Last night Michael and I finally saw the cinematic masterpiece Night of the Lepus. Giant mutant killer bunnies on the rampage! I got it from Scarecrow Video where you can get anything. Oh my god this movie was great! We watched bits over in slow-mo and laughed our asses off! JoJo watched and got some pointers on world domination. If you can get a hold of this movie, watch the first half for the "special effects" and skip the second half if you want to. The first half has awesome close-ups of blood-drenched tooth-baring giant rabbits. The second half is just many scenes of rabbits running through miniature sets, and then of people killing them.
Michael and I kept wondering how the bunny wranglers got the rabbits to bare their teeth so much. Bitter paint on their teeth? Glue on their gums? I hope it wasn't to bad for the rabbit "actors". Every once in a while you'd see a person in a bunny suit, too, for those scenes which a rabbit actor just couldn't pull off.
I put together a montage of our viewing experience. I hope it inspires you to get the movie some day!
Sunday afternoon I got back from a week at Fiddle Tunes up in Port Townsend. Oh god it was heaven! Fiddle Tunes is week of workshops in American traditional music styles, and it takes place in Fort Worden where participants and faculty live, learn, play music, and party for a week solid.
I camped out in my huge cabin tent in a string of campsites filled with friends. This is luxury camping! We camp in the RV area, so we have electricity and water. We set up light decked canopies, dining tables, and a kitchen complete with electrical appliances.
Many people come to camp, jam, and go to the dances every evening, and these folks are usually up until 3 or 4 every morning. Participants going to all the workshops have to be ready to think by 9:30 am, though, so I tried to be in bed by 1am each night. It was hard!
This year I took banjo workshops with Kelley Breiding from Back-Step (that's them on the right) and Band Lab workshops with the band as a whole. Back-Step are from Mount Airy, NC and play Roundpeak style Old Time music. Nick McMillian plays fiddle, and his dad Chester McMillian plays guitar. What a nice bunch of folks! They were very patient with slow beginners such as myself, and they made sure we all "got it". I had my first experience of confidently playing up to speed with a band. It was exhilarating! In the Band Lab we learned Cotton-Eyed Joe, Fire On the Mountain, and Sail Away Ladies. In the banjo workshops Kelley also taught us Chilly Winds, John Henry, and Back Step Cindy. I can't begin to express how much fun I had even though it was also hard work! Kelley kept joking that we were going to"win" the Band Lab concert, so at the end of the concert we gave the band a trophy. I found a "golden" goblet at Goodwill for $1.99 and painted "#1 band Lab Fiddle Tunes 2008" on it along with their names inside the cup. I noticed on their MySpace page they have a photo of our Band Lab playing labeled "First Place Band Lab: Misstep!" You can also see the trophy on the floor in front of them in my YouTube clips of them playing their Saturday night concert. Here's a video of us playing Cotton-Eyed Joe for the Thursday night Band-Lab dance.
I also joined the World Choir led by Daniel Steinberg. I haven't sung in a choir since 6th grade, which wasn't such a good experience. But I did sing with Les Femmes d'Enfer and I also took voice lessons for two years, so I have much more confidence and skill than I did when I was 11 (at least I hope so). Anyway, I thought I'd give the World Choir a whirl, and boy am I glad I did! We sang a traditional South African song called Ipharadisi; it was a pretty simple but very cool song. Then we sang Tango Malena. Wow. I didn't even know you could sing a tango since I think I've only ever heard instrumental tangos. This tune has amazing lyrics, melodies, and harmonies. I didn't get a record of our final performance, but I do have a recording from rehearsal with Bertram Levy playing the accordion with us.
Aside from the fun banjo and vocal work, I had plenty of Fun fun, too! Every night after dinner there was a concert showcasing the faculty's and participant's talents. Every night after the concerts there were two simultaneous dance halls going with contras, squares, Cajun, honky-tonk, swing,Cumbia, you name it. But of course, the best part was our campsite's annual silly hat cocktail party. Laurie and I, being the clothing extroverts we are, had elaborate costumes and hats, but many people traditionally make hats from whatever junk they can find at or around their campsite. Some others are experts at raiding the local Goodwill for weird hat parts. Check out my Flickr account for the hats.
I feel like I could go on and on and never capture the joy! Come to Fiddle Tunes and find out for yourself. If you're a musician or want to be, come on and participate. If you just love to listen and dance, come and camp with us and party!
Some evil bastard in my neighborhood has put out rat poison.
PAWS called me and I found out about the fate of my squirrel. She was blind and slowly and painfully dying from eating rat poison. Thankfully, PAWS was able to put her out of her misery before dying got a lot worse. Now I'm worried about my Bijou, all the neighborhood wildlife, and people's pets.
Because of this, I did a little research, and it turns out that just weeks ago the EPA laid down the law on distribution of rat poison. Unfortunately, rat poison manufacturers have 3 years to comply.
I'm sad and angry. And now Bijou wants to go out into the sunshine and I can't let her.
I know I don't blog much these days, but life has been just rollin' along. Today was exciting though! This afternoon I noticed a very tired squirrel in our back yard. He was crouching motionless on the ground with his head down and his cute little nose touching the ground. He looked very healthy with a nice fur coat and bushy tail, but I have never seen a tired squirrel before. I got on a pair of gloves and a pet carrier, and these are the results:
Squirrel: Safe in the carrier. Julia: Not so safe with the gloves.
I was able to walk right up to Mr. Squirrel and grab him, which proved he really was ill. But then he perked right up. He screamed. He bit me. I screamed. I dropped him. Then I persevered and nabbed him again a little closer to his head and shoved him into the pet carrier. He screamed and growled again, threw his little body against the bars, and then huddled in the back. That pretty much was the end of his efforts, though he growled again at Michael when Michael moved the carrier a bit.
Luckily, squirrels rarely are rabid and especially not in Seattle. Also, I'm up on my tetanus. I took Mr. S to PAWS, and hopefully they will be able to do something for him. The last critter I brought them, a mountain beaver, didn't do so well. The mountain beaver had baylis and was put down.
In other news, Fiddle Tunes is coming up! I'm looking forward to a week of music, partying, dancing, and banjo larnin'. Last year I had a blast. I had a disappointment recently, so as a consolation prize, I bought myself a Tascam digital audio recorder. No more low quality cassette recorder, piles of cassettes, bags of batteries, and endless hours sucking the cassettes into my computer. Yay! I feel so 21st century.
We also got a new dishwasher, but that's not so exciting. Just convenient!
I just finished reading Julie Andrews' memoir Home. I really love Julie Andrews, and the book was a great read. One of the most interesting things I learned was that Julie Andrews' first album was a joint venture with Moondog! What a combo! In 1957 they collaborated on a recording of children's songs called "Tell it again" - Songs of Sense and Nonsense. This album seems to be out of print, but the songs are included on Julie Andrews' album Once Upon a Time. I'm gonna be gettin' me some of that.
We had a fabulous weekend of sunshine and highs in the 80s or lower 90s. Or so I hear. I worked all weekend, and when I finally got outside after work, the days were a little overcast or simply getting dark. Today is overcast but still warm, so maybe Seattle has finally warmed up from its cold spring. All of a sudden the clover flowers are blooming, much to JoJo's joy. I brought a handful home for her today on my way back from the gym, and she gobbled them up.
The Wollemi pine I got almost a year ago has burst out with a nice layer of new growth. I like the way the tender little needles are all stuck together at the ends. The little pine is definitely bigger than last year, but it's looking a little scraggly just now. Maybe I'll wait to do a full photo on its adoption day in June.
This morning Michael and I saw our first begging baby bird. We call these "dumb birds" because at first glance they look adult sized, but they're all scruffy, wobbly, and look around with a dazed expression. Here's a short video of a house sparrow getting fed by his dad from the bird feeder:
This year we haven't had as many baby birds around as usual. Unfortunately, no one moved into my Nest Cam nest box. I'm very bummed. Last year some Bewick's wrens moved in, but this year, nada. Also, we used to have several families of sparrows or finches nesting in the eaves of our house. They had pecked through then screening on the vent holes under the eaves and were actually inside the attic, though just inside the eaves. I used to enjoy their loud begging in the morning, though it woke up Michael. This winter a rat moved into our attic, and we had all the holes plugged. No more rats, but no more baby birds. Oh well, it's better for the house this way.
I have today off, but a bazillion things to do. I hope I can enjoy the outdoors a bit!
Early on in the day Michael and I went to the SAM to catch the Roman Art from the Louvre exhibit before it leaves at the end of the week. It was a wonderful exhibit, filled with sculptures, reliefs, and mosaics which I usually only see in books. I especially liked getting a very close-up view of the intricate mosaics. And of course I always love the jewelry! Even though we got there at 11:30am on a Wednesday, the place was packed. Way to go Seattle! I haven't been in the SAM since it was renovated, and it was pretty spiffy. It had a much more modern feel than I remember. I really liked the sculpture Mann und Maus; an enormous matte black mouse sits on a sleeping man.
After a thrilling afternoon of coding and composting, Michael and I headed out again to go to Corteo, the latest Cirque du Soleil event to visit Seattle. Sometimes traffic to the East Side and parking at the show can be awful, but we got there with plenty of time to spare -- until I realized I had just left my wallet at the restaurant where we ate dinner. Duh! After rushing back to get it, we made it into the tent with 2 minutes to spare.
As usual, it was an awesome show. This year there were no bizarre costumes or makeup, and the acts revolved around ordinary things such as chandeliers, big bouncy beds, and large silver hoops. I actually was refreshed by the change, but some people probably missed it. The lady in the picture below was a mini-lady, and she was harnessed to a set of enormous helium balloons which made her almost weightless. She crowd surfed the audience as they helped her launch herself around the room with dainty boosts to her feet. I want one of those contraptions!
My oldest child Bijou turned 14 on May 5th! Such a big girl! The oldest I've had a cat live to is 14, so I'm crossing my fingers she goes on for many more years. I think she will!
We had a bit of a scare earlier in the week with JoJo. She got very sick and stopped eating and pooping after a round of diarrhea (all over the living room!). After a few days of tempting her with fresh picked clover, she's back to her regular bouncy self. We think she ate some stuffing from the couch and got blocked up. Silly wabbit!
Apparently, I am either cursed or I have a death wish. Yesterday I:
Woke up with a knot in my back, a stiff neck, and a headache.
As I trotted up the stairs, I tripped and sprained my big toe. Owchie.
As I hobbled up the stairs, I stubbed my sprained toe.
Sitting safely (I thought) on the couch, I whacked my hand into the coffee table while playing Super Mario Galaxy on my new Wii. Video games *do* cause violence.
While making dinner, I burned the same whacked hand *twice* with steam.
Now because of my swollen black and blue toe, I can't go to my aerobics class or my bhangra dance class tonight, which is probably just as well, for my own safety.
On a nicer note, after the coldest spring in Seattle since the 50s, Spring has finally arrived! Saturday was about 70 and blazingly sunny. I sat in my new blue Ecuadorean hammock and reveled in the sun and warmth. It was cool again Sunday, but today is clearing off again. I'm really ready for this! I've been checking my NestCam, but so far no activity.
I am a librarian in public libraries. Outside of work I love to go dancing with my husband and play music. I play 5 string clawhammer banjo, and I have also played rhythm with Cajun bands since 1994. I love to garden and nurture plants. I love world travel, and I have been to Egypt (6 months), England (6 months), Scotland, France, Italy, Greece, Thailand, Hong Kong, Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia, Russia, Estonia, Ecuador and of course Mexico and Canada. I'd love to go to the Galapagos next. Anywhere I go, and inside the US, I love to go hiking and boating and see the real beauty of nature. I live with my husband, a cat, and a rabbit we rescued from Woodland Park. And now we have our son Zane, born 8/15/09!
Last night Michael and I finally saw the cinematic masterpiece Night of the Lepus. Giant mutant killer bunnies on the rampage! I got it from Scarecrow Video where you can get anything. Oh my god this movie was great! We watched bits over in slow-mo and laughed our asses off! JoJo watched and got some pointers on world domination. If you can get a hold of this movie, watch the first half for the "special effects" and skip the second half if you want to. The first half has awesome close-ups of blood-drenched tooth-baring giant rabbits. The second half is just many scenes of rabbits running through miniature sets, and then of people killing them.
