Monthly Archives: September 2009

Some links: 41

It turns out that Adolph Cluss’s handsome Franklin School, which I had noticed during a commute last spring, is the focus of some controversy, per reporting by Jonathan O’Connell. The city is seeking redevelopment partners for the site. The school … Continue reading

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The Laramie Project epilogue: an update: 2

We received the nearly final final draft of the script today, and we so we spent a chunk of this evening’s scheduled rehearsal scrambling to assign people to some of the new bit parts that have been created. Scenes have … Continue reading

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Upcoming: 17

Via Round Robin, something worth a side trip to San Francisco on my next California trip: Maya Lin’s gramophone horn-influenced installation What Is Missing?, a plea for habitat and biodiversity conservation. A short video gives an idea of the experience.

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Ferber decoded: 2

Edna Ferber refers in her autobiography to “ten-twenty-thirty repertory” theater as a turn-of-the-century popular entertainment of the upper Midwest, but she doesn’t tell us what the numbers mean. J. Richard Waite, in his Ph.D. dissertation (James R. Waite: Pioneer of … Continue reading

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Surgery or bricklaying

Thanks to a reminder from The Writer’s Almanac, let us remember the birthday of William Faulkner. From Faulkner’s 1956 Paris Review interview: Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical … Continue reading

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Chafing

My example concerns a young woman patient who, in spite of efforts made on both sides, proved to be psychologically inaccessible. The difficulty lay in the fact that she always knew better about everything. Her excellent education had provided her … Continue reading

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Sparks flying

Via DCist, Barry Farm (Re)Mixed posts images of rail being laid (at long last!) for the Anacostia streetcar line.

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Clean: an update: 1

I almost let it pass without mention that Clean, by Audrey Cefaly, featuring Erika Imhoof and Nello DiBlasio, directed by Leta Hall, assisted by moi, has been selected by Silver Spring Stage to represent the company at the annual Maryland … Continue reading

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The Laramie Project epilogue: an update: 1

Saturday we spent a great day with Greg Pierotti of the Tectonic Theater Project. Greg was in town to workshop with the University of Maryland, Reston Community Players, and other groups in preparation for the simul premiere of an epilogue … Continue reading

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Kill your television?

Jad Mouawad and Kate Galbraith review U.S. residential electricity consumption. While standards for white goods like clothes washers have reduced usage substantially, the consumer electronics industry has resisted calls for producing more efficient gear. The biggest offender is the flat-screen … Continue reading

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A mystery: 5

David Pogue prepares for a panel on taxicab technology, and along the way figures out something that I never quite understood: the difference between New York’s medallion cabs and “black car” services: There’s a good reason why there’s no still … Continue reading

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Ferber decoded: 1

Although I am defeated (as many others before me) by Edna Ferber’s “The schnuckle among the nations of the world,” (A Peculiar Treasure, p. 10), Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish gives some guidance on the following: It was Alexander … Continue reading

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Eclipsed; The Oogatz Man; Artist Descending a Staircase

Perhaps the theme for this review is “What is going on here?” First up is Danai Gurira’s bracing Eclipsed: in a camp during the Liberian civil war of 2003, five women—four of them concubines of the local rebel leader and … Continue reading

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Some links: 40

Bookmarked for future reference: a new multipart multimedia series from the New York Times about pollution in the country’s waters.

Posted in Water Resources and Wetlands | Comments Off

A little dig

Sly closing remark by Bill Poser at the end of a Language Log post about garbled entomology in a Customs and Border Protection press release (with my spelling correction): The odd wording appears to have originated with Customs, in this … Continue reading

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