Category: Reading

Tidy Tidbits: Netflix & Duenas

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WHAT I’M WATCHING

To stay motivated on the treadmill, I take advantage of the offerings on streaming Netflix. Over the years, I watched the entire seven seasons of West Wing (that one on DVD), got hooked on a somewhat hokey Australian series about two long lost sisters running a sheep farm, was caught up in the dirty dealings in House of Cards, and then endured endless surgeries and ruptured relationships on Grey’s Anatomy.

More recently, I had fun with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in Grace and Frankie. The episodes were too short (only about 30 minutes) for my ideal treadmill time and the language salty, but these women are marvelous together.

Now, thanks to a recommendation from one of my sisters, I’m thoroughly immersed in historic Toronto in Murdoch Mysteries. The first two episodes were a bit slow, but then it picked up.  Set just before 1900, the series brings in historical figures such as Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Buffalo Bill Cody, who add unexpected twists to the murders to be solved. Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) is dark, almost impishly handsome and always impeccably dressed. He is an emotionally reserved man of science who gets around, always in suit and tie and homburg, on his bicycle. And he is always aided in his investigations by the lovely pathologist, Dr. Julie Ogden.   There is some sly humor and an ongoing romantic tension between the detective and the doctor that adds to the cleverness and creativity of this show.  I should note that I am currently in season 2 and there are at least eight seasons in all.

I even occasionally watch TV when I’m not exercising.  I enjoyed the original Poldark on Masterpiece Theatre in the 1970’s, so much so that I bought the DVDs to re-watch it, but never did. Now I’m getting re-acquainted with Ross Poldark and Demelza and the stunning Cornwall landscape in the new version premiering, again, on Masterpiece. The first episode just aired so there’s lots more to come.

WHAT I’M READING

I’m not quite sure what to make of the novel I just finished. Written in Spanish and translated, The Heart Has Its Reasons by Maria Duenas, is set mostly in California in the fictional town and college, Saint Cecilia. The main character is a Spanish professor separated from her husband who comes to the San Francisco area on a fellowship.

It’s an academic novel, a novel about one professor’s research into another scholar’s legacy, and about second chances in life. Blanca is trying to find a new way forward while trawling her way through a famous professor’s papers to uncover his somewhat mysterious last work.  She develops friendships with two male colleagues, but at points I found the tone overly didactic.  I got a brief history of the California missions along with background on Spain before and right after the Spanish Civil War.  For me, Blanca was not well fleshed out and the two men also seemed somewhat flat.  Much is stated about these characters rather than portrayed through their words or actions.  Nonetheless, the book was a success in Spain.

Tidy Tidbits: Guthrie, Wilson & Itani

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It is high summer in Florida and that means temperatures of 90 to 92 every day with overnight lows never below 75.  For some of us, like me, that means more time inside; for the lizards among us, it’s great for basking, or baking, in the sun.  So I strive to take advantage of the smaller crowds with movies and museum visits, trips to the theater, and sampling new restaurants.  This past week we did nearly all of these.

FOLKSY AMERICANA

 

On Tuesday, we saw the traveling musical, Woody Sez:  The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie.”  The play opened in Edinburgh in 2007 and actually has been performed more often in Europe than in the U.S.  It is more like a concert with lots of narrative of Woody’s life using Guthrie’s own words.  Four actors comprise the cast with a whole host of musical instruments from guitar to banjo to mandolin to harmonica and more.  I found it a bit slow initially, but then I was captured by the music and the story of Woody’s rambling and roving life, full of social protest and a desire to record the hardship and determination of the farmers and workers of the Dust Bowl era.  The key to its success is its sparkling, loose-limbed star, creator and director, David Lutken.  It is clear he is convinced of the importance of Guthrie’s legacy.  For an interview with Mr. Lutken, see:  http://onmilwaukee.com/ent/articles/woodysez.html

 

AT THE MOVIES

Woody Guthrie shone a spotlight on hard times and harsh conditions with his music.  Brian Wilson’s musical creativity set him apart, but personal demons, seeming madness, and unappreciative relatives and friends kept him from being fully recognized for that talent.  Love and Mercy, based on Wilson’s life, uses two actors to portray him, Paul Dano as the young musician and songwriter, and John Cusack as the middle-aged Brian under guard and coping with illness and bad choices.  Paul Giamatti plays a very convincing manipulative doctor and Elizabeth Banks is Melinda, a beautiful savior.  There are a few slow points, but overall it’s an absorbing, albeit not happy, film.  And for fans of the 60’s and the Beach Boys, packed with their songs.

INTERNMENT:  WHAT I’M READING

I was not aware that the Canadian government had also put individuals of Japanese descent into camps during WWII. But they did, some 21,000 of them.  Frances Itani has written a meditative novel Requiem, about an artist’s experience as a young boy in one of these camps.  It is 1997 and artist Bin is driving across Canada from Toronto to visit family on the west coast.  His wife died recently and he spends the drive reflecting on their life together, his boyhood and his son Greg’s upbringing.  It is a novel of relationships—fathers and sons and husbands and wives—looking back in time.  Itani has said that she enjoys researching her books and she spent six years reading source material and interviewing people before writing this. I also learned that her husband spent part of his childhood in a camp which answered my question about whether she had any personal connection with these events.

Tidy Tidbits: Spies, Tribes & Trills

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AT THE MOVIES

“Madcap,” ” hilarious” and “fun” are all terms I’d use to describe just released espionage comedy, Spy.  The women are at the top of their game—mostly—and there is plenty of foreign intrigue and too many bodies getting shot to count.  The wonderful cast is led by Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper, a basement CIA analyst who inveigles her way into the field, supported by a tough deputy CIA director, Alison Janney (think CJ on West Wing,) and colleague and agent, Miranda Hart, better known to many viewers as Chummie in Call the Midwife.  Rose Byrne plays the prime target while the distaff side is represented by Jude Law and Jason Statham.  It’s perfect summer fare.

NOVEL DELIGHT

Heaps of laudatory adjectives, “enthralling, exhilarating, arresting, fiercely intelligent, steamy, compelling” have been applied to Lily King’s novel, Euphoria, and perhaps that’s why I had avoided reading it until now.  But read it I did and found it pretty much lived up to the praise.  And what a vivid cover and enticing title!  Using Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson’s time in the field in New Guinea in 1932 as a jumping off point, King has created a novel that celebrates anthropology (the title refers to a certain pleasure in the work), raises questions about the methods and motives used to study the primitive tribes there, and sharply delineates the amalgam of professional competition and jealousy, sexual tension, and friendship that unites and divides this talented trio.

The Mead character, Nell Stone, is married to Schuyler Fenwick, known as Fen, but is strongly attracted to Blankson, the younger anthropologist modeled on Bateson, and he to her.  The point of view shifts from the narrative third person to Blankson recalling events retrospectively to passages from Nell’s field notebooks.  It is worth remembering that these are characters and the story here is not real life.  Euphoria was selected as one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year, 2014.  Definitely recommend it!

As for Lily King, I was not familiar with her work, but have since learned she lives in Yarmouth, Maine and has written four novels, each of which has been cited for some award or other.  Here’s an interview with her from the Boston Globe.  Now I need to go back and find her earlier books.

SAVORING SARASOTA

The snow birds have gone home, the spring vacationers have departed the beach and traffic is down to a trickle.  But, for those of us still here, June abounds with delights both culinary and musical.  For two weeks, many Sarasota restaurants participate in Savor Sarasota Restaurant Week and offer three-course lunch and dinner menus at $15 and $29 respectively. These are seriously good deals!

We enjoyed lunch at Louie’s Modern (trendy cuisine such as kale salad with grilled salmon) and dinners at Bjou Café (scrumptious shrimp and crab bisque to start!) and Miguel’s (traditional fare with a French accent including plump snails in a gruyere cream sauce).  I’ve been impressed each meal with both the menu choices and the portion sizes—no stinting on quality or quantity.

Also in June, young musicians from conservatories across the country (who’ve competed for one of the coveted 60 slots) come to Sarasota.  They take part in master classes with noted musicians and performers and together present a series of public concerts of chamber and symphonic works.  All under the aegis of the Sarasota Orchestra.  We have been to one chamber concert already and are gearing up for two more.  Especially memorable was flutist Carol Wincenc’s performance last Friday evening.

Tidy Tidbits: Birds, Beaches & Books

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NATURE

My sister and brother-in-law, an avid birder and an apprentice birder (self-named), visited us this week and the focus was on birds.  It’s the off season for good sightings, but my sister kept a list of birds seen in Florida anyway.  I think she got to forty before they departed.  Lots of shore birds as we had breakfast at the beach cafe, walked the beach, strolled the loop at Leffis Key, and then made a before-dinner excursion to the tip of Longboat Key.  For this last, we were on a quest to see a roseate spoonbill.  I have actually seen these delectable-looking pink birds twice now, but she had not.

Unbeknownst to me, my spouse had packed a cooler with champagne glasses and a bottle of rose’ champagne to toast the sighting of said spoonbill.  No luck, lots of terns and gulls, but no spoonbills.  We returned home for drinks on the porch, the rose’ now having been poured, and, with binoculars in hand, spotted the usual egrets and, noteworthy for me, a wood stork, a bird I’d never seen before.  Then, lo and behold, my sister spied a bit of pink fluff in the water and we had our roseate spoonbill!  We kidded my husband about arranging it, but it was sheer happenstance.

www.carolinabirdclub.org
www.carolinabirdclub.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier in the week, we made the trek down to Myakka River State Park where we walked the nature trail and across their short, but high canopy walk.  The suspended walkway is 25 feet above ground and at the end you climb to 75 feet for an expansive view of field and trees.  It was clear and for us earth-bound creatures a rare view.

Closer to home, we explored the small, but lovely, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, right in downtown Sarasota.  Their specialty is epiphytes and the conservatory had many, many examples of these dependent plants including lovely orchids along with some bromeliads (pineapple, for example).

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Outside, there’s a children’s rainforest area, a canopy walk, and a meandering path down to Sarasota Bay along which we studied the white ibis pictured here.  We had the added good fortune of being able to view their annual juried photography show, “Found in Florida,” which we all loved.

READING

Having just completed David McCullough’s new biography, The Wright Brothers, I am more closely observing birds in flight, something Wilbur spent many hours engaged in as he and Orville designed their early airplanes.  Hard working, quite modest, and very determined, with a smart sister who both encouraged and sustained them, the Wright Brothers persevered in isolation to get it right.  They were not showmen like some of the more daring French aviators, but rather avoided the limelight as long as possible.  Neither brother ever married and their sister, Kate, only did so late in life.  They all lived together in Dayton, Ohio, with their father, a traveling preacher.

McCullough’s writing is solid and matter of fact, making for a straightforward account of the brothers’ journey from being bicycle builders to inventors of successful flying machines.  I’m certain I will be more appreciative (perhaps “awestruck” is a better word choice) at the marvels of air travel the next time I fly.

 

[Note:  All photos are the author’s work unless otherwise indicated.]