Category: Books

Tidy Tidbits: Music & Newport

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UNUSUAL INSTRUMENT

For many of us, our first response when you mention an accordion is an oompah band or the Lawrence Welk show and Myron Floren.  This week we had the distinct and unexpected pleasure of hearing a young Chinese woman demonstrate her virtuosity playing classical accordion.  Her accordion is both heavy and elaborate.  It weighs 45 pounds and has a keyboard on the left side and a whole series of buttons on the right.  Hanzhi Wang played a selection of classical pieces by Bach and Grieg among others that had been arranged for accordion;  if you didn’t see her, you would not have guessed you were hearing an accordion.  

 Wang earned music degrees in Beijing and Copenhagen.  Based in Copenhagen, she tours the world performing and has given master classes at the Manhattan School of Music. Hearing her was truly special!

RECENT READING

NEWPORT THROUGH THE CENTURIES

The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith

I’ll start by stating that I loved this novel!  What Mr. Smith has done using Newport, Rhode Island, as the venue and presenting five different stories from five different perspectives in five different time periods is simply amazing.  Sandy Allison is a tennis pro in 2011 involved with three women, none of whom he initially sees as a partner for the long term.  Franklin Drexel, a gay blade in all senses of the term, aspires to marry a wealthy widow in 1896 Newport, although he has no desire for women.  

At just 20, Henry James is spending time in Newport (1863) and observing the scene and the people.  He develops a friendship with a young woman named Alice (same name as his sister) and keeps a journal recording his experiences.  A British officer, Major Ballard, is stationed in Newport during the American Revolution and is obsessed with his attraction to a young Jewess. 

Lastly, there is Prudence Selwyn, a young Quaker of 15 whose mother is dead and her father likely lost at sea. It is 1692, she has one slave, and she must figure out how to live her life and support the two of them.  Three of the stories are presented as diaries while the other two, Sandy’s and Franklin’s, are in the third person.  

Themes of love, lust, betrayal, and duplicity, along with how we present ourselves to the world and each other, echo in each individual’s life.  Windermere is modeled on an old mansion, but the physical aspects of Newport such as Doubling Point and the Jewish cemetery which recur down the years are historically true.  I found all the characters fascinating with the British officer being the least likable and least sympathetic.  

The novel is summed up, I think, in the last letter Henry James writes to Alice Taylor:

“…this sense I have that the hundreds of millions of us who breathe upon the earth are each a unique flame, that we are each uniquely composed within the caskets of our bodies and our minds, that each has an experience of the world as different as that of a fishwife’s from a foundryman’s, and yet we all live the same life (millionaire, artist, soldier, slave), we each of us strive to understand who we are why we are here, to love and be loved, and that, for all that striving, we are each of us lost in the mystery of our own heart.”

Gregory Blake Smith was not an author I was familiar with, but this novel came to my attention from a publisher’s e-mail.  Subsequently, I learned it was one of the Washington Post’sten best books of 2018.  For more on the creation of this work, here is a link to an interview with Smith from the Literary Hub.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is Chateau-sur-mer in Newport from visitrhodeisland.com. Hanzhi Wang photo from opening nights.fsu.edu and book cover image from the publisher.

Tidy Tidbits: Books & Music

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AUTISM ON THE PAGE, STAGE AND SCREEN

This week the island book club read and discussed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The selection was prompted in part by the play being presented locally at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota.  It has been so popular that the run has been extended through March 17.  

The novel was published in 2003 and the group felt that there is much greater awareness of autism now and the range of autistic behaviors from Asperger’s syndrome to high functioning savants.  And, probably also greater acceptance.  Several had seen stage productions, either here or elsewhere. Generally, they felt the play successfully showed being overwhelmed by too much noise and multiple stimuli and then being further handicapped by not being easily able to communicate one’s thoughts and feelings.  

The lead character, 15-year old Christopher, is very smart, but also very literal. He is upset when his neighbor’s dog is killed with a pitchfork.  His mother is not present (he’s been told she died of a heart attack), and his father is angry with him for doing detective work to determine who did in the dog.  Christopher’s efforts and his findings lead him to make a train journey to London to visit his mother. This trip is a huge undertaking. Written in Christopher’s voice, the prose is straightforward and that plus Christopher’s drawings and diagrams are effective in portraying how he thinks.

I recently began watching an ABC television series, also available on Amazon Prime, entitled The Good Doctor.  Shaun Murphy is a young surgical resident who is autistic.  The hospital’s surgeons hesitate to hire him given his difficulties in communicating.  Under pressure from his mentor, the hospital president, they reluctantly take him on.  While socially awkward and at times inappropriate, Shaun is very smart and sees things on images and scans others miss.  It is an amazing depiction of the challenges even a gifted autistic individual faces in dealing with the rest of the world.

MUSICAL OFFERINGS

Music Monday always has someone of note to offer and this past week, it was Russian born pianist Olga Kern.  Ms. Kern is from a musical family with connections to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. While clearly talented, having won the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, she is also a delightful personality.  She charmed us with her exquisite playing (Rachmaninoff, Chopin, et al) and with her conversation.

Sarasota and the orchestra have been fortunate to have Anu Tali as music director.  She is winding up her sixth and final year as conductor and this week the orchestra delivered a paean to the community in the form of To Sarasota with Love.  Four principals in the orchestra, violin, horn, cello, and bassoon (all male), were featured in solos or duets.  These musicians, combined with Tali’s fluid, balletic conducting (with hands only and no baton), made for a most enjoyable evening.  She will be very much missed!

RECENT READING

Kitchen Yarns:  Notes on Life, Love, and Food by Ann Hood

Novelist Hood’s book is an engaging memoir with recipes.  She frequently references her Rhode Island upbringing in an Italian American family and her grandmother’s cooking.  The era of Hood’s childhood partly overlapped mine.  She calls out Good Seasons salad dressing, Rice-A-Roni (I never ate it, but certainly knew the ad jingle), and wishing to trade her homemade lunch for a friend’s more appealing one.  I always thought Sarah Wood’s bag lunches with a leftover chicken thigh looked delicious—much more appetizing than my cheddar cheese and mustard sandwich on cracked wheat.    

Hood’s life has had more than its share of sorrow including the early death of her brother and the loss of a child, but her writing is brimming with life and good feeling.  The recipes are mostly comfort food, not sophisticated, and sound tasty on the page.  GoGo’s Meatballs are calling my name! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of Any Tali by Kaupo Kikhas.

Tidy Tidbits: Culture Notes

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RECENT READING:  Of Early Medicine and Botanical Gardens

American Eden:  David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson.

David Hosack was a citizen of the world, a man with wide ranging interests and connections who deserves to be better known.  A physician by training, he was also a botanist who linked his interest in plants with their potential uses in medicine.  He corresponded widely with the great naturalists abroad, Alexander von Humboldt and Sir Joseph Banks among them, and shared and traded plants and seeds.  He knew both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr well, was the doctor at the famous duel, and treated and saved Burr’s young son.  Hosack was also friendly with Thomas Jefferson, DeWitt Clinton, the Bartram brothers of Philadelphia, and also fellow doctor, Benjamin Rush, who was a mentor and surrogate father to him. 

   Hosack studied medicine in Philadelphia and abroad, had a private practice as well as tending patients at several hospitals and teaching at Columbia and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.   At the same time, he created his own teaching garden, Elgin, which he labored long and hard over physically and financially.  Over the years, he made numerous attempts to get it support or adoption by the State of New York or Columbia University.   Alas, it was never granted enough funds or the means to flourish and was neglected and stripped of its plants by later “stewards.”

Johnson’s book is a lively paean to the accomplishments and talents of this energetic man.  Hosack undoubtedly had faults, but Johnson chooses to focus on the civic role he played in creating awareness of the importance of plants to healing and on the notable societies and institutions he helped found and support. Highly recommended. (~JWFarrington)

SARASOTA CULTURAL SCENE

Lecture by James Comey

Sarasota’s Town Hall Lecture Series is the brainchild of the Ringling College Library Association, and a notable series it is. Each year, the association lands six well known individuals who command top fees for giving two presentations and meeting with students over lunch.  Last year we had the pleasure of hearing John Brennan, former director of the CIA.  This time it was James Comey, former director of the FBI, and probably better known than Brennan due to his very public firing in May 2017.  

I’ve read Comey’s book about loyalty and leadership and was keen to hear him.  And he delivered—an engaging and articulate talk about his definition of the traits of an effective leader peppered with humorous anecdotes about his height (six foot eight) and his life as an unemployed celebrity.  He did occasionally veer toward sanctimoniousness, but not too badly.  One noteworthy takeaway was his comparison based on the several presidents he’s worked for (of both parties) of who was the absolute best listener and who the worst. No surprise, not only was Obama the best, but he worked to make the setting as comfortable as possible for the other person given the gap between their positions.  Worst was the current president who interrupted repeatedly and always sat behind his big wooden desk.  

There are several more Town Hall speakers yet to come, but I’m especially looking forward to former ambassador Caroline Kennedy.

Asolo Theater 

In these blogs, I have often touted the high caliber of theater we enjoy in this region.  After seeing the Asolo company’s production facilities, I’m even more impressed.  Earlier this week, we were treated to a tour of the Koski Production Center including the huge warehouse where all the stage sets are fabricated.  Asolo makes all its own sets and there is a lot of craft work by carpenters, electricians, scene painters and the like.  Nothing is purchased or imported.  

We saw the revolving set for the upcoming play, Noises Off, and got a look at the shelves and stacks of stage props (chairs, sofas, chandeliers and more) as well as racks and racks of costumes.  Asolo has even been commissioned to design sets for one or more cruise lines.  An added treat of the morning was hearing from actress Peggy Roeder whom we’ve seen and enjoyed in a number of its productions.

Note: Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Tidy Tidbits: Books & More

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RECENT READING

The Stargazer’s Sister  by Carrie Brown

If you are at all interested in astronomy, this is an engaging historical novel about Caroline Herschel, sister of famed German astronomer William Herschel.   Lina, as she was known, was William’s younger sister by 12 years.  Small and slight and scarred by a bout with smallpox, she never married and was mistreated and abused by their mother.  William, who had gone to the UK, returned to their home in Hanover and rescued her by taking her back to England.  

Smart and quick, she became his devoted assistant in studying the night sky and dedicated her life single mindedly to him.  She loved him greatly and gave up any thoughts of marriage and a family for herself.  He received fame and recognition for his discoveries and for the telescopes he built while she labored by his side. Only later were her own solo discoveries acknowledged.  While based on the historical record and the extensive correspondence the Herschels left behind, this is a work of fiction with a happy, although somewhat unbelievable ending. To her credit, Brown details in her notes where she has deviated from real life.  (~JWFarrington)

The Glass Forest by Cynthia Swanson

This suspense novel was my pick for our January book group meeting.  When I first read it, I found it slow to get going and feared I’d picked a dud.  Turns out that almost everyone liked it a lot, and some couldn’t put it down once they started.  In alternating chapters, set mostly in 1960, it’s the story of three women each related in some way to two brothers, Paul and Henry.  Angie’s story is told in the first person while Silja’s and Ruby’s are third person.  Angie is only 23 and married to the much older Paul and mother to baby PJ.  For Silja, we get her life from 1942 to her marriage to Henry, and her successful career, up to her disappearance in 1960.  Ruby is Silja and Henry’s daughter and a sullen and withdrawn teenager who doesn’t talk much.  

The novel opens with a call to Angie from Ruby that Henry has committed suicide, and from there events unfold as Angie and Paul journey from Wisconsin to Stonekill, NY to be with Ruby.  When I reviewed this book for the discussion, I found it more compelling.  The period detail is spot on, and there are clues throughout as to what happened to Henry and Silja.   (~JWFarrington)

ON SCREEN

Beautiful Boy  (Amazon Prime)

Based on two memoirs, one by father David Sheff and the other by his son, Nicolas, this feature film is a depiction of drug addiction and its effect on one family.  Focusing as much or more on the father than the son, it spotlights a loving father’s puzzlement, worry, frustration, and devotion in his determination to help his son.  Nic’s aimlessness, cravings, and manic behavior, followed by sorrow and regret, repeat and repeat until he almost dies.  For any parent, this is a hard film to watch as nothing seems to make the situation better.  Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet are exceptionally good as father and son as is Maura Tierney as Nick’s stepmother, Karen. 

Srugim  (Amazon Prime)

This Israeli TV series ran from 2008 to 2012 and follows the lives of a group of single Orthodox Jewish men and women living in Jerusalem.  Hovering around 30, they are navigating the dating scene while also figuring out their careers.  Most of their contemporaries are already married, many with children. 

The women are Yifat, a graphic artist, Reut, an accountant, and Hodaya, a graduate student who studied the Bible, but tries working as a waitress.  The men are Nati, a medical doctor, Amir, a high school grammar teacher, and Roi, Nati’s younger brother.  All are religious and closely follow the strictures around food, observing the Sabbath, and relationships with the opposite sex.  The exception is Hodaya, daughter of a rabbi, who is questioning her religious beliefs.  

The series focuses on relationships so don’t expect a lot of action.  Nonetheless, I found myself quickly becoming absorbed in the lives of these individuals and am now well into the second season.  The episodes are short, 35 minutes, with subtitles, and the video quality is just fair.  This program was cited for being the first time the lives of Orthodox Jews were portrayed in a realistic production designed for a general audience.  And I owe thanks to Patricia for recommending it! (~JWFarrington)