Fountain Pen Day

Didn't use them as much as I could today, but then the day isn't over.

And here are some inexpensive user friendly Parkers.

For more info, you can check out the Fountain Pen Day website.

Hero goes on a Safari

Isellpens, one of my regular vendors to buy pens and accessories, is the go-to shop for Hero pens, especially the imported fudes.

It appears they are now carrying the Hero 359, a look alike to the Lamy Safari.

I bought one, and got it in seconds from Todd.  I selected the purple, and will write up a review soon comparing it to the Safari.

I've only used it for a week, and I've learned the hard way that one week is not long enough to test a pen.

Fountain Pen Day - November 1, 2013

Until I went back to The Well Appointed Desk's blog today, and visited My Pen Needs Ink, I didn't realize we had a Fountain Pen Day; but now I do, and I am excited.

Some great national and international sponsors are on board.

And quite a few bloggers and users.

I always try, often in vain, to get folks to join the fountain pen world, but in all the years I've tried, thus far, I believe I've only gotten two (2) real new users: a young man of 18 going off to college with a brand new Lamy Safari, and a senior citizen who had an older vintage pen she had inherited, which I fixed and encouraged her to use.

I also bought a Kaweco Ice for my 9 year old granddaughter, and it is my hope that she'll want my collection of fountain pens and use them.

From calligraphy-type pens like this Sailor

to a French pen I bought in Albuquerque, NM in 1992,

I have bought fountain pens as mementos, birthday presents to myself, on a whim, with forethought, and randomly.

I love the way they feel, and if lucky, how they write.

Serendipity, Synchronicity: The Goldfinch

As Donna Tartt's new book, "Goldfinch" arrives in bookstores and received rave reviews, The Frick will be exhibiting several of Mauritshuis' most valuable paintings, among them the Goldfinch, itself, starting October 22 until early January.

Goldfinch, Carel Fabritius, 1654

Strangely when I lived in the Netherlands, I avoided the Hague, and hence never made it to the Mauritshuis. More often I rested my feet on the small table where I drank my coffee at the Stedelijk (the Modern museum).  After all for more than one year I lived around the corner from the Museumplein, and one of my closest friends was a curator during those days.  Beppi and I often met, especially on sunny days, and it didn't take much effort to view any and all of the exhibits. 

I suppose I also avoided the Hague as it represented business and government which I left to my then other half.

Munro & the Nobel

Although I am known to be (or to have been) a voracious reader, it was only on Tuesday that I purchased Alice Munro's book, "Runaway" at Webster's in State College, and not for the obvious reason, Munro's potential as a Nobel Laureate.

Munro © New York Times

It was rather a whim, really, that I asked if the bookseller had a Munro as I have started to not only read but to study specific kinds of writing, and I have become very interested in the art of the "short story" for which Alice Munro is best known and appreciated that she won the Nobel Prize.

Congratulations go out to the Canadian and one of few women to win this most coveted prize!

Congratulations Ms. Munro!

Women Writers Unite in Hobart, New York

Hobart, New York claims and is the village of books.  It has after all six, yes, six bookstores.

And this year, after a two year planning stage, they hosted the first Festival of Women Writers, and writers they had: published, popular, inexperienced, very experienced, poets, non-fiction writers, former Time Magazine journalists, and more.

It was by sheer chance I learned of the festival, and after hewing and hawing, I got into the car, and drove the 78 miles, stopping first at Paper Moon to get grounded.

Paper Moon, Hobart, NY, via Facebook

At Amy Morris Pickens', Paper Moon proprietor, recommendation, I traveled back South to Table on Ten and it was worth it.  Their coffee is great and apparently comes from Irving Farms.  I bought 12oz and already made 2 pots of coffee since returning home.

Table on Ten via Remodelista

I took two workshops, Mary Johnson, author of "An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life. " presented, "Memoir: Remembering & Rewriting" early Friday afternoon at Liberty Rock Books.   Johnson's foundation in New Mexico, "A Room of her Own" sounds quite intriguing but I think I may be over arroyo.
 
On Saturday morning,  Sophfronia Scott, author of several books, including "All I need to get by," contributor to the Chicken Soup series and quite the dynamic offered, "The Big Fat Journal and Other Ways of Keeping your Creative Life,"  at Adams Antiquarian Book Shop.

Both workshops were terrific, but I was particularly taken by Ms. Scott's journal workshop and have already taken steps to not quite emulate, but use her system of a binder.  I ordered a Doane 1" binder with 150 sheets of graph paper last night, my first purchase from them.

Ms. Scott shared a great number of useful references and read this letter 

from the desk of
FRANK SINATRA

Chicken — a thought.
Strange, but I feel the world we live in demands that we be turned out in a pattern which resembles, in fact, is a facsimile of itself. And those of us who roll with the punches, who grin, who dare to wear foolish clown faces, who defy the system — well, we do it, and bully for us!
Of course, there are those who do not. And the reason I think is that, (and I say this with some sadness) those up-tight, locked in people who resent and despise us, who fear us, and are bewildered by us, will one day come to realize that we possess rare and magical secrets, and more — love.
Therefore, I am beginning to think that a few, (I hope many) are wondering if maybe there might be value to a firefly, or an instant-long roman candle.
Keep the faith
Dad

On leaving the workshop, I went to the Conference Center, the hub of the Festival, to look for a poetry workshop leader I had worked with more than 10 years ago.  I couldn't leave without seeing Cheryl Boyce Taylor.

Then I stopped for a second time at Table on Ten for a great cup of coffee, each cup individually made, and bought some flowers & vegetables from The Last Harvest Farm.

Sunflowers from The Last Harvest Farm ©

It took me less time to get home than to travel to Hobart, not that I speed, but I did fly.

Isaac Newton's notebook

Isaac Newton notebook 1660s

Read at Notebook Stories

via Wired

Library on the Beach; Free Book Kiosk in Pittsburgh

I find it so refreshing that even with the e-reader, books, paper, books, paper are still popular and that in France one can borrow a book at the beach.

Photograph via French blogger ©

And in Pittsburgh, after a super dinner in Regent's Square at Alma Pan, a Latin kitchen, I nabbed a book from the kiosk.

Photograph via Pittsburgh Gazette ©

The glories of books and in Pittsburgh the Carnegie.

It ain't coal, it's Amerika

The New York Times did a piece about McDowell County, West Virginia's

Coalwood Mountain (Postcard)

decline in population and wealth while still wanting to stay proud and bring back the glory days of prosperity from coal mining.

It reminded me that just the other day I was driving up country road 116, a back way to a friend's house, and thought, "This place was once a bustling lake community.  What happened to it."

Lake Huntington, off Route 116, W52 © Pentamento

The town is Huntington Lake.  Driving up towards the lake is a winding road, with more than one sharp turn.  Along the road are large, very large, houses, most of which are decrepit, several nearly falling down, and quite a few up for sale. 

At the lakeside itself, you can also find decrepitude, and a sense of the forgotten.

Few of the houses bordering the lake itself are in good condition.

Is this the future of Amerika?