In Celebration of Sid: Still
Frames
Sid’s influence on my life
started at Yale and never stopped. He helped me get started in filmmaking with
a 1962 introduction to his colleague Jean Rouch, who invented cinéma vérité
and was working in Paris at the Musée de l’Homme. Why I was in Paris is
explained in my entry on the “Recipes for Sid” page on this website, but that
2002 entry misstates something I’d like to correct here.
I wrote that Sid knew of my
interest in movies because “he and Jackie and the kids had appeared briefly in
one of my extracurricular efforts.” It was the other way around. The amateur
16mm movie was actually made in 1965, based on the e. e. cummings poem
“suppose,” and set in Paris. Since New Haven doesn’t look a lot like Paris, the
film benefited from rephotographed 35mm slides I’d taken there, and the scene
where Sid and Jackie and Eric and Elizabeth appear was shot on the picturesque
roof of the chemistry lab.
In the decades to follow I
often met up with Sid, or Sid and Jackie together, usually in the Bay Area. My
wife, Debra Turner, first met them at Elizabeth and John Nickens’s wedding.
The last time we were together
was the day after Thanksgiving, 2013, at the Nickens home, where Eric and his
family were also visiting. The subject of that ancient amateur movie came up. I
confessed I’d looked for the print often and in vain. This year, as I was
clearing a corner of the basement of long-neglected Christmas-ornament residue,
the film can fell out of its hiding place. Unknown to me, Sid had died a few
days earlier. The stills on this page are still frames.
On one of their Bay Area
visits, Sid and Jackie had lunch at our place, and Debra served lamb chops in
parchment, inspired by this recipe.
Lamb Chops in Foil
from Greek Cookery—Marin,
by the Ladies Philoptochos Society of the Nativity of Christ Greek Orthodox
Church, Novato, CA.
1 onion, chopped
3 scallions, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
6 shoulder lamb chops
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon oregano
1 pound Feta cheese, crumbled
Saute onions and scallions in
hot oil. Add tomato, salt, pepper and continue to simmer. Cut squares of foil [parchment]
large enough for 1 serving and place lamb chops in center of each. Spoon sauce
over meat and sprinkle with lemon juice, parsley and oregano. Divide cheese
evenly over each portion. Wrap securely in foil [fold the parchment
diagonally, twist the ends to close], place in pan and bake in 350 degree oven
for 2 hours or until cooked. Serves 6.
