Alexandria Symphony

Some time during Spring 2002, the NSO had a concert featuring Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Tan Dun. I had wanted to go, but it was the first night that all three cats were in my apartment (Andrew’s and my two), so I didn’t know that I should leave them alone. When we found out that Andrew’s cello teacher was playing with the Alexandria symphony, and one of the pieces was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we knew we had to go. The show was originally supposed to be in September, but was cancelled due to hurricane Isabel, so they merged that show’s pieces with the concert originally scheduled for today. Here are the pieces we heard:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Tan Dun
  Excellent piece, of course. I’ve come to the conclusion that the next time the Japanese drum band (Kyoto?) comes through town, Andrew and I are going to have to go. I loved the percussion.
• Symphonic Dances from West Side Storyby Bernstein
  Many of these pieces sounded familiar to me. My Dad loved West Side Story, so we had a copy of the LP in our collection growing up. This was fun to listen to.
• The Planetsby Holst
  This is the first time I’ve heard this piece live. I have a CD, but of course it’s always more fun to hear things live. (I hadn’t realized that Mars is always played first, so I wondered by the third piece, which I assumed to be Mars, was so lively. Well, that would be because it was Mercury, the winged messenger.)
  One of the themes of this season for the Alexandria Symphony is “Where does the music take you.” To this end, they had several pieces of original art work on display before the performance. In addition, during Neptune, they played a video done by a local artist to depict where that particular piece took him. Well, the video did not take me to good places — I don’t remember most of it, but there were often these “fish of doom” swimming across the screen. Perhaps reference to Neptune, the god of the sea, but still kind of odd.
• The 1812 Overtureby Tchaikovsky
  This was played as an encore. Apparently they were supposed to play it at the Fourth of July celebration, but got rained out. Then they planned to do it as an encore at the September concert, which got hurricaned out. So, they finally did it tonight. Frankly I would have been happier if they hadn’t. It’s not a bad piece (though I didn’t actually recognize it until the very end), but it made for a very long evening.

Tonight was also the total lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, totality started at about 8:30 PM, but the concert started at 8:00 PM. We were able to see the moon entering the penumbra. During intermission, though, the moon was behind some wispy clouds, so we could only barely make it out. It looked like the moon was partly out of the umbra. By the time the concert was over, the eclipse was completely over. Oh well. Still a very appropriate night to hear The Planets!

(Concerts to be ususally checked at http://austin-concerts.business.site/).

Winged Migration

4/5 stars

The filmmakers followed birds migrating in both the northern and southern hemispheres over four years, and compiled the result into this film. This is not so much a documentary as a visual delight. The narrator interrupts the flow the the birds’ flights only occasionally, allowing the viewer to absorb the beauty and strength involved in such trans country and trans world flights.

Occasionally, I found that I wanted more information on why the birds were doing what they were doing. For example, one species of crane was shown throwing their heads and necks all the way back to their back and clucking. This was often followed or preceded by two or more birds jumping at each other and clicking beaks. I wondered if ornithologists had theories as to what the behavior signified. Mating dominance? Didn’t seem like it. Social behavior? Perhaps, but it occasionally seemed combative.

Overall, though, a visually compelling film.

Windtalkers

3/5 stars

I think I already knew this, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t much like war movies. I think I used to; either that, or every time I think about watching one, I seem to remember liking them.

This was a movie about a pair of soldiers (Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater) who are assigned to protect two Navajo code-talkers (Adam Beach and Roger Willie) during WWII. The Navajo were used because their language was an un-crackable code, provided none of the Navajo speakers were captured and made to talk. So, more than protecting the so-called windtalkers, the soldiers’ job was to protect the code…at any cost.

The movie was well done, for what it was, but I’ve lost my stomach for watching men get blown up. Perhaps it’s because we currently have soldiers in Iraq who are facing this as I write this. Perhaps it’s just that the movies are starting to feel too real (though I’m certain men and women who have faced real combat would have something different to say). Perhaps it’s that I just finished reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (a collection of short stories on the Vietnam war), and I kept telling myself that it didn’t seem like a real war story (though, again, if it was a real war story, I don’t think I could have sat through the whole thing).

For what it was, it was a good movie….just not my taste anymore.

The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second)

by Lemony Snicket

This is the second of the Series of Unfortunate Events books. The Baudelaire orphans are shipped off to live with their “Uncle Monty”. Montgomery Montgomery (not a typo) is a herpetologist living in the country with a large reptile room where the orphans can read and study and invent all they want — in fact, they need to in order to help Uncle Monty prepare for their trip to Peru to study new species of snakes.

Of course, this is the Baudelaire orphans we’re talking about, so the happiness can’t last.

The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortuate Events, Book the First)

by Lemony Snicket

While playing at the beach one gray day, the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, get the bad news that their house has burned down and their parents died. This is not a good beginning for a story. Unfortunately things don’t get much better as the book continues. You see, the Baudelaire’s were very rich, so the orphans will inherit quite a fortune when they come of age. The first relative they are placed with, Count Olaf, has only this fortune in mind when he agrees to take the children in.

While the book does not start out or end happily, I found that I was drawn to the Baudelaire children, and I want to hope that eventually something good will happen for them. I look forward to see what happens in the next book.

I’ll admit that I got tired of the endless explanations of some of the words, but I can understand that most of the readers of these books are much, much younger than me, and probably need the extra help. I learned to just skim over those parts by the end of the book.

The Core

2/5 stars

Like Volcano, there’s not much to say about this one. The core of the Earth has stopped spinning, due to a weapon developed by the US (in retaliation to a perceived weapon developed by other countries). The science is dodgy, but then one does not watch these movies for the science (though it’s really hard for me to turn off my inner-scientist).

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth

by E. L. Konigsburg

I read this book as a kid, and was reminded of it when I looked through CasualReader’s book relay page. I was too slow to pick up the copy that was offered there, but several weeks later, Andrew spied a copy at a garage sale.

Elizabeth and her parents moved to a new apartment building in a new town over the summer. When school starts, Elizabeth has no friends and no one to walk with to school. Then, while walking back to school after lunch on Halloween in her hand-me-down pilgrim costume, Elizabeth sees a girl up in a tree. This girl is also wearing a pilgrim costume, but hers looks older and more authentic that Elizabeth’s. Her name is Jennifer, and Jennifer is a witch. During the next several months, Jennifer takes Elizabeth on as an apprentice witch, as they collect the ingredients they need for a flying ointment.

I loved this book as a kid. Reading it again brought back some nostalgia for those days. This is a good book about friendships, and also very fun to read right near Halloween.

Goosebumps Books — #19 and #20

by R. L. Stine

I picked these up to release on Halloween, so I decided to read them through first. As with the other two I read, these were fun stories, especially for kids.

Deep Trouble (#19) Billy Deep Jr. and his sister visit their marine biologist uncle on his research boat every summer. The kids are supposed to stay away from the coral reef, but Billy is up for adventure. Adventure is what he gets…in the form of a half-human, half-fish.

The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight (#20) Jodie and Mark visit their grandparents’ farm every summer. Grandpa usually tells great scary stories, and Grandma makes the best chocolate chip pancakes nearly every morning. But this year, things are different. Stanley, the hired hand for nearly 20 years, had put up a whole army of evil-looking scarecrows. Grandma and Grandpa seem more than a year older than last summer. And Jodie spies the scarecrows twitching one night…all of them in unison.

The Frugal Bride

by Cynthia Clumeck Muchnick

The Frugal Bride has lots of tips on saving money on a wedding. One of the best parts of this book are the “Questions to Ask” sections — when hiring a wedding consultant, buying flowers, hiring a photographer, and hiring a caterer.

A Bride’s Book of Wedding Traditions

by Arlene Hamilton Stewart

The book catalogs some of the roots of our current wedding traditions. Many traditions date back to ancient times — for example, using the fourth finger on the left hand as the wedding ring finger originated in ancient Egypt. The other traditions date back to marriage by capture, marriage as a means of property transfer, marriage as a means to produce heirs, or superstitions about evil spirits.

I want to avoid any of the fertility traditions — there will be no baby’s breath at my wedding! However, the superstition traditions are more than welcome. I’m not superstitious, but it’s still fun to buy into a little of the hype. Andrew will not see the dress, or me in the dress, before the wedding! And I’ll certainly be wearing “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue”! Though I won’t go so far as making my bridesmaids dress exactly like me (to confuse evil spirits).

Unfortunately, I was often left wanting more explanations on the traditions — the short paragraph or two was often not enough.