WPA Art

The Story of the Big Fish

Rellies Tucking Into Crabs at High Island Restaurant

Planes, no trains, automobiles!

We have been traveling! First, we had our half-yearly Qantas trek back to the US from AUS which was long, tiring, but thankfully uneventful. We watched lots of movies on the 14+hour flight, drank some good Aussie wine, ate some OK airline food, so had a common airline experience. Nothing to write about, but it seems I was able to squeeze a couple of sentences out of it anyway.

Then after a few days of rest, my mother came for a visit. She is 84 and lives in California. After seeing everyone in Midland, we flew with her to Liberty to see her 88 and 90-year old sisters whom she had not seen for quite awhile.

We also caught up with Miss Ruth, my Dad's second wife, and other rellies.

Ella Grace's Hoppy Easter Poem

Dexter

We finished Season 1 of Dexter on dvd last night. The script is absolutely leakproof, not one hole in any episode, all 12 episodes tied together seamlessly. The acting all around is pitch perfect; Michael C. Hall is completely believable as a forensics pathologist who moonlights as a serial killer. One could object to the antagonist of the piece being a serial killer, I suppose, but it's a heightened reality we're experiencing. Dark comedy has never exceeded this.

Mullaloo Beach

While it's never crowded at our beach, it was absolutely vacant yesterday. It was a hot day too! Today there were a lot of families enjoying the waves. Us too!

Reading the Classics

I am now reading the classic Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I read this book in high school, but that was many moons ago and I don't remember more than the story outline. Dickens is of course masterful in his characterizations; every person in the novel, from Pip, the protagonist, to the least mentioned barkeeper is rich in detail and fully knowable. As readers we meet Pip as a poor, orphaned child being reared by a shrewish sister and her hapless husband, Joe. Pip is settled on his life, knowing he will apprentice to Joe. However, fate steps in in the form of Mrs. Havisham and Pip realizes there is a world outside his own narrow life. He begins to have expectations, though limited by the meaness of his existence. Then he is visited by a London lawyer who tells Pip that he has a benevolent benefactor and enough funds to train as a gentleman. Pip travels to London with "great expectations" and his life changes forever.

My main purpose is reading Great Expectations now is that I'm very interested in seeing David Lean's 1946 film which is judged by many film critics to be the best adaptation of a book in the history of film.