Colin Firth, feeling 'Single'

Featured in the LA Times-here is the whole article for your consideration:

Colin Firth, feeling 'Single'

The actor finds an emotionally rich role in the Tom Ford film.
By Tina Daunt December 2, 2009

Colin Firth first came to international attention as Mr. Darcy, the thinking woman's sex object in "Pride & Prejudice," and then as Bridget Jones' slightly dazed consort, conspicuously named Mark Darcy. But the role of his life may be as George Falconer, the main character in Tom Ford's adaptation of the 1964 novel "A Single Man" by Christopher Isherwood.

Isherwood began the novel -- considered the gay movement's first great work of literature -- as a kind of thought experiment when his own longtime relationship with painter Don Bacardi seemed about to come apart. How, he wondered, could he cope with the loss of his life's love?

To work that out, he built "A Single Man" around the day middle-aged English academic Falconer receives the news of his own lover's death. The result was a novel -- set in 1962 Los Angeles -- of loss and love that speaks in universal terms.Fashion designer Tom Ford read the book as a young man in the 1980s and was moved by its honesty and simplicity. When he read the book again three years ago, while searching for the right project for his first movie, the book struck him in a completely different way. It was a spiritual story, of sorts, about a man who could not see his future amid his isolation and crushing sorrow. Ford ultimately decided it would be his directorial debut. But where would he find his George?It wasn't an easy question, since a cinematic treatment of "A Single Man" comes close to being a one-man play. He found his protagonist in an unlikely place: the London premiere last summer of the musical "Mamma Mia!"Over lunch recently in Beverly Hills, Firth -- one of the stars of the ABBA stage-to-film adaptation -- said Ford sat in the row behind him and watched him carefully at a cast party afterward. A short time later, he received an e-mail from the fashion designer asking if he would consider playing the lead in "A Single Man." Firth, who at the time wasn't familiar with Isherwood beyond his book "The Berlin Stories," was intrigued. "I was impressed that Tom picked this material," Firth said, casually dressed after a long week of events promoting the movie, which opens in Los Angeles on Dec. 11. "It could not be dismissed as a fashion designer's vanity project. And even though I didn't know Tom at the time, I wouldn't have done that anyway."

Ford sent Firth the script, which he had written himself, and a copy of Isherwood's book. He pushed back the filming schedule to accommodate Firth, then paid the actor a personal visit, meeting him for dinner at the 1960s Bond-esque glamour restaurant Scott's in London."At first I wasn't sure if I could do anything special with the character George," Firth said. "But then, in many ways, George is consistent with what I normally do: He's a man around my age. He's English. He seems rather dry. He just happens to be in a state of despair for a very specific reason. He has lost someone, and he doesn't know how he'll live. He's feeling suffocated by life, and he's reached a point where he doesn't want to exist."

Like Ford, Firth came away feeling passion for the story and, specifically, for George."He's a man who really starts to understand the beauty of life at the moment he thinks he's letting go," Firth said.Filming started almost immediately, at a Modernist home in Glendale that stood in for the light-splashed white cottage Isherwood and Bacardi shared in Santa Monica Canyon for so many years.

"It came together very quickly," Firth said.From the start, though, the actor knew that the biggest challenge in the film would be the scene in which he receives the news of his lover's death. It begins with a phone call -- polite, almost clipped -- and ends with a heart-wrenching portrait of emotional anguish."It's very difficult as an actor to begin a scene in one emotional state and end it in another," Firth said. "

And since I had never worked with Tom before, I wasn't sure how things would be. The script wasn't specific. It was just 'phone call, dialogue, tears.' "The actor quickly realized that Ford was trusting him to follow his instincts."There was a serenity on the set," Firth said. "I was given the space to engage and to feel it. Tom didn't bombard us with instructions; we weren't given any really. But you knew by the way he said, 'That was great,' if it was or wasn't great."He has this extraordinary talent for making his intentions your intentions, for making his vision your vision by just allowing people to be at their best. I don't think I'm any better or any worse than my material. Well, maybe I'm worse. I just played it as I saw it."

With complete quiet and few people on the set, Firth performed the phone call scene three times. Ford stood by, quietly. "He didn't cut the scene," Firth said. "He just let the [camera] magazine work its way out each time."Actor and director also discovered they had something else in common: an interest in faces and the power of facial expressions on-screen. "To me, cinema at its most exciting is about the face," Firth said.

Since the movie began being shown at film festivals, Firth, 49, has been showered with acclaim. Although he has long been considered a fine actor, some critics believe his subtly powerful performance in "A Single Man" is his best yet. But to those curious about his decision to play a gay man, Firth has little patience: "The movie is about isolation and the agony of loving someone who isn't there anymore," he said. "It's universal. It doesn't matter what your sexual [orientation] is. Love is love."

December wallpaper

Looking back at Ackermann's Repository. The original Ackermann's Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, Manufactures, &c. was published monthly from 1809-1829 and featured a pair of fashion plates in addition to other illustrations and articles covering a variety of topics. These delicate aquatint illustrations and lovely fashions continue to delight and inspire us two hundred years later.

Throughout 2009, new desktop wallpapers will be posted each month showcasing two fashion plates: one from 1809 and the other from a different year during Jane Austen's lifetime. Enjoy a year-long tour through this popular late Georgian-Regency publication!

http://www.solitary-elegance.com/

What really killed Jane Austen?

An article recently featured on CNN Entertainment explores the cause of Jane Austen's death. Here is the whole article:


By Richard Allen Greene, CNN
December 2, 2009 5:37 p.m. EST

London, England (CNN) -- It is a truth universally acknowledged -- or nearly so -- that Jane Austen, the author of "Pride and Prejudice," died of a rare illness called Addison's disease, which robs the body of the ability to make critical hormones.

Katherine White doesn't believe it.

White, herself a sufferer of Addison's disease, has studied Austen's own letters and those of her family and friends, and concluded that key symptoms just don't match what's known about the illness.

The disease -- a failure of the adrenal glands -- was unknown in Austen's day, first having been identified nearly 40 years after she died in 1817 at the age of 41.

It was a doctor named Zachary Cope who first proposed that Addison's disease had killed Austen -- a much beloved novelist whose social comedies continue to sell briskly and inspire movies starring the likes of Keira Knightley, Donald Sutherland, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. (That's not to mention homages like the Bollywood-inspired "Bride and Prejudice" and this year's unlikely bestseller "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.")

Cope's article, published in the British Medical Journal in 1964, came to White's attention a couple of years ago.

"When I read the summary that Zachary Cope had done of her symptoms, I thought, well, that's not right," White told CNN.

She zeroed in on a comment Austen made in a letter to a friend less than two months before she died: "My head was always clear, and I had scarcely any pain."

That's not what Addison's sufferers normally say, White says.

"People tend to get a thumping headache and feel like they have the hangover from hell," she said.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, who died of Addison's disease in 1906, compared her own suffering to being crucified, White observed.

Patients also tend to have difficulty remembering words, and suffer from slurred speech, sleepiness and confusion.

Austen, by contrast, dictated a 24-line comic poem to her sister less than 48 hours before she died.

White is not the first to dispute the theory that Addison's disease killed Austen. British biographer Claire Tomalin suggested in a 1997 book that lymphoma was the culprit.
White finds that, too, unlikely.

She suspects the answer is much simpler: tuberculosis.

Tomalin "was still thinking [of] first world [diseases]. She went for lymphoma on the advice of doctors," White argued.

"If you think about TB [tuberculosis], which was rife in Jane Austen's day, statistically speaking, [the cause of death] was far more likely to have been TB from unpasteurized milk rather than an obscure condition like lymphoma," White said.

Austen biographer John Halperin isn't sure it matters what killed Austen -- but whatever it was, it affected her writing as her life drew to a close, he said.

Her last completed novel, "Persuasion," is "a far more sad and autumnal book than any of the others," he said. "You get the sense that decisions delayed never return. That came home to her very clearly in 'Persuasion.' The tone is a very sad one, even though the heroine does marry the man she loves in the end," Halperin said.

In fact, Austen's papers show she considered another ending in which the heroine did not marry the man she loved.

Halperin believes Austen died of Addison's disease, he said, though he points out that his biography, "The Life of Jane Austen," was first published in 1984, and that there has been significant research into the disease since then.

White, who is trained as a social scientist, not a doctor, is the coordinator for the Addison's Disease Self-Help Group's clinical advisory group in the United Kingdom. She published a paper this week in the journal Medical Humanities making her case.

The paper, "Jane Austen and Addison's Disease: an unconvincing diagnosis," admits that some of Austen's symptoms were consistent with adrenal failure, and points out that we may not know all of Austen's ailments because her sister Cassandra edited or destroyed many of Jane's letters.
But Kenneth Burman, an endocrinology expert at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, finds White's argument plausible.

Like White, he speculates that Austen could have suffered for years from some disease that affected her adrenal glands but that the actual cause of death was different.

"It's most likely that she had chronic adrenal insufficiency and that the final cause could have been secondary infection such as TB," he said.

He, too, doubts Austen had lymphoma, which tends to produce enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, swelling in the stomach because of enlarged liver or spleen, and salt cravings -- none of which were documented in Austen's final days.

"I agree completely" that it's simply statistically more likely that the novelist would have had tuberculosis than lymphoma, he said.

But, he cautioned, we'll never know for sure.

"Retrospective diagnosis is very speculative," he said. "It's unknowable with certainty."
Or, as Austen herself wrote, "Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken."

Text and images from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/12/02/jane.austen.death/index.html

Victorian Christmas at Ringwood Manor

Be sure to visit Ringwood Manor this season for a Victorian Christmas. Just a little after Jane Austen's time, the Victorian period is a beautiful era of celebration. Ringwood Manor is a gorgeous example of architecture and houses an exquisite display of furniture and art-some even from the Colonial (aka Regency era) era. The Victorian Christmas is Saturday & Sunday, Dec. 5 & 6; Saturday & Sunday, Dec. 12 & 13 from 11am-5pm.

Ringwood Manor is described on: www.ringwoodmanor.com/

The website states, "The Forges and Manor of Ringwood is an historic center, sacred ground to the Native Americans and a site of important American developments, both industrial and social, during the Colonial, Federal, and Victorian periods. The manor and the surrounding lands provide a window into New Jersey history.

During the American Revolution, Ringwood was a supply center, transportation route, strategic headquarters, and site of George Washington's critical defense mapping agency. Ringwood and the surrounding Highlands iron works supplied the ore for three wars, urban growth and rail systems.

Later, Ringwood grew into a "Great Estate," a place which influenced the flow of our nation's cultural, political and industrial history. Due to the influence of Abram Hewitt and Peter Cooper, Ringwood was referred to as the "second White House."

With historical structures in an original setting (on 582 acres of the original 38,000) and extensive historical collections illustrative of family life, community, industry and culture, The Forges and Manor of Ringwood is recognized as a National Historic Landmark District and a unique repository of American history.

NYU class on Jane Austen

EXPLORING ENGLAND IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JANE AUSTEN (X09.9263)
NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS)

Sect. 1: Thursdays 11:00am--12:40pm, Feb. 11--Apr. 22 (10 sessions; no class March 18), $430
Meets at NYU Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street

From stately mansions to medieval cities, many of England's most historic places are uniquely associated with Jane Austen. The novelist stayed in medieval Southampton, Georgian Bath, and the ancient port of Bristol; visited relatives in breathtaking Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire; and resided in the tiny village of Chawton and in the cathedral city of Winchester. Drawing on her descriptive letters, discover Austen's insights about the history, culture, important buildings, lifestyles, and treasures of these and the many other places that she encountered on her travels.

Taught by Lorella Brocklesby, adjunct professor of humanities, cultural historian.
Call (212) 998-7200 for information or (212) 998-7150 to register or visit http://www.scps.nyu.edu/.

Celebrate Jane Austen with CNJ-JASNA!

Please join JASNA Central New Jersey for a birthday toast to Jane Austen at the Cranbury Inn, 21 South Main Street, Cranbury, New Jersey on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

We will celebrate Austen’s 234th birthday, plan and discuss the year’s upcoming programs together, and share our love of all things Austen.

Should you be so inclined, please feel free to bring a short reading selection of your choice to get us all in the spirit. Please RSVP by Dec. 1 to centraljerseyJASNA@yahoo.com. Thank you!

A short history of the Cranbury Inn: In the mid 1600's in the center of the colony of New Jersey by Cranberry Creek, a mill town began to develop along an old Indian trail that had widened into a road. This road connected the colonies and was becoming a main thoroughfare for colonial travelers. In 1697 Cranberry Towne received its charter from England. With increasing development, a need arose in central New Jersey for a place to eat and drink, get fresh horses, and spend the night; thus in the mid 1700's our taverns were built to meet these needs of the travelers passing through this area. After the colonies declared their independence from the motherland this business officially established itself in 1780. What is now The Cranbury Inn has been functioning as a place to eat and drink since the mid 1700's.

Hazelnut & Fig Tartlets

Plump port-drenched dates tucked into a buttery hazelnut crust make a delicious teatime sweet. Ideal for parties or simply as an afternoon treat, these festive tartlets are perfectly paired with a medium black tea that won’t overpower the subtle balance of flavors.

Hazelnut and Fig Tartlets
Makes 12 tartlets
1 1/2 cups chopped hazelnuts, toasted and divided2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, divided3/4 cup light brown sugar1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1 teaspoon salt, divided1 teaspoon ground nutmeg1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup cold butter, cubed3 egg yolks3 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided1 teaspoon butter flavor*2 (9-ounce) packages dried figs, finely chopped1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided1/2 cup water1 cup Port 2 1/2 tablespoons hazelnut syrup**2 eggs, lightly beaten, divided
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine 1 cup hazelnuts and 1/3 cup flour. Pulse until nuts are finely chopped. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add remaining flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend; add baking powder and butter.
2. Using an electric mixer at low speed, blend ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolks, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and butter flavor. Beat until moist clumps form.
3. Gather dough into two balls. Wrap one ball in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use. Evenly press remaining dough into bottoms and up sides of 12 (4-inch) tartlet pans. Refrigerate until ready to use.
4. In a medium saucepan, combine the figs, 1 cup sugar, water, Port, hazelnut syrup, and remaining salt over medium heat. Cook 25 to 30 minutes, until mixture thickens; cool slightly.
5. Stir in remaining hazelnuts and one egg. Spoon fig mixture into prepared crusts. Refrigerate until ready to bake.
6. Place remaining dough between two sheets of parchment paper; roll into a rectangle approximately 1/4-inch thick. Freeze rectangle for approximately 5 minutes to firm.
7. Using a 1-inch star cutter, cut stars from dough. Place about 5 to 6 stars on top of filling on each tart. Brush stars with remaining beaten egg, and sprinkle with remaining sugar.
8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Cool tartlets completely on wire racks. Once cooled, remove tartlets from pans.
Note: Tarts can be made up to 2 days ahead, covered tightly and stored at room temperature.
*Butter flavor can be found on the baking aisle with other extracts.
**For testing purposes, our test kitchen used Torani Hazelnut Flavored Syrup, which can be found with fine coffees at specialty stores or in coffee shops.

From Teatime Magazine

{Happy Thanksgiving}

Ah! on Thanksgiving day....When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?~John Greenleaf Whittier

Happy Thanksgiving Janeites!

CNJ JASNA is enjoying the holidays and will return with all things Austen on 11/30/09.

December Events at Allaire Village

Be sure to visit Historic Allaire Village during the month of December as they are hosting many wonderful events. F0r more information visit: http://www.allairevillage.org/

DECEMBER
5/ 6 Sat./Sun. Christmas at Allaire Sat & Sun.12 noon - 3:30p.m. $6/ Adult- $4/ Child (5-14 Yrs.) per day. Horse & Wagon Ride extra $7.50/ Adult, $5 Children under12

11 Fri. “A Christmas Carol” Performance in Allaire Chapel 7:30 pm Advanced tickets recommended $15/ person

12 Sat. Christmas Lantern Tours, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. (90 min. tours every 15 min.) $15/ Person. Advance ticket recommended

18 Fri. “A Christmas Carol” Performance in Allaire Chapel 7:30 pm Advanced tickets recommended $15/ person

19 Sat. Christmas Lantern Tours, 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. (90 min. tours every 15 min.) $15/ Person. Advance ticket recommended

Main Exhibit: 100 Years of Christmas Gifts and Toys at Allaire running November 21 thorough December 19

Displayed will be gifts and toys representing what Allaire residents may have received if you lived at Allaire at any time during the 1830s to the 1930s - from the heyday of the Howell Works to the establishment of Arthur Brisbane's Allaire Estate. This Christmas Exhibit that will follow the art show.

The question of "what would the people of the village received for Christmas from the 1830s to the 1930s" will be answered - via an array of toys and gifts. The toys and gifts will come from collection pieces in storage, as well as from private collections of people who had ancestors that lived at Allaire during these years.

When we think of "Allaire" today, we think of just the village. But the "Allaire area" encompassed various farms and homes in the immediate vicinity. For example, the nearby Kessler Farms, Thompson Dairy Farm, and Allaire Golf Course - all had an "Allaire address" through the 1930s and beyond. Let alone those living and working for Arthur Brisbane at his Allaire estate in the 20th Century (the same buildings and homes that once were part of James P. Allaire's Howell Iron Works Company). This exhibit will explore the Christmas and Holiday Gift Giving Traditions which would have been experienced here.

More Jane Austen at the Morgan!

Here is a link for an interesting slideshow of the Morgan exhibit: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/06/arts/20091107-austen-ss_index.html Courtesy of the New York Times

Jane Austen Exhibit at the Morgan

New York Times reports in the ARTS / ART & DESIGN in the November 07, 2009 edition on the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library. Follow this link: Exhibition Review 'A Woman: At the Morgan, the Jane Austen Her Family Knew for the article by EDWARD ROTHSTEIN "A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy," a new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, includes many personal letters and early manuscripts by the author.

Recipe for Pecan Tassies

When searching for an ideal cool-weather sweet, comforting, tried-and-true recipes are the first that come to mind. Just in time for fall, TeaTime reader Karen Haynes sent us her recipe for a season-perfect teatime treat.

Pecan Tassies
Makes 24 tassies
1/2 cup plus

1 tablespoon softened unsalted butter, divided

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 egg

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

24 pecan halves

1. In a large bowl and using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine 1/2 cup butter and cream cheese; beat until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low, and add the flour. Beat until combined. Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 325˚. 3

. Shape dough into 24 (1-inch) balls, and place in the wells of a mini muffin pan. Press the dough evenly into bottoms and up the sides of the wells.

4. In a medium bowl and using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the egg, brown sugar, vanilla extract, remaining 1 tablespoon butter, and salt; beat until well combined. Fold in the chopped pecans.

5. Spoon the pecan filling evenly into each dough cup, and top each with a pecan half. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the crusts are golden brown. Remove from oven, and let cool for 10 minutes. Transfer the tassies to a wire rack, and cool completely.

Recipe from www.teatimemagazine.com