biking, signatures, and pseudohistory

Biked with annathepiper yesterday (mostly in 3,5) to U. Village to meet up with somebody I know from off-LJ, and also so Anna could buy a couple of books she wanted, one of which the local bookstore didn't have in stock, and run a couple of other errands. I wanted to get a new battery recharger, too - our old one was acting kind of odd the other day, and then a couple of days ago it killed two C-cell rechargeables, so that's no good. But they didn't have any at Radio Shack, gir.

Friday's miles: 19
Miles out of Hobbiton: 802
Miles out of Rivendell: 342.2
Miles to Lothlórien: 124.2

Today I'm trying to work up the nerve to get off my ass now and go collect signatures for I-937, the renewable energy initiative. Today's Opening Day, which means crew races and a boat parade, and also a lot of people on public property where I can hopefully get some names.

Unfortunately, being, you know, terrified of people, this is difficult.


Sovfoto Dacha

I was actually trying to shoot a picture of the heron (lower right) but couldn't get in far enough. We have a lot of herons around here. But somehow it came out all grainy and, well, kind of Soviet looking. So there it is, a new-old Sovfoto picture of some party official retreat in the foothills of the Caucasus or something.

( meme )

how i spent my saturday vacation

Opening Day was great. I wish I hadn't forgotten spazzkat's camera. The Russians totally brought their A-team this year for the Windermere Cup, so no p0wnage by UW this year; they won a bunch of the lower level races - the women's races were particularly hard-fought and generally very, very close - but failed to defend either cup.

The men's race in the Cup was very close - less than half a boat length, it looked like.) Canadian teams and Greenlake teams didn't do very well overall, and it was very strange to see U. Cincinnati have a team in one of the races. I wouldn't think the Ohio would make for much of a practice water, and, well, they kind of had directional problems. I had a good enough view that I could see their lead rower go "HOLY SHIT LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT" which dropped them out of contention even for fourth in their five-boat race.

Oh, and I biked down to it.

Saturday's miles: 13.8
Miles out of Hobbiton: 815.8
Miles out of Rivendell: 356
Miles to Lothlórien: 110.4

What's really fun about watching from the Montlake Bridge - it's closed for the whole day - is watching the boats start from the east side, running across the metal-grate road surface that you can see through with the lead boats, and then watching them row to the finish on the far west side. That's just neat. I love walking on the metal road surface, since you can see all the way down to the water, and it's directly below your feet, five stories down, with nothing between you and it but air and grate - where you can see the water, it's just a straight shot. Not even glass. That's cool.

Anyway, then I hung around for a while to collect signatures for I-937. I got 35, which was not as many as I'd hoped, but better than nothing - the weather was, well, our typical spring weather (cloudy and cool) but this year everybody bailed as soon as the races were over. There were still people hanging out for the boat parade, but not the numbers I'm used to seeing.


High Contrast Flowers

Then tonight we went and saw the first in the Seattle Symphony's American classic music of the 20th century festival, and I have to say, it's the best experience I've had in a classical performance chamber. There were a total of six pieces - three, an intermissino, and then three more; Ken Benshoof's in Shadow, light had parts that I thought got kind of academic, particularly in the second movement, but the first, third, and fourth movements were just wonderful, and the cellist just ran away with the piece whenever it gave her something to do. The second half started off, for me, a bit weak - James Matheson's Buzz felt rather self-indulgent to my ear - but George Perle's Sinfonietta I made up for it, and then Derek Bermel's Soul Garden completely blew me away. I seriously dislike that title, but honestly, it was the most amazing piece of modern classical (yes, yes, I know) music I've ever heard live. kathrynt (who was performing with the symphony chorus in the first piece, Love Songs, which I also quite liked) and I ran into each other in the lobby after the lights came up and were babbling at each other about it, so I know it wasn't just me.

Thursday they're doing some Philip Glass pieces. I need to see how much those tickets cost. If we can get cheap seats, maybe we should go. ^_^