Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show October 4 2012

 
On the Thursday leading up to the Los Altos Fall Festival, Rotarians gathering for our weekly meeting and were greeted by SAM HARDING, DAVE SMITH, and HARN SOPER.  President JOHN SYLVESTER chimed the meeting to order promptly at 12:15.
 
President JOHN called on Past President AL TRAFICANTI to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
JEANNE MACVICAR, gave the thought for the day, on “Success; to Laugh Often and Love Life...”
 
RON STEFANI had planned a wonderfully challenging song for the day, but when he woke up and saw that the A’s had won the West (as the Giants had earlier) he just had to lead us in “Take Me out to the Ball Game
 
Vice President JACK KELLY stepped up to the podium to welcome visiting Rotarians, but today we had none.  RON STEFANI, SALLY MEADOWS, PAT FARRELL, PAUL NYBERG, and KATHY BERRY all introduced guests.

JEANNE MACVICAR and MONA ARMISTEAD took turns announcing that they had extra tickets for the Celebrity Forum this evening with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and they would give the tics away, and request only that the donor consider a donation to Partners for New Generations.

 
MARLIS MCALLISTER announced that there would be a Red Badge meeting on Thursday, October 18 at 6 PM in her office.
 
DENNIS YOUNG announced that the LAREF committee would be meeting at 5 PM tonight at his office.  LAREF is in the process of determining its matching grants.  The biggest so far have been to Partners for New Generations and the Rotary AIDS Project.  So far, LAREF has made 33 matching grants.  There are 67 remaining $100 matches available for those members who have not taken advantage of this opportunity to fund their favored non-profit group.
 
SAM PESNER announced that tickets were on sale for the raffle to support the Coaniquem Burn Center.  The Burn Center treats children who are victims of burns throughout Latin America.  There is also a fundraising dinner on October 13.  Our club has always supported treatment for 3 children, which is now $1000 each per year, so we are looking to raise a total of $3000.  We are well on our way, but we still need support from many more members to get to three.  Consider buying a dinner ticket or a raffle ticket at the next meeting before the event.
 
STEVE SHEPHERD announced that the Palo Alto Rotary Club is having a golf social on October 26 at the Palo Alto municipal golf course.  This will be a 9-hole “fun event,” so golfers of all levels of ability are welcome to attend.
 
CYNTHIA LUEDTKE announced that pledges/donations are now being sought for the annual Rotary Foundation drive.  Every member is encouraged to become a Double Sustainer, by contributing $200.  This year, if a member decides to contribute $200 or more, the Club will match their donation with 200 recognition points towards their next Paul Harris level.
 
TRACIE MURRAY reminded us that the date for this year’s Asånte event is November 7.  TRACIE also announced that tickets are now on sale to for the raffle to win an iPod at the Asante event.
 
RON LABETICH announced that the Red Badge project for this year is to raise money to buy “smart pens” for vets (the pens record lectures while the student is taking notes, and can play back the recording).  There will be a fundraiser on November 2 at the Nature Gallery, to raise money to buy 25 or 30 smart pens for veterans who are attending Foothill College.  President JOHN mentioned that the incomparable Jazz Connection will be playing at the November 2 event.

BIG WEEKEND LEADS TO PLENTY OF FINES
 
Finemaster SAM HARDING stepped up to quiz the club on all the many events happening this weekend in the Bay Area.
 
But first President JOHN paid a $25 fine to announce that the Bus Barn event was coming up next Thursday night.
 
COETA CHAMBERS paid $100 to join the President’s Club, even though she knew that the Los Altos Fall Festival is coming up this weekend.
 
KENDRA GJERSETH paid $30 to announce that she was on the cover of Focal Point magazine (courtesy of DAVE SNOW’S promotional efforts and photography).
 
Returning to his “big events” theme, SAM called on STEVE WU, who paid $20 after remembering that this is Fleet Week.  SAM also corralled $30 from CAREW MCFALL, who had a hard time recalling that the 2 countries that will have ships in port for Fleet Week are the United States and Canada.  ALAN VARNI trumped Sam’s questioning by not only mentioning the Blue Angels, but pointing out that they flew F-18s.  ALAN paid $25 nevertheless.  CLARI NOLET joined the President’s Club, for not being able to come up with an event even after everybody at her table mentioned that the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is coming up this weekend.  JEANNE MACVICAR could not name any of the bluegrass acts, but got off with only a $15 fine.  BONNIE BURDETT mentioned the Giants playoff game coming up on Saturday, but paid $30 for recalling that Buster Posey won the batting title with a .336 batting average. 
 
ROY LAVE mentioned a big event for Rotary, the 100th birthday of John W. Gardner, and in honor of that birthday Roy contributed $100.  VAL CARPENTER couldn’t come up with a big event in the Bay Area, but contributed $30 for her 30th Stanford college reunion.  KATHY LERA, a person with the proper baseball priorities, was not aware that a team in Oakland is playing a team from Detroit this weekend, so she was fined $20.  CHUCK LINDAUER had trouble coming up with an event, and paid $25.  DAVE SNOW offered to pay $50 if he could avoid answering a question, but SAM took only $25 to ask DAVE to name 3 more acts at the bluegrass festival (Dave could not).  DICK HENNING announced that he would pay $25 to plug the upcoming Celebrity Forum events.
 
 

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: Conductor Mitchell Sardou Klein
 
Music lover RON STEFANI introduced this week’s guest, Mitchell Sardou Klein, conductor of the Peninsular Symphony, the only “all volunteer” symphony in the state.  Mr. Klein opened by mentioning his close ties to Rotary, stemming from the days that his uncle was a District Governor.
 
Mr. Klein then explained what a conductor does.   He mentioned that prior to the war, a conductor was a virtual dictator.  He recounted some of the many famous stories involving Toscanini.  For example, on his seventieth birthday, the Symphony gave him a luxurious gold watch, but while he was conducting the Symphony practice, he became so enraged at some errors, that he took out the gold watch, tossed to it to the ground and stomped it to smithereens.   However, after the war the styles began to change, particularly with the ascendance of Leonard Bernstein as conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
 
Mr. Klein then explained why he had become a conductor, and of the course, it was the beauty and the power of the music.  He then began to play some of the musical excerpts that he finds most inspiring.  He mentioned that after the Berlin wall fell in 1989, world leaders asked Leonard Bernstein to do a concert in Berlin.  Mr. Klein then played the one piece of music that Bernstein selected to play at that concert, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (the Ode to Joy).   Mr. Klein also pointed out that after the September 11 Attacks, the first public event in New York was the New York Philharmonic playing Brahms First Symphony.
 
Mr. Klein pointed out that unlike some other areas of art, such as reading literature; music goes directly to your soul without the need for context or subtext.
 
Mr. Klein then gave out some compact discs to those who could recognize some of the famous passages he played.  First he played Candida, an expression of happiness.  He mentioned Woody Allen’s movie Manhattan, and the way that Woody Allen had chosen Rhapsody in Blue to portray the mood of Manhattan at night.  Pain and anger was exemplified by Mahler’s First Symphony which is part of the upcoming concerts being presented by the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra.  And for the feeling of being on top of world, he played, “I’ve got Rhythm”.
 
Mr. Klein then explained what a conductor does. He explained that the conductor is a bit like a coach, but he’s also a bit like the quarterback because he is part of the performance.  The conductor sets the tempo in a series of gestures that is universal sign language among conductors and symphonies.  In addition to tempo, the size of the gesture also denotes the volume.  The conductor’s left-hand gives the orchestra cues.  And it also helps keep the orchestra in time with the soloist. 
 
Mr. Klein’s entertaining and musically enlightening presentation ran right up to the time limit on the meeting, so President JOHN then stepped to chime the meeting to a close at 1:30 PM.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

 John C. Hollar was named President of the Computer History Museum  in Mt. View in 2008.  The Museum, a non-profit founded in 1983, preserves for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age.  Its centerpiece is “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,” which opened in January, 2011.  Hollar's priority is to build a world-class institution with the Museum's $38 million endowment.
The Museum brings computing history to life through an acclaimed speaker series, dynamic website, onsite tours, as well as physical and online exhibits.  It has the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, encompassing computer hardware, software, documentation, ephemera, photographs and moving images.   Its website, www.computerhistory.org, is one of the world's leading internet sites on computing and computing history. 
John Hollar previously held senior executive positions at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States and at Pearson  in the United Kingdom. He has also practiced law in Washington D.C. and served as a senior legal advisor at the Federal Communications Commission.  He holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science from Southern Methodist University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.