Wednesday, July 21, 2004

You can smell Alaska burning from here

Last night after work, we packed up the kids and headed into San Antonio to the Witte Museum for their current display of the Hertzberg Circus Collection. The haze in the sky was quite dominant, and unfortunately, one we've gotten used to in recent years. If it's summer, Mexico must be burning. Slash and burn agriculture is such a joy. And environmentally friendly, too! That's been the case the last two times soot darkened our Texas skies... but not this time. No, now we have to contend with huge wildfires in Alaska and Canada (which have already burned 3.6 million acres) sending smoke into South Texas. I suppose I'll just hold my breath for the next month or so.

The circus collection itself was fascinating. The miniature carriage and other memorabilia from General Tom Thumb. Broadsheets for the infamous Feejee Mermaid and other sideshow attractions. Incredibly detailed scale models of various turn-of-the-century circuses that took up entire rooms. Costumes and guns from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, as well as glass targets used by Annie Oakley (well, obviously not used, since they'd be little more than shards). Lots of neat stuff, but ultimately we felt the show was somewhat lacking--then we found out that only a quarter of the collection is on display, because the Witte doesn't have room for the rest. Interesting.

When we got home, I managed to transcribe a few thousand words from the Lois McMaster Bujold interview. I'm finding myself hating the transcription process more and more. It's just so unbelievably tedious. Mind-numbing, even, particularly in those places where the words jumble together and are well nigh impossible to distinguish. The good news is that if the fates are kind, I'll have the transcription completed tonight, and maybe a good bit of the final edit done as well. Then only the Jacqueline Carey interview will remain on my to-do list. Whew! No more interviews for me for a long time, that's for sure...

Now Playing: The Kinks Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, pt. 1

No comments:

Post a Comment