Some links: 30

Jonathon D. Colman in his column Everyday Environmentalist posts a richly-linked article on shopping for sustainable coffee (unfortunately, a couple of the links are broken already). He makes the connection—noteworthy if perhaps obvious on a moment’s reflection—between climate change and the deforestation associated with sun coffee.

I voted

There’s something to be said for going to the polls in the middle of the day. I was in and out in ten minutes, even with a stop to talk to Vivien. My precinct was offering the choice of machine or paper ballots. I went with the high-tech option.

Fixing a missing connection

Steve Offutt road-tests the “invisible tunnel” connection between Farragut West and Farragut North:

The technology exists to allow Metro riders to transfer between the two Farragut stations and treat them as though they were transferring within the system. Metro should implement this idea immediately, since there is no downside, many riders will save time, and congestion at Metro Center will be reduced.

* * *

I took a stopwatch with me to see how long it would take. For the initial trip I reached the top of the escalator at exactly the wrong time to cross I St. and had to wait the full light cycle. I waited about 25 seconds to cross K St. I was standing on the platform at Farragut North 5′ 13″; after the doors opened on my train at Farragut West. On the return trip I arrived on the street during the walk signal at K St. but had to wait about 20 seconds at I St. I was on the platform 4′ 10″; from the time the train doors opened at Farragut North.

Makes sense to me. I’ve performed that transfer myself once or twice when I knew that there would be excessive congestion at Metro Center. It would be nice to save the extra base fare.

Of course, this doesn’t work so well during off hours when the eastern Farragut West station entrance is closed.

A choice

The Economist endorses Barack Obama for President:

There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

Lori

We said goodbye to Lori today.

Lori was one of the few people who bothered to read pedantic nuthatch. She once put Karen’s nose out of joint by passing along the tip, “Did you know that David Gorsline is blogging his rehearsal notes?”

Lori and I were connected through a web of theater people in Maryland. We were admirers of each other’s work, but we hadn’t done a project together, or so I misremembered. But Brendan reminded me that the three of us did a role-playing gig for the American Physical Society three years ago. It was an easy mistake, because Lori was so deeply into character as Lise Meitner from the moment we got to the hotel. Her Meitner was a withdrawn woman embittered by years of doing good physics while the men in her profession took the credit and the prizes. It was a committed, crafted piece of acting for something no more consequential than light entertainment for a cocktail reception. But Lori was serious about doing her work.

At the park: 21

As Kevin Munroe notes in the most recent newsletter from Friends of Huntley Meadows Park, some prized bird and plant species returned to breeding status in the park this past year. Birds include Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola), which I got to see in May, and Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), still a jinx bird for me. For the botanists, there was Green Milkweed to be found, and the carnivorous Bladderwort (Utricularia sp.), last seen in the wetland eighteen years ago.

Genius2

Four enjoyable pieces from Washington Ballet, emphasizing the strength of the company’s ensemble work. In Mark Morris’s Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes, an elegiacal group piece sprinkled with some challenges to traditional gender roles, and accompanied by Glenn Sales at the piano, I was impressed by fifth-season company member Zachary Hackstock, who danced his solo breaks with especial power and brio. But reprising this piece from only last season seems an odd programming choice. After the first break: a clean reading of Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses—with its interesting lighting effects achieved with cyclorama and travelers—by the quartet of Sona Kharatian, Luis R. Torres, Jade Payette, and Jared Nelson; then a fluid duet by Kharatian and Nelson in Cor Perdut, by Nacho Duato. The evening closes with the spunky Baker’s Dozen, a dance for twelve by Twyla Tharp. The strongest effect in this piece are the masses of dancers rippling across the stage, dressed in white, the women in low character shoes. It’s a casual piece, perhaps to a fault, as it doesn’t seem to come to a proper ending. Pianist Sales didn’t seem to have the right mojo for playing Willie “The Lion” Smith.

  • Genius2 mixed bill, Washington Ballet, Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, Washington

The refurbished Eisenhower Theater is quite beautiful, the walls faced with warm wood acoustic panels and the seats equipped with the generous armrests that also featured in the Opera House renovation. The awkward enclosure for lighting instruments on the face of the balcony has been removed. Unfortunately, the theater’s setup is more than a little clumsy for musicians playing from the pit, as there appears to be no backstage access (granted, the Ike doesn’t serve the same purposes as the larger space); house management has to shepherd them through the auditorium at intermissions. Although I miss the interlocking E’s of the red act curtain (a plain blue one replaces it), the decoration on the proscenium provides an allusive pattern.

Appalachian Trail: Maryland northern third

trailheadThe day began brisk and clear for a hike of the northern third of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, from Pen Mar Park just south of the surveyor’s line laid by Mason and Dixon to our endpoint at Maryland Route 77, a line of asphalt laid by latter engineers. We followed the signs pointing to Georgia.

moving upSenior Naturalist Stephanie Mason of Audubon Naturalist Society set a fast pace so that we could cover the 8.5 miles in 7:30. I was grateful for the quick march, because I had underdressed for the newly Octoberish weather on the ridgeline. This stretch of the trail is fairly flat, with just a 600-foot climb to High Rock, followed by a drop from the peak of 750 feet before climbing again to Raven Rock. But much of the footing is fairly rocky, and with a generous litter of Chestnut Oak leaves, somewhat tricky.

We took the loop branching off the AT to see High Rock, but as this viewpoint is directly accessible by road, the towniness of the place is rather unpleasant.

on the rocksfrom the topBetter, and more dramatic, are the views from Raven Rock, a couple of miles to the south.

Along the way, we stopped for close looks at Common Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) in wispy flower (the common name Winter-bloom makes a lot of sense), a handful of Redback Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) under logs, and the fine white stripes (visible under hand lens) on the needles of a White Pine. Much of the Hay-Scented Fern, so much in evidence on September’s walk, is now dried and brown. Generally, when Stephanie stops to point something out, she will ask, “Does anyone know what this is?” and she will follow up with hints and questions, as needed. On this trip, most of the geology questions were answered by the group, since we had my car pool mate Bret along (a staff geologist with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) as well as others who knew their rocks. We looked at a lot of leaves and nuts: bright red Sourgum, Sugar and Red Maple, Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Yellow and Black Birch, Eastern Hemlock (a few specimens looking almost healthy), Hickory, some sapling American Chestnuts, Tuliptree.

Stephanie paused at the fall of a rather substantial oak to point out the niche ecosystems and topography—so-called pit and mound—formed by treefall.

Flappy

At my local Whole Foods, by the check stands, there are six banners hung at their corners from the ceiling, sort of like the championshop banners at Boston Garden. By a quirk of the HVAC in the building, one of the middle banners (third from the right) is perpetually caught in the air flow, swinging back and forth from side to side, looking like it’s having much more fun than the rest of us.

CityDance Ensemble: Next

Some highlights from CityDance Ensemble’s mixed bill of six works by choreographers new and old:

The evening begins with a period piece, Sophie Maslow’s Folksay (1942), set on folk songs in the Woody Guthrie tradition and spoken word, in part by Carl Sandburg. The opening dance is a genial barn dance with flexed feet, punctuated by alarmingly vigorous foot stomps, the more so for the feet being unshod. Musicians Andrew Ratliff and John Ratliff perform the score on voice and guitar, and gamely execute certain passages of down home banter that would make the writers for Hee Haw blush. Still, there are some sweet passages, like the phrase, “Sometimes when I think about you, I think my heart will strip a gear.”

The evening then shifts into a darker mood, much of it costumed in black slashed with red. Han (2006/2007), scored in part by taiko drums and choreographed by company artistic director Paul Gordon Emerson, is typical of the company’s strengths: high energy, go-for-broke phrasing, themes of struggle. Jason Garcia Ignacio does well with Jason Hartley’s Nocturne Monologue (2003), a dimly-lit, muscular sketch with allusions to yoga postures as well as classic dance poses.

The evening closes with the most wide-ranging work, Christopher K. Morgan’s Ties That Bind (2002). There is a particularly lovely, languid passage in which a pair of women exchange energy almost as easily as if they’re doing a warm-up improvisation—hints of Pilobolus here. There are also human puppets, an odd solo with a parasol and veil, and a section that could be read as a particularly nasty game of Red Rover.

The standout dance, however, comes in the first half: Kate Weare’s Drop Down (2006), masterfully performed by Giselle Alvarez and Maleek Makhail Washington. Set on a score by Katie Down that sounds like sonically processed Astor Piazzolla, it’s a breathtaking power struggle of a duet. Equal parts deconstructed tango and exercise in especially violent martial arts, the opening sections are marked by a slow/snap quick rhythm. The climactic section takes place mostly on the floor, and is all the more powerful for having nothing but silence backing it up.

Can’t argue

If a child’s diaper is changed six times a day until he is 30 months old, he will have had his diaper changed more than 5,400 times. Anything a child experiences 5,400 times is an important part of his life for him and for those who create the experience.

—Diane Trister Dodge et al., The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos