Discoveries: Arts and Culture

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 ...

Vincent Falcone is the president of the N California Snuff Bottle Society, which met at the president's home in Glen Canyon.  I took the BART from East Bay and then walked through the canyon to the residence through eucalyptus trees and boulders, with joggers and dog walkers...much more fun than a taxi or car ride, though I did appreciate the return lift from our host's son, Aaron, who lives in Healdsberg.  A good time was had by all. Our topic was jade snuff bottles.  My best examples are in Baltimore, which is where, coincidentally, the North American Snuff Bottle Society has its headquarters.  I brought two examples.  One was an "unfinished bottle" in nephrite, not completely hollowed out, and not completely engraved...what an interesting outcome.  The other is a nice example of a small bottle, with the original stopper which everyone admired.  I learned that the hollowing out of a snuff bottle is crucial to its quality, and indicates whether ...

  The Irish Literary & Historical Society of San Francisco sponsored a lecture by Nerys Williams, who had a Fulbright to Berkeley in 2007.  She is a poet and lectures on American poetry in University College, Dublin.  She is the author of two academic works: Reading Error:  The Lyric and Contemporary American Poetry(Peter Lang, 2007)   and Contemporary Poetry (Edinburgh Critical Guides, Edinburgh University Press, 2011)  She speaks Welsh and English and is based in Ireland.   Dylan Thomas, like Amy Lowell, was interested in poetry "as performance".  She plays some recordings of Thomas reading.  She presents her own view of Thomas, and never really gets round to America. I went to meet her before the talk, and she said she was not a biographer, but hoped people in the audience might have heard Dylan Thomas read in San Francisco. Looking in "Literary Hills of San Francisco", I find no mention of Dylan Thomas.  I am...

  Quite a feat for the curator, Forrest McGill, to accomplish with the SFMOMA curator, to house the SFOMA exhibition at the AAM.  Art critic H Cotter in this week's NYT said he would love to see a show which displays the eclectic art of India, Japan, SE Asia, and Western art, essentially; he must not have "Gorgeous" on his radar.  It is time; we live in a global world....right.