Working in a library, I request books on CD for people quite frequently. They all tell me the joys of a wonderful narrator, the companionship of a good book while spending extended hours in a car and on and on. Frankly, I'm not having it. But then...
Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a devoted fan of Winnie the Pooh. My entire Christmas tree, and the tree skirt, is Winnie the Pooh. My current sewing room was once my Winnie the Pooh room--I love him.
While reading reviews, I came across a listing for a new recording of Winnie the Pooh, featuring the voices of Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer and other wonders of the British acting realm. My library had the CDs so I requested them.
Yesterday, driving from quilt shop to quilt shop (3 in a day--heaven!), I listened to it. I loved, loved, loved it! I laughed out loud (Jane Horrocks as Piglet is a wonder to behold--breathy, gravelly and innocent all at once). I appreciated the glories of the language. I enjoyed every second of the stories. Wonderful.
Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench are the narrative readers, acting as Christopher Robin's parents, telling him bedtime stories. They also provide the voices of Eeyore and Kanga. Stephen Fry is Pooh and a proper bear of little brain he is.
I'll never give up the joy of a book in my hand but I will certainly be more open to listening to a good book. Maybe I'd get more sewing done if I were listening to a book....
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
In the key of G
BR, one of my fellow librarians, knows that I love the piano. She recommended a most wonderful book to me: A romance on three legs: Glenn Gould's obsessive quest for the perfect piano by Katie Hafner. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude!
Glenn Gould was a quirky (irritating, hugely talented, self-involved...the list goes on and on) Canadian pianist who first started performing in the 1950s. He performed live for a very small part of his career, preferring the solitude of recording over the company of an audience. He was very opinionated about music and very eccentric in his interpretations of different composers, especially Bach. His recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" is the benchmark by which other pianists are judged. A recording of Gould playing Bach's "Aria" was included in a capsule sent into space to show other civilizations what Earth is like.
Gould was very particular about the instrument he played. In the 1950s, the Steinway Company provided concert grand pianos to orchestras/artists throughout the U.S. and Canada. These pianos were available through piano dealerships and could be shipped around the country as needed. Steinway had several instruments at a department store in Toronto, some of them new and pristine, others worn and well used by concert-playing pianists. Glenn Gould was enamored with one of the old and worn pianos and claimed it for his own. A visually-impaired but extraordinarily gifted piano technician (a piano tuner though that title hardly shows the artistry involved in caring for a Steinway piano) worked with Gould to make piano CD 318 the perfect instrument for Gould's exacting (to say the least!) standards.
The book is a biography of Gould, an explanation of the piano as an instrument, the story of the Steinway Company and its history, an examination of the support system for a musical artist and so much more. I learned so much about the piano and gained a greater appreciation of the talent, strength, stamina and artistry involved in playing it. I will listen to pianists with a very different respect now.
Glenn Gould was a quirky (irritating, hugely talented, self-involved...the list goes on and on) Canadian pianist who first started performing in the 1950s. He performed live for a very small part of his career, preferring the solitude of recording over the company of an audience. He was very opinionated about music and very eccentric in his interpretations of different composers, especially Bach. His recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" is the benchmark by which other pianists are judged. A recording of Gould playing Bach's "Aria" was included in a capsule sent into space to show other civilizations what Earth is like.
Gould was very particular about the instrument he played. In the 1950s, the Steinway Company provided concert grand pianos to orchestras/artists throughout the U.S. and Canada. These pianos were available through piano dealerships and could be shipped around the country as needed. Steinway had several instruments at a department store in Toronto, some of them new and pristine, others worn and well used by concert-playing pianists. Glenn Gould was enamored with one of the old and worn pianos and claimed it for his own. A visually-impaired but extraordinarily gifted piano technician (a piano tuner though that title hardly shows the artistry involved in caring for a Steinway piano) worked with Gould to make piano CD 318 the perfect instrument for Gould's exacting (to say the least!) standards.
The book is a biography of Gould, an explanation of the piano as an instrument, the story of the Steinway Company and its history, an examination of the support system for a musical artist and so much more. I learned so much about the piano and gained a greater appreciation of the talent, strength, stamina and artistry involved in playing it. I will listen to pianists with a very different respect now.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
I'm so glad we had this time together...
When I was growing up, Saturday night on CBS was the television watcher's dream: Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and the sublime Carol Burnett. My first year in the dorm at the U of M, my neighbors across the hall would pop popcorn and I'd carry my portable TV to their room and we would watch Carol Burnett. And laugh. And laugh. And laugh.
I've just started reading Carol Burnett's This time together: laughter and reflection and it is delightful. I flew through 41 pages over a cheese pizza sandwich at Carbones (if you live in the West St. Paul area, stop in at Carbones and try one--yum, yum) and she is wonderful company!
Not a memoir in the strictest sense, it is a series of memories, vignettes, tributes to her friends--the book starts with her much-loved favorite actor Jimmy Stewart. Can you imagine having Jimmy Stewart in your living room, standing by the piano and singing? I know just how she must have felt.
If you, too, have happy memories of Saturday nights in front of the TV, spend some weekday nights with your nose in this book.
I've just started reading Carol Burnett's This time together: laughter and reflection and it is delightful. I flew through 41 pages over a cheese pizza sandwich at Carbones (if you live in the West St. Paul area, stop in at Carbones and try one--yum, yum) and she is wonderful company!
Not a memoir in the strictest sense, it is a series of memories, vignettes, tributes to her friends--the book starts with her much-loved favorite actor Jimmy Stewart. Can you imagine having Jimmy Stewart in your living room, standing by the piano and singing? I know just how she must have felt.
If you, too, have happy memories of Saturday nights in front of the TV, spend some weekday nights with your nose in this book.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
a lo-o-o-o-ong wait wasted
Once you've read a book that nestles in a corner of your heart, you want to read everything new by the author of that book. I absolutely adored Yann Martel's The life of Pi. Pi is one of the most appealing and endearing characters I've ever met in a book.
This week, Martel's new book appeared on my desk. The anticipation started to build in my little reader's heart. I started the book on Thursday. I read the first several pages. Nothing. I read up to page 45 and still nothing. I returned the book. Nothing happened in those first 45 pages. Nothing. No action in the book, no involvement for me the reader. Blah.
Today, I read a few reviews and they panned the book. I'm still very disappointed. Let's hope Martel's next book is a stunner.
(Don't be shocked that I didn't finish the book. I often don't because I know there are wonderful books out there, waiting for me to spend happy hours reading. I was at a memoir workshop this week and the presenter said the "rule" for readers over 50 (yes, that's me!) is: subtract your age from 100, the remainder is the recommended number of pages you should read before abandoning a book. So there.)
This week, Martel's new book appeared on my desk. The anticipation started to build in my little reader's heart. I started the book on Thursday. I read the first several pages. Nothing. I read up to page 45 and still nothing. I returned the book. Nothing happened in those first 45 pages. Nothing. No action in the book, no involvement for me the reader. Blah.
Today, I read a few reviews and they panned the book. I'm still very disappointed. Let's hope Martel's next book is a stunner.
(Don't be shocked that I didn't finish the book. I often don't because I know there are wonderful books out there, waiting for me to spend happy hours reading. I was at a memoir workshop this week and the presenter said the "rule" for readers over 50 (yes, that's me!) is: subtract your age from 100, the remainder is the recommended number of pages you should read before abandoning a book. So there.)
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Kevin, I wish I'd known you
Many years ago, I was in high school in Osseo, Minnesota. I have a vague memory of a tiny boy with big glasses and an arm that was much shorter than the other, a member of the AV Club and I always see him pushing an AV cart through the dusty halls of Osseo High. Flash forward to the 1990s and I see the name Kevin Kling mentioned in the newspapers as an actor/playwright taking his play "21A" on tour across the U.S. Could that Kevin Kling be the same guy forever pushing AV carts around in my memory? Yes, it could.
Flash forward to 2009 and the book "The dog says how" which I had to request for oh-so-many people that I finally decided to read it myself. I just about died laughing. Kevin has an unusual take on the world: part philosopher, part humorist and entirely open and honest. It was such fun to read a book and know some of the places and people described.
Last week, I read Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn and found myself laughing, crying, pondering and absolutely enjoying every word. How could I resist tales of the church Christmas program "Disasters of the Bible" put on by the teens with a Moog synthesizer and the church organist? Or Otto the man with the locking knee who drove 30 mph/90 mph/30 mph/90 mph, depending on when his knee locked? Or Kevin's memories of his first love (my jaw hit the ground on who she was--a friend of mine from Drama Club)? I wished with all my might that I really and truly knew this person with the wonderful way with words.
In August, Kevin is appearing in the Club Book series sponsored by the MELSA system--he'll be at Maplewood Library on Thursday, August 26 at 7:00 p.m. I'll be there--maybe I could sing the Osseo fight song (We'll sing a song, both loud and long to cheer our team to victory...) to catch his attention. Please join me...I'll be the one laughing and crying and grinning like a fool.
(the orange and black is in honor of the Osseo Orioles...)
Flash forward to 2009 and the book "The dog says how" which I had to request for oh-so-many people that I finally decided to read it myself. I just about died laughing. Kevin has an unusual take on the world: part philosopher, part humorist and entirely open and honest. It was such fun to read a book and know some of the places and people described.
Last week, I read Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn and found myself laughing, crying, pondering and absolutely enjoying every word. How could I resist tales of the church Christmas program "Disasters of the Bible" put on by the teens with a Moog synthesizer and the church organist? Or Otto the man with the locking knee who drove 30 mph/90 mph/30 mph/90 mph, depending on when his knee locked? Or Kevin's memories of his first love (my jaw hit the ground on who she was--a friend of mine from Drama Club)? I wished with all my might that I really and truly knew this person with the wonderful way with words.
In August, Kevin is appearing in the Club Book series sponsored by the MELSA system--he'll be at Maplewood Library on Thursday, August 26 at 7:00 p.m. I'll be there--maybe I could sing the Osseo fight song (We'll sing a song, both loud and long to cheer our team to victory...) to catch his attention. Please join me...I'll be the one laughing and crying and grinning like a fool.
(the orange and black is in honor of the Osseo Orioles...)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
an excellent traveling companion
Now that the Olympics are over and my time is, at long last, my own, I once again have my nose in a book. It has been a rough week--I've started three books and returned all of them. In spite of being well-reviewed in the library literature, they were not of interest to me. (I've been a devoted reader for enough years that I don't feel obligated to finish every book I start--there are plenty of books awaiting me that I will really truly enjoy reading. Really.)
I just started Stephen Fry in America: fifty states and the man who set out to see them all and look forward to spending time with this witty and wonderful traveling companion. Stephen Fry is quintessentially British and a man of many talents, acting and writing amongst them. Seeing my native land through his eyes should be quite entertaining (and, maybe, eye opening?). He is starting his journey across America, driving a British taxi, in Maine.
A few words about Stephen Fry--the perfect Jeeves (with Hugh Laurie (you know, House M.D.) as the clueless Bertie Wooster), a heartbreaking Oscar Wilde (the movie Wilde is painfully sad but Mr. Fry is extraordinary), intelligent, funny and eye-catching (well over six feet tall with a nose that points to his left ear and all-seeing blue eyes). I've enjoyed watching his movies and reading his books. Give one or the other (or both) a try.
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