Lee's Ferry

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For the start of our Grand Canyon Experience, we sloughed off our excess luggage in the Hooters parking lot and shuffled on to a bus. We traveled through the arid landscape under ever-changing clouds.

On the bus, our fearless leader asked us to share who inspired us and what we hoped to get out of the trip. Eventually, we reached Lee's Ferry. We checked into a motel and dispersed for naps, hikes and/or beers according to our tastes.

Julie, Grace, Helen and I decided to start with a hike. The Cathedral Wash trail sounded nice, though our map was a bit cryptic.

We headed toward the Lee's Ferry ranger station and the Navajo bridge (or rather bridges; one for vehicles, one for pedestrians). We got our first glimpse of the mighty clear turquoise/green Colorado River. More on that later.

The ranger tried to discourage us from the hike we had intended to go on - apparently it's a big wash area and if the thunder was indeed a sign of a rainstorm, we'd pretty much be toast. (Soggy toast swept out in a giant flood? Maybe the metaphor doesn't quite work.) So we walked into the middle of the pedestrian bridge to tempt fate in our own way.
It was pretty steep:

Once it started to rain, however, we split up. The sensible folk went back to the motel with its covered beer garden and socialized. Julie and I decided to head into the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area.

It was exhilarating to walk out and explore in the desert as we got muddy.

I liked this rock formation, which made me think of Hamlet meditating on Yorick's skull ("Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."):

This mushroom-shaped rock fascinated me. There was a French family posing by it for a while (you might dimly see the children to the left of it):
I got ready to catch the top-heavy rock, of course:


Here is a balanced rock:


Eventually, we found what we believe was the Cathedral Wash trail area - though we did not go down into it. The grooved, sinuous sides of the wash reminded me of old-school baths:
Reluctantly, we started heading back so that we'd have time for dinner before orientation. It was a good thing, too, because the path was a lot longer and more hilly than we'd remembered.

We were able to relax and enjoy a good part of the evening with our fellow rafters before KJ started explaining why we needed to rush out and buy replacements for things that some of us had deliberately left behind in Las Vegas. Grrrr.

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The Grand Canyon Experience

N.B. This is the first of nine posts about my trip.
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We flew into Las Vegas for the start of the trip, which meant I had to actually leave the airport and enter the city. One of my fellow-rafters shared accommodations with me, so after dinner we walked from Rafting Central (the Tropicana, chosen - I kid you not - for its proximity to Hooters) back to the hotel. En route we milled around for a while in front of Bellagio's with a crowd that had gathered there. Ducks floated on the water, so I was a bit skeptical that something was going to happen. Then, suddenly and noiselessly, little metal sticks poked a centimeter out of the water. The ducks quietly disappeared. and the show began:




I was dismayed, however, to discover that we did not really need to leave the city limits to have the Grand Canyon experience:



N.B. This is the first of nine posts about my trip.
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Schunemunk Mountain Hike

The day dawned clear and bright, and "Crazy Vic" graciously drove around 3 boroughs and Long Island to pick people up for the hike in his SUV-van.

After a few wrong turns thanks to a malfunctioning GPS, an uninformed policeman, and a spacey kid, we made our way to the GW Bridge and set off for the Catskills.

We joined another 20 hikers at the meeting place, Ed gave us his spiel, then we set off through a meadow where we soon encountered ... a diamondback rattlesnake!! It doesn't look that big in this picture, but I think it was over a meter long. It was a bit uncomfortable with us, so it shook its rattle fiercely as it slithered across the path into a more auspicious side of the meadow:

A slightly closer look at the moving rattle:

Disappearing into the tall grass (look very carefully):

Oddly, our group did not blend in quite as well in the meadow, even though Oscar was wearing green:

As we entered the forest, we alternated between rock scrambles and soft soil, steeps and flats, with plenty of twists and turns and abundant wild blueberries. We stopped for lunch at the monoliths:

Everyone took lots of pictures:

Ben showed off his rapelling skills as Mischa and everyone else watched:

Villo gave it a shot too, starting a wave of first-timers who wanted to get a jump on the rock-climbing lessons scheduled at the gym next month:

Lee stationed himself on the rocks below to capture the descents:


Several people tried the descent, but after one guy slipped a few feet, our leader called a halt. It's probably better to start at the gym....

We made our way down the mountain to complete a nice 7-mile loop, then 16 of us reconvened at a diner near Woodbury Commons. I believe it was called the Bright Star Diner. The waitress was incredibly kind and accommodating -- she actually gave us, at our request, 16 individual separate checks. (As opposed to Cassidy's, near FAPC, which fought us when we tried to get 4 checks for 16 people, divided naturally by tables of 4.) At any I hope everyone tipped generously at the Bright Star. I did my part, leaving more than 100% tip on my delicious and satisfying $4 meal.

June, But Not Jejune

June seemed unusually busy this year, or at any rate it sped by.

I missed the Independence Day fireworks, but I caught the fireworks after the NY Philharmonic concert on June 24 (early clip):



From closer to the finale (listen for the quote of the day: "I wish I had my camera"):



And even better, I caught the fireflies in Battery Park after a performance of Macbeth (accompanied by a public service announcement from Stephen Burdman, director and artistic director of the NY Classical Theatre):



Very short (approx 11 seconds) video clip from "Vedi, le fosche" (Verdi's Il Trovatore) sung by the Metropolitan Opera Chorus on June 20 in Prospect Park:



June 26, I saw an a cappella concert. A newly formed barbershop quartet, Highline, sang a lot of songs about love and longing. We got front-row seats, but the lighting was not very flattering:



Highline was opening for an all-female a cappella group, the Metropolitones:



On June 27, I went to South Street Seaport to see the Waterfalls. I was somewhat underwhelmed. I'm sure they were a tremendous feat of engineering, but they don't look incredible way out in the East River, dwarfed by the neighboring bridges.




New York Classical Theatre takes a bow after performing Macbeth in Battery Park:



Earlier in the month, I saw another Laura Brenneman concert. Here's a VERY short clip so you can hear a bit of her sound:



This was her biggest gig so far, held at the Bitter End. It then morphed into a surprise birthday party for her at Madame X. Pretty cool.

Movies I plan never to see

include, among many others, "The Love Guru" with Mike Myers. But one line jumped out at me from Nathan Rabin's review in The Onion:

"silly names aren't just the foremost weapons in Myers' comic arse-"

It's really funnier to read that phrase than the whole sentence, but feel free to see if you can fill in the rest.

Typo of the Month

From an article entitled "First Same-Sex Weddings in Greece," as published in the New York Times online on June 4, 2008:

"Gay activists [in Greece] have warned that they may now begin to sue any of the country's municipalities if civil authorities resist requests for similar sax-sex unions."

Perhaps the civil authorities prefer sax and violins.

Aphorisms

He who hesitates is lost, as they say. But it is equally true that he who is lost, hesitates.

Metropolitones - Video Clips

Three more clips from the Slipper Room in June:

Luckiest:



Farewell:



Improv:

NY Philharmonic in Central Park

The vibe was different in Central Park, somehow, than in Prospect Park. Maybe it's just that people were just more aggressive about staking out their turf (note the pink tape outlines extending beyond the blankets):

In addition, we were further from the stage - or at least felt further without the giant screens to show us the orchestral details:


Our crowd was relaxed and happy, with three bottles of wine to share:

Maybe some of us were even too relaxed:


The people next to us were tremendously well-organized. They staked out a huge area with four matching blue plastic tarps, and they fenced their space on the back with a row of 6 or 7 coolers filled with food and drink. Very impressive. But some of them found it necessary to rest from their labors as well:



I particularly appreciated that they included the 1812 Overture in the program - it features what Bill Watterson's character Calvin called an "interesting percussion section." Of course I also love that it gives me an excuse to tell people about the justly-neglected 1712 Overture (a beautiful spoof, with balloons popping instead of cannons).

The fireworks afterward were nice - that's always a favorite. I have some video clips of them, and might upload them later if I'm not feeling too lazy.

Metropolitan Opera in Prospect Park (rev)

There was apparently a threat of rain on the summer solstice, but the evening was clear and bright. (In fact the rain held off until we were hiking back from Slide Mountain on Sunday, but that's another story.) Audrey and Jai set up plastic linings for a picnic blanket:

The process of preparing the plastic lining turns out to be surprisingly long and complex, a delicate operation indeed. Meanwhile, my Indian tablecloth (sans lining) is held down with a pitcher of homemade sangria:
Jai, Ryan and Audrey in the warm glow of the setting sun:
Patricia puts on a brave face after walking down from Grand Army Plaza:
A small child is perhaps not entirely sure he/she wants to be big sister's doll:

Stella has her priorities right - she is amazingly well prepared and sitting pretty:

Finally, after ample speeches from politicians proclaiming Brooklyn to be the crown jewel of something or other (New York City? the United States? the universe?), and Prospect Park to be the crown jewel of Brooklyn, etc., etc. (after all, it is an election year), Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna made their appearance. They were large as life and twice as natural on screen:

Ms. Gheorghiu went through numerous changes of outfits over the course of the evening -- reminding me of a Hindu wedding I attended -- but her closeups always featured the same two musicians. (I think they were harpists, but I won't swear to it.) The one on the right chewed gum pretty much the whole time; I'm not sure if he realized he would be so immortalized:

The music was lovely, in any event, and the screens were wonderful - you can get a lot out of seeing the expressions of the singers. It meant, in effect, that we had much better views for free than we did after laying down the big bucks ($15.00) for Family Circle tickets at the Met. Plus, the screens meant you didn't have to be right near the stage; screens dotted the meadows far behind us, even out of sight of the stage. (It would be nice if the NY Philharmonic would use screens too for its Central Park concerts, but I guess they give us fireworks instead.)

Yes, another outfit:


Five of the 12 selections were Verdi, which pleased me tremendously. (I saw Ryan annotating his program after Verdi's "Vedi, le fosche" from Il Trovatore -- that's certainly a fun one.) There was a Donizetti as well, from Lucia di Lammermoor. One aria was by David Alagna, and the story is an interesting one. Mr. Roberto Alagna told the Playbill interviewer: "I read the book [Victor Hugo's novel The Last Day of a Condemned Man] in 1996, ... and the words inspired something musical in me. So I called my brothers and asked them to try to write an opera. They said that I should write the libretto first, which I did. I sent it to Frederico, who rewrote it in a much better version, and then David composed the music." I realize musical talent does run in families, a winning convergence of nature and nurture, but it's amazing to have a family where you can call up your brother and say, hey, this is cool, write an opera for me.

In any event, the 12 selections on the program were apparently just to whet our appetite. The singers and orchestra were prepared for encores. And not just 1, 2, or even 3 encores. I think I lost count after the fifth encore.... They were clearly having a blast. It was so nice, and very exciting, but my thoughts started to turn to preparing for my backpacking trip the next morning. It would take me a while to get home, and I had (ahem) not yet begun to pack. Ultimately, I slept for 4 hours and then threw everything together at the last moment before heading up to the West Village to meet Bryan and Mark... each of whom were also somewhat sleep-deprived.