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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 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.

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

Chapter 7: The Renaissance in Venice

Excerpt:

Like Raphael, Giorgione was precocious, but unlike him he painted in a style of his own that from the very beginning owed little to any one else. He saw beauty in his own way, and was not impelled to see it differently by coming into contact with other artists, however great.

While painting in the rest of Italy was becoming mannered and sentimental, lacking in power and originality, Tintoret in Venice was creating masterpieces with a very fury of invention and a corresponding swiftness of hand.

Here are the paintings discussed in this chapter:

The Golden Age (by Giorgione)

Saint George Destroying the Dragon (by Tintoret)

Come back next Monday for chapter 8!

(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/)

Dan needed to practice using some new camera equipment so I played model in the park on Saturday. This is my favorite photo from that day:

The final episode of the second season of Mad Men aired last Sunday. I would be counting the days until the third season started, but I don’t know when that will be; I only know that it’s Too Long To Wait. This must be how Dan feels about Battlestar Galactica.

Here’s a fantastic SNL sketch starring Jon Hamm, a.k.a Don Draper, which, if you haven’t yet become addicted to Mad Men, might set you on your way:

Don Draper’s Guide to Picking Up Women

Perfect.

I invented this vegetarian enchilada casserole thingy last week when Henry and I were craving something spicy. It was so good I made it again a few days later!

Ingredients:

A dozen (or so) corn tortillas
2 cans of black beans (or equivalent)
A big zucchini, chopped (or other vegetable)
A big onion, chopped
Half a 15 oz can of tomato sauce (or equivalent, whatever you have handy that’s tomato-y)
3 teaspoons chili powder (or to taste)
1 teaspoon cumin (or to taste)
grated cheese, quite a bit, whatever kind you like
salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Saute the onion in a saucepan for a while, then add the zucchini and cook till everything starts to soften. Drain one can of beans and add it to the pan, then add the other can UNDRAINED. You want lots of nice moisture. Add the tomato sauce, spices, and salt/pepper. Cook uncovered for a while longer so the veggies are nice and soft.

Butter a big casserole dish and put 4 corn tortillas in it. It’s ok if they overlap in the middle. Pour in about a third of your nice bean/veggie mixture and spread it around, then sprinkle on about a third of the grated cheese. Keep layering, ending with cheese on the very top. (I only had ten tortillas so I broke the last two in half for the last tortilla layer.)

Cover the casserole and bake for, oh, half an hour or so, till beautifully hot and bubbly… let it sit a while, then serve with sour cream, sliced green onions, and a few slices of avocado if you can get your hands on one!

MEATY VERSION: This is actually how I made it the first time, and then I made the vegetarian version so my cousin could have some too :) Replace the drained can of beans with some ground or shredded meat, whatever kind you like. Cook the meat first, then add the onions, etc.

This will serve four hungry people and you might even have leftovers. It would probably be wonderful with some corn or leftover brown rice added, too! Experiment!

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

Chapter 6: Raphael

Excerpt:

In the ‘Knight’s Dream’ there is a simple beauty in the pose and grouping of the figures. You can hardly fancy three figures better arranged for the purpose of the subject. There is something inevitable about them, which is the highest praise due to a mastery of design in the art of composition. Raphael’s surpassing gift was in fitting beautiful figures into any given space, so that it seems as though the space had been made to fit the figures, instead of the figures to fit the space.

Here is the painting discussed in this chapter:

The Knight’s Dream

Come back next Monday for chapter 7!

(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/)

Rick from lustronconnection.org contacted me tonight to ask if he could post our wonderful series of Lustron construction photos on his site. So cool! “Our” Lustron is third down on this page (or if it’s not third down anymore, look for the caption that says “Davenport, Iowa, Shortly After Construction in 1949″) and from there you can follow the link to the whole series of color photos showing the construction of my grandparents’ Lustron in 1949.

Rick even added some helpful explanatory captions. I guess color photos of a Lustron being constructed are probably pretty rare. I can only imagine the excitement of a Lustron enthusiast on seeing them for the first time :) I’m glad Grandpa’s photos are so treasured!

I’ll leave you with a photo of some of the occupants of The Lustron posing next to their new Kaiser Special 4-door in 1950: my grandma, Jean Jacobs; my mom, Sally; and little Susan.

Tonight Chloe and I started scanning slides and uploading them to our new family photo album at http://dubsol.smugmug.com. We did 50 slides from 1949 and 1950. We made an entire gallery of photos of the construction of The Lustron, the pre-fab metal house that my grandparents built in 1949. Amazing!

(Grandpa Mike Jacobs was a geek, very enthusiastic about exciting new technology!)

The curly-headed cutie-pie in the ditch is my mom, age 4:

By the way, The Lustron still stands. We visited it in 2005:

The curly-headed cutie-pie in the green shirt is my mom again :)

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

Chapter 5: The Renaissance

Excerpt:

The manner in which this picture is painted is still more suggestive of change than the subject itself. Our artist knew a great deal about the new science of perspective, for instance. One might almost think that, pleased with his new knowledge, he had multiplied the number of objects on the shelves so as to show how well he could foreshorten them. Medieval painters had not troubled about perspective, and were more concerned, as we have seen, to make a pretty pattern of shapes and colours for their pictures. The Van Eycks, as we noted, only acquired the beginnings of an understanding of it, and were very proud of their new knowledge. It was in Italy that all the rules were at last brought to light.

Here are the paintings discussed in this chapter:

St. Jerome in his Study

The Nativity

Come back next Monday for chapter 6!

(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/)

Thank you, everyone, for your sympathy for Henry and his sore throat. He’s a little better today, and felt well enough to play World of Warcraft and eat a quesadilla.

Dan and I took a nice brisk walk this evening, and he brought his camera and managed to get a few good pictures of me!

Those are my favorites, and there are a few more up on my flickr. I think my hair looks pretty :)

Poor Henry woke up with a bad sore throat :( Poor, poor Henry! We’ve been watching the behind-the-scenes appendices from The Two Towers all day.

Because the edging instructions for my Leftover Laceweight Scarf pattern confuse just about everyone, I knit a sample scarf end, worked the edging, took lots of photos and made lots of notes, then re-wrote the edging instructions in my pattern. I hope it helps!