Delicate
Wildflower Preserve, Ithaca, NY
Spring 2007
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Stardust and Envelopes
This was a rather uneventful and workful weekend. I spent most of it with butt firmly planted in chair stuffing about 1200 invitations to Darwin Days happening from Feb 11-17. For those of you not in the know, Darwin Days is the Museum of the Earth's weeklong celebration of Charles Darwin's birthday (Feb 12) and the theory of evolution. We're having a host of events up at Cornell and at the Museum, including a birthday party reception on the evening of Feb. 16. Hence, the invitations. I think it took me about 12, 13? hours to do them all...anyway, it was most of the useful hours of the weekend.
One upshot of doing them at home was that I got to do it in front of the tv and with music instead of staring at our cubicle wall at work. In that time stuffing envelopes, I watched the movie Stardust which was based on Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name. It was truly delightful. I highly recommend it to everyone. Fun, but not silly. Romantic, but not corny. It's just a fun little adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously. I think I might even watch it again before sending it back to netflix.
One upshot of doing them at home was that I got to do it in front of the tv and with music instead of staring at our cubicle wall at work. In that time stuffing envelopes, I watched the movie Stardust which was based on Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name. It was truly delightful. I highly recommend it to everyone. Fun, but not silly. Romantic, but not corny. It's just a fun little adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously. I think I might even watch it again before sending it back to netflix.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Soylent Green
So...I just finished watching the movie Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston. It's a 1973 scifi flick set in the year 2022 (which is really funny because all the tech like tvs look like they are straight out of the 70s, not at all what modern electronics look like and certainly not what they'll look like in 2022 even if the world stops progressing at this very moment.) Heston's character is a detective who is investigating a mysterious assassination. It turns out that the guy who has been killed was on the board of directors for a company called Soylent that makes these colored rectangle slabs people eat in lieu of real food that is no longer available to most of the masses. The big mystery, stop reading now if you don't want to know, is that Soylent Green is made out of dead people. Now, I found myself watching and thinking, so? In this future world, the oceans are dying, there isn't farmland, there are too many people (masses sleep on all the stairwells for some reason, so Heston is always jumping over them to get anywhere). Now, if there were no other source of food and the makers of Soylent weren't killing people, just using people who either died naturally, were murdered/had an accident/etc., or chose to euthanize themselves, why not eat it?
This big secret was the least disturbing thing that happens in the movie in my estimation. I was more horrified at the way women are treated. If you want to have a nice place to live, you basically become a glorified prostitute and come with the apartment that a man might move into, you are referred to as furniture. The man can choose to keep you or get a new piece of furniture. You cook, clean, and service the man's needs, he can even beat you if he so chooses. Heston pretty much immediately makes the dead man's furniture have sex with him and she is ok with it because that's just how things are. The movie makes absolutely no mention of men being furniture, apparently women, who were definitely moving towards liberation in the 70s have taken a good leap backwards.
Another disturbing aspect of this movie is what seems to be the cause of this messed up future. At one point, for about one sentence, Heston cites global warming as the cause of the unnaturally hot weather. People are constantly complaining of the heat and cozying up to air conditioners throughout the movie. Thirty five years ago people were already worried about global warming and climate change. And yet, its often feels like climate change is a relatively new idea with the way our government and the population as a whole treat the issue. Hey, maybe if we don't shape up and stop potential climate shifts, we'll end up eating Soylent Green too.
This big secret was the least disturbing thing that happens in the movie in my estimation. I was more horrified at the way women are treated. If you want to have a nice place to live, you basically become a glorified prostitute and come with the apartment that a man might move into, you are referred to as furniture. The man can choose to keep you or get a new piece of furniture. You cook, clean, and service the man's needs, he can even beat you if he so chooses. Heston pretty much immediately makes the dead man's furniture have sex with him and she is ok with it because that's just how things are. The movie makes absolutely no mention of men being furniture, apparently women, who were definitely moving towards liberation in the 70s have taken a good leap backwards.
Another disturbing aspect of this movie is what seems to be the cause of this messed up future. At one point, for about one sentence, Heston cites global warming as the cause of the unnaturally hot weather. People are constantly complaining of the heat and cozying up to air conditioners throughout the movie. Thirty five years ago people were already worried about global warming and climate change. And yet, its often feels like climate change is a relatively new idea with the way our government and the population as a whole treat the issue. Hey, maybe if we don't shape up and stop potential climate shifts, we'll end up eating Soylent Green too.
A Little More Illumination
Light in Winter Festival weekend is over. I had a blast! Day three was fabulous. Overall, I think that Fri and Sunday rocked and Saturday was still fun, but not as good as the other days. So, Sunday the day started with a trip out to good ol' PRI for a talk by our Artist-in-Residence, Mr. John Gurche. It was similar to some of his other talks I've been to, but it was still fun to be there just to see the crowd we drew. There were 80-90 people!! Go PRI!
Then I was off to Ithaca College. It was nice to be back on old familiar turf. I should get up there for lectures etc. more often. We started with a performance of works composed by Bruce Adolphe that were inspired by the artwork of Gaugin. The lecture parts were interesting and the music was good, enjoyable all around. Then we had a really spectac performance and lecture by David Sloan Wilson on evolution and the musical group Water Bear. Everything David had to say was fascinating and I'll have to go check out his book, Evolution for Everyone I believe it was called. One interesting tidbit from him was about the evolution of personalities. David gave an example that two sisters in a family of bush babies had completely different personalities, one was outgoing and went off to establish its own range, the other was shyer and stayed with the mother, and probably would inherit her range. By having these different personalities, the sisters were occupying different niches. I'm not sure I'm explaining it correctly... Have to get the book to remember correctly. Anyway, the musical portion of the presentation expressed some of David's ideas in a really interesting way. The group's founder has a system where each note on the instrument is assigned to a different letter of the alphabet, A-Z. Then she takes the notes that correspond to a word, in this case, the player's names, and makes a piece around these series of notes. So, each instrumentalist was playing their name and it was really fascinating to see these disparate sequences weave together to make a pleasing song. Really great.
Next up, symphony pieces inspired by The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland (or Ireland...I can't remember). And finished off with Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey. This one was pure Ithaca....dirty hippie Ithaca. They were good, but sometimes the percussion heavy sound devolved into pure noise. I think they would have been more fun at Grassroots were there are no seats and you are just freer to move with the music and really get into it. A bit too free spirited for the State theatre.
A nice surprise was that my old boss and friend, Bridget came to town. It was fun to catch up and have a drink with everyone after the performance. Nice to have someone I knew come to the events instead of continuing to be surrounded by a sea of strangers!
Then I was off to Ithaca College. It was nice to be back on old familiar turf. I should get up there for lectures etc. more often. We started with a performance of works composed by Bruce Adolphe that were inspired by the artwork of Gaugin. The lecture parts were interesting and the music was good, enjoyable all around. Then we had a really spectac performance and lecture by David Sloan Wilson on evolution and the musical group Water Bear. Everything David had to say was fascinating and I'll have to go check out his book, Evolution for Everyone I believe it was called. One interesting tidbit from him was about the evolution of personalities. David gave an example that two sisters in a family of bush babies had completely different personalities, one was outgoing and went off to establish its own range, the other was shyer and stayed with the mother, and probably would inherit her range. By having these different personalities, the sisters were occupying different niches. I'm not sure I'm explaining it correctly... Have to get the book to remember correctly. Anyway, the musical portion of the presentation expressed some of David's ideas in a really interesting way. The group's founder has a system where each note on the instrument is assigned to a different letter of the alphabet, A-Z. Then she takes the notes that correspond to a word, in this case, the player's names, and makes a piece around these series of notes. So, each instrumentalist was playing their name and it was really fascinating to see these disparate sequences weave together to make a pleasing song. Really great.
Next up, symphony pieces inspired by The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland (or Ireland...I can't remember). And finished off with Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey. This one was pure Ithaca....dirty hippie Ithaca. They were good, but sometimes the percussion heavy sound devolved into pure noise. I think they would have been more fun at Grassroots were there are no seats and you are just freer to move with the music and really get into it. A bit too free spirited for the State theatre.
A nice surprise was that my old boss and friend, Bridget came to town. It was fun to catch up and have a drink with everyone after the performance. Nice to have someone I knew come to the events instead of continuing to be surrounded by a sea of strangers!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
A Little Illumination
Day two of the Light in Winter festival is drawing to a close...and I think I just may have decided that I'll be skipping out on the final evening performance of the day. A girl can only take so much illumination, and I've already been to three performances today! So far, I'd have to say that day one of the festival was my favorite. I started with the Ying Quartet performance of music written mostly by Chinese Americans. The program explored the meeting of Eastern music with Western instruments and musical styles. The music was truly innovative, one piece was entirely plucked instead of performed with bows. Both pleasing musically and educationally.
The evening's performance of Voices from the Edge of the World was really magical. I find pieces that combine music, narration, and images very powerful. Neil Conan and the whole cast were great. I especially liked the piece from Jacques Costeau which was performed with drunken watery sounds made by the percussionist on this exceedingly odd looking instrument. I have no idea what it was, but the sound effects and the reading were just perfect.
After the show, it was on to the after party which I attended as a dutiful board member even though I'm not all that comfortable at parties where I am the youngest person present, usually by far! But, it wasn't too painful :-) The party was held in the penthouse of the old Dewitt Mall building. It was hard to imagine that the building used to be a school. Truly a lovely apartment. Being the person who generally finds it difficult to mingle, I was proud of myself that I didn't spend too much time by myself looking out windows. I met Neil Conan, spoke with a few of the musicians, and chatted with some of the other board members, so I felt it was an evening well done.
Saturday started off early with a yoga dance workshop which was fun, then a presentation loosely based around the "identities" of super heroes. This one didn't really seem to me to follow the theme or the title of the talk too much, but it was a lot of fun, especially the last presenter who talked about the biology of b-movie monsters. He even made a plug for Museum of the Earth when he talked a little about the evolution of dinosaurs through time in the movies. Actually, its been really amusing to see how much of what we talk about at the Museum made its way into the presentations. On Fri, one of the pieces narrated was Darwin's letters (if you want more, come to Darwin's Birthday Party at the Museum in Feb), and today, we had the dino posture stuff (come to the Museum and check out our temporary exhibit for more), and then in the last panel, one guy who works with robots talked about letting robots learn and evolve through natural selection. Funny how themes follow you around!
The evening's performance of Voices from the Edge of the World was really magical. I find pieces that combine music, narration, and images very powerful. Neil Conan and the whole cast were great. I especially liked the piece from Jacques Costeau which was performed with drunken watery sounds made by the percussionist on this exceedingly odd looking instrument. I have no idea what it was, but the sound effects and the reading were just perfect.
After the show, it was on to the after party which I attended as a dutiful board member even though I'm not all that comfortable at parties where I am the youngest person present, usually by far! But, it wasn't too painful :-) The party was held in the penthouse of the old Dewitt Mall building. It was hard to imagine that the building used to be a school. Truly a lovely apartment. Being the person who generally finds it difficult to mingle, I was proud of myself that I didn't spend too much time by myself looking out windows. I met Neil Conan, spoke with a few of the musicians, and chatted with some of the other board members, so I felt it was an evening well done.
Saturday started off early with a yoga dance workshop which was fun, then a presentation loosely based around the "identities" of super heroes. This one didn't really seem to me to follow the theme or the title of the talk too much, but it was a lot of fun, especially the last presenter who talked about the biology of b-movie monsters. He even made a plug for Museum of the Earth when he talked a little about the evolution of dinosaurs through time in the movies. Actually, its been really amusing to see how much of what we talk about at the Museum made its way into the presentations. On Fri, one of the pieces narrated was Darwin's letters (if you want more, come to Darwin's Birthday Party at the Museum in Feb), and today, we had the dino posture stuff (come to the Museum and check out our temporary exhibit for more), and then in the last panel, one guy who works with robots talked about letting robots learn and evolve through natural selection. Funny how themes follow you around!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wise Blood
I posted earlier about several top 100 novels lists. Well, I finally got around to picking out something from them to read and that happened to be Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. I had read a short story by her in college, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", I believe it was called and I'd really liked it. It was really disturbing and messed up, but quite deep and interesting to discuss. So, hence the choice of a familiar author to try a book from. After having read the novel, I'm a bit disappointed. It's definitely not on my top 100 novels of all time. It's not bad, it was just....odd. The characters were all significantly flawed and unlikable and I didn't really get what the novel was about. I'm not really saying that it was poorly written or anything, just that I was unable to really get into it, to fully appreciate it. It seems to me the kind of book that might flourish under discussion but that read alone can be rather confusing and depressing. Or maybe I'm just not that interested in thinking about faith and religion right now.
Anyway, I'm on to Steppenwolf which I picked up at a booksale awhile back and hadn't gotten around to yet. So far I like it, lots of interesting passages, but I haven't been able to read more than a few pages at a time. I think this may be another long haul kind of book for me.
In other news, I've decided to look into what it means to be a librarian and what goes into earning a masters of library science. I am fairly certain that fundraising and development is not really where I want to stay. I'm not really comfortable asking people for money and its just depressing that when we do make money, we are thanked a little, but mostly just asked to produce more. If I did stay, I'd really need to learn more because I just don't know what else to do to bring more gifts through the door. Being a librarian has sounded attractive at different points in my life, so its time to see if it really might be for me. My mom and Anders at work both find the idea of me as a librarian as a natural fit, and something about it feels right to me, but I'm not really sure what librarians do other than stuff with books, so some research is required before hasty decisions are made.
Anyway, I'm on to Steppenwolf which I picked up at a booksale awhile back and hadn't gotten around to yet. So far I like it, lots of interesting passages, but I haven't been able to read more than a few pages at a time. I think this may be another long haul kind of book for me.
In other news, I've decided to look into what it means to be a librarian and what goes into earning a masters of library science. I am fairly certain that fundraising and development is not really where I want to stay. I'm not really comfortable asking people for money and its just depressing that when we do make money, we are thanked a little, but mostly just asked to produce more. If I did stay, I'd really need to learn more because I just don't know what else to do to bring more gifts through the door. Being a librarian has sounded attractive at different points in my life, so its time to see if it really might be for me. My mom and Anders at work both find the idea of me as a librarian as a natural fit, and something about it feels right to me, but I'm not really sure what librarians do other than stuff with books, so some research is required before hasty decisions are made.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
I <3 Bowling
I bowled a 144. Woot Woot! Of course, that was in the first game and I got progressivley worse from there. A bit stiff from slinging a bowling ball around and walking up at Sapsucker woods yesterday, so taking the day off from the gym in anticipation of my first personal training session tomorrow. Very excited!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Past is present
A rare entry from my paper journal - it seemed to apply to today.
1/6/2007 1:15 pm
I am at the lake sitting on a rock wearing my jean jacket, sleeves rolled into cuffs mid forearm. Perhaps 100 Canadian geese honk just offshore, migration is no longer a necessity. I cannot say that I abhor this kind of weather in January, but despite this balminess of an early spring day in the depths of winter, we must not forget that there may be, will be, other more unpleasant consequences around the world. Record snows have hit random places, shutting down livelihoods. In the summer, livestock drops dead of the heat, people do too. Climate is shifting and I don't doubt that we can meet many of the changes, but at what cost to third world nations and to ourselves? The issues of this world are interrelated. In solving energy use, perhaps we could solve some of Iraq. In some ways I fear we will destroy ourselves before the climate has its chance. What, really, are they doing abroad in war torn countries? What are they fighting for? Walking away can't be the answer, who is to say they will not follow our retreat? Is the world we are making a world that we desire to have?
1/6/2007 1:15 pm
I am at the lake sitting on a rock wearing my jean jacket, sleeves rolled into cuffs mid forearm. Perhaps 100 Canadian geese honk just offshore, migration is no longer a necessity. I cannot say that I abhor this kind of weather in January, but despite this balminess of an early spring day in the depths of winter, we must not forget that there may be, will be, other more unpleasant consequences around the world. Record snows have hit random places, shutting down livelihoods. In the summer, livestock drops dead of the heat, people do too. Climate is shifting and I don't doubt that we can meet many of the changes, but at what cost to third world nations and to ourselves? The issues of this world are interrelated. In solving energy use, perhaps we could solve some of Iraq. In some ways I fear we will destroy ourselves before the climate has its chance. What, really, are they doing abroad in war torn countries? What are they fighting for? Walking away can't be the answer, who is to say they will not follow our retreat? Is the world we are making a world that we desire to have?
Saturday, January 5, 2008
A Book Heavy Entry
Happy New Year!
Let's begin with the books.
1. I finally finished Cryptonomicon while I was home for Christmas. It took me about a full month to finish which for me is a rather long time. This is not to say that the book was bad, it was just dense and I had two crocheted blankets to finish between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've enjoyed all of the books by Neal Stephenson that I've read so far, but I am going to agree with a review I read which stated that Stephenson can't find the ending of his novels. The book was an intruiging blend of WWII history, techie math, how computers work, and treasure hunting. Really enjoyed some of the characters, but the book ends so far away from where it starts that I was left a bit puzzled. He probably could have slimmed the book down a good deal and had a tighter storyline, but I still enjoyed. Go ahead and read, but be prepared for a significant time investment and don't read for the ending, read for the book.
2. The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey. This was a couple hour reread of a novella to shake off Cryptonomicon. I was obsessed with McCaffrey's books in middle and high school, thus I have an entire shelf and have read most of what she's written. I've moved on to other faves, but still enjoy a return every once in a while. (Crystal Singer and Killashandra are still on my top books list and have been read many many times though!) Anyway, this one is a quickie with some interesting illustrations. Light and fast reading for those in between big books or not willing to commit a lot of time.
3. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. I discovered via Netflix that this book had been made into a movie and watched it about a week ago. I liked the movie, but....I'm left wondering why they said it was based on the book. In the book the main character is a teenager living in suburban Maryland and goes to high school. She is a werewolf. She begins going out with a human, Aiden who is a poet while she is an artist. I won't say much more in case you decide to read for yourself. In the movie, she's a bit older and its in some middle eastern country. She works in a chocolate shop and one night she is in a church and meets Aiden. He's older than in the book and is a comic book artist who came to the area to do research on loup-garou (werewolves) which his next book is going to be about. Um...when did Aiden become the artist in the storyline? And how did we switch up entire continents? Not to mention that she ends up with a completely different character at the end of the movie as she does at the end of the book. So, both are enjoyable, just completely different. The reread over the last two days was another quick one just to see how different the two in fact were.
Up next is undecided, in fact, I think I'm off to the library today and maybe I'll stop in at Starbucks to use my gift card that I acquired for watching a friend's puppy. I finally saw Atonement last night and I have to say that I'm feeling a bit depressed about it. Some shots were amazing, especially one done on a beach in France full of soldiers waiting to be evacuated. It's a continuous shot that goes on for several minutes. The beginning was a bit slow, but once James McAvoy ships out to war, it gets better. Not sure why everyone was blown away by the performances, but definitely worth seeing. Oh, and could Hollywood's leading ladies please gain a smidge more fat? Kiera just looked unhealthy.
Let's begin with the books.
1. I finally finished Cryptonomicon while I was home for Christmas. It took me about a full month to finish which for me is a rather long time. This is not to say that the book was bad, it was just dense and I had two crocheted blankets to finish between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've enjoyed all of the books by Neal Stephenson that I've read so far, but I am going to agree with a review I read which stated that Stephenson can't find the ending of his novels. The book was an intruiging blend of WWII history, techie math, how computers work, and treasure hunting. Really enjoyed some of the characters, but the book ends so far away from where it starts that I was left a bit puzzled. He probably could have slimmed the book down a good deal and had a tighter storyline, but I still enjoyed. Go ahead and read, but be prepared for a significant time investment and don't read for the ending, read for the book.
2. The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey. This was a couple hour reread of a novella to shake off Cryptonomicon. I was obsessed with McCaffrey's books in middle and high school, thus I have an entire shelf and have read most of what she's written. I've moved on to other faves, but still enjoy a return every once in a while. (Crystal Singer and Killashandra are still on my top books list and have been read many many times though!) Anyway, this one is a quickie with some interesting illustrations. Light and fast reading for those in between big books or not willing to commit a lot of time.
3. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. I discovered via Netflix that this book had been made into a movie and watched it about a week ago. I liked the movie, but....I'm left wondering why they said it was based on the book. In the book the main character is a teenager living in suburban Maryland and goes to high school. She is a werewolf. She begins going out with a human, Aiden who is a poet while she is an artist. I won't say much more in case you decide to read for yourself. In the movie, she's a bit older and its in some middle eastern country. She works in a chocolate shop and one night she is in a church and meets Aiden. He's older than in the book and is a comic book artist who came to the area to do research on loup-garou (werewolves) which his next book is going to be about. Um...when did Aiden become the artist in the storyline? And how did we switch up entire continents? Not to mention that she ends up with a completely different character at the end of the movie as she does at the end of the book. So, both are enjoyable, just completely different. The reread over the last two days was another quick one just to see how different the two in fact were.
Up next is undecided, in fact, I think I'm off to the library today and maybe I'll stop in at Starbucks to use my gift card that I acquired for watching a friend's puppy. I finally saw Atonement last night and I have to say that I'm feeling a bit depressed about it. Some shots were amazing, especially one done on a beach in France full of soldiers waiting to be evacuated. It's a continuous shot that goes on for several minutes. The beginning was a bit slow, but once James McAvoy ships out to war, it gets better. Not sure why everyone was blown away by the performances, but definitely worth seeing. Oh, and could Hollywood's leading ladies please gain a smidge more fat? Kiera just looked unhealthy.
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