Week's End - Tricolore Window

...a pull of the curtains* (for now). I'll be be offline for awhile; perhaps by a miracle, it will be less than three weeks. I saw this photograph in Robert of Toronto's Antibes flickr set & thought, there it is, a bricoleuse arranged that window. Please go here to see the full photograph because the detail in the Provençal fabric is marvellous.

I will leave all feeds on for everyone's blogs to come through while gone. That means, I cannot monitor whatever the Dept. of Worlds Collide & Troublemaking-in-Style [right sidebar] gets up to. I cannot bring myself to unlink. (But I will check in from elsewhere, when possible, to see what's going on, you devils). If I can come back & see comments & read your blogs tonight or tomorrow, I will surely do so. [Friday morning update: I'm taking off the feature that shows only 10 blogs...it might shock you how long since you've updated! (hint)]

More crazy thunderstorms announce their most-unwelcome-presence in Washington, DC...ciao-for-now, amici

*le drapeau tricolore: the French flag
[impromptu flag by Robert of Toronto/used by permission]

Fragments, Naples

(Naples, for later) All photographs by Robert in Toronto who so obviously gets it. Please see Robert's larger format photographs, here, here, & here (for the photographs above); you will see much more detail if you go directly to these links. Thanks.

Reading in the Shadow of Vesuvius

Some favorite books, re-read every year. Shirley Hazzard on Naples/southern Italy where she lived for many years with her genius translator husband (mostly Flaubert), the late Francis Steegmuller. [**Please see below for important note re: second & third photographs by Robert in Toronto.]

Hazzard's The Bay of Noon, Greene on Capri. (Deeply admire her other novels, but concerned with this area right now. )I cannot fathom how one could be bored by Greene in Capri--even if they don't give a fig for Graham Greene, Shirley, Francis, or Flaubert. Or Capri. However, if you don't care about any of those things--what the heck is wrong with you?! [Oh dear. I just found a NYRB letter-to-the-editor mini-kerfluffle in 2000 between Greene's last companion, a lovely person, & the reviewer of the Capri book -- 149 pages, you can zip through in a sec & highly diverting-- & then he brings in Hazzard to answer charges. These NYRB back & forth l-to-ed can go on for years. This looks like a one-off. Here's that link.]

Hazzard-recommended Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples by Dan Hofstadter. I don't know how he did it, but he did. The city's antique & curio shops are among the characters in his novelistic-remembrance. Take a break from Paris & elsewhere, please, I beg you. And don't forget about the highly original Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camillieri. I don't know how I'd do without these people. Really.

**Second & third photographs by Robert in Toronto. When I saw his flickr set & what he wrote, I thought immediately of these books. So many who have gone for the first time, just freak out & leave. [Or they pre-freak out & never go., more's the pity.] Update: Robert suggested that I should put links to each photograph so that you might see the full-size; I agree. Here is the fabulous wall; here is the antique shop.

Here's what Robert writes: "Possibly more than any other city in Europe, Naples exudes an atmosphere and sensibility as palpable as its odour: it's not to everyone's liking. I was enthralled by the place, and, at every turn, inspired to shoot a photograph, even though the weather during our four-day stay was cold, misty, and wet. There is a lot to see, all of it accessibly on foot or by bus, and much of it unusual. In particular, the narrow, awninged streets of the old city teem with people and products to rival the medinas of Africa. But remain alert: a man with a camera is a ready mark."

buona notte, gattini & gattine

[Jean Patchett in scarf, Vogue 1950 by the great "lost" Vogue photographer Clifford Coffin via myvintagevogue on flickr. Jessica's tumblr blog is in the right side-bar & her website is looking great. Update 26 June 2009: here's link to myvintagevogue aka Jessica, who is adorable; upcoming post on her as soon as I can ask her, email, & then get back here.]

Blue Shutter in Bretagne

Rochefort-en-terre, France, blue door and shutter, red geraniums by Robert in Toronto. [here is the link to the larger format, it's lovely.] Will be "visiting" France, Italy, & elsewhere in the coming weeks via Robert. Seriously beautiful & generous. He has a creative commons license. Bouquets of his favorite flower(s) to him. The photograph of Capucine in green is in Paris but it looks nice with the other; stone, brick, geraniums, summer clothes...it's not Washington, DC (see below). I can go back to lying down, speak French & Italian to the sleepy orange cat (she can't object to verb tenses), drink mint tea, & escape. Perhaps inability to walk to corner for newspapers will be a good thing.

I tried to be polite & correct three times this morning to cancel my RSVP to an event. You know, so someone else could be admitted easily, without waiting. See in yesterday's post. Too tired. When an imperious (young) twit says "I'm sure they'd figure it out when you don't get here..." you should hang up the phone. Hard. Slam it. No, of course I didn't. Now must decide if this repeat offender should be reported to his supervisor. You know. In case I was someone, uh, important. Geez. This jerk has really bloomed since last summer when he was clueless & rude to about five people (not me, I was watching) in ten minutes at a poetry & politics or political poetry or whatever-the-panel was...I thought: wow, these kids really don't get it. You have to be at least decent to everyone unless they're hitting you or something. I wanted to whack him in the head with my bag but it remains purse-fantasy for now.

Hope everyone else's day goes well. I promise to stop ranting soon.