Books our Presidential Candidates Should Read

This was taken from the New York Times Summer Reading issue June 1, 2008. I bought the paper just for this response from Lorrie Moore. I loved it!!!

For Obama: "The Portrait of a Lady," by Henry James. A virtuous orphan is plotted against by a charming, ruthless couple the orphan once trusted and admired.

For Clinton: "Macbeth," by William Shakespeare. The timeless tale of how untethered ambition and early predictions may carry a large price tag.

For McCain: "Tales from the Brothers Grimm." In case more are needed.

Go Obama, Go!

Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love

By now it seems most of the folks in the U.S. have either bought or loaned from the library, Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love. I read this book last year when it first came out. While I liked it and recommended it to my friends who had been to India and Bali (they tend to go together on certain people's itinerary's), it was not a great book, and in my opinion does not warrant being on the best seller booklist a year later. However, if you do wish to read a great piece of writing by her then look no further then her The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick piece. I have read this several times now and am always delighted by the way she sets up the story to reach its climatic end. Not only that, it is a just a wonderful story. It can be found in The Paris Review number 141 Winter 1996. I believe it has also been included in a later anthology that the magazine did.

Shakespeare Plays

Shakespeare might be the greatest playwright England as ever had but I have seen more than my fair share of awful productions. Some years ago, I vowed that I would never ever go to see another Shakespeare play, ever! Then, a couple of months ago I read a review of the Actors Shakespeare Project product of the Tempest. This was a new group that had formed just over four years ago to make Shakespeare's plays more accessible, while maintaining the essence of his works. So I went along without expecting to much and wow was I surprised.

The first play was the Tempest which was the best production that I have ever seen. Alvin Epstein who played Prospero was just incredible and Ariel (Marianna Bassham) and Miranda (Mara Sidmore) were excellent as well but had more carefree roles. The director Patrick Swanson did a great job.

Yesterday I saw King John, a complicated messy play if ever there was one. Too many twists and turns. But again, a wonderful job was done by all especially the director: Benjamin Eett, Bill Barclay (the bastard) and Jennie Israel (Constance, mother of Arthur. The venue for this production was the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, an ideal location given the involvement of the church in the plot that was the downfall of John. The director managed to keep the essential bits of the play that helped used understand a small snipet of European history at the time and that politics are politics and they change amazing little of centuries!

For anyone who lives in the Boston area I would highly recommend supporting this organization by taking out a subscription which is what any new theatre group needs to build and keep growing. Aside from the wonderful plays they also seem a great organization. Subscriptions are "open" so there is no need to pick a performance day months in advance, their T-shirts and other goods are "Made in the USA", they are involved with schools and for the Tempest they workd with tenants of a lower income housing development in Cambridge, to involve them in the play which was playing next door. For a four-year old company this is quite impressive and for Shakespeare - he should be dancing in his grave.
www.actorsshakespeareproject.org

War Requiem

I recently had the opportunity to view Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem on DVD. The first London performance of the War Requiem was on 6 Dec 1962, in Westminster Abbey. The performance on DVD was held at Tanglewood in 1963 and was captured by a new TV station WGBH of Boston where I now live. This piece was composed for the opening of the new Saint Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, UK where I was living at the time.

Although I was quite young at the time, I instantly took to the new cathedral although many did not, particularly older folks as it was anything but traditional. I use to visit the cathedral many times and I was always touched by the many items in the cathedral donated by countries from all around the world. As I look at the pictures again, I am not surprised to see how modern the cathedral still seems today. Maybe I should visit it in 2013 for its 50th anniversary!

I am not an opera fan but as I watched the performance I could not help but see in my minds eye the terrible destruction of London at that time as well as the bombed out site of St. Michael’s. And then, perhaps because the text combines the words of the Latin Mass for the Dead with Wildred Owen’s poems from the First World War, I thought about the terrible destruction that occurred in the “War to End All Wars” and then my mind moved to Iraq where terrible damaged has been done in the name of I don’t know what. But there is no doubt in my mind that wars are a total waste of lives and resources. They are the scourge of mankind and yet we repeat them again and again.

There was a huge orchestra (or so it seems to me) for the performance, along with a choir, two conductors, a soprano, a tenor and a baritone. In the orchestra were many legendary players. All was kept in order by the eloquent Boston Symphony Orchestra director Erich Leinsdorf. The last 25 minutes of the concert is likely to bring you to tears as I believe was the intent. For Britten, through his music and choice of poem – Strange Meeting, pleads for peace; for liberation. Something I think we would have agreed with then and now. If you are interested in the DVD it is Video Artists International 4429 or go to their catalogue www.vaimusic.com.

Little Brown Bats

First we had large numbers of honey bees dying, then it was frogs, birds (particularly the American Crow) and now Little Brown Bats.

In January 2007 thousands of Little Brown Bats were found dead or dying in Albany, New York State from what is being called White Noise Syndrome because their noses looked like they were dipped in sugar.

This picture was taken by Al Hicks, from the U.S Dept of Fish and Wild Life Services in New York who was the first person to discuss the calamity. In one year it has spread throughout New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The disease has a mortality rate of 90-95%. This has resulted in two-thirds of Massachusetts Little Brown bats dying with over half a million dead in New England and New York. Fortunately it has not spread to the Big Brown Bat (pictured below) or any of the bats that migrate such as the Tree Bats.

Litte Brown Bats are between 4.5 and 5.5 inches long and weight between 0.19 to 0.45 ounces. Since these bats only have one baby per year it will take a long time to replenish the population.

The white is actual a fungus called Fusarium which is usually associated with plants. But biologists think that this is not the actual cause of their deaths but an opportunistic infection. Whatever is the cause of their illness, bats are being found outside in the middle of winter when they should be hibernating in their caves. When their dead bodies are picked up they are found to be severally emancipated with no body fat at all. For the lucky bats that were picked up my wildlife experts and taken to a sanctuary they were able to recover. So this raises the question: did they burn up the fat too quickly or did they not store enough body fat before they hibernated and if not, why not?

To add to their plight Ravens, truely remarkable birds, have been noticed hanging outside the entrances to the bats’ caves and Raccoons are being bold enough to go inside. There are a couple of ideas. One is that the insects that the Little Browns’ eat have dyed or moved on due to Global Warming another idea is that there is now a new family of pesticides developed for the eradication of West Nile Virus. The other possibility is that in August 2007, the State of Massachusetts for the first time in 16 years conducted aerial spraying for mosquitos using a new pesticide developed for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)or West Nile Visus (I don't remember which it is). Needless to say I cannot find what is in this new pestcide.

While many people might not like bats they have their place in the eco system and particularly because they eats lots and lots and lots of agriculutral insects and 20$of our mosquites.

Should you see any bats in your house anywhere, do not attemt to kill them. Call your U.S. Fish and Wild Life Services for they need protecting.

Fuel, Food, and Creativity

A very personal opinion! Will America never get it? It seems to be that our down hill economic slide in innovation and jobs started about 25 years ago. I would personally pin it to the Rio Conference when George Bush Sr. said that “jobs came before the environment.” It should be the other way around for if we have no environment we have no need for jobs, we will not be able to survive on our planet. Imagine where we would be now with our entrepreneurial energy had we got with the program. We would be selling these products into Europe, China, and India.

Twenty-five years later we still don’t get it. Hilary Clinton and Senator John McCain this week proposed a cut in gasoline tax so that we can drive more in the summer. This is at a time when demand is outstripping supply hence the rise in prices. Enlightened politicians would be offering alternative transportation incentives not encouraging us to use more of a scarce resource. Go Obama, Go! And while I am on the bully pulpit talking about gasoline why are we taking food out of the mouths of the poor to continue our “business as usual” approach. Using pasture that cows and other animals should be grazing on to grow corn for ethanol is stupid; especially as corn gobbles up tons of water at a time when that resource is also growing very short. We need politicians who work for the whole and not for the few.

I know some folks have cut back on their driving but than defeat their effort by flying. I think the amount of carbon that we can use per person is around 8,000 car travel and 5,000 airline travel per year. So how much are you using and if its more whose carbons are you using and did you ask permission? Remember that the amount of gas you use in driving is having an impact on folks half way around the globe who now cannot afford to buy basic food staples. Get creative, rather than saying “I can’t” say “What if?”

EBay and Best Friends

I am very happy to report that ebay Foundation has donated $1,000,000,000 to be split between Oxfam, Best Friends for a new puppy care home, and First Book. Best Friends will get half of the money immediately. Also the Hush Puppies shoe company is conducting a fundraising campaign for the puppy preschool as part of its year-long celebration of its golden anniversary.

As you will see from the link to Ebay Foundaton, Best Friends is a very good and sound organization that has made a tremondous impact on how we treat and view members of the animal community. It is an organization that I have supported for some years and would encourage you to do the same. Their work both here in the U.S. and in hard hit areas all around the world is outstanding.
http://www.bestfriends.org/puppies

Its hard to beleive that eBay was only founded in 1995; where would we be without it today! They established their foundation in 1998 as a way to give back to their community. The foundation actively works to improve the social and economic well-being of local communities by funding nonprofit organizations and supporting community involvement by eBay employees. Since its inception, the eBay Foundation has contributed more than $16 million to nonprofit organizations.