I Spy

For no particular reason I seem to be on a kind of spy-streak at the moment. I have just finished watching the BBC series (1979) of John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Before that it was The State Within and before that State of Play (also BBC productions). A while ago I discovered the Ashenden short stories by Somerset Maugham, and at the moment I am reading Steve Coll's excellent Ghost Wars for which he won the Pulitzer. It gives a riveting account of the CIA's involvement in Afghanistan, and the origins of al-Qaeda. Fascinating reading. Scary for many reasons. Why would anyone choose to be a spy? I have no idea.

(Two quick doodles in my moleskine. Yes, I know my perspective is all cock-eyed and what is meant to be the pavement looks like light falling from the wrong direction and what is meant to be the light looks like weird raindrops. Let's just leave it at that.)

Another Obsession

I have recently developed an(other) obsession - taking photographs of old movies. While I am watching them on a laptop. I realize it is odd, but so am I. I think my initial idea was to use the stills to make drawings.
Something like this perhaps...

which was done by this woman ...

of this man ...

Recognize the movie?

T-A-D #4 Love Story - the movie

(Director: Anairam Traws)

(made from TP-inners, old cereal box, magazine page, prestik)

Happiness ...

Today was another glorious day - I went to see The Band's Visit - an Israeli film about an Egyptian police band who get stranded in a godforsaken little town in Israel. It is a lovely movie - probably the best picture I've seen in the past 12 months. If you're into quiet films about human interaction and its capacity to change us in subtle ways, please go and see it!

But the best part of the day was arriving home and finding a thick envelope in my mail box - not the horrible kind containing tax forms, or documents from your investment broker showing you that your little nest egg is now almost non-existent, but the GOOD kind, containing lots of delicious inspirational bits and pieces, from a lovely friend who lives 20 inches away!

The generous-spirited Linda Sue sent me a whole pack of goodies for use with my journals and crafting - a beautiful Happiness card ...

A sweet embroidered lappie - I am going to put it on my dressing table ...

... and lots of the most delicious vintage ephemera - an old library catalogue card, book pages of various types, vintage luggage tags, claim tickets, admittance tickets, pictures and playing cards! (Thanks to the page from an old French grammar book I can now say, "Linda Sue, je suis heureux de vous voir", but oh bother, I want to replace 'voir' with the verb for 'know', and that page is missing ... and I want to say "very, VERY heureux" ...)

This little bad karma cure-all manual - to send to the publishers, she says. (But I'm keeping it, being in dire need of it having inadvertently crushed a snail while gardening yesterday.)

... and this sweet little card - Linda Sue says it's a price tag. My goodness, that is one artistic price tag - I would have bought the item just to get the tag! And I love the picture of the little girl - it actually reminds me of myself when I was little - blond hair in a funny bob, and the bow! Oh, that bow! My mom was Applicator-of-Huge-Ribbon-Bows-in-Hair Supreme...)

Linda Sue even thought of Mirabelle and sent her some miniature money - good thing too, as Mirabelle is quite annoyed with me at the moment - I forgot her in the box over Xmas, and I mislaid all her outfits, except for the top of her pant suit. So she tootled off to The Space, Linda Sue's gift clutched in her grubby little paws, to do some clothes shopping ...

Thank you so much, dear Linda Sue, from the depths of our hearts (even though one of them is a little paper heart....) I am going to have a great deal of fun using these!

Movies, Books, Art - what more could I want?

I had a perfect day - went to see this movie ...

(There are two kinds of people - those who love Woody Allen movies, and those who don't, and I fall into the first category.)

Then visited the Book Lounge in Roeland Street (this view is from its side door), and it was indeed delicious - to the last drop ... I got a (signed - whoo hoo!) copy of Jesse's graphic short story collection - I Don't Like Chocolate (which in my case could not be further from the truth!)

It was quite hot, so we crossed the street to the Kimberley Hotel's bar. I've always wanted to go - it is a slightly seedy old-fashioned kind of bar - remember the days when females were not allowed in bars? I must say that I got a few looks when I entered, and I did not think they were the complimentary, approving kind. Suffice it to say that I was the only female customer ...

...so I kept my gaze firmly trained on the beautiful pressed ceiling as I drank my cider ...

Then off to the Goodman Gallery Cape to see the William Kentridge exhibition - (REPEAT) from the beginning - oh, oh, oh!! Magnificent, I was blown away!

It perfectly complemented his 8 film fragment installation (i am not me, the horse is not mine) which I saw a few weeks ago at the National Gallery.

And then back home where a water pipe had broken - once again ....

But what do I care? Movies, books, art - I have it all ...

Art Journal - a new page and an old one, amended.

" ... in the east the cloud-flower blossoms ..."
Collage with paint and marker pen. This is an earlier page which I made darker and added the image of Fat Man.

Drawing with pastels and marker pen. I realise that the column of the mushroom cloud should be much higher, but I needed to fit it all onto the page.

I did these two pages after seeing Dr Atomic, an opera about Robert Oppenheimer and the last days of testing the bomb at Los Alamos. (Music by John Adams and libretto by Peter Sellars. It is one of the Met Goes to the Movies series.)

Still on kimonos and things Japanese ...

Kendalee of Dance of a Painted Lady has posted a kimono-inspired quilted art work (from an exhibition she recently visited) that is absolutely amazing! My quest for a kimono has reminded me of the fantastic trilogy of films by Yasujiro Ozu that I saw earlier this year. I absolutely loved Tokyo Story, and also his Early Summer and Late Spring. They were made between 1949 and 1953. His other films do not seem to be available here - I would so love to see them! Some stills ...

On Having a Dream

I have immense admiration for people who have A Dream and who then do something to make it come true. Even when they are not successful, I admire them for trying anyway. This is a man who had A Dream - a Weird and Wacky & Wonderful Dream - which started in 1968 in a dentist's waitingroom, and he made it come true in August 1974.

The Start of the Dream - an article in a French newspaper about the proposed building of the Twin Towers (incorrectly labelled the Trade World Centre in the French paper).
And 6 years later, Philippe Petit walked & danced for a glorious hour in the sky above New York ...






Images above all from To Reach The Clouds (Philippe Petit) a 2nd-hand book I picked up at a charity book sale the day after I read the movie review of Man on Wire in the NYT - how is that for synchronicity!

What I find even more fantastic is that the planning & execution of this feat happened secretly (and illegally!) with the help of only a few friends. The Ultimate Guerilla Performance Art! (Now I'm looking for two high buildings in Cape Town. Oh, and I have to take some tightrope walking classes ...)
Read review of the documentary 'Man on Wire' here. (Image above from the movie).

I've been to Opera at the Met!

"What opera isn't violent? Two things happen, violence and love. And other than that, name something else. You can't. " (Cab Calloway)

What a treat! The Metropolitan Opera has been broadcasting a range of live operas as movies - which are now also shown in CT (at V&A Nouveau). It is truly a worthwhile experience, even if, like me, you are not opera-crazy. I have quite a few favourite arias and duets from a range of operas but have only two favourite operas - La Boheme & Madame Butterfly - and to sit through a whole opera, well, it has to be extremely engrossing or the sets and costumes have to be pretty damn exceptional or it has to be one of my two favourites. But sitting in the movies listening to opera is such a weird & wonderful experience that one must try it at least once: you can munch your way (though quietly, very quietly ....) through a box of popcorn. You can go to the opera in the morning (how cool is that!) And you can wear jeans and takkies. As you sit 'with' the real audience & through their intervals as well, better prepare yourself for a longish movie - about 3 and a half to 4 hours, depending of course on the actual length of the opera. I loved the sneak peeks behind the scenes, seeing wonderful close-ups (not achievable with opera glasses or binoculars) and hearing the world's most fantastic singers. Last week we saw La Boheme, with the wonderful Angela Gheorghiu and Ramon Vargas. Oh dear, all that emotion and tragedy - I sobbed and sobbed!

This week it was The Barber of Seville, not one of my favourites, so I opted for some wandering around (see next post) while Le Husband indulged. Next week I will definitely join him to see Anna Netrebko in Romeo et Juliette and I can't wait to see the madcap Natalie Dessay in La Fille du Regimento the week after! And just for the record, apart from some minor Ster-Kinekor-related problems, the sound is pretty good ....
PS For the fashion-conscious among you, I see that Isaac Mizrahi has designed the costumes for the Met's chorus for their Summer Concert and will be doing some other designs for them as well.

What the Dickens ....?

Yesterday was a Dickens day - quite unintentionally!

Visiting our local library's Saturday Book Sale - a treasure trove of used books - I found this lovely old copy of Dickens' s Little Nell - as retold by Alice F. Jackson for Boys and Girls & beautifully illustrated by F.M.B. Blaikie.

Later that evening I realised that the 2002 movie version of Nicholas Nickleby was on telly - is this synchronicity or what? Apparently Miranda Richardson declined the role of the Mrs Squeers character to allow her to concentrate on Spider (with Ralph Fiennes).
I thought that Juliet Stevenson did an excellent job of portraying the very hideous Mrs Squeers though! I even had a little Mrs Squeers nightmare last night .....