It was spring today, at least for the day. Walking to the bus was a wonderful experience, until I got to the bus stop on Penn Ave. The walk wasn’t shoveled, not unexpected, but the ice, snow, slush on the ground was black, really black. I guess this comes from the traffic on Penn, but it makes me wonder what I’m getting in my lungs standing there and waiting.

But it was a wonderful day. I did a lot of walking in between classes, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a lot of energy and felt lighter, which I was; no heavy coat, hat or scarf. I missed all of my classes because of the weather last week, so it was nice to get back to them.

The groundhog did not see his shadow this year, so maybe we will have an early spring. That would be sooooo nice.

I spent much of this afternoon at the Apple Store, learning about some of the more exotic features of my new computer. One day I may be posting movies or audio here, but mostly I wanted to learn about iPhoto. Also, I had some other questions I wanted answered. They have something called a "Genius Bar." I made an appointment, and, sure enough, they were able to answer all my questions. I’m impressed. Usually my questions are far beyond what most help desks can answer.

My backyard is filled with snow. When I took this picture, a few days ago, my little tree was glistening in the sunshine with ice on all the branches. Unfortunately my digital camera doesn’t have the capability of showing sparkle.

for the second straight day. Last night my upstairs neighbors went out and shoveled the driveway, no trivial matter. They said they enjoyed the exercise. I think the landlord ought to be doing this.

My Tuesday and Thursday Japanese art class is not meeting this week, so I wasn’t unhappy about staying home yesterday. But then Charna called. Her school was closed and she wanted to go to the health club. I took the car out and drove in the snow. It wasn’t too bad, and I’ve certainly had plenty of experience, coming from Chicago. It’s always the other guys I worry about. Those SUV drivers think they will have no problems in snow. And I’m convinced that the worse driver you are, the more likely you are to buy one of those monsters.

I have another class this afternoon. Haven’t decided yet whether I’m going.

With great difficulty I tore myself away from work on the additional documents I have collected about Charna Rieger and went to two very different, yet very similar storytelling performances. This afternoon I went to a Rakugo performance. This is known as Japanese sit down (as opposed to stand up) comedy. Katsura Koharudanji first gave a talk about many of the aspects of Rakugo, then gave a wonderful performance. Normally this particular art form uses puns and in-jokes intelligible only to the Japanese speaker. Katsura san, who is giving performances around the country for a month, although speaking in Japanese with English surtitles, has tailored his monologue for English speaking audiences. I found him delightful.

This evening I went to a more serious performance, Benjamin Bagby, reciting and singing Beowulf in middle English or Anglo Saxon with surtitles. Again a fabulous performance. Bagby’s voice is perfect for the music he creates.

So, here were two performances from entirely different times and places, with entirely different intentions and very different stories. But the similarities were striking. Both men sit alone on the stage, one on a raised cushion, the other on a small bench. Rakugo uses only a fan and a handkerchief as props, with music provided occasionally by a drum and samisen. Bagby provided his own music using an Anglo Saxon harp, no other props. But both performances are highly stylized and must take years of study to perfect. Both performers were able to hold their audiences in an amazing way. I was glad I made Grandma wait.