HoodedHawk

Easter pictures of the littlest siblings. Let’s just say that this image took fewer tries than the Christmas portrait. Barely. But ain’t they just the cutest? Olivia likes to smile for the camera (daddy?) more than her brother, so there are more in-focus shots of her this time. :)

Click any picture for a larger view/slideshow.

One way I was able to get them to pose (a bit) was to let them know that if they let dad take some pictures out front they could go change clothes and go on an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. That seemed to do the trick.
Olivia decided to open, explore, and play with the first egg she found. Intrepid Egg hunter Preston just zipped all over the backyard filling his basket with eggs. I think the final count was Preston: 21, Olivia: 3. Having mom stand in front of a couple and maneuver Olivia into place was instrumental in bringing Olivia’s egg count to more than 1. A good time was had by all.

I went to a great concert by classical guitarist Ana Vidovic yesterday. The venue was Central Presbyterian church in Towson, MD. Arriving shortly before Ms. Vidovic was to start, I ended up in a rear pew; about as far from her as you could get. But the acoustics of the church are very good, and I could hear her guitar quite nicely.

I really enjoyed hearing Ms. Vidovic playing in person. I first heard her on the recommendation of a coworker; she is an extremely talented and accomplished guitarist!

Fortunately, I learned at a previous (acoustic) concert that my camera has a fairly loud shutter, so I waited until the very end of the concert to pop into the aisle for a picture of Ana – the one real benefit of the rear row was that this didn’t block anyone’s view. I also found the dedicated “quiet” mode of the camera (yes, this does dampen the mirror flip/ shutter release sound!). The above picture is a crop of a shot taken at ISO 3200 (!) with my lens zoomed to 200mm. Not too bad from ~100 feet away (back of the church).

The program:

1. Four Pieces by Astor Piazzolla
• Verano Porteno
• Milonga del Angel
• La Muerte del Angel
• Primavera Portena
2. From 12 Songs for Guitar, arranged by Toru Takemitsu
• Secret Love
• Over the Rainbow
• Yesterday
3. Recuerdos de la Alhambra by FranciscoTarrega
4. Asturias by Isaac Albeniz

INTERMISSION

5. Suite Castellana by Federico Moreno Torroba
• Fandanguillo
• Arada
• Danza
6. Sonata in D major, op. 77 by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco
• Allegro con spririto
• Andantino, quasi canzone
• Tempo di Minuetto
• Vivo ed energico
7. La Catedral by Agustin Barrios Mangore
• Preludio saudade
• Andante religioso
• Allegro solemne

The only real drawback to the afternoon’s performance was the lady directly behind me who would root around in her purse for 10 minutes hunting her elusive Tic-Tacs. Upon finding them, she would forego merely dissolving them and proceed to crunch them individually. However, she was almost in time with the guitar, so it just added a little percussive accompaniment.

And a good time was had by all.

Every once in a while both Olivia and Preston are smiling at the same time. Nice to see!

But it doesn’t always last. Olivia tends to like to “poke the Tiger”. Sometimes the Tiger pokes back, other times he’s stoic.

A couple of weekends ago Preston and I spent a nice Saturday (March 12) at the Natural History Museum, in Washington, DC. This was the first time I had been since the new “Hall of Human Origins” was opened, and we spent a good bit of time in there. Preston loved all the skeletons/skulls. And of course, he loved the dinosaur exhibits – which hadn’t changed much since last time we were there (~2 years ago). He kept going from exhibit to exhibit: “what is this one? And this one?…” until it felt like I had read every caption in the museum. But he was very happy. Naturally, we had to stop and watch every video/movie presented in the various exhibits.

I did like the Hall of Human Origins; they have a neat entrance tunnel that portrays in a repeating video-mural the evolution of Homo Sapiens from earlier hominids. And the models of the various species of hominids are very life-like. I especially liked seeing a model of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) as I had only previously seen (castings) of the (partial) skeleton. And I swear I’ve seen some specimens of Homo neanderthalensis walking among us; that model was particularly enlightening. Pictures of both are below.

This museum isn’t as hands-on as, say, the Baltimore Science Museum, but it still has enough to keep the interest of a 4-year old for most of a Saturday! Afterward we had a bite to eat at the restaurant out by the (temporary during winter) skating rink in the Sculpture gardens. Great way to end the day!

Click any of the images for a larger-size and slideshow. Enjoy!

 

Kirsten and I went to see Vienna Teng at Ram’s Head On Stage, Annapolis, MD
March 4, 2011

As usual (we have seen her a number of times) she put on a very pleasing show. Vienna had her “bandmate”/ “collaborator”, Alex Wong accompany her with his percussion. Opening act was Matt Duke. Alex’s showmanship was quite good, and he kept the audience involved (ringing car keys in a “wave” around the stage for one tune – nice effect). If you get a chance to see her live, I do recommend it. However, it might be a little more difficult now as she started graduate school this past fall (dual MS/MBA degrees). Enjoy!

Vienna Teng

Vienna Teng

With Alex Wong:

Alex Wong

Also with: Matt Duke

Matt Duke