At the park: 9

It’s time to hang up my waders for the season, although we have one nest still active to be checked in the next week or so. This morning was a day for surprises, not all of them happy.

When I opened one of our newly-placed boxes, which had had an active nest with 12 eggs last month, I found a bird-shaped bowl in the down and wood chips, but no eggs and no shells. My best explanation so far is that the nest has been clean-picked predated over several days by one or more snakes.

As Myra and I worked our way down lower Barnyard Run, we heard our happiest surprise: a Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) singing full-voiced in the woods.

New Box 67, which had seen some dumping activity (our last count for the box was 22 eggs), hatched out all but three. But unfortunately, the nest in Box 77 was a near-complete failure, with numerous half-hatched chicks. Unlucky Myra had to clean that one out.

drying outBut the big surprise was the abrupt drop in water level along lower Barnyard Run. The dry conditions in the main wetland we expected: at this time of year the mud flats are giving over to grasses. But we expected the substantial beaver dam across the run to be holding back much more water than this. (The green vegetation running horizontally in this image marks the top of the dam.)

beaver lodge and dry boxBox 60 is usually sitting in about two feet of water (you can see the rust marks on the support pole), but at the moment it’s high and dry. Well, mucky, at least.

The dry conditions made for good viewing of snapping turtles. We found three of the these critters, half-covered in mud, as we walked back. Ours is the Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina), ranging from Nova Scotia to the Rio Grande, according to Roger Conant and Joseph T. Collins’s Peterson field guide. They describe the family Chelydridae as “Large freshwater turtles with short tempers and long tails…”

Summer of ’42

Theater patrons of a certain age will remember Herman Raucher’s slightly scandalous film from 1971, a memoir of sexual awakening and the loss of of a certain kind of innocence. On a New England summer resort island, a stripling teenager (Hermie) becomes infatuated with a young woman (Dorothy) whose new husband has just been called away to war service in the Pacific. In the end, Hermie gets what he wants, but not at all in the way that he imagined it.

Raucher’s sea-breezed bit of sentimentality transfers to the Bethesda stage, and picks up a musical score along the way. Hermie (Ryan Nealy) is appropriately gawky, and Dorothy (Nancy Snow) is bemused, but the play gets its oomph from Michael Vitaly Sazonov’s spring-loaded portrayal of Hermie’s friend Oscy, a hormone-charged adolescent with his older brother’s sex manual.

Harmonies of the period make their appearance in the unmemorable songs, which are not well served by aggressive micing of the vocalists.

  • Summer of ’42, book by Hunter Foster, music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, based on the novel and screenplay by Herman Raucher, directed by Meredith McDonough, Round House Theatre, Bethesda, Md.

Bring it up again

A leader from the traditionally eco-skeptic Economist admits that recycling is “mostly worthwhile,” and proposes three steps to encourage the practice. Relying on mechanisms technological, political, and economic, the magazine recommends

  1. a single stream from the consumer, with automated conveyor belts at the processing facility to separate items;
  2. selling recycled waste to emerging markets; and
  3. monetary rewards to consumers based on how much they recycle.

I haven’t yet read the magazine’s current Technology Quarterly, which features recycling and other environmental issues; I’m interested in how the writers handle the question of streaming recyclables into the third world.

Some links: 17

Via kottke.org, Wikigroaning is the dubious pastime of comparing the length and quality of a Wikipedia article on a general-interest topic (say, Knight) to a similarly-titled one on some wisp of useless fanfluff (Jedi Knight). For instance, while the article on Trail of Tears runs to 7 screens, the one for Tears for Fears runs to 13.

Extra points, I suppose, if you’ve never even heard of the pop-culture half of your article pair.

A wish list item: 1

I recorded Stuart Hart’s 1997 paper for Harvard Business Review, “Beyond Greening,” at the the studio yesterday, as part of a collection of articles on organization development. As is typical for papers in that publication, it’s a mousse of hard-nosed analysis whipped together with long-term vision and topped with blue-sky dreams, but the central point may turn out to be sound: the smart businessman will find a way to cash in by solving environmental problems instead of creating them. He has elaborated his position in the book-length Capitalism at the Crossroads. Hart is unique, in my limited reading, in that he treats poverty issues and environmental concerns as being of a piece.

Upcoming: 2

Turner Classic Movies has two really interesting themes for June: films featuring or directed by the sultry Ida Lupino, and Screened Out: Gay Images in Film. Some of the titles, like The Killing of Sister George and The Boys in the Band, I recognize as causing a stir at of the 1970s. They are largely forgotten now, but I remember them as being judged too mature for my adolescent sensibilities at the time.

Ooh shiny shiny

ooh shiny shinySo I bought a new car.

And I can hear what you’re thinking, David, what happened to the perfectly good car you bought in 1993? Three new cars in 24 years: where did this profligacy come from? And you paid cash? Yes, you’re right, but there it is.

Leta and I picked up the as-yet-unchristened vehicle—a 2007 Accord Coupe LX—from Bill Page Honda on Saturday. The dealer did an excellent job of responding to my online request-for-quote with a good price and without a lot haggling and games about extended warranties and extraneous add-ons. As Accords go, it’s the bottom-of-the-line model: the only extra accessory on the car is the mud guards in the rear wheelwells. But it’s one of the scarcer colors, a pearlized graphite gray with some overtones of blue, and it has the nice quality of shining differently in varying lights. It took some persistent questioning on my part to get the dealer to agree to schlep out of the Eastern Shore of Maryland to find one of the right color. Yes, I understand the quote. How much for one in graphite? No, I don’t have a second color choice.

As I said, as-yet-unchristened; the car doesn’t have any mojo yet, let alone any scratches. At least it picked up some road dust during Sunday’s thunderstorms. I’m not even sure yet whether it’s a boy or a girl.

I”m keeping Alberta, the ’93 Explorer, in service for the muddy jobs, the cargo hauling, and the three days of each D.C. winter when 4WD is a really good idea. (Alberta just turned over the double-century on her odometer.) The Accord will be taking over the daily commuting duties and the Beltway crawls to rehearsal, saving a reasonable quantity of gas in the process. It’ll be so nice to stop and go on I-495 with air conditioning that works full-time. Any commute can be fun for a while when you have a new machine to figure out, to find out how it responds.

I gave of lot of thought to buying a Toyota Prius, and I drove my friend Richard’s around the block once, but in the end, a conventional drivetrain, conventional styling, and the right number of doors (two) prevailed. So my driving will not be as squeaky-clean green as it could be, and I’m okay with that. Nor is it one of the luxury rockets that most of the guys I work with drive.

I can’t get over how quiet the car is inside, and I have more legroom that in the Explorer. But, as you might expect, the throw of the stickshift is a lot different. I’m still trying to start from a stop in third and to downshift from fifth to second. I haven’t yet established the TSA policy on liquids in the car: this morning I carefully sipped my coffee from the travel mug only at red lights, and closed it up again before getting underway.

Still counting

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Environmental Impacts of Wind-Energy Projects, is in pre-publication. As summarized in the press release, the study examined onshore projects only, and concluded that wind projects will have a measurable impact on CO2 emissions by 2020 but will not reduce sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide levels.

The report seems to haver on the effects on vertebrate populations—birds and bats:

… the committee saw no evidence that fatalities from existing wind facilities are causing measurable changes in bird populations in the United States. A possible exception is deaths among birds of prey, such as eagles and hawks, near Altamont Pass, Calif.—a facility with older, smaller turbines that appear more apt to kill such birds than newer turbines are.

Too little information is available to reliably predict how proposed new wind projects in the mid-Atlantic highlands would affect bird populations…

Worth the wait

Oh, my: Tony Long watches Star Wars for the first time:

I watched it with a friend, a veteran of many viewings. She knew I wanted to approach this with fresh eyes and an open mind, so she was careful to keep her opinions to herself. Still, I knew where she stood. The fact that she owned the DVD told me what she thought of the movie. Every now and then as we watched, when I’d turn to her with a bemused expression, she’d simply smile and say nothing.

A pity that Princess Leia didn’t show my friend’s restraint. Geez Louise, what a harpy.

7×7: Shakespeare

With the theme of Shakespeare, it’s not surprising that two of the pieces in Washington Ballet’s latest installment of 7×7 feature spoken-word accompaniment. But it is a couple of the wordless pieces that are the most effective of the evening.

Trey McIntyre’s Queen of the Goths, drawing on two scenes from Titus Andronicus, ends with a saucy flourish. quick bright things, by Matthew Neenan in response to a line of Lysander’s, is a colorful romp for six.

In Lovers Speak, Brianne Bland and Runqiao Du dance a meaty, muscular adagio duet by Matjash Mrozewski. As their bodies intertwine on the floor, there’s a strong sense of intimate improvisation.

The standout piece is by Cathy Marston, scored by Henryk Górecki: Whispers recounts Hamlet’s scene from Act III with his father’s ghost and Gertrude in her chamber. Third-season company member Zachary Hackstock gives an agile, expressive performance as he is called upon both to partner and be partnered. This is lean-forward entertainment that you can’t get from a screen.

  • 7×7: Shakespeare, Washington Ballet, England Studio Theater, Washington

Washington Ballet continues to make improvements to the friendly confines of its England Studio Theater. Stepped risers (that apparently stow away like a trundle bed) now allow for six rows of seating (and every seat has a back). Sight lines are pretty good, though seats on the extreme right and left lose sight of some of the far upstage action.