Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
(Note how I make wild, flagrant use of colorful fonts and the marquee tag in your honor.)
Jules, last year for my birthday you wrote me an original poem. I have no such skill, so instead I’m throwing you a virtual party. I’m including all your favorite things. Here’s your mug of coffee:
And I’ve got cupcakes – from MagPies, of course:
Monday, May 5th, 2008
If there were any doubt to the reader that this was a biography of Lady Liberty, illustrator Matt Tavares makes it clear on the title page spread with an impressive view of Manhattan from the Statue’s eyes—a very nice touch, I must say. Yes, Doreen Rappaport brings us Lady Liberty: A Biography (Candlewick; May 13, 2008), as told from the perspective of everyone from the engineers to the sculptor to those who wrote poetry in her honor to those who gathered nickels and pennies—and farm fowl—to help fund her.
In the opening spread—the author’s own musings on her grandfather’s journey one hundred and twenty years ago from Latvia to the United States and what it must have felt like for him to see Lady Liberty in the harbor—Tavares brings to life the boat of Rappaport’s grandfather, “a ship packed with people from many different countries . . . and there was Lady Liberty greeting them all . . . People lifted babies so they could see her. Tears ran down my grandfather’s face. People around him were crying, too. And then a wave of cheering and hugging swept over the ship.” And, in another nice touch, Tavares paints the present-day Rappaport in the picture as well, standing above the immigrants and also looking reverently at the statue. Such a lovely, affecting spread, knowing she is standing above her own grandfather, perhaps even the one lifting his arms out toward the statue. Read the rest of this entry �
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
Jules: Bonjour, indeed! It’s that time of the month again. We’re featuring a student of illustration today, this time the one and only Kali Ciesemier, whose classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art end THIS FRIDAY — and she graduates on May 19th! We happen to think that featuring her art work now is great timing, though we certainly thank her for taking the time to do so during a crazybusy time in her life. Graduation and all that. Yeesh. She’s probably scurrying around right now, doing a million things. Wait, I know she is. She told me so. So, thanks to Kali for taking the time to visit us this morning and show us some of her art work.
Pictured below is one savagely cool, terrifically tough rollerblader, “Betty Beatdown of the Charm City Roller Girls,” and below that is a hello from Kali and a bit more about her and her plans.
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Remember last weekend, when I went on the Wine and Herb Fest tour? It turns out a lot of the wineries here in the Fingerlakes do specialty fruit wines. Rhubarb, strawberry, pear, apple, peach, blackberry, cherry… Anything you can think of. Some of it is so sweet it drifts over into cordial territory, but a few of them were really quite lovely.
For some reason, the first time someone said the words “rhubarb wine,” the Jeff Buckley version of the James Shelton song “Lilac Wine” popped into my head. And, as the lovely spring weather has continued and actual lilacs are starting to bloom around here, the song has stayed in my head all week. I happen to love it, so I’m not complaining. In fact, I think I’ll share it with you for poetry friday. Here’s the first couple of verses:
I lost myself on a cool damp night
Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac treeI made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
Makes me see what I want to see
And be what I want to be
You can read the rest of the lyrics here. But really, this is a song that needs to be heard, not read. I know a lot of artists have covered it, but the only one I’m really familiar with is Jeff Buckley. *sigh* Man, I did love to hear that man sing.
Here’s an oddly hypnotic video someone made for the song. I like it in a way – it suits the mood, and lets the song take the focus. But don’t watch too closely, or you’ll realize you’re passing same tree over and over.
The always-poetic Kelly is handling the Poetry Friday roundup over at Big A little a. Poetry goes very well with wine, you know. Works with white or red… even champagne. Especially with that little strawberry in the bottom of the glass? I love that. Right, anyway… go on over to Kelly’s and see what everyone else is sharing today.
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Want to see something neat? Ekphrasis. Ekphrasis, I tell ya. That means, essentially, poetry inspired by art, and it’s my new favorite word. Little did I know there was a word for this. Ekphrasis. I like saying it. Here’s some ekphrasis in action, and it comes from Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art From Around the World (Abrams Books for Young Readers, May 2008), which I’ll tell you about in a moment. This is an anthology edited by Jan Greenberg, who brought us—amongst a handful of great titles—the Printz Honor Book, Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art (Abrams, 2001).
For the record, I’m re-printing these two poems with permission from the publisher, and this Edward Hopper painting falls under Fair Use and all that fun stuff. Also, I know these poems are HUGE, but WordPress won’t cooperate when I need to type poems with unusual formatting / spacing / indentation, so I have to basically type them into Word and make them images. Anyway, moving on…
