It is one thing to go to Greece and see antiquities and still know that for the most part we were in the 21st century.  Albania seems in many respects to be still trying to get into the late 20th century.  The buildings that are later than the 1930s are from the 60s. The roads are clearly no later than the 1950s, with some few exceptions. Many are no better than paved cart tracks. The standard of living is so low it is scary.  We went to dinner several times on our own and spent $10 to $20 for the two of us with wine and high priced items.  A high end marketing person for the hotel makes the equivalent of $400 a month.  Those dinners are far beyond their means.  The average pay is about $250 a month.

Internet is readily available almost every place!  Open wifi seems standard. Security not so much.  Cellular service is also everywhere and everyone is using mobile phones.  The hotel can’t seem to make up is mind on how to dial room to room.  The instructions vary depending on the floor and don’t work anyhow because they are wrong.  All the people we have met have been very friendly and accommodating.  They are happy to practice their English on us.

As I write the muezzin from the mosque on the main square is calling the faithful to prayer for the last prayers of the day, 9:37 pm, we will hear it next at 4:30 am of we are awake.

On the main boulevard is a pyramid.  It was built to be a tomb for Enver Hochsha (sp) but he was never buried there.  There have been several plans to use the building. Since the Democratic Party lost to the Socialists all plans have been scheduled and the building has been left to degrade and suffer graffiti and broken windows.  We have watched locals scaling the ramps to the top every time we have gone by. It is a huge eyesore on the boulevard not to far from the Grand Hotel which served the area during the communist period. It To had been abandoned to the elements.

I could go on with contrasts,  but one more.  As we drove by a major cement factory with heavy equipment,  we saw a local riding standing up on the cart behind his donkey,  this was not tourist item, we were not within miles of anything touristic. Which century were we in?

I don’t need to tell you Santorini is in the Greek islands, I may have needed to tell some readers that Tirana is the capital of Albania.  As I wrote the title of this post I thought I could call it from the sublime to the ridiculous or even heaven to hades:) We arrived in Santorini only 2 hours late,  courtesy of SeaJet Challenger. As we have learned this is more the norm than the extraordinary.

Our room at Tzekos Villas was  delightful one we got to it.  When booking I had noted that it was inside the caldera requiring steps up to the entrance and then down to reception and finally the room. The van could not get anywhere near the entrance and the hotel sent a porter to carry the luggage,  no cart, must his strong and and legs.  Following him up to the entrance was exhausting, down to our room, an upgrade to include more space and private jacuzzi left us wondering how we would leave and return for meals and excursions. We did find the strength for several round trips.  It would seem that most of caldera view hotels have similar situations.  We saw a lot of porters and 2 wheeled hand carts moving luggage. I should note that the very lovely room lacked some essentials.  There were no reasonably placed outlets not any usable tables or other flat surfaces.  The jacuzzi was contaminated with oils and lotions from prior thoughtless guests and need to be dumped, cleaned and refilled. Breakfast was barely adequate.

After our late arrival and first trip on the stairs, we found our way to a place that was said to specialize in fava bean spread.  They were out, but we stayed and had a nice lunch at Theona’s Kitchen anyhow. We spent the rest of the day walking through the shopping area of Fira stopping to admire the caldera views.  We returned to our room to rest  and enjoy the jacuzzi on our deck with a great view of the caldera and total privacy. We had dinner on a deck with a view of the sunset over the volcano in the middle of the caldera.

For our second day in Santorini we took the local bus to Oia on the northern end of the Island.  Again the entertainment was walking through the shops and eventually eating at Strogili. Always adventurous with food choices I ordered stuffed squid. I had a bit of a surprise when this was delivered

We are doing a series of one day tours with G.O. Tours.  The tours so far have been fine,  the guides so far are two out of three to the good.  Athens day tour had us climbing the Acropolis again, by a shorter route than we had found for ourselves,  Carol elected to sit out out since the heat was/is oppressive. It had continued to stay above 90 and into the low 100s. It cools off to high 80s over night.

The afternoon tour was to Poseidon’s Temple at the southern tip of the peninsula. The guide was inarticulate in English and didn’t seem much interested in us or the subject matter.  Maybe the fact she was named Cassandra was part of the problem.

We dined in the hotel rooftop restaurant where the food was gone and the views even better.

Parthenon on top of the Acropolis

New Museum of the  Acropolis

Today,  day 2, we boarded the bus early,  that’s another story,  for Delphi,  a three hour ride each way. It was worth it.  Here are a couple of pan shots from half way up at the base of the theater. 

The flights from Rochester to Kennedy to Vienna to Athens were uneventful save some hassles with security theater.  They got after Carol twice the in Vienna it was my turn. I failed to display my liquids separately,  bad boy, for that we will take everything out of the carry on to be sure you aren’t hiding something else.

At the airport in Vienna we saw the prefect carryon for the scooter fiend on your circle:

The Boarding Passes are printed. The suitcases are 80% packed waiting only for the last  minute items we will use and then pack in the morning. I doubt we will sleep well tonight.

After a day of nervous energy spent and wasted on redoing our packing several times, you would think we would be old hands at this, but this is the first time we have left from our apartment after living so long on the coach and travel things just aren’t where we expect to find them. I’ve made three trips to the coach and still managed to leave things I think I would like to have. Done

We needed to get out of the apartment. We took a short walk in the golden hour just before sunset. Carol went back to get her new camera to try it out over a nearly empty river. Neither of us can remember it being this low since we moved downtown:

A week ago Carol and I went to Torah Study, the portion was Pinchas, I never miss since it is one of the few portions named for a person and somehow that is my Hebrew name. I say somehow because I have no idea where my parents came up with it other than it begins with P and they needed a Hebrew name beginning with P. But, as usual I digress. Rather than stay for services after the study we had another place to be. Keith Hoose, a wonderful man I worked with in the New England Life insurance office had died at age 89 and there was a memorial service for him at 11 AM. There are days when one thinks ahead and at least prepares oneself for what is to come. I was thinking Memorial Service like we do in the Jewish world, some appropriate prayers and a reasonable amount of eulogizing and off to either the cemetery or home unless you are a close friend or family in which case back to house after the burial for a meal and sharing stories. I had not quite gotten my head around a full Anglican Mass with too many people for a tiny church. Needless to say it was a bit of a jolt, especially on Shabbat.

The following night we went to Abilene to hear The Blind Owl Band. I am sure that the next oldest people in the crowd were the ages of our boys. The music was country, as promised. The band was from Saranac in the Adirondacks, hardly a likely place for a country band, but the bar environment certainly was consistent with their source. Saranac may have more bars than people in the winter. We enjoyed the music for most of the first set out on the patio in back of the club. Eventually the beginnings of a contact high convinced us it was time to leave. I saw a couple of bongs being passed and we decided enough was a bit too much.

To sort of round out the weekend we had dinner with Susan and Marty Denning. Marty had been the GA in the office through most of my time with New England. Our parting many years ago had not been the most cordial although we had worked together and liked each other for many years. Time has past and many of the agents we had worked with are now gone. It is never to late to return to a friendship. If you read this Marty, thank you for joining us for a very pleasant dinner.

Just to round out our rather weird week, on Thursday I was fitted with hearing aids and I have found a whole range of sounds that I had forgotten existed. Of course I got high tech aids with all kinds of capabilities which I am just exploring. They work better than any prior Bluetooth device I ever had for my phone 🙂 stereo hearing is really great. I can even listen to TV or radio at my preferred volume – much lower than it used to be – and let Carol listen at hers, or not even be bothered by the sound. I just wish this hadn’t come at the reduction of my own natural hearing ability, but such is life.

Friday night, late, there was the first night of a new festival – 2015 Street Light about 1 mile or so from our apartment. The night was glorious and warm and there was no rain so we walked over to see what it is about:

Since the Jazz Festival we have tried to limit ourselves to one “event” a day. Sunday, immediately after the festival we did not stir from the apartment at all. Monday we had dinner out at a friends and we drove even though we would normally walk. Carol had made a dish that would have been an adventure to carry the 2 miles or so down East and Park to Barrington. We were with Barbara and Robert and Bobbi and George. It was a pleasant evening with a relatively early end (anything before midnight is early).  And so it went one event per day until Saturday when we went to Torah Study and had Lorraine and Don over for dinner and to walk over to the river to watch the fireworks over the river for the 4th.

And time keeps flying. A week later and I am just now making some time to write. Nothing significant has happened other than some wonderful get togethers with friends, old and new. That “old” refers to length of the friendship and is not meant as a comment on anyone’s age. Although if we have known these people for 30 or more years it does say something about their age 🙂 New is people new to the community, our Rabbi Peter Stein and wife Amy, and some people we just have never met to sit down and chat with even though we have been in the community all our lives.

We have taken some walks in the neighborhood and even came across a lovely “pocket park” we must have walked and driven by many times without giving it any notice:

We started with three female vocalists on Day One, June 19th and we ended Day Nine with a female vocalist. That was about all they had in common and what we saw and heard in between was as broad a definition of “Jazz” as anyone could consider. The range was from Bluegrass to avant gard and from quiet and intimate piano solo in Hatch Hall to loud and boisterous in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater.

Last night we started with Steep Canyon Rangers who had been in town for two prior Jazz Fests with Steve Martin and were back on the main stage without him and there were plenty of unsold seats for the 4 PM and only concert. Nugent and Iacona made a decision to open the unsold balcony seats to Club Pass holders. They got the news out on Friday morning in the daily Jazz Festival News email and with a push to all Club Pass holders. Although we had not planned on that concert the chill, rainy day made it seem like a good idea. Also at 4 PM it would not interfere with other venues we wanted to go to. We started in an indoor lineup for the balcony seats at 3 having walked through the first serious rain of the festival this year. I really enjoyed their performance, they did not go beyond the bounds of what could be expected from a fine Bluegrass sextet. There was some wonderful quartet harmony singing and the drummer worked his box drum like a full drum kit although during the encore he come out and used the string bass strings as a percussion instrument with his sticks.

We danced out of the hall into the rain, although we were sheltered by the Eastman Marquee, right around to Kilbourn Hall for Clifton Anderson Quintet. We found seats one row up from Ron Netsky and we had a chat about the crazy intense volume of the outdoor stages. In a neighboring seat was a man whose name I have forgotten who specializes in the effect of sound on people who agreed that the levels used in entertainment were beyond what would be permitted in a work setting. The hall filled slowly, never reaching sold out before the six man quintet came on stage. Not sure when it morphed from a quintet to a sextet. The tenor sax player was clearly the added person, his playing was wonderful to hear, but he did not appear to be well and when not playing he left the stage altogether. Once again we were treated to a great bass solo as well as piano and the leader Clifton Anderson on trombone was extraordinary. He took a solo that went on and on, I did not believe he could have the strength and wind needed to play such an extended solo, I did not want it to end. They came back for an encore and took off on “The Sun Will Come Out” from Annie the Musical.

We strolled out from that to something completely different, The Wood Brothers at Harro East. I guess they decided that with all the rain they cold ignore the capacity rules. The place was packed with people standing every place. Somehow I found two stools and space at a table to perch right behind the rows of chairs. Great seats for viewing and hearing. This set headed into a place we had not been, with audience members pressing up to the stage as the beat got wilder. When they concluded their last number they left a screaming mob wanting more. They come back out and did another number totally acoustic. It was amazing how quiet the hall got as everyone listened intently. A third of the way back we heard clearly and I was able to understand the words better than when they were amplified. That was the second totally acoustic number we heard, not counting the solo pianists in Hatch and Lyric, and I would love to hear more musicians show their ability in this way.

We came out of Harro into the rain, yes it was really raining and it put a damper on all the planned outdoor events even though we did hear the groups performing and saw crowds standing and sitting under umbrellas. I am sure that those were the hard core, we were more than glad to escape into The Rochester Club for a quiet dinner while waiting for Alex Pangman to perform at 10 PM. We have avoided this venue because first the music in the past has been lounge music, great for background listening, not so great for intense listening, second the place has been refrigerated down to meat locker temperatures. Last night Alex appeared dressed in style from the 1930s or 40s and her music was all from that era or earlier. There was swing and boogie woogie and some straight ahead standards, including an instrumental version of Tea for Two which has figured in a number of performances this past 9 days. We had a great time and would go to hear Alex Pangman again and I promise Carol to bring my dancing shoes the next time!

Back into the rain! We stopped by the apartment to freshen up a bit before heading to the Plaza for the jam session. As we hit Saint Paul street we had second thoughts, it was late, we were tired and it was pouring harder than ever. We agreed that Alex would be the last sound of the festival we would carry forward until the next time we get to XRIJF. And we can keep that acronym for now as Xerox has renewed their contract for the next three years.

I don’t do a lot of selfies, but here we are as XRIJF winds down in Rochester Club

I am not sure when I will post again, probably in a week or so, but the topic will be very different.

We are down to the wire, this is the ninth and last night of the Festival. Our plan is kind of loose after the start. The Festival newsletter announced that club pass holders have a bonus, free admission, first come first served, to Steep Canyon Rangers at 4 PM in Kodak Hall. Good for us not for the Festival, clearly they have a lot of empty seats. We will be there! We plan to go to Kilbourn for Clifton Anderson Trio and then on to Harro East for The Wood Brothers. Since the food at Harro is pretty good we will probably satisfy the stomach’s needs there and then move on to either the Big Tent or Christ Church (or both). We plan to finish the Festival with our first stop at The Rochester Club for Alex Pangman. We will see how the predicted rains and chill affect the street vibe and attendance levels.

Last night we started at Harro East at 5:30 with the Yellow Jackets, and no for you Rochesterians reading this they have nothing to do with the University of Rochester or their acapella group of the same name. We couldn’t sit still through their performance and certainly couldn’t even begin to think of leaving. They have been at the Festival before and we have heard them more than once. If they come back when we are here, we will be in the audience again! As we headed for Lutheran Church for Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra with  Ingrid Jensen we had time so we stopped in at Kilbourn for Kurt Rosenwinkle New Quartet. We got seats down front and heard the last number. This was enough to encourage us to return at 10 for the full show.

We stopped in front of the big tent for Wegman’s Sushi before we headed over to Lutheran where it turns out the Jensen group are Canadian not Scandinavian. With something like 20 saxophones and brass on stage it was quite a full house and the sound was very full and even melodic. Ingrid plays trumpet and between brilliant solos and support bits she spent an inordinate amount of time repeating a cycle of adjustments and clearings of her trumpet. I wouldn’t say anything about that except that it became distracting into the third number. We did stay to the end and might have considered coming back tonight if she hadn’t announced that the music would be more “pop” oriented.

After Lutheran, Freshly Ground was just starting in the Big Tent and we took our line chairs and settled in just behind the sound booth for the show. This was a less than brilliant location as the guys in the booth spent a lot of time apparently tracking down some glitch that didn’t seem to be affecting the performance, in my ears. The Afro Pop group is very good and if the rains don’t dampen the crowds ardor they should be a real crowd pleaser at 7 on the East and Chestnut stage. A bit of a side note, Ron Netsky commented on volume levels in his blog the other day so during this seemingly very loud performance I downloaded a Sound Meter App on my phone and got reading of 80 to 83 Db. Later I got the same reading in Kilbourn for Rosenwinkle. The meter says this is the equivalent of a busy street or Alarm Clock. We walked over to Kilbourn at 9:30 expecting to be in line for a few minutes. Instead we walked right in and were able to get our preferred seats. The hall was half empty. It did fill some by show time, but never approached sold out. We did enjoy the rather esoteric performance and I only napped a couple of times, it is definitely catching up with me.

After that we were off to the Plaza for the Jam Session. This night plenty of performers showed up to play including trumpet, sax, trombone and guitar. The featured guitarist for the first set we heard was John Nugent’s wife who has some fine chops of her own. At one point as we were standing watching Steve Gadd came over to Carol and suggested she take the seat he was vacating. We actually got to sit until we could no longer keep our eyes open.

I don’t have a plan for tonight, yet. Carol and I need to get our heads together and come to an agreement and I want to get this posted and she is busy with other things. My picks are The Yellowjackets, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Arstidir, Christine Jensen, and Chatham County Line. It doesn’t seem likely we will get to all of them, but after last night, you never know.

Day 7 we pretty much followed our plan until 10 PM. We really enjoyed Theo Crocker in Kilbourn Hall. Once again we found ourselves sitting next to Ron Netsky chatting about the Festival and the process of writing these blogs and how it differs from other types of writing. Of course he has the advantage of an editor and a deadline (not sure that is an advantage) I just write to please me and Carol sometimes. This also functions as my personal journal so I am inclined to ramble on sometimes – I guess that is what I am doing now. Back to Jazz. The group with Theo were well matched and they all provided excellent solos as well as group performances (I’m reaching for a word that is eluding me). Carol had her heart set on hearing Mama Corn at the Little. Nothing like charging out of fine Jazz to a rambunctious Bluegrass group whose use of corn in their name tells you something about the level of their humor. Their playing and singing were really marvelous and we stayed through the show enjoying every minute, even the corny jokes.

Our plan was to get some food after this act and then head to Xerox to hear Stanley Clarke Band. The food part was easy as Java Joe’s has extended their sandwich hours and they still had some choices in the case when we walked in at 8:20. Carol had brought her food from home and we took a table just inside the door where the sound from Soul Stew on the Jazz Street Stage was muffled down to a tolerable level. Walking past the stage the sound level was painful. We then trotted over to Xerox, well we trotted once we waded though the full body massage next to the stage. At Xerox we joined a steady stream of people headed to the same destination. I asked the volunteer with the clicker at the door what the count to that point was and she said 544. The hall has a big sign “Max Capacity 700”. By the time everyone was settled they were at that capacity. Stanley Clarke is a big draw even with a band of very young performers. The drummer was incredible, Carol says he was inventing new sounds as he went. I won’t argue (wouldn’t win anyhow). I am not sure I ever remember hearing a drummer maintain double time on the bass drum for such an extended time while blending in everything else at his command. He took one ride that went more than five minutes (remember Take Five) and the audience and the band were ready for him to go longer. Stanley Clarke played a couple of numbers with the group on bass guitar and then switched to stand up bass and took off on a solo excursion that must have lasted 25 or 30 minutes – I was not checking my watch. So after Wednesday night when Omer burned the place down with his bass on that very stage, Clarke finished the job. There was no energy left in the audience until the rest of the band took off to fill us with the desire for MORE!

What followed was really anticlimax and we were not able to sit still for long. We stopped in to Montage for Hallie Loren and I know she had a great voice and the sound was fine even in the outer bar – we couldn’t get into the music room, but the number we heard was a standard and we had no desire to stay for more. We moved on to Max where Ali Jackson Trio were doing a marvelous performance, but again it was tame for the mood we were in. The only group that seemed likely to hold our attention was Sonny Knight and the Lakers in the Big Tent so that is where we closed the formal part of the night. Carol got her Abbots Chocolate and I had some popcorn to go with the mood.

We dropped our stuff at the apartment and walked over to the Plaza. This seemed to be a night for vocalists and not all of them were very good. We had fun sitting at a table talking until some time after 1 when we called it a night and headed across the river.