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Performance: The Felici Trio
I’m amazed to learn that these musicians are based here in the eastern Sierras, in Mammoth Lakes. It may have to do with being starved for good music, but my jaw dropped several times during this performance. Brian Schuldt on cello and Rebecca Hang on violin both played expertly as far as I could tell,…
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Movie: The Hours
A stark look at several characters throughout the 20th century dealing with depression and insanity, contemplating whether suicide is justfied when life has become unendurable. Although the movie’s message comes through clearly, the story line and the role of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway in the screenplay can be confusing, especially if like me you…
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Movie: Offret (The Sacrifice)
A dense, strange, stilted Swedish movie that follows some high-bred characters as they grapple with isolation after the onset of world war III. Its philosophical monologues and symbolic characters seem to have potential, which kept us watching. Either they never panned out, or didn’t seem worth the effort to follow. In the end it felt…
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Charcoal Kilns
On our way down from the Telescope Peak trailhead we stop to peer at these odd constructions. Designed by Swiss engineers and built by Chinese laborers, these kilns burned piñon pines into charcoal for the Modock mine 30 miles south. They were operated for three years, then left as perches for the ravens and whatever…