• About Jeff von der Schmidt, the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble & LA International New Music Festival

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

~ A blog about new music, travel and food

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

Tag Archives: San Francisco

Hwy. 128 & the Redwood Vineyards of the Russian River Valley

22 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Anderson Valley, California wine, Healdsburg, Russian River, San Francisco, Travel, Uncategorized

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Armstrong Redwood Grove, Global Climate Action Summit, Golden Eye Vineyard, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gov. Jerry Brown, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Highway 128, Navarro Vineyards, Penny Royal Farms, Rise for Climate March, San Francisco, September, Toulouse Winery

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Navarro Vineyards in the Anderson Valley on Hwy. 128.

The combination of late summer and early autumn make September a beautiful time of the year. Our ninth calendar month admits seasonal blur by stubbornly retaining its seventh month name (from the ancient Romans, whose year had ten months beginning in our March). A returning temporal and psychological equinox, often both the Rosh Hashanah New Year of the Jewish calendar and the Autumn Moon Festival in Asia occur in September. Mirroring a farmer’s almanac, we journey from one state of mind to another as fruit and leaves ripen and fall.

I’m also thankful to my parents for making September a now indelible part of my year. This month of change includes, within less than ten days of each other, the memorial day of the death of my father and the anniversary day of the birth of my mother.

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A Dream Window With My Japanese Friends

23 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, Kyoto, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

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Dream/Window, Ichiro Nodaira, Kent Nagano, Kyoto, Los Angeles International New Music Festival, Mari Kodama, Momo Kodama, Nguyen Thien Dao, Saiho-ji Temple, San Francisco, Tetsuji Honna, Toshio Hosokawa, Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra

At Saihoji Temple in Kyoto.

At Saiho-ji Temple in Kyoto.

“With all the changes in the world, the world never changes.” Toru Takemitsu

As Autumn begins, I’ve been thinking of Japan, our friends here in California and over the Pacific in Japan.  Though I’m at home in Pasadena, I’ve wanted to share with you a tour that Jan and I experienced in 2013 at Saiho-ji Temple in Kyoto, I hope a good introduction to our reunion with friends in San Francisco a few weeks ago as I’ll toggle locations in this post.

Home to hundreds of varieties of moss, Saiho-ji was the favorite Zen garden of Toru Takemitsu and inspired his Dream/Window of 1985. Let’s have a look….

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Who Needs Paris? The Restaurants and Bars of San Francisco

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Food, John Cage, LA International New Music Festival, San Francisco, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized

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Burma Star, Cafe Jaqueline, Cafe Tosca, Caffe Trieste, Finnegans Wake, Francis Ford Coppola, Kent Nagano, Marlon Brando, Mission District, Molinari's, North Beach, San Francisco, Tadich Grill, The Godfather, Tommaso's, Vesuvio Bar, Women's Building on 18th St

At home in San Francisco.

A nice first course in San Francisco’s Mission District.

I’ve been pulled back in my memory to my Aunt Lorraine today. With the news of the passing of Mickey Rooney, I’ve day dreamed of old stories she told me of her waitress years in Hollywood. She’d worked at Armstrong Schroeder’s on Wilshire Boulevard. It was THE all night haunt of Golden Era Hollywood.

She enjoyed telling me that Mickey and Judy Garland would flip an order of mashed potatoes onto the ceiling using long teaspoons at 3 AM. But she loved him as a customer and he was a generous tipper (yes, Jack Benny was cheap).

So I’ve been dreaming of restaurant memories with her and my parents. Which brings me to the Old School places of San Francisco.

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Spring in Napa Valley: Olives, Wine, Rauschenberg & Wisteria

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Food, LA International New Music Festival, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized

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Anselm Kiefer, California, Heitz Cellars, Hess Collection, Honig Winery, Napa Valley, Paso Robles, Robert Rauschenberg, San Francisco, St. Helena Olive Oil Co., Wisteria

The Napa Valley.

The Napa Valley.

California anchors the world. As the home of two of the most important developments of the 20th century – film and technology – discovering the Golden State is important for everybody.

Anchoring California is a natural landscape of ocean to desert to mountain ranges. And vineyards. In 1973 Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley put California on the international wine map when even the French agreed the wine was great (though a blind tasting didn’t hurt). I’d not been here for over 20 years and was overdue for another visit.

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Confucius & Columbus: From Chinatown to North Beach in San Francisco

22 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Big Sur, Contemporary Music, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Travel, Uncategorized

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Caffe Trieste, Chinatown in San Francisco, City Lights Bookstore, Eastern Bakery, Finnegans Wake, Golden Gate Bridge, James Joyce, John Cage, Peter Drucker, Rick Wartzman, Russell Freedman, San Francisco, Shakespeare & Company, Ulysses, Vesuvio Bar

A mural on the wall of Eastern Bakery in San Francisco.

The Buddha & The Dragon mural on the wall of Eastern Bakery in San Francisco.

I believe in mystery. Describing cultural magic is tricky. But like you, I know it when I see it or learn of its presence.

As in my mom telling me about the wedding reception in Hollywood she served at Chasen’s for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (yes, missing her I now cry a little inside every time I see them on TCM…). Street food in Hanoi. Sigmund Freud’s house in Vienna. Washington Square in Greenwich Village. Tanglewood. Cherry blossoms in Kyoto. Schoenberg’s living room in Los Angeles. Everything in Paris. Tea in Taipei. Visiting Elliott Carter at his apartment on W. 12th St. in the Village. Big Sur. The Star Ferry in Hong Kong. Diego Rivera murals in Mexico City.

And the energy of a bookstore and its neighborhood in Chinatown and North Beach in San Francisco. City Lights. Vesuvio Bar and Caffe Trieste. Eastern Bakery. The Buddha Bar.

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One Ocean, Two Coasts: The Dragon Bridge of Taiwan and the Bixby Bridge of Big Sur

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Big Sur, Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, LA International New Music Festival, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Taipei, Travel, Uncategorized

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Asia, Baxian Caves, Big Sur, East Coast of Taiwan, Elliott Carter, Henry Miller, Highway 1, LA International New Music Festival, Pt. Lobos, San Francisco, Sanxiantai Bridge, Toru Takemitsu

The Pacific Ocean touching Big Sur.

The Pacific Ocean touching Big Sur.

A few weeks before he passed away, Toru Takemitsu wrote postcards to his friends with a poignant message concerning his approaching reincarnation.

“I’d like to become a whale that swims in an ocean that knows no east nor west.”

I’ve reflected on this idea often since my friend Peter Grilli made me aware of Takemitsu’s last thoughts.  As you know, I’ve been traveling up Highway 1 from Santa Barbara to Big Sur for an important meeting about the next LA International New Music Festival. Jan and I have been talking about Elliott Carter with his friend Virgil Blackwell near Pt. Lobos and Big Sur. Composing brilliantly until 103, Carter is one of the greats. There is a sage wisdom in all the late works waiting to be explored. And we will be doing just that as part of future festivals.

Finding Carter in Big Sur and Pt. Lobos felt just right.

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