Female cheetah...we also got a wonderful view of the male but didn't get a photo.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Fabulous weather ahead
Roger and Kerry left this morning and we all had a great time. Yesterday we went to the Palm Springs Art Museum...always interesting and also the special sculpture exhibit of Moore to Picasso was excellent. Then the Thursday night market and Las Casuelas for a Mexican dinner. I can never resist taking lots of photos of The Living Desert so here goes. I also have some little videos but that will take a little longer to get organized.
Female cheetah...we also got a wonderful view of the male but didn't get a photo.
Female cheetah...we also got a wonderful view of the male but didn't get a photo.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Good times with old friends
We've been having a great time with Roger and Kerry and they are really enjoying the desert. We went to The Living Desert yesterday and it's always so much fun to see the animals and the scenery there. We've been having lots of laughs and enjoying wonderful food mainly compliments of Trader Joe's. Rog bar-b-q the steaks the other night and they were heavenly and today he treated us to his famous brunch...individual and perfectly rolled omlettes, fried potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, waffles...did I forget something?
We off to Palm Desert today and will stroll El Paseo and meet Tom and Claire for lunch. Claire knows Roger from her obstetrician days. The a swim, sun, and hottub. We'll head downtown Palm Springs to take in the Art Gallery, dinner at our favourite Mexican restaurant, and a look round the Thursday night market.
Jim and Kerry at breakfast
Roger cooking his famous brunch.
All of us at The Living Desert
Kerry in relax mode.
We off to Palm Desert today and will stroll El Paseo and meet Tom and Claire for lunch. Claire knows Roger from her obstetrician days. The a swim, sun, and hottub. We'll head downtown Palm Springs to take in the Art Gallery, dinner at our favourite Mexican restaurant, and a look round the Thursday night market.
Jim and Kerry at breakfast
Roger cooking his famous brunch.
All of us at The Living Desert
Kerry in relax mode.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Jim in the TC Monitor today
We were pleased to see this article in the Monitor of the Times-Colonist today. Jim was worried that the photo would be particularly dopey since he was very tired and after endless flashbulbs and the photographer wanting him to look like he was being buried under Huxley material. I've copied the article here so the photo probably won't show up. The TC is picky about people having subscriptions to pick up their stuff online so the link probably won't work unless you have an account.
`Camosun professor hunts down Aldous Huxley
James Sexton knows the famed author better than most folk know their family
SARAH PETRESCUTimes Colonist
spetrescu@tc.canwest.com
Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley
Edited and with an introduction by James Sexton; Ivan R. Dee; 512 pages; $35
Jim Sexton starts his show-andtell of Aldous Huxley documents with a copy of the author’s “lost play,”which he found rummaging through material at the University of Texas in Austin in 1994.
Before long, the Camosun College professor’s dining room table is covered with stacks of books, anthologies, manuscripts and photos. “He was an immensely prolific writer,” Sexton says, pulling out a thick hardcover book that is Huxley’s bibliography. “There’s a lot that is not in here.”
He should know. Sexton went full-throttle into searching for Huxley’s lost or unpublished writings almost 15 years ago and has dug up masses of letters and writings since. In addition to the play, he has edited and published Huxley’s Hearst Essays, co-edited a six-volume collection of essays and is a contributing editor in the Huxley Annual. His latest cache of unpublished Huxley works is newly released in the book he edited, Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley.
Huxley, began his writing career in Britain and died in Beverly Hills on Nov. 22, 1963, (the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and British author C.S. Lewis died). He is known for the utopian and dystopian imaginings in such books as Brave New World and his experimentation with LSD.
Huxley’s psychedelic drug experiences are documented in the book Doors of Perception (which is believed to have inspired the name of the band, the Doors). Huxley’s dying request was to have his wife inject him with LSD.
Sexton says this collection of Huxley’s letters reveals more about the man beyond the hard-working writer, satirist and philosopher.
“Some of his letters to Mary Hutchinson are the stuff of a textbook, lovesick Romeo,” Sexton says. Hutchinson was part of Huxley’s social circle and a lover to both him and his first wife, Maria Nys. In a 1925 letter to Hutchinson (who was married with children), after her rendezvous in Paris with the Huxleys, he writes, “… there are three beds in the cabin: One is unoccupied.”
Sexton says it was the racier bits in the letters that prevented their publication years earlier. “There was an embargo on the love letters to Mary,” Sexton says. “My guess is that they might have upset the descendants of Mary Hutchinson that were still around.”
Sexton received the shipment of around 1,000 letters from the University of Texas more than four years ago. Other highlights include Huxley’s letters to Lady Ottoline Morrell of Garsington Manor, of whom the young writer was considered a protègé and regular house guest.
Huxley offended Morrell in 1921 with his first novel, Crome Yellow, which bore characters and a setting too close to the lady’s own life. It would be years before they’d make up, due largely to the mediation of Huxley’s wife, Maria, despite this spirited apology he sent soon after:
“Your letter bewildered me. I cannot understand how anyone could suppose that this little marionette performance of mine [ Crome Yellow] was the picture of a real milieu. … My error, I admit, was to use some of Garsington’s architectural details. I ought to have laid the scene in China.”
The most interesting part of Selected Letters follows the author’s intellectual journey from an innocent seven-year-old and punning teen through his Asian travels, in which he satirizes colonialism, and his personal and professional turmoils in America.
Sexton was given full access to many of Huxley’s documents by his widow, Laura, whom he visited last spring at the home the couple shared in Beverly Hills. Laura Huxley died Dec. 13, peacefully in her home. She was 96.
“Her house is right under the big “D” of the Hollywood sign,” Sexton says, flipping through a stack of pictures of himself, his wife, Janice, and Laura Huxley, referring to her as “a great old lady.”
Sexton says his appetite to discover more about Huxley is far from sated. He has travelled the U.S., Britain and France in search of Huxley’s writings, financed in part by federal grants. “I love the detective work,” Sexton says. “It’s a hobby and a life passion.”
His interest began as a high school student in Vancouver. When he won a writing contest and was awarded a book of choice, Sexton asked for Brave New World. He was given a “less controversial” non-fiction commentary on the novel and his intrigue took off from there.
Working as a half-time faculty member and a research fellow allows Sexton part of the year to dig and write. His wife, Janice, has taken up painting to keep herself occupied while along on their travels. Their home is filled with folk art scenes from the area Huxley lived in the south of France.
“There’s an awful lot of journalism and drama reviews Huxley wrote that have never been published,” Sexton says. He estimates Huxley wrote about 10,000 letters in his lifetime. Only 500 of these appear in Selected Letters.
**We received this email of congratulation from Don and Elaine today...had a real laugh!
Dear Janice and that other guy,
So there I was quietly perusing my morning paper whilst lying in my warm bed this beautiful Sunday morning. All of a sudden I was turning the page when I was suddenly seized with the uncontrollable urge to vomite.Cramping immediately occurred and my vision went blurry.
Never had anything like this happened to me before .After a few minutes – and several passes of gas- I was able to see clearly enough to figure out what had caused this painful moment. Low and behold it was the book section and there was a ¼ page picture of James and an article on his Huxley book.
A great article but there should have been a warning on the front page.
Actually it is a super article and you and James should be proud.
Cheers
Don & Elaine
`Camosun professor hunts down Aldous Huxley
James Sexton knows the famed author better than most folk know their family
SARAH PETRESCUTimes Colonist
spetrescu@tc.canwest.com
Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley
Edited and with an introduction by James Sexton; Ivan R. Dee; 512 pages; $35
Jim Sexton starts his show-andtell of Aldous Huxley documents with a copy of the author’s “lost play,”which he found rummaging through material at the University of Texas in Austin in 1994.
Before long, the Camosun College professor’s dining room table is covered with stacks of books, anthologies, manuscripts and photos. “He was an immensely prolific writer,” Sexton says, pulling out a thick hardcover book that is Huxley’s bibliography. “There’s a lot that is not in here.”
He should know. Sexton went full-throttle into searching for Huxley’s lost or unpublished writings almost 15 years ago and has dug up masses of letters and writings since. In addition to the play, he has edited and published Huxley’s Hearst Essays, co-edited a six-volume collection of essays and is a contributing editor in the Huxley Annual. His latest cache of unpublished Huxley works is newly released in the book he edited, Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley.
Huxley, began his writing career in Britain and died in Beverly Hills on Nov. 22, 1963, (the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and British author C.S. Lewis died). He is known for the utopian and dystopian imaginings in such books as Brave New World and his experimentation with LSD.
Huxley’s psychedelic drug experiences are documented in the book Doors of Perception (which is believed to have inspired the name of the band, the Doors). Huxley’s dying request was to have his wife inject him with LSD.
Sexton says this collection of Huxley’s letters reveals more about the man beyond the hard-working writer, satirist and philosopher.
“Some of his letters to Mary Hutchinson are the stuff of a textbook, lovesick Romeo,” Sexton says. Hutchinson was part of Huxley’s social circle and a lover to both him and his first wife, Maria Nys. In a 1925 letter to Hutchinson (who was married with children), after her rendezvous in Paris with the Huxleys, he writes, “… there are three beds in the cabin: One is unoccupied.”
Sexton says it was the racier bits in the letters that prevented their publication years earlier. “There was an embargo on the love letters to Mary,” Sexton says. “My guess is that they might have upset the descendants of Mary Hutchinson that were still around.”
Sexton received the shipment of around 1,000 letters from the University of Texas more than four years ago. Other highlights include Huxley’s letters to Lady Ottoline Morrell of Garsington Manor, of whom the young writer was considered a protègé and regular house guest.
Huxley offended Morrell in 1921 with his first novel, Crome Yellow, which bore characters and a setting too close to the lady’s own life. It would be years before they’d make up, due largely to the mediation of Huxley’s wife, Maria, despite this spirited apology he sent soon after:
“Your letter bewildered me. I cannot understand how anyone could suppose that this little marionette performance of mine [ Crome Yellow] was the picture of a real milieu. … My error, I admit, was to use some of Garsington’s architectural details. I ought to have laid the scene in China.”
The most interesting part of Selected Letters follows the author’s intellectual journey from an innocent seven-year-old and punning teen through his Asian travels, in which he satirizes colonialism, and his personal and professional turmoils in America.
Sexton was given full access to many of Huxley’s documents by his widow, Laura, whom he visited last spring at the home the couple shared in Beverly Hills. Laura Huxley died Dec. 13, peacefully in her home. She was 96.
“Her house is right under the big “D” of the Hollywood sign,” Sexton says, flipping through a stack of pictures of himself, his wife, Janice, and Laura Huxley, referring to her as “a great old lady.”
Sexton says his appetite to discover more about Huxley is far from sated. He has travelled the U.S., Britain and France in search of Huxley’s writings, financed in part by federal grants. “I love the detective work,” Sexton says. “It’s a hobby and a life passion.”
His interest began as a high school student in Vancouver. When he won a writing contest and was awarded a book of choice, Sexton asked for Brave New World. He was given a “less controversial” non-fiction commentary on the novel and his intrigue took off from there.
Working as a half-time faculty member and a research fellow allows Sexton part of the year to dig and write. His wife, Janice, has taken up painting to keep herself occupied while along on their travels. Their home is filled with folk art scenes from the area Huxley lived in the south of France.
“There’s an awful lot of journalism and drama reviews Huxley wrote that have never been published,” Sexton says. He estimates Huxley wrote about 10,000 letters in his lifetime. Only 500 of these appear in Selected Letters.
**We received this email of congratulation from Don and Elaine today...had a real laugh!
Dear Janice and that other guy,
So there I was quietly perusing my morning paper whilst lying in my warm bed this beautiful Sunday morning. All of a sudden I was turning the page when I was suddenly seized with the uncontrollable urge to vomite.Cramping immediately occurred and my vision went blurry.
Never had anything like this happened to me before .After a few minutes – and several passes of gas- I was able to see clearly enough to figure out what had caused this painful moment. Low and behold it was the book section and there was a ¼ page picture of James and an article on his Huxley book.
A great article but there should have been a warning on the front page.
Actually it is a super article and you and James should be proud.
Cheers
Don & Elaine
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Donna and Neil's photos from Antarctica
Here are a few photos of their super trip to Antartica, Chile, Argentina, the Falklands, etc.
* Seem to be having problems with slow networks today...will post more another time *
Antarctica
Antarctica...I wonder what make the ice blue...
Penguins in the Falklands.
* Seem to be having problems with slow networks today...will post more another time *
Antarctica
Antarctica...I wonder what make the ice blue...
Penguins in the Falklands.
Huxley letters and the Great Detective
Just around Christmas time Jim was reading a masters thesis written in 1949 that mentioned some Huxley letters about the sources to Brave New World. He hadn't heard of these letters before and they weren't documented so it occured to him that the author of the thesis had written Huxley and these were her personal letters from him. He managed to track her down to Florida and she very kindly sent the copies of the letters. Her supervisor at the time was horrified she wrote to Huxley but he wrote back once on her original letter and then sent another letter. So like Huxley.
Jim had an interesting conversation with her and exchanged some emails. He sent her a copy of the Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley he just published and she was thrilled. I'm sure she's dining out for weeks on the story of being contacted by a scholar about her thesis of 60 years ago!
Jim had an interesting conversation with her and exchanged some emails. He sent her a copy of the Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley he just published and she was thrilled. I'm sure she's dining out for weeks on the story of being contacted by a scholar about her thesis of 60 years ago!
Mountain Snow
There's lots of snow on the mountains this year...last year the locals were complaining that the mountains weren't pretty because they didn't have their winter snow. I love them regardless.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Huge rainbow after the windstorm
Jim saw a huge rainbow when he was out in that windstorm. This is a photo from the Desert Sun.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Bristol Farms, sunflowers, golf...
A few photos of this wonderful food store.
I can never resist buying sunflowers...
Belair Greens...a great executive golf course close to us.
I can never resist buying sunflowers...
Belair Greens...a great executive golf course close to us.
PARKER PALM SPRINGS
This is a very neat old hotel that's across from us. Lots of the film people in the festival stayed here and it seemed the big place for the parties. A funky kind of a place but not cheap...basic rooms start at $300 during the week & $400 on weekends and up to $3000 a night for a two bedroom suite during the week and $4000 on weekends. Supposed to be good for lunch and brunch. We'll have to wander over there one day to eat.
PARKER PALM SPRINGS
My knight in shining armour...
PARKER PALM SPRINGS
My knight in shining armour...
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
We've had some weather....!
We certainly have had some weather lately...2/3 the annual rainfall came down in 2 days and wind gusts that you wouldn't believe! I thought there was a tornado coming and was worried about Jim who was out at the time. The roof of a local Travelodge blew off and a big rig overturned, trees down, flooding, power out. We weren't really affected by any of it other than the rain which fell mostly at night and the wind gusts were a bit worrying at times.
Back to clear blue skies and lying by the pool today...
Back to clear blue skies and lying by the pool today...
Desert Shores
Desert Shores seems to be a bit more upscale of a community in the area but quite a mix of mainly manufactured homes. There were white pelicans at the Salton Beach too but more of them here.
Jim wanted me to buy him this house since "the sea if always calling" (from Juno and the Paycock)
Looks like the perfect place for a lost weekend...
And then you have a church handy to confess your sins...
Jim wanted me to buy him this house since "the sea if always calling" (from Juno and the Paycock)
Looks like the perfect place for a lost weekend...
And then you have a church handy to confess your sins...
Salton Beach and Marina
Jim testing the water
Lunch was pork rinds and beer however we could have ordered from the "Deli" which is open 364 days a year from 8am - 7pm and had really cheap things like biscuits and gravy for a buck and a half.
"Walters" is a pub as far as I could determine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)