Category: Sarasota

Tidy Tidbits: Bands & Birds

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We’re home.  I’ve spent the week sorting mail, stocking the larder, poring over all the cooking magazines and New Yorkers that accumulated, getting back on the treadmill (need to undue the effects of lobster and potato chips!) and soaking in the pool.  Florida is hot and humid, but I’m reveling in being in our own space!

Old-time Music

We just attended our first performance at the Florida Studio Theatre, a multi-venue outfit with a range of offerings from drama to improv to music.  This was The Swingaroos performing in their cabaret space.  A full menu was available, but not realizing this we dined at the Bijou Café around the corner, one of our current favorites.  I had never heard the term, “territory band,” before but they were small dance bands that toured in the U.S., primarily in the Midwest and west, playing in small towns and night clubs during the 1920’s and 30’s.  The Swingaroos are a group of six:  one female vocalist accompanied by musicians on piano, drums, clarinet, trombone, and string bass.  They gave an energetic performance, but we would have enjoyed it more had more of the music and songs been familiar ones.

Nature Note—Missed Photo Op

A robust thunder and lightning storm the other day lasted several hours.  It left puddles galore and, I noted that all the birds that are either in the trees, the sky, or elsewhere during the day had congregated near our pond and on the grass.  The white ibises always do this when the weather is threatening, but this time I observed many great white egrets, brown ducks. and also several of the smaller herons.  Quite striking to see the bright white birds all poking in the grass or stalking around the pond’s perimeter.  I always think there are more birds around when the people population here is down, but that may not be so.

White ibis in June
White ibis in June
Bird on the beach
Bird on the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Star Romp

For some light diversion, we rented “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”  While not quite as good as its predecessor, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” it delivers megawatt star power in the form of Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and a distinguished gray, but still very handsome, Richard Gere.  Sunny (Dev Patel), proprietor of this unusual Indian hotel where roll is called each morning to see who survived the night, is as exuberant as ever.  He is soon to be married and wants to expand his business.  And he is sure he knows the identity of the unannounced hotel inspector.  Pure fun with a tinge of the poignancy of the last stage of life.

 

Tidy Tidbits: Sea Creatures & Wars

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SHARKS AND SEAHORSES

This week we spent a fascinating morning at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium.  There is an attractive color brochure with a map. And blue-shirted volunteers were all around and engaged with visitors, particularly at the Contact Cove where you can do a two-finger touch of sea stars and other animals.  Also noteworthy, I thought were the one-page glossary handouts of fish and invertebrate names in three different languages:  French, German, and Spanish, designed for foreign visitors.

ContactCoveExhibits are both indoors and outside and feature deep sea fish as well as coast dwellers.  Scientists here focus much of their research on white sharks and seahorses.  We saw an impressive shark tank where there are live shark training demonstrations several times a week and also made note of the several kinds of seahorses in the regular exhibits and near the lab.  What looked to be hundreds of teeny tiny seahorses born several weeks ago were clustered around a leaf stalk in one tank. and another tank had other baby seahorses farther along in their development.  They are amazing creatures who can camouflage themselves to blend into their particular sea environment.

 

JellyfishI was particularly drawn to the tanks of jellyfish and the sea nettles (the latter I’d never seen before).  I find watching jellyfish float and drift in the currents to be very soothing, almost therapeutic.  The mangrove display outside emphasized the critical role this tree-like shrub plays in reducing shore erosion and providing safe havens for various creatures.  We will definitely make a return visit, most likely with our granddaughter in tow!

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT I’M WATCHING 

I’m really impressed with the offerings on PBS this summer.  Not only is there the new version of Poldark, but Last Tango in Halifax is back for a third season of the trials and tribulations of Celia and Alan and their tangled up families.  One aspect of this program I like and appreciate is that there is a lot of conversation in it, but there are silences too, and it all feels more like real life than some television dramas. Also there are moments of humor.

Added to this line-up on Sunday evenings (here you can watch from 8:00 until 11:00 pm if you’re so inclined; we record everything) is The Crimson Field, a raw and graphic drama set at a battlefield hospital in Boulogne, France in 1915.  The story focuses on three new volunteer nurses and their interactions with the nursing supervisors, doctors and patients.  And for fans of Downton Abbey, watch for Kevin Doyle (aka Molesley) in a very different role.  Overall, it’s strong stuff, definitely “mature content,” replete with rivalries and turf wars, and exceedingly well done.

WHAT I’M READING

This is the time of year when I give myself permission to read more fluff, or shall we say, less serious literature.  Recently, it was The Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor and At the Water’s Edge, the newest novel from Sara Gruen of Water for Elephants.  Gaynor’s book is a historical novel about two sisters who are flower sellers in 19th century London.  Their lives intersect nearly 40 years later with a young housemother at a home that trains girls to make paper flowers.  I enjoy historical novels in general and this one presents a slice of society of which I knew very little.

Somehow I’ve escaped reading any of Gruen’s previous commercially successful novels.  At the Water’s Edge is set in 1944 at an inn near Loch Ness in the Scottish highlands.  The three principal characters are spoiled, rich, hapless young Americans from Philadelphia on a quest to redeem themselves by recording the famous monster.  Maddie, wife of one of the two men, has a checkered family history, and has never done anything for herself.  Living in spartan accommodations with strict food rationing in place, she is forced to face her own self-centeredness and the true state of her marriage.

I found the whole premise a bit farfetched and initially had little sympathy for her or Ellis and Hank.  Nonetheless, I did keep reading and was absorbed enough in finding out whether anyone got what he or she deserved to read to the end.

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: Film, Art & Vanessa

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FILM

I recommend Far from the Madding Crowd!  Beautiful countryside, beautifully filmed, and Carey Mulligan is a lovely Bathsheba, intelligent, definite and almost elfin.  And the men—Francis Troy has the required rakish dark hair and eyes, Boldwood (don’t you love Hardy’s choice of names!) is older, but not as sinister seeming as in the novel, and Gabriel Oak, well, he is all that the hero is supposed to be—strong, silent and ever reliable.  I prefer this version to the earlier one starring Julie Christie.  A good romantic film to get lost in!

ART IN SARASOTA

I believe that part of having a successful retirement life is creating something new or at least exploring and experiencing different activities and events.  My spouse and I call this aspect, “the frolic phase,” and we have developed gradations of frolics from micro to mini to mega. Frolics range from dinner at a new restaurant to a museum visit to a full-blown trip like the 5-week one we took to Asia.

This past week, we had what I’d term a mini frolic.  We had been to John and Mable Ringling’s mansion, Ca d’Zan, at Christmas time, but never to the Ringling Museum of Art.  We have now remedied that and were quite impressed.  The Ringlings’ personal art collection, which was bequeathed to the state of Florida upon John Ringling’s death in 1936, is primarily made up of Renaissance and pre-Renaissance religious art, mainly by Italians, but there are representatives of Dutch, French and Spanish artists as well. They are hung in a series of wood-paneled galleries, each of a different wall color, in the original building.  The building itself is modeled on an Italian villa with a bronze copy of Michelangelo’s David looming over the courtyard and is worth seeing.

The addition of the Ulla and Arthur T. Searing Wing provides a contemporary museum space for traveling and temporary exhibits and we got caught up in “Re-Purposed,” sculpture and other art created from trash and cast-off items.  I would also note that we had the pleasure of meeting the late Mrs. Searing several years ago. She was then 92, elegantly dressed and very  proper.  We conversed over tea and Pepperidge Farm cookies on her balcony high up overlooking Sarasota Bay.

NEW BOOK 

Vanessa Bell about 1910 & Virginia Woolf, 1902 [by George C. Beresford/Hutton Archive
Vanessa Bell about 1910 & Virginia Woolf, 1902
[by George C. Beresford/Hutton Archive]
I dashed through Priya Parmar’s new novel, Vanessa and Her Sister, and was simply captivated!  This is Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, but with the attention on Nessa as she was called.  Parmar has created a chatty diary for Vanessa and her dated entries are interrupted by letters and postcards from other family members and friends (Virginia and Nessa to Violet Dickinson and Dorothy Snow,  Lytton Strachey and Leonard Woolf to each other).  The four Stephen siblings, who had lost both their parents and their half sister Stella, were extremely close and formed a tight little social group which was enlivened by close friends dropping by for their Thursday evenings.  The novel makes clear the steadying influence Vanessa had on Virginia and how much Virginia needed and wanted her attention.  Nonetheless,  death, madness,  Clive’s courtship of Vanessa, and betrayal all conspire to disrupt the balance and seeming harmony of the group..

These are 20 and 30-something writers and artists who, without Facebook or texting, are aiming to be successful in their endeavors and falling in and out of love with potential life partners, be they male or female.  Parmar brings their unconventional social milieu to life—so much so that I felt as if I were there and well acquainted with Vanessa.  It is probably helpful to know something about these noteworthy and ultimately famous individuals (I did, being a fan of the Bloomsbury Group), but even if you don’t, their story and their issues of artistic creation and love of all kinds will engage you.  I didn’t want the book to end.