I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Academy Awards last night with a group of friends from work. I’m glad that viewers got to see a whole range of antiwar statements–from the almost too subtle dove pins and Susan Sarandon’s classy peace sign to Michael Moore’s over-the-top screed. The cute young actor who introduced the clips from Frida and Adrian Brody were both charming.
Category: Uncategorized
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Friday Five
1. If you had the chance to meet someone you’ve never met, from the past or present, who would it be?
Jesus. What was he like? I can think of few people who have had such a pervasive influence on our world–and the close runners-up would also be religious figures: Moses, David, Solomon, Mohammed–not to mention the unique claim of divinity.
2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be?
Well, it’s hard to guess if one should wish to live in the future, but I’d likely gamble that the future will turn out OK. So I’d probably pick two or three hundred years in the future. In the past, I’d likely pick the 19th century, which for Quakers contained both very high and very low points. And on a totally different tack, the 19th century saw the rise of the Arts and Crafts movement and the Pre-Raphaelites.
3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be?
London.
4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be?
Hmmm. Elizabeth Bennet? Witty, well-matched in love, comfortably off.
On a more fictional note, Regis Hastur: powerful, complicated and conflicted, living at a turning point.
5. If you had to live with having someone else’s face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be?
Daniel Day-Lewis.
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New England Flower Show
After attending the New England Flower Show last year, I wasn’t impressed. I’ve been spoiled by the Philadelphia Flower Show (which is sort of like how the San Diego Zoo spoiled all zoos for me, and Disneyland spoiled most amusement parks).
But I went again this year, because six weeks mostly housebound with a broken ankle is just too much. It was warm and moist and mostly green. Several of the big exhibits were pretty, but no show-stoppers. The horticulture section was disappointing again. I should definitely enter next year. In the vendor area, the highlights were once again a few of the vendors and a couple of patrons! I did buy a few things–a passion flower vine and a gardenia (actually one stem instead of four or five cuttings!), as well as a new Red Lion amaryllis bulb. After years of being intrigued by the Hawaiin flower booth at every flower show I’ve ever attended, I bought plumeria cuttings. It is very exciting to have window space in my new apartment.
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Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self
By Claire Tomalin. Fantastic. What a glimpse Sam gives us into the Restoration. Of particular interest to me because Pepys is contemporary with the rise of Quakerism. I bought the book because of my delight in the Pepys diary weblog, and it lived up to my expectations to fill me in on Sam’s life in a readable fashion.
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The Children of Herakles
Sunday a week ago I went to see the Peter Sellars production of Euripides’ The Children of Herakles in Cambridge. It was impressive and exciting. Here’s a good review of this production and also of the Fiona Shaw Medea now in New York.
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Sarah Mapps Douglass: Faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting: View from the Back Bench
By Margaret Hope Bacon. With a foreword by Vanessa Julye. It’s really good to have this story published. Bits of Sarah Mapps Douglass’s story have been told before, but this pamphlet places what Margaret Bacon has found about her life into the context of the times and of her family and friendships. It makes clear a shameful part of Quaker history.
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Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians
By Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. A kind and warm-hearted book. It is brief, and I found it to be very pertinent to my own spiritual life.
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The Reality Dysfunction: Expansion
By Peter F. Hamilton. The plot thickens. The characters continue to draw you in. But I stalled out upon buying #3. (I skimmed–a sure kiss of death in a page-turner. It was late at night and I should have just gone to bed, but you know how it is, turn one page, then “let’s see what happens”.)
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Zen and the Art of Knitting: Exploring the Links between Knitting, Spirituality, and Creativity
By Bernadette Murphy. Not in any way a zen book, but the subtitle is accurate. She gets self-indulgent at times, but many of the women she talks to are very interesting (and they are all women).
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The Reality Disfunction, Part 1: Emergence
By Peter F. Hamilton. A space opera in every sense. 588 pages and it’s only the first volume of six. A tad on the horror side, and a bit salacious, but it manages to be a page-turner.