Andy Warhol exhibit

I know it's a lot of stuff but I was really blown away by it all.  I wanted to keep a record of it.

These were just so cool I couldn't resist photographing almost all of them.  They are worth reading if you can make it out.  Read "Love is a Pink Cake" first.

So,  art galeries and museum have AndyWorhol to thank for a great idea for raising money.

This was an amazing sequence on the Kennedy assassination.  Only a snippet here.  A number of photos failed to upload.

And of course the Mao series was brilliant and the "Marilyn".  We listened to the docent for a while talking about these.

Memory on FB from 5 years ago

Interesting that this came up today as yesterday we saw "Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of  Jordon D. Schnitzer" at the Palm Springs Art Museum which was nothing less than magnificent.  It really gave us a much broader sense and appreiation of his work...wow!  There were lots of Marilyn.  Also,  Saturday, we went to a neighbourhood distaster preparation for the "big one".  We were impressed with the materials and information.  I plan longer blog posts on both weekend events.  The Warhol will take a while as I took lots of photos.  I think I'll have to return to this wonderful show once more before we leave PS.

FB memory from 5 years ago:

I imagine this poster is going to be very popular in Palm Springs and will probably become the "poster child" for the 75 Anniversary of Palm Springs taking place in April.

Palm Springs got a bit of a shake up yesterday. Folks in the big tennis tournament got a bit of a scare. The desert might be the best place to be in the "big one" since you have really no high buildings and no chance of a tsunami. Not that one will be having a choice in that...just fate, but hope all my friends and family are in the right place.

Signs of Spring in Victoria

"Smith said spring officially begins at 3:29 a.m. on March 20.One sure sign of spring in the region is the appearance of the Victoria Harbour Ferries, which actually got off to an early start this year on Feb. 10.

Another indication the season has turned will be the opening of Barb’s Fish & Chips, set for the first week of April in its familiar spot at Fisherman’s Wharf. The floating restaurant will be in a new building.

For farmer Ryan Vantreight, general manager of Longview Farms, the focus heading into spring is on harvesting the remainder of the daffodil crop, a staple of the operation. He said pickers are still needed.
Some of the daffodils arrived early, he said, but the snow that fell recently slowed down their progress enough to put them back on their usual track."

Meanwhile in Palm Springs we have had the most unusual weather since about mid Feb.  It was often in the 60's,  now in the 80's but will go down to the 60's again at the end of this week and even some rain.  Now,  rain is always welcome and we actually got quite a bit last night...yeah!

My daffs are from Trader Joe's.

I think you can probably see the raindrops..

A new Mexican restaurant...Rio Azul

Yesterday the plan was to go to Fisherman's and have their catfish but we couldn't get a table outside. We noticed the Mexican restaurant Rio Azul was open.  It usually isn't open for lunch when we pass by but they are open now Fri, Sat, and Sun for lunch and they have a reasonable bottle of red wine, a nice terrace with a great mountain view. The interior seems very pleasant  as well. We were very impressed with the food and they have lots of tempting things on their menu.  I think it's time to break out from our usual boring Mexican choices for food!

Jim had the usual combo. Everything was delicious as I had a tiny bite of each item.

The salsa was particularly good as well as the taco chips.

The canopy was perfectly placed so you could choose sun or shade outside.

We enjoyed the wine.  We find Mexican restaurants sometimes don't even offer a reasonable bottle of red wine.  It's often plonk by the overpriced glass. That's something we really like about our Chinese restaurant.  The owner gets in a reasonable bottle of wine just for us!

I couldn't resist the calamari and I expect to be disappointed but not this time!  It was wonderful and cooked to perfection.  It seems it is calamari steak cut in strips and marinated.

The description on the menu:

"Deep fried calamari dusted with New Mexico chile flour served with Guajillo lemon pepper cream."
The dipping sauce was fabulous! I loved the presentation and the colour of the plate.

I noticed something called Parrilladas on the menu that sounded excellent.  Looking it up it seems like it means "barbecue"  and perhaps is Argentinian.

From the menu:
"Combination of citrus marinated grilled shrimp, bacon wrapped shrimp stuffed wit jalopeno and jack cheese, scucculent quail cooked to perfection, grilled chicken and grilled steak served over grilled onions and green and red bell peppers.  Choice of beans and rice."

Some photos I picked up on the internet:

Their full menu:
http://rioazulpalmsprings.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/regular-menu.pdf

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Sweetland"

"Sweetland" by Michael Crummey

I have now finished the novel and was very impressed with the story and the writing.  What a poignant sad tale and yet so much to be admired in the spirit of these amazing Newfoundlanders.  The characters are "larger than life"...rather like my father-in-law was.  I think he would have enjoyed this novel too and I think of him very fondly and will always remember the first time I met him.  Maybe we'll get to Newfoundland after all...

Happy International Women's Day!

I enjoyed this cartoon from  "The Telegraph"

From Linda's blog

I thought this was just a great story of an immigrant who did really well and is giving back so much...wow!  And is there any better deal than this for lunch...$2 Canadian for a hot dog and coffee?

Good on John Volken!

John Volken being presented the Dalai Lama Humanitarian Award.  Two amazing people together.
Read the full blog post here:
http://linfish69.blogspot.ca/2018/03/john-volken-and-price-pro.html

Pretty exciting stuff for Shakespear scholars

It will be interesting to see what comes of it all....ah technology.

"Plagiarism software more commonly used to check student essays for overly assiduous borrowings has uncovered a long-forgotten, handwritten document from 1576 as the possible source for more than 20 monologues and passages from Shakespeare’s plays.

Independent scholar Dennis McCarthy and LaFayette College professor June Schlueter used WCopyfind software to compare passages from Shakespeare’s plays with George North’s 1576 unpublished manuscript, A Brief Discourse of Rebellion, about the dangers of rebelling against a king. They were able to trace more than 20 passages back to the essay, including Gloucester’s opening soliloquy in Richard III, Macbeth’s comparison of dog breeds to different classes of men, the Fool’s Merlin prophecy in King Lear, and the events surrounding Jack Cade’s fatal fight with Alexander Iden in Henry VI."

Shakespeare's First Folio

More from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/09/shakespeare-plagiarism-software-george-north

Two more of my favourtie cars....thanks, Susan!

I'm just loving these.  Susan has taken my suggestion and is posting the photos of the cars.

If it was Monday....we must have been at Bill's Pizza

Josh,  our favourite server,  didn't see us at first.  We were sitting outdoors on the side in the sunshine and it's not a place we sit a lot since it's usually too hot but it's been cooler (although that is changing) and probably the last time we will be able to sit there this season.  We already had our two Fat Tire beer by another server and he came along with two more!  No charge,  of course,  and we did enjoy sitting in the sun having another one....thanks,  Josh!

Josh with our glasses of Chianti ...we couldn't forgoe those.  The first time we took Richard to Bill's,  a server gave him a beer even before we ordered saying someone ordered something else.  Richard has loved the place ever since!  Thinking about you, Richard, and wishing you could have been there to share!

The Oscars....not.

We cut the cable down here since we watched almost nothing so couldn't get the Oscars anyway.   There have been many years we haven't watched them even when we could.  They were pretty boring even when we had seen quite a few of the films and knew most of the stars.  We don't see many films and we know hardly any of the stars.  And while I do find Jimmy Kimmel funny,  I wouldn't have looked forward to all the politics.

One thing I always do enjoy is to look at the "10 Best and Worst Dressed".  It would be fun to have them jumbled together and try to choose.  I'm sure I would get them all mixed up!

These are mixed up...you be the judge.

Another classic car from Susan K.

I love the perspective!

I thought this was interesting

From Seth Godin's blog:

Why is this interesting?

Interesting non-fiction often falls into one of three categories:

a. It's interesting because it's by or about a celebrity. People Magazine and various autobiographies appeal because they offer an intimate glimpse into someone you were already interested in. This is a lot of the appeal of social networks--famous to the family, telling their story.

b. It's interesting because an unlikely thing actually happened to a real person. Books about climbing Everest, starting a company or surviving drug dependency or a dysfunctional upbringing work because they happened to someone else, and we want to watch or vicariously experience what happened.

c. It's interesting because it's about us, the reader. These are books or blogs that offer a path forward, that talk about part of the human condition that you're currently experiencing, that offer solace or guidance or insight about what's happening and what's next.

We're all writers now. What makes you interesting?

Richard is safely back from Ukraine

....and sent this photo of English Bay.  He walked there yesterday evening and thought of us.

Thanks, kid, perhaps our favourite view in the world!

Arrive Hotel

We went to the Arrive Hotel yesterday to check it out.  It's in a pretty neat area and the neighbourhoods of Las Palmas and Little Tuscany are nearby and fun to drive around.  They have a very cool pool area but the restaurants and the Droughtman Pub next door didn't really do it for us in terms of atmosphere.  It's more of a young people's scene.  My battery was dead in my camera so not my photos.

The granite ping pong tables look like they would be fun to play on.  They also have a bocce court.

The FAQ was rather interesting....everything done by text.  Also,  you check in at the bar.  There is no lobby.  I think for people our age The Rowan is more our scene.   They have a fabulous lobby!

https://arrivehotels.com/faq/

"Sweetland" by Michael Crummey

The Faculty Women's Club is reading this novel for their May meeting.  He is a Newfoundland writer and I was somewhat amazed to find it at the Palm Springs Library.  It's about the inhabitants of a remote island off Newfoundland's south coast who are being offered a resettlement package so the government doesn't have to continue services.  There is one hold out.  I've been enjoying it and emailed Carol and Brian Peckford that they might enjoy it too if they hadn't read it.

Carol replied:

"The book sounds very interesting and I’m sure I would enjoy it too.  In fact, there is a small island called Little Bay Islands in Central NL which is undergoing resettlement as we speak!   Only a handful of people left." 

I googled Little Bay Islands and brought up this story and passed it along to Carol.  I had no idea ressettlement was still going on.  It's certainly a fascinating story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/little-bay-islands-no-students-resettlement-1.4426431

Carol's next reply:

"When you googled Little Bay Islands, did you happen to find these recent pics?

The last one is the former residence of George & Greta Jones who owned the crab plant and general store.  My late father was a salesman (plumbing, heating, paints) who travelled Newfoundland and was good friends with George & Greta and would stay at their house when he went to Little Bay Islands.  In fact, they became really good friends of my parents, my siblings and I called them Uncle George & Aunt Greta, and we vacationed with them in this house a couple of summers when I was young.  It was great fun and my siblings and I have some wonderful memories of the little island.  My youngest sister, 7 years younger than me, was named Greta!

And...Little Bay Islands was part of Brian’s district!"

After a successful career as a software engineer, new retiree Mike Parsonshas returned to the place where he grew up: A Newfoundland fishing community that is on the brink of ceasing to exist. 

First settled in 1825, Little Bay Islands was once a thriving community of 500 with three churches, a grocery store and a fire brigade. Now, with a wintertime population of only 40, whole streets are occupied by nothing more than dark, abandoned homes. 

The images below are Parsons’ record of life in the near-empty town. The photographs (which are for sale) have the appearance of oil paintings thanks to filters applied using image processing software of Parsons’ own design.  

This is the Little Bay Islands waterfront. One of the eerier things about the community is the number of items left by people who seem to have planned to return and use them again. Parsons said that both the car and the boat in this image are abandoned and haven’t been used in years. 

Of the town’s many abandoned houses, this one gets special attention from Parsons’ camera. It’s more isolated than the rest, it’s older and it’s also one of the most endangered. Part of the structure’s roof came off in a storm. While 19th-century houses can be famously sturdy, it’s the beginning of the end as soon as rain can get in. 

This is the abandoned former home of the man who ran Little Bay Islands’ crab plant. As a former resident commented on Parsons’ Facebook age, “wish that that house was still full of buyers from Japan looking at Thor crab.” Like other homes, it’s still stocked with bedding and dishes as if the owners are merely gone for the winter. 

A link to all the photos:
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/haunting-images-of-life-inside-a-depopulated-newfoundland-town

I just love it!

Susan King asked me if she could use my photos of the Modernism Week Classic Car Show for sketch ideas.  Of course I said yes and I really hoped she would do a series.  She began one today and she chose probably my favourite car in the show for her first one...wow!

You can follow her blog at:
http://passionforpaper-passionforpaper.blogspot.ca