Primroses and turkeys

I think we're entering a dark, ugly period of American history.   I hope I'm wrong, but it feels like the roller coaster left the station and there's no going back.  Fasten your seat belts.  In Seattle these days, there's a background miasma of gloom and anxiety.  It's probably not like that in other parts of the country, but I'm glad we live here.

The bottom line is nothing changes because human nature never changes. Just pick up a history book.

OK. Enough politics for one post.

All the more reason to notice the small gifts each new day brings.  Like the first primroses outside the grocery store.  Or a flock of happy heritage turkeys running around at a feed store on Vashon Island.

They were so beautiful and loaded with personality!  I'd rather eat crackers for Thanksgiving than dispatch one.  These fortunate, fancy birds are completely unlike the poor top-heavy creatures waddling around by the millions on factory farms. 

Everyone knows the myth of Benjamin Franklin preferring the wild turkey over the bald eagle for national bird, despite being "a little vain and silly." 

"For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America. Eagles have been found in all Countries, but the Turkey was peculiar to ours, the first of the Species seen in Europe being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and serv’d up at the Wedding Table of Charles the ninth. He is besides, tho’ a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Nice scenery

Gary Cooper

1930's

John Wayne

1930's 

Steve McQueen and Yule Brenner

Magnificent Seven, 1960

Can scruffy young Hollywood actors come close to these old movie stars? Whoa, those guys were real hunks.

We watched the new Magnificent Seven movie on DVD this weekend.  Skip it, unless you like non-stop violence. Unlike the original, the remake is light on character development and heavy on the "action."

The cast is politically correct, almost to the point of silliness. The Indian of course is a bow and arrow sharpshooter, etc. etc.   John said the only stereotype missing was The Funny Gay Guy, which actually might have helped the movie along. 

Apparently Steve McQueen was notoriously difficult to work with on the set. Filming the Magnificent Seven, he learned to cock his shotgun with one hand in a flashy way, and insisted on doing it even when Yule Brenner complained that McQueen was stealing his scenes. He was.  No one was cooler than Steve McQueen.

Part of the pleasure of watching fine old westerns is location cinematography. True Grit was filmed in Oray Country during fall aspen season when the Colorado mountains are breathtakingly beautiful.

All the outdoor scenes in the original Magnificent Seven movie were filmed in Arizona and northern Mexico.

Maybe people don't notice these things anymore, but in the new movie the backdrop keeps changing from scene to scene.  On minute you're in a place like Monument Valley, then open prairie, then green hills, then desert, then a rushing river. Discombobulating, but why travel to real locations when it can be computer generated?

Wise

Happy the Man

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
     He who can call today his own:
     He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

     Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

John Dryden,
1631-1700

Look up

The starlings are starting to gather in big noisy flocks in the maple tree.  They are very social birds, and it sounds like a chaotic discussion up there with everyone talking at once.  This must be the "gettin' to know you" period before mating season. You sometimes hear a similar racket coming from the middle school classrooms across the street.

About 60 starling were released in New York's Central Park in 1890 by small group of well-intentioned  folks determined to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare.  There are now an estimated 150 million Starlings in America. English house sparrows were another gift that keeps on giving. Heaven only knows how many of those call America home.

I've never been lucky enough to see a starling murmuration, when the flock forms this fantastic acrobatic mass before roosting.  Scientists don't fully understand how the birds do this.  It's easy for a starling to turn when its neighbor turns, but what mechanisms allow it to happen almost simultaneously in two birds separated by hundreds of feet and hundreds of other birds?

That remains to be discovered.

Fairyland of Science

Of all the scary things we're seeing this week, the denial of established science might be the scariest?

From Time Magazine:

The White House website purged all mentions of climate from the site-- all mentions but one, that is, if you consider a promise to eliminate the "harmful and unnecessary" Climate Action Plan.  Soon after, scientists and other employees of the EPA and USDA were told not to speak to the public, and the EPA was told to take down its climate change page. 

The return of these anti-science attitudes to the highest levels of government has been accompanied by a return, somewhat surprisingly, of a familiar, infuriating refrain (from politicians.) “I am not a climate scientist expert." 

This administration might ram through an agenda pretending truths do not exist, but hope lies with our scientists mobilizing and speaking out.  If anyone listens.  If anyone still cares.

"Look at Mother Nature on the run..."

Neil Young
After the Gold Rush

What we think we become

Geography of the Forehead

Everyone thinks the brain is so complicated,
but let’s look at the facts. The frontal lobe,
for example, is located in the front! And
the temporal lobe is where the clock is.
What could be simpler?

The hippocampal fissure is where big, dumb
thoughts camp, while at the Fissure of Rolando
dark-skinned men with one gold earring lie
around the fire and play guitars.

The superior frontal convolution is where
a lot of really nice houses are set back off
a twisty road, while the inferior frontal
convolution is a kind of trailer park, regularly
leveled by brainstorms.

The area of Broca is pretty much off limits.
And if you know Broca, you know why.

Ron Koerte

"There's something happening here"

"What it is ain't exactly clear..."

Buffalo Springfield

What a weekend across the country-- the world, really.  And my wise old T.J. Maxx owl says daylight is finally returning. That at least was perfectly clear when I stepped out on the front porch at 5:00 pm. 

It was inspiring watching millions of people from all walks of life take peacefully to the streets in the big cities. And in small communities too across the nation, including Twisp, one of the towns featured in a Huffington Post article.

Check out the video of the Twisp March:
 Click HERE.

And because I am a grandma, nothing gives me more hope for the future than this.

The March on Twisp

Maya and Nova
"Make America kind again." 

Across the world, millions are gathering today in support of shared values and freedoms.  Seattle held the third largest protest in the country, but even the little community of Twisp turned out on a cold winter morning for a march down Glover Street. 

Thanks, Amanda for the great pictures.  I was proud to see the town nurse with her husband and girls leading the way.

Getting our money's worth

Movie poster from Old Books and Things

Bray Studios was founded in the UK by J.R. Bray in 1914. During the "Bray Years" many classic Hammer horror films were created there, including The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy and Dracula.  The films were immensely popular with audiences and panned by critics:

"Well, no one can say the customers won't have had their money's worth by now. In fact, someone will almost certainly have been sick. We must have a great deal more restraint, and much more done by onlookers' reactions instead of by shots of 'pulsating obscenity', hideous scars, hideous sightless faces, etc, etc. It is keeping on and on in the same vein that makes this script so outrageous. (But) I have a stronger stomach than the average for viewing purposes." 

Audrey Field, reviewer

1955

Popcorn

 "The magic treat--

as much fun to make as it is to eat."

Today is National Popcorn Day.  In simpler times, our family gathered around the stove in awe, watching the magical foil dome rise while mom shook the pan over the burner. 

Jiffy Pop was invented in 1958 by a chemist named Frederick C. Mennen. He sold the patent to American Home Products and within a year the product reached the national market. It was a huge success for years. I guess Jiffy Pop is still sold in one flavor, but I haven't seen it in the store for ages. Everyone eats microwave popcorn now, which is apparently not that good for you.

Big counter top appliances were once popular for making "air-popped" popcorn.  Where did we store those contraptions? John bought me this nifty Lekue brand (Icelandic?) microwave popcorn maker that works surprisingly well, and makes nice healthy popcorn unless you dose it with butter, of course.  It's made of soft, folding plastic and doesn't take up much space.

Is there any snack more American than popcorn?  The pretty legend says the Indians shared it with the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving.  

OK, time for this lazy blogger to get moving and make something of the day.

The winter of our discontent

Morning newsflash: Raining hard. Really dark.
Traffic sucks and I have to be somewhere at 10 am.
Is there enough coffee in Seattle to jump-start this miserable day?

Incoming rain

The weather is about to make a big flip from subfreezing temperatures to warm rain.  "Warm" is a relative term in January, but we'll hit the 50's this week, which will feel almost tropical after the long freeze.  The mountains might get 4 to 8 inches of rain, melting the snow and causing some lowland flooding.  It might be wishful thinking, but I do believe the season is changing over.  Spring bulbs are always poking up in our garden by February.

True Value Hardware had the first primroses for sale yesterday. Who can resist?  Much more cheerful at the backdoor than those frozen pots of kale we've been looking at all winter.

The future of classical music

La Traviata

2009 Seattle Opera production
Dress rehearsal clip

I read an interesting article in the BBC Music magazine this month about the future of classical music.  It described how symphony and opera organizations are struggling to connect with the next generation of concert-goers as our demographic slowly slips down into the basement to listen to music from the comfort at home. Ha.

The arts organizations are trying to attract new audiences without antagonizing their old supporters.  According to the article, for every person who wants to see concert programming move with the times, there are others who consider the concert hall and the core repertoire a "sanctuary of tradition in an ever-changing world."  Performing Mozart in a nightclub setting with tinkling glasses and chatter? Without the undivided audience attention, isn't music reduced to background entertainment?

Another trend catering to our brief attention spans is shorter programs without intermission.  For example, La Traviata is typically a 3-hour opera experience. The production we saw yesterday was condensed down to 1 hour 45 minutes without an intermission, about the length of an average movie.

Opera etiquette, however, is still different from movie theaters (there's no running out for popcorn) so sitting perfectly still that long is tiresome for some of us. And I missed the people watching, conversation and our tot of wine at intermission.

 La Traviata

2016 Seattle Opera production

We haven't seen a production done with traditional sets and costumes since Aidan Lang became director of Seattle Opera. Even the opera story is often changed to make it more "relevant" which seems kind of rude to the composer and librettist. But that's just my opinion.

In fairness, Lang has a tough job attracting an audience for the next 20 years. You have to give him credit for trying and the local arts reviews and responses have been favorable. Seattle is changing and the seats are filled with people who seem mostly enthusiastic.

Before we go to each opera, we always listen to Lang's educational podcast. We enjoy them. He described how boring period sets and fancy costumes can just detract from the music and story in Traviata. Really? Those "frills" might be the very things that enhance and make the total opera experience so grand and unique. At least for some of us.

What a difference from the 2009 Seattle production. The set consisted of a red curtain and one chair.  John quipped they must have saved a lot of money. The performers were dressed pretty much like the audience.  Oh yes, Violetta is a strong, liberated woman, instead of a pitiful but sweet dying girl.  This new Violetta wore a red dress or frumpy pants and combat boots. Talk about distracting.

And despite all that, the exquisite music Verdi wrote in 1853 endured and came shining through. That must be the definition of great art.  

Mountains out of molehills

Are you a happy-go-lucky person who never frets about the future?
Then you can skip this post.

Here's some advice for the rest of us, who sometimes get caught worrying about all the bad things that might (but probably won't) happen.

Just a few simple, calm questions to ask when you start to feel anxious about the future.

1.  Is this "bad thing" a fact or an assumption?

2.  Am I jumping to conclusions?

3.  Am I catastrophizing? (Imagining the worst possible outcome)

4.  What evidence do I have to support my negative prediction?

5.  What evidence does not support my negative prediction?

6.   Am I underestimating my ability to cope?

Aren't these tulips pretty?  I think a soul-numbing trip to Costco deserves an impulse purchase treat in the shopping cart. Of course, that's what Costco hopes, too!

Spring is just around the corner in the Northwest.  Have a good weekend.

More cold weather

 Snow in Portland

This has been the coldest winter in 10 years in the Pacific Northwest. We've already had five arctic weather systems visiting us from British Columbia.  Northwest weather news doesn't usually go national, but you may have heard Portland, Oregon got hammered with snow this week. Like Seattle, the town basically gives up and shuts down until the snow goes away.  Neither city is prepared to deal with it. 

We've only had about an inch of snow in Seattle this winter. The two cites are just 165 miles apart, but Seattle and Portland are a world's away in terms of weather.  Portland tends to be warmer in the summer and colder in the winter.

At least the days are sunny and the nights clear.  While we were eating dinner last night, an enormous full moon rose over yonder apartment building to the east. I have a new peek view from the kitchen table of the four-story complex on California Avenue called Spring Hill (of all things. )

The two bedroom, top floor apartments rent for about $3,000 a month. Who can afford to live there?  And why would they?  I'm obviously missing something about this familiar old neighborhood that is suddenly so hot.

I think about the thousands of strangers who now live within a few blocks of us.  Like any snoopy person I watch their window lights and wonder what's going on up there?  For starters, they don't eat 7 am weekend breakfasts like we do.  And they were probably having a lot more fun the night before. 

Meyer lemon cake

At Christmas, my nice sister always gives us a bag of fabulous homegrown lemons from Las Vegas.  You can't find beauties like these at any price in a store.  Meyer lemons are thin-skinned, heavy and almost as sweet as oranges.

I took her advice and squeezed and froze most of the juice in ice cube trays for later.  I had one big one left and thought a fresh lemon cake sounded good. Imagine making a cake with just one lemon? That's how big they are.

I bake cakes from scratch occasionally (not often enough, John would say) and when the mood hits, there's no shortage of recipes on the Internet. If you love lemon, this is a good one:

Super Lemon Bundt Cake

2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbs. lemon zest
3 tbs. lemon juice
1 1/4 cup whole milk
10 tbs. unsalted butter


Preheat oven to 350 and grease a Bundt pan thoroughly.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.  Beat the eggs until they are thickened and pale in color, then add the sugar slowly on low. Beat until light and fluffy then add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla. Slowly pour in the dry ingredients and mix on low.

Meanwhile, heat the butter and milk in a small saucepan until melted.  Do not boil.  Pour into the batter and mix until smooth.  Batter will look alarmingly thin.

But it raises quickly and bakes in less than 45 minutes, surprisingly short for a deep Bundt cake.

The batter is sticky, so let it cool in the pan before you try and plate it.  I was in a bit of a hurry, but icing covers many sins.

This is a soft, moist cake, dense but not heavy, with a fresh lemony flavor.  The glaze is simple--just fresh lemon juice mixed with powdered sugar.  A nice light-tasting dessert for a cold winter night.

Trudge, trudge month

We're back to slow, drippy, cold, wintry rain.  It's much warmer than it was last week, but still bone-chilling cold from the dampness.  Some areas around Puget Sound have snow this morning and many schools are starting late due to icy roads.  The mountain passes have been treacherous for days. Amanda says the Methow Valley is buried in snow. That's all good news for the summer water supply in Washington.

January might be a fresh start, but it's also the short-on-fun month.  Holiday bills arrive, there are new resolutions to keep or forget, tiresome appointments, taxes just around the corner. And so we fall back on simple things to cheer us, like music, friends and the comforts of home.

I was glad to play with The Ukes again yesterday after a couple weeks off.  It took a while of course, but I feel like a member now and getting know everyone's little idiosyncrasies. It's such an accepting and non-judgemental group-- everyone sings and plays as best they can.  I tend to be hard on myself but think my strumming has improved, at least when I look back where I was a year ago.

Janurary 10 is "Peculiar People Day."  In honor of all those wacky, happy ukulele players.

Peculiar People Day is in honor of uniquely different people. Un-ordinary, extraordinary, unusual, strange, odd, uncommon, intriguing, different, abnormal, and quirky.... These are all things that we think of to describe the word "peculiar". Most of these characteristics can be viewed as good, or not so good. Today is a day to look for the good in your peculiar acquaintances. 

Choral works

Benayora Hall was packed yesterday for a concert featuring two choral works:  Beethoven's 9th Symphony and a piece by French composer Olivier Messiaen, starring the Northwest Boy's Choir.  Choral works are popular in Seattle, and of course family and friends come to watch their chorus members perform.

The stage extension was up to accommodate all the performers, so our 4th row seats became 1st row seats. This gave us an intimate view of the cello section and not much else.

Listening for over an hour, I had plenty of time to marvel at those beautiful, delicate, flawless, talented hands that never scrub pots or work in gardens.  The 9th is one of those "monumental symphonies," meaning long (among other things.)

Beethoven wrote the 9th near the end of his life. On May 7, 1824, Beethoven shared it with the world, even though he was almost completely deaf at the premier.  Even so, Beethoven conducted by indicating the tempo at the start of each movement. The musicians then followed the music director of the Austrian Imperial Theater.

In the 2006 movie called "Copying Beethoven," a fictional character, a beautiful copyist, helps the ailing composer prepare the score for the first performance. "Anna" is a young conservatory student and aspiring composer.  Being a woman, she is treated as less than nothing. Beethoven is initially skeptical, but comes to trust her assistance and eventually grows to view her with equality. She puts up with his infuriating behavior and gains his admiration.

A nice story...
Here's the "Ode to Joy" scene from the movie.

Bean Day

There are approximately 40,000 bean varieties in the world.  Beans are one of the longest cultivated plants, dating back to 7,000 BC.  "Bean" is the common name for the seed of a flowering plant in the  Leguminosae family.  That big old family of legumes.

We are having chili tonight and I'm already looking forward to it, laying here in bed drinking coffee on another freezing January morning.  I don't want to get up and go to the gym as usual.  It's 23 degrees out, but hopefully this is the last of the bitter cold stretch.  By Sunday we'll have good old rain again, which hopefully revives all the sad plants that have been frozen solid for a week.

I made the chili yesterday with some Salvadoran red beans I'd cooked in the pressure cooker. Like beef stew, chili is so much better reheated the next day.  And the day after that, better yet.

Thank goodness for the simple pleasures during this dark, strange month.

I'm looking forward to meeting some dear friends in the International District for dim sum brunch tomorrow.  Then there's a Seahawk game on TV in the evening, possibly with snow. (Can we stand that much excitement in Seattle?)  On Sunday afternoon we're going to the Symphony to hear Beethoven's Ninth.  Dad, I'll be thinking about you as we listen to your favorite music.

Have a happy weekend, dear family and friends.

Twelfth Night

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:’

Journey of the Magi

T.S. Eliot

Today is the twelfth day of Christmas and the official end of the holiday season. January 6th is the Epiphany, when Jesus was baptized and the Three Kings came bearing gifts.

It is unlucky to leave Christmas decorations up past today. As with many other holiday traditions, this superstition has pagan elements.  People once believed that tree-spirits lived in greenery like holly and ivy used to decorate their homes.  The festive season provided shelter for these spirits during the winter, but they needed to be released outside once Christmas was over or the spring crops would fail.

I'll probably lug the Christmas "bird" dishes back down to the basement today. I love them but the party is over, and now I miss eating off plain blue and white china.

We usually leave the cheerful outdoor lights up until at least Groundhog Day, when there is finally noticeably more daylight in the Northwest.  Many of our neighbors do this also, so it isn't considered weird or lazy like in some parts of the country.

The temperature hasn't gone much above freezing all week.  Oh! the snow-covered Cascade and Olympic mountains are beautiful. It feels like you can reach out and touch them from Seattle.

Maryanne and I took the ferry over to Vashon Island and got in a short, cold trail ride yesterday.  The views of Mt. Rainer were spectacular, but I didn't fumble off my gloves to try and take a picture from horseback.

I stole other people's photographs off the Internet instead. 
It really looked just like this:

The history of humble pie

Vincento Campi

Making Pies in the Kitchen 

1580

In the 14th century, the numbles (noumbles, nomblys, noubles) referred to what we now call offal-- the heart, liver, entrails etc. of animals.  The word numbles became "umble," used to make pies of lesser value than those cooked with costly fresh meat.  This was long before "head to tail" eating became fashionable. So the poor would often eat "umble" pie. 

There's been plenty of post-election humble pie passed around.  In fact, this might be the end of standard political polling, an enormous and lucrative industry in America.  Perhaps not a bad thing.

Hey it's cold in Seattle. Check out the ingredients in this old stick-to-your-ribs, cholesterol bomb of a pie.

Meatless Mince Pie
From: The Accomplish'd Lady's Delight In Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery, Hannah Woolley; 1675
 
To make an Egg-Pye, or Mince-Pye of Eggs:
 
Take the Yolks of two dozen of Eggs hard boyled, shred them, take the same quantity of Beef-Suet, half a pound of Pippins, a pound of Currans well washt, and dry'd, half a pound of Sugar, a penny-worth of beaten Spice, a few Carraway-Seeds, a little Candyed Orange-peel shred, a little Verjuice and Rosewater; fill the Coffin, and bake it with gentle heat
 

The north wind doth blow

Gosh, it is cold in Seattle.  The overnight lows are in the 20's, but on the bright side we're having a stretch of beautiful sunny days this week. There's no chance of snow again until the weekend, possibly on Saturday when the Seahawks play a big home game. Now that would be interesting. 

Since yesterday was the official New Year's holiday, today is the official back-to-reality day for many of us.  John got up at 4:20 as usual and went back to work after a long, busy break. I must have been tired, because I slept 8 hours without finding something to worry about in the middle of the night. That's pretty unusual, but then January 3rd is officially the "Festival of Sleep Day."

I'll go to the museum this afternoon. Hopefully I can brush the holiday cobwebs out of my brain. I've just started a complicated research project regarding a photograph collection donated from an old cement factory on the Seattle waterfront. It is long-gone now, but was once a big deal.  The entire Pacific Northwest infrastructure was built with unbelievable masses of concrete.  Think about it:  buildings, highways, dams, dry docks, bridges.

Like most of the esoteric projects I work on at MOHAI, it sounds dull then becomes fascinating when I start to dig in.  Not to mention, often revealing my sorry ignorance about so many subjects.  For example, how could I live this long and not know the difference between "cement" and "concrete?"

My miniature Christmas tree is stored away in a garbage bag (wow, that was easy) and I bought some fresh flowers for the house, as I always do in January.  It was an enjoyable holiday with family and friends, although we sure missed the little girls.  But not the colds they usually give us at Christmas. Ha ha.

And on we go into the new year, come what may.