musician.educator.musicologist

Lost In The Fire

Added on by Taylor Smith.

An Art-School Girlfriend

In the summer of 1999, I went to a two-week jazz workshop at Idyllwild Arts Academy. Idyllwild Arts, formerly known as Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (or ISOMATA), is a fancy boarding school up in the mountains above my hometown (Hemet, CA). To over simplify, it’s a place where really wealthy families send their ambitious musician kids to get them started on their go-to-Juilliard-one-day path. During the summer, the school offers several camp/workshop options for high school students. Despite its close proximity, I didn’t grow up in the type of environment where attending Idyllwild Arts Academy’s various summer offerings were really an option. (Among other things, this would have been well outside my family’s price range.) But, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship doing the summer of 1999, which allowed me to go!

I am well aware that the reason I (and several other Hemet High School students) got a scholarship to go to Idyllwild was because my high school band director, Jeff Tower, was the guy who ran the scholarship program at Idyllwild. Curiously, lots of Hemet kids got scholarships every summer! I know this is a little bit less than fair, but I was definitely grateful for the chance I got to attend the workshop.1

It was a great experience, if for no other reason than I got meet many interesting students, staff, and faculty. I think fondly of many of the experiences I had that summer, especially the fact that I got to “rub shoulders” with some amazing musicians. I still remember (and use!) some of the lessons I learned that summer.2

Being that I was 17 that summer and I was away from home, there was a sizable “social” element to the whole experience as well. To get more to the point: I met and started dating a girl during those two weeks. Because, y’know … of course I did.3 I am half-chuckling as I write this because it all sounds kind of cliché. I was from a working class family in a dusty, mostly agricultural town at the bottom of the mountain. She was from West L.A. My family went camping outside Yellowstone for our summer vacation (which I thought was pretty cool of us!); her family went to Scotland so her dad could play golf at some world-class course. But, the two of us kind of “hit it off” and we had a little summer fling.

Then, of course, we both went home, me to Hemet and she to Santa Monica. We talked on the phone and sent each other letters every few days. When the summer was over, we tried to keep the “relationship” going. I asked her if she wanted to go to my high school’s Homecoming dance; she drove out from Santa Monica to go with me.4 On her way into town, she drove by a few dairies—something almost impossible to avoid if you’re coming into Hemet from the west—and was kind of shocked at what she saw. Basically, she had never seen a dairy farm before and thought those poor cows had gotten their heads stuck between the bars on the fence.

We went to the dance. It was fun. We said our goodbyes afterward. It was all pretty cute and innocent. Then, about a month later, we both kind of came to our sense and realized this whole long-distance-relationship thing was a dumb idea. We broke up on pretty mutual terms and held no hard feelings toward one another.5

Then, I went away to college. She was a year younger than I, so she went back to Idyllwild the summer that I moved away for college and then finished her senior year while I was in my first year of college. I went to college about 1,000 miles away from home, in a place pretty foreign to me in many ways. But, due to the magic of this new fangled thing called the internet, I was able to keep in touch with this girl, the distance and strange-past-relationship-awkwardness notwithstanding. We exchanged emails a few times, and it was kind of cool to relay to her how things were going for me during that first year of college. After that, we pretty much lost contact with one another.

Then, again, due to the magic of the internet and social media, I was able to reconnect with her many years later. We haven’t really said all that much to one another since 2000-ish, perhaps an occasional “Happy Birthday” and the like, but such is growing up and moving on, I suppose.

Then, last week, a horrific fire broke out in L.A. Several, in fact. I have several family members in Los Angeles. My mom grew up in “the Valley,” and some of her siblings raised their families there; I have a few cousins and an aunt and uncle who still live in the area. One group of cousins lives particularly close to some of the more fire-prone areas of the city. Everyone I could think of that lives in the areas nearest this spout of fires seemed to be pretty safe, which was reassuring.

As so much time had passed, and I knew this girl from 1999 had since moved up to the Bay Area, it didn’t even cross my mind that she might have been affected by the fires. I try to stay off of Facebook, but it’s kind of one of those things that 1. Draws you in and, 2. Comes in as pretty useful when stuff like this comes up. So, I happened to get on Facebook around the time these fires were exploding and I saw a message from her (not to me personally, of course, just a generic post on her “wall”). Her childhood home in Pacific Palisades had burned to the ground. Just like that, everything was gone.

This is awful. There is nothing more to say, really.

A Legend’s Losses

A day or two ago, I also caught word that one of Los Angeles’s most celebrated bassists (and in all of jazz, really)—John Clayton—lost his house (including his instruments!) in the Eaton fire. The Eaton fire hasn’t gotten quite as much attention as the one in Pacific Palisades, mostly because that’s not as famous (or wealthy) of an area of L.A., but it has been pretty destructive as well.

I met John Clayton is 1998-ish, shortly after I started playing bass. I went to a workshop at the University of Redlands (I think) where he was one of the clinicians. In our discussion, he asked me to name some bass players that I liked, some players that I looked up to. The fact was, I hadn’t been playing long enough—or done enough “homework”—to really give much of an answer, so I said “Rufus Reid.” I had seen a book by him at some point in my bass journey and that was the first name that came to mind. Then, he asked for another name, and I named the only other player I could think of, “Charlie (sic.) Mingus.” I honestly don’t think I had ever even heard a Charles Mingus tune (or any of his playing) at that point; he was just a name I had seen in a book. Luckily, John Clayton didn’t ask me to name anyone else, because that was literally the entire roster of bass players I could name at the time!

Anyway, John Clayton, through his teaching at USC, and his own study with the late, great Ray Brown, has had a huge influence on an entire generation of bass players, especially on the West Coast. And, here we are, again, everything is gone in an instant.

So? (and, Why the politics?!)

There is no real “point” to any of this, save the fact that these are two people with whom I have had personal (and musical) connections whose lives have been turned upside down over the past two weeks. We’ve been lucky down here in San Diego—this time—in that we’ve avoided this round of awful natural disasters. Back in 2007 (just before we moved here) we weren’t so lucky; I have more than a few colleagues who lost their homes in those fires. Unfortunately, seasonal wildfires are part of the natural ecosystem around here, and there is only so much we can do to try to “push back” against that.

You have probably seen a lot of folks pointing fingers at elected officials, civic leaders, and even everyday Californians themselves about how this is actually their fault. It’s disgusting. But, what could be more “America in the 21st Century” than taking any situation and twisting it to use as a club with which to beat your political “enemy?”

As always, ‘Merica!

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1 I’ll take whatever “leg up” I can get, sometimes.

2 Something I think about almost everyday, which the magnificent Marshall Hawkins taught me: You know the bass player is good when you can’t tell the bass player is good. I am extremely lucky to be able to trace my bass “genealogy” straight to Marshall Hawkins. It kind of boggles my mind that I am lucky enough to count him as one of my musical mentors!

3 That makes sense, right? Start dating a girl when you know you’re both leaving in a few weeks and that’ll all turn out just fine.

4 This was a totally “normal” thing in my mind—going to the Homecoming dance—but, to her, it was foreign, almost goofy. I guess high school dances weren’t really something she and her social group really did; it was totally normal for me.

5 I did run into her later that year at a choir competition thing in Palm Desert. This was more or less my “backyard,” but her school had traveled quite a distance to participate in the festival. It was pretty weird to see her again. I am not sure why, exactly, but it was more than a little awkward.

A Top 10 List?

Added on by Taylor Smith.

My daughter is 19. Being that both of her parents are musicians, she has been around music her whole. I have tried to do my “fatherly duty” of making sure I instilled some sense of understanding around music history, aesthetics, and the like. Of course, being more than twenty years younger than I, her ideas of what constitute “good music” are different from mine. But, I think she at least has a pretty good handle on being able explain why she likes the music she does, which is the best I could probably do.

A few days ago, she asked me—via text message, of course—what my “top 10 goat albums [sic.]” are. List like this are always “problematic” (which is a word I am starting to really dislike), and are nearly impossible to do “right.” So, I tried to not really overthink it that much and sent her this:

In no particular order:

Kid A

Pet Sounds

Abbey Road

Kind Of Blue

Music For Airports

Bitches Brew

Hunky Dory

Highway 61 Revisited

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Thriller

Of course, my biases are reflected, here. But, this is what I came up with at that moment; if she asked again today I might have a different answer.

But, almost immediately after writing something like this down I start to feel a need to “defend” my choices. I start to anticipate all of the “what about?” comments or the scorns of folks who will tell me about all of the reasons this list is “bad,” and on and on. Spending the last 16+ years in academia have really worn out my patience with all of that and I have often just retreated into a pattern of not saying anything about anything so long as there is any chance that it can (’cause it will!) be misinterpreted or misconstrued. As I write this, I can practically hear the calls from my fellow musicologists or (even worse) folks from outside musicology who all want to voice their concerns about how this list is “toxic” or “a tool of white supremacy” or some other mot du jour about how this is all wrong.

This frustration and disillusionment is something I want to try to tackle more, here. But, for now, just enjoy the list.1

  1. Or, even better, find a way to listen to everything on the list! ↩︎

“This Too Shall Pass”

Added on by Taylor Smith.

I know I am not alone in my feelings of disillusionment over how things have ended up with the most recent (2024) presidential election. I know several people who are pretty distraught and confused about “how this happened.” I have seen many, many “think pieces” and articles that try to untangle the web of how we landed where we did. There is plenty of “blame” to go around, and all of us out here in left field are pointing fingers all over the place, including lots of “the left’s” favorite tactic: a circular firing squad.

The last time Donald Trump was elected—it still feels kind of awful to even say that phrase—I wrote a bit about my questions and concerns. Many of them are still with me. I also put some ideas down at the end of 2021, when we had finally started to crawl our way out of the COVID isolation and mayhem. Much of what I said, there, was connected to the feelings of discomfort and discombobulation I felt at the beginning of (and throughout) the Trump era.1

Islam in Spain

At the beginning of this year, having just gotten back from my four-month sabbatical in Northern Spain, I was extra interested in all things Spanish. I was reading some of Ted Gioia’s writing at An Honest Broker and was intrigued by something he mentioned about the development and spread of musical ideas in Medieval Europe.

Essentially, he highlighted the city or Córdoba and its central role position as something of a “capital” of Medieval Europe. To oversimplify his idea: we can thank Islam and the influence of Moorish culture for the development of the ballad and the music traditionally associated with the troubadours and trouvères of Medieval France; something very similar had been going on in Córdoba for a hundred years or more before it caught on north of the Pyrenees. This musical-artistic tradition wasn’t so much “invented” by French poets and musicians like Guillaume de Machaut or Phillipe de Vitry; they absorbed much of the central idea from their Muslim neighbors to the south. This was all part of a larger point that Gioia makes in his book Music: A Subversive History, which is that artistic innovation tends to happen in places where cultures and people “collide;” its not a coincidence that so many musical innovations happen in prominent port cities and among those otherwise regarded as the “riff raff” of society (think of New Orleans, Liverpool, or … Córdoba).

Anyway, in his article he mentioned a book that scratched a whole lot of my post-living-in-Spain itches. The book is titled The Ornament Of The World. It’s something like a love note to how great Córdoba was during its “Golden Age.” I was able to track down a copy of The Ornament Of The World from my local library and I read through it pretty quickly.2

In looking for this book, I also found another: The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval. It is, more or less, a rebuttal to The Ornament Of The World. I didn’t devour The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise quite as rabidly as I did the first book. Perhaps this is a testament to its “goodness” as a book. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is definitely meant for a more “scholarly” audience, whereas The Ornament Of The World is an easier read for a general audience. It also made some good points, and, as with many things, I suppose the “truth” lies somewhere in between these two “takes” on the story.

All of that setup was to arrive here: reading these books got me to rethink a bit about societal permanency (which is a word combination/concept I just made up … or at least one I haven’t heard or read before). Today, we know Spain as a unified country that occupies most of the Iberian peninsula, but it wasn’t always this way.3 There was a very long period wherein Spain was a disjointed group of a few different factions, some with very different religions and cultures. The one we’re talking about, here, is the period between roughly 750 and 1500 when a sizable chunk of Spain was part of the “Muslim world.” To, again, oversimplify things a bit, Spanish culture and religion during the 1100s had as much or more in common with that of Baghdad as it did with Paris or Rome. The Umayyads set up a caliphate, a “capital of the Muslim world,” in Spain in the 8th century.4

It would have been completely normal, it would have seemed as if it had always been thus, for someone living in Iberia to think of “Spain” as a Muslim country. They likely thought this was the way things were “supposed to be.” If you look at Islam’s dominance in Spain, you can see that it held on as the official state-sponsored religion until as late as 1492 in some corners of the country.5 This means that a kid growing up in Granada in 1300 inherited a life where Islam was the dominant religion and Arabic was the lingua franca. These things had been in place for more than 500 years, so they almost certainly felt like they were “the norm” and this was how things were “supposed to be.” It’s a bit hard to imagine that world, at least for me, as it is so different from what things are like, now. And, most importantly, the “what-it’s-like-now” situation is only about 500 years old.

The Ancient Greeks and Democracy

Another example of what I am trying to express might be the Greeks’ experiments with democracy a few thousand years ago. Supposedly, most of “the West’s” ideas about democracy come from this batch of philosophers and writers in Ancient Greece; these wise guys came up with the ideas upon which most of modern Western society is now based. And, supposedly, it’s the best system we’ve ever come up with as a species. I think it’s probably safe to say that most of us would agree that it’s a pretty good central idea; everyone should have “a say” in how they are governed.

But, for all of the greatness of this idea, we don’t have an incredibly long track record of successfully implementing it. The Ancient Greeks—the social context from which we got the idea—were only able to make this system of social organization last about a few hundred years at most.6 So, even the first (and best?) pre-American version of this ideal social structure was pretty short-lived and was, ultimately, some version of a failure.

I am pretty sure that the Greeks thought they had solved the problem of “How To Run A Society,” and yet, their utopia (if you can call it that) only lasted a few generations. Those in the middle of it, though, probably thought, things were finally as they should be, and they would remain that way in perpetuity.

So?

I am not sure what any of this really means, except that I am finding some solace in the temporary-ness of so much that feels inescapable at the moment.

There are a lot of things that feel like they’re changing right now. Many of these things are things so many of us have taken for “granted,” as things that just are supposed to be this way (and seemingly always have been). But, I have started to notice how “shaky” so much of this is. We thought things worked this way, but maybe it we’ve just been in a transition period toward something drastically different for a while; maybe in a few hundred years people will look back and see this moment as part of a larger, century-long transition to what will then seem like “the way things should be.”

I honestly think we are witnessing the beginnings of a fundamental, drastic shift in “the world as we know it.” I think we are witnessing the beginning of the fall of the United States as we have known it for 200+ years. I’d like to think that the post-Enlightenment values we’ve inherited, values like reason and intellectual inquiry over superstition and dogma, values like respect for human dignity and our common “humanity,” will remain important to whatever comes next, but I can’t really say for certain where this is all leading. We like to believe that history “bends toward justice,” but we’ve seen it go in all sorts of weird directions, and I am not sure any of us really know what’s coming.

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1 I still think the things that “shook” me the most about all of that—COVID and Trump—are how fundamentally so many people seemed to change. There were so many people I looked up to when I was younger, people who I thought were good, honest, decent people; people who cared about right and wrong and were thoughtful in how they interacted with the world so as to maximize their positive impact. I watched so many of these people turn into absolute monsters. They spewed horrific insults; they believed wild, unfounded things, things that painted the world in an entirely different light than what they had once presented. All of this made me feel like there was no explanation for any of these save some sort of cult-like programming.

2 For some reason, I am a very fickle reader. Some books take me ages to finish; others take a few days. I guess it has something to do with how interesting I find the writing or the individual writers’ skill or something … I can’t always figure out which books are going to grab me and which won’t.

3 I know this is one of those “of course” kinds of points. Just hang tight for a few more sentences and I’ll come around to making a better point … I think.

4 There were also other “capitals” of Islam in Baghdad, Damascus, and Persia (among other places) throughout the Middle Ages and European Renaissance.

5 Of course, the period directly after this was particularly dogmatic and even bloody. What we now call the “Inquisition” was a direct effort to Christianize the entire peninsula at the tip of a sword.

6 And, some would say they never had a true democracy, given that only some people were allowed to participate.

Madrid

Added on by Taylor Smith.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had visitors throughout the month of November of last year. My wife’s parents and my mom both came to visit, and their time overlapped by about a week. We planned a trip to Madrid around this time that they overlapped.

My wife’s parents had already been with us for about a week before we left for Madrid. We took them to several of the places in Northern Spain (including our first trip to San Sebastián and Potes) during that week. Then, we drove down to Madrid, with a stop in Burgos along the way. We arranged for my mom to fly into Madrid rather than Bilbao as part of this arrangement, so we were on a bit of a timetable with our need to pick her up at the Madrid airport.

The Capital of Spain

Of course, most people probably know Madrid is the largest city in Spain and that it is the capital city. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t know a whole lot else about Madrid before we decided to move to Spain. I think I might have known there were some famous art museums, but that’s about it.1

Madrid is more or less in the center of Spain. I don’t know for sure, but I think this is partly why it was made the capital of the country. It isn’t as old or historically well-established as some of the country’s other areas—it doesn’t have easy access to any of the major ports or other avenues of international trade of the past—but it is certainly Spain’s central city nowadays (in more ways than one). So, it seemed a little weird to live in Spain for the time we did and not make an effort to see the country’s cultural and political capital.2

A Trip to the Airport

As I said, we arranged for my mom to fly into Madrid and we agreed to pick her up at the airport. The family with whom we exchanged homes left two cars for us, so we took the bigger of the two through Burgos and met my mom at the Madrid airport. We timed everything just about right, even though it took us a while to figure out where we could park the car. I ended up going inside the airport to try to make things a bit easier on my mom, but while I was inside I saw her standing in a designated “pick up” area. So, I quickly ran outside to grab her and make our way back to the car (where my wife, son, and in-laws were waiting).

This was not my mom’s first time flying internationally, but (I think) it was her first time in Europe. She seemed to handle all of the difficulties well, including fighting through whatever jet lag she might have had.

We met up with a family the my wife (and her parents) knew from Sacramento for dinner and a quick tour of the Plaza Mayor area of the city. He is living in Madrid doing PhD research of some kind or another. He had only been living in Madrid for a few months, but he gave us what he was able as far as quick info and a tour.

Paella

I hate to say it, but I am not a huge fan of paella. It’s usually fine, but it has never really been something that grabs me as a “culinary experience.” Paella is kind of like the “national dish” of Spain. It is most specifically associated with València and the surrounding areas, but it’s probably the food most people readily associate with Spain. We had some Valèncian paella in València (including the traditional rabbit meat (and chicken)). But, since we were in a new place with new company (my mom) and that’s kind of “what you do” in Spain, my mom and I got some paella from a restaurant in Plaza Mayor. It wasn’t great. In fact, my mom’s was pretty “meh” at best. But, “when in Rome” I s’pose.3

In fact, pretty much every time I ate paella in Spain it was just kind of “okay.” It was never the sort of thing that was memorable or outstanding. This could be because we never went to the right place(s), or we were in too “touristy” of areas to get the authentic stuff or, maybe I just don’t really like paella. I will say, I have had better(in my opinion, of course) paella in San Diego than I had in any of the places I tried it in Spain. In general, I found Spanish food to be lacking in spice—everything was a little on the bland side, even when it was billed as “picante.” The family that lived in our house actually commented a bit about this at one point. They found some hot sauce in our cupboard and used and … wow was it spicy! So, maybe I am just used to the extra-extra-spicy nature of most Mexican food, seeing as that is the majority of what we eat at my house.4

Art and Music

We only really spent one full day in Madrid, which is hardly enough. We arrived in the afternoon on one day and left in the afternoon two days later, so you might be able to make the case that we spent two days, total in the city, but that’s a stretch.

We spent most of that one day trying to cram as many sights in as possible. We went to the royal palace and central cathedral. We saw some of the iconic architecture along Gran Via (kind of like the Spanish version of Times Square) and walked through El Retiro (the city’s main park). All of it was great but kind of quick.

My in laws really wanted to see a flamenco show while in Spain (again, the whole “when in Rome,” thing). Technically, flamenco is native to Andalusia (Southern Spain), but you can find shows spread out all across the country. (Again, it has come to be seen as “the” Spanish music and dance, even if it’s origins are from a specific corner of the country and from a specific population … the Roma in this case … which is to say, it’s technically not even really a “Spanish” style in as much as it is a style that developed among non-Spaniards living in a formerly-Muslim-controlled area of Spain.

Anyway, they wanted to see a flamenco show—as did my mom—but we were certain my son (14 at the time) would just be a pill about all of it, so we encouraged them to book a reservation while we (my wife, my son, and I) wandered around the city a bit more.

While we were looking for the flamenco venue, we found some especially interesting areas of the city. I don’t really know what this scene is even about, except that it’s a great visual and was a cool thing to stumble across while we looked for the venue.

Free Admission Just Before Closing

We dropped the old-timers off at the flamenco venue and headed out to see what we could see.

As we were exploring, we became aware of the fact that the Reina Sofía, one of the main art museums in Madrid, has free admission for the last hour it is open. Though we wanted to, we hadn’t really planned on going to the museum—again, the whole sometimes-kind-of-whiny-teenage-son, thing—but now we realized we really should. So, we hurried to get in the freeloaders’ line at the museum. We also sent a message to the old folks—whose flamenco show would get out in time for them to make it to the museum … if they hurried—and eventually made it into the museum.5

The museum’s most famous work is almost certainly Picasso’s Guernica. If we say nothing else, we wanted to see that. And we did. It was awesome! We were able to get a “front row” of the work, something we had heard could be difficult. It was great.

The museum is also home to several Dalí masterworks, which we saw after rushing to see the Picasso. I also liked an exhibit they had of covers of different editions of the Great Bear Pamphlet. I hadn’t ever heard of this publication, but I was especially excited to see one by John Cage.

Spanish Shoes

Our stay in Madrid concluded with some quick souvenir shopping the next morning (or course). Ever since we were in Italy I had been on the lookout for some shoes. My wife bought a really cool pair of black leather shoes in Florence and I had been kind of jealous ever since. We walked by a few shoe stores the night before so I thought it would be a good time to look a little harder.

I ended up buying a simple pair of shoes. They are a nice tan suede, nothing super special. In fact, they are quite basic, really. They have almost no padding or any “features” to speak of; they are just some suede sewn to a rubber sole. But, I like them a lot. I actually wear them pretty often. I kind of like “souvenirs” that are a but more useful than the usual kitschy stuff; I like my souvenirs to be somewhat unique but also things that are on the more practical end of things. These shoes are a nice reminder of the time we spent in Spain (and in Madrid particularly).

  1. And, it turns out, there are some great museums in Madrid, some that might rival those in Paris! ↩︎

  2. Although, we didn’t visit Barcelona, which is a bit of a bummer. ↩︎

  3. Or, “when in Madrid” in this case. ↩︎

  4. Maybe not “extra extra,” but still Mexican and spicy. ↩︎

  5. My mom and my in-laws made it before the museum closed, just long enough for them to see one of its main attractions. They were pretty proud of themselves for figuring out how to get there on their own and on time. ↩︎

Denmark in November

Added on by Taylor Smith.

My wife’s cousin and his family moved to Denmark (from Oregon) in August 2019. We have been to Europe twice since then but haven’t made it all the way to Denmark to visit them. Earlier this year, my wife was talking with her cousin’s wife and she mentioned that their time in Denmark might be coming to an end sometime soon. And, since my wife seems to really enjoy looking for great deals on travel, this got her looking for a way for us to travel to Denmark sometime in the not-too-distant future.

So, we flew to Copenhagen on Sunday and we will fly home on Tuesday of next week.

Jet Lag This Time

In all of our traveling, I have never had a terrible problem with jet lag.1 But, this trip has been pretty tricky so far (it has only been a day, of course, and I am sure it’ll be fine, soon.) I had a hard time staying awake on the train ride from Copenhagen out to the town where we are now (near Billund) and I simply couldn’t stay asleep past about 4:00 this morning.

First Impressions

I don’t really want to make many pronouncements on Denmark, Danes, or any of the things we’ve seen thus far. I have fallen into a trap of making hasty statements about what I thought about certain places that I later almost completely regretted.2Still, my first impressions of Denmark are not entirely what I thought they would be. I’ll have to get “out and about” a bit more before I can really say I have any sort of “feel” for the country, the culture, etc.

Darkness

One thing that is a little bewildering, however, is just how dark it is in general, and how accustomed everyone is to this fact. Today, the sun will rise around 8:30 and set just before 4:00; this amounts to under eight hours of sunshine during the day. This is very different from what I am used to, of course. It was a little strange to me to see so many people just carrying on with life despite how dark it was so early in the evening. Of course, these folks don’t really have much of a choice, but it was still kind of bewildering to see the streets crammed with people just going about their business even though it was getting dark at 4:15.

It’s 6:30 in the morning, now. Like I said, I have already been up for a few hours, and it’ll still be a few more before it’s light outside.


  1. Actually, as I am saying this, I am remembering the first morning back from our stay in Spain being pretty awful. ↩︎

  2. See my quick “thumbs down” on Amsterdam back in 2019. ↩︎

Burgos

Added on by Taylor Smith.

When the idea of doing a sabbatical/semester abroad first entered our heads, Spain was not one of the places we envisioned ourselves spending that time. I don’t think I had anything against Spain, necessarily, but given the fact that I speak French fluently, it was much easier to picture us ending up in some francophone locale. Back when my wife and I took our first part-way-across-Europe trip during the summer of 2019, we both really fell “in love,” so to speak, with Belgium and The Netherlands. So much so, in fact, that I started to do what I could to teach myself how to speak Dutch. Therefore, ending up in France, Belgium, or The Netherlands seemed most likely.

As I studied French in high school and throughout college (and beyond), I also studied several aspects of French history, art, architecture, politics, and lots of other French-language-related tidbits. One of my favorite parts of this was seeing the many, many examples of beautiful, majestic French architecture, especially the famous Gothic cathedrals.1 This is why I insisted that we go to the tiny town of Chartres when we were in France in 2019, despite the fact that it was a little inconvenient (requiring that we rent a car, among other things).

When the opportunity to “change our plans” presented itself, I started reading and learning about Spanish culture, history, geography, and other Spain-related things as a way to prepare a bit for our time en España. Of course, Spain has been around for a long time, and it has a long, complex history; the eight months I had to prepare weren’t nearly enough to go over anything resembling “all” of it. But, since I was already pretty interested in architecture and since my sabbatical project was tangentially connected to the art form, I was a bit more attentive to examples of “Gothic” Spanish architecture.

The words we use to describe things (words like “gothic,” “renaissance,” etc.) can mean different things, depending on the context and rigidity of the definitions. Thus, to say “Spanish” and “gothic” in the same description could, depending on lots of things, be a bit of a misnomer.

To be fair, I actually don’t know that much about architecture. I maybe shouldn’t even be talking about it in any sort of “authoritative” voice. I am just a “fan,” so to speak, and I loved learning the bits about it that I did in my French language and history classes throughout high school and college.

“French Gothic” in Spain

All of this was the long way of saying that I read a bit about some of Spain’s most important architectural sites, and one church came up over and over again: Cathedral of Saint Mary of Burgos. This, I read, was Spain’s most prominent example of what most of us think of when we picture a “gothic” cathedral. To put it one way, the cathedral in Burgos is the “Frenchest” of Spain’s gothic cathedrals.

Burgos’s cathedral does bear a pretty striking resemblance to some of France’s more famous gothic cathedrals. It is especially “flamboyant.”

So, with all of the traveling I hoped we would do during our stay in Spain, I had the Burgos Cathedral on my list of “must” sees. This seemed an especially safe thing to add to the “must” list since, at least on a map, it looked like Burgos wasn’t incredibly far away from Santander.

A Visit to Madrid

We had an influx of visitors (both my wife’s parents and my mom) a the beginning of November, and we decided to drive to Madrid as part of their visits. We arranged to have my mom fly into Madrid, so among other things, this trip was to meet up with her, there.

And, of course, Burgos is right on the way between Santander and Madrid (or is, at the very least, not very far out of the way). So, I made sure we stopped.

We were not disappointed. My wife even mentioned that she thought the Burgos Cathedral seemed like it might be the biggest and most impressive we’ve visited.2Check out the photos, below! I did my best to capture the majesty of it all, but, my crappy photography skills and an iPhone camera can only do so much.

A Total Solar Eclipse in 2026

When the total solar eclipse made its way across the US earlier this year, I got a little curious about when/where the next one would happen. And, it turns out, there will be a total solar eclipse traveling straight across Spain in 2026, with “the path of totality” passing right through Burgos. We are in the early stages of planning a trip to see Burgos (again) and the solar eclipse (for the first time)!


  1. Notre-Dame de Paris holds a special place in the development of Western music, which makes that particular place even more “in my wheelhouse.” ↩︎

  2. It isn’t the biggest we’ve visited. But, it still might be the most impressive! ↩︎

Picos de Europa and Potes

Added on by Taylor Smith.

My wife’s parents are pretty seasoned travelers. For her dad, though, this is a pretty recent phenomenon. He ventured out of North America for the first time when he was in his late sixties. In fact, the first time he left the continent was to come on a trip with my wife and me back in 2019. We (my wife and I) visited places scattered across Europe that summer—we spent a whole month there—and we met up with my in-laws for the last ten days or so. They joined us in London, then we went to Paris (and a few other places in Northern France) and Antwerp.

Since that trip, my in-laws have been to New Zealand and Spain (to visit us) and my mother-in-law has been to the UK even more recently!

The fact that we were living in Spain for four months and had room for visitors was enough of an incentive to get a few different groups of people to come visit, including my in-laws.1 They came to visit in early November (and were followed by a few other visitors within the same month).

Of course, we took them to see as many of the sights in and around Santander as we could, including a nice trip to Santillana del Mar and Comillas. We visited El Capricho (a funky house designed by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí) and the ruined 14th century church which has been converted to a cemetery (one of my wife’s favorite spots).

A tower at El Capricho

A tower at El Capricho. I think the whole house looks like it is made of Legos.

Rural Cantabria

We had been meaning to venture farther into the rural areas around us ever since we arrived. We have driven through some of these areas (especially those between Santander and Bilbao), but hadn’t really spent a lot of time actually exploring the area. My in laws’ visit seemed like the perfect excuse to see what we could see if we ventured off the “beaten path” a bit.

Picos de Europa

There is a mountain range (and national park) in Cantabria and Asturias called Picos de Europa, part of which is visible from Santander on a clear day. They are very imposing mountains, easily as dramatic-looking as most of the mountain ranges I have seen in person. From what I understand, these mountains got their name from the fact that they are among the first things in continental Europe you can see if you are aboard a ship coming from the Americas; hence they are “the peaks of Europe.” Like I said, we had been meaning to go explore the area for a few months by the time we actually did it, and we were not disappointed!

A mountain peak in the Picos de Europa National Park

Driving through the mountains, my wife kept commenting on how spectacular the mountains looked. She said, “I have never been to Switzerland, but I can’t imagine it looks any more amazing than this!” In some ways, the mountains kind of reminded me of the Tetons, rising dramatically from the valley floor with lots of exposed granite.

Our “final destination” in the mountains was a cable car that whisks you up into the central massif at a point called Fuente Dé. The temperature difference between the valley floor and the height of the top station of the cable car was something we weren’t quite prepared for! There were pockets of snow on the ground and a very aggressive biting wind that cut right through our thin coats.

My wife, likely freezing, after riding the cable car at Fuente Dé

Potes

On the way up to Fuente Dé we drove through a few towns, including an extremely charming village called Potes. Our host family (the people in whose home we lived in Santander) had mentioned how much they loved Potes, but it wasn’t until this trip that we had ventured to see what it was all about.

We found a restaurant that was open and had a nice meal inside. (As is typical—especially in rural Spain—many businesses close in the afternoon for the famous Spanish siesta, which can make it tricky to find food or other amenities if your timing is a bit off … and most Americans’ “internal clocks”—ours included—are set to be pretty “off” of typical Spanish daily life.) The waiter didn’t speak English much at all, so I got some practice with my Spanish-speaking abilities.2

I can definitely see why our hosts said they loved this village so much. There was so much “old world charm” around every corner! It is a quaint and beautiful little town (as these pictures can probably communicate)!

A bridge in Potes

The “True Cross”

Outside of Potes there is a monastery that (supposedly) houses the largest surviving piece of the “true cross,” which is to say, a small sliver of the actual cross upon which Jesus was crucified.3 2023 was designated as a “jubilee year” for this particular relic, meaning there are special perks for making a pilgrimage to see this relic. We stopped into the church—I was surprised to find it empty— and got a faint glimpse of this relic (no photos allowed). We didn’t see anyone who was there on a pilgrimage (at least not obviously).

Interior of the monastery

We saw signs near many churches in Northern Spain with symbols indicating the direction of the Camino de Santiago, which often included two symbols. I didn’t realize until we were at this particular church that one of these symbols was meant to indicate that this was the direction toward this particular relic at this church. The other symbol was showing the way to Santiago de Compostela. I knew the Santiago symbol was kind of like a stylized seashell, but since I always saw it alongside a cross, I just figured the two symbols were somewhat synonymous. But, in this area, we saw signs showing just the cross (without the usual seashell), which clued me into the fact that cross symbol was always pointing toward this relic/pilgrimage site … it just happened that the churches we had visited were far enough away from both “endpoints” that the signs pointed in the same direction. (The “main” route of the Camino de Santiago is significantly south of where we spent most of our time in Spain. The signs we would see in Santander and Bilbao (and Oviedo and Gijón) were for the “Northern Way,” which follows the coast most of the way (and allows you to see this piece of the true cross along the way.).)

An example of th signs we saw scattered around Northern Spain, indicating the path of the Camino de Santiago.

A similar sign, but without the indication of the Camino de Santiago. This one points only to the “true cross” relic.













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1 More on these other visitors, soon … I hope.

2 The good news? No one ended up with some sort of weird food due to a misunderstanding. Everyone got what they thought they were getting. :)

3 Supposedly, there are enough of these small slivers of the true cross spread across churches in Europe and the Middle East that one could build four or five crosses.

Trying to Finish What I Started

Added on by Taylor Smith.

Disappearing in Spain

Looking at this blog, it would be pretty easy to assume my stay in Spain ended with our trip to Italy way back in October. But, that’s not at all true. I guess my enthusiasm for keeping my blog updates kind of petered out around then. I think part of that is because we had visitors for the whole month of November, which kept us pretty busy. But, we were busy doing things, which is/was exactly the sort of thing I was trying to document, here.

Then, we came home to and I got busy again doing “life stuff” and I haven’t posted anything since November 1, 2023. The counterintuitive thing is that I generally enjoy writing, I find it kind of therapeutic, so when we got back home and I got busy with “life stuff,” it might have actually made me more stressed about all of that “life stuff” to ignore my blog and writing in general.

Isn’t that how it always seems to go?

Returning to Writing … Again

So, here I am with a whole semester between me and my last entry. Like I said, I actually find some solace in writing, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that I tend to stop when things get busy. But, now that my first post-sabbatical semester is over, my head feels less crowded and I have an itch to try to revisit this space and kind of “pick up where I left off.”

Stay tuned for more info on the end of our stay in Spain and for more posts in general … probably :)

on Our Week In Italy

Added on by Taylor Smith.

We got back from Italy yesterday. It was nice to have another mini “vacation.”1 (I started writing this almost a month before publishing … sorry for the weird timeline.)

A Five-Hour-Delayed Flight

Things got off to a pretty rough start. We hurried to the Santander airport on Monday morning to find that our flight was delayed. In fact, it wasn’t just delayed, it had been re-routed to a nearby airport. So, they loaded all of us onto buses and drove us to an airport almost two hours away. When all was said and done, we made it to Rome safely, but we were almost five hours behind schedule!

Our initial plan was to drive from Rome to Pisa (and then to Florence) after we landed. But, since we were so far behind our schedule, we had to skip Pisa and drive straight for Florence.2

Driving in Italy

Driving in Italy was stressful. So many scooters to try to avoid! And, Italian drivers treat the lane markers on the road as suggestions, which can get pretty scary if you’re not used to it. Things got easier the longer I drove—though we also got farther outside the city the farther we went—but I still felt nervous every time I got behind the wheel. Luckily, we basically drove from Rome to Florence and then left the car parked until we left Florence; then, we drove to Pisa, parked for a few hours, and drove to Rome where we parked long-term again (only moving the car one time, for about two minutes).

Florence

I think I have heard my wife talk about wanting to visit Florence someday more than just about any other place. So, she was really excited to get out and see the city as soon as possible.3 But, since we arrived so late, all we could do was climb in bed and try to make plans for the following day.

Duomo

Florence’s central cathedral is likely its most famous landmark. It is certainly the thing I knew the most about before visiting the city. (Well, that and Michelangelo’s David, of course.) The cathedral’s massive dome dominates the skyline in nearly every photograph of the city. We were probably half a mile away when we spotted the dome. As we got closer, we could see just how big it is.

We were especially shocked to see:

  1. How big the cathedral itself is, and

  2. How colorful and ornate the cathedral is on the outside.

I have seen and been inside several European cathedrals, some of them on the more famous side of spectrum (Chartres, Köln, Notre Dame [de Paris … outside only], Strasbourg, and others) and most of these have a lot in common; Florence is very different from these (in a good way!). There is no “spire” and there is a noticeable lack of stained glass windows. These things tend to feature pretty prominently in French gothic cathedrals, but not in Italy, I have learned. The outside of the cathedral is made of a striking combination of white and green marble arranged in geometric patterns and stripes. Of course, the large dome is the most striking—and most famous—part of the cathedral; I knew it was big, but I didn’t know it was that big. You can actually climb up inside the dome (since the secret to its construction is that it is actually two domes), but the tickets sell out weeks in advance if not more, and we didn’t know to look into it ahead of time.

Art Museums (Uffizi and Accademia Galleries)

Florence was essentially the birthplace of the Renaissance, and as a result, the place is bursting at the seams with late-Medieval–early-Baroque art. We visited both of the city’s most famed art museums, the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery.

We first visited the Uffizi Gallery, which was one of the first public art galleries in the world. The crowd inside was close to unbearable at times, but we did find some respite here and there. The museum is organized in a more or less chronological fashion, which is nice; some of the first things you see are works by Giotto and the last things are by Caravaggio.4 I wish I had been paying attention a bit more to the organization, and therefore the subtle changes in style over the length of the visit. Instead, I was annoyed by the size of the crowd and the number of “professional” tour guides with large groups in tow that kind of ruin the whole experience for everyone.

We visited the Accademia Gallery on the following day. The crowd outside was terrible, but once we were inside it wasn’t as bad as we were expecting. Unfortunately, getting tickets to this museum more or less requires that you buy them from a third party; the tickets go on sale thirty days ahead of time and sell out within seconds, only then to pop up on sometimes-shady-looking third-party websites with a markup. So, we (like everyone else, I assume) had to get tickets this way, which only makes the crowd outside worse. An awesome surprise for us was the museum’s musical instrument collection! It was in a small wing just after the entrance, but I am glad we made that detour!

The Accademia Gallery’s most prized and famous work is Michelangelo’s “David.” One thing that is really cool about how they have it displayed (it’s huge, buy the way) is the series of in-progress sculptures by Michelangelo. For me, this was a great “education” on how the process of sculpting in marble world in practice and how Michelangelo himself worked. You can see the markings of his sculpting tools and his “order of operations,” so to speak. I am far from an expert in sculpting, but I found these in-progress works fascinating.

Like I said, “David” is bigger than most people probably assume. It is certainly bigger than I had assumed (save the fact that there is a replica in the courtyard in central Florence, which I had already seen). Apparently, the initial plan was for the sculpture to sit high up in the air near the cathedral; we were never meant to see it from the up-close angles that we do. This is why David’s hands, feet, and head are a little out of proportion (too big) were actually an effort of Michelangelo’s part to play with perspective a bit; from that distance these features would look correctly proportioned This was a revelation to me!

Pisa

After a few days in Florence, we drove to Pisa on our way to Rome. We had originally planned on visiting Pisa before Florence, but our several-hour delay in getting out of Spain made it so we had to rearrange our plans.

Of course, the most famous thing in Pisa is its so called “leaning tower.” It’s a little tricky to capture the “lean” in photographs due to the the problem of single-point perspective when you turn your camera lens upward. I think I got a pretty good one, here, though.

Perhaps more so than the tower, I thought Pisa’s cathedral was pretty impressive. It’s technically “gothic,” like Florence, but doesn’t resemble the “gothic” that I learned about in my French classes in college (again, like Florence). The outside of the cathedral is less striking than Florence, though this is not to say that it isn’t interesting looking or beautiful in its own right. Inside the cathedral, the nave is lined with striped marble archways which are almost reminiscent of a mosque. Behind the altar is a huge dome with a gorgeous paining and gold-leaf piece that is among the most beautiful I have seen.

Rome

Rome probably deserves its own post. Rome probably deserves its own book.5 But, I don’t have that kind of time, despite the fact that I am on sabbatical. (I am already publishing this a full week later than I had hoped.)

We then drove from our short stay in Pisa to Rome. We arrived late at night, so we didn’t see any of the city until the following morning. We had tickets/plans for our second and third days in Rome, but for this first day we just kind of wandered around, looking for all of the more famous sites, etc.

Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon

We first stopped by the Trevi Fountain. I thought this was far too crowded and kind of underwhelming. But, “when in Rome,” as they say.

We climbed the Spanish Steps, which I was expecting to be a much bigger ordeal than it ended up being. The view from the top is quite nice. For some reason, though, I had it in my head that this was a really grueling climb and that reaching the top was not for the faint of heart; it wasn’t that big of a deal (which probably says more about my background knowledge of Rome’s more famous sites than it does about the Spanish Steps themselves.)

Next, we found our way to the Pantheon. One thing I learned is that the top of the dome of the Pantheon is actually open, like a skylight. This lets quite a lot of natural light into the building and brigs back memories of when the place was a pagan temple of sorts … probably something having to do with a “sun god” or something. I have no idea if the hole in the top is part of the original design or not, but this what came to mind for me.

Castel Sant’Angelo

I think the highlight of the day was Castel Sant’Angelo. The building itself was originally a mausoleum for emperor Hadrian which was then converted into various different things over time. It was interesting to see the various “layers” of history through the building. The best part, though, is the view from the top! The building stands directly in front of Vatican City and you can see most of Rome from the top. It was worth the cost of admission and extra time to get to see the view!

The Vatican

On our final day in Italy we spent the day in Vatican City. We had no idea how long it would take to get into St. Peter’s Basilica, so we got a fairly early start, wanting to make sure we had enough time before our appointment at the Vatican Museums. Despite the length of the line to enter the basilica, the wait actually wasn’t too bad; the line moved pretty quickly and we were inside well within an hour.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Of course, the most prominent landmark in Vatican City is St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square, and it’s easy to see why given the size and proportionality of the place!

I didn’t realize that Michelangelo’s “Pieta” was right inside the entrance, but right after we walked inside, there it was off to the side!

The entire building is a masterclass in impressiveness. There is something interesting and/or beautiful around just about every corner. And, despite the size of the crowd, we were able to get pretty close to most of the things we wanted to see.

After we had wandered through the basilica for quite a while, we decided to see what it would take to climb up the dome. We decided the cost (both financial and physical) was worth it, so my wife and I climbed all 500+ steps to the top of the dome and were able to get some incredible views!

The Vatican Museums

Our tickets for the Vatican Museums were for later in the evening so we found some food near the entrance to Vatican City and did some souvenir shopping while we waited for our tickets to be valid. We mailed a postcard from the Vatican’s main post office, which was kind of fun.

The Vatican Museums is a a huge complex of buildings that includes a labyrinth of exhibits and the Sistine Chapel. We wanted to make sure we had enough time in the Sistine Chapel so we made our way there first, not realizing that the museum is set up in such a way that you must walk through the entire museum in order to get to the Sistine Chapel … thus, we rushed through the whole museum in order to get to the Sistine Chapel. Then, after we saw the chapel, we wanted to go back and see the “rest” of the museum, so we basically re-traced our steps and went through the museum a second time, but we stopped to look at things this time around.

You aren’t allowed to take photographs inside the Sistine Chapel, so I have no photographic evidence that I was there. The chapel was both bigger and smaller than I had imagined. It was bigger in that the ceiling was higher than I thought but the actual area of the chapel itself was smaller. The ceiling is amazing, of course! One of the first in-depth non-fiction books I remember reading as a young adult was Ross King’s Michelangelo And The Pope’s Ceiling; I had forgotten many of the more intricate details, but seeing the ceiling in person jogged my memory for many of them.

Sign Off

There is so much more I could say about our trip to Italy. There are countless details I am forgetting and/or simply don’t have the times or space to write about. Too often I fall into the trap of wanting stuff to be “right” before I move on to the next thing, no matter how overdue the current yet-to-be-right thing is. I don’t want to get bogged down in that, here. It has already been almost a month since this trip and I have several other things I want to write about but haven’t (partly because I have been waiting to finish this post). So, I am going to simply leave this post here and move on to the next thing. (Although, who knows how long it’ll be before anyone sees any evidence that I have moved on.)

  1. I say “vacation” because everything about the last two months and the next two months probably qualifies as a “vacation.” ↩︎

  2. I know I said I liked to use local names/spellings for things in my recent post about València, but to do that here feels really pretentious. So, I won’t be saying “Italia” or “Firenze” or “Roma.” It just feels like too much, here. I am still learning. ↩︎

  3. As was I, but probably to a lesser extent. ↩︎

  4. Understandably, most of the works in the museum are by Italian painters. ↩︎

  5. Of which there are several, I know. (As there are several about Florence and possibly Pisa as well.) ↩︎

a Last-Minute Trip to London

Added on by Taylor Smith.

I still have to put something up here about our week in Italy. I’ve been chipping away at a post, but it’s taking me longer than I would like. Stay tuned.

In other exciting news, my wife decided that we should take a very last-minute (as in we planned it yesterday) trip to London. So, I am in London tonight and tomorrow night. It will be a whirlwind of a trip, trying to cram in as much as possible, but I think it will be fun. Our son (14) is especially excited, which is an achievement in and of itself!

an (Upcoming) Week in Italy

Added on by Taylor Smith.

Among other things, part of the point of living here in Spain was the ease this would give us to travel around Europe during this time off. Hence our trip down to València a few weeks ago.

With that as part of the goal, we booked flights to Rome before we got here, knowing that this was for sure something we wanted to do. My wife and I have been to Europe four times now; once individually before we knew each other, once as a couple in 2019, once with the kids in 2021, and this trip. But, neither of us have been to Italy on any of these trips.1 All of this being said, the point is: we are leaving for Rome tomorrow!

Once we get there we are immediately driving to Pisa then Florence. We will stay in Florence for three days then drive back to Rome where we will spend three more days. We are all pretty excited. My wife has always wanted to see Florence and I am glad I get to take her there.

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  1. Between the two of us we have been to the U.K., The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary. ↩︎

on A Month in Spain

Added on by Taylor Smith.

We have been living in Spain for over a month, now. The time has gone by really quickly. There is still so much I need to see and do right here in Santander/Cantabria, let alone other, farther-flung places. I already feel like I am running out of time.

My Spanish isn’t really much better than it was when we arrived. I have gotten a tiny but better at anticipating what someone might be say, and therefore can make better guesses as to what they are saying, but I am nowhere near being able to understand much in real time. When it comes to speaking, I am not doing so well there, either. I get tongue tied very quickly and am afraid to say too much as I probably won’t be able to understand any sort of follow up. I really don’t like having to resort to “No hablo español” so quickly, but I also simply don’t have enough background or experience with Spanish to converse in any way. I find myself slipping into trying to speak French sometimes, which, of course, isn’t helpful for anyone, really. I am trying to get better. I am trying to not just barge into places and expect someone to speak English; most “conversations” still end with either everyone a little confused or a Spaniard speaking English.1

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  1. Quite often people under about 35 seem to speak English fairly well. With folks older than that, it’s a gamble. I am trying to not rely on that. I promise. ↩︎

on A Trip to Bilbao

Added on by Taylor Smith.

Bilbao is the closest “big city” to us. Bilbao is the largest city in Northern Spain, one of the biggest cities on the Atlantic coast of Europe. It’s not a huge city (only 350,000 in the city proper, about 1,000,000 in the metro area), but it’s the biggest thing close to us.

Basque Country

Bilbao is essentially the “capital” of Basque Country. The Basques are a group of people who live in northern Spain and southern France. They are an ethnic (and linguistic) group distinct from the rest of Europe. In fact, the exact history and evolution of the Basques and their language remains a bit of a mystery. It’s a pretty fascinating “story” if you want to dive into it.

Language and Politics

The Basque language is an isolate. It is unrelated to any other known language. Of course, this is very strange in general, more so on a continent full of language cousins. Similar to when we were in València, many signs and place names are written in both Spanish and Basque. The Basque name for the city is Bilbo; the name of the language in Basque is Euskara. Bilbao is the capital of the province of Vizcaya (Bizkaia in Basque), which is roughly synonymous with the Spanish portion of “Basque Country.”

When we saw some signs written in just Basque, we got a few clues as to how pronunciation works. For example, the word for chocolate is txocolate (pronounced the same was as in Spanish [chock-oh-law-tay]). Similarly, churro is txurro.

The Basque flag.

A bit of a political provocation.

There is a pretty strong Basque Nationalist sentiment among the community. These folks down’t really want to be part of Spain; they don’t identify as Spanish, nor do they really relate to the rest of the country all that well. There is a similar sentiment amongst the Catalonians in Barcelona. Having not been to Barcelona, I can’t rate how strong either of these sentiments is in comparison to the other, but the Basque “flavor” was definitely pretty strong in Bilbao.

Guggenheim

If Bilbao is famous for anything, it is probably the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on the bank of the Nervion River. The building was designed by Frank Gehry (who also designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.) It’s a breathtaking building with sweeping metallic-colored walls that seem to defy gravity.

Richard Serra

One of the museum’s most impressive pieces is “Matter of Time” by Richard Serra. The piece(s) takes up an entire wing of the museum. It is made of several huge pieces of rust-colored steel arranged into shapes; most of them are arranged so you can walk through them, experiencing them in every dimension. I would estimate the pieces are about 25 feet tall with each piece of steel about 4 inches thick. These are enormous and imposing sculptures, but their arrangement and shape are inviting, as if to say “Please explore.”

Missing Picasso

The museum has an entire floor dedicated to Pablo Picasso’s sculptures, but the exhibit didn’t open until September 29 … three days after we were there.

Funicular

My wife has a funny fascination with funiculars. I also have to admit that they are pretty cool. She always wants to see if a city has one, and if it does, we have to ride it.1 Bilbao’s funicular is pretty cool. It is definitely one of the longer ones we have ever ridden.2 The view from the top is spectacular! It is hard to capture the view in photographs, but here is a try:

Casco Viejo

Bilbao isn’t quite as old as some of the other places we have visited. It was founded in 1300.3 The old section of town, “casco viejo,” has a lot fo great stuff to see and hear as well. We found a cool Basque restaurant. We visited the central basilica and cathedrals.

Returning to Bilbao

We have some family coming to visit in late-October and early-November. They are flying into Bilbao. We are planning to spend another day or two in the city when they arrive. There is a lot we didn’t see, partly because we knew we would be coming back (and partly because we just ran out of time). I already have ideas about what we should see/do next time, both things to repeat and new things to see/do.

  1. There is a funicular here in Santander. Even better: it’s free! ↩︎

  2. L.A.’s “Angels Flight” is probably the shortest. ↩︎

  3. Which still makes it really old, just not quite as old as València or Santander. ↩︎

on A Few Days in València

Added on by Taylor Smith.

About three weeks ago, the woman with whom we arranged the home exchange told us that her mom had an apartment in València1 that was currently empty and “ready for us” to visit. Shortly thereafter we started (well, my wife started) looking into flights and other travel arrangements to get down there.

On September 14, we flew from Santander to València. It was a short, hourlong flight.

Before the opportunity presented itself, we didn’t really know all that much about València (pronounced more like bah-len-thee-ah by those who live there). It turns out, there is a lot to see and do down there!

Language

One of the first things I learned was that many of the people in València speak not Spanish but Valencian (essentially a version of Catalan, a language spoken in nearby Catalonia). Actually, that’s not quite accurate; they speak Spanish, but they also speak Valencian, especially at home and amongst close friends. Due to recent political movements, the area now uses Valencian on most street signs, for place names, and in lots of other very conspicuous places. Of course, this made my efforts at trying to learn Spanish all the more confused … “What is a ‘palau?’” “Why does everything say ‘carrer?’” “Why do they keep spelling it ‘ciutat?’” etc.

I knew that they don’t really speak Spanish (or, again, only Spanish) in Barcelona, but I didn’t know this practice extended outside of Catalonia “proper.” But, I found out that the Catalan language (or “Valencian” in this case) extends into much of the neighboring provinces as well; it’s no accident that the Valencian flag and the Catalonian flag are so similar.

Ciutat de les Arts i Ciènces

One of València’s crowning “jewels” is an area called Ciutat de les Arts i Ciènces (“City of Arts and Sciences”) which is a complex of museums and parks featuring ultra-modern architecture. One of the attractions is L’Oceanogràfic, which houses the largest aquarium in Europe. I thought it was a bit like a cross between Sea World and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Another of the points of interest is the Museu de les Ciènces. This is, as the name implies, a science museum. To be honest, I didn’t find this one all that great aside from the awesome architecture. The exhibits weren’t all that engaging, at least for my taste. The building itself is pretty incredible, though. Supposedly, the building is supposed to resemble a whale skeleton.2 We also visited a building called L’Hemisfèric which is an IMAX theater and planetarium. Again, the building itself is quite stunning!

Unfortunately, we didn’t visit the Palau de les Arts. This is an opera house and concert venue. I don’t have any good excuses as to why we skipped out on this one other than that I don’t think there were any events happening at the time we were there and that we were completely exhausted after all of the other events and attractions.3

Ciutat Vella

I am totally a sucker for wandering around old neighborhoods amongst centuries-old churches. Luckily, València has lots of this. Like most of these old European cities, València has an area of town that was once the core of the medieval city, the “old town” or ciutat vella.We spent the majority of our time in this area as there were so many cool things to see.4

The Cathedral and THE Holy Grail

The central cathedral in València houses what they claim to be the Holy Grail, the same one that Indiana Jones spent all that time looking for in The Last Crusade. It turns out, all he needed to do was visit this cathedral in València. The trouble is, there are at least twenty other the Holy Grails scattered across Europe. Supposedly, this one is likely a cup from about the right timeframe, but everything else around the story is pretty dubious, of course. Still, it’s kind of cool to say that you have seen what might be the Holy Grail.

The cathedral itself is a mix of late-Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neo-Classical styles. Each of these styles is a little like a time capsule showing what was considered “stylish” at each point in the cathedral’s history.

Lonja de la Seda

Back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, València was one of the main stops along the silk trading routes. As such, the city erected a building specifically for trading silk called the Lonja de la Seda (or the “silk exchange”). The building was built between 1482 and 1533.

Porta de Serrano

The city was once surrounded by a wall with a series of twelve gates that allowed access into the city. Some of these “gates” and portions of the wall are still standing. It was cool to climb all the way to the top of the towers and look down on the old city.

Parroquia de San Nicolás

One of the most jaw-dropping churches in València is the Parroquia de San Nicolás. This church is sometimes called “the Sistine Chapel of València,” and once you walk inside you can immediately see why. Architecturally, the church was built in the Gothic style, but they later—sometime in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—decided to update it to a Baroque style. They covered nearly every inch in dramatic frescos and gold leaf. It’s almost overwhelming to see in person!

There is probably a lot more to say, but I don’t want that to keep me from posting this, so I’ll leave it here (and hope to come back with those other things someday.)

  1. I know it might come across as a little pretentious, but I am going to try to use local names and spellings for stuff whenever possible. Hence the “è” in València and other non-standard (in English) spellings. I think it is respectful to at least try to let the locals have the final say in the way we spell and say things. ↩︎

  2. No idea why. ↩︎

  3. Also, I am not a fan of opera really at all. I know I am “supposed to be,” but I am just not. ↩︎

  4. My fourteen-year-old son might take issue with me saying there were a lot of “cool things to see” in this part of town. ↩︎

on A Quick Trip to Saltillana del Mar

Added on by Taylor Smith.

Most of the touristy books about what to see and do in Spain don’t have much to say about Cantabria (the province where we live). It’s a little off the beaten path and isn’t home to the biggest cities, the most exciting attractions, or the most “interesting” points of interest. It is a beautiful province, so it’s a shame that it gets a bit flubbed by Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, etc. But, this means there are fewer tourists to navigate around, which is nice.

When these books do mention Cantabria, one of the places they almost always mention is a town called Santillana de Mar. Santillana del Mar is an old Medieval village that is mostly intact with its original walls and streets. It’s very charming and is very much along the lines of what one might picture as a Medieval Spanish village.

A highlight of the town is its central church, which was built in the twelfth century, most of which is still intact.

Back on September 2 we took a short drive to visit Santillana del Mar. Perhaps due to its presence in the touristy books, we were met with a larger-than-expected crowd for a semi-rainy day. Our time in the town was great, so I shouldn’t really complain about any of it; I was just a little surprised at the crowd size.

I will share some nice photos, below (I was able to strategically take these photos sans other tourists):

on My Sabbatical Project

Added on by Taylor Smith.

As I mentioned earlier, I am on sabbatical right now. It’s pretty great. Along with the sabbatical comes a “commitment,” of sorts, to work on a large-scale project. This is the reason the college is giving me this time off; the project is meant to be their “return on investment” in giving me this semester off. In order to be granted a sabbatical, one must submit an application outlining all of the reasons why you need one, with the titular “project” being the main point of why you need the time off.

To be perfectly honest, I just wanted/needed the break that comes with a sabbatical, so I was willing to put forward whatever proposal would get me there. Before applying, I didn’t have some grand plan of something I had always wanted to work on, some book to write, or some groundbreaking research I was dying to put forth. Other than being totally burnt out, I didn’t have an aching-in-my-bones reason for needing a sabbatical. (Which isn’t to say that feeling burnt out isn’t a good enough reason, or something I wasn’t feeling in my bones … All I mean is that I wasn’t feeling an itch to work on some big project. My reason(s) for wanting/needing a sabbatical were purely because I was starting to hate my job (and, by extension, everyone/everything).)

(Automatic) Music Technology (for the People)

One of my main teaching responsibilities is (usually) to teach a sequence of courses on music technology. And, in this realm, I am always trying make my class(es) about getting students comfortable with working with music tech in realistic, down-to-earth ways. Sure, it’s kind of cool to get your hands on a $10,000 microphone or a studio worth $500,000, but that’s not a realistic scenario for the overwhelming majority of us. Most of us will, when we get the chance at all, probably have access to much more modest setups; we’ll use “recording studios” in bedrooms and garages and we’ll use $200 and $300 mics. Thus, educationally, I try to present the technology and its capabilities through this framework … something that you really can “do yourself.”

With this thinking in mind, I set down to make a sabbatical proposal toward this end. (Because, again, I really needed this sabbatical for personal, mental health reasons, and the only way to get one is to convince the committee that your project is something worth supporting.)

Impulse Responses (for the People)

One of the cooler directions music technology has taken over the past few years is the development of what is essentially a create-your-own plugins scheme. One of these new-fangled DIY abilities in music tech revolves around a pretty complex process called a “convolution reverb” which uses some tech called an “impulse response.” Without going into a bunch of unnecessary detail, these convolution reverbs and impulse responses are a way of digitally recreating actual acoustical spaces. Think of the big echo from inside Notre Dame Cathedral and using computer algorithms to measure and capture the ways sound bounces around inside the cathedral, then translating that information into a computer plugin; theoretically, you could then make someone’s bedroom recording sound like it was made inside Notre Dame … no trip to Paris required.

Creating an impulse response file is actually really easy. It doesn’t take that much equipment or time.

So, I decided to commit to creating a series of impulse responses / reverb plugins for my sabbatical project. I have basically three goals:

  1. Get approval by the Sabbatical Leave Committee (✔)

  2. Create a series of detailed impulse responses compiled into a library

  3. Use this experience to add a section to my music tech class(es) on creating your own impulse responses / reverb plugins

It might all sound kind of complicated, but I assure you it’s actually pretty simple. I don’t expect the actual creation of these “plugins” to take more than a few hours each. I committed to make eight of these plugins, so none of this will take much more than a week’s worth of work at the most. (Don’t tell the college that my I-need-an-entire-semester-to-do-this project might really only take a few days.)

So, at some point in the next year, you’ll probably hear from me again telling you about where you can find these new-fangled sabbatical-funding-supported reverb plugins. But, I am not in a very big hurry to get started. At the moment—still less than a month into this sabbatical—I am just enjoying the time I have to decompress for a bit.

on Timing My Sabbatical

Added on by Taylor Smith.

My sabbatical came about through an application (and subsequent approval) during the 2022–2023 school year. I applied once before, several years ago, and didn’t get the sabbatical—something for which I am still harboring feeling of bitterness and angst—but this time everything went through!

The timing of this sabbatical was pretty crucial, so I was extra excited to have it all work out. My daughter graduated from high school in June and my son finished middle school in June. This put both of them at transition points this semester; my daughter into college and my son into high school. All of this seemed like the exactly perfect time to try something new (like move to a new country).

College For My Daughter

My daughter decided, against all of our urgings, to start her first semester of college rather than join us on this trip. In August, she started her first semester at Southern Virginia University. She was adamant that she did not want to come with us.1 So far, she seems to be doing well. It was difficult leaving her, especially knowing that there is very little we can do to help her if she needs it. She cried. Her mom cried. I cried. But, to be honest, we all need some space from one another at this point in our relationship, so I think everyone is probably better off with things as they are.

High School For My Son

Seeing that he is only fourteen, my son didn’t really have the option of staying behind in the U.S. But, since he would have been starting at a new school at home, the transition to doing school a “new way” (i.e. through an online, independent study program) seemed perfectly timed.2

Burnout For Me

And then there’s me, who has been getting closer and closer to complete burnout for several years now. Sabbaticals are supposed to give you a chance to “refresh” yourself from the sometimes-grueling job of working in academia. They are also supposed to give you time to work on something that you normally can’t due to your typical day-to-day. Some typical things that come to mind are writing books, finishing some high-level coursework, contributing to some big research project(s), etc. But, first, a sabbatical is supposed to be a “sabbath” from your usual stuff ... hence the name.

And, let me tell you, do I ever need a break! I can’t really relate how close to the bone I feel I’ve been recently. I know a lot of people think teachers (and college professors even more so) have a pretty cushy job, but I promise you that the emotional and psychological toll can be pretty high (and definitely has been for me).

I haven’t been away long enough to say if I am feeling any less of the burnout, etc., yet, but I am enjoying the feeling of having an extended summer break if nothing else.

Politics

One of the biggest sources of my feelings of burnout come from the intense political environment where I find myself. I will probably have more to say about this later, but suffice it to say that I am finding myself feeling less and less “at home” on campus and in “the academy,” which is kind of a weird feeling to have. Basically, I got into this line of work because I really like(d) music and I wanted to be around and talk about it all the time; now, I am liking music less and less and don’t really want to go into any of it anymore because of how political and not-really-about-music-at-all-anymore it has all gotten.

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1 A big part of this sentiment stems from her being absolutely desperate to get out on her own, away from the care (and control) of her parents.

2 For the curious, this online independent-study thing isn’t going very smoothly at all. We’re all struggling with it.

on A New Home

Added on by Taylor Smith.

I have mentioned this elsewhere, but I see that I didn’t say anything here (not that anyone actually reads this thing): I am on sabbatical for the Fall 2023 semester! I need this break from the usual grind, badly, and I am excited to have some time to breathe and “take stock” for a while.

Technically speaking, I have a sabbatical project that I am supposed to be working on during this time. This is the “reason” for my sabbatical leave, to give me time to work on this project that I otherwise wouldn’t have the time to do because I am too busy with my “day job.” But, between you and me, my project is pretty basic and won’t take that much time or effort.1 So, my sabbatical will mostly just involve me spending time seeing where my curiosity take me.

But, the most important part of all of this is that we have a new home for the semester! We moved in about two weeks ago, and we will stay here until mid-December. Our new home is in Santander, Spain.

Santander, Spain from above.


The House

The house we are in is big, bigger than our home in El Cajon. This makes it especially big by semi-urban European standards. We are very lucky in this regard. The house has three bedrooms and five (5!) bathrooms in addition to a large living room / dining room area and bigger-than-usual (again, by European standards) kitchen.

My son was especially excited to not share a bathroom for the first time in his life. :)

The Arrangements

We are here through a home exchange. Basically, we swapped houses with a Spanish family for fourth months. When my wife and I started thinking about applying for this sabbatical, the idea of spending the time abroad was always part of the discussion. We have been thinking about something like this ever since our trip to Europe back in 2019.

There is a website called Sabbatical Homes that many people use to try to find semi-longterm housing for things like sabbaticals. When we got word that my sabbatical was approved, we started looking at this website for ideas about where to go. When you use this site, you can post your house for rent and view rental listings but you can also post your interest in doing a home exchange. I posted our house for rent, contacted a few people about their rentals, but also posted that I was interested in an exchange. In the end, this is what we ended up doing, which might be the easiest way of making all of this happen.

Why Spain? Why Santander?

The short version of why we chose Santander, Spain is that this is where the exchange opportunity presented itself. When I posted on Sabbatical Homes, I listed places we were interested in staying/exchanging; Spain was not on the list. But, this lovely woman named María from Santander contacted me and asked about the possibility of doing an exchange with her family. The more we thought about it, and talked with María, the more it all just made sense.

No hablo español.

I don’t speak much Spanish. Neither do my wife or son. I do speak French close to fluently, but before deciding on coming here, I couldn’t speak more than a few cliché phrases en español. Since we made this decision (back in February or March) I have been doing my best to study Spanish, but you can only get so far with ten minutes a day for a few months. I hope, of course, that by the time we move back home, that I’ll be in a much better place with my Spanish speaking/comprehension.

Our Home

We have been doing our best to try to make this new house feel like “our home,” and, for the most part, we’re doing pretty well. It is still a little weird to realize that this really is our “home”—in all senses of the word—for the next few months. We can’t really redecorate or make any other drastic changes, so whatever “homey-ness” we are going to feel will mostly have to be psychological.



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1 I hope to follow up with more detail on this project at some point, soon.

on Writing

Added on by Taylor Smith.

I don’t write as much as I used to. I wish I did. I enjoy writing (mostly). It helps me clear my head, which is always really crowded. But, I just haven’t been doing it as much lately (and by lately, I mean for the last few years, really).

My last entry, here, was back in December. Of course, I write in other places. I used to be a daily journal writer. In looking at the “calendar” of pervious years of journal entries, I can see several months with daily entries. Now, I see several weeks, sometimes more, without a single entry.

I wish I could come on here and make some sort of commitment … “I am going to write everyday again,” or “I will post something to this blog at least once a week” … but I can’t do that. I don’t want to make any commitments I can’t really, truly keep up. But, I do hope that the next few months will see more writing, more posting, and more trying to be “real” with myself and the world (which is something I find writing helps me do more than most things).