!!)]

On my free day in Davos, I walked out of my hotel directly onto a hiking trail, which- hours later- brought me to the very top of a Swiss Alp! I had to improvise a bit when the trail was blocked by snow, but eventually I made it (FYI, I truly did walk uphill, barefoot, through the snow [I didn’t want to have wet tennis shoes and socks on the way back down]).

[Alpine marmots look both ways before crossing the trail]

[Panorama from the top of the Alps. That little patch of green on the left is Davos]

Ah, and lest I forget- the primary purpose of this trip was work! The five-day RNA conference was quite nice. I gave a talk in front of some 1,000 people, three of whom were Nobel laureates. The talk was well received, which is good (as it means I’m not the only one interested in my particular research questions!)

But let us conclude with one more image of the paradisiacal land of the Swiss Alps.