Miscellaneous: Oh, The Irony

Miss Virginia, one Caressa Cameron, became Miss America 2010 today. Didn't you know? I didn't know until I happened across a news story on the subject. The AP press release I read included this wonderfully written and edited one-sentence paragraph:

Cameron is broadcast journalism student at Virginia Commonwealth University, and wants to become an anchor.

Well, I is appalled. I hope the new Miss America does not emulate the writing style of the journalist reporting on her victory. This tidbit reminds me of an English-language essay written by one of my host sisters when I was an exchange student in Japan. She let me read it. Her ambition, according to the essay, was to "become a technical skill." I wonder which is harder--becoming a technical skill or becoming an anchor? My host sister, I should point out, was a teenager, not a journalist, and not a native speaker of English.

Birds I'm Watching: Ellis Creek Water Treatment Ponds

Finally got a good look at a Sora and was even able to get two or three decent photos. These birds so rarely come out of hiding that it's very hard to see them, much less photograph them. Most birders identify them by ear. This appears (from its coloring) to be a youngish bird. Adult birds usually have more black around the bill and on the throat, I believe.

Nothing much else of special interest today, but getting a photo of a Sora made going out worthwhile.

 For more information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Art I'm Looking At: Art is Where You Find It

A fun blog entry came to my attention recently that started me thinking. I was moved to post a comment. Never one to waste a good paragraph, and because, coincidentally, the ideas there were very much in tune with my post of a couple days ago about street art (see below), I append the comment here.

The only definition of "art" I have ever heard that seems complete--that is, that seems to work no matter where you apply it--is that art is "the making special of something." That may seem so vague as to be of only modest usefulness, but it's actually quite powerful. It can help to explain why we are moved by so many things--from a wet flower petal made transparent by rain or the slightly misaligned folds of an envelope to people spontaneously dancing in the street, a framed drawing, sound ringing in the air, or a lone voice crackling over a dramatically lit stage. All that is required is that our attention be called to something special, different, something worth noticing. It need not be intended as art--I would argue that much art is serendipity enshrined. All that is required is that someone has noticed it and pointed it out.

I love to look at the worn paint and re-painting of lines and symbols on the playground at my son's school. Not many people stand around looking at the patches of pigment or photographing them the way I do, but there they are. Art. I remember once in college sitting in the Fine Arts Library (appropriately enough), studying, watching raptly the girl sitting at the table next to me as she one-handedly braided her own hair without ever looking up from her book. Performance Art. Taxi drivers in New York City, stopped, doors open, half out of their cars (noses virtually touching), lunging at each other, gesturing, shouting. This is drama of the best kind. Gallery art, too, is art--often sublime--but we probably miss more art on our way to work every day than is in all the galleries of the world. Art is truly all around us. All that is required is to notice it and then to play a giddy game of show-and-tell. That game, too, is Art.

I made the photo posted here in Tokyo, in 2005. Just a wall, but worthy of a frame.

Tidbits: J. D. Salinger--RIP

I note here the passing of J. D. Salinger today. Makes me want to go back and re-read all the short stories. It's been a while, but they're right here on my bookshelf.

Rain: Yet More Rain (January 26, 2011)

Since last reporting (January 22), another 1.8 inches of rain has accumulated at our location. That brings the 2009-2010 total in my part of Santa Rosa to 17.8 inches, which is 1.6 inches above the level considered normal for January 26th (16.2 inches). Some local stations are reporting as much as 19.78 inches. It's a good thing, but I'm beginning to get a little tired of it. Could we have some sun now?

[Update: It's now January 30th (can you believe it's almost February?). Since last posting about rain (I know, I know, but rain is a big deal around here. We either get too little or too much) we've had an additional 0.2 inches, bringing the total to 18.0 inches, which is almost one inch above normal for this date (17.09 inches). However, some local stations are reporting considerably more than we have had--as much as 20.1 inches.

Music I'm Listening to: Santa Rosa Symphony

Just got back from a good concert by the Santa Rosa Symphony--the best I've heard from this ensemble in quite some time. I hear the musicians like Bruno Ferrandis, but I'm afraid this concert has only confirmed my feeling that he's not getting the best out of them. Setting aside one or two weak entrances from the brass section, the performers today were mostly together, playing crisply, attacking with energy, and apparently with enthusiasm, although the concertmaster looked a bit sour from time to time--surely my imagination.

Guest conductor JoAnn Falleta conducted the players in four works: The Holiday Overture by Elliott Carter, The Red Violin, A Violin Concerto by John Corigliano (originally written for Joshua Bell and based on music first composed for the 1998 film, The Red Violin), Aaron Copland's El Salon Mexico, and Barber's Symphony No. 1 in One Movement. Michael Ludwig was the soloist in the violin concerto. We also got an encore from Ludwig and the orchestra in the form of Kreisler's Caprice Viennois.

I say mostly together because the first piece, the Holiday Overture, seemed a bit disjointed, although I'm really no judge in this case, as it's a piece I don't know (of course, that won't prevent me from offering an opinion about the other unfamiliar piece on the program, The Red Violin, which I enjoyed very much). I confess that I wrote off the Holiday Overture as a warm-up piece, which is, no doubt, unfair to the musicians, the composer and the composition--but few orchestras are always in top form.

With the Corigliano, everything came together. Taut and edgy in some sections, more expansive in others, the conductor seemed to have everything nicely in hand throughout. The orchestra was clearly in tune with her (no pun intended). I enjoyed watching her bouncy yet precise style of wielding the baton. She has a distinctive way of swinging her hips as she works that in some sections gave the impression that she was dancing to the music. I found that disconcerting at first, but there was never any doubt she was in control, despite the playful visual effect.

What an interesting piece of music the Corigliano concerto is. I loved it for it's wide range of unorthodox sounds--including unusual bowings in the strings, heavy use of mutes in the brass section, and diverse percussion. I'd very much like to see the score to get an idea of the notation used for some of the odder effects--notably a strained creaking sound from the strings that was especially effective. Despite these very modern elements, the piece has a rather grand, romantic sweep to it, and some sections sound distinctly 19th century--an interesting juxtaposition. I understand there's a Joshua Bell recording of this music, which I plan to look for. I will also look for more from soloist Michael Ludwig who was excellent throughout--from the more abstract sections of the Corigliano to the Kreisler with its somewhat silly flourishes that kept bringing Bugs Bunny cartoons to mind--all in good fun. The concert was worth it for the Corigliano alone. Now I'm curious to rent the film that spawned the concerto.

El Salon Mexico is one of the first pieces of music that I got to know as a teenager exploring classical music. I feel like I know it well. The performance was competent and enjoyable, although in places it seemed to lack a bit of forward drive. Still, it was fun to see it performed for the first time.

I very much enjoyed the Barber. I don't listen to Barber a lot, but always seem to like what I hear. While I have heard the Symphony No. 1 in One Movement before, I don't own a recording of it, so it was good to hear it again for the first time in many years.

All in all, a pleasurable concert. It was nice to be reminded what the Santa Rosa Symphony is capable of with an inspiring conductor at the helm. I very much look forward to the move to the new Green Music Center--if it ever gets finished. 

(Photo of JoAnne Falleta used with permission, courtesy of the Santa Rosa Symphony.)

Art I'm Looking At: Street Art, San Francisco (January 24, 2010)

I've seen these stenciled Japanese koi in various places around the city. I rather like them. They are assaults on public property, yet they are also art. What I found interesting about these particular ones was that someone had deliberately painted them over existing graffiti, creating a double layer of property destruction/art. On top of that, I have now photographed them and shared the documentation. This, too, is art?

Places I'm Visiting: Bi-Rite market, San Francisco

I imagine this place is well known to the cognoscenti, but I happened upon it yesterday for the first time after a tasty breakfast at Tartine, on Guerrero St.

Bi-Rite Market is at 3639 18th St., between Guerrero and Dolores. It has a very New York feel to it--staffed by quickly moving, rather efficient-looking people. It's clearly run by foodies. I like the store slogan: "Creating community through food." In one of those odd coincidences, the night before I had been reading about cheddars and Stilton in Steven Jenkins's Cheese Primer (slightly outdated now, but still an excellent cheese reference book). I had picked it up off the shelf in the kitchen for no particular reason. It was handy in one of those unfilled moments that seemed to require reading material. Inevitably, though, it piqued my appetite and rekindled my interest in cheese (not that that interest had been in any special danger of petering out).

Following day, there I am in San Francisco, walking in the rain by Bi-Rite Market. I stopped in and was very pleased to find an excellent selection of cheeses--including several I had just been reading about. There is also a good selection of wines (and a fair number of more unusual bottles that are a refreshing change from the same old things you see in so many small grocery shops), fresh produce, and meats. Great little store. I picked up some Sonoma Dry Jack, some authentic cheddar, and a great four-year old Gouda. (Sorry about the hazy flare in the photos. These are just quick iPhone snaps.)

Bird's I'm Watching: San Francisco

In the city on Saturday morning--San Francsico, that is--I spent some time at Lake Merced and then at Golden Gate Park, mostly in the Strybing Arboretum area. Lake Merced was rather disappointing. I'm sure it's a good place for birds from time to time, but yesterday there were few and none of any special interest--mostly coots. Not that I have anything against coots. Actually, I do. A coot is a particularly hard bird to photograph. That's what I have against coots. They're all black except for their all-white bills. Expose one right and the other is inevitably overexposed or underexposed. But, enough about coots.

At Golden Gate Park, there was similarly nothing out of the ordinary, but I ran into an Anna's Hummingbird that was remarkably tame. It allowed me to approach to well within an arm's length. Although I didn't try to touch it, I could have. I got some good photos of it, a couple of which I've posted here. In the second shot, you can even see its little hummingbird tongue. You can enlarge the photos by clicking them.

Wines I'm Making: New Rosé Label

Just finished designing the label for the 2009 Sangiovese rosé and having it printed. Looks good on the bottles. Ready for drinking. Two cases made.

Birds I'm Watching: Lake Ralphine/Spring Lake

Took a walk around Lake Ralphine and Spring Lake today in the pouring rain. What was I thinking? Actually, I was thinking I might finally get to see a rail, as people keep telling me they are easy to see when high water levels force them up on to higher ground, but today I didn't even hear a rail.

I did see some birds, though. Several moorhens were close in on the little peninsula that juts out into Spring Lake (it's nearly an island at the moment). There were robins everywhere. There are still many common mergansers on Lake Ralphine. The highlight was probably a varied thrush--not exactly a rare bird, but it's the first one I've seen in a couple of years.

Other birds I saw were: Mallard, double-crested cormorant, Canada goose, bufflehead, pied-billed grebe, ruby-crowned kinglet, hermit thrush, spotted towhee, California towhee (including a partially-leucistic bird normal in all respects except that it had a crescent of white at the nape--as if it had rolled up a towel and flung it around its neck), house finch, dark-eyed junco, Anna's hummingbird, great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, scrub jay, Steller's Jay, yellow-rumped warblers (15 or so), California quail (19), golden-crowned sparrow, black phoebe, crow, acorn woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, Northern flicker, bushtits, and chestnut-backed chickadees. These last were in a group (5) picking buds off the willows. I noticed that many of the buds have already broken. The chickadees were imitating the rather annoying habit birds in my backyard have of eating all the buds off the fruit trees and ornamental plums. At home, however, it's mostly the house finches and juncos that do this.... Anyway, despite the rain and absence of rails, I still saw thirty-two bird species.

Plants I'm Growing: Candytuft

First blooms on the Iberis (candytuft) in the garden on Monday, the 19th. The first blooms last year were on the 22nd. A year (corresponding mostly to calendar year 2009) according to this plant was thus 362 days. I've become fond of candytuft as it handles our summer drought well and it blooms in the winter, when comparatively little is in flower. It looks dainty under manzanitas, also blooming at this time of year.

Miscellaneous: Still Raining

It continued to rain overnight and it is still sprinkling this morning. The rain gauge read 0.75 inches as I took my son off to school this morning, but it will have risen since then. As of this writing, however, our 2009-2010 total stands at 14.25 inches, which is still somewhat below average, although other areas nearby are reporting rain higher than normal--for the first time in four years. Good news.

[Update: Rain finally abated today--the afternoon of the 22nd. The rain gauge shows 1.75 inches. That brings us to total of 16.0 inches as of 6:00PM today. 15.34 inches is the official average for this day in Santa Rosa, so we are a little less than three-quarters of an inch above average at our location, although some places nearby are reporting about an inch more than that. Anyway, being above the average is a good thing.]

2009 Sangiovese Rosé Bottled Today

Finally got around to bottling the 2009 Sangiovese rosé today. It's paler than last year and a quick taste suggests it's lighter on the palate as well. We'll see tonight. I plan to open a bottle with dinner. I sulfited the wine very lightly (to about 38ppm--three Campden tablets in a five-gallon carboy). The vessel threw a crusty deposit, as usual, which made racking the wine easy (for some reason, this wine always deposits a hard layer of tartaric acid crystals on top of the more easily disturbed sediment). Now it's time to design a new label.

[Update:] Opened a bottle with dinner tonight. Made a lemon prawn pasta (lots of butter and garlic) and a side of fingerling potatoes with broccoli and shiitake in a simple sauce of butter and soy sauce. Very relieved to find the wine is lighter, cleaner, and more delicate than it has been in the past, but not at all without character. Good length and depth of flavor. Perhaps the best I've made so far. The long, cool fermentation appears to have helped. I was a bit apprehensive when bottling the wine as it looked quite pale--paler than I expected it to be, but it has turned out to be very tasty indeed. "Opened a bottle" is a bit odd, I suppose. I just pulled out the cork I had pushed in a few hours earlier. Probably should have left one bottle uncorked.... Anyway, cheers!

Plants I'm growing: Daphne Odorata, Prunus Mume

The first Daphne odorata blossoms are open in the garden today. They appear to have opened yesterday, January 18. Last year the Daphne bloomed on January 20, so a year (corresponding mostly to calendar year 2009) was 363 days, according to this plant. Buds on Prunus mume, the fragrant Japanese flowering plum behind the house, are swollen and ready to burst. The first one opened today, January 19. The first blossom last year opened on January 21, so a year, as calculated by this plant, was also 363 days.

Miscellaneous: Stormy Weather

While away over the long weekend (skiing at Lake Tahoe), we got another 1.3 inches of rain, and it's still coming down. It's supposed to be stormy all week. So far Santa Rosa has had 10.5 inches of rain in the 2009-2010 rainy season (as of 7:00PM Monday, January 18).

[Update: It's rained more or less steadily through the early part of the week. The rain gauge now shows 4.3 inches since we left for Lake Tahoe, that's an additional 3.0 inches since the numbers above. Thus, the total now at our location as of 10:30AM on Wednesday the 20th is 13.5 inches, which is getting close to normal for this date (about 14.9 inches), according to the site I monitor for data on normal rainfall. Usually my numbers are quite close to those reported on the site, but in the past two weeks the totals have gradually diverged. The weather site is currently showing a total of 15.53 inches, which is more than half an inch above the average. I'm a bit surprised by the difference now of more than two inches (the location of the site's rain gauge is only a few miles away), but more rain is good thing.]

Tidbits: David Levine--RIP

Sad to hear today that David Levine recently died. I used to love his caricatures for The New York Review of Books. They were always one of the highlights of reading the reviews. Coincidentally, I decided to renew my subscription after a hiatus of several years. It used to cost an arm and a leg when I lived in Japan, but it turns out to be ridiculously cheap here--about the price of a decent bottle of wine for two years--and the writing is so good. Having just decided to cancel all English-language TV in the house, I'm hoping I'll have the time to read it all each month.

Rain: Nearly Half an Inch overnight (January 12, 2010 )

We got another 0.45 inches of rain overnight. More rain is expected today and tonight. Currently our 2009-2010 season total is at 8.95 inches. That's about 4 inches below average for January 12. Go rain!

[Update: On the night of the 12th, we got another 0.25 inches, bringing the total to 9.2 inches for the season. Better than nothing, but not the inch and a half of rain that had been forecast.]

Books I'm Reading: A Perfect Red

I Just finished reading Amy Butler Greenfield's A Perfect Red (Harper Perennial, 2006), which is a history of cochineal, the insect-derived dye that is still considered the best natural red dye--for everything from textiles to food (although the book doesn't mention it, I believe cochineal is the only insect matter approved by the FDA as a food additive). It's always a pleasure to read popular history that's well written. Engaging and taut throughout. A brief history of the world from the perspective of a single commodity. Recommended.

Birds I'm Watching: Nagasawa Park, Santa Rosa

Having heard of it only yesterday for the first time, I took a quick drive today to Nagasawa Park, in Fountain Grove, Santa Rosa (a new Santa Rosa city park--formerly known to locals as Fountain Grove Park, entrance off Fountain Grove Parkway). There is quite a diversity of habitat. There is a substantial lake with a central island. Some of the edges are deep with reeds. Around the lake are some dense patches of oaks and there is a lot of open area with grasses, coyote bush, and other brush--good sparrow habitat. One edge of the lake has a stand of small deciduous trees with reeds below that turned out to have a particularly large number of birds. There is ample parking.

The downside is that you can walk only about a third of the way along the lake shore in one direction and even less in the other. If you take the trail that heads out to the left from the parking lot, you eventually come to a fence that has been neatly cut and tied back, so it's easy enough to get through, but to complete a circuit of the lake, you have to follow golf cart paths through the golf course on the far side of the lake, and I had to exit by scaling the fence at the far side, but there there is an obliging tree that someone has propped a big limb against to form a sort of ladder. I hadn't intended to trespass. It's a shame that you can't walk all the way around without doing so, but I ran into some Santa Rosa city workers who said they were negotiating to eventually make a complete walk possible without going onto private property. Anyway, this seems to be a well-kept secret (or maybe it's just me). It's like a scaled down Spring Lake. Well worth a visit.

On my walk (about 45 minutes), I saw 29 species: California towhee, spotted towhee, golden-crowned sparrow, song sparrow, lincoln's sparrow (top photo), Western bluebird (bottom photo), scrub jay, turkey vulture, American goldfinch, house finch, Oregon junco, robins, great egret, snowy egret, black phoebe, ruby-crowned kinglet, downy woodpecker, nuttal's woodpecker, acorn wodpecker, yellow-rumped warbler, oak titmouse, double-crested cormorant, pied-billed grebe (10), common goldeneye (8), hooded merganser (4), coots, (6), American wigeon, common moorhen, and mallards.

For more information about Nagasawa Park and bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Birds I'm Watching: Sacramento Area

Just to report a chilly but rewarding trip to the Sacramento area with some local birders yesterday. Saw an amazing 72 species during the day and saw six species for the first time in my life--not to mention two others that I had seen before but never well enough that I felt I should consider them real sightings. The route was up I-80 to Highway 160 through Isleton, Walnut Grove, and Thornton, and then to the Cosumnes River Preserve. On the way back, we passed a spot known recently for mountain plovers and a burrowing owl. We found the burrowing owl, but not the plovers.

First-time sightings for me were: Ross's goose, Lincoln's sparrow, loggerhead shrike, borrowing owl, lark sparrow, and horned lark. I added the sandhill crane and ferruginous hawk, to my list as well, because I got to see these birds well for the first time.

Other birds observed were: Downy woodpecker, Nuttal's woodpecker, belted kingfisher, Say's phoebe, black phoebe, mallard, black-necked stilt, yellow-rumped warbler, ruddy duck, ring-necked duck, violet-green swallow, bufflehead, marsh wren, snow goose, yellow-billed magpie, turkey vulture, ruby-crowned kinglet, golden-crowned kinglet, kestrel, red-tailed hawk, canvasback, Brewer's blackbird, red-winged blackbird, house finch, California towhee, northern shoveler, killdeer, coots, tree swallow, least sandpiper, Wilson's snipe, dunlin, northern harrier, European starling, robins, Anna's hummingbird, bushtits, cinnamon teal, green-winged teal, golden-crowned sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, American pipit, spotted towhee, tundra swan (thousands), Canada goose, cackling goose (the leucoparia and Aleutian races), northern pintail, wood duck, greater white-fronted goose, American wigeon, gadwall, common goldeneye, great blue heron, long-billed dowitcher, and greater yellowlegs. Other group members saw about six species I missed, including a golden eagle.

The whether was dark and dreary--heavy overcast. As a result, I didn't get any good pictures. Posted here is the shot I was able to get of one of the lark sparrows. This photo does not do justice to so pretty a bird.

Birds I'm Watching: Spring Lake/Lake Ralphine

I just got back from a walk around the two lakes in Santa Rosa (near Howarth Park). Nothing unusual, but got a very good look at the spotted sandpiper that's been on the right side of Lake Ralphine (with the boathouse behind you; top photo). Also saw the bittern at Spring Lake, the osprey there (watched him land and rise up again with a huge blue gill), and saw three moorhens, and a red-shouldered hawk. There are still about a dozen common mergansers on Lake Ralphine and buffleheads on both lakes. Saw a noisy flock of bushtits along Spring Creek earlier in the day (bottom photo).


For more information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.

Places I'm Visiting: Highway 12, Sugarloaf Ridge State Park

Took a drive up Highway 12 today, to pick up wine at one of my favorite Sonoma County wineries, Wellington Vineyards, on Dunbar Rd. Along the way, I stopped to photograph some of the old vines near Kenwood (circa 1921) and later went up to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park for the first time.

I was surprised to find whole slopes (under dense tree cover) clothed with a maidenhair fern growing wild. I looked it up. I hadn't known there was a native California Adiantum, Adiantum jordanii (California maidenhair). The photo above shows that plant along with Polypodium californica (California polypody, the big frond in the foreground), and Pentagramma triangularis (gold-backed fern, the small frond in the middle of the photo).

Gold-backed fern always reminds me of my childhood years in California (1967-1970). I used to love to press the fronds against my skin to leave a fern-shaped tattoo in gold dust on the back of one hand or on a forearm. My associations with maidenhair ferns go back to Glen Helen, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, but there we always saw the northern maidenhair (Adiantum pedatum), a rather different plant, with compound fronds resembling a hand with fingers outspread.

Plants I'm Growing: Cyclamen Coum

I tardily note here that the first Cyclamen coum blossoms in the garden opened on January 1st. That's seven days earlier than last year. Like last year, it was the first plant to bloom here in the new year. See last year's note on this plant for details. Cyclamen coum.

Thus, the duration of a year--according to this plant--was 358 days (in this case, corresponding mostly to calendar year 2009). As 2010 progresses, I plan to calculate the passage of a year as reckoned by the space between the first blossoms of various plants in the garden this year and last. It will be interesting to see how long each of the botanical years turns out to be. Will they average 365 days? More likely, the year for each species will average to 365 days over many years with significant annual variations. We'll see.

Movies I'm Watching: Biopics--Julie and Julia and Me and Orson Welles

In the last couple of weeks I've seen two (or should I say three?) entertaining films based on biographies, Me and Orson Welles and Julie & Julia, although the latter was something of a disappointment.

Me and Orson Welles (2009, directed by Richard Linklater) is based loosely on fact, going behind the scenes at the Mercury Theater, newly established in New York in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman, and telling an embellished version of the story of its famous production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in that year, which Welles chose to set in fascist Italy. (If what we see is accurate, the film gives us a fascinating glimpse of what the original production might have looked like). How much is true to life is immaterial, however. The story is mostly a vehicle for a portrait of the young Orson Welles that becomes intertwined with a coming-of-age story centered on the Zac Efron character, a dreamy high school student that bluffs his way into the production, falls in love with Sonja Jones, Welles's assistant (played engagingly by Claire Danes), and then suffers a grand disillusionment. Although this is the New York theater, I was reminded of the silly lyrics to Hooray for Hollywood (Richard Whiting/Johnny Mercer) from the 1937 film Hollywood Hotel "Where any shop girl can be a top girl...." "Where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic...." Oddly, that satirical song, making fun of Hollywood, has become its anthem. Whether that makes sense or not, I've always liked the original version sung by Johnnie Davis and Frances Langford backed by Benny Goodman and his orchestra (click the link above). But I digress.

Back to Me and Orson Welles. Christian McKay, in the role of Welles, is utterly convincing. The movie was worth seeing just for his performance. It is rare to be able to watch an historical character come to life on screen without constantly having to tell oneself that the actor is the person he's supposed to be. One wonders if the Mercury Theater was as chaotic as the film suggests, and I can't say whether the film really tells us anything new about Welles (is it simply rehashing a stale view of the man?), but there is no need to take things too seriously. Me and Orson Welles is good, light entertainment.

Julie & Julia (2009, directed by Nora Ephron) was fun to watch. That said, it left me full but unsatisfied. To paraphrase Mark Twain, Julie & Julia is a film about Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) and her now-famous cooking blog with a film about Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and her long-famous cookbook struggling to get out. I couldn't help feeling that this would have been better as two films--although it's easy to understand the attempt to draw parallels between the efforts of the two women to master the art of French cooking, each in her own way, each in her own period of history--Julia Child by spending years in France cooking and researching recipes, Julie Powell by attempting to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child's classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Knopf, originally published 1961) in the course of a year.

Meryl Streep is delightful as Julia Child. Some of the funniest scenes in the movie draw on the sheer force of Child's indomitable personality (we see her tackle dozens of onions in an effort to get her chopping skills up to snuff; her flustered apprehension ahead of the appearance of her sister at the train station is hilarious). During the contemporary scenes (the Julie storyline), however, I found myself longing to see more of Julia, less of Julie and friends. Paul Child, Julia's husband, was an interesting man in his own right. It was frustrating to see him appear only in brief supporting scenes. The film barely suggests his career as an artist and photographer and it fails to make clear his role in producing illustrations and photos for his wife's book. (His life is tangential, I suppose, but had this been a film about Julia (without Julie), there would have been some room to flesh things out.) That said, the Julia story is the best part of the movie.

Even so, Julie Powell's project deserved a fuller treatment. I was left with the impression that all the good stuff was in the blog and that we never got to read it. There was something unconvincing about the supporting cast, too. I never got the impression that these people were much interested in food or that Julie's cooking (and by extension Julia's) really moved them much. I would have liked to have seen this as a true foodie movie, conveying a sense of reverence for great food. We know that Julia Child had such a reverence. We don't know from the movie really what Julie felt about the food she was making. She comes across as shallow. Julia Child's reported remark at the end of the movie to the effect that Julie's attempt is frivolous is therefore hard to dismiss.

Having never seen the original blog, I can't say whether the impression given of Julie Powell is fair or not, but it doesn't help to hear Julie's husband simply tell her that Julia Child has misunderstood her. If that were really true (and it may be), shouldn't I (the audience) already know that by that stage of the film? I wanted to believe that cooking the classic cookbook cover to cover was more than a stunt to Julie, but the movie makes it hard to know. That seems a shame, because blogging with a purpose is an attractive idea and Julia Child's original dream of making Americans better cooks is as relevant today as it was then. Perhaps the only real value of Powell's cooking and blogging was personal--that it kept her sane (setting aside the effects of the fame it has brought her); perhaps Julie Powell finished her year feeling little different about cooking than when she began; perhaps getting through a truly important cookbook and absorbing such a cookbook are two different things. It's a shame that at the end of the movie we don't really know what Julie Powell accomplished. Maybe I'll read her book. Maybe I'll blog about it. Maybe I'll blog about reading every page of her book in 24 hours, maybe I'll...oh, never mind.

Birds I'm Watching: Oakland

Visiting friends in Oakland at the start of the new year, I found myself looking out at a pretty Townsend's Warbler in the trees visible from the dining table of my hosts. I got a good shot of the bird, although it's very difficult to focus on these fellows. They move incessantly and love to hide behind branches.

Books I'm Reading: Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 20th Century

Just finished reading Tony Judt's Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century (Penguin, 2008). I can't remember where I picked this up, but I know Tony Judt's writing from The New York Review of Books, and this turned out to be a collection of his essays/reviews mostly from that publication, some of which I read years ago when they first appeared. I wasn't disappointed because of that. In fact, I was rather pleased that it contained Judt's extended essay on Kennedy, Krushchev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is among the the New York Review pieces that have always stood out in my mind. It was a pleasure to go through it again. Coincidentally, my reading of it coincides with the 40th anniversary of the start of Kennedy's presidential election campaign, in early 1960. The essay makes one very glad that we had Kennedy in the White House at the time. It's remarkable how level-headed and restrained Kennedy was in the face of much advice aimed at encouraging the most belligerent and provocative of routes through the crisis. I shudder to think what would have happened if a man like George W. Bush had been our president then.

The essays in the collection have been chosen not because each addresses a common theme, but because, taken together, they make the case obliquely that we have already forgotten (to our peril) many of the lessons the bellicose 20th century has given us--although the point is here and there made explicitly as well. Excellent writing throughout. Recommended.

Miscellaneous: Cancelled my TV Service Today

Cancelled my TV service today.

Rain: More Rain Overnight (December 27, 2009)

It rained again last night. We got an additional 0.45 inches. That brings our 2009–2010 season total to 7.90 inches, which is 2.58 inches below normal for this date (10.48 inches).

[Update: had another 0.2 inches overnight on the 29th. Total now 8.1 inches as of December 30th.]

[Further update: Another 0.4 inches on the 31st and 1st of January puts our total at 8.5 inches as of January 2, 2010.]

Birds I'm Watching: Lake Ralphine/Spring Lake

Took a walk around lake Ralphine and Spring Lake today, in Santa Rosa. Saw 40 bird species: Downy woodpecker, Nuttal's woodpecker, acorn woodpecker, turkey vulture, crows, lesser goldfinch, house finch, ruby-crowned kinglet, northern flicker, robin, Western meadowlark, ring-billed gull, coots (22), common moorhen (2), scrub jay, oak titmouse, chestnut-backed chickadee, yellow-rumped warbler, great egret, snowy egret, spotted towhee, California towhee, fox sparrow, golden-crowned sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, song sparrow, marsh wren, Bewick's wren, belted kingfisher, Great blue heron, Canada geese, mallards, buffleheads (10), greater scaup (6), common merganser (27 on Lake Ralphine), pied-billed grebe, a spotted sandpiper, a red-shouldered hawk, an Osprey eating a fish up in a tree, and a pair of common goldeneyes.

The photos are of a male (top) and female common merganser. These birds show striking sexual dimorphism--strictly speaking, sexual dichromatism.