Afterwards, we usually went for Chinese food and I would puzzle over what the characters meant on the Chinese side of the menu. I always had this notion that if I could read Chinese, there would be added goodies I could order.

I guess this is the year of the cock--that's rooster for those on the North American side of the Atlantic.

Chinese lanterns are called "deng" and I believe "fu" is luck or good fortune (or something like that). The lantern on the right is a 19th century deng in a gorgeous Chinese red. I wouldn't mind having a lantern like that (or several of them) for my balcony, but I already have far too many "things" and I think I'll save the extra pennies for buying books. --- Mya

I actually know very little about these books. I had never heard of Franzen until about a week ago and I still know nothing about Winegardner except that some guy on some blog said he liked him as an author. On the rare occasions when I read reviews, I only glance at the first few words so I won't be influenced by the opinions of others and so the books will be fresh and "new" when I read them (I hate spoilers and movie trailers--I prefer to know as little as possible about a book when I read it or a movie before I see it).

Well, buying books is one thing. Finding time to read them is another. I have NO idea where I'm going to put these in my ten-foot-high "to read" stack, but I'll find a spot for them somehow. --- Mya

Most people remember Miller as "the husband of Marilyn Monroe" but he was a celebrity in his own right, penning many sensitive and biting portraits of humanity with wit and a keen ability to observe human nature. Many of his stories stem from the events of his own life, including his short (five year) marriage to Marilyn Monroe. I don't think I have any books with Arthur Miller's stories, but I think I'll remedy that. He is best known for The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, and the Misfits.

I'm embarrassed to say I've never read Death of a Salesman or seen it performed on stage, which is too bad because it is reputed to be a classic. However, I read The Crucible in school (it was required reading) and I've seen the movie The Misfits (I can't remember if I've also read it). I have to admit, I didn't understand the Crucible very well when I read it because I didn't understand the political milieu surrounding the story. My parents never talked about politics--not even at election time. I was in my late 20s before I even had the slightest idea about their political leanings and, even then, it was only a guess. As a result, I had (and have) a lot of catching up to do in order to understand satire and social commentary in literature.

Those who love stage plays, especially, will remember Miller with fondness.

P.S. I just looked up Miller's bio and he was born in 1915 in New York city of immigrant parents. He apparently was one of the "communist sympathizers" pronounced "guilty" in the McCarthy witch-hunt (a verdict he later appealed). In the fifties, the House of Un-American Activities Committee engaged in a highly questionable proceeding in which people were coerced into finking on friends and coworkers. The Crucible was apparently a social commentary on these activities, written three years before Miller himself was called in front of the Committee.

During the filming of the Misfits, Miller began having an affair with Ingeborg Morath, whom he later married (after he and Monroe were divorced) and with whom he remained until her death forty years later. --- Mya

My school wasn't like that. My school had a "hard knocks" philosophy. You gave valentines to anyone you liked.

In grade two, our teacher, Mrs. K___ had us all make valentine "pockets" as a crafts activity. Then the pocket (usually in the shape of a big heart) would be taped to the front of each person's desk.

On Valentine's Day, everyone would walk around for five or ten minutes putting valentines in the pockets of the other kids in the class. Some kids got dozens of valentines (it was a big class, usually 40 kids) and some got, well, nothing. Then everyone would look around and see valentines spilling out of some pockets and other pockets, well, not only weren't they spilling, but they weren't even bowed out from the thickness of a single valentine. Children are honest that way and honesty is cruel if you're not one of the "chosen."

You see, it's not just the raw number of valentines you get that counts. There's also a hierarchy based upon size and "fanciness." The supermarkets and drugstores would sell these huge books of die-cut valentines that you could pop out and sometimes assemble. Some were small, some were large, and some were super-deluxe. You gave the super-deluxe ones to your best friends and the little ones to the people you didn't know (or like) as well.

That's the way it was, year after year. It was pretty clear who was hot and who was not. Pretty cruel now that I think back on it. If I'd been more socially aware, I would have given everyone a valentine, but I was just a regular kid and I did things the way other people did them, without much thought about people's feelings in the matter. Well, except that I carry a strong memory of it because somewhere, in the back of my mind, I thought, "Oh those poor guys didn't get anything." Some other time I'll tell you about some of the anti-Valentine's Day parties I've attended. My theory is that anti-Valentine's day started as a backlash against cruel elementary school Valentine traditions.

Timeless Traditions. Well, time passes and I've grown up and guess what. I haven't changed a bit. I still love getting presents on Valentine's Day and I still give valentines only to my very best friend--my sweetheart. I'm shallow that way, or sentimental (it sounds better than shallow). When my sweetie gave me chocolates today, not just any chocolates, but Belgian chocolate truffles, I didn' t care if I was the only valentine on the block who got such a nice present--I was happy. Work and everyday life are tough sometimes and chocolate is a great antidote to life's ups and downs.

I understand that Japan has two Valentine's Days, one for the women to give valentines to the men and one for the men to give valentines to the women. Cool. I could go for that. Double the chocolate! Apparently half the chocolate sold in Japan is sold on these days. Now, either it means that they give each other truckloads of chocolate on Valentine's Day or it means that the Japanese are MUCH more sensible about their chocolate intake the rest of the year. Not I. I am a bigtime, unrecalcitrant choco-holic. I have very few vices, but this is one of them. And I'm a high-maintenance choco-holic too! I like high-quality chocolate. The best truffles, the best liqueurs. Yummmmmmm. Good thing my sweetie likes to indulge my vices. See the one with the pink stripes on the left? That's one of my favorites. Grand Marnier is good too. --- Mya

One thing is certain--the project has people talking. It puts me in mind of the huge political mural painted by Diego Rivera in the Rockefeller building. It caused enormous controversy and was eventually destroyed. In the film "Frida," a biography of Frida Kahlo and her relationship with Diego Rivera, Frida says to Diego, that he got people talking, that no one else could inflame people like that. Well, Christo's Gates have got people talking, and looking, and walking, so there's something to be said for making a visual statement on a massive scale.

There are 7500 gates in total in a color described by the media (and perhaps by the artists themselves) as "saffron." Well, folks, not to take away from the Gates, but let's use our brains at least a little and not swallow ALL the marketing hype hook, line, and sinker. That color is not saffron. It's a little too orange. Saffron is a little more yellow. Does it matter? Yes, it matters. It matters because people need to read with their brains, not with their sheep instincts and not simply parrot everything they say and read without thought or question. I mean, seriously, how can you truly appreciate what is good and bad about the Gates from a rational viewpoint if you can't even spot a very simple, very obvious marketing ploy? The word "saffron" sounds good, so they went with it. I'd like to say the Gates have merit, but that merit must be recognized for what it is and not for what the media promotes, okay? If you can't tell the difference between saffron and yellow-orange, which is a pretty darn simple concept, then how can you tell the difference between good art and bad art? Three simple words--USE YOUR BRAINS. I'll get back to this later. I actually took some color detectors and put them up against photos of the gates to determine the "real" color (variations in screen colors notwithstanding).

The Artist Behind the Project. I have to say all the talk about the Gates got me very curious about Christo, the artist.

I already knew about Christo's art. I heard about it years ago and saw pictures of the wrapped coastline, the wrapped buildings, and thought they were interesting, if not especially aesthetic. Conceptually, I felt he had a fascinating idea, but I felt the execution wasn't entirely up to world class levels. That's my opinion. I'm entitled to it. I'm an art lover and an art patron (whenever I have two extra pennies to rub together). I LOVE art--I have lots of it in my house--not prints, originals--and I think there should be much more art in the world, but that doesn't mean I have to call it good if I don't think it's good. Christo's early works were provocative and interesting, magnificent in concept if not in aesthetics. However, I truly believe there are other artists who, if they had the same financial resources (which most of them don't) could have executed these works even better. Which brings me to my next question about Christo and Jeanne-Claude. How did they get $20 million to spend on a 16-day art installation? Obviously they can't sell a wrapped coastline or a wrapped building and coffee table books based on such works don't sell in huge quantities, either.

The Financing Behind the Artist. I've always loved the arts community. I know a LOT of artists and quite a few writers. I can tell you from personal experience that it's hard to earn a living as a writer and even harder to earn a living as an artist. Most of my writing friends (who work very hard to earn a living) earn five times what my artist friends earn. A few artists are successful on a grand scale. Toni Onley, a friend of mine who recently died of a heart attack while flying his plane, was a HUGELY successful Canadian painter. He did very well financially and was highly regarded as an artist. But I doubt if he could afford to spend $20 million on a 16-day exhibit. Don't you find that an astonishing amount of money? I'm amazed so few people question the origin of the money. One person said to me, they made it selling Christo's small paintings. She said his paintings go for $30,000 each. Well, usually the gallery gets 25 or 30 percent and the tax department takes another 30 percent, so let's say Christo nets $10,000 per painting. You would have to sell 2,000 paintings to make $20 million. You'd have to sell a lot more to be able to SPEND $20 million. Most artists I know don't do more than about 20 paintings a year. If Christo painted 20 of these a year (that's a couple per month on a steady basis), it would take him 100 years to net $20 million. He's nowhere near a hundred and if I can believe the info I found on the Web, he started as a poor Bulgarian artist struggling along by painting portraits. And he doesn't spend all his time painting. He and Jean-Claude create books and these big art installations as well. They've been doing this for about four or five decades, not 100 years.

Well, I admit. I'm a person who likes to understand things. And I don't understand, when the majority of full-time visual artists struggle along on less than $20,000 a year, how a pair of visual artists working on conceptual art that is dismantled rather than sold can spend $20 million on one art piece. It would take a full-tenured college professor 300 years to earn that much money.

So, I did some digging and came up almost empty. There's very little personal information about Christo on the Web. I did, however, find out that Christo isn't one person but two. He began his large-scale projects when he met Jeanne-Claude, the woman he married, in Paris. How can a Bulgarian artist from a poor family afford to buy 27,000 yards of fabric to wrap the Kunsthalle in Berne, Switzerland? Well, according to recent announcements by Jeanne-Claude and Christo, Christo's grand works have been a collaboration with his wife Jeanne-Claude since the beginning. They apparently decided to keep her role a secret. So, I thought, well, if Christo is from a poor family and big art pieces require big financial resources and he started doing large art pieces when he met his wife, then perhaps his wife supplied the financial resources. Back to Google, only to discover there isn't much personal information on Jeanne-Claude, other than press releases sent out by the couple themselves. But I did read, assuming it's true, that she was a well-educated, jet-setting daughter of a wealthy French military family.

I also discovered that there has been a biography produced about the couple. The biographer unfortunately died before he finished and a friend of Christo and Jeanne-Claude finished the book. There's no way to know how much the second author might have changed the original. There were additions, but whether there were deletions or changes, only the second author knows. I'd be interested in reading that biography and also curious to know how much of the content was supplied by the artist couple and how much was independently researched by the writer. It certainly sounds like they've had interesting lives.

Anyway, without reading the book, all I know is Jeanne-Claude came from a wealthy military family. Could she have inherited land or property? I don't know. I just know that money on this scale usually comes from inheritance, political connections, or both. Well, the political connections are certainly there. Jeanne-Claude and Christo are friends with mayor Bloomberg of New York city. When they originally applied to put up the Gates more than two decades ago, they were turned down. When Bloomberg took over as mayor, they got the go-ahead.

The Color Detective. Oh, about the color of the Gates. I wanted to photograph my little color selector and show it to you on my blog. But the STRANGEST thing happened. When I aimed the digital camera at the laptop screen, the screen disappeared. It went blank--totally black. So I took the camera away from my eye and looked at the screen and it was normal again. I looked at it in the camera viewfinder and it disappeared again! I took the camera away and it was normal. The camera can't image the laptop screen. When I changed the angle, it didn' t help. I tried taking a picture anyway, but it didn't work, as you can see from the picture on the right. So, my laptop is a stealth machine and I didn't even know it!

To get the photo, I had to run downstairs to my tower and shoot it again. Ta daaaa! That worked, except that the screen was light and the color gauge was dark, so one more try with the flash and you can at least get some idea of how it works with the color gauge. Anyway, the Mehgrig & Sons color gauge identifies the color of the fabric, as depicted in dozens of photos by different bloggers on the Web, as yellow-orange, not saffron.

Summing Up. Is it Art? I don't want to leave Gates-lovers with the impression that I'm simply trying to run down the Gates. I'm not. I'm trying to look at this from all sides, political, economic, AND artistic. I have reservations about the commercialization of the work and lots of questions about where the money came from but, artistically, I think it's one of the couples' better pieces. Some people love it. Some people hate it. One person who's been there likened it to an ad for a hardware store. My reaction to Christo's Gates depends upon the context. In terms of art in general, I can think of other works that I like better. However, in the context of the couple's earlier work, I think it's more successful by far than the wrapped coastlines and buildings. The way the gates wind through the landscape seems to me much more artistic than wrapping a building or tract of land. Conceptually, I think the Gates integrate in a more fascinating way with the surrounding park and city. The interactive nature of the Gates, the fact that you can walk through them and see them from so many angles, appeals to me, as well.

I also like the way the wind plays with the fabric and creates an undulating movement reminiscent of the Chinese dragon I mentioned in my blog above. The Gates have a certain appeal beyond being just a curiosity and photographers are already successfully beginning to capture the play of the colors and materials against the backdrop of Central Park. Whatever people think of it, this piece will be remembered. How long, is hard to say. Sometimes overexposure can cause things to lose their luster. Christo's Gates are getting a great deal of exposure on the Web and are being widely captured in people's blogs. Will people eventually tire of seeing them? Time will tell. Will there be parodies of the Gates, knock-offs? I'm sure there will.

Postscript. Boy am I embarrassed. It wasn't my laptop that was making the image black in my digital camera, it was the camera, or rather the polarizing lens I have on the camera! I had totally forgotten laptop screens are polarized and my polarizing filter was set at just the right angle to completely black out the screen. Well, now I know better. Next time I'll rotate the polarizer. Silly me. --- Mya

Hargo's Gates. I forgot to mention, have you seen the great parody of the Gates by the Somerville guy? I enjoyed it so much, I sent him this quicky poem:

The Somerville touch is deeply poetic,
The confluence of gates and terrain profound.
I think you've defined a new aesthetic;
I'll have to send the link around.

Jasper Johns might be jealous;
Andy Warhol would be cowed.
I don't want to sound too overzealous,
But Christo himself is going to be wowed. --- Mya Bell

If you haven't seen Hargo's site yet, or read the other comments, check them out.

Dressed to the Eights for Christo's Gates. Oh, and finally, if you're wondering what to wear when you go to see the Gates, click on the T-shirt in the voting box on the right. --- Mya

If you know nothing whatsoever about Hunter S. Thompson, perhaps the easiest way to get an introduction to his work is to rent the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." It was based on one of Thompson's books. The movie was directed by Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, 12 Monkeys, Jabberwocky), featuring Johnny Depp. Seeing that might pique your interest in learning more about Thompson's background and brash approach to his life and work. --- Mya

I was planning to go back and read it (and the readers' comments) in greater detail and then suddenly the pages were gone, perhaps because the big Gates themselves will have a limited exhibition time. Well, I was enjoying those little Gates, so I asked Nabokov if he'd like to do a tribute to Hargo and the Somerville Gates. He gave me a suspicious look and made a little snarly face. I've never seen him make a snarly face before. He screwed up one whiskered cheek and held it there while he gave me the evil eye. I don't know if he was commenting on the Gates themselves or my less-than-stellar photography skills (she'll never get my good angle). But he's a great cat and he finally gave in and sat still for one brief moment, enjoying the panorama of the Gates, their curving path and the way the light played against the carpet, as the breeze from the doorway riffled the apricot-colored paper. Well, I could go on, but I won't. I'm sure you get the idea.

By the way, you can probably see from this picture that Nabokov is a pretty substantial cat. He went from half-his-healthy-weight starving kitty when I rescued him, to eating-disordered kitty (my vet warned me that might happen), to seriously overweight kitty. But he's lost two pounds, only needs to lose one more and is doing very well now. He's eating normal quantities of food for the first time since he was rescued from near-death. This picture doesn't show his eyes very well because of the flash-bulb glare, but they're green, like the sparkling glacier waters that emerge in a rush from between rugged mountain crags. --- Mya