July 2009 Archives
While I next to never listen to NPR, this story caught my attention, reminding me that on those nights driving the streets of San Francisco with the crackheads and the homeless that you never really know who people truly are.
>>> Every day on NPR, listeners hear funding credits -- or, in other words, very short, simple commercials. A few weeks ago, a new one made it to air: "Support for NPR comes from the estate of Richard Leroy Walters, whose life was enriched by NPR, and whose bequest seeks to encourage others to discover public radio." NPR's Robert Siegel wondered who Walters was. So Siegel Googled him. An article in the online newsletter of a Catholic mission in Phoenix revealed that Walters died two years ago at the age of 76. He left an estate worth about $4 million. Along with the money he left for NPR, Walters also left money for the mission. But something distinguished Walters from any number of solvent, well-to-do Americans with seven-figure estates: He was homeless. NPR
I spent time today pruning and reorganizing my lunchbox collection. It's smaller now, but I'm really digging it and everything that's left is pretty gosh darn minty. What's left? Barbarino, Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, Donny & Marie, Wonder Woman, Twiggy, Barbie & Midge, Space 1999, Bozo The Clown, Doctor Doolittle, Battlestar Galactica (The New One), E.T., Grease, Pac-Man, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, Backgammon, The Pussycats, Emergency (Dome), Bionic Woman, Kung-Fu, Disco, The Bee-Gees, Barbie & Francie, Muppets, El Chapulin Colorado, Ronald McDonald: Sheriff of Cactus County, Back in '76 Bicentennial, and a few newer boxes: Kill Bill, X-Men, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Gary Baseman's Lunch of Unearthly Delights, and The Gashlycrumb Tinies (Edward Gorey).
A bonfire out at Ocean Beach with friends.
As someone with delayed sleep phase syndrome I found this article from CNN very interesting:
By Elizabeth Landau: (CNN) -- If you have a hard time crawling out of bed in the morning, it could be that your body is biologically programmed to start the day later. Experts say a spectrum of natural sleeping and waking rhythms exists, ranging from extreme morning people to extreme "night owls." A new study examines how morning people compare with night owls on a strength test and looks at what other physiological processes may contribute to their performance. Researchers tested participants' leg muscle strength at various points in the day. They looked at nine "early birds" and nine "night owls," who were classified as such based on a questionnaire. Surprisingly, morning people's strength tends to remain constant throughout the day, but night owls have peak performance in the evening, said researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada. "We thought that morning people would be better at this in the morning, but they never changed," said study co-author Olle Lagerquist, a Ph.D. candidate in neurophysiology at the University of Alberta.
That may be because evening people show increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability in the evening, about 9 p.m., meaning they had maximal central nervous system drive at that time, Lagerquist said. Morning people, on the other hand, never achieve this level of central nervous system drive because the excitability of the motor cortex does not coincide with the excitability of the spinal cord. In other words, these two measures never peak at the same time, he said. Early birds' brains were most excitable at 9 a.m. and slowly decreased throughout the day. Researchers don't know whether this means evening people who are athletes are necessarily better off.
Although night owls may maximize their strength in the evening, they are at a serious disadvantage if they have to compete in the morning. Morning people, on the other hand, would have the same average performance regardless of the time of the competition, Lagerquist said. Based on the findings, Lagerquist recommends that people who struggle athletically in the morning try going to the gym at night, as they may feel more awake and perform better then, he said. The study reinforces findings that athletic performance varies over the course of the day, said Dr. William Schwartz, professor of neurology at the University of Massachusetts.
Although the study is small -- 18 people participated -- it highlights problems with being a night owl that sleep experts often see in patients. American society favors morning people, because the typical work day begins in the morning and ends in the evening, said Dr. Nancy Collop, Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. Her sleep center tends to have many more night owls seeking help than early risers, she said. Fairly commonly, people come to the sleep clinic at Johns Hopkins having been mislabeled as insomniacs when they are just night owls, Collop said.
"Their body clock is separate from what their work clock is supposed to be," Collop said. It's very difficult for a night owl to become a morning person, Collop said. At a sleep clinic such as the one at Johns Hopkins, people seeking to change their habits may be asked to sit in front of a very bright light early in the morning and to take melatonin to help them sleep earlier. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate circadian rhythms, the daily rhythms that persist in the body within a period of about 24 hours. The tendency to do certain actions at particular times of the day is a phenomenon seen across the animal kingdom.
Even single-celled organisms do different tasks at different times of the day, Collop said. More complex organisms also need a rest period built into the 24-hour cycle. In humans, light drives this cycle, she said. The part of the brain called the hypothalamus contains the human body's "clock," Schwartz said. There is evidence that biological rhythms are dictated by genes, although people can train themselves to some degree, he said. Teenage and young adult males have the highest risk for delayed sleep phase, or night-owl tendency, she said. But it's hard to know how much of that comes from genetics and how much comes from social pressures, she said. CNN
On a related note, here are Top Jobs for Nightowls. And yes, one of the primary reasons I am employed part-time as #8 is because it works with my biological clock.
From one of my favorite albums, Remembranza. This video was directed and performed by Tijuana performing artists Aldo Guerra and Azzul Monraz.
Spinning fire at Ocean Beach.
Even though I'm not a big fan of Maxwell's cover of this Kate Bush masterpiece, Ade & Melissa's dance to "This Woman's Work" last night on So You Think You Can Dance moved me deeply. Tyce DiOrio's choreography for them telling the story of a woman with breast cancer and her friend supporting her took me right back to my final years, months, weeks and days with Suzanne. It's stunningly well danced, beautifully choreographed and the single most memorable moment this season.
Taking Louise home, who moved to San Francisco in 1942 with her husband to find work at the shipyards during the war, I turned a corner in the nether regions of the City and discovered this.
I absolutely loved Pearls Over Shanghai at the Hypnadrome. The Cockette's musical brought back to life - brilliantly! Don't miss it!
I've been a fan of Ann Magnuson for many years and tonight, as part of the Mission Creek Music Festival, she did a show at The Lab that kicked off with Curly Lou singing Swedish songs from the 1930's. The always amazing Dynasty Handbag delivered a performance art piece entitled "Escape From The Family Home" that at one point had me laughing so hard I was in pain. Then Ann took the stage with a harpist and began telling stories and singing songs from "the past, present, and future" that included old Bongwater favorites, pieces from her solo releases, as well as a few highlights from her latest one-woman multimedia performance piece Back Home Again (Dreaming of Charleston). Knowing that her one-woman show "You Could Be Home Now" remains the single most amazing piece of solo theater I've ever seen, and seeing these glimpses of the new show, left me wishing I could have gone to Charleston, West Virginia, to see the full show. Her final number of the night was "Folk Song" which she was semi-updating along the way with current references.
I've been listening to two Handful of Snowdrops cds that came in the mail today. I haven't heard them in years. Someone borrowed them in 1995. Listening to these French Canadians again after all these years, I've fallen in love with Handful of Snowdrops all over again. Jean-Pierre Mercier amazed me then and still does today. He wrote all their songs and played all the instruments on their studio recordings.
Brilliant video for one of my favorite songs this year.
I've been laying in bed listening to the new Moby entitled "Wait For Me." My review: "Study War" and "Hope is Gone" are both great tracks, but they really don't belong on this record, nor do they add anything to it. By turning them off in iTunes this 16-track release turns into a 14-track ambient masterpiece that's very introspective, melancholic and cinematic. It's Moby's best in years. The video above is for the new single "Pale Horses."
As she began hearing about the people looking for donors, Cottman's story struck a chord. Tests showed them to be a match. He is African-American and she is a lesbian, which put both of them "on the outside of society in some ways," Murrell explained. "I'm not nervous about it. I keep expecting to be nervous, but mostly I'm just really excited to be part of something like this," she said. "It's for Anthony, and to make the world a better place, but it's also just really, really interesting. It's an adventure." New York Daily News
