Esmé Weijun Wang explains the value of pandemic theater to a particular community.
The first time I saw Hamilton, after I left the Richard Rodgers Theater I was too sick to remember most of what had happened.
Author: David Gorsline
A reserve in Killarney
Malacats on the forturay
Anita Gates has the obit for Arthur Kopit, playwright of Wings (1978), a piece that really deserves to the produced more often.
Atomic breath!
The only way to perform rankings: “Godzilla vs. Kong: A functional morphologist uses science to pick a winner,” by Kiersten Formoso.
Sensibility
Sean Wyer unpacks a word that has always puzzled me: naff.
Nonetheless, not all naff old things are made naff by the passing of time. Clippy, the Microsoft Office paperclip, appears anachronistic now, but was in fact always naff, because to my knowledge he never succeeded in carrying out his one job, which was to help you in any way to write a letter.
Although I’m not sure I agree about snow globes.
Something lost in translation
O my son! know thou that if the tail of the dog or the pig were ten cubits long it would not approach to the worth of the horse’s even if it were like silk.
The Story of Ahikar 7:12, Rutherford Platt, ed.
At the park: 114
Sunday’s report on the ducks and mergs:
Three more nests have started, clutches are building in two, and two nests are incubating.
We checked the new box #3, and as Dave predicted, the hinge placement of the door is problematic. Kat and Chris have some scrap screen material; we will try to modify the box so that the nest stays in place when the door is opened.
Visitation is definitely up: when we left at 10:15, cars were parked along the entrance road nearly back to Lockheed Blvd.
Until next week!
Gap analysis
Alicia Williams et al. report that there’s still a gap between intentions to buy bird-friendly coffee and actual purchases. Their paper, based on a survey of Living Bird readers, identifies a market segment and suggests some ways to close the gap.
Drone
If you live in the mid-Atlantic, you’ve probably heard that Brood X is about to join us after its 17-year nap. Some links to prepare you:
- My field report from 2004.
- Melissa Block points her mic at “a zillion cicadas,” back when ATC could spend 7 minutes on a story like this.
- Pics and recipe pointers from Alonso Abugattas.
- Ditto from Kevin Ambrose of the Capital Weather Gang.
- Views of the instars from John Cooley and Chris Simon.
- Interactives of the various broods by year and geography by Jonathan Corum.
- David Attenborough messes with an amorous male.
Some links: 88
A couple of theater-connected stories:
- Muriel Zagha reports on the restoration of Marie Antoinette’s theater in the Petit Trianon complex: the carvings and statues were true stagecraft, made of papier-maché and wood.
- Emily Robinson describes how D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre moved from Capitol Hill to 7th Street. (Back before the move, I studied with Mikel Lambert in a classroom across East Capitol Street from the Folger.)
At the park: 113
From the report for Sunday:
We see nesting activity in four of our boxes, and a Wood Duck pair was spotted in the vicinity of box #1. A Hooded Merganser has moved into box #68, adding eggs to what was probably a clutch from last year. Beavers might have ideas about building a dam next to this box.
Box #3 is on Dave’s punchlist to replace.
Aloft, we saw an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) and two Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), an immature and a somewhat scruffy adult.
We’ll work the remaining two weeks in March, then start skipping weeks. So our first day in April will be 11 April, and we will check on folks’ availability for the rest of the month.
Forecast
Assume, then, a prospect of chaos in the streets, joined by every group on the island with a grudge. This would include nearly everyone but the OAG and his staff. Doubtless each would think only of his immediate desires. But mob violence, like tourism, is a kind of communion. By its special magic a large number of lonely souls, however heterogeneous, can share the common property of opposition to what is. And like an epidemic or earthquake the politics of the street can overtake even the most stable-appearing of governments; like death it cuts through and gathers in all ranks of society.
—Thomas Pynchon, V. (1963), epilogue, “1919,” I
Silver Line progress report: 51
The date for “substantial completion” of the second phase has been bouncing around. Latest estimates are for Labor Day weekend. This is the date that the construction contractor turns the work over to Metro. If the date holds, passenger service to IAD and beyond in early 2022.
Upcoming: 56
I need another trip to North Adams. A James Turrell Skyspace will open at MASS MoCA in May.
At the park: 112
We have resumed nest box monitoring at Huntley Meadows Park (following precautions and adhering to protocol, of course). From today’s report:
And so the season begins.
Kat reported new nests for 2021, both Hooded Merganser, including incubation in box #7. We cleaned out boxes that hadn’t been cleaned since 22 April 2020. It’s possible that we have had hatches in 6 boxes since that April visit.
We will bring some oil for the carabiner on box #62.
Box #3 in the new pool by the observation tower needs replacement: it is missing its top and its bottom. #3 is the one a little farther from the tower….
We spotted a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) perched up on a snag along Barnyard Run.