At the conservation district this morning.
Up with the sun
Respite
The heat warning ended, more books arrived, and really? Nothing is right with the world, is it? But Friday still becomes Saturday and Saturday, Sunday, so here I am, reading Nights of Plague for a book discussion, practicing Florence Price’s “Juba Dance” for band rehearsal on Monday, and wondering whether I should walk first this afternoon or do the yard work first. And with a thud of all-at-onceness, such banal dithering has made me as uncomfortable as my first encounter with Ilya Kaminsky’s poem.
(forgive us)
Feels like 110
But new books are cool.
Feels like 109
Check your neighbors. Stay hydrated. Find a cool place. Don’t worry about that training session until Friday, okay? Take care.
Roman
At the Field Museum.
Part of my Latin tutorial includes a survey of Roman history via SPQR by the always-excellent Mary Beard. Is it any wonder that I now regularly see Roman influence where I may have previously missed or overlooked it? A plaque describing a case of portrait masks in the Field Museum’s Egyptian exhibit indicates that once the Romans conquered the Egyptians (30 BCE), they adopted a number of Egyptian customs, including portrait masks — which were actually a Greek contribution to Egyptian traditions. The one pictured here is from the Ptolemaic-Roman Period.
Rose early
Walked at one of our favorite conservation districts this morning.
Prize
The local library’s summer reading program includes an adult category. One must log six hundred minutes over eight weeks to finish; I had completed it by the end of the first week and dispensed with the online log after entering more than 2,300 minutes. Ordinarily, my August calendar includes a “Pick up library prize” note, but the lackluster selection last year coupled with the rapidity with which I finished effectively put the program right out of my head — until I received the library’s weekly newsletter, which advised readers that the prize room was closing at the end of the month. I had been meaning to read Crying in H Mart for a while, in part because of this review, so I am glad I caught the reminder before my fall semester schedule got underway.
At the Milwaukee Art Museum
The above are my images of detail from the following works:
■ Janitor by Duane Hanson, 1973
■ Wet Saturday by Martin Lewis, 1929
■ Le Penseur de Notre Dame by John Taylor Arms, 1923
■ The Fiddler by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1859
■ Untitled Anxious Audience by Rashid Johnson, 2017
■ Portrait of Frederick Layton by George Henry Yewell, circa 1888
■ Portrait of Dr. Karl Schwartz by Lovis Corinth 1916
■ The Card Players by Eduard vin Grützner, 1883
■ Triple Profile Portrait (The Mignons of Henry III) by School of Fontainebleau, 1570s
Currently reading
Well, actually, I just finished Far from the Madding Crowd — what a thumping’ good book! Now I will move among the other three until finished.
August
From 57th Street Books.
Since my last post, the light has shifted and softened, the sunflowers have bloomed, and my flutes have nearly made it back home. The fall semester — and with it, band rehearsals and weekly music lessons — begins next week. But this week, I am celebrating the near end of the summer.
Last night, after some noodles and bookstore wandering, we watched the White Sox handily beat the Yankees. Later this week, we plan to enjoy a post-tourist, post-summer-campers museum visit. And over the weekend, we will wander in one of the conservation areas.
Nerdishly 