I am reading THE EYE OF THE ALBATROSS by Carl Safina, for which I thank Sasquatch, a.k.a. James.

        They are wondrous birds, perfect gliding machines, who in a fifty year life span--and some live longer--will fly at least 3.7 million miles.  Many albatross in the Southern Ocean circumnavigate three times a year.  Five in seventy-one years doesn’t seem like much.   

        I have been eye to to eye with albatross, looked out during gales from the cockpits of both EGREGIOUS and RESURGAM at albatross gliding effortlessly along side and realized that they are at home in such conditions while even the most experienced of us are only transients.

        In STORM PASSAGE I noted albatross flying off Cape Horn in Force 12 conditions and two days later swimming around a becalmed EGREGIOUS on a glassy sea.  As THE EYE OF THE ALBATROSS points out, of course they would be swimming.  Like me, they were waiting for the wind without which EGREGIOUS could not sail and they could not glide.  Flying uses too much energy.

        I hope to be eye to eye with an albatross again.

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        I have seen three stage productions of LES MISERABLES, two in London and one in New York.  Last Sunday Carol and I went to see the just released film version, starring among others Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.

        A significant difference between stage and film is that on stage you have singers acting and in the film actors singing.  Overall, as one would expect, the actors’ voices are not as strong as those in stage productions.  This is not to say they are bad.  They aren’t.  And what they may lack in range, they more than make up in intensity. 

        Director Tom Hooper did not dub the film.  The performances on screen are as recorded, and because of the actors’ skill at acting and Hooper’s in-your-face close-ups, I felt a fiercer energy in the film than in stage productions.  The big outdoor scenes, such as those at the barricades, cannot be matched on stage.

        Beyond comparison with anything else in the film is Anne Hathaway as Fantine.

        Having lost her factory job unjustly, having sold her hair and then her body to support her daughter whose father abandoned them, dying she sings with rage and longing for what might have been, “The Dream I Dreamed.” The song ends, ‘Life has killed the dream I dreamed,‘  This is fact, not self-pity. 

        Her performance is heart-stopping as well as show-stopping.

        I came home and downloaded the track from a highlights album.  The music alone is not enough.  You need to see Anne Hathaway as well as hear her.

        I enjoyed the film, but when it goes on sale,  I’ll buy a copy for Anne Hathaway alone.

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        In an exchange of emails today with Buzz Ballenger of Ballenger Spars, the mast maker of choice for Moore 24s, I learned two things. 

        First, that he grew up in Highland Park, not far from Evanston, and moved his company to California in 1979.  Good decision.  We’ve had a mild start to winter by Chicago standards, but it’s still winter.

        And second, that of the two Moore 24 booms Ballenger makes, one slotted with cut outs to reduce weight, and one standard without cut outs, the lighter, slotted boom is the stronger.