Family portrait

The Bug's artwork has become increasingly recognizable.  First, she was able to make flowers with discernible stems and blooms.  Then she moved on to faces.  Here, you can see she has mastered not only rainbows and faces, but entire people: from left, Joker, the Bunny, the Bug and yours truly.

Paris and Provence

Sorting through a stack of what I thought was just bills and junk mail, I found two other postcards from Mima and Boppie's trip to France.  The first was sent at the start of their trip, written while they were looking at Notre Dame.  The Bug was extremely amused by this one.  Not only does the cat look like our little buddy Sirius, but Joker bought this print when he was in France years ago and we have it hanging in one of our bathrooms.

 

The middle of their trip was spent in Provence.  They sent this from the town of Cassis, and told us of the calanques (essentially French fjords) between this town and Marseilles - long, deep, narrow inlets filled with the cerulean water of the Mediterranean.  Sounds like a place we have to see for ourselves someday!

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Mima and Boppie just returned from a fantastic visit to Paris and Provence.  They saw some beautiful towns, ate their hearts out and found the granddaddy of the impressionist museums to be truly amazing; Boppie deemed it the best art museum he's ever seen.  They sent the Bunny the postcard of Gauguin below, and they sent the girly-girl Bug the Degas at the bottom.

The Bitch is definitely Back

Last night I had the extreme good fortune of being able to see Elton John and Leon Russell in concert at the Beacon Theatre.  Yes, the Elton John.  Sir Elton.  Elton fucking John!!  In the 3,000-seat Beacon. It was totally awesome!

After a brief introduction from Elton, Leon Russell took the stage, looking with his shaggy white beard like ZZ Top's great uncle.  He played the 9-foot grand piano on the right, and was supported by an all-star 15-member supporting band.  He played some of his best known hits, and I particularly loved his honkey tonk. His gravelly voice sounded amazing, and his forceful piano playing was incredible. 

After four or five solo songs, Elton joined him (playing the other 9-foot grand piano on the stage), and they played their new album in its entirety.  I've listened to it this week in advance of yesterday's release date, and found the album to be really enjoyable but mellow.  Played live, there was an energy that kept it from feeling "mellow" in the least - we didn't know a word, but in the hands and voices in these masters the songs were exciting.

Then Russell left the stage and Elton played his hits.  Lots of them, and the old favorites, too!  "Tiny Dancer" practically brought me to tears; it makes me think of the Bug because Joker put it on her special baby CD.  "Your Song" live is about the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.  He played "Levon," "Take Me to the Pilot," "Ballad of a Well Known Gun," "The Bitch is Back" and more.  And Russell joined him for an (unrehearsed) encore of "Honkey Cat."  Un-fucking-believable.  I haven't left a concert feeling that impressed and excited and happy in a very long time.  If you didn't watch it live on Fuse, you should definitely catch the encore next week!

Untitled 1 & 2, mixed media on paper, 2010

The Bug's love of art continues.  She loves everything from coloring in coloring books to drawing pictures and designs for us to paint, glue and more.  Almost nightly, she'll run into the kitchen while I'm cooking with a "special delivery" of something she's just made "for you, Mommy!"

While Mima was here in September, the Bug truly expanded into a previously untested material: leaves!  Here are some of her creations. 

 

 

Neither work of art quite fit on my scanner, but you get the idea: leaves, glitter glue, sequins, beads, regular glue... truly the whole nine yards!

October beach visit

Last weekend we made a quick visit down to the Jersey Shore town of Ocean Grove, a place where Joker spent a great deal of time when he was growing up.  I love visiting beaches in the off-season, and the weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect.  Both the Bug and the Bunny had a blast playing in the sand, flying a kite, playing on the playground and taking walks on the boardwalk.  A couple of our dear friends met us there, and we had a really fun night catching up, too.

The skies were stormy and the seas were pretty rough on Friday evening.

 But the sunrise on Saturday morning was absolutely glorious.

While the Bunny took her morning nap, Joker and the Bug set up our little tepee to be our home base on the beach.  They flew a kite, threw the football around and had the beach practically to themselves!

The Brothers Karamazov

Every couple of years I re-read Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.  This latest endeavor was for last night's book club, and neither of my compatriots had yet experienced this masterpiece.  I was so happy that everyone enjoyed this new translation, and the book remains my favorite of all time.

The plot of the novel centers around the life and family of the unsavory Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, a small-time swindler and the neglectful (at best) father of three legitimate - and probably one illegitimate - sons. None of the sons grew up in Fyodor's household, but they all return to their small hometown in the opening chapters.  Dmitri Fyodorovich is the oldest, and somewhat of a scoundrel himself.  He spent his youth wildly and irresponsibly, spending beyond his means, charming women, drinking and carousing.  Ivan Fyodorovich left his childhood home to attend school and never returned.  Alexei Fyodorovich, considered by the narrator to be the hero of this book, is young and saintly, living in a monastery as the book opens.

Fyodor makes an immediately unpleasant impression on the reader, who soon learns that there is a great deal of near-violent conflict between Fyodor and Dmitri, over both money and the love of a woman.  Tensions exist between each of the brothers as well, with the exception of Dmitri and Alexei.  And it isn't long before Fyodor is murdered in cold blood, with all suspicions falling on Dmitri.  The crime, the investigation and the trial are riveting; it is so modern that with a few tweaks (cars instead of troikas, for example) it could happen today.  As with any Russian novel, there are numerous sidelines and back stories and digressions, some of which are as poignant as the core action.

Whether because of this wonderful translation, or because I've read the book enough times the plot was familiar to me, I discovered quite a few new things this time around.  First of all, it's a small thing, but I hadn't realized that the name Karamazov translates quite literally into "black smear"; Dostoevsky does not hide that he intends this family to be doomed.  Second, this is a really funny book.  There are lines that made me laugh out loud (such as when the pious monastic Elder Zosima tells Fyodor, "Do not give yourself up to drunkenness and verbal incontinence."), and entire scenes that border on ridiculous.

Most notably, it was not until this re-read that I realized that the narrator is an important character in his own right.  He is never identified, though we can infer based on where he sits during the trial that he's a man of some importance in the town.  He is omniscient for all intents and purposes, but he is by no means impartial.  He says from the onset that Alexei is his hero; he speaks of Dmitri's impending downfall from the beginning; and he peppers his narrative with unnecessary clauses or fixates on a word for a page or two without every using it again.  This drove a great deal of criticism when Brothers K was published, but it adds a truly fascinating layer to the story.

I stand by my assertion that this is the best book ever written.  If you have never read it, procrastinate no longer!

Next up: For book club, Easter Island, which was written by Jennifer Vanderbes, a college friend of mine.  I'm also going to squeeze in Herzog by Saul Bellow before starting that one.