My dad would have been 101 this year
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 11:40 — kalle
My dad, Karl Nemvalts, lived the last third of his life in Freeland, Michigan, from the 1950s to the early 1970s. In my memory of that time, Freeland was small-town America, where everyone knew everyone else. Where my dad directed the school band and the church choir and taught German at the high school.
But he grew up in a different world, in Estonia (Eesti in the native language) in the 1910s and 1920s, in rural northern Europe. Where the winter ride to town — this was about as far north as Juneau, Alaska — would involve a horse-drawn sleigh. His dad was a country schoolmaster. The details are sketchy to me. I imagine farms surrounded by birches and pines as in northern Michigan or Canada — dirt roads, horses, bright winter moonlight, rustic houses heated with wood stoves, saunas down the hill by the pond....
Sounds of Samuel P. Taylor State Park
Mon, 05/16/2011 - 20:28 — kalle
photo2photo3photo4photo5Last Monday afternoon, May 9, 2011, I spent some time in Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County, California, recording the sounds of a small side creek flowing down the north slope of Bolinas Ridge into Lagunitas Creek. I had been there the previous week with my friend Paul Vornhagen, and resolved to come back with some recording equipment to capture the sounds of the place while the creeks were still going strong with spring runoff. Here's the recording. Feel free to download it and put it on your iPod:
The new bipartisanship
Mon, 04/11/2011 - 13:11 — kalleHere's how it works. The Democrats (Obama and Reid) make a policy proposal that they figure splits the difference between the Ds and the Rs. The Republicans counter with a policy proposal (see Paul Ryan) that's way to the right of anything they've proposed before. Then they negotiate from there, with the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party insisting on no compromise whatsoever. The final policy, arrived at through painful bipartisan negotiations, is — in spite of the fact that the Ds hold the presidency and a majority in the Senate (though not the currently-necessary supermajority) — well to the right of anything that George W. Bush could have pulled off.
A few things about London
Sat, 04/02/2011 - 10:35 — kalle
The climate is milder than you'd expect, considering the 51° north latitude — farther north than Vancouver or Calgary. The ocean currents temper the weather. When Connie and I visited in late March, we had expected the stereotypical fog and drizzle, but it was exceptionally sunny and warm, the grass was green, and the trees were budding out.
People are very courteous. If someone thinks they have inconvenienced you in any way (even if you are the one who has bumbled into their path) they will excuse themselves with a quick "sorry".
The city attracts people from all over the world, both as tourists and as residents. It's a totally happening, sexy, 21st-century, world cultural capital.
People smoke way too much, even compared with, say, Las Vegas. This in spite of the huge SMOKING KILLS labels on cigarette packs. Fortunately, smoking is banned in pubs and restaurants, though not at sidewalk tables just outside.
Toward a Palin-free news cycle
Sat, 02/12/2011 - 22:33 — kalleOn February 6, 2011, the Huffington Post ran a story with the headline "Sarah Palin Blasts Obama's Handling Of Egypt". I admit up front that I never read it, and I'm not linking to it so that you, too, can have the pleasure of not reading it.
I would be surprised if Sarah Palin could find Egypt on a map, let alone have anything constructive, informative, or useful to say about it.
The key word in the headline is "blasts". Sarah Palin is very good at "blasting". If you were to read the article you would probably find that Sarah Palin doesn't think very highly of President Obama. But you knew that already.
