Is it a Blog...

Hi again! Sorry about the hiatus in posting to the blog. I stopped because I thought no one was reading it and wasn't sure I should continue. But I was pleasantly surprised at last night's meeting disussing "My Love Affair with Modern Art" that several of you ARE reading the blog and noticed I hadn't been posting!

So, I will start again (I did miss doing it) and hope that if and when you log on you will leave a comment or just a note that you looked.

I enjoyed our discussion last night about what the definition of art is - and is it 'art' if no one sees or hears it? Hence, the title of the blog entry. I will use this book as a jumping off point to learn more about modern art, but right now I'm focused on finding - somehow in my piles of books I managed to lose my copy - "Shakespeare & Company" for next month's meeting. I ordered another (used) copy from Amazon, just in case the original never turns up.

So, thanks for reading the blog. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Beth

Fashion is Forever

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06345/745153-84.stm
http://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/tags/tag/political+fashion

Here are just a couple of the web sites I found when I entered "political fashion" into my search engine. While it may may no longer be a matter of life and death - style still matters!

Fashion Links

Here's the first item I found regarding dress & fashion relating to Marie Antoinette. I'll look for more, but this one provides at lot of detail that I think will supplement the information in the book.

Queen of Fashion

This weekend I started reading Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. It only took a couple of pages for this book to draw me in! It's marvellously well-written and I am enthralled with Marie Antoinette and the life of the French court of Louis XV and XVI. While we talk about making "a fashion statement," today - it's clear that modern American fashion decisions are not a matter of life and death! We may imitate Michelle Obama's sweater sets and boost the bottom line for J. Crew, but first-lady fashion in the Bourbon Court was another slice of cake altogether (sorry, I couldn't resist!).

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I am. I'm going to get on the web & see if I can find additional information and will post links with my next post.

2010 List Updates

www.booksonthenightstand.com

There are a couple of changes to the 2010 reading list. I added a second novel and replaced another book. The list on the blog is now up to date. The link above is for the web site of Books on the Night Stand. I have been listening to their excellent podcasts and recently e-mailed them and got a lovely e-mail in response. It's possible they will mention our book club on next week's podcast! If you download podcasts you might find their web site and check it out or use iTunes. Other podcasts that I listen to are the NEA's "Big Read" podcasts, which feature short and very informative and lively presentations about classics like Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms; the New York Times Book Review; and the Washington Post Book Review. There are others out there...but these are my favorites! Also, there is now a link on this blog to the Cultural Arts Center's Facebook page. Under the "We Read" section you can find our 2009 and 2010 booklists in the My Bookshelf area.

The Studio

I started reading The Studio this week and it IS a quick read. It's a good summer book. Dunne is a good writer and I am enjoying his descriptions of meetings and characterizations of people. The movies date the book - definitely 60s - and reading about those old movies is fun and almost like reading a gossip column! Definitely light reading but gives a good sense of the business side of creating art and entertainment.

John Gregory Dunne

At last night's meeting there was some discussion about the author of our June book, The Studio - John Gregory Dunne. Here is a link to an obituary for Dunne, who died in 2004. He was married to the author Joan Didion, who wrote The Year of Magical Thinking about the death of Dunne and their daughter within a short span of time. His brother is Dominick Dunne.

Positively 4th Street

I'm about halfway through Positively 4th Street and will read a few more pages at lunch today, but won't be able to finish it before tonight's meeting. It's a fun book for me because I grew up listening to not only the four singer-songwriters who are the focus of the book - but just about everyone the author mentions! My parents introduced me to The Weavers and Pete Seeger and Burl Ives (Big Rock Candy Mountain), but I "discovered" Joan Baez from a girlfriend in Junior High. From there it wasn't hard to find and listen to Bob Dylan, Mimi & Richard Farina, Eric Von Schmidt, Dave Van Ronk and many of the other folksingers of the
60s. Reading about them now is like time travel - taking me back to my teenage years, but with the perspective of experience and a new appreciation of these artists as people - talented, flawed and some of them still making music!

Potential Book for 2010

Of course, just when I think I've settled on the 10 books for next year another one comes to mind! I've had this book in the 'reading basket' next to my bed for several months. It's A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, & Martin Johnson Heade. The author is Christopher Benfey. By next year, it will probably be available in paperback. I'm thinking of pairing it with Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture by Michael Kammen. So I'm going to add it to the list and make these two books the September books, so we can try to read both of them over the summer!

Tentative Book Selections for 2010

I think I've come up with the 2010 reading list for the Arts & Culture Book Club! Like this year, I tried to include books that cover a broad spectrum of arts and cultures. For those couple of books whose titles are not obvious indicators of their contents, here are brief descriptions.

Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos is about the theft of art and antiquities from the Iraq National Museum during the American invasion.

The Painted Kiss: A Novel by Elizabeth Hickey is our only novel for 2010. It is the author's first novel and is the story of the relationship between Gustav Klimt and his young lover, "whose name he pronounced with his dying breath." (Publishers Weekly)

I have included a link to amazon.com in the book list, in case you want to check out the book reviews. Please let me know if you have any comments!

From Louis Armstrong to the 60s

Yesterday I finished reading the Louis Armstrong Book. I enjoyed it and learned a lot about jazz, music in general and music in the context of culture and geography. It really got me thinking. However, I have to say that I pretty much skimmed the last chapter, "Melody that Changed the World," because it was just too technical musically for my limited knowledge. But I appreciated the last chapter of the book ending with, "Out of their values and practices came the fruits of an expressive culture that are with us still." Since I started reading the book, I have added quite a few jazz songs to my iPod, including lots of New Orleans jazz and have a newfound appreciation for them and where they came from.

Now when I listen to Armstrong sing the lyrics of "Do you Know what it Means to Miss New Orleans" I have a much better sense of the place and people.

I have read just a few pages of Positively 4th Street, but I see at least one similarity shared by both books. That is, the authors trace the style of music they focus on back to the culture and people that produced it.

My parents listened to Louis Armstrong on 78s! I came of age listening to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Farinas - on 33rpm records. Dylan's song "Positively 4th Street" and its references to his time in New York and in Greenwich Village speak more to my personal experience than does Louis Armstrong. But I enjoy listening to jazz, folk and many different musical styles. It reminds me how lucky we are to live in a time when we CAN listen to such a diversity of music - via, radio, records, CDs, iPods and other downloads and more.

Louis Armstrong & New Orleans

http://www.nps.gov/archive/jazz/Jazz%20History.htm

Here's a website I found that may be of interest for reading "Louis Armstrong's New Orleans." The author includes quite a lot of information about the geography - both physical and cultural - of New Orleans neighborhoods during Armstrong's time. This site includes walking tour maps that might be helpful in visualising his world.

Finishing "Faberge's Eggs"...

I enjoyed our discussion last night. It's always interesting to hear different perspectives on the same book. I especially appreciated Natalia's comments about the book being factual - but written from a western perspective. It's always good to be reminded to remember not only the point of view of the author - but our own cultural biases and history, as well.

I have already started "Louis Armstrong's New Orleans," and find myself transported to a time and place that is both familiar and foreign. I am not a musician, but I'm a "I know what I like" listener. I've always enjoyed blues and jazz, and this book is a great introduction for me into how that music developed and how it is performed. Despite some words and musical concepts that are new to me, I am soaking up the New Orleans atmosphere. (Louis Armstrong spent his later years in Queens, New York - not far from where I grew up!)

Louis Armstrong's New Orleans

In May, book club members can read either the Louis Armstrong book or
Positively 4th Street. The intent is to have people read one OR the other and come to the meeting to share perspectives on the impact that place has on artists and performers. New York in the case of Baez, Dylan and the Farinas and New Orleans in the case of Louis Armstrong. (If anyone wants to read both books, that would be great. I'm going to try......)

I've started Thomas Brothers' book, Louis Armstrong's New Orleans and am getting a real sense of the context in which to place Armstrong's life and music. Of course, he grew up in New Orleans and left, while the folksingers came to New York City from other places - that will be an interesting comparison for discussion.

Faberge's Eggs

I finished our April book over the weekend. I settled into my recliner on Sunday afternoon to read the last few chapters. I couldn't put it down! The first part of the book covering the Tsars and the revolution intrigued me from a historical perspective. The second part of the book - about the eggs taking on a life of their own - from worthless in the eyes of museums and collectors to priceless in their eyes - just fascinated me. I am really looking forward to our discussion this month to hear everyone's take on it.

I downloaded several Russian classical pieces to my iPod to listen to while I read. They include the Overture to "The Tsar's Bride," by Rimsky-Korsakof; Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini;" and Lladov's "Baba Yaga." I have not yet tired of listening to them!

Here are a couple of web sites I found that looked interesting. The first one about Nicholas and Alexandra and the second about the eggs' 'afterlife' as collectibles.

http://www.nicholasandalexandra.com/exhibition.html

http://www.forbes.com/2004/01/08/cx_pm_0108fcphotoessay.html

Caillebotte Exhibit in Brooklyn

There is an article in today's New York Times (3/27/09) about a new exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in NYC, "Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea." The exhibit will be up until July 5th (which is too bad, because I'll be in NYC this summer, but will get there one day too late to see it!). The Times article has several color photos of his paintings, including "Floor Scrapers." There are additional images at the Times web site. The Brooklyn Museum also has a web site, with a slide show of paintings.

From Luncheon of the Boating Party....to Faberge's Eggs

We had a very interesting discussion last night about "Luncheon of the Boating Party." I think we all appreciated the 'extras' brought in by Sharon and Fred - the books with plates and the web search materials naming and describing the models. It seems we all had trouble remembering who was who, but other than that the book was a good read for all of us. It certainly stimulated a lot of discussion. Thanks to Sharon for leading our conversation and to Merle for providing goodies at just the right moment!

I really appreciated the discussion, initiated by Bonnie, about the role of women in that time and place. One women's issue we didn't mention was Ellen's friend from the theater who had a botched back-alley abortion and was abandoned by her lover. I think the women in the novel had strong characters and contributed a lot to the novel.

I also appreciated the discussion about the lives of artists. The artists in the 3 books we've read so far were all womanizers and certainly had their strengths and weaknesses in other areas. It made for interesting reading, but the point was made that not all artists lead this kind of life - we just don't hear much about the private lives of artists (painters, writers, actors...) who don't make it a point to lead PUBLIC lives!

Our first three books were about individual painters. Our fourth book is more about the works of art, the context in which they were created, and in which they are collected. And we have moved away from painters to jewelers and objets d'art.

So I am looking forward to our April meeting and our discussion of "Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire."

Music to read by....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Debussy#Recordings_and_MIDI_files

In doing a little background research for our March book, I found this web site about Claude Debussy, whose music is associated with the Impressionist movement in art. There are a few links to listen to some of his music.

E-Books

Just a note about e-books! I learned about a new app on iTunes that allows you to download Kindle e-books from amazon.com directly onto your iPod Touch or iPhone. The app is free from the iTunes app store. So yesterday I went to the Civic Center - free wifi there - and downloaded my first book! It's one of the suggestions for next year - about the making of a Steinway piano. You have to have a one-click Amazon account and the books have to be downloaded wirelessly. But it worked - just took a moment to download and there it was on my iPod. You can adjust the size of the print and bookmark and you scroll from page to page using your finger. I haven't started reading my new e-book yet, but I wanted to pass this on. The book cost $9.99. Has anyone else tried this?

More suggestions for next year

Natalia suggested we consider two more books for next year. I added them to our list. They are "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank," by Thad Carhart and "Grand Obsession," by Perri Knize.

Thanks!