Fire!

Fire in The Grove - John C Esposito

A terrible fire, a horrible moment in Boston's history, told moment by moment in this fascinating book. I had heard the tale of the fire, but was not sure of the horrible details. This book also contains a summary of the Station Nightclub fire from a few years back, and shows how perhaps we have not yet learned our lessons?

Chuck Palahniuk - Survivor

I'm certainly on a Chuck Palahniuk kick. I had stumbled across a few quotations from him, sought out his books at a recent Border's trip, and couldn't put his fiction down. This book is not the kind I would ever pick up based on the plot's premise - and yet I could not put it down based on the style of writing. I have the rest of his works on order from the library!

Gehry's Eyes....

"You know, whenever I go to a museum I fall in love with something - Botticelli's Primavera, for example - but each time I see it differently from the last time. Today I would look at the fabrics. And I would see it architecturally, whereas I never saw it that way before. When I drive I'm listening to Proust now. I read Proust thirty years ago. I slogged through it; I wasn't ready. Now I just go nuts. I play it over and over...I'm ready to hear it. I respond to where I am and what I'm doing at the time." -Frank Gehry

I used to say the same thing about the music of Gustav Holst. Well, I always loved it - but I hear new lines and new phrases every time I play it. Usually related to what I have been doing musically lately, playing a new instrument, focusing on bass lines, learning the words to the folk songs.

I just finished Gehry Talks: Architecture + Process. Very similar thoughts to the film Sketches of Frank Gehry. And a great glimpse of artistic process, I subject I love to examine incessantly.

In the film, Gehry's psychiatrist says that most people come to him to help them cope with the day-to-day problems of the world, but the artists come to him asking how to change it. I guess that's the definition of the "artist mentality"?

What is Art?

I visited the ICA for the first time yesterday. An amazing place, as much for the views and location as the art itself. I saw Tara Donovan's "untitled" (pins). I had heard about this art - where the artist sent directions, and the ICA staff assembled it (twice) for display. Is that art? Or, I guess, whose art is it?

The full article here, from the Boston Globe.

I think art (for me anyways) as always been about how it makes you feel more than what it actually is. I have begun, in the past few years, to appreciate "modern" art - truly wacky, performance "what the heck is that?" art - much more than paintings of bowls of fruit. And while I can appreciate how hard it is to get fruit to look like, well, fruit, it is still just fruit. Some of this "new" art creates a space for me where new ways of thinking can take place. And that's my definition of "art".

So perhaps it is okay that lights going on and off can be "art". Or John Cage's silence can be "music". They are all but a glimpse into the artists' experience, what makes her "space" of creative thought and change. How many times have I looked at a painting years after the first time I've seen it, only to be amazed at what I have missed upon my first reflections long ago? Did the painting change? No.

I did.

Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, but you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way. - David Whyte

General Tso's ubiquitous chicken

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles - Jennifer 8 Lee

There are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Wendys combined. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is for anyone who has ever wondered who is General Tso and why are we eating his chicken; why Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas; and who really invented the fortune cookie.....The book is a tribute to immigrants and to America. If our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie, ask yourself, how often do you eat apple pie? Now how often do you eat Chinese food? (from the book website)

This was very interesting. A little restaurant history, American history, and yes indeedy, there are more Chinese restaurants around than any other in every town I've lived in. I've never noticed them in such abundance until now.

Also a good analysis of the "Chinese" dishes we all love that no one from China's ever heard of, General Tsao's chicken, and "chop suey" ("Odds and ends" in Chinese).

Read it - and go get some lo mein!

stopping and listening

“Just remember, the same as a spectacular Vogue magazine, remember that no matter how close you follow the jumps: Continued on page whatever. No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice. None of this matters. We're just warming up.”

-Chuck Palahniuk

I have spent the past 2 weeks feeling a little lost. Most likely a lot of medical issues (that luckily are being resolved - hooray!) started the spiral. Taking too much too seriously. Not stopping to see the value in the little things.

Good to have a little school vacation time to get back to some reading and writing. I fought a bad case of stomach flu yesterday - but it left after only a day of explosive fury. I wonder how much of it was me mentally purging the past few weeks. I emerged feeling tired and spent, but more open to new experiences. I always seem to get physically ill after mental challenges. Coincidence?

I look forward to adventures and rest. Balance! Onward!

Olympic-Sized Carbon

The Olympic Torch's Carbon Footprint

The 2008 Olympic torch relay has not exactly inspired warm feelings of international cooperation, as in years past. Pro-Tibetan activists mounted protests in Paris and London, and even managed to force the extinguishing of the flame on a few occasions. But in the long run, the torch could generate more pollution than political dissent. Its journey across the world (and back again) is leaving a historic trail of CO2 emissions. (Slate.com)

You can track the path on Google. Follow the link to see. After all the political torch hoopla, you'd think someone would notice this.

And we are debating buying a Prius for our next car. Who cares with all this torch carbon - we are all doomed. =(

Top Ten Composers?

Ten composers you should know:
(from Music Composition for Dummies)

Claudio Monteverdi
Charles Ives
Béla Bartok
Igor Stravinsky
Aaron Copland
Raymond Scott
Leonard Bernstein
Arvo Pärt
Steve Reich
Eric Whitacre

I was alerted to this from Eric Whitacre's blog.

Of course they are all special. How do you pick just ten composers? Who the heck is Raymond Scott?

Choral Music of the 20th Century

We are 4 weeks away from our spring concert. We like the Britten (almost) and it's all coming together. Even as someone who knows what it's like to put things together over time, it's hard not to have heard it all with soloists. But I am convinced it will be a phenomenal performance!

This weekend I heard another group (and my friend Leslie, their outstanding soloist) perform the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem. Another reminder of how difficult pieces can come together. Our performance last spring was very moving, after some challenging rehearsals.

All this choral stuff! It is very satisfying. Come see what it's all about!

http://www.newburyportchoralsociety.org/

Back again

Okay, okay - so much for new year's resolutions. Things come and go. Like old Dunkin Donut signs.

Fascinating things have been happening. Lots of good books and films and life. Time to record more....

Happy New Year!

new year, new postings....

time has gotten away from me as of late, but i would like to post more as the year allows. still reading, watching, cooking, playing.

i am going to try for a posting a day, or all days but those i am at work. we'll see how the books and dvds stack up. also, life experiences are getting more fun with a toddler every day!

The Age of Turbulence

by Alan Greenspan

A fascinating look at all things Greenspan. I have read his previous bios, but this is his work including his economic theories, and his history of how his perceptions came to be. A little complicated in terms of economic trends (for my easily financially perplexed mode of thought) but a good read overall.

Peony in Love

by Lisa See

Good summary of Chinese culture, and a nice way of keeping tack of the rituals f the dead. This is a work of fiction, but heavily based on Chinese cultural tradition. I have have read many books re: Chinese culture, and I found this easier to follow, as a story with plot. Good read!

The Myth of You and Me

by Leah Stewart

Ever since a cataclysmic falling out with her best friend, Sonia, after college, Cameron's closest companion has been Oliver, the 92-year-old historian she lives with and cares for in Oxford, Miss. Oliver's death leaves Cameron alone and adrift, until she discovers that he has given her one last task: she must track down her estranged best friend (whose letter announcing her engagement Cameron had so recently ignored) and deliver a mysterious present to her. Cameron's journey leads her back to the people, places and memories of their shared past, when they called themselves "Cameronia" and swore to be friends forever. It was a relationship more powerful than romantic love—yet romantic love (or sex, anyway) could still wreck it. Stewart lures the reader forward with two unanswered questions: What was the disaster that ended their friendship, and what will be revealed when Cameron and Sonia are together again and Oliver's package is finally opened? The book is heartfelt and its characters believable jigsaw puzzles of insecurities, talents and secrets, and if Cameron's carefully guarded anger makes her occasionally disagreeable, readers will nevertheless welcome her happy ending. (review from Amazon)

Not bad, kinda slow. I felt like i never really cared for the fates of the characters. Too much leaping from past to present - when done well, it is a great plot enhancer, but here it left me confused. This novel is highly recommended by major sites, give it a try yourself?

The Last Chinese Chef

by Nicole Mones

Great also. Good look at a culture through its food, which is a perspective I always enjoy. A nice plot of remembrance, new found love, and twists to keep it interesting. Also, great historical snippets of former chefs, written in their old style but fascinating to read. Food carries with it the stamp of the culture for sure.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

A great book. Disturbing, the abuse these women endured. Also hard for me to read of a mother who would control her child with so much guilt and fear. A necessary glimpse into the hard life of Afghanistan. It is rather long, but I read it in a few days, iwas eager to learn the fate of the characters. I have not read the kite runner, but plan to soon.

Stuff

School starting has been very busy. All the kiddos finally have instruments uin hand, and most have begun, or at least I know who they are and they will start next week. They look like a great bunch, and I am excited about this year. I have lots of beginning flutes, and I need to focus on my flute skills this year again. I'm amazed at how many different things I do as a music teacher. Every moment it seems i am picking up a new instrument. It all can be tiring, but also very fun!

Newburyport Screening Room

My first time to this theater, I loved it! Reminded me of the NoHo theater of college days. Isn't life a little brighter when you have a good local art house theater nearby? With school starting, I have little time to watch my usual DVDs, but getting out once a week seems doable, and a nice retreat. They change films weekly, and have a whole month's posted for future planning. Check them out!

http://www.newburyportmovies.com/

My Best Friend

My Best Friend

"My Best Friend" is Leconte's spriest, least frustrating movie in years. He casts Daniel Auteuil as Francois, an antiques dealer who learns at one of those alluring Parisian dinner parties that the people at the table don't consider him a friend -- a colleague perhaps, an acquaintance sure, even an occasional lover, but certainly not a friend. We're told Francois is self-centered and treats people as things, and because it appears to be an occupational trait, we believe it.
Francois, on the other hand, is appalled. He turns petulant and defensive; he does too have a best friend, he insists. When his dinner mates want to know who, and why they've never met him before, he has no response. So his business partner, Catherine (Julie Gayet), gives him 10 days to produce the friend or she'll help herself to the ancient Greek vase he just bought for a quarter of a million dollars. (from Boston Globe)

And so the hillarity begins... actually, this was very cute. A cab driver appears, and teaches Francois to be a friend. In French, with easily readable subtitles. Playing at the Screening Room. Good flick!

Without a Map

Without a map : a memoir / Meredith Hall.
by Hall, Meredith

Disturbing. A young woman is "perfect", until she becomes pregnant, and is kicked out of her house, her community, her safe existence. Repeating patterns of abuse, searching, longing, all you would expect. Well written and captivating, and takes place in Hampton NH, just north of here.