Classically Modern at Houston Ballet October 18, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Events.Tags: Houston-Ballet, Maddy-Prior, Molly-Glentzer, Stanton-Welch
add a comment
I’m very glad Mediæval Bæbes inspired Stanton Welch to choreograph such a beautiful dance with such beautiful costumes. The music, my first exposure to the Bæbes, reminded me of an English woman called Maddy Prior who headlined a series of groups performing modernized medieval music, starting in the 70s, I think, and did a better job of it. Also on the program I admired the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy) and Balanchine’s illustration of Bizet’s Symphony in C. Molly Glentzer wrote about them both on the Houston Chronicle web site; all readers of my low-traffic little blog will already have devoured Molly’s articles.
Rice Alliance October 18, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Events.Tags: algae, entrepreneurs, Rice-Alliance, venture-capital
add a comment
I ought to start my business blog, but I wanted to say something frivolous about the Energy and Clean Technology Venture Forum, so I’ll write it here. I went there on 9/25/08 to observe how entrepreneurs handle themselves at a Rice Alliance event. Top takeaway: I wish I knew how to engineer algae! Forget clean energy, my first creation would be algae that could clean litterboxes. (And I want to name-drop: Brad Burke and Kerri Smith and the others on the team do a superb job of organizing these events.)
Hurricane Ike September 21, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Uncategorized.Tags: hurricane ike
add a comment
Neighbor Kari
The hurricane swept through Houston the night of September 12/13. Howling winds, but not that much rain, by hurricane standards, the storm moved fast. Our neighborhood is still without power a week later. Tree debris is piled in front of every house even though the city has been round once to pick up. The picture shows neighbor Kari getting her exercise even though her gym was closed. A branch fell on my patio and broke the water pipe leading into my condo. Neighbor Jim Bogel plugged it with a wine cork and duct tape but it burst again after 24 hours. A plumber capped it, but no parts stores were open to get what we needed for a permanent repair. I still have no water. Fortunately Françoise has a gas stove and a gas water heater so I have a refuge.
Caterpillar (18-year-old cat) was a casualty of the storm. She had not been well for several weeks. The stress of the storm and of conditions afterwards were too much for her. She died of kidney failure at the vet’s 3 p.m. Wednesday 17th. Françoise buried her on Thursday.
Sleeping Beauty September 21, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Events.Tags: Dominic Walsh
add a comment
It takes a lot to get me to an outdoor performance but I’ll follow Dominic Walsh Dance Theater (DWDT) anywhere, especially when Leigh McBurnett invites me to the VIP picnic before the show.
My standard gripe about traditional ballets (and operas) is they are so often based on such silly stories. DWDT’s genius is to have woven a more modern and plausible setting without losing the outline of the archaic fairy story. They made Sleeping Beauty a rebellious, narcoleptic, teenager whose finger is pricked by a heroin needle instead of a spindle.
Dawn Dippel and Matt Dippel reprised their roles from last year. Amy Cain intimidated the stage and the audience as the evil Carabosse. Newcomer Beth Everitt took over the Lindsey McGill parts as mother Sylvia (and lead typist). I heard later that Lindsey was on the hill checking out the performance. I think Beth will survive the scrutiny. The new apprentices in the company were extremely extrovert as christening guests and disco dancers, and visitor Vincent Lopez displayed amazing body language in at least two roles.
I hope DWDT gained some regular followers out of the huge audience at the Miller. Very much looking forward to Titus Andronicus.
Mildred’s Umbrella September 21, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Events.Tags: Mildred's Umbrella
add a comment
Here I am playing arts critic…for the real thing look at Everett Evans or Nancy Wozny’s reviews.
Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company was “rendering” (Mr. Evans’s word) a play by Mac Wellman called “A Murder of Crows”. Everything about the production was first-class except the script degenerates into near-nonsense. I don’t think most people minded the near-nonsense because the cast was great, even their diction was good throughout, the set was supportive, the video was not intrusive (for once), the costumes were clever, especially the dancing crows, and as for the lighting, well, I didn’t notice it, which Ms. Wozny told me is a sign of success.
It was a pleasure to watch Ms. Stryk as the daughter, Ms. Schlag as the mother, and Mr. Hall’s performance and delivery as the resurrected father were superb but I have no idea what he was talking about, it was like listening to a politician.
Cotton is no more… August 29, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Animals.1 comment so far
Françoise’s dog Cotton died on Wednesday 8/27/08 after an amazingly short (36-hour) illness. On Monday she was limping but we put it down to her mild arthritis. However, on Tuesday morning, her shoulder was very swollen and she could hardly move around. The vet said some malignant cells were visible under the microscope. Cotton came home with painkillers, but she didn’t last the night. She was about 12. I was her assistant caretaker. When I worked at home, she often spent the day with me, and consumed ham snacks at lunchtime. We are receiving e-mail tributes written by other dogs, probably some of them have logons to wordpress and will comment here.
The evils of corn-fed beef August 29, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Uncategorized.add a comment
Thursday eve., 8/28, I was at Rice University Jones Business School to listen to a talk by the journalist and documentary filmmaker Bill Kurtis about the grass-fed cattle he is raising on his ranch in Kansas, see www.tallgrassbeef.com. His main pitch is that it is unnatural to feed corn to cattle and it only happens because corn WAS so cheap and plentiful and subsidized. Corn-fed beef has higher fat and the wrong balance of omega-this and omega-that, and bad e-coli strains, but what was really scary was his tirade against the use of antibiotics in feedlots, which is resulting in harm to humans. A lot of this information seems to originate from a book by Michael Pollan. I was surprised that Mr. Kurtis did not place much emphasis on the humane treatment of cattle during his talk, but the issue was raised promptly at question time. That’s an important factor to me, I’m embarrassed and ashamed by the treatment of farm animals. I still eat them, though.
P.S. The Rice Alliance gave Bill Kurtis an excellent cowboy hat which completed his rancher image like nothing else could!
Clear Skies Party August 23, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Events.Tags: Houston, modern dance
2 comments
Wednesday evening (8/20/08), forswearing two other conflicting invitations, I went to the back room of Armando’s for the season kickoff of Dance Source Houston. Lot of people I knew and a lot I didn’t. Before this post turns into a gossip-column-style list of who was “spotted” there, I want to record a very short example of why I admire these dance people so much (me clumsy, them not). I watched as Becky Valls, who has been a famous dancer and choreographer and teacher in Houston for a long time, said her goodbyes with strikingly graceful and expressive body language, whereas my own departure style is to mumble “well I’m off then” and stumble away quietly, hoping not to trip on the carpet or bump into the doorpost on the way out.
Gossip-column time. Choreographers spotted at Armando’s: Sandra Organ Solis, Sara Draper, Karen Stokes, Toni Valle, Catalina Molnari, Leslie Scates, and the two Urban Souls co-directors. Critic spotted: the one and only Nancy Wozny comparing notes with CC Connor about their pre-show talks at the Houston Ballet (they use notes? Who knew?!!). And of course, surrounded by all her supporters, President Christina Giannelli.
Back in Colorado August 20, 2008
Posted by tobyatkinson in Travels.Tags: Avery Tomlinson, Ed Tomlinson, Sally Lincoln, Thane Tomlinson, wounded soldiers
add a comment
Ed and Barbara (see Cast list) are living in Highlands Ranch, a southern suburb of Denver, after an absence of many years in OK and CA. They threw a party for family and old friends on Saturday 8/18/08. There’s a cute video of a 3-year-old trying to swat a bee up on Thane’s blog. Our famous painter friend Sally Lincoln was handing out postcards from her collection of portraits of wounded soldiers. Jim Wolff and Pete Gill, now both pillars of Trizetto, completed the non-Tomlinson segment of the gathering.
