Oxbow Lake

Today (Monday) we are at a little cottage on Oxbow Lake near Speculator, NY with Katie, Savanna and Brendon. It was about a 4-hour drive from home yesterday, a very pleasant drive. When we left, the temp was 95 degrees, but here it is in the low 70s today (and rainy) and last night it was in the 60s. Sunday morning we went to the Guilford Church - another wonderful service which featured the trip to South Dakota (which we had dropped in on last week). After church we went by Andy and Robin Davis' house to give them a hug. They were packing for a trip to Iceland! Then we went to Walker's to get flowers for Betsey's grave - today (Monday the 22nd) is the third anniversary of her death - remembering her  today with love. Then we went home, had a snack and got ready to come to the lake.

Saturday was HOT! We went to Northampton because it was Tamar's birthday, and we ended up playing a new game called Dominion*, and the house was air conditioned. The game was complicated and interesting (unlike any board game I've played) and we were cool. Then we came back to Brattleboro and met John and Cynthia at an Indian restaurant, and it was air conditioned. After that we went to the movies - we saw Yesterday, which we liked a lot, and that was air conditioned. So we survived. By the time we got home, it was bearable with a fan going.

Friday was warm, but I spent the morning at John's, which was comfortable, and then I came back to the house, picked up Ellen and we went to a Marlboro rehearsal, which was not only air-conditioned but also a totally wonderful rehearsal featuring Mitsuko Uchida, in a Schubert Piano Trio which was transcendent. Also on the rehearsal program were the Schubert Ellen gesänge - a trio of songs based on Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake and includes Ave Maria, and a Mozart clarinet trio.

Now we are enjoying a rainy day at the lake and we just had a game of cards called Scotch Bridge or Oh Hell!  You deal ten hands, and bid each hand, but you start with ten cards and go down to one card. Bidding on the basis of one card is tricky!

Mitsuko Uchida

The little cottage at Oxbow Lake

New flowers for Betsey's grave

My friend in the lobby of the Latchis Theater

*Here is a review of Dominion:

"What else is there to say about Dominion, a game that has, in some ways, helped define the last 10 years of board gaming? “Deckbuilding” is nearly as ubiquitous in board game descriptions as “RPG elements” is in video games. While some people may be tired of the genre Dominion created, I think it’s brilliant, and I think it’s inspired some amazing games. 

The concept itself works because there are so many interesting decision angles built in. First, you must decide how to play the cards in your hand. In Dominion this isn’t usually a particularly interesting part of the game, but in some implementations of the genre it’s beautiful. Second, you have to decide which cards to purchase, which is the heart of Dominion

For those who don’t know, you start with a few money cards and a couple of victory point cards in your deck. From those 10 cards you’ll build an empire of sorts, although it’s all contained within your deck. The point of the game is to get victory points, which are also cards, but you can also buy action cards (there are 10 types to choose from each game), and more money.

The decision every single turn of what kind of card to buy is hard enough, but choosing between the cards in the kingdom pile can be agonizing. You have to remember that each time you run out of cards in your deck, you shuffle in the discard pile and restart the deck with whatever new cards you’ve bought included. So what’s going to make your deck better the next time through? What might not be good now but will improve as the game progresses? Maybe one particular card is great, but if you happen to draw it at the same time as the card you just bought previously, it’ll be a dead card.

An Action Card from Dominion

This combination of short term and long term thinking is so tough in Dominion, because while you want to think only about what will improve your deck immediately, you have to always be planning for the end game because it comes so quickly. A typical game of Dominion will last about 20 rounds. Your turns go by quickly but your deck will grow exponentially, as good purchases early game will allow better purchases mid-game, which will allow more victory point purchases late game."

The Film Yesterday:

"To call Jack (Himesh Patel) a "struggling musician" is an understatement. He plays in coffee shops, populated only by his friends. He sings on an empty boardwalk. His childhood friend Ellie (Lily James), who fell in love with him—and his music—when he played Oasis' "Wonderwall" at a talent show in grade school, acts as his manager, giving him pep talks, fired up by her belief in him. He lives with his parents in Suffolk, and is ready to throw in the towel when, one night, the earth experiences a 12-second blackout. During those 12 seconds, Jack is hit by a bus, and when he wakes up in the hospital realizes something weird has happened when he says to Ellie "Will you still feed me when I'm 64?" and she doesn't recognize the lyrics. “Why 64?” she asks with curiosity. Jack races to Google, and no matter what the combination of search terms, no trace of the Beatles is to be found. Curtis has a lot of fun with how absurd it would be if you mentioned "The Beatles” to people and they asked "What's that?" Jack makes the choice to start playing these "lost" songs, passing them off as his own."

That's the basis premise - this failing musician passes off Beatles songs as his own to a world that never heard of the Beatles and becomes an instant star. It explores some but not all the possibilities of that intriguing premise - enough to be quite entertaining. 

Himesh Patel as "Jack"