im thankful for . . .

Afternoon at the Museum

Aaron is a pretty big science geek, so we spent the afternoon of his 28th birthday at the American Museum of Natural History.

After a wicked cool show in the planetarium called Journey to the Stars (narrated by Whoopi Goldberg heehee) we meandered through the rest of the museum to see as much as possible before closing time. I loved the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples and the Hall of Ocean Life, while Aaron nerded out over the Hall of Biodiversity and the gem and mineral exhibits.

Master of Mélodie

Soprano Susanna Phillips' beautiful voice was showcased vibrantly in her debut recital at Alice Tully Hall this past week. The recital's program included several selections by french composer Gabriel Faurè, known for his ingenuity with the art song, or mélodie.

Particularly lovely was his song Nell, Op. 18, No. 1, which I think my friend Nell B. should adopt as her new theme song. The song's text was an interpretation of Robert Burn's A Red Red Rose and had the swoony romantic schmaltz that gets me every time. My favorite stanza:

The singing sea all along its shores
will end its eternal murmuring
before your image, oh Nell my love,
ceases to bloom in my heart.

Nell - Maggie Teyte, Gerald Mo...

image via www.vivaart.co.uk

There is history in this room.

In The Kirby Theater Company's production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, five bridesmaid huddle together in the bride's childhood bedroom to escape a Southern circus wedding. They commiserate about the bitchy bride and their hideous bridesmaids dresses while sharing stories from their hapless romantic histories.

The play was written by Alan Ball of True Blood fame. His feisty bad girl Southern belle characters are familiar and their snappy dialogue is as hilarious as Sookie and Tera's repartee on True Blood. Minus the blood sucking vampire stuff.

German Expressionism at Ikea

Aaron and I took one of those "we just need one thing but will end up spending a fortune" trips to Ikea in Red Hook on Saturday. We are still searching for something to hang in our tv nook and the above image is a contender. What do you think?

As I'm sure you can tell, the picture is Klimt-inspired, which reminds me that I still want to go see From Klimt to Klee at the Neue Gallery as soon as possible.

Ariodante

Handel's opera seria Ariodante is set in Scotland, where a scheming jerk named Polinesso attempts to break up an engagement, slander a princess and ruin the opera's namesake's reputation all because the princess has refused his romantic advances, thus blocking his accession to the throne.

Polinesso's evil plot is evenutally found out, but not before he has implicated Dalinda, the princess's lady in waiting. Poor Dalinda is so smitten with Polinesso that she will do anything he says, even impersonate the princess to mislead her noble fiancee. The things we do for love!

Here is Dalina expressing her unrequited love for the dirtbag Polinesso.



image via www.bbc.co.uk

Follow the Heron!

Is there anyone more adorable than Maeve Gilchrist? I think not!

The Scottish cutie pie played her harp and sang at Caffe Vivaldi the other night and transfixed her audience with gorgeous songs talking of love, life, and Scotland, of course.

Your Secret Reading Self

A.S. Byatt visited the 92nd Street Y last week to talk about her newest project, The Children's Book. Byatt read two selections from the book and then engaged in a Questions and Answers sessions with a former colleague, David Ebershoff. In his introduction, Ebershoff recalled another such session with Byatt when she was asked by a fan, " How do you know so much about so many things?"

"I read," she replied.

Byatt and Ebershoff talked at length about the complex characters alive in The Children's Book, including Olive, a wife, mother and writer who pens special stories for each of her children. Byatt talked about how brazen this was for a mother to do; forge a familiarity with her children's "secret reading self." I love this acknowledgment of the clandestine part of reader's identity that is allowed to pursue intellectual and personal curiosities without fear of consequences.

Byatt admitted that as a girl she didn't "like stories about other little girls." Instead of reading what was considered appropriate materials for young girls, her secret reading self was drawn to the dark fairytales and nordic mythology that has influenced her life as a writer and a reader.

True or False?

Swedish Hasbeens?

I need these.

Happy Halloween!

inspiration


final product

image via www.mymilktoof.blogspot.com