Two plays. I forgot to mention in last week's blog that we ventured out for back-to-back cultural evenings. Friday (22nd) at Aurora's small Vintage theater we saw "The Big Bang," not to be confused with CBS's current TV comedy, The Big Bang Theory. The Vintage's two-man cast (plus accompanist) gave an excellent performance. Fast paced and only a bit bawdy. On Saturday (23rd), we were off to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) for "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical." Another excellent production, on a much larger scale, of course. Wonderful voices singing many of Ms. King's songs and others of the era.
A bonus when you fail? A story in Thursday's (28th) Denver Post discusses controversial bonuses that Sports Authority corporation seeks to pay four top officials. You are at least partly responsible for your company's failure and are rewarded? Excuse me, but....
Hawaií statehood. As the momentous day drew near, residents of the soon-to-be 50th state "voted to send the first Chinese-American, Republican Hiram L. Fong, to the U.S. Senate and the first Japanese-American, Democrat Daniel K. Inouye, to the U.S. House of Representatives" Representative Inouye would go on to long and meritorious service as one of HI's sena
WikiLeaks. Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen writes about the long string of leaked documents (many classified) about which nothing was done. Until the leaks about the Democratic National Committee were published. Only now us the administration is concerned?
Still unemployed? It is not often that columnists write about the responses they receive from their readers. However, economics columnist, Robert J. Samuelson, writes about an exchange of emails with a long-term unemployed reader who has become an advocate for others who share her dire straits. Interesting and informative.
What up? It just keeps happening in the universe of twitter, smartphone keyboards, et.al. u = you, 4 = for........ Now it is not "officer" it is "o>>icer". Actually, it is o... followed by two punctuation/spelling marks that are not yet listed among the Emoji symbols on by Firefox.
Reading, non-fiction. Azar Nafis, Reading Lolita in Tehran. For two years Ms. Nafisi, a dismissed literature professor at Tehran University, met almost every Thursday with seven of her most committed female students. The class's reading list, which included Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov, was not without its dangers. Many western novels were "suspect," several banned/burned at one time or another.
She introduces her girls (as she calls them) to the novels of other American authors: Twain, Conrad, Melville, and, strangely, Mike Gold. The first three you are undoubtedly familiar. The last, Michael "Mike" Gold (April 12, 1894 – May 14, 1967) was the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic. His semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money (1930) was a bestseller. If they had but known, the strict Iranian mullahs would have thought Gold, a godless communist, a very puzzling, troubling choice.
As she and her students read and discuss the works of these prominent authors, Professor Nafisi gives the reader a sense of the unsettled Iranian political and cultural climate that she and her students were experiencing, days which included the forcible take over of the American embassy.
See this link for more detailed information about the author, the book, and the times in Iran.
Re a previous blog entry on non-fiction reading, i.e. Secondhand Times: the Last of the Soviets, Svetlana Alexievich. Both Ms. Alexievich and Professor Nafis are acquainting us with their experiences as their familiar known past disappears, the USSR and pre-revolutionary Iran are just gone. To poach Huxley's title, theirs is now a "brave new world."
The Royal Gorge. If you are from Kansas it is the "Arkansas" River; here in CO, we call it the "Arkun-saw". Whatever! The river's gorgeous gorge between Cañon City and Peakview plays host to the tourist train, The Royal Gorge Route. The train's up/back trip can be experienced in a variety of ways from the open air flatbeds with benches to a more posh Vista Dome. It being our anniversary celebration, we chose the latter and watched the many river rafters enjoying Colorado- beef Wellington as the spectacular views of the gorge slid by.
The train passes beneath the world's highest (in altitude) suspension bridge, even stopping beneath the bridge on the return trip for the photographers. Our stop provided the opportunity to see, in "one frame," the bridge, six aerial tramway cars (traveling in opposite directions), and two specks which I at first thought to be eagles gliding near the tram cables. Looking more closely, the specks were in fact two daring zip-liners getting a really "tummy-turning" view of everything from above!
If you come this way, there a quite a few special event trains to consider -- the ever popular Santa train, a romantic Valentine's Day, even a murder mystery evening.
Colorado Day, #140. We celebrate our statehood on August 1st (1876), with all the fireworks (weather permitting) displays booming on the last Saturday in the July. Just down the street, the up-scale 'burb of Greenwood Village provides us with quite a nice show. Cause for inviting friends over for dinner and/or cocktails while you sit in the driveway and enjoy the colorful fifteen minute show. The neighborhood dogs are strangely quiet, many sheltering indoors.
Ten years on (2026) the celebratory sesquicentennial fireworks are certain to be "over-the- top."
19th Amendment, 96 years on: The nation is nearing the 96 anniversary (August 18th) of women's suffrage and that date was one of the stories to emerge from the Democratic convention. For example, Felicia Kahn, a 90 year-old resident of New Orleans, was one of the many women who delighted in witnessing Hillary Clinton's nomination. The number of women (and men) who witnessed that historic final ratification is rapidly dwindling. Somewhere among the convention stories was a "tongue-in-cheek" heavenly tweet to Elizabeth Cady Stanton announcing the historic event.
An anguished mother's reply to Donald Trump. In her op-ed column, Ghazala Kahn provided a grieving mother's poignant, heartfelt answer to Donald Trump's questioning why she did not speak along with her husband at the Democratic convention. Was she not allowed to speak by her husband? By her religion? Another political storm followed, naturally!
To paraphrase Ms. Kahn: "No, Mr. Trump, and if you had any appreciation for true grief and sacrifice, you might begin to understand that my grief was simply too great." Rather, she did write, "Whoever saw me [standing beside my husband] felt me in their heart....When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant....[He] said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means."
Amen.
Virtual tackling. Here is a link to a interesting article about revolutionary changes in the Dartmouth college football program and how their model may be emulated elsewhere.
Helpful mosquitoes (?). The first-ever "do not travel" alert in the US has been issued by the Communicable Diseases Center (CDC) for an area in Miami, FL. Try to totally eradicate these pesky critters? Not so, says this science piece. Seems they do have a vital role to play in the larger scheme of things. Meanwhile: use long sleeves and DEET-laced repellent.
Felicia Kahn of New Orleans
Felicia Kahn of New Orleans
Democrats' vision. In an alternative to Trump's dark America. Michael Gerson begins, "With Thomas Hobbes now firmly in charge of Republican messaging......"Thank you for reading. Enjoy the upcoming week.
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