Author: David Gorsline

The year in review, 2008

Meme via Pondering Pikaia: the first sentence of the first post of each month from this blog:

  • 1 January: I really don’t spend as much time out in the field actively birding as I would like to, but I like to make time for Cornell’s Great Backyard Bird Count, which is held each February over the Presidents’ Day weekend.
  • 3 February: There’s a lovely passage in Mark Morris’s Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes (1988) where something happens that you don’t often see: the dancers look down at their feet.
  • 2 March: The WB brings us seven sketches on the theme of love, some of them duets, others with more complex groupings.
  • 1 April: Bobolinks and other migratory songbirds are getting clobbered by pesticide use outside of the United States, beyond the protections offered (such as they are) by federal regulations, as Bridget Stutchbury notes in an op-ed piece for the Times.
  • 1 May: Try out a new movie download service.
  • 1 June: Joe Queenan gives me another megabook to strive to complete: Robert Musil’s The Man without Qualities.
  • 1 July: But not a big surprise: following the recent closure of its Penn Quarter store, local independent bookseller Olsson’s has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reports DCist and Anita Huslin.
  • 1 August: Neil LaBute breaks his pattern of writing for younger characters with Wrecks, a monologue for a businessman of late middle age, executed with skill by Kurt Zischke.
  • 1 September: Last holiday weekend of the summer and it’s time for the mountains!
  • 1 October: Expect to read more of this bad news in the future: DCist reports that Olsson’s Books and Records has converted its bankruptcy filing to Chapter 7 and closed all of its remaining stores, while Washington City Paper’s parent company has also sought bankruptcy protection.
  • 1 November: Steve Offutt road-tests the “invisible tunnel” connection between Farragut West and Farragut North.
  • 1 December: Via The Economist, recent research published by Evan Preisser and Joseph Elkinton yields an interesting result to those concerned with the conservation of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) trees.

The year in review, 2007.

The only trouble with this meme is that for several months after I’m self-conscious about my first-of-the-month post.

I really don’t spend that much space worrying about local bankruptcies. It’s just that the Olsson’s news would break at the end of each fiscal quarter.

Just imagine

Via ArtsJournal, Michael Simkins discloses lobby lies:

…what if it’s the biggest turkey before Christmas?

* * *

A third option is to shimmy your way through with platitudes that can be interpreted to taste. Examples include “Well, what about YOU then” or “It’s been an unforgettable experience” and my own favourite “Well, was that a great evening or what?”

One more good reason

Newly-published research by Shalene Jha and Christopher W. Dick indicates that traditional shade-grown coffee farms provide yet another ecosystem service: maintenance of genetic diversity of trees in the landscape. The paper studies Miconia affinis in Chiapas state, Mexico. The inference is that natural seed dispersers (birds and bats), harbored by shade-grown plantations, promote the needed gene flow, and that the farms knit together fragmented forest patches.

Suck-it-up soup

Gemma Hooley and Chris Nelson profile my favorite Washington Capital, #21, Brooks Laich. Laich, in his productivity, ruggedness, and general no-glamour attitude, reminds me a little of Cal Ripken.

“If I’m tired or sore or whatever, I just think of what my buddies do back home in Saskatchewan,” Laich said. “They are out on the oil rig in minus-40 degrees Celsius, working outside for eight hours for a lot less money than what we make. And it just kind of brings you back to earth and humbles you, that life is pretty good.”

Murky waters

The Economist sends a correspondent to look at wildlife in China, specifically birds. It’s not altogether a pretty sight.

The press of several hundred million people along the coast threatens marine organisms at risk from river discharges, heavy metals and pesticides from farmed shrimp ponds, oil spills, antifouling paint on boats and other chemical contaminants. Brian Morton, an expert on China’s seashore ecology recently retired from the University of Hong Kong, points out that only one-tenth of Chinese sewage is treated, leading to eutrophication and algal blooms in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. In addition, several tens of thousands of seabirds are reckoned to be killed every year by an entangling mass of flotsam—fishing gear, grocery bags and the like. “As a biologist,” says Mr Morton, “I know that ecosystems can be restored. Still, the waters of China are virtually beyond redemption.”

Advice to the players

Terry Teachout’s advice to professional theater companies hoping for a national review includes some good reminders about basic web site design:

If you want to keep traveling critics happy, make very sure that the front page of your Web site contains the following easy-to-find information and features:

(1) The title of your current production, plus its opening and closing dates.

(2) Your address and main telephone number (not the box office!).

(3) A SEASON button that leads directly to a complete list of the rest of the current and/or upcoming season’s productions. Make sure that this listing includes the press opening date of each production!

(4) A CALENDAR or SCHEDULE button that leads to a month-by-month calendar of all your performances, including curtain times.

(5) A CONTACT US button that leads to an updated directory of staff members (including individual e-mail addresses, starting with the address of your press representative).

(6) A DIRECTIONS or VISIT US button that leads to a page containing directions to your theater and a printable map of the area.

The one thing that RCP‘s front page is lacking, and I will fix it on the next update, is the opening and closing dates for the current show. And it probably wouldn’t hurt to repeat the street address of the community center.

The reality train has left the station

Via Ira and Leta, possibly the strangest Barbie collectible to be offered: Barbie as Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) attacked by crows in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Dressed in a re-creation of the stylish green skirt-suit worn by the film’s ill-fated heroine in an iconic scene… Barbie® Doll celebrates the 45th anniversary of the acclaimed film. From the doll’s classic ensemble to the perfectly painted expression to the accompanying black birds, every aspect captures the film’s infamous appeal…. Doll cannot stand alone as shown. For the adult collector.

Although it must also be admitted that the two different Hello Kitty Barbies on offer come close, if only for their universe-mixing Spock-meets-Skywalker jumbledness.

TMLMTBGB: 2

Woolly Mammoth brings the Chicago zanies back for another entertaining, provocative installment of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (previously reviewed). At December 17’s manifestation, the troupe nearly succeeded at packing all 30 plays into the allotted 60 minutes, bailing out only on #11, “Lacquer This to Your Driftwood Clock.” This team—Sharon Greene, Jacquelyn Landgraf, John Pierson, Caitlin Stainken, and Jay Torrence—could be tagged as “Now! With More Estrogen!” as the strongest pieces of the evening were written from a female perspective. Among these were seeking-validation “Let’s Pretend Mommy and Daddy” of universal applicability, the love letter with soap bubbles “Non-Toxic Miracle,” and the, shall we say, informative “One for the Ladies” about toilet seat etiquette. Warning: “Les Lesions Dangereuses” is not SAFD-certified. Fans of the Neo-Futurists’ preposterous titles were rewarded with “Having Missed Its Cue, the Orange Entered Hurriedly, but Once on Stage It Found That It Had Forgotten Its Lines Entirely and Remained Paralyzed Before the Audience for What Seemed Like an Eternity.” At least the orange hit its mark.

  • Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, created by Greg Allen, written, directed, and performed by The Neo-Futurists, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington

Some links: 32

Hugh Powell explains how cannon nets work and what can go wrong with them in “Twinkling the Whimbrels.”

Cannon netting consists of firing three projectiles over a flock of birds, trailing a single net that traps the birds underneath. Setting up the cannons is a daylong process that involves digging three separate metal tubes into the ground about 15 or so feet apart and stuffing them with a long, metal projectile, each of which will carry one section of the long nylon net.

When the tubes are dug in and properly aimed, we hook each cannon into an electrical system and place black powder at the base of the cannons. Then we string a set of wires back to a control box strategically placed a couple of hundred feet away in a well-hidden vantage point. After all of that is in place, we dig a trench to conceal the net and cover it with seaweed and other detritus. Then it’s a matter of hiding and waiting for the birds to arrive. Just imagine Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Roadrunner with a big contraption triggered by TNT in the old Looney Tunes cartoons.

Offers

(In response to Via Negativa’s Offers.)

I’ve been offered a job several times, and most of them I have accepted. Before I started writing software full-time, I was offered a number-crunching job by a federal agency on a January 19. The next administration came in the next day and froze hiring.

I was offered the opportunity to join Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. I didn’t.

Bill offered me a ride home on the back of his moped. It was something like six blocks down Lake Street in Minneapolis. I was such the dare-devil, riding without a helmet.

Sarah and Casey offered me leads and advice on getting work doing voice-overs.

Because market rates had fallen so much, my mortgage holder offered me a no-cost, no-strings re-fi—all I had to do was show up at closing. This was a long time ago.

A mediocre university, one of my safety schools, offered me a full scholarship. I turned them down.

Cheryl offered to teach me guitar, and even gave me her old instrument to encourage me to practice.

Over the last twenty years, many directors and producers have called to offer me parts in plays. I think some of us do theater just because we like getting the phone call and the chance to say, “I would be happy to.”

Senior year, G. asked me if I was interested in helping him cheat on an exam. I ended the conversation before he had the chance to offer me something in return.