On My Bedside Table – No 3
I managed to obtain another biography on Lautrec – The tragic life of Toulouse Lautrec by Lawrence and Elizabeth Hanson – published before I was born – got it for a song! It is extremely well researched and gave me a deep insight into life during the late 19th century, and may I say, the idle rich. I am aghast to which lengths people would go to accumulate wealth with of course sometimes devastating consequences.
Life determines how personalities would develop – for the good, and for the bad. It seems Lautrec did not suffer from bad health due to a sickly nature – he was the unfortunate victim of in-breeding, incest as we know it and all for the sake of money and social standing. He grew up a lovely child despite his challenged and unhappy family life, a wealthy noble but loveless household. Once he made peace with his rapidly declining health, he adjusted his approach towards life – carefree, fun and wild. Lautrec died a very young age but left an impressive legacy.
We are encouraged to broaden our horizons, and for good reason. Imagine having to live through a small and monotonous day – no new inspiration, no new challenges, no creative thought – terrible. It’s like cooking a bulk meal so that you only need to cook once a week and having to eat the same food daily. In saying that, I acknowledge the fact that some eat to live and some live to eat. I suppose I belong to the latter.
Speaking of which, the essence of cooking, according to me, is the sauce or gravy. Here we are not talking about regular condiments or Bisto sauces…, which you would not find on my table, we are talking about the craft of making a sauce; it requires proper planning. If you go to the trouble of crafting a sauce, you will use only the best, fresh ingredients – obviously seasonal. There is a science to it. Sauces are defined as noble, powerful, aristocratic and elegant. I can go with that. The book Sauces by world renowned chef-patron, Michel Roux has been awarded so many accolades and makes good bedtime reading – of course you wake up with an appetite, but then at least you had the whole night to plan. I am not sure if it’s the way it should be, but I find myself selecting a dish to make, that will go with a particular sauce by Michel – interesting deviation from the regular planning.
And then there was Vivian Maier – today defined as one of the greatest street photographers of all times. Probably an eccentric, but who left behind an enormous legacy. She lived a quiet life, mainly on her own, walked the streets, crossed the oceans with her medium format camera always at hand. Vivian had been introduced to me by a friend, who kept her on his bedside table.
She worked as a nanny; most of the families remember her fondly. Her skill, her eye, her determination, her fascination I consider remarkable. It seems that she would take a single shot of a scene, subject, people / public and move on. Not many knew of her; her massive body of work was discovered at a local thrift auction posthumously and she became an overnight sensation. It is estimated that she left a legacy of more than 150 000 unprinted negatives, all catalogued.
Today, her prints are highly in demand – some selling at as much as $8 000. Quite a few books were published on her – all hoping to bring the true Vivian to life. I enjoyed the book edited by Anne Morin and the one by John Maloof, who is said to be the one who “discovered” her. I have been fortunate…. I was gifted another highly acclaimed book Vivia Maier – DEVELOPED – the untold story of the photographer Nanny by Ann Marks – can’t wait to get started.
A book that has been sitting on my shelf for many years – Riddles in Stone by Hugh Eales, has now caught my attention. Although he is a scientist, and I am not, he wrote the book for novices like me.
“For several hundred years, geological science has been a battlefield of conflicting ideas. These controversies were not simply minor disagreements here and there, but included a great many clashes of interpretation that grew rapidly into acrimonious and protracted exchanges”.
Sounds like today, does it not, and not only on science but life in general. Earth Science branches into geology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography and environmental science.
With this book, the author intends to give a background to some wayward ideas that have surfaced during the development of earth science. By no means do I intend to become an expert on earth science, but I find the controversies, theories, and myths about South Africa’s geological past quite interesting – how it contributed, right or wrong, to the development of earth science. It is astonishing to what length a person would go for monetary gain and/or acknowledgement, sacrificing integrity, publishing un-verified / un-tested information.
Although we no longer go to the movies, with technology where it is today, the movies come to us, right there in a warm cosy bed on a long chilly winter’s evening. Birdy is classified as a war movie (1984) – to me it is less about the war rather about the two awkward friends – Al, from a troubled house with an abusing father, and as a teenager quite fond of girls, and Birdy, who might seem goofy, but fascinated by birds. The two are inseparable. There is a gentleness in both characters and in the friendship – both have been damaged during war – Al comes back with a disfigured face and Birdy, traumatised by what he’d seen during war, became catatonic; he spends long quiet days perched in his room looking longingly out of the window. Al hopes to draw him out of his shell. Let me not spoil it for you, but one of the best endings ever!