Bringing in the May

Monty Python celebrate the first of May, 1971.

Happy May Day to you!

The April Witch

"It's spring, thought Cecy. I'll be in every living thing in the world tonight.

Now she inhabited neat crickets on the tar-pool roads, now prickled in dew on an iron gate... The wind whipped her away over fields and meadows. She saw the warm spring lights of cottages and farms glowing with twilight colors."

- from Ray Bradbury's "The April Witch," a perfect story for a spring night.

Happy Easter!

Desert blooms to brighten your Easter...

In Like a Lion

John Belushi explains the entrance of March (Saturday Night Live, March 1976).

Happy Groundhog Day!

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Winter will not come again.

Wishing you a lovely day whatever the weather!

Happy Birthday Claude!

Today would have been my grandpa Claude Argyl Smith's 100th birthday. He passed away eight years ago at the age of 92 (you can read his obituary in the Washington Post online).

He was born in a log cabin, learned to drive a Model T Ford when we was 12 years old, and studied for college by the light of an oil lamp. He also had a rather amazing life which took him around the world. As a large animal veterinarian for the US Department of Agriculture, he oversaw the arrival of giant pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing to the National Zoo, and the import and quarantine of Jackie Kennedy's horse, Sardar, from Pakistan.

Most importantly, he was wise and funny and wonderful, as grandpas should be, and I miss him very much. To celebrate, here are some images my uncle recently scanned from Claude's old slides. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

a cheetah, a gamekeeper and Claude in Africa in the 1960s

Claude (left) and a colleague in Africa, 1960s

Claude (right) and a colleague in Africa

Claude and a colleague with an African termite mound

Claude in England in 1978, sporting some amazing trousers

Grandpa and me, England, 1978 (I still have that plaid shirt)

A  special Routemaster bus picked us up for my grandpa's 68th birthday! (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1981)

the birthday boy, January 30, 1981

Grandma, Grandpa and my family on Oahu, Hawaii, 1984 (I'm in the red muumuu)

Grandma and Grandpa (Claude and Gerry) with my youngest sister in Hawaii, 1984

Claude in Jamaica, 1974

Ringing out the old year

I've spent the last week of the year with my family, baking, eating, playing games, and hiking in the desert:

...and you cannot beat coming home to warm your feet in front of a toasty fire.

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

(watercolor illustration by Edith Blackwell Holden, 1906,
from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady)

I've been listening to an old recording of Truman Capote reading his story, "A Christmas Memory," written in 1956. It is sweet, funny, nostalgic and sad, as the best Christmas stories are. This American Life has a slightly abridged version of the 1959 recording on their site, which you may listen to here.

Wishing you visions of sugarplums and a very merry Christmas!

Christmas illustrations...

One of the great joys of my childhood was receiving Cricket magazine in the post. Cricket was (and is) an amazing literary magazine for children, full of stories, poems and beautiful illustrations. At a young age it introduced me to some of my favorite authors and illustrators. I still have most of my back issues, many worn from reading and re-reading.

Cricket's covers were always glossy and beautiful. When I was little and living in Hawaii the snowy, wintry pictures made it feel like Christmas despite the balmy temperatures and palm trees. Here are some of my favorite illustrations from winter issues of Cricket, spanning from 1985 to 1993 (click images to view larger)...

"The Little Fir Tree" watercolor, pen and ink drawings with numbered captions by Erik Blegvad from the story by Hans Christian Andersen, from the December 1991 issue:

"The Ice Maiden" pastel, watercolor, and acrylic painting by Leo and Diane Dillon, from the February 1993 issue:

Old Kris oil on canvas by NC Wyeth, 1925, from the December 1985 issue:

"Stellar Angels" watercolor, tempera, and colored pencils by Tomie dePaola, from the December 1989 issue:

"Dragons and Gargoyles of Princeton" pen and ink, watercolor, colored pencil, and magic marker by Lynne Cherry, from the January 1986 issue:

A Thanksgiving Mixtape!

Thanksgiving inspires an odd mix of introspection and gluttony. Americans give thanks, cherish friends and family, and then gorge themselves with wild abandon. I abstain from a few "traditions" of the holiday (watching American football, turkey eating, rampant consumer spending) but Thanksgiving still makes me feel content and nostalgic. Plus, any holiday that revolves around cooking, eating and sharing lovely food is OK in my book.

Here is a playlist of songs about food, Thanksgiving, and giving thanks. A few of the songs about food are not actually about food (ahem!), but I threw them in anyway... (click titles to listen)

Come on-a My House - Rosemary Clooney (1951)

Over the River and Through the Woods - Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters (originally written as a Thanksgiving poem in 1844, this version changes the lyrics to make it a Christmas song)

I've Got Plenty To Be Thankful For - Bing Crosby, from Holiday Inn (1942)

Ojibway Square Dance (Love Song) - Georgia Wettlin-Larsen (an American Indian variation on "Turkey in the Straw")

Beans and Cornbread - Lois Jordan and the Tympany Five (1949)

Hoe-Down - from Aaron Copeland's 1942 ballet, Rodeo

Ito Eats - "Ito eats like teeth are out of style!" ...Elvis Presley, from Blue Hawaii (1961)

Count Your Blessings - Jackson Gospel Singers

Country Pie - Beck (covering Bob Dylan's 1969 original)

Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes) - Dee Dee Sharp (1962)

Food, Glorious Food - from Oliver! (1968)

Country Style - Bing Crosby, from Welcome Stranger (1947)

Keep on Eating - Memphis Minnie (1938-9)

Parlez-Nous à Boire - roughly, "talk to us about drinking" ...The Balfa Brothers (1967)

Thanksgiving Prayer - Johnny Cash

Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) - Bing Crosby, from White Christmas (1954)

For the Beauty of the Earth - version of the 1864 hymn by The Lower Lights (song starts properly around the 50 second mark)

This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie (1940)


Hope you enjoy, and have a very  happy Thanksgiving!

October travels

I recently met up with my sister, who shares my predilection for things odd and uncanny, for a road trip to Philadelphia to watch the leaves change and visit some unusual museums.

Eastern State Penitentiary was built in 1829 and abandoned in 1971. Designed to enforce solitude and inspire penitence, it is now preserved in an eerie state of decay.

The space is much more affecting and evocative as a ruin than it would be restored and pristine. It is also said to be haunted.

Some of the cells hold pieces commissioned by local artists, such as an collection of entomological specimens by Greg Cowper and a beautiful stained glass series by Judith Schaechter entitled The Battle of Carnival and Lent.

I have been enamored of Schaechter's work since coming across an image of Jazz Funeral for Didi several years ago, and it was fantastic to see her windows in person.

After the penitentiary we walked down to the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which houses a collection of medical and anatomical specimens. The Soap Lady (depicted here in a truly lovely sketch by John G. Mundie) and the death cast (and shared liver) of Chang and Eng are housed there, as well as Einstein's brain. Sadly, they do not allow photography. Currently on display is a small but interesting exhibition entitled "Grimms' Anatomy" pairing excerpts from Grimms' fairy tales and rare illustrated volumes with corresponding anatomical specimens.

Also on display is a room curated by the Brothers Quay, and an accompanying film, Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos and Afterbreezes in the Mutter Museum). Not as striking as their collaboration with the Wellcome Collection in London (The Phantom Museum, available to watch here), but still worth seeing. NPR did a piece on their creation of the film, which can be heard here... possibly more interesting than the finished product.

All in all a satisfyingly odd and Autumnal October outing.


Happy Halloween!

Banned Books Week Turns 30

 

In honor of the 30th annual Banned Books Week, here are short films based on two of my favorite stories by two of my favorite banned authors.

All Summer in a Day (1982) is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury and aired as part of PBS's phenomenal (and sadly defunct) children's series 'Wonderworks':



...and The Lottery (1969), based on Shirley Jackson's story of the same name and adapted for Encyclopædia Britannica's 'Short Story Showcase':

Part One

Part Two


I recommend reading (or re-reading) both, or choose a favorite from the American Library Association's lists of frequently challenged books or the London Libraries' list of banned books. Happy reading!

What I did on my summer vacation...

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love, love, love when the seasons start to change, but this year, for the first time in several years, I have a proper summer holiday to look back on. It was full of celestial events, sunny weather, family reunions, lovely food, county fairs and road trips. I watched fireworks and piglet races, built the Frankenstein's monster of backyard slip-n-slides, swam, soaked up the sun and caught fireflies.

the transit of Venus in June, seen through my homemade optical projector (note the sunspots!)

Saugatuck beach on Michigan's eastern shore

the waves at Saugatuck

Saugatuck dunes

blueberry picking

the spoils of over-enthusiastic berry picking

walking in the woods

my brother-in-law and Pajamas Johnson enjoying the sprinklers

up in a swing

my sister's perfect mojitos

sparklers on the 4th of July

Hope you had a lovely summer, too!