dublin – oct 21 to 23, 2013
Category: travels
the roof garden commission: imran qureshi
went to see imran qureshi’s roof garden installation at the met last weekend. here is more about his brilliant work.
more sicily
in sicily!
april 4, 2013: off to mount etna (where there was much volcanic activity yesterday – a big boom was heard here in catania followed by lots of black smoke) and then taormina, by the sea, where we hope to see a magnificent greco-roman amphitheater (built by the greeks in the 3rd century BC and later expanded by the romans). we will also visit the duomo – our landlord (the artist giovanni girbino) and his father designed its bronze doors.
this picture was taken by my son while we were having some delicious arancini in the piazza del duomo, in catania, a few days back. it’s v close to our apt on via auteri.
Jeff Parker: A Foreigner to Oneself
I think there’s something to that idea of taking someone out of the usual street-vernacular, putting them in a totally different environment that shakes them up. And I think that’s an essential element in learning to write. You need to be shaken up. And if you look at all the great literary critics, they all talk about it in one way or another. Proust says something about to be a writer you have to become a foreigner to yourself. [Russian critic Viktor] Shklovsky talks about defamiliarization. I think in a way traveling is like taking acid, because you get on a plane and land somewhere, and the world looks like the world that you recognize and know, but there are little things that are off, that make it hyper-real and hyper-strange. For me, it was really important to tune into that strangeness. And I think that’s a process of disquieting oneself, non-pharmacologically. (Jeff Parker) More here.
the penelopiad in toronto
2/9/2013: saw margaret atwood’s “the penelopiad,” a nightwood theatre production performed at buddies in bad times theatre, in toronto. it’s a feminist take on homer’s odyssey, in which penelope’s story becomes front and center, haunted by the shocking hanging of the 12 maids on odysseus’s return (an event that gets hardly any mention in the overall analysis of the narrative). written, directed, acted and designed by women, it’s a provocative interrogation of human “his-story.”
at the beautifully renovated st pancras railway station in london – jan 1, 2013
picture by my best pal.
stratford-upon-avon
near shakespeare’s birth place…
last day in london
was interviewed by andrea gordon at TV apex studios in essex yesterday about my film work and activism. it was a lot of fun. in the evening we saw “the silence of the sea”, a powerful three character play about the awfulness of occupation and the doomed relationship between occupied and occupier (v true for nazi-occupied france but can people make the connection to current occupations in which they themselves are complicit?).
today “julius caesar” at the donmar (love the idea of an all female cast) and harold pinter’s “old times” with kristin scott thomas and rufus sewell. thank u to dr russell peck and his beautiful wife ruth for inviting me to be a part of this theater course. it was a once in a lifetime experience. this is professor peck’s last trip to london as a leader of this class. he’s been doing it for 23 yrs. we gave him a much deserved standing ovation (along with some chocolate cake). long live thought-provoking theater!
uncle vanya and matilda
today “uncle vanya” at vaudeville theatre, a reception at the w hotel near leicester square and then matilda, the musical. not sure about matilda, altho i’m told it’s thrilling.
twelfth night and richard III
twelfth night and richard III at the apollo theatre yesterday – a transfer from shakespeare’s globe, “original practices” and all male cast, mark rylance and stephen fry, complete fidelity to the original text. simply magnificent.
sleeping beauty at sadler’s wells theatre
saw this wonderful ballet yesterday, along with two other plays. loved what matthew bourne did with sleeping beauty. he gave agency to aurora, who is an energetic and passionate young woman in love with a working class lad, leo the gamekeeper, before she ever falls asleep. half the fairies are male dancers, including the lilac fairy, and they exude more power and athleticism than leo, the prince character. it’s not the evil fairy who exacts revenge on aurora but her charismatic son, who looks like a cross between the flamboyant freddie mercury and a young antonio banderas. he also falls in love with aurora so there is this rivalry between him and leo. oh yeah, and the lilac fairy is a vampire. smashing.
“in the republic of happiness” and “constellations”
going to see this today, along with “constellations” which is described as “a story of love, honey, and a quantum multiverse”. cannot wait!!!
feydeau’s sauce for the goose at the orange tree theatre
had lunch at the british library yesterday. the cheese cake with berry compote was delicious but not so much the quikes cheddar, tomatoes and rocket sandwich. dinner was out of this world at this small lebanese joint. i had chicken shawarma, hummus, shredded lettuce, pickled peppers with some hot sauce, wrapped in a toasted pita. yum! the play we saw was hilarious. it was feydeau’s “sauce for the goose” (le dindon) at the orange tree theater. it’s the only in-the-round theater in london. the acting was brilliant, the timing of the comedy perfect and the staging ingenious. was interested in the play’s sexual politics. altho lucienne (the female protagonist) is committed to sexual equality (if my husband cheats, so will i), it’s interesting how she’s kept chaste to the v end. she’s only trying to pretend to cheat in order to win her husband back. a clear distinction is made between a “tart” and a respectable married woman. so funny how social norms take such a long time to die.
mughal india: art, culture and empire at the british library
went to see “mughal india: art, culture and empire” at the british library today. it’s an excellent exhibit of art, some objects, and a lot of books – on astronomy, medicine, mathematics, literary classics like the poetry of hafiz and saadi, pages from the shahnama and akbarnama, stunning copies of the quran, a recipe book from shah jahan’s household (how to make the best samosas and pulao) beautiful calligraphy by emperor bahadur shah and much more. i was delighted to learn that akbar’s library (some 24,000 beautifully bound books) was equal in worth to his entire stash of weaponry. loved a letter written by ghalib and enjoyed the sometimes frosty, always hypocritical, correspondence between king william III and emperor aurangzeb. didn’t like the last part of the exhibit where india’s history is relegated to the orientalist interpretations of the east india company. the most harrowing, heartbreaking exhibit is the only known photograph of the last emperor of india, bahadur shah zafar. granted the mughals were conquerors themselves and not always the most human rights oriented rulers, but bahadur shah’s personal saga is profoundly tragic.
more here.
