Discoveries: Arts and Culture

Following the 90 minute special, Sunday night being the only night, I allow myself to watch the television, was a special on Great Houses in England, and this time the visit was to Rosslyn Chapel  which had become derelict and was the subject of  "picturesque" paintings and sketches found by Lady Rosslyn while employed at Sotheby's, as she is an art historian.  English women have a charm that is distinctive, and this lady earns her title with her intelligence, lilting voice, and sincerity, when she chooses the word, "timeless" as her word to describe the importance of Rosslyn Chapel   The castle to which the chapel  belonged is long gone, with only a few stones remaining.   The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown a book which I am sorry to say I never read, released in 2003, restored interest, and now 30,000 people a month visit, whereas a hand ful used to visit once a year.  It has created employment for the local population, and when the movie was made...

Janet Roberts and Colm Toibin  Irish Society a sponsor I said hello to Colm Toibin.  I reminded him we met at Fudan University and M in Shanghai; he said “you are living here now?” I remarked that he is looking especially well, that America must be agreeing with him(he has been a year at Princeton, then Stanford and now Columbia University).  He replies with a laugh, that he thinks a good shower is key to appearance, especially at his age; being really clean goes a long way!  He humorously rubs his bald head, which is shining.  The book, " Brooklyn" which he was touring in Shanghai, when he judged the First Asian Booker prize ,  is being made into a movie.  I told him I participated in a book discussion about Brooklyn, a week after his reading, in Beijing.   I tell him that I remember his lecture about always knowing the house in your story, that it is central to a convincing narrative in that you know  where the boards creak on ...

Proud grandparents, Joan Schmitz Bergholt, a friend since age 16 and her husband John, a retired maritime lawyer, both graduates of Stanford University. ,.  Chris and Jennifer and little 4 year old Owen celebrate arrival of Hudson Alexander 

Research Fellow Jacob Dalton presented a very illuminating study in progress about the relationship of church and state in Tibet.  ( The Chinese propaganda machine, as I learned, living in China, maintains that the church was a feudal state enslaving other Tibetans, and that the Chinese freed them from this oppression. And, so on...) "Power and Compassion: Negotiating Religion and State in 10th century Tibet .  The government of the Dalai Lama followed the Tibetan ideal of "the union of religion and state"  In the early precursors in the legal writing of the late 10th century Tibetan King, Yeshe O, whose recently discovered biography shows nuanced pictures of his careful negotiation between Buddhism and the Secular.  A complex and highly ambivalent relationship is more clearly discerned in parallels between the church and state in Medieval Europe. What began as a harmonious relationship between church and state and the people became divisive when the sons inheri...

I started to watch Masterpiece theater on KQED Northern California, last night, the new series on "Murder at Pemberley" an extension of Jane Austen's novel.  Wickham is on trial for murder, and upsets the household in the first set, causing the cancellation of the planned ball festivities. Lydia is as silly as ever, reminding one a little, not uncharitably of her mother, Mrs. Bennett. Both prattle on.  Mr Bennett loves the library at Pemberley, and he and his daughter still share a sympathy.  Elizabeth and Darcey are a loving couple.  Oh, it's nice to be in Jane Austen's world for a time, again, even with the murder issue.  Why are murder mysteries so fascinating to the population?  It seems there is hardly anything more popular than detective stories and mysteries, and they all involve murder as did Agatha Christie's novels.   

Sasha Waltz and the producer in an interview after the performance  The stage is slant, looking like art canvasses, which change from white to red and include a pool for dipping nude at one stage in the performance.   The singer stands off ramp with the piano which is played live, allowing for silences.   A Dance Performance  set to the lieder of Schubert at Cal Performances, Zellerbach Theater, Berkeley, California  Saturday night.  .  Sasha Waltz (Valtz), in her interview, after the performance , says that she does not want the dance to seem as illustration of, or following the music, but is "music" in itself.        She says the dancers are like a good wine; they have matured and dig deeper into the expression of their dancing.    She says psychology shows that as people watch the dance, they enact the moves in their minds and she hopes they will develop compassion.  She chose to have a singer sin...

Man Ray     (1890-1976)  Nancy Cunard (1926) One of the opening scenes in Partenope. The Queen of Milan stands on the stair, and Eurimene(Rosamira) in green, with   This sophisticated opera is a real departure for Handel, and is situated in 1920's Paris.     David Daniels and Danielle de Niese' s appearances as Partenope who is Queen of Naples, vulnerable and beautiful, with her many bracelets, as in the Man Ray photography,  The man she loves, Arsace,  loves but betrayed Princess Rosmira, appears in disguise as Eurimene .   The appearance of these two stars was  funded by a couple, Joan and David Traitel,  who makes a gift to the Great Singers fund for performances such as "The Masked Ball" and "Partenope", both part of my subscription.      Erotic longing and its satire are the focal point of this "subversive" theater.  It is a question of whether Partenope is loved for her wealth and power, whic...

This program, part of Litquake week presented a journal Monkey Business (based on a pop song by Chuck Berry )  launched a couple of years ago, in which Haruki Mirakami plays a role in providing a submission each issue, is very interesting as it introduces us to contemporary Japanese voices.  Paul Auster's two earliest penned stories, which have remained unpublished appear in one issue, along with a Charles Simic poem,   The Nippon Foundation supported the publication in the Nippon Foundation's Read Japan Programs.  The Japan Foundation sponsored the tour of the journal and the panel participants. (  Note.  Chuck Berry: "Sa me thing every day -- gettin'-up, goin' to school/no need for me to complain - my objectiveions overruled, ahh!/Too much monkey business, too muchmonkey business/Too much monkey business, too much monkey business/Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!"   The editors say, "No other work of art that I know of deals ...

Note: Kyung Sook Shin has published 10 books in 25 years and has won many prizes.  If interested you can go to Amazon.com and hear a reading of the first chapter of her new book on Audible books, on the site. The Korean Institute at UC Berkeley did something extraordinary; they focussed on a a contemporary Korean writer, who was the first Korean  to win the Man Booker Prize.  The first Asian Prize recipient was judged by Colm Toibin, and was a Chinese writer. Laura Nelson Introduced the program, but what was disconcerting that as Chair of Korean Studies, she said to the audience she does not like to speak Korean!!!  Yongmin Kwon currently visiting professor of Korean Literature, an Emeritus professor of Seoul National University who is well published...and is co editor with Bruce Fulton who teaches at the University of British Columbia and has just won an award from the NEA -- (with whom I visited, and who I saw with during the presentations) and has received many...

Enjoyed this, as it brings me mentally and spiritually closer to Yosemite, which is more than a five hour drive from SF, though closer than on the East Coast.  Yet, I can fly to NYC on the red eye flight in five hours...and both cost about as much from what I can see, though this conference brought me closer....  The Panel discussion included an introduction by the very charming Anthea M Hartig, Ph.D Executive Director, California Historical Society.   I am fond of historical societies and have frequented them wherever I may live; the history of a place informs you about what it is today! Michael Tollefson, President and CEO, Yosemite Conservancy, of which I am now a member, as they have terrific programs and that is what I plan to allign myself with, when I visit. Kerry Tremain, editor, co curator and author of "Picture Stories" which is on view now and really informed me about the documentation of Yosemite.   Kerry is also author of "Imagining the Ahwahnee". ...

Some of my favorites in this small collection, but which is considered fine.

Possibly Uzbekistan  (Made in NW Iran, Tabriz.) Dishes found in Kubach i (Caucasus) .  Fritware with underglaze  34.3 cm Avery Brundage Coll   Safavid miniature painting pose.  Iznik ceramics wave scroll border  Cross cultural influence between Ottoman Ct and Safavid dynasties  Aimee Froom Iran, Nishapur.   1450-1500  Fritware with underglaze  35.6 cm AB Coll  NE Iran, Nishapur.  900-1000 Earthenware glaze with underglaze slip and polychrome  24.1 cm Avery Brundage Coll Four Wild Goats focus Stylized kufic script:  "blessing"    Floral and absract motifs.  Buffware.  Motif painted directly on ceramic without a slip.  

The New Yorke r named Meow Meow , one of the top performers of the year, her ,kamikaze cabaret and performance art exotica has been called "Sensational " (The Times, UK) "cabaret diva of the highest order" (NY Post) and "The Queen of Chanson ", The Berliner  Zeitung.  Multi award winning performances have been curated by David Bowie,  Pina Bausch and Mikhail Baryshnikov.  She recorded an album, " Here, Kitty, Kitty ..." with the Oregon Symphony due for release in 2014. Emma Rice directed this   Berkeley Rep performance by Meow Meow, a cabaret singer from London, who went through a post modern repertoire of songs.  She admires Laurie Anderson.  Enjoyed it moderately.  I admire one woman/one man shows; it is difficult to carry a whole singing song narrative... yourself.  Berkeley Rep usually does one version at least of a one woman or one man show. Meow Meow  is first hilariously funny, and then tear dripping tragic.   Time O...

This was a marvelous concert on Sunday night October 12;  the Philharonia Baroque never ceases to please!  As a paid subscriber this year, i found in an envelope on my seat a gift CD voucher, which I exchanged for the opera by Handel, Teseo(Highlights) which I heard at the First Congregational Church, Berkeley, April 14, 2013. What a delightful surprise to have a gift for committing to a trio of performances this year into 2015. The orchestra has just returned from their summer tour where they performed at Lincoln Center at Tanglewood and in Norfolk, my favorite places in summer when we had our life in Litchfield, Connecticut.   Steven Isserlis was a surprise for me, and I could not help thinking as he played CPE Bach's Concerto for Violoncello in A major, Wq 172, and perhaps, especially, the Luigi Boccherini (1732-1805)Concerto for Violoncello No. 7 in G Major, G. 480 that he could have played at the courts at which Bach and Boccherini were favored in their time, in b...

Having discovered, to my  great surprise,  this book and author upon my first visit to the California Book Society on Sutter Street, a year ago,  and having met the editor of the edition, Zoe Klippert, I subsequently purchased the Letters of Catherine Hubback 1871-76 which were housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, where Zoe was taking a summer course. The lecturer, a librarian brought to her attention that there was a portfolio of letters by a descendant of Jane Austen's family who had gone to America that was unpublished..  She subsequently transcribed the script and the Bodlein library published the letters in 2010  . With the arrival of my co editor of the RAS (Royal Asiatic Society) Journal in Shanghai, in 2010, Fiona Lindsay Shen, who is a "Scotswoman", to the LA area in August, I picked up the book again, and this time, read it with more relish.  Thinking of her and her sons, in California, after their years in Shanghai, I enjoyed ...