I haven't given enough time to  blogging on this site.  This is a photo from my front yard tonight.  We've had a mild winter, today it snowed.   I'm ready for spring anyway but I can appreciate how beautiful the snow is when it first comes down.

Well, my fault for not posting forever......  I realize most people in this day and age know how to work their way around a website a thousand times better than me.  Imagine my surprise when after not posting as I said forever... everything is changed and a lot more complicated "for me" to use.  I couldn't even figure out how to get into my own blog! 

I let work, and family, and aging parent, and young adults moving in and out and back in, and a couple out of town trips and a short lived interest in actually working out at a gym, and sitting around watching too many movies and and drinking too much wine  get in the way of blogging and more importantly "reading other blogs".  So I'm going to make a concerted effort to get back on the wagon. Also got to spending too much time on facebook which is really a whole different ball game.

First, I have to remember and refigure out all the new stuff that's been added and/or changed on this sight.

Geez!

It's funny how some things tie together...

It's funny how things tie together sometimes.  I just finished listening to a book on audible.com.  The book is called "Skippy Dies" by Paul Murray.


"The extravagantly entertaining “Skippy Dies” chronicles a single catastrophic autumn at Seabrook from a good 20 different perspectives: students, teachers, administrators, priests, girlfriends, doughnut shop managers. At the center of it all is Daniel Juster, known as Skippy, whose death — on the floor of Ed’s Doughnut House, just after writing his beloved’s name on the floor in raspberry filling — opens the novel. “Skippy Dies” then flashes back to the months preceding, months in which the gloomy, doomed 14-year-old falls in love, wins a fight, keeps a secret and attracts the attention of members of the faculty who do not have his best interests at heart."  I LOVED it!!!


A character in the book named Howard; a disillusioned history teacher, is on WWI.  Another teacher directs him (interesting relationship here) to read Robert Graves' account of his experiences in WWI.  Howard, becomes fascinating and inspired with WWI history.  And so did I. 


This sparked my interest in WWI and Robert Graves.  He also makes references to what Rudyard Kipling and his writings after his son died the day after he turned 17 as an officer charging into battle.  (Kipling pulled strings to get his then aged 16 son into the military.  A made for TV movie starring 
Daniel Radcliffe recently aired on PBS called "My Boy Jack" depicting this event. 

"HAVE you news of my boy Jack? "

Not this tide.

"When d'you think that he'll come back?" 

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"

Not this tide. 

For what is sunk will hardly swim, 

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?" 

None this tide,

Nor any tide,

Except he did not shame his kind--- 

Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,

This tide,

And every tide;

Because he was the son you bore,

And gave to that wind blowing and that tide.

Rudyard Kipling 1915

In the mail today I got a "Netflix" movie I forgot I put on my que.  It' was "The Long Engagement" starring Audrey Tatoui,  many other french film stars, and the now well known in America "Maria Cotilliard" (the awesome actress of   La Vie en Rose")  (There's also a surprise famous American actress in the film!)

This movie with WWI as well.

"Five desperate French soldiers during The Battle of the Somme shoot themselves, either by accident or with purpose, in order to be invalidated back home. Having been "caught" a court-martial convenes and determines punishment to be banishment to No Man's Land with the objective of having the Germans finish them off. In the process of telling this tale each man's life is briefly explored along with their next of kin as Methilde, fiancée to one of the men, tries to determine the circumstances of her lover's death. This task is not made any easier for her due to a bout with polio as a child. Along the way she discovers the heights and depths of the human soul. Written by Liam McBain "

Excellent story, cinematographic scenes, and  authentic costumes! I loved it!


TAKE CARE, BOHEMIAN :)

 

Sometimes Ignorance is bliss...

In January I had the good fortune to go to St. Petersburg (South Pasadena specifically) for a week. It was cold and rainy the whole week.   A "wind shear" toppled a gas station overhang on top of a woman in a car, fortunately she was not hurt.  This was about four miles from where we were at.

 Last week I flew down  to drive back with my husband who was all ready there for a week and a half.  On Thursday they had what the locals told me was the worst storm in 20 years! (not counting hurricanes).  Unbelievable winds and rain!  I knew it was bad but I was told "the news always follows storms all day like this".  So I didn't know how bad the storm really was until friends and relatives started calling to see if we were safe.

It was hard to believe that the next day was absolutely beautiful! We went to Dunedin to visit relatives and walk at Honeymoon State Park beach.

Perfect last day to spend in Florida. :)

Bohemian

The Barnes Foundation

THE BARNES FOUNDATION

Today I drove two hours to Philadelphia (Lower Merion Township specifically) to visit the Barnes Foundation and view the incredible artwork in his collection before it is moved to a new location. If you watch the movie "The Art of the Steal" as I did, you will want to got see this fantastic collection. Seeing this art arranged as Barnes intended in the setting he created is part of the fascination and learning process.

"THE ART OF THE STEAL is "An un-missable look at one of the art world’s most fascinating controversies and a celebrated selection of the Toronto, New York and AFI Film Festivals, Don Argott’s gripping documentary THE ART OF THE STEAL chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, a private collection of art valued at more than $25 billion..." to see more about the movie, click here.

The foundation has one of the "one of the finest collections of nineteenth and twentieth-century French painting in the world. An extraordinary number of masterpieces by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse provide a depth of work by these artists unavailable elsewhere. Established as an educational institution the Barnes carries out its mission teaching classes in its galleries and Arboretum. The Barnes welcomes visitors and students throughout the year."

I was astounded by the number of Cezanne and Renoir paintings!! Imagine, looking at the large number of these all in the same place!! "The Barnes Foundation houses one of the finest collections of French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern paintings in the world, including an extraordinary number of masterpieces by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (181), Paul Cézanne (69), and Henri Matisse (59). The collection also includes important works by Pablo Picasso (46), Chaim Soutine (21), Henri Rousseau (18), Amedeo Modigliani (16), Edgar Degas (11), Vincent van Gogh (7), Georges Seurat (6), Edouard Manet (4), and Claude Monet (4).

Although renowned for its late 19th- and early 20th-century European paintings, the Foundation's collection also includes important examples of American paintings and works on paper, including works by Charles Demuth, William Glackens, and Maurice and Charles Prendergast; African sculpture; Native American ceramics, jewelry, and textiles; Asian paintings, prints, and sculptures; Medieval manuscripts and sculptures; Old Master paintings, including works by El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, and Titian; ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; and American and European decorative arts and metalwork."

When I made the reservations I secured the Docent tour. Our docent (tour guide) explained why Barnes positioned his paintings with utilitarian metalworks and furniture pieces. It made each room so much more interesting. The lines of the artwork corresponding with the lines and shapes of the objects. He wanted it just so, to be viewed as a learning experience. And it was. Afterward were free to go through the rooms and study and enjoy each piece.

To learn more about this extraordinarily man and his collection follow this link.

I had a GREAT DAY!

Take care, Bohemian

My first post.

After finding out blogstream is closing down and searching around I discovered a great deal of the stream are heading over here. Over a year ago or more ago I opened this "Just some gab blog." I figured since Anexplorer had come over I'd check it out. He along with a couple others had told me they had blogs here. I set it up and never used it. About the time Anexplorer died of cancer I just about quit blogging altogether.

I will give it a try again. I've been wanting to get back on the stream and to blog again. I miss the wonderful people I had contact with and their thoughtful, educational and humorous blogs. I hope to find them, and to meet some new people as well.

(I was going to call this my "Virgin Post" but I was afraid of the comments I'd get! LOL)

bohemian :)