Women and Art and Quilts

One of the things that irritate me is that women's art is pretty much confined to the things men define as art.  China painting, needlepoint, embroidery and quilting and similar forms are not usually considered "art."  I was once told that these women weren't trained.  Humph!  My great grandmother taught art at Olivet College and also taught and did china painting so I am a little passionate about this.

Over the week end at Cazenovia, I happily discovered an art quilt show, properly judged with both amateur and professional section and contributors from all over the world.  Cazenovia is a charming town with lovely neo-classic houses, a beautiful college, a charming library which contains a museum of curiosities as well as quilts at the moment and a lake.

The college gallery, the library and the Winner gallery at the art park all have sections of the show as well as two I did not see, the Lorenzo house and the New Woodstock Free Library.  The show itself is spectacular with exquisite work ranging from pretty thought-provoking.  I particularly liked "Stump" and "Trapped in a Room With You" by Kathy Nida of El Cajon, CA, and "Burning Fields" by Shoshi Rimer of Bat Yam, Israel, but I could name a half dozen other stunning works. "Basin and Range" with its reds and purples was lovely.

Enough.  Lovely and highly recommended if you can get to Cazenovia.


 

Fort Lauderdale

Saturday, January 15, 2011

A quiet day at sea with two good lectures, Martin Bell, a former BBC correspondent and Member of Parliament spoke on war reporting and how it has changed.  In particular now that reporters are targets, we receive only information from embedded reporters—that is only one side of the story.  In addition reporters are anxious to report a story—that it, to make a narrative even where the connections are not known.  We no longer know what is happening, he said, and this is especially problematic when 90% percent of casualties are civilian, not military.

Steven Rivelino spoke on five trends in Broadway production which can be summarized as while formerly a great show was made into a movie, now movies are made into shows as are musical life work (Mamma Mia).

I walked a mile today and have been pretty much sticking to the spa menu which is tasty and sufficient.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Port Everglades, the port of Fort Lauderdale is utilitarian like all ports.  The weather is lovely—perfect summer weather, the kind we do not have all that often in summer. 

Internet is really, really slow on the ship—twenty-four minutes  to post a blog entry which I had already written. and I could not get it to transmit a photo so no pictures from here on out unless we are at an internet café.  I will try to post one now of the Empire State Building in Curnard red.

Not such a great shot.  Sorry.

Red Sea and Piracy

 

April 5, 2011, the Red Sea.

Today we sail the Red Sea which we are told has always been called the Red Sea and in a variety of languages despite its lovely blue color.  Apparently it can turn red with sand during storms.  The Red Sea was apparently created by the shifting of tectonic plates.  Our speaker showed slides of the mega-continent of old and how it broke up, but what was completely fascinating to a New Yorker was that the cliffs along the Hudson River near Hook Mountain exactly match some cliffs in Morocco.  The sea is larger than I thought 1500 miles end to end and wide enough that we never see shore.

As we progress north in the Red Sea we are leaving the pirate, and they will begin to remove the extra precautions.  Tonight there will be more lights on Deck Nine but Deck Three, the Promenade Deck, will remain closed after dark, and we still can’t walk the complete circle even during the day.  I suspect Cunard would prefer me not to post the security details on the internet, and I won’t.

 We heard a lecture about the pirates this morning.  There is a lot of international cooperation on this as well as efforts by individual nations.  We got the impression that small, slow ships ignoring international advice are most likely to have trouble.  Things that make a ship safer are following the best practices advocated by the navies, traveling faster than fifteen knots, having a freeboard (space above the water line) greater than six meters, a vigilant crew and taking defensive measures such as razor wire.  All of these are on the ship.  Working against us is that it is a daytime passage. 

In 2005 the pirates operated 165 nautical miles off the coast.  Last year they went as far as 1500 miles.  They have improved their skills and equipment.  If possible they will avoid killing but are not averse to it if given any resistance.  A pirate can earn 5,000 times the average wage of his country.  These are people who want a better life and, in a dysfunctional country, have few means of achieving it.  Reducing piracy will require some progress on land.

Salalah,

April 3, 2011, Salalah

We had never heard of Salalah in Oman and didn’t know much about Oman either.  Oman is a small emirate and religiously conservative. Salalah is its second largest city with about 300,000 people.  We visited the history museum a few miles out of town which is small but well-designed with clear English labels as well as Arabic ones.  We then went to the blow holes far on the opposite side.  The blow holes did not blow so much as sigh weakly.  On the way we passed a dramatic “cave” or cliff overhang.  It was all worth a few pictures.  Lastly we passed the port and went into to town to the frankincense souk and bought frankincense and myrrh.  Something for January 6.  It was a pleasant day, but there was an awful lot of driving around.  We could have taken a tour of the Queen of Sheba’s castle (or archeological site), and the Queen’s garden which could be photographed but not entered, but that had stuck us as very sunny and hot in a sunny, hot land. 

April 5, 2011, the Red Sea.

Today we sail the Red Sea which we are told has always been called the Red Sea and in a variety of languages despite its lovely blue color.  Apparently it can turn red with sand during storms.  The Red Sea was apparently created by the shifting of tectonic plates.  Our speaker showed slides of the mega-continent of old and how it broke up, but what was completely fascinating to a New Yorker was that the cliffs along the Hudson River near Hook Mountain exactly match some cliffs in Morocco.  It is larger than I thought 1500 miles end to end and wide enough that we never see shore.

As we progress north in the Red Sea we are leaving the pirate areas and they will begin to remove the extra precautions.  Tonight there will be more lights on Deck Nine but Deck Three, the Promenade Deck, will remain closed after dark, and we still can’t walk the complete circle even during the day.  I suspect Cunard would prefer me not to post the security details on the internet, and I won’t.

 We heard a lecture about the pirates this morning.  There is a lot of international cooperation on this as well as efforts by individual nations.  We got the impression that small, slow ships ignoring international advice are most likely to have trouble.  Things that make a ship safer are following the best practices advocated by the navies, traveling faster than fifteen knots, having a freeboard (space above the water line) greater than six meters, a vigilant crew and taking defensive measures such as razor wire.  All of these are on the ship.  Working against us is that it is a daytime passage. 

In 2005 the pirates operated 165 nautical miles off the coast.  Last year they went as far as 1500 miles.  They have improved their skills and equipment.  If possible they will avoid killing but are not averse to it if given any resistance.  A pirate can earn 5,000 times the average wage of his country.  These are people who want a better life and, in a dysfunctional country, have few means of achieving it.  Reducing piracy will require some progress on land.

Medea by Cherubini

Glimmerglass Opera is a more challenging venue that Caramoor for those of us who are downstate.  It is a particularly lovely summer opera house, and has the advantage of a Cooperstown location which means access to a lovely town with some fine local museums and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This summer they are presenting a varied program which I leave the curious to check out.  We went for the Medea.

Medea is the legendary woman who helped Jason steel the golden fleece, killed her brother to slow the pursuers, was left by Jason for another (well-placed) woman and then killed the other woman and her own children for revenge. The opera takes place in the palace of King Creon as Jason and the king attempt to get Medea to just go away.

I have always thought that Medea got a bad rap--she is often presented as only the jealous wife who killed her children for revenge which turns her into the latest headline or a case study.  But Euripides, the Greek playwright who started the story, was interested in much more, and he wrote her  as a much more cornered character--she had committed murder and treason for Jason and had nowhere to go.  As written she makes a very good argument for women's liberation.  When Jason decided to marry the king's daughter and render his first marriage null, it meant Medea had no country, no position and her children would be bastardized--they would have no position and no future..  She really had no way out (Moral of this story for my grand-daughters: never give up EVERYTHING for a man).  Euripides seems to have been interested in the ways man tries to manipulate fate (or the gods) and the price to be paid.

The Cheubini version of the story (the Francis-Benoit Hoffmann version as he wrote the libretto avoids some of the pitfalls if not all of them.  The music is quite lovely as were all of the performances.  Alexandra Deshorties, who sang the title role, gave the most powerfully moving performance I have ever seen.  I was actually glad for the applause to have a moment to get myself under control. 

Guillaume Tell by Rossini

For those unafraid of the heat, a particularly pleasant summer expedition is to Caramoor, the park and summer musical venue.  The grounds are lovely, and a picnic can be packed or ordered in advance and sandwiches can be purchased for those both spontaneous and lazy.  What they do not have is a good supply of picnic tables--take a tarp or blanket and prepare to fight gravity. 

William Tell or Guillaume Tell is one of the world's most famous almost never performed operas.  John had it on his wish list for years and finally flew to Switzerland last year to see it.  Naturally it is now being done here although only in a concert version (they claim semi-staged, but the staging is really minimal.

One of  the reasons it is rarely performed is because of the difficulty of the music, but it is also very long.  Rossini wrote five and half hours of music, and apparently even he never tried to perform the whole thing.    The version at Caramoor is about four hours, and the music is glorious.  The voices are lovely, and oddly enough I almost remember sets and backdrops--I know they weren't there, but the music and plot are easily visualized, and we had just seen Sleeping Beauty so I sets and costumes and spectacle in my head.

One of the glories of Caramoor is the lectures and concerts ahead of time.  Philip Gosset, who often does the lecture is a treasure of scholarship, charm and performance.  He can whip of a theme on the piano seemingly without thinking about it.  He can explain the traditions, the techniques, the various influence, and who performed it when.  The tale of William Tell was originally by Schiller, and   Rossini was an Italian writing in French for production at the Paris Opera.  The opera was then translated into German and the Italian translation is from the German.  There are influences galore for Mr. Gosset to tease out.

Pig, the play

Pig or Vaclav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig by Vaclav Havel, play with music from The Bartered Bride, an opera by Smetana.

Vaclav Havel is a playwright, the first president of the Czech Republic and a leader of the Velvet Revolution which, worked to establish democracy in what was then Czechoslovakia. 

The “play” if play it is a light-hearted romp and wild goose chase with an American reporter, Havel, assorted Czechs and a romantic couple through the Czech countryside in search of a pig suitable for the annual zabjacka festival.  Part shaggy-dog story, part musical piece, it came complete with a pig sandwich—or without; you could have it either way.  With the pig sandwich (a bottle of water and packaged Czech cookies), you also got a front row seat with your name in masking tape on it.  There were also chairs with numbers on which turned out to be for the cast members and presented a real challenge to those looking for a seat.  There was, of course, a place for everybody, and it may have encouraged the lively conversational vibe before the show.  Still, if it were still on, I would recommend you take the play without the sandwich which may have authentic but was also very greasy and salty.  Despite the fact that we were way downtown, there are several pleasant restaurants in the neighborhood.

The cast is terrific and the singing (and you can’t go wrong with Smetana) lovely although on a little of The Bartered Bride made into the evening.  But there are clever shenanigans, lively ‘bits’ and lots of fun.

Through a Glass Darkly, the play

Through a Glass Darkly by Ingmar Bergman, a play adapted from the movie by Jenny Worton.

The plot involved the descent into madness of Karin, played by Carey Mulligan best known for her role at the young girl at the heart of An Education.  Karin is the main character.  She, her husband, her father and her younger brother arrive at a summer cabin for a holiday.  The show is about her gradual separation from reality, but I kept feeling that the best lines were spoken by her cold, artist father who talked of the character limitations and costs of love and of art.  I kept thinking the father as Ingmar Bergman and wanting to shout, “You letting yourself off too easily, and you’re stacking the deck!”  The set is functional and conveys both the unreality of Karin’s mind and the cold summer climate of Sweden.  The actors are fine, and the evening is absorbing.  But I kept wanting to argue with the playwright.

Richard, Coeur de Lion

Richard, Coeur de Lion, an opera by Andre Modeste Gretry presented with the American Classical Orchestra at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, May 18, 2011.

Richard I actually was captured on his way home from the crusades and held for ransom in 1192.  Richard himself was something of a rat, and this is opera comique so the historical accuracy is not a large concern.  It is also a 21^st Century production of an 18^th Century work of a 12^th Century event.  The American Classical Orchestra promotes “music as the masters heard it” so stage effects as well as performance of the period is stressed.  The stage effects were surprisingly well done. 

Gretry was popular in his time, influential and innovative particularly in writing about an historical event.    This is considered one his masterpieces and is certainly worthy of performance. 

The Bright Stream

The Bright Stream, a ballet choreographed by Alex Ratmansky to music by Shostakovich.

This is one of the works which made the composer Shostakovich unwelcome to the Communist government in his native Russia.  To a twenty-first century American it seems like a warm and humorous look at life on a farm collective at harvest time. A group of sharply defined characters sets about celebrating the harvest.  Ballet dancers arrive to make awards to various members of the community.  The amusements organizer worries that her husband’s eye is wandering.  All is sorted out with humor worthy of Cosi fan Tutti. 

Ratmansky is a fine choreographer.  The cast led by Paloma Herrara (does that woman actually bones in her body—she is all flexibility) and Marcelo Gomes is superb.  A wonderful evening.

Corey Arcangel

Corey Arcangel, Pro Tools, a show at the Whitney Museum, May to September 2011

Corey Arcangel works with computer games, Photoshop, sunglasses, and other contemporary devices and media.  Perhaps the most astonishing work is a series dancing shelves which move in coordination and are rather hypnotizing.  Like most of his work they take off the shelf equipment and modify it to do unexpected and often frustrating things.

The first piece in the show covering an entire wall as you leave the elevator is a set of six bowling games, each screen perhaps 9 x 12 feet, arranged chronologically and rigged so that the player always throws a gutter ball.  It is overwhelming at first, puzzling, leaving you with a rather irritated and sad feeling.  But don’t we often feel that way about technology?  We are in charge but not in charge.  It contrasts amateur vs. processional tools, things working as expected and not, objects and art, glamour and utility.

Viewers cannot interact with the bowling games but in the next gallery is golf ball game where you can hit the ball with a club under the close supervision of a museum guard.  Also interesting were a series of Photoshop pieces, huge sleek chromogenic prints of gradient demonstrations (88 x 64 inches) named for the color settings used to make them.  Presumably you could do it yourself if you had a big enough printer.

Cory Arcangel is a 32 year old artist, programmer and stand-up comedian living in Brooklyn.  His web-site, www.coryarcangel.com is well worth a visit and the Wikipedia entry is also worth reading.

salalah, the Red Sea

April 3, 2011, Salalah

We had never heard of Salalah in Oman and didn’t know much about Oman either.  Oman is a small emirate and religiously conservative. Salalah is its second largest city with about 300,000 people.  We visited the history museum a few miles out of town which is small but well-designed with clear English labels as well as Arabic ones.  We then to the blow holes far on the opposite side of two.  The blow holes did not blow so much as sign weakly.  On the way we passed a dramatic “cave” or cliff overhang.  It was all worth a few pictures.  Lastly we passed the port and went into to town to the frankincense souk and bought frankincense and myrrh.  Something for January 6.  It was a pleasant day, but there was an awful lot of driving around.  We could have taken a tour cover the Queen of Sheba’s castle (or archeological site), and the Queen’s garden which could be photographed but not entered, but that had stuck us as very sunny and hot in a sunny, hot land. 

April 5, 2011, the Red Sea.

Today we sail the Red Sea which we are told has always been called the Red Sea and in a variety of languages despite its lovely blue color.  Apparently it can turn red with sand during storms.  The Red Sea was apparently created by the shifting of tectonic plates.  Our speaker showed slides of the mega-continent of old and how it broke up, but what was completely fascinating to a New Yorker was that the cliffs along the Hudson River near Hook Mountain exactly match some cliffs in Morocco.  It is larger than I thought 1500 miles end to end and wide enough that we never see shore.

As we progress north in the Red Sea we are leaving the pirate areas and they will begin to remove the extra precautions.  Tonight there will be more lights on Deck Nine but Deck Three, the Promenade Deck, will remain closed after dark, and we still can’t walk the complete circle even during the day.  I suspect Cunard would prefer me not to post the security details on the internet, and I won’t.

 We heard a lecture about the pirates this morning.  There is a lot of international cooperation on this as well as efforts by individual nations.  We got the impression that small, slow ships ignoring international advice are most likely to have trouble.  Things that make a ship safer are following the best practices advocated by the navies, traveling faster than fifteen knots, having a freeboard (space above the water line) greater than six meters, a vigilant crew and taking defensive measures such as razor wire.  All of these are on the ship.  Working against us is that it is a daytime passage. 

In 2005 the pirates operated 165 nautical miles off the coast.  Last year they went as far as 1500 miles.  They have improved their skills and equipment.  If possible they will avoid killing but are not averse to it if given any resistance.  A pirate can earn 5,000 times the average wage of his country.  These are people who want a better life and, in a dysfunctional country, have few means of achieving it.  Reducing piracy will require some progress on land.