Christmas 2011 Toxic Memories
Balcony friend
Thanks to Tommy,
Sandy and Teen T I have been able to get a good
look at these guys!
Zoo
Elephants not so up close and personal as Lyla,
Tracy and Zita experienced.
The panda was pretty active
Komodo dragon (my favorite photo)
croc?
The invertebrate house, home of the famous
cuttlefish
Dramatic prairie dog
Flora and fauna as Amazonia
Near home
Recent History (October)
Here are some late fall flowers that were hanging
in there on my balcony
Several family members and high school friend
Karen were in DC for Dana's concert. We went to
the National Gallery East Wing to see a Munch
exhibit and then had lunch at the American Art
museum.
This is a magical little causeway going from the
backstage area of the dance theater to the front
entrance. It seemed like a secret.
Environmental
I participated in a
photography project (not contest) at my work
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - GSFC). The
instructions were to take photos around the
center during a particular week and then the
photos would be featured on the GSFC website as
Pictures of the Day and on their Flickr site. So
on my way to a meeting I took along my camera and
took some shots. I submitted one of the photos
but so far it has not shown up anywhere. The
project was open to all employees and was widely
advertised so I am sure many people participated.
I am not sure why they are not posting the pics
Anyway here are some pictures I took but did NOT
submit but I kind of like. GSFC is actually a
beautiful "campus" with forests and ponds, wild
and not wild flowers, deer, geese, fox,
woodchucks and bunnies. The buildings are fairly
boring and are named boringly, eg. Building 1,
Building 2. The most recently built building is
named Building 34. I work in Building 22. But
many buildings have interesting satellite/radio
dishes on top so my idea was to show the nature
and the technology.
The moon and some sort of tower. An electrical
station with birds.
Dish on top of Bldg 8 framed by cars and a tree.
Flower in same shape as dish on top of Bldg 23.
Exhaust pipes on Bldg 22
Below is the photo I submitted. I crouched behind
some planted wild flowers that were being blown
rather harshly by the wind and took a picture of
the dish on top of Building 8.
Have you given up on me?
Austin and William hosted a wonderful Fish Fry at the end of July. Graeme was here for Camp DC and Lenore and my parents came for the event.
We had a wonderfully special dinner the night before with Woody and Patrick at Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca, an Italian restaurant downtown. Word got out that I had a recent birthday and I was surprised by a fancy dessert. I can't remember if the waiters sang or not.
Austin's Fish fry was
fun. Tracy's son and his family, Ellen and Sam,
Mark and Allen, Earnest and Pam, Craig were there
for the great food and fun.
Tracy, Justin and Austin frying. Sam and Ellen
pose with the dishwasher.
Ellen knitting and Ingrid rocking
Fun kitchen scene. Talking movies.
Pam and Ernest
Rachel and Ethan
Shortly after this
party Kevin's seizures became more frequent and
he had to be hospitalized. He is currently in a
coma. The family is as hopeful as possible. It is
truly heartbreaking. We are keeping Kevin in our
thought and prayers.
Museum of Medicine at Walter Reed
One of the first electron microscopes and
creepily wonderful child skeletons
Below are some sites in the neighborhood and
around town
June into July
I did not include this nice picture of Graeme and Lynda's cat, Willow.
The local farmers market started. It is a block
way. The first weekend I was front and center
buying squash for our favorite chipotle squash
casserole (which is like the Go Green and Gold!
(high school colors) casserole we used to make in
high school only with that pepper twist). Here is
my favorite vendor.
I have not updated
this blog recently because I was busy doing a
music collage and video for Dana's new piece that
was shown as one of the evening performances at
the Smithsonian Folklife festival. The
performance went well. Here you can see a bit of
my video work on the TV. The piece is called
"Charlie Chan and the Mystery of Love". The other
picture is of his piece "Island" that I took from
side stage. I love that big fan!
I took this picture of Dana's rehearsal
mistress's baby Marie Elizabeth (my two middle
names!) at one of Dana's rehearsals. She might be
about 10 months old.
This past week/weekend I bought four new tires,
cycled twice, took two long walks, did a little
shopping, swam, watched fireworks from the
balcony, saw 3 bats flying around near the
balcony 2 nights in a row and prepared for my
trip to Edisto next week (yay!).
Insincere Gay Guy
We dropped by yesterday after not visiting for a couple of years. Susan recognized us, smiled us and said "Hi Guys". Insincere Gay Guy mumbled a greeting. I quickly found a Tshirt I had to have and was forced to ask Insincere Gay Guy if there was a larger size. He somewhat sarcastically showed me the label and explained that the cryptic writing let me know that it comes in Small and Medium and that the Small was there but the Medium was in the back. (he has gotten a little grumpy) I just smiled and asked if I could see the Medium. He said "of course" and went and got it for me. Joe was browsing nearby and said he was glad to see that things have not changed. I suspect that Susan heard at least part of the interaction and came over to tell me about the Tshirt artist and that I could try it on in the back room if I needed to. I bought the shirt and love it.
Here is a pic from the artist's site. The design is called Octopus Robots
Speaking of art the little girl on the 3rd floor
has a new installation up on her door. I am not
exactly sure what the point is but had to
document it.
Early Spring
Taking it to the Streets
Street walkers and a cute girl eating her lunch
Hidden park benches and a birch tree among the
evergreens
Joe's pictures are below
An inexperienced cross-country skier in a crazy
blue coat and a little boy having fun
An inexperienced cross country skier (luckily I
wasn't trying) in a yellow coat and a snow plow
with an emblem - a mouse next to the words "Big
Papa".
Snow Season
The Great Snowfall of 2009
Halloween and some other stuff
.
And we saw some nice old school paper Halloween
decorations on a walk around the neighborhood.
The fall colors were
nice this year. Here are some pics at work and
from my balcony.
The night before
Halloween I had drinks with Dana and Tati and
Dana's new dancer Hala. Here's Tati and me
matching the couch fabric so nicely.
And then there was
the fun halloween party at Dana's where I dressed
up as a 60's go-go dancer. Take a look.
Summer's over..What will the future bring?
Summer swimming is over but it is still ice cream weather. We finally took out the ice cream maker and made up for our late start by making three batches - almond, cinnamon and grapefruit ice. All wonderful and they tasted great together.
I'll have to find an alternative to swimming laps (especially if we are going to make more ice cream). I did try a Zumba class this past week with my friend Brooke. Zumba seems to be a mixture of several styles of dance - samba, salsa, hip-hop, bollywood. It was quite fun and aerobic. It may just work.
This past Thursday Brooke and another friend Marcia and I went to a neighborhood French restaurant to catch up with each other. I tried dubonnet for the first time and although I will probably not order it again I am glad I tried it. Now I know "fortified wine" means too sweet for me. It did come in a nice glass.
After dinner we went over to Dana's house and he read our fortunes with some fortune telling cards that he has had since he was a child. He was amazingly accurate with Brooke' s fortune, Time will only tell with my mine.
This is Dana and his greyhound Pico. I am not a dog person but I do like Pico. He seems to know me and likes to stand calmly next to me.
Guest Appearance
Neighborhood News:
There has been a farmers' market sponsored by the
city of DC set up about a block away from our
building on Saturdays. The first week there was
one stand. The next week there was also a bakery.
This week there were three stands, a bakery and
someone selling jewelry. This is from the first
week.
And speaking of
vegetables Joe made a wonderful salsa verde
recently. The main ingredients are tomatillos,
avocado, and jalapeno peppers.
And speaking of
wonderful food I went to dinner with dance
friends Brooke and Dana just after my birthday
and Brooke brought cupcakes! Here's Brooke and
Dana and Dana's dog Pico.
Early Summer
And most of the time I love sleeping with the windows open. This morning though, not so much. At 6:30 am a honking duck woke me up. It went on and on. I finally got up and looked out of the window. The pool 15 floors down had just been uncovered this week in preparation for a Memorial Day weekend opening. In the yucky murky green water of the pool were two ducks and on the deck was a black cat, probably licking his lips although I can't be sure. The one duck was very alarmed. It was a great "Peter and the Wolf" moment. I wanted to yell down "Hey, the cat can't swim and you can fly" but I suspected that would have little effect so I went back to bed and covered my ears. The honking eventually stopped. Joe was up already documenting the situation.
Family Update from the Midwest:
Dianne sent me photos from the Sheridan Family. Here's Emma Skye and her younger brother Leo and Dianne's lovely Easter dinner table.
Dianne, anytime you are with Austin and you see a antique store Austin is already in there checking out the Fiesta ware.
Thanks for the pix!
Last weekend my friend Gail married Chris her fiance of 6 years (he asked her to marry him on their second date) in a beautiful ceremony in a historic home in Georgetown. The best moment was when the familiar "Here Comes the Bride" music faded out and Etta James' "At Last" faded in as Gail walked down the aisle. I know all of Gail's friends have said "At last" at least once since hearing they had set a date. It was great to see old friends and family. Gail and Chris as well as Austin, William, Lyla and Tracy were featured in last week's Picture of the Week. Here are some more pictures.
For the rehearsal Chris brought a bird decoration to represent the real birds that live with them. Nobody would have been surprised if the real birds had shown up at the ceremony.
A wonderful singer sang "At Last" again for the first dance. Lyla and I gave a toast from the entire McDonald family (photo taken by the wedding photographer).
Recent Past
First, I added pictures from Lynda's party on the main Web page. Austin was responsible for some of those pictures. Lynda's party was a blast. She and my mother planned a perfect 50th birthday party and us worker bees did a great job with the furniture moving, cake, drink, music, entertainment. BoBo, a local Edisto caterer, did the party food (he and his wife are sleeping in the Photo Booth video). Here are some pictures that Dell took of the fun.
Note the fingernail polish. I had my first ever professional manicure that morning.
And now, going back in time, here are pictures from my Christmas at Washington Hospital Center and Williamsburg. It wasn't clear at first whether Austin would be able to join us after his quadruple bypass surgery but he managed to get out on good behaviour. And it was a treat to have William with us. Lenore's and possibly Austin's pictures are included.
Next I would like to document a weather and time related disaster that occurred on my balcony. Sad.
Before and after.
And here are some recent pictures. I took some during our walk today in the very light snow. We are supposed to get a lot more snow tonight.
A new fountain at the condo building next door and some pretty blue pots with matching shutters a couple of street over.
Again from the condo building next door.
From Dana's party at a bar near his house. Lots of fun.
Thanksgiving 2008
I got some good news yesterday. The injury that I sustained during my first Bollywood class and that has prevented me from going to ballet class was not a hip labral tear. This means it is something I can mend using physical therapy rather than surgery. And I now know that an MRI with contrast means a needle is going to be stuck into your thigh and then god knows what happened then to get the dye spread out. All I know is that it went on forever and I whimpered a lot and the students observing had horrified looks on their faces.
I have some pictures collected that I've been meaning to show. These two are from the theater at Towson University where Dana performed last Spring. The lipstick marks are in the stairwell leading from the stage to the dressing rooms. The other is from the dancers warmup class.
And here are some pictures from the neighborhood
A decoration probably for Diwali outside a local Indian restaurant and the line I stood in for voting (It took 45 minutes)
Here's some neighborhood graffiti at Howard University Law school and a nearby post office.
This my office where I have several Graeme Rock originals.
TV show reviews
Mad Men The design of the sets and costumes is amazing and the story line is so riveting. Every character is just so interesting. Roger Sterling has the best lines. Joan is the best bitchy-on-the-outside/vulnerable-on-the-inside secretary ever. I want to be Peggy (except for the hospital stay part). Don Draper is so cool even when he is a tortured soul.
Chuck: When it ended last season I thought it had lost its charm and seemed to be concentrating more on girl spies in sexy clothes. But this season there is more fun stuff going on with Chuck's co-workers at More Buy and there are fun disguises for the guys and gals.
Fringe: I like it most weeks especially the interaction between the mad scientist and his world weary son. The lead is pretty and tough.
30 Rock: Except for the first episode of the season it rocks!
Samantha Who?: Not anywhere near hilarious or ingenious but I still like it. Sidekick Andrea is the best thing since Patsy on AbFab.
And finally, a little video of a recent video chat. Little T, who seems to have learned a mischievous thing or two from his dad, figured out how to disconnect from the chat at one point.
Misprints
"...and multimedia artist Laura McDonald..." says the Washington Times
"... a Laura Macdonald montage ...." says the DanceViewTimes
All three were positive reviews of Dana and his dancers and I am happy that I was part of it.
And here's a panoramic shot that Joe took of the new Chinese embassy that was just completed. He has walked past the huge construction site every day for the past three years
Witch's brew
Here's what was happening Monday night:
And I was so happy that the little girl on the 3rd floor is exhibiting some new seasonal artwork on her front door. It's been a while.
The little post-it on the left says "Burning Ben" with a drawing of a witch. On the right we have "Cackley Bradley" and a spider.
Capital Criterium
The race in the shadow of the capitol.
The cyclists came around a corner to climb up a hill. In this lap Vandevelde was way ahead of the pack
Vandevelde by himself early on and the group that scrambled for the win. The guy in red and blue won.
Vandevelde signing autographs and a participant in the children's race.
A white building against a beautiful blue sky and our lunch.
Photo Credit: The photos that look like they might have been taken by someone who knows how to work the camera settings were taken by Joe.
Dirt Baths
One of the things that makes me smile is birds taking a dirt bath. I secretly caught some on my camera recently.
A Sad Day
Joe has been going to Schlotzsky's since it opened 14 years ago. I would join him now and then but about 2 years ago we started the habit of going there almost every Saturday after we got back from our various Saturday morning activities (cycling, dance class, sleeping in, etc). Both Lenore and Graeme went there with us when they were in town (Graeme ate two sandwiches in one sitting). We always sat close to the front near the big windows so we could comment on everything and everyone walking or driving or riding by. It was great for people-watching. Unlike most places there were several choices for vegetarians and there were at least 4-5 sandwiches that I liked. The seating area was quiet and there was free wifi. The proprietor was a quiet Sikh gentleman who was always there and many times was the sandwich maker.
Two weeks ago he came to our table and told us he was selling the restaurant and would be closing the following Friday. We were shocked and knew that our lives were about to change forever. There are several other sandwich shops around but most are loud, filled with kids or just serve food that is not that good. There is a decent cafeteria with a good salad bar and nice window seats but it is just way too expensive.
There will be a restaurant opening at the Schlotzsky's location supposedly soon. We'll have to wait and see if it is anywhere as good. Today we went to the expensive cafeteria and saw two other Schlotzsky's regulars - Mr. Calvert-Woodley-Wine-Seller and Mr. Old-Guy-Who-Likes-to-Talk-Politics. A third regular Mr Suit-On-A-Saturday was sitting outside at Potbelly's.
Flag Day
Ethiopia and Jordan
State Department and Bangladesh
Israel and Egypt
Slovakia and Austria
Brunei and United Arab Emirates
Pakistan and Malaysia
Nigeria with Egypt in the distance and some flags at the University of the District of Columbia
We do not have cable but our building just recently upgraded their antenna so we get many HD and analog channels. It will never be as good as cable especially since many of the stations come and go but Sunday I was very surprised to see ShahRukh Khan on a talk show on my TV.
That Cone Thing That Dogs Wear
And in other animal news, Dana's sweet dog Pico hurt his leg and has to wear a cone to keep him from licking, biting, irritating the wound. I felt so bad laughing at him but could not help it.
And here are some neighborhood pictures.
One of the Chinese construction workers building the new embassy has pimped out his hard hat.
And we found some plum trees.
And finally I tried something new this week. My dance friends, Brooke and Marcia, and I went to a great Indian restaurant called Indique and I had appam, a rice flour pancake, with chicken curry. It really was delicious. Appam is from the Kerala region in southern India which is somewhat familiar to me because it is where one of my favorite books The God of Small Things is set and where Vasanth, the most talented dancer we met on our trip to India, is from.
A New Hill of Hell and Humiliation
Here are some miscellaneous pictures I took recently:
More new balcony
flowers
A blouse I made in the sewing class I took. It
turned out pretty well!
And here's a fun little scene in the local
grocery store.
And Lynda had a pink flamingo friend join in on
our video chat tonight.
And all of a sudden there was Tracy too!
More Beer
reviews
Clipper City Red Sky at Night
Saison Ale and Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale are
from a local Baltimore brewery. I really like
the Red Sky at Night Saison Ale. It has a nice
full taste, just slightly sweet. The web site
lists the ingredients. I had no idea there are
so many different types of hops but I do know
there is a world-wide hops shortage. Oh no!
Hops: Magnum and Styrian Goldings
Malts: Pils, Carapils, and wheat malts, Belgian
candi sugar
The Hop3 ale is OK.
Hops: Magnum, Centennial, Chinook, Amarillo
and Palisade
Malts: Crisp English Pale, Carapils, and
Munich
I will definitely buy the Saison Ale again.
Spring Vegetation
The water from the pool was pumped into Rock Creek which I guess was ok. I suspect all the chlorine was gone and that sludge might have actually been full of healthy vegetation. The pool was filled by Monday morning and will probably be 60 degrees until the middle of July. It opens next weekend.
Here are some flowers
I planted. It's Thursday and I am still sore from
moving around pots and boxes in a small 5x13 foot
space.
Saturday night dinner
where everything was great but Austin's Sauteed
Spinach with Gorgonzola cheese and Star Fruit was
the big hit.
And speaking of Video
Chat here's Lyla and me chatting with Graeme's
sushi dinner.
Spring Things
Quicktime movie
(5.2 MB)
I should have added the sound of crickets
chirping.
I come from a
predominantly non-musical family (I was in the
Virgin Islands when Graeme was born so how do I
know he was not adopted?) so it may come as a
surprise that I have been asked to create a
musical score for a dance piece. Luckily it
involves mostly computer work - using existing
song samples, vocal recordings, special effects.
Could be fun, could be the downfall of a
highly-praised choreographic career. I'll keep
you informed.
More Beer reviews
Stone IPA is brewed in California and is mighty
fine with lots of hops and a nice clean taste.
Stop Action Animation and Dress Forms
We're watching the 3rd season of Project Runway on DVD. It is the best reality TV show ever. And in our neighborhood it looks like a fashion academy has opened up. Here's some items featured in their front window. It's hard to see but the man's suit is on a female dress form. It still looks snazzy though.
And here's just some fashionable umbrellas seen a little further up the street:
More Beer reviews
I like wine from Anderson Valley in Sonoma County, CA so I was interested to see how they do with beer. Although this Hop Ottin' IPA is not my favorite Indian Pale Ale it is still quite good. The flavor is nice but the hops are a little too subtle. I would buy it again.
Spring/Latvian Pig Man
Near this tree we found a little patch of wee blue flowers.
And speaking of Nature I have been doing some research on the Latvian forest preserves in hopes of visiting some of the magical, mystical rural areas outside of Riga when we are there in July. I ran across CÅ«kmens, the spokesperson for a "Don't Litter" campaign in Latvia.
If you want more here is a fun video
Fun Science
Click to see closeups:
Thanksgiving 2007
Thanksgiving day was pretty good except for the death of my car's battery that prevented me from visiting Austin and his guests before they ate dinner. But my dinner was simple but delicious - Green bean casserole, Cheesy Monkey bread and Apple cake. I believe it met the minimum Thanksgiving requirement for starch that Sandy and I discussed in a conversation earlier this week.
Here' s picture of a funny little car that parks near my office. It is a government car but I am not sure of its exact purpose.
More Beer reviews
Lagunitas India Pale Ale: Now that I know that India Pale Ales have an extra hoppy taste I want to try them all. The Lagunitas web site says their IPA is a "special homicidally hoppy ale" and while I found it to be quite good with a nice smooth taste I did not find it to have a strong hoppy taste..
Some more movie/DVD reviews
3 Iron
A curious Korean movie about a young man who moves into people's homes when they are away. He eats their food but also does their laundry and other cleaning. He manages to leave before the occupants return. At one house that he thinks is empty he finds a woman who has been abused by her husband. She leaves with him and joins him in his little home invasions. They are eventually caught and she returns to her husband but they still remain together in a way that may not be real. There are some elements of horror towards the end that were kind of confusing to me. It is a nice looking film and I am glad I saw it but it is just odd. The director also directed Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring,
Robots
Animated kid's movie about a young robot who has dreams of being an inventor. He goes to the big city where he makes friends but his dreams look impossible to achieve. The animation is very inventive but the story is nothing special. The ending scene involving a robot dog singing like James Brown, a marching band and lots of robots dancing makes up for the overly long scene involving flatulence.
More Child Art
More Beer reviews
Redbach by Rodenbach brewery: I found this in the back of the fridge. It is a cherry flavored Belgium ale . The bottle says it's "kissed by cherries" but the cherry flavor is up front and not subtle. I bought it a while ago and wasn't thrilled with it so I am saving it for a rainy day. Or maybe I will cook with it. I just checked out their website and saw that there are recipes, including a Breast of duck with cherries and Redbach!
Dreams
I have had several dreams lately of going around and locking doors and windows. One dream took place in an old house we used to live in, the other in a house I was not familiar with. There was no real anxiety associated with the dreams and I have not quite figured it out what they mean.
Here are two little videos I took recently. One is the fife and drum group at the July 4th parade we ran into on our bike ride. The other is a parade of one blue dog who works Connecticut Ave. in front of the local pet store. It's always a treat to see him/her while we eat sandwiches across the street at Schkotszky's.
Folklife Festival
We then saw a young song and dance troup from China, a barbershop quartet type group from Tibet.
Then the Vietnamese opera performed.
\
The food lines at the folk life festival were way too long so we headed to the food court at the Old Post Office. First we had to get masala dosas at the Indian Kitchen. I almost tried the Coconut Bharfi and Thums Up soda.
And we could not leave without a visit to Larry's Cookies.
Some more movie/DVD reviews
We've been renting some cable TV series
Dead Like Me
Paula recommended this series about the dead walking among the living acting as grim reapers. We've seen the pilot. The cast is interesting and we are interested to see how the story develops.
The Wire Season 2
Started off a bit slow but the action is picking up. The first season was all about the drug dealing gang in the Baltimore projects. This season the story continues in the projects but there is also a murder investigation in the Baltimore Port. I still can't get enough.
Entourage
Another great series - a young actor makes it big in the movies and moves from Queens to Hollywood with his childhood friends. Jeremy Piven plays his intense agent. It's light and fluffy and fun with cameos here and there. Joe's favorite so far is Jessica Alba. Mine is Mark Wahlberg.
Top Fifty
It is lilac and wisteria time in DC. I took this picture in the parking lot next to my ballet studio.
So since it is a slow news day I thought I might list Joe's and my Top 50 movie list that we put together recently:
(In no particular order)
Kill Bill I & 11
Sexy Beast
Snatch
My Neighbors the Yamadas
The Fifth Element
Dil Se
The Matrix
The Professional
Trust
Simple Men
BladeRunner
Ghost in the Shell
Stargate
City Hunter
Chinese Ghost Story
Hana & Alice
Afterlife
Baraka
Galaxy Quest
Lost In Translation
Toy Story
Slacker
My Neighbor Totoro
Slaughterhouse 5
Dr Strangelove
To Kill A Mockingbird
Clerks
From Dusk til Dawn
Edward ScissorsHands
Grace of My Heart
Last of the Mohicans
Raise The Red Lantern
Party Girl
Die Hard
High Risk
Paris Texas
Wings of Desire
Star Wars
Young Frankenstein
Annie Hall
Bram Stroker's Dracula
Princess Bride
Sixteen Candles
Bottle Rocket
The Last Seduction
Singing In the Rain
Local Hero
Enchanted April
Austin Powers
Nightmare Before Christmas
Memorial Day Weekend 2007
Yesterday morning Joe and I did an 18 mile cycling ride in VA. Some highlights:
- Sweet-smelling honeysuckle everywhere
- Watching a bird pick up a a perfectly clean kleenex lying on the trail and fly away with it
- Riding along with the "Rolling Thunder" (veterans on motorcycles, mostly Harleys) on Interstate 66. Interstate highways and other roads were closed to accommodate their trip from points in VA and MD to the Pentagon. People were lined up on the overpasses waving at the riders. The riders beeped at them. It was quite loud but impressive.
- Seeing two large herons along the way. One was bigger than any heron I have seen in the SC marsh.
As I was planting flowers I listened to some new music. Here's what I'm liking:
- Rufus Wainwright - I listened to his dad Loundon in the late 70s and 80s. I have tried to listen to Rufus in the past but was never impressed. His latest though finally broke through. Romantic, bitter, thoughtful, clever.
- VHS or Beta - fun 80's influenced music, as you would expect from the name
- Final Fantasy - a guy who plays nice pop music and uses violins for percussion. I found some mp3s of a collaboration between Final Fantasy and a rapper Cadence Weapon. It was a great fit.
- Kings of Leon - Southern Rock n Roll, but in a good way
- A small Swedish Invasion - Jose Gonzalez, Peter Bjorn and John
- Amy Winehouse - way too much hype but she has a great boozy blues style and apparently a lifestyle to match
Here are some pictures of my balcony:
Christmas Contest Entries
Here are some neighborhood pictures.
A pretty little house in Georgetown
Toys In Yards
Long Time Gone
And then there is the Christmas contest. It's coming along. I have found that working on black velvet requires daylight.
And I have also been working on images and little movies that will be used in my friend Dana's dance performance in March. I am enjoying doing the research and video-taping and video-editing but I am now starting to think of the hundreds of people including dance critics from major newspapers who will see the performance. I am now wishing I had gone for that BA in Art instead of that BA in Astronomy.
Here are two pictures I took recently.
Some more
movie/DVD reviews
Mystic
River
Excellent story, very engaging, beautifully
filmed, great acting. My only complaint was the
last scene that seemed tacked on and unnecessary.
It should have ended with the Sean Penn character
walking down the middle of the street away from
the Kevin Bacon character.
Jay and
Silent Bob Strike Back
After the inital 15 minutes where the vulgar to
funny ratio was a bit high I really started to
enjoy the movie. I really like Jay's ramblings in
this movie as I did in Clerks and the
silly plot was actually interesting.
Tis The Season
I am almost ready for Christmas. I leave for SC on Thursday. Hopefully the weather will stay good and we will all get there on time.
Pet Food Bunny
My sonnet is coming along but I am still finding it very hard. I've changed themes a couple of times. I heard rumors that Lenore finished hers while lounging in her chemotherapy comfy chair and that Paula has already written 2 sonnets.
A neighborhood picture:
Some more movie/DVD reviews
Good Bye
Lenin!
A nice little movie about a son trying to hide
the fact that the Berlin wall has fallen from his
mother after she wakes up from a coma. It is an
interesting portrayal of that time and place.
Hectic Times
Joe was at a mall recently and saw this for sale. The picture on the right is something recovering Catholics know well. This one though has lights and a garish clock attached. I kind of like the lights. The clock, not so much.
Art Appreciation
It reopened this year and they did a great job.
One of the galleries
This is a creepy installation. I did not want to get near. I was sure she was going to move.
Fun chandelier
Leafless trees on the Smithsonian Mall
I did a bit of Christmas shopping in the museum stores. My Smithsonian
membership discount card was very busy.
Visitors
The Limey
This thriller is about an ex-con who travels from England to Los Angeles to find out more about his estranged daughter's death. It has a very interesting look to it and the editing is unusual without being too gimicky. The story is not complicated so it is more about the characters involved. Terrance Stamp and Peter Fonda do a great job with the characters. I thought this was much better than some Soderbergh's more ambitious movies like Full Frontal and Traffic. As I was just now looking over Soderbergh's film list I saw King of the Hill, a bittersweet movie that spawned my interest in vintage Hamilton watches. I had forgotten he had done that. Another excellent film that seems to have slipped through the cracks. It is not on out on DVD.
Something New For The Resume
The process was interesting. The piece was partly inspired by a world war II love story by Marguerite Duras. I searched the National Archives web site for images of war and death and planes. I video-taped the dancers at one point and did a lot of Google image searches. I put together a lot of little videos for Dana to look at and eventually we decided to use the still images from the National Archives, images of telegrams I found on Google, and some film clips of war planes flying in formation and of typewriters being typed on. The images appeared at the beginning and then towards the end of the piece totalling about 7 minutes. The whole piece was about 75 minutes long.
A highlight of the process was going to the National Archives storage facility to scan and print the original photos. I am now an official reseacher and I have a picture ID that is good for 2 years to prove it.
Here are some fuzzy pictures of the performance with some of my images in the background. I took these during dress rehearsal.
The Reviews Are In
So when we were growing up we had things we were identified with and that was what we got as gifts. Lenore's thing was pigs, lynda's was mushrooms, mine was owls but that somehow changed into frogs. So I still get frog-theme gifts and sometimes I buy them for myself especially cards. One morning this week I noticed, somewhat to my horror, a "gift" deposited next to my car. I have no idea how it got there. It seems to be made of plastic.
Spring and Cherry Blossoms
Last weekend Lenore and Paula visited from Chicagoland. They saw the cherry blossoms without me because it is just too much walking for my sprained ankle. We did all go to Eastern Market together though and to the National Cathedral.
Lyla, Tracy and my parents recently took a trip to Egypt and brought me back some great gifts - beads, jewelry, a beautiful Egyptian cotton towel and a small statue of the god Horus. Here is a little movie (Quicktime 3.7MB) of Horus in action:
TV Season Update
Sons & Daughters: This new show is as
quirky as Arrested Development but a bit
more real. It is a totally dysfunctional extended
family comedy dealing with teenage isolation,
stepparents, inter-faith marriage,
single-motherhood, parents dabbling in community
theater, marriage problems and fun loser
ex-husbands. The dialogue is sometimes improvised
which I did not think I would like but it fits
with the comedy. The young 3 and 4 year olds have
some of the funniest lines and the characters are
all great. I am sure it will be canceled soon.
More Spring Things
On the way home I stopped at the carwash near my house to clean my very dirty car. I was the last car to be washed for the day and as some of the guys were wiping down my car the others were all taking off their red carwash tshirts and changing into other shirts. That was an odd sight but then after I adjusted my seat forward and started driving down the alley about 10 of the carwash guys had jumped on their bikes and were riding down the alley with me. I felt as if I was swimming with the dolphins. Or maybe it was the white wine and Italian grappa at dinner that made the scene seem so surreal.
Here are two signs of spring - a bunny found behind the garden nursery at the National Cathedral and our algae-tinted pool which I will be swimming in one and a half months from now.
Some more movie/DVD
reviews
13
Going On 30 and Hellboy:
Two movies dealing with the supernatural and in
which the heros must overcome true evil - a bunch
of hellhounds and an evil russian and nazi in the
case of Hellboy and a back-biting fashion
magazine editor in 13 Going on 30. Both are
enjoyable movies.
Hard Labor
I like this picture. There seems to be so many compartments of construction activity. The blue-roofed buldings are the workers' living quarters. |
Highway Warning
Some more movie/DVD
reviews
Dilwale
Dulhania Le Jayenge A good Bollywood movie
starring Shah Rukh Khan. It has just the right
amount of melodrama and silliness and only a
small amount of self-righteous gratuitous
violence. Raj and Simran live in England and fall
in love but Simran's father has promised her to
the son of an old friend in India. When the
father finds out Simran loves Raj he immediately
moves the family to India to start the wedding
preparations. Raj follows Simran to India and
tells her that he knows they could run away
together and elope but he wants to win the heart
of her father and get his permission - a true
challenge. The music and dancing are quite
nice.
To The Limit
Joe and I took a longer than usual (for me) bike ride this morning. It was great. The weather was nice and the trails were fairly uncrowded for holiday weekend (well, holiday for some. I have to work on Monday). We rode from National Airport to Mount Vernon, through marshes, under the Wilson Bridge, through Old Town Alexandria to the RV parking lot at the home of George Washington. Here are some pics.
Some more movie/DVD
reviews
Initial
D This is a nice Hong Kong movie about car
racing based on a Japanese comic book series. It
is a story about a tofu delivery boy who gets
involved with professional and street racers. It
is also a story about friendship, fathers and
sons and first love. There is no
testosterone-fueled violence, only
testosterone-fueled car racing.
Heat Wave
There was some sort of incident at work and we have been cut off from any system outside of the gsfc.gov domain since yesterday and it may continue through the week. It has been so hard for both work and play. Whenever I have a computer code syntax question or get some sort of error message I go to Google. I usually get my "home" email at work and that's not happening. And during the Tour de France I check the day's outcome in late afternoon. I still am not sure what happened today on the Tour's toughest mountain day ending with the legendary L'Alpe d'Huez.
We rented season 1 of Project Runway. It's a reality show like other reality shows but it seems to be more about the fashion and less about the bickering. I've been enjoying it. Season 3 has just started and it is being shown on NBC as well as cable which is great except for the commercials and the inconvenience of not being able to go on to the next episode right away.
More neighborhood pictures:
Mimobot
Thursday my aunt Zita treated me to a dinner at a cool-looking restaurant called Pazo. They serve tapas and other small dishes. The mushrooms and the ciabatta bread were my favorite. As I waited for Zita, her neighbor Caroline and friend Steve to arrive I had a drink at the bar.
Today Joe and I went to the National Building Museum and saw a documentary on the architect John Lautner (a student of Frank Lloyd Wright) and an exhibit on environmentally "green" homes. It made me want to live in a beautiful house made of concrete and glass in the hills overlooking Los Angeles with cork and bamboo flooring, solar panels, and recycled glass tiling throughout.
Here's what we saw on our walk from the museum to have some lunch and then to the Metro.
OK, you're right, I bought it because it is cute but I am sure that someday soon I will find it very useful. I also could not resist the little outfit that has a clasp for easy accessorizing.
Thursday evening I went to my aunt Zita's house to help her install AOL broadband. It should have taken an hour or so but it ended up taking 4 hours. We had to run to Apple store to get the lastest version of Mac OS X and install it. That took about an hour and a half. The rest of the time was dealing with Verizon's crappy install software and annoying technical support. When I finally reached someone who knew Macs it was so much less annoying.
AOL tech support was fairly decent. I talked
to a guy in India and he admitted he did not know
Macs that well but he obviously had good step by
step instructions. As we were finishing the call
Zita asked me to find out his name and where he
was. His name was Arun and he spelled it for me:
A as in apple, R as in rock, U as in unicorn... I
found the unicorn part to be quite entertaining
so when he said he was in India I told him I
might be visiting India at the end of the year.
He invited me to come visit hime in Bangalore and
told me how many kilometers and how many miles
Bangalore is from Chennai (the only city I know
we might visit). Anyway it all ended on a nice
note and Zita can now have her email open all day
without worrying about paying for every second
she is online.
Happy Thanksgiving
What Do You Think?
Neighborhood Picture: Twister Board in the Trees