The Oscars
While not surprised, I was disappointed that Boyhood did not win best picture, but very pleased that Patricia Arquette got an award for her marvelous role in this film. As one article I read pointed out, the award winners are more and more divorced from what the American public goes to see. Compared to American Sniper, which I haven’t seen, millions more people saw that than went to view Birdman.
Sarasota Scene
As part of the Sarasota arts smorgasbord, we sampled two Sarasota Opera productions last week. The theater is small and there is an intimacy not found in San Francisco or New York. Tosca was very good and The Golden Cockerel a beautifully staged production of an infrequently sung work by Rimsky-Korsakov. The sets were lavish, colorful, and the equal of any opera we’ve seen anywhere.
Footnote
I finished Galgut’s Arctic Summer and enjoyed the rest of this novel. It is based on Forster’s diaries, letters, and biographies and one appreciates his reluctance to consider himself a writer and Forster’s struggle bringing to birth Passage to India. I remember being puzzled by that book when I read it many years ago and much preferred his Howards End.
On the Road
I will soon be on my way to Asia so have loaded up my Kindle with novels and memoirs and a few other nonfiction books. I always enjoy the Wall Street Journal’s weekly column, “Five Best,” and last week’s was books about spinsters. I knew of Winifred Holtby and enjoyed the Masterpiece Theater presentation of her Testament of Youth some years ago and so I now have her novel, South Riding, downloaded and ready to go. I also decided that it is time to re-read Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the third for fourth time as it is my favorite of all her works. It too was cited in the column along with that Barbara Pym classic, Excellent Women.
