Category: Sarasota

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly Local

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BOOKNOTES

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

Author Atkinson (The Guardian)

I thought Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life was a tour de force of a novel and I loved it.  I started Shrines of Gaiety about a month ago, read about a third, and then set it aside.  I wasn’t sure I’d finish it, but every time I picked it up again, I read a few chapters, getting to know the characters better and very much appreciating the writing.  In short, I finished the novel and am glad I persevered.

Overall, it’s a period tapestry, a portrait of a particular time in London in 1926 when nightclubs and glitzy parties were the rage.  Nellie Coker, owner of a string of clubs and mother of six adult children, rules strongly over her fiefdom.  The reader is introduced to all the children and to Detective Chief Inspector Frobisher and one time librarian, now aspiring detective, Gwendolen Kelling. 

Gwendolen comes to London to try and locate Freda Murgatroyd, a sister’s friend who has disappeared. Frobisher is involved in investigating the case of several missing girls who may be connected to dancers at these clubs.  Beneath the gaiety and glitz of the clubs (shrines to a good time), is a seamier crime-laden slice of London life. 

While the reader gets to know Niven, Nellie’s oldest son, I found the other characters more sketchily drawn.  There’s a large cast of notables and undesirables and layers of society both royal and aspiring interact.  Nellie is based on the real Kate Meyrick, an owner, and queen of Soho London clubs. I didn’t love this novel, but I was engaged enough to read it through.

LOCAL THEATER & DINING

The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Sisters Becky and Linda (Asolo)

As always, the sets and the overall staging of The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help were excellent.  The problem as the Chief Penguin and I saw it, was with the material, the play itself.  Set in 1973, it is a memory play built around a series of key moments in one week.  The narrator, older daughter Linda O’Shea, is the focal character in this family of mother, father, and younger sister, along with live-in aunt Terri and grandmother.  Practicing Irish Catholics, the O’Sheas’ morality and their reputation are monitored by the local priest. Father Lovett takes a very personal interest in his flock.  The incident of the title arises after Linda gives her sister Becky a talk about the facts of life.  

Parts of the play are very funny, but I found the first act overdone and enjoyed the second act more.  The coda summing up everyone’s future life and death was of interest, but not relevant to the heart of the play.  I’d give the cast credit for their performance, but don’t think this play was Asolo’s finest dramatic choice.

The Ringling Grillroom

We returned to The Ringling Grillroom for another pre-theater dinner.  We’ve had several lunches here and one dinner.  The food is consistently very good and much superior to the fare when it was known as Muse.  The hummus starter was creamy and fresh, and my blackened salmon was excellent. The fish had just the right amount of blackening and spices, and the rice with red pepper bits, okra pods, and corn was different and tasty.  The Chief Penguin enjoyed shrimps and scallops on a bed of polenta with a side dish of blistered cherry tomatoes in a shallot sauce.  Highly recommended!

TOP NOTCH CHEESE SHOP IN OUR BACKYARD!

Artisan Cheese Company (artisancheesecompany.com)

In her latest e-mail, Louise Converse, owner of Artisan Cheese Company in Sarasota, reported that Wine Enthusiast has named them one of the top ten iconic cheese shops in the country. That’s in all of America. Opened in 2012, the store moved to its larger space in the Rosemary District in 2018.  Here’s what Enthusiast wrote:

Its expansive selection includes such all-American standard-bearers as Jasper Hill and Point Reyes, as well as hard-to-source European producers like Switzerland’s Gourmino and England’s Neal’s Yard. The airy, industrial digs also feature beer, natural wine, salumi and more, and the café serves grilled cheese, crostini and other small plates.

As my regular readers know, the Chief Penguin and I are great fans of and regular patrons of Artisan Cheese! With their red walls, they are unmissable! Do stop in.

Sarasota Scene: Theater, Music, & Talk

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It was a week that showcased some of the best in culture and learning Sarasota has to offer. The play was powerful and timely, the orchestra’s performance moving, and the lecture, food for the mind.

WOMAN POWER & SCIENCE

Silent Sky at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Silent Sky cast, Henrietta at right (Your Observer)

Silent Sky by playwright Lauren Gunderson is a woman-centered work about astronomer Henrietta Leavitt.  A Harvard graduate, Henrietta, was hired as a computer in the Harvard Observatory in 1900 working under the direction of Professor Edward Pickering.  She and Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming, her colleagues, studied and mapped star plates, but were not allowed to work on the actual telescope.  Scientist Peter Shaw made rounds to check up on them.

Henrietta had a bold spirit and a creative mind and saw stars and patterns that eluded others.  This is a marvelous play about women:  the three female scientists and Margaret, Henrietta’s composer sister, and the challenges and conflicts they faced as women.  Highly recommended!  The play runs through March 5.

ASTOUNDING MUSICIANSHIP

Sarasota Orchestra, A Romantic Affair

Pianist Tsujii (Sarasota Orchestra)

The Sarasota Orchestra is in another transition year after the untimely death of the newly hired music director, Branwell Tovey, last July.  That means this season brings another string of guest conductors, selected to deliver the programs that Tovey had developed.  This most recent concert was simply superb!  

Conductor Peter Oundjian, in his second appearance, was warm in his opening remarks and sprightly on the podium.  We heard a spellbinding performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor with Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and a rousing rendition of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor.  This orchestra was at its very best!

EUROPEAN POLITICS

Macron’s Europe – or Is it Putin’s? (Global Issues series, Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning)

Author Walker (Facebook)

Martin Walker had a long career as a journalist for The Guardian and UPI and then a second career working with various think tanks.  His talk about the challenges faced by France and the European Union in dealing with Russia was informative and insightful.  The Chief Penguin and I found it worthwhile but could have done without his opening humor.  

There was a large crowd in attendance, probably partly due to Walker’s third career as the author of the Chief Bruno mysteries set in France.  It’s also worth noting that he has been a SILL speaker for thirty years.

CURRENT READING

The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton

More about this accessible biography in a future blog post

Note: Header photo is of the bell tower at New College of Florida ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Sarasota Scene: Music, Food, & Literature

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SARASOTA ORCHESTRA MASTERWORKS CONCERT

Maestro Bramwell Tovey (sarasotamagazine.com)

The Sarasota Orchestra was in fine form last evening under the baton of new music director Bramwell Tovey.  Maestro Tovey is a Grammy award-winning conductor and principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra.   The program included lesser-known works by Richard Strauss and Samuel Coleridge -Taylor plus a lovely violin concerto by Mendelssohn played by guest artist Timothy Chooi.  Rounding out the evening was a selection from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe.  I thought the orchestra played superbly but wished that Maestro Tovey had been much briefer in his comments before several pieces.

DINING FIND

481 Gourmet

Luscious lamb!

Located in Sarasota’s Rosemary District and sharing a patio with Rosemary & Thyme, 481 Gourmet is a great addition to the neighborhood.  We were a few minutes early for our pre-concert dinner, were warmly welcomed by the hostess, and seated at a table in the center of the dining room (outdoor tables were all reserved).  The dining room is handsome with deep gray walls and dark wood tables and bar.  

We were the first diners inside, and our waiter, Chris, enthusiastically greeted us.  Next another staff member walked by, smiled, and said hello.  Later, the owner herself came over to apologize for any confusion over the no longer offered pre-theater menu.  All this before we’d ordered any food!  We felt like celebrities.

As for the meal itself, the food was delicious. The three of us each had a Caesar salad followed by jumbo scallops, lamb chops, and grilled halibut as our entrees.  The scallops were over risotto, the lamb chops sat on a puddle of pesto, and the halibut was on a bed of couscous with tomato confit on top.  The Caesar salad was the perfect size with croutons and a lacy Parmesan tuile.  Prices are moderate to less moderate, but reflective of today’s food prices and staffing challenges.  Worth a return visit!

EXPANSIVE FRENCH NOVEL

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

(amazon.com)

Translated into over thirty languages and the bestselling novel in 2020 in Italy, Fresh Water for Flowers is the first novel by Perrin to be translated into English.  Set in France, mostly in a cemetery, it is a book with many characters, some living and some dead.  Primary is Violette, a still youngish woman whose life we follow from her days as a level-crossing keeper at a train junction to her work as a cemetery caretaker.  

When we first meet her, Violette is alone, her husband Touissant having long since disappeared.  She is friendly with the grave diggers, the priest, and the funeral director and spends her time observing and comforting the families of the deceased who come to bury and later mourn their loved ones.  She has her routine, and she keeps a notebook of the particulars of each new cemetery resident including the weather on the day of the funeral and how many mourners were present.  She gets to know and see again and again a select subgroup of these relatives.  When detective Julien Seul arrives to scatter his mother’s ashes on a stranger’s grave, Violette’s life becomes unsettled and entangled with his in ways she never imagined. 

The novel moves back and forth and around in time, in anything but linear fashion, as Violette’s past is revealed and bits of her childhood as a foster child meted out.  Struck by tragedy, Touissant and Violette separately seek answers to why the event occurred.  Other people’s lives are presented and probed, and diaries reveal secrets long kept.  From a woman who has more than her share of troubles to one who finally realizes she has the will and the right to be happy, Violette evolves into a whole person.  

This novel is rich in its depiction of friendship (Violette and Sasha, Violette and Celia) and ultimately, of love.  A long read, it pulls you in and weaves a spell.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington) 

Note: Header photo and restaurant photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Tidy Tidbits: The Local Scene

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CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Frisson Ensemble

We ventured to Sarasota for a Christmas musical performance in the Sarasota Opera House last Sunday evening. We felt comfortable going since the production was following the SafeArtsSarasota protocols requiring masks and either a negative Covid test or showing your Covid vaccine card.  We thought there might be a line to get in, given the document checking, and were surprised there wasn’t one.  Also, we were disappointed that such a small crowd overall was in attendance.  Plenty of empty seats and no problem with social distancing!

The performers were instrumentalists comprising an ensemble called Frisson from New York.  Violin, viola, cello, string bass, clarinet, oboe, flute, and bassoon were all represented.  Except for the leader/conductor, these were young musicians, rising stars.  I was particularly taken with the playing of David Gallant, oboist and conductor, and Remy Taghavi on bassoon.  The pieces ranged from dances from The Nutcracker to a selection of familiar and lesser-known carols.  Unfortunately, the lack of a captive audience made for a somewhat flat event despite the talent on display.  

DINING OUT

Rosemary & Thyme

It had been a while since we last dined at Rosemary & Thyme, and we were pleased to return.  This time we opted for an inside table rather than outside, but noted that their outdoor patio was full, nicely lighted, and with heat lamps against the evening’s chill.  Elias was our enthusiastic waiter, and he took good care of us.  The guys sampled specialty cocktails while J. and I had chardonnay.  Among the four of us, we ordered Caesar salads, battered mushrooms, and fish chowder followed by fried calamari, halibut, salmon, and the fresh catch which was swordfish.  The fish entrees were on a bed of mixed vegetables and risotto.  All very tasty!  The restaurant is located on Orange Street, Sarasota, in the Rosemary District and serves breakfast and lunch.

FOOTNOTE

I commented on Huma Abedin’s memoir, Both/And in an earlier post before I had finished reading it.  It is excellent!  She is one smart, savvy woman and her account of her professional life working for Hillary Clinton is impressive and fascinating.  She provides a much warmer, richer portrait of the former First Lady and Secretary of State than has often been the case.  Abedin does not stint on sharing her own mistakes and faults either.  Raised in and practicing her Muslim faith, she somewhat naively gives husband Anthony Weiner the benefit of the doubt several times as their marriage unravels. One gains an understanding of why she was initially compelled to stay with him.  It’s a long book but a rewarding one.  I look forward to watching how the rest of Abedin’s life unfolds.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is the Sarasota Opera House (hungarytoday.hu)