Category: TV

Tidy Tidbits: Mothers & Meals

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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.

Tidy Tidbits: Inside & Out

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BOOK OF THE WEEK

Mary McGrory:  The First Queen of Journalism by John Norris.

Although this is a biography, it is perhaps even more a rollicking review of presidential campaigns and Congressional politics from the McCarthy hearings through the Bush eras, all as viewed from the perspective of columnist Mary McGrory and her colleagues.  Brash, yet elegant, Mary McGrory was a wielder of words and winsome charm.  She contrived to never have to carry her own luggage and was both chummy with and critical of presidential and politician friends from Jack and Bobby Kennedy to Gene McCarthy and Mario Cuomo.  Her column in the Washington Star ran for almost thirty years and when that newspaper folded, she joined the Washington Post, but never found its culture as pleasing as the warm, family-like atmosphere at the Star.  A pioneer in the field, her talent and dedication smoothed the way for other women columnists like today’s Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins.

ART WALK

Having house guests can be an incentive to visit a new place.  With my sister and brother-in-law from North Carolina, we took advantage of the Art Walk at the Ringling College of Art and Design.   This small private school is situated on the northern edge of Sarasota, and its charming campus, tucked just off Tamiami Trail, is a mix of attractive Spanish architecture and more contemporary buildings.  For this event, six of the campus’ galleries were open and free to the public.  Included were a display of pieces from the Basch Collection of art glass, a tour of the letterpress lab, and the opening reception for an exhibition of works by alumnus Amer Kobaslija.  Faculty were also on hand to try to entice us to sign up for their continuing education courses, everything from creative writing to zentangle (a new structured way to create art) to metal working, to publishing interactive books online.  The morning downpour was over, the weather had cleared and walking around this snug campus was a different way to spend the late afternoon.

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Thanks to the Chief Penguin, my treadmill workouts are now enhanced by watching the Spanish drama, Gran Hotel, available on streaming Netflix.  Called the Spanish “Downton Abbey,” and set in 1906, it is the story of the Alarcon family who own and run an elegant country hotel.  The matriarch, Dona Teresa, rules with an iron will and is not averse to employing chicanery, secrets, and lies to get her way.  Add in her beautiful daughter Alicia, a wayward son (Javier), the unexplained disappearance of one of the maids (Cristina), a waiter (Andres) who is the son of the head housekeeper, and the arrival of a young man (Julio) seeking answers about Cristina’s disappearance, and you have the makings of an entertaining and diverting stew.  Full of murders, mysterious letters, and implausible coincidences, it keeps getting better and better.  There are three seasons and I’m now into season 2 or about halfway through the 30+ episodes.  It is subtitled, but I don’t find that at all a problem, even while striding along on the treadmill!

 

Header Photo: Morning on Manatee Beach (copyright JWFarrington)

Tidy Tidbits: Culture Notes

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Not the Season But

You soon learn when you move here, that everyone refers to “the season.” The season runs from after Christmas through April and perhaps into May. It’s when the snowbirds fly south, all of the part-time residents are back, and the cultural season is in full swing. That said, although the season has not yet arrived, the pace has picked up, and there is a seemingly endless parade of local festivals and fairs, everything from chalk in Venice to blues in Bradenton. Recently, we enjoyed our first Sarasota Orchestra concert for 2015-16, the Sarasota Opera’s very fine production of “La Boheme” and the South Florida Museum’s annual Snooty Gala. Pianist Marc Andre Hamelin and the orchestra presented a memorable performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto along with two pieces by Shostakovich. An upcoming orchestra concert will feature violinist Leila Josefowicz whom we got to know during her years of study at the Curtis Institute.

On the Small Screen

These two TV series on PBS have ended or almost so, but I do think they are worth mentioning. In “Home Fires,” the focus is on the women in a small English town and their desire to help the war effort, but also on the rivalry for leadership of the Women’s Institute. Absorbing and convincing, it will immerse you in the daily lives of the villagers as tensions develop over the impending war.

The characters are many, the social and political alliances tangled and complex, and the accents sometimes thick, but “Indian Summers” is worth one’s time. Set in the early 1930’s at a summer retreat in the Himalayas, it depicts the waning power of the ruling British Colonials and the rising protest of the native classes. Both series are available on DVD.

On the Page

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.

Some of you may recall the stir that was caused when Ms. Clark died at age 104 in 2011, and it was discovered that she owned several sumptuous properties preserved, but not lived in for decades.  They included a chateau style house in Connecticut purchased as a safe house, but never furnished and never visited. Raised in luxury in elegant surroundings on Fifth Avenue, Huguette Clark ended up living the last twenty years in a small, spare hospital room.

While occasionally reading like a sales catalog of fancy goods and art, this is both a lively family history (the first quarter details her father’s creation of a business empire the equal of the Rockefellers and his colorful, questionable career as a U.S. senator) and a fascinating account of this eccentric, strange, and yet generous woman.  Most of the people who worked for her or advised her never met her and dealt with her through letters or phone calls or via the few trusted individuals in her employ. She purchased dolls and art for her own enjoyment while giving away millions of dollars to staff and friends. Dedman’s co-author is Ms. Clark’s grandson and the inclusion of his phone conversations with Huguette shows a more personal side to this very private, secretive woman.

 

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.