Friday May 26, 2006
Fairchild (reprise)
I happened to be back down in Fairchild again this week. The Chihuly made a little more of an impression this time, but Audrey III stole the show. Audrey is a Amorphophallus titanum, a bizarre flowering plant of which most lives underground. Once a year (at the most, sometimes once a decade), it produces a gigantic flower, which grows practically overnight and lasts just a few days (it then produces a single gigantic leaf). You can see that when we were there, the flower was already wilting, and the “corpse” smell was gone. It’s fun, because these plants are obviously extremely rare, and Fairchild has one of the really spectacular ones: it grew to over 7 feet: the same height as Shaq!
Here is a picture of it in full bloom, taken on May 21 (my picture is from the 23rd), and Here is a link to Fairchild’s Audry blog. Oh, and here is a link to my flickr set from the visit, and though it’s mostly pictures of signs, I do have a nice one of a molting lizard.
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Friday March 31, 2006
Orchid Weekend
- Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s International Orchid Festival.
- At the Art and Culture Center, Elisa Monte Dance.
- At MAC, Al Otro Lado a 66 minute film from Mexico, about a 23 year old drug trafficker with a talent for composing “corridos” – ballads about the narcotics underworld and illegal immigrant life.
- You might live under a rock. Otherwise you’d know that the Alvin Ailey Dance Company is in town.
- Note to self: two more weekends to see the shows at MoCA.
- Mozart’s Mass in C minor was unfinished when he died. Now, it’s been “reconstructed and completed” from new material found by Mozart scholars, which I’m totally not down with. Nonetheless, you can expose yourself to the results Sunday.
- Huh? The Go-Gos??
- Monday, free: “join the fellows of the New World Symphony for an evening of learning and lively discussion about the elements which shape the world of classical music.” It sounds lame, but if my experience with Musicians’ Forum is any indication, it won’t be.
Hey: Also, I’m working on something about the UM Janitor strike. Anyone have any thoughts, e-mail me; think of it like comments in reverse. In particular, I want to get my hands on something called “Why the Protest Continues: It’s All About Democracy.”
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