Category: To Occupy my Time

Troilus & Cressida at Lone Fir Cemetery

It’s summer Shakespeare season. We’ve seen Portland Actors Ensemble shows at Lone Fir before and so go there early to claim our space.  We caught the end of rehearsal, when guns were scattered about.

This was a robustly military production of the often-not-seen Troilus & Cressida.

I enjoyed what this percussionist–seemingly not mentioned in the program?–added to the story.

There were good performances by all, with some actors having incredibly fun expressive faces.

I wasn’t the only person taking photos.

In the audience tonight was the woman who has been designing the PAE t-shirts.  She was working a quilt to commemorate her work.  I love this quilt!  She’s a great designer.  I used to have the top row, second-from-the-left shirt.

Manhattan Project Hanford

The Manhattan Project National Historic Park is made up of three sites:  Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington.  Fun fact:  If you collect National Park Stamps, the stamp for the Manhattan Project is in three parts.

There are two tours offered at the Hanford Site.  Here is the link to register. We took the Historic B Reactor Tour, but had I known the Pre-Manhattan Tour existed, it would have been my choice.  Each tour takes up a big chunk of the day and involves a bus ride to the site, a guide and a lot of time to look around.  All for free.  Thank you, National Park Service.

We met outside of Richland, where we looked at some exhibits, like this newspaper. Our guide showed us an introductory video and then we loaded up the bus and were off.

Our guide was great.  She also teaches Biology to college students.  She was very good at repeating the questions asked so everyone could hear them and knowledgeable overall.

Headed out to the site.  At a certain point in history this road would have been closed to the general pubic.

It wasn’t a long trip, but did allow for a short nap.

And here it is!  The historic reactor.  What you are looking at are the caps on the rods.  Scientists changed the amount of plutonium produced by moving the rods in a very big cube. [Science!  Not my strong suit.  Go watch a video or something if you want to know more]

As usual with science things, I was more interested in the people part of the equation. A whole bunch of people had to be recruited to this desert to build the reactor.  They weren’t told what they were doing, just that things needed to be built.  And the people needed to be fed.

The site was full of all sorts of repeating colorful patterns.

And some good vintage and modern signs.

Here’s the view from the outside.  Once everything was built, the construction camps were taken down.  The town of Richland was rebuilt so the workers at Hanford had nice places to live. That’s where the Alphabet Houses came in.  The population of Richland was 300 before residents were evicted in 1943.  Then workers for the Hanford Engineering Project arrived and there were 25,000 people in Richland by 1945 Spokane Architect Albin Pherson designed most of the city. He designed a variety of single family homes, duplexes, apartment buildings and dormitories.  Each design was designated with a letter of the alphabet.  If you visit Richland, you can walk through the Gold Coast Historic District and see a selection of the Alphabet Houses.

I greatly enjoyed my tour of the Hanford site and recommend it for anyone visiting the area.

REACH museum

We were in Richland to experience the Hanford tour with Matt’s mother, but we stopped at the REACH museum first.

I’m still uncertain just what the REACH museum is, even after having visited and after looking at their website. I think it’s talking about how the Columbia River sustains a large area around it.  Here’s a big picture of the Columbia and how it reaches so very far, as indicated by the green patches.  I think that big brown area where the word “irrigated” is might be the Hanford site.

The REACH had some nice displays of how the Tri-Cities area developed, geologically and with human influence.  It’s also the first place I learned about the 2300 people kicked off their land with 30 days notice so the Manhattan Project could build a nuclear power plant.  Also about Alphabet Houses.

Other people displaced by the Manhattan project?  Native Americans.  They had lived in the area for thousands of years.

How big is my living room?

Our square dancing class wants to learn the Plus Level this summer, so we are having lessons in my living room, which is just big enough for a square.

And here’s where things are stashed.  There are also chairs hidden in the pantry, out of site.

It’s times like these that I have the greatest affection for my little house.

Portland Pride Parade with the Rosetown Ramblers

I was quite pleased to participate in the Portland Pride Parade this year, by dancing on the Rosetown Ramblers float. But before we could dance, there was the setup.

Speakers and the box of supplies.

Check out the retro placard and handle on the speakers.

First order of business. Assembling the trailer on which we danced.  The trailer itself was easy, the sides folded down and we put in bolts to hold it.  But then there was the matter of assembling the cover, which came with no instructions.Some of the people had assembled before, but for the most part, we just tried things.  It was kind of like a free Escape Room.

Eventually things started looking good and people donned some festive crinolines.

We gathered for a pre-parade photo.

And then we waited for the start.

Our caller was Janienne Alexander, who calls for the Tualatin Timber Squares.

Our successful flag (and shading device)

Other participants also took advantage of the waiting time to take some photos.

I was interested in this young woman’s fanny pack with speakers.

Nordstrom was near us.

Eventually the parade started and we danced.  It was fairly overwhelming with the combination of hot, loud (even with earplugs) and also trying to look at the crowds and pay attention to the dancers.  It was fun, though.

Near the end of the parade, Joan joined us.  She was part of the color guard at the beginning and looped back to catch us.

When I took a break from dancing, I took crowd photos.

And I saw Dave, who is a member of the Rosetown Ramblers, but marched with the leather community.

Tiffany and Eileen finished the parade with smiles. I look forward to next year’s parade.

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine @ the Crystal Ballroom

First of all, the most exciting aspect of this show at the Crystal Ballroom was that there were seats!  It was Friday, I was tired, and I wasn’t looking forward to standing for several hours.  But hark!  There were seats.  We sat. It was heavenly. 

The opening act played some nice cowboy-style music, as you might guess from their outfits.

This is Bobby Ricotta, Richard Cheese’s keyboardist/pianist and music arranger.

Frank Feta, drummer

Billy Bleu

And Richard Cheese himself.  

“What’s a Richard Cheese show like?” I asked Matt on the way there.  He didn’t know.  This was round two of our Cosmic Tripster tickets, and Matt picked the concert.

It turned out to be pretty entertaining.  Aside from singing lounge covers of pop hits, Richard Cheese also harassed the audience, had a Q&A session with audience members, and recreated the song that was featured in the Lego Batman movie (all five seconds of it.)

Several women expressed a desire to know Richard Cheese carnally, and a stripper from the audience danced on stage.  I suspect these things happen at every concert, as they seemed to be taken in stride.

All in all, it was a very good night at the Crystal Ballroom.