It’s been a big week in the world of technology: my first flat-screen monitor and my first G5 (both at work), and our first videocamera, a tiny little peanut of a Sony DCR-HC40 that Aimee and I bought (with thanks to PriceGrabber: “I’ll never pay retail again!”). After getting tapes and a firewire cable Saturday morning, we headed up to Salem to visit the Peabody Essex Museum, an exceptional museum featuring Asian and nautical art and artifacts in an otheriwise witch-themed North Shore town.



The interior of the building is pretty remarkable, in both the new Moshe Safdie-designed glass and steel atrium, and the original 19th century building, which had a nice exhibition of photographs of Havana. We couldn’t wait four hours to get into the Yin Yu Tang House, so that will have to wait until next time.





Next stop was Marblehead, which was picturesque but chilly. We read of the Hurricane Restaurant and Bar in the tourist map we picked up, and enjoyed some tropical drinks and fish and chips in the somewhat themeless restaurant.

After some down time at home (including baby steps with iMovie – I can already see why even an amateur would need Final Cut Express, at least. Can you register for that sort of thing?), we headed to see the Mystic Chorale in concert at Harvard. Aimee is a once and future member, and many of her friends and colleagues are still in it. The concert was great, and was highlighted by an appearance by the Silver Leaf Gospel Singers, a group founded in 1945 at the Concord Baptist Church in Boston. Nearly sixty years later, they’re still producing incredible gospel harmonies, with the help of an odd cane and stool or two. See them soon, if you can.