Željko Lučić - Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (Rigoletto)

"Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel

Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.(less) I read a review a year ago I think and decided to put a hold on the book at our library. It came just before Christmas and there went the season! I found it difficult to adjust to the writing insofar as knowing who was actually speaking at any one time. I was amazed at the poetic images she conjured that brought each scene to life. The writing went from descriptions of simplicity and humor to beautiful evocations of weather, flowers and costumes all done in an antique style reflective of the time. Just a magnificent tour de force. I've never read anything so beautifully realized.

At the San Francisco Symphony Last Night

They played Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto -- gorgeous piece of music!

When The Killing's Done

I just finished this book in a long rush of interest.  This is another book I would never have read if it hadn't been chosen by our book club.  I think I've read a short story or two in the New Yorker by Boyle, but always felt he was just one of those hip writers who wouldn't be my cup of tea.  Now I will definitely look up another of his books.  I like his long asides that include all sorts of random thoughts, joking references, histories.  His basic story is pretty clear cut -- a contest between someone who wants to restore an ecosystem and one who thinks it is not worth while if animals are killed in the process.  The former is Alma, the latter is Dave.  It seems that both antagonists come to question their own sureness about what they are doing -- but not enough to stop them.  The novel twists back and forth in time -- which I found confusing, but manageable.  There are some dark and ugly scenes of almost unbearable violence. There is an interesting article on Boyle in the  British publication, The Guardian (it is worth looking up)in which Boyle says:

"'Life is tragic and absurd and none of it has any purpose at all." He is sitting contentedly with a glass of wine in the west room of his Frank Lloyd Wright house in Montecito, California. "Science has killed religion, there's no hope for the future with seven billion of us on the planet, and the only thing you can do is to laugh in the face of it all."

I liked the sense of place he conjured up -- the islands themselves, the cities of Montecito and Santa Barbara. I liked his descriptions and evocation of his characters.  So the book had his philosophy spelled out - tragic, absurd and funny.



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'Blackthorn' movie review

'Blackthorn' movie review -- 'Blackthorn' showtimes - The Boston Globe

Playing the aging outlaw Butch Cassidy, Sam Shepard is the nominal star of “Blackthorn,’’ and he’s fine - grizzled and laconic in the best western tradition. He keeps getting upstaged by the cinematography, though.

The movie’s an international coproduction that marks the feature directing debut of Spanish screenwriter Mateo Gil (“Open Your Eyes,’’ “The Sea Inside’’); he and director of photography Juan Ruiz Anchía filmed in the high country of Bolivia, and the thin mountain air seems to have seeped into the camera. Each frame is a crystalline jaw-dropper that places the smallish actions of men within a vast canvas of lush jungle, lunar salt flats, Andean snow, and desert sand. The result is a pretty good movie that almost looks better than it needs to.

It plays like a Sergio Leone spaghetti western with the cynicism replaced by exhaustion and regret. Butch falls in with a hapless civil engineer, Eduardo (Spanish heartthrob Eduardo Noriega), who has stolen $50,000 from fat-cat mine owners and is being tailed by a particularly mean posse. The most satisfying moments in “Blackthorn’’ let us see Butch through the younger man’s eyes, as Eduardo slowly comes to appreciate the depth of the outlaw’s mastery. He still doesn’t know who this old gringo is, but he’s definitely somebody.

After a while, Gil lets the movie stall in a sort of high-plains drift, and he lets the camerawork do most of the heavy lifting. You don’t mind. There’s a beautiful showdown on the salt flats in which Butch doesn’t outshoot a pursuer so much as outlast him, each man on his straining, plodding horse.

Cleopatra, Rome, Alexandria - A Life

Read in December, 2011

Cleopatra: A Life (Hardcover) Stacy Schiff - Little, Brown

I spent all day yesterday reading this book. There are so many reviews here, I thought I would just add the point that I learned so much about Egypt and Alexandria, its wealth and beauty. I could feel the warmth and salt air. Sad to think the old city is so gone, so much under water now. I loved this book. Didn't think Schiff could improve on "Vera". Wonderful writer! I had a little trouble getting started, but when I did I couldn't stop. This book makes so clear the rough and poor quality of the city of Rome at the time, in comparison to Alexandria. And Schiff is a genius to have brought Cleopatra to life with so many gaps in the sources. I really wondered when our book club chose it to read, why such a well-worn old story. Then the towering queen came to life with all her strength, education, languages, pageantry. Wonderful book!

Review of film "Beginners" Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer

Gattopardo Dec 24/2011 - I didn't like this movie.  I thought Christopher Plummer played a selfish man who only had a passing interest in why his son could make no commitments.  I was more interested in the mother -- I'd like to know why she stuck with her bad deal of a marriage.  I also could not get a clue as to why the son loved his father so much.  The gay factor in all this was not done well I felt.  A man as closeted as Plummer might come out, but with all this fanfare?  Also, the son's girlfriend was too phony.  And this ridiculous situation - the fancy hotel, the girl's arch mannerisms - ecch.  And this was supposed to represent his coming to terms with a solid relationship? The young men driving around town painting on buildings for fun?  The odd filming techniques and pastiches intercut in the filming?  Why did none of the reviews warn us?
   The only thing that kept us watching was the charming dog, Arthur; an adorable Jack Russell terrier.

The Hare With Amber Eyes

I loved reading this book written by a perceptive and caring artist about his family and their history.  Edmund de Waal writes about the Ephrussi with such attention to detail about their homes, their cities (Paris, Vienna, Odessa, Tokyo) and the objects they owned and clothes they wore.  It was like poetry to read his analyses of why certain objects (a collection of nearly 130 netsuke the author inherited provide a linking cord through the novel) can have meaning and influence.  I've never encountered a book quite like it.  The larger story is the family moving from great wealth to poverty during World War II, but the author has closed in with skill show their daily lives and the art objects they collected, books they read and all the fascinating friends they knew. The Parisian Charles Ephrussi never worked in the family banking business (they were on a par with the Rothschilds), he knew Proust (who had a character in his books based on Charles).  He knew Renoir (and many of the Impressionists).  He is even in Renoir's painting Bathers on the Seine (gentleman in a top hat). I bought the book in paperback at Costco recently.  I am sad that it is over, but the holiday season beckons, nay demands, my attention now.

The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly

This was a fun fast legal thriller and a grabber of a read. Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer) gets into various aspects of the foreclosure epidemic and legal maneuvers that are interesting and informative too.  There are lots of topical references, Facebook, Software thievery, Hollywood film tie ins to big name legal trials.  The name of the book itself was interesting.  Quite a fun read for a rainy weekend.

Thoughts on "A Suitable Boy"

It was quite a different experience for me reading this book. It took me two months or so. I never wanted to skip over so much as a paragraph, but after a few pages I was drowning in words, images, unfamiliar names for people, flowers, trees, clothing, etc. It must be the way a child feels learning a language when things just wash over you. I found that with such a big book to hold that I would sit in a reading chair with good light - I'd get up an hour early in the mornings to read. It was like a total immersion class on India. The author could tie in music, religion, politics, poetry, festivals and people in such a miraculous way. I read that the author's father worked for a shoe company. I also read that he is working on another novel, "A Suitable Girl." You really couldn't make a single movie based on this book. It would have to be a series and cover several seasons. Many many thanks to my friend Dildar Gill Pisani who recommended this book!  (See below)

  

Sal's Grandmother - Stage Name Brunetta

Sal's Grandmother, Amelia Cantalupo Ferrari was a music hall singer in Italy and specialized in declamations and recitations from famous plays and poetry.  She came to San Francisco in 1925 and often appeared at Fugazi Hall in North Beach.

Sal's grandfather Gennarino Cantalupo was a lyricist and pamphleteer, denizen of the street scene in Naples.  He died during the Influenza epidemic of 1920. He liked the nickname of Gennarino Bianchi. 

The youtube video (above) is of Montserrat Caballe doing an excerpt from the opera Adriana Lecouvreur.  In the opera she plays a famous stage actress and singer.  In this piece she is doing a recitation from Racine's Phaedra.  The dramatic reading serves the double purpose of showing off her technique and incidentally insulting a woman at the party setting all sorts of craziness in motion.  This moment reminded me of Sal's grandmother and her dramatic technique.  It was she who got Sal involved in the ragazzi/boys onstage in various operas such as La Boheme and Carmen.

Marching to Lincoln Memorial

I am reading "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth

I am about halfway into "A Suitable Boy" and seem to spend a lot of time filling in at the computer looking at different clothes mentioned (kurta/dhoti/shalwar kameez), trees (pipal, neem, etc.) and different kind of paan. Hundreds of words and references don't really ruin the flow. He isn't a great writer, but the breadth of coverage of the minutiae of Indian life is wonderful. I am beginning to get a better feeling for the Hindu/Moslem differing lifestyles and feelings toward each other -- also various castes. I just read a part of the book where Lata, principal of many many characters, meets a man her mother likes very much, but Lata is put off because he is wearing "co-respondents shoes". I found a long exposition about that one on a review of the book at Amazon.com. If they put this 1400 pages book on a Kindle with a full glossary, I'd buy a Kindle. Definitely a book to read more than once. Sal is out for today's Singalong at Kenneth Aitken, so I am going to treat myself with a warm summer afternoon read. We had lots of fun Saturday watching the Cal Bears and yesterday the Niners, and loved seeing the Jets beat the Cowboys. Lots better when your favorites win!

Anna Deveare Smith - American Treasure

We saw, heard and felt her recently at a Berkeley Repertory Performance.

http://www.ted.com/talks/anna_deavere_smith_s_american_character.html

I Clean Up the Neighborhood

We had a Saturday clean-up day at the triangle entrance to our Greenridge Neighborhood. My job was the wall leading up the hill. I filled my bag with dried weeds.

Jaycee Dugard's "A Stolen Life"

A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Lee Dugard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thought this was a powerful book and read it in one gulp. Jaycee writes with a strong, simple and direct voice and I came to understand how she could have remained with her captors - the so-called Stockholm Syndrome. It was amazing how the abuse she suffered never changed some inner purity and sweetness in her character. There is something miraculous about her and her story. After reading it, there remain a million more questions you want to have answered.



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We go to the Farmer's Market

Greenridge Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN4-2BGszOQ

Little Bee

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this for my book club and could never get the feeling it was real. The author has a story he wants to tell that points up problems of immigration (Little Bee) and shallow values (Sarah)and it fails for me in the same way that Poisonwood Bible did. Neither of the women or the places described seemed very real to me. There was some delicate and thoughtful writing here and there but all in all I would have been more moved by a straight journalistic piece on the whole subject.



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