Once again it is Ruby Tuesday time, where you post pictures with red in them.

My photographs are not Valentine’s Day themed…but ones taken inside a restaurant that I like to eat at. I liked the interior architecture and warmth.

For more Ruby Tuesday photos, visit here.

Here it is Monday, again. The week has been a bit strange for me with days running into each other. Some weeks are like that, as we travel the road of life.

Logan seems to be a bit better, he has no fever, but he is still undergoing breathing treatments through Wednesday, until he sees his pediatrician, again. I will be babysitting him through at least then. Emily is doing just fine, and is a caring and loving big sister, always concerned about her “Logie baby”. It is much too precious to see… I am so glad to be back in CA, and able to be of assistance, when necessary. For me, it is what life is all about, those two miracle grandies.

I bought a couple of new books in between things this weekend. Izzy’s Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust , by Nancy Wright Beasley, and The 23rd Psalm, by George Lucius Salton. They both look to be extremely compelling memoirs.

I thought I had purchased them, truth be told, but when looking through my stacks, they were no where to be found. Fortunately the book store had copies, so I bought them.
~~~
These are the books I managed to finish reading in January. It isn’t a huge list, but nonetheless it averages out to one book a week. For me, that is less than usual, but so it goes.

1. Badenheim 1939, by Aharon Appelfeld
2. The Iron Tracks, by Aharon Appelfeld
3. Chains Around the Grass, by Naomi Ragen
4. All Our Worldly Goods, by Irene Nemirovsky
~~~
The Skirball Cultural Center has an upcoming music program in March that I would love to attend. The program is entitled Klezmer en Buenos Aires: Lerner Moguilevsky Duo. You can find out more about it here.
~~~
Have you visited Window on the Wall, lately?
~~~
© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

Monday February 8, 2010 – 24h of Sh’vat, 5770

Once again it is time for Sepia Scenes.

For more photos in sepia from around the world, visit here.

I wasn’t around yesterday, and probably won’t be until after Shabbat. I am babysitting for my seven month old grandson, Logan.

He has been sick with an ear infection, fever and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which is causing him to have difficulty breathing. We are giving him breathing treatments 3-4 times a day using a nebulizor.

If I don’t see you beforehand, Shabbat Shalom!

Once again it is Ruby Tuesday time! Submit photos with red in them, and join the other Ruby Tuesday photographers.

My photos were taken a few weeks back at the Santa Monica Pier, where red ruled the day, everywhere you looked, there was red. The Buckeye fans were in town for a game between them and the Ducks.

Happy Ruby Tuesday!

© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

Tuesday February 2, 2010 – 18th of Sh’vat, 5770

I finished reading This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, by Tadeusz Borowski and found it quite disturbing. It is not a book one can call enjoyable, because enjoyable it is not. Borowski narrates with intense and graphic details concentration camp living (if you can call it that), events and situations that occurred during the Holocaust.

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a book that holds a dramatic collection of short stories, concentration camp stories to be specific. With extreme detail Borowski demonstrates how daily life in the concentration camp almost becomes mundane in the scheme of things. The routines become rote and boring, yet he imparts the fact that within the boredom, they are given an opportunity for survival if they can endure the routine.

The prisoners find ways around the scenes set before them, and block out much of the atrocities that they find before their very eyes. They are almost like zombies, individuals with no outward feelings, no outward signs of life, as they parade through each day incognito. They mock each other and seem to find enjoyment in it. Albeit, a warped enjoyment. That is life in the prison camp. The cruelty is overt.

Some of the prisoners exercise their own forms of atrocity on other prisoners, almost acting as if they are uncaring within their interactions. And, to a degree, to act otherwise could cause them, to be sent to the gas chamber. From the snickering and the sarcasm, to the overtly brutal and physical contact, the external appearance of the prisoners towards each other is one that lacks emotion and compassion. Borowski is quite frank and to the point in his description of the dynamics and lack of human sympathy and humaneness. It is a dog eat dog world, where living becomes the primary force, and where working will get you food. There is no time or place for emotion or sympathy.

Not only do the Nazis brutalize, offend and demean the Jews, but the prisoners themselves, do it to each other. They even do it to dying individuals. It is a coping mechanism of sorts, a mode of survival that Borowski demonstrates with gruesome detail. He does not impart judgment within his writing, but rather writes concisely, sharply, frankly and to the point on the issues within the stories. His stories are a journey into the cruelty of man, and a journey into the mind of what is normal and abnormal behavior. Where does normal behavior end and abnormal behavior begin? Where is that fine line?

Borowski, himself, was a Holocaust Survivor, so he knows from where he writes. It is not coincidental that the the main character throughout all of the stories is named Tadeusz. Some of what is written did occur within Borowski’s experiences, but some of the situations did not occur, and were written to reflect what man will do to survive the horrors of war, and what man did in fact do in order to survive the Holocaust. Tadeusz Borowski understood what man was capable of, and what man would do (or not do), and he penned it so compellingly in This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I had to put the book down, and take breathers before returning to read it. The stories were atrocious and depressing, yet it was a book I wanted to finish.
~~~~~~
I personally own and have read this book.

© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

Tuesday February 2, 2010 – 18th of Sh’vat, 5770

Once again it is time for Sky Watch Friday. My photographs this week are of a gray cast sky and a blue sky with clouds…some of the clouds are a bit gray.

For more Sky Watch photographs, visit here.

I leave you with this Shabbat poem, by Emile M. Tubiana. It is in both English and French.

Shabbat Lights – Les Lumieres du Chabbat

We go towards you, towards the light,
Shabbat of songs and prayer, tonight

You are solemn, a symbol of peace,
As light and sweetness you release

Your twinkles forever show us your story
You are all brightness, love and glory

Ever since the times of our ancestors of old
As tales of kings, of sages, of priests were told

All found happiness in your joy and cheer
Whether cold or summer’s heat were here

Let’s move towards you, beloved Shabbat
Generous betrothed, we adore you like that

********

Les Lumières du Chabbat

Nous allons vers toi, vers la lumière
Chabbat des chants et des prières.

Solennelle, symbole de paix des temps,
ta lumière et ta douceur tu répands.

Tes étincelles nous guident toujours,
tu es la gloire, la clarté et l’amour

Depuis les temps de nos ancêtres
des rois, des sages et des prêtres

Tous ont trouvé ta joie et ta gaîté
sous le froid ou la chaleur d’été.

Avançons vers toi, Chabbat bien aimée,
toi la généreuse, la fiancée adorée.
~~~
Shabbat Shalom, everyone!

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© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

Friday January 29, 2010 – 14th of Sh’vat, 5770