fauxklore

Celebrity Death Watch: Arlene Golonka was an actress, best known for appearing as Millie in The Andy Griffith Show, as well as being on the comedy record You Don’t Have to Be Jewish. Raymond Donovan was the Secretary of Labor under Ronald Reagan. Clarence Williams III played Linc on The Mod Squad. John M. Patterson was the segregationist governor of Alabama in the early 1960’s. Richard Ernst won a Nobel prize in chemistry for his work on spectroscopy. Karla Burns was the first black person to win the Laurence Olivier award for theatre (the British equivalent of the Tony). Mudcat Grant was a pitcher, primarily for the Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins. Art Ditmar was a pitcher for the A’s (in both Philadelphia and Kansas City) and the Source of All Evil in the Universe. John Gabriel was an actor, best known for appearing in the movie Ryan’s Hope. Ziona was the leader of a polygamous Christian sect in India and known for being the head of the “world’s biggest family.” Ned Beatty was a character actor who appeared in too many movies to mention. Janet Malcolm was a journalist, known for writing about psychology.


F. Lee Bailey was a lawyer, known for high profile criminal defense cases, including those of Albert DeSalvo (the Boston strangler), Patty Hearst, and O.J. Simpson.

Edward DeBono was known for writing and teaching about thinking and creating the term Lateral Thinking. His best known book was Six Thinking Hats. At least two people I knew were big fans of DeBono’s Thinking Course, which I think was on public television. I like his quote “Why have a mind if you can’t change it?”

Kevin Kaunda was the president of Zambia from 1964-1991, after leading the fight for independence from Great Britain. He was a defender of one party rule, claiming it protected against tribalism. He later became involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Champ was the older of the Biden family German shepherds. I hope Major won’t be too lonely now.


Trip the First - Philadelphia: So I actually went more than a few miles from home! I took the train up to Philadelphia the week of June 7th. My major reason for the trip was the Philadelphia Flower Show, which I’d wanted to go to for ages. I bought a hotel and flower show package, which provided a discount on both, and added on the butterfly pavilion. I also bought a ticket for the Barnes Foundation.

So how did it go? I wouldn’t normally take the Acela for that short a trip, but fares were low and reserved seats are a plus. Inevitably, there was an idiot who didn’t understand that having a reserved seat means you are supposed to sit in that seat, but the conductor straightened him out. The hotel was the Residence Inn next to City Hall, which is well located, but below brand standard. For example, one usually gets a suite with a kitchen, while my room had just a refrigerator and microwave. It also had poor soundproofing and lacked any comfortable seating. (The one chair was hard on my back and the bed was too high to be comfortable to sit on.) It wasn’t terrible, but I would probably stay elsewhere on future trips.

The Barnes Foundation was excellent. My primary interest was their current special exhibit on Soutine and deKooning. The former is an artist I find interesting, having taken a class on him (and Modigliani) as part of my Smithsonian art history program. I concluded that his landlord must have been much happier to have him painting portraits than his pictures of rotting meat. I was rather taken by a landscape (of a town in France) which reminded me of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, though I am sure that was not the actual intent. I find deKooning more problematic, as his dislike of women comes out clearly (to me, at least). I did also look at the permanent collection. They have a cool app that lets you point your phone at any picture and get more info about it. The most interesting aspect of that was what items I found myself drawn to. Apparently, I like Cezanne more than I thought I did. (I knew how much I like Matisse.) The oddity of the arrangement of the art is a lot of the appeal of the museum, by the way, which makes the app particularly useful. Special bonus - I got to have coffee (well, aranciata in my case) and a lively chat with daphnep, who is pretty much what I expected.

The flower show was less successful, mostly because the weather was dreadfully hot and humid. The show is normally in March in the convention center, but had been moved to FDR Park in South Philadelphia in June, due to COVID. It was easy enough to get there via SEPTA, but it was a longish walk through the park to the actual site. I am usually fairly heat tolerant, but I was dripping with sweat after less than an hour. There were some nice displays, especially of lilies. I also liked the indoor area which had orchids and some arrangements around dollhouse sets. Fortunately, they had places to refill water bottles set up next to the first aid tents. I had paid $5 extra for the butterfly pavilion and that was even hotter than the rest of the site, so I didn’t stay there long. Overall, I do think I managed to see pretty much everything, but I wouldn’t go if they do it outdoors again.

By the way, it’s a good thing I went in the morning, because there were thunderstorms later in the day and they had to evacuate the entire site.I had gone back to my hotel and set the air conditioning to stun by then. At least the storm cooled things off nicely and the walk back to the train station the next morning was comfortable.

Celebrity Death Watch: Jonathan Bush was a banker and the brother of George H.W. Bush. Paul Van Doren co-founded Vans. Leigh Perkins expanded Orris into a major mail order retailer, mostly of fishing and outdoors gear. Spencer Silver co-invented Post-it Notes. Pete duPont served two terms as governor of Delaware. Art Gensler founded the world’s largest architectural firm, whose work included the terminals at San Francisco International Airport. Lester Wolff was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Long Island. Norman Lloyd was an actor and notable for continuing to work until he was 100 years old. (He was 106 when he died.) Jim Klobuchar was a journalist and father of Amy. Richard Rubinstein was a rabbi who defended the Moonies on the grounds of anti-Communism. Patsy Bruce wrote country songs, such as “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Terence Riley was the chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. Douglass Mossman was an actor, best known for appearing in Hawaii Five-O. Charles Grodin was a prolific actor, comedian, and talk show host. Paul Mooney was a comedian. and wrote for a number of other black comedians. Alex Dobkin was a folk singer. Roman Kent was the president of the International Auschwitz Committee. Dewayne Blackwell wrote “Friends in Low Places,” among other songs. Samuel E. Wright voiced Sebastian in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Anna Halprin was a post-modern choreographer. Jerome Hellman was a film producer who won an Oscar for Midnight Cowboy. Mary Beth Edelson was one of the first generation of feminist artists and is best known for “Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper.”

Eric Carle wrote and illustrated The Very Hungry Caterpillar and several other children’s books. He is also notable for founding a museum of picture book art. Another author/illustrator of children’s books, Lois Ehlers, best known for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom died a couple of days later.

John Warner spent 30 years as a Republican senator from Virginia and had earlier been the Secretary of the Navy. He was also Elizabeth Taylor’s sixth husband. Despite having been a Republican, in more recent years, he endorsed a number of Democrats, both for the Senate and the Presidency.

B. J. Thomas was a pop singer. Some of the songs he was well-known for include “Hooked on a Feeling,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” and “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.”

Gavin McLeod played Murray on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and was the captain on The Love Boat.


I don’t normally mention animal deaths, but Bo, the Obama family dog, was prominent enough that I think he deserves a note. I don’t think many Americans had heard of a Portuguese water dog, a supposedly hypo-allergenic breed, before the Obamas got him for their daughters.

Errata: I made a minor addition to the Island Hopping entry. I had completely neglected Jones Beach. And Fire Island, which I might have gone to.

Cool Baseball Trivia: On Friday May 21st, Seattle back-up catcher Jose Godoy made his major league debut, becoming the 20,000th player in major league baseball history. (The Mariners got slaughtered by the Padres, however, losing 16-1.)

Blight Flight: I watched this short play by Iyona Blake on-line a couple of weeks ago. I know her work primarily as a singer and actor, who has made numerous appearances at Signature Theatre and Creative Cauldron. The play involves a white woman trying to befriend the black woman being forced out of the house next door by rising prices in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. The black woman makes her question her assumptions, but the two connect at the end via a song. It was a challenging story and I’d like to see it developed into a full-length production mostly because I was left with a lot of questions about both women.


Don’t Analyze This Dream: I drove into the German embassy - literally, into the building. I pulled up next to a guard who told me to get out of the car and then took my temperature with a forehead thermometer. Another guard came over, walked around me, shook his head, but did not tell me what to do or where to go. At that point, three women came in, one of whom resembles someone I slightly know. They were given some papers by another guard and went into a door. I waited a while, all of the guards wandered away, and I decided I should go through that same door. The three women were gone. Just outside the door, I saw a small table with stacks of vaccination certificates. I walked over to a window where a guy told me I didn’t have to do anything but take a seat at a table and wait. He also invited me to an upcoming Valentine’s Day party at the embassy. While I was waiting, someone said they had gotten the number 30, which seemed to be a bad thing. The three women came back in, carrying clipboards with yellow papers. I don’t remember anything happening after that point.


This Way Lies Madness: I finally achieved Queen Bee in the New York Times Spelling Bee (a daily word puzzle). Not just once, but every day for a week or so and several times since. I have decided, however, that pursuing that every day is just too obsessive, especially on days when there are 60+ words to find. I did admittedly do it today, but there were only 39 words.


Retirement Gift: I got the retirement gift catalog from Circle-A and chose an iPad. The other possibility was an Apple watch, but I have really small wrists and thought I would find it awkward. It came on Friday but I haven’t set it up yet. I think the current offerings (which also include things like cookware and jewelry),are better than what people years ago complained about. Twenty some odd years ago,, they gave out mostly clocks, with only an engraved bowl as a non-time oriented option.

Art Fair: I went to the Old Town Art Fair in Alexandria a couple of weeks ago. I attempted to find someone to come along to be a shopping discourager, but none of my friends were interested and available. As a result, I bought a few things - a robot sculpture from Cheri Kudzu’s Bitti Bots, a brooch made from watch parts, and a book called Goodbye, Penguins, which has a rather Gorey-esque sensibility. I like some works of urban surrealism by a guy named Ralph Rankin, but he was horribly rude to me when I asked for his card, so I will never buy anything from him.


Renwick Gallery: I went to the Renwick Gallery a week and a half ago with one of the women from my crafts group. Mostly, we went to look at the Renwick Invitational, which had installations from four artists. Rowland Ricketts had a large piece made of squares of indigo-dyed fabric. He apparently grows the indigo himself. That installation also had music in the background. Lauren Fensterstock’s piece was titled “The totality of time lusters the dusk.” It was a complex mosaic piece made of glass, crystals, beads, paper, hematite, etc. and, while I thought it was interesting, it was too hard to see the whole thing at some time. Debora Moore had several pieces that involved glass flower petals blown directly onto wood and concrete bases. Finally, Timothy Horn had large pieces based on historic jewelry, as well as an interesting carriage made out of rock sugar. After looking at that exhibit, we went upstairs to look at the permanent exhibit. Janet Echelon’s 1.8 is one of the highlights, with a fiber netting that changes colors in response to lighting. My favorite, however, was Skeins by Mariska Karasz. Overall, it was a nice couple of hours.


Immigrant Food: After the museum, I had lunch at Immigrant Food, which is more or less around the corner. I had their equivalent of a banh mi, which was quite tasty. (The person I went with wanted to rush home, as she is caring for her husband who is in treatment for cancer.)

Good News: I got my blood tested a few days ago. And all of the numbers on the iron panel were within normal range. So I just need to continue taking oral supplements.

I still haven’t had time to catch up, because I’ve been busy doing things. Here’s what the past several days have looked like.

Storytelling, Part 1: The Grapevine Wednesday night was the season opener for The Grapevine, a very good storytelling series at Busboys and Poets in Takoma. I can’t quite whine about it being in darkest Maryland because it is still just within the D.C. line.

Anyway, this month’s featured tellers were Milbre Burch and Len Cabral. I’ve known Milbre for many years, since we both lived in the Los Angeles area in the 1990’s, and it is always delightful to see her. I was glad to have a chance to catch up with her a bit. And, of course, to hear her tell. Her program was a selection of folk tales from banned lands, i.e. those subject to the immigration restrictions of our current administration. I thought that was a really cool idea for a theme. There was a good mix of stories and she told elegantly and entertainingly, as always. Len’s stories included some from his Cape Verdean heritage. His telling was far more physical, with a lot of voices. Overall, this was a good illustration of the range of traditional storytelling and a very entertaining evening.


Storytelling, Part 2: Voices in the Glen Story Swap: Saturday night was our monthly story swap. It was in darkest Maryland, so I was grateful for carpooling. There was a particularly big turn-out and another wide range of stories. In honor of having just heard Milbre, I told "Be Nice," which I first learned from her.

One Day University: I went to One Day University on Sunday. This is always a good use of a half-day.

The first talk was Is That Really Art? Understanding and Appreciating Modern Painting by Tina Rivers-Ryan. She focused on four artists / styles – Pablo Picasso (cubism), Alexander Rodchenko (constructivism), Jackson Pollack, (abstract expressionism), and Andy Warhol (pop). Her basic point was that one has to understand the language of painting in order to assess its quality. I thought the section on Rodchenko was particularly interesting, largely because he was the one of the four I was least familiar with. I also appreciated her plug for taking advantage of docent tours as a way to learn about art. But I am still completely cold towards Pollack’s work.

The second talk was by Robert Watson from Lynn University on Our Broken Two-Party System: Can American Politics Be Fixed? He was very entertaining, but I found his conclusions depressing. On the other hand, we did survive the 1850’s when Preston Brooks beat Charles Sumner to a pulp on the Senate floor in response to an anti-slavery speech. I also appreciated Watson’s point that after 1901 the parties essentially switched positions, largely in response to Theodore Roosevelt. Another good point was the lack of friendships across parties that results from the ease of air travel allowing congresscritters to spend much of their time in their home districts, so they socialize with one another less. Unfortunately, he didn’t really have any suggestions on what to do about the rise of extremism and fact-free politics. Well - he did have one suggestion. Namely, subscribe to your local newspaper.

The final talk was on How the 1960s Shaped American Politics Today by Leonard Steinhorn of American University. He really started with the 1950’s and the post-war prosperity and suburbanization of the American dream. (Hmm, what about the Korean War?) However, the good times really only worked for straight, white, Christian men. That led to the civil rights movement(s) and, combined with the Vietnam war protests, led to huge societal changes. Which led to the backlash by people who think life is a zero-sum game. On a more positive note, he pointed out that millennials are, in general, inclusive. For example, he claimed that even his Trump-supporting students are accepting of sexuality and gender differences.

Overall, it was a stimulating morning.

I went to Atlanta for the weekend. My primary motivation was checking out the new ballpark, but, of course, that wasn’t all I did.

I had no issues with my United flights either way. In fact, I got upgraded both ways, though they failed to email me the upgrade notification for the return. It is also a big advantage to fly an airline other than Delta to/from ATL because you come in and out of the T-gates and don’t need to take a train to your plane.

I had contemplated staying near the ballpark, but decided that didn’t really make sense because it is the middle of nowhere in deep suburbia. Staying in midtown was actually more convenient, allowing me to take MARTA to and from the airport. More significantly, it also allowed me to do some important sightseeing on Saturday morning.

The High Museum of Art is one of the major art museums of the country. It is normally fairly pricy, but I have a Bank of America credit card, which gives me free access to various museums on the first weekend of the month. I find that if I have to pay to go to a museum, I feel like I need to see everything. But getting in free means I can just pick and choose a few parts to see without feeling like I’ve wasted money.

My main priority was the African art selection. There is an interesting mix of both traditional and contemporary pieces from several countries. My favorite – actually, my favorite piece in the entire museum – was one named Taago by El Anatsui, a Ghanian artist. It consists of pieces of aluminum from the tops and necks of local liquor bottles, joined with wire, to form a sculpture reminiscent of kente cloth. There was also a special exhibit of works by Ashley Bryan, who illustrated a lot of books based on folklore.

I moved on to the contemporary art, which includes a large collection of works by folk artist, Howard Finster. Other notable works include a painting by Richard Estes, whose photorealism I’ve admired for some time, and Insect Icon Tapestry by Jon Eric Riis. All in all, I spent a few pleasant hours at the museum, before heading off to the Cumberland area to meet up with friends for a late lunch / early dinner at Copeland’s. The food was good and the conversation was intelligent and wide ranging. Eventually, we left and they dropped me at the ballpark.

My first impression of SunTrust Park was that it was chaotic. They are still developing The Battery, a shopping and entertainment complex around the stadium. From what I could tell with the crowds, it is pretty much a collection of high end restaurants and watering holes. I fought my way through to the Right Field Gate, where there was a long and chaotic set of lines to get into the ballpark itself. I had bought a ticket package for Star Wars day, which included an R.A. Dickey Stormtrooper bobblehead, so my first stop was to redeem my voucher for that. The instructions they had emailed actually told me the wrong place to go to do that, but it was easily enough resolved. I should probably note that I am not really a big Star Wars fan, but it is always fun to add to my collection of ballpark gimmes.

That accomplished, I went to check off their monument garden, which has various exhibits on the history of the team. Of course, much of that history is pre-Atlanta – both in Boston and in Milwaukee – but that is fair enough. The statue of Hank Aaron is the centerpiece, as it should be. Overall, it is a reasonable exhibit, though the crowds were a bit of a pain.

The actual stands were not crowded. There were a few people at the entrance to the seating area taking photos with costumed Star Wars characters, but not so many actually sitting down to see the game. The Braves were playing the Cardinals, so this fell into the class of games in which I didn’t care who won. It looks like the Braves have a fair number of loyal fans. Unfortunately, those are generally identifiable by the tomahawk chop, a particularly obnoxious method of cheering. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but would prefer a non-racist way of showing it. On the plus side, several people sang along with the national anthem, and, later on, with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." (Singing along to the latter is one of my three primary ballpark rating criteria, along with local character and a general level of fan engagement.)

It was actually hard to gauge fan engagement, because the weather sucked, with a few brief rain showers, which weren’t enough to affect play, but did send many people scurrying for cover. I’ll also note that there appeared to be particularly long lines for the concessions (none of which seemed particularly local or interesting). They don’t have any vendors in the stands, either, which doesn’t help.

As for the game, the Cardinals won, largely because Julio Teheran’s pitching was not up to snuff. I’ll also note that I was impressed by a couple of nice catches that Randal Grichuk made in right field. And Aledmys Diaz hit a three-run homer which pretty much clinched the game for St. Louis. Overall, it was a reasonably exciting game to watch.

I’d rate the ballpark in the group of vast group of middling ones. It’s a pleasant enough place to watch a game, but lacks soul. It also loses significant points for difficulty of access. Their website claims the Circulator bus connects the ballpark to the Cumberland Transit Center, but that bus actually appears to stop running at 9 p.m. and does not run at all on Sundays. The transit center is a long walk from the ballpark. There is a closer stop to a Cobb County Transit bus, though the ballpark staff misdirected me on how to get to that stop. And that bus runs infrequently, so was very crowded, largely with fans complaining that it is supposed to be the Atlanta Braves, not the Cobb County Braves. I should also note that the ballpark website pushes Uber as their transit solution, but the Uber pickup location had a line three blocks long. That is, of course, in addition to the cost and moral issues associated with Uber. When the team played at Turner Field, they ran shuttle buses from the Five Points MARTA station, which was a much better solution.

The really important thing is that I have, again, been to a game at every major league ballpark. One does, after all, have to keep up one’s standards when it comes to obsessions.

As for the rest of the weekend, I got home in time for a much needed nap, followed by dinner at Tachibana for a friend’s 50th birthday. What I didn’t get done was any housework, alas.

The Trump Card I went to see Mike Daisey’s latest monologue at Woolly Mammoth on Thursday night. If you are at all familiar with Daisey’s work, you know that he has no qualms about being provocative. The thing that makes this piece more than just a rant is that Daisey tries to understand both how Trump became what he is (e.g. his father’s racism and dishonest business dealings, combined with Roy Cohn’s mentoring) and his supporters’ frustration with feeling left out of the American conversation. A lot of the emphasis is on Trump as a performer and his success at being what he is. Interestingly, there is nothing about his wives and children, though there is plenty of material about his sexual assaults. The left does not get off lightly here, either, with accusations of smugness (mea culpa) and a bit of an attack on NPR. It’s an interesting piece and was worth seeing, though I don’t think Daisey is likely to change anybody’s mind.

Trip to Chicago: A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that: 1) I had never been to the Art Institute of Chicago and 2) it would be easy to remedy that. A quick bit of research also found an Elvis Costello concert to go to at the historic Chicago Theatre. Plane tickets are easily acquired, as are hotel reservations. In this case, I stayed at the Hilton at O’Hare, which is located conveniently on the airport grounds. I had some qualms about the travel when the American Airlines plane caught fire at ORD Friday afternoon, but my United flight was actually fine and, in fact, arrived about 20 minutes early. By the way, before leaving IAD, I checked out the new Turkish Airlines lounge and had an excellent supper of lentil soup and baba ghannoush.

I had intended to have breakfast at Wildberry Pancakes and Café, but the wait for a table was an hour and a half, so I went elsewhere. Then I drifted over to the Art Institute. I am a great believer in docent tours, so took the tour of the Modern Wing that was on offer when I was there. They define Modern as, essentially, early the first half of the 20th century. The tour started with Picasso and Braque and cubism (with a few touches of other things Picasso did, including a bit of insight into his various mistresses). After passing through the Russians (e.g. Kandinsky), we continued down to the Contemporary collection, which included Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollack. I will have to admit that the latter is pretty much my least favorite artist of all time, but so it goes. The most memorable piece was a sort of sculpture by Felix Gonzales-Torres named "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.). This consists of a stack of wrapped candy and viewers are encouraged to take a piece. Talk about absorbing the artwork!

After the tour, I stayed in the Modern Wing for a bit, going back to look at some things we had skipped, e.g. a couple of works by Chagall, notably White Crucifixion. Of course, the most significant Chagall work at the museum is the America Windows, six stained glass windows, which are beautiful and vibrant and the definite highlight of my visit.

There are lots of other famous works at the museum, of course, though American Gothic is off on tour right now. I did see such things as Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette. I also made a point of visiting the Thorne Miniature Rooms, which depict both European and American rooms from various periods. They are quite exquisitely detailed, but the crowds make them harder to enjoy than they should be.

Anyway, the whole museum is quite overwhelming and I didn’t attempt to see everything. As it was, I spent about 5 hours there and was pretty exhausted at the end of that. Had I been staying downtown, I could have gone to my hotel and taken a nap, but I didn’t think I had time to schlep back to the airport and back to the city. So I was rather tired for the Elvis Costello concert.

First of all, I should note that the Chicago Theatre is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, the sound system doesn’t measure up to the ornate décor. There was a good mix of material, including pretty much everything off the Imperial Bedroom album. The most notable video images on the screen above the band were for "Watching the Detectives," which used a wide range of noir / pulp covers. That nourish theme was nicely followed by "Shot With His Own Gun," by the way. But I think the performance highlight of the evening was "This House is Empty Now." Overall, it was a reasonably good evening, but the sound system really did put a damper on things.

For what it’s worth, travel home was also straightforward and hassle-free, though I didn’t get upgraded.

Two quick and depressing bits of local arts news:

1) It looks like Ari Roth, the artistic director of Theatre J, has been fired by the DCJCC. That's not really surprising given the controversy over some of his choices of shows. He is moving ahead with plans for his own theatre company, but that will be on the infinitely less convenient H Street Northeast. And it is unclear whether Theatre J will continue over on 16th Street. Regardless of the outcome, there will be more questions about freedom of speech and accusations about tolerance of views within the Jewish community.

2) It also looks like Artisphere in Rosslyn will be closing. I've gone to various events there many of them were odd and interesting. My biggest personal connection was the Rosslyn yarn bomb, which we worked on and assembled there. I understand the economic realities, but art is important to me and I hate to see arts organizations close.


At this time of year when so many people are doing their charitable donations, please consider your local arts organizations.

If I don’t wait an entire month to write stuff, the blog posts get shorter. I am pretty much caught up on what I've been doing, though I am heading to the NPL Con imminently so will be uncaught up again.

Pink Martini: I started off July by seeing Pink Martini at Wolf Trap. The sultry summer evening was well accompanied by the sultry music. There was lots of familiar material (some of which is still stuck in my head over a week later) but some new stuff, too. The only problem is the usual one with Wolf Trap. Namely, it takes me 10 minutes to drive home, but first I have to spend 30-40 minutes getting out of the parking lot.

When Art Danced With Music: The National Gallery of Art has an exhibit on Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes and I went with a couple of friends this past weekend. The exhibit was impressive, with paintings, backdrops, costumes and film excerpts. The latter were very helpful in seeing the rest in context. The key point is that Diaghilev had no particular artistic talent himself, but was able to bring together composer, choreographer, designers, dancers, etc. to influence the development of ballet. That prompted one of my friends to say, "so he was the systems engineer of the ballet!" I love that as a way of explaining what systems engineering is about. Anyway, it was an excellent exhibit, even if I think Picasso’s costumes for Parade are too absurd to dance in.

Not Quite Knitting: I went to knitting group on Sunday. I attempted to wind a hank of a complex yarn into a ball, but the swift fell apart just after I started. I managed not to have the right needles with me for any of the yarn I’d brought to work with. And I seem to have lost half a sweater in my living room. This was not my finest hour.

In Memorium: My colleague, Young Shin, passed away in his sleep on the Fourth of July. The memorial service was last night. It’s something of a tribute to a person when a few hundred people show up for their memorial. He was an interesting character and we’d had many discussions about history and language, among other topics. I know he was extremely proud of his children and I hope they can take some comfort in the deep feelings he had for them.

I should be writing a quarterly update on the goals I set out at the beginning of the year, but I've made so little progress on them that setting that down would only frustrate me. Most of that is because of just having had such a crappy start to the year, between splitting up with Robert and dealing with a couple of health issues. I complain enough about other people kvetching that I have no desire to spend my time doing so myself.

My fundamental philosophy of life amounts to, "if what you're doing isn't working, do something else." And that is exactly how I have been trying to deal with all the stress of the past few months. I will also note the effectiveness of the heartbreak diet. That is, if you're too torn up to have much appetite, you can lose 25 pounds surprisingly easily.

My other way of dealing with things is, of course, to go out and do fun stuff. This weekend it meant a trip up to Philadelphia for an art-filled day with my friends, Megan and Jack. We saw the Van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was organized in an unusual way. There's a room for blades of grass, a room for wheat, a room for trees and undergrowth, and so on. I'd say my favorite piece in the collection was the final one, "Almond Blossoms." I also speculated on what Van Gogh would have done had he ever been transported to Iowa.

While at the museum, we also checked out "Nude Descending a Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp. This has some personal significance as seeing it (in a book) changed my view of modern art. I had the epiphany that the key word was "descending" and that, if you look at it as being about the movement, it makes sense. So seeing it in person was well worthwhile.

We also saw an impressive photographic exhibit by Zoe Strauss. Her photos cover a wide range of working class experiences and I was particularly impressed by her portraits. We then chased down a few of her billboards, which are being exhibited in a wide range of places throughout Philadelphia.

After a stop for lunch at a brewpub, we visited a couple of exhibits that are part of Fiber Philadelphia. The Handweaver's Guild show was relatively conventional, with my favorite pieces there being a few needle felted birds and a set of temari balls. An exhibit at the Crane Arts Building, titled "Outisde / Inside the Box" was quite different. My favorite pieces at that one included a story quilt by Jenny Iserman which told about women who had been murdered by their husbands and a set of humanoid figures by Brigitte Amarger that were made of x-rays stitched together.

Next came coffee at Higher Grounds in Northern Liberties. Finally, we went over to South Street and the Magic Garden, which is a fascinating mosaic project, before they dropped me back at 30th Street Station for my trip home. All in all, it was a wonderful day.

Today's artwork was limited to knitting group, where I crocheted half an amigurumi uterus.

And now I need to get caught up on household paperwork. I'm hoping the next few months will improve.

I am, as usual, absurdly busy. I know this is a self-inflicted wound, but it does make writing here a low priority.

Celebrity Death Watch: Anne McCaffrey wrote a series of fantasy novels involving a place called Pern. There are dragons involved. I've actually never read her stuff, but I know several people who are big fans.

Prague: I went to Prague over Thanksgiving weekend. My brief run-down is:

• The lie flat business class seat is one of the greatest inventions of our times. However, the business class lounges at FRA are absurdly overcrowded. As in standing room only at times.
  
• Figuring out the bus and metro from PRG to my hotel was reasonably easy. The Prague metro is clean and efficient.
  
• I spent Thursday meandering through part of Old Town (the highlight of which is the Astronomical Clock) and doing a more thorough tour of the Jewish Quarter. I was somewhat surprised by the architecture of the Old-New Synagogue, as I think of fan vaulting as a rather Christian thing. The golem may still be buried somewhere there. Highlight of the Jewish quarter is the old cemetery.
  
• Met up with two people from flyertalk for drinks at the Four Seasons. Beer there costs about 3-4 times as much as in less rarified atmospheres. I went out to dinner with one of them. No turkey was on offer, so I settled for duck for Thanksgiving.
  
• I toured Prague Castle on Friday. I did the short tour ticket, which gets you into the Cathedral of St. Vitus, St. George's Church, the Palace, and the Golden Lane. Highlight is Land Rolls in the Palace. I also bought a marionette in a shop on the Golden Lane.
  
• I also went to the Toy Museum, just outside the Castle. The Barbie collection is particularly impressive.
  
• Then I walked down to the Lesser Town (Mala Strana), stopped at a cafe, went to the Church of St. Nicholas, and meandered a bit.
  
• Walking back to the Old Town over the Charles Bridge led to a bit of trauma. I was a little ways onto the bridge, when a woman started screaming. I looked down to see what had happened - and saw a body on the pavement below. My assumption is that this was a suicide. Very disturbing.
  
• I took a ghost tour on Friday night. The guide tried to hard to sound spooky and, overall, the tour was so-so. It was also bloody cold out.
  
• I took a tour to Kutna Hora on Saturday. The highlight was the Bone Church, which is simply bizarre.
  
• After coming back, I meandered around the New Town. The architecture of the Jerusalem Synagogue is also, um, notable. The word "garish" comes to mind. Walking back to the Old Town, I was impressed by the Municipal Building. I also stopped in the Tyn Church to see the grave of Tycho Brahe.
  
• Overall, it was a good trip. I saw enough to feel satisfied, though I could always use one more day.
  
• Flight from PRG to FRA was fine. FRA is still the second worst airport in Europe (behind CDG). Flight from FRA to IAD was on old configuration 777, which has crappy seats. My footrest was broken, so I got a skykit (compensation certificate, which gets you a choice of either additional frequent flyer miles or a discount on a future flight). Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
  

Work: I have now rewritten various parts of a briefing for Friday at least 736 times. Please let this week be over.

Endangered Languages: Since the subject is one of my minor obsessions, I went to a lecture on endangered languages at the Smithsonian last night. The first speaker, an anthropologist studying Zuni, was poor, reading from her notes and not engaging with the audience at all. The second speaker, a linguist working on the Zapotec family, provided something of a crash course in field linguistics, which was a lot better. SHe also spoke interestingly about different ways of describing spatial relationships. The final speaker was a man working on revitalizing the language of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. He was very engaging, especially in his comments about how heritage languages evolve to include concepts the ancestors would not have known about. All in all, it was a good program.

Fabric of Survival: Before the lecture, I had time to check out this exhibit of the art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz. The exhibit is a series of fabric collages (with embroidery) depicting the life of a Holocaust survivor. The pieces are remarkably detailed and well worth seeing.

Monday evening, I went to the Australian Embassy (hence, the Oz in the entry title) for a program on "Contemporary Perspectives on Fiber and the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef." There were four speakers - three museum curators and an artist - who discussed textile art, the DIY movement (especially things like yarn bombing), and the reef. Mostly there were pretty pictures, though there was some discussion of using fiber art to increase environmental awareness and everyone gave at least lip service to the intersections between art and science. The most interesting speaker was Matilda McQuaid from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum who talked about similarity of technique between fiber used for art and fiber used in industrial applications.

Afterwards, there was a reception - cheese and crackers and fruit and little sandwiches and heart-shaped cookies, plus Australian wines. I talked with some other people who had worked on the reef, mostly about how much fun it was. I had a more serious conversation with a group of other women about the denigration of artwork by women ad how craft gets characterized as less important than non-functional art. All in all, it was a pretty interesting evening.

By the way, for those of you who haven't seen it, the reef is at the Museum of Natural History on the Mall until 24 April. The museum is free so you really have no excuse for missing it if you're in Washington.

I also wanted to mention this article about the impact of last names on people's behavior. I sent the article to Robert, who hates waiting in lines and told him perhaps he is just one of those poor, impatient Z folks. He was dismissive of the whole thing and claimed he could not remember any impact of his last name on anything in school, except possibly sitting in the back of the room. When I thought about it, the only time I remember choosing anything based on alphabetical order had to do with choosing gym classes in high school. Some classes would fill up and I suppose that one could be traumatized by having to take folk dance instead of tennis. (Actually, I recall being equally traumatized by all gym classes except for folk dance. I also remember folk dance including the hustle and the bus stop, but I don't want to think about what that says about my high school and/or the 1970's.) Anyway they alternated which end of the alphabet they started with, so it was us folks with nice sensible names in the middle of the alphabet who got scarred for life.

What was your experience of alphabetical order when you grew up?