2009.5.30. Heather Lake.

Still a lot of snow approaching the lake, and on the lake. Muddy trail. 4 miles RT.

2009.5.30. Seattle Symphony

James DePreist, guest conductor 
Smetana:      The Bartered Bride Overture 
David Stock:  Cello Concerto (World P remiere, Joshua Roman, cello) Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances

Joshua Roman did a solo encore. Stock's piece is a eclectic collection of pieces stolen from masters.

2009.5.28. PNB

Pacific Northwest Ballet's new production.
Dances at a Gathering (Frederic Chopin/Jerome Robbins)
About 10 piano solo pieces. Some are distinctively Robbins. Some don't sync with music all that well. Almost an hour long.
After the Rain pas de deux (Arvo Pärt/Christopher Wheeldon)
Spare. Semi modern. Just 10 minutes.
Symphony in C (Georges Bizet/George Balanchine)
A grand season finale, neoclassical splendor, full corps. 4 movements.

2009.5.24. Below the Belt

ACT. Judd Hirsch, John Procaccino and R. Hamilton Wright in this farcical skewering of globalized corporate culture. Somewhere, in an anonymous factory cranking out units of some unnamed product, three men try to maintain some semblance of humanity and self despite a crushingly conformist and hypermasculine bureaucracy. Witty yet bitter dialogs. This play of Richard Dresser's was premiered in 1996. Taken from his own work experiences in the factories in his earlier days. Still rings disconcertingly familiar. Great actors. Clear articulation.

2009.5.21-6.16. SIFF

Seattle International Film Festival Opening gala at Paramount Theatre. Packed. Quite a few speeches, donation collection, one cute short film on "without SIFF" (using many local celebrities). A UK movie In the Loop was shown at 8pm (1 hr after the start). 4 of its makers came on stage. A political satire. The lens was too shaky, lots of foul language, funny but very fast dialog, I couldn't get all the jokes. Probably better to watch on DVD, where subtitle is available.
Party afterward on 9th ave. One row of food, one row of drinks. Recorded music, 4 static SIFF projections turning on the wall. Lots of people, many dressed up. The best food (out of maybe 10 providers) was by Hyatt (especially the soup). The paella was impressive (huge pan, colorful food). A couple of stalls ran out of food by the time I squeezed to the front. 2 drinks per person, one kind of rum cocktail, one kind of beer, some wines. Nothing interesting. It gets pretty chilly, and with all the alcohol and grease, I went home feeling sick, wondering why people paying $50 for this.

2009.5.22-6.16. I've never seen so many movies in such a short period of time. Total 27 screenings/movies during the festival (+ my rating):

• The Cove (5/5) is the only must see. USA. A well made documentary, expertly shot and edited, a badly needed exposure of brutally killing of dolphins in Japan. The director Louie Psihoyos answered quite a few questions after the screening. Other movies I saw:
• Tengri, Blue Heaven (4/5). Kyrgyzstan. is extremely scenic, a simple and well shot love story shows life on the central Asian steppes. However, nothing profound.
• Wild Field (4/5). Russia. A nice sketch of a doctor's life on the Russian steppe without enough medicine, not much story and focus is a bit off.
• Fear Me Not (3.5/5). Denmark. An off beat story well told. A (not really depressed) man signing up the clinical trial of an anti-depressant pill leads to some unpleasant consequences.
• Beast Stalker 证人(3.5/5). Hong Kong. Police action. Good plot and scene arrangement. Hand held camera. Slight social commentary. Too much melodrama. Too much coincident.
  
• ShortsFest Opening Night (rearranged):
  • 2081 (4/5): a Kurt Vonnegut story. USA. 28 min. A runaway prisoner gets on to national ballet broadcast, challenges the handicap general. Well shot, good music, powerful images.
  • The Baker Shop Ghost (3/5): USA. 17 min. A dead baker haunts the new owners until the right one. Warm, well shot.
  • The Herd (2/5): Ireland. 4 min. 2 farmers talking about the new addition to their cow herd: a deer. Shaky camera.
  • Love (2/5): UK. 15 min. A couple reminiscent their happy past, while the husband kills the wife on her request. Too long.
  • Photograph of Jesus (3.5/5): UK. 7 min. An archivist recounts some of the strange inquiries for photographic images from his agency. Mostly editing.
  • Short Term 12 (2/5): USA. 22 min. A caregiver begins to wonder if he’s no better off than the kids he's trying to help. Shaky camera. Banal.
  • Post-it Love (5/5): UK. 4 min. Office romance played out with post-it notes. Charming.
  • Next Floor (5/5): Canada. 12 min. A dinner party poses challenges to the service as it keeps moving to the next floor. Ironic, fun, original, well shot.
• Garbage Dream (4/5): USA. It's about Cairo's garbage collecting community, their school, their youngsters, their challenge from foreign competition. Almost no English.
• The Market, a Tale of Trade (4/5): Turkey. A cable seller promises the local doctor to buy medicine in Azerbaijan. Hurdles and trades before and during the trip.
• El General (3.5/5): Mexico. A mosaic of old newsreel, audio recording of Calles' daughter, and random interviews of people in Mexico City during the 2006 presidential race. Not much history. Well organized with limited material.
• Machan (5/5): Sri Lanka. Entertaining, dotted with social commentary. A mismatched group of poor people forms a handball team to participate the international tournament in Germany, in order to escape the current life. Based on a real story.
• North Face (3.5/5): Austria. A good story, climbing and reporting climbing. Faithful to the real attempt in 1936 of Toni Kurz and Andy Hinterstroisser. The scenery is short of expectation. Hand held camera.
• Forever Enthralled (4/5): China. Biography of Mei, LanFang. Expertly made. Well portrayed characters. Even though well into the 3rd hour, many events are sketchy, and doesn't cover how he learned and trained to sing and perform.
• Marcello Marcello (4/5): Switzerland. A charming, feel-good, love story in a small Italian town. Wide screen, nicely fit for Cinerama. Nice scenery and music. Still too much hand held camera shots.
  

The rest of the movies are not worth the time. They are (in order of time of viewing):

• The Other Bank (3/5). Georgia. A refugee kid in Tbilisi couldn't take his mother's profession (prostitution), travels to his war torn home in Abkhazia region, encounters bullies and also kind people along the way.
• Rain (2/5). Bahamas. a school girl newly arrived in Nassau from a sheltered life, has to deal with her mother's drug addiction and poverty.
  
• Tulpan (3/5). Kazakhstan. A returned sailor tries to build a life in the steppe as a sheep herder, only if he can find a wife first. Shaky camera, nothing special.
• Beket (1/5): Italian version of Waiting for Godot. Black & white. Surreal, broken, incomprehensible.
  
• California Company Town (1/5): documentary of a list of small towns abandoned by a company (lumber or oil). Last on the list is Silicon Valley, with no comment. Very slow, and no theme, dull. Cheaply made.
• Mamma Moo and Crow (2/5): friendship between an odd cow and a grumpy crow. Very childish. Swedish cartoon is way behind Disney and Japanese. A nice touch by the film organizer: a guy was reading all the subtitles.
• Treeless Mountain (3/5): two sisters were sent away in the Korean countryside, waiting for their mother. Well shot, many of cloud scenes, slow. Nothing special.
• Fig Trees (3/5). Canada. Too verbose, an opera + documentary of AIDs activists. More editing than new footage.
• Back to the Garden, Flower Power Comes Full Circle (3/5): documentary. 20 years after the hippy gathering in eastern Washington. Most of the interviewees and their children kept their old beliefs, and lived with nature. Some went back to the mainstream. Sold out. Director, his wife, and many interviewees were present.
• Cliente (3/5). France. a young construction worker works as gigolos for old ladies on the side. Problems arised when his wife found out.Funny dialog at times.
• Laila's Birthday (3/5): banal (but almost sold out). A taxi-driver's day. Okay for foreigners like us to see the daily lives of Palestinians.
• Manhole Children (2/5): Japan. Too lengthy and shaky camera. Documentary of 3 children who lived in manholes in 1998's Ulaanbaatar. 6 years later when most of these holes were sealed, and capitalism flourished, and again in 2008, their lives were not getting any better.
• A woman in Berlin (3/5): Germany. Very well made. But nothing unexpected. Based on a true diary of a 34 year old woman.

2009.5.17. Tiger again.

This time via the high school trail -> section line trail. First mile or two were very mild. Section line trail was steep, plus the lower elevation start, this makes a good workout. Much fewer people than the High Point start. Crowded towards the top. Half of Rainier is pretty clear, Puget Sound, at least 10 para gliders. Not clear enough to see the Olympics. There's a talus cave, and a nice but very thin waterfall next to this trail.

Direction: I-90 exit 17. Issaquah. Front Street, sharp left turn on 2nd Ave. Park on right.

2009.5.16-17 Cheese Fest

Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. Great weather. Lots of people, lots of cheese. One bakery, one sells olive oil, one sells jelly and jam. Cooking demo and cheese making demo throughout the day. The flower stalls are doing exceedingly well due to the increased traffic. At the end of the day, so many tulips were tossed away. It's heart breaking to see the dumpsters full of flowers. I have tasted so many different varieties that I no longer remember which ones I liked, only bought a few kinds. No need to eat lunch this weekend.


5.16. Polish Extravaganza at the downtown library. A voice group made of people over 50, and a dance group made of kids younger than 13. Colorful costumes.

2009.5.14. Grease

Grease at the 5th Ave Theatre. Energetic. Good lighting design. High school peer pressure. Brainless, but engaging.
American Idol winner Taylor Hicks sang one song, and brought a major applause. He looks rather old to me to compete in kid contests like American Idol.

2009.5.9. Rattlesnake Ledge again

Nice view, nice day, lots of people.

Snoqualmie Falls. Lots of people, lot of water. Red azalea was in bloom in front of Salish Lodge.

2009.5.10. West Seattle Water Taxis. Something that you'd only go when out-of-town visitors come.

2009.5.3. Robinson Canyon

Sunny + hail (not cold). Robinson Canyon in L.T. Murray Wildlife Area. Didn't see much wild life. Some woodpeckers, hummingbirds, 1 deer, 1 other group of hikers, 3 horse trailers. No snake, nor elk. Pleasant hike. First half is along and across a small creek (will probably dry out in a month or two), southern ridge looks interesting. 2nd half, going up the northern ridge, view opens, including Mt Stuart. The drive itself is rather scenic (a few lakes and snow dotted mountains, trees with all shades of green). Minimum elevation gain. Trail is better on the top, than at the bottom of the valley: too rocky, easy to twist ankles.

Among the flowers, I was able to take pictures of Baldhead waterleaf (hydrophyllum capitatum), Rainier violet (Viola trinervata), Woodland star (Lithophragma parviflorum).

On the way back, stopped by Roslyn's Brick for beer and pub food. An old coal mining town, where the TV series Northern Exposure was filmed. Nothing much to look at. (Check out the sign in the photo!)

Direction: I-90 exit 101 for Thorp. At the exit ramp turn right, .75 mile later turn right on Killmoor Road for ~2.5 miles. Turn right on Robinson Canyon Road (the first half-mile is paved) and continue 1.5 miles to trailhead parking at the elk fence gate, elevation 2,200 feet. A WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Vehicle Permit is required ($13).
Trail data: ~1.5 miles from the trailhead to Robinson Creek/Ainsley Canyon junction, ~400 feet of elevation gain. 1 more mile to the high point in Ainsley Canyon, total 1000 feet gain.

2009.4.29. Sunday in the Park with George

Sunday in the Park with George, a musical entirely born out of Seurat's one painting. Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Wonderful music: staccato and repetitive to imitate pointillism, resulting a shimmering and fun effect. Simple, witty stage set, using a lot of projection. Innovative design (for example, the dogs). Its 2 minute 1 sentence opening won a roaring applause. However, the plot is lacking drama and integrity. The lyrics sound silly. Not sure how the 1983-4 productions looked like. Seems to me, the modern technology is essential to the staging, at least to this 2008 revival. I'm glad that Seattle is one of the 3 cities (started in London, and also produced in New York) putting up this refreshing production. It's a pity that not more people can experience it.