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The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 14: Turner

Excerpt:

Later in life, Turner travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. In Venice his eyes were gladdened by the gorgeous colours above her lagoons. Henceforth he makes his pictures blaze with hues scarcely dared by painter before. But so great was his previous mastery of the paler shades, that a few touches of brilliant colour could set his whole canvas aflame. Even in the ‘Temeraire,’ the sunset occupies less than half the picture. The cold colours of night have already fallen on the ship, and there remains but a touch of red from the smoke of the tug.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Fighting Temeraire (by Turner)

Come back next Monday for chapter 15!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

I used to listen to KPBS’s radio stream all the time, but it stopped working a while back. I don’t have a radio in my house, and I really missed my KPBS. Their stream didn’t work at all in Windows Media Player, which is what you’re supposed to use, but which of course is a piece of crap. When I tried to use VLC I was able to hear the little commercial they play before you get to hear the radio broadcast, but then it stopped and that was it. I finally reached Skot Norton, a very helpful (and Mac-savvy!!) fellow at the station who provided me with a special link: http://media01.kpbs.org/kpbs-fm .

Want to listen to KPBS? Got a Mac? First, install VLC. It’s free, and very useful for watching or listening to all sorts of media. Run it, then choose File -> Open File and paste that special KBPS link into the box. Hit the Ok button, wait a moment while it buffers, and enjoy! I’ve got Morning Edition on right now, and last night I listened to BBC news, and then at 7 there was the Writers’ Almanac (it was Jane Austen’s birthday!) and then they switched to classical music, as usual, and there was lots of Beethoven ’cause it was (probably) his birthday too.

Hooray for KPBS!

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 13: Reynolds and the Eighteenth Century

Excerpt:

The eighteenth century was a time when politicians and men of letters had the habit of gathering in the coffee-houses of London—forerunners of the clubs of to-day. Conversation was valued as one of life’s best enjoyments, and the varied society of actors, authors, and politicians, in which it flourished best, could only be obtained in the town. To the most distinguished circle of that kind in London, our painter Reynolds belonged.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Duke of Gloucester (by Reynolds)

Come back next Monday for chapter 14!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

A few weeks ago, Mom commissioned me to make a hat for her friend. The friend wanted stripes in lime green, blue, and cream, so we bought Knitpicks’ Telemark in Northern Green, Cobalt, and Cream, one ball of each. I started the hat last weekend, top-down, and it took a few tries to got a crown that I liked (it took all day Saturday), but once I had it going it was a quick, fun project. I did stripes and cables, for fun, and a turn-up that’s knit inside out so it’s right-side out when turned up :) And I lined it with a band of polar fleece around the ears. Here’s the project on Ravelry: Commissioned Striped Hat

Henry modeling for me:

And here is a shot of the turn-up unfolded:

And folded:

I also finished a gift for someone a couple of days ago. It’s in the mail, and I’ll post about it when the recipient lets me know it got there! And I’ve got a few Christmas presents on my needles, too, which of course I can’t post about yet :)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 12: Velasquez

Excerpt:

Velasquez’s power with his brush lay in depicting vividly a scene that he saw; thus in portraiture he was at his best. He knew how to pose his figures to perfection, so as to make the expression of their character a true pictorial subject.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

Don Balthazar Carlos (by Velasquez)

Come back next Monday for chapter 13!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

Woke up when alarm went off at 7:35, got up, woke Henry up, jumped in the shower, woke Henry up again, made a bagel for us, woke Henry up again, in the car at 8am. Got to school a bit before 9, dropped Henry off, headed to Encinitas for gynecologist appointment. Got there nice and early, listened to iPod in the car for a while, went in, had appointment with lovely Dr. Makani. Back at school by 11, read email, knit, and played WoW till Henry was ready at leave at 3:50 (Usually done at 3 but he and his friends were working on something in computer class and got to stay extra). Had a bad headache at school but Dan suggested drinking a bit of coffee and it really helped! Hideous traffic all the way, didn’t get home till 5:15. Left again at 6:15 to drop Henry at Kung Fu, and now all I have to do is cook dinner and clean up and then pick him up again at 9pm and then I get to go to bed!

I had a great time playing WoW. I’m still doing quests in Howling Fjord and having a grand time. Today, among many other quests, I shot down gargoyles from a prop plane, led a reef bull to his mate, and helped a friendly murloc. By the way, you can do the reef bull quest with only one fish — just aggro him, pull him over to his mate, then toss him one fish and bingo, you’re done. Now I need to collect bat poo. Um, yay?

By the way, the Rockola White Album show last weekend went really well! Henry had fun playing in the show, Dan had fun taking pictures, and I had fun listening :) More about that soon…

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 11: Van Dyck

Excerpt:

Van Dyck was the first painter who taught people how they ought to look, to befit an admirer’s view of their aristocratic rank. His portraits thus express the social position of the sitter as well as the individual character. Although this has been an aim of portrait-painters in modern times, when they have been painting people of rank, it was less usual in the seventeenth century.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

William II. of Orange (by Van Dyck)

Come back next Monday for chapter 12!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

Happy day after Thanksgiving!

I have a small kitchen and very few pots and pans, so I had to cook everything in shifts, but that was fine because I didn’t have a set time that everything had to be finished by, as long as there was plenty of nice food to heat up for the next few meals. I started the turkey at about 9am, and while it roasted I made the cranberry sauce and prepared two apple pies and two pans of stuffing. When the turkey was done, I popped the pies and stuffing into the oven and set a timer so I remembered to take the stuffing out after half an hour. While all that baked, I fixed the green beans and pearl onions (I’d peeled the onions yesterday), and then I made the mashed potatoes and gravy, and by then Dan was up and we had a nice Thanksgiving feast together. Everything turned out great! Oddly, the pies turned out runny, which is strange because I made them the same way I always do, but they taste wonderful!

Dan and I had a second dinner later, and then Henry had a plate when he got home, and now we’ll have more for lunch today! I made another batch of cranberry sauce this morning ’cause you can just never have too much fresh cranberry sauce.

Gah, I feel rotten about not doing a real post for so long. Everything is fine here, I’ve just been busy and tired. I’ve been waking up way too early every morning for the last week or two. I wish I could get enough sleep EVER. Wouldn’t that be nice? Um, let’s see… Henry’s best friend in the whole world, Fargo, came to stay with us for a few days and the boys had tremendous fun together as usual; I am working the second short side of the edging of Kathy’s lace stole; Chloe and I have scanned all of Grandpa’s slides from 1940 through 1959 (approx. 2200 photos) and are ready for 1960 (see the Jacobs Galleries); I have almost all the ingredients I need for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, except for a few fresh veggies which I’ll go get as soon as I post this; Rockola is performing The White Album on Friday and Saturday and I volunteered to make sleeping-caps for the band to wear during “Goodnight” so I need to get fabric for those this morning; Henry’s in the show so I need to make sure he practices all his parts today; and I need to clean the house.

I’ve got pictures to post but they’re still in the camera and I don’t want to take the time to fire up aperture, etc. right now.

It’s only going to be Dan and me here on Thanksgiving, but I’m cooking a nice feast anyway because it’s fun and because Chloe might come by in the evening and Kirsten and Marcos will be here on Friday, so everyone can eat the leftovers :) I’m thawing some nice Trader Joe rolls and a piecrust now, and will bake an apple pie today (probably, if I have time) and then do everything else tomorrow while I watch Christmas movies and Dan plays WoW. It’ll be cozy!

Speaking of WoW, I am having so much fun with Wrath of the Lich King! I haven’t had all that much time to play so I’m still in the Howling Tundra area and just hit level 71 last night, and trained for my Swift Flight Form, yay me. The new quests are so fun and imaginative, the new terrain is just beautiful, and I love the friendly little Inuit-Walrus people! Too cute. Good job, Blizzard!

Ok, off to the store for green beans and pearl onions and broccoli and wine.

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 10: Peter de Hoogh and Cuyp

Excerpt:

All his subjects are of the domestic Dutch life of the seventeenth century, but the arrangement in rooms, passages, courtyards, and enclosed gardens admitted of much variation. We never feel that the range of subjects is limited, for the light transforms each into a scene of that poetic beauty which it was Peter de Hoogh’s great gift to discern, enjoy, and record.

Here are the paintings discussed in this chapter:

An Interior (by de Hoogh)

Landscape (by Cuyp)

Come back next Monday for chapter 11!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 9: Rembrandt

Excerpt:

More than any artist that had gone before him, Rembrandt was fascinated by the problem of light. The brightest patch of white on a canvas will look black if you hold it up against the sky. How, then, can the fire of sunshine be depicted at all?

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

A Man in Armour (br Rembrandt)

Come back next Monday for chapter 10!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

When I was five or so, we moved to a tiny little ramshackle house on the side of a mountain on 75 acres in the middle of NOWHERE in Calaveras County, California. The nearest town (though it was hardly more than a wide spot in the road) was Mountain Ranch, which had a post office, an antique store, and a general store, “Senders”, which had its name spelled out in bent rebar on the front of the building. I discovered a box of slides from what must have been our first Christmas “up north”, probably 1974 or 1975. Still waiting for confirmation on the year.

That’s Ken on the left, then little Kirsten, then me holding what I think was my very first Breyer model horse, then Kathy with such a beautiful smile!

I gave away my 30-some Breyer horses years ago, but I think I still have the appaloosa in a box. I loved him so.

About a week ago I got two packages in the mail on the very same day.

One was from knitpicks and contained two balls of Telemark, which will become a gift for a friend. The other was from Lisa at mainlesson.com and contained two wonderful paperback reprints of classic children’s books! If you haven’t been to mainlesson, go there. Lisa scans and OCRs public-domain children’s books, formats them nicely for reading online, and also sells inexpensive, high-quality reprints of the books!

I recorded “Poems Every Child Should Know” for librivox last year, so it’s wonderful to have a real paper version now. And Shell Crandall and I are recording The Story of Mankind as a duet, each of us reading every other chapter. It’s a spectacular book. I’m enjoying it immensely, and I recommend it very highly. It’s surprisingly modern and extremely readable, having been published in 1922 — just before the public domain cut-off (Jan 1, 1923) — and it won the first Newberry Medal in 1923. Homeschoolers! Buy a copy and read it out loud to your kids, or wait a couple months until Shell and I are finished and we’ll do the reading aloud for you, and your kids can follow along with the text :)

Here are links to both books on mainlesson.com:
The Story of Mankind
Poems Every Child Should Know

Chloe and I spent hours and hours scanning Grandpa’s color slides this week. The 1955 box was missing all the most exciting slides (birthdays, Christmases, etc.) but we found most of them in envelopes in these giant random boxes of photos and things that Mom is storing in my garage. So now 1955 is much more complete. We finished 1956 earlier this week, and scanned 1957 last night, as well!

From 1955, here’s my Grandma Jean standing with the family’s new Plymouth 8 Belvedere. What a car!

From 1956, here’s my mom’s 11th birthday party (Mom’s in the front row, dark blue dress). Yes, the shiny walls are metal; the family lived in a Lustron:

And from 1957, my uncle working on his stroller. He was the cutest baby!

Also, last night Chloe and I worked hard to puzzle out which names go with which faces in some of the group photos. We’d heard about Dickie-boy, Gloomal, and Dadie, for example, but didn’t know what they looked like! We snipped individual portraits out of the group photos to post on our geni.com family tree, and it looks much better now. Sorry, if you’re not part of our family you can’t see our tree, but you can start your own, and it’s free! If you are part of our family and you need an invitation to our tree, let me know.

Neat trick — go to the “preferences” tab at the bottom of the geni family tree. Click “photos only” and admire our good-looking family!

Hey Alexandre in Brazil, I finished the sentences yesterday! I got some funny bounce messages from my email server, so I hope you got everything. It’s unusual that I haven’t heard from you… hope everything is ok. Good luck with the demo!

The Book of Art for Young People, by Agnes Ethel Conway and Sir Martin Conway
First published in 1909. Read by Kara Shallenberg.

Chapter 8: The Renaissance in the North

Excerpt:

In a drawing which Dürer made of himself in the looking-glass at the age of thirteen, we see a thoughtful little face gazing out upon the world with questioning eyes. Already the delicacy of the lines is striking, and the hair so beautifully finished that we can anticipate the later artist whose pictures are remarkable for so surprising a wealth of detail.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

Edward, Prince of Wales (by Holbein)

Come back next Monday for chapter 9!

(Impatient? Get the entire audio book for free here: http://librivox.org/the-book-of-art-for-young-people-by-agnes-ethel-conway-and-sir-martin-conway/)

Really thoughtful Q&A session with our founder, Hugh McGuire:
http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/11/open-source-community-and-audi.html

Is there any distinction between “amateur” and “professional” on LibriVox? How do you define quality in a volunteer effort? Does quality even matter in this case?

No, there is no distinction really. Everyone is encouraged to join us. We have a wide range of quality, from truly exceptional (in a traditional sense), to good, to not so great. Our goal, however, is to record the books, and to make a platform that allows anyone to contribute to the effort. We ask no questions, require no auditions, make no judgments about style or technique, and are happy for every single audio file someone chooses to contribute to the project.

Wow. I can honestly say that I’m proud to be an American. Good job, voters! Now let’s put the campaign behind us, shake hands, and move forward!

On the other hand, Prop 8 seems to have passed, striking a blow against human dignity and equality. Sigh.

We watched the results with Bob and Chloe, coloring in our electoral college maps as the results came in. It was a thrilling evening!

Dan went along with Henry, Chloe, Celia, and Celia’s little cousins on Halloween and got some great photos! Here’s my favorite, but there are lots more — click to see the whole gallery.

We’re still munching our way through the giant bag of candy that Henry brought home :)

Tomorrow is voting day and I’m all excited. For the first time in my 20 years as a voter I feel enthusiastic and hopeful that things might change for the better. Please don’t forget to vote! Do you have your voter pamphlet handy? Do you know where your polling place is? Have you researched the proposals and measures, and marked your pamphlet so you don’t have to remember whether it’s “yes” or “no” when you’re standing in the voting booth tomorrow?

Remember the people who have fought and died so that others would have the right to vote. Just 100 years ago our great-grandmothers weren’t allowed to vote! Make them proud.

I suggest that you vote for Obama for President, but even if you vote for the other guy we’ll still be friends :) Follow your conscience.