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March 2006 Archive 31 March - An Evanescent Posting of Great Beauty  Here's another masterful glimpse of the heart-stopping, bittersweet evanescent beauty of the cherry blossoms on Capitol Hill - a robin in the branches, meditating on the bittersweet evanescence of it all.  I keep returning to the heart-stoppingingly beautiful juxtaposition of tender blossoms and this excellent excavator with great steel teeth that would do you up a treat, mate.  The basin, Capitol Hill grounds, with a graceful evanescent sheen of goose and duck poop. Nice to see that the Capitol Hill authorities are keeping things looking their best for the hordes of evanescent beauty-seeking tourists. link home 29 March - Checkpoint Cherry Blossom  Ah, it's cherry blossom time in DC, again... the bittersweet transitory nature of beauty, and stuff. Even the Capitol Hill police checkpoint on Constitution Avenue is colored by the evanescence of the blossoms.  A Capitol Hill police officer, deeply touched by the beauty of the blossoms, protects the delicate blooms from terrorists.  The local equivalent of the Japanese rock garden is the Capitol Hill jersey barrier garden. Notice how the green painted concrete blends seamlessly with the natural contours of the landscape, and the yellow excavator adds a cheerful splash of color. Tragically, the Janus Museum doesn't benefit from the horde of cherry blossom tourists - a past curator ordered our cherry trees chopped down on December 8, 1941. We do all right during azalea season, though, but it's just not as big as the cherry blossoms. link home 25 March - Waiting My Turn  Our Museum Cat Maxine, occasionally featured on these pages, is a very lady-like creature, except for the little habit illustrated above - she does enjoy a little drinky out of the staff restroom toilet from time to time. Not long ago, I found myself in need of a visit to the restroom, and made my way to that location, with Maxine trotting purposefully ahead of me. I open the restroom door - she dashes in, hops on the porcelain object, and settles down to a good long lap. I stand there nonplussed, fly askew, hopping from leg to leg. I explain to her that she has a very servicable cat bowl filled at this very moment with spring water. She continues to lap up the delicious toilet water and ignores me. I remind her that she's free to use the visitors restroom, which Museum staff may not do - and it's as if she doesn't hear me. I tap her on the shoulder - she turns, glares at me, hisses, and continues drinking. I quickly back off, and go visit the woods - like an animal. I apologize for the distasteful nature of this pathetic anecdote. link home 25 March - Pride and Perfidy There was a very nice mention of the life and times of Allan Janus, with several of his photographs reproduced, as the inaugural entry in the Ministry Culture and Art Series over on the Ministry of Minor Perfidy, a blog of great taste and discernment. We were very pleased (and surprised) that Our Man got such a respectful write-up - our thanks to the Ministry. link home 24 March - Hespèrion XXI  Jordi Savall's Viola da Gamba Thanks to the very generous generosity of Friend of the Museum Alice Briggs, we attended a concert given by Hespèrion XXI in Baltimore's Shriver Hall last Sunday. Hespèrion has been my favorite early music group for many years, and Jordi Savall, its founder, is a particular hero of mine (I have it on good authority that he's worshipped as a god by certain primitive early music cults). We had prepared ourselves by watching Tous les Matins du Monde, the beautiful film on the viola da gambists Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais for which Savall had performed the music. The concert was splendid. Appearing with Savall were the wonderful soprano Montserrat Figueras, their daughter Arianna Savall on arpa doppia (and also singing) and David Mayoral on percussion. 
Montserrat Figueras and Arianna Savall I was gratified to note that Gaspar Sanz's Canarios and Jácaras - favorites of mine from Hespèrion recordings - were to be performed; but then I was somewhat dashed when I saw they had gotten the boot in the revised program. But Diego Ortiz's Canarios was substituted, so I was mollified. And I loved the performance of Captain Tobias Hume's A Souldier's Resolution, a battle piece from Hume's curious collection of music for the viola da gamba, Musical Humours. Here it is, in streaming Real Audio format, from Savall's album of pieces from Musical Humours. By the way, Sanz also wrote a stirring battle piece for guitar, Clarinas y Trompetas - one could come up with an entire program of battle music, what with William Byrd's The Battell. Savall returned to the stage after the concert, answering questions in the friendliest way, showing his instruments, including his priceless treble viola da gamba, circa 1500:  Arianna and Jordi Savall It was in my mind to walk up and say "Maestro Savall, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the very great pleasure that your recordings have given me over the years. I've yearned to hear you in concert, and today's performance has been sublime - all that I could have dreamed off. If a meteor should collide with my car on the way home, or if Baltimore should suddenly slide into Chesapeake Bay, I can now die contented."  Jordi Savall But I was afraid that when I opened my mouth, it would come out as "Jordi, dude - you totally rock!" So instead, I kept my mouth shut, beamed and took pictures. Splendid; just splendid... link home 19 March - Seven Samurai, Revisited, With Dog  Seven Indian Samurai, plus four, to say nothing of the dog How could Akira Kurosawa's immortal classic, Seven Samurai, possibly be improved? Well, if you're Bollywood director Rajkumar Santoshi, you set the scene in India, add four more guys to the mix and make them middle-aged ex-soldiers. Oh, some singing and dancing would be nice, too. And a dog - must have a doggie, too:  Yes, Kurosawa would be very proud. Actually, it was pretty enjoyable. Especially the comic bus scene in which the heroes get a bit whiney: 
It's called China Gate (1998), and it's not to be confused with this China Gate from 1957. Here's the thrilling Bollywoodese synopsis: When Rajkumar Santoshi dreams, he dreams with conviction. His film CHINA-GATE would be a tribute to no less a person than Internationally renowned Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The story is simple? Ten men and a mission. But these ten are not your usual heroes. They are a bunch of Old soldiers with a dark present and no future. What they share is a glorious past and a deadly secret, and then out of the blue a young girl comes asking for help. To the villagers of Devdurg from the brutal clutches of Dacoit Jageera. So an incredible mission is born? Mission CHINA-GATE.Here's a full review, somewhat less breathless. link home 16 March - Catwalk Charades  Timeout at the Olde Footbridge during today's brisk catwalk as Leroy (left) and Natasha do their side-splitting imitations of Roland Hinton Perry's famous Taft Bridge lions:  Haw! These guys, they crack me up. link home 16 March - Wildlife Sighting  Spotted a doe yesterday near the good old Excellent Climbing Tree. Haven't seen nearly so many deer in the Janus Museum Forest Preserve this year - possibly due to the activities of the Gray Dire Cat. link home 14 March - Mr. Tubbs  I'm very sorry to report that Mr. Tubbs, the kindly, affable tuxedo cat of neighbors Eve Zibart and Don Tippman, died this afternoon of heart failure. He was twenty. Tubbs was one of the friendliest residents of Washington Grove - always ready to pass the time, he loved to hang out on his porch at Great Oaks Cottage, sitting on his swing. We took care of Tubbs over this weekend past while Eve and Dodger were out of town; when we would arrive, Tubbs would be as friendly as always, rising to greet us politely, like the courteous old gent that he was. We gave him fresh food, and he ate a few bites, just to be polite, and then he saw us to the door. Eve and Dodger came home to Tubbs last evening, and Tubbs died today. Polite as always, he was just waiting for them to get home. link home 14 March - Gilmore en Boutique  Oh, look - the museum shop at the National Air and Space Museum has a new plush Gilmore Lion, commemorating the heroic lion mascot of aviator Roscoe Turner, as mentioned in the superb recent book Animals Aloft. We had suggested that a cute plush Gilmore might be a good tie-in back in September. The shop laid in some generic lion cubs meant to represent Gilmore for sale at the booksigning at Air and Space in November. The new official plush Gilmore has a little jacket that's meant to represent the real Gilmore's parachute harness. I dunno - I guess it's cute and stuff - but I sort of prefer the Gilmore that I improvised for the booksignings. Oh! Why no copies of Animals Aloft enticingly displayed with the Gilmores? We asked a member of the shop staff. "Oh, no", she said - "We have consultants to do that for us." Fact - I am not making that up. link home 12 March - Catwalk Social Notes  Here's a highly characteristic character study of Cats Leroy and Natasha taken during Friday's catwalk - Leroy looks worried, and Natasha looks like she's pissed off. Really, though - we had such a lovely catwalk. Oh! We ran into Maddy with Cat Dylan, who we hadn't seen since December:  Then we ran into another of Cat Abby's kittens, Dylan's brother Ebony:  He's now a hulking brute of 13 pounds. Compare him with a snap of another brother, Spunk, taken last July. My, they grow up so quickly... link home 11 March - Wallowing Season Opens  Yesterday's warm temperatures and balmy breezes signaled the opening of the 2006 Wallowing Season. Above, Cat Leroy takes the ceremonial first wallow in the Circle's North Wallow, which, only a month ago, was snowbound during our late winter storm event. Below, Leroy welcomes Cat Peake of Bittersweet Cottage to the North Wallow for a very companionable group wallow:  Cat Natasha allowed herself a lady-like wallow, too:  Oh! Here's a thrilling animation of Cat Natasha wallowing! Later on, we had a brisk catwalk in the Janus Museum Forest Preserve, where we met up with some old pals - more pictures a little later. link home 10 March - Singing, Dancing, and Snakes  Anjali brings up fake snake-charming issues in Jungle ki Nagin. Jungle ki Nagin (2003) - what a movie. It's all about she-cobras, who are like were-wolves, except that they're snakes who turn into chicks, or chicks that turn into snakes - I'm unclear on that point. It's also about relationships, and trust, and being able to talk to one's significant other, and singing and dancing. It's also all about a side-splitting comic subplot about the Viagra-like properties of the cobra's bite. It's also all about cheesy production values, inept direction, and stars who could stand to lose about 20 pounds each. Here's the breathless synopsis: When God created the world, He gave the rights to love to all the humanbeings, animals, creature and all the living things. This story is of a Snake, who after hundred years attained the power of Icchadhari Snake, who can change into any living thing. This snake has lost his love due to some greedy Snake Charmer. The said Icchadhari Nagin is searching her Icchadhari Snake for years. In Mumbai, Anjali and Rahul are living happily. One day while going to Ootty, Rahul met Manisha. They fall in love. When Anjali came to know about it, she leave the home and go to her mother's house. Can Manisha got her love? Can Anjali got his Rahul back? What happened to the Icchadhari Nagin?All very important questions that I am unable to answer. We loved it, but read a less flattering review here. link home 8 March - Morning Ritual  Marines from the nearby historic Marine Barracks greet the dawn by worshipping Chesty Puller; by the basin, US Capitol grounds. link home 5 March - More Balletic Cross-Dressing  Watching João Fernandes camping it up as Bellone in Les Indes Galantes the other day reminded me of John Hurt's performance as Caligula in I, Claudius - particularly his jolly little dance number as Rosy-Fingered Dawn:  What a splendid dance! Oh! Here's the beautiful music he danced to (streaming MP3 format). And, of course, there's always this fabulous scene from Balram Shri Krishna. How I wish Dame Edna would make a movie. Update - Here's a streaming Real Video clip of Caligula's dance, from the Robert Graves Archive. link home 5 March - Nature Gray in Tooth and Claw  I feel like I'm throwing the dice with Fate, or playing chess with Death every time I go into the woods these days, as sightings of the rare elusive dangerous Gray Dire Cat become more common. I took the shot above through my powerful zoom lens, and then backed carefully away. But later, as I came out of the woods, I came across this hideous sight:  Aiee! A poor helpless victim struggling in the Gray Dire Cat's fluffy death grip. All I could do was run, thanking the gods that, this time, it wasn't me caught in those vicious ravenous jaws. And yet, I'm drawn to the woods, like a bearded moth to the flame. Really, I think I'll be cut off in the flower of my youth. link home 4 March - Les Indes Galantes  Hébé, Bellone, and Amour in Les Indes Galantes Dr. Johnson described opera as "an exotick and irrational entertainment", and an opera can't get much more exotic or irrational than William Christie's production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's 1735 smash hit opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes (also available through Netflix). But I mean that in a good way - it's absolutely superb and delightful - we larfed with pleasure during the finale, as everybody dances like an Egyptian in front of a giant golden turkey. And, there's also a mighty storm at sea, an erupting volcano, dancing flowerpots and dancing bison, and Rameau's sublime music - what's not to love? Above, Danielle de Niese as Hébé, João Fernandes as Bellone and Valérie Gabaile as Amour camp it up during the Prologue. Also appearing are Paul Agnew, who we've recently seen in two other Rameau operas on DVD, Platée and Les Boréades, and Patricia Petibon - wonderful as Zima the Indian princess in the opera's final scene, Les Sauvages. One of the dances in the scene is also titled Les Sauvages, and it has a nice early world music anecdote attached to it - Rameau had originally written it as a piece for harpsichord in 1728 after being inspired by the singing and dancing of two Louisiana Indians who had performed in Paris in 1725. Later on, the Jesuit missionary Jean Joseph Marie Amiot played it for Chinese mandarins in Beijing; reportedly, the mandarins were not impressed, which led Amiot "to form curious biological theories"... tragically, I've been unable to learn what learned biological theories were inspired by the music of Rameau. Oh, just one more picture from Les Indes Galantes:  link home 2 March - Circus Cat  Yuri Kuklachev, Moscow Cats Theatre, with Cat. Photograph by Sara Krulwich, New York Times UPDATE Yesterday's Cat Theatre spike was probably caused by the glad news that the Moscow Cat Theatre has moved uptown for an open-ended run. The founder of the theatre, Yuri Kuklachev, also says he plans to write a book on training cats; will have to buy a copy and try it out on Max and Maxine, our Museum Cats. We had a strange spike in our traffic yesterday due to a lot of people looking for this photo, which we posted back in September in connection with this story. For your viewing convenience, here it is again. I wish someone would tell me what was going on... link home |
