Doctor Atomic
I went to the premier performance of this SF commissioned opera yesternight and I liked most of it. The theme is very compelling. The opera managed to capture the emotional complexity of this strange situation at Los Alamos when the Germans had surrendered but the scientists were still pushing ahead to build and test the bomb to give Roosevelt leverage over Stalin in Potsdam and on the Pacific front against Japan. It is arguable, though, whether an opera should have so little Belcanto and so much recitativo, often direct from Poems and even formly classified gov't documents. On the other hand I really liked the setting and the lighting.
Worth seeing!
Back in SF
After 5 weeks I finished the round the world trip which led me to a dozen countries and many more impressions, business opportunities and pleasures. Here's my itinerary:
- Honolulu, Hawai'i: Great stay at Peter and Ed's place to stop over to Tokyo
- Tokyo, Japan: First int'l roadshow event of db4objects (see post below)
- Seoul, Korea: Exploring the opportunities in the land of Samsung and computer games
- Hongkong, China: Paving the ground for access to the dragon's empire; hiring Albert Kwan
- Singapore: Great companies, great research center (Bioinformatics Institute)
- Chennai and Bangalore, India: Second roadshow int'l event; visiting customers
- Bangkok, Thailand: Relax (see below), but also exploring business opportunities around field force automation of the state lottery system and the Thai Navy
- Madrid, Spain: deepening the relationship to our customer INDRA
- Munich, Germany: Oktoberfest, friends and family, third int'l roadshow event at Munich Airport Center
- Salzburg and Vienna, Austria: exploring the 'Sounds of the Music' with Peter, Ed and Juan, but also the application of db4o for Siemens HVAC systems
- Budapest, Hungary: a short day trip from Vienna to meet my brother and his new girlfriend
- London, UK: fourth int'l roadshow event in Imperial College, meet customers and local partners; stay with my brother
