Hot Chocolate, Love Handles and Chopin in Everyday Ramblings
- Oct. 13, 2014, 1:16 a.m.
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- Public
I am in a slightly melancholy place as autumn comes on that is a perfect match for Chopin’s music and a big mug of hot chocolate. So far I have managed to not indulge in the chocolate part but it won’t be long before I succumb.
On Friday afternoon I finished listening to David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas on audio book. What a tour de force that book is! It took me two tries to get going on it and I was not prepared for the abrupt ending mid sentence of the first story line. I actually came home and Googled it to find out if there was something wrong.
The bad guys are really really bad. But he sure knows how to tell a story. Even if many of the “good” guys are not exactly folks you would bring home to your mother. I loved the patios he developed for the Hawaiian characters in the future after the apocalypse. My favorite word was “babbit” for a baby.
I very much admire the way he showed the young composer Robert Frobisher’s vulnerability. Out of all that arrogance and entitlement and hubris comes this startling and ever so human vulnerability.
There did seem to be a lack of deep connection in the characters. They were basically all off in their own version of their worlds. And when there was a seeming connection there was always some sort of duplicity at play.
A sense of connection is much on my mind these days. Or the lack thereof.
Mr. POA raved about Cloud Atlas a few years ago. And I know Edna Million enjoyed it. Now I am not in regular contact with anyone who has read it and I miss the connection of talking about it and sharing references in casual conversation.
I took this picture this afternoon as I was on a reconnaissance mission to find the place where the four-day yoga workshop I am registered for this next weekend is taking place. It is a part of town that used to be rural farmlands not so very long ago and it challenging to get to without a car. All the resource material for the workshop assumes one has a car. It is going to be a long slog for me.
First a bus ride and then a two mile walk each way, but I figured out where there is sidewalk and where there is not so I am very glad I took the time to go there first. It is on a very idyllic college campus here. Mr. Finch and I went there once for a poetry reading about 11 years ago.
I signed up for this because a nationally known teacher that wrote a book on yoga for tight shoulders and necks that I have found useful was supposed to be the co-teacher. Yesterday in an email confirming everything it was announced that she is not going to be able to make it.
The other teacher uses the word love handles to explain a certain part of the anatomy on the DVD I have of them both teaching yoga to seniors. I hate that term! I understand all about needing to use common non-technical language to describe body areas when teaching. I get that.
Me thinks I might be a slightly troublesome student. :) But I will still get my continuing ed credits and my certificate and it will be a wonderful holiday from work.
In the meantime I am listening to the Sonata for Cello and Piano in g minor, Op. 65 recorded in Warsaw a few blocks from the church that holds Chopin’s heart.
Last updated October 13, 2014
woman in the moon ⋅ October 12, 2014
Maybe you will get something out of the love handles class. I don't care for that term either - or he or she is a 'keeper' or even worse in my opinion - he or she 'cleans up good'. Oh well. To each his own and we do not have to apologize for our taste.
Lyn ⋅ October 12, 2014
Too bad Portland doesn't have Uber to get you to your workshop. I admire your planning and commitment to getting there. I look forward to hearing of your slightly troublesome student adventure. Hope it involves improving their vocabulary. :)
Daisy Mae ⋅ October 12, 2014
I loved 'Cloud Atlas'! David Mitchell is such a talented writer. Have you read any of his other novels?
I look forward to seeing what you get up to as a 'troublesome student'!
RoseS ⋅ October 13, 2014
I haven't read cloud atlas yet, but it loved the thousand autumns of Jacob DeZoet....his new book, the bone clock, is supposed to be more like Cloud Atlas, so you may like it better. Mitchell was the reader at our reading series last month...quite interesting!
RoseS ⋅ October 13, 2014
Oh...nod when I really want hot chocolate, I make tea!
seedys ⋅ October 13, 2014
Maybe you will get used to the 'love handles' misnomer and it won't aggravate you too much. Yoga is about relaxation, concentration and I know you can get through this with flying colors.
Zipster ⋅ October 13, 2014
Oh my, that there is a church that holds his heart! Something about that I find repulsive. Don't we hold his heart when we listen to his music?
noko Zipster ⋅ October 14, 2014
Sorry to creep you out about Chopin's heart. It is a true story. They took it out of the church for DNA analysis recently and it had been suspended in cognac! He requested this. His sister carried it home from France.
Zipster noko ⋅ October 15, 2014
So it is a cognac pickled heart!
leonalia ⋅ October 20, 2014
Chopin and Chocolate sounds like a perfect combination to me.