Through silhouettes in the Musée d’Orsay, looking out across La Seine to the right bank—we sense ambiguities, yearnings, drama. Paris fascinates. For its history, its architecture, its art, its natural beauty—all of which spared it from the bombs of a world at war. It is: A vibrant city where la joie de vivre is often […]
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And if you want to get really rooted in the indigenous cuisine you have to go to Oaxaca. Rick Bayless So, we went to Oaxaca and tasted their moles. They have seven kinds, often prepared according to traditions dating back to prehispanic times. Mole negro, the most complex because of its 30-some ingredients (including chocolate), […]
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New roads; new ruts. Gilbert K. Chesterton I’ve spent pleasant hours reading some of G.K.Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries. As a tribute to his formidable mastery of language and superb economy of expression in this quote, I’m offering some Haiku. Rhyming is not essential in Haiku, but I like the cadence it gives to verse. From […]
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Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Ludwig van Beethoven Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart. Pablo Casals Music-where would we be without it? We all have our preferences in music to which we can connect as spiritually or as sublimely as these musical greats […]
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Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane. Honoré de Balzac Maybe only the French would say this. After all, they invented champagne, an elixir concocted out of love, and by extension, for love. Elsewhere where champagne only belongs in dreams, attraction must find another expression. I spent my early years in a […]
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I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.Tennessee Williams I’m digressing from my initial intent of giving my take on famous quotes because this line, taken from a critically acclaimed Tennessee Williams drama, A Streetcar Named Desire, is just too juicy to pass up. It does contain a k word and is among the […]
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Joy’s smile is much closer to tears than laughter. Victor Hugo This quote has a deceiving simplicity. I find it ambiguous, at the least, and enigmatic, at most. The ambiguity of language in these words, or any other set of words, is a problem if it arises from carelessness, but if deliberate, it can lead […]
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Imagination was given to man compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. Francis Bacon As I grew older and reality trounced my dreams one by one, I began to live a little more inside my head. Perhaps, my imaginings helped me cope with my […]
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Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it. Langston Hughes Or: How to write a blog post that hardly anyone reads Write about something that you care about but hardly anybody else does. Write about a topic you know a lot about (maybe, an expert in) but hardly anybody […]
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Take it from Anais Nin—Being good, by itself, doesn’t cut it if you want good results. You do have to hustle. As Rich (the other half), proved one day. Sad but it’s true. Rich took his car in to the dealer he bought it from to have a small problem fixed. They fixed it, but […]
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Food is our common ground, a universal experience. James Beard Who could dispute that food is a universal experience? But a common ground? I’m not quite so sure. We all have our food restrictions or prejudices, based on preferences, culture, or religion. I asked my husband once what the strangest food is that he has […]
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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. Marcus Aurelius I could not resist this particular quote. It is as profound as it could possibly be. And it sweeps across the entire spectrum of human experience: It asserts that neither fact nor truth exists. I […]
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Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself. Havelock Ellis In my superficial journey into Polish culture, I saw the Polish film Ashes and Diamonds, which ends in a dance, a somewhat noble dance, played badly, […]
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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Mark Twain Courageous? Me? I’ve never done anything heroic. But, let me tell you a little story that happened on a bright, warm day about 15 years ago. It might have been summer or early fall—hard to tell in California—a tranquil, lazy Sunday […]
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Beauty is whatever gives joy. Edna St. Vincent Millay Beauty, for centuries, has been the subject of art. Paintings like those of Michelangelo and Titian, for instance, tended to idealize their subjects. Art was, then, produced mostly through the patronage of the rich. So, artists did a lot of portraits that featured the rich and […]
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*On this month-long attempt, I’m taking quotes on topics that start with succeeding letters of the alphabet and doing a post on each of them. Art is either plagiarism or revolution. Paul Gauguin Artists constantly debate what art is. Among, as well as within, themselves. Often the conflict or, at least, the point of contention […]
~ read more ~I don’t know much about Polish art, but have at least heard that Polish poster art is stunning, and has been used in support of resistance movements. To take my first steps into Polish poster art I haphazardly searched and found The Legacy Of Polish Poster Design by Andrea Austoni. Austoni gives a very good […]
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We live in Berkeley. That’s our official address and, indeed, we’re only two miles (less if you count Clark Kerr campus) from Cal (University of California, Berkeley), the heart of this city and the entity it’s most famous for. However, when it comes to taxes and which city provides us basic public services, we live […]
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David Hockney—The Bigger Exhibition is expiring after today, January 20th. We saw it on Friday along with a crowd big enough for the show to warrant a blockbuster label. Hockney, who appears to be a savvy promoter of his own work, has glommed on to the label “bigger” and used it in titles of several […]
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Who is she? Who are they? Family. Separation. Reunion. Look at this woman. Could she be in your family? Might she be part of the family now separated, split off, segregated? After family pain and disagreement there often comes a separation lasting through generations. Of the family, but no longer recognized in the family. Off […]
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