Last week we brought our daughter Izzy to see Cirque du Soleil Ovo on the Boston Waterfront.  Their shows are a great mix of amusement and amazement.  And it was interesting to see a five year old’s reaction to the whole thing.

This isn’t true for the whole show, but at times I found her wide eyed and grinning from ear to ear at the most mundane parts, and staring up at the ceiling bored during some of the most thrilling parts.  I can come up with two explanations for this.  One is that she was just having a hard time processing all the fantastic things she was seeing - and looking away from the stage at some of the most climactic parts was an automated response to sensory overload.

The other explanation is that maybe at such a young age your filter for the extraordinary is less defined.  Maybe some things that grownups perceive as amazing just don’t seem as unbelievable to kids because they haven’t experienced the limitations of gravity and the human body enough to understand just how skilled those performers have to be.  A third explanation might be that she slipped into a zone where she thought the live performers were actually in one of her cartoons and none of it was real.

And I guess a fourth possibility could be that she was suffering from minor heat exhaustion since the a/c inside the tent was barely keeping the temperature out of the nineties.  I was drip sweating in my seat the entire show.

Here is the trailer showing some of the highlights.  Pay close attention right at the end to see the green guys falling off the climbing wall and bouncing off the trampoline below back up onto the wall.  That was my favorite.

Now, all eyes are on Hurricane Earl which formed on the heals of Danielle but has taken a path much much closer to land and is threatening a close brush with New England.  As I write this a Hurricane watch is in effect for Massachusetts and a tropical storm warning for Maine and New Hampshire.  We will likely see heavy rain and at least gale force winds along the coast on Saturday.  And of course, (as I’ve commented on before) for the last couple of days a lot of real news has landed on the cutting room floor in order to make more air time for the weather forecast, and no doubt all the local news channel “Storm Teams” are getting their parkas ready for the big event.

This newest hand plane is smaller and lighter than my last, making it easier to swim with and to maneuver in the wave, but provides less lift off the face.  It also has a lot more rocker in the the nose so it doesn’t pearl as easily and yields a smoother gliding sensation.  The strap is made from an old Splaff belt of mine which is made from a spent bicycle inner tube so it is twice reused.

Splaff is owned and operated by a friend of mine named Cliff Drill in San Diego.  Cliff started making sandals from recycled inner tubes and tires in his garage at Higgins Beach (right near where the above photos were taken and where I’ve been riding this hand plane) way back in 1997.  He later moved to Ocean Beach and branched out into belts and handbags.  I think he’ll be proud to see the last belt he sold me being used in this manner.

The clouds broke this morning as this particular system stalled offshore.  But the sky is already growing dark again as it tries to advance toward land again.

Outlook for this weekend.  Not written in stone but entirely possible.

For anyone reading this from outside of the State of Maine the word “camp” is a regional term used to describe any small dwelling situated on a parcel of land in a rural setting.  They are typically used mainly as a vacation spot, seasonal getaway, or for shelter while pursuing game.  The camp we visited was on a small pond at the foot of 1200 ft tall Randall Mountain.  It was a super quiet and very clean/natural setting.  The only access was by a dirt road off of a back road off of another back road off of a rural route.  So there was zero road noise, and in three days and nights camping I didn’t see or hear one airplane.  The only sounds were that of the bullfrogs, crickets, and the occasional cry of a loon.  We swam, fished, paddled, cooked, made smores, and relaxed.

Randall Pond, Parsonsfield, Maine

Large Mouth Bass - A Keeper

Large Mouth Bass Remains

Pemaquid Point is in the midcoast region just downeast from Boothbay Harbor.  It is home to the famous Pemaquid Point Lighthouse and the port of New Harbor.  My brother in law and his fiance rented a house which is owned by the couple who lives next door and is part of a thirty five acre spread which includes fields of wild flowers, pristine forest, and at least a few hundred yards of ocean frontage on which they have a great little boat house stocked with a canoe, kayaks, and an inflatable with a small outboard.  Our stay up there involved a little more driving around from place to place than was required at the camp, but it is one of those places where around every turn is a postcard view and there is no such thing as being in a rush, so I didn’t mind.

Wild Blueberry Cobbler at the Pemaquid Lobster Co-op fish shack.  Sadly I didn’t take a picture of my Haddock sandwich before demolishing it.  The thing had an entire fried fillet - the most fish I’ve ever seen on a single roll.

The Boathouse

Pemaquid Lighthouse Park in the fog

Izzy playing with Periwinkles in a tide pool

My first ever stacked rock sculpture

Inside the lighthouse tower

Monday morning, local landmark Red’s Dairy Freeze was torn down, months after sustaining what must have been pretty severe structural damage in an early spring electrical fire.  It was a sad day indeed.  The good news is that reconstruction is already underway.  I just hope the new design maintains some of the charm that the old one held and doesn’t turn out to looking like some modern prefab piece of garbage like so many new commercial buildings these days.

I haven’t been to too many live shows lately, but have seen a fair amount of bands in my lifetime.  And I can say for sure that The Black Keys are one of the hardest working bands out there.  They played their hearts out and truly rocked the entire time.  There is nothing worse than going to a show where the band is obviously just going through the motions.  This was the opposite.

The Black Keys is a two piece group and if you closed your eyes you would swear there were four or five people up there.  The skill and energy they bring to their performances is nothing short of amazing.  Seeing something like that inspires me to work even harder at my own artistic pursuits.  Below is a clip from the Boston show that another concert goer posted on youtube.  There is another good one here.

Happy Earth, Sad Earth by Isabella Marchesi July 2010