HoodedHawk

Jojo Garza of Los Lonely Boys

Tuesday night I went to see Los Lonely Boys at Ram’s Head in Annapolis, MD. They sounded great! I really enjoyed the concert – the three brothers definitely put on a good show. They only played about an hour and 20 minutes, with no opening band. The short concert may be due to the bass player/lead singer Jojo having some problems with his vocal cords (the band appears to have cancelled some dates last month due to medical issues). But I certainly didn’t notice anything wrong with his voice! I do hope all is well. Definitely a band worth seeing live.

Los Lonely Boys

Los Lonely Boys

Last Saturday Kirsten and I went to see Mrs. Kemble’s Tempest, a play by Tom Ziegler and directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. We absolutely loved it! This coming weekend is the final weekend. Grab tickets and go, you won’t be disappointed. It is basically a one-woman play (Kimberly Schraf plays Mrs. Kemble).

The Fascinating story of Fanny Kemble; one of the most famous actresses to grace the 19th century American stage, an early feminist, and abolitionists. This evening is her farewell tour, as her extraordinary solo performance of the Tempest interweaves with episodes from her own tempestuous life. –(from www.baltimoreshakespeare.org)

Kimberly Schraf as Mrs. Kemble in Mrs Kemble's Tempest

There is another actor (no speaking role, but very good) who plays the part of Mrs. Kemble’s onstage pianist. Ms. Schraf was just wonderful; I’m always amazed when an actor can pull off a single-person play like this. How do they ever memorize the whole shebang? Anyway, I was mesmerized by the story and the acting.

The venue itself is great – an old church (St. Mary’s in Baltimore) with good acoustics and seating.

Mrs Kemble's Tempest at the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival

Let’s hope for a scholarship: Just got an alumni email from Dartmouth (my graduate school alma mater, at left), and the undergraduate tuition, room/board/fees for next year total $52,275.00.

For grins I also checked my my undergrad alma mater (Boston College, below). BC is now at $50,970.00.

Mind boggling, the cost of college these days; nevermind what it will be in 18 years…

Over two feet of snow, and more coming down. Oh, the joy! At least we still have power (fingers crossed!) and plenty of food. This is a record for Maryland; from what I’ve been told, this is the most snow at one time since ~1950. Normally we get ~18 inches over the course of the winter. So far we’ve had that much dumped on us just in December, and now this current storm is in itself over 26 inches so far…

Just a bit South of here (DC) and East had actual “blizzard” conditions last night. We just had a major snowstorm. :)

Click any picture for slideshow.

Snow Storm 2-2010: Two feet.

Over 2 feet- taller than Olivia

Snow Storm 2-2010: Two feet, and he's not going to be much help shoveling...

Snow Storm 2-2010: Two feet.

Snow Storm 2-2010: Our Mailbox

Snow Storm 2-2010: Preparing for the arctic.

Snow Storm 2-2010: Preparing for the arctic.

Snow Storm 2-2010: Actic Trail left by explorers

Snow Storm 2-2010: In the arctic.

Monday night after dinner Preston and I enjoyed a game of Kids of Carcassonne. It’s one of the few kid’s board games for which he can sit “still”. A typical game only lasts around 10 minutes, which is just right for him. He even remembered the name of the figure pieces: “Meeples”. The “full” version of the game, Carcassonne, (I think it’s for 10 to adult) is also a lot of fun, but too long for him.

This is a much simpler version – you basically pick a tile from a stack and place it on the table next to another. When you “complete” a road (when it has an obstruction on both ends), you can place your meeple on any same-colored meeple picture on that road. First player to play all their meeples (8) wins. Fun!

The game itself is well-made, with nice wooden “meeple” figures and thick cardboard tiles which hold up well to a 3yr old’s treatment. Not much can stand up to the gnawing teeth of a 1yr old, so we keep Olivia at bay during play. The graphics are very good as well, and Preston enjoys finding all the little animals, etc. on each tile (“Hey! A sheep! What’s he doing there?”).

Not bad for a game without dinosaurs.

Kids of Carcassonne Board

Kids of Carcassonne

Preston and Kids of Carcassonne

So far it looks like we have more than 18 inches of snow here. That’s a record! Preston loved “helping” me shovel out the driveway (though he used a Swifter as I only have one shovel). Olivia just cheered us from afar. Then both got into the BlueBird sled, though only Preston actually went for a ride (many, down the driveway). The BlueBird is supposed to be for Olivia, but it was convenient for Preston. BIG snowbank at bottom of driveway so no worries about him getting too far.

Fun!

Olivia in the SnowBird

Preston in the SnowBird

Orhan Pamuk after talk at Smithsonian, 11/23/2009

Turkish author and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was interviewed by Robert Siegel of NPR’s “All Things Considered for a Smithsonian Associates lecture tonight. The insights into Pamuk’s writing method as well as how he sees the translations of his books was quite enjoyable. His latest book is “The Museum of Innocence”. I’ve read two of his previous novels, The White Castle, and more recently, Snow. I very much enjoyed “The White Castle“; Snow – not so much. Looking forward to reading The Museum of Innocense!

Last month, our extended family had a wonderful vacation at the Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, NY (upstate, western NY state). Highlights of the week were lectures by Professor Donald Johanson (pictured below signing my copy of Lucy’s Legacy), as well as:

• Annie Griffiths Belt, National Geographic photographer
• Wade Davis, ethnobotanist, photographer, author, The Serpent and the Rainbow
• Kobie Boykins, NASA engineer, Mars Expedition Rovers program
• Mattias Klum, National Geographic photographer, filmmaker

Dr. Johanson signing my copy of Lucy's Legacy

We rented a house on the grounds, and spent a week enjoying lectures, concerts, beautiful weather, and wonderful grounds. It’s like a really nice small town, gated. It’s a very family-friendly environment, and there is nice beach on the lake.

The Catholic House sponsored a couple of excellent lectures as well, and Mass was offered daily. Did I mention the weather was wonderful? We’ll be going back next year; I can see why people go back to Chautauqua religiously (no pun intended :) ).

Chautauqua 2009

Chautauqua 2009

Chautauqua 2009

More pictures are on the Picture page (Chautauqua)

Yep, that’s how many files a fresh backup of my main machine contains. And I’ve excluded a bunch that I don’t need to backup. Apple’s Time Machine does seem to work well for me so far, even allowing me to swap out backup disks so I can keep one offsite (just in case). Now to let ‘er rip overnight.

Cool! I just won an advance reading copy of the novel “Frozen Fire” by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson. I had entered a drawing for this on the Tor website a few weeks ago and…guess what arrived in my mailbox today? Not bad, since they only gave away 50 copies. It’s an eco-thriller; I’ll put it on my queue and let y’all know how it is once I get to it. It officially comes out on June 23, 2009.