Last Week In the Desert

We had some rain this week. For a while our mountains literally disappeared. Then they came back to life

 

 

 

 

 

Out at Sabino Canyon we saw puddles and some interesting reflections

 

 

 

We also saw that more rain and snow in the mountains had an effect on the bridges over Sabino Creek. 

 

 

 

Some inconvenience for tourists and walkers is of course one sign that spring is already underway here,  Everywhere we walked this past week we could see small  signs that moss and ground cover were starting to green up.

 

 

 

In previous years, from my sheltered position in the mid west, I generally thought the desert was a dry and monochromatic place.  Now I rejoice in the various color stages of the prickly pear

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or the bright flowers of the Barrel Cactus 

 

or the splendid march of a line of Saguaros,

Birds are not too evident yet but some are making their presence known.

 

 

 

 

 

I mostly try to avoid fiddling with the color of photos though I do often crop an image to help focus its central point of interest.  Below is a color image that I turned into a B&W.  It's my favorite image of the week.

 

What do you think?

Moby Dick: A Play Review

A review of the 2020 Rogue Theatre production of Moby Dick as adapted by Cynthia Meier and Holly Griffiths

 

How does one comment on a play that so audaciously attempts to distill the essence of arguably America’s greatest novel, Moby Dick, into about two and a half hours.  Suffice it to say that this production doesn’t cover all of the hundreds of pages of the novel, but it sure gives it a run for its money. Let me say upfront that it is totally engrossing, intense, dense, inventive,  visually entrancing, and acted with the kind of total conviction that only a close knit and dedicated company can provide.  

 

The adapters, Cynthia Meier (also the director) and Holly Griffith chose to give us a good deal of Ishmael’s narrative in a straight forward stage manager style and then allow the dramatic scenes to flow seamlessly into focus. The novel is pretty much devoid of female presence, but Meier and Griffith come up with a trio of women to enhance the theme as well as portray multiple characters, sound technicians, and invisible stagehands in the Japanese Noh tradition.  The women are personified as the Three Fates of Greek mythology, who spin the threads of human destiny. In antiquity Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis dispensed it, and Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual’s moment of death).  In this production they are called the Severer, the Spinner, and the Measurer. Meier notes in the playbill that the word “fate” appears 23 times in the novel and the inclusion of the Fates as characters in the play seemed true to the spirit of Melville’s thinking about free will vs determinism. From my point of view this decision was crucial to the success of the drama on stage since it turned a philosophical argument into visible theatrical conflict. While opening the cast to more female players, it also led to many of the most moving visual effects. To Meier and Griffith go the accolades for coming up with this vehicle.

 

Like many of the audience who have read the novel, my exposure to Moby Dick dates to an undergraduate literature course some fifty years ago. A more recent memory is of the movie star Gregory Peck standing at a mast and raging at the elements like a mad King Lear.  The Ahab of this production, as portrayed by Joe McGrath, was a more compact physical presence and definitely not wildly attacking the universe or his nemesis the great white whale at every moment.  McGrath’s Ahab seemed more reserved, more cool, more rational, more practical in his pursuit. “Make me a new leg” he says to the carpenter and let’s get on with it. Finally, though, he still wants his revenge at all costs and like many tragic heroes before him he finds the cost to be fatal. I must admit to being not quite so happy with Aaron Shand’s Ishmael.  I wish he had brought a more nuanced basket of vocal shading to his narrative. Was he expecting too much from the music and lighting to deepen the emotional coloring in his narrative?  He held the ground, but I was not feeling a compulsion to listen to him.

 

While speaking of music let me give Russell Ronnebaum’s musical direction and composition  a large shout out. Accompanied by percussionist Paul Gibson the live  music provided a constant underscoring that helped to merge the voices, the choreography, and the music into an operatic whole. We were seated right next to the musician’s visible position and can attest that they literally became cast members.  At one point Ronnebaum was timing the live action while tapping a drum cradled on his chest with his left hand and also playing the  piano with the other hand.  Stupendous!

 

Among other members of the cast, I found Ryan Parker’s Starbuck and Jeffrey Baden’s Queequeg to be particularly worthy of mention.  And Owen Saunders, as the youngest member of the ill fated crew, made me shed a tear as he was enclosed in a sad but loving embrace by Patty Gallagher’s Morta.  Though not given many lines a good deal of the fluid choreography of Daniel Precup  fell to the movement patterns executed by the three fates-- the Ms’s Gallagher, Booth, and Griffith. The Oriental theatre and Mary Zimmerman once again provided the impetus for the striking use of billowing fabrics together with lighting to manufacture the illusion of giant whales  entrapping ropes, and the seething  ocean.  These effects, although produced by minimalism,  easily embodied the profundity that Melville was intending.   

 

Throughout this production Meier’s stage pictures are varied and masterful. These include among many  “Thar she blows” shouted from the crow’s nest to the crew below and the remarkable illusion of a thrown harpoon delivered to the hands of a Fate and then carried off stage toward an unseen target.  I was also taken by the progressions from day to night to dawn while the crew becomes ever more weary under the pressures of heat and hunting.  The ensemble was king here. Their focus was supreme. Each pull on an oar, or rope, or their laying down to sleep, or their freezes to shift back to the narrative seemed impeccable. Their physical control and their concentration came right down to tiny manifestations like a mouth open suspended in the midst of a word, a hand held high with finger pointing, a body tensed and held caught in the action of pulling on a rope.

 

We are left to think about all that has befallen Ahab and his crew. The biblical parallels are both telling and ironic. We experience the tale of Jonah and the whale at the beginning and complete it with a flood that drowns all but the survivor who floats to salvation on the coffin of a non-Christian. There are many  threes to think about. There are the three Fates and the  three chances to spear the mighty whale.  I was also reminded of the three witches in Macbeth which allows us to end with a full complement of the tragic ironies that befall the obsessed from Oedipus to Macbeth to Ahab. At the end their hubris sucks them all down. At the deadly yet beautiful end of this production  Ahab and crew surrender to the enfolding billowing arms of the sea. Nothing remains but a bleached white carcass on a far flung shore. 

 

Jim De Young

January, 2020

 

 

Our Winter Nest

Welcome to the Villas at Sabino Canyon

It is a small mixed residency gated community where we have chosen to lay our heads for those days when the Midwest can be cold and icy. You punch in the enter code and make a quick right turn.

 

When the gate opens you just drive straight ahead, but watch out for the speed bumps.

Parking for permanent residents and long term guests is under a shaded ramada. 

                                               The moutains are almost always in view.

Our unit is on the ground floor. An identical apartment is on the floor above. 

Welcome!

The unit contains two BR's,two Baths, a living room/dining area, full kitchen, and a small semi-enclosed balcony that looks out over the mountains. Below is the living room with the

dining area off to the right.

                                                                               

                                                                  Here's the kitchen.

The rest of the rooms are accessed from a central hallway.  To the right is the master bedroom, and the folding laundry doors. To the left is the 2nd BR. At the end of the hall is the 2nd bathroom.

                The master bedroom has a queen bed and large windows that open onto the balcony.

This bedroom also has a large walk-in closet, a sink, and another room with the private stool and bath/shower beyond.

The second bedroom is smaller, but can sleep three.This room has an in-the-wall closet and  storage area with sliding doors.

The second bath is at the end of the central hall and contains a sink, stool, linen closet and a bathtub/shower.

           The central hall also contains the laundry area that can be shut off by folding doors.

                                  All units pick up their mail at this little kiosk near the front gate.

The heated pool and hot tub is accessible by key to all residents. There are a number of chaise lounges and small tables around the pool and also a shaded ramada that can be used for picnicking.

The prime units face north or east and have fine views from their windows and balconies of the   Santa Catalina mountains. This is our balcony and it is shady most of the time.

                                                                       


But it looks out on the mountains each afternoon and each day seems to present a slightly different look of color. Sunset gives you the best display and that can be augmented by a refreshing cocktail.
                                                                           

Sunrise also can present some varying colors. 

                                                                               

On one occasion last year we had a surprise snow fall that really changed the view.

                                                                                   

The interior units generally have entrances on the parking or road side, but their main windows and balconies open onto one of two landscaped interior spaces. The one below is a desert environment.

The other interior area has a lawn.

The Villas are just about a five minute drive from Sabino Canyon and there are plenty of restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, and a nice branch library within easy driving distance. We have been here for for five years now and have found that it meets all our needs.

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Return to Sabino Canyon

We are starting our fourth winter in Tucson and today as the temperature reached into  the 70's we took our first short walk of 2020 in Sabino Canyon.  I must admit we do love that place. It's five minutes from our comfy condo and there we can almost immediately be transported to a land of incredible natural beauty. Welcome to the desert--an environment I had never thought I would find appealing.

We headed off past the Ramada where tram riders wait for mechanized transport up the canyon and almost before we could catch our first glimpse of the roadside trail, a friendly Roadrunner gave us a nice hello.





In another fifty feet we were on the trail proper and spied a hummingbird at rest.

A hundred yards further along  the machine gun rat a tat tat of the Cactus Wren filled the air.

When the wren vacated his perch, old man moon moved in and took his place.

And always Sabino Canyon surrounds you with the majestic Giant Saguaro.

This was only a fifteen minute late afternoon walk, but it demonstrates why it is so easy to fall in love with this spot?

Of course it's also why we hurried back to our condo where we could look out of  our living room and sip a cool drink while watching the Santa Catalina Mountains turn red in the setting sun. 

Jim and Jan's Christmas Letter for 2019

Volume XLVI                                                                                                                               December 25, 2019 

Christmas 2019

Dear friends,

 Each year I seem to begin with “I can’t believe that I have been writing this Christmas Epistle for such and such a number years.  Writing Roman numerals this large is getting to be a challenge. I hope  XLVI is correct for 46.  Another challenge is finding something amusing or entertaining to say about the state of our world at present.  I guess I will settle for a strange congruence since I wrote the first of these letters in 1973 and Watergate was an item mentioned. It was sad then and remains sad now. So here’s my funny for 2019.    Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding people that stops facts from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 

Now down to what’s what for this past year.  Jim and Jan still do most things together. We work at the Warren County History Museum, we support the Friends of the Library, we  attend meetings of the Warren County Democrats, we shop together,  share the cooking, and read widely and avidly.  Jan is a life member of the American Association of University Women and spends mucho time on  Equal Pay,  Voter registration,  and STEM projects. If she  hadn’t taken a tumble on the way to the Monmouth College Christmas Concert the other night  and sprained her wrist, the entire year would have been hunky dory.

 Jim continues to try to keep up with the theatre scene, write in his blog, and work with Rotary.  He has found a new to him detective series by Louise Penny and has been trying to read all the earlier ones. Two major projects this year have been organizing an open house  for our 60^th  (can you believe it) wedding anniversary  and taking a Road Scholar Small Ship Lewis and Clark cruise on the Columbia River.   You can read more about our trip and see pictures right here on the blog. Look in the archive of posts on the right and open Novembr. From there you can find post number 1 and go through the whole trip.  Monmouth is still our home, but we did also manage a three month getaway to Tucson last winter.  With a bit of luck we shall head back to the Southwest shortly after Christmas.  

Break time for a  theatre funny:  “ If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?” 

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far far away, the  Helsinki Finns (son David     daughter-in-law Lotta, and our two granddaughters Frida and   Selma) continue their life abroad.   We saw David briefly in Minneapolis last summer, but have not seen Lotta and the girls for over a year.  Both the young ones are growing  like weeds.  Frida is 7 and  is now in school. She is taking music lessons and has just passed her first swimming test. Selma is 4 and goes to what the Finns call  Paivakotti.  She loves to dance and sing and draw.  

We are  looking forward to a visit from all of them in Tucson in February.  Lotta continues her therapy practice and David continues to work for the Kone Elevator company, which was mentioned in a recent article about life in Finland in the New York Times.  He will also be participating in a  low-residency New York University MFA  program in poetry beginning in January.   

Time for another intermission:  Did you know that the term “piker” meaning cheapskate or cheater grew out of people who tried to evade the cost when they came up to a pay station on the first toll roads? 

Back to business. The Brown family of Amy, Todd, Taylor, and Mikel all still hang out in Iowa.  Todd, on the left,  had had a good year until two herniated disks put him in the hospital for emergency back surgery.  Up to that time he had been given more supervisory duties at his work, went on a major fishing trip with friends that netted the family and us some delicious salmon fillets, and rode his Harley to the Sturgis SD Motorcycle Rally.  Amy, on the right) remains the caregiver for all humanity and she has had a workout this year with Todd’s back, Jan’s fall, and various friends with problems. School for her this year has blessedly been an upper as she has a smaller and better class.  She is also taking a couple of continuing education classes to keep her certification up to snuff. 

Grandson Mikel,on the right,  is a senior in High School  and will be doing his final year of baseball this spring and summer.  He is still working part-time  at the Play Station and somehow he and Mom and Dad have also  been doing the “looking at colleges” dance.   Mikel’s current interest is in the wildlife and environmental management area. I think he would make a wonderful park ranger.  Grandson Taylor, on the left, has finished his formal education for now and is working full time as a nationally certified Paramedic in a small town near Des Moines, while also doing some hours with some old friends at the Hiawatha, IA,  fire and rescue department. He is a busy young man with a crazy schedule. The picture was taken at a Cubs Spring Training game last March.

For my final funny of the year let’s ask this question.  Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?  Are they afraid someone will clean them? 

Thanks once again for reading our letter this year and for many of you over many years.  May you find great joy and blessings in the promise of this Christmas Season even in these troubled times.  Think about keeping only cheerful friends; grouches tend to pull you down to their level. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jim and Jan De Young