Photography in Three's

photo taken from the Cleveland Museum of Art website

I've noticed that things often come in 3's...I don't know why that is nor do I stake claim to any mystical relationship with the universe, but by the time I hear of/read about/or am told something for the third time, I pay attention.

Recently I had 3 encounters with photography in my life: photography exhibit and lecture, a novel featuring a photographer, and viewing my son Amnon's new photos.

The lecture was at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), which has mounted an exhibition of surrealist and post modernist photography called, not surprisingly Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. We were fortunate to attend the opening preview in which the collector and the curator had an on-stage discussion of the work, which helped put the collection into context for me.

The collection was donated in its entirety to the museum by David Raymond, who began collecting the works in the 1990s. Its acquisition by CMA is a major contribution to the permanent collection. The exhibit is described by the museum as, "Vertiginous camera angles, odd croppings, and exaggerated tones and perspectives are hallmarks of the two principal photographic movements of the period, surrealism and modernism. As with surrealist efforts in other media, artists making photographs also aimed to explore the irrational and the chance encounter—magic and the mundane—filtered through the unconscious defined by Sigmund Freud. Eventually, photography became a preeminent tool of surrealist visual culture."

I loved hearing the collector talk about the hunger for these arresting and strange images that possessed him. The vintage collection is all from the 1920's - 1940's. I learned to look at photography in a different way, specifically I was taken by the role of the photographic paper in the depths of the blacks and greys in the photos.



With photography on my mind the next day I cracked open the latest selection from my Book Club, Anna Quindlin's Still Life with Bread Crumbs: A Novel. I didn't know what the book was about in advance, so it was a completely coincidental juxtaposition of media around photography, that after viewing a collection, and hearing the collector impart his passion for the photos, I was reading an author's imagining of the way her heroine, a celebrity photographer in the art world, approached photography. The book is called by critics a comedy of manners, and it is a great story about finding oneself in the "second half" of life, but it is also a look at how the art world randomly elevates one artist to celebrity, almost despite herself, as well as a look at some of the questionably voyeuristic aspects of photography as an "art." When I first started it I sighed, thinking it was another one of those glib dysfunctional family novels that seem to occupy all the prize winning lists, but I was delightfully surprised by the quiet of the book, and the playfulness of its narration, and came to genuinely care about the characters.
And just to add the dessert course to my week of photography, my son Amnon shared some photos from his experiments with a twin lens reflex camera using medium format film— and I loved the results:

Akko

I don't think the universe is sending me a message about becoming a photographer, but I certainly enjoyed spending a week thinking about photography from so many perspectives.

Ben on a Bench

Cafe Tel Aviv

50th Birthdays and Our Appalachian Trail: 4th of July Tribute to one tiny part of American landscape

A little reflection on an American hike for the 4th of July!

I am a couple years past my 50th, but one of my sisters is coming up on it, which lead me to some reflections on turning 50. Like most of the big birthdays, 50 is a milestone that freaks us all out. At age 48 I dreaded it, and at age 49 decided it was coming regardless so I might as well welcome it with open arms: If you can't beat 'em, join em. Keep your enemies close. When the going gets tough the tough get...oh never mind. I decided to come up with a year of small celebrations, to put "someday" plans into action.

My husband was also turning 50 so some of these plans involved him. One night as we were discussing the pending birthdays I recalled my adventurous Aunt Karen telling me when I was a teen-ager that her goal for her 50th birthday was to walk the Appalachian Trail. I sat up and said, "Let's walk the Appalachian Trail!" I knew Irad would love the idea.

With three kids and one and half full time jobs we weren't about to spend seven months walking the AT, but we could spend a week. We always spend a week in Vermont during late August at Family Camp (one of our most cherished traditions) so we decided to hike in to Family Camp that year. Amnon would drive his younger siblings there to meet us.

So we packed the car for the kids and flew ourselves out to the trail. For me it was a week long experience of being completely cut off form civilization, worrying only about putting one foot in front of the other, finding water, which soup we were eating on any given night, and where to set up camp.

All of this was a delightful departure from our normal lives and we both enjoyed it. The main take-away for me was how different time feels when you completely change the way you spend a day, and how easy it is to just keep walking:

 And to try and notice the world on the way:










But for Irad it was not just the week of hiking—it was the weeks of planning and reading and buying high tech equipment that I think he enjoyed every bit as much.

Even before we finished the hike Irad had us make lists of everything we needed to change in our equipment, what worked and what lacked, in preparation for the next year's hike. I felt satisfied with the small taste of it we had experienced for one week, but Irad's interest had just begun. So the next year we read a slew of books by and about the AT Trail by AT hikers, most of them pathetic literary blunders (apparently another effect of hiking the trail is the need to write your book about it!)
But the one stand-outs was A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Bryson doesn't actually hike the entire trail, but he collects a fascinating amount of information about the trail setting it historically and sociologically, dips in enough to get the flavor of the hiking experience, and brings along his friend Katz for hilarious comic relief. There was some value to reading a bunch of the others, including people with dogs, who were seven feet tall, who had heart attacks along the way, and who hiked the trail barefoot with a sister, (we divided them up between us) as the cumulative information really gives a lot of information about the entire trail, and the similarities of experiences that emerge give an idea of what to expect.

And before the hike we had both read Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Vintage)
which was a fabulous preparation for the hike as well as a well written personal quest story. We often referred to it as if Cheryl were a friend we had dinner with before leaving. "Remember when Cheryl lost her...," or, "This reminds me of the time Cheryl...", or even, "Cheryl was right that..."
Irad recruited our son Aryeh to do the hike with him the following summer. They chose a more southern piece of the trail in Virginia that is supposed to be quite beautiful and challenging. Aryeh, who is a high school athlete, absoutely kicked Irad's butt on the physical parts of the hike, especially the mountain climbing (did I mention it can be very physically demanding?) but he found the endless days of hiking monotonous.








So now Irad is a yearly AT hiker. Eventually he plans on completing the entire trail, piece by piece. I expect him to live a long long life so fortunately there is also the Pacific Crest Trail on the West Coast and the Contintental Divide in the Rockies to add to his list!

And one last thing I did for myself was beginning 6 weeks before my birthday I decided to write a poem a day. I didn't actually write a poem a day, but the days I did write poems it was a great feeling and I really liked the short collection I wound up with. If I had successfully done the full 42 days I had intended to self-publish a little book of poems on some interesting handmade papers (Amnon knows how to bind books). Perhaps that is a project I can still complete someday. Not to become a poet, just to continue to scratch that little itch I have to create. Here is a sample.

Rumi

Reading Rumi

Craving Chocolate

One nourishes the soul

The other the body

But which does which?

And bottom line, reaching 50 is a lot to celebrate and we are lucky to still be here on this Earth with all the people we love.

The Pie at the End of the Book

 

Today Fat Rabbit finished The Lord of the Rings. She reminded me that when her brother (at a much younger age,) finished each volume of Harry Potter, I would bake him a pie, as per our agreement.

Fat Rabbit reads a book a day, so I never felt she needed any incentive program. She correctly pointed out the injustice of this. Today, to celebrate return to the Shire, her big brother Amnon baked a meringue pie with her.

Happy Pie, Fat Rabbit!

Summer Reading: Found My Detective Thrillers

 I find that I like certain kinds of books for certain activities: For plane rides and quick bites of a book while sitting in my backyard I really enjoy a good detective novel. I tried a few different authors over the past few months and after a couple of books decided no more. But I think I may have found my summer romance - the thriller series that will get me from plane to beach to sitting around swim meets: Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole Detective Novels.  I've read the first two and I'm in.

In The Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original)we meet Harry. A former alcoholic, hard bitten and pain-driven by a bad past, Harry is sent to Australia to investigate the death of a fellow Norwegian. There he bonds with new police partners, uncovers that the killing is part of a hitherto undiagnosed serial killer's spree, falls in love, falls off the wagon and goes through a lot of hell. The ending is worthy of Hollywood's best stunt men and special effects.







In Cockroaches: The Second Inspector Harry Hole Novel (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original) Harry is mostly recovering from the events of the former novel when he is once again sent abroad to investigate the death of a Norwegian overseas—this time the American Ambassador to Thailand. Whereas in the first novel we get a foreigner's experience of the exotica of Australia, in this novel we get an equally interesting entree into the twisty truths of Bangkok. It would seem that exotic locale are a perk of the series! Not a serial killer this time, so that is not necessarily the ongoing theme of the series, but a equally convoluted set of murders. Harry kind of falls in love, and climbs back on the wagon. A sub-theme of the books is clearly addiction, and it is handled with an insider's perspicacity. The ending is also a direct call to Hollywood to start lining up the stunt men. But despite Harry's best efforts he leaves Bangkok equally wounded by the events that transpire during the novel—how much can one guy take? I guess I'll have to go on with the series to find out!

Book Review: Snow Hunters

Paul Yoon's novel Snow Hunters: A Novelis a gem—perfectly cut and exquisite. Employing minimalistic writing it nonetheless conveys an entire rich and nuanced world. It lies somewhere between the realm of prose and poetry, each sentence is a distillation of language, and as such it is powerfully evocative.

The book has the feeling of a fable, images and events evoke universal experiences, yet it manages to tell a complete and coherent story. As I read I felt like I was immersed in an impressionistic piece, but in recounting the story to someone else, I realized that by the end of the narrative every detail had been filled in. Names, dates, events...it is a story of war, displacement, loss, and love and at times was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes.

This is not a cheap read, but nor is it overly intellectual. Utterly approachable and every member of my book club seems to have loved and appreciated it equally - so much so that we are reading Paul Yoon's short story collection for next month.

It is great to live in a world where there are so many forms of genius to astound and delight!

Recent Reads: April

Note: You may need to disable ad blocker (temporarily)to see the pictures of the books.

After seeing it come up on every "Best Books of 2013" list in the world, I suggested Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch: (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) to my book group. We all loved it, and we often don't agree on books.

The book has incredible range. Sprawling comes to mind. It gets a bit sloggy in the middle but I never thought about putting it down.

How does one author know so much? About art, about childhood, about high schools in Las Vegas? About PTSD, and addiction, and anxiety, crime and guilt? About the rich AND the poor, the intelligentsia and the underdogs and the rarified worlds of antique and art collectors? About Russians and oil and Europeans and art?

The book manages to be a Dickensian story of childhood, an Edith Wharton novel of the modern New York drawing room, a crime noir book and an action thriller all at once. And throughout it we have the single voice of Theo Decker to guide us. Though sometimes we even discover that Theo is an unreliable narrator, in moments when others correct his perceptions of the past with their own. Somehow the reader sticks with Theo, and comes to love some of the amazing characters who make their way into his life. I would give anything to meet Boris if he were real!

As with her earlier work, The Secret History the end of the book is in the opening, so we know Theo makes it to adulthood...but the narrative keeps us reaching to see how he gets there.
There is so much pain and anxiety in the book, but it is worth the pay-off at the end, a lush philosphical treatise that ties up all the ends, of the narrative, and of everything you have ever wondered about.  A really rich read! And apparently the Pulitzer committee agrees as the book is this year's fiction first prize winner.

 Because we had a lot of time and I was curious about Donna Tartt's work after reading so much about her I decided to read her other fairly famous book first, The Secret History in order to have more context about this Tartt phenomena.

Combination of Dostoevsky's  Crime and Punishment (Penguin Classics)
and campus novel, it is a very well done rumination on the nature of morality and the danger of attenuated intellectualism, the power of narcissists and psychopaths, the cult-like following and dangers of charismatic teachers, (something I've witnessed myself, but that is another story) and the effects of class in America. And not one likeable character to boot. But the novel holds together and exhibits the same writerly brilliance. Again, the depiction of addiction rings true, and I am reminded of how much drugs and drinking were on campus.


And now for something completely different! Light, charming yet not superficial, The Rosie Project: A Novel is the kind of book you can read in one night or on a plane and it will make you laugh, move you, and leave you rejoicing. A perfect read with pitch perfect writing. Another great book for the ever-growing cannon on Aspergers and Autism. IF I were creating a mini-class, I would pair this with the wonderful Autism novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon.





By the way, I finally bailed on the Patricia Cromwell series with The Last Precinct (A Scarpetta Novel) which got too maudlin, morbid, depressive and obsessively psychoanalytic about a character who isn't even me, so why would I spent that kind of time in that level of analysis?

Just finished  Paul Yoon's Snow Hunters: A Novel but can't blog about it yet because it is on the dock for my next Book Club meeting and that wouldn't be fair...but highly recommended. More later.

London I: Bookstores, Cheese shops and a Mad-Hatter Tea

Spring break and I decided to take the two younger kids to London, to meet up with Irad who was there on a business trip.

The kids and I arrived late Wednesday evening and went straight to the Sofitel at Heathrow airport where Irad was waiting for us—Irad and I have discovered this is an excellent hotel for softening (or sofiteling) the comings and goings from London. It is IN Terminal 5 and is itself an experience, with beautiful glassed in, natural-light lit lobby spaces, top restaurants and even a tea room.

photo from Sofitel site

We had an excellent late night supper before hitting the room to sleep off the trip.

Recovered from our flight, the kids and I set off into London late Thursday morning to set up in our new digs, the lovely Landmark London, with the famous Winter Garden glass atrium. (photo from http://www.landmarklondon.co.uk/en/galleries)

We set out to explore the adjacent neighborhood and began with Marleybone High Street, which is described as a hidden wonder of the West End. Suffice it to say that cute shops and charming architecture abound.








We had the pleasure of visiting a REAL bookstore, which as we all know is a rare experience these days.

 It had galleries and stairs, and stained glass windows and skylights and one could easily imagine spending the better part of a day there. My daughter enjoyed the layout by country, and my son was interested in all the stylish science books.
My find of the day was a really fun book to bring back for Amnon, my graphic artist son. Building Stories

It is the kind of book I would only buy after having had the opportunity to handle it, open the box, and appreciate its 3D qualities. A flat screen explanation of this wonderful book, which contains inside of it 14 separate and distinctly formatted graphic novels, ranging from pamphlet to Game Board, all unified around one subject.

Not a British book, but discovered by route of a bricks and mortar book store, which abound in London.



From there we went on to one of the highlights of our trip, "La Fromagerie." The kids and I love cheese, and this was the ultime meilleur of all cheese shops! We lunched in the tasting cafe on three cheese boards. the "French", the "Irish" and the "Cheese Shop", all including 5 different cheeses beginning with a soft  goat cheese and moving through a range of cheeses to a blue cheese.

We kept a menu with us and carefully notated and rated each cheese. At the end we selected our two favorites and went into the mysterious cheese room, a hermetically sealed climate controlled, odoriferous (ahem) glass walled room to purchase our choices and bring them home to share with Amnon. We all agreed it was the best cheese experience of our lives!

The next stop on our itinerary for that afternoon was the Sanderson Hotel where I planned to introduce the kids to afternoon tea via their Mad Hatter Tea.

The Full Display

 Drink-me Strawberry Juice

Queen-of-Hearts Teapot

Though it gets points for creativity, the scones and sandwiches were inedible. The sandwiches tasted like they had been frozen and not defrosted and were soggy and disgusting and the scones did not resemble any scone I've ever tasted. The tea was made from tea bags and the service was completely indifferent. Nor did it have the grand setting one associates with tea IN LONDON! 

Chocolate Tea cup, Green Tea Mousse and Popping Candy

The pastries were amazing, but the tea is not recommended unless you want a complete meal of sweets at a full tea premium price.

The funny thing about traveling with kids, is you never know what will interest them. You can plan world-class museums, historical monuments, theater and five star restaurants, but they can have more fun just...

Sanderson Hotel Lobby

trying out all the different chairs in the lobby!