a southern gal in the north

Clash of the titans
The Bolshoi and the Mariinsky bring their ancient rivalry to London. That’s good news for us, says Hugh Canning
“I am not at war, not with the Bolshoi or the Hochhausers.” Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, music director-elect of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, sounds understandably bullish. This week, he brings to London both of the St Petersburg companies over which he reigns supreme: the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet, as they are now known, even though their former, now politically incorrect name, the Kirov (a Soviet apparatchik), is emblazoned in eye-catching white on the publicity.

Clash of the titans – Arts – Times Online.

Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center since 2002, says he hopes to use technology to expand the center’s offerings outside its buildings.

By ROBIN POGREBIN
Published: July 26, 2006

At Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy Is Loosening Things Up – New York Times.

ARTS / MUSIC   |  July 26, 2006
John Mack, Principal Oboist of His Time, Dies at 78
By JAMES R. OESTREICH (NYT)
John Mack, the principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1965 to 2001, reigned as dean of American oboists for several decades.

ARTS / MUSIC   |  July 25, 2006
At Tanglewood, Scintillating Send-Offs for Don Giovanni and Mozart
By JAMES R. OESTREICH (NYT)
The Tanglewood Festival closed the Mozart’s anniversary year on Saturday with his final symphony and the opera “Don Giovanni.”

ARTS   |  July 25, 2006
‘The Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Barber of Seville’ at Glimmerglass: Classic Tales of a Barber and Buccaneers
By BERNARD HOLLAND (NYT)
Two operas, one clean fun, and the other, ubiquitous, yet still not a cliché, play at an establishment that caters to an upscale clientele in upstate New York.

Quality of Live Initiative – Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico.

The Quality of Life Initiative is a community investment in culture, history, art and science that will pay off almost immediately – and well into the future. It asks the November 2006 General Election voters to approve a ¼ of 1% increase in the Gross Receipts Tax (one cent for every four dollars they spend) to create a stream of income for hundreds of local nonprofit organizations to enhance and expand their programs and make them more accessible to more people.

check this out – its a great idea!

my knitting has been a bit sporadic this summer because i am putting in new garden in my half of the backyard of the house where i live (its a fourplex – two up, two down).  its been a lot of work and a challenge but now that the hardscaping and landscaping are done and the plants are almost all in (dont laugh, i know its almost the end of july), i can start to turn back to knitting.

of course there was the lovely interlude when i went to Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp (which you can read about below).  but i find that i am so tired at night that by the time i shower and eat, i collapse on the sofa and fall asleep.

but this past weekend, it RAINED (boy did it rain – my rain gauge said 3 inches! over two days!).  i was momentarily distracted by the crash of my computer and spent most of Fri and Sat putting together a new/old computer (an old cpu and a new monitor i had to buy on Friday  – it was the laptop that crashed and i lost the last three months of emails – PLEASE backup anything you think is important – i hadnt run a backup since mid april – oh woe is me).

[take a rest after that runon sentence]

so by sat night after installing all the sofware i use normally (and now all the cds and reg keys, etc are in ONE box for the next (not soon hopefully) time) i had to do something creative (yes even though i am a major geek).

So i pulled out an old WIP that has been sitting in my EZ bag (actually mine is green – it was given to me by my mom several years ago – maybe it was one of the first batch?)

anyway, its been hanging on the lower door knob of the armoire in my den so i can see it from the sofa where i relax and watch tv, etc.

this is the one offered currently by Meg at Schoolhouse Press

Here is mine… i may have to order the red one (i LOVE red) to keep my green one company. (cant have TOO many knitting bags now can we?)

So anyway, what was in the bag for the last … hmm, i dont even know … months is the beginning of the Fir Cone Square Shawl from Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls book.  I had started this – hmm, i dont even remember – at least last year – maybe longer in Inca Alpaca (Classic Elite) in a gorgeous darkish blue color . 

 Here it is spread out on my table over a box (of sweater bags if you must know).

You knit the center square first and then pick up stitches all around and knit the first lace.

So i have about four rows left of the center and then i get to pick up.  of course i have to find the yarn as the current ball ran out – and  as this is put up in skeins that means some ball winding.

oh well, maybe i wont work on this tonight.

Welcome…

The bird’s habitat – feeder (squirrel proof) and bird bath.   Roses in the bed behind the bird bath with delphiniums and hollyhocks.

A view of the garden taken 7–14.  The bed in front of the table/chair is for the herb garden.  (Waiting for plants from California to arrive this week)

More photos soon – there are more flowers blooming and after the two days of rain! we had this past weekend, everything SHOT up at least 1–2 inches!   

France’s culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, has named a woman to run the Comédie-Française for the first time since it was founded in 1680. Next month, the actress and stage director Muriel Mayette, 42, will succeed Marcel Bozonnet, who is said to have hoped to remain in the job until 2009.

Mr. Bozonnet, 62, has won plaudits as general manager of the company, France’s national theater. But this spring he provoked a storm of criticism when he abruptly canceled a scheduled new play by the Austrian writer Peter Handke after Mr. Handke attended the funeral of the former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

In an interview with Le Monde, Mr. Donnedieu de Vabres denied that the Handke affair had influenced his decision to replace Mr. Bozonnet. He said he named Ms. Mayette to seek “a generational change.”

ALAN RIDING

Arts, Briefly – New York Times.

ARTS / MUSIC   |  July 24, 2006
The Premiere of ‘The Greater Good’ at Glimmerglass Opera
By BERNARD HOLLAND (NYT)
Stephen Hartke brings some deft tone painting to his resetting of 19th-century French storytelling onto the 21st-century opera stage.

ARTS / MUSIC   |  July 24, 2006
‘Tancredi,’ a Neglected Work, Recalled With Care at Caramoor
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI (NYT)
This gripping concert performance of Rossini’s seldom-heard heroic melodrama was headed by the astounding Polish-born contralto Ewa Podles in the title role.

ARTS / MUSIC   |  July 24, 2006
Nurtured Young Performers in Mozart’s Bad Boy Tale, ‘Don Giovanni’
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER (NYT)
The production at El Museo del Barrio’s Teatro Heckscher was the culmination of Prelude to Performance, a six-week training program for young singers.

[See I am not the only one…]

Gardening Hunk Matt James
Gardeners, the earthy aficionados of cheesecake and beefcake that we are, usually have to settle for geeky Roger Swain or hanging-onto-her-looks-for-dear-life Martha Stewart. But take a gander at the star of BBC's "Urban Gardener," Matt James, our next nominee for Sexiest Man in Gardening. Admittedly, he looks a bit dorkish here, like an Up With People singer, but I assure you his cuteness is overshadowed by his talent. No mere boy-toy, he's fun to watch 'cause he gets it, big-time.

Garden Rant.