The Garden Design of Downton Abbey - aka Highclere Castle

MORE for Downton Abbey fans:


Check out this article from GARDEN DESIGN.COM for the gardens on the other side of the house. Hooray!!!! An undiscovered DA area. Thank you Ken Webb for sending on the message.


http://www.gardendesign.com/ideas/the-gardens-of-downton-abbey



And then the interview with Mrs. Patmore:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/01/downton_abbey_lesley_nicol_interview.php

The "Spellbinding Magic" of Downton Abbey, written by Julian Fellowes

Downton Abbey is back.

The delicious story of the Crawley family, set inside the magnificent estate of Downton Abbey.

Season 3 opened Sunday on PBS.

http://www.pbs.org

and this is going to be a roller coaster of a season, episode by episode packed with Blockbuster events. I won't spoil it for you, but I have seen the entire season and watch it again, week by week on television, just to be sure I haven't missed anything, which of course I have, because feasting my eyes on the interior of this home, the library with all that red, the dining room and it's paintings, it's Massive Van Dyck, oh, PLEASE hold the camera a little tiny bit more on the long shot dining room scenes, please allow us to see that painting a little bit longer, the drawing room and it's draperies, sofas and chairs, it's objects, it is impossible to tire of.

Main character being, of course, Downton Abbey, aka Highclere Castle  http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk open this summer and ready for your visit.

A lot to be said, and a lot to follow this season. It is Spring, 1920.  From episode 1, here are some of my favorite lines:

"Family must never be a topic of conversation." - Violet

"No time for trading young hobbelty hoys."    - Carson - did I spell that correctly? And even if I didn't what exactly, Mr. Julian Fellowes is a hobbelty hoy? Love it.

"Gone? The lion's share of Cora's fortune?"  Lord Grantham

"If there's not enough money to run it, Downton must go."  the trustee

"Don't worry about me, I'm an American, have gun, will travel." - Lady Grantham

"You'll find we Crawley's stick together."  - Violet

"You came. I wasn't sure you would." - Matthew

"I'm glad. I should hate to be predictable."  Lady Mary

"He has been a clot!"   Matthew

"I shall be Countess of Grantham one day and in my book
                    the Countess of Grantham lives in Downton Abbey."  - Lady Mary

"Nothing succeeds like excess." - Violet

"Never mistake a wish for a certainty." - Violet

"I'm so sorry, I thought you were a waiter." - Violet

"You've done something jolly with your hair." Sir Anthony Strallan


Well, I could go on, but for now don't we love the way the camera is placed, the cuts back regularly to the house as star, the characters, the lovely single strands of beads against the magnificent Chanel, Worth and Balenciaga dresses?

I'm happy for Julian Fellowes. Here is a writer with attention to detail, (a MUST,) determination and a great sense of humor.

Downton lives.

Please go to the PBS website and watch the Secrets of Highclere Castle to see even more of an inside view. http://video.pbs.org/video/2320059755

Cathy Daley - New Work at Edward Cella Art + Architecture

Wanna have some fun?


Why not sashay over to Edward Cella Art +Architecture, just

across the street from LACMA, where Toronto artist

Cathy Daley has given us all a girlish treat.

The exhibition opened last night and I delighted in the view

of each black oil pastel drawing. Skirts up, knees knocked

and eyes popped. The crowd dressed appropriately in black

leather, studded boots, and short dresses, and why not? Here's

a refreshing look at the "gestures" we girls know all too well.

Cathy Daley: New Work
January 5, 2013 - March 2, 2013


Go, take a friend, and breathe a sigh of relief.

http://www.edwardcella.com/html/home.asp

Cathy Daley

Coursera.org's MODPO with University of Pennsylvania English Professor Al Filreis

MOOC  Have you heard about them?

Massive Open Online Courses where anyone who is interested from around the Globe, and has an internet connection can participate.

I recently completed 11 weeks of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, better known to it's THIRTY THREE THOUSAND students as MODPO on Coursera.org.

https://www.coursera.org

Taught by University of Pennsylvania Professor of English Al Filreis whose 30 years of teaching have made him a juggernaut authority on poetry, and a funny, kind and compassionate listener. Not only that, Al is all over technology and social media. He set up a FACEBOOK page for MODPO, which now has 3229 members, a Twitter feed, conducted video discussions for EVERY POEM with his team of incredibly talented and erudite assistants to close read poems, online discussion forums, broadcasted live webcasts on YOUTUBE with call-ins from all over the world, (what would Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson have thought about Brazil connecting to Los Angeles through the UK via Philadelphia?), and crafted a syllabus of bedrock pioneers of the Word.

In 11 weeks the course took us from Whitman and Dickinson to the Rise of Modernism, doubts about Modernism, the Beats, the New York School Poets, the Language Poets, chance, conceptualism and unoriginality.

My "Brain, within it's Groove" savored the MODPO weeks spent with Walt, Emily, Cid Corman, William Carlos Williams, "Leaves are graygreen,
the glass broken, bright green.",

            - Allen Ginsberg, Lorine Niedecker, Ray Armantrout, H.D., OH MY God, her Sea Rose and Sea Poppies, are you getting this? This Amber and Gold and Fruit on Sand, this Rich Grain of words clopted together clopstopiaed?

Ezra Pound in the Metro,  Marcel Duchamp and his cubist/readymade beauty spiraled in a downward move, and Stein, shutters shut and shut and shutting shut and omg she is shuttering shut in the face of the Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven, a real wild woman, and onto John Peale Bishop who I am ashamed to say I did not know but taught me how to read in another direction - from the edge down.

So many great poets, I have to keep talking about them:

Ruth Lechlitner, whose 1936 poem "Lines for an Abortionist's Office" is pure NOW, show me the trojan horse, baby. Genevieve Taggard, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Gwendolyn Brooks,
and then Robert Frost, the wall mender, Oh what a jewel encrusted journey. Richard Wilbur, "The Death of a Toad", does the comma come before or after the quotes? I forget. Beautiful Music, Al, what a line up.

Ginsberg, Kerouac, Robert Creeley, Anne Waldman in a ROGUE STATE, oh yes, if you have never hear that, please click onto YOUTUBE and watch her and you will understand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZngnK0its64


Amiri Baraka, so many beautiful poets they all deserve to be named. I started this and now I have to keep going: Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, KINKY! I broke your leg so you could be here with me - Barbara Guest, "20" her voice is so wonderful when she reads her own poem, John Ashberry, - "Some Trees"- that's us MODPO people, waving our arms of poetry, weaving that web around the world, Ted Berrigan, Bernadette Mayer, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, Charles Bernstein, all leading up to Ron Silliman, whose "Albany" cut through my dross in the middle of my morning and burst me into tears. Funny how one line can do that, eh?

John Cage, your Mesostic, your reversal, your whispers and silence, thank you, Jackson MacLow, Jena Osman, Joan Retallack, thank you, Kenneth Goldsmith, Christian Bok, Erica Baum, Caroline Bergvall, Mike Magee, Rosmarie Waldrop, Jennifer Scappettone, and Tracie Morris' Afrika. Her voice resounds.  Have I forgotten anyone? Thank you. Thank you.

And Al can also be found at:

 http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/

http://afilreis.blogspot.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/afilreis

Is this man on top of things or what??? How does he have time to read? All that is left to say is I've become acquainted with a lot of MODPO people and their love of poetry. These people and this course have enriched my life. The final live webcast that wrapped up the course had people in tears from Germany to Korea or was it Thailand? I know there were tears in Los Angeles.



Next up, MOOC in February THE LANGUAGE OF HOLLYWOOD; Storytelling, Sound and Color with Associate Professor of Film Studies Scott Higgings from Wesleyan University.



I mean after all, I do live in Hollywood. After all......



                            "so much depends
                                upon
 
                           a red wheel
                          barrow

                         glazed with rain
                        water

                        beside the white
                        chickens."

     

                                                          - William Carlos Williams




ONE CLASS, 36,000 students

Check out Elliott Holt's post on the Poetry Foundation about MODPO

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/245074

Downton Abbey - LIFE of PI - The Story, The Poetry, Thank you Julian Fellowes, and Thank you Ang Lee.

Downton Abbey is back.

Review of Season 2 began last night on PBS, just to get us ready for Season 3 coming in January. I LOVE revisiting this glorious house and all the marvelous characters at Downton. My favorite scene last night was Lady Mary seeing Matthew off to war...the smoke whirls from the train, the whistles blow, her suit of claret for his departure, stark against the sepia drab of war and death in the background.... all the longing in her face and the unspoken love between them as he enters the FIRST class compartment.

Aristocrats.

With all the desire, hope, drama, fashion, angst, and love we all possess as humanoids.

http://www.pbs.org


And if that isn't enough, and you want to leave the house, go see LIFE OF PI, in 3-D, and enter that journey, that fable, that poem, that brilliant magic carpet ride that is a true metaphor for any of us, for anyone in the boat with the Bengal Tiger, which is ALL of US.

THANK YOU ANG LEE, not only for the story, but what is in Back of the story.

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/life-of-pi/1427547/trailers

Los Angeles Arts : Cultural Weekly & Writ Large Press & A.O. Scott's review of Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN....I"M BACK!

Content is King. 


CULTURAL WEEKLY


http://www.culturalweekly.com

Publisher Adam Leipzig's brainchild is a sure thing to look forward to every Wednesday night. Get a weekly dose of Literary Alchemy, Chiwan Choi's weekly blog on the state of small press, get Kickstarter of the week, get a dose of POETRY, YES, Cultural Weekly loves poetry, and editor Wendy Rainey serves up week after week of deep thoughtful strings of words by Los Angeles poets. There are video's, interviews, sections on literature, art & architecture, music, dance, cartoons, the Writer's life, theatre and performance, all served up in easy to digest segments to dip in and out of all week, PLUS a reminder on Sunday mornings should you forget to go back to the site.


WRIT LARGE PRESS

http://writlargepress.com


Publishers Chiwan Choi and Judeth Oden Choi present state of the art on what is NOW for small press and their authors. Throw in Peter Woods for PR & Marketing, who is also the event director for THE LAST BOOKSTORE in downtown Los Angeles, and by the way, if you haven't been there, you must explore a current and interesting discovery in the hub of the downtown scene. Conrad Romo, booking and sales director rounds out the crew in a press that has their hands onto the writing scene in LA.


and if you haven't read A.O. Scott's review of Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN, do it now, I'm off to the movies. Scott calls Lincoln a "masterpiece."


 http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/movies/lincoln-by-steven-spielberg-stars-daniel-day-lewis.html?hpw&_r=0

First season's apples in Julia Child's Tart Tatin

I started reading the script for Julie & Julia.

Everything they cook is so inspirational I had to
start peeling apples, and really, it isn't quite apple
season yet. But I got some Granny Smiths, and
some interesting organic sugar at Whole Foods and put that together in my mother's 50 year old seasoned cast iron frying pan and concocted the best. One. Yet.

Oh, Julia Child's recipe for Tart Tatin is simply the best. EVER. A poem, a cog in the feel good bank, a deposit, a winner.

Delicious.

A little time consuming, but worth it.

The secret is in basting those apples while they cook on top of the stove before you push them into the oven. Thank you Julia Child. Thank you.

Here is the way it looked before flipped it over.

Took it to a party over the weekend and had 3 phone calls (actual calls, not text or email) for requests.


Tell me you want one. Email me.







Ahhhhhh, Tart Tatin. 

Getting to know Nora Ephron + Lillian Hellman

I absolutely love Nora Ephron, her clarity of voice, and her "cashmere clad" wing spreading over me.

Right. If I were to have something named for me it would be cashmere. The Kathleen scarf, throw, socks?

I love the chapters "Addicted to LUV" I relate. I am just as addicted to Bejeweled Blitz as she was to Scrabble Blitz. It takes your mind off things, helps you see where you are not lined up, just one more game, just one more minute and focus!

Oh, have you tried Temple Run? That's crazy, the sound effects alone make it compelling to do another game and another. I switch back and forth when I have a little minute to focus, which turns into 5 or 10 then just one more, just one more game, something I can focus on, like Nora Ephron's wisdom, maybe follow her through a doorway into a more relaxed place, as if I were in the kitchen with her, sitting at the table, watching her cook while she talked to me.

Food is a very big part of life. Food is life. Isn't it amazing how much you can eat, how full you can get, and suddenly you aren't full anymore and begin to think of the next thing you will eat. I like how Nora says she goes into her kitchen a hundred times a day just to think about the next thing She will eat, and the next.

I love her chapters about the egg white omelette, teflon, chicken soup, Lillian Hellman, a real original and wild card. This is not in Nora's book, but I read somewhere one summer when Sinatra's yacht was anchored off Martha's Vineyard and a wild party was going on to which she was not invited, she went to a phone booth and called in a bomb threat and stopped the party cold. I imagine her standing on shore, cigarette in hand, fur coat around her shoulders, Blackgama of course, remember the advertisements she was featured in?, infuriated with the music and laughter floating back her way, and she chose to shut it down. True? Who knows.

I love Nora's final chapters, What I Won't Miss,  - EMAILS!
What I Will Miss  - her husband, children, friends, twinkle lights, pie.

Thank you Nora Ephron for clear soothing words. 

Nora Ephron keeps right on giving. She speaks to me.

I have 179 emails in my inbox, but I ignore them and go back to reading Nora Ephron. With all this heat it's the only thing I can focus on. Los Angeles has been about 95 degrees for weeks in a row.

I am reading the chapter called "My Life as a Meat Loaf," when Graydon Carter opened a restaurant in New York and put Nora's Meat Loaf on the menu. It had it's ups and downs, patrons tried to adjust it and everybody put their hand in until it was no good and flopped on the plate. Eventually they took it off the menu, but in the mean time, it wasn't exactly what Nora thought of when she used to play a game called "if you could have something named after you, what would it be?"

That got me to thinking, wow, if if I could have something named after me, what would it be?

I would name the ___________________ Kathleen.  Child? Ship? Chair? Car? Dog? Peony? Souffle? KKKKKKKathleen?

Nora Ephron Quote: "Falling in love.....

...is the most


                               Interesting


because it's so


        full of hope."


   - Nora Ephron