Sadness

Word of the day : doleful : causing grief or affliction ; full of grief

A good image of how I feel today.  Julia is gone and I am sad.  That is all. 


Book Review:

Stagestruck, by Peter Lovesey, is a fine mystery, well-crafted.  Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond, star of many previous Lovesey mysteries, has a fear of theater, which is unfortunate considering there is all sorts of intrigue at the historic Royal Theater in Bath - a real place, of course, whose nooks, grandeur, and history Lovesey has fun with.  There is one horrific maiming, two murders, a buttefly curse, and a ghost siting.  Lovesey lays out the plot with the precision of an old-hand and there are plenty of juicy characters, including a fallen pop singer, a 6'8'' wealthy mama's boy, a horny theater manager, and a heroin-addicted leasing man.  The revelation of the killer came as a surprise to me.
(***1/2)

Man Ray (#19)

The famous American surrealist Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitsky in 1890 Philadelphia) was largely self-taught (though he was influenced by Alfred Steiglitz) and became well-known in Paris in the 1920s for his 'Rayographs.'  Ray created these rayographs by putting everyday objects - such as thumbtacks - directly on a piece of photosensitized paper and exposing it to light.  Such a way of looking at the everyday - merging the representational with the abstract - influenced Dadaism and Surrealism.  Ray also made a name for himself in documentary films.  He painted as often as he had photographed - and was well-known for his work in each field. 

He represented the American branch, along with his friend Marcel Duchamp, of Dadaism.  He was also represented at the first Surrealist exhibition, along with Ernst, Miro, and Picasso.

In his photography, Ray commonly uses solarization, a type of manipulation of the picture that de-materializes the image, a thin black line appearing around the figure or image.

Man Ray was multi-talented, accomplished not only in photography and painting, but also performance art, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and 

     

Thanks to : http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/190017270

Another Life List! 

Today's list: 30 Cities I'd Like to Visit Before I Turn 60.


Non-U.S.
1) Barcelona
2) Madrid
3) Sydney
4) Melbourne
5) Berlin
6) Prague
7) Budapest
8) Vienna
9) Paris
10) Dublin
11) Bruges
12) Bangkok
13) Stockholm
14) Ho Chi Minh City
15) Cairo
16) Phnom Penh
17) St. Petersburg
18) Istanbul
19) Moscow
20) Athens

U.S.
21) Portland
22) Phoenix
23) New Orleans
24) Santa Fe
25) Memphis
26) Boston
27) San Antonio
28) Austin
29) San Diego
30) Missoula, Montana (why not?)

I'm off to tend to the big boy....