Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

This novel portraits a number of people either working in Antarctica, or having connections to Antarctica, their lives, their philosophies, their friends. Through their stories, the author also recaps the history of the continent, namely the early explorations (Scott, Amundsen, and others). The story then culminates in dramatic events, that bring all protagonists together, and surprisingly ends happily.

Most of the Antarctic story takes place in NSF research facilities (that's the National Science Foundation of the US). The usual dichotomy of scientists (here called "Beakers") and regular people is nicely described. Also, the author succeeded in vividly describing the cold of Antarctica. What a difficult place to live!


First I thought, that the story is situated in the presence, but later it became obvious, that it's actually more like science fiction, in the near future. Especially the gadgets (satellite wrist-phones, solar-heated cold-suits) were probably not quite available in 1997.

This novel, while not that long, too me a long time to read. I found the book informative and interesting, if a bit slow, not a lot suspense, so other things in my life became more important. I was disappointed in the ending, where sabotage leads to a better world (in Antarctica). That was way too smooth, easy, harmonious, to be believable.

Die Walküre

Unlike the common prejudice, women singing Wagner don't always wear horns!

A few years ago, the Mariinsky Opera company (formerly Kirov) from St. Petersburg performed the Wagner's Ring cycle at the Met in NYC. I scored a last minute ticket to Rheingold, and while waiting outside, my friend and I admired the many audience members wearing horns and similar accoutrement.  So one could say that the horns now migrated to the audience. 


At yesterday's opening night of Die Walküre (San Francisco Opera), I didn't notice any audience members wearing horns. That was quite disappointing, but maybe due to the fact, that we didn't hang out before the show, due to rush hour traffic on the Bay Bridge.

The opera was a memorable success. The production (Francesca Zambello) was quite wonderful. The mortals were in the forest or in a dump underneath a highway (with real dogs running accross the stage), Wotan looking like a CEO overlooking the skyline of a big city, the Valkyries were jumping from the sky in parachutes (great effect, even it these were supers and not the actual singers). A fair amount of pyromania and a bunch of lively singers guaranteed an entertaining night.

Now to the music: Donald Runnicles, the former Music Director of SFOpera was back for this production. Whenever he came out into the pit, he was greeted with ovations by the audience, and rightly so. The orchestra sounded fabulous, an pit and stage were harmonious.

The musical star of the evening was in my opinion Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde. Her clear substantial voice has a wonderful golden timbre, and she was very believable in her characterization. Additionally, I could understand her words very well.

Nina Stemme, in her debut as Brünnhilde, sang very well, sounded appropriate, and was also a very engaging actor. I'd have preferred a Brünnhilde with a little bit more oompf, but she certainly lived up to the role.

I was looking forward to hearing Mark Delavan ever since he was interviewed in the Classical Singers Magazine,  describing his difficult journey of his career. He sang very well, and portrayed Wotan in a very likable way. Unfortunately, he sounded tired and exhausted in the third act, and only just recovered for the ending.

The valkyries were impressive, especially one of them, who was significantly louder than all the others, with a wonderfully warm timbre. I don't know the opera well enough to know, which one it was, but it was somebody to look out for.

The evening ended quite dramatically, with fire all around the stage, much like the fire operas at the Crucible in Oakland. The railings probably got hot. Wotan put on gloves before climbing down the back of the stage. After nearly 5 hours, this was welcome entertainment!

Spirits in Alameda

Alameda is an island in the San Francisco Bay, accessible from Oakland via a couple of small bridges and a tunnel, the "tube".
Alameda is a conflicted island. On one side, the city of Alameda with picturesc Victorian houses, on the other side a decommissioned Navy base, that is in the process of being turned over to the city of Alameda.

We heart about a vodka distillery in the former Navy yard some time ago. It was time to check it out, when we realized that there is a winery next door.

On our way to the hangar area, where the spirits are located, the conflicted nature of the former base became apparent. On one side of the road an upscale development with beautiful landscaping. On the other side military housing behind barbwire. Abandoned warehouses, laboratories, factories. Streets so wide that it was unclear where the middle divider was. And at the end, a row of old hangars and a beautiful view of San Francisco.

Our first stop was at the Rock Wall Wine Company, an urban winery that houses Rock Wall Wines, and a number of additional boutique wineries that don't have their own wine making facilities.

The tasting room isn't actually a room. It is a table on the side of a huge hangar, surrounded by wine barrels. We were lucky that the "door" was open, and we could enjoy the view of the city.

The wines were also not to be missed. We especially liked the Rock Wall Zinfandels, and the 2007 JRE Napa Valley Cab (and no, that's not Java Runtime Environment!).

Right next door is St. George Spirits. Having never been to a vodka tasting, I had no idea what to expect.

St. George fortunately had quite an array of spirits, from the famed Hangar One vodka via Rasberry and peach spirits to Absinthe.

Some of the infused vodkas were quite delicious, especially the mandarin flowers, and the winter mix (orange with spices). I'll definitely try to make the Buddha's hand infused vodka, like limoncello without the peelingo of the lemons, and without the sugar.

Never having had Absinthe, I was curious what to expect. To my surprise, it just tastes like a high class pastis. The defining ingredient for Absinthe is wormwood, which grows in St. George's front yard.

Sylvia Maultash Warsh: To Die in Spring

Dr. Rebecca Temple, a physician in Toronto, gets an unexpected office visit from a patient she is treating for paranoia and psychoses. Thinking that she has her worst episode, yet, she calms her down, assures her that nobody is trying to kill her, only to find out next day, that she indeed had been killed that night.
An intriguing story that starts in Nazi-occupied Poland, and continues in Argentina during the military regime, finds its conclusion in Toronto.

This is the first in the Rebecca Temple series of Sylvia Maultash Warsh. I read the second one first, and I shouldn't have. It liked this one as well, but got a bit bored with the recounting of her history, that I was already familiar with from "Find me again".

Two Sentences Tuesday

The rain was blowing hard from the ocean, coyotes started hauling in the distance; leaning against a rock, with the cliff descending steeply towards the water, Kate wondered whether she'd get out of this place in one piece. Dragging her injured ankle, she tried crawling through uphill through the mud towards the trail, hoping to avoid the fate of her companion, who lay motionless at the shore. 

The Women of Mystery encourage blogging two sentences on Tuesdays. Those are my first two sentences. Maybe, the story leads to something? I cheated a little by using a semicolon.

Osterbrot

And here is the last variation on the Easter theme: Easter bread.

I baked three breads for Easter: one regular yeasted wheat bread, which I baked using my favorite "easy" recipe (adapted from Jim Lahey as featured in the New York Times): The secret ingredient is a huge cast-iron pot, high temperatures and time. Otherwise: easy peasy!

The other two breads are twins, two traditional German Easter braids.

On the left, you see a picture of the risen, unbaked product, freshly braided and equipped with egg-shells, so that the final eggs have a place to go. The bread is made of flour, milk, butter, apricots, raisins, vanilla, ginger, sugar and salt. This year, I used fresh yeast, which gave a significantly better result than last year's dry yeast.

I cheated with "coloring" the eggs: A Russian store around the corner sells cellophane egg-coloring wraps. Slide the egg in, put in hot water for three seconds, the wrapper will shrink-wrap itself around the egg. 

Osterfeuer

Yrsa Sigurdardottir's book, and the season, made me think of a pagan tradition that I grew up with. The Osterfeuer is the German name for a traditional Easter Bonfire, a probably saxon tradition that is still practiced widely in Northern Germany (as well as in the surrounding countries). In the region where I grew up, each village would have an Osterfeuer, mostly comprised of small trees, branches, everything that accumulates at spring cleanup. On either Easter Saturday or Sunday night, depending on village tradition, the fire would be lit on a field, and everybody would come to get some warmth from the fire, mulled wine or beer and Korn (a German version of vodka). Sausages and pea and lentil stews are very popular as well.

My family would drive to the area where my mother grew up, the Ottensteiner Hochebene, a high plane between Pyrmont and Bodenwerder in Lower Saxony (Bodenwerder is famous for one of its former citizens, Münchhausen).

The area is not very populated, and the lack if ambient light also makes it a wonderful area for star gazing. We would sample several fires and enjoy the night.

Another town close to Pyrmont, Lügde, practices a variant of the Easter fire. Large oak wheels are stuffed with straw, lit, and rolled down a hill. It is used as a oracle for next year's harvest: When the burning wheels roll all the way down the hill, the harvest will be great. This Easter wheel tradition can be traced to the 8th century, when Charlemagne was visiting the area, but is probably even older. The Easter wheel celebration is much more spectacular than the regular Easter fires, however, it also attracts a lot of visitors. I prefer the intimacy of visiting a village fire.