Boston and Cape Cod

I just spent a wonderful week visiting D and his family, including a weekend in Cape Cod. The house we stayed at is a guest house belonging to a family friend of Julie's and was quite palatial and beautiful! We were not strictly speaking on the Cape but in Marion, MA just on the mainland side of the bridge that the locals consider to be the official boundary of the Cape. The weather was perfect, warm and humid but with a nice breeze. The guest house is part of a private community with its own beach. D picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to Marion, meeting Julie and the kids at a local Thai restaurant. The Boston area is known for a lot of good ice cream places and we discovered Oxford Creamery nearby. The place was packed when we got there after dinner. It was hard to decide on a flavour but I went with Death By Chocolate (which seems like a popular flavour in this part of the world).  On Sunday, Julie's mom and stepdad joined us. We hung out at the beach and went to the local dock where people jumped off into the water, including one guy on a bike. Lots of people anchor their boats out past the dock (the tide level changes a lot) and with the beautiful grand beach front houses with their flag poles and Adirondack chairs the whole scene was ridiculously picturesque! For dinner we went to Turk's, which was recommended to us as the place to go for seafood. The place was densely packed with a restaurant on one side and a recently added sushi bar on the other. The food was delicious! After dinner we went back to Oxford. This time I got black raspberry, another iconic local flavour, basically an intensely berry flavored ice cream with a purple colour.

On Monday, Julie had to leave early for work so D and I took the kids to the dock one last time. Although the water was at low tide, Austin did quite a few jumps off the dock! We headed across the bridge to Cape Cod proper, to check out Woods Hole and Falmouth. We met up with a friend of D and Julie in Woods Hole and had more ice cream, at Jimmies. Both towns are really cute with a great New Englandy feel to them, lots of local shops with picturesque facades. Because we had Taco with us, everyone wanted to pet him and ooh and and ah over him.

Back in Boston, D and the kids and I went to see the Hokusai exhibit at MFA. The wood block prints were beautiful but we were all shocked at how tiny the Great Wave print is. Also that it was part of the Fuji series! At the end of the exhibit, there was an explanation of how wood block prints are made. 

I also went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Our book group read The Art Forger this past year and I wanted to see the setting of the story (and of the famous unsolved theft). The museum is completely unlike any other. The art was hung as Mrs Gardner desired, covering the walls or displayed on tables. Furniture fills the rooms in slightly odd ways. Where a stolen item was hung, the empty frame remains with a small sign indicating what used to be there.

On my last day, D and I took Taco to Arnold Arboretum. What a beautiful park! And the weather was perfect, sunny and not so humid. I then went to meet my friend Diane who had just moved to Boston about 6 weeks ago. She and her husband had finally got their furniture moved in a few weeks ago and were starting to explore the area. After lunch, I met D and the kids in Harvard Square. We wondered around a bit (including one more stop for ice cream) before I had to head to the airport for home.

Here are some photos from the trip,

Nudes at the MFA

I was in Boston visiting D, Julie and the kids during Thanksgiving week, mostly hanging around their neighbourhood, but I did make one trip into Boston to take a look at the Degas exhibit at the MFA. The exhibit is focused on his nudes in various media (pencil, pastel, paint, etc.) and in various periods of his career. The first few items in the exhibit are examples of his academic nude model pencil sketches and they are astonishing in their detail and shading. Most of Degas' nudes aren't depicted showing their faces, being viewed from the back and most of them are in everyday settings, particularly dressing and bathing. One room of the show includes nudes in brothels and are of a more graphic nature than anything I've seen in previous shows. Several of the nude sketches are shown near a final work where you can see the way he has used the sketch in the context of a bigger work. Several sculptures are included of his dancers in various positions, including three versions of one my favourites of a woman contorting herself to look at the bottom of her foot.

The MFA also has a small exhibit on Aphrodite, which is interesting to see in context of the Degas show, as the Greek goddess is a popular nude figure in Western art, and there are many beautiful examples in the show of sculpture, vases etc. that can be contrasted with the more worldly women that Degas depicted. Both of these exhibits is on through early 2012.

The MFA has a beautiful new Art of the Americas wing. A large atrium space with a small restaurant and some contemporary art pieces joins the new wing to the main museum. This atrium space reminds me of a small version of the American Wing at the Met, which is one of my favourite spaces in NYC. The MFA has a terrific collection of American art and to see some of the paintings and other pieces related to Colonial times is particularly appropriate in this city. I didn't spend a lot of time here, but there is much to explore.

Boston Ballet and back to NYC

Yesterday started with another ballet class, different teacher and this time the intermediate/advanced class. It was much more intermediate than it was advanced, but a nice challenging and small class. The teachers here all are very aware if you are a new student. When I told him I was from LA, he immediately asked about LA Ballet. Before heading back, I stopped at Taste Coffee House for lunch and had a pretty good crepe. As I was getting bundled for the walk back, who comes walking down the street but The Flash! Grown man with full head-to-toe red outfit with the wings on the head and the fake muscles. Walking with a normally dressed man. Going to get something at the coffee shop. Very interesting.

In the afternoon, I took the subway into downtown to meet Julie for dinner and the ballet. We chose a place called Teatro the night before, based on menu (Italian) and mosaic ceiling. It's located right off the Common and very close to the theatre. We had a very nice dinner (prosciutto and fig appetizer, linguine with crab meat, tiramisu) and I had a wonderful chance to catch up with Julie one-on-one, which is a rare treat! The ballet was performing a repertory of Paquita, 2 new pieces and Jorma Elo's version of Carmen. Paquita is a ballet I've always wanted to see because the variations come up a lot but it's rarely performed. It's really a combination of groups of dances, duets, trios, eights, just strung together for entertainment. The story is fairly unimportant (something about a gypsy girl discovering she's noble). The dancing is very nice. The two premiers are beautiful, very different. The first is much more balletic, very romantic and sensual, completely captivating. The second is much more modern but also engrossing, beautifully done. I enjoyed the Carmen, although they did not provide a complete synopsis and so I kept getting confused as to who was who. The men's costumes looked like pajamas to me, and did not differentiate the 2 main characters very well. The music helped (it's a modern version based on and using themes from the original). The principal ballerina, Lorna Feijoo, was amazing. Some parts of the ballet are so beautifully choreographed and the company really did a great job with it. All in all, a great way to end my Boston visit.

Today, D and I took a walk with Boo through the local woods in the morning and then headed downtown. We planned to have lunch in Chinatown before he dropped me off at the train station. We found a new dim sum place to try (Winsor) and had a great lunch (they do a nice xiao long bao, soup dumplings).

When I got to NY, I walked out onto the street and immediately was struck by the energy in this place. Wilson and Ming live a few blocks from Penn station. Walking down 7th Ave to their loft I'm struck by the variety of people and activity happening in such a small area. There really is no city like this. Ming wasn't feeling well, so I had a nice dinner with Wilson and a chance to catch up. We headed out afterwards to the Shake Shack where I got a frozen custard for dessert. I've got a jam packed weekend here. The past week in Boston was a really great, quiet and relaxing time. I'm ready to jolt myself back to explore NY this weekend.

Boston Ballet School

I'm going to be seeing a performance by the Boston Ballet on Thursday evening with Julie, however during the week, I discovered that they have open adult classes and there is a studio very near where D and Julie live! I went to an Elementary class today and thoroughly enjoyed it. The school has a separate series for true beginners so their elementary class is not as 'basic' as at some studios where all adult classes are open drop in. It was a small class and the level was great for focusing on perfecting technique. I'm going again on Thursday and will try their Intermediate/Advanced. Apparently it goes much faster so we'll see if I can keep up.

Fenway Park

Today I hopped on the subway and took a tour of Fenway Park. I've been to Dodger Stadium (tough to get in and out, beautiful view of hills, lots of visiting team fans), the old Yankee Stadium (great transit, great street life, no visiting team fans!) and Angel Stadium (fancy food, odd rock/fountain thing in the outfield). Fenway is tiny compared to those three! And because of the Green Monstah (the 'r' is silent), it's asymmetrical. But the history is pretty neat. There is Yankee bashing from start to finish by the corny old tour guide, but he has got a lot of information memorized, about the hand operated scoreboard and the men who run it, the retired numbers, the old jerseys, and about the great players who've made their name here. Past the outfield, where the bullpen used to be is a restaurant called The Bleacher Bar where you can sit and see the park from the center fielder's perspective. They have some nice sliders there (the mini burger, not the pitch).

Boston Book Festival

Today was a rainy day. In the morning, we headed to a local bookstore to get a book for a birthday party that the kids were going to later. Lunch was a combination of chicken noodle soup, chicken nuggets and grilled cheese sandwiches. All perfect for a rainy day lunch! After lunch, we dropped the kids off with Julie, and D and I headed to downtown to check out the Boston Book Festival. Now, LA has had a book fair for years and I've never been because you have to get tickets to the speaker sessions, fight traffic and parking to get to UCLA and I just know it's going to be crowds everywhere. Boston is a much smaller city and we are able to get into the two sessions we were interested in without much trouble. There are lines for book signings, but we pretty much skipped those. The first session was on the power of place in books. The format was a small speech by the 4 authors which made it less dynamic and interesting. Anita Shreve and Anita Diamant were the two authors I have read, and they both were very interesting. Anita Shreve's book is now on my list to look up. Elizabeth Nunez was an author I had not heard about, but she read an excerpt from her book which was enticing. The second session we went to was on thrillers and espionage books. This time, the format was a discussion and the 3 authors and the moderator all clearly had interacted before and were very practiced in this type of conversation. They talked not just about writing this genre of book but also about what writing does for them, why they write, how it affects them and how it affects their lives. They compared their own styles with each other. I now have Joseph Finder, Andre Dubus and Stephen Carter to look up. The festival included a few booths out in Copley Square with displays. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy and many books fell to an unfortunate soggy fate. So sad to see. We saw Ken Burns in one booth signing books, had some free Brigham's ice cream (Rocky Road, delish!) and checked out some e-readers (Sony has one you can take notes on). The final session was the keynote address by Orhan Pamuk. He spoke about his new book called "The Museum of Innocence". Recently the New Yorker published a short story by him and I realized today that it was an excerpt from this book. He read a few sections out of the book and then sat for a discussion. Unfortunately, his interviewer took a political tone to his questions which immediately irritated Pamuk. Even more unfortunately, the interviewer had nowhere else to go so each new question was more irritating. Finally, Pamuk suggested taking questions from the audience and here we were in luck. Mostly really good questions came out of this, including asking about how the first person narration restricts the viewpoint of the story, about the translator and that process and others mainly focusing on the writing process. [Update: Some videos are now online for various speakers from the Festival.] We skipped the signing line up and headed for a short stroll on Newbury Street. This place totally reminds me of Yorkville in Toronto, down to the architecture. Dinner was at Brasserie JO. The place was packed so we pulled up a couple of chairs at the bar. I had their mulled cider with brandy. We shared the onion tart (delish, good flavour but lovely light texture). I had the steak frite with a really delicious blue cheese butter, D had a pork tenderloin that he polished off. Dessert for me was chocolate mousse and for D the profiteroles. Both were exceptional, and they serve them in a nice showy way! We came out of the restaurant completely stuffed and for me, I felt the price of the meal was very reasonable (compared to what I think a similar place would be in LA). The best thing about the day was not having to fight crowds for everything, like I'm used to in LA. Plus we lucked out on $10 parking as well! It was a great way to start my week in Boston.

Getting to Boston

I flew out of LAX on Thursday night. The United flight to JFK is Economy Plus in all of coach, so with the extra 5 inches, I napped my way across the country. It does make the flight feel shorter. We landed in NYC at around 6:30a and the Airtrain/LIRR combination got me to Penn Station for about $13 bucks and in about an hour. By 8a I was sitting at the Tim Horton's having a donut and coffee with my printed ticket in hand. When I bought my train ticket, I wasn't sure how long it would take to get into the city. Clearly I gave myself way too much time, so I hung out for a few hours waiting for the train. About 20 minutes before it was scheduled to depart, I went to hang with the crowd staring at the board. I find this scene endlessly amusing, regardless of which train station I'm at. Crowds of people all standing and staring in the same direction. As soon as the track is listed, a big portion of the crowd heads towards it. The train ride is so civilized and relaxing. My only difficulty was that I decided not to attempt the overhead lift of my suitcase into the bin, so my legs shared the space with my bags. That extra 5 inches of leg room would've been very welcome. Even so, I find it very easy to nap on the train. The glimpses I got of the countryside showed that autumn was in full force. The colours of the forests we passed were beautiful, particularly against the backdrop of the overcast sky. I arrived in Boston at around 3:30p and easily found Julie's car waiting near the taxis. A quick drive out to the 'burbs and I'm at Julie and D's new house! The kids have grown SOOOO big since I last saw them (maybe 3 years ago?) and the house is really nice. It's much bigger, with a great big beautiful yard, a nice sun room, and a whole master bedroom suite for D and Julie, so now they don't need to share the bathroom with Mari and Austin! The kids are just as much fun as I remember. D made a wonderful dinner of turkey, baked potatoes, peas and an apple tart for dessert. I tried to stay up, but by 9:30p, bed was calling.

Last Day in Boston

We found out Sharon was in town with her family to visit her mother-in-law.  Bea lives in a lovely home with a small indoor lap pool, so D bundled up the kids with their swimming gear and we went to see EYPS and Teo.  The pool is nicely heated and the kids had a blast in the pool.  I haven't seen Sharon in years, so it was great to catch up with her and GP.  Bea had just got a new black lab puppy who is adorable.  

While we were visiting, we got a call from Stephen about the slightly early arrival of Mason O'Sullivan, healthy baby boy!   All in all, a wonderful way to wrap up a great week's visit. 

Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving turned out to be a balmy day, high 50s, low 60s.  Amy, who is Julie's sister, came by with her husband John and daughter Lucia to play with Mari and Austin.  The kids love hanging out together, especially the two girls (as you can see from the photo of them jumping on the bed).  It was so warm out, D and John took the kids to the park, no coats!  

Dinner was at the home of Julie's and Amy's stepsister Catherine Rocchio.  The home was filled with young children.  Dinner was turkey, mashed potatoes (traditional recipe from Julie's maternal grandmother), D's famous brussels sprouts, and roasted sweet potatoes.  Dessert consisted of 5 different pies: chocolate with gingerbread crust, apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, blueberry.

Exploring Boston

Yesterday D and I went to the new ICA on the waterfront.  The building is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.  There are beautiful views of the water from a glass wall at the gallery level as well as from the theatre, and from a viewing window in the 'mediatheque' which hangs under the main cantilevered gallery space.  They were showing a really interesting design exhibit which had examples of book covers, fashion, industrial design, architecture, etc.  I particularly liked the projects from 'DIY' magazine Make and Readymade.  The ICA is starting to build a permanent collection and among the artists they acquired is Tara Donovan.  One of her pieces is a cube made of straight pins, loosely held together.  According to one of the volunteers, the pins fall off easily and the whole thing needs to be remade regularly.  There is a sense of obsessiveness about her work which I love.  They will have a whole show of her pieces late next year, should be a good one!  

The ICA is right next door to Anthony's Pier 4, which apparently is an old Boston institution.  We had delicious clam chowder and shrimp scampi for lunch.

After lunch, I explored the Boston Public Library and Trinity Church in Copley Square.  Both buildings are filled with beautiful art.  The library has many wonderful murals including a series on the Holy Grail and another by John Singer Sargent.  The church is filled with stained glass, including some beautiful examples by Edward Burne Jones.

Harvard/MIT

I had lunch with Elaine and Alex today. They are Radcliffe fellows this year so I joined them at the Fellows lunch. We chatted with a couple of interesting people, including an artist from LA! The Fellows are from various academic areas and all have their own projects they are working on. After lunch, we took a bus to MIT and walked through the main building (and the infinite corridor) and then to see the new Stata Center. (That's us reflected in part of the building.) This facility was designed by Frank Gehry. It is a typical Gehry building. Before I headed back to D's, I stopped at the MIT Museum. Among the exhibits was a series of kinetic sculptures by Stewart Ganson, basically little sculptures that are driven by a motor and have moving parts. Many of them are quite beautiful and a little odd.

The First Thanksgiving

We went to visit Plimouth Plantation today. Seemed appropriate considering the time of year. It's divided into a Wampanoag (the original inhabitants of southern Massachusets) and English colonist village. In the Wampanoag village, they are dressed in traditional clothing, however they are not 'playing' people from 1600's so that visitors can ask about modern life as well as what it was like 'back in the day'. The colonists are playing parts, and you could ask them questions about their daily lives and they will answer as people from 1627 Plimouth. The little village had several houses, each with a vegetable garden, a big main building that looked like a meeting house, and a beautiful view of the bay. Austin and I are at what appears to be a bread baking oven. The exhibits in the museum are geared towards teaching visitors that the myths that we learned in school about the first Thanksgiving are not completely accurate. Both the English and the native people were cautious around each other.

Ice skating at the Frog Pond

We drove to Needham to get a set of bunk beds for the kids in the morning. The drive was beautiful as the leaves were still on the trees, so lots of yellows, reds. In the afternoon, we went for a walk through the Public Garden and Boston Common to the Frog Pond for ice skating. It was the first time for the kids and the adults were pretty darn rusty as well. The kids did great! Mari has a really good sense of balance. Austin got to be pretty fast with 2 people holding him and was completely into 'falling' which is good for learning to skate. We refueled with hot chocolate before heading home for a nap.

Boston, Sel de la Terre restaurant

D's birthday

So you'll have to turn your head, I have no idea how to rotate the picture. We had a great birthday dinner at this restaurant my first night in Boston. I had scallops for the 1st course, duck for main course, and a yummy rioja to go with. We shared a chocolate dessert and a maple cheesecake (which was excellent).