Author: JWF

Reading & Eating

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PRAISE FOR FICTION

You may have seen the reports that reading fiction can improve your social skills.  Ann Lukits of the Wall St. Journal writes the following:  “People who read a lot of fiction are known to have stronger social skills than nonfiction readers or nonreaders.  A new study suggests that reading fictional works, especially stories that take readers inside people’s lives and minds, may enhance social skills by exercising a part of the brain involved in empathy and imagination.”  So, all you novel readers, rejoice!  There is an added benefit to getting lost in “novel-novel land” (as the Chief Penguin calls it).

WHAT I’M READING NOW

The spate of historical novels about wives of famous men and about overlooked or understudied notable women continues apace.  We had The Aviator’s Wife about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Loving Frank about Frank Lloyd Wright’s second wife, The Paris Wife about one of Hemingway’s wives, and Circling the Sun about Beryl Markham.  Now I’m reading The Arrangement by Ashley Warlick about a 5-year period in the life of M.F. K. Fisher.  I saw it on Amazon and was attracted to it because I like reading about food, and I don’t know that much about her personal life.  My paperback copy arrived and looks like a proof copy—no publisher or date, no blurbs front or back, and unusual page numbering.  I’m instantly suspicious about its merits.  But I’ve started reading it and am mildly entertained so we’ll see how it goes from here.

DOCUMENTING CONFLICT

I received this book as a gift several months ago and it has been sitting in my “to be read” pile.  I re-discovered it the other day and, having heard New York Times war correspondent Carlotta Gall talk about the conflicts she had covered, it seemed the right time to read it.  Lynsey Addario is a prize-winning freelance photojournalist who has been in the thick of crises in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya and Congo.  She aims to document the human story, especially that of the women, and to show the impact on ordinary people of bombs and airstrikes be they enemy ones or American.

Afghanistan 2009 by L. Addario
Afghanistan by L. Addario (www.youtube.com)

The book is It’s What I Do:  A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.  Addario is frank about her need to do this—it’s a calling more than a profession—and she willingly and eagerly puts herself in harm’s way.  It’s a risky, dangerous life (she’s been kidnapped and almost killed) and hard on lovers and family left behind.  Early on, she thought she’d never marry or have children, but she did and her story of combining work and family is both impressive and daunting.  Adding to the text are her compelling color photos.

 

 

EATING

With all the meals out I report on, some might think I’ve given up cooking.  Not so.  One of the joys of this phase of life is the luxury of preparing a meal without pressure.  No more hurrying home from work and hastily assembling ingredients to have dinner ready in the next 45 minutes.  Now I can select a new recipe, do the prep work in a leisurely fashion, and then do the actual cooking late in the day.

The Chief Penguin and I first became acquainted with contemporary Israeli food at Zahav (chef Michael Solomonov) in Philadelphia, thanks to good friends.  We returned solo and have since become fans of another Israeli chef, Yotam Ottolenghi, and his cookbooks, Plenty and Jerusalem.  Chicken with caramelized onion & cardamom rice is a tasty dish I’ve made in the past.

Source: purewow.com
Source: purewow.com

Yesterday I dared to try and serve to guests his roasted chicken with clementines & arak.  Arak, not being that common, I used the suggested Pernod instead.  It was a lovely combination of fennel bulbs and fennel seeds with soft notes of orange and brown sugar perfuming the chicken thighs.  Epicurious has a version of this recipe which is quite close to the original, but uses a much lower oven temperature.

 

 

SOMEONE TO WATCH

We had the pleasure, and pleasure it was, of seeing and hearing baritone John Brancy perform songs by Schubert and others last week.  Marilyn Horne told our interviewer, June LeBell, to get him while he was still affordable.  In conversation, Mr. Brancy was charming and engaging, and oh, what a voice and a presence.  Definitely a name to follow as his career gains momentum in the opera and recital worlds!

Tidy Tidbits: A Melange

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WILDLIFE

One of the pleasures of living on the coast overlooking the water is having nature all around us.  Not only is it  peaceful, but I love seeing the variety of birds that live or find their way here:  Great Egrets, White Ibis, scaups and other ducks, wood storks, herons of several hues, white pelicans, turkey vultures, swifts, and the occasional spoonbill.

Great White Egrets
Great White Egrets
Ibis
Ibis
Wood stork
Wood stork

I knew less about the inhabitants of  the waters of northern Sarasota Bay until we were treated to an excellent presentation on the flora and fauna of this estuary.  Not only do we have red, black and white mangroves lining the shore, but these brackish waters (I always thought it was salt water, but no, it’s a mix of river water and sea water) are home to snook, tarpon and red drum fish and lots of horseshoe crabs.  You can also spot sting rays, sea turtles, and the occasional Bonnet Head Shark.

Horseshoe Crab Remains
Horseshoe Crab Remains

IMG_8170I haven’t always been a nature lover, but working in a science museum that focused on the natural world, made me much more aware of and interested in the life around me.  The  other week, much to my surprise, I happened upon an armadillo—out on a bright sunshiny morning!  As I got closer, it quickly scurried into the bush.

 

 

 

 

CULTURE NOTES

The Sarasota Orchestra racked up another triumph last evening in a sold out concert featuring Israeli violinist Guy Braunstein in an energetic performance of Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major which includes a haunting oboe solo in the second movement.  After intermission, the orchestra gave a rousing rendition of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8.  Under Anu Tali’s baton, the orchestra continues to engage and please its patrons and definitely deserves a concert hall of its own.  We hope that Sarasota and its community leaders will find the wherewithal to make this happen.

The Verdi Cycle has come to an end.  And we ended this year’s Sarasota Opera season with the seldom performed and, we believe never recorded on DVD, performance of The Battle of Legnano.  The plot of this early Verdi opera is somewhat cobbled together and seems a bit silly at times, but, if nothing else, you come away with a sense of fervent patriotism, Viva Italia!  As always, the sets were impressive and there was some wonderful singing.

SMALL SCREEN

Given all that I had read and heard (including a friend’s recommendation) about the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black, I decided to give it a try.  I had just completed the 66th and last episode of Gran Hotel, the Spanish series set in 1906, that I’ve been living with for several months.  I got so I was hearing the voices of Dona Teresa, Julio, Javier, Dona Angela, and Alicia echoing in my head and could anticipate every note and swell of the theme music.  It was soap operaish; there were murders and murderers and not everyone was punished; and secrets and coincidences beyond belief, but I’ll miss it!

To be fair, I watched two full episodes of “Orange.”  It is raw, brutal, graphic, and probably somewhat true-to-life in its portrayal of the prison environment as experienced by women.  I found I was more drawn to Piper Chapman’s back story—how this privileged young white woman ended up doing time—and to that of Red, the tough head cook who aspired to be someone of import.  Despite this, it won’t keep me on the treadmill so I’ll be looking for another option.

LUNCHTIME

After hearing a fast-paced presentation on the U. S. military budget, our brains scrambling to keep up with the speaker, we had worked up an appetite.  Lunch at Pho Cali was delicious!  I ordered the rice noodle bowl with chicken.  It brought back warm memories (spicy and nostalgic) of the many days I bought this same Vietnamese dish from the food truck at Penn that was right outside my office window.  Lots of choices here—everything from stir fried chicken or tofu with broccoli or other vegetables to the very spicy lemongrass and shrimp soup that the Chief Penguin sighed over.  We’ll go back for sure.

All photos copyright JWFarrington

Tidy Tidbits: Mothers & Meals

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NOVEL PAIRING

The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee

I really enjoyed Lee’s first novel, The Piano Teacher, and so approached her new one with enthusiasm.  It too is wonderful, but in a different way.  Set in the present rather than the past, it details the daily lives over the course of a year of three expatriate women living in Hong Kong.  Like Anne Beattie, whose own stories delineate the fine structure of daily life, Lee knows this turf and her novel is rich with references to specific shops, clubs, and neighborhoods.  Two of these women are acquainted at the start (Mercy had worked for Margaret), but by the end all three, Mercy, Margaret, and Hilary, have intersected.

It is a novel mostly about motherhood—the angst of wanting a child, the tentativeness of trying out a child on loan, and the pain of losing a child coupled with, in Margaret’s case, the joys of cuddling and cosseting one’s existing children.  But it’s also a depiction of being an outsider in a culture, even if, like Mercy, you are half Asian.  I felt that Lee kept the reader at a distance from her characters; you knew their lives and habits, but you didn’t inhabit them.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Like Lee, Celeste Ng is a mother as well as a writer.  This first novel, winner of several awards, is a poignant story about a mixed race family in Ohio in the late 1970’s.  Husband James is Chinese American and wife Marilyn, a Caucasian from Virginia.  James and their three children stick out in small town Middlewood and each must deal with being singled out and looking different.  Sixteen year old Lydia bears the heavy weight of unrealistic parental expectations and when she goes missing, the family implodes.  It’s a book that makes one reflect on the sometimes unspoken demands we place on our children to their detriment.  Sobering and yet believable.  Marilyn is something of a Tiger mother.

SARASOTA SAMPLER

Expanding our local dining forays, but, we hope, not our waistlines, we tried two new restaurants this past week.

Yume in downtown Sarasota is a perfect choice for a Japanese lunch.  Among the four of us, we enjoyed several lunch specials:   chicken teriyaki and the eel, accompanied by rice and stir fried vegetables plus a small green salad or miso soup, and the spicy tuna roll with a side of seaweed salad.  Prices are very reasonable and the restaurant was not crowded.  Their longer menu also includes some Thai dishes.

Mozaic.  This is one of Sarasota’s fine dining restaurants (read a bit more expensive) and we ate here before the opera.  The menu is more creative than some other places, and we were pleased with what we ordered.  I thought the sautéed shrimp over lemon risotto was very tasty, and my spouse loved the crab cake salad and his side of lamb merguez sausage.

SMALL SCREEN SCRIBBLES

Mercy Street.  So far, I’d give this series a B, maybe a B+, but not an A.  It’s PBS’s first attempt at this kind of historical series and they just haven’t done it like the Brits do.  I’ve now watched the first three episodes.

Downton Abbey.  I’m mourning the end of Downton Abbey and the finale is still 24 hours away! I thought last week’s episode was one of the best and was particularly struck by the scene between Mary and her grandmother.  The dowager duchess opines about love and its importance in one’s life and then gives her granddaughter a hug.  Hugs are seldom seen between these folks, and I found this one touching and somehow very right.

Sarasota Scene: Music & Movies

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HIGHBROW TO LOW BROW?

In the final year of their Verdi cycle (performing all of Verdi’s music over a period of more than 25 years), the Sarasota Opera presented a beautifully staged Aida.  No live elephants, but gorgeous music, colorful Egyptian sets, good singing, and some lovely dancers.  It was a most enjoyable evening and the time flew by, even with the lengthy intermissions.  We went with friends and beforehand had a convivial dinner at Roast, just down the street.  I like the intimacy of the Sarasota Opera House.  The stage is small, the theater not large, and I am more caught up in the unfolding drama than in larger venues.

Last evening we went very early (I won’t admit to how early or my friends will think I’ve become one of “those” senior citizens) to Cortez Kitchen, our favorite “biker bar.”  It does have a bar, but is really a semi-outdoor eatery that serves local grouper fresh from the boat, shrimp, the occasional burger, and even a few sushi rolls.  The spicy shrimp roll is one of our favorites.  It being the weekend, there was live music; hence a large crowd of diners who arrived early and hung on to their tables until Doug Deming and the Jewel Tones took to the stage.  The band was surprisingly good and obviously has a fan base.  We stuck to our table too!

OSCARS

The Chief Penguin and I have already seen most of the Academy Award nominated films with a few exceptions.  Having read the reviews and seen the trailer, I have no desire to see The Revenant.  I’m afraid that it will win the Best Picture award, but I’m rooting for Spotlight, an excellent film about an important topic, and would be satisfied if any of the other nominees besides The Revenant won.

In the interest of being comprehensive, we watched about 20 minutes of Room last evening on our small screen.  I thought the novel was excellent and Donoghue’s depiction of 5-year old Jack convincing.  But, the film was more painful and so we abandoned it in favor of Trumbo, which we viewed in its entirety.  I hadn’t realized that the blacklisting of screenwriters and movie stars went on for so many years, nor had I known anything about the role Dalton Trumbo played by continuing to write and to submit scripts under others’ names.  Only in the late 1970’s did he get recognition for some of his excellent earlier work.  This is a good film and Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) has been nominated for Best Actor.  You will also enjoy seeing Helen Mirren in elegant suits and large hats as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

ORCHIDS

To round out our week, we took our Philadelphia friends to Selby Botanical Gardens and were wowed by the impressive orchid display in the conservatory.  Hanging orchids, orchid walls, and orchid vines—a kaleidoscope of colors.  These waxy blooms plus a yummy pink bromeliad made my day!

(All photos by JWFarrington)

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