A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

 A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare

One of Shakespeare's most-performed plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream is an amusing farce.   It is not one of my favorites, but it is very light and amusing and inoffensive.  I found the production of the parts about the fairies to be particularly well done.  I also thought Bruce Dow was incredible as Bottom; he was the perfect actor for that role, and he played it wonderfully well.  I also really enjoyed Adam Green as Puck.  All in all, it was a light, amusing evening at the Shakespeare Theater.

Washington Post Review

Washingtonian Review

DC Metro Review

The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol

The Government Inspector, by Nikolai Gogol

Previously, I had read the Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, and I consider him one of the greatest writers I have ever read.  His short story, Diary of a Madman, is the most well-written story I have ever read.  However, I feel that much of his writing was inconsequential and useless.  I knew that this play was a satire; however, I didn't know whether I would find the play well-written or not.  Fortunately, I loved the play.  The play was a satire/comedy about life in Russia in the early 1800s, especially how those in positions of any power at all forced the powerless to pay bribes for everything.  Corruption by government officials at all levels was rampant.  The play showed the extreme lengths to which those same government officials would go to cover up their corruption.    I really enjoyed this play.


The Government Inspector

Washington Post Review

Washingtonian Review

DC Metro Review

Shakespeare Theatre 2012-13 Season

Shakespeare Theatre 2012-13 Season

The Government Inspector -- Nikolai Gogol

A Midsummer Night's Dream -- William Shakespeare

Hughie -- Eugene O'Neill

Wallenstein -- Friedrich Schiller

Coriolanus -- William Shakespeare

The Winter's Tale -- William Shakespeare

The Flashman Papers

Harry Paget Flashman was a fictional character created by George MacDonald Fraser as the protagonist in a series of 12 historical novels, covering the period 1839-1894. The novels are based on the "discovery" of Flashman's memoirs, and the books were published during the period 1969-2005. Flashman is an unapologetic antihero, who described himself as "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward—and oh yes, a toady." The history of the novels is accurate, and Flashman provides amusement, so I enjoy these novels. The following is the complete list of the novels, taken from Wikipedia; I have them all, and I am working my way through them.

Volumes of the Flashman Papers

The following extracts (in publication order) from the Flashman Papers have been published:

- Flashman (1969): 1839-1842. Lord Cardigan; the First Anglo-Afghan War (the retreat from Kabul, the last stand at Gandamak and the siege of Jellalabad).
- Royal Flash (1970): 1843, 1847-1848. A pastiche of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, set in the fictional German state of Strackenz. Lola Montez; Otto von Bismarck; bare-knuckle boxing; the Schleswig-Holstein Question; the Revolutions of 1848.
- Flash for Freedom! (1971): 1848-1849. The Atlantic slave trade; the Underground Railroad.
- Flashman at the Charge (1973): 1854-1855. The Crimean War; the Charge of the Light Brigade; Russian invasion of Central Asia.
- Flashman in the Great Game (1975): 1856-1858. The Indian Mutiny, the Rani of Jhansi, the Cawnpore Massacre, the siege of Lucknow. Flashman was required to perform heroically in this conflict and was awarded the Victoria Cross and a knighthood. But the publication of Tom Brown's Schooldays with its portrayal of Flashman as a coward and bully spoiled his satisfaction.
- Flashman's Lady (1977): 1843-1845. The first "hat trick" in cricket; "White Rajah" James Brooke and the pirates of Borneo; Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar. Parts are written as if drawn from the diary of his wife Elspeth, and edited by her slightly puritanical and much offended sister, Grizel Morrison de Rothschild.
- Flashman and the Redskins (1982): 1849-1850, 1875-1876. The Wild West: the Forty-Niners, the Apaches, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
- Flashman and the Dragon (1985): 1860. China: the Taiping Rebellion and the Peking Expedition.
- Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990): 1845-46. The First Anglo-Sikh War; the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
- Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1994): 1858-1859. United States: John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid.
- Flashman and the Tiger (1999) incorporating:
-- The Road to Charing Cross: 1877-1878. The Congress of Berlin; assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Josef.
-- The Subtleties of Baccarat: 1890-1891. Edward VII; the Royal Baccarat Scandal.
- Flashman and the Tiger 1879, 1894. The Zulu War; Oscar Wilde; Colonel Sebastian "Tiger Jack" Moran; Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
- Flashman on the March (2005): 1868. Escape from Mexico at the end of the French occupation; British invasion of Abyssinia to rescue hostages.

Flashman also plays a small part in Fraser's novel Mr American (1980). His father, Harry Buckley Flashman, appears in Black Ajax (1997). At one point, it is also mentioned that a member of the Flashman family was present at the Battle of Culloden, 1746. Fraser has confirmed that Flashman died in 1915 but the circumstances of his death have never been related.

In early 2006 Fraser said that he planned to write another installment of the Flashman Papers. Fraser said he had chosen three possible subjects to write about, though what these are he was not willing to say. At the Oxford Literary festival in 2006, Fraser estimated that it took him roughly three to five months to research and write a Flashman novel.

Fraser died of cancer on 2 January 2008.

Flashman Papers in chronological order:

Flashman: 1839-1842. the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Flashman's Lady: 1843-1845. Borneo, Madagascar.
Flashman and the Mountain of Light: 1845-46. The First Anglo-Sikh War.
Royal Flash: 1847-1848. the Revolutions of 1848.
Flash for Freedom!: 1848-1849. The Atlantic slave trade; the Underground Railroad.
Flashman and the Redskins Part I: 1849-1850, The Wild West: the Forty-Niners,
Flashman at the Charge: 1854-1855. The Crimean War; the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Flashman in the Great Game: 1856-1858. The Indian Mutiny.
Flashman and the Angel of the Lord: 1858-1859. the Harper's Ferry Raid.
Flashman and the Dragon: 1860. the Peking Expedition.
Flashman on the March: 1868. British invasion of Abyssinia to rescue hostages.
Flashman and the Redskins Part II: 1875-1876. the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Flashman and the Tiger
The Road to Charing Cross: 1877-1878. The Congress of Berlin; Emperor Franz Josef.
The Subtleties of Baccarat: 1890-1891. Edward VII; the Royal Baccarat Scandal.
Flashman and the Tiger 1879, 1894. The Zulu War.

La's Orchestra Saves The World, Alexander McCall Smith

La's Orchestra Saves The World
Having read all of Alexander McCall Smith's books, I was expecting another light hearted book with a happy ending. However, this book is very different from other McCall Smith books. This book is a melancholy biographical novel about a sad life of a wonderful woman. One keeps hoping that after the sadness, her life will become happier, but instead, more sadness ensues until the end, leaving one feeling quite sad. While I am sure that many lives are unhappy, I am not attracted to books about those lives. I prefer not to read books that leave me feeling sad, and I don't recommend this book.

The Sound of Language, Amulya Malladi

The Sound of Language, by Amulya Malladi

Amulya Malladi grew up in India, then went to the United States to study and while there, married a man from Denmark.  They went to live in Denmark in 2002, where Malladi came to learn about Afghan immigrants to Denmark, fleeing the Taliban.  This book is about one such Afghan immigrant to Denmark and the difficulties she faced in going to live in a society that was completely alien to the society she came from in Afghanistan, including a new language that sounded like the buzzing of bees.  The book describes many differences that Raihana faced, and the difficulty she had in coping with those differences.  The book also describes those Afghans who wanted to cling to their past social norms and their tension both with Danish society and with other Afghans who wanted adopt some of the social norms of their new country.  The book also describes the tensions in the Danish society in coming to accept the new immigrants from Afghanistan.  In addition, the book describes the inner turmoil of a young woman faced with the loss of her husband, her move to this new country, and her own continued growth, regardless of her place of residence.   I suspect that many immigrants from all over the world face similar difficulties, no matter where they come from or which country they immigrate to, including the United States.  I liked this book.  Malladi informs through the means of a story.  Her story, like real life, includes more sorrow than joy, in the end, coming to a compromise living situation, as so many immigrants do, letting go of some of her old society, but not fully integrating into her new society, living out her life in a state of limbo, neither here nor there. 

The Last Boy, by Jane Leavy

The Last Boy
Mickey Mantle And The End Of America's Childhood
By Jane Leavy

In 1996, the year after Mickey Mantle died, his wife Merlyn and three of their four sons published a memoir of Mickey, A Hero All His Life.  In that book, they recognized Mickey's faults -- his massively irresponsible life toward his family, his profession, his teammates and friends, and himself; his addictions to alcohol and womanizing; and his boorish behavior. They also discussed why they loved him -- despite his faults, he was a genuinely nice, caring, loving man.  In the first chapter of that book, Mantle admitted his many faults and apologized for letting his wife and sons down.  In a press conference, Mantle told kids in America, "Don't be like me."

Jane Leavy's book details Mantle's personal failings, and it also describes some of his greatest triumphs as a baseball player.  Despite Mantle's horrendous lifestyle, he was a truly gifted and great baseball player.  Like Babe Ruth before him, he was great despite his degenerate lifestyle. One can only imagine how much better he might have been if he had lived the responsible life that his counterpart across town, Willie Mays, lived.  Would he have been as great as Mays?  Very likely he would have equaled Mays offensively, although not defensively.  Adding to Mantle's difficulties as a baseball player was the fact that in his first year as a Yankee, in the World Series of 1951, he severely injured his knee while fielding a ball hit by another rookie -- Willie Mays.  Medical science at that time was not able to repair the knee as it could easily do today, and he played his entire career on that injured knee.

It is interesting to note that Mantle's lifestyle was not widely known at the time that he played, just as the personal failings of the president at that time, JFK, were not known.  Personal lives of public figures were off-limits to the press at that time.  In today's press climate, details of private failings are widely reported and widely known, as in the case of Tiger Woods.  Such wide reporting, while very intrusive, robbing individuals of their privacy, also has the advantage of helping athletes and other public figures to let go of character flaws and live and perform at a level closer to their full potential.

It is also interesting to note that athletes of Mantle's time did not employ weight training or other exercise programs.  Their achievements were accomplished through natural talent alone, making them all the more remarkable. It is truly amazing that Mantle could accomplish all that he did with a degenerate lifestyle, no exercise, and a severely injured knee.  Even with all of his accomplishments, he did not realize his full potential as a baseball player.

Jane Leavy is a good writer, and I find it enjoyable to read her prose.  However, reading about Mantle's degenerate lifestyle produces a sadness that greatly diminishes the pleasure in reading the book.  She writes well, describing perhaps too well Mantle's failings. I finished the book about a truly great baseball player feeling very sad, when I should have felt intense joy.

The Boys From Syracuse -- Shakespeare Theatre

The Boys From Syracuse

The Boys From Syracuse is a musical based on Shakespeare's play, A Comedy of Errors. The musical was written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart and first produced on Broadway in 1938. As described in The Washington Post review of this production, this "show was Shakespeare Theatre Company’s inaugural attempt at replicating, with an Elizabethan wink, New York’s highly successful and widely imitated Encores! concert series, which regularly blows the dust off vintage (and sometimes not-so-vintage) musicals." Shakespeare Theatre produced five weekend performances of the show. I loved the show, as I love musical theater. The play and the music leave one feeling happy and remind one of a golden age of musical theater in America, led by Richard Rogers, who teamed with Hart and later with Oscar Hammerstein, to write some of the greatest shows in Broadway history.

Jennifer Stone Artwork

Jennifer Stone Artwork

At the Augustana College Center for Western Studies

Interesting acrylics and watercolors.

The Heir Apparent -- Shakespeare Theatre

The Heir Apparent

Both newspaper reviews and audience reviews are posted on the official site. My own review: I enjoyed the play. This play was first staged in 1708 in Paris, and the original was translated and updated for this production. The play is a farce; it was intended to be slapstick humor. The play was not to be taken seriously; it was intended to amuse, and in my opinion, it succeeded. This play made me smile and even laugh at times. I loved the lighthearted nature of the play, and I left the theater feeling happy.

Shakespeare Theatre 2011-2012 Season

The Shakespeare Theatre celebrates its 25th Anniversary.

The 2011-2012 Anniversary Season

The Heir Apparent: Regnard's comic masterpiece adapted by David Ives and directed by Michael Kahn—the creative team behind last year's hit, The Liar.

Much Ado About Nothing: the always-charming romantic comedy, directed by Ethan McSweeny, will run during the holiday season.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Shakespeare’s classic tale of friendship, love and adventure, will be directed by PJ Paparelli.

Strange Interlude: Michael Kahn directs Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, revolutionary drama, which has become a modern classic.

The Servant of Two Masters: Goldoni’s magical comedy will be restaged by Christopher Bayes after a sold-out run at Yale Repertory Theatre.

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Stephen Rayne will direct this bawdy and riotous Shakespeare play to close the season.

Lady Gaga at the Clinton "Decade of Difference" Concert

Lady Gaga stole the show at the Clinton "Decade of Difference" concert. What a performance.
Part 1
Part 2

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel by Boris Akunin

I did not care for this book. I really enjoyed all four of the Fandorin books by Akunin, as well as the other two Sister Pelagia books that have been translated. I was really looking forward to getting this new translation; however, I soon found that it was not like the previous books. I found this book boring. I kept putting it aside. I had to struggle to finish it. It was not a fun, happy read for me. In addition, I also found the unnecessary and gratuitous violence and murders of innocent children and others to be uninviting. When I finally got to the end of the book and learned the storyline and plot, I found it so hokey that I could hardly believe that a writer like Akunin would write such a storyline. I have less excitement now about the next Akunin book that is translated. I don't recommend this book.

Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson

Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson

The first book written about Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea, described how Mortenson became involved in building schools in rural Pakistan. The book became a world-wide inspirational best seller. This book follows up by describing how Mortenson and his "Dirty Dozen" employees work. The book describes how some of the schools -- now 131 -- actually came about. Mortenson describes how he and his men work with local community leaders to gain their acceptance and support, which he believes is vital to success. I found this book as inspirational as the first book -- it provides tangible methods to achieve success. Compared with the total number of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the number of schools built by Mortenson is tiny, but they are vital to the villages and the children they serve.

As an unintended consequence, a much larger purpose has been served by Mortenson -- he has inspired the American military to take a completely different approach -- talking with elders in communities rather than simply bombing and killing innocent civilians. Military leaders have sought the advice of Mortenson, and Three Cups of Tea is now required reading by officers in the military serving in Afghanistan. At last our military is "promoting peace with books, not bombs", as Mortenson teaches, as shown by this quote:

"What Greg understands better than most—and what he practices more than anyone else I know—is the simple truth that all of us are better off when all of us have the opportunity to learn, especially our children. By helping them learn and grow, he’s shaping the very future of a region and giving hope to an entire generation." —Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Stones into Schools

New York Times Review of Stones into Schools

Bill Moyers Interview with Greg Mortenson

Bloomberg Night Talk Interview with Greg Mortenson (and numerous other YouTube videos of Greg Mortenson

Central Asia Institute

Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson's Blog

Three Cups of Tea

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

What goes on in the mind of a pedophile? How can this obsession be described? Nabokov imagined the thoughts, the feelings, of a man completely consumed by his addiction to a "nymphet" -- a 12 year old girl. To me, all fiction books can be judged by two criteria -- the quality of the story and the quality of the writing. This story was interesting in that it described the mind of a man with a particular insanity. The quality of the writing was outstanding for people who take delight in the use of words almost never used, mixed with the use of French. For me, I found the story to drag, and I found the book very easy to put aside; the story was too boring and the words too strange for me to enjoy. For years, I had postponed reading the book because I was too uneasy about the subject matter of the book. In retrospect, I found that I was simply bored too often by the book. By comparison, Gogol's short story, "The Diary of a Madman" is one of the most moving stories I have ever read. Gogol's writing is so mesmerizing that I sometimes found myself forgetting the story and simply marveling at the way he wrote.

Others, too, have noted the difficulties posed by the word play in the book, and find an annotated version of the book to be helpful.
"...the reader of Lolita attempts to arrive at some sense of its overall 'meaning,' while at the same time having to struggle...with the difficulties posed by the recondite materials and rich, elaborate verbal textures. The main purpose of this edition is to solve such local problems and to show how they contribute to the total design of the novel." --From the Preface by Alfred Appel, Jr.

The Annotated Lolita

Or, as stated in the Wikipedia article: "The novel's flamboyant style is characterized by word play, double entendres, multilingual puns, anagrams, and coinages such as 'nymphet', a word that has since had a life of its own and can be found in most dictionaries, and the lesser used 'faunlet'."

Lolita

Salute to Vienna 2010

Salute To Vienna, at Strathmore Music Center, January 2, 2010.

An evening of Strauss music. What an elegant, happy way to welcome in the new year and the new decade.

And a contest at the concert! Who is that girl? Can you name the woman in the painting and the artist who painted her portrait?

I was able to name the artist, but missed the name of the woman. The artist was Gustav Klimt, who some art historians call one of the 20 most influential artists of the past 500 years. His most famous painting is The Kiss.




So who is the woman? I guessed that the woman in the painting was Klimt's wife, Judith.


However, I was mistaken; instead, it was Emilie Flöge, painted at the request of her husband.

As You Like It, Shakespeare Theatre

Francesca Faridany as Rosalind and John Behlmann as Orlando in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s "As You Like It". Directed by Maria Aitken. Photo by Scott Suchman.



As You Like It, Shakespeare Theatre

The Alchemist, Shakespeare Theatre

The Alchemist by Ben Jonson

The Alchemist is a happy farce about con artists, who were rife in London at the time that the play was first performed in 1610. The play left the audience feeling happy.

Of course, here in Washington, we see political con artists every day, so we are accustomed to their misdeeds, although the con artists of today are more malevolent than the ones depicted in the play.

History and summary of the play, and a photo set of this production.

Thanksgiving 2009, Chez Francois

L'Auberge Chez Francois, "a French Alsatian Country Inn", and the "best French restaurant in the Washington area".

A wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Happy Thanksgiving!

Paris Tales, A Literary Tour of the City

Paris Tales, translated by Helen Constantine

Product Description (From Amazon)
Paris Tales is a highly evocative collection of stories by French and Francophone writers who have been inspired by specific locations in this most visited of capital cities. The twenty-two stories - by well-known writers including Nerval, Maupassant, Colette, and Echenoz - provide a captivating glimpse into Parisian life from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The stories take us on an atmospheric tour of the arrondissements and quartiers of Paris, charting the changing nature of the city and its inhabitants, and viewing it through the eyes of characters such as the provincial lawyer's wife seeking excitement, a runaway schoolboy sleeping rough, and a lottery-winning policeman. From the artists' haunts of Montmartre to the glamorous cafés of Saint-Germain, from the shouts of demonstrators on Boul Mich' to the tranquillity of Parc Monceau, Paris Tales offers a fascinating literary panorama of Paris. Illustrated with maps and striking photographs, the book will appeal to all those who wish to uncover the true heart of this seductive city.


About the Author (From Amazon)
Helen Constantine was Head of Languages for many years at a comprehensive school in Oxfordshire and now works as a full-time translator. She is married to the poet, David Constantine. In January 2004 they took over the editorship of Modern Poetry in Translation.

When I purchased this book, I was hoping to learn a bit about the writing styles of some very famous writers and also to find interesting descriptions of various parts of the city. The book met my expectations in both regards. I'm sure the stories were not the best of the authors, and I'm sure that I could find better descriptions of various parts of the city. I found some of the stories uninspired and even dull, while others were much more interesting. It is not a great book, but it was interesting.