I don’t know how else to describe the tumult produced by the MRI, so multiform and powerful that it was paralyzing, preventing me from moving forward and even seeing where I was: a chaotic unfurling of enormous sounds, like an alarm siren, an 18-wheeler’s horn, and a jackhammer all mixed together, alternating with mind-numbing jigsaw solos, monstrous duos for crusher and stamping press, vociferous trios for chain saw, grand organs, and rock drill on a counterpoint of a prehistoric ondes Martenot, the whole thing punctuated by constant and contradictory percussion, without order or relation, as if fourteen deaf, psychopathic drummers were facing off in a rage.
—Jean Echenoz, Command Performance, trans. Mark Polizzotti (2020/2025), ch. 35
Month: June 2025
51 more to go
Hey-ho, look who got to WaniKani Level 10.
Clifton Institute dragonfly/damselfly count 2025
Sunday, more of the same heat. We managed about 3-1/2 hours at Leopold’s Preserve before packing it in. Team leader A.J. did find a few Bar-winged Skimmers (Libellula axilena) for us. We also turned up some puzzling spreadwings; here’s a Lestes in need of a species ID. I still struggle with distinguishing Calico and Halloween Pennants.
I decided to forgo my high boots in the interest of keeping cool, and I brought a couple of American Dog Ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) home with me as a result.
Eastern Neck NWR butterflies
Continuing with his series of workshops on troublesome butterfly ID, Rick Borchelt took us to Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Kent County, Maryland on a hot and muggy Saturday. The refuge isn’t that far as the crow flies, but we drivers must either cross the swoopy Bay Bridge, then curl around to Chestertown to get across the Chester River, or take the long way around via Elkton.
Zebra Swallowtails were common to abundant. The headline observation was an Aaron’s Skipper (Poanes aaroni) on the same milkweed inflorescence as a couple Broad-winged Skippers (P. viator). I also got a lucky dorsal view of a Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan).
In non-butterfly news, I met the also-common Seaside Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax berenice).
Rick’s wrapup post includes a singularly unflattering picture of me (not that it’s difficult to accomplish) in full anti-solar gear.
Maybe stripes?
Some small research advances in the effort to reduce bird strikes at wind turbines, by Adam Welz.
And now for econ
Reading the slopes
Jon Merryman for mayor: Retired man takes on nemesis, cleans up 15,000 discarded tires.
Every day is Earth Day for him.
Darn shame
Ride it while it lasts: The D.C. streetcar “system” is set to be phased out.
At the park: 154
Overall, fledging success has been good, but we have had direct observations of Black Ratsnakes in three of our sixteen boxes, plus an additional box from which all the eggs removed/consumed by an organism unidentified. From this week’s report:
Snakes alive! Yet more Black Ratsnake activity in the boxes. We checked box #7, which was hatching on 26 May, and estimated 9 fledglings. Box #6 had reports of snake activity in the period of 26 May to 2 June. Nevertheless, we found 9 WODU eggs in the box, but they were not yet being incubated. Box #1 now has 14 eggs incubating, with an estimated hatch date of 4 July. And N. and I. found a snake in Box #3. Too much drama.
So we have four remaining boxes with possible activity: #6, #1, #3, and #60 (estimated hatch 24 June).
Let’s do a work day on Sunday, 6 July to cover those four boxes, 8:30 AM as usual. Again, we won’t need to whole team: let me know whether you can come. We’ll try to keep cool.
Floyd Collins: addendum
A follow-up to my notes on the Lincoln Center Floyd Collins: the new production lightens the tone a bit, and gives Floyd more music. The discordant, clashing music for “I Landed on Him” is shortened, now being just an underscoring of Skeets’ tale. Floyd now has the songs “And She’d Have Blue Eyes” and “It Moves.”
Operation Mincemeat
As the drop curtain flies out, the first thing we see is a pair of black patent leather wingtips belonging to Ewen Montagu (Natasha Hodgson, possessor of a righteous growl), arrogantly propped up on a desk. A little over the top, you say? Oh, just wait. This fizzy poly-character musical comedy, based on the true story of a misinformation operation designed to mislead German defenders of Sicily in World War II, hardly gives one time to breathe—the patter songs are that fast, the glitz has glitter all over it, the physical schtick goes to extremes, the character switches flash by in an eyeblink. The show doesn’t just effervesce, it hypervesces.
I’ll call out Jean Leslie’s (Claire-Marie Hall) Beyonce-level song, “All the Ladies,” and Hester Legatt’s (Jak Malone) quiet “Letter to Bill.” Hester is fabricating a letter from home to a British flier (in order to build up the subterfuge), and her heartbroken subtext elicits some snuffles in the audience. Malone also appears as an American pilot, with all the Yankee doodles.
Highly recommended.
- Operation Mincemeat, book, music, and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, orchestrations by Steve Sidwell, directed by Robert Hastie, John Golden Theatre, New York
See Brian Selbert’s piece for the Times for a peek at the backstage magic.
New York May 2025
Sited art and found art in NYC.
Details from the stunning Abstract Futures, by Hilma’s Ghost collective (Sharmistha Ray and Dannielle Tegeder), 3rd Avenue entrance to the 7 train.
P???man Building, 350 W. 31st Street. Maybe “Postman,” as it is home to a postal workers’ union and is right across the street from the Farley post office.
Looking through Tony Smith’s Throwback at a proffered plaza between 45th and 46th Streets. The marker has a hilariously detailed catalog of what the plaza has to offer:
This plaza contains: 78 linear feet seats with backs, 606 lf planter seats without backs, 134 movable chairs, 35 trees, 1 drinking fountain, 3 bicycle racks, 160 cubic feet litter receptacles, 1 drinking fountain, 1 water fountain, 1 artwork
The view from the 16th floor of the Marriott Marquis. At center, the relatively diminutive St. James Theatre on 44th Street, surrounded by rooftop water towers.