We trekked down to Escondido (near San Diego) last night (with Kenny and Jenn) to attend a Gaelic Storm concert. It's been ages since I've done anything of the sort, and I am happy to have done so this time.

Gaelic Storm are an energetic modern Celtic music band, sporting fiddle, guitar, harmonica, bodhran, drums, mandolin, pipes, spoons, and didgeridoo. We have all their albums and listen to them frequently. Their two founding members come from Ireland and England, but the rest from the U.S.

Most of the audience seemed to be over the age of 50, and perhaps dead to boot. Music like this should infuse a strong dancing and hand-clapping spirit, but failed to do so in a large part of the attendees, even when the band led the hand-clapping and told people to use the aisles for dancing. Maybe Gaelic Storm should stick to playing in pubs and university venues rather than arts centers like last night.



Spent the morning working on new stuff with the panorama system -- installed a remote-control device for the iBook, so that if someone's about to walk in front of the camera I can click a button to pause the system while they go by; or I can pause it to step in front of it where there's not space to go behind it, like on the edge of a drop-off.

Also started work on customizing a golf-caddy to carry the system around, which will save a great deal of wear and tear on my neck and shoulders. Will put that to good use either this weekend or next when returning to Descanso Gardens for some follow-up shots.