Category: Books

Manhattan: Food, Art, & Drama

JWF Leave a comment

SPLURGE-WORTHY DINING

The Modern

In a delayed celebration of our anniversary, we dined at The Modern, the restaurant next to the Museum of Modern Art.  With a table by the window, we looked out at MoMA’s sculpture garden and December’s bare trees. Lunch was a three-course prix fixe. Everything was beautifully plated and delicious.  I opted for the cold lobster salad with citrus and burrata followed by sea bass with some agnolotti and then a cheese course. 

Lobster salad
Roast chicken & sweet potato cake

The Chief Penguin had hamachi over basil to start and then roast chicken on a sweet potato cake followed an elegant lime parfait.  Service was impeccable, and we enjoyed chatting with our young waitress.  This is a wonderful venue for special occasions!

MATISSE AND MORE

Hanging Out at MoMA

The other morning, we walked down to W. 53rd Street and spent a most pleasant hour exploring several exhibits.  We headed first to the 3rd floor for a look at Matisse’s Cut-Outs: A Celebration, works from late in his career.  These paper cutouts are amazing.  His paper “stained glass” window, Christmas Eve (Nuit de Noel) has vibrant colors, but the glass version he had crafted is most impressive and so luminous. 

Christmas Eve, Matisse, in glass

Also of note are the figures he did for his swimming pool.  Rather than add a swimming pool to his home, he created blue leggy figures and adhered them to a band of paper around the perimeter of his dining room.  The overall effect was feeling like being in the water.

The Swimming Pool, Matisse, 1962
Rothko, No. 16, 1958 (Black, Red, Brown)

Leaving Matisse behind, we looked at some works from the permanent collection from around the world.  I was struck by the muted intensity of Mark Rothko’s No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black) and by the mysterious figures underlying Blue Composition, c.1966-68, by Ethiopian artist Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian.  There appears to be both a horse and the snout of an alligator or crocodile. 

Detail, Blue Composition
Detail, No Shade but His Shade

And No Shade but His Shade by Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi is a compelling work all in browns including a man’s head with a bird perched on his scalp.

LIVE DRAMA

Left on Tenth (James Earl Jones Theatre)

I read Delia Ephron’s memoir, Left on Tenth, when it came out and was pleased when I saw that she was writing a script and working with Good Wife TV star Julianna Margulies.  The Chief Penguin and I went to the play and enjoyed it immensely.  The cast is small, just four people; Margulies and Peter Gallagher as the leads, two others who play cameo parts, and two dogs.  It is a story of newfound love, but it’s also about serious illness, specifically leukemia.  (A variety of that same disease took the life of Delia’s sister Nora.)

While one might expect this to be a depressing drama, it is not.  Yes, there are sad and tense moments, but there is joy and lightness.  The staging consists of a simple set, minor costume changes, and creative lighting and projection to change the mood or the season.  Margulies carries the work, projecting a full range of emotions, while Peter Francis James in brief roles as a friend, a gruff doctor, and a waiter adds a bit of humor and dance. 

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo of trees for sale along 3rd Avenue.

Chilly Manhattan: Diversions

JWF Leave a comment

BEARING THE COLD

Our first several days here in the Big Apple have been cold, cold with highs of just over 30 degrees and the occasional gust of wind.  Not days for long walks, so we tend to hibernate and catch up on reading or watch promising new films or the latest seasons of favorite drama series. Here are my thoughts on a new film and a nonfiction tome about the brain.

NEW MOVIE:  POMP AND POLITICS VATICAN STYLE

Conclave (Apple TV+)

Based on a novel by Robert Harris (author of Pompeii), Conclave is the story of choosing a new pope.  It is a deliberate, secretive process, often rife with tension, competing priorities, and wildly divergent candidates.  As dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence manages the selection process.  As played by Ralph Fiennes, Lawrence is thoughtful, concerned with doing it the right way, and sometimes conflicted about his role and his own desires. 

His closest colleague and friend is Aldo Bellini, wonderfully played by Stanley Tucci.  Bellini receives some votes on the early ballots, but not as many as far-right outlier Tedesco or the disgraced Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow).  As the voting drags on, secrets and intrigue simmer in the background.

The initial pacing is slow with strong visuals of the cardinals all in red—-assembling, robing, or just listening to the dean.  A scene where they all carry white umbrellas is especially striking.  The viewer may think she has it all figured out, but there is an unexpected twist at the end.  We found it fascinating viewing.  Recommended!

Note: You can rent or buy this film without being an Apple TV subscriber for about the price of two movie tickets.

WHAT I’M READING

Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery by Theodore H. Schwartz

A talented and creative neurosurgeon, Theodore Schwartz has spent most of his career at Cornell’s medical school and hospital in New York.  His book, Gray Matters, takes up a daunting, but fascinating topic for the lay reader.  It’s a text on the anatomy of the brain; accounts of the injuries and brain surgeries of famous individuals from Abraham Lincoln to Natasha Richardson, Robert F. Kennedy, and JFK; a discussion of sports injuries and CTE; and a thorough explanation of those deadly glioblastomas. Along the way, he provides personal history of how he got from aspiring to be a musician to becoming a brain surgeon.

His writing is both accessible and engaging, and he uses good analogies to help his readers picture the distinct parts of the brain.   While not everyone will be interested in this level of detail about brain injuries, it is comprehensive and informative.  Reading it, I hope never to hit my head hard on anything—pavement or other!  Recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

HOLIDAY CHEER

Since we haven’t yet been down to Rockefeller Center to see the tree, here are two trees from the streets of downtown Cary. Plus penguins!

Racing flag tree
Sugar candy tree up close
Christmas penguins

Note: All photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.). Header photo is Santa’s reindeer in Cary, NC.

Carolina Moments: Staying Inside

JWF Leave a comment

“DEEP IN DECEMBER”

We’ve been told that the lovely warm weather we enjoyed in October and the first part of November was not the norm for the Triangle Area.  For the Chief Penguin and me, it was reminiscent of balmy Florida in the fall.  Now that the weather has shifted (and not just here!), we feel like it’s winter and, like the song, “Try to Remember” (sung by Jerry Orbach), we are deep into December.  But not really.

Sun-striped books

Yesterday, after a chilly 28 degrees before dawn, the thermometer climbed only to 42 and stayed there.  We burrowed in, staying cozy, and never went outdoors!  Taking advantage of the fitness center down the hall, we exercised on the treadmills, enjoyed lunch and dinner in two of the downstairs dining venues, and then retreated to our nicely warm apartment for reading and the next episode in Season 2 of The Diplomat.

ESCAPIST READING

Post election, after writing hundreds of postcards, and now getting caught up in pre-Christmas preparations, I find I have less time for serious book reading.  I’ve been more drawn to mysteries.  Having finished Deborah Crombie’s latest (noted in last week’s blog post), I decided to try one in Ann Cleeves’ new detective series.  I’m a huge fan of Shetland, one TV series based on her books, but didn’t warm up to Vera in the one episode of that series I watched.

STRAITLACED DETECTIVE VENN

The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves

The Heron’s Cry is the second book featuring Detective Matthew Venn, the first being The Long Call.  I read recently that a TV series is in the works.  And a third mystery, The Raging Storm, was published in 2023.  The setting for all of them is coastal North Devon in southwest England.

Barnstaple in North Devon (northwooduk.com)

Venn is an unusual detective.  He was raised in the evangelical Brethren Church which he left behind and is married to Jonathan, who runs a community center called the Woodyard.  When Nigel Yeo, a local doctor, is murdered with a shard of glass, Matthew is called to investigate.  Jonathan is a friend of the deceased’s glassmaker daughter Eve and becomes tangentially involved.  Dr. Yeo had been looking into the handling of a recent suicide, bringing him into contact with the members of a prominent local family.  When another death occurs, Matthew and his colleagues must carefully pick apart the tangled strands of connections between artists, friends, tenants, and landlord to determine the culprit.

Initially, I found the book slow going; I was learning about Matthew and his colleagues Jen and Ross as individuals along with keeping straight the various suspects.  Ultimately, I got more caught up in it, enough to be surprised by the outcome and ready to read the next title in the series.  Worth considering if you like mysteries by Elizabeth George and Deborah Crombie.

WATCHING—COZY BRITISH CRIME SERIES

Whitstable Pearl, Season 3 (Acorn)

Mike & Pearl (deadline.com)

I don’t know if you call a TV mystery series “cozy,” but Whitstable Pearl comes close.  Set on the English coast in the real Kent town of Whitstable, it features a set of local characters.  Pearl Nolan and her mother Dolly jointly own and run an oyster bar and café where Ruby Williams is their rising young chef.  Pearl’s grown son Charlie has fled the nest and is away in Canada. On the side, Pearl is a private detective who gets hired to find missing persons and who often assists (sometimes without invitation) police chief Mike McGuire in solving other cases.  Add in the underlying romantic interest between Pearl and Mike and the ever-present wannabe boyfriend, math teacher Tom, and things are complex.

Season 3 has the usual number of missing persons, one being Pearl’s son Charlie, along with the death of a restaurant critic and scary Halloween pranks.  This is a tame series free of gore or gruesome scenes.  I think it’s even better than the earlier seasons.  Recommended!

Note: Late autumn light header photo and bookshelves photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Carolina Moments: Raleigh & More

JWF 1 Comment

ABROAD AT HOME: MORE RALEIGH

Oakwood Historic District

Last week, we decided to try one of noted local chef Scott Crawford’s restaurants for dinner.  We went downtown in the late afternoon to Person Street and then spent about an hour wandering up and down a few streets in the Oakwood District.  This section of town is home to many 19th and early 20th century houses in a wide variety of architectural styles from Queen Anne to Colonial Revival to Craftsman.  

Tucker House

Given that this was mid-November, remnants of Halloween decorations remained as well as pumpkins galore adorning entry ways and steps.

444 Dennis St. Adrian (Zillow.com)

 We saw many charming homes and lots of front porches, reflecting an era when folks sat outside, often in rockers, and watched the world and their neighbors parade by. I well recall my grandparents’ Victorian home in Adrian, Michigan with a row of rocking chairs on its front porch.

At family reunions, my father, uncles, and grandfather seemed to inhabit these seats. Were the women in the kitchen preparing the next meal?  Likely.

Dining at Jolie   

Jolie is Scott Crawford’s unpretentious French bistro on the corner of Person Street next to his larger sister restaurant, Crawford and Son.  The space is narrow with a bar on the right and tables located on the left side against the wall.  The menu is short and tempting.  The bread and French butter to start set the tone for this delicious meal.  The Chief Penguin began with a lovely squash bisque with lump crab meat and fried sage and followed it with the duck confit with pommes sarladaise (echoes of our time in the Dordogne region.). I had the swordfish grenobloise entrée.  It was exquisite.  Swordfish with a caper cream sauce accompanied by florets of roasted cauliflower and broccoli and mini brioche croutons.  

Squash bisque with sage leaves

The pumpkin cheesecake and the Videri chocolate cake sounded tempting, but we saved dessert for a future visit.  Highly recommended!

Independent Bookstore

As we wandered, we were pleasantly surprised, I in particular, to find a little bookstore tucked in on Person Street. So & So Books is small with a well curated inventory. New books, fiction and nonfiction, North Carolina titles, and a cozy children’s corner with picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels. Needless to say, I discovered and bought a few titles as gifts plus some artist notecards for myself. Being in a bookstore is always a treat!

SATISFYING CRIME SERIES

A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie

(wikipedia.com)

A Texan who splits her year between the U.S. and the U.K., Deborah Crombie is the author of A Killing of Innocents. It is her 19th novel featuring Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and his wife Gemma  James.  I have read nearly all of them and enjoyed them immensely.  Her plots are complex with intriguing twists, but her well-developed characters who grow and change over the years are what keep me coming back for more.

In this her latest, a promising young doctor, Sasha Johnson, is stabbed as she crosses Russell Square in Bloomsbury London.  Sasha is primarily focused on her work with few outside friends except for the potter with whom she shares a flat.  When a colleague of hers turns up dead several days later, the web of suspicion widens as the detectives investigate other connections and the activities of both Sasha’s brother and her flat mate Tully’s brother.  

In addition to Duncan and Kincaid, their three children, Kit, Toby, and Charlotte, also have a place in the action along with detectives Melody and Doug, whose less than perfect personal lives factor into solving the mystery of these deaths. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is a Queen Anne style house in Raleigh’s Oakwood District. All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)