Time to Re-read

After I finished Jane Eyre and Reel Art..., I grabbed a novel about Anne Boleyn, but never seemed to have the opportunity to read. 

Then I remembered that Preston & Child's latest book--Angel of Vengeance--will be published in August. This will the fourth book in the Leng Quartet (following The Cabinet of Curiosities, Bloodless, and The Cabinet of Dr. Leng.)

To better appreciate the new book, I decided to reread the first three. I finished The Cabinet of Curiosities this morning. I've already read it twice, so it went quickly. Next, on to Bloodless.

Writer's Workshop

On Friday I attended a writer's workshop--Visually Compelling Storytelling with Ann Lineberger--at the Norwalk Library. 

The workshop was okay, but I really liked getting back to an in-person event at the library. Before Covid, I was going to history programs with light lunches on topics such as the wives of Henry VIII and Romanov empresses in Russia. My writing classes also began in-person before switching to Zoom. 

Before the workshop, I picked up the last two Preston & Child Pendergast books--Bloodless and The Cabinet of Dr. Leng--to re-read before I read the latest book, Angel of Vengeance--to be published August 13. 

It was also nice to see two people from my writing classes in attendance. One man is planning to self-publish a book. He wore silver--gray nail polish, and I kept thinking of Tom Sandoval. (Ugh.) The other person was Anne. We talked for a few minutes after class and plan to get together for coffee. 

Bring On August

Just a handful of days to get through July. July isn't been good. Honestly, the things I complain about started in June. 

HHH Weather--we've had three heat waves this season. Plus, several poor air quality days.

Gastric Issues--I haven't been 100 percent since early June.

Let's look at August.

The Sono Arts Festival is next weekend. It shrinks each year, but I still enjoy going. I called my friend Chris today, and we made plans to go next Sunday. 

Jace's two-year anniversary with us is on August 25. He seems to finally be comfortable when we leave him.

We're going to visit friends in Baltimore in August.

Bring on August.

Book 14: Reel Art Great Posters from the Golden Age of the Silver Screen by Stephen Rebello and Richard Allen

This is the quintessential coffee table book--it's large with beautiful photographs and illustrations--and a great Mark Twain Library sale purchase from last fall. 

I've leafed through the book several times, and then read the book over several months. I finished it one early morning last week when I couldn't get back to sleep. 

It's a fun book--I'm sure I'll be leafing through it again soon. 

Book 13: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I'm glad I read this book, but I didn't particularly like it. Of course, it doesn't help that I knew about the mad wife in the attic well before I read the book. 

I didn't care for the 19th century language. Another annoying thing was that sometimes two people would talk in the same paragraph. Even worse, sometimes Jane's thoughts were set off in quotation marks. I don't know if it was the author's or the editor's choice, but it got confusing. 

More importantly, I couldn't stand Rochester--he was horrible. He masqueraded as an old fortune-teller to test and manipulate Jane and his houseguests. He tried to gaslight Jane about the strange visitor to her bedroom. He proposes and plans a wedding to Jane that is interrupted by the news of his marriage. Worst of all, he imprisons his wife in a windowless, attic room with only an occasionally drunk caretaker. The guy was rich--why didn't he place her in a secluded manor house or at least a nice farm?

I also thought Jane's escape from Thornfield Hall with only a few coins was ridiculous. It made it hard to sympathize with her.

Charlotte Bronte was a descriptive writer. I loved this--it could have described the moon I saw the other night, except for the rain.

I lingered; the moon shut herself wholly within her chamber, and drew close her curtain of dense cloud; the night grew dark; rain came driving fast on the gale.

Here Jane described the danger of marriage to her cousin St. John: 

There would be recesses in my mind which would only be mine, to which he never came; and sentiments growing there fresh and sheltered, which his austerity could never blight, nor his measured warrior-march trample down; but as his wife--at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked--forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital--this would be unendurable.

I won't seek other books by Bronte. 

OMG! LGM!

It's the All-Star break for Major League Baseball. The Mets have had quite the season already. In my first Mets post, I wrote they were looking good after a dismal start. Then they were dismal for the next month-and-a-half: On May 29, the Mets were 11 games under .500.

As they return to action on Friday, the Mets are 49-46 and in contention for the Wild Card. They are getting contributions across the board, they're having fun, and they have a theme song.

I won't say the sky's the limit, but I'm feeling good.

New Frustration Dream

I haven't had a frustration dream in about five months until last night. I went to Bill's home--a sprawling building. There was a couple there; Bill gave the woman and me a small basket with an upside-down plastic bottle. I leave to go home to walk my dog, and deliberately leave the basket behind.

Unfortunately, I can't leave because I can't find my car. In a parking lot, I see several cars are flooded. I also see three bars that I didn't see as I arrived. I see several people, but no one is willing to help me. Instead, one woman told me I shouldn't visit Bill by myself. Others ask me for donations. One man had a small gold pin because he made a substantial donation to Bill (now called Tom Sale.)

I check my watch, and it's later than I thought. I think about calling Jeff, but get distracted. I wake before I find the car. 

Before the dream, I found myself lying awake thinking about all the chores I need to do--especially long term chores e.g. purging old paperwork and de-cluttering. I guess those thoughts triggered this dream. 

More About the Shore

I was looking at the map of New Jersey and was surprised at just how many shore towns there are in Jersey and how many I had never even heard of. I spent a lot of time in Seaside Heights and some in Ocean City and Wildwood. 

As I mentioned, I really liked Seaside Park; I felt comfortable there. It's low-key and small--only .81 square miles--and narrow. Our condo was three blocks from the ocean on one side and one block from the bay on another. It made our walks so nice, especially in the mornings. 

One thing I noticed was that a number of houses have names. As I've mentioned before, I hate named houses. In my walks, I saw Shore Thing, Beach Baby, Heavenly Afterglow, Shore Edition, Bay Angel, and  Valente Villa. Valente Villa isn't too bad. I like the alliteration, but it had two signs--one right above the other and was a bit much. Sea-Renity was the house name that bugged me the most--too cutesy. It was not in Seaside Park, but somewhere on the road between Point Pleasant and Lavallette. I also saw Sunshine Daydream in either Avalon or Stone Harbor; I liked the homage to the Grateful Dead song Sugar Magnolia. 

Sea Isle City is over three times the size of Seaside Park at 2.75 square miles and much busier. While I didn't see all its neighborhoods, I didn't notice any of the small bungalows that predominated in Seaside Heights before Hurricane Sandy and can still be found in Seaside Park. I saw a few modest houses, but primarily duplexes and McMansions. 

Sea Isle did not have a similar number of named houses. Many had signs with family names. The home where we were staying had a sign, Happy Chappy's. I also saw Cead Mile Failte or a hundred thousand welcomes.

However, Sea Isle City is big on flags as are some other Jersey Shore towns. In Sea Isle, the American, Phillies, and college flags, especially Penn State, flags predominate. I was happy to see one or two University of Delaware flags. 

I'll have to visit more of the shore to see what the other towns feature.

Down the Shore Part Two

Note: I continue in my general writing malaise. I actually started this post on Sunday. Each day, I planned to finish, but I never seemed to get around to it. I realize I've been procrastinating about writing about our Sea Isle City visit. Everything was overshadowed by Jace's massive case of diarrhea across the hallway and two bedrooms. This happened sometime late night Thursday or early morning Friday. I spent hours cleaning up literal shit. This was in addition to be feeling generally lousy all day Thursday. We were afraid to leave Jace alone in the house after that.

Things started out well on Wednesday. We left Seaside Park and drove about an hour-and-a-quarter to Sea Isle City and the home of my cousin Elena and her husband Tom. They were there when we arrived, which was a surprise. Tom and a friend left after lunch; Elena stayed overnight, and she, Jeff, and I went out to dinner. 

I did get to the beach Friday afternoon. One day, we went for a drive, and I did a little shopping. I did a lot of reading and relaxed as best I could with the dark diarrhea cloud over me. 

More to follow.

An Artist's Studio

Today I visited the studio of Mari Gyorgyey, who is part of Firing Circuits Artists' Studio in Norwalk. Mari was my instructor for a mixed media/collage course I took in 2020 in the days of social distancing. Here's the class she's teaching now. I would love to take a book-making class, but it's not a good use of money right now.

Mari showed us some of the things she was working on, especially some books. We also visited two other artists who discussed their techniques.

The main idea I took from today is that art is fun. I'm supposed to play, try things. 

Maybe after I finish unpacking.