macavity's not there!!!!

Yesterday we got lucky and found tickets to the last day of "Cats", brought to the Mullins Center by "Broadway In Amherst". We got grand seats, right up in the front and finally got to see Cats. Now I know what the fuss is all about. They are brilliant! I'm not going to go into raptures of description but it sufficeth to say that it was really thrilling and worth every dime (with student discount, hehe)!!

"Macavity" was by far the most enjoyable.. also coz of my vague recollection of the poem from a long long long time ago. I remember my brother memorizing and presenting the poem for an Elocution contest ages ago. :D

As for the cast, I think the most popular of all was Rum Tum Tugger.. and I came across a bit of trivia: "Andrew Lloyd Webber has stated that the part of the Tugger is intended to be a homage to Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. This homage is apparent in the way he moves on stage in the original Gillian Lynne choreography and the costume styling."

Grizabella the glamour cat's rendition of "Memory", before she is selected to "journey to the heavyside layer", was haunting. Betcha most of the audience were humming that tune when driving back home! :)

But I was humming this one...

....

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square -
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!

He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's.
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair -
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!

And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair -
But it's useless to investigate - Mcavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
`It must have been Macavity!' - but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums.

....

I know I still owe you a description of the Kenneth Miller Lecture. ... maybe it'll happen, maybe not.. keep checking back. ;)

Sleepless weekend... Rafting and more

April 14, last Friday, was the Nepali new year.

April 13th was when we had dinner at Zeynep's and had a great cultural/linguistic experience communicating with her folks in Turkish aided by 2 dictionaries and an electronic translator, which led us to discussing common words/etymology and the Ottomon empire/Ghenghis Khan connections! Anyway, now that I think back, maybe it was that strong Turkish coffee that kept me up..

.. so that next day, Friday, I was operating with no sleep and tons of coffee. And then staying up till 6am at the Nepali New Year momo making party at Lava's.

... And then Kotak and his buddy Sameer came in from New Jersey at 7am and we were off for the white water rafting up on Deerfield River, at Charlemont MA. CrabApple Whitewater Inc. is a small and friendly family run outfit. Thank God for the wetsuits and booties that they thoughfully provided, coz even though the day was nice and sunny and warm, the water was still COLD!! And there were more than one occasion to get drenched by that cold river water! But that was what helped keep me awake and operating even after 60+ hours of no sleep!!

The 25 mile run was pretty smooth with rapids classed from I to III.. the heaviest rapids we hit were the "Zoar Rapids" which were class III; other than that it was pretty smooth sailing. The paddling was tough exercise though.. and the bouts of water fights we had amongst 6 rafts.. flinging HEAVY bucket loads of ice cold water on to other boats... all that work made the lunch they provided at the end of the day very very welcome.

Brunch at Archita's next day and lazing about in the sun (pic below) with "saandiyeko bhogotey". :).. An hour at the Driving Range.. a movie - Scary Movie-4. Wrap up with dinner at Rajeev's and that was the "long" weekend. Pretty eventful I guess for a change. Bless the weather.


(Lava didn't wanna pose for this pic)

This is my update about last weekend.. I still owe y'all a post about the Kenneth Miller lecture I attended last Thursday and on "Night Watch" which I finally watched on Wednesday... all later though. My to-do list is over-flowing for now.

Google Calendar

http://calendar.google.com/

Yup, It's online.. still Beta.

Am playing with it, looks cool.. AJAX and all that.

Too bad I'm entrenched into Yahoo! Calendar/Notes/Tasks/Address Book/Mail etc etc.. But depending on the ease of use and functonality of this new GCal, who knows, I might be persuaded to switch. Once GCal lets me check my calendar from my cellphone I'll probably be sold..

Wish Google Calendar had a To-Do list! :)

Is Iran the next Iraq?

A fascinating and scary article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh (responsible for uncovering the Abu Ghraib scandal) in the New Yorker.

He talks about the present thinking in the Bush administration about Iran and how the neocons are gung-ho for a military option, including the use of tactical nukes. The article shows G. W. Bush's main aim in Iran to be regime change, not just counter-proliferation. High level sources talk about how Bush believes that "saving" Iran will be his legacy.

And since he is politically free now, he is dangerous.

Speaking of President Bush, the House member (senior member of the House Appropriations Committee,) said, "The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision."

There are senior pentagon officers and officials are trying to get the nuclear option off the table
but meeting with resistance. There are talks of high level resignations over the matter...

The attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he added, and some officers have talked about resigning. Late this winter, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sought to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans for Iran - without success, the former intelligence official said. "The White House said, 'Why are you challenging this? The option came from you.' "

Another bit from the article...

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that "a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government." He added, "I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, 'What are they smoking?' "

Please read the article. It is long but well researched and well written and very informative regarding the Iran nuclear issue.

Link to article...
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact

recent pictures...

Here are some pictures that I've been meaning to put up for ya'll...
Don't have much to write, so these should do for a while, eh?

During Burcu and Cesar's visit... A hike up to Skinner Park in the snow. Brrr..



Snowboarding at Berkshire East - March 25th. As you can see not much snow so all the more painful!!


The Team - Venezuela Bernardo, Turkey Zeynep, Australia Dan, Nepal Lava and Bhutan Anuj


Guess what this is....

all right...... it is an antique "spile" or "spout" used to tap maple syrup from maple trees. It was maple syrup season so we went to the North Hadley Sugarshack, a sugar house where they collected the maple sap and made maple syrup and other goodies out of it.

Here's one more...


More pics from the Sugar Shack...

the time? 1 2 3 4 5 6

This Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

ya,ya, it'll work in places where the date format is mm/dd/yy - happy!! :)

From boingboing.net