On the Road: MASS MoCA

As discussed in previous posts, our frequent visits to MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) hold numerous advantages.  Once we're there, especially if we stay at Porches Inn across the street from the museum, everything is within walking distance: a hot tub, several enjoyable restaurants, book stores, coffee shops, bars, concerts and, of course, the largest contemporary art museum in the United States.  Highlights from our most recent visit...

From Osman Khan's Road to Hybridabad exhibition:

From Jeffrey Gibson's Power Full Because We're Different exhibition:

From Amy Yoes's Hot Corners exhibition:

Among the museum's more permanent features is the work of James Turrell, one of the most prominent artists in the Light and Space movement.  The two highlights - for us - are Hind Sight and C.A.V.U.  

For Hind Sight, two people follow a guided path into a dimly lit room.  Very dimly lit.  Essentially pitch black.  You sit for 15 minutes, just long enough for your eyes to begin to adjust.  I've done the experience twice now.  By about minute 10, I start to perceive the faintest light.  My wife describes it as greyish.  I think I saw a few more shapes the first time.  In both cases, I felt I needed maybe five more minutes.

C.A.V.U. was created out of a repurposed concrete water tank.  One can visit any time of day but the experience is most gratifying at dawn and dusk.  In the ceiling are two concentric circles, the larger one taking up the entire ceiling, 40 feet across, the smaller one maybe 10 feet across.  It's sort of an eyeball/iris relationship.  The colors of the two circles change depending on sunlight.  Most of the time, the smaller circle is darker but occasionally that switches.  We lied on the floor.  I found that if you relax your gaze enough, the two circles blend together.  Your eyes fight against it, of course, and it's hard when the people around you are whispering.  Ahem!

Both pieces require patience.  There are many ways to approach an art museum, of course.  My own default is to move relatively quickly from one piece to the next.  With Turrell's work, the time invested is essential to the experience.  If you're impatient, you'll miss the whole point, which is to connect with your own experience of the vision process.  I like that.

Our excuse to visit last weekend was a concert: the Kasambwe Brothers, a trio from Malawi.  MASS MoCA's concert organizers evidently have strong connections in the African music scene.   We saw Seun Kuti, a more established star, over the summer.  In 2023, we saw Kaleta and Super Yamba Band - technically Brooklyn-based but with strong ties to the Afro-funk scene.  The Kasambwe experience was more novel.  Saturday's concert was their first performance outside of Malawi.  They're taking part in a residency at the museum where, in addition to their live show, they will be recording their first full-length album.  

Their music was downright joyful, much needed in these difficult times.  Referring to the photo, the instrument in the middle is a babatoni, essentially a bass banjo: four strings with a bass drum body.  As far as I can tell, it is unique to Malawi.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend.  We'll definitely be back, and we'll be keeping an eye out for that new album.

Star Trek: Initiations

Episode: "Initiations"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 2

Original Air Date: September 4, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Chakotay has been granted the use of a shuttlecraft so he can perform the pakra, a (Star Trek-invented) memorial ritual for his father.  I don't understand why he couldn't have done it in his quarters but it's as good an excuse as any for what comes next.  He accidentally stumbles into Kazon territory.  Once there, he has a hostile encounter with a young Kazon who sounds awfully familiar...

One of the asks of the writers for Season 2 was better development for Chakotay - a good call.  On NextGen, despite second-billing, Riker definitely suffers in the competition for quality material with Data and Worf.  The same could easily have happened with Chakotay (and may yet) without deliberate effort.  "Initiations" is a good start.  However, I always get nervous when they lean too heavily on the Native American heritage angle.  For starters, they would have done well to give him a more specific ethnicity.  The producers saw him as Sioux in the beginning, later Hopi.  The tribe wasn't named on-screen until a fictional one was invented for him.  Also, they could have cast a Native actor.  There were plenty of good ones around in the mid-90s.  Robert Beltran is technically Latino.  Why not tap into his actual cultural identity instead?

The biggest mistake regarding Chakotay, though, was not letting the Maquis story play out for longer.  Once Seska was gone, his character lost dimension he never quite got back.  Now, Beltran is quite frank in his own assessment of the situation.  I recommend David Wharton's piece on Giant Freakin Robot.

But at least for a while in Season 2, they were trying.

One of the most frequent criticisms of the episode has to do with the guest star who played Kar, the young Kazon.  Before we dig into it, let me emphasize that I find the criticism entirely unfair and I'll explain why.

Kar was played by Aron Eisenberg, better known as Nog on Deep Space Nine.  While the makeup is completely different, the voice is instantly recognizable.  Some critics found this off-putting, complaining that it took them out of the narrative.  I dispute this criticism for two reasons:

• Eisenberg had to audition for the part.  It's not as if they created the character for him.  They made him earn it.  And he did.
• 29 years later, it's entirely possible someone might watch the series in the opposite order.  I did.  When I first started digging into NextGen-era Trek back in the DVR days, Voyager episodes were available to me while DS9 ones were not.  So, I saw this episode first and never would have realized the connection.

Furthermore, Eisenberg is great in the part.  Evidently, he and Beltran had loads of fun working together.  Beltran likened it to working with comedian Don Rickles.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Patrick Kilpatrick (great name) played the role of Razik, First Maje of the Kazon sect Chakotay encounters.  It's the first of three Trek appearances for the actor.  Kilpatrick was born Robert Donald Kilpatrick, Jr. in Orange, Virginia, August 20, 1949.  He graduated from Richmond University, then attended NYU for grad school.

He's earned his living as an action film villain.  Movies include Class of 1999, Minority Report and The Presidio.  Beyond Trek, television appearances include Babylon 5, ER and The X-Files.  

In 2021, Kilpatrick ran in the California Governor recall race.  The recall failed.  Kilpatrick won 1.2% of the vote.

On the Road: Pioneer Valley

The Pioneer Valley is the portion of the Connecticut River Valley contained within Massachusetts.  It is generally understood to include Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.  We have visited often over the past few years.

The main impetus for visiting this particular weekend was to catch Judge John Hodgman's stop in Turners Falls on his Road Court tour.  I imagine many of you are already familiar with Hodgman's comedic work.  For those who aren't...

We first got to know Hodgman from his appearances on The Daily Show back in the full-time Jon Stewart era.  These days, among other projects, he has a highly successful podcast, Judge John Hodgman, on which he "dispenses fake internet justice" upon relatively low-stakes matters for his listeners.  At our show, he passed judgment on a man wanting to take flying lessons despite a friend's concerns, a man blowing his nose at the dinner table and one professional wrestler wanting to stage a bout with a friend.  Stuff like that.  Good family fun.  We were not disappointed.  Both Hodgman and his bailiff, Jesse Thorn, are seasoned pros at this point who thrive with a live audience.  

Second priority was the Fall Mum Show at The Botanic Garden of Smith College in Northampton, which runs through November 17th.  The Mum Show is one of two big, student entry events at the Garden, the other being the Spring Bulb Show.  Simple concept: students create hybrids which then get judged by visitors to the show.  Whoever gets the most votes wins.  

Smith has been holding a mum show since 1920 but this will be the last year - I believe this is it for the Bulb Show, too.  The plan for future years is to do smaller events more often.

Someone added an extra adornment to one of the plants:

I voted for entry #86.  

Unfortunately for #86, it was not a successful week in voting for me.

The Smith College Museum of Art is hosting a year-long exhibition of Moroccan artist Younes Rahmoun.

There's plenty to enjoy in their regular collection, too.

Chattering Girls in Spring by Takano Miho

Pink Man vs. Ayudhaya Buddha by Manit Sriwanichpoom

Ejiri in Suruga Province from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai

The Forbes Library, across the street from Smith College, also hosts art exhibits.  I was drawn to Ben James's photo essay Life on the Connecticut - summer '24, chronicling a bike trip along the Connecticut River.  I especially liked this photo:

And, most of all, its caption:

Our final stop before heading back home was the Do Plants Know Math? photography exhibit by Mathematical Sciences Professor Christophe Golé.  

Top view of a Romanesco

A closer view of the same photograph

Golé also wrote an accompanying book: Do Plants Know Math? Unwinding the Story of Plant Spirals, from Leonardo da Vinci to Now.

Star Trek: The 37's

Episode: "The 37's"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 1

Original Air Date: August 28, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes happen upon a 1936 Ford truck floating around in the Delta Quadrant.  One bizarre encounter leads to more when they discover eight earthlings in cryo-stasis on a nearby planet, all from 1930s Earth.  Craziest of all, one of them turns out to be legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart.

"The 37's" generally gets mixed reviews.  Some, including Tim Russ (Tuvok) love it for its original series, classic sci-fi hokeyness.  Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) enjoyed the relationship between the captain and Earhart.  Others find the episode disappointing.  Guess which camp I'm in.

You see, beneath all of this, a far more interesting subplot develops.  The eight preserved "37s" were not the only survivors of 20th century alien abductions.  The others managed to break free of their captors, revolt against them and build their own flourishing society on the new world.  After initial mistrust and phaser fire, everyone is able to make friends.  The Voyager crew is invited to visit the settlers' three cities and furthermore, to remain on the planet if they wish.

So begins Janeway's dilemma: does she give people the choice?  Starfleet regulations would say no.  But Starfleet's a long way off and Voyager ever making it back home is far from guaranteed.  Could the journey back to the Alpha Quadrant even continue if too many of the crew leave the ship?  Despite the possibly dire consequences, she gives everyone the choice.  Anyone who wishes to leave Voyager is to report to the cargo bay at a given hour.

Decision time arrives.  Janeway and Chakotay hold their breath as the cargo bay door opens.  It's empty. Everyone has chosen to continue on.  The sense of relief is real, for both the characters and the audience.  Nobody wanted the story to end.  It's a genuinely moving moment and the emotional payoff could have been so much more.

This secondary story feels tacked on because, essentially, it was.  We never see the fabulous cities the settlers built because by the time that part of the story was added, it was too late to film it.  Voyager can feel this way often: great ideas that are never fully realized.  

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Sharon Lawrence (Earhart) was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 29, 1961.  She went to UNC Chapel Hill where she got a degree in journalism.  She debuted on Broadway in a 1987 revival of Cabaret.

By the time the Voyager job came along, Lawrence already had a regular role on a bigger show: NYPD Blue, on which she played Sylvia Costas for six seasons.  Since then, she has also had principal roles on Fired Up, Ladies Man, Wolf Lake and Hidden Palms.  Films include Gossip, Middle of Nowhere and Solace.  She's had six Emmy nominations but has never won.

Squid Eats: Frankie's

Frankie's is a new restaurant in Burlington, moving into a building long-occupied by Penny Cluse, one of the most popular brunch spots in town for a quarter-century.  My wife and I visited for the first time a couple weeks ago.  The atmosphere is on the brighter side with white walls and lighter wood for the tables and floors.  Service is very professional.

Frequent visitors to The Squid have likely caught on that my wife and I are big fans of the bivalves.  There were several options on the menu at Frankie's.  We went with roasted oysters and a clam dish for our starters, then split a wiener schnitzel for our entree.  I'd say I liked the oysters best.

Everything was fine.  I wouldn't say anything was spectacular but it was a nice meal.  I would go again and maybe try a more adventurous entree next time.

On the Coffee Table: Marilyn Hagerty

Title: Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews

Author: Marilyn Hagerty

via Amazon

Marilyn Hagerty has been writing for the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota since the 1950s.  She's had a regular column by the '70s often, but not exclusively, about local restaurants.  She became a national media darling when her review of a newly opened Olive Garden went viral.  The review is notable for the fact that she provided an unironic reflection on a well-known chain restaurant.  

Grand Forks is a greatest hits compilation of her food columns between 1987 and 2012.  Through it all, you see the evolution of the American restaurant industry: dramatic changes in prices, of course, but also the expanding international food palette of the Heartland.  The meat and potatoes of the late '80s evolves to include established Thai, Japanese, Mexican and Cajun enterprises by the 21st century.  

I found an elegance in Hagerty's writing.  "High tea has come to North Dakota, and it's doing very well, thank you," opens one review.  You may think you write sentences like that all the time but fair reader, you probably don't.  Try reading it out loud.  It combines percussive consonants with a lilting melody.  I hear the voice of my own Nebraska relatives speaking those words and quickly grasp the subtle rebuke for my presumptions about provincial quaintness.  Hagerty is midwestern nice, clearly preferring to say something nice about every subject.  But as her son James R. Hagerty, a Wall Street Journal reporter, suggested, "If she writes more about the décor than the food, you might want to eat somewhere else."

Most importantly, after reading I feel I know a lot more about the community of Grand Forks, North Dakota.  For those of you from the world beyond the USA, North Dakota is rather infamously the least-visited state out of our 50.  It's not that it's perceived as ugly or unpleasant so much as boring and out of the way.  The prairie states in general are patronizingly referred to by many on the coasts as America's "flyover."  North Dakota, in particular, isn't en route between major population centers no matter which direction you're driving.

In truth, I now realize Grand Forks, North Dakota isn't so different from Burlington, Vermont.  And they were probably a lot more similar in 1987 than they are now.  Grand Forks is actually more populous: 59,166 to Burlington's 44,743 according to the 2020 census.  Both cities are college towns with popular college hockey teams.  Politically, of course, they're at opposite American extremes.  Vermont could hardly be a bluer state, North Dakota could hardly be redder.  Burlington is closer to larger population centers: under two hours to Montreal, just over three to Boston and just over five to New York City.  GF is under three hours to Winnipeg and just under five to the Twin Cities.  I'd certainly put money on Burlington being prettier.  But there's no denying Vermont is just as provincial as North Dakota.

As such, I've felt Hagerty's influence on my own reviews.  I expect most of you reading this are no more likely to visit my little corner of the world than I am to visit hers.  That doesn't mean I can't use my reflections to share what I love about my own community.  

I enjoyed the book.  It's not exactly a flowing, cover-to-cover read but it's certainly pleasant and charming all the way through.

Star Trek: The Adversary

Episode: "The Adversary"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 3, Episode 26

Original Air Date: June 25, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Our story opens with Benjamin Sisko receiving an overdue promotion to Captain.  At the ceremony, Federation Ambassador Krajensky tells Sisko of a Tzenkethi coup and delivers orders for the new Captain to take the Defiant to patrol their border.  During the mission, our heroes discover a saboteur and to complicate matters further, he's a Changeling.

"The Adversary" introduces a new storyline to Star Trek, one with long-term resonance: Changeling infiltration of the Alpha Quadrant.  Given their shapeshifting capabilities, anyone could, in reality, be a Changeling - fits right in with general, 21st century paranoia.  It provides a strong cliffhanger to close Season 3 as well. 

The writers drew inspiration from The Thing from Another World, a 1951 film adaptation of "Who Goes There?", a novella by John W. Campbell Jr.

Thoughts on Season Three

General Impressions

With The Next Generation coming to an end, Deep Space Nine became the flagship series for the franchise.  The goal for Season 3 was to build a sense of family among the principal characters.  Jake comes into his own, providing important development for Benjamin as well as himself.  The bromance between Miles and Julian becomes a vital element for both characters.  We learn of Odo's love for Kira and get broader context for both Dax and Quark.  

I'd say, mission accomplished.

Favorite Episode: "Second Skin"

Kira is kidnapped and surgically altered.  Her Cardassian captors tell her she has been living as an embedded spy for years, her cover so deep that she wasn't even aware of it.  The story idea alone is amazing.  But it's Nana Visitor's performance that truly sells it.  Her growing self-doubt is thoroughly convincing.  It's a shame this story wasn't pursued in future episodes.

Least Favorite Episode: "Visionary"

Season 3 hit a low ebb for a three-episode run beginning in February 1995.  My guess is that with Voyager's launch in January, a significant amount of creative energy was going towards the new series at Deep Space Nine's expense.  "Visionary" was the second of the three.  It's a time travel story, nearly always problematic for me.  

Worth noting, even weaker DS9 episodes frequently have redeeming elements.  In this case, we get the introduction of darts as a story motif and a satisfying bar brawl.  

Favorite Recurring Character: Garak

Naturally.  But that's not to say there isn't an ever-growing number of strong contenders.  One of DS9's great strengths is the depth of its bench.  Rom is the strongest runner-up in Season 3.  He starts standing up to Quark for the first time and the long-term benefits are considerable for all of us.

Favorite Blast from the Past: Gowron

via Movie Morgue Wiki

Speaking of great recurring characters, Gowron makes his first DS9 appearance on "The House of Quark" after four on NextGen.  Even better, he gets a comedic moment, rolling those amazing Gowron eyes as he listens to Quark's explanation of Klingon financial scheming.  The Klingon Chancellor will become a more important character on DS9 than he was on TNG.  

Favorite Guest Actor, One-Shot: Mary Kay Adams

via Memory Alpha

Also in "The House of Quark," Adams plays Grilka, briefly Quark's wife.  Watching her, my wife said, "I like Klingon women."  Adams had particularly gracious things to say about her Star Trek experience, included in my post on the episode.

via Headhunter's Holosuite Wiki

Onward

An old friend is coming back.