Personal

So, spare time. I vaguely remember that concept. Nah, actually I seem to manage to fit a lot into it. I play Ultimate Frisbee with the Caltech Women’s team (aka Snatch) a couple of times a week, plus squash once a week(ish), I go horse-riding up near Palmdale every 3 weekends or so, and I'm just waiting for the snow to arrive so I can go hit the slopes with my blades! I'm planning on learning how to snowboard this year - I got bored of skiing when I stopped falling over, so I'm desperate to try something new! Watch this space for photos of me soaking wet and with the odd broken bone! I have a fantastic x-ray of my foot still inside my ski boot from when I sprained my ankle snowblading, so maybe I'll be able to collect the full set to hang on my wall.

 

When I'm not playing sports I manage to divide my time pretty evenly between the pub (well, drinking establishment— I don't think any place in Pasadena really qualifies as a bona fide 'pub'), playing my guitar badly, and trying desperately to learn Spanish. The guitar playing is probably driving my roommate round the bend, but she's far too polite to tell me to shut the hell up. I'm not sure she knows about my new, extremely exciting 100W Marshall amp yet! That was a bit of an impulse buy off ebay, but pretty necessary if we're going to form this band we all keep talking about. So far we have a talentless rhythm guitarist (that'll be me), a bass guitarist who's just about to start learning, another acoustic guitarist who's learning, a beginner keyboard player, and piano and flute players who are far better than the rest of us combined. We also have 1 volunteer from Southampton who is eager to be oiled down and trussed up in leather to play the gong. For some reason he feels that jeans and a shirt aren't showing enough commitment to the instrument. Sadly (or not) the distance between him and the rest of the band will probably mean that we never get treated to this spectacle.

We are rather conspicuously missing a drummer and a singer, so if anyone equally talentless in the Pasadena area fancies joining us then drop me an email and let me know! Experience obviously not required. Any suggestions for band names are equally welcome.

 

When I'm not embarrassing myself musically, I'm usually found listening to those who can actually play. I'm totally amazed by the level of talent to be found in the LA area. The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood is my current favourite venue—it's got incredible atmosphere because it's so intimate, and is so popular among up-and-coming songwriters that they have about 4 people playing there every single night of the week and they're still booked out for the next 3 months or so. We went to see Melissa Ferrick play there a few weeks ago, which was honestly the best gig I've ever seen, and we've been lucky enough to catch Sara Bareilles playing a couple of times. Check out her album - it's worth it. As with a lot of great music, you can find albums from both of these artists on cdbaby, which also lets you play good-quality 2 minute clips of most songs rather than the pathetic quality 30 sec clips from most sites (sorry, gratuitous advert over!!).

 

So, the only other thing I get to do is go observing up to the telescopes in various spectacular places. I guess this should really be under the 'research' heading, but I enjoy it so much that it really doesn't feel like work! Check out my photos page for a selection of the mandatory pretty sunset pictures.

 

Dr. Carolyn Brinkworth, csb<at>ipac.caltech.edu

Last updated: 28th October 2005