Dorette and I are spending some time in Grand Forks. The weather is touch and go this time of year, so I brought along some reading material. One of the books is Liesl Olson’s “Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis.” Of most interest to me is her account of the black writer, Era Bell Thompson, 1905-1986, who had …
As my friends know, I recently finished my annual rereading of Proust’s 4,300 page novel “In Search Of Lost Time.” Hemingway is my second most liked dead writer. On my night stand is a new history “The Paris Husband: How It Really Was Between Ernest & Hadley Hemingway.” Don’t confuse this book with another, “The Paris Wife,” a fictionalized account …
Photographer Dave Vorland recently spent some time in Arizona, where the weather in February is in stark contrast to that of his home in Bloomington, Minn.
Here’s the final installment and photo (above) in my series documenting the cameras I own. This one — a Canon EOS 5D Mark III — is the best of the lot. Also shown are my favorite lenses: 50mm, 24-105mm and 70-200mm (here with a 1.4x extender). They have given me much pleasure and are destined when I can no longer …
This (above) is the Nikon FM2(n), manufactured in Japan from 1982-2001. In 1995, it would have cost you $775. The film camera was sometimes referred to as “the poor man’s Leica.” I bought one for peanuts on e-Bay a few years ago, still in its original sealed package, and later acquired a number of lenses for it, including a 300mm …
I promised to post one of the pictures I took in New York City in 1964 with my first camera, a Kodak Pony 135 (see it in a previous post). Here (above) is an iPhone-taken copy of a photo shot with the Pony, framed and normally hanging on a wall at our place in Bloomington, Minn. The photograph was taken …
This is the first camera (above) I ever owned, a Kodak Pony 135 which came on the market in 1955. My father, who was interested in photography himself, bought me one as a birthday gift a few years later when I was a senior at Harvey (N.D.) High School. In those days, digital photography was still a distant dream. I …
I’ve likely invested more money in cameras over the years than I should have. (I believe in the Irish saying “There are no pockets in a shroud.”) I’ve got a large inventory, including my favorite, the Canon 5D Mark III and an assortment of lenses. More on my collection later. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that the Mark III …
I first heard of the author Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961, when I was a freshman at the University of North Dakota. He had committed suicide in July, two months before I arrived on campus It was perhaps for that reason that my ”Intro to Fiction” professor chose to begin his course that fall with Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well-lighted Place,” …
A while ago the 0resident of the United States unleashed a middle-of-the-night Tweet storm attacking the company Amazon, claiming it was getting favorable treatment from the U.S. Postal Service. As is so often the case, he was mistaken (or fibbing for effect). Most of my online shopping is with Amazon. Here’s a recent example. Back in June in Paris, I …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland and his partner, Dorette Kerian, recently returned home after attending the 40th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival, which showcased the greatest jazz artists from Chicago and around the world, including headliner performances in Millennium Park that featured Ramsey Lewis, Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Maceo Parker and Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. Among the activities on their agenda …
Dorette Kerian and I spent several wonderful hours Saturday attending a “Wacipi” sponsored by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community a short drive from our place in Bloomington, Minn. A Wacipi, or powwow, meaning “they dance” in the Dakota language, is a marvelous event to watch. I’ve been a spectator over the years at many smaller scale Wacipis at the University …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland recently traveled to northeastern Minnesota to take in the Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth. During the trip, he and his partner, Dorette Kerian also took in some local sights.
Accompanied by Dorette’s son-in-law, Paul Kuhns, I’m heading to Paris next week to attend the International Hemingway Conference. I also expect to visit again the most famous graveyard in the world, the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, established by Napoleon in 1804. The cemetery is huge ― 110 acres ― with more than 1 million individuals buried there. Most were ordinary folks. …
The other day, Dorette and I watched a television interview with the journalist Seymour M. Hersh, broadcast in connection with the release of his new book “Reporter.” It’s getting great reviews. So Wednesday, I hustled over to the nearest Barnes and Noble. The book had just arrived and was already sold out in the store. But a clerk was kind …
There has been another mass murder school shooting, this time Friday in Santa Fe, Texas. Not long ago,m I wrote down some thoughts and an extract from the 92-page book “Civilization and Its Discontents” by the Austrian neurologist and writer Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). It was completed during the rise of Adolf Hitler, and among other insights the book anticipated the …
Here’s another photo from my visit Tuesday to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum not far from our place in Bloomington, Minn. These are hawthorn blossoms, French writer Marcel Proust’s favorite flower. When I got home, I looked up what he had to say about them. Those who haven’t read Proust will notice he used long sentences. “I found the …
One of my favorite places is the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Dorette and I are frequent visitors. She’s out of town, so I drove to the MIA on Saturday and wandered around for a couple of hours. It’s truly a world class institution. Photography is allowed, not the case in many museums. Among the works of art I’m most drawn …
Spring has finally sprung in the Midwest, as Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland’s most recent images show. But it hasn’t been like that since its start March 20, when the landscape was snow-filled and trees were bare.
Dorette and I love to attend the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival every spring. On Thursday, we saw the new Russian-made movie “Vronsky,” complete with English subtitles. The flick is set in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. It imagines the aftermath of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” from the point of view of Anna’s lover, Count Vronsky, several years after …
Reading has been important to me since I was a first-grader at Fram Township School No. 3 in Wellsburg, N.D. My teacher, Sylpha Hovland, inspired me. I still have my “report card” from that year long ago — the marks were great for reading, not so hot for “deportment.” Here are the first lines of 10 of my favorite novels. …
I can’t resist a used bookstore. On Saturday, I picked up a volume that tells the story of the cruiser U.S.S. Indiana, sunk by the Japanese in World War II after delivering the atomic bomb that would end the conflict. The book, “In Harm’s Way,” reminded me of the description of the disaster that the character “Quint” (Robert Shaw) provided …
Friends know I enjoy used bookstores. There are many within easy driving distance of our place in Bloomington, Minn. I recently purchased the above book for $1.50 at a Salvation Army resale outlet near the place that sells me Starbucks Italian Bold coffee. “What Did You Do In the War, Daddy?” was self-published by Gordon C. Krantz, who like Dorette …
Today (Wednesday) my mother Minnie Vogel Vorland would have been 95. She died in 1991, a few days after my father, Kermit Vorland. They are buried next to one another in a cemetery near the former family farm south of Wellsburg, N.D. This picture (above) was taken by Dad, from whom I inherited an interest in photography. I was about …
Places I’d like to visit again? Monet’s Garden. Claude Monet, one of the giants of Impressionism, is among Dorette’s and my favorite artists. We’ve seldom missed an opportunity to see his work. We’ve also twice visited his estate near Meudon, France, a short train trip from Paris. Traveling with us last year was Avery Dusterhoft, Dorette’s granddaughter, who brought along …
In retrospect, this picture captured what was one of the most important days of my life: June 6, 1965. Gasp! That’s more than half a century ago. I’m not certain who snapped the shutter, although I think it was my sister, Susan Vorland Hanson. It was graduation day at the University of North Dakota. I’m with my parents Kermit and …
“We’ll always have Paris.” Humphrey Bogart said that to Ingrid Bergman in the 1942 movie “Casablanca.” He was right. I feel that way about my favorite place in the whole wide world, even if I never have the opportunity to return. I’ve been there several times over the years. But actually I do have an opportunity. In July, I’m splurging …
Facebook friends know I buy, read and mostly keep a lot of used books. Call it an obsession. My most recent acquisition is titled “France Will Live Again: The Portrait of a Peaceful Interlude 1919-1939,” by Samuel Chamberlain. It was priced at $3 new in December 1940, a bit less the other day for the frail used copy. For the …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland recently returned home from a trip to California. Here are some of the view he and his traveling companions saw while in the Golden State.
Here’s a final photograph, and some thoughts about it, from the recent trip Dorette and I made to attend the jazz festival in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe all said you can’t go home again. Wolfe even used the expression as the title of one of his novels. But I keep trying. For example, at …
Recently I sifted through some memorabilia and found the above picture taken in 1965, when I was a senior at the University of North Dakota. With me in the photo that appeared in the Dacotah Annual were classmates Mike Schlax, sports editor of the Dakota Student newspaper, and Harriet Thorpe, who wrote editorials. My title was “news editor.” I had …
I said I wasn’t going to do it again. But once again, I purchased another stash of used books, this time at an estate sale in our neighborhood in Bloomington, Minn. I wish I had known the folks who owned this house. It was full of books on every conceivable subject, from great works of literature to volumes about home …
I met many bright students during my long career at the University of North Dakota. One of them was a kid named Chuck Klosterman, who had grown up near Wyndmere, N.D., and showed up as a freshman in 1990. I recall him as a slightly outrageous and very humorous writer for the Dakota Student newspaper. Klosterman’s first book was “Fargo …
I’ve just reread Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” written when he was in his 20s and living in Paris. The book is presented in the first person by the character Jake Barnes, a newspaper reporter who like Hemingway had been injured in the World War I. I’ve always liked the novel’s first sentence, “Robert Cohen was once …
Dorette took this picture of me in St. Paul recently as we dined outdoors at Herbie’s on the Park. I decided to quaff a Hamm’s beer as I did long ago, including when I wasn’t old enough to do so legally. It’s been decades since I tasted the Hamm’s brand, established in 1865 in St. Paul and now owned by …
I took this picture (below) a week ago today during a brief visit to my hometown of Harvey, N.D. Since I graduated 56 years ago (gasp!), this former high school has been converted into a junior high and a new structure built elsewhere in town for the “upper grades.” I’ve long realized the education I received as a Harvey Hornet was superior, …
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland and his daughter, Kristi, recently made a trip to Montana. Here are some of the shots Dave took from a state that boasts some magnificent sights.
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland, along with Dorette Kerian and her granddaughter, Avery Dusterhoft, recently returned to the U.S. after a visit to Paris, “the City of Lights” (“la Ville des Lumières”). Dave has been to Paris several times, so he knows his way around quite well, as is evidenced by these beautiful shots, included in the second of two …
I took this picture May 31, 2005, of a movie actress taking a break during filming along the Seine River in Paris She reminds me of Odette de Crécy, an unforgettable character in Marcel Proust’s “Swann In Love,” a component of his larger work “In Search of Lost Time.” Although Proust died in 1922, “the Search” continues to be read …
I was 6 years old and in the first grade in the spring of 1950 when my parents received my last report card of the year. It was signed by teacher Sylpha Hovland, who certified my promotion to the second grade at Fram Township School No. 3 in Wellsburg, N.D. I still have the card. Later, I moved on to Harvey …
One of the best things about Canada besides Justin Trudeau is the fact it’s the home of the great Tilly hat. This iPhone selfie was taken in Lacrosse, Wis., on Tuesday. It’s a tradition to acknowlege another owner like this when you pass someone also wearing a Tilly. I’ve owned several of the not inexpensive Tillies, eventually losing all of …
Dorette is the master chef in our household, no question about that. But I have a few dishes that can also evoke oohs and ahs. Today (Wednesday) I’ll be making one of my favorites: rhubarb crisp, thanks to the generosity of our Bloomington, Minn., neighbors Sheila and Bob Owen, who shared their rhubarb with us. Then there’s Russian Cream with …
A nice thing about being retired is having more time to read. I’ve just completed two books, one of which I read for first time in college: “The Stranger,” or as it is titled in French, “L’Étranger,” by Albert Camus, published in 1942. My copy is a new translation in “American English” by Mathew Ward. Set in Algeria, the novel …
This past week, I posted some thoughts after visiting the cemetery in St. Cloud, Minn., where my grandfather, William Vogel, and seven other members of my mother Minnie Vogel Vorland’s family are buried. I had been struck by the fact I know nothing about what became of the descendants of mom’s nine siblings. It’s different on the Vorland side of the …