Thought I’d pass this one along. Over at Treehugger they have a post about the 1914 Galt gas-electric hybrid. That’s not a typo, 1914, 93 years ago. They claim 25 km/L and 30 km on battery power alone. This bets the 1923s Porche I read about a few years ago. Now does anybody doubt the power of Detroit and Big Oil for most of the 20th century?
When I got to the Tri-cities I thought it to to be a wasteland. That’s not completely the case, you just have to look around a bit, maybe under a few rocks. When people got here in the 40s there was dust and farms. So, they had to build things up from scratch and that takes time.
That said the opportunities to hear classical music here is on the light side. Camerata Musica is one of the main organizations that brings this genera to the area. They and the Mid-Columbia Symphony are about the only longer running organizations that I have found. But, the product that they present and the audiences are truly appreciative. With the Camerata especially I’ve found the performances to be very intimate, the performers are as generous as the audience. This is a local music initiative at it’s finest.
The Camerata performance last night was a group from Seattle, Ensemble Electra, consisting of 4 women (Vicki Boeckman, Ingrid Matthews, Margriet Tindemans, and Jillon Stoppels Dupree) on recorder, violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord (respectively). Looking at their bios and some of the conversations in the room it looks as if Seattle is becoming a little enclave for this genera. Musically speaking, a west coast Boston perhaps?
The program was well balanced with some 4 part, late baroque works from Handel and Telemann. They also threw in some solo and 2 part, early baroque pieces from composers I was not familiar with from, Frescobaldi, Merula, Costello, and Marais. If you have a chance to see Ensemble Electra perform take the opportunity.
Juniper Dunes is a National Wilderness about 30 minutes north of Pasco, Washington. Sand is not that uncommon in this part of the country, but usually only dunes form near rivers. These dunes are left over from an ancient flood. There is one trail in that is about 2 miles long, but then it disappears into a dune and you are left to wonder around in the area. It’s quite a contrast to the grazing and wheat fields that surround the area. Here are some photos if you want to have a look.
The area is a trick to get to unless you know where it is and it can only be access via private land. This limits access, for example the north entrance that I used is only open from March - May. It looks like the Bureau of Land Management is negotating more regular access from the south entrance. There were some issue with traffic and people being generally annoying, so the landowner cut off access (linked from here). Until then this area is all the more special.
Until I can convince her to use email, my Mother will continue to send me cards with a letter and several newspaper clippings that she thinks I might find interesting. It’s cute and the retrograde nature of the interaction adds to the experience. I’ve actually been thinking about switching back to handwritten letters, just because nobody seems to do it anymore.
In this batch of clippings Mom send me a joke. “Do you think that religious wars are fought to see who has the best imaginary friend?” Now that baby just opens all sorts of things up wide and I got to thinking too much again.
I was never in any version of the Boy Scouts. My memory of it is my mother asking me in primary school if I wanted to join up and answering her “No, it’s silly.” Maybe it was my eternal distain for all things conformist or the blatant slant of the whole organization. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a new scout organization by my friend Dan, The “Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique.” They state that members are:
So the general idea is to promote science literacy and have fun. Who can argue with that. Seeing that I followed or supported most of those claims and that it was just a cool group of people, I petitioned to become a member and got in!
In the spirit of this merry band I claim my badges earned thus far.
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