MUSICIAL INTERLUDE
Chamber Music Raleigh
The Chief Penguin and I are new to the Chamber Music Raleigh series. It’s held in an intimate auditorium in the North Carolina Museum of Art on Sunday afternoons. To date, the performers have included a cello quartet (yes, 4 cellos!), a trio of female string players, and most recently, the Italian pianist Alessandro Marangoni.
Marangoni’s playing was a delight as he entertained us with a handful of pieces by Gioachino Rossini. Most of these were unfamiliar but light, and in one case even quirky, with the pianist vocalizing the sounds of a parakeet (Les raisins: A ma petite perruche) while navigating the keys. Marangoni was the first to record many of Rossini’s works on disc.
For us, and for the friends with us, the highlight of the concert, however, was his rendition of several pieces by Chopin, including a nocturne, a ballade, and a polonaise. These showcased both Chopin’s virtuosity and Marangoni’s talent.
RECENT READING: EXPERIENCING BOTH SEXES
Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space between Us by Jennifer Finney Boylan
I have read and followed Jennifer Finney Boylan since the publication in 2003 of her groundbreaking book on transitioning entitled, She’s Not There. For years, Boylan was a columnist for the New York Times; more recently, she co-authored an excellent novel with Jodi Picoult. That is Mad Honey released in 2022.
Her new book, the cleverly titled Cleavage, is a series of reflections on both parts of her life, before transition as a boy and man, and later as her current female self. Boylan relates anecdotes about incidents with her father, her mother’s loving acceptance of her as Jennifer not Jim, and a series of adolescent friendships with guys Jim hung out with and some she knew later as a woman.
She also riffs on how she was treated differently as a female, as for example, no longer being seen as an authority figure in the classroom. Unusual as it might seem, Boylan and her wife Deedie remain happily married to each other. They have two adult children, and Boylan recounts her angst and mixed feelings when their younger son came out to them and transitioned to female.
Boylan was a professor at Colby College for 25 years and then became a writer-in-residence at Barnard. She has given many lectures over the years, both in and out of the classroom, so quotes from literature and philosophy are numerous. She has also written several other personal works (none of which I’ve read), and some material here feels cobbled together and occasionally like it doesn’t quite fit its chapter’s theme.
Overall, however, Boylan writes with warmth, wit, wisdom, and graphic candor coupled with an overarching love for her family and friends. She states that when she transitioned 25 years ago, she was mostly greeted with acceptance and felt comfortable. Would that the national mood today were the same! Recommended for readers wanting to know more about living in two genders. (~JWFarrington)
LOCAL FARE
Dinner at Saap
I have written before about Saap, Cary’s Laotian restaurant, but it’s worth mentioning again. Located on Walker Street behind the Cary Downtown Park, it offers a flavorful menu of both familiar and new Asian cuisine. The space is bright with large windows and a hardwood floor, and you can dine here at lunch or dinner.
This week the Chief Penguin and I started our dinner with an order of their delicious crispy spring rolls followed by pad lao, a noodle dish with tiger shrimp, for him and the red chicken curry with jasmine rice for me. My curry was excellent with just the right amount of heat. The portion was generous, and I brought some home for the next day’s lunch. We dined on the early side and the noise level was minimal; as it filled up, it became what many would consider too lively. Highly recommended!
Note: Header photo detail of Sunflower No. 3 by Jeff Dale ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
