About 3 month agos, I discovered that I was severely deficient in Vitamin D. I had gone in to see my back doctor because my chronic pain and fatigue symptoms of fibromyalgia had gotten worse, and I had new pain associated with back problems. The doctor ordered some blood work to rule out rheumatoid arthritis (which a family member has) and a few other things. The results were surprising.
One of the blood tests they did is called VITAMIN D, 25-OH. What one hopes to see is a blood level within the standard range: 30 - 80 ng/mL (Over 80 can be toxic).
My results? 19 ng/mL, or "severe deficiency." No wonder I felt like crap! I have no idea how long I have been this way.
My primary care doctor put me on a regimen of megadoses, once a week for 12 weeks, to replenish the supply in my body. Since Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, it is not enough to just take a daily dose in order to recover; one has to build up the stores in the body. This is why you should get your blood tested to find out what your levels are, rather than just popping supplements. In addition, you can get too much Vitamin D, and this can cause significant problems.
After the 12 weekly doses, I was retested, and my level is now up to 40 (yay!) but I'll need to continue to take daily supplements, because even sun exposure and drinking milk are not enough at these northern latitudes.
One thing I noticed after four weeks of treatment was that I started to remember my dreams, to the point where I wondered if I was metabolizing my anti-depressants differently (they suppress my dream memory). I also noticed a huge improvement in my digestion and regularity (ahem), a major life improvement. Most significant is a noticeable improvement in levels of daily pain, fatigue and inability to focus. The more I read about recent research on Vitamin D's role in metabolism, the more I believe that everyone can benefit from finding out what their levels are, just as we do for cholesterol, iron, or other important metabolic factors. Research is showing links between adequate Vitamin D levels and protection against skin cancer, Crohn's disease, colon cancer, autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, and other conditions.
My mother, who is recovering from chemotherapy, has been having excellent results from her treatment, but also was tested and discovered she was Vitamin D deficient. I'm hoping her treatment will also mean less fatigue and pain for her.
3 cups rhubarb, diced (about 12 ounces)
1 Gala apple, cored and diced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour, divided
1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons), melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup rolled oats
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the rhubarb and apple with the white sugar and 3 tablespoons of flour. Pour into a small baking dish (9″ cake pan would work).
Combine 1 cup flour, wheat germ, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and oats in a separate bowl and mix until crumbly. Top the rhubarb mixture with this crumbly stuff and bake for 40 minutes.
Serve hot or cold, with or without generous scoops of ice cream.
Now, more than ever
All the family must be together
Peace go with you brother
Don’t make no sense for us to be arguing now
Time is right up on us now brother
Don’t make no sense for us to be arguing now
All of your children and all of my children are gonna have to pay for our mistakes someday
Yes - and until then may peace guide your way
Peace go with you brother; wherever you go
Peace go with you brother
DIY is big these days, but a lot of things that would require me to take a class are things my mother learned to do when she was young or taught herself to do when she was older. She can do anything Martha Stewart can do, but without a staff.
I learned enough about knitting to be able to make a scarf, but my attempts to make a sweater were pretty much a failure. I can cook fine, but unlike my mother and sister, I can't bake a pie from scratch without looking at a recipe. This is what the internet is for: all the wiki-how and YouTube videos that helpful people have shared so that we can learn just about anything. Like how to tie your shoes "correctly":
Thinking about things I "should" know how to do, but don't, the first that came to mind:
I should know how to thread the sewing machine a friend gave me before she moved away, but I can't figure it out without a manual. You would be surprised at how many videos there are on YouTube that "show" you how to do this, but don't actually SHOW or explain the important bits. I have tried for hours to figure it out on my own, but I would make a lousy engineer; I just can't figure out a machine by dinking around with it, so I may have to take it to the store where they reconditioned it to have someone show me how to do it right.
I should know how to make a good pie-crust. My mother and sister are the pie queens (and my sister was a professional baker) but I never learned from them while we were living in the same state. I suppose I could have my mother explain it to me on the phone.
I DO know how to file my own taxes, balance a check-book, and live within my means, but don't ask me to explain how to invest in the stock market. But do I really want to know? it's so depressing, seeing how much of it is a big con, even though I have a pension plan.
I DO know how to drive a car with manual transmission, and I should know how to change a tire or change my oil, but frankly, I'm glad I can afford to pay someone else to do it, and I love AAA.
I DO know how to use a drill and a screwdriver, but the thought of painting a room just makes me tired, and my fibromyalgia goes crazy when I have to do the kind of repetitive motions involved in painting something above my head.
What are some things you think you should know how to do, but don't?
A big tornado touched down in North Minneapolis this afternoon. They are saying that it's the worst tornado to strike the city in 30 years. Yesterday, I saw some cloud rotation as we left the Art-A-Whirl event in Northeast Minneapolis (across the Mississippi from North) so we knew that there was a chance of severe weather this weekend.
My daughter and I live in South Minneapolis, and we are safe and sound. We had to take cover during the storm while we were out shopping and the tornado sirens sounded, but nothing bad happened in our neighborhood. I was able to follow the news on Twitter in the moment, but the full extent of the damage is just beginning to become apparent.
I am heartsick for our neighbors in northern Minneapolis and the suburbs, whose homes or businesses have been affected. Huge trees have fallen on almost every block, on cars and powerlines; houses and buildings are damaged, cars crushed, windows blown out. As is often the case, the damage skips around and one house might be leveled while another is untouched right next door. On TV, I can see pictures of homes with missing roofs (they are estimating one in five) and others with substantial damage. The trees did not snap and fall straight down, but were uprooted completely and fell over causing greater damage.
This video compiles some of the immediate TV coverage:
The City of Minneapolis is asking people to stay away to emergency services can get in and go door to door to check on people. There are a few gas leaks and evacuations. The police, the firefighters, Park and Rec employees, inspectors, traffic control agents, are have been deployed to the area.
A Family Assistance Center has been set up at the Armory on Broadway and Central. A shuttle will take people from 1926 Plymouth Ave. N. to take people to the shelter.
So far, one person is dead, but mostly minor injuries are being reported. It will take time to clear away the fallen trees, and many homes are without power. People are already out with their chainsaws, cutting up fallen limbs and trees.
Because I grew up in San Franciso riding buses and streetcars, I'm really excited that light rail is being extended in the Twin Cities with the Central Corridor line, under construction now, to connect downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The current existing Hiawatha line that runs from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America and the airport, with stops along the way, has been a resounding success, especially for working people with no cars, folks coming to the new Twins Stadium, and commuters who don't want to deal with the high parking rates and horrible traffic of working downtown.
This animation shows what the reconfigured University of Minnesota campus route will look like. I can't wait for the busy, dangerous street that currently cuts the campus in two to be replaced with a more pedestrian and bike-friendly zone. Students will be well-served by having public transportation options increased.
Some people are concerned about how the LRT will fit on University avenue, where there are currently four lanes of traffic. In fact, there used to be streetcars there, and their right-of-way corridor still exists. The LRT will be routed along that existing slot, and not displace current traffic.
The history of steam and then electric streetcars in the Twin Cities, and how the system was dismantled and plundered by embezzlers after WWII is an instructive one.
This is a film set to a recent collaboration between Byrne and Brian Eno "Strange Overtones."
I was an ardent fan of Talking Heads. I saw them in concert first in 1978 at the club The Boarding House in San Francisco, whose name I forget but that was a very famous venue. They were very young, hardly talked to the audience at all, but ripped through their set with complete intensity. I would see them again in their various incarnations: still a foursome on Lower Sproul Plaza the day Moscone and Milk were murdered; as a grooving expanded ensemble (Adrian Belew! Nona Hendryx!) during their "Burning down the House" phase at the Greek Theater; in Jonathan Demme's documentary movie Stop Making Sense when it debuted at the Castro Theater.
Brian Eno and David Byrne's 1981 collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, with its analog sampling, was formative for me, shaping my aural palate. The music he produced and shared through his label Luaka Bop, especially the earlier Cuban and Brazilian compilations are also etched in my cranial music library. His curiosity, sense of exploration and collaboration inspire me still.
Here's an interview with George Stroumboulopolous that highlights many of his accomplishments and captures that combination of complete freedom and social awkwardness that infuses his work.
Here is the band talking about their early days on the road:
I'm know the band broke up and there was bad blood between Byrne and the other members, but I prefer to remember seeing them do this:
I love the the parade to Powderhorn park. A band warmed up the crowd before the parade started. Kids drew on the street with chalk; bikers rolled up and down the street; folks staked out their spots with blankets.
When the parade begins, there is music all the way through.
I have lived in Minneapolis since 1988, and every year that I am in town in May I try to attend the May Day festival that In the Heart of the Beast theater puts on, with the participation of hundreds of volunteers. This year's festival will actually fall on May 1, tomorrow, and the weather forecast says no rain!
To celebrate the spirit of Beltane, here is Loreena McKennitt performing "The Mummers' Dance." What a voice!
The Mummers' Dance
When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair.
When owls call the breathless moon
in the blue veil of the night
When shadows of the trees appear
amidst the lantern('s) light.
We've been rambling all the night
and sometime of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay.
Who will go down to those shady groves
and summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
in the springtime of the year.
The sounds of birds seem to fill the wood
and when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
long past their woodland days.
We've been rambling all the night
and sometime of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay.
And so they linked their hands and danced
'round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
when all the shades are gone.
A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
Here's a sprout, well budded out
The work of our Lord's hand.
We've been rambling all the night
and sometime of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay.
Marianne Elliot Said was better known as Poly Styrene of the band X-Ray Specs. She was an inspiration for young women like me when the first punk movement emerged; we were looking for those brave voices of self-confident women who spoke to us amidst the general anger and rebellion. She went on to be an artist, a mother, and an advocate, had just released a new album, Generation Indigo, this March. Gone too young, of cancer.
"Germ Free Adolescent"
"Identity"
"I'm a cliche"
In this interview, she talks about the tracks on her new album.
I'm so sad to learn of the death today of two amazing women whose music affected me, in very different ways. One is the marvelous Phoebe Snow, who died of complications following a stroke last year.
I was lucky enough to see Phoebe Snow perform when her hit album came out. What a BIG voice she had, and her guitar playing was also wonderful. She could be jazzy, bluesy, but her voice was totally original. Listen to "No Regrets" (a hit for Billie Holiday):
I wore her records out. I especially love "Let the Good Times Roll":
Why did she drop out of sight after making such a huge debut? Because her daughter was born with with brain damage, and she devoted her life to taking care of her. She kept her alive, despite predictions; she devoted herself to creating a loving life for her daughter for 31 years. Take the time to watch this story about her life; it's worth it.
We didn't roast a leg of lamb for Easter, but we did have delicious French toast with Nutella and strawberries. Bacon from Pastures A Plenty. Fresh grapefruit juice for la chica, coffee for me.
Then we set off to have our first real walk of Spring. No snow, no ice, no rain, no gusty winds: blue skies, fluffy clouds, and mild sun.
We spotted a rabbit down the block, the second time I've seen one in that spot. Bird-watching was great: grackles, crows, robins galore, a yellow-rumped warbler, Canadian goose in the Walker Sculpture Garden, red-winged blackbirds and a mallard in Loring Park, assorted sparrows. We heard cardinals and finches but didn't see any. Blooming were forsythia, crocuses, blue and white squill, daffodils, lots of tulips, and our first dandelions of spring. The peonies are sprouting, still tender reddish shoots. In the sculpture garden, there were many well-dressed toddlers in their Easter outfits.
At Joe's Garage we had lemonade, fruit, potatoes, and desserts. By the time we walked home again, both of us were tired, but in that good way that comes from walking with a smile.
Today, I can't help but sing all the great Easter Parade songs by Irving Berlin:
"Amor por ti" sung by Los ángeles negros was a big hit when I first went to Mexico when I was fifteen. It's how I remember that "amor" takes "por" instead of "para."
Nostalgia de la luz, a film by Chilean director Patrico Guzman, one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Playing at St Anthony Main theater one last time as part of the film festival (MSPIFF) tomorrow (Monday) at 8:45 PM. See it if you can! Here's a review by Cynthia Fuchs (director of Film & Media Studies and Associate Professor of English, Film & Video Studies, African and African American Studies, Sport & American Culture, at George Mason University) and editor at Pop Matters that tells more about the film.
I love this show! Yeah, it's sometimes incoherent, but there is no denying the creativity, passion and dance skills of these crews. The first episode featured five of the ten crews that will be competing. Dominic (D'trix) Sandoval is a new judge; he was a competitor on SYTYCD and one of the Quest crew that were champions a few seasons ago.
IAmMe features the popular Phillip Chbeeb, Moon, and a group of tutters based in Texas, but with a terrific gal from the former Czech republic. ReQuest, the women from new Zealand were champions from the 2010 World Hip Hop Championships. I love that they are all Polynesian and I hope they show more of their cultural blend. The Boston funk crew has great style. I don't know who choreographed the opening group number, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were Napoleon and Tabitha, since they've done a lot of the group choreo in the past.
Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand. All the other little bulls he lived with would run and jump and butt their heads together, but not Ferdinand. He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers. He had a favorite spot out in the pasture under a cork tree. It was his favorite tree and he would sit in its shade all day and smell the flowers.
Sometimes his mother, who was a cow, would worry about him. She was afraid he would be lonesome all by himself. "Why don't you run and play with the other little bulls and skip and butt your head?" she would say. But Ferdinand would shake his head. "I like it better here where I can sit just quietly and smell the flowers." His mother saw that he was not lonesome, and because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy.
As the years went by Ferdinand grew and grew until he was very big and strong. All the other bulls who had grown up with him in the same pasture would fight each other all day. They would butt each other and stick each other with their horns. What they wanted most of all was to be picked to fight at the in Madrid. But not Ferdinand--he still liked to sit just quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers.
One day five men came in very funny hats to pick the biggest, fastest roughest bull to fight in the bull fights in Madrid. All the other bulls ran around snorting and butting, leaping and jumping so the men would think that they were very very strong and fierce and pick them. Ferdinand knew that they wouldn't pick him and he didn't care.
So he went out to his favorite cork tree to sit down. He didn't look where he was sitting and instead of sitting on the nice cool grass in the shade he sat on a bumble bee. Well, if you were a bumble bee and a bull sat on you what would you do? You would sting him. And that is just what this bee did to Ferdinand. Wow! Did it hurt! Ferdinand jumped up with a snort. he ran around puffing and snorting, butting and pawing the ground as if he were crazy.
The five men saw him and they all shouted with joy. here was the largest and fiercest bull of all. Just the one for the bull fights in Madrid! So they took him away for the bullfight day in a cart.
What a day it was! Flags were flying, bands were playing...and all the lovely ladies had flowers in their hair. They had a parade ino the bull ring. First came the Banderilleros with long sharp pins with ribbins on them to stick in the bull and make him mad. Next came the Picadoreswho rode skinny horses and they had long spears to stick in the bull and make him madder. Then came the Matador, the proudest of all--he thought he was very handsome, and bowed to the ladies. He had a red cape and a sword and was supposed to stick the bull last of all. Then came the bull, and you know who that was don't you? --FERDINAND.
They called him Ferdinand the Fierce and all of the Banderilleros were afraid of him and the Picadores were afraid of him and the Matador was scared stiff. Ferdinand ran to the middle of the ring and everyone shouted and clapped because they thought he was going to fight fiercely and butt and snort and stick his horns around. But not Ferdinand. When he got to the middle of the ring he saw the flowers in all the lovely ladies' hair and he just sat down quietly and smelled.
He wouldn't fight and be fierce no matter what they did. He just sat and smelled. And the Banderilleros were mad and the Picadores were madder and the Matador was so mad he cried because he couldn't show off with his cape and sword. So they had to take Ferdinand home.
And for all I know he is sitting there still, under his favorite cork tree, smelling the flowers just quietly.
He is very happy.
This week we have been adapting to the news that our beloved Mr. Kitty, Leo, has diabetes. We have been really worried and heartsick because we love our good friend, and don't want him to suffer.
I first noticed a change in his litter box, but I thought it was the litter formula that had been changed. Then he started to pee in the bathtub. I just thought he didn't like the litter, or that I needed to clean the box more often. I changed the type of litter. He started to poop in the bathroom. This annoyed me, but I again thought he was rejecting something about the litter box. Was it the hated vacuum cleaner that I had left next to it? Finally, I saw that he had lost some weight and was starting to feel bonier. Belatedly, it hit me that he was having a health problem, not a behavior issues. I felt terrible that I had not made the connection earlier.
On Monday, I took him to our vet. Tuesday, we got confirmation that his blood and urine showed elevated sugar levels. It took a few days of missed phone calls and scheduling to finally get him in on Friday for an insulin lesson. Our new routine is to give him insulin injections twice a day, change his food to a special diabetic formula, and watch him closely for three weeks. Then we get his blood tested again to see if the dose needs to be changed. I have already given another diabetic cat insulin injections, so I know that it is not difficult at all, and the cat hardly notices the very thin needle; the injections are under the skin, not into the muscles. The main thing is to have a solid routine so that the injections are 12 hours apart.
With luck, it will be easy to regulate his blood sugar level. He's ten years old: a "mature" cat, but not yet "geriatric," and he could still live comfortably and happily for many more years.
The news is so horrific these days that I have contemplated cutting myself off completely from all of it, cold turkey, no internet, no twitter, nothing. But that wouldn't stop bad things from happening, and I also wouldn't get to see this:
Squeee! *head explodes*
Baylor and Tupelo are two African elephant babies at the Houston Zoo, each born last year.
"Global Protests & Uprisings Maps Time-Lapse video" is a series of maps showing where protests and uprisings have occurred in the last few months, as documented in open source media. It was posted by the international blog portal Global Voices, but it was created by musician activist John Caelan at his website The Swamp Post. He explains that he documents each report on an excel spreadsheet, creates the images of maps and then puts them together in a video to give the effect of time-lapse. A very labor intensive effort, but with a mesmerizing, thought-provoking result.
It's important to also look at the key to the map where you can click on each flag to pull up the stories, and see the color key (red: violence resulting in death) and number of flags key (Five: Over 100,000) to understand where protests have been peaceful (green) or have been sites of conflict.
Having just spent five days of involuntary exposure to CNN, I can say that the effect is frightening, mind-numbing and singularly uninformative when not outright distorted. I don't know how people endure it.
I took a nostalgic tour through Fleetwood Mac's earlier incarnations. I don't have my records any more, so thank goodness for YouTube.
From Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, the song"Albatross," with both Peter Green and Danny Kirwan playing guitars:
Did you know that British guitarist Peter Green wrote the song "Black Magic Woman"--that the Santana version is a cover? Here is Green playing "Supernatural" with his previous band John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
Green left Fleetwood Mac, under the influence of LSD and also in the throes of what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia. Although he lived through some very rough times, friends have helped him come back to playing music. Unfortunately, the same has not been true of bandmate Danny Kirwan, whose time with the band I remember fondly. I love the album "Bare Trees," and the voice of Christine McVie will always mean Fleetwood Mac to me. I didn't hate the Nicks/Buckingham incarnation, but the band was never as interesting to me after they joined.
Edited to add: Leee! turned me on to this amazing live performance of "Rhiannon" by the band with Stevie Nicks in which every single member of the band is right in time. Wow, thanks!
My daughter has now been to Mallorca two times. That is two times more than I have. *Sigh* She is there with her dads, and I hope they are able to get out of Palma to see something of the natural part of the island. Since I am stuck here in snowy Minneapolis, I must travel via YouTube! This BBC program on Mallorca is quite lovely. "El buitre negro" (the black vulture) has been an the brink of extinction, but people have been trying to keep their population going.
"Many Moons" official video by Janelle Monae. We love.
Lyrics to Many Moons :
Verse 1: We're dancing free but we're stuck here underground And everybody trying to figure they way out Hey Hey Hey, all we ever wanted to say Was chased erased and then thrown away And day to day we live in a daze
Refrain: We march all around til' the sun goes down night children Broken dreams, no sunshine, endless crimes, we long for freedom (for freedom) You're free but in your mind, your freedom's in a bind
Chorus: Oh make it rain, ain't a thang and the sky to fall (The silver bullet's in your hand and the war's heating up) And when the truth goes BANG the shouts splatter out (Revolutionize your lives and find a way out) And when you're growing down instead of growing up (You gotta ooo ah ah like a panther) Tell me are you bold enough to reach for love? (Na na na...)
2nd Verse: So strong for so long All i wanna do is sing my simple song Square or round, rich or poor At the end of day and night all we want is more I keep my feet on solid ground and use my wings when storms come around I keep my feet on solid ground for freedom You're free but in your mind, your freedom's in a bind
Chorus
Cybernetic Chantdown: Civil rights, civil war Hood rat, crack whore Carefree, nightclub Closet drunk, bathtub Outcast, weirdo Stepchild, freak show Black girl, bad hair Broad nose, cold stare Tap shoes, Broadway Tuxedo, holiday Creative black, Love song Stupid words, erased song Gun shots, orange house Dead man walking with a dirty mouth Spoiled milk, stale bread Welfare, bubonic plague Record deal, light bulb Keep back kid not corporate thug Breast cancer, common cold HIV, lost hope Overweight, self esteem Misfit, broken dream Fish tank, small bowl Closed mind, dark hold Cybergirl, droid control Get away now they trying to steal your soul Microphone, one stage Tomboy, outrage Street fight, bloody war Instigators, third floor Promiscuous child, broken dream STD, quarentine Heroin user, coke head Final chapter, death bed Plastic sweat, metal skin Metallic tears, mannequin Carefree, night club Closet drunk, bathtub White house, Jim Crow Dirty lies, my regards
Closing Lullaby: And when the world just treats you wrong just come with me and I'll take you home No need to pack a bag Who put your life in the danger zone? You running dropping like a rolling stone No need to pack a bag You just can't stop your hurt from hanging on The old man dies and then a baby's born Chan, chan, chan, change your life And when the world just treats you wrong just come with me and i'll take you home Shan, shan shan shan-gri la Na na na na na na na na na na na
Kuroneko means Black Cat, but the Japanese title is Yabu no naka no kuroneko (The Black Cat from the Grove) I saw this film with my mother shortly after it came out in 1968, probably in 1971 when it had a short run in the U.S. We had returned from living in Japan, with the Army, and in San Francisco we could see Japanese films at the movie theater in Japantown. My mother and I would often have dinner at a little restaurant next to the theater, and we saw lots of great Kurosawa films. This movie was different, very grotesque and stylized. I wasn't old enough to understand it, either emotionally or visually. I just saw it again in the theater, on a new 35 mm print, and it is amazing. The opening of the film is wordless and harrowing. Kuroneko is one of many Japanese films based on ghost stories (kaidan), or more specifically folk tales about ghost-cats (bakeneko-mono).
I'm collecting songs and videos about social media in Spanish. Here are a few songs that have become mega-hits in the Spanish-speaking world.
"No te metas a mi Facebook," por Esteman (Colombia) is that great combination of catchy and annoying that makes a summer hit:
"Que te borro del feisbuh" (viral hit in Spain)
Love song, SMS style by David Guapo, "Amor actualizado"
Not a song, but and ad for a book about Facebook (called FaceBOOM) in Argentina:
Another video where the online is made literal IRL is an episode about Facebook from a series that started out online and then got picked up by TV in Spain "Que vida más triste" (QVMT). Great for learning colloquial Spanish!
My idea of posting something about each movie I saw this year bit the dust pretty early; I've been very busy at work this semester, so blogging has fallen by the wayside in general, and the movie posts dropped off (not counting the documentary "Wild China"). I'm itching to write more, but my work is paying off; I made a successful grant application that will allow me to hire a research assistant. Yay!
#8 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (dirs. Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg) This documentary about a year in the life of then 70-year old comedianne may not make you like her any more, but it certainly is engrossing for its portrait of a woman who broke into a men's field, paving the way for others, and who works incredibly hard. I ended up with some respect for her, even as I still dislike the style of comedy she practices (it's too much like some the boys' for my taste). The film itself, as a documentary portrait, is quite good, but was overlooked by the Oscars, of course.
#9 Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (dir. Errol Morris) I want to see all of Errol Morris's films eventually, so I started with this one. I can't recommend it enough. Here's a review by A.O. Scott from the New York Times:
#10 Another Year (dir. Mike Leigh) This one we saw in the cinema, and it was one of the best films of the year, in my mind. This absolutely lovely review is a great way to understand the qualities of the film:
#11 Ondine (dir. Neal Jordan) While not one of Neal Jordan's best films, this is still a gorgeously filmed, enjoyable movie (see Colin Covert's review) not least for the sea and land that is Ireland's coast. I must go back! #12 Rashomon (dir. Akira Kurosawa) I'd seen this in the movie theater when I was a teenager, and was creeped out by the scenes where a medium channels the murdered samurai to tell his own story, but I wanted to see it again because I was reading David Peace's Tokyo: Occupied City, which uses some of the structure of Rashomon to bring in various voices recounting a crime.
Let's hear it for Netflix instant streaming! Lately, we have been watching a six-part series called Wild China, filmed for the BBC's Science and Nature series. It was filmed in HD, and combines classic wild-life nature documentary with glimpses into a region's history and customs. This video clip compiles some of the time-lapse photography, including an amazing sequence of bamboo growing. It looks like an alien creature when it comes out of the ground!
Today we are going to see paintings by Titian that he did for his patrons, Carlos V and Felipe II. Thinking of the Hapsburges makes me immediately start humming arias from the Verdi opera "Don Carlo" which I had not remembered for years! I used to live with B. who was a lyric baritone, pursuing a career in performing art song and opera (when we ended our relationship, many many years ago, I gave him all my opera records...). Over the years, B. performed in a number of regional productions, sometimes taking the bass parts because there aren't that many true bass voices out there. Some time in the mid-eighties, he sang in the chorus of a San Jose production of Verdi's opera Don Carlo, starring one of his favorite singers, the "basso" Cesare Siepi. I just learned that Siepi died last year at the age of 87. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see him perform, in an opera that gave him the opportunity to show the amazing qualities of his voice and technique of "basso cantante."
As is often the case in operas, the plot has little to do with actual history. Here, the Emperor Don Carlo sings a melancholy song about how his young wife never really loved him: "Ella giamai m'amĂł" (she never loved me). This performance by Cesare Siepi from 1970, reveals the lovely qualities of his voice, echoed by the cello.
This recording, made 15 years later in 1985 (when Siepi was 72!), which was about the time I heard him sing, highlights the beauty of the strings (sadly,the sound is out of sync with the image). His interpretation is poignant and dignified.
Another favorite part of the opera is the famous "friendship duet" between tenor and baritone voices, with its introductory dialogue, here sung by Sherrill Milnes and Plácido Domingo.
For comparison, here is anolder recording with tenor Jon Vickers and the fabulous Tito Gobbi.
And in other roles, here we have Siepi on stage as Don Giovanni, singing one of Mozart's most lovely songs "Deh, vieni alla finestra."
And in "Le Nozze di Figaro" as Figaro, singing the recitative and aria "Aprite un po gli occhi."
Opera fans seem to like to argue: Who was the best? here is a "cage match" pitting some of the most famous bass/baritone voices against each other in Don Giovanni's "Champagne" aria:
Nine great Don Giovannis sing the famous Champagne aria. Only one will emerge victorious...
In chronological order: 1. Ezio Pinza, cond. Bruno Walter 1942 (live) 2. Tito Gobbi, cond. Wilhelm Furtwängler, 1950 (live) 3. Cesare Siepi, cond. Wilhelm Furtwängler, 1954 4. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, cond. Ferenc Fricsay, 1959 5. Nicolai Ghiaurov, cond. Carlo Maria Giulini, 1970 (live) 6. Samuel Ramey, cond. Herbert von Karajan, 1987 (live) 7. Thomas Hampson, cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, 1989 8. Håkan Hagegård, cond. Arnold Östman, 1990 9. Bo Skovhus, cond. Michael Halasz, 2000
Arcade Fire won the Grammy last night for their album "The Suburbs" to the consternation of Justin Beiber/Lady Gaga/Eminem fans (stans) worldwise. But we love them! "Wake Up" (with their fan, David Bowie)
"Month of May":
And from their earlier album Funeral:
"Neon Bible" in an elevator in Paris, with paper-ripping:
Here is an article in the City of Brookings, South Dakota e-newsletter about Adam Hoppe, Loren's nephew. He has been awarded a very prestigious National Science Foundation grant. I'm posting the whole article because it is very exciting, and everyone is extremely proud and happy for him!
"Farm boy" invents high-tech tools Posted: Friday, Feb 4th, 2011
South Dakota State University assistant professor Adam Hoppe has won a National Science Foundation career award to help him continue his work building a high-tech microscope to offer unprecedented resolution for observing the biochemical machinery at work in living cells.
SDSU scientist-researcher at work on new type of microscope
A young man who grew up tinkering on backyard inventions with his father and grandfather has moved on to bigger challenges.
Minnesota farm boy Adam Hoppe is now at work in Brookings, building a better microscope for studying proteins in living cells.
A major grant from the National Science Foundation is funding the South Dakota State University researcher's work building a high-tech microscope that will allow scientists to make movies of unprecedented resolution to show the biochemical machinery at work inside living cells.
Now an assistant professor Adam in South Dakota State's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Hoppe has won an NSF CAREER award, awarded to new or young investigators through a competitive application process.
Researchers are allowed three attempts to get one of these grants. Hoppe, who grew up on a farm near Crookston, Minn., landed it on his first try for his ongoing efforts to develop new instrumentation to study protein-to-protein interactions inside the living cell.
Hoppe's $785,000 grant not only does cutting-edge science, it also grooms the next generation of scientists. In addition to building the new instrument according to his own design -- actually refining and enlarging the instrument he's already designed -- Hoppe will carry out a three-part educational plan. That includes training graduate students and also bringing high school teachers in to get real-life laboratory experience that can help them to the classroom. The third part of that educational component is to use the Internet to disseminate information about the research and explain to a lay audience why it's important.
Here is a longer article that explains more about the biochemistry that Adam's work will help us understand, and about how the microscope actually works. An excerpt helps us understand the key insight that made this work possible:
Professor Joel Swanson, who supervised Hoppe’s Ph.D. work at the University of Michigan and later kept him on as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a faculty researcher, said Hoppe made a key contribution by realizing that scientists were discarding a potential source of information.
“He is an extraordinary scientist. The methods he invented when he was in Michigan transformed our research program. Prior to his work, labs could see where protein-protein interactions were happening inside cells, but they could not measure the magnitudes of those interactions,” Swanson said. “Adam's chief initial insight was that the fluorescence others were removing as background noise contained information about the number of interacting molecules inside the cell. With that realization, he devised mathematical processing methods for calibrating microscopes and quantifying the chemistries inside the cells.”
Mona tells how she was contacted by a young man Wael Ghonem, before Jan 25, and how she and many others tried to find out what happened to him after he was kidnapped by the police and held for 12 days, blindfolded. The police denied that they had him. Today, he was released, and came straight to the studio to tell everyone what had happened, so that they could see that he is alive. His interview on Dream TV in Egypt, is now circulating with with English subtitles. After he was released He was kidnapped by the security forces, two days after Jan 25 uprising began, and has spent the last 12 days blindfolded, while nobody knew for sure where he was. Here, thanks to the volunteer translators of Alive in Egypt, using Universal Subtitles, we can understand the words behind his urgent voice, his tears for those who have been killed in the last two weeks. Wael Ghonem is a young Google excective, who was the administrator of the Facebook page that served as the gathering place and call to action for those who turned out on Jan 25.
You can see all three parts of the interview, with closed-caption translations, on YouTube now. Part 1 , Part 2: and Part 3:
I was lucky enough to see the Kronos Quartet play last night and tonight at the Walker Art Center. The first program was called Without Borders, and featured music by composers from from Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Palestine and India. This evening's music was more in the vein of rock, jazz, alternative music by Laurie Anderson, Penderecki. One of their encores was this gorgeous piece by Sigur Ros.
We return momentarily to the topic of "Bad Romance" parodies for this gem, "Bad Project." I post this for all of my friends and colleagues who are research scientists! You know who you are.
For those of us who have never worked in a lab, "Western Blot" refers to a lab technique for mapping proteins in a tissue sample (I think!). Translations of the Chinese characters on the tubes (from the YouTube comments):
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