Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana) in Muir Woods National Monument.

Sunday Sierrablogging

Tarn on the Red Peak Fork, Clark Range, Yosemite National Park.

Friday Random 10

Wax Tailor - Que Sera
Minutemen - Please Don't Be Gentle With Me
Velvet Underground - Run Run Run
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Switch [from Nocturne]
Link Wray - Hungry Child
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Suburban Relapse
Ultravox - My Sex
Nearly God - Black Coffee
Steinski - Voice Mail (Sugar Hill Suite)
Talking Heads - Don't Worry About the Government

What are y'all listening to this morning?

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Miniature Lupine (Lupinus bicolor) on Mount Tamalpais, Marin County.

Monday Movie Theater Review: Love, Loss, and What I Wore

Love, Loss, and What I Wore
An intimate collection of stories by Nora & Delia Ephron
10/10

Love, Loss, and What I Wore is presented as a theatrical reading: Five chairs in a line on the stage, with lecterns in front of them. Oh, geez, I thought, I'm seeing this? I'm not even seeing a play? I needn't have worried. The show is presented with a rotating cast of 28, and every cast, as far as I can see, is stellar. We saw Carol Kane, Jayne Houdyshell, Fran Drescher, Didi Conn, and Natasha Lyonne.

Stories, anecdotes, and characters are presented through the context of clothing and accessories. We open with Gingy (Carol Kane), who decided during (an illness? insomnia?) to sketch outfits she remembered. As she showed each outfit, she reminisced. From Brownie uniforms to bridal dresses, Gingy told her life through clothing. None of the other characters stay on-stage past individual tales, so that all five are voicing many women, but every woman's memories are intertwined with what she wore.

We left feeling like we had shared in a full range of woman's lives. Houdyshell even presented a character who has just never related to or remembered clothing. Only one item of clothing ever stuck in her mind, and yet that item moved us to tears.

I don't do the "sisterhood" thing very well. I don't find myself on board with a lot of what passes for sharing women's experience or women's empowerment. As often as not, I feel marginalized by it. But here, honestly, I felt so connected to other women, to being a woman, to sharing womanhood through the vehicle of this text and these performers.

Mostly we laughed. We laughed a lot, and loudly, and sometimes we spontaneously applauded, but yes, there were tears. These were stories about loving black, and hating your purse, and wrangling with your mother over what you're going to wear, and buying a bra in anticipation of breast reconstruction, and maternity dresses, and prom dresses, and these are women who love and hate their mothers, their bodies, their men, and their lives. Unsurprisingly, these women skew heavily towards Jewish New Yorkers like the Ephrons, but characters portrayed also include a lesbian and a Latina, and in the joys and laughter are also stories of rape, the loss of a child, the loss of a parent, and really bad therapy.

Much more laughter than tears, though. I have a bad laugh. I have a series of bad laughs: Snorts and barks and squeaks and guffaws that burst forth from me at inappropriate moments, and the theater audience got to share every one of them. And I shared theirs.

Fran Drescher kind of stole the show. Everyone was great, but the revelations were Drescher and Lyonne, both of whom had more raw performance power than I could ever have anticipated. Drescher owned. Drescher cracked the other women up so they momentarily lost their places. What a pleasure!

So, on I go to Amazon to buy the original book upon which this show is based, and if I find a text of the play I'll buy that too, because I want to experience these stories over and over. While wearing black.

(Cross-posted in blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a structured leopard jacket)

Sunday Sierrablogging

Ridge Lake and Granite Dome, Emigrant Wilderness.

East Coast Friday Random Ten

Mark Mulcahy, “Sometimes” Love’s the Only Thing that Shuts Me Up
Hauschka, “Freibad” Ferndorf
Daniel Johnston, “Rock this Town” Late Great Daniel Johnston
Freakwater, “Slowride” Springtime
Emmylou Harris, “Goodbye” Wrecking Ball
Charlie Parker, “What is This Thing Called Love” Anything Goes
Magnolia Electric Co., “Shenandoah” Josephine
Clem Snide, “Forever, Now and Then” Soft Spot
Jason Collett, “It Won’t be Long” Motor Motel Love Songs
Lucero, “Can’t feel a Thing” 1372 Overton Park

Bonus: Richmond Fontaine, “Hallway” Post to Wire

Tom's busy, so you get me today and maybe Deborah too. Join in in comments.

Hooded Mergansers on the Wing

Adult male and female. They left town about a week ago, just before the ice melted. Large version here.

[cross-posted]

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Yellow-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium californicum) along the Beasore Road, Sierra National Forest.

Sunday Sierrablogging

Volcanic Knob Meadows, Mono Divide, John Muir Wilderness.

Friday Random 10

Chaba Fadela - Dja Yadhak
Lines - White Night
Wire - Marooned
Stranglers - No More Heroes
Velvet Underground - Black Angel's Death Song
Los Hijos del Sol - Linda Muñequita
Ultravox - My Sex
Wax Tailor - We Be
Wu-Tang Clan - Tearz
Stranglers - No More Heroes (live)

I think that's the first time I've ever had the same song by the same artist appear twice in a list. Otherwise, not bad.

What are y'all listening to?

Exit, Stage North

Canadian Geese on the move

[cross-posted]

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Steer's Head (Dicentra uniflora) near the Hemlock Crossing trail, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Monday Post-Oscar Thoughts

Was this the dullest Oscars ever? Quite possibly. The only real drama was whether Cablevision and ABC would come to terms in time; they did, but we Cablevision subscribers missed the opening schtick. What I saw of Baldwin & Martin left me profoundly unimpressed; Martin was much funnier when he had the gig solo. Plus, most of the presenter humor was worse than in the past, and that's going a ways.

There were no surprises among the winners. Of the four acting awards, 3 were a sure thing and one almost as sure, and none surprised. Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for being the first woman to win Best Director. Not that the glass ceiling is all shattered or anything.
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Cutting out the song performances is overall a good idea, although I'd have loved to see Jeff Bridges or Colin Farrell perform Weary Kind. That Adam Shankman, producer of the show, choreographer, and So You Think You Can Dance judge, decided to present the best soundtrack nominees with an interpretive dance is not surprising, nor is it surprising that he used League of Extraordinary Dancers. What was surprising was how lame the dance was; these are terrific dancers and it could have been, well, dance.

Thank Gods for the absence of absolutely meaningless montages this year: Times People Have Sneezed On Film will not be missed. But dude, the cinematography nominees really require clips; that was a bad thing to remove.

On the fashion front, there wasn't much that was actually hideous. The trends are metallics, pale blush/rose/champagne shades, shredded gown bottoms, and weird things attached to hips. My favorite may well be Zoe Saldana; her colors and shapes were a little unusual, a little daring, and really gorgeous. Rachel McAdams also made a different choice that really worked, going for a multi-colored print that made me go oooh.

Barbra Streisand appeared to be wearing the same dress she wore last time she was at the Oscars. Charlize Theron looked like there was someone standing behind her feeling her up. J-Lo looked great, but she could have been hiding the twins in that weird hip-train. Other than that, it was just a lot of pretty, shiny people.

I saw some movies, but not a lot, and the only winner I saw was Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. I'll try to get that review up this week.

(Crazy Cross-post)

Friday Random 10

Incredible Bongo Band - Apache
Mekons - Blue Arse
Shadows - Guitar Tango
Hüsker Dü - Divide and Conquer
Hüsker Dü - Find Me
Fire Engines - Candyskin
Nina Simone - I Feel Good
David Bowie - Station to Station
Television - The Dream's Dream
RJD2 - Good Times Roll Pt. 1

Bonus track:
Pine Box Boys - New Moon

Okay, this one is really good--even with the unfortunate repetition. What are y'all listening to?

Bonus video below the fold.
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Wild Turkeys

I shot this yesterday morning a few miles from my house. Moments later the turkeys scattered and flew into the trees, disappearing in like three seconds flat. Low-res enlargement here.

[cross-posted]

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii) in Edgewood County Park, San Mateo County.