3rd House Journal

Time to get an e-reader?

[Across the alley, Back Bay, Boston; 11/23/12]

I've been adding to my to-read list, which I keep either on Goodreads.com or on my Amazon wish list or both. Lorianne retweeted a list from a NY Times blog last week that had some great suggestions, including Oliver Burkeman's The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking. I've started reading it and I'm enjoying it very much. I'm also reading a novel, The Light Between Oceans, which I pilfered from a well-read friend's reading list on Goodreads. She actually takes the time to write reviews, bless her, which I haven't had time and bandwidth to do but I've greatly appreciated hers and others there for helping steer me to good selections. That includes a recent great read, Tell the Wolves I'm Home, which I was lucky to download for free from my local library. I've also learned to download samples onto my Kindle so I can see if I like something before shelling out for it.

I've had a Kindle for just about 2 years now and have read more than I had in many years previously altogether. I'd gotten out of the habit, was distracted and eyesore from work, and only managed to read during vacations. But the Kindle got me reading everywhere since I could pop it in my purse to pick up in waiting rooms and at the hair salon as well as at home in the evening, and I could easily bring it with me to D's on weekends. D got me an upgrade to the beautiful new Kindle Paperwhite for my birthday this fall and that's even better for having better lighting, among other improvements. It's also nice not to be piling up any more books on my overloaded bookshelves, which I do only in rare circumstances anymore. You won't see my windows loaded up with books.

Beacon Hill Art Walk 2012

[Landscape in a garden, Beacon Hill, Boston; 6/3/12]

The Beacon Hill Art Walk is held every year, rain or shine, the first Sunday in June. This year was the 22nd annual event, and I remember going to it once in the early '90s when the art was often displayed inside some of the local artist's homes, similar to open studio events nowadays. All art at the Art Walk is now outdoors in the private gardens, courtyards and alleys of the neighborhood as well as a couple of open spaces. About 100 artists from around New England participate, and no crafts such as jewelry or even artist's notecards are allowed. It's all about the art.

[Paintings by Minatsu Ariga]

Well, it's mostly about the art. It's also about being able to venture into the normally hidden nooks and crannies of Beacon Hill's North Slope, or "back of the Hill," once a much seedier area, but now quite pricey. There's also chamber music in a few spaces large enough to accommodate it. A few years back we heard some wonderful klezmer music on the steps of the beautiful old Vilna Shul, with its stained glass windows and its century-old painted murals being excavated in the sanctuary.

[Musicians at the Beacon Hill Art Walk]

I went to the Walk in 2008 with friends, in 2009 with D when we were first dating, and we attempted to go in 2010 with friends visiting from California but for a tree-uprooting storm that blew through. Last year we seemed to have just forgotten about it, and that even before all of our health issues that sidelined us throughout the summer. This year wasn't the greatest weatherwise, with intermittent drizzle, but it was as always an enjoyable few hours of browsing and photographing.

Here are a few more photos in my Flickr set for the day.

Glass

[Transom window, Stanhope St, Boston; 4/2/11]

The word window originates from the Old Norse for "wind eye." It began as a peep-hole through the roof, then as a "door for the eye." But it was the invention of glass that allowed light to come through and a view of the outside while protecting the inhabitants from the elements. Architects would eventually grace building façades with innumerable repeating windows, or skip walls altogether once glass was perfected to allow for vast expanses of glass, floor to ceiling, ground to sky.

["Pledge of Allegiance Building" in Boston]

An intriguing thing about window glass is its ability to reflect, sometimes mirroring back more than it reveals, like some cagey types who charm while disclosing nothing. Or it blends the internal and external in accidental alliance, a fleeting liaison of light and shadow.

[Lanoue Fine Art, Newbury St, Boston; 4/2/11]

And then there's the ability of glass to project light, to create the imaginary in the shadow of the real.

[Empty glass reflection, Aquitaine Bistrot, Boston; 4/2/11]

Reflect

I couldn't resist snapping shots of these collage pieces by Boston-area artist Jane Maxwell in the windows of the Lanoue Fine Art gallery on Newbury Street last Saturday. First of all, they're stunning images, large and iconic, and intriguing. The series (which unfortunately we missed because we didn't go in and it closed this week) is titled "Reflect" and is populated by images of women -- the Hollywood poster image of the "perfect woman," according to the artist's statement.

The work often features multiple women in conversation, comparison or repetition, a patterning that underscores the role female camaraderie and competition play in the quest for the ideal figure, and highlights our culture's insistence on uniformity.

In the current series, “Reflect,” the women are contemplative. They sit. They peer in mirrors. They pose and ponder. The women are looking out or peering back. They are, in a way, both viewed and the viewer...both judged and the judge. This interaction calls into question the complexity and tension between how a woman feels inside, what she projects to the world, and how she is perceived.'

The Lanoue gallery is located at the expensive end of Newbury Street near the Public Garden. This end features fine art galleries and high-end shops (the boho/funkier end being the other direction towards Mass. Ave). Jane Maxwell's work manages to be both high-fashion and a commentary on it. Passing below these windows on this fashion-conscious street, there's quite a bit of uniformity as the young women repeat this season's styles: skinny jeans, boots, long sweaters. They look lovely, though. Despite the repetition of fashion themes, their bodies are different shapes, their faces reflect different ethnicities, different personalities. What they feel about themselves inside is a mystery from the outside.

--

Of course I also liked the reflections of the sky and other side of the street from the "Reflect" works. My own reflection in a doorway on Newbury Street seems to say my inner concerns are primarily about plumbing.