The Stars Align (A Creepy Movie)

It's a strange night.

Venus and Jupiter are aligned; some say this particular proximity is the same arrangement that, 2000+ years ago, created the effect that was seen as the 'Star of Bethlehem'. Cool, eh?

Or not, when you're hitting 100+ degrees in Salt Lake City in JUNE. With no air conditioning. And a storm rolls in the night of the pinnacle of the alignment.

Just barely under a year ago I moved into this condo, and by August it was so hot (even with a portable AC unit) that I wasn't really sleeping. This wasn't the entirety of my problems, but it did contribute to my losing my job that month. And now the heat wave is two months early... The job I have now is so much better, but I'm already feeling the lack of sleep.

Still, I was determined to at least try to see the alignment of the planets. Living in the Avenues in Salt Lake City. you find that there are too many trees to see the sky clearly - so I drove UP. There's a park above the Salt Lake City Cemetary that overlooks the valley, and I headed there to find the gates locked. (I wonder whose job it is to go around and lock park gates, presumably after kicking people out of the parking lot. Huh.) As I mentioned before, it's a strange night - there's been a stiff breeze for much of the afternoon that hasn't alleviated the heat, and a cloud bank has settled around the Salt Lake Area. Up above Ensign Peak and further north there's a lightning storm kicking up in clouds that look too dingy and flimsy to support the energy. The Valley is covered in a haze - it makes me think of Las Vegas in a mild dust storm. Oddly, even with the breeze, none of the clouds are moving - I've never seen them hold so still in front of the moon, or make no progress at all across the sky, while standing in a wind. It feels oppressive, eerie, lonely.

At first I could barely see stars, and no Venus or Jupiter. I left my car at the park gates and walked into the lot (glasses on, just in case) with my dinky keychain flashlight. Off to the right above the mountain lighting strobed through clouds, and down below the street lights and occasional electric sign took on a sickly neon glow in the haze. Just behind me the full moon glared dully through its unmoving curtain, but directly overhead there was a clear area where I could just make out the handle of the Big Dipper - though the bowl was obscured by yet another stationary cloud. It was very unsettling, the wind and the heat and the half-dark and shady light... I turned to walk back to my car and the wind blew over a garbage bin back in the barely-visible far end of the lot. I jumped.

Getting to my car I turned back to the sky one last time, and there they were - Venus and Jupiter, just visible through a thinning in the cloud cover. From this angle they didn't seem particularly close; at least, not close enough to be mistaken for one star, but the lineup definitely had a sci-fi, end-of-the-world aura. I didn't bother to try to take a picture.

And now I'm home, and will presently go try again to find some way to cool down enough to sleep. There is no one to tell about the experience - but I wanted to record somewhere that I did go and did manage to see the two planets sharing space in the sky.

And it was a little bit freaky.

I'm Out of Practice With Blog Post Titles

A couple of my brothers have been obsessed with remote control flyers, and while I've enjoyed their truly dramatic crash-and-burn-and-spend-hours-tracking-down-a-rogue-piece-of-spy-worthy-equipment-lost-in-a-snowy-cow-pasture (true story) tales, I haven't really understood the appeal. And then today I got a Doctor Who TARDIS Copter. It's a completely ridiculous miniature TARDIS with pseudo-helicopter blades on top, it flies by remote control, and it makes me stupid-happy.

I am IN.

That is not my hand, and the TARDIS Copter is actually smaller than it looks here. Hee.

 I'm not a very good driver yet, it's a lot like a big blue mosquito with a five-minute lifespan, and I know for sure I'll be needing a lot of AAA batteries. It's entirely possible there will soon be video.

For some reason, this seemed like the perfect way to return to blogging after 14 months (!!!) and welcome 2015. There will undoubtedly be a 2014 recap coming soon (it was a crazy year) but for now I've got at least another couple of minutes before my new toy needs a recharge. Allons-y and Geronimo!

Cheers!

NPR, Ari Shapiro, and Dramaturgy

It surprises me that I'm still surprised by the fact that pretty much everything relates back to theatre and dramaturgy. I have to consciously stop myself from commenting in Sunday School that the topic reminds me of working with a theatre cast on a play, nearly every week. To my high school Seminary teacher who used to say that 'theatre is life, and all life is theatre' (or whatever it was along those lines you used to say): YOU ARE SO RIGHT.

I guess I also love the fact that I'm still surprised fairly regularly how often things compare themselves to dramaturgy. Last night I went to a presentation where Ari Shapiro, a reporter from NPR who's currently on the White House beat (I've watched enough military crime dramas that I TOTALLY know what that is), came and spoke and told (funny) stories that didn't make it on the air. Really - he just sat and talked. It was pretty cool. Doug Fabrizio, a radio show host from KUER, 'interviewed' him - they sat in two armchairs in the center front of the Grand Theatre stage and basically shot the breeze. Ari talked about his life and career and (lack of) career plan, which consists essentially of 'do what you enjoy and work hard and be awesome at it, and be aware of when you're ready for something else. Then look around and see what's available, and what interests you. Apply, work hard, take opportunities, and be awesome. Appreciate people. Throw terrific parties. Be a fan of people. Talk with friends who will help you ask the right questions. Keep working hard, and keep being awesome.' (None of that is any kind of direct quote - they're extrapolations from his stories.)

There was an audience Q&A section, and a few people asked questions for both Ari and Doug, which flustered Doug and delighted Ari. One person asked about the process of getting a story on the air - how and why they chose to write and present what they did, etc. One of the things Doug talked about was that one of the reasons he was doing what he was was because he loved to learn. Things are constantly fascinating to him, so he talks and writes about what he's interested in. As a radio personality, though, one of his responsibilities is to provide context for the stories he presents so that the audience has a chance to 'get it', and to also become interested. He said 'context' three or four times, and I perked up a little more each time. Another question had Doug talking about how they would look for stories that spoke to a larger picture, and how he would work to figure out how to fit everything together. He also mentioned transcribing some of his favorite radio shows, just to figure out how, exactly, a successful hosting/presenting hour actually WORKED. I very much enjoyed listening to Ari Shapiro and I've now got three+ Pink Martini albums on my Amazon wishlist, but I'm a little fangirly over Doug Fabrizio now, too.

I had no idea that the good journalists are really just dramaturgs in disguise, and I need to go listen to some more talk radio.

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Same Song... CONTEXT!!!

Sometimes it's good to lead with the details...

Comic found here
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A Quote - Heh

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Blogging is not writing - 

it's graffiti with punctuation.

 - from Contagion, and the only funny thing in the movie

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Goals... and Goals

Well, my grades for the second degree averaged out to A-, at least... I think there's still hope for a different career choice!

I couldn't not.


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Both comics (Frazz/Brevity) found here on today's date.

Blue Skies, A Little Fall of Rain

I found out I have a favorite type of weather.

That discovery was prefaced by my surprise when I walked out into it and immediately tried to wax poetic. Like, seriously, compose a poem about the weather. Oy. I left the library to walk home and the air was bright - it does that sometimes - in spite of the cluster of dark clouds over the mountain ahead to the right (interestingly, the mountain to the left was in sunlight) and the pale gray cover directly overhead. All around were swathes of blue sky, so it honestly was a little startling to walk out into the light and clear air AND feel a drizzle of raindrops! (I can't think of the right word. It was more than a smatter, but more distinctly raining than a 'drizzle' implies, except there were a whole bunch of miniature raindrops.) Anyway, I walked up the hill in fresh clean air, sunshine, and a wash of rain, all at the same time, and loved it. The breeze was just barely strong enough that the raindrops dried almost as soon as they fell - when I got home the only evidence I'd been out was that the hems on my jeans were damp.

It was invigorating, and marvelous, and I REALLY need a thesaurus. And to practice writing poetry.

And to find the right word for that kind of rain.

:-)

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