Category: Sarasota

Suncoast Scene: Out and About

JWF 1 Comment

Visitors from the North

You know it’s winter up north when your friends and relatives start showing up in Florida.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve enjoyed getting together with a former colleague from San Francisco, entertaining two of the Chief Penguin’s former graduate students and their three almost adult children (do we feel old?), and catching up with the C.P.’s college roommate and wife from Potsdam (whose wedding we attended decades ago).

This past week we had a delightful time with my Chapel Hill sister and brother-in-law.  They provided the impetus for breakfast at the beach, lunch at Thai Palace, live music (along with fresh fish) at Cortez Kitchen, dinner at our favorite new French restaurant, wandering the Sarasota Seafood Festival, and another tour around Selby Botanical Gardens.  Note the emphasis on food; as Sally says, “we ate, talked, and walked,” and ate some more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Performing Arts

At Music Monday, we were privileged to see and hear from Betsy Hudson Traba, principal flute in the Sarasota Orchestra, and Cheryl Losey Feder, harpist. Together they played several works, a couple of which had keyboard parts that had been adapted for harp.  It was a treat.

Playwright Robert Schenkkan wrote two plays about Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.  Last year we saw the first, All the Way, and this past week we went to Asolo’s production of The Great Society.  This second, equally superb play, deals with the tumultuous events (marches, riots, deaths, war in Vietnam) from 1965-68.  It is both instructive and chilling to see this period from 50 years later and to be reminded of how much and how little progress has been made.  Also disturbing in light of the current president.  The play ends with a line from President-elect Nixon about making America great again.  I wondered if it was in the original play.

We ended the week with the Sarasota Ballet.  Under director Iain Webb, the company has made a specialty of presenting the works of choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton.  We were pleased to see the lovely Valses nobles et sentimentales and look forward to more works by Ashton on future programs.

Footnote

The Florida Suncoast refers to the west-central coastal region from Tampa and St. Petersburg south to Bradenton and Sarasota which includes more than 20 miles of lovely sandy beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Sarasota Scene: Songs & Salt

JWF 2 Comments

AMERICAN MUSIC

This was the last week of our Sarasota Institute of Lifelong Learning programs for the year so no more Monday and Wednesday morning commitments.  Music Mondays, in particular, ended on a high note, or perhaps I should say, on a dissonant note, with American composer of contemporary music, Libby Larsen.  Larsen’s work ranges from songs and instrumental pieces to operas.  We saw a video clip of an instrumental piece for piano and bassoon with the piano representing urban energy and the bassoon making all sorts of strange sounds.  And then a young soprano from Korea and Long Island, a guest that day, sang a couple songs.   Larsen is keenly interested in American language and traditions; this is reflected in the research she did timing the speech patterns of auctioneers as a prelude to composing Bid Call, a piece for alto sax and cello.  We heard one movement of it.  Very different.

Larsen does her composing all in her head, which I found fascinating, and only then transcribes the piece into notes on paper, and after that checks it against the piano.  Throughout the interview, she was a bundle of energy, never sitting still, and animatedly chatting with her hands always in motion.  This seemed at odds with her daughter’s description of growing up in a house quiet as a library.  Larsen doesn’t like the radio or produced sounds and prefers to listen to the wind and other natural sounds.

DINING OUTDOORS

For our finale sixsome lunch, we had an outside umbrella table at Roast.  We’ve had dinner here in the past and at least one lunch.  Their special lunch menu is an appetizing selection of salads, sandwiches and soup or you can select from the regular menu.  We opted for lighter fare and enjoyed the salmon three ways on mini potato pancakes and the shrimp and crab salad with avocado dressed with marie rose sauce.  The house green salad was also excellent, and, as always, the price was right.

Keeping with the outdoor theme, we enjoyed lunch outside at Louie’s Modern on Friday.  My family from upstate NY was determined to bask in the warm air every minute of their visit, even when the sun wasn’t shining.  Louie’s menu is sophisticated and creative, and they loved the burrata and fresh tomato salad served on a watermelon pink Himalayan salt block—so much so that my sister-in-law immediately ordered one!  We also tucked into smoked trout deviled eggs, chicken potstickers, black & blue pizzetta, curry roasted cauliflower, brisket taco, and the kale Caesar and paleo Cobb salads.  Lots of different tastes to tickle the palate!

CONGRATULATIONS

This week was Artisan Cheese Company’s 4th anniversary. This is our wonderful downtown Sarasota cheese shop stocking a wide array of cheeses from across the U.S. and Europe.  Louise and her staff are warm and welcoming, making it a point to get to know their regulars, and are always happy to offer you a sample of any cheese in the case.  You can even stop in for a lunchtime sandwich or a cheese plate and a glass of wine.  Three cheers to them!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Earlier this week, we welcomed, from a distance, our second granddaughter, Frances Elizabeth.  Her big sister is delighted, as are we, and we look forward to meeting Frances and seeing her with her eyes open!

 

Header image:  Salt block from www.mnn.com

Tidy Tidbits: A Melange

JWF 2 Comments

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

JWF 2 Comments

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.