Girl With A Pearl Earring kan een biografie genoemd worden, maar eigenlijk gaat het niet om de kunstenaar. Het gaat om het verhaal achter het schilderij, dat in deze film mooi en vol gevoel wordt weergegeven. Mede door het feit dat ik het verhaal niet kende, werd de film interessant. Het verhaal van Frida en Modigliani kende ik wel, hun beeldbiografieën vond ik dan ook minder geslaagd en eerder slaapverwekkend.

Het is geen pracht van een film, maar hij is ook niet slecht. Het is een gewone film, ideaal om te ontspannen.

Thus, our local library is our best friend. We can check out books---whole stacks of books!---without adding to the permanent collection. (Unfortunately, the free discard book boxes at the library entrance provide their own temptation, but they also give us an outlet for the few books we can bear to part with.) It's a great feeling to return books---to get them out of here!---and there's always the comfort of knowing that, if you really, really love something, you can order your own copy on Amazon or head out to a bookstore and buy it. And as if all that weren't enough, the library is free! Free! Free books!!!

Sorry. Our friend Ben is getting a little carried away here. And what, you might ask, has all this got to do with Vermeer, anyway? Just this: Our friend Ben is convinced that Vermeer is currently enjoying a revival second only to Jane Austen's. First, there was the novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the movie version, and all the other Vermeer-based novels that followed it, many of which our friend Ben and Silence have actually read. But when our friend Ben ventured into the library this week and saw two Vermeer-themed nonfiction books on the "new books" shelf, The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century, and Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, I knew that Vermeer had, once again, arrived.

Our friend Ben loves Vermeer. I often say, "There is only Leonardo, but after him, Vermeer." I have an old postcard of Vermeer's "Little Street in Delft" that has gone into every poetry notebook I've ever had, and when a Vermeer was stolen from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston, I mourned its loss and wrote a poem to commemorate the theft. When I go to museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I find the Leonardos and Vermeers and spend my time with them, giving them the freshest moments of my perception before I have the inevitable sensory overload, then moving on to the Van Dykes and Giottos and Fra Angelicos and mediaeval art if I still have the strength. Leonardo is miraculous; Vermeer is luminous.

I suppose Leonardo enjoyed his fifteen minutes of newfound fame in The DaVinci Code, but it seems that Vermeer has eclipsed him in terms of a popular revival. (The novel Chasing Vermeer has been described as "the DaVinci Code for Kids," and our friend Ben sees that an expose---the ultimate accolade of today's society---called Vermeer's Family Secrets is due out next month.) Why Vermeer and not Leonardo or, say, Picasso or VanGogh or Andy Warhol? Our friend Ben has no clue. Perhaps Vermeer's inconceivably detailed, jewel-like paintings exert as strong an influence on the minds of other writers as they do on our friend Ben's. You could look at them, the detail, the light, forever; you could drown in them.

Our friend Ben finds all this a bit odd. I don't intend to recommend that you rush out to find any of these books, and am waiting for the inevitable Vermeer and Me, Thursdays with Vermeer, and Vermeer's 10 Steps to a Happy Life to appear on shelves nationwide. But if you live anywhere near, or happen to be visiting, a city that is blessed with Vermeers in their museums, please stop in and take a look. Never mind the earrings. They are, one and all, pearls without price.

From the author who brought us "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" comes a brilliant novel about coming of age in William Blake's England. Tracy Chevalier is one of my all-time favorite authors.

Read my review HERE.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

and

Disney Princesses.

Can somebody enlighten me as to why these topics are suddenly fascinating to the general public?  Or is it just that I've gotten enough random hits on google that it's bumping my blog up higher on the page list?  Or can the search engines sense my deep and abiding devotion to Girl and Princesses?

Via Boing Boing.

I know from reading enough books and enough lists and responses that we may all agree on a book or two but one man's "stall" is another man's "rush." Nevertheless, I skimmed over the shelves last night, looking for a beach read. NO to The Devil Wears Prada or any Marian Keyes. NO to Maeve Binchy.  NO to Jay McInerny. NO to Jennifer Weiner; just not a fit for LaCar.

Page turner, page turner, page turner...  I guess I don't do a lot of them. Rather, we don't own them.  Nevertheless, I made a selection and called her.
"You need to make a choice," I said.
"Oh, sounds good!"
(This was sort of like shopping to both of us. Shopping is GOOD.)
"OK, here's the list," I said and narrated about each as I went along:
    TARA ROAD - Maeve Binchy
    GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING - Chevalier
    DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD - R. Wells
    FORTUNE'S ROCKS - Anita Shreve
    WIDEACRE - Philippa Gregory
    THE MANY LIVES AND SORROW OF JOSEPHINE B - Guilland
(Clearly I was unsure about what LaCar likes to read; and you have to work with what's on your shelf. I did consider one of Plum Sykes tinsel-y books, though and yes, I own two of them!)

And the winner was?
WIDEACRE.  It's tawdry. It's odd. The "interesting" thing in terms of its writing is that the main character is evil. Not magic, wizard evil. It's her character. Bad.  You're supposed to like the main character in some way, right? Oh, this is a tawdry novel. And it's told in the first person so that you wonder how can this work out? Yes, I'm trying to dress up a semi-pot-boiling-Brit steamy book that is NOT my usual cup of tea. In fact it doesn't even go with tea.

But Gregory has page-turning talent. We'll see what LaCar thinks. I have always sworn that I wouldn't bother to lend the book to anyone much less let anyone know I even read it. Well, mark it down as "entertainment." Possilby a beach read. Ain't nothing wrong with that. What would you have recommended to her?

The Maritus Huis in Den Haag is home to Vermeer's Famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. The Maritus Huis is a beautiful building that used to be a family residence. However, it has sense been turned into this art museum. The great thing about the museum is you wouldn't know it was there unless you KNEW. It's tucked away off of the main streets in Den Haag, and there's relatively no advertising for it. But thanks to Frommer's, we knew exactly where we were heading. Inside you can see all kind of art by many famous Netherlands painters, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh to Vermeer. They have quite an extensive collection of beautiful art from all periods and all types and mediums. The most wonderful feeling, however, is when you are looking for Girl. Let me paint (ha!) you the picture:

You enter The Maritus Huis from the basement through the servant's entrance. You can see the gift shop, so the excitement of seeing the original Girl is building up inside you. As you climb the staircase that leads you gracefully into the center of the first flower, you look around, take in the art, but all the while knowing that Girl is there somewhere, waiting for you to seek her out. You try to keep yourself calm by reminding your anxious heart, "She's here! She's here! Don't worry! We'll get there. Just enjoy the wonderful art and don't miss out on anything!" But that becomes increasingly hard as you wander through the rooms and yet, you're looking for someone. Climbing the stairs to the third floor, you're surrounded by still lifes of tulips and Lilies and various other flowers as your audio tour hums in your ear, "Naturally, these flowers wouldn't bloom all together, but here (such and such artist) portrays the eleg"....blah, blah. I KNOW! But where is she???

You enter the room, resigned to the fact that you might have to go back through again and find her. As you stare into the stamens of another tulip, you look to your left. Here, Brother Bee is looking at a painting, then back at you, and then at the painting. As you turn, you realize, your senses weren't on radar. Here she is! In all her splendor. The Girl with the pearl earring is staring back at you. She's not on her own pedestal or behind glass. She's hanging on the wall with other pictures as plain as can be. But you can't help thinking to yourself, that this is how she should be. In fact, Girl with a Pearl Earring was never supposed to be that big of a deal, but yet, it's Vermeer's simplicity with this painting that makes her stand out beyond all others. Not to mention that Tracy Chevalier made her famous with her book, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Oh yes, and the movie.

I was enchanted, charmed, stunned, and moved. It was almost as good as seeing a celebrity...without the paparazzi, flashing lights, and "I make millions of dollars" attitude. It was surreal to say the least, and completely wonderful. Am I in love? Quite possibly. But I can only imagine what goes through one's head while traveling around The Louvre. I assume it's much of the same.

I'm currently reading 2 books.  Atonement, by Ian McEwan.  There is a movie out based on this novel that I'm planning on watching soon after finishing the book.  Why I punish myself like that, I don't know.  I do enjoy seeing a director/screen writers interpretation and adaption of a book.  Even though I was a little disappointed with The Other Boleyn Girl, that's okay.  The Girl with a Pearl Earring was good in both renditions, so it's not always all that bad.  Anyway, the 2nd book I'm reading is Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp.  I'm reading it with a couple other mothers at my church and we are doing a study, or book group or whatever you'd like to call it.  So far this book is excellent.  I love the focus on how we need to focus on the heart of our children's behavior rather than the behavior itself.  But it's got me thinking about my role as a parent, and how I am to teach the kids of God and His ways.  I've yet to really establish a way to do this - I mean obviously we go to church and pray and such, but I'd also like to be teaching and showing them about God in our active conversations and play.  I'm just sort of stuck as to how to do that.  I don't want to point out God in every wrong thing, (I.E. You need to be obedient, God's bible says we must obey our fathers and mothers...) because that will have a reverse effect, at least I can see how it would.  So anyway, I'm hoping that this book will help me with this.  In addition to that, I joined a web forum for Christian Mothers.  I'm hoping I can become active enough to draw from other parents and what they are doing, and adapt them to suit our family.

Another thing I have been thinking about recently are environmental issues.  I haven't talked about this much, if at all, before on my blog, but I do believe some things are happening to our planet that we [humans] are 100% responsible for.  That's sad.  Of course when we created things like cars, lawn mowers, and power plants, we had no idea what they would do to our environment.  But now that we do know, shouldn't be be more responsible as humans and residents of this planet?  I know some Christian's who have no fear of our degenerating planet because in the end there is to be a new Heaven and a new Earth, but God put this earth in our hands.  It is our responsibility to take care of the land, so I do consider it important.  I fear for what my children will have to go through as they enter their old age.  I pray for Christ's return before then - but just in case, I think it's necessary as a planet to start joining together and doing something about the damage we're doing.

That being said - I'm a total hypocrite.  I started out using cloth diapers and never stuck with it.  With all 3 kids I have done this.  Then there is the debate on how much water is used to wash said cloth diapers, but SURELY it's better than littering our planet with dirty plastic/paper/whatever THEY are, isn't it?  Then we drive everywhere.  And it's not like the places we go are close by - we drive about 40 minutes to get to church!  Justin drives about 20 minutes to get to work.  I'd say outside of grocery shopping, almost everywhere we go takes at least 15 minutes to get there - in most cases more.  We don't have a hybrid or a veggie oil car.  I use plastic bags the grocery store gives me.  I've pretty much done nothing to help the environment.  But it's weighing in on my heart and in my head.  I want to do something.  So my first step?  I'm probably going to buy those re-usable grocery bags for when I go grocery shopping so we don't have anymore of those dreadful plastic bags.

wg. "Dziewczyny z perłą" Jana Vermeera

In April 2003, if I remember correctly, my dad bought me a brand new guitar, keen on helping me out in my fledgling foray into music. I attended five classes and then dropped out for a variety of reasons. I have tried to revive the learning on a couple of occasions, but those attempts could not be sustained. My guitar weeps as it lies on a loft in my room, spoilt by the dust and damaged by a broken top-string - what is that called again?

I began reading 'Girl With A Pearl Earring' - was enjoying it actually. After a 100-odd pages, I downloaded its movie adaptation, saw a bit of that, and never touched the book again.

Life is passing me by, while I do nothing about some basic things. Perhaps, writing this down will get me back on track.

Before I forget - I have promised so many friends to burn cds of movies.....

Or maybe Pieter is just wasting his time on a lost cause…..

I wonder if Johannes and Pieter know about each other??

Griet, I fear is in the middle of a very dangerous love triangle

She has been here less than a week, no make that less than a day, and she now thinks she owns the place and thinks that she can do anything.

She makes it seem as if she is minding her own business and doing her own work. But! what part of her job is to come up to me, the first child of her master, and slap me in the face for not doing anything but happily watch her fetch a water from the stream.

Not only did this happen but she also act like she is much better than Tanneke, our other maid who has worked for us since she was 14, just because she can make the sheets a litte whiter, but who cares they will just get dirty again later.

Well I'm now too angry to continue writting now, so I'll post another tomorrow, hopfully the tides will turn and she will notice that she is not the one with the greater hand than me.

The last one stuck through it all saying she needed the money or something for her younger brother, she lasted no more than a week and a half. So much for her younger brother.

For some reason or another this new maid seems diffrent, but that doesnt matter to me it just makes it all the more interesting.

Well this is now the begining of Griet's end.