Discoveries: Arts and Culture

Originally staged at the Dublin Theater Festival in 20111- and retitled for Broadway in 2013 as "The Testament of Mary" -- Testament is " a lyrical and deeply human work ".  I most liked "The Master"(based on Henry James'life), Mothers and Sons, Brooklyn, and his reflections on Barcelona.  Toibin as a writer  has an uncanny ability to enter the character of his "mothers", especially  His father died when he was very young, and his mother raised him and his brother.   Testament recounts" i n riveting detail a defiant mother's story of her son, who has been taken from her by men she regards as fanatics ."  Having read the book, one keeps turning the pages, as the imagining of her thoughts and feelings are revealed, as the whole narrative of the Crucifixion unfolds. One can hardly put the book down; it is best read in one sitting. "The Assumption of the Virgin" (1518.  Titian.   High Altar of the Basilica de Sa...

MCConnell (who is a kind of celebrity due to his tv show on Nature for many years) introducing John Muir speaker  Harold W. Wood, Jr. Chair Sierra Club  John Muir Education Team.  Webmaster, Sierra Club John Muir Exhibition  on the web: www. johnmuir.info  Biography of John Muir  Harold Wood took us to Dunbar, Scotland , where John Muir is regarded as a "native son", and one of their most famous citizens, with the exception of Robert Burns, who was a favorite poet of John Muir. They have created a John Muir history hiking and cycling trail in Scotland, as well as a John Muir Way, in Dunbar, and have preserved his birthplace as a house museum, and have added an extensive education museum which since 2012 has had 100,000 visitors,  along with creation of curricula in the schools to educate children to see him as a model who preserves the environment.  This includes a graphic novel used in the high schools, and teachers research avail...

Diane Di Prima and Michael McClure in Exchange of readings  Susan and Clark Coolidge behind sunflowers while Clark eats lunch from Burmese restaurant where Celia, his daughter, and Susan, his wife and I had lunch at Burma Superstar on Telegraph and 48th.   Clark Coolidge,Poet and Drummer,  and Michael McClure, Poet ,  teaming in reading followed by Clark Coolidge solo concert on drums  Diane Di Prima celebrated her 80th birthday, with new publication by City Lights  which she signed for buyers after her reading  Clark Coolidge and musicians open celebration  of bookstore and cafe, "Commune'  with concert and poets reading  4779 Shattuck, Oakland, Opening of  "Commune" bookshop on November 16 2014

The play begins and ends with the hooded monks entering and exiting  on the stone "river" Noh Theater combines with the mystery play in this production by Benjamin Britten, a follow up to his adaptation of the Indonesian gamelan music, after visting Bali, heard in performance by the SF Symphony, conducted by MTT.  This opera "Curlew River" is incredibly moving.  An introductory note:  " Clear as a sky without a cloud/may be a mother's mind,/But darker than a starless night/With not one gleam, not one gleam, not one, /No gleam to show the way ." -- William Plomer, Curlew River (after Jruo Motomasa) This "visionary" production directed by Netia Jones, UK, stars tenor Ian Bostridge, and won acclaim in its world premiere at London's Barbican last fall.   Jones says, " Curlew River is an extraordinary and unique thing...."Benjamin Britten, returning from travels in the Far East..reimagined a noh theater production he had seen...

This show is in Lower Manhattan in a gallery for the week!  Look at Liza Dalby's website for details.  What a marvelous event!  Liza Darby, who lives in East Bay, is best known as a novelist, (go to Liza Dalby.com and the author of the wonderful book on Kimono), has a Phd from Stanford; she introduced us to Yoko Nishina the calligrapher with whom she collaborates.  She creates the scrolls and Yoko, the artwork.  They work with another artist, who lives in Kyoto, and did the painting backdrop to some of the calligraphy. A marvel!  Reminded me of how much I learned about calligraphy in Hangzhou as the calligraphy institute was located there in the Song dynasty along with some of the great calligraphers.  We are reminded that great calligraphers and poets materialized, because they were out of the government and developed these pursuits and became a "school" and significant in China's history. I remember my own calligraphy lessons and how when I went...

World Affairs Council.  Northern California.  November 6, Thursday.Eric Posner Kirkland and Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago "Over the years, countries have ratified countless international treaties meant to promote and protect human rights.  Yet human rights violations continue with alarming regularity around the world, from human trafficking in SE Asia to violence against protestors  in So Africa and Brazil to child labor in Bolivia and the US(!) .  Legal scholar and law professor, Eric Posner, University of Chicago, arguess that the world's failure to address human rights violations arises from two main problems:  vaguely defined human rights and the difficulty of enforcement.  He suggest seeking concrete measures of success, like poverty reduction, in order to truly address the issue.  Posner discusses recent human rights related controversies and the major developments in international human rights law."...

Benjamin Potter, whose mother is also in the field   have published articles together -- gave, with his colleague a great presentation on the collection housed in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, --which has been closed since my arrival last year, as after my commitment to the University of Pennsylvania Archaeology Museum, including being one of its sponsored NEH lecturerers on art and culture in Mongolia, China and Tibet...I am happy to hear the galleries will reopen in 2016.  In the interim, the research team is reviewing the 3500 items of the collection of Peter Cornwall, whose family was from Ross, California(where my godson and his wife live).  His father Pierre Cornwell, was one of the first trustees of the University of California, Berkeley, and was a prime mover in the building of Sacramento.  PC the son was deaf.  But he was educated at Andover, then University of Toronto and Oxford University, and finally a Phd at Harvard University...