March on...

Hi everyone,

As we honor the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington today, let's remember that important day.

I Have a Dream....

....This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood....

....I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.... 

....With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.... 

....When we allow freedom to ring - when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city - we will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last, Great God a-mighty, we are free at last."

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (excerpts from the "I Have a Dream..." speech, March on Washington, April 28, 1963)

Read Dr. King's entire amazing speech here!

Leaders of the March on Washington with Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill (center), including Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Lewis (right) during visit to the Capitol, August 28, 1963

50 Years On....

You have to have hope. You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward. 
- Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga (PBS Newshour, April 27, 2013)

Watch Congressman Lewis's entire interview here!

Okay, now, go hug somebody.


Copyright credits: First two photos © AP; "I Have a Dream..." speech excerpts © family of Martin Luther King , Jr.; Video © PBS Newshour; Monument photo © U.S. Information Agency, Press and Publications Service

Power

Behold the power of kitties....

(Illustration Friday: August 16, 2013)

Just Kids

Hi everyone,

I picked up Patti Smith's memoir, Just Kids, in a used book store while vacationing in San Francisco last year. One of the editions had a glowing quote from Johnny Depp on the back cover, a sign that this copy was meant for me. But I'd wanted to read Just Kids long before I saw Johnny's endorsement of his friend's book. My dad already recommended it to me because, he said, it's about New York. A couple of friends said I'd like it because it's about artists. After Just Kids won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2010, I was sorely disappointed that I missed Patti Smith talking about it nearby during a free Smithsonian event. (Note to self: never read the Friday Weekend section of The Post on Monday.)

Although I knew very little about Patti Smith before reading Just Kids, everyone was right: I loved it! This inspiring memoir chronicles the lives of struggling artists in New York City in the 1970s and '80s. After her dad takes her to a museum for the first time, Patti Smith dreams of nothing other than becoming an artist. With a few dollars in her pocket and a satchel of belongings, she buses it to New York to follow her dream. The first person she meets in New York City is artist Robert Mapplethorpe, for whom this book serves as a love letter, honoring their complicated relationship and celebrating their unconditional love.

Robert Mapplethorpe,
photo-booth Polaroid, 1970

Patti Smith seems lucky. Alone in the big city, she happens to meet a homeless guy who helps her find food during those first few nights on the streets. She happens to find a guardian angel in Robert Mapplethorpe, who encourages her to find her own voice and use it to create her art. She happens to meet influential people who get her work seen and heard, helping her to become the poet and rock-and-roller she is today.

Her vivid writing and desire to be among the great artists she admires is exhilarating and infectious. She paints the New York scene with such great detail that you can smell the atmosphere and feel like you too walked into a bar finding Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol, and Janis Joplin sitting at the counter. In that way, this book reminded me of Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which describes the illustrious artistic and literary community he found in Paris in the 1920s. I didn't recognize all the names that Patti Smith dropped on her journey, but I appreciated her star-struck luck and evolution as an artist.

Ken Moody & Robert Sherman, 1984

But Robert Mapplethorpe's struggle intrigued me more. Unlike Patti Smith, who desired and worked to become a great artist and then, as one thing led to another, became famous through her work relatively easily, Robert Mapplethorpe already knew he was a great artist and struggled to get the recognition he deserved. Somehow, before reading this book, I knew more about Robert Mapplethorpe's work than Patti Smith's. Since he died of AIDS in 1989 when I was a teenager, I must have heard and saw more about him at that time. Some of his striking black-and-white photographs are unforgettable.

His relationship with Patti Smith was news to me, and fascinating. Through this book, you experience undeniable first love and witness two artists at work together, however different their styles. Patti Smith has artistic breakthroughs amid piles of poetry books and paper, with drafts of verse scattered all over the floor and walls. Robert Mapplethorpe sees the art he wants to make and creates it on the spot, neatly, methodically, and quickly. These two personalities are vastly different yet entirely complementary, inseparable, and supportive. Despite growing up and apart, their bond never breaks.

This thoughtful book is accompanied by photographs, artwork, and poetry from these two great artists, mementos of their extraordinary partnership. It offers a glimpse into life as an artist and captures a time in New York that has long since gone. Just Kids fulfills Patti Smith's promise to her friend to write their story for the world to know. "No one but you can write it," he said. She vows to continue their work and collaboration for as long as she lives. Although not part of their world, reading their story inspired me to draw, to write, to create something. If you read Just Kids, you will be inspired too. What are you waiting for?

Best,


Photo credits: book cover © Patti Smith; photo booth self-portrait © Robert Mapplethorpe, from Patti Smith's archive; Ken Moody and Robert Sherman © Robert Mapplethorpe; Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe © Kate Simon 

Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp Film #35--Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

[What is Johnny KItties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp for all the details.]

Where are they headed?
When we last saw Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly) had handcuffed him to the Pearl. He faced the Kracken and an eternity in the no-man's land of Davey Jones's Locker, while the rest of crew made their escape from that unfortunate fate. Luckily, the crew has a conscience and agrees to do whatever it takes to save Jack, and with the help of Tia Dalma (Naomi Harris), Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) returns to navigate their rescue mission.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End finds the East India Trading Company set on squeezing out the pirate population and achieving world domination. Elizabeth is carrying the burden of guilt for trapping Jack for the Kracken, and its weight is made heavier as she keeps her secret from Will (Orlando Bloom). Will is committed to saving his father, Bootstrap Bill (Stellen Skarsgaard), from the cursed vessel, the Flying Dutchman, but hasn't shared those plans with Elizabeth. Once they find Jack, who has even more screws loose than before, the nine pirate lords who rule the world's seas must convene to figure out how to keep the East India Trading Company from closing in on them. Basically, everyone's got problems. With new colorful characters and unexpected plot twists, everything is miraculously solved in this story and topped with a spectacular stormy finish!

How'd they do that?
Plenty of action leads up to the maelstrom at the end of this adventure. While visual effects were used, director Gore Verbinski created that storm as realistically as possible for the actors. "It's a torrential downpour and probably 75 knots of wind in this building," Johnny describes. Life-size ships were moved into a hanger, and all the actors and extras fought amid the man-made storm. "You have all these plans to act and maybe do it rather elegantly, and then they turn the rain machine on," says Bill Nighy (who plays Captain Davy Jones). "The bad news is that all your ideas go out the window. The good news is that the action is very authentic because you're in a maelstrom!"

While the maelstrom may be the showstopper, this movie is full of other fantastic visual effects. On their way to the end of the world, Barbossa and crew sail through mirror-like waters and frosty seas. They tumble over the edge of a waterfall and eventually capsize their ship on purpose. Having lost his mind on land, Jack is stuck on a crab-infested desert with several other Jacks for company. 

Before directing his own movies, Gore Verbinski was an accomplished special effects supervisor and commercial director. "He can see things in a shot that an average director without that technical background wouldn't see, and it ends up making the movie that much better." says Executive Producer Mike Stenson. With more than 2,000 visual effects in this movie, the work required that everyone employed at ILM (the company tasked with creating these effects) to work on this film, something that hasn't happened since Return of the Jedi. That's good company to be in, isn't it? This film earned two well-deserved Oscar nominations, one for visual effects and one for makeup. 

I'm on board!

I was thrilled that Geoffrey Rush returned for this third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean! As much as I love Bill Nighy's performance as Captain Davy Jones, I felt Geoffrey Rush was a missing ingredient in the second movie. One of the reasons I tell people Pirates 2 is my least favorite in the trilogy is because Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa isn't there.

A friend told me he thought Pirates 3 has too much talking in it, but I'll take story over action sequences any day. While I admit the story here is all over the place, I liked exploring all the different personalities, and their issues, obstacles, and histories. I also loved that this journey took us to Singapore, where we were introduced to Asian pirates, headed by Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Better yet, we meet all kinds of pirates from around the world when they join forces against the East India Trading Company.

Some people say the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are too long, but when you have so many characters and storylines, it takes time to resolve everything. These movies are a package deal, and I like how so much is stuffed in them. You can watch them over and over and always discover new things. This one is a fitting finish to the trilogy. Over the course of these three movies, Elizabeth and Will grew up, and by the end, Elizabeth becomes the strong leading force driving the story--which, as a girl, I appreciate (even if she did handcuff Jack to his sinking ship).

Despite (and maybe because of) his predicament, Johnny is a treat to watch in this movie. He's just one of many characters in this story, all of whom have their own quirks. But since Jack a bit madder than usual, due to his imprisonment, Johnny could do whatever he wanted. As cowriter Ted Elliott says, "We're on our third movie, and we said, 'How can we keep it unexpected? Let's just get weird.'" Captain Jack sees things no one else sees and talks to himself more often these days. It makes for some really imaginative scenes that I won't spoil here. "Johnny's very improvisational," says costar Jack Davenport (who plays Commodore Norrington). "You have a choice: You either freak out or you go with him." 

Aside from the Oscar nominations, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End won several other awards for visual effects and production. The cast, too, was a big hit at fan-driven award shows, like the MTV Movie Awards, and the People's, Teen, and Kids' Choice Awards that year. Johnny even won a Rembrandt Award for Best International Actor, voted on by the Dutch public. "I'm sort of amazed that so many people in so many corners of the world have embraced the films and the character," he says. "It's very moving....Nothing like that has ever happened to me." We like our Pirates!      
             
"This is politics."
One of my favorite things about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is meeting all the other pirates of the world. They are all distinct, extravagant characters. Their meeting to discuss how to conquer the East India Trading Company is just like Congress but more productive and entertaining. When they disagree, they call on Captain Teague (Johnny's rock star hero, making his second cameo appearance in these Pirate movies). As keeper of the Pirate's Code, he straighten them out quickly! Maybe, on some days, Captain Teague should come to D.C. to help out our president. Do you think he would do it? Maybe if Johnny asked him.... 

To pay tribute to this democracy, some of The Kitties are channeling the nine pirate lords. Here they are gathered with their crews, listening to Captain Jack, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea, as he proposes his strategy against the East India Trading Company: "We must fight....to run away." Among the crowd, The Kitties chose their own parts:  

• The Mother Kitty is Mistress Ching (Takayo Fischer), Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean. 
• Simon is Capitaine Chevalle (Marcel Lures), Pirate Lord of the Mediterranean Sea.
• Norman is Sri Sumbhajee (Marshall Manesh), Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean.
• Comet is Captain Jocard (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), Pirate Lord of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Ashes is Elizabeth, most recent Pirate Lord of the South China Sea/Pirate King.
• B.J. is Captain Barbossa, Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea.

Also, in the picture are familiar faces from Jack's crew (Mr. Gibbs, Pintell, and Ragetti) and the dog, who luckily escaped that cannibalistic island he was trapped on at the end of Pirates 2. Having reviewed the Code, Captain Teague monitors the debate from his seat while strumming his guitar. Don't worry, they work it out.

What's next?
The murderous barber Sweeney Todd seeks revenge, singing Sondheim all the way! 

To all the Johnny Kitties fans out there, next month's post will be about a week or so late. On September 9th, I'll be amid a vacation in California, away from my computer. I promise to post my Sweeney Todd tribute as soon as I get back. I'll do my best to make it worth your wait. 

Image credits: All Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End images © Walt Disney Pictures; illustration © Melissa Connolly

Hybrid

I've always wondered what would happen if I mixed all of The Kitties together into one.

I also saw The Wolverine this weekend. When I came home and told Lily all about Hugh Jackman's awesomeness in the movie, she insisted that I add an extra-sharp claw here. I think she's envious. I wonder if this hybrid cat can also heal itself. Why not?

(Illustration Friday: August 2, 2013)

Travel

Whenever I try packing for a trip, I always find something unexpected in my luggage. 

As much as I want to bring her with me, I'm afraid she'd never make it through security.

(Illustration Friday: July 12, 2013)

True Celtics Forever!

Hi everyone,

Bad things happened this weekend that I can't wrap my head around. (I'm talking to you, Florida.) Among them, the "blockbuster" Celtics trade with the Brooklyn Nets became official: So long to Jason Terry (The Jet!), Kevin Garnett (The Big Ticket!), and Paul Pierce (The Truth!). It's clear to me Head Coach Doc Rivers left for the West Coast to coach the L.A. Clippers last month as protest!

I've been sad about trades before, but this summer's transactions are going to leave a scar! Do they know they've lost one of the best coaches ever? Did they realize they traded their team captain who has been with the them for his entire 15-year career? Who will be taking over for KG in the enthusiasm/intensity department? Who will master Jason Terry's suave 'n' smooth public relations skills?

At the last minute, they threw in  D.J. White into this group shipment to cover some sort of technicality. Note, he doesn't have a nickname that I know of, and I've run out of male cats to pay tribute. Simon offered to step in, but it's best not to confuse the rest of the team because we all know who Simon really is. Instead, Mini is thrilled to volunteer because she wishes she was as big and tall as the 6' 9" Power Forward.

Farewell to these Celtic stars, who I will miss seeing in green!  You may have moved homes, but you'll always be Celtics to me!

This drawing was inspired by photos and many, many memories of some of my favorite people.

Paul and KG loved watching the jumbo screen at the Garden.

D.J. White, Paul Pierce, and Jeff Green have some laughs.

Before each game, Kevin always talks to the post.

During the games, he screams a lot.

Jason Terry always flies around the court after a big basket.

After 10 years, MVP Paul Pierce takes in a championship moment in 2008!!!

It was awesome after such a long wait!!!!!

And, we were all thrilled!!!!!!!!

Okay, now I'm going to cry.

Going into the 2013-14 season, let's welcome Coach Stevens, some Brooklynites, and some newbies to Team Rondoooooo!!!!!!!!! (And, keep an eye on those Nets and Clippers games, because they have some of the coolest people over there now....)

Best,

Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp Film #34. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp for all the details.]

"I don't think any of us thought we'd be making another pirate movie, but here we are."  Director Gore Verbinski,
embarking on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest




What's happening now?

At least a year has passed since we last saw Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Today, Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly) plan to marry, but they are rudely interrupted by Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), who calls for their immediate arrest for helping Jack escape during their last adventure. They will face the gallows unless Will comes through on his deal with Lord Beckett to retrieve Jack's compass. Presiding over the East India Trading Company, Lord Beckett wants to use the compass to help his business achieve world domination, including control of the seas.

Meanwhile, having just escaped a Turkish prison, Jack returns to the Black Pearl with a drawing of a key, which he and his crew set out to find, but his compass is no help in giving direction. On board, Jack is visited by Will's pirate father Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsguaard), who serves on the Flying Dutchman under Captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy).

Long ago, heartbroken over a woman, Davy Jones cut out his own heart to end his pain, placed it in a chest, and buried it on land for safe keeping. Now, he spends his time on the high seas ferrying the dead to the afterlife and is only allowed on shore once every 10 years. Betrayed by the woman he loved, his curse has made him and his crew so much part of the sea that some have become more sea creature than human. The Flying Dutchman can even sail underwater.

Davy Jones once made a deal with Jack, allowing him to captain the Pearl on borrowed time. Bootstrap Bill now comes to Jack, marking his hand with the cursed Black Spot: His time is up and he must pay his debt, head to the no-man's land of Davy Jones's Locker, or face the dreaded sea monster Kracken. As always, Jack works to negotiate his way out of this situation. Having the key he's looking for, which unlocks the buried chest containing Davy Jones's heart, would solve all of Jack's problems.

Of course, everyone crosses paths during this adventure: Elizabeth escapes from jail and gets signed Letters of Mark that pardon her and Will from their crimes. She heads out to sea to find Will. While helping Jack retrieve the key from the Flying Dutchman, Will meets Bootstrap Bill on board and vows to save his father from his eternal fate. Norrington (Jack Davenport), whose life has taken a bad turn, is keen on retrieving the Letters of Mark from Elizabeth to help regain his previous stature, but he eyes a bigger prize once he learns about Davy Jones's chest and its contents. Add some hungry cannibals, some magic, and a giant squid into the mix, and you've got Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest! 

This one's for the boys.
When I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in the theater, I had the weirdest feeling about seeing Johnny play the same character in a sequel. I never expected him to be in the position to make any sequels--or to want to, considering he likes to do his work on a project and move on. It was quite unsettling at first! But I got used to the idea, and I guess Johnny did too. "It's been amazing on every level," he says of working with the same cast and majority of the same crew as the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. "We were on that film for such a long time; it was really quite a big shoot. So, you get really close. You become this weird sort of gypsy family, you know, the traveling circus."  

At first, I felt that Captain Jack was mainly in this movie for comic relief while everyone else had their deep dark secrets to deal with, but that's clearly not  the case. Everyone has equal story weight here, and it's just a given that Captain Jack is going to get most of the laughs. Johnny wanted to play Captain Jack again because there's so much to explore in the character, and he has so much fun doing it, which is obvious on screen. He is, as expected, a scene-stealer in this revisited role. For all the fans out there, watching the DVD bonus features is a treat because you learn all the details Johnny brought to Captain Jack and his story: Every article of clothing and accessory is hand-picked. Everything dangling in his hair means something. Even some of his rings and props are his own. I like the idea of Johnny bringing in his friend's peacock-feathered wand to work one day to use as his scepter on the cannibal island. (Johnny would have a friend who has that lying around.) Who else would think of these things?

As this movie went on, I felt the story got bogged down with battle after battle, darkness, rain, sea water, slime, grime, and cannibals! Even Elizabeth's wedding dress is already ruined when we first see it in the opening scene. Some of this movie's gross-out moments were tailor-made for all the teenage boys in the audience. 

But, as the laughter erupted shortly after the movie started, I realized that Pirates of the Caribbean is going to last forever for everybody! Everyone looked forward to seeing these beloved characters again, and the newly introduced characters became instant family members. Case in point, my favorite moment of this 2 1/2-hour action-packed ride was the last 30 seconds. Honestly, I nearly jumped out of my seat and screamed. Bring on Pirates 3! On my way out of the theater, kids were mimicking the sword fights in the halls using their fists and imagination. That's success!

It's a winner - slime, toes, beating hearts, and all!
I fell in love with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest while watching it again for Johnny Kitties! The story is full, complicated, and intertwined. When asked to write two sequels to their hit pirate movie, cowriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio opted to create a larger story, told over the course of the three movies. They envisioned the sequels sparking a community experience, where the discussion would go well beyond the films. "There was an intent to create Easter eggs, essentially. The more attention  you pay to the movie, the more you find in it," Ted Elliott says. Terry Rossio agrees, "There are things even in plain sight revealed in Pirates 3 to be more important than they might have seemed when watching Pirates 1 and 2. It's a lot of fun to do that. I think part of the appeal of these movies is that you're visiting a world where everything is connected." 

Everything in the film has a purpose and works to move the story forward. All of the characters have their own motivations--hidden or not--and they have to work together to achieve their goals. No one comes away from this adventure a clear hero.

 The new characters introduced in this sequel, Lord Beckett, Bootstrap Bill, Davy Jones, and Tia Dalma (Naomi Harris), are fantastic too: the actors give great performances and add so much to their stories. Also, the look of the Flying Dutchman and its waterlogged crew is so imaginative and detailed.

The impressive stunts include swinging bone cages between majestic cliffs and a three-way sword fight on a detached, spinning waterwheel. Of the latter experience, Johnny remembers, "It was such an absurd, such a bizarre, request for one grown man to ask of another: 'Okay, what we'd like to do now is bind you inside the wheel and give you a sword. And, we're going to tailor the other guy in and you guys are going to fight as the wheel is rolling, and you go upside down several times.' Nothing they could ask of me would surprise me anymore: 'Johnny, we're going to put you in a cannon and volt you out to sea. You okay with that?' Sure, let's do it." That doesn't happen here, but a lot of other stunts do that make this movie fun!

It was worth all the hard work.
"To be honest, the actual work that goes into it is really difficult, but it is so much fun doing it," Orlando Bloom says of working on the sequel. "I can't imagine it'll ever be done again like this; it sort of feels like the end of an era in making movies in this way because it's really a huge fete. I think we all feel very lucky to be doing it."
But the pressure was on: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had a 200-day production schedule but took an entire year to complete. They worked backward from the release date but didn't even have a script for quite a while. On top of that, its sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, was scheduled to be filmed immediately following this one, mainly to ensure that the entire cast was still available. 

Filmed all over the Caribbean, Director Gore Verbinski sought out all the hard-to-reach places: "The only way a location is going to get picked by Gore is if you have to swim to it, hike to it, repel into it, or parachute into it," Unit Production Manager Doug Merrifield explains. "The more extreme and more remote the better." One of the locations is an island that completely submerges when the tide comes in every day. The cast ran and battled with swords while ankle-deep in sand in sweltering heat. Equipment had to be hauled on barges or moved by truck up narrow mountainside dirt roads.  

Obviously, CGI was used to create the Flying Dutchman's sea creature crew, among other things, but more than you would expect is real in this movie. Aside from the ships and sets they built, the crew developed a new technology called Image-Based Motion Capture to allow them to capture the actors' entire performances. Dressed in grey outfits spotted with green Ping Pong-sized balls that serve as motion points, Bill Nighy and the Flying Dutchman crew performed as if they were in full costume. Gore Verbinski could then work with them and the camera just as he would any live-action sequence. Their 3D images were later animated and transformed into sea creatures but without losing the facial expressions and movements of the actors in their performances. That's movie magic! 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was filmed during the most active hurricane season on record. Hurricane Wilma did extensive damage to sets, equipment, and roads. Aside from the hurricanes, high seas even caused problems: If the waves reached 3 to 4 feet, the ships had to be evacuated because the sets were at risk of falling apart. Don't worry, it all turned out okay.  

In fact, this movie was even nominated for a bunch of awards and won quite a few, mainly in the special effects/visual effects department for good reason! Johnny was also nominated for and won some awards too because he's really good at being Captain Jack Sparrow.  

The Kitties are fighting!
This movie comes down to the hunt for Davy Jones's chest. Here, Captain Jack, Norrington (Simon), Will (Comet), and Elizabeth (Ashes) find it together but suddenly realize that no one can be trusted. They all want it for their own reasons. Because there's never a time when everyone's in the same scene (and because Davy Jones is tied to the sea), I had to embellish a little here with what I imagine is happening outside of the shot: Davy Jones watching and awaiting his fate aboard the Flying Dutchman. Will they work it out? Go rent the movie!  

What's next?
This saga concludes in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  

Image credits: All Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest images © Walt Disney Pictures; illustration © Melissa Connolly  

Equality

Share the love!

(Illustration Friday: June 28, 2013)

Maya's Notebook

Hi everyone,

I didn't intend to read two Isabel Allende books in a row, but before I knew it, she had a new book out. The last book I read, The Sum of Our Days, was about 6 months ago, and I hadn't picked up another book until now. Isabel Allende gets me to read.

May 1st, she appeared at an event for National Geographic Live! at the National Geographic Society. I bought a ticket, thinking she was going to talk about her travels because the interviewer, Don George, is editor at-large of Traveler magazine. They are old friends since she contributed to a book he edited called Better Than Fiction: True Travel Tales From Great Fiction Writers. In the event description I saw, they only mentioned his book, not hers. But, when I got there, I found her latest effort, Maya's Notebook, on display and snatched it up.

The heroine of this story is Maya Vidal, a teenager whose life crumbles when her grandfather dies of cancer. Lost without him, she begins to drink and steal. When she runs away from home, she gets into worse trouble, suffering horrific sexual assault, battling alcohol and drug addiction, and entangling in serious criminal activity. To escape the shady characters of her past and impending federal charges, Maya is sent by her grandmother to Chiloe, an island off mainland Chile. With little connection to the outside world, this quiet place helps Maya come to terms with her past and dream of a brighter future.

As with all Isabel Allende books, a cast of colorful characters helps Maya along the way. Burdened by their own problems, she helps her new friends uncover their own histories and hidden connections so that they can all move forward in their lives. The layers of hardship peel off Maya and those around her as she reconnects with who she used to be before tragedy struck and addiction took over. No one starts out that way.

I started this book at a slow pace, impatient to find out why Maya is on a plane, headed to a far off island. But that structure gave way to plenty of  mystery and cliffhangers: The story skips around as Maya writes about her present, past, and family. The reasons for why she is the way she is, where she's been, and where's she's going are revealed when she gets to them. The people she meets along the way are similarly introduced with their co-occurring stories. Soon enough, you won't be able to put the book down. And, don't worry, it'll all comes together as only Isabel Allende can make it.

In person, Isabel Allende is a warm, inviting spirit who chats like she's known you forever. I suppose that's what makes her such a great storyteller. After rattling off a detailed account of this book's wild plot, impressing the interviewer into momentary speechlessness, she quipped, "A good idea, isn't it?" Despite catching a cold while traveling on her book tour, she still made us feel appreciated: "I love to see you. I love this part [of touring]. You all love me, so why wouldn't I want to come here? But getting here is a pain."

And, as usual, she kept us laughing: Acknowledging her best-selling author status, she credited Oprah, who selected her book Daughter of Fortune for her book club. (Read it!) In addition to the initial 150,000 copies of that book already printed, 600,000 more were instantly ordered and ready within the week. She nodded at our gasps, "That shows you the power of Oprah!" When asked whether she missed her privacy since becoming a famous author, she shook her head, "I'm famous among people who read. There are very few. I'm not a rock star."

 Here's an excerpt from the National Geographic Live! event, so you can get a taste for yourself.



I'm disappointed they didn't show here how enamored Don George is with Isabel Allende, which was endearing in the Chris Farley sort of way. Early on, this happened:
Don: "Having you in my life is one of the great treasures and riches of my life."
Isabel: "Oh God! Maybe you are my Plan B!"
Don: "Oh, wow! What an honor! I should put that in my bio!"

If you watched the video above, you know that at the end, he asks her what her dream is. What they edited out is that, after responding, she asks him the same question.
Isabel: And, what is your dream?
Don: For this to go on forever and ever.
Amen to that!

Best,

It's summertime!

Happy Summer, everyone!

"Summertime" Bilie Holiday (George Gershwin/Porgy & Bess)

Views from the Top

Hi everyone,

On June 8, I climbed Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. The plan was to hike to the top, eat lunch, do some yoga in front of a spectacular view, and come back down. Unaware of what I was in for, I got home scraped, bruised, and exhausted 12 hours later.

The Kitties were worn out just from hearing about it, except for Lily who was just glad I got home. That makes two of us!

(Illustration Friday: June 14, 2013)

We got some good views along the way, at least....

Enjoy!

Kiara and I hold it together.

Flowers even grow on mountains!