R.I.P
Posted By Missy on June 26, 2009
Gone ridin’
Posted By Missy on May 25, 2009
Me and Adam riding in North Fork, Long Island.
Have a great Memorial Day!
On the mend
Posted By Missy on May 18, 2009
Ezra and Putney
My friend Ezra has had a tumultuous year. He started a small business, he got sick with cancer, he got engaged, he unexpectedly lost his father only very recently, and now he’s coming out of his illness just before his wedding. This week is his last chemo treatment and he’s hosting a group ride on Wednesday to & from, which is the fast boy way. He’s unbelieveably resilient but he also has an army at his back. Unfortunately, I’ll be there only in spirit as I cannot blow off work (though lord knows I’m tempted…) I don’t really have many role models in life but those I do have are usually people who I know and love. Ezra is one of those people.
Yosemite wrap-up, late
Posted By Missy on May 15, 2009
Yosemite Valley in the clouds. View (sort of) of El Capitan (left) and Bridalveil Falls (right) from Wawona Tunnel.
Were you wondering if I had fallen off of a cliff? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t slip and give myself a scare once or twice. (My mom doesn’t know what blogging is, so it’s okay for me to announce that). But I’m getting ahead of myself.
You know what is awesome? A rental car with satellite radio, which saved my sanity for the hours & hours in a car because there is no major airport near Yosemite, unless you count Fresno, which does not host JetBlue, my preferred cross-country airline of choice. I’ll tell you, though: I liked driving. I like not driving as a rule, but I like driving as an exception. You see, I am by choice carless, always have been. I bring this up only because I like driving when it means exploring new environments with the right tunes.
Of course, as soon as I got to Yosemite Valley and checked into the lodge, I grabbed my iPod shuffle and hopped on a bicycle.
As I suspected, the trail & destination I was most interested in was still closed for the season. I had to improvise so I started asking around. Although I love the solitude of these kinds of vacations–and prefer to run into as few humans as possible on the trails–I’m not a weirdo. I will in fact talk to people. I will, in fact, make friends with the locals at the local bar, including the hippie outdoorsy college dude who pointed me to the most challenging and out-of-the-way hike out of the valley. I’m not one to resist a challenge so I decided to do it the very next day. (Also, I knew my legs would be trashed eventually and I wanted fresh legs for this one.)
Snow Creek Falls Trail. I can’t even find much on the web about it. I was told it has 108 switchbacks to the top, ridiculously steep, in under 4 miles. The trail is very exposed but, mercifully, in the spring sun it wasn’t so bad. To say it tested my endurance is an understatement. Yes, I counted the switchbacks. It was all I could do to keep my pace and not turn around. Every 20 or so I’d take breaks, mostly to let my heart rate come back down. I ate Twizzlers. I took photos. The last mile or more up, I heard a wumping cadence; some backcountry campers on their way down told me there was a grouse and damn if I didn’t spot it in a tree! Ornithology, here I come. When I finally reached the top it became wooded and there was still snow. I sat on a flat rock on the bank of Snow Creek and ate my peanut butter & jelly lunch. (Unfortunately, that rock was damp & a little muddy and so became my bottom.) Coming back down was just as bad but in an entirely different way because of the stress on one’s knees. When I got back down into the valley, I went straight to the cafeteria for my second lunch, then back to my room to ice my knees, then to shower, then to the bar for a giant margarita. I went to bed at 8 pm.
Other things: the hike to Vernal and Nevada Falls, at this spectacular snow-melting time of year, required full-on rain gear. There’s mist, lots of mist. Lots of slippery rock, too. I decided to hike back down via the John Muir trail–hesitantly, as it was technically (I think) closed off, but I briefly joined up with some guys I had met at the top and we persevered through a short course of a downpour of water runoff and waded through ankle-deep water on a narrow trail, just before encountering trail-blocking snow that we had to climb over. Totally worth it!
I also drove down to Mariposa Grove, 1000 feet higher in the air and 10 degrees colder, and it became my new favorite place. There’s certainly a touristy element, but if you get there early and not in peak season, and are willing to trek up & in little bit, you find yourself all alone in the woods. It’s AWESOME. Seriously, I’ll never forget that hike, even though it was comparatively much easier than the others, and the views are only of trees. I loved it so much I bought a Mariposa Grove t-shirt at the gift shop. I think I wore it for the next four days. (I do that sometimes.)
I’ve very selectively edited down the photos from the three (!) cameras I brought. Full set here.
New favorite song vol 6
Posted By Missy on May 1, 2009
This little ditty is called “Quiet Little Voices” by Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks. (*sigh* We were, weren’t we.) WOXY and XMU have been all over it of late.
There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west…
Posted By Missy on April 19, 2009
I’m going on a California vacation soon, to Yosemite, where I’ll be mostly hiking with a little bit of biking. It’s a solo trip, which is great because that means I can do WHATEVER I WANT. I’m currently working out what hikes to do; the downside is, however, that there’s no one to tell me, “You know, I don’t think you’re quite physically ready for that…” For example: Glacier Point. Four Mile Trail rises 3200 feet in 4.6 miles. My most similar experience was at least 500 feet shy of that and spread over 7 miles. Still, I’ll do it, up & back, assuming the full trail is open for the spring. I can’t predict how my legs or my knees will feel the next day but I will have plenty of Aleve on hand.
Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls should be easy. One could, were one so inclined, continue past both falls to the famous Half Dome. It’s 8.5 miles one way from the valley trail head, which is kind of long but doable for a day hike. But. The true killer happens at the final ascent. That’s what I want to focus on for a minute. Let’s assume the trail is open for the season and that the cables are up.
Wait, cables? (This is what I said to myself when I first caught mention of them.)
I have a fear of heights. Well, to qualify, a fear of falling. I don’t feel so woozy safely inside a tall building like I do when climbing a ladder. The ladder to my roof from my fire escape always makes me anxious. As I’ve gotten older, I often find I much prefer to keep airplane windows closed to ward off tolerable but nevertheless annoying levels of anxiety & claustrophobia. I remember once, in my cheerleading (shut up) youth, learning a simple partner prep move and my legs were quaking. I still climb ladders and I still fly, not so much with the cheerleading stunts, but my point is that I have it in me to push past my fear.
This is how you get to the top of Half Dome (photos via yosemitehikes.com):
I’m pretty sure that guy in the lower left corner is crying. Let’s push in on this trail a little bit.
Are you feeling as barfy as I am right now? Such a shame because I love an adventure.
I’m not dead…
Posted By Missy on April 5, 2009
I’ve just been doing lots of other things. (If you don’t believe me, my non-posting about the symposium, research project, and installation of one of my heros, William Forsythe, in Columbus, Ohio stands as evidence. This is my passive attempt at blogging about it at all. I even had an open invitation to attend the opening and, alas, I couldn’t go.)
The weather’s getting warmer and I’ve got a vacation in Yosemite coming up in a few weeks, both of which mean my photography should pick up considerably.
I don’t know…
Posted By Missy on March 7, 2009
Sometimes this is the kind of thing that comes out of my camera. I hope the weather is as pleasant where you are this weekend.
New Favorite Song, vols 4 & 5
Posted By Missy on February 23, 2009
I’m not sure what to make of this one, except that sometimes you just know what you like when you see/hear it. Or maybe I’m just charmed by a gap-toothed smile. The video is only 1m 47s and it takes almost 30 seconds to get going.
The band is Micachu and the Shapes. The song is “Lips”. On MySpace. (Hat tip: Sasha.)
Next up is something perhaps a little more familiar, it being blessed with the Pitchfork Seal of Approval™ and all.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. On MySpace. They’ve got a turn-of-the-90’s indie British vibe. But they’re from the here & now.
You’re dorking up my vibe
Posted By Missy on February 16, 2009
Exterior of Bret’s & Jemaine’s apartment
Went for a ride over the Manhattan Bridge this morning–and by the way, it is far less warm than I thought it was going to be, my toes are still thawing, etc–and took a spin through Chinatown. For those who have never been to New York’s Chinatown, let’s just say it’s not clear how anybody ever finds anything there, as it is a convoluted set of streets and alleys going every which way.
Meanwhile, I think maybe you ought to start referring to me as ‘Mel’.
The Skandies are coming!
Posted By Missy on February 2, 2009
Actually, they’ve already started. Even the Film Society of Lincoln Center is twittering about it. Mike D’Angelo is doing the usual daily reveal here. The official site is here but won’t be updated until the countdown is complete.
My ballot is here. The rules in a nutshell are thus: each category has ten picks, with each pick given 5-30 points for a total of 100 for the category. You’ll note, for example, that my pointage for Best Film do not line up with my top ten list. That is because there is often more love given to potential underdogs. My love for Momma’s Man shines through, etc. (I was so close to putting Ken Jacobs in my supporting actor list until I saw Milk and Emile Hirsch slipped in.)
Rejoice
Posted By Missy on January 23, 2009
Commute home self-portrait on the Brooklyn Bridge
The days are getting longer!
New Favorite Song, vol 3
Posted By Missy on January 20, 2009
Also, my favorite band right now and for the past, oh, 18 months. Animal Collective, performing “My Girls” live:
The album dropped today. Listen for free here.
UPDATE: There is now an official video. Stereogum talks about it and embeds it here. The mouths kind of freak me out, but damn if seeing them bop along doesn’t reinforce the catchiness in the song.
New Favorite Song, vol 2
Posted By Missy on January 10, 2009
This actually might be better called “New Favorite Band”, since the video below is maybe my third favorite song on the record, that being Alpinisms by the School of Seven Bells. Alas, no video exists for favorite songs #s 1 and 2.
This is an acoustic version of “Connjur”. The girls are twins, hence the similarity in their voices and, of course, their looks.
(Note: Embedded video was not appearing in my Google Reader. Please click through to my page to view.)
Dancing days are here again
Posted By Missy on January 10, 2009
One of my 2009 goals is to return to dance. You maybe didn’t even know I left. Last year I was taking classes at both Dance New Amsterdam and at Cunningham until two things happened: my DNA teacher stopped teaching there (and I am picky about teachers) and I had and still have knee pain that was increasingly aggravated by activities such as yoga and dance. After an orthopedist told me to stop dancing (I never bothered with a second opinion), I went the route of combining physical therapy with continuing classes but sitting out during the big, jumpy across-the-floor stuff, still in mild but tolerable pain. And then, for no reason that I can think of now other than an overarching and probably overblown sense of discouragement, I quit all of it.
I miss it. I’ve been back in yoga for a few months and I started and am continuing tap dance classes, all with minimal knee pain (especially if I wear a special knee brace). But, I haven’t gone back to the kind of dance I really love, that which challenges my brain and muscles like nothing else does. Part of me is afraid to go back to Cunningham because it is difficult–for example, because of its rapid changes of direction and head and arm positions; and it requires commitment–the whole warm-up series should be committed to memory so that time is not spent re-teaching it every single class, even at the elementary level. The other part of me is, I suppose, just shamefully lazy.
All of this is a long way of introducing two videos I recently uncovered. First, Mondays with Merce is finally starting! These are webcasts with Merce Cunningham and his company. The first video (link here; I couldn’t embed it) features interviews with Merce about his technique with clips from his company class and from the most recent Dia:Beacon performance. It all looks very basic until just before the midway point. In the part of class when he throws across-the-floor combinations at the class (standard procedure in this or any dance class), you start to see even professional dancers struggle. Difficult stuff.
The second video is Pond Way, which was the first Cunningham piece I ever saw, years ago when I lived in DC, at the Kennedy Center. I remember being stunned. For all its abstraction, it was dance that made sense to me; I attribute this program to yanking me out of my traditional tastes, albeit relatively late in life (I never was all that precocious). Music by Brian Eno. Backdrop by Roy Lichtenstein.
I dunno. I think these videos might be more for me than for you. Wish me luck; who knows how many more years my body will be able to tolerate what I ask it to do. I need to remember that whenever I feel afraid to even try.
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Listening
Norfolk 6/20/05
Iron & Wine
Veckatimest
Grizzly Bear
Dark Was the Night
Various
Post-Nothing
Japandroids
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Reading
Dark Places
(Gillian Flynn)
