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Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff – Sunlight reflected from nearby canyon walls illuminates an autumn cottonwood tree in front of a fallen sandstone monolith and vertical cliff face.Cottonwood, Fallen Monolith, and Cliff. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 29, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.Sunlight reflected from nearby canyon walls illuminates an autumn cottonwood tree in front of a fallen sandstone monolith and vertical cliff face.I may be repeating a story I’ve previous told, but here goes. Earlier during my late-October visit to Utah we had wandered into this area, only to be largely stymied by clouds, cold, absurdly strong winds, and even a bit of rain. It was a bit disappointing, in that we had really looked forward to visiting this portion of the Escalante River, and when we started out in the early morning and saw a lot of beautiful fall color we thought we were in for a good day of shooting. Although that day was not a complete loss, it wasn’t what we hoped for – and by the end of the day we were struggling against very strong winds and cold.Fortunately, nearly a week later we found ourselves back in roughly the same area of Utah, and as we considered the next day’s possible shooting locations the idea of giving this spot a second try came up. After considering that alternatives of trying a new location or going back, we decided to go back. It was a good decision! Where the first visit had been cold, cloudy, windy and even a bit damp, the second visit brought warmer conditions, almost completely clear skies… and most important, nearly windless conditions. (At one point we were cautiously admitting to one another that we had made exposures of foliage that lasted as long as a couple of seconds!) Near one large bend in the canyon there was a spectacular abundance of “targets” – brilliant cottonwood and box elder trees, beautiful canyon walls of various colors, fallen leaves, and more. On the previous visit we had all looked at this little scene of a large fallen section of the canyon wall with golden cottonwoods growing all around, and then pretty much continued on since the trees where being whipped around by the wind. But on this second visit the wind was calm, and light was reflected into the scene from sunlit sandstone walls to our right.G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | EmailText, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell. Photographs, text and other media in this RSS news feed from the G Dan Mitchell Photography blog are © copyright G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved. This web site news feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.

There are certain things that we expect from vampires: they must drink blood, fear light, be immortal and be killed by a stake through the heart. However, new elaborations are gathering like cobwebs as we replace their cloaks with leather jackets and bring them into the modern day. Cuddles, a vampire tale by Joseph Wilde, foregrounds the agonising vulnerability these rules can cause, by making its vampire a 13-year-old girl, unable to leave her windowless room and utterly dependent on her older sister, for blood and love alike. The premise is straight out of the nastier kind of fairytale, narrated like a campfire ghost story by upended torchlight. Eve is the unexpected child who landed in her father’s bed, following her longed and wished for older sister Tabby – her sister is cast as a princess and she as a monster, who must be hidden away in darkness pierced only by the odd ray of guilty affection. The dynamics of this two-hander are never allowed to stay simple, though. Rendah Haywood as the older sister, Tabby, shifts from being a princess to a ball-breaking business woman to a gauche woman making her first forays into dating. She manages to find all the slick, sit-com-style laughs in her monologues of city life, but there’s still a vulnerability to her that leaches out through the cracks in her patent and polyester armour. Carla Langley couldn’t be more convincing as a snarling, feral, blood-soaked child, raised by the Brothers Grimm rather than wolves. With no vampiric glamour, she’s an earthy, filthy thing, trapped like a pale white grub in a cocoon of her sister’s fierce rules, governing even how the pair are allowed to cuddle. Wilde’s writing gives the sisters complex, layered monologues and dialogues that point at the different layers of reality they’re living in, exploiting their vastly different experiences for maximum ironic effect. Eve inhabits a twisted Enid Blyton world of Monopoly, jam sandwiches and fantasy stories that are just as real to her as those that Tabby brings back from the world outside, and the strange middle ground the pair find to talk in is agonising and hilarious in turn. Pablo Baz’s lighting design is refreshingly flexible, breaking up the single room’s moods into different shades of fantasy and reality. A lot of this play is genuinely, brutally shocking – these magical sisters aren’t Charmed or charming, and the piece is more of an exploration of the abuser-abused dynamic than of the vampire myth. Although the horrifying revelations are evenly spaced and punctuated with lashings of black humour, the atmosphere can feel grindingly bleak. A swifter pace in the second half could help bring out the elements of farce layered through the story, particularly in Tabby’s disastrous dating life. Still, Cuddles impressively transforms the most stylish of scary stories into something rough, grubby and grotesquely hilarious – this vampire’s draught of blood never looked less like red wine. Cuddles is playing at Ovalhouse Theatre until 1 June. For more information and tickets, see the Ovalhouse Theatre website. The post Review: Cuddles appeared first on A Younger Theatre.

“Domestic house cats, it seems, may be alien sentinels—sent to spy on us and report their findings back to the mother ship. Or, as some theorists have put it, they’re like alien camcorders tracking our every move.” – ”Are Cats Spies Sent by Aliens? A Deep Examination of One of the Internet’s Best Conspiracy Theories,” Austin Considine, Motherboard __________________ Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-gHg Image (“The Blogger and His Cat, After Edward Penfield”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length. Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Using the stimulus of the idea that music helps to develop a baby’s sensory awareness, Lullaby is specially designed so that mothers and babies can spend some quality relaxation and exploratory time together. On entering the Adventure theatre, you are asked to remove your shoes and are told that in order to keep it as an intimate performance, one parent and one baby are admitted per ticket. Other observers can watch on a live screen for a smaller fee. Unfortunately, on the performance that I attended, only one mother and baby were booked in (the maximum is 12 pairs), so another observer and I were given access to the cloth tent in which the performance takes place. It is explained that should you need to, you can step out of the ‘tent’ into a small relaxation area filled with lavender plants and comfy benches with your baby, and that the rule is that “there are no rules” in terms of how you want to use your time in the space. Deviser, composer and performer Natalie Raybould, dressed in a neutral fabric similar to that surrounding the tent, begins by kneeling down and singing a haunting yet relaxing melody whilst making small interactions with the babies. The little boy who was sharing the tent with me at this point was completely transfixed, not only by the singing and music, but also by Raybould folding a caterpillar out of muslin, which, through a series of movements, becomes a butterfly. It is both beautiful and engaging for the baby. Slowly, Raybould brings in a large lit ball, and interacts with it as if she was protecting the world. Without spoiling it too much, the singing continues whilst lighting and shadows are used to enhance the mood, although one couldn’t help but feel that more coloured objects or engaging lights could have been used to help keep the babies a little more engaged whilst she steps out of the tent. It is then left to the parents to enjoy ten minutes of time with their child in whatever capacity they want. On exiting, carers are also provided with a website where they can download the music from the show. Although the score is basic, it is effective in having a relaxing effect on the child and their carer, and in the cosy, carpeted tent, it gives a sense of a safe environment in which to play. Lullaby is a great idea to engage children from a very early age in music and the senses, but I hope that it can experiment a little bit more with the idea. The Polka Theatre which, from the outside, wouldn’t look out of place in children’s television show Balamory, uses the slogan “Where Theatre Begins” (which is very apt for this particular performance) and is the perfect venue for the show, allowing the babies to have a bit of play time before or after the show in its many nursery rooms. Overall, Lullaby is a good interactive session for parent and baby to bond, and I think is very important in providing the very young with their first theatrical experience. Lullaby is playing The Polka Theatre, Wimbledon until 25 May 2013. For more information and tickets, see the Polka Theatre website. The post Review: Lullaby appeared first on A Younger Theatre.

Here I am again, this time sharing week 12 through to week 17 of my Project Life album.  I nearly fell of the band wagon with week 12, only taking four photos during the week - so I went with a super duper simple page. During week 13 I had the opposite problem, taking way too many photos (is there such a thing?) and struggled to know which ones to include.  For week 14 I did one section of jot style journaling that included points from the week and popped a few photos in the remaining sleeves.  I love that Project Life can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it! Above (week 15) is a prime example of a lot of my pages in the album - no photos taken or memories recorded throughout the week & using a one day event to fill the page.  Again, I'm just doing what works at the time. And that brings me to my final two shares for the day.  I think week 17 might be my most favourite page so far, just because I kicked the journaling and recorded heaps of our every day happenings from the week. I've managed to complete weeks 18, 19 and 20 too, so that officially brings me up to date. Good stuff!!

Although we have begun publishing inventories to the APS Archives in the Philatelic Literature Review, this collection continues to grow. While I was at WESTPEX last month, David Grossblat donated an 1893 American Philatelic Association ballot cover. (The American Philatelic Society was called the American Philatelic Association until 1908.) The ballot itself is not included, but [...]

Q: I live in a small studio and have been looking for the perfect (small) dining table. When I saw this red folding one in the Freedom Room article I think I found my solution. Anyone know where this one is from? Or have a great alternative? More

Fun with Quotes. I made this one here.

When Beats ends, it would be easy to describe this monologue as a one-man show. However, this description would be entirely false. The story within the play would not have had the same impact without the hard work of the lighting, video graphic and music controllers who worked in perfect unison throughout the whole hour of the play, making it easy and effortless to slip into the characters’ mindsets and truly understand their emotions. Kieran Hurley’s portrayal of a handful of characters in one play was completely fantastic. He explored feelings and emotions which we can all relate to and have all experienced, such as fear, anxiety and embarrassment. This made it possible to relate to each character. His own understanding of each person opened up the stereotypical figures within society and finally gave them a voice. For example: the quiet boy, the worrying mother, the proud policeman, the trouble maker up the road and many more in a spectacular fashion. The broad range of character roles, and the combination of the music and lighting, helped to make you feel as if you were in each setting and environment. The team gave you every possible chance to transport yourself to their world. For example, faster, more energetic scenes featured faster, heavier music, and frantic and energetic lights, encouraging you to imagine yourself as the characters and share their emotions. As the play began, Hurley told the audience “It’s not illegal to imagine, yet.” It can be said that he was encouraging you to make the most of the imagination you have, as the team has done in creating this play. The darkness included after the fast-paced sections helped to intensify the heightened events of the play, making the play seem more dramatic. In these moments of recognition, although it was set in 1994, it was easy to draw comparisons with incidents, figures and attitudes which are still prevalent within our society today. The period jokes about the mid 90s gathered great appreciation and applause from the audience, but as a teen born in ’95, many of the jokes felt lost on me. However, there were other humorous points, which I could appreciate and relate too. I can completely see that this play was fantastic and I seriously respect the hard work included, but I think this play was not necessarily over attractive for me. I found the intense lighting and music to be a little overwhelming and distracting, making it difficult for me to easily enjoy it all, although it was clearly an amazing piece of work. Beats was at Bristol Old Vic as part of Mayfest. For more information visit the Mayfest website. The post Mayfest review: Beats appeared first on A Younger Theatre.