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Live Music: Olga Kern and the Rochester Philharmonic
After another exhausting day of moving, we pile into the Subaru with essentially no preparation to see Olga Kern play Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto at the Gerald Ford Ampitheatre in Vail. We’re delirious. We don’t even bring a sweater, we’ve been so continually hot these past days. When there is something resembling a snow shower…
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Movie: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
This was a good way to unwind from a long day of moving. The material I’d expect was all there, and still funny, but the timing was a bit off or something. It didn’t quite click along like the radio show. Of course it wasn’t twelve hours long either. The sense of bewilderment at the…
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Into the Belly of the Whale
Moving into Moby Jane is not easy, but there are pleasant surprises. There’s room for some books, files, pictures, the KitchenAid, and quite a few clothes without even hitting the outside storage. The more we move in the freer we feel. We can’t resist trying to put the awning up without reading the instructions. It…
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Closing Time
The closing on our new home almost went badly. It started well – when we turned into the Heron Lake RV park on Friday afternoon our new fifth wheel was headed through the gate right in front of us. Suddenly, being almost ours, it took on a sudden, lustrous beauty. The white land whale was…
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Movie: Animals Are Beautiful People (1974)
The populations of Namib, Pre-Namib, and Kalahara deserts are examined in astounding anthropomorphic detail. I think I had heard of this film because of the footage of animals getting drunk on rotting fruit, but there is plenty of other amazing footage. If I didn’t know the film was made in 1974, I’d swear some of…
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Movie: Sideways
One movie was not quite enough for full yard sale recovery, so we set our laptop theatre up on the back porch to watch Sideways. I’d heard that this movie was credited for a big boost in Pinot Noir sales, but I couldn’t imagine how a movie could have that kind of influence. I still…
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Movie: The Interpreter
Ann and I were both impressed by this character drama about a white woman from a fictional African country working as an interpreter in the New York UN building. The setting is interesting, and the characters stay pretty real. Ann, having grown up in Zaire, was irritated by a detail here and there (the one…
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Yard Sale
Stage 2 of our possession liquidation is complete! We got a good taste of the garage sale culture in Fort Collins, got rid of quite a bit of stuff, and made a little scratch. There was a distinctive first wave of persnickity bargain hunters starting at about 7:30 am. One guy switched some price tags,…
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Book: Lying on the Couch / Irvin D. Yalom
I haven’t read a page-turner novel in a long time, and this one was supremely satisfying. I’ve read some of Jung’s case histories with fascination, but it never occurred to me how a powerful a ficional device psychoanalysis could be. Combined with a good story and enheartening values, I’m impressed enough with this work to…
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Movie: The Cliburn – Playing on the Edge
A documentary of the 2001 Cliburn piano competition. It’s a refreshing change of pace to take a look at some real people doing extraordinary things. The music, though, is almost overwhelming. Contestants invariably select the most intense pieces, and the documentary of course shows the most intense segments – it makes for almost exhausting viewing.…