A Night In The Park

It’s almost 6 PM on Halloween. I've arrived a little early at the park because the light is already fading. Although there appears to be plenty of light in the pictures, that’s because the camera is holding the shutter open longer. That’s why some of the photos are just a bit blurry.

There was quite a throng tonight, more people than I’ve ever seen at one of these Halloween shindigs. There were lots of cheesy fun things to do. It’s not Disney World, but it was fun to walk around and see people … and some of the costumes were very good.

I took some pictures and put them into a little slideshow here. I’ve put captions under most of the photos. I mention this because the captions are easy to overlook.

Halloween

During the summer I often walked around the neighborhood after dinner (by which I mean supper). I could walk off a few calories and meet people and talk with them – and occasionally write about them. They were doing their evening activities: walking the dog, digging in the flowerbed, sitting on the front porch; just being outside the house.

Now that Fall has arrived, I walk earlier. If I wait until after dinner, I’ll be walking in the dark. Make that: the cold and the dark. (When the sun goes down, so does the temperature.) When daylight saving time ends next Sunday, I’ll walk even earlier, if at all. But as it turns out, I seldom encounter people in the hours between the end of the workday and the evening meal. People are at the store, or in their houses preparing a meal, or catching up on the news of the day, or any of a hundred things. It’s not until after they eat that they go outside to relax, and now that it’s getting to be cold and dark at that hour, they won’t be doing that.

The neighborhood association is throwing its 10th annual Halloween At The Park tonight. It’s a big Halloween party with “food, games, costume contests, a haunted house, and much more.” The park is practically across the street so I’ll stroll over there and see what’s going on. Maybe I’ll run into some of the people I’ve met on my walks around the neighborhood. At least I hope I do.

Mao’s Last Dancer

I recently saw a movie called Mao’s Last Dancer. The film is a drama based on the autobiography of Chinese (male) dancer Li Cunxin. I don’t really need to describe the plot; you can read the New York Times movie review here.

The question you’re probably asking now is this: is this film a guy movie or a chick flick? Well, let’s see. First we’ll take the guy-movie test:

The movie: 
  has a car chase: No.
  has car crashes: No.
  has shootouts: No. 
  takes place in the Old West: No.
  is about sports: No.
  is about male bonding: No.
  features beer-drinking, hot tubs, or naked chicks: No, no, and no.

No points. Let’s give it the chick-flick test.

The movie:
  was produced by a woman: Yes
  deals with relationships: Yes.
  has a love story: Yes. 
  has guys in tights: Yes.
  has ballet scenes: Yes.
  is a tear-jerker: No. (A woman might say “Yes.”)
  is a romantic-comedy: No.
  seems long: Yes.

Six points out of eight. “Chick-ish,” I would say.

Okay, I admit I’m being facetious here and playing with sterotypes. I found Mao’s Last Dancer to be an entertaining film. If you can relax and let the plot unfold slowly and not be impatient to get to the end, you’ll be entertained by it. And keep in mind, it’s based on a true story: the story of a peasant boy, born in the East, who endures hardship and struggle in his transformation into one of the great dancers of the West.

Chiclone

I lie awake at 3 AM while twelve hundred miles of severe weather moving east at eighty miles an hour passes through my small city. In the Midwest it spawned 24 tornadoes and created waves 27 feet high on the Great Lakes – a storm bigger than the one that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald. Time passes slowly when you can’t sleep. I listen to rain on the roof and watch flashes of light on my bedroom walls, and I count the seconds to the rumble of distant thunder. The thunderstorms are two or three miles away.

Thud. The electricity goes off. Normally, my front porch light casts a dim glow down the hallway to my bedroom, and suddenly that dim glow is gone. I roll over and look at the clock radio; it’s dark, too. The house was quiet before with only the refrigerator running, but now it’s utterly silent. I reach for my mobile phone and punch it on. It has bars; the time is 4:55 AM.

For a long while I lie awake. Finally I get up and go to the living room and light a couple of candles. I dig out my little Walkman-style radio I never use anymore and I sit in my recliner and listen to music. By now it’s 5:55 AM.

I flip open my phone and click onto the Internet. The Weather Channel reports it is 73°F in my central Virginia city at 6 AM this last week of October. (By noon it will be 84° with a heat index of 89°. By 3 PM it will be 86° with a heat index of 92°.) And my county is under a tornado watch.

Though my street is dark, a street lamp operating on a nearby street casts enough light my way to reveal many leaves littering the street. So there has been wind. Sometimes the power goes off and stays off for days. I recall the time I entered a grocery store and found all the fruits and vegetables gone, all the coolers and freezers empty, and the odor of spoiled food in the air … and I recall the way I felt knowing every grocery store in the city was like this one. This outage doesn’t have that kind of feel: that nearby street lamp is one clue power will be on soon. Still, I don’t open the refrigerator door. Power may be restored in two hours or four hours or six. Until electricity is back on, there’s no TV, no computer, no Internet, no cooking, no snacking from the fridge. There’s only FM radio.

After two hours the lights suddenly come on, digital clocks start flashing, the computer starts booting, the refrigerator starts humming. God bless those power company linemen.

Red Dawn

You know the rhyme:

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky at morning, sailor’s warning.

The eastern sky casts a red hue into my house and colors the houses across the street. I’m often awake before dawn and can therefore state: the sky is unusually red. No big deal, just pretty.

[Edit] Now, 12 hours later, I can report: early sunshine, strong winds gusting to 35 mph at noontime, passing severe thunderstorms and brief heavy rain showers in the afternoon: not good sailing weather. Score one for the rhyme.

Samsaya

The song of the day is ADHD (love me not) by Indian-Norwegian singer and actress Sampda "Samsaya" Sharma. She was born in north India and moved to Oslo at the age of 11 months.

Around the block

It was a great day to be outside today: 74°F, sunny, a clear blue sky without clouds – except for a few thin, white streaks that had once been jet contrails high in the southeastern sky. I walked to the CVS store and bought a magazine – Scientific American. Walking back, I saw my neighbor Carey working over flowers and pots and soil in her front yard. Making her yard beautiful is her passion. Carey is an artist and her yard is her canvas. I told her if I was putting that much work into my yard, those plants had better produce something edible. It’s a female thing – making things look pretty. Guys just want comfort.

Carey

Today, Carey was busy planting pansies. She was pulling up plants, planting new plants, and re-planting old plants. Some plants went into the ground, some went into pots. Her front yard was a minefield of pots, plants, and soil. It was obvious she still had much to do and I didn’t want to take too much of her time. But she seemed to be in a mood to talk, so we talked for a while and I took a few photos. The sunlight was too bright making it difficult to get good photos. I may go back sometime and try to get better photos of her flowers.

Some of Carey’s pansies seem to have a face. Is that spooky or what? Well, it is almost Halloween.

Anouk

I’ve been a fan of Dutch singer Anouk Teeuwe (known professionally as Anouk) for years now. So when I decided to post one of her songs on my blog, I went to Youtube to see what was available. This is called Nobody’s Wife.

Idina Menzel

Idina Menzel is an internationally-known actress, singer, and songwriter. She has won a Tony and other awards for her Broadway performances. She seems so upbeat that she’s wonderful to watch. Her voice is amazing; check out 2:14 – 2:24 below. I tivo’d one of her PBS concerts. In this video, Idina sings I Stand.

(For the acoustic version of I stand, click this link.)

Another song I like is I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Les Misérables. (What a great song!) Wikipedia says this song “has been translated into twenty-one languages, including Japanese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Castilian, and Estonian, and there have been 31 cast recordings featuring the song.” You may also remember this song as the one that catapulted Susan Boyle to fame. In the video below, Idina sings a duet with Lea Michele of the cast of Glee.

Katie Melua

Once I had HD video clips of musical performances by Katie Melua, described by one critic as “the Soviet Georgia-born, Belfast-based singer-songwriter and pan-European star who is virtually unknown in the United States.” Unknown in the US maybe, but I’ve been aware of her music for about five years. One early song was 9 Million Bicycles, written by Mike Batt for Katie’s second album. It is simply a sweet song. The music video for the song is one of those that make you wonder, “How’d they do that?!” and it can be found here. (Be sure to select 360p and either expand or full-screen). If you prefer less in the way of special effects, a live performance from AVO SESSION Basel, October 2007, is below. If you like songs that have recognizable melody and lyrics, you’ll probably like this music.



Another Mike Batt song performed by Katie is her debut single The Closest Thing To Crazy. Watch her performance at the Echo Music Awards, February 2005. Again, be sure to select 360p and either expand or full-screen.

Florida Trip

I drove to central Florida on Monday, drove back to central Virginia on Friday. While in Florida, I mostly spent time with Betty and Ron Jr and Bonnie. One day we went to Rainbow Springs State Park. It’s a beautiful place; we took food and drink and ate a picnic lunch in one of the pavilions. In the evening we invited neighbors to meet us on the dock at sunset; we took wine and cheese and crackers, and we had a pleasant time. Afterward everyone went to Betty’s house for cake or pie or pastries, of which there was an abundance.

I took about 300 photos on the trip. I uploaded several photos to an album on Picasaweb. You can see the photos here.

Note

There was a death in my family. Sudden, unexpected, senseless. I don’t expect I’ll be posting new material for a while. But I may have to; it may be the only way to handle what I’m feeling. Until next time, you be good.

Last Roses of Summer

The last roses of summer bloom beside my house. They bask under the early autumn sun, more yellow now than they ever became during the hot, dry days of summer, and their perfume is sweet. They summon to mind this poignant metaphor from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard:

“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

But the metaphor only works if the desert is a wasteland. Readers of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire know a different desert: not a wasteland, but a different world. Dewey Bunnell tried to capture the essence of that world when he wrote A Horse With No Name: “There were plants and birds and rocks and things … There was sand and hills and rings ...”

Besides, flowers don’t bloom for our benefit. They have their own reasons.

Dinner

Although food is good to eat, it’s also fun to photograph, sometimes.

Ingredients:

Summer squash, 1/2 gold Bell pepper (green is OK), 1/2 red Bell pepper (it has to be red), 1/2 yellow onion, 2 or 3 cloves garlic, red pepper flakes (hot and spicy!), salt and pepper. Not shown: olive oil, soy sauce, and a wok for stir-frying. To add protein to the meal, I baked a salmon filet.

Voilà:

Makes two servings. Sprinkle lemon juice on the fish and add a spoonful of tartar sauce beside the fish. Yes, it was good. And photogenic, too.

Lene Marlin

I was at the Bee for lunch. My friend Kimberly used to work there. Now her son works there. However, I didn’t know he had gotten married recently and that his wife also works there. I learned about that when the hostess pointed to a slim young woman in jeans and a black top and said, “That’s Kim’s daughter-in-law.” Then I found out the name of the mother of Kim’s new daughter-in-law. It’s Kimberly.

I came home and called Kim. We hadn’t talked in months so we talked a good while. At one point Kim asked me for the name of the singer I had introduced her to musically a few years ago. “What’s the name of that Irish singer so popular overseas but not in this country? Maybe she was Swedish.” She wanted to find her on Youtube.

Irish? Swedish? Hmm. The only tune I could think of that Kim had really liked was Lene Marlin’s Playing My Game. Lene Marlin is Norwegian. But I posted a link to the video on Kim’s Facebook wall, and it turned out to be the singer Kim had in mind.

Here’s Playing My Game. It’s the title track of Marlin’s first album.

A more recent song by Lene Marlin is Disguise. I like this one, too. I don’t know why Marlin’s music isn’t more popular in the US. Maybe her music is too good.

Thursday Night News

Walking up the street tonight, I encountered a woman walking her dog. They turned out to be Danette and her pug Tootsie Roll. I snapped a photo of the dog, and I told her if she would hold her pug up I would take a picture of them for my blog. She said, “Oh no … my hair … it’s a mess.” So the photo is just Tootsie Roll.

As we talked, Tootsie Roll wandered into an adjacent yard. When that happened, an elderly man approached us and said to Danette, “I don’t appreciate that. I don’t want dogs doing their business in my yard.”

“Oh, she didn’t go,” Danette told him.

“You don’t know that,” the man said. The yes-she-did-no-she-didn’t volleyball was tossed back and forth a few more times. Finally I injected my own opinion. “Look at the shape of that dog,” I said. “It’s plain to see this dog has never pooped.” That brought a chuckle from the man, and I decided it was a good time to resume my walk.

Then I ran into Zoe (from the previous night). She had exciting news. I don’t think she will mind if I share it – even if she wanted to keep it secret, that won’t be possible for much longer.

“I just found out I’m pregnant!” she exclaimed. “Isn’t that exciting!”  She seemed thrilled. I think it was something she had wanted badly. Zoe ran off, I’m guessing to deliver the news to a friend, and I resumed my walk.

A little while later as I passed by the park, I saw a woman playing fetch with her dog. She would throw a red rubber ball and the dog, a pit bull, would take off like a rocket after that ball and bring it back to her. So I went over and talked with her a while. Her name was Shawnna and her dog’s name was Savior -- because the dog saved her sanity after a messy divorce. I offered to take a picture of her with her dog, but she said “Oh no … my hair … it’s a mess.” We talked for a long time while I threw the ball for Savior to fetch. She’s from West Virginia by way of North Carolina. She was supposed to have wed her fiance last week but couldn’t get off work, so the ceremony was rescheduled. Now she just wants to go to a JP. “I’ve had the big ceremony and so has he.”  She said she and Savior were at the park almost every evening. It was nice talking with her – another friendly person in the ‘hood. It was dark when we both left for home in opposite directions.

Telepathy

I stayed up too late, writing and listening to music, and as a consequence I got up too late. I went to the ‘puter and checked my IM to see if my main online peep CyberDave was at his pc; he wasn’t. I checked Facebook and saw that my cyber-friend Barbara was online. Barbara and I attended the same high school at the same time (this was back in the day, of course). I didn’t know her well then, but we recently connected through Facebook. She lives in Florida now. So I chatted with her a while. We talked a little about her mother, who is 83 and is starting to “be difficult”. I sent her a link to a poem called Warning – When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple by Jenny Joseph. One of my favorites.

Why did I stay up so late, you ask. I was writing about Deborah Allen and the song Telepathy. Deborah Allen is known as a country singer who has charted on the country chart many times with songs such as Rock Me (In The Cradle of Love).

In 1987 she recorded a very non-country pop album called Telepathy. The title track was written by Prince under the pseudonym Joey Coco. It’s a soft-funk, synth-pop number driven by synthesized horns. I used to have Telepathy on cassette tape and played it often in the cassette player of my ‘88 Subaru. I liked all the tracks on it and I think RCA could have done more to promote it. I lost the tape a long time ago. (It was probably in the center console of my Subaru when I sold it.) But thanks to Youtube, I can still listen to the title track, and even watch Deborah Allen sing Telepathy. Although, being a late-80s music video, you might prefer to skip the video and just listen to the tune. In that case, click this link for Telepathy in stereo. (FYI, she has no connection to Debbie Allen on Fame.)

Just got a Facebook message from Barbara. She recognized the poem as the one that inspired the founding of the Red Hat Society. Read about it here.

Well, it’s been fun but I’m burning daylight. It’s sunny and 70° and I have things to do. See you later.

Three New Readers

I almost titled this post “Three New Friends”, because I met three friendly people on my street. But of course, they aren’t exactly friends. Acquaintances? Potential friends?

Walking up my street, I meet Beth in front of her house planting … well, plants. I’m no botanist – I have no idea what she’s planting. But she’s hard at work trying to make her house look nicer. Good for her! Beth is remodeling the outside of her house. She intends to retain the unique blue color of her house … it’s the only blue house on the street. She says of her house, “I love it.”

Beth

Beth was at the park last night for the Night Out event. Beth says the Halloween bash in the park is ON … and she’s taken on the role of being one of the organizers. Good for her, again! Her Facebook photo shows her on a motorcycle.

While we’re talking, a couple walk up. We introduce ourselves … they’re Leslie and Zoe. We chat a little and then they leave for home. A few minutes later I continue my walk. I don’t get far; just a short way up the street, I run into Leslie and Zoe sitting on their front porch. We have a nice conversation. Zoe is outgoing and sunny. She says they love this neighborhood and have made some good friends here.

Leslie and Zoe

They’re buying their home. “We closed two years ago on Halloween,” Zoe says. We talk a little bit about Facebook. Zoe has a friend in Singapore and more friends in other distant places; she stays in touch with them through Facebook. Zoe and I have a few things in common: living in North Carolina, hiking Linville Gorge. She attended ASU in Boone; I recalled spending a night in a house on a mountain overlooking the ASU campus. I wish the neighborhood had more Beths, Zoes, and Leslies: friendly homeowners who like the neighborhood and want to make it a nice place to live.

After Midnight (Imelda May)

I probably should mark this post as continued from the previous post. It is now a few hours later and just after midnight, and I’m listening to a Dublin-born rockabilly singer, Imelda May. She’s good … very good. Check out this gal:

Johnny Got a Boom Boom (FYI: at the beginning, that’s Jeff Beck in the audience!)

Love Tattoo (I think that’s her husband playing guitar.)

Meet-Your-Neighbors Night

If they’re playing loud music in the park, it must be Tuesday. This is meet-your-neighbors evening in my little neighborhood. Come to the park and get goodies to eat and goodies to read. Be invited to attend the church up the street, pick up a Crimestoppers pamphlet, or learn How to Prepare Your Home For … something (hurricane? flood? terrorist attack?). Let your child get her face painted and get a free, green Walgreens frisbee (green seems like the one color a frisbee shouldn’t be) or a Walgreens carry bag (it’s green, too). It’s that kind of deal at the park tonight.

The loud music was provided by a National Guard Humvee equipped with some big speakers. Note the airbrushed pictures on the doors.

The October sun has set (it’s only 7:30 PM but it’s already dark). I step outside my front door, point my camera at the park, and shoot a 5 second exposure with moderate zoom. A car about to enter the frame from the right illuminates the street and a parked car; a generator-powered light tower illuminates a portion of the park:

This is a small rehearsal for Halloween night, when the park will be filled with people in costumes, parked cars will line the streets around the park, and there will be stuff for the kids … a best-costume contest, a haunted house, more free goodies to eat and drink. At least, that’s what usually happens. With this economy, there are no guarantees.

10 Tip-offs That Fall May Be Coming

Before the leaves change color and fall off the trees, here are 10 tip-offs that Fall may be just around the corner.

1. It doesn’t occur to you to turn on the air conditioner.

2. You close the windows at night.

3. You don’t worry that using the oven will heat up the house.

4. You point a small space heater at your legs while watching TV.

5. You let the small space heater run all night.

6. You haven’t mowed your grass in three weeks and it looks OK.

7. You throw a blanket over the sheet you’ve been sleeping under.

8. You take your daily walk before the evening news instead of after, so you can walk in daylight.

9. You find yourself wondering if the furnace needs maintenance.

10. For loungeware, you dig out that warm-up suit you packed away last spring.

Saturday Night, Late

Listening to Naja Rosa. I like this gal’s voice. She’s Danish. I think.

Listen to When The Smoke Clears – switch to 720p, full screen.

Listen to The City.

New Camera

I picked up a new digital camera this morning to replace my old digital camera, which still worked but had become a real battery-eater. The new camera, although inexpensive, is day-and-night different from the old one. It even has a you-better-believe-this-camera-is-smarter-than-you shooting mode.

After leaving Walmart I took a side trip to Roslyn Landing to shoot some test shots. Later I went to the Bee, where Stephanie was bartending. The cell phone photo I posted previously was so low quality that I took a new photo. She was nice enough to pause for a few seconds so I could take her picture. Still shooting into the light without flash, though.

Stephanie

Shounta (pronounced shan-tay) is another bartender/waitress who works very hard and seems to have boundless energy (if I had half her energy I could get this house in shape):

Shounta
Both these ladies claim that cameras don’t like them, an obviously bogus claim. If you want to see someone who’s not photogenic, you only have to look at a picture of me. Why, even when I look at a picture of me, I want to say “They let this guy run around by himself?” In my photos I look demented, and that’s on a good day!

The Forecast Is Sunny

Yesterday morning, only 24 hours ago, the NWS (National Weather Service) predicted today’s weather would look like this:

But now, only 24 hours later, the NWS says today’s weather will look like this:

I have to ask, how useful was yesterday’s prediction? And how many super-computers running how many weather models did it take to fail at this prediction?

I’m going to make my own weather prediction. Here it is: “Tomorrow will be sunny.” You can print it right now and put it in your pocket. Whenever you want to know tomorrow’s forecast, just pull it out of your pocket and read it: “Sunny.”

Of course, there will be days when the forecast is wrong — just like with the NWS forecast — but I’ll bet it will be right more often than not. And there are advantages to doing it this way. I don’t have to buy and maintain high-powered super-computers running fancy models of the weather nor pay a staff of meteorologists and programmers. Another advantage: you don’t have to go to a computer and look up my forecast on the Internet to know what it will be; it’s right there in your pocket: “Sunny.”

And one day when the piece of paper holding my forecast becomes worn and tattered and you throw it away, you can continue on your way with my “virtual forecast” living in your head for quick and easy reference: “Tomorrow will be sunny.”

Try to remember my forecast, especially on gloomy days. Tomorrow will be sunny.