What I am watching

Tags

comedy drama, life, NYC

Lately we have been watching on Will’s laptop on Prime the comedy The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. The setting is the West side of New-York city in 1958-60. The story of a young woman Miriam Maisel (Midge) to her friends and her family, her father a professor at Columbia and her mother a Jewish matron. The setting being the late 1950’s all the context is very faithful to that era, so you have to remember or know what it was like then, the segregation between Jews and Gentiles, the Beatnik movement which will turn into the Hippie movement later, women questioning their role in society, a world still dominated by Father’s knows best and rigid conservative norms. All that is about to change and this is the background in which the actors evolve. It is jarring looking at it today in 2022 some 63 years later. Midge is 26 years old she would be 89 today, her too kids in their mid 60’s.

The inspiration for the show is Joan Rivers. Like Midge, Joan got her comedy career started in the 1950s at the Gaslight Cafe. Rivers is also a Jew and a New Yorker, two identities of Midge.

The music of the show is wonderful and so appropriate to the settings, the costumes are the best quality and very much of the time and all the scenery including the story line in Paris are actually Paris, no backdrop in a studio. It must have been an expensive production. Three seasons have been done and apparently a fourth is coming in February. I liked the part where they all go each Summer to the Catskills to an all Jewish resort called Steiner, not unlike Grossinger’s or the Concord, so popular then but gone now. The show reminds me a lot of the life then when I was growing up and how that world no longer exist. Midge works at the cosmetic counter of B. Altman in NYC, a now defunct big department store which catered to the luxury market when she is not doing a comedy act in N.Y. night clubs many of which were significant in their days with people like Lenny Bruce.

There are a lot of laughs but also some passages which remind you of what life was like and the focus on the hetero model, family, kids, social standing. Looking at it now, it all seems so strange and distant.

This and That

Tags

Bronx, covid19, NYC, PANDEMIC, routine, theatre, World

So as part of my daily routine now, believe me you need an established routine when a pandemic is on because though we are not on lockdown there is nowhere to go outside of driving to the beach or around the island or doing grocery shopping and that is not pleasant right now with all the risks around.

In the morning I get up, we take care of the puppies, then have my coffee,  shower and shave every morning even if we are not going to see anyone obviously. We have been in the house now for 9 days simply because we are following the advice of our Chief Medical Officer for PEI, Dr. Heather Morrison, stay home, stay safe. I also take my temperature everyday, I am normal. We phone people or send Emails, SMS etc to keep in touch with them, just to say hello. Do chores around the house, washing clothes, cleaning etc. Keeping busy is important. Also only listen to the news 2 daily, I find there is too much hype, spin and useless drama. Listening to Susan Bonner on CBC readio News at 6 is panic inducing, her tone of voice is full of drama and alarm, she does not know how to simply read the news. You have to wonder if it’s the producers behind the scene, click and bait school of journalism.  Not to mention Carol Off or Rosie Barton and Vassy Kapelos the grade 10 teenagers on the CBC.

I have gone back to listening to Internet Radio from around the World for music etc.

Today is World Theatre Day and when I think back to the wonderful plays we have seen with great actors throughout the years, so many plays in so many cities. Good theatre is joy! Here are three which made an impression on me. While in Dublin we went to The Abbey and saw the powerful play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness. Another play was The Three Penny Opera by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill in French and stage in this production in Montreal in 1939 during the Royal Visit of King George VI. In London One man two Guvnors by Richard Beam based on Goldoni’s play The Servant of two masters. So yes good theatre is a treasure to enjoy.

We should think about this treasure because the Covid 19 pandemic is going to reap a terrible price on the arts in general.

Today one year ago we were in Halifax visiting the city.  At this time of the year Wisteria is in bloom. I remember walking on the Corso Trieste in our neighbourhood in Rome and giant Wisteria plants would hang down, some stretching several floors on buildings.

We are not out of the woods yet, only 11 cases in PEI all at home doing ok. Tonight the Premier announced that schools are not re-opening before mid-May if at all. What will happen to the kids school year? He has 3 kids and 2 of them will probably have to do work from home but it will not be easy. His oldest is at University and students are doing all courses online. Many parents are simply not equipped to teach their kids. We all know that the tourist Season is dead, the Lobster and seafood/fishing season will be in severe difficulties now, the export and local markets have vanished. The Prime Minister has announced a very generous financial support plan for companies and people affected.

On the family front, my sister and her husband both work in the Bronx at a big hospital as social workers and they have been told to prepare for a surge (50%) in patients next week. I am very worried for both of them. But one remains hopeful, we tell ourselves this will pass but there is so much uncertainty. It is really out of our hands.

Spices

Tags

Austria, Fortunoff, Germany, Holiday, Juniper, NYC, PEI, Salzburg, spices, Sterling silver

In our Household I do all the shopping, Mr Will does most of the cooking and baking. He gives me the lists of ingredients, some rare and obscure even Gourmet magazine has not thought of it.

This means that on our small island sometimes shopping for ingredients can be difficult and challenging. Since 2010 things have improved a lot and though the native diet is not sophisticated it is improving with the constant flow of Canadians arriving here to settle and introducing a more cosmopolitan gourmet cuisine.

This month I was able to persuade the manager of our grocery store (it’s a national chain) that he should import veal since I knew that out of province stores had it. Next comes spices. Today Chef Will suddenly announced that in a burst of inspiration he was thinking of a new recipe and he needed Star anise and Cardamon seeds. These are two spices common everywhere in Canada except here in PEI land of potatoes.

Cardamon is a wonderful and versatile spice, I remember in the Middle East how it finds its way into coffee making and gives the most wonderful flavour. I finally found both spices at the Bulk Barn, though when I asked the clerk about it, he had no idea what I was talking about. This happens a lot here, radicchio is confused with red cabbage, NOT the same thing, but hey I am not complaining at the check out I pay for cabbage instead of radicchio a difference of $3.00 in price.

Last week I was looking for Juniper Berries, commonly used to make gin. Given that PEI has a big gin industry and produces its own 50 Proof Island Gin you would think that Juniper berries is a common staple, NOT so, it is not.  Luckily for us a friend had some on hand but she had bought them off Island. Chef Will needed them to make Potted Pork with Juniper berries. I helpfully suggested that we use Holly berries nice bright and red instead, festive looking. I was told they are poisonous and would kill off our guests, that would be most inconvenient  I presume.

Everything is closed solid as of 24, 25 and 26 December and same for 31 Dec and 1 Jan. it will be very quiet and am happy for it.

Here are some photos of heirlooms.

From Fortunoff on 5th Ave. NYC, a gift from my little sister in 1983 when I joined the Foreign Service. It has travelled with me all around the world.

Press glass punch bowl c. 1926, a wedding gift of Will’s parents. It is heavy and festive looking. Will be used for a red wine punch tomorrow for our Christmas Eve party.

Wood Nutcracker, hand painted made in the GDR (East Germany) 1982. I got him in Ottawa at a wonderful German Deli, now closed, back in those days the shop owners would import the most beautiful traditional German Christmas ornaments and he was in the window.
He travelled quite a bit with us all around the world and always appear at Christmas time. It is difficult today to find such nice wood sculpted Nutcrackers.

Austrian Tin hand painted Christmas tree and old St-Nick on his horse. We found this in Salzburg while attending the Music Festival in May each year. We use to take the train in Rome and travel up to Austria via the Brenner pass to Innsbruck and then Salzburg. There is a shop in a covered alley with all manner of traditional Tin figurines, it is really an art form made by the Wilhelm Schweizer co. in Diessen, Germany.

Our home terrace in Rome on Via dei Villini at Christmas time in 2009. We had lots of plants and this area was in a big park with lots of Maritime pines all around.

Christmas 2008 Rome, at home on Via dei Villini. Our tree then was 8 feet tall since the ceilings were taller.

Salzburg in Winter during the Mozart week with the river Salzach and the Archbishop’s castle on the hill, in 2010. It is a very small town and an easy walk.

 

We are back Home

Tags

CBSA, Ireland, NYC, QM2, Southamton, tourism, trip, UK, US Border

This is the first of several instalments on our 23 day trip to Ireland, UK and Atlantic crossing back to North America. So I am starting by our return home.

Returned home, our last stop was New York City the Cruise Terminal in Brooklyn. We arrived in NYC on the Queen Mary2 at 05:30am, the ship docked opposite Governor’s Island and the Tip of Manhattan Island with the new tower replacing the World Trade Centre lost in the clouds. The Captain had stopped the ship first in front of the Statue of Liberty so we could get a few good photos of this famous monument. It was the first time I saw it in person despite having been to NYC many times.

Statue of Liberty at 05:30am as the Queen Mary 2 docks at the Cruise Terminal, Brooklyn.

We then left the ship at 12:30 an hour later than scheduled due to the fact that US Customs and Border inspection only had 9 Officers instead of 17 to process 3000 passengers, it took 5 hours to complete this process of going through Customs for all passengers. I just thought that this type of obtuse management of tourists by the US Customs is an abuse. Passengers coming off an expensive Ocean liner being inconvenienced is in fact killing tourism and giving a poor first impression of the USA. All passport information had been available to the US Authorities 8 days in advance. Many including ourselves who had planned to spend the day in Manhattan decided to simply go directly to the airport. In heavy choking traffic on poorly maintained roadways, we made it to LaGuardia with 90 minute to spare before our departure for Canada. It is unfortunate because I had not been in NYC in 22 years and now it is unlikely I will ever return, too much of a hassle, not worth it.

The flight to Toronto was uneventful, though I find Toronto Airport an unpleasant experience. To be fair Canadian Border Agency is no better and grossly understaffed, 4 officers to handle hundreds of travellers at the Security check point on the second floor for connecting flights. The flight to PEI was fun, passengers mostly from the Island returning home, it seems that everyone knew everyone else on the flight.

So after a day of line ups in Customs and airport security circus, it’s for your safety don’t you know, this is what our lives have become, cynicism and inefficiency is a virtue, we made it home safe and sound, quite happy to be here in our own beds with our puppies.

All this said, it was a wonderful trip, thanks to Will who organized it all and made it a success, it was another great trip like so many he has planned in the past. We can say that it was the celebration of our many years of adventures together. Thank you Will!

At the Cliffs of Moher, Liscannor, Co. Clare, Ireland.