Mary Hambleton - The Brilliant Painter, The Lovely Woman

Lotus

Welcome back Dear Readers.


It always seems that we are 


losing too many fine artists.

    

      Last year for example, 

one of my favorite pianists,

Alicia de Larrocha

passed away.

Now who's going to serenade me with 

Mompou's Impresiones Intimas?

The great Jazz player, 

composer, conductor, educator,

and author of 

The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, 

George Russell

left this Earth.

Dear Dodo

And

groundbreaking 

Choreographer 

Merce Cunningham 

is gone too.

Misericordia

A 
lot
 closer to home,

a friend of mine,

after a courageous,

years long battle     

with cancer

died.

Mary Hambleton
was quite a brilliant painter, 
a lovely woman, Mother, and Wife.

I will miss all of these great artists.

Elements of a Periodic Table

This posting 

of 

Global Around Town 

contains some of Mary's works 

and a few images that may have inspired

and humored 

her.

Dot Calm
It just never seems fair 

when we lose such great artists. 

Particularly when they are so young.

Query

Ivory

Nine Dodos

Game Plan

Target

Hard Rain

"And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son ?

And what did you hear, my darling young one ?

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'

I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'

I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'

I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter

Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."

Enough

Blue White Dodos

4 Blue Dodo

Waiting for the Miracle

A note here from Mary's husband Ken Buhler - 

            Painter Mary Hambleton was diagnosed with advanced melanoma in June of 2002. For 6 plus years she defied the odds, living a full life though a challenging one, mounting several one-person shows, teaching, traveling and receiving a Guggenheim, two Pollock-Krasners, a Gottlieb, and a Fellowship to Ballinglen Foundation in Ireland. She died on January 9, 2009.

           Her work chronicled her journey of living with the disease, starting with the introduction of images of extinct species into her once abstract work, and later images from the innumerable scans of her body. Mary never let her illness define her, but chose to define it instead by transforming it into art. As her own energy waned, she took the scans of the disease that would ultimately take her, and she turned those into striking and profound images. In that sense, she had the last word, because her body of work is a living, poignant reminder of who she was.

(Many thanks to my Dear Friend, Mary's husband Ken Buhler, for his contribution. )

Dining in Paris - "From Paris With Love"

Roving 

Global Around Town

Senior Travel Correspondent

Doug Wingate

just got back from a 

calorie filled visit

to Paris.

Here's his report:

For my short 4 day stay, I decided to try several Michelin starred, upmarket places (all at lunch time; I took the evenings "off," choosing a simple baguette sandwich instead), including dining at 2 of the 3 current Parisian offerings of uberchef Joel Robuchon (currently the chef with the most Michelin stars worldwide to his name). The first JR spot I dined at, on my 3rd day in town, was my return to the original "L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon"in the 7th Arr. http://www.restaurants-joel-robuchon.com/modele.php?resto=2&ville=Paris&rub=pratique&image=1&langue=eng

L'Atelier de JR was everything I could have hoped for, and as good as I had remembered it. It was just one faaaaaaantastic mouth orgasm after another, esp. as I opted for the 9 course tasting menu. I also let the sommelier choose a complementary wine-by-the-glass for each of the many courses (including a customary coupe du champagne upon being seated, mais oui). None of this came cheaply of course. With the rotten Euro to Dollar exchange, I ended up dropping over USD$300! But ... it was worth every penny (or Euro, to be precise)!!

The first day I arrived, I dined at a more modestly priced place, but with a nonpareil pedigree as well. I dined at "L'Atelier Maitre Albert" in the Rive Gauche 5th Arr.. http://www.ateliermaitrealbert.com/  It's a beautifully modern interpretation of a rustic rotisserie restaurant, created by Chef Guy Savoy (whose eponymous Parisian flagship is a Michelin 3 star joint too of course). I had a special lunchtime set menu of 3 courses that was a relative bargain: I chose a fancy crabe millefeuille starter, followed by a superb free-range roast chicken with heavenly whipped potatoes, finished by an extraordinarily delicious and unique pamplemousse terrine dessert, which was the perfect light ending to an otherwise hearty meal. All of this, plus the wine, for "only" about USD$70. Again however, the price-to-quality ratio exceeded expectations. 

On my 2nd day in town, I tried New York uberchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's first foray into the Paris market, with a "casual but trendy" spot in the fancy schmancy 8th Arr., called simply "Market." See http://www.jean-georges.com/ Mr. Vongerichten, who has 3 Michelin stars for his eponymous Manhattan flagship, Jean Georges, was the only one who disappointed me at all (too bad for him as he's a lousy ambassador for the USA to France!). His expensive chicken dish was not even as good as the chicken stuffed with foie gras that they served me in my upgraded Business class seat on my return American Airlines flight!!! Shame on Jean Georges! Don't bother (In fairness, the starting butternut soup was very good, but the main chicken dish was genuinely virtually inedible! I did NOT bother with a dessert there, but instead rolled around the corner to the Champs-Elysees, to stop at one of the many cafes).

I chose a cafe called Le Deauville ( http://www.myparistrips.com/pariscafes.html , near the George V metro stop) mostly because they advertised that they serve Paris's justly famed Berthillon ice creams! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthillon  A couple of "boules of Berthillon glace" and a very good double espresso made for a superb dessert, and almost erased my bad memory of MARKET.

On my final full day, I tried Joel Robuchon's 16th Arr. entry, "La Table de Joel Robuchon," introduced after his success with L'Atelier. http://www.restaurants-joel-robuchon.com/modele.php?resto=1&ville=Paris&rub=pratique&image=1&langue=eng  Things didn't begin well there, as they called me in the morning to ask me to come at 1:45 PM instead of my original res. of 1:30. No biggie of course. But, when I got there at 1:45, they had no table yet, and sadly they have no bar area either. So, I had to wait in a small vestibule, next to the coat check for about 45 minutes more. However ... Chef Robuchon's staff knows how to "make good" for a problem like having an earlier party NOT vacate their table. After I'd been standing there about 10 minutes, they offered me a complimentary coupe du champagne (a 25 Euro tab at L'Atelier!!), then they brought out a chair for me to sit upon, and also offered me a platter of their best Iberian ham, one of their specialites de la maison (de rigeur in Barcelona, but all the rage in Paris right now too).  And finally when I was seated, they happily were perfection. They also had a special lunchtime-only "Menu 'Club'" that offered an hors d'oeuvre, main dish, cheese course, dessert, coffee and a demi bottle of wine, all for "only" Euro 59 (around USD$80)!!! As my meal was again just superb, and they had already "comped" me over 40 Euro worth of food and wine while I had waited, I was most content! VIVE LE CHEF ROBUCHON!!!

Many thanks 

to Doug 

for keeping us abreast 

of 

The Culinary World in Paris.

Old Friends, New Friends - Once Upon A Time In Rio

I've just finished watching this

fantastic

but heartbreaking film.

Like some of the characters in it,

I am trying to reassure myself that everything will be OK

by saying

"calme, calme"

to myself.

I guess it was naive of me to have hoped that

this modern day  Romeo and Juliet

set in Ipanema and one of the favela's

surrounding it,

(where the joys of life and the violence of death exist so closely)

could've ended up

"happily ever after".

I guess that was the romantic in me.

I am hurt,

and I am saddened

that this was

(yet again)

not the case.

Once Upon A Time In Rio

is a very powerful, moving drama

with great acting.

A film that I cannot recommend more highly.



There have been many fine films

coming out of Brazil in recent years.

City of God

and City of Men,

are also not be missed.

Old Friends, New Friends - The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Welcome back Dear Readers.

For this weeks edition of

Old Friends, New Friends

we go back to

a simpler time,

when the pyrotechnics

necessary to create stunning animation

consisted of many

beautiful, and intricate

stencils.

Ornate cut outs that reminded me

of Balinese Shadow Puppets.

All of this is combined with

a fantastic story

and

an exotic and colourful score

that brought

 to mind

the music of

Aram Khachaturian.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed watching

The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

I was swept off

to a faraway land.

You'll be too!

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) (Arabic: مغامرات الامير احمد‎) is a 1926 feature-length animated film by the German animator Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film (two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost^[1]), and it featured a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets (though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action). The original prints featured color tinting. The story is based on the elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanoufeatured in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book. With the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic horse, the title character battles the evil African sorcerer to win the hand of Princess Pari Banou.

(Synopsis from Wikipedia)

Django Reinhardt's 100th Birthday

Happy 100th Anniversaire Django Reinhardt!

Dear Friends, Dear Readers,

Today would have been Jazz Great/Guitarist

 Django Reinhardt's 100th Birthday!

This amazing musician had a profound effect 


on the Music World.


Here's what Global Around Town 

Senior Music Correspondent Don Yaffe 

has to say about Django.

Born January 23rd 1910,  Django (meaning "I Awake" in Romany) grew up in a family of traveling performers: his mother an acrobatic dancer, father a noted bandleader among the Gypsy tribes. His first instrument was the violin, then the 6 string banjo common at the time as the rhythm of the "Bals Musette"  dancehall music of the 20's in France. Barely a teenager Django's reputation grew playing for coins on the streets to the point where he was offered work in the "Bals Musette" along side the greatest Accordion masters of the time. By the age of 18 he had abandoned the Banjo (in a cab, the story goes) for the guitar and made some of his earliest recordings. Then tragedy struck, a fire in his trailer one night severely burned Django's fretting hand and he lost the use of two fingers. 

He spent a year in the hospital recovering from his wounds,  and relearning the guitar to adapt to his handicap. His revolutionary technique with two fingers changed guitar music forever,  and the public could not believe the power and virtuosity of his playing,  his recording career made him the most influential european jazz musician to this day. In the last 10 or 15 years,  festivals in his honor have sprung up around the world, and "Hot Club" style groups now appear in major cities across America.

Check out his playing here. 

Django really swings!

Many thanks to my dear friend Don Yaffe

who happens to be one of the most brilliant

Guitarist/Musicians I know.

Don and his merry band

Sacrebleu!

can often be found gracing

the Denver and Boulder areas.

Check them out at:

http://www.sacrebleujazz.com/

Old Friends, New Friends - Departures

Tonight I watched this sad,

 beautiful,

and

very moving film.

It is a film about the difficult subject of

death and dying

and the manner in which one

is sent on to the next world.

As is so often the case with the Japanese,

the manner in which they wrap

things is stunning

 as is the ritual

that goes along with it.

And here

I enjoyed watching the

calm,

gentle,

and affectionate way

that Daigo

prepared

those that had passed away

for their

final journey.

This is a Five Star film

that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars.

The soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi, who wrote the music 
for the 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano films Kikujiro (1999), and Hana-bi (1997), is also noteworthy.

Here's the Netflix description:

"Freshly unemployed, young cellist Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) has an epiphany in which he realizes he's been heading down the wrong career path. Retreating to his hometown, he trains for a new professional role as a nakanshi, or one who prepares the dead for burial. Tsutomu Yamazaki provides comic relief as Daigo's eccentric mentor in director Yojiro Takita's Oscar-winning, richly detailed -- if unlikely -- drama about finding your bliss." 


Here's a clip from the film. 

Do yourself a favor

and go out and get yourself a copy,

you won't regret it.