My motto as an editor: Authors are the authority on their work. I'm a full-service editor. For a reasonable fee, I'm your writing coach from the first suggested revision to the correction of the final typo.
When I write a TIP TUESDAY post with information about correct grammar and ways to improve your writing, some of you say, Oh, I'm guilty of that. It's all over my blog.
I feel bad when you write that in your comments. TIP TUESDAY is intended to help writers who want to publish their work. You should have fun with your blogs––use them as a creative outlet or as your therapy or to provide a learning experience.
I've mentioned a few times that I don't intend TIP TUESDAY as a criticism of your blogs. It's not even a criticism of writing you want to publish. It's information. That's all.
Incorrect grammar in a blog only bothers me if it causes confusion.
So should I continue TIP TUESDAY, or let it go?
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
P.S. Just want to mention that my son's friend and former roommate Nic was in Orlando at a club across the street from where the tragedy occurred. I'm grateful that Nic is okay, and I send my love and prayers to all who are suffering. We don't recover from some things. All we can do is carry on.
Yesterday I reviewed the movie Woman In Gold, which stars Helen Mirren. I promised more information about Maria Altmann's fight to have her Nazi-plundered artwork returned by the Austrian government, so here it is.
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to know the complete story, then stop reading NOW.
Let's begin with a photo of the late Mrs. Altmann with a prized possession, a portrait of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, by famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt:
Now you know that the movie ends with Mrs. Altmann getting her family's paintings back from Austria, whose government argued that they should be allowed to keep the artwork stolen by the Nazis.
Maria Altmann grew up in Austria as Maria Bloch. Her aunt was Adele Bloch-Bauer, who modeled for some of Gustav Klimt's most famous paintings. Adele Bloch-Bauer died in 1925 when she was forty-four.
Maria married Fredrick "Fritz" Altmann in 1937. In 1938, the Nazis annexed Austria. They sent Fritz to the Dachau concentration camp as a means of extorting his brother, who had already left for England, to hand over his successful textile factory to the Nazis. He did so, and Fritz was released. The couple escaped from Austria and settled in Los Angeles.
Before Adele died, she asked her husband to leave their valuable paintings by Klimt to the Austrian National Gallery. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died in 1945 and left his estate to his nephew and two nieces, one of whom was Maria Altmann.
Adele's request became an important point in the Austrian Government's argument that they should keep the five stolen Klimts in their possession. However, Adele made her request many years before the Nazi takeover of Austria, and in fact, the paintings belonged to Ferdinand.
During the 1990s, the Austrian Green Party helped pass a law that paved the way for greater transparency regarding the country's Nazi past. A crusading journalist named Hubertus Czernin learned that Ferdinand did not leave the paintings to the National Gallery.
Armed with this information, Maria Altmann tried to negotiate with Austria for the return of the Klimt landscapes owned by the family. She said they could keep the two portraits of Adele. The Austrian Government refused, and a large filing fee made it impossible for Maria to sue the government.
In 2000, Altmann filed suit in the U.S. Her lawyer, Randol "Randy" Schoenberg, argued the case before the United States Supreme Court. Their decision was that Altmann could sue Austria. However, because such a suit could take years, Schoenberg suggested that they submit the case for binding arbitration.
In 2006, a panel of three Austrian judges decided that the paintings had to be returned to Ferdinand's heirs. It became the largest return of Nazi-stolen artwork, as the paintings were estimated to be worth $150 million.
Since then, it has been on display at Lauder's Neue Galerie in New York.
The other four Klimt paintings sold for a total of $192.7 million. The proceeds were divided between several heirs. Maria and Fritz Altmann had four children and a number of nieces and nephews.
Altmann told the New York Times: “You know, in Austria they asked, ‘Would you loan them to us again?’ And I said: ‘We loaned them for 68 years. Enough loans.’ ”
Maria Altmann died at age 94 in 2011. She could rest safely with the knowledge that her Aunt Adele was in the hands of an art lover in New York, for Lauder has pledged to keep the painting on display there.
An ABC News report on the recovery of the paintings:
And here is Adele Bloch-Bauer, as she looked in about 1910:
Does the movie Woman In Gold include every detail about the recovery of the paintings, and do so with complete accuracy? Of course not.
It does, however, capture Maria Altmann's tenacity in going after the paintings, which for years she believed belonged to the Austrian National Gallery. A plaque next to the painting said it had been donated by her aunt and uncle.
When she learned the truth, she went after what was rightfully hers and also drew attention to the way the Nazis stole art from the Jewish people. She told one newspaper that Austria prolonged the case as long as they could because they hoped she would die. She refused to do so, she said.
The movie is quite good at portraying the intricacies involved in the case against Austria and the inventiveness of her lawyer, who discovered the method for bringing suit in the U.S., although he had never before been involved in such a case.
In addition to Woman In Gold, you can find a number of documentaries about the case, and you can see Maria Altmann's interview with the Shoah Foundation here: https://goo.gl/2qzpfo
Happy learning!
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann--excellent performance
I'm pleased to present an intelligent and beautifully made movie that I love: Woman In Gold (2015, Rated PG-13, Available on DVD).
Woman In Gold is based on the true story of Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) and her quest to regain artwork stolen from her family by the Nazis. Altmann and her husband flee Austria after the Nazi Anschluss. In flashbacks, they leave behind family and possessions, including artwork painted expressly for Altmann's artistic and aristocratic Jewish family by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.
The "Woman In Gold"––a portrait by Klimt of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer––hung in Austria's National Gallery after it was plundered by the Nazis in 1941 and was known as the Mona Lisa of Austria. In 2000, Altmann, by then in her eighties, and her young lawyer, Randol "Randy" Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), sue Austria to regain the portrait and other paintings by Klimt that rightfully belong to Altmann.
I love this movie because it brings history to life and because of the relationship that develops between Altmann and Schoenberg, an aspect of the script that is clever without being sappy. The quest for the artwork also leads Schoenberg to learn more about his own family's heritage.
Woman In Gold earns The Janie Junebug Seal of Highest and Most Worthy Approval. I urge you to watch it with children who are old enough to understand the historical significance of the theft of artwork by the Nazis.
Other movies that can lead to a more specific understanding of the Nazis' relationship to stolen art include The Monuments Men, and even better, the documentary The Rape of Europa.
I want to tell you more about Maria Altmann and the paintings by Klimt, but to avoid spoilers, I shall wait until tomorrow. With a separate post available, you can read it when you are ready to do so.
Happy viewing! I hope you love and appreciate this movie, which I watched on a DVD delivered by my friendly neighborhood mail carrier from Netflix, with whom I have a close, personal relationship. The friendly neighborhood mail carrier, we're not so close.
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
Here is the spectacular portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
by Gustav Klimt.
I have the winner for the June 1 Battle of the Bands. I know how excited you must be.
Try to prop your eyelids open while I make the announcement and then you can sleep the rest of the day. Take time off from work. Tell your boss that The Queen of Grammar gave you permission.
The winner is
Usher 11 Sonic Youth 9 Sorry, Sonic Youth, but it's not as if Usher really whipped your butt. Your reward for deigning to vote in this battle, or glance at it as you passed by, is to listen to what I consider the best version of Superstar. Sing us out, please, Karen. And Richard, you do whatever it is that you do when you're not playing the piano. Infinities of love, Janie Junebug
Oh, wait a minute. Hold it, Karen. I forgot to vote. That means Usher ushed the win by one because I vote for Sonic Youth. Carry on now, Karen. I still miss you. When I am dead and gone, who will worship all those Carpenters albums in my cabinet?
It's time for the bloggiest of bloghops, Question of the Month, hosted by Mr. Michael D'Agostino, who blogs at A Life Examined.
Michael's question for June is
“Of all the places in the world that you haven’t yet been to, where would you like to go next?” Oh, Michael! I'm afraid this is something I've whined about for years. I want to go to England. I was supposed to go in 2009 and didn't get to do so. I majored in English. It seems to me that with all the Chaucer, Milton, and Shakespeare I've read that I should get to visit their country.
I want to do about a million things in London. Then I'll head to Yorkshire to wander the moors as if I'm one of the Bronte sisters. I'll end up in Heptonstall Churchyard to pay homage to one of my favorite poets, Sylvia Plath.
I hope I get to visit all of my English blogger friends, but it's probably not a good idea to tell them I'm on my way. They'll pretend they're not at home. I'll also sneak over to Wales to chat with John Grey of Going Gently. Dreams, dreams, such dreams there be. Infinities of love, Janie Junebug I hope you'll join the Question of the Month. I'd love to know where you want to go.
I love the play I watched on PBS tonight: Act One, based on the memoir of playwright Moss Hart (please disregard the 1963 film of the same name that stars George Hamilton).
Without Googling his name, how many of you know who Moss Hart was?
Do you know any plays or screenplays he wrote?
I haven't yet found DVDs of Act One or streaming services that carry it, but it seems the entire play is available on this PBS site: http://www.pbs.org/arts/pbs-arts-festival/2015/act-one/
The production is well done, and the acting is superb. Oi! Such a set! I recommend Act One to you, especially if you have an interest in writing and enjoy the theater.
I've wondered about Moss Hart for years. When I was quite young--twelve? thirteen?--my father mentioned that when he was a pilot during World War II, Moss Hart took my dad and some of his colleagues out for a beer because he wanted to interview them.
Did a play, or a scene in a play, come out of that meeting? I have no idea, but I wish I knew. Perhaps my father made some brilliant/amusing comment that became a line in a play. He was prone to making brilliant/amusing remarks.
I did a little research on Moss Hart and found him to be quite interesting, and not as suave and educated as his public face.
Here's Moss Hart with his wife, Kitty Carlisle, and their children, Christopher and Catherine.
Now here's another question: How many of you can tell me who Kitty Carlisle was without, of course, Googling her name?
Carlisle outlived Hart by many years.
I enjoyed learning more about Hart today.
But I wish I had a recording of that interview with the pilots.
It's time for the June 1, 2016, Battle of the Bands.
Our host, Mr. Stephen T. McCarthy, provides us with this information about the bloghop: The whole thing is really quite simple: You select two different versions of the same song (versions you feel might give each other some competition in the voting) and you post them on the 1st and the 15th of each month. On the 7th and 21st of each month, you add your own personal vote to the mix, total up all the votes and announce the winner on your blog. Beyond that, just try to have fun with it and let your readers/voters have fun with it.
All right! Let's have fun!
Today I present two very different version of a much-loved classic, Superstar.
In the movie Juno, Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) introduces a new sound to Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page). She's familiar with Superstar by The Carpenters. That's also the version with which I grew up. Mark clues Juno, and thus me, into the existence of Sonic Youth:
Although we don't want to vote on the video, I love it that Sonic Youth pays tribute to The Carpenters.
And now for something completely different that I came across on YouTube, it's Usher:
Although we don't want to vote on the video, I love it that Usher pays tribute to Luther Vandross, who made Superstar a big part of his live performances.
Now, you do your part, if you please. Vote for Sonic Youth or Usher in your comment. Which one do you prefer and why?
I'll return on June 7 to give you the result in our Battle of the Bands. I hope you'll also visit other participants.
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
@ ‘TOSSINGITOUT’ by clicking HERE. @ ‘YOURDAILYDOSE’ by clicking HERE. @ 'MIKE'SRAMBLINGS' by clicking HERE. @ 'CURIOUSASACATHY' by clicking HERE. @ 'THESOUNDOFONEHANDTYPING' by clicking HERE. @ 'DCRELIEF - BATTLEOFTHEBANDS' by clicking HERE. @ 'THEDOGLADY'SDEN' by clicking HERE. @ 'CHERDOONTHEFLIPSIDE' by clicking HERE. @ 'ANGELSBARK' by clicking HERE. @ 'JINGLEJANGLEJUNGLE' by clicking HERE. @ 'JANIEJUNEBUGRIGHTING&EDITING' by clicking HERE. @ 'J.A.SCOTT' by clicking HERE. @ 'QUIETLAUGHTER' by clicking HERE. @ 'REINVINTAGED' by clicking HERE. @ 'HOLLI'SHOOTS&HOLLERS' by clicking HERE. @ 'EVILPOPTART' by clicking HERE. @ 'Booklover' by clickingHERE.
