Photos of Budapest, Prague & Vienna by Frances Borchardt

TUNE HEAD: New Jazz CD's

From partner site Jazz Weekly. For more great jazz CD and live performance reviews, and other jazz news and tips, be sure to visit.


By George W. Harris

















Mario Adnet
Jobim Jazz
Adventure Music

Celebrating Jobim's 80th birthday, guitarist Mario Adnet assembles together some of Brazil's best musicians and puts together some brassy arrangements of popular and obscure songs from the master of bossa nova. Similar in feel and texture to classic Jobim albums like "Tide" and "Wave", this disc features warm trombone work from Vittor Santos (as on "Domingo Sincopado") and feathery flute work from Andrea Dias and Marcelo Martins ("Surfboard). Nailor Proveta's woody clarinet is marvelously featured on the lilting "Rancho nas Nuvens". All throughout the disc, Adnet’s guitar work is sensitive, buoyant and joyful. Master guitarist Romero Lubambo's solo on "Frevo de Orfeu" weaves between woodwinds and brass like a butterfly. This is music to imbibe after a stressful day: let this lovely music assuage all your cares.

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The Afro-Semitic Experience
Plea For Peace
Reckless Music

If the name of THIS group doesn't get your attention, nothing will! Bassist and leader David Chevan has put together a collection of musicians of different races and creeds to create a musical plea to man and God for peace. Using songs and rhythms from Jewish Klezmer and Christian Spirituals, The ASE creates an intriguing and attractive mix of music and moods that will grab the heart of any pilgrim looking for the truth. The brilliance in the music (as well as the concept itself) lays in combining the various grooves from each culture. For example, the traditional spiritual "I'm On My Way to Canaan Land" is given an extra kick with the underlaying Middle Eastern beat mixing with the Mahalia Jackson snap. Likewise, the Jewish traditional "Reb Dovidl's Nigun" is given a bit of Latin seasoning that brings just the right amount of extra zest to the recipe. Will Bartlett is able to switch from wailing tenor sax to snake charming clarinet squeals at the drop of a beat. This band makes the best musical evidence for God's statement "Oh how good it is, when all men live as brothers."

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Michel Camilo
Spirit of the Moment |
Telarc

So what do you do after putting out a solo disc, followed by a full orchestral recording of "Rhapsody in Blue"? Pianist Michel Camilo splits the difference and puts out a hard hitting trio release with "Spirit of the Moment." With longtime drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez departing, Dafnis Prieto had large zapatos to fill, yet does so admirably. He works with bassist Charles Flores to put together an air-tight trio on torrid Latinized pieces like "Giant Steps" and delicate ballads such as ""My Secret Place." Camilo and company also take Shorter's "Nefertiti" and his own "Repercussions" to their emotional limits, leaving the listener gasping for oxygen. "Just Now" finds the band creating a balmy Caribbean mood, while "Nardis" and "Solar" give a Latinized tribute to Miles Davis. This is an energized working trio, performed with an intensity that only Camilo is capable of producing.

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The Catz in the Hatz
Resilience
Rhombus Records

No, this band does not play "Green Eggs N Ham." But, this quintet's mix of Sinatra attitude with Blues Brothers irreverence is as beguiling as it is irresistible. Vocalist Steve Johnson is the centerpiece of this mainstream yet tongue in cheek group of musicians that are as comfortable grooving through "Killer Joe" as they are delivering a bel canto version of "It Was A Very Good Year." Not many bands can get away with opening a disc with a grooving version of "Nature Boy" and closing the set with Beethoveen's "Fur Elise," but these guys have a no holds barred attitude towards music. Johnson's baritone mixes kitch with cool, as on "Lucky So and So" and "Angel Eyes." The entire band feels in sync and in the pocket. The vibe on this disc begs to have the listener take them in concert, as the jive is flowing freely from this fun release.

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Janice Friedman Trio
Swingin' for the Ride
Janika Music

Usually known strictly for her piano chops, Ms. Friedman has thrown her ring into the vocalist hat and has put out a surprisingly successful disc. With her voice akin to a female Mose Allison, Friedman saunters through a streetwise title song and snappy "You 'n' Me." Her takes on standards like "Summertime" and "Meditation" are quite clever and iconoclastic. Her own originals show depth and perception. "The 'I Do' Song" is as clever as anything Dave Frishberg could have composed. As usual, Friedman's piano work features clarity and alacrity, and her supporting rhythm masters are completely in sync with this talented artist. Friedman makes it hip to be hep on this vocal debut.

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Jeff Lorber
He Had A Hat
Narada Jazz

I know, I know. It's really easy to never forgive keyboardist Jeff Lorber for the simple act of hiring Kenny G and setting him on his path of musical ennui. This disc shows that he has repented of his sins. Besides, he never really jumped onto the "smooth" jazz label; he's the one who really pioneered the "Contemporary Adult Music" label before it morphed into you-know-what jazz. This disc, which includes some of the best session musicians, as well as Russell Malone, Tom Scott and Chris Botti, includes some real swinging and driving music, as well as accessible jazz with well arranged horn work. "Surreptitious" , with Randy Brecker's warm trumpet work and Dave Weckl's drums, blends with the Blood Sweat and Tears horn section for some hard driving fusion. "All Most Blues" has some hard bop rhythm work with inspiring alto work by Tom Scott. Russell Malone warms his chops with bassist Alex Al on the snappy "Burn Brightly." All throughout the ear-friendly disc, Lorber's keyboard work is contemporary and energetic. It's encouraging to hear a friendly name from the past is still able to deliver the goods.

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Andy Narell
Tatoom
Heads Up

Andy Narell is to the steel horn as Jimmy Smith was to the Hammond B3-a pioneer who took the instrument out of the basement, and put it into the jazz mainstream. On this latest release, Narell kicked the challenge up a notch by overdubbing various steel drums to create the essence of a "Steel Orchestra". The daunting and ambitious project comes off stunningly well. The music is brisk and fresh. The aural experience of the steel drums mixed with regular percussion instruments is a feast for the ears. "Izo's Mood" and the title track are sonic splendors, and contain mountains of joy. "Baby Steps" and "Blue Mazooka" have the added treat of Mike Stern's guitar weaving in and out of the percussive volcano. Tenor saxist David Sanchez floats and flutters over the lovely percolating rhythm provided by percussionist Luis Conte on "Tabanca". Music this visceral is so gratifying that it is easy to overlook the incredible musicianship on this deceptively sophisticated disc. It can be enjoyed for multiple listenings before you realized the complexity and dexterity that is required for such intricate music. That is the paradox of great art: the difficult can look so easy.

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Benny Reid
Findings
Concord Records

Concord has been aggressively looking for new young talent. Last year's findings of Taylor Eigsti, Erin Boheme and Christian Scott were quite pleasant surprises. This new discovery, altoist Benny Reid, has put out an unbelievably mature and impressive debut CD, complete with very strong self-penned compositions in which to spotlight his chops. His songs have a catchy reminiscence of Pat Metheny, but also an eerie ambitious resemblance to Kenny Garrett's "Beyond The Wall." Dramatic landscape sweeps, sentimental overtures and rhapsodic interludes are found in abundance on this sophisticated yet accessible work.

Reid's warm alto is well suited to these sentimental compostions that were dedicated to his sister, who died at the tender age of 13. Each song has a tender and reflective aspect, like the pastoral ""Transient Melody" which also features Jeff Taylor's gentle wordless vocals a la Richard Bona, mixed with some inspiring guitar work by Richard Padron. Pianist Aaron Goldberg takes time away from his solo work and employment with Kurt Rosenwinkle to provide some sensitive support and soloing on "Findings: A Quest For Peace" as well as the driving "Dancing With My Father", which also has Reid and the rhythm section charging on all 6 cylinders. Look for this CD, and for this artist when he comes to town. He's going places!

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Tierney Sutton Band
On The Other Side
Telarc

If vocalist Tierney Sutton's 06 in concert release "I'm With The Band" got a nomination for a Grammy, this latest one should win a Gold Medal. Filled with deep-felt emotion, mixed with pensive longing and reflection, it stands head and shoulders above any mainstream vocal release in memory. Taking songs based on the concept of "happiness", Sutton and her richly supportive explore the deep melancholy that initiates the desire for inner peace and joy. Taking songs like "You Are My Sunshine", putting them into a pensive minor key, and adding second bassist Kevin Axt to the mix take the music to a deeper level than most singers would be afraid to wander. Two versions of "Get Happy" are performed, both focusing on the hope of a future judgment that will relieve the present darkness.

The entire disc has the musicians reaching for sounds and moods that would intimidate lesser souls. "Haunted Heart" is given a definitively yearning treatment here, and Chaplin's "Smile" confronts the Depression era head on; instead of using the song to think about better times ahead, Sutton and company acknowledge the current despair. Trumpeter/vocalist Jack Sheldon adds his West Coast cool trumpet to perfection on "Glad to Be Unhappy", and is a perfect foil for Sutton as he rapports with her on the sweet "I Want to Be Happy". His voiced, aged over the years, is stunningly similar to Joe Williams in tone and pitch.
It has always been my contention that a band changes focus and direction after putting out a "live" disc. This latest release shows that their live release definitively closed an old door, and is walking forward onto a path rarely traveled. Listen to and reflect upon this important new release.

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Joe Zawinul
Brown Street
Heads Up

Recorded in concert at "Joe Zawinul's Birdland" in Vienna back in October 05, "Brown Street" features the famed founder of Weather Report leading a big band through a rousing 2 cd collection of world and weathered music. Leading along with WR alumni Victor Bailey (bass) and Alex Acuna (percussion), Zawinul is audibly inspired as he charges with full throttle on fresh versions of "Black Market" and "Boogie Woogie Waltz". The added orchestration actually gives these songs an added touch of flexibility. They seem to give breath to the sounds that were normally occupied by synthesizers and keyboards. Altoist Heiner Wiberny gives soaring solos on "A Remark You Made" and "Carnavalito". John Marshal's trumpet is wonderfully moody on "In A Silent Way", which sounds much fresher than the groundbreaking original from almost 40 years ago. All throughout the concert, Baily and Acuna are driving the band to it's exhaustive limits. The music, much of it over three decades old, has aged well, and in fact makes most of today's stuff seem tame in comparison.

THE PRACTICAL HOROSCOPE: April-May

ARIES: The deadening in your soul may be plaque on your teeth. Brush better.

TAURUS: You aren’t what you eat, but you are what eats you. Rethink the safari trip.

GEMINI: Friends and family will try to walk all over you. Ask them to leave their Nike Shox in the front hallway.

CANCER: The sturdiest trees have the deepest roots. But that won’t help you with taxes. Get your ass in gear.

LEO: Love is like a melody. Hatred is like Nickelback. Change your station.

VIRGO: Keep the wind at your back, especially if it’s yours.

LIBRA: Loneliness is just too much company with yourself. Go to sleep.

SCORPIO: When a door slams, a window may shake and crack. If you missed an opportunity, you might be screwed.

SAGITTARIUS: We all have a light within, but we are not all equally rechargeable. Don’t be too ambitious.

CAPRICORN: A linguist will condescend to you. Count on it.

AQUARIUS: If you have breakfast food at dinnertime, you will be tempted to drink liqueur in the morning. Not a good idea.

PISCES: Close friendship knows no boundaries. Avoid close friendships.

BIG WORLD AFTER ALL: The Real St. Tropez

By Cheryl Antier

When planning your next vacation, consider a trip to the French Riviera. Although it's famous for being a playground for the jet set, with its miles of white sandy beaches, and gourmet food that is as much of a treat for the eyes as it is for the palette, the French Riviera has much more to offer.

Take St. Tropez for example. Known as one of the "jewels of the French Riviera," St. Tropez is a beautiful and busy seaside village that grew up in the 50s and 60s after being discovered by Hollywood. (Roger Vadim's "And God Created Woman" was responsible for launching both Brigit Bardot's acting career and St. Tropez into a mecca for the rich and famous.)

But long before St. Tropez was discovered by Hollywood, it was also a favorite place to live and work for some of the world's best known artists and sculptors. There is just something about the light here that makes it different from everywhere else along the Mediterranean Sea - it shimmers like a pearl that's been dipped in gold.

You'll feel like you've walked into a picture postcard when you take a walk along the the pier and watch the sun sinking into the azure blue waters of the Med. It paints the sky with the colors of ripe apricots, old gold and ruby red. A playful breeze pulls at the jewel-colored awnings above the sidewalk cafes, and the evening air is fragrant with jasmine and mimosa. And when you see the pastel colored houses with the red-tiled roofs, colorful flowers spilling out of window boxes and balconies, and the trim wooden sailing boats with their tall masts bobbing gently next to sleek, black and white yachts, don't be surprised if your "inner artist" wants to come out and do a little painting too.

St. Tropez is still one of the favorite vacation spots of the "tres chic." Walk through the open-air market in the Place des Lices (it's open on Tuesday and Saturday mornings), and you'll hear accents from all over the world. International stars of stage and screen come to see and be seen, and you never know who you'll catch sight of while enjoying a cup of coffee or glass of wine at one of the many outdoor cafes. In fact, people watching is one of the favorite pastimes here, especially during the spring and summer months, when the sidewalks and narrow winding roads are crowded with tourists and sun worshippers.

The beaches of St. Tropez are almost as famous as the village itself. Arguably the most famous is the "Plage de Pampelonne" which offers almost 5 km of glaring white sand, exotic boutiques, tiny sidewalk cafes and elegant restaurants. If you want to rub elbows with the "beautiful people," stop in at Club 55 after dark for a drink and a little dancing.

At the north end of St. Tropez, you'll find the "Plage de Tahiti" which is another well-known haunt of famous - and infamous - celebrities. It's always crowded, so go early if you want to find a place to stake a claim and lay your towel for the day.

Other beaches that offer breathtaking views, and great places to cool off in the Med are the Bouillabaisse, Baneliers and Salins beaches. Or head south past the Plage de Pampelonne to Cap Camart, and just beyond it - a little less accessible but much less crowded because of it - are the "Plage de l'Escalet" and the "Plage de la Briande." And if you're feeling adventurous and really want to get away from the crowds, go a little further south until you reach "Gigaro" - a truly beautiful beach and the village of La Croix Valmer.

All together, there are over 40 beaches in this area of the French Riviera alone, so if you want to lay in the sun, soaking up the rays during your vacation, you won't have to visit the same beach twice. But if your taste runs to the more adventurous or active, then you've still come to the right place for your French Riviera vacation! You'll find all of these activities (and more) here: amusement parks, biking, boating, golf, hiking, tennis, raquetball, several fitness centers, fishing, horseback riding, miniature golf, surfing, swimming, snorkleing/scuba diving, windsurfing, para-sailing, jet-skiing, sailing, etc. And hang onto your credit cards, because the shopping here is out of this world! You can find a little bit of everything from the very inexpensive to the very, very expensive and luxurious.

Dining on the French Riviera is an experience to be savored. From the tiny sidewalk cafes, where the owner is just as likely to be your chef, to the fabulous three and four-star restaurants, eating has been raised to an art form. You'll find the food is always fresh, using the finest ingredients of the season, and presented so that it looks as beautiful as it tastes. (And don't even think about rushing through a meal. Here food is savored and enjoyed, and your waiter will never try to rush you.)

When you're tired of soaking up the sun, move inside and soak up a little culture instead. St. Tropez is home to some unique museums, avant guard art galleries and there are special concerts, exhibits and special events scheduled year round.

A few places that should not be missed include:

The "Musee de l'Annoncaide" (Place Georges Grammont, near the harbor). The museum is housed in the former chapel of the Annonciade. It opened in 1995 and now contains one of the best modern art collections in the entire Riviera. Many of the paintings on permanent exhibt are of St. Tropez itself, but there are also paintings by artists such as Seurat and Matisse that make it well worth the visit. Other artists who are spotlighted include Bonnard, Braque, Dufy, Utrillo, Derain and Maillol.

The Open Air Market (Place de Lices) Open on Tuesday and Saturday mornings, the open-air market is a fun and interesting way to spend a few hours. You'll want to sample some of the amazing fresh fruits and vegetables, haggle with the street vendors and maybe pick up a souvenir or two. Bring your camera, and don't forget to keep an eye out for celebrities!

Le Quartier de la Ponche is the old part of the city. It's easy to get lost wandering around the narrow twisted streets and back alleys, although if you do, just stop and ask for directions - even people who don't speak a word of English understand the word "harbor" and will be happy to explain how you get back. And you'll enjoy exploring the shops and houses that are solid reminders of the days before St. Tropez became "hip."

Musee Naval (Rue de la Citadelle) is a memorial to the days when St. Tropez meant more to sea captains and admirals than to the sun worshippers of today. There are scale models of cannons and ships, old photos of the town, and a wide variety of interesting little oddities. The museum is a part of the Citadel, a structure dating back to the 1500s. (And if you get hungry during your visit, the Citadelle is a great place to take a break and have a light picnic lunch as well!)

La Maison de Papillons (Rue Etienne Berry) Papillon is the French word for butterfly. The "House of Butterflies" is one of the most incredible places to visit in St. Tropez. It houses over 4,500 different species of butterflies, including some that are almost extinct.

When you're wandering around St. Tropez, don't forget the nearby hills and mountains. Two of the small medieval villages that are worth exploring are Eze and St. Paul de Vence, now populated by artisans and crafts people. Or if you prefer, plan a trip to nearby Roquebune, with its castle that goes back to the days of Charlemagne. La Turbee offers vistors a look at Roman ruins and monuments - and is a vibrant testimony to the strength and power of the Roman Empire of the past.

No matter how long you choose to stay, you'll find it difficult to tear yourself away from the beauty and excitement of St. Tropez. Even before you leave, don't be surprised if you're already planning to come back.

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Ten Best Family Activities in the French Riviera

If you're planning a family vacation to the French Riviera, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the large number of indoor and outdoor activities that will appeal to children of all ages, abilities and preferences. There are also activities that will fit any budget. Here are 10 ideas that are sure to be a hit with your kids:

1. The Côte d’Azur – Through the Eyes of the Masters

Spend some time discovering the French Riviera by walking in the footsteps of some of the world's greatest artists and see the Côte d’Azur through their eyes.

From Monet to Duffy, Renoir to Chagall, Bonnard to Cocteau to Soutine and others, this unique program will become a permanent display, and gives visitors the chance to see first hand the landscapes that inspired some of the world’s greatest painters. This walk goes from the villages of Cannet to Menton and makes for a wonderful family outing that will let your children experience a unique view of the French Riviera. They can see a reproduction of a famous painting in front of the landscape that inspired it. And since many of the originals are on display at local museums, they’ll enjoy visiting them afterwards, to get a look at the originals. Dogs are allowed on leash.

What to bring: Walking shoes, sweater if it's chilly, bottled water, camera

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation: Cannet - Menton Tel +33 (0)4 93 37 78 78 http://www.guideriviera.fr

2. The Tourist Train in Nice

Because parking can be a problem, especially during tourist season, consider taking the train to Nice, and walking around the city to explore. Another option is the small “tourist train” that provides you with a tour of all the best places to visit in Nice.

You’ll leave from the Promenade des Anglais and ride in comfort to the top of the cliff where a castle once stood, guarding the old part of the city. Stop here to let the kids play in the children’s play area and enjoy a delicious ice cream cone while you enjoy the view of the Mediterranean Sea.

Then it’s “All Aboard” and the journey continues through the open air flower market and an exploration of the “vielle” (old) part of Nice. Finally you’ll want to have your camera ready as you travel along the seafront of the Baie des Anges and the Quai des Etats-Unis.

This is an activity suited for everyone, and dogs may come along too, as long as they’re on leash.

What to bring: Sweater during cooler weather, camera, walking shoes, bottled water

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation: Board the train at the Départ de la Promenade des Anglais (face au jardin Albert 1er) Tel +33 (0)6 16 39 53 51 Fax +33 (0)4 93 62 85 48 http://www.petittrainnice.com

Open: all year except November 20 to December 20th and from January 1 to January 20th. Open every day in the summer, 10am-8pm and in the winter, 10am-6pm. Call for times and rates for groups.

3. Antibes Land – Amusement Park

The Antibes Amusement park offers fun for the whole family. It’s always brightly lit at night and can be seen for miles. There are 30 “international rides” that appeal to the young and the young at heart. There are also places where you can sit and enjoy a picnic lunch or dinner, or you can eat at any of their small cafes which offer a selection of beer and wines also. Some of the park is wheelchair accessible (although not all of the rides), and dogs are allowed on leash.

What to bring: bottled water, healthy snacks, tissues (in case there is no toilet paper)

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation Ave. Mozart Antibes http://www.azurpark.com

Open: 1st April-30th Sept, 8.30pm-2am. April-mid-June, weekends and bank holidays, 2pm-7pm. Open later on Saturdays; Mid-June-August, every day, 8.30pm-1am. Saturdays from 4pm and Sundays from 3pm, September, weekends from 4pm-2am.

4. Mat et Eau

If your family enjoys more adventuresome activities, then Mat and Eau will be just the thing. Providing the best in white water activities, the half-day or all day water activities are a great way to explore a different side of the Cote d’Azur. Try hot dogging, hydro-speeding, rafting, water tours, cannoning. Note: All participants must know how to swim, and the owners suggest that children must be at least six years of age.

What to Bring: tennis shoes, swim suit.

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation: 1177 rte de la Madone
Tel +33 (0)6 81 56 21 56 / +33(0)6 83 18 48 74
http://www.mat-et-eau.com Call for fees and times. Reservations are recommended during busy seasons.

5. Aoubre

Come prepared to spend the day at this 30 hectare park and preserve that offers walking trails, a miniature adventure track (only a few centimeters off the ground that makes it perfect for toddlers), a children’s adventure track (about a meter off the ground suitable for 5 to 8 year olds – you can walk alongside your kids) and other adventure and climbing tracks that are in century-old trees and much higher off the ground.

They offer 85 different workshops on 7 different tracks, most suitable for anyone 5 years and older. There are also parent/child activities that you can do together.

Don’t miss the small farm with animals that love to be petted. Take any of the walking trails to learn more about the forests of Provence and nature.

You can purchase sandwiches and drinks on site, or bring your own picnic lunch – but please put all containers in the appropriate recycling bins.

What to Bring: Walking shoes, sweaters, bottled water, picnic lunch and if you have a baby, make sure that the stroller can handle rocky and uneven ground – otherwise you might want to use an infant backpack or carrier.

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation: Parc des cèdres, Domaine Rouvière Tel
+33 (0)6 12 58 02 26 Fax +33 (0)4 94 86 10 92 http://www.aoubre.fr

Open on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and school holidays, from 9am to 8pm in the summer and 9.30am to 5.30pm in the winter. Reservations are required. Check out the next five best family activities in the French Riviera in part two of this article!

6. MarineLand

MarineLand is Europe’s biggest marine park, located in Antibes. Come and watch as the Bottlenose Dolphins show off their speed, dexterity and agility – and marvel at the complete trust they display in their trainers, as man and dolphin work together in a beautiful water ballet. And your kids will enjoy the “talking” sea lion who seems a little jealous and constantly interrupts the show, wanting all the attention for himself.

Your kids are sure to fall in love with the “mammoths of the sea” after sitting spellbound during the whale show. Housed in a glass tank the size of a small lagoon, the killer whales offer a glimpse of what life is like as they demonstrate some of the natural behaviors of whales in their natural habitat – rushing onto the beach to catch seals, swimming at top speed to catch prey and even the showing off through jumps and leaps practiced by young whales.

Walk through the 30 meter tunnel that’s located inside a huge aquarium containing nearly 2 million liters of water, and you’ll get a look at sharks – up close and personal as they swim above, below and all around you. You’ll see Sandtiger Sharks with their huge teeth, Nurse Sharks that enjoy lying lazily in the sand, and Sandbar Sharks with torpedo shaped bodies that allow them to move swiftly through the water. A giant manta ray (almost 1.5 meters wide) shares the tunnel with these mysterious and deadly creatures, and you’ll feel as if you could reach out and touch them – but happy they can’t say the same thing!

The tropical aquarium gallery is home to the world of coral reefs, and gives you a look at the very different volumes represented: from small modules with starfish, shrimp, horse-shoe crabs and clown-fish in their sea anemones and multi-colored corals, to reef walls with monstrous green moray ells and so many other fish that you have to see it to believe it. The gallery is your invitation to stroll through the heart of the tropical seas of the world.

Dogs are allowed on leash, and MarineLand is handicap accessible. There is also a children’s playground available. The museum provides a variety of special activities every month, including a chance to see and touch with dolphins under the close supervision of their trainers.
Call for rates and times – reservations are required for special activities.

What to Bring: sweaters (it can get chilly inside the aquarium), walking shoes. If you have an infant, strollers are also recommended.

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation: 306 av. Mozart Tel +33 (0)4 93 33 49 49 www.marineland.fr Call for fees and hours of operation.

7. Parfumerie Mollinard

Located in the city of Grasse, which is the perfume capital of the world, the Parfumerie Mollinard offers guided tours. Your children will see first hand how flowers are gathered, dried and used to create perfumes.

They will see the huge copper distilleries, and see how production of perfumes is carried out. They’ll also learn about a time in history when people were afraid of soap, and taking a bath was thought to make you sick as they visit the room where all of the Mollinard soaps are made – by only one man!

During the tour, they’ll learn about the mysterious geniuses who are known as “the nose” and who earn large salaries because of their ability to create exotic new perfumes. You can even create your own perfume (reservations for these special lessons must be made in advance). Dogs are welcome on leash, and the facility is handicapped accessible.

What to bring: Your curiosity.

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation:
60 bd Vicor Hugo
Tel +33 (0)4 92 42 33 11
Fax +33 (0)4 93 36 03 91
http://www.molinard.com

Open: all year, every day from April-September and during school holidays. 9am-6pm during the Christmas and February school holidays, 9am-6.30pm in April, May, June and September and 9am-7pm in July and August. Winter hours: 9am-12pm and 2pm-6pm, Mondays to Saturdays. Price: free entrance.

8. Musee Escoffier de L’art Culinaire (The Escoffier Art of Cooking Museum)

This museum is dedicated to Auguste Escoffier – a man known as the “King of Chefs and Chef to Kings.” He was known as the creator of many mouth-watering recipes, among them the “Peach Melba.”

The museum is located in the house Mr. Escoffier was born in, and has eight exhibition rooms dedicated to the most illustrious French Chefs of all time.

Your children will enjoy seeing what a real kitchen would have looked like in the 1800s along with all of the different utensils used back in those days. Kids receive a special map that offers special insights and information just for them.

After visiting the museum, take them to the Villeneuve Loubet – a village perched high on a cliff, and let them discover the giant maze and adventure playground.

9. L'Ecole des Champs

If you want a little grownup time, or are interested in finding excellent supervised activities for your children, then check out the School of Champs.

Situated in the middle of fantastic countryside, near Nice and Monaco (approx. 13kms), this children's holiday and leisure complex, is unique in the region. It offers original activities centered around an educational farm, and includes a productive garden and comprehensive sports facility. They provide special workshops during school vacations, including: English, horseback riding, IT classes, music, arts and crafts, and also have an adventure park, and Indian camp and dance sessions. There is even a bus that services Nice and Monaco.

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation:
9, Route du Château, La Colle
Tel: +33 (0)4 93 54 03 83
www.ecoledeschamps.com

Open from April until the end of July during school holidays and on Wednesdays.

10. La Dolce Vita

You’ll be hard pressed to find another private beach anywhere on the French Riviera that was designed with families in mind. Take a walk along the pedestrian zone in Menton, and you’ll run into La Dolce Vita.

It offers a ramp for wheelchairs and strollers. A section of the beach has been designated for children, and there is even a roped-off section of the sea right next to the lifeguard shack where kids can play in the water in complete safety. You can rent inflatables and water toys.
If you fancy a dip in the water or want to lie on the beach quietly for a while, there are even supervised activities for children aged 5 and up, available every day from 9 a.m. until 5 or 6 p.m. (If your children are younger, they’re welcome to participate, but need an adult with them.)

They offer an air-conditioned children’s playroom and DVD movies are shown every afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (Younger children can even nap in a mini-bed just for them!) Your kids can eat lunch with you, or enjoy their own food in the Kid’s Club. The facility even offers private toilets and showers just for kids.

Your older children can enjoy access to some of Menton’s other private beaches and try water skiing as well as other water sports activities.

While your kids are enjoying themselves, if you get tired of lying on the beach, why not schedule some time at the gym, or indulge yourself in a relaxing massage?

What to bring: Sunblock, swim suits, towels and bottled water.

Location, Contact Information and Hours of Operation:
Promenade de la Mer Menton
Tel +33 (0)4 93 35 44 50

Open from May to September, from 9am to midnight. Call for prices and to make reservations.
There are literally hundreds of family activities waiting for you in the French Riviera. No matter what time of year, the ages of your children or their interests, you'll find something for every member of your family in the French Riviera.

Cheryl Antier, an American writer living in the French Riviera invites you to learn all about the best places to go and things to do if you're planning a vacation here! Why settle for an ordinary vacation, when you can make it an extraordinary one? French Riviera Vacation Guide.

BODY SENSE: Shorter, More Intense Workouts

By Dominique Paris

How to exercise for quick results?

If you plan to get in shape quickly, you have to think: intense, short, more often!
“You have to do your exercise program 3 times a week”: this statement has been told for years by personal trainers and doctors.

But is it really effective? It supposes you train at least 45 minutes to one hour: this is the average time you need for a complete workout.

I see 3 major problems with this plan:

1-The impact of this plan, even with very well designed workouts, will be very low and it’s going to take weeks and weeks before you see some results.

2- These workouts are time consuming and it could be a problem with many people: are you going to stick with this plan for at least 6 months without to miss one single workout? Not sure!

3- Not seeing quick results is not good for motivation: many people stop to exercise because body transformation takes a too long time.

The solution is the strategy many athletes use for peak performance:

- The workouts have to be intense: intensity is a key; be progressive and you’ll see major results.

- The workouts have to be short: I think it’s good news for many people. Did you know you can get a total body workout in just 15 minutes!

- You have to train more often: 5 or 6 times a week. Elite athletes train 2 or 3 times a day: you can use this strategy to train twice a day for a 3 week cycle plan and you’ll see your results skyrocket.

Bottom line: 3 workouts a week will always be beneficial for long term benefits. But it is not efficient for fast results, and people want fast results. My advice: cut right now your long and traditional workout and boost intensity and frequency.

Read more from Dominique Paris, conditioning coach at Gladiator Fitness.

AUTOMANIA: British Sports Car Maker Resurrected

Connaught Type D GT Syracuse


By Anthony Fontanelle

In the 1950’s one car maker set a milestone by producing the vehicle that will make possible the first time that a British car with a British driver has won a Formula One Grand Prix. Aside from that achievement Connaught Motor Company also produced street legal cars which have received good success during the period.

In 2002, the brand was acquired by Tony Martindale and Tim Bishop. Martindale is now the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Last year, the company unveiled the Connaught Type-D after being given the distinction of “Specialist Car Manufacturer of the Year” by Autoexpress magazine.

More recently, the company announced that they will be mass producing the Connaught Type-D at its production facility in Wales. The company will not only produce a sports coupe but also a hybrid version of the vehicle. The production of the newest car from the legendary car maker will start this year. Completed vehicles will begin hitting showrooms in Europe by the start of next year.

Consumers looking forward to the resurrection of the brand will be treated to a four-seater coupe, the Connaught Type D GT Syracuse which will be the first model that the company will be producing. The sports coupe will be equipped with a massive V10 two-liter supercharged engine which can produce as much as 300 horsepower. This amount of power will definitely need good brakes to efficiently keep it in check.

The hybrid version of the vehicle will follow soon after. Plans for the hybrid are already announced by the company. The Connaught Type D V10 sports coupe hybrid vehicle will feature a V10 gasoline engine coupled with an electric motor. The hybrid version of the sports coup is estimated to reach speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. The torque produced by the engine and the additional torque from the electric motor can propel the Connaught Type D to 60 miles per hour from a standstill within 6.2 seconds. This performance is quite surprising since the company expects the hybrid version to have a gas mileage rating of 42 miles per gallon. The hybrid version will have 30 percent less emission than its competition in the market. This means that the vehicle cannot only provide good performance but also reduce the emission of gases that contributes to global warming. Aside from these, the construction of the vehicle will also bring good news for Wales. The new facility in the country will create more than 200 jobs over the next three years of operation.

In the facility’s first year, the company is planning to hire thirty engineers. Production-wise, the new facility is expected to produce a hundred Connaught Type Ds in its first year. On its second year, production will be raised to 250 units. On its fifth year, the company aims to produce a thousand units at the assembly plant.

Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.

________________

Time To Go Bold And Topless
By Glady Reign


Winter’s final blast is over and it is high time to think of the thrilling adventures of spring. Budding flowers on the garden, birds chirping on the trees, soft breeze brushing your hair, and the exciting ride offered by a convertible are few of the reasons to long for the spring to come. But spring is here so it is high time that you ready your extra energy to enjoy the season to the fullest extent.

It is high time to go bold and topless. No, not you. I mean the cars. The convertibles can do that to your satisfaction. They could offer you one-exciting spring ride. Wherever you are in the globe you can share the joys of convertibles. They come in different colors, shapes, styles, amenities and prices. This year’s hottest convertibles include the Saturn Sky Redline, Volvo C70, and the Chevrolet Corvette.

The latest Saturn Sky has transformed from a monotonous coupe to a surprisingly stunning machine. To deviate from the usual, the Saturn Sky Redline is given an aggressive and sharp stance. It was also given a hearty performance boost coming from its turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The Sky is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive roadster with a relatively huge front end and tiny rear deck, just like the Solstice. The Saturn Sky defines what a pure American vehicle could do. The 2007 Saturn Sky Redline is priced at $29,025 while the turbo version starts at $25,325.

Another gorgeous coupe is the 2007 Volvo C70. The enchantment is not on Volvo starters - it is on its drop top feature. The roof of the Volvo C70 is the center of attention. With the motorized whirring, harmonized separation and exactness of folding, viewers cannot help but be amazed.

The Volvo C70, a two-door coupe, is the kind of vehicle fit for aficionados who wanted the free-spirited ride offered by a convertible. With just a button-push away, the C70 could already offer the wonders of a convertible. The car is has a base MSRP of $38,710.
If you wanted visceral escapades, the 2007 Corvette Convertible could lead you there. Thinking of a romantic weekend getaway? Let Corvette show you the way and cruise under the blue-hued sky.

If you are a European car fanatic, you might find the Corvette overly forceful. However, according to an aficionado, “While I'm a fan of many European brands, I still enjoy whatever chance I get to drive the latest version of Chevrolet's iconic sports car. I actually didn't car much for the last iteration -- the '90s version in particular had a sheen of middle-age-crisis and Viagra-prescription desperation -- the new, shorter and more agile model is a visual treat.” The 2007 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible has a base MSRP of $53,335.

Glady Reign is a 32-year-old is a consultant for an automotive firm based in Detroit, Mi. She is a native of the motor city and grew up around cars, hence her expertise in the automotive field. You can visit Volvo starter for more information.

DANCE: Orff With Our Heads

The Washington Ballet
Morphoses, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon
Carmina Burana, choreographed by Septime Webre
Kennedy Center, Eisenhower Theater
Through April 1

In either creating or viewing dance to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, the first encumbrance is the crust of camp that adheres to the music from every horror-film preview that’s featured it, plus its unseemly Nazi associations. (Though Orff’s own stance toward the Reich is murky, he had the misfortune of being one of its favorite composers.) I confess that I can’t hear Orff’s “O Fortuna” without recalling Cherry Red Productions’ 2001 show Seven Deadly Dwarves, in which one mini-play, Carmina Pirhana, featured a sexy pet fish that went bonkers every time she heard that overripe choral concoction.

It’s doubly—or maybe even triply—impressive, then, that Septime Webre’s Carmina, originally choreographed for American Repertory Ballet in 1999, cagily eludes our intellectual firewalls to gradually but memorably touch our hearts. It does so by theatrically embracing both the jackboot and related camp associations, then deconstructing them while simultaneously critiquing Teutonic culture. If that sounds like a lot to pull off in a ballet, it is. Then again, Webre’s got 24 musical sections to do it in, not to mention a company in fine form, and the talented Cathedral Choral Society, with the Children’s Chorus of the Cathedral School, under the direction of J. Reilly Lewis.

In Regan Kimmel’s powerful set design, the singers, in monks’ robes, line stories of rafters around the stage, facing out at us and creating a space that one might associate—through the work’s figurative epochs, and depending on Vandal’s superb costumes and Chenault Spence and Joshua Michaels’s mercurial lighting—with a dungeon-like monastery, a coliseum ground, a cabaret stage, a circus ring, and a ballroom. (Associations may differ by background and age. Consult your analyst before viewing.) Orff’s text was discovered in a monastery. At first thought sacred, it turned out to be, as Webre put it in brief pre-performance remarks, “dirty songs by wayward monks” celebrating springtime, love, and sex. Amen.

Rui Huang (on the Thursday night performance under review here) descends as Fortuna in her chain-suspended steel wheel, at once goddess-like and captive (there’s a Fritz Lang-tinged S&M frisson to much of the staging). From there, Webre plays off the text’s origins and the context of Orff’s work, and takes us on an odyssey from robed self-flagellation to fairly disrobed slap-happy beer-garden hooliganism, bending, on the way, both genders and genres. Oversized Elizabethan hoop skirts and paned balloon breeches, along with orange and pink and jet-black wigs feature prominently in the fun, as do quasi-Vaudevillian broom and chair routines.

But while good gaudy diversion, that all functions primarily to disarm and deconstruct the Orff and strip it to its—Who knew? Or rather, who remembered?—potent emotional core. There we find the superb athleticism of principals Jared Nelson and Jason Hartley, among others, in their punishing aerial and floor work; Brianne Bland in a heartbreaking, disturbing rag-dollish solo before a group of brutalizing men; and wonderfully tender pas de deux between Elizabeth Gaither and Runqiao Du, and Laura Urgellés and Chip Coleman. Those are just a few of many highlights. Soprano Laura Lewis, tenor Robert Baker, and baritone Stephen Combs not only sang gorgeously, but did so at times under somewhat perilous and distracting circumstances, wheeled around on their own (slightly creaky) risers. (If they have weird dreams over the next several months about serenading construction crews, it will be no mystery.)

Ultimately, in her chained wheel, Fortuna ascends—again, reigning but also seemingly bound (O, images of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, be gone, ye foul pop-culture detritus!)—leaving us to wonder whether we’re constricting her, disappointing her, or evolving toward her, however inevitably or wisely. But in this spectacularly imaginative work, Orff’s fortune is a more definitively happy one. Webre revives, if not redeems, him. And maybe it’s just the spite of one generation removed from an Austrian refugee, but the degeneracy the Nazi critics might have spied here looked all the more lovely and liberating to me for that presumed disapproval. And who’s to say, but I think those monks drinking late into the night and scribbling away by candlelight would have enjoyed it too.

*

First but not least, the evening began with the company premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses. Sona Kharatian and Luis Torres, and Jade Payette and Jared Nelson were excellent, though the women somewhat heavy-footed in their pointe work. Violinists Tom Chiu and Conrad Harris, violist Wendy Sutter, and cellist Danielle Farina performed György Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1, a chilly but intriguing work that takes vaguely Romantic tropes and classical chords, setting them on edge with scratchy dissonances and rhythmic jokes. That’s fitting accompaniment to the couplings and uncouplings among the four dancers. From their start, lying on the floor in a crossroads pattern, each couple passes energies back and forth, one partner rigid when the other’s slack, catching each other sometimes anti-classically by the abdomens, tumbling through and over one another in connection and disconnection. Each unit of two at times seems to pass its energies to the other duet, doubling the ocular bets by coupling the couples.

Further, the simple orange and brown costumes themselves couple with timidly venturing and retracting Etch A Sketch lines formed on the backdrops in Kathleen Tracy’s staging under the blood-warm lighting designed by Mark Stanley and Joshua Michaels. The result, overall, is a quite fascinating living linear abstract art work. Ballet with modern synapse, modern with balletic discipline, it’s an absorbing curiosity that teases us to see more as the acclaimed former New York City Ballet choreographer himself morphs into entrepreneur and his own troupe morphs into Morphoses: The Wheeldon Company.

-A.C.K.


Photo by Richard Greenhouse: Jason Hartley in Carmina Burana. Courtesy of the Washington Ballet.

FILM: Hearts on Ice

Luna Mijovic and Mirjana Karanovic

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
Written and directed by Jasmila Žbanić


Wars never really end for those who live through them or are born of them.

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams, the superb and devastating feature debut of Jasmila Žbanić, ushers us into the at once hectic and depressive world of Esma (Mirjana Karanovic), a single mother, and her 12-year-old daughter, Sara (Luna Mijovic). Sara’s father, she’s been told, died a martyr, fighting the Serbs in Bosnia, but registration for a school trip raises doubts about that.

The suspense revolves less around who Sara’s father was—heavy and early foreshadowing on that point make it almost moot—then about whether and how her affectionate but tense relationship with her mom will survive the inevitable revelations.

Grbavica, the district in Sarajevo where they live, was used as an internment camp during the Yugoslav war. Though they scrape by, with Esma working two jobs, one as seamstress and one as bar waitress, their lives, beneath the busy day to day, are a ghost-filled cauldron of sadness and anxiety.

Žbanić never resorts to anything as heavy-handed as flashbacks to convey Esma’s wartime traumas. But Karanovic’s panic at the aggressive sexual carousing in the bar, or even at being pinned by Sara during a roughhousing tickle session, speak volumes. And even that’s more information than we really need. Esma’s eyes, in a bittersweet gaze as she looks at her daughter, or, exhausted on a cross-town bus, staring through a rain-spotted window, tell tales the rest of her still finds too painful to relate.

The weird normalcy of ghastly postwar routines is palpable. The romantic bond Esma forges with a coworker at the bar begins with chitchat about identifying bodies dug up from the mass graves of the Chetniks’ victims. Her aunt complains of how shabby pensions are—not like before. The world is a palimpsest of before and after emotions and practicalities. Esma’s friend bemoans the fact that their high school reunion will have such a small turnout—given that most of the class has been killed or emigrated.

And the rupture between the before and after is embodied in Sara, a lovely, scary wild child. She’s girl enough to need her mother’s help to cut the nails of her right hand, but teen enough to get off on firing her boyfriend’s handgun. Flirty enough to chase after a heart trinket sliding across an ice rink, but mischievous enough to throw a sitter’s purse out the apartment window. You want to hold and comfort her even as, day by day, she becomes more tangibly the proverbial danger to herself and others.

In government-sponsored therapy and welfare sessions with other war-ravaged women, Esma recalls the beauty of baby Sara. When adolescent Sara shaves her unruly mop of hair, her bald scalp brings to mind images of World War II collaborators, of rock punks, but also of beautiful babies. She’s hideous and irresistible and fundamental. We can’t look at her. We can’t look away. And in that sense we are Esma.

Žbanić was a young art student during the war, and has made documentaries about children and adults traumatized by and wounded in it. The documentary punch of Grbavica is a great asset. No tricks. Not even any music beyond the folk songs characters sing (sometimes to their mutual irritation and amusement) or the astringent pumping of the dance music in the bar or on a car radio.

The drama is in Esma’s tensed shoulders, her beau’s chain smoking, the fear expressed in Sara’s fetal curl on a couch. Yes, events develop, involving not just family secrets but ex-soldier mobsters and the like. But the events that matter most were more than a decade ago. They reverberate through the slow pans over the women’s group, a mass of bodies, evocative itself of a mass grave, not unfittingly. They are perched between the living and the dead. And which side will claim Esma and Sara is a suspense tale that will quietly gnaw at you from the inside, no less so than if you were their family.

-A.C.K.

SHELF LIFE: 'Sky Time in Gray's River,' by Robert Michael Pyle, and 'Chrysalis,' by Kim Todd

From blog partner

Originally appearing at: Bookslut

By Colleen Mondor

I first discovered Robert Michael Pyle through Milkweed’s fascinating Credo series which focuses on the works of authors and the natural world. Pyle is a lepidopterist and has written an enormous amount on that subject. His latest book, Sky Time in Gray’s River covers a much broader subject matter, however. In this title he looks at life in his small town of Gray’s River, Washington, and the comings and goings in both the natural world and human one. He blends both small town memoir and intense observation of area birds and wildlife in a delightfully quirky manner that gives equal time to town meetings and neighborly visits and the seasonal arrivals of various flora and fauna. Although he is candid about the region’s difficult climate (42 inches of rain in 25 days) he clearly understands the risk he is taking by publicizing its more pleasurable aspects. “Please don’t move here because of this book!” he writes in his final notes. “Believe me on this -- you won’t like the rain! Instead of luring you to some idealized bucolic hideout that would almost certainly disappoint in the end or rot your heels, may this little book assist you in finding the heart of your own home, which lies in the lives and skies of every place.”

It is easy to understand why readers might feel compelled to move all and everything to Gray’s River, when Pyle can not contain his own deep felt enthusiasm for the place and its people. But the appeal of Sky Time is not just the Walton’s Mountain nature of the town’s populace (odd, amusing, and partial to potluck gatherings), but also Pyle’s knowledge of literary natural history which allows him to call upon references and reflections that perfectly complement his observations. On writing about trails near his home, he segues into thoughts of friends in rural Connecticut, Charles Darwin’s Sand Walk, (“I have walked there and imagined Darwin ambulating his way out of his current conundrum or ailment, trying out his thoughts, as he rounded the walk again and again while noting the slow shift of the Worm Stone, by which he measured the earthworms’ reconfiguration of the landscape with their castings.”) and Henry Thoreau. Every part of living provokes the same careful consideration; the same thoughtful reflection upon those who came before and have known nature elsewhere.

One of the things I most enjoy about Pyle’s writing is that while he observes and records the arrival of Swainson’s thrushes, “…we begin to hear the song itself -- two, three, five introductory notes followed by an ascending series of silver hoops: Dee dee dee deeoo deeoo DEEOO!”, he also wonders just who Swainson was that the bird was named for. When other writers might leave the thought there -- idly passing off the question to the reader for possible future study, Pyle tells us that William Swainson was a biological illustrator in early 19th century England. He became friends with Audubon and traveled with him for a time but was apparently a less than friendly individual. “By all accounts he was full of himself to an irritating degree,” writes Pyle, but he does not let this diminish his appreciation for the bird that utters such a “glorious voluntary.” And so now the reader knows about a bird and a man, and can wonder just how one has been immortalized by another.

In the midst of birds and cats and the wonder of rivers, Pyle does not stray far though from his first love, butterflies. In fact, while discussing early field guides and phenology -- “the progression of the seasons as told by its animal and plant appearances,” he mentions author Moses Harris who in 1775 wrote The English Lepidoptera: Or, the Aurelian’s Pocket Companion: Containing a Catalogue of Upward of Four Hundred Moths and Butterflies, the Food of Their Respective Caterpillars, The Time of Changing into Chrysalis, and Appearance in the Winged State: Also, the Places Where They Frequent and Are Usually Found with a Concise Description of Each, and Their Dimensions. Harris, whose book Pyle’s credits as providing a “sense of the Georgian English seasons passing in a parade of colorful flying insects” is also mentioned in Chrysalis, Kim Todd’s new biography of late 17th century naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian. Living centuries apart and worlds away from each other (Merian lived in Germany and the Netherlands), Merian and Pyle have little personally in common. But their love and respect for butterflies and other aspects of the natural world see them as distant kin, and reading the two books in tandem is an excellent way to see just how much the field of natural history has changed, while also remaining remarkably the same.

Todd’s curiosity for Merian was initially stirred by a box of notecards of all things, which portrayed moth images from Merian’s book on Surinam insect metamorphosis. Born in 1647 and died in 1717, Todd could not reckon Merian’s work with the societal constraints of her time. “When she was born,” writes Todd, “Shakespeare had been dead only thirty years. Galileo stood trial a mere thirteen years before for suggesting the earth moved around the sun. My image of an eighteenth or nineteenth naturalist/explorer was a wealthy, university-educated young man seeking adventure or a ship’s surgeon picking shells off the beach in between treating cases of scurvy. If I had a picture of a naturalist/explorer earlier than that, which I didn’t, it surely wasn’t a fifty-two year old German woman with little formal education. What was Merian doing drawing insects in South America three hundred years ago, I wondered. How did she get there? What did she hope to find?”

Remarkably, Merian’s life started out with the same innate curiosity as Pyle’s. She spent her childhood exploring the natural world, harboring an intense interest in knowing and understanding more about insects that while no one in her family could understand, they did not actively discourage. Like a far more proper Gerald Durrell, Merian was permitted to pursue her endless fascination with silkworms and caterpillars as she sought to find the secret of metamorphosis. Her artistic talent was certainly due in no small part to coming from a family of engravers which also permitted her to be exposed from an early age to many printed works on natural history. In spite of her times, though Merian found herself caught up in a lifelong pursuit of eternal questions about growth, development and reproduction that other naturalists of her time were also actively pursuing. All of them were largely self taught, just as she was, and heavily dependent upon personal observation and recordkeeping. It was a solitary pursuit and one that did not offer larger prospects for fortune or fame, but regardless Merian had a compulsion to understand, to know. With her obvious gift as an artist she became one of the preeminent naturalists of her time, culminating with her daring trip from Europe to South America in 1699. The resultant book from her time there, and the color pictures that accompanied it (several of which are reproduced in Todd’s book), proved Merian as a woman far beyond her times. It was also the peak of her naturalist career and over time, sadly, the source for a centuries’ long derision of her work.

Impeccably researched and footnoted, Todd used Merian’s own letters and study books to infuse Chrysalis with the measured voice of her subject. As close to an autobiography as Merian will ever have, the book does not seek to understand why Merian was drawn to her subjects but rather, how she accommodated her overwhelming desire to study them in a time that did not welcome such unseemly curiosity. Through marriage and babies, in and out of religious conversion, even while navigating her way through divorce, Merian’s compulsion to investigate, draw and record the lives of insects never wavered. Ultimately her trip to Surinam, then part of Dutch territory, is less of a surprise then readers first might think. Of course she would travel with her daughter halfway across the world and enter the jungles to learn more about insects; of course she would find a way to fund such a trip. This was not an idle curiosity for Maria Merian, it was her very life. And that is what makes her such a fascinating subject for her biographer. “Although I want her contributions to science to be recognized,” writes Todd, “sometimes I think her biggest gift was the way that she lived. Any life, of course, is messy, filled with rationalizations, contradictions, episodes best tucked away out of sight. But there is a boldness at the heart that won’t be chipped away.”

That boldness is what sent Merian on her great adventure and then kept her alive in the years that followed as she set about recording what she learned in Surinam and also making the necessary professional connections to see to it that her discoveries would be respected and remembered forever.

Todd could have ended her biography with Merian’s Surinam book, or even her death a few years later. But she herself was curious as to why Merian seemed to be relatively unknown even within the smaller academic circles that should keep her name and work refreshingly alive. What she found was that as the study of nature and the natural world gained in respect and popularity, the very people who had nurtured it and kept it in the public eye lost the respect of those who followed. In the nineteenth century biology, zoology and chemistry came into their own as college academic departments. Governments began to sponsor the establishment of fishery and entomology bureaus. The sciences embraced the natural world and made it their own, thus effectively pushing out the many amateurs who had dedicated themselves to it without any interest in academic acknowledgement. “Merian didn’t have a formal education,” writes Todd, “she talked to and trusted the reports of those who lived with the insects for thousands of years; she was a woman.” Over time, very easily and quite insidiously, Merian’s work was disparaged, attacked and ignored. And even though fairly recent discoveries of her original work have reappeared in Russia, where they were bought and sheltered by Peter the Great in the years after her death (and where her daughter and son-in-law settled), academics still are slow to acknowledge her contribution to the field. It is too hard for students and professors to believe perhaps that a middle-aged woman hundreds of years ago could study so deeply the worlds that they must take classes and labs in order to understand. How could she know in her kitchen what they must rigorously pursue in hallowed halls of learning? How could she dare to know?

And yet I think Robert Michael Pyle, Yale trained ecologist that he is, would understand Maria Merian in a moment. He would invite her to peek out his kitchen window and see the wandering rustic bunting that had miraculously decided to visit his yard one winter (only the fourth recorded sighting of such a bird in Washington State). Pyle would know that Merian could appreciate such a surprise for what it is -- another mystery of the natural world that reveals itself only to those who watch and wait. In a classroom you can make anything happen, anything, like magic, can appear on the computer monitor or video screen at will. But for those who relish the spontaneity of nature you must be willing to go outside and see what is there; you must be willing to let it all unfold before you. Three hundred years apart, the works of Robert Michael Pyle and Maria Sibylla Merian echo with the same wonderful discoveries. How fortunate we are that Pyle is willing to share his home in Gray’s River with the world, and that biographers like Kim Todd are dedicated enough to rescue the life of someone like Merian. They give hope to the amateur naturalist within all of us; they give us reason to look twice out our windows.

***

Sky Time in Gray’s River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place by Robert Michael Pyle
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 039582821X
256 pages

Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd
Harcourt
ISBN 0151011087
284 pages