Starting Today: What a Day to Lose the Batteries!

January 3, 2011

What a Day to Lose the Batteries!

This is just a quickie...maybe better suited to a format like facebook (shudder), but I just have a couple minutes and have to whine to you about something EXTREMELY annoying.

You should have SEEN the sun this morning!!!!!! It rose as a deep orange globe casting a straight column of color across an even-more-iced-over Lake Michigan. You know how I took all those great pictures yesterday? Well, it killed the batteries in my camera and I didn't have any spare AAs with me...so I MISSED being able to capture and share this incredible image!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I'll be on my way to the store directly to pick up a few.

My SWE (symphonic wind ensemble) audition today went ok. I played really well except for 2 key high notes--one at the end of Copland's Outdoor Overture (dangit!), and one at the end of his Ceremonial Fanfare (double dangit...even though the rest of this particular excerpt went better than I'd ever done it before...yay for that at least?). The Pines of Rome bits were my strongest--if (a BIG if!) I end up with a solo on SWE's upcoming recording, I'm betting on Pines...I was hoping for Outdoor Overture though...oh well.

1 comment:

Iffer MitchellJanuary 3, 2011 at 10:40 PM
Thanks for telling of the audition. I was hoping it went OK Bummer about the batteries. I hope there will be many more sunrises that equal this one that you missed capturing. At least you got to see it with your eyes: )
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Great Books I've Recently Read

If you are looking for an "astronomical" read, Tyler Nordgren's "Stars Above, Earth Below" Is a great place to start. Nordgren explores a wide array of astronomical subjects by relating them to the processes, landscapes, history, culture, and dark skies that are so beautifully on display in our National Parks: solar system volcanism alongside Yellowstone National Park; Cosmology, Deep Time, and Deep Space alongside the Grand Canyon; Climate Change and the "Goldilocks Zone" alongside Glacier National Park; the life cycles of stars, and archeoastronomy alongside Chaco Canyon...and many more. The book is loaded with beautiful images and illustrations, and Nordgren's conversational storytelling makes complex ideas both accessible and memorable. The ideas in this book have enriched my own experience of observing, and I recommend it to others with two big thumbs up!

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A beautifully written book that illuminates one of the most quietly pressing issues of our time: the slow advancement of light pollution into our night sky. True darkness, and the natural light it permits, has been a source of inspiration for creative thinkers throughout history. It is crucial to our physical and mental health, personal safety, and continuing connection to the world around us. Its gradual disappearance behind a fog of orange skyglow is a tragedy that many around the world are working hard to prevent. Provocative, subtle, practical, and poetic, "The End of Night" reminds us that we need not fear the dark, but should instead embrace and protect its wonders so that future generations will still know first-hand the arc of the Milky Way sweeping across a deep sky.

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Starting Today

January 3, 2011

What a Day to Lose the Batteries!

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