Sebastopol

Nights of Music: Martunis

After the piano concert, we made our way to Martunis, a piano bar and Hannah's favorite bar in the city. The scene was something out of a 1930's movie: we made our way to the back of the bar and slid behind a thick curtain into a room filled with people sipping on martinis and swaying their bodies to the sound of old jazz piano standards. Three times I joined the piano man and sang some tunes. It was a lively, music-loving crowd- definitely a recommended spot to hit on a Friday or Saturday night.

Nights of music

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I have had the pleasure of experiencing some wonderful music while staying here in San Francisco. My first night in the city, Hannah took me to a jazz piano concert-a friend of her's who was recently recruited to study at the Thelonious Monk Institute in LA. The concert took place in a beautiful hall that the family rented-with creaky wooden floors and warmly glowing light sconces dipping down from the high ceilings. Hannah, and a group of her friends and I enjoyed cups of red wine as we sat above and watched the show from the balcony. We had a great birds-eye view of the stage. The performer told us after his second piece-that he did not have a set list prepared for the concert,and that most of his songs at his solo concert would be improvised. I watched him as he began each piece, straightening his posture and placing his hands delicately on the keys, then as if the keys told him what to do- his long fingers would start to play and soon they were dancing up and down and all over the keys. The music made us hold our breath, gasp, laugh and tear up. At the end, we were held in a musical trance...unable to speak about the feelings that the music had given to us. Tipsy from the wine, giggles leaked out of our smiling mouths as we descended from the balcony and exited into the cool San Francisco night

San Franciscooo-lala

Im here in San Francisco! I arrived Friday afternoon after a not so tasty plane ride and immediately bought myself two delicious tacos at a cute roadside taco truck. I made my way to Hannah's apartment in the Mission district, where she is surrounded by bookstores, leather stores, Peets Coffee (I go the one in Harvard Square all the time!) and tons of colorful and interesting bars and restaurants. Its great to see this new city and get to know how things happen here. Today I ran the Giant Race Half Marathon, which was a beautiful race that passed along the SF Bay. Pictures to come! Now I am getting ready to make my way into the heart of the city, where I will attend a Rosh Hashannah service at a Temple down there. Its been great to be in the new place and I cant wait to see what other adventures await me here. Happy New Year and I will write again soon! -El