Arrangements in the East Bay, and other stories

I was granted sabbatical leave for the Fall semester of 2004. I spent the semester living in Berkeley, California, and working at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. I played a major role in a program at the institute called Hyperplane Arrangements and Applications, which included three week-long workshops, several weekly seminars, and lots of mathematical discussions. I learned a lot of new mathematics, and I came home with four different collaborative projects underway, and many more ideas to pursue over the coming years.

I also used my time in the Bay Area to pursue my another passion, traditional music. I took mandolin lessons from the amazing Czechoslovakian mandolin player (and outstanding teacher) Radim Zenkl. I also took a lesson from a local bluegrass picker, Tom Kingsley. I played in a few Irish seisuns at the venerable Plough and Stars in San Francisco, and took a DADGAD guitar lesson from Rich Mandel, who teaches regularly at the Lark In The Morning camp. I went to weekly jam sessions/classes hosted by friends of a Flagstaff friend Avram Siegel and Allison Fisher (of the Kathy Kallick Band and True Blue), where I worked on lead and harmony singing, besides just picking. I went to one of the bay area picking potlucks. I did some mandolin jamming with internet friends Larry Berger (who's also a friend of a Flagstaff friend) and Arthur Stern. And I went to many outstanding concerts (see below), mostly at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley.

Because I had a child in high school, and one starting college, I moved to Berkeley solo. It was a long time to be apart from the wife and family, and that was difficult, but we survived, and it seems like it might have been a healthy thing to do. (Old married folks need sabbaticals too!) We're sure glad that part is over.

On the other hand, my brother Don, who's a year-and-a-half younger than me, lives in Berkeley (as he has for 25 years), and I was able to spend a lot of time with him. Don does non-profit housing development for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Commission in San Francisco. He is who connected me with Rich Mandel, who is one of TNDC's tax consultants. (Real musicians have day jobs!)

To give a better idea of what the time was like, I put together a hyper-linked time line.

August 2-13	I was one of the four lecturers in the MSRI Summer Graduate School on Hyperplane arrangements and Applications. I spent the two weeks sharing an motel/apartment with Alex Suciu. We talked a lot of math.
August 6-8	I trained to Portland to meet Darcy, who flew up for the weekend. On Sunday we drove to the coast with some friends from Flagstaff, to attend a dedication ceremony for our deceased friend Conny Frisch, who was the Siuslaw District ranger before she moved to Flagstaff to be Kaibab Forest supervisor. There is now a plaque honoring Conny on the bench on the Cape Perpetua overlook, the highest point on the Oregon coast.
August 15-18	I flew back to Flagstaff to move Keenan down to U of A in Tucson, and to pick up my car.
August 19-20	I drove to Berkeley from Tucson, about 15 hours total. Lots of time to think about what lay ahead!
August 22	I went to a Giants game with my brother Don. Barry Bonds hit homer #699.
August 23-27	MSRI Introductory Workshop on Hyperplane Arrangements and Applications I was on the organizing committee, who were expected to give most of the lectures. So I gave the first talk,  a historical survey/introduction, and a second talk on resonance varieties later in the week. There were about fifty partici
August 25	I went with a bunch of mathematicians (Dan Cohen, Nick Proudfoot, Trisha Hersh) to an Oakland A's game.
September 4	I drove to Palo Alto, to visit Gryphon Stringed Instruments and our old Flagstaff friends Barry Gold and Cindy Carpien. It was nice to be in a house with a family around. I played a Collings MT at Gryphon and decided to sell my Summit.
September 6	I went to my first "jam class" at Avram Siegel and Allison Fisher's house. They are good friends of my good friend and picking partner Julie Sullivan in Flagstaff. Avram is the banjo player for the Kathy Kallick Band, and Avram and Allison are members of True Blue, a popular Bay Area (very traditional) bluegrass band featuring Del Williams.  (Allison plays bass.) I used the jam classes to work on my singing (lead and harmony), trying to develop a better ear for harmony and more self-confidence.  Avram is a good teacher, and patient. As bad we sounded from time to time, he always smiled and said "That was great!" The jam class continued every week until November 10.
September 7	I gave a two-hour (interminable) lecture to kick off the "Cohomology Jumping Loci" seminar. Alex and I were the organizers.
September 10	Don and I watched the A's play from a luxury box in Oakland Coliseum - he has "relationships" with many bankers through his job; this is one of the perks. He's a big baseball fan.
September 15	Another A's game - this time we sat in the upper upper deck. Alex Suciu and Aaron Abrams came with us.
September 16-20	I returned to Flagstaff for a visit. It just happened to be Flagstaff Open Studios/FFOTM Fall Campout weekend.
September 21	I took my first lesson from Radim Zenkl, the (amazing) "Czechoslovakian mandolin player." He came to my place - my first visitor!
September 23	I saw Altan in concert at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco with my brother Don.
September 24	I drove to Santa Cruz to see Laurel Bliss and Carol Elizabeth Jones with Tom Rozum at the Cayuga Vault. I left Berkeley about 4:00 on Friday afternoon. "How bad could it (traffic) be?" It took me 3 hours to get there, 90 minutes to get back that night.
September 28	Yet another A's game. This time I got field level seats for half price, about 15 rows up behind home plate. It was a lot like watching a real baseball game. Saw Ichiro get a hit - he tied the record the next night.
September 29 - October 3	Darcy and David flew to Berkeley for a visit. We spent Friday hiking around Muir Woods. We took David to see the Golden Gate. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Palo Alto at the Bat Mitzvah of Jessie Gold, daughter of our friends Barry Gold and Cindy Carpien, who moved from Flagstaff two years ago. There were lots of Flagstaff people there. We drove out to Half Moon Bay and then back along the coast, but missed the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival at Golden Gate Park. Bummer.
September 29	I drove into the Mission District to Larry Berger's flat for a little mandolin jam. We ended up driving out to "Inner Sunset" to his friend Steve Cohen's house - Steve plays guitar. It's always fun to meet another CoMando when I'm on the road.
October 4-8	MSRI Workshop on Topology of Arrangements and Applications I was chair of the organizing committee. This relieved me of any obligation to give a talk, but I did attend every session. As I said in my closing remarks, the speakers provided enough food for thought to last us several years. It was exhausting.
October 9	My brother and I went to the Freight to see the Bay Areas favorite western swing band, Lost Weekend. They were lots of fun.
October 16-17	I gave an invited 20-minute talk in the special session "Knots and Braids" organized by Ted Stanford at the regional AMS meeting in Albuquerque. I talked about resonance and characteristic varieties, and 2-plane arrangements and 2-bridge knots. It went pretty well, even though it was a little bit "out of left field." It was the 1000th meeting of the AMS; I won the big door prize!
October 20	I attended the Allison Fisher benefit at the Freight. Five bands: High Country, Eric and Suzy Thompson, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, The Kathy Kallick Band, and True Blue. A great show!
October 21	I saw Bruce Molsky, solo, at the Freight. I think this was my favorite show of the fall.
October 21 - November 21	I attended Bernd Sturmfels' graduate course "Combinatorial Commutative Algebra" at UC Berkeley. Interesting mathematics beautifully presented.
October 26	We (a bunch of MSRI folks) went to Stanford to attend David Eisenbud's Commutative Algebra/Algebraic Geometry seminar, which meets at Stanford periodically. Sergey Yuzvinsky gave an interesting talk about freeness of certain modules associated with arrangements. A graduate student mistook me for Eisenbud - I had to laugh, because I was wearing one of my bluegrass caps, backwards, something I cannot imagine David Eisenbud doing. Stanford is incredible.
October 30	BAD Math Day (that is, Bay Area Discrete Math Day) at UC Berkeley. Yuzvinsky and Graham Denham gave talks about arrangements.
November 1	The traditional Musicale evening at the home of David Eisenbud, MSRI Director (and then president of the AMS). I played O'Carolan on the mandolin and West Fork Gals on clawhammer banjo. The rest of the program was chopin, Verdi, German lieder, and  Philip Glass. It was trepidatious in the extreme. (Sorry, David!)
November 1-5	MSRI Workshop on Combinatorial Aspects of Hyperplane Arrangements I had no official involvement in this workshop. It was great. Many very interesting talks (especially, I thought, Ken Brown's, Richard Stanley's, and Sasha Postnikov's).
November 6-10	Darcy travelled to Berkeley for a visit.
November 7	Darcy and I drove to Palo Alto and went to see the Kathy Kallick Band with our friends the Carpien-Golds and their children.
November 8	Darcy and I had dinner at Chez Panisse. It was sublime. I try not to think about how much we spent on it!
November 13	I saw Liz Carroll and John Doyle at the Freight and Salvage. Wild fiddling and incredible guitar
November 17	Radim called and came around for a 90-minute lesson.
November 19	I gave a lecture for the UC Berkeley Mathematics Undergraduate Student Association (their math club) during their traditional visit to MSRI. I talked about pencils of curves and resonant weights, and showed Jim Swift's cool animations.
November 23-29	Home to Flagstaff for Thanksgiving.
December 3	I gave a lecture in the Combinatorics Seminar at San Francisco State University. The talk went well, and it was fun spending the afternoon with Serkan Hosten, Matthias Beck, and Joseph Gubiladze.
December 10	I had my third two-hour lesson with Radim.
December 12	Rich Mandel gave me a one-hour lesson on backing Irish music on guitar in the DADGAD tuning. Then we went to the Plough and Stars for a great seisun, with a flute and concertina player named Jack, and some great fiddlers.
December 16-17	I drove home to Flagstaff, a day early to surprise Darcy. (She was.)

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Last updated February 7.

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