Christmas Letter 2023
Across the pandemic, I wrote and mailed out Christmas Letters, feeling that something tangible was called for in a period of maximal virtuality. The cost and effort last year made me wonder if the time had come to shift it back to a form that avoids the postage, for starts, no small matter now. And some recipients of the letter complained that it was too detailed, filled with people they didn’t know. True, I tried to record encounters because they felt so singular. That’s no longer the case. So, here’s this year’s Christmas Letter —keeping up a tradition set by my letter-writing parents. When a person or event is mentioned, I’ve elaborated for others’ benefit.
I want to begin with my friend Madeleine Stearns, a dedicated sensory artist whose work I’ve followed since we met in 2017. Often on the move, Madeleine returned to the Bay Area late in 2022, informing me that she had applied to the famous perfume school in Grasse. She told me a few weeks ago that she’s been accepted and will travel there in January to begin. If there’s such a thing as perfume futures, she will be part of it. Consider her a leading indicator of compelling scents to come.
Our daughter Elizabeth Snowden has meanwhile done wonders with her PALLAS Gallery in San Francisco, proving its value as a launchpad for new artwork and a popular venue for cultural and culturally related events.
It took a family wedding — of our nephew Liam and SheNing, our neighbors on Arch Street — to get us on the road. Kathy and her sister Laurie, Liam’s mother, found an old-school hotel in Waikiki that we shared with Japanese visitors. (The Breakers is owned by a Kyoto teamaster who also hosts tea ceremonies on the premises.)
The wedding, which stretched over three days, was wonderful, thanks to the hospitality of SheNing’s parents, Gladys and Mike.
After the wedding, we spent a few days on the coast northwest of Honolulu with Kathy’s sister Lenore, Elizabeth, and Ross. Liz and Charles, and their kids (Lenore’s grandkids) stayed nearby, keeping the CousinFest going.
We saw Ross in Honolulu, but missed our grandaughters and their mother, Alison. We hope to see everyone in the spring, here or in Virginia.
In November, Kathy and I went “on tour” in Sicily and Malta, a trip that I’ve written about here and also posted some added photos here. It was not exactly what we expected, but we saw some remarkable sights and ended up in Malta, where we ditched the tour and went around on local buses.
We flew back from Istanbul (don’t ask) the day before Thanksgiving. Kathy had an awful cold she caught in Sicily, not helped by the flight, but she rallied and we feasted with our family uphill with Laurie and Chuck.
After the feast, Kathy and Laurie deservedly spent the long weekend in bed.
Our grandson Conor is a senior in high school, so he’s immersed in college applications. Our niece Roz and her husband Dave bought a house near us.
Professor Michael Crosbie introduced me to Dr. Elham Hassani, an urban morphologist whose work on regenerating historic and traditional cities is highly relevant to our own. Her current project, focused on Rome, applies the Urban Acupuncture strategy pioneered by Jaime Lerner in Brazil. I’ve enjoyed our correspondence and look forward to the results of this work.
Another mostly epistolary friendship I’ve maintained is with the anthropologist and writer Vasilina Orlova, who moved recently to New York City and started painting after a considerable hiatus. I love this small painting, which is now on a shelf with others that greet me when I wake up.
I would be remiss not to mention my friends Peiting Li and Rocky Hanish, with whom I’ve maintained an ongoing conversation we call “Sketch” to note how our various interests invariably mix the visual with ideas. I read recently (in Six Years, by Lucy Lippard) that this was the basis of conceptual art in the 1960s. I sense that it figures in Elizabeth’s PALLAS, too.
Naomichi Kurata, Toshio Oyama, Takashi Ariga, and Tetsuya Yaguchi organized a memorial on 14 December for our late sensei, Richard Bender, my writing partner for 50 years, at International House in Tokyo. Yaguchi, a frequent collaborator with RB while studying in Berkeley, put together a compendium of RB’s work in Japan and elsewhere. I was very glad to see it. RB’s old friend Peter Steiger, a Zurich fixture, died at 95 in 2023. I translated his obituary from the NZZ, the city’s newspaper, which Peter’s widow Esther Schoellkopf kindly sent me. (The death of Ray Lifchez led me to write something in his memory. I also contributed to Fred Bernstein’s obituary for Beverly Willis in Architectural Record.)
We realized on our Europe trip that we’re both pretty healthy, for which we thank Fortuna for her continuing favors. Kathy now has Michael and Ross as partners in her property ventures. My five years as a visiting scholar at U.C. Berkeley ended in October, but meanwhile I’ve started writing fiction. We have plans for trips in 2024. We also await two babies “in progress.”
Speaking of Christmas, our son John played Santa at an event hosted by the Wolverhampton Youth Zone, his employer, in December. His wife Sallyann has recovered from knee surgery. Laurents and Theo are living and working in Leeds, where, sadly, my friend Joan Wyatt died in the fall. (My sister Alice had major surgery in April, but has made a good recovery.)
Travel makes you realize how being back home has its attractions. But it’s also good to be away and let go of the minor irritations of local life. Our town, which never misses an opportunity to weigh in on global affairs, is in full Ruritania mode. Kathy and I were impressed by Malta’s Knights of St. John, who put their money where their mouth is. For a small island, Malta has a lot to recommend. Maybe we’ll start a chapter here. Merry Christmas!
