REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Historical Novel "The Painted Girls" Opens Up a New World For Me

When I recently heard a feature on NPR about a new historical novel called "The Painted Girls" by Cathy Marie Buchanan, I was very intrigued. Called "The Seedy Underbelly of Belle Epoque," NPR reviews the book telling the story about impoverished girls who entered the ballet school of the Paris Opera in the 1800s as a possible way of escaping grim lives. Edgar Degas's Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is a replica of the main character of this book, Marie van Goethem. 

I immediately put myself on the waiting list at the Palos Verdes Library District and I think I was first on the list. Because I've been pretty much waylaid for days with influenza, all I've done mostly is read, sleep and watch movies. 

What little girl does not have dreams of the ballet? Both my closest young girlfriends growing up in Sunland, CA took both ballet and piano lessons, but my parents did not have the money for that. But, I observed them endlessly. By the way, I'm pretty much a klutz so even if I had taken lessons, I doubt I would have lasted a month. I did indulge myself as an adult with piano lessons, too, by the way, but I sucked. But--my own daughter Christy got her mom's dreams forced on her with ballet and piano. Her heart wasn't in it, but she did dance until she was in her early teens.

I was mesmerized by the book and can't recommend it enough. Though all of Degas art has not particularly grabbed me, I know for generations of people, it has--particularly little girls who dream of being ballet dancers. 

Some Googling brought up this BBC documentary below telling the story of the bronze and how it came to be and how it is being analyzed and studied. Another good way to spend an hour and learning more, too. Ever since I was a little kid, my mind has been a curious one. It is imperative that I learn new things every day or a little piece of me shrinks away. My dad said I had a mind like a sponge and though with age the sponge can't quite soak up the way it used to, reading "The Painted Girls" has been a marvelous way to keep my mind active. 

The BBC documentary has shown clips of a film about Degas and this bronze, but I haven't been able to locate it yet. Anyone have any ideas? 

 

 

 

The Cats of Mirikitani

A friend recently recommended a 2006 documentary called "The Cats of Mirikitani." I got it from Netflix and was literally mesmerized. It's the story of a Japanese-American artist living and working on the streets of New York who is befriended by filmmaker Linda Hattendorf. It won the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 and was featured on PBS and several other stations, but I just heard about it. I can't recommend it enough.

This is a clip from YouTube:

Adam: A Film I Highly Recommend

Though I posted about Adam on Facebook Sunday when I saw it, I want to make sure that if you would like to see a really good film, try Adam. It's an indie shown at Sundance and currently showing only at "select theaters" which around L.A. means a few art houses. 

  A very different romantic comedy because the male lead has Asbergers, this is how the New York Times reviewed it. I just keep thinking and thinking about this film. As I look back on my own life, I believe a few of the brilliant engineers I knew had really similar behavior. If you see it, I'd like to know what you thought. 

The Journey is the Destination: Dan Eldon

 I’ve known for years about murdered photojournalist Dan Eldon’s story and his journals, but never really explored who he was or even saw anything beyond a few reproductions of his art journal pages. Only 22 years old, he was killed in an uprising in Somalia in 1993. His mother Kathleen M. Eldon, published a book of his journals in 1997 called “The Journey is the Destination.” The foreward by his mom is at this link as a PDF.

So, the stage is set. Imagine my delight to find a pristine copy of the “The Journey is the Destination” at the Malaga Cove Used Book Sale today. It was $5 and I’ve been mesmerized by it since. A little Internet research quickly brought me up to speed on who he was and how his life and work has continued to make a difference in the world.

Next I discovered that there is a permanent exhibition of Dan Eldon's journals at the Candela/Decker gallery in Manhattan as reported by The New York Times. Then I discovered that in 2011 a film is supposed to be released called "The Journey is the Destination" and will star Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame. Dan Eldon's sister Amy Eldon also created a documentary about war correspondents called "Dying to Tell the Story" which ran on TBS in 1998, but it isn’t available on Netflix though it is available to purchase at other sites. Have any of you seen this documentary?

There is also a traveling exhibition of his journals and it was at Santa Monica College last spring. Bummer! But, Eldon wasn’t on my radar screen then. Don’t you just love how the Universe works sometimes? You vaguely know about someone or something. You tuck it into your brain somewhere, and when the time is right, more information presents itself. That's the way it was for me in the late 1970s when I became deeply interested in the Trappist monk Thomas Merton but didn't pursue it. Then I received a copy of "The Seven Storey Mountain" in a new year's eve dice game, believe it or not, and a whole new world opened up to me. My Master's thesis was "Dialogues With Thomas Merton," and I once made a pilgrimage to all his New York haunts when I was with students at Columbia University. I even got permission to use Merton files in the Columbia archives.

I'm looking forward to learning about the legacy that Dan Eldon has left us all. 

 

A Wi-Fi Visit From the Tumwater, WA Public Library

Now, if you want next to perfect weather, you need to be in Tumwater, WA today. I write to you from the Tumwater Timberland Library, which is about a mile from my sister's home. It's here I can get wi fi.

In fact, I've become so accustomed to dropping into libraries when I travel when where I'm staying doesn't have wi fi, but then libraries are my home away from home anywhere I go. 

This library has a very small Friends of the Library section, but I always find great books and magazines here and I did today.

I arrived yesterday and my sis and I joyfully reunited after a 10 month in between of seeing one another. You've heard me talk about Betty before--an 85-year-old larger-than-life kind of woman. She has cooked up a storm for us and last night we watched back-to-back movies of her choice, neither I had seen before. Nights in Rodanthe was a little too schmaltzy for me, but the scenery sure was beautiful. Flywheel is a Christian movie she really wanted to share and it had its humorous side along with the ageless message. The actors in Albany GA were priceless. Tonight it is Gran Torino, a film I'm looking forward to.

Betty took us to the Red Wing Casino today as she loves to play the slots and often arranges bus tours there of her senior complex members.Casinos are not my thing but I got some great photos of her at the slots and then we had a humongous and extremely reasonable buffet. She always delights in showing me the beautiful countryside although building still seems to be going on here.

Tomorrow we will visit some of her friends in the afternoon, after her weekly hair appointment. Needless to say, I'll spend that two hours back in the Tumwater Library. By the way, I'm reading Shanghai Girls and it is fabulous!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

A few months ago I read John Boyne's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and though it was a difficult read, I was mesmerized by the tension of innocence and evil as it is a story of the holocaust from a child's point of view. The librarians at school had talked about it and I knew I had to read it. I read a few chapters and put the book aside for a full week; I wasn't sure I was up to it. Then I dived in and read it to the very end. It has haunted me ever since. 

Tonight I watched the 2008 film version of the book as I was curious how film makers would create the film. It followed the book pretty closely, but I'm glad I read the book first even though it was a spoiler. You can check it an IMDB if you haven't seen it and want to. I rented it from Netflix. The film was done remarkably well and I go to bed with such sadness tonight. But the holocaust is history and it is important that young people today continue to know the truth about a very dark period for humanity. I have been to Berlin once, only two days after the wall came down, but I have never been to Auschwitz or any of the death camps. 

This work was set in Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. 

I highly recommend both the book and the film and would be very curious to hear what you thought if you have already read it and/or seen the movie. 

I just keep thinking about the January reinstatement of a holocaust denying clergyman, Bishop Richard Williamson, by the current Pope. When I first read about this in the Huffington Post I felt deep shame and anger. After sitting with "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," I feel really outraged. In fact, I didn't follow the news about the Pope's visit to Israel and Palestine recently. I know he has apologized for the Church's behavior during World War II, but I'm not sure I believe it when he supports someone like Bishop Williamson. 

 

 

 

Caption This Teddy Bear Photo

This photo, which I took at the Malaga Cove Library a few weeks ago, has continued to intrigue me because it evokes a lot of philosophical questions. 

If there are no children in the children's library, does the teddy bear and her progeny really exist?

And those empty chairs? Do they long for human butts when there are none to sit in them?

And the books themselves. Do they rearrange themselves when the librarians aren't there just so they don't get bored when no one is reading them? 

• It rained a lot today and though I love the rain, it alters my mood to whacky.
• I worked today but I also attended a very long meeting at the library and did some photography afterwards.  
• Tonight I watched Vicki Cristina Barcelona from Netflix. I never met a Woody Allen film I didn't like, but I have to think about them for a while. It always amazes me how natural all the dialogue is.  

  

Now, make the photo larger by double clicking and then put your caption cap on and help me name this photo depending on your own mood.

Finding Amanda a Real Roller Coaster Ride

I have been busy at work all week and busy every evening with an event, so the blog fell by the way side. 

I did take time out tonight to watch "Finding Amanda," a very dark and cynical comedy about addictions from 2008 starring Matthew Broderick. I never even heard of this film before and in the beginning I thought I'd picked a loser. Not so. The acting was terrific and the script really hit me in the solar plexus, when I wasn't groaning or laughing. It's not for the faint-hearted, especially if you've watched people you love spin out into alcohol, drugs and gambling. The depiction of Vegas was eerily accurate as I've experienced it. 

But, now it's time to tuck in with a book for the night. Cookie, by the way, is doing well, a day at a time, I'm happy to report. 

 

Australia: An Epic Not To Be Missed

Director Baz Lurhrman has done it again with his epic film "Australia," which opened in the U.S. on Thanksgiving, or at least I give it a big thumbs up. It has not done well in the U.S., but I think of "Gone With the Wind," when I think of "Australia." 

Starring People Magazine's "Sexiest Man of the Year," Hugh Jackman, and Nicole Kidman, I was mesmerized by all of it, though admittedly the first half sometimes dragged. I loved the cattle driving and horse driving scenes--and the unbelievable scenery in the outback. The cinematography, the acting, the battle of good vs. evil, and that mystical, mythical romantic and familial love we all long for, is all there. 

It is based on the Aboriginal tradition of story telling, which is a subject very dear to my heart. When I Googled reviews, the one that explained this connection best was Pop Matters. The narration is done through the eyes of a "half-breed" 12-year-old boy named Nulla, hauntingly played by Brandon Walters. It is 1939 and racism and classism are rampant in Australia. The first half is before WW II on an outback cattle station and the second half focuses on the horrors of war in an Australian port city. The song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" will be in my head for weeks to come along with Nulla's medicine man grandfather who mystically teaches and watches over Nulla, usually from afar. 

I'll definitely buy this film for my own collection, but it's grandeur and sound has to be seen in a theater with a large screen and great sound to really experience it. At least that's my opinion. And--the film and music of "The Wizard of Oz" weaves its way through "Australia." In retrospect it seemed like a story within a story, within a film et al. 

I have not particularly been a Jackman fan but Sunday night a man fell in love with me in a dream--and I was a mess--an amputee fleeing for my life in a desert. (Very complex dream.) As soon as Australia opened and I saw "Drover," Jackman's character, I gasped. My dream man was Hugh Jackman. Ah, life!