Stars Align Big Events Bard Barre
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DINING OUTSOCIETY DIARIES BALLET STARSALIGN BIG EVENTS BARD BARRE Weightsand Measures was Former President George Stanton Welchdebuts “meant to be”sayschef/ W. Bush entertains at an his take on Shakespeare’s owner. Page G10 exclusivedinner. Page G14 ‘Romeoand Juliet.’ Page G2 GRAY MATTERS CLASSICAL MUSIC LeonardNimoy’s Symphony Mr.Spock wasone of pops the most counterculture conductor hasbig plans figures of the 1960s. for final years in Houston. HoustonChronicle.com/GrayMatters ZEST Page G14 HoustonChronicle @HoustonChron Houston Chronicle | Sunday, March 1, 2015 |HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com Section G 666 Ishiguro on war, forgetfulness and cowboys In 1987,Kazuo Ishiguro the Day,” haunting newbook —his Kazuo holed up in his South aBooker firstnovelin10years — Ishiguro London home and wrote Prize- hadalonger gestation. maniacally—not caring winning “A smuchas15years Theauthor will read and about styleorfiner plot book thaT back, Iwanted to write discuss his work as aguest points, writing freehand brought about society’sremem- of Inprint’sMargarett Root as fast as the words and MAGGIE him inter- bering and forgetting,” BrownReading Series. GALEHOUSE phrases came. national said Ishiguro,60, on the When: 7:30 p.m. March 23 He wrote 12 hours a Bookish acclaim and phone from his home in day, six days aweek,for became an England. “Itwas triggered Where: Wortham TheateR Center,501 Texas four weeks. And when Oscar-nominated film. by what happened in the Columbia Pictures he finished, hedafi ha rsT “The Buried Giant,” 1990s, when Yugoslavia Tickets: $5; “The Remains of theDay,” based on Ishiguro’snovel, draft of “The Remains of Ishiguro’s strangeand Bookish continuesonG6 inprinthouston.org. starsEmma Thompson and AnthonyHopkins. Gary Coronado photos /HoustonChronicle Bootsand ahat just By JoySewing have for rodeo. Fringeand feathers have ap- aren’t going to cutitat ForRodeoHouston, more is peared in designers’ ready-to-wear more when it comes to style. collections and at retailers from RodeoHouston, as any “Everyone wantsthe flow-y look Palais Royaland Macy’stospecial- cowgirl worth her salt of feathers and fringe,”Waller de- ty stores likePinto Ranch, which signer Pat Dahnkesays. “We’ve sells Dahnke’scollection, and the knows.Add some addedthem to our pieces and newLucchese store in Highland have hadthe mostsuccess- Village. fringe, feathers STYLE ful collection in our 47-year “Fringehas been astaple in history.” Western wear.Now,it’sonthe and turquoise, Thecasual-chic look has runway,and there are even boots and you’ve gotthe mass appeal, shesays. “A ny- with fringe,”saysBea Garcia, Pinto one can buyone ‘wow’piece Ranch’sdirector of marketing.“We start of afriendship and mix it in.” started seeing it in stores lastsea- Above, Lucchese Parker cross bodybag,$1,295, Dahnkedesigns beaded, custom- son. It seems likeanelementevery Lucchese.Top,Taylor Hammonds of Neal Hamil betweenfashion and dyed tops embellished with Coque designer is doing.” Agency is wearinga4Love&Liberty top, $255; Western sensibilities rooster feathers. Shetops the looks Garcia says sheevensnapped Juan Antonio Belt,$249; Lucchese Saratoga Boots, off with turquoise,another must- Rodeo continuesonG9 $1,295; all from Lucchese in Highland Village. G6 | Sunday, March 1, 2015 | Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com xxx ZEST Book Editor, [email protected] @MaggieGalehouse HoustonChronicleLife&Entertainment BOOKS BOOK EXCERPT Bookish: ‘Giant’ crosses genres Lisa McMaNN will discuss and sign “Island of Shipwrecks” Bookish from page G1 ing out little words here and (Unwanteds Series, No. there,and Irather liked it,” he 5), 5p.m. Thursday, Blue and Rwanda disintegrated into said. WillowBookshop, 14532 horrific civil wars. In both cases, Thebook’s diction does have a Memorial; 281-497-8675or people whohad been living very stripped-awayquality —aspare bluewillowbookshop.com. harmoniously,sometimes next formality reminiscentofafairy door to each other,turned on tale. each other and massacred each Ishiguro said he’s grateful for other.SoIhad astoryinmy his wife’s truth telling. head, but it took me along time “She knewmebefore Iwas to find asuitable setting.” awriter,” the author said. “She Setting is astepping-off point met me when Iwas trying to in all of Ishiguro’s books. Acare- be amusician. Because we’ve ful and subtle writer,helures hadsomanydiscussions and readers into the realm of plausi- arguments about booksand bility —his 2005 cloning novel movies, Iknowwhere we tend “Never LetMeGo” wasset in an to disagree and agree.And we alternative dystopian 1990s Eng- agree about language.” land —and once they’re snared, MacDougall also has set aside he’s free to focus on the more acopy of LarryMcMurtry’s timeless troubles of humanity. “Lonesome Dove”for her In “The Remains of the Day,” husband to read. Ishiguro considered the person- “There it is in the bedroom,” al costofobsessive professional- Ishiguro said. “She says it’s an ism. In “Never LetMeGo,”he utter masterpiece.” “Whatdid he look examined the slow destruction In December,Ishiguro wrote of hope.In“TheBuried Giant,” an essayfor the Guardian like?” growled the he contemplates the pros and explaining howFrancis old pirate captain cons of collective forgetfulness Ford Coppola’sfilm “The —inamarried couple and in Conversation”and TomWaits’ with hooksfor society at large. ballad“Ruby’s Arms” influenced Thenew book is set in late- “The Remains of the Day.” hands.Heslammed fifth-centuryBritain, when set- Does “The Buried Giant” have one of thehookson tlers were arriving in shipsfrom asound track? Or afilm track? the North Sea. Several genres are “Those elegaic westerns by thetable in front represented, including Arthu- Sam Peckinpah,” Ishiguro said. rian legend (anagedSir Gawain “The lone figure on the horse, of theslave,and rides in on his aged horse), fairy out of time,his era passed. He’s it made agarish tales (dragons and giants)and aging,but he still has some Britishhistory. martial skill. Gawain owesalot clang.“Whois “I haditinmymind it was Jeff Cottenden to those characters.” 490 A.D.—aperiod no one real- Kazuo Ishiguro Thesamurai stories he grew responsible?” ly knows about,” Ishiguro said. up with also crept into “The Bur- Daxelsaidnothing. “Itwas trulyadarkcentury. They’ve weathered through iedGiant.” TheSaxons basicallysettled the something,and they’ve agreed “That’sthe Japanese part of He couldn’tspeak. countryaround this time.And to buryit. Butisthatright? me,Iguess,” Ishiguro said. “But the general consensus is there Does there come apoint when a Ilikethe anti-samurai movies, None of theslaves wassome sort of genocide, with society or amarried couple need the anti-militaristmovies made that thepirates newpeople landing steadilyoN to remember?” after WorldWar II.” the coast, coming in from the Ironically, it wasIshiguro’s And does he ever wonder had boughtfrom European mainland.” longtime partner,Lorna if “Downton Abbey” —now Despite the historical specif- MacDougall, whoreadadraft muddling throughthe 1920s theirfriend Queen ics, Ishiguro’s book retreats into of the book’s first60pages and —will simplycrash-land into Eagala could speak. akind of fantastic realism. returned it with some pointed “The Remains of the Day?”If “Mysettingstend to be meta- advice. Mr.Stevens and Miss Kenton, But Daxelcould phorical,” said the author,who “She told me it would not playedbyAnthonyHopkins and wasborn in Japan and moved do,” said Ishiguro,who’s been Emma Thompson in the film, write,and the to England as aboy.“Idid have married to MacDougall since will suddenlyfind themselves pirates knewit. arule: If it wasconceivable that ‘The Buried Giant’ 1986.“Shesaid, ‘There’s no downstairs at Downton, the people of thattime could By Kazuo Ishiguro. way. Yo u’re going to have to enjoying acup of tea with Mr. Still, he staredat believe certain thingsexisted, Knopf,320 pp., $26.95. start again from scratch.’ It was Carson and Mrs. Hughes? those thingswere allowedtoex- because of the language, which “I’ve neverwatched themap andthe ist. So,noflying saucers.” shefelt wastoo ornate.She ‘Downton Abbey,’”Ishiguro blank piecesof Warisinthe air in “The Arthur to slay ashe-dragon; thought it waslaughable.” acknowledged. “I’mreallybad Buried Giant,” and something and Beatrice and Axl, an elderly It took Ishiguro abit of time with television. Ican’t watchone paper in front else about the air makes people couple whohaveset out on a to recoverfrom this critique.He episodeand leave it for aweek. forgetful. Thecastincludesa perilous journey to help them wrote “Nocturnes,” his 2009 If Ihavetowatch atelevision of himand shook brave knight named Wistan; a remember their past. short storycollection. When series, Idoitwithabox set and I his head. young knight named Edwin, “Manyofthe same questions he went back to “The Buried watchitinone day. I’mgoing to bentonavenging his mother’s we askabout societies applyto Giant,” he began simplifying the do thatwith‘Downton Abbey.’” from “Island of Shipwrecks” death; Gawain, asolitary relationships,” Ishiguro said. language. by Lisa McMann knight chargedbythe late King “Mosthavetheir darkcorners. “I started to subtract by tak- [email protected] BEST-SELLERS Fiction Kellerman. TheLos Nonfiction Rains Come: By Alexandra 1. The Girl on the Train: Angeles psychologist- 1. Being Mortal: By Atul Fuller.Amemoir of a By PaulaHawkins. A detectiveAlexDelaware Gawande.The surgeon and marriage’s collapse,bythe psychological thriller and MiloSturgis, a NewYorker writer considers author of