Smuin Ballet

Toby and I made a visit to the Smuin Ballet... It was the first ballet I'd been to in a while and it reminded me of how much I miss dance performances.

The pieces performed were the Bluegrass/Slyde and Zorro!
The Smuin Ballet proved themselves to be wonderfully technical and exceedingly original without being unapproachable. Wonderful set designs, and the use of a pole afixed to a lazy susanne which allowed the dancers to do maintain movement without exertion on the set. Background music was bluegrass banjoy and bass composed by Bella Fleck. It really was wonderful.

Flower Arangements

In preparation of creating some floral arrangements for Virginia's wedding, I've been doing some research.

• Floral Design Instruction 101

Oranguatans - Documentary

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation has been working in the rescuing of orangutans for several years now. http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/index.php

The BBC is currently working with them to put together a documentary on orangutan conservation. http://www.cockroach.org.uk/

This group is also working with both the SOS and BOS to dev a training video for plantation owners to help them figure out what to do when they encounter an orangutan.

More Museum Madness

Met a couple the other day who works in the museum exhibits creation industry! The company they work for is Acadamy Studios. Thousands of threads of conversations came out of this, which leads to some fascinating links:

• The International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago - http://www.imss.org/
• The Soane Museum, London - http://www.soane.org/index.html is a museum created by the victorian era collector, Sir John Sloane. Dusty and full of wacky stuff jam packed!
  
• Alexis Rockman - Fascinating artist who's mother worked at the Natural History Museum in New York . Following this thread led me to the Natural History Museum of New York reading about their diorama exhibits! There's a book about those dioramas and everything. From the books author : Stephen Quinn, Senior Project Manager in the Department of Exhibition, oversees all aspects of new diorama creation, and apprenticed under several diorama-art masters at the Museum such as Raymond deLucia, Robert Kane, and David J. Schwendeman. In the book, Mr. Quinn introduces the explorers, naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists behind these three-dimensional marvels and explains how their collaborations make the displays so lifelike.
• Jessica Joslin - artist

Saving Sites

I'm always interested in finding ways to save.

These sites have great calculators and tips:

• http://choosetosave.org/
• http://dinkytown.net/

Nicks Band

http://www.freewebs.com/thewcb/

Jonestown documentary

John and I saw this documentary film on Jonestown. It was riviting and incredibly well edited.

Created by Stanley Nelson, founder of Firelight Media.
As this was part of the San Francisco Film Festival (put on by the San Francisco Film Society), the director Stanley Nelson held a Q&A. As part of this Q&A he brought in Jim Jones Jr. (Jim Jones' son - adopted).

Though they both felt that it answered the question of why 906 people would 'drink the kool-aid', i felt that it was lacked in resolving that question. In many instances opening up other questions. However, I believe that it told this story with a degree of sensitivity and emotional truth that I had not seen in a Jonestown documentary before.

Hamsa Lila

http://www.hamsalila.com/

Starsky & Hutch

Fun Fun Fun

Gotta love Starsky & Hutch the movie.