More about Grandma

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I began working on my grandmother’s book back in the late 80’s. In 1989 I collected copies of correspondence about her nursery from several Chicago archives. Shortly after getting all of this stuff my neatly structured life crashed, I put the materials away and only returned to it now. I’ve been scanning all of these documents and reading them as I go along. My grandmother certainly generated a lot of controversy. (She did this within the family, also.) Family mythology simplified all of the reasons for the controversy, so it’s interesting to see the point of view of all of the parties involved. Some of the factors: the larger schism between German Jews and Eastern European Jews; misogyny, this was a woman, leading women, raising huge amounts of money for her own cause; competition between groups working for the same causes (orphanages or infant group homes); prevailing scientific opinion that group homes for children were not a good thing. Most of the documents were written by men, powerful men who lined up on both sides of the controversy. The women just continued doing their thing. 

Weather 2

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This morning it looked like I was going to be snowed in, but now the sun is shining and the snow on the driveway is melting. This leaves me very conflicted. I should go over to the health club and work out. Now I have no excuse for not going. I made myself a second cup of tea and I’m thinking about it. I’m still working on the book. I feel like I’m on a roll and I don’t want to be interrupted, but, the truth is I’ll use any excuse not to exercise.

Weather

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I never used to let the weather slow me down. But I’ve decided that one of the perks of old age is that I don’t have to keep going all the time. I have classes on Tuesday and Thursday from 11 am to 5:15. It’s a long day, and I’ve begun to mind it. On Tuesday, I decided I did not have to go to the last class. Mostly, it was because I was worried about the computer. My network crashed on Monday night, and, another perk of old age, I went to bed without fixing it. But I worried all day Tuesday. So I cut my class, came home early, set it up again and everything seems to be working. Today I resolved to go to that class. I sat in the library until 3:15. It’s cold out and occasionally snowing, but the sun was shining when I walked out. By the time I walked one block of the necessary three, the weather had changed completely. There was a fierce wind and some nasty gusts of snow. I stopped in the Cathedral to put up my hood and a scarf around my neck and walked out to a nasty storm. So I went a half block back to the bus stop and within seven minutes I was on my way home. The sun came out again before I got back here. I should have gone to class, but that’s the perk of being old.

Charna’s Book

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I haven’t entirely finished Charna’s book, but I’ve decided to post what I’ve done. You should be able to open this in Adobe Reader. Warning: it’s a large file.

The book is finished, for now, and can be found at the February 8, 2007 post.

Unfortunately, I have a little more translating that needs to be done. I have to start from scratch with this, and I don’t think I will be able to do it. So I’m looking for someone with a good knowledge of Yiddish. Eventually, all of the blank pages will be filled.

Another Busy Week

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I am overwhelmed with reading for my Japanese Art History classes. It’s a good thing I don’t have to work for a grade in these classes. Besides the assigned reading I’ve been reading some papers for a couple of my  classmates and Eli sent the novel he’s been writing. Of course, that took first place. While he was here over the holidays we spent some time discussing his plot and characters, so I was very pleased to finally get to read it. I’m very impressed; he did a great job.

My software arrived on Wednesday so I’ve also been working on my grandma book. I’m actually not finished with the text, but I felt like I had to see it laid out before I could go further. That’s been very satisfying. I decided to have an 11 x 8.5 inch page, landscape. The text of Grandma’s autobiography is 5" on the inside of each page. Notes, photos and additional material cover 3.5" on the outside of each page, with wide margins all around. All of the text is entered. Now I’m working on the pictures and other material.Screen_grab1

Book update

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I’ve been working on both my tunnel book and the book about my grandmother. I have most of the text prepared for Grandma’s book and am waiting for some new software to work out the layout. I have it visualized, but sometimes there is a great distance between idea and implementation–which is where I am with the tunnel book. I have a clear idea in mind, but playing with the pictures I want to use, I’m not sure it will work.  I think I have a long way to go.

For those of you who have asked what a tunnel book is, look here. Another, simpler book is here. The book maker has taken a reproduction of that very famous picture, Sunday on La Grande Jatte, cut out the figures, pasted them back in descending order to create perspective and repainted the background. It is easy because they have taken a two dimensional image of a three dimensional view and made it into a quasi-three dimensional view. In trying to analyze my problem, I think because my subject is a tunnel, it is too long and I have too many pictures from too many angles.

Aging

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My parents lived very long lives, my mother to 88 and my father to 94. Morriebessierieger
Watching them age I learned all of the things I don’t want to do, or be. My parents were both the youngest in their families and outlived all of their siblings by many years. As is often the case their friends seemed to disappear and they made no efforts to make new friends or even acquaintances. At the end, they were terribly alone. My father managed to alienate his few concerned relatives with his increasing paranoia, and finally was left with just my brother, his soon to be wife, and me. I was always amazed he did not turn on me, since our relationship over the years could, at best, be called difficult. 

This is not how I want to age. Most of my life my parents showed me what not to do, and they continued into their old age. But there are always exceptions to these things, and I have a funny one. My parents always bathed; they never showered, probably because the shower curtains were never adequate to keep the water inside the tub. After my mother died we finally moved my father into an assisted living facility. The thing he liked best about the facility was the shower; he often commented on it. Each morning, as I shower, I think of him. As the water hits my body all of my aches disappear, and I contemplate remaining there all day or until the hot water runs out. He probably felt the same.

Opera

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Yesterday I went to see the Met live broadcast of I Puritani at a nearby movie theater. The music was wonderful. I suppose this is their much touted "high definition." It certainly wasn’t the picture, which ranged from extremely fuzzy to romantic soft focus. I know that lighting has something to do with it, but I don’t really understand what was going on. For the most part I enjoyed it. However, I found the camera work very distracting.

I did not know what to expect when I entered the theater. I had hoped this would be an approximation of attending a live performance. I wanted the camera to show the entire stage from a box, or approximately ten rows back in the orchestra, my seats of choice. Occasionally I would like the camera to move in a little closer, like using opera glasses.  In fact, when I first took my seat the camera showed the stage and  about ten rows in front of it. I was happy. But, I soon realized they had three or four cameras and were using them to show everything from the singer’s teeth to the back of the performer looking out to the audience. There were many close-ups and fast cuts. It’s very distracting to have the camera focused on the singer and, because of camera movement, the candles behind the singer slowly rise. Or a shadow from some unknown source move across the screen, again because of camera movement. It’s enough to have virtuoso performers without the camera person, or director, also trying to give what they think is a virtuoso performance. I know these zooms and cuts are used a lot in film and TV, but opera is it’s own medium and makes different demands. The Met is trying to attract a broader audience for opera. I applaud their efforts, but they need to maintain the integrity of their medium.

Getting our priorities straight

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If you listen to the radio or read the newspaper, Pittsburgh’s biggest problem seems to be keeping the Penguins hockey team in the city. Everyone, including Gov. Rendell, seems to be working on this. At the same time the transit system has announced massive cuts to take effect in June. I don’t understand why the mayor, the governor and everyone else isn’t working on a way to enlarge and promote public transportation. This would be a much greater public benefit than building a new stadium for a sports team. How do people who can’t afford cars get to work? How do those massive numbers of students get to school? There is no place to park, even if they can afford cars. I guess the answer is we should all buy a ticket to the hockey game and forget everything else. 

Back in Pittsburgh

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I’m easing back to normal life (that means doing laundry and checking mail, which won’t happen until tomorrow because of the post office holiday for President Ford’s funeral), and I’m still thinking about all the things that happened in New York that I haven’t written yet. Renee and I went to the Pearl Theater, a repertory company, to see School for Wives. The play was beautifully acted, but it was spoiled for us by someone in the audience who thought they were part of a TV laugh track. It’s a funny play but didn’t merit the loud, insistent cackle that accompanied every funny thing. I can’t watch sitcoms on TV because of the laugh tracks, and I found this almost unbearable.

I went to the Metropolitan Museum twice. The first time, on the Friday before Christmas, I met a friend and we looked at the Vollard exhibit and the Nan Kempner. I looked briefly at a new Japanese print exhibit but was too tired to really appreciate it so I decided to return another day. I did not get back until the Friday before New Year’s. Unfortunately it was so crowded I just left. That was a disappointment.

I managed to see most, but not all, of my friends. Twelve days just wasn’t enough. One of the highlights of my trip was the wedding of a friend’s son. It was a beautiful affair: a lovely ceremony, good food, great music, some good friends.