A Random Assortment

~ Don't forget to listen to Molly Drake (above).

~ Gender and the Ukrainian upheaval:

“I can’t drink any more tea, but they keep bringing me tea,” he said. “We are even joking now, telling the women, ‘Stop, you are making the defenders of Maidan fat.’ It’s really pleasant, and we really love these brave girls and even grandmothers who offer us tea.”

~ Garance is making stationery?! Yes please!

~ Ditto Bill Cunningham's photography exhibition.

~ "Science study: Republicans struggle with evolution, Democrats struggle with the Earth going around the Sun"

~ Great: Genetically modified babies. (Also here.)

(I promise to do something more than to post links at some point. I'll tell you about Elizabeth Bennett's wedding, for instance, or show you pictures from Vienna. In the meantime, I'm just trying to make it till Spring Break!)

A Random Assortment

~ Pope Francis auctions off his Harley.

~ The Russian Police Choir singing Get Lucky before the opening ceremony makes me laugh so hard. (HT: Hopkins)

~ Paris' possible plans for unused metro stations. (HT: Myrrh)

~ Ohhhh! Nick Drake's mother, Molly Drake's songs are released for the first time!

Traveling

It's quite a February: two wedding weekends in a row.

Ainadamar

Sadly, not my picture.

The Academy of Music is lovely--of course we had nosebleed seats, but such is life. (We've been spoiled by the Orchestra seats we've been getting through the symphony rush.) The building is grand, although the lobby is small, which leads to lots of traffic jams, since the theater holds a ton of people.

Ainadamar is about the life (and especially death) of Federico Garcia Lorca, poet and playwright in Spain until his execution during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The opera is told from the perspective of his girlfriend/muse, Margarita Xirgu, who plays Mariana Pineda, the main character/martyr for another revolution from Garcia Lorca's first play (who is also from his home province of Granada).

The opera's story and its frame (Margarita Xirgu passing the knowledge of her craft, as well as her revolutionary ideals, to her student, Nuria) are compelling and dramatic, at least in the first two acts.

The third act, however, is an entirely different story. In the third act, Margarita Xirgu is dying, passing on her ministry, her memories of Garcia Lorca, her testimony to the revolution, to Nuria. Garcia Lorca mysteriously returns to go with her to her death. In the first two acts, Garcia Lorca is alluded to as a Christ figure, with references to his martyrdom and his crown of thorns. Just typical literary stuff. In the final act, it's just all over the top: Nuria, Garcia Lorca, and Xirgu form a trinity at the head of a last supper tableau. They hand out pamphlets (scriptures? plays?) to their eleven followers (they dispensed with Judas early to avoid the betrayal?).

The end of the opera did for me exactly the opposite of what was attempted, I think--it emphasized more than anything before to me how important it was that Jesus didn't come to make a political statement, but rather for a religious, human life-changing purpose. While politics is important (heavens, I'd better think that, what with my chosen field of study) and working toward political change is a noble endeavor, political change is limited in its end. Jesus had an even more radical and comprehensive and revolutionary purpose. Thank goodness He didn't just seek to overthrow a political order.

Twitter

Part of a last-ditch effort to ward off deepening Snow Depression.

Twitter

Reading the weather forecast is clearly a terrible idea.

I don't think I have SAD, but I'm pretty sure I have the newly diagnosed Snow Depression.

What Makes Man Different from Animals.21ish

What sets us apart, he argues, is that “we’re the only animals who cook food, and no other species is as destructive of its own and other species”. 

--"What Sets Humans Apart" (the whole thing is interesting)

Safe and Warm and Thankful!

We're back (in our heated) home; our pipes didn't freeze; and we couldn't be happier.

A Random Assortment

~ SuperPope!

~ On the ineffective security spectacle that is the TSA.

~ Oh my goodness--this kid naps with his puppy. So, so cute. (More pictures here.)

~ On the importance of play in children.

~ I am loving The Sartorialist's Rural Farm, Pennsylvania series (here, here, here, and here). They remind me of my Little House on the Prairie cousins.

Rant

I know I'm hitting the max rants-in-a-row before Mama Leopard starts harassing me to be more positive, but I'll risk it, since the circumstances are extreme and severe: We have no power; our house is freezing (it was 48 degrees when we left); we have no alternative heat source, so we're coffee shop crawling.

Note for when we have our own house: Make sure you have a heat source that doesn't depend on electricity or, preferably, live in a place that doesn't get this cold.

Thankfully Sayers and Mr. Sayers will take us in tonight, if the power stays out. (And TB and another friend offered us their houses. I am very thankful for friends.)

Rant

Guys: I hate winter and this is our coldest and snowiest in a while. Just about weekly, Philadelphia has a significant snow. Our yearly snow average is 10 inches; this year, we've had over 37 so far; it's only the beginning of February. And today is another big snow. (It's calling for snow and sleet on Wednesday, too.)

Also--for about the last two weeks, the highs were all under freezing. Thankfully, this weekend it hit 40 degrees--it felt positively balmy. But one of the days that it was not as cold as usual, there was also an air quality alert that discouraged people from exercising outdoors. Great.

Also--this is the first time that Francisco or I has ever had a driveway to shovel. This year we've got a decent sized driveway, a long sidewalk, precisely one shovel, and a big bag of salt. Not our favorite winter. (On the plus side, we do have a carport, so no more digging my car out of drifts of snow.)

I'm seriously contemplating a move to a more southern climate--San Diego, anyone? Or, for an East Coast alternative, Charlottesville or Asheville?

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Ain't Them Bodies Saints won a Sundance Film Festival award for cinematography. And, indeed, the shots are lovely, although at times you just feel like you're rewatching The Tree of Life (it's also set in the timeless South) or watching a movie made with instagram.

The problem is, unlike The Tree of Life, the plot is conventional--and so the film becomes simply a vague and at times unclear story--rather than Malick's poetic and imaginative hints and glances at the confusion of childhood.

And then there's the title. It makes no sense to me--I can't see any meaning in it, nor any tie to the film. IMDB says: "According to Casey Affleck, the title is the director David Lowery's misquotation from lyrics of a song and has no actual meaning. " Wow. 

Friday Phone Dump

I haven't done this for a while, so there are pictures on here that go all the way back to September. This is a fountain in a little park in the Italian part of South Philly.

This is from the Avett Brothers concert TB took me to at the Mann Center--an indoor/outdoor concert space in Fairmount Park.

Cute little male/female spoons from our shared (terrible) froyo. I refuse to return to our neighborhood froyo place.

One of my favorite things is weekend breakfast in bed.

The view from my (office) window in the fall.

La Colombe--our new favorite coffee shop in the city. (That pastry is a twist on creme brulee--there's also dough in there. I can't remember what it's called, but it is really good.)

My favorite building on campus (by far):

I love the simplicity and the dramatic shadows.

From the inside of the Kimmel Center.