October 2008In California: from Sequoia National Park down to La Mirada, thence to Healdsburg, Berkeley, Sonoma; and then an eventful visit to Seattle, culminating at the opera house with a performance of Strauss’ Elektra.

Thence to Shell Beach (near San Luis Obispo), for yoga practice with Zhander Remete & Emma Balnaves, and the Blossom-Easton syndicate, sponsored by Catherine Halcomb (http://www.catherineyoga.com/). Having never spent any time in SLO before enjoying a late lunch there in late September, I found myself enjoying myself at its beaches and on its hills. Also satisfying were the availability of excellent fresh food and profusion of excellent wineries, including Salisbury (), which among others produces a wine that is half chardonnay grape and half Bartlett pear, and Tablas Creek (http://www.tablascreek.com/), which under the guidance of Château de Beaucastel assiduously cultivates & concocts little known Rhone varietals in a terroir almost identical to that of France’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Near month’s end I drove to Lakeport, CA, on California’s Clear Lake, collecting Robert Beer & Gill Farrer-Halls there for a drive through striking scenery along state highway 175 to the Sonoma Valley, wine-tasting all the way; among their favorites: Wellington (http://www.wellingtonvineyards.com/index.html) and Imagery (http://www.imagerywinery.com/).

Then to Albuquerque, and the Ayurvedic Institute; on the plane ride there, I finished reading The Orientalist, the amazing story Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew born in Baku, Azerbaijan who passed himself off (at first successfully) in Nazi Germany as a Muslim prince. The author of seventeen books, among them Ali and Nino, which has become the Azeri national novel, Nussimbaum (or Essed Bey, or Kurban Said, these being his favorite aliases) retained until the end of his short life his conviction in the superiority of the (substantially imagined) traditional chivalrous culture of the Caucasus. May he rest in peace!

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