Really. All of them? You reserved the right for me to look at your photo and transport myself there in my mind? For me to turn it sideways and giggle because it looks like a hamburger? To lean over and interrupt my wife as she tries to do a NYT puzzle by asking her what she thinks?
Yesterday, Wife and I bravely proceeded with our plan to go for a short hike in a new place, despite the inclement weather. We selected a trail on land owned by the municipal utilities district, bought a hiking permit (good for a year!) and drove out to the trailhead (top photo).
I wore my yellow rain PONCHO and trail gaiters, so I stayed fairly dry and thus warm–though it was pretty muddy and squelchy, and sometimes I was afraid I would slip and fall. Still, hiking in the rain can be nice because there aren’t so many people on the trails. We really enjoyed this hike, which had some of the best wildlife we’ve seen all year:
First of all, in an early foresty bit, there was a group of woodpeckers harassing a squirrel! (Alas, I didn’t bring my binoculars because Wife does not like to stop [in her defense, this hike was intended to be for exercise purposes], so I couldn’t identify what type of woodpeckers they were.) I suspect it was a trespassing issue, since the squirrel was on a dead tree with lots of holes drilled in it, which was presumably the home of the woodpeckers. They eventually chased it away–it leapt onto an adjacent pine tree.
Then we crossed over a bridge (2nd photo) and admired some very cute coots in the river.
We passed a man with binoculars a bit later. Seeing a mixed flock of juncos and what might have been white-crowned sparrows, at first I thought that’s what the binocular man was looking at.
However, then we saw a couple of coyotes! One of them crossed the trail in front of us, but the other stayed along the side of the trail; I got a photo of it (Row 3: original photo and crop showing the coyote more clearly–good camouflage!). I think the man with binoculars was probably admiring the coyotes. I knew they existed around here, but it’s the first time I’ve seen a coyote in Bay Area, though I did see them occasionally in the 1990s when I lived in San Diego.
Anyway, the scenery was also good, and we saw plenty of Canada geese and an egret in the water (Row 4), as well as some pleasing fall foliage (Row 5) and good views (Row 6).
On our way back we crossed the bridge again (Row 7) and returned to the car just as the light rain was turning into a downpour.
“For a while they stood there, like men on the edge of a sleep where nightmare lurks, holding it off, though they know that they can only come to morning through the shadows. The light broadened and hardened. The gasping pits and poisonous mounds grew hideously clear. The sun was up, walking among clouds and long flags of smoke, but even the sunlight was defiled. The hobbits had no welcome for that light; unfriendly it seemed, revealing them in their helplessness – little squeaking ghosts that wandered among the ash-heaps of the Dark Lord.”
— Frodo, Sam, and Gollum approach the wasteland before the Black Gate. Two Towers, The Passage of the Marshes. (via tolkienmatters)
I’d spent most of the last few weeks organizing: processing signups, assigning people territories, emailing maps and lists of target species, coordinating access permissions.
We knew it was going to be dicey; months ago Audubon told the CBC compilers it was up to us whether we held our counts this year or not. Most counts went forward, at least tentatively. In assigning people I split them up, told them no carpooling, avoid birding in groups that weren’t from the same bubble. We replaced the noon tally and the evening compilation dinner with Zoom meetings.
And it was going really well! We had more than 60 people sign up, only a little short of the last few years. We had a bunch of really top-notch people excited about covering parts of our circle we’d never covered before. We were scouting rarities. I really thought this could be the year we broke our 160-species barrier.
But the new stay at home order came out a few days ago, and the more I thought about it the worse I felt. Healthcare workers are being stretched to the breaking point. Yes, socially distanced outdoor recreation is officially okay under the stay at home order, and birdwatching arguably qualifies. We could have done a version of the count that was consistent with the letter of the order.
But not with its spirit.
So I pulled the plug.
In the scale of sacrifices people are making it’s pretty small. But still.
Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life (1947)
Jimmy Stewart was actually super nervous about kissing Donna Reed. He said: “She turned out to be the embodiment of goodness, and got me so disconcerted that I kept putting off that kiss scene, you know, when we’re in that tight two-shot on the telephone? We put off doing that scene for weeks.” But when the time finally came, they nailed that kiss scene in a single take. Jimmy said it was “one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
tl;dnr: Jimmy Stewart, “She got me disconcerted.”
The best moment of the best scene of the best Christmas movie.
Not only did it in one take. They had pages more dialogue, but then the emotion kicked in and they just went straight to the kiss and Capra was like, well okay then. And they put that lightning in a bottle and it still hits just as hard today.
Running into this on my dash was like running into an old friend
Thats just what theater kids are like
What I’ve always loved about this bit is
a. this musical number comes completely out of nowhere, with no greater context than what this video captures; and
b. the language instructor clearly can’t hear the music. He’s not from Musical Theatre Land. From his perspective, a couple of twinkle-toed weirdos just randomly decided to physically abuse him for three solid minutes. This isn’t reading anything that’s not intended into the scene – it’s literally the central gag.
Another thing I love here: once the music starts there are only 6 cuts in the whole number — and those are just for changing the camera setups. Otherwise it’s just long, glorious takes.
