I'd like to comment... on glass, classical music, and Libby Cudmore's Negative Girl

Fall officially starts this evening, September 22, but you wouldn’t know it by the 80+ degree temperatures. With an early cool snap in August, I’d foolishly hoped for an early autumn. My sweaters are restless!

However, September has been a full month up to this point, and it’s probably fair to say it will continue to be filled with activities. My mom likes to tease me. “When don’t you have things going on?” she’ll say.

My friend Betsy and I have been wanting to get over to Wheeling, West Virginia to visit the Oglebay Glass Musuem since the middle of summer. While not a large space, the museum features over 4,000 examples of glass made in Wheeling—companies that, sadly, no longer exist. The examples range from cut lead crystal, Victorian art glass, peachblow glass, pattern and depression glass, Northwood’s carnival glass, and many other glass, and were made between 1829-1939.

There was an interesting array of styles and ways of decorating the class, including painted glass, which felt like art on art. The glass styles themselves imparted pieces of stories from the past. I had always wanted to know whay we call carnival glass “carnival glass.” I figured it had something to do with the fun array of colors this irridescent glass reflects, but it turns out carnival glass was glass they gave away as prizes at carnivals. Sometimes, the answer is obvious! While much of it is still affordable, there are pieces that are worth thousands of dollars, so perhaps carnival glass is the prize that keeps on giving.

I was delighted to find that some of the carnival glass featured this peacock design. Photographing the glass was a challenge, since the glass was behind glass, but ended up giving some pictures a surreal, dreamy quality, as if my imagination had conjured them up while in the dreamstate. The amber colored carnival glass made me yearn for autumn.

We also went to the Mansion Museum (you get a discounted price if you visit both), which is like stepping back into the Victorian era. Still, I could see myself writing at this desk, in the office, if pressed.

Upon returning to Morgantown, I had a quick turnaround to attend the Mozart, Beethoven and Vijay Iyer concert in the Summit Chamber Music Series. The featured artists were the Borromeo String Quartet. While all the member of the quartet were wonderful, I was deeply moved by the playing of the cellist, Yeesun Kim. Despite the sonorous quality of her playing, her bow seemed so light and feather-like, a delightful mismatch to my eye and ear. The cello filled out the basin of the music with its rich tones, and Kim’s body seemed the conduit of the music, as if the music channeled itself through her to reach us. She plays one of the oldest cellos in the world, a Peregrino Zanetto cello, circa 1576, and her playing was as if she coaxed it to reveal the secrets the instrument collected over the millennia.

The next in the series is on November 5, 2023 featuring the Beethoven & Babadjanian Piano Trios.

There is something about chamber music that feels autumnal, as if the season gathers uu up together to listen in these smaller, more intimate settings. Maybe I over-romanticize them, but the music feels like a whispered secret, a warm fire against a cooling evening.

Too bad the evening didn’t actually cool down. Still, the music was sustaining.

I also finished a new novel by my friend Libby Cudmore, a neo-noir titled Negative Girl. In it, we meet musician-turned-P.I., Martin Wade, and his assistant, Valerie Jacks, an odd couple that works in the world-weary way of classic noir. Yet, the book is contemporary, full of fun musical references—Elvis Costello, R.E.M., The Replacements, The Housemartins, and so on. My little Gen X heart felt full of the music of my youth, much of which was cued up during the reading of Libby’s book.

This week, as I finished reading Negative Girl, I got a surprise package from Libby, with some vintage vinyl that speaks to my love of Kansas Public Radio’s The Retro Cocktail Hour, home of Space Age pop and incredibly strange music (the soundtrack to almost all my cooking!). Libby, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU. I’ll pair these with champagnes soon, and send you the set list.

Libby and I share a writing habit—writing most of our first drafts by hand. I can tell by her crisp sentences and steady pacing that much care went into the subsequent revisions of this book. Some of the clipped, spare places speak to the noir tradition of Raymond Chandler. The upstate New York locale balanced the preppy college and the seedier parts of town frequented by the locals, anchored by a thriving music scene (and some great dinners and a bar that hosts Taco Thursdays, which always made me hungry). I knew guys in bands when I was younger, and Martin Wade strikes me as one of those guys I might have known back in the day. Valerie, who is spunky and young in some ways, but old-souled and wary in others, made a good other half of this investigative duo. I had fun spending time in this place, with these characters. Valerie’s Aunt Gina is someone I’d want in my life (or maybe becoming in my midlife? If so, I need to up my taco game.)

I absolutely loved that she dedicated this book to “everyone at Barrelhouse’s Writer Camp, past, present, and future.” Pitch perfect.

News and Notes

Another BWC (Barrelhouse Writer Camp) alum, Holly Wendt, shared some Postscripts love in their newsletter/place of lovely musings, Loomings. With care and deep introspection, Holly takes us through “Making, Doing, & Making Do” each month. They wrote: “Renée K. Nicholson’s recently released poetry collection Post Scripts is both a jewel and the reliquary it enriches. The poems here memorialize places passed through and people passed on and bring them into the reader’s eye, treasured.” Thank you, my friend! Also in Postscripts love, a shout out to Ashley Skeen of Booktenders and Maureen England of Wordplay WV, both of whom have the book for sale on their shelves. Love indie bookstores!

Spooky Season enthusiasts! Remember What We Do in the Hollows, the art meets poetry project that I created with the wonderful Sally Jane Brown lurches into being on October 4th! We’re at Art Bar in Morgantown from 6-9 PM, during the annual Zombie Walk. We’ll have for sale the book (limited print run) and some broadsides, as well as some door prizes. Come celebrate with us!

I also participated in two events supporting the Our Votes, Our Values exhibit curated by Erik Herron for the Art Musuem of WVU. This is such a thoughtful exhibit, and during our contentious election season, a place to contemplate one’s values and how they play out in our votes. Bonus? It’s free to the public.

Finally, I’m excited to report that I’m doing my first book review for Foreword’s Reviews, so look for the link in the not-so-distant future.