francessco

A Beautiful Summer Night

What a great night! Beautiful ride on White Bear Lake, only a little rain, great food, great company, great sound track, great Crissy doll, and then an amazing treat at Admirals after the tour. After running into TJ and Billy Mac we were treated to a world class, classical guitar concert, by Francesco Buzzurro. (His tickets typically range from $60- $400 and sell out almost immediately, we got in on our good looks!) Every once in awhile you luck out and stumble into the presence of greatness, and that was our fortune tonight. He has played at the Metropolitan Opera, and Classical Music Halls all over the world, and tonight he was under an oak, overlooking beautiful (well okay nearly dry and swampy) White Bear Lake, with a fiberglass parrot holding a Corona, swinging over his head! Poetry! But Oh man could he play! Francessco Buzzurro Born in Taormina in 1969, Francesco Buzzurro started to play guitar at the age of 6. He graduated at the Conservatory of Trapani. As a classical guitarist he won three national competitions. At the moment he is the leader of a quartet and plays at the most important Italian festivals. Checkout the link below! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBb1GLJiVo

An Interview With Zippy

Have your family and friends from Mooreland read the book? What do they think?

I think that most of the people who appear as characters in the book couldn't love it more. My sister owns a diner called The Blue Moon just outside of Mooreland, and she has the book cover framed and hanging on the wall there. I feel certain that as the book produces more artifacts Melinda will eventually put together a little shrine. My mom is the same: just unabashedly supportive and delighted. My favorite reaction, though, came from my old friend Andy Hicks, who is featured in the essay, "Favors For Friends." I gave him the book in manuscript, and he and most of his family read it. He sent me a letter and said they all wept when they finished it, because they realized that someone had actually seen them; their family had meant something to someone else. That feeling of having been seen is so important to us all, I think, but consistently a surprise.

The rest of the interview...http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0301/kimmel/interview.html

Also another wonderful interview in a Blog by two fascinating women who read called "Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast; Why Stop at Six" A reference of course to Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking Glass" and a conversation between Alice and the White Queen. http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=522#comment-84106



And as always, I want to know who they love to read and here is what Haven says...

South of the Big Four by Don Kurtz.

It's become part of my life's work to mention that book and promote that writer.

{Kimmel's essay on the book, "The Most Familiar Book I Ever Read," is included in Remarkable Reads: 34 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading (edited by J. Peder Zane and available in paper from Norton in February). She also has an essay included in the forthcoming, Killing the Buddha; The Hunter's Bible. In the anthology, thirteen novelists were asked to rewrite a book of the Bible. Kimmel wrote the chapter on Revelations.)}

Little, Big by John Crowley. Harper Perennial brought out his back list. The large format trade paper is breathtakingly beautiful. The book is gorgeous, strange, and deep.

The funniest book I ever read is Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend. I was rereading that book when I was pregnant with my son. I laughed so hard I went into labor.

I would recommend almost everything by Anne Tyler.


Enjoy!

At Last...Pope Joan the Movie!

Director: Sönke Wortmann
Writers: Donna Woolfolk Cross (novel) Heinrich Hadding (screenplay)
Contact: View company contact information for Pope Joan on IMDbPro.
Release Date: 29 October 2009 (Germany)
Status: Post-production
Genre: Drama | History more
Plot: A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.
After a couple of problems and some cast changes, it seems that Pope Joan, the movie adaptation of Donna Woolfolk Cross’ bestseller about a female pope in the middle ages, is finally reaching its filming stage with the first scenes being shot next month in Morocco and Germany. Among its stars, are John Goodman, who was originally attached to the project just to drop out to do something else and finally coming back again; Johanna Wokalek, who replaced Franke Potente in the lead role; and David Wenham. The original director, Volker Schlondorff, was also replaced by Sonke Wortmann, but it seems that now those troubles are over and everything is in place to make a good period movie. At least we’re hopeful!