Beth Kaplan's Blog, page 180

Downton ends - sob!

Cold but wonderfully sunny. This afternoon Anne-Marie and I went for a long walk by the water in Ashbridge's Bay. Glorious - ice frozen on branches.


Yesterday, the family visited. My daughter has her hands full. Someone pinched.
I'm busy, as usual - the Y Mega-run on Wednesday evening, a vigorous run-fit fundraiser that had me limping all day Thursday. Friday, the Francophone discussion and feasting group, featuring, among other foodstuffs, a leek and potato gratin to die for.

Tonight - the last Downton! And first, Justin Trudeau on Sixty Minutes. Richard, his friend Paul and Wayson are coming for dinner; we'll watch Justin, take a break and then mourn and celebrate the end of our beloved show.

It was International Book Day the other day.
This hit home - this is my library, only it needs to include library books I need to rush through and return. Sigh.

Time to set the table and change into something Downton worthy. Or at least clean.

You notice I am not mentioning the U.S. election - the apparent rise of racism and profound intolerance there. Too terrifying.

A final image: my son the champion cocktail maker is in a big competition in April. I was at Mark the butcher's this week when he told me he was at a food festival and saw a big poster of Sam. Colour me proud.

snowy

Many birds at the feeder, the city shrouded, the sound of shovels, the sun shining. The world this morning is bright and soft. For a few moments, we will not think about Donald Drumpf and the end of the world.

down the rabbit hole

Much much snow falling; the city is beautiful, muffled, soft. I was going to go for a walk and jump in snowdrifts, but I ended up watching TV all evening instead. Now that I have more channels, like Documentary and HBO, I'm becoming a junkie - good stuff, but still, I'm lying on the sofa much more than usual. Tonight a doc about Mavis Staples - fantastic, I want to be Mavis Staples when I grow up. Last night, two docs simultaneously - one on Ronald Reagan, which helped me understand more about the man and the era, and "He named me Malala," about that extraordinary young woman attacked by the Taliban.

And that is without what's on the computer. Why go out ever again? I'll just stay in here and rot.

No. Work to do. And I'll get to it. But now it's 11. Time for the Daily Show.

HELP!! I've been kidnapped by technology!

John Oliver on Donald Drumpf

My new great love: John Oliver. This is a must-watch. Stay till the end - it's glorious. Thank you, John!
http://www.vox.com/2016/2/29/11132366/john-oliver-donald-trump-last-week-tonight

Oscars and Kaplan, Louisiana

Final thoughts on the Oscars - I was thrilled about "Spotlight." My dear friend and cleaning lady Marisha is here, she's Polish Catholic, and she just told me she doesn't believe all the stories about abuse by priests. I told her to SEE THIS FILM. So glad that "The Revenant" didn't win. Glad about Brie Larsen - Oscar loves actresses who bravely do a role without makeup, and in any case, she was wonderful - about Leo who made a great speech, about most of it except the incessant harping about race.

I propose a revolutionary new hashtag and cause for next year - allowing women to be as comfortably dressed as men. Those poor actresses with their breasts hanging out - what's with that, every single dress with décolleté down to the navel? And of course the shoes, women tottering onto the stage, hanging for dear life onto the guy at their side... #letthemwalk. #letthembreathe. Any takers?

My friends Richard and Jean-Marc are in Louisiana. I asked them to go to the fair town of Kaplan, Louisiana, which I visited once. They didn't get there, but they sent this:
Jean-Marc talked to local people - in French, as there are many descendants of the Acadians, and he's one too - and was told the Kaplans were the only Jews in Kaplan, a town 99% Catholic. But apparently that was not a problem. Nice that somewhere, race and religion were not a problem, though I'd never imagined it would be in Louisiana.

And another note, from a writer who has done it before though not this time, about So True: Once again you have delivered a very moving experience of truth: well written and well told. The stories were all very moving including your first precious experience of the fear and joys of motherhood. I applaud the courage of the writers in expressing their truth and the craft of the teacher/editor who draws out the most important bits and guides the writers to produce the best versions of their story.

Thank you for the forum but especially for the enthusiasm and kindness which allow the writer to feel secure enough to share their most intimate thoughts and experiences.

So very well done!

Definitely - my Oscar. 

So True pix

Chris Hutcheson is a photographer for the Canadian Opera Company - but as a friend of my student Ingrid, who read yesterday, he came to photograph So True. Wonderful photos of everyone but me, as usual - last time we had a group So True shot, I was also lifting my giant chin to look at the sky. However, here's this fabulous bunch of writers and yours truly doing her thing, as we used to say:

Jason, Sam, Bruno, Ingrid, Beth, Grace, Maureen, Wendy, Simone

So True and Oscars, together at last

Yes, I confess, I am watching the Oscars - WHILE EMAILING AND BLOGGING during the commercials so it's okay. After So True this afternoon, I was a basket case, and this is perfect, mucho schlock and glitter. The nice guy that just won for "Inside Out" told kids that if they feel sad or scared growing up, you can't control that but you can always make stuff. "Make stuff! Make movies, art, write!" YAY! Someone says something meaningful! So far there has been exactly ONE mention of the American election - I thought there would be Trump jokes galore and only Andy Serkin has mentioned him. Enough with the black stuff already - let's talk about loathsome lunatics loose in the world and gaining power.

Now the Weeknd (HATE misspelling it but that's his choice) is on - a talented Toronto boy with his strange clump of hair, like a large Brillo pad on the side of his head, singing in front of 900 million people.

The So True show is always so exhausting that half way through I say to myself, maybe I should stop doing this. I care deeply about the writers, about the show itself, the way it all comes together. This morning one of the writers who has struggled with serious issues in his life dropped out, and I asked our trusty and ultra-charming MC Jason Allen to look in his files for a replacement story, which he did, two hours before the show. The readings were wonderful, the stories rich, funny, achingly true.

And then I stand up and somehow sum it all up and tell a story of my own, and though apparently it doesn't show, I am a nervous wreck. It's hard. But they tell me it works. I'm not sure they're telling the truth, but people say nice things, as did one of my current students who read today.

Thank you so much for today. For your leadership, your intellect, your sensitivity, and your faith in your writers; for your faith in me. I can't begin to explain how my life has changed since I began your class. I remember reviewing the course outlines and the teacher profiles and feeling: hmmm, I think this looks like a good fit. Little did I know that it would reopen a part of me that had been closed off for years; bring it out into the light of day.

I'm so grateful for the experience, and for your beautiful story of "arrival". No notes, perfect depiction of new motherhood, and spot-on delivery...how do you do it?

Makes me feel like an Oscar winner myself! I am proud of you all. Thank you for being there. 

Now Mark Rylance, one of the best actors in the world, and a beautiful, gracious, generous speech. I'd expect no less, though when he won two Tony awards in NYC, he recited weird poems. Not tonight. Louis C.K. is spot on as usual. The head of the Academy, who just happens to be a black woman, quotes Martin Luther King as she begs Hollywood to make films more diverse - as if that's the most important issue facing people of colour in the U.S. today. This whole thing is nuts. If Donald Trump is elected President and the world blows up, who will care what colour the film stars are?

Dave Grohl sings one of Macca's masterpieces, very beautiful. Little Jacob Tremblay - what an amazing kid that is. On we go.  Gaga and gang - pretty amazing. Wow! Oscar is dipping into meaning. There's hope.

our first Photo Laureate

I love Toronto! It has named old friend Geoffrey James as its first "Photo Laureate". What a great idea. Bravo, Geoffrey. I won't tell the city fathers how reluctant you were some years ago to leave your beloved Montreal for our fair city, which, it seems to me, has more than made your move worthwhile.

Yesterday, I had a check-up with my doctor, the first in a few years. She checks my blood pressure, palpitates my breasts for abnormalities, inspects in and out, asks piercing questions. And at the end: no problem. No problem for now. Blood tests coming up, more tests in store in future, I'm sure - but I could not be more grateful for the moment when she says, "You're in good shape." Especially because my dad died of cancer when he was exactly the age I am now.

Then I picked 3 new books up from the library, had a telephone chat with my nearly 96-year old aunt, cooked a delicious recipe from the NYT - salmon in a sauce of leeks and tomatoes - and hosted a rehearsal for So True, eight writers, two who've done it before and six new to the process, bringing their best game, their most powerful stories, to practice reading in front of an audience before Sunday's event. I was very proud of them all.

I am going to try to shut the American election out of my field of vision, because it's just too excruciating - and the Oscars too, phooey on you, stupid Revenant, which the New Yorker reviewer called the "Donald Trump of the best picture nominees."

Today was cold but the sun was shining hot. Thank you, thank you to the gods of health, work and sunshine.

a new fan

Linda wrote to me, "There were so many little similarities in the book that I shared - from the TV shows we watched, to disdain for the Dave Clark Five,  to being French kissed for the first time (one gets used to it a few years later!) Thank you for writing this book, Beth….it took me on one hell of a nostalgic ride."All My Loving: Coming of Age with Paul McCartney in Paris
Want to ReadRate this book1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 starsAll My Loving: Coming of Age with Paul McCartney in Paris 
by Beth Kaplan (Goodreads Author) 

Linda's review
Feb 25, 16
really liked itRead from February 10 to 24, 2016
This book was almost like living in a parallel universe with the author. As teenage Beatles fans, author Beth Kaplan and I hold some remarkable similarities. We both loved Paul McCartney, were both daughters of Brit war brides who came to North America -- my mum married a Canadian soldier and ended up in New Brunswick, Beth's mother married a U.S. soldier and ended up living in Halifax, N.S. where her dad taught at Dalhousie U. The father figure made the mother figure cry a lot and was judgmental of the daughter. The family even had a Morris Minor car...which was our first car in Canada. (Piece of merde that it was). The pages are filled with all the teenage angst of unrequited love, actually seeing The Beatles for the first time in person (I flew from Saint John to Toronto for the concert in 1966), the thrill of being at a live concert, sharing magazines and records with girlfriends and so on. A time of first kisses, mixed feelings, thinking you are not popular or might be ugly, and all the other stuff that goes with being a teenage girl who has her swoon-on for a dishy guy....in this case Paul McCartney. At one point, Beth's family moved to France for a year and she had to adapt to life in the world of French academia. I moved schools too - between the UK and Canada, not quite as exotic. Memories of buying the first Beatles album, clipping every item out of the newspaper that mentioned their names, writing fantasy letters to the favorite Beatle (so many girls really did that). I actually wasn't one of those...instead I tried to write like John Lennon from his book In His Own Write. Kaplan's description of her teen life with Paul McCartney as the soundtrack was a book I could not put down, because I almost felt as if I had written it! Or should have....if I wasn't so lazy.Like ∙ flagFollow Reviews

So True this Sunday at 4.30

REMINDER: fabulous storytelling/reading event this Sunday. Eight breathtaking stories and then your hostess will tell a tale. The bar is open, the atmosphere is charged and warm, and there, in front of you, brave, talented people tell you the most important stories of their lives. Unforgettable.

And you'll be home in time for Oscar.