Thirty Years after Tiananmen Square

Never forget what happened there.

Photo essay and personal recollections over at NPR.

Learning by Reading About Others' Doings

Here's a good article over at Section Hiker, giving a run-down on gear that did and didn't work on a recent trip in Scotland.  In May, Scotland's weather is a reasonable stand-in for winter weather around here: wet, near-freezing at night, then up into maybe the 60's, wet, etc.

Note to self:  Don't even consider spending big bucks on a single-wall tent, no matter how light it may be.  Those things only work in deserts.  Around here you'd need a snorkel to sleep in one, and that would double the weight of the whole thing, so what would be the point?

Apollo 11, the movie

After one of those frustrating extremely limited screenings, which I missed, Apollo 11 is out on disc, and brother is it worth it.

The movie consists of seldom-seen archive footage covering the flight, which has been beautifully restored.  Narration is loosely strung together, with newscasters of the time (frequently here Walter Cronkite, but there are a number of others) commenting on the then-live broadcasts, with some very minimal stick-figure computer animation of the spacecraft illustrating what is happening as the announcer explains.  There is a touch of synthesizer music added here and there over what would have otherwise been awkward silences, and generally it is unobtrusive.

There's no dramatization here.  A few speeches are read, a few canned statements are issued, all typical press-release stuff of the day.  The movie never digs into the private lives of the astronauts, for which I am grateful.  Better yet, it doesn't dip to just making crap up the way the writers on First Man did last year.  That is a relief.  No, it's about the flight, the overall mission, the hardware, and what we all saw in 1969.  Listening to the astronauts and mission control wrestle the LM to a safe landing, all while the fuel dwindles and the main computer sounds overload alarms (link), that is drama enough.  And honestly, drama doesn't get any better than that.

Dings... not many.  Some dubbed-in jet noise over a turboprop plane maneuvering was a little off-putting, that's one blooper.  In one key part, the synth soundtrack obscures some voices, briefly.  I'm having to dig around for more, but nothing else is coming to mind.  It's that good.

This is a limited movie, in that it aims to document the first moon landing and let the voices of the time tell us about it.  In many ways, it is a time capsule that allows us to go back to that sweaty summer and watch the action unfold.  It certainly conveys the feelings I remember of the time: excitement, a few minutes of bated breath here and there, the beauty of the hardware as well as the views from space, the relief of the astronauts' safe return, and the warm glow of national accomplishment.  While there is considerable 21st Century clean-up of the images, the sensibilities shown were pure best-of-the-late-1960s.  This movie sets out to simply show what happened and to let the people of the time speak for themselves, and it achieves these goals in all ways.

Four out of Four Stars.

Probable Morganza Spillway Opening

Article at Weather Underground.  What a mess.  Unavoidable, in fact it's the lesser of two evils, but still, what a mess.  Looks like it'll happen this weekend or early next week.

Last time this happened, it was in 2011.  Blog notes about that here.

Spotlighting for Spiders

Strangest thing...  Last fall, acting on a recommendation from The First 40 Miles Podcast (unfortunately now defunct, but fortunately archived here), I picked up a Fenix HL10 LED headlamp/flashlight.  It is surprisingly handy, and for a lot of household tasks as well as for backpacking.  Chores like putting away the grill after dark, digging around in the dark back of a closet, or even reading when it's house lights out due to swarming termites – they're all a lot easier with this little light.  Lots to love about it.

But the one thing that I didn't expect was to see many, many gleaming pinpoints of light in my lawn at night.  Upon closer inspection, they're spider eyes!  They seem have a really tight-beam retro-reflection that doesn't show up with a handheld flashlight, but mount a light next to your eyes, and man do these eye-shines stand out.  Unexpected, but reassuring.  I mean, they don't bother me, but they certainly put the hurt on unwanted lawn bugs and especially termites.  Good for them!  And while I wouldn't call my lawn beautiful by any stretch, it certainly is in many ways a healthy ecosystem.

Anyway, mighty handy light.  The backpacking podcast linked above can give you more details.  Available in all the usual places.

Memorial Day 2019

Hm, between Saturday's visit to the Chalmette Battlefield and a musical interlude over at the SWLing Post (scroll down to the mp3 part and give it a listen), got this one covered for this year.  Don't neglect to take a moment today to remember those who have died in defending our country.

Back to your regularly scheduled summertime activities.

Summertime...

... and the riding is brutal.  The last traces of spring are gone.  The bugs are out in force out at the trails, and the heat is on.  Now, yes, it can and will get worse in late summer, but summer is definitely here.  Can't slow down now!

Expect some notes on the new hydration pack a little later this week.  In the meantime... shower and a nap.