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July 26, 2006
Paris Chronicles, Episode Trois
On our third day in Paris we visited the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. As soon as we walked inside, we were overcome with Gothic majesty. The variety and profusion of stained glass, the chancel screen from the 14th century curving around the apse depicting scenes from the life of Christ in amazingly detailed stone and wood, the alternating black and white floor, the candles, chandeliers and candelabras, the rose windows, the paintings, the statues, the height of the vault taking the eye ever higher, etc… So much to be overwhelmed by! There was an organist playing murky mysterious music which perfectly set the mood.
We walked outside and got in line for the tour of the towers. While we were waiting, we gazed at the three portals, the two towers, the dozens of gargoyles, the 29 Judean kings, the west rose window, the massive wooden doors with amazingly intricate iron scrollwork, the filigreed stone ornaments and the parvis full of people with awed expressions on their faces.
After a long wait – only 20 people are let in at a time – we were getting a little antsy, even though the weather (except for un petit peu rain), scenery, and street musicians were excellent. The way up was broken up by a stop at a gift shop. In the shop were the stairs leading to Esmerelda’s chamber, so clearly described by Hugo that it could easily be identified. It made us want to read the book again. All along the way were beautiful quotes from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame that whetted our appetites.
Then again it was up and up and up dimly-lit spiral stairwells. Soon we saw a glimpse of daylight. The chimeras and gargoyles greeted us as we stepped along the narrow passageways outside and the view was breathtaking. We enjoyed using the gargoyles as vantage points when taking pictures.
We lined up the mouth of a gargoyle next to the Eiffel Tower so it looked like it was eating the Tower.
Up, up again we went to the very top of the south tower. As we circled around, we found this little square terrace with a table and chairs on a building next to Notre-Dame. What a view it must offer! Tim wouldn’t mind having a cup of coffee there every morning!
We then went down, down and down, round, round and round the spiral stairwell until we reached street level. We walked around the outside again hearing a man playing an ocarina and a choral group singing polyphonic Renaissance music. We did Notre-Dame, and it did us – did us in!
We went over to Sainte-Chapelle thinking “how can the stained glass windows we saw in Notre-Dame be topped by Sainte-Chapelle?” Well, they were—Sainte-Chapelle has more windows than walls! And not only that, the chapel was constructed in only 33 months (finished in the year 1248!), as opposed to Notre-Dame which took over 200 years! We walked up the steps and entered the chapel and were flooded with rays of filtered light.
We found that the mood and atmosphere of the inside changed with the shifting sunlight. We could tell if a cloud passed in front of the sun because the ambiance would change. It was as if the chapel was perfectly and intuitively interpreting and channeling the light of the sun – there was a symbiotic connection. The rose window looked almost proto-Art Nouveau in style with its wavy lines and swirling patterns. It looked like it was in motion, rotating.
The windows around the chapel (the “walls” of the chapel!) depicted scenes from the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Joanna spent her time trying to figure out what Biblical stories and persons were depicted in some of the windows. She deciphered many of them but it was difficult because they were so complex. She wondered how uneducated peasants in Medieval times 750 years ago could understand the cryptic language of the windows. Tim was too busy being mesmerized by light and color to think of what the windows meant. For once, he got lost in the aesthetic experience of something without trying to understand and analyze it!
Periodically the sound of the people talking within would cause a tour guide to go “ssshhhhhhhh!!!” and suddenly the noise would die down into quiet whispering for a few minutes until the talking started to get louder again. We stepped out onto the main portal and admired the carved stone around the doorway. Even the floor of the chapel was beautiful with an alternating fleur de lis design.
There also were amazing statues of famous saints inside which perfectly complemented the windows. They had stern expressions on their faces as if they were guarding the stained glass windows. The place was truly enchanting, mystical and ethereal – causing a lasting sense of wonder and awe. What men were these that created this masterpiece?
Posted by Tim and Jo at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 22, 2006
Clash of Culture or Amish in the Inner City
The hospital that Tim works at is in a rather poverty stricken section of Pittsburgh.
Someone had the bright idea of starting a farmer's market in the park right in front of the hospital, meeting every Friday afternoon. At first, I just thought it was really fun--I love farmer's markets and street markets!
Then I realized the genius of the idea economically.
I don't think Western PA farmers tend to be that prosperous, so it probably helps them to sell without a middleman.
And the people living in the area can get fresh produce and other nutritious foods for an extraordinarily reasonable price.
Score on both sides!
And on the fun side, Tim and I have been hanging out there after work on Fridays, picking up produce (fresh basil, lettuce, and corn), Amish cheese, Greek foods, and the best kalamata olive bread we've ever had.
Posted by Tim and Jo at 9:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 20, 2006
new documentary
Oooo! It looks like there's a fascinating new documentary coming out about shape-note singing. The recordings on the website are gorgeous. Can't wait till the film is available.
Posted by Tim and Jo at 2:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Menu for a week
Thanks to Jeannette's suggestion, here's a hypothetical menu for a week.
Middle-Eastern meatballs, 2 ways
Mix 2 lbs. of ground beef (or turkey, or chicken) with 1 egg, ½-1 cup breadcrumbs, ¼ cup diced green or red pepper, ¼ diced onion, 2-4 cloves minced garlic, 1-2 tbsp. cumin (ground and/or seed), 1 tsp. coriander, 1-2 tsp. cinnamon, 2 tsp. allspice, ground red pepper, salt and pepper to taste, and a splash of lemon juice. And pine-nuts, if you’re feeling extravagant. Roll into small, even balls, cook in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until done (on tin-foil or cooking-sprayed cookie sheet). This makes a ton of meatballs, enough for several dinners or lunches.
Freeze any that you don’t need right away. And…
#1: Toss frozen or fresh vegetables of choice (eggplant, cauliflower, carrots, peas, zucchini, whatever!) with some plain tomato sauce. Flavor with any of the spices used in the meatballs, if desired. Simmer until vegetables are tender, adding meatballs if frozen. Boil water for couscous (I usually toss in some chicken bouillon for extra flavor). Add couscous to the water (read the direction on the box). Pour the sauce with veggies and meatballs over the couscous.
#2: Warm meatballs, if frozen. Serve in pitas with yogurt, feta, and fresh vegetables (red or green pepper, cucumber, onions, lettuce).
Crockpot Sausages
Slice one onion and 1-2 green or red peppers thinly. Lay in bottom of crock pot. Lay kielbasa (and or hot dogs or healthier or gourmet versions of sausage—we had oodles of high-schoolers to our house when I made this, so we used a mix of kielbasa and hot dogs). Pour one bottle of barbeque sauce over everything. Cook on low for 3-4 hours. Serve on hot dogs buns (sturdy ones, like Kaiser buns—it might be saucy!), with sauce and vegetables. I saved the leftover sauce, and I’m cooking chicken in it today to shred for sandwiches.
Hutzla
Okay, this is a traditional PA Dutch breakfast that has been passed down through several generations of our family. Take day old bread (2-3 slices a person) and tear into chunks. Fry (in butter, or using cooking spray—butter is better!) until lightly browned. Meanwhile, beat eggs and milk (say, one egg and a ¼ milk for two slices of bread), adding ½-1 tsp. vanilla (or liquor if you’re feeling daring—a little Irish Cream is heavenly!). Pour over bread stirring quickly to coat. Press down slightly to make an even layer. Turn once when golden brown (you might need to cut it), cook until golden brown on other side, but still custardy in the middle. Serve with syrup.
Salmon in a Pepper Crust. Mmm! This is one of our favorite salmon dishes, and it takes very little work. I usually let it marinate for a couple of hours. And a coffee grinder makes it easy to grind the pepper.
Pasta with Brie and Fresh Tomato Sauce I know this isn’t the place I got the recipe I use (I’m still not sure where I found it), but with tomatoes finally coming in season, an uncooked tomato sauce is refreshing and easy. And I love brie!
And talking about seasons, almost local (NJ) blueberries are coming to the stores. So a crisp, pancakes, or muffins would be a special treat.
EDIT: Another easy, easy meal starter--bagels! Our local bagel shop has a summer sale (a baker's dozen for less than $5). Since my old roommate Teresa used to work at a bagel shop, and was able to take home leftovers at the end of the day, I learned to make all kind of bagel based meals.
Breakfast: bagels with butter, cream cheese, or egg
Lunch or dinner:
Bagel half+tomato sauce+cheese and toppings+broiler=bagel pizza
Bagel half+BBQ chicken (leftover from crockpot recipe)+veggies+cheese+broiler
Bagel half+tuna salad+cheese+broiler
Bagel half with a good canned soup
Bagel sandwich with anything you want!
*Bagels can also be sliced thinly and toasted for bagel chips for snacks or into chunks for croutons.
Posted by Tim and Jo at 9:32 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 15, 2006
random reviews
I've been busy, busy, busy, so I haven't been writing much lately. But here and there, Tim and I have watched a few interesting movies. So, here's a couple of quick reviews.
Here's Tim's take on it...
We saw an incredible movie a couple of weeks ago – Shakespeare Behind Bars, a documentary about a group of prisoners in a Kentucky jail who, under the guidance of an outside director, staged a full length performance of The Tempest for their fellow inmates and then took it to other prisons in the U.S. It was amazing to see that these wretched men who committed heinous crimes were able to cooperate with each other, speak kindly, take criticism constructively (for the most part!) and really treat the play and Shakespeare seriously. For many of them, acting out a character in a play opened up parts of their psyche which they had been hiding from. Their life stories were so sad. Listening to their interviews, their greatest concern wasn’t about fighting their imprisonment, nor fighting the world. They were fighting themselves – what they had become, and this came out in the way they interpreted and portrayed their characters in the play. It was great seeing how some prisons provide the means for the prisoners to improve themselves. It’s better than letting them just rot in their cells year after year.
Joanna: This is an unbelievable movie. I think it's really easy to escape our own sin and brokenness, and this gets you into the hearts of people who have broken themselves beyond all escape. I found myself realizing that Shakespeare isn't enough, and wishing that they had the true gospel. It was wonderful, though, how Shakespeare gave them words to articulate their own struggles. I was weeping by the time we left the movie theater, and I wasn't the only one.
We’ve also been delving into the history of American music by watching Ken Burns’s Jazz and Martin Scorsese’s The Blues. Ken Burns deals as much with race relations, politics, the growth of cities and sociology as he does with the music (which isn’t a criticism). Burns’s history is strictly chronological, but Scorcese’s is more non-linear, showing how modern blues players have a direct connection to Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Blind Lemon Jefferson. The Burns series has little to say about “modern jazz” (whatever that is), because so much of it has strayed so far from the roots of jazz that few connections can be made. Is it even “jazz”? Interesting – the Blues is always the Blues, but Jazz is a chameleon – it is ever changing.
We're still obsessed with French culture, and indulged ourselves by watching The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Cleo from 5 to 7. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is enthralling: gorgeous music--every line of dialogue is sung, like a Wagnerian endless melody ("except more melodic" Joanna jibes as Tim cringes), bright glossy colors, and a bittersweet plot.
Cleo from 5 to 7 was a classic example of the French new wave and it waved right over our heads. It had beautiful scenes of out-of-the-way sections of Paris (no overused iconic pictures of the Eiffel Tower in this flick), but we didn't quite get it. It was filmed in real time, as a woman examined (?) her own life (?) while she was waiting to hear from her doctor whether or not she had cancer. She spent her time fluctuating between indulging in mindless frivolities, and occasionally glimpsing her dire situation. Ahh, directionless French existential angst in action, er, not in action. Whatever!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 9:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 3, 2006
Deux Ans
Two years ago today...
C'est bon!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:49 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
July 1, 2006
Paris Chronicles 2
TIM: The major thing we did our second day in Paris was visit the Rodin Museum. But first I must tell you all about a strange hobby I adopted in Paris – sugar packet collecting! In Paris, all the cafes have their sugar in long, thin packets. I met this phenomenon in London, four years ago, and have always lamented the fact that I didn’t save any for souvenirs. I remedied this on our Paris trip, to remind me of the cafes we went to. Here’s another sugar related story: On the morning of our second day in Paris, we had breakfast in the little, angular, non-symmetrical courtyard of our hotel. There was a British family that came for breakfast. They had a little girl and she wanted “Frosted Flakes”. The hotel had only regular cornflakes, so the ever-ready-to-please mom improvised by scraping sugar off of sugar cubes (since the hotel also didn’t have sugar packets) onto the girl’s cornflakes. What a mum thing to do! I’m sure if the girl had her way, she would have placed a cube of sugar on each cornflake!
T&J: Now for the Rodin Museum. The Rodin Museum was filled with the cutest little sugar packets you ever saw! Rodin himself designed them and…..
Just kidding. The Rodin Museum was filled with the most awe-inspiring sculptures created since Michelangelo. This museum was fabulous not only, of course, for the sculpture but for the interior of the museum itself. It is housed in the Hôtel de Biron built in the early 1700s, a classic example of rococo architecture and design. Each room had magnificent woodwork, beautiful paintings on the ceiling, gigantic mirrors and geometrically patterned hardwood floors (that creaked when you walked on them). We spent about an hour and half there and then ventured outside to the café. We found that the pigeons of Paris eat very well but have poor table manners. They show up for lunch without an invitation, chew with their mouth open, don’t use napkins, spill drinks, never sit still, and even eat off of other peoples’ plates! How gauche! 
After we ate we meandered through the gardens and sculptures outside the museum.
We were inundated by roses – thousands of them, and their cumulative scent was an olfactory delight. We saw The Burgers of Calais, The Thinker, Balzac, The Gates of Hell, and the Three Fates. All were situated and presented beautifully in the garden amongst the roses, bushes and trees.
When we were done visiting the works of Mr. Rodin, we took the Metro from the Varenne stop to Invalides, then the RER to Pont d’Alma. The RER was so cool – a double decker monster of a train! What was not cool was the fact that the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in the Palais de Tokyo was closed for renovation. Bummer. We wanted to see the stained-glass influenced paintings of Georges Rouault here. All we saw was a group of punk skateboarders using the Palais de Tokyo as an obstacle course. We then decided to substitute Rouault with Monet and visit the Musée de l’Orangerie in the Tuileries Gardens to see the Nymphéas – the water lily paintings. We hurried underground, caught two Metro trains and walked briskly to the museum. It was 4:15 and the museum closed at 5 pm. It was all for naught though – that museum was also closed for renovations! We realized that we had been struck by that bane of all tourists –
THE CURSE OF THE CLOSED MUSEUMS!!!
Worse than the Black Plague, more hideous than boils, this ghastly specter waits to strike unwary art fans. Somewhat disappointed, we walked around the Tuileries Gardens a bit and found Café Véry which made it all better. What a pleasant time we had here. Joanna ordered a tarte aux poire carmelises (a caramelized pear tarte) avec un boule de glace chocolat noir (with one scoop of dark chocolate ice cream).
It was a mouthful both of words and taste! She was beaming. She was in Chocolate Heaven. Tim ordered a double café crème and sucked that caffeinated nectar down. So we sat here for an hour and rested our weary Metro chasing, closed museum cursing bones.
We walked some more through the Jardin des Tuileries and saw:
1) Beautiful statuary
2) Beautiful trees, hedges, beds of flowers aligned in swirling arabesque–like patterns
3) Kids sailing sailboats and ducks swimming in the great round pool with a fountain in the center
4) A painter painting in an abstract way the gardens and the Musée d’Orsay across the Seine
5) A fun fair!
We walked a while through the fair and saw all kinds of rides and games – dark rides, a spook house, bumper cars, a carousel, a trampoline, and a Ferris wheel. This Ferris wheel was big! We couldn’t pass up a chance to admire the view from the top so we bought a ticket and hopped on.
Up we went, down we went, up we went, down we went! The view of course was spectacular – the Eiffel Tower in all its grandeur, the great expanse of the Louvre right under us, the sparkling river Seine, Sacré-Coeur in the distance! It was a great ride. By then we had forgotten about the closed museums. There was always something else in Paris to attract ones attention – always a diversion. Nothing here was boring!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Frank McCourt Part 2: Tim's Take
So...continuing the theme...here's Tim's ideas on Frank McCourt. Enjoy!
I’ve started reading Angela’s Ashes, recommended by Joanna who recently discovered his writings. I’ve seen the movie version several times and love it but I’ve never considered reading the book until now. Joanna’s has also read ‘Tis and Teacher Man. I was quite skeptical when I read some critiques of the book saying that McCourt could be compared with such writers as James Joyce. Now that I’m reading the book, I have to say that I've never read something so tragic that is also so hilarious. A few excerpts for the book and movie:
The classic opening: "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
Grandma to young Frankie: "You have enough dirt in your ears to grow potatoes."
Frankie to priest in confessional: "Bless me father, for I have sinned. It's been a minute since my last confession."
Frankie: "Oh, America. Where no one has bad teeth and everyone has a lavatory."
School teacher: "Stock your mind, it's your house of treasure, and no one in the world can interfere with it. Fill your mind with rubbish, and it'll rot your head. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind, your mind is a palace."
Frankie in the hospital: [Reading Shakespeare is] "like having jewels in my mouth when I say the words. If I had a whole book of Shakespeare they could keep me in the hospital for a year."
Posted by Tim and Jo at 10:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack