Questions and Answers

Last week I attended the two openings for the Seeing Gertrude Stein exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and this week will attend the opening celebration at SFMOMA’s The Steins Collect (see the previous post for all the details on the shows.)

Seeing Gertrude Stein is a must-see, not only for GertrudeandAlice fans, but also for anyone who wants to get to know them better. As is usually the case at openings, the crowds were too dense to really see the exhibition (600 people had RSVP’d for the 2nd opening), so in the next few weeks I’ll be going back from time to time to get a better look.

During the openings I selected two favorite pieces and I’m sure that on future visits additional items will be joining this list. One of the pieces is a small, framed,  poodle made by Picasso out of what looks like either cotton balls or actual bolls of raw cotton. The small figure was to be a “companion” for GertrudeandAlice’s poodle, Basket. The other is a small passport photo of Alice from 1907, the year she traveled to Paris and met Gertrude.  I had never seen the photo before.  In it Alice is wearing a jaunty black hat proofing once again that Alice really was a “hat person!”

And that brings me to GertrudeandAlice and fashion,  One of the themes of the exhibition centers on their sense of sartorial style. Alice was more interested in the fashions of the day than Gertrude, but Gertrude knew how she wanted to present herself when it came to her dress and she did.  Once Alice entered her world, she assumed the role of Gertrude’s stylist and many of the photographs in the exhibition show Alice’s touches as a member of the “Fashion Police!”

Dressed for literary success, photo by Cecil Beaton (London, 1936)

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“When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars…”

Now you’re saying “He really has had too much of Alice’s special treat !” But no, really,  Summer 2011 in San Francisco is the Summer of Steins – I’ll bet my fringed suede vest and bell-bottomed jeans with the floral-fabric inserts at the bottom that it’s a fact!

The exhibition Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories will be at The Contemporary Jewish Museum from  May 12 – September 6, while The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde will be at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from May 21 – September 6.

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Various materials and precious metals or gems have over the years been assigned to anniversaries  – paper for the 1st up to diamonds for both the 60th and 75th.  I have no idea who established this custom, but whoever it was must have realized that once one has been married either 60 or 75 years, even though a diamond may be forever, they don’t have too many forevers to enjoy and the heirs will soon be grabbing those family jewels.

I have not seen a comparable tradition for birthdays other than assigning precious or semi-precious gems as birthstones to correspond with the month of one’s birth. In the case of April the diamond is generally listed as that month’s birthstone though opal and sapphire have also appeared on some lists.

So today on Alice’s 134^th birthday, let’s add a diamond to the birthday feather for her birthday hat and celebrate with a spot of tea.

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As the crow flies or maybe the American Eagle, it is 953 miles or  1,582 kilometers from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Portland, Oregon, USA and GertrudeandAlice are about to embark on this journey just in time for Alice’s 134th birthday on April 30th, as the stage is set for another Stein production.

This production, Now Repeat in Steinese , originated in New York and was written about on this blog in May of last year,  Stein ‘n Wine, a Night of Steinese. What better tribute to the Mistress of Repetition than to repeat  Now Repeat in Steinese! And what better birthday gift could Alice ask for, other than maybe a well-ostrich-feathered chapeau!

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GertrudeandAlice were never in Canada…until the last few weeks  and their arrival in Edmonton, Alberta will effect the city for a long, long time!

Just as the scrolling text in New York’s Time Square heralded their arrival in 1934, the Timms Centre for the Arts on the campus of the University of Alberta in its own way welcomed the Two Ladies from Paris with open arms with this extraordinary production, “The Gertrude Stein Project.”

There was a there there amid winter's last snow!

I was so fortunate to be there to join the welcoming party for a preview and for opening night! (I only regret that I didn’t have an armload of yellow roses, Gertrude’s favorite flower, and an armload of lilacs, Alice’s favorite flower, to toss at the feet of the team that made all of this happen!)

I generally don’t like reviews because in a review a critic often feels obligated to write about the good, the bad and the ugly. In this case there is no “bad” or  “ugly” and as you’ll see in a bit, I will provide full disclosure because all the “good,” is so, so good, you may wonder “What did they pay this guy?!”

Instead of a “review,” I call this a ” tribute”  to everyone who made “The Gertrude Stein Project” the phenomenal event that it was.

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Last year on this date, the anniversary of Alice’s death, I posted a blog emphasizing the importance of Alice’s middle initial.  If  you’d like to revisit it, just go to March 2010 in the Archives.

This year, thought, I would like to keep it brief and simple with a tribute collage I once made. On this date it honors the woman who helped Gertrude Stein be Gertrude Stein.  The photo is followed by one of the hundreds of love notes Gertrude sent to Alice.

Baby looked so pretty with a big hat on

lovely black hair,

Baby looked so pretty with no hat on

lovely black hair,

Baby looks so pretty with its little head

and its lovely black hair sleeping sweetly

on its hard pillow,

Baby looks so lovely, precious baby, baby

looks so lovely precious precious baby

This week I found out about the death of my favorite high school English teacher, Miss Lois Body, at age 96. I’m sure that many of us have had teachers who have made a significant difference in our lives – Miss Body (pronounced bow dee) was one of those amazing people.  I stayed in touch with her over the years visiting her whenever I’d return to Springfield and sent her copies of my GertrudeandAlice children’s stories which she seemed to enjoy.

Springfield High School ( Springfield, Illinois)

I had Miss Body as the teacher of an Advanced Placement English class when I was a senior. The class had only five students some of whom I’ve stayed in touch with over the last forty-four years.  One of them asked that we each write a tribute essay.  Here is mine.

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The gift giving holiday season  drew  to a close several weeks ago with Epiphany,  January 6th, the day that according to legend the Magi arrived to give the Christ child their gifts. Two of the regal visitors brought somewhat useless gifts, frankincense and myrrh, and one gift, that small chest of gold, must have come in handy for his young, homeless parents. But come to think of it, all three gifts were far more useful than the 12 lords a-leaping that end that dreadful “Twelve Days of Christmas” dirge!

The Epiphany a la Lego!

Although this year’s holiday “must-have” electronic devices proved to be diverse, from this “I-thing” to that “I-thing,” one of the best-selling, non-I-things, was amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader.

The Kindle I have was handed down to me when an I-Pad entered our household. (The days of hand-me-down itchy sweaters or too short corduroy  pants are long gone!)

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‘Twas the night before Christmas at the rue de Fleurus,

Alice was in the kitchen preparing her mousse.

I  sat writing away at my desk being witty

Penning word after word of this holiday ditty.

We’d been shopping in Paris all day long with the horde(s)

Basket One was in tow, he just never seemed bored.

All the streets were aglow in the City of Light,

Festive, painted by number, each section just right.

Yes, we’re Jewish, Oy vey, but a fête is a fête,

We enjoy buying gifts for our friends and our pet!

We have gifts for ourselves too, usually small I admit,

I must buy them or write them, only Alice can knit.

“Oh,” you may say, where is the Steinese

In this rhyme you are jotting,?  Here it is, if you please:

“Gift, a gift I give a table, chair. Be right see me, the sky.

For now be he and I will be she. Three. Not now, sing, fly.”

Ok, there, now you have it, so back to this rhyme,

All the stockings were hung by the stove in due time.

“Lovey, taste this ,“  said Alice, a big ladle in hand,

“Is it right? Is it bitter or the best in the land?”

“Pussy, oh Pussy, it’s so smooth, so divine,

Even St. Nick would love it and declare it sublime!”

So Joyeux Noël  all with pure joy and no malice

And a splendid  ’11 from your GertrudeandAlice!

It’s Thanksgiving time and time to talk “food,” as if many of us need a holiday as an excuse to talk food!

In the annual food issue of The New Yorker magazine this past week, there is an article by Laura Shapiro, “The First Kitchen,”  about the cuisine in the White House during the tenure of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.  Apparently the food was quite horrible, but not because of the Depression or World War II, but because of the cook that Mrs, Roosevelt had hired, a Mrs. Henrietta Nesbitt.

I couldn’t help but wonder if during their visit to the White House for tea in December, 1934, GertrudeandAlice encountered any of Mrs. Nesbitt’s culinary curiosities.  And if they did, were they the perfect guests NOT whispering in Eleanor’s ear that “This Mrs. N. has got to go, for the health of the country!”

FDR carving the Bird!

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let’s turn to tastier things.

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