Intelliblog

CASSATA CAKE

2012-02-03T00:12:00.000-08:00

“Ice-cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn't illegal.” - Voltaire

Thank goodness it’s Friday! It’s been another very tiring week and I am looking forward to the weekend. When I came home this evening I just plopped down on an armchair, took off my shoes, stretched my legs and did nothing for a few minutes. The heat didn’t help either and it was stifling hot in the train coming home. Fortunately, home was a cool, shady haven of serenity and sanity!

We shall have some more hot days over the weekend and then a cooler week next week. So while the sun shines, let’s make cassata ice cream cake!

Cassata Cake

Ingredients

Light vegetable oil

1 x 20 cm square plain sponge cake (bought or homemade)

2-3 tbs Galliano liqueur

700 mL vanilla ice-cream

700 mL chocolate ice-cream

250 mL whipping cream

2 tbs icing sugar

Vanilla essence

100 g (2/3 cup) candied peel, chopped dried apricots and glace cherries

2 tbs grated dark chocolate

Cocoa powder, to dust

Method

Grease a 6cm-deep, 20 x 10cm (base measurement) loaf pan with oil.
Line the base and 2 long sides with plastic wrap, allowing the sides to overhang.
Carefully cut the cake in half horizontally. Halve each piece lengthways to make 4 cake rectangles. Line the base of the prepared pan with 1 cake rectangle. Press down slightly.
Use 2 cake rectangles to line the 2 long sides. Halve the remaining cake rectangle crossways and use to line the 2 short sides. Trim excess and use to fill any gaps. Brush the cake with liqueur to moisten the surface.
Transfer the chocolate ice-cream to a bowl. Set aside to soften slightly. Spread over the cake base. Smooth the surface and sprinkle with grated chocolate. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm.
Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla essence until stiff. Add the fruit and fold until just combined. Spoon into the prepared pan. Smooth the surface. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm.
Transfer the vanilla ice-cream to a bowl. Set aside to soften slightly. Spoon into the prepared pan carefully over the cream/fruit layer. Smooth the surface. Trim the excess cake. Cover with overhanging plastic wrap. Place in the freezer for 2 hours or overnight, or until firm.
Turn out the cake onto a serving platter and remove the plastic wrap. Dust with cocoa powder and if desired, decorate with whipped cream. Cut into slices to serve.

Buon appetito!

CANDLEMAS VS GROUNDHOGS

2012-02-02T00:28:00.000-08:00

“Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable for, not the rightness, but the uprightness of the decision” - Thomas Jefferson

Today is Candlemas Day, or if in North America, you may know it as Groundhog Day. Forty days after the birth of her Son, the Virgin Mary went into the Temple of Jerusalem to ritually cleanse herself and present the infant to the rabbis. There, the elderly Simeon prophesied that Christ would be “a light to lighten the Gentiles.” Hence the association of this feast with the lighting of candles – hence “Candle Mass”. The image of the Virgin Mary was removed from its place in church and ritually cleaned. Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, were scattered in its place. The following couplet associates snowdrops with Candlemas:

The snowdrop, in purest white arraie

First rears her hedde on Candlemas daie.

Therefore, snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, is the birthday flower for this day. It symbolises purity, hope in sorrow and friendship in adversity. A legend concerning the origin of the bloom relates how when Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, snow began to fall. They were dejected as they had lived in the perpetual spring of the garden before that. An angel took pity on them and changed a few of the drifting snowflakes into snowdrops, a promise that Spring would soon return. Galanthus is from the Greek and means “milk-white flower”, while nivalis means “of the snow” in Latin.

In ancient Rome, the Februalia Festival honoured Demeter who searched for her daughter Persephone after she had been abducted by Pluto, the god of the underworld. Priests of Ceres (the Roman Demeter) paraded in her temples with lit candles, recreating the goddess’s search day and night for her daughter. This festival was absorbed into the Christian tradition as the festival of Candlemas, the pagan Demeter becoming syncretised with the Virgin Mary.

In the USA, this day is celebrated as Groundhog Day, where these creatures help to predict the weather for the year ahead. It is an oracular tradition that is based on contraries similar to the British Candlemas oracular rhymes:

If Candlemas day be bright and clear

There’ll be two winters that year.

But if Candlemas be mild or bring it rain,

Winter is gone and will not come again.

In a similar vein:

If Candlemas Day bring snow or rain

Winter is gone and won’t come again;

If Candlemas Day be clear and bright

Winter will have another flight.

On Candlemas Day, if the thorns hang a drop,

Then you are sure of a good pea crop.

Candlemas Day, plant beans in the clay

Put candles and candlesticks all away.

The last reference was to the increasing light in the afternoons and evening, which allowed indoor work to be done at that time without the aid of candlelight.

NOSTALGIA

2012-02-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

“Nostalgia is a seductive liar.” George Wildman Ball

It’s hard to believe that January is already over and the first of February is with us. How quickly time has flown! The older I get, the more rapidly time marches forth. As we age and slow down, time accelerates, careening inexorably faster. Someone once told me it was relativistic… When we are ten years old a year is a tenth of our life, when we are 50 years old, a year is one fiftieth. We have much more to compare it with, and our hectic days are filled with busy tasks that consume the hours rapidly.

It may have to do with our lifestyle too, of course, with our modern rush-rush, clock-dependent lives propelling us and time ever-forward. I can quite imagine in the past, when life in some small town or village was more sedate, where things were taken more easily, where technology was minimal and where leisure activities were also slower, more gentle and dependent of one’s own resources. If you wanted to hear music, you had to make it yourself. If you wanted to while away some hours you went for a walk in the countryside or visited family and friends. Arts and crafts were more widespread – drawing, embroidery, crochet, knitting, quilting, weaving, painting, tatting. Sports and other active pastimes were indulged in by more people and all at an amateur level.

Nostalgia may be all well and good, but all was not rosy in the past, I know. Disease, high mortality, endless chores, little technology, hard manual work, poorer living standards, low life-expectancy, etc, etc… We tend to concentrate on the best things when considering the past and discount the bad ones. That is human nature and that’s what makes nostalgia such a bitter-sweet exercise.

What can one do? The answer may well be easier than we can imagine. It all has to do with personal responsibility, making choices, and maintaining balance. We are responsible for our lives and what we make of them. We are presented with a number of choices and most people opt for the easiest, most convenient, less arduous one – even though this may not be the right one. Most people will make the choice that gives them the most comfort, pleasure and advantage. They then complain about the consequences of such choices, surprised that everything has price. Few people understand the importance of balance, the yin and yang of life. To pleasure there is pain, to beauty there is ugliness, to rest there is work, to life there is death…

RED HEART

2012-01-31T00:12:00.000-08:00

“When blue sinks almost to black, it echoes a grief that is hardly human. When it rises towards white ... its appeal to men grows weaker and more distant.” – Vassily Kandinsky

Magpie Tales has a Vassily Kandinsky painting for us today: “Red Spot 2”. Kandinsky is now considered to be the founder of abstract art. His work, which was exhibited throughout Europe from 1903 onwards, often caused controversy among the public, the art critics, and his contemporaries. The exuberant colour in most of the canvas and the bright red spot may make for a joyous first impression, which is nevertheless tempered by the black and white menacing upper left corner. Enough to ruin it for me…

Red Heart

My red heart bleeds;

A slow exsanguination,

That robs me gently

Of my life.

My gray eyes fade,

Like the gradual darkening

Of wintry twilight,

Into long night.

My pink flesh pales,

A coldness fast approaching

A flower withering,

Dying, drying.

My warm breath slows,

Each inspiration laboured,

As if it were my last, which it could be,

In a death rattle.

And in my tissues masses of rebel cells,

Still thrive and spread, invading,

Destroying me as they multiply.

The enemy within too strong,

Too treacherous, too well camouflaged,

Too full of life in this dying shell

Of my dwindling carcase.

MOVIE MONDAY - VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

2012-01-30T03:05:00.000-08:00

“When we’re incomplete, we’re always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we’re still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on - series polygamy - until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfilment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.” - Tom Robbins

We watched a famous film at weekend, one that we had heard a lot about – some of it quite controversial – which made us reluctant to watch it at first. However, we were in the right sort of mood at the weekend and we finally watched it. It was Woody Allen’s 2008 “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, starring Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. The film was pleasantly surprising and once we had finished seeing it, we understood the reason for the controversy, given the “cheeky” plot.

In a nutshell, the plot revolves around the adventurous and more sexually bold Cristina (Johansson) and her friend Vicky (Hall), who is bright but conservative and cautious, who are on holiday in Barcelona. By chance, they meet the celebrated and seductive painter, Juan Antonio (Bardem) who makes them a frank and outrageous offer – that they should both go to bed with him. Vicky is flabbergasted, and unwilling to enter into such a sexual adventure, not the least reason being that she is committed to her forthcoming marriage. Cristina, however, is immediately attracted to Juan Antonio and his Latin and thinks of nothing to saying yes to his offer. Juan Antonio’s fascination is cemented by the fact that he has just been through a scandalous divorce from Maria Elena (Cruz), a fiery and temperamental fellow artist. Things don’t quite work out the way they are planned and Vicky finds herself in a situation that cause her to question greatly her relationship with her fiancé, but also the type of married life she is committing herself for.

Woody Allen is a quirky filmmaker and this movie is another of his sublimated fantasies spiced just a little bit with comedy (don’t expect extremely witty one-liners or raucous belly laughs – the humour is much more subtle). He is obviously making a philosophical statement, perhaps influenced by the true-life story of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Woody is certainly a filmmaker who enjoys making films, so much his work being so utterly self-indulgent. That the public likes his work is of secondary importance and quite inconsequential to his art.

The first thing about this film that struck immediately was that it was beautiful in terms of cinematography, sets, locations and sheer gorgeousness of its settings. It was quite delightful to be taken on a whirlwind tour of Catalonia and Barcelona and drink in the scenery, the beautiful vistas and delightful neighbourhoods, art, architecture and villages. The actors are good-looking and immediately win over the viewer, not only because they act well and look good, but because they seem immersed in their roles and have an ingenuousness about them, despite the rather complex and steamy relationships they involve themselves in. Patricia Clarkson, who plays Judy Nash (the middle-aged wife of an American couple who are friends of Vicky's parents and with whom solid Vicky and impetuous Cristina stay in Barcelona) deserves a special mention, even though she has a supporting role, which nevertheless is quite a pivotal one.

In terms of the philosophy espoused by Woody in the film, it is crystal clear that Woody suggests that romantic happiness is achieved best in a relationship where three people are simultaneously involved, and that such a relationship is of necessity ephemeral. This is pure anathema to monogamists, and Vicky certainly is the typical monogamist that voices that view. However, she is also the one who has the most doubt about her version of a perfect relationship, something that is underlined by Judy’s failed “perfect” marriage. Cristina is a much more complex character and seems to be the one who surprises Juan-Antonio and Maria-Elena the most – despite their “progressive” ideas about relationships.

The film was engaging and enjoyable, not the least attractive part being the delicious music in the soundtrack and the gorgeous scenery. I could see that it would be offensive to some people, especially those with deep religious beliefs and of a conservative background. However, as Woody Allen states himself, it is ultimately a sad film, especially given Vicky’s suggested fate at its end. We would recommend it for viewing by open-minded people with a sense of humour.

ART SUNDAY - CAMILLE PISSARRO

2012-01-29T03:26:00.000-08:00

“For an impressionist to paint from nature is not to paint the subject, but to realise sensations” - Paul Cezanne

For Art Sunday today, Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro (1830 – 1903), one of the foremost French impressionist painters of the 19^th century. He was born on July 10^th, in the Danish West Indies, the third son of a Jewish French merchant of originally Portuguese descent. When Camille was 12 years old, his parents sent him away to a school in Passy, near Paris. The young Pissarro showed an early talent for drawing, and he began to visit the collections of the Louvre. At age 17 he returned to St. Thomas, where his father expected him to enter the family business. Young Camille, however, was more interested in sketching and painting and ran away to Venezuela. He returned to St. Thomas in August 1854 and after convincing his parents that he wanted to become an artist, he moved to Paris in 1855.

Pissarro arrived in time to see the contemporary art on display at Paris’s Universal Exposition, where he was strongly attracted to the paintings of Camille Corot. He began to attend private classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1856, and in 1861 he registered as a copyist at the Louvre. He also attended the Académie Suisse, a “free studio,” where he met future Impressionists Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Armand Guillaumin. Through Monet, he also met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley.

Pissarro painted rural and urban French life, particularly landscapes in and around Pontoise, as well as scenes from Montmartre. His mature work displays an empathy for peasants and labourers, and sometimes evidence of his radical political leanings. He was a mentor to Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin and his example inspired many younger artists, including Californian Impressionist Lucy Bacon. Pissarro’s influence on his fellow Impressionists is probably still underestimated; not only did he offer substantial contributions to Impressionist theory, but he also managed to remain on friendly, mutually respectful terms with such difficult personalities as Degas, Cézanne and Gauguin.

Pissarro exhibited at all eight of the Impressionist exhibitions. Moreover, whereas Monet was the most prolific and emblematic practitioner of the Impressionist style, Pissarro was nonetheless a primary developer of Impressionist technique. Whilst in Upper Norwood, Pissarro was introduced to Paul Durand-Ruel, the art dealer who overstocked a large amount of oil paintings for sale, who bought two of his ‘London’ paintings. Durand-Ruel subsequently became the most important art dealer of the new school of French Impressionism. Pissarro died in Paris on 13^th November 1903 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. During his lifetime, Camille Pissarro sold few of his canvas paintings. By 2005, however, some of his works were selling in the range of U.S. $2 to 4 million.

The painting here is one in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. It is his “Boulevarde Montmartre, Morning, Cloudy Weather” painted in 1897. In February of that year Pissarro had begun a series of paintings of the grand boulevards of Paris. Between 10^th February and 17^th April he painted fourteen views of the Boulevarde Montmartre seen from the window of a hotel room. The artist is less interested in topographical accuracy and detail, but rather wishes to observe and capture the constantly changing effects of light and weather and mood. The fixed viewpoint of the hotel room upper-storey window allowed him to record the ever-changing configurations of crowd and traffic. The painting is as impressionistic and as Parisian as any and represents what for most people is the essence of the impressionist school.

MOZART FOR SOME SATURDAY SERENITY

2012-01-28T04:11:00.000-08:00

“Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Yesterday was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birthday, so for Song Saturday and Saturday Sareenity, what better than a beautiful Mozart adagio? Here is W. A. Mozart’s (1756-1791). Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E major K261. Andrew Manze is playing baroque violin and conducting The English Concert on authentic instruments.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was no doubt the greatest child star that ever lived. He was traveling all over Europe playing music by the time he was six. Because of his constant travels, Mozart eventually learned to speak fifteen different languages. He wrote his first sonata for the piano when he was four and composed his first opera when he was twelve. Mozart could compose anywhere - at meals (he loved liver dumplings and sauerkraut), while talking to friends, while playing pool and even while his wife was having a baby.

During his lifetime, Mozart was very well-known but unfortunately, spent money faster than he could earn it. He was poor and in debt when he died of kidney failure at the age of 35 and was buried in an unmarked grave. Mozart is considered by some to be the greatest composer who ever lived. While most composers specialise in certain genres of music, Mozart created masterful works for almost every category of music - vocal music, concertos, chamber music, symphonies, sonatas, and opera.

He composed very quickly and wrote huge amounts of music. It would take over 8 days to play all of his music, one piece after the next, without stopping. He wrote over 600 works during his lifetime, including 41 symphonies, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and 27 piano concertos. Three of his most famous operas include “The Marriage of Figaro”, “The Magic Flute” and “Don Giovanni”. He is also famous for the last piece he ever wrote, his Requiem mass, which he left incomplete.

SALAD DAYS

2012-01-27T00:12:00.000-08:00

“My salad days, when I was green in judgment.” - William Shakespeare

It was a rather quiet day at work today as many people had taken Friday off as a leave day so that they could have an extra long weekend from Thursday to Sunday. Consequently I got rather a lot done, without many interruptions. Our Summer weather is continuing with fine, sunny days on the rather hot side. Nevertheless, the plane trees outside our house have started to put on their autumn colours and many leaves are already falling. I can’t believe that January is nearly over already – it seems only yesterday that we were celebrating New Year’s Day …

For Food Friday today some salad recipes. We eat salad almost every day, as an accompaniment to our meal, or sometimes only a substantial salad being our dinner, with no other food (except of course some cheese and bread). We love the seasonal vegetables and it is a bonus when we can gather some from our garden, which although not a vegetable garden provides us with fresh vegetables and herbs almost all seasons. We have our mild climate to thank for that, as well as the companion gardening, with herbs and vegetables happily coexisting with roses, bulbs, other flowers, shrubs and trees.

The citrus fruits are almost all depleted with only a few ripe lemons, grapefruits and oranges still on the trees. However, it is heartening to see the small green fruits already getting ready for their first crop in late autumn and then throughout winter. The tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplants, cucumbers and onions are still going strong and we are already selecting the autumn plantings once these finish up. An abundance of fresh herbs is always available: Chives, rosemary, mint, parsley, dill, oregano, thyme, peppermint, costmary, pennyroyal, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon geranium. Not only for use in cooking but some also splendid for tisanes.

WITLOF SUMMER SALAD

Ingredients

• 2 witlofs (chicory shoots)

• 2 old fashioned tomatoes

• 2 Lebanese (i.e. baby) cucumbers

• 2 spring onions, chopped

• Salt, pepper, chopped oregano, dill, capers

• Vinaigrette (equal quantities of olive oil and Italian “balsamico” vinegar)

• 1/2 tsp dry mustard (dissolve in vinaigrette)

Method

Make the salad when ready to serve it. Chop the witlof up and slice the tomatoes and cucumbers on top of it. Add the onions, season and dress with the vinaigrette, tossing thoroughly.

RADICCHIO AND RED LETTUCE SALAD

Ingredients

• 1 red lettuce

• 1-2 radicchio

• A few tablespoons of chopped watercress

• Chopped chives (to taste)

• Radish sprouts (to taste)

• Salt, pepper, chopped dill

• Citronette sauce:

- Juice of a lemon

- Juice of one lime

- Juice of half a small orange (all citrus juices adding up to about 1/2 cup)

- Equal quantity to juices, plus one tablespoon more of olive oil (Greek

“agoureleo” is lovely)

- 2 tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise

Method

Wash the vegetables thoroughly and drain very well. Chop up the vegetables with a knife into bite size morsels. Shake the oil and citrus juices until emulsified and add the mayonnaise, shaking it in well. Pour the citronette over the salad and season with rock salt and freshly ground pepper.

ROCKET, SPINACH AND ZUCCHINI SALAD

Ingredients

• 1 cup of rocket leaves

• 2 cups of baby spinach leaves

• 2 small, very fresh grated zucchini (Better of course if you have grown them!)

• 1 cup onion sprouts

• 50 g crumbled blue vein cheese (or more – to taste; can substitute other sharp cheese)

• 1 witlof, chopped

• Salt, pepper, chopped fresh mustard sprouts

• Vinaigrette (equal quantities of olive oil and Italian “balsamico” vinegar)

• 1/2 tsp dry mustard (dissolve in vinaigrette)

Method

Mix the rocket and baby spinach leaves with the chopped up witlof. Add the onion sprouts and grated zucchini, sprinkling with the cheese. Season and dress with the vinaigrette, tossing thoroughly.

AUSTRALIA DAY 2012

2012-01-26T00:11:00.000-08:00

Australian of the Year 2012: Geoffrey Rush; Senior Australian of the Year 2012: Laurie Baymarrwannga; Young Australian of the Year 2012: Marita Cheng; Australia’s Local Hero of the Year 2012: Lynne Sawyers. Congratulations!

Today 26th January, is Australia Day, which is our country’s National Day, celebrated across the nation, and an official public holiday. The tradition of having Australia Day as a national holiday on 26^th January is a recent one. Not until 1935 did all the Australian states and territories use that name to mark this date. Not until 1994 did all the states and territories begin to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on this date.

The tradition of celebrating on 26^th January began early in the nineteenth century with Sydney almanacs referring to it as “First Landing Day” or “Foundation Day”. On January 26^th, in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of eleven convict ships from Great Britain and the first governor of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney Cove. Immediately he and his crew landed, they raised the Union Jack symbolizing British occupation of the eastern half of the continent claimed by Captain James Cook on 22^nd August, 1770.

Some immigrants who prospered in Sydney (especially so those who had been convicts or the sons of convicts), began marking the colony’s beginnings with an anniversary dinner, called rather grandiloquently “an emancipist festival” to celebrate their love of the land they lived in. Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the emancipists’ friend, made the thirtieth anniversary of the day in 1818 a public holiday, thirty guns counting out the years of British civilisation, a tradition Macquarie’s successors continued.

In 1888, to celebrate the centenary, representatives of the Australian sister colonies (now five in number), went to Sydney to celebrate with New South Wales in 1888. New Zealanders were also present. Victoria had separated from New South Wales in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. In 1863 control of the Northern Territory passed from New South Wales to South Australia. Only Western Australia was not self-governing by 1888, having a smaller population and developing more slowly, even after taking convicts between 1850 and 1868. Essentially transportation to New South Wales had ended in 1840. Van Diemen's Land, with self-government by 1856, had gained a new name, Tasmania, having ended transportation a few years before.

Celebrations surrounding the inauguration of the new Commonwealth of Australia on 1^st of January in Sydney and at the opening of its first Federal Parliament on 9^th May in Melbourne overshadowed “Anniversary Day” in 1901. Federation had been a remarkable political achievement, so it is understandable that any other commemoration faded into insignificance. However, it is also important to remember that although the colonies chose to be self-governing, they remained within the British Empire, and did not become independent outside it. The colonies with nearly four million population may have been Australian, but they were also British.

In 1938, at the time of the sequicentenary, Australians wer still 98 per cent British in background and had found agreement on the name, timing and nature of the day's celebration they had come to share. The nation now had its own capital, Canberra (in the Australian Capital Territory, marked out of New South Wales in 1908) and a provisional Parliament House. The Northern Territory, controlled by the federal government from 1911, was not to gain self-government until 1978.

The NSW government, seeking to match Victoria’s celebration of its centenary in 1934, had chosen as its centrepiece the re-enactment of Captain Phillips’ arrival and flag-raising at Sydney Cove, followed by a pageant. There were 120 motorised floats, stretching 1.5 miles, which took one and a half hours to pass through the streets of Sydney. The pageant’s theme, March to Nationhood, became the title of a film documenting the celebrations. The first float depicted traditional Aboriginal life, followed by the pastoral and other industries. There was no mention of convicts, following a decision of the executive committee of the Celebrations Council, endorsed by the president of the Royal Australian Historical Society.

On that Australia Day of 1938, there were also about one hundred Aborigines in Sydney who had come to present a different view of the celebrations. For them and those they represented, Australia Day was a “Day of Mourning”. The meeting of Aborigines at the Australian Hall on “…the 150^th Anniversary of the Whitemen’s seizure of our country…” passed unanimously a resolution protesting at the Whitemen’s mistreatment of Aborigines since 1788 and appealing for new laws ensuring equality for Aborigines within the Australian community. Among their leaders pressing for Aboriginal rights were William Cooper, founder of the Australian Aborigines’ League in Victoria in 1936, and Jack Patten, Bill Ferguson and Pearl Gibbs, who headed the Aborigines’ Progressive Association, formed New South Wales in 1937.

To celebrate the bicentenary, on Australia Day 1988 Sydney Harbour was the centre of attention. It was an extraordinary spectacle that attracted about two million people to its shores, witnessing the arrival of Tall Ships from around the world and the First Fleet re-enactment. By contrast, the “Tent City” of the Bicentennial Exhibition travelled the country visiting thirty-four cities and towns to involve Australians in the celebration. Aborigines declared their opposition to the celebrations of 26^th January 1988 with land rights flags at Lady Macquarie’s Point on Sydney Harbour, the Bondi Pavilion protest concert, and the gathering of Aboriginal marchers and white supporters at Belmore Park. Posters summarised their protest: “White Australia has a Black History — Don’t Celebrate 1988”; and “Australia Day = Invasion Day 1988”. Some of the rights sought by Aboriginal protesters in 1938 had been achieved, but there was still great inequality between Aborigines and other Australians.

From 1993 the National Australia Day Council formally recognised the need to encourage reconciliation between Aboriginal and other Australians in Australia Day celebrations. Later the Council worked with Reconciliation Australia, the private organisation, which in 2001 succeeded the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan for implementation in 2007. This initiative suggested a healing role for the Council in bringing Australians together, despite the difficulties of the date’s associations and the alienating symbolism of the flag.

New South Wales, and Sydney especially, has long celebrated 26^th January to mark the beginning of British occupation of Australia. Victoria and the other Australian states and territories, persuaded by the Australian Natives’ Association, came to accept Australia Day by 1935, celebrating it together with a long weekend. Since 1979, federal government promotion of an Australia Day that was less British and more Australian gave the day a higher profile in the hope of unifying Australia’s increasingly diverse population. The long weekend gave way to the day itself in 1994, and ten years later Canberra displaced Sydney as the day’s focal point.

However, Aboriginal Australians have continued to feel excluded from what has long been a British pioneering settler celebration, symbolised by the raising of the Union Jack and later the Australian flag which bears the British flag. Debate over the date and nature of Australia Day continues as the National Australia Day Council seeks to meet the challenge of making 26^th January a day all Australians can accept and enjoy.

A DISMAL DAY

2012-01-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

“Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.” - Henry Van Dyke

Today is a Dismal Day but also, the Conversion of St Paul Day (RC).

Dismal days are unlucky or evil days, dismal itself being a word derived from the Latin dies mali (evil days). These days are also known as Egyptian Days as they had been computed by Egyptian astrologers, or as some maintain had some connection with the Biblical Egyptian plagues of Moses. They are: 1/1; 25/1; 4/2; 26/2; 1/3; 28/3; 10/4; 20/4; 3/5; 25/5; 10/6; 16/6; 13/7; 22/7; 1/8; 30/8; 3/9; 21/9; 3/10; 22/10; 5/11; 28/11; 7/12 and 22/12.

The birthday of:

St Edmund Campion, scholar and jesuit martyr (1540);

Robert Boyle, Irish physicist/chemist (1627);

Joseph Louis Lagrange, mathematician (1736);

Benedict Arnold, famous spy/traitor (1741);

Robert Burns, Scottish poet (1759);

Lord Lonsdale (Henry Cecil Lowther), sportsman (1857);

William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874);

Virginia Woolf (Adeline Virginia Steven), writer (1882);

Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor (1886);

Paul Spaak, first president of the UN (1899);

Witold Lutoslawski, composer (1913);

Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian composer (1927);

Edvard Schevadnaze, Russian perestroika foreign minister (1928);

Maria Corazon “Cory” Aquino, Philippino politician (1933);

Jacqueline du Pré, British cellist (1945);

Gloria Naylor, writer (1950).

Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca, is today’s birthday flower. It symbolises concealed love. The astrologers give this plant to Venus in Leo. The herb has several medicinal uses relating to gynaecological diseases (hence motherwort) and also relating to heart problems (cardiaca).

The first New Moon of the year after New Year’s Day should be greeted in the following manner: Go out and stand astride a gate or stile and while looking at the moon say:

All hail to the Moon, all hail to thee!

I prithee good Moon, reveal to me

This night who my husband (or wife) must be.

You must then go to bed and you shall dream of your future consort.

The following divinatory rhyme was in the past recited on St Paul’s Day:

If the day of St Paul prove clear

Then shall betide a happy year;

If it chance to snow or rain

Then shall be dear all kinds of grain;

But if high winds shall be aloft

Wars shall vex this realm full oft;

And if thick mists make dark the sky

Both beasts and fowls this year shall die.

HUNGER

2012-01-24T00:27:00.000-08:00

“A hungry man is not a free man.” Adlai E. Stevenson

Food seems to be something that holds a special fascination for us humans. One only has to think of the pomp and ceremony of grand state dinners, the splendour of elegant restaurants, the thousands of gourmet recipes, cordon bleu cooking schools, the vast number of cookbooks published each year, the huge number of cooking shows on TV, etc, etc, etc… That food and eating seems to also figure prominently in our relationships is no surprise. How often do we not call the objects of our affection by a culinary pet name? “Honey”, “Pumpkin”, “Cream puff”, “Cupcake”, (“mon petit choux-fleur” – my little cauliflower, if you’re French).

The lips and mouth as an erogenous zone need not be dwelt upon, given the important part they play in our mating rituals. “My darling you are so beautiful that I want to gobble you up whole!”… Artists and poets have analogised the sexual act to a cannibalistic ritual and it is not unheard of that a lover kills and eats their other half as an ultimate expression of love, of joining the two into one – a little extreme perhaps, but I am making a point. It is a love bite carried to the extreme…

The prompt from Magpie Tales today was a little repulsive but funny at the same time for me. I could not really see it as artistic, or if I were hard-pressed, I would see it as art of the advertising industry type designed to sell products. All it needed was the copy relating to the sushi restaurant down the street that wanted to advertise its wares. Perhaps it is a cannibals’ sushi restaurant? But an interesting prompt nevertheless (I could not resist the sushi superpositions, with apologies to Boris Hoppek – who incidentally is no stranger to advertising art).

Hunger

The pangs of hunger have bony hands

With sharp nails and sallow skin,

That claw at my stomach relentlessly,

Deepening its bottomless pit,

Excavating my hollow emptiness

To abysmal proportions.

I miss you, ravenously,

And your absence has starved me

Of your epicurean banquet.

My body robbed of your sustenance

Wastes away, malnourished,

Languishing from your imposed starvation.

Only your presence will assuage my craving,

And your homecoming will be a feast

To banish my famish,

Satisfy my lust,

Sate my yen.

GRUMBLE, MOAN, WHINE...

2012-01-23T00:31:00.000-08:00

“It’s my belief we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain” - Lily Tomlin

For Movie Monday today, no review, just a gripe about the technology. When videotapes first came into the scene everyone was ecstatic as movies could be enjoyed at home, in the comfort of your lounge room the play and stop button meaning you were in control and the fast forward and rewind buttons adding that extra bit of power in your hands. It was an imperfect system of course, and many times the precious tape of a favourite movie was mangled by the player. Still, movies at home were an increasingly pleasant way to spend one’s evening. The video rental shops proliferated like weeds in the garden and all was good…

All was good until the advent of the new technology, that is. I’ll bypass a few false starts in the next step up and go to the DVDs. When they first came out these were amazing! I mean compared to VHS tapes, we were talking about chalk and cheese. Crystal clear picture quality (compared to video tapes always), no waiting for pesky rewinding of the tapes (didn’t you just hate the people who DIDN’T rewind the tape after watching it?), subtitling in a dozen languages or more, interactive menus, special features instantly available, high quality freeze frames. Oh boy! This was worth investing in. So we threw away our fragile and ever likely to be mangled VHS tapes of classic movies and bought the DVD versions. And all was good!

All was good until the advent of the Bluray discs, that is! They left DVDs behind in terms of clarity, quality and amazing features. So yes, the technology junkies amongst us (OK, I’m raising my hand…) bought a Bluray player and began investing in Bluray discs as they were coming out. Yes, it was so much better! And when the old classics began to be reissued in the new format in restored, crystal clear versions, one had to replace those favourite DVDs with the new and improved Blurays, especially if they were offered on special by your friendly neighbourhood video store, right? Hmmmm, until the advent of something new (and they are trying it at the moment with 3D, but I am not convinced just yet)…

Now comes the serious gripe part. Recently we put a Bluray disc in the player to watch a movie and we got a nasty surprise. First came the company logo and fanfares advising us which company had made the movie. Secondly the logo of the company that had made the Bluray disc of the movie. Then the usual tirade about copyright and penalties for people infringing copyright by copying and selling the copies. Fair enough (although a criminal who is going to copy a movie and flog the illegal copies will hardly take notice of this advice…). Then another warning about illegal copies – this time a video version about how burning illegal copies is destroying the Australian film industry. Tried to fast forward that but was unable to. That really annoyed me! I paid my good money for the genuine article, I sat through one copyright warning, and now this? Why? A bit of overkill, surely.

Maybe we’d get to watch the movie now. Ha! Think again! Trailers for new releases on Bluray disc. OK, let’s skip those. Not really, couldn’t! The darned thing would not let me fast forward or skip. We had to watch four trailers of movies that held no interest whatsoever for us, wasting our precious time and increasing the level of our annoyance. When they were finally over, we thought the movie would start. No, it was the company logos all over again and then the main menu – finally! We wanted to select the option of English captions for the hearing impaired. Well, that was a herculean task as the menu navigation was counterintuitive and the options selected did not clearly show up. We ended up going back to the beginning. Yes the VERY beginning, before there was light – so we had to watch all the copyright guff and all the trailers all over again!

We finally got to watch the movie after wasting about 15-20 minutes and becoming extremely annoyed with the technology. This is not how it was meant to be. Technology is there to make our lives easier, increase our level of contentment, increase our leisure time and make things better. Bluray manufacturers, you seriously need to rethink the way you construct your disc menus and remove the punishment that you mete out to the bona fide customers that have paid good money to buy your products. Such an experience as I have described is not uncommon, although some discs are better than others. And also, I want the option of subtitles on ALL movies on Bluray. As actors are getting less articulate, as background noise and loud background music are becoming ever commoner (even over vital conversation between leads!), as regional slang and strong accents are more widespread, as whispering and comments “off” are part of movies, I find English subtitles essential in even English language films…

That’s it, I’ve had my 5 minutes of complaining. Have a nice week!

ART SUNDAY - FELIX NUSSBAUM

2012-01-22T00:50:00.000-08:00

“During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.” - Howard Thurman

Summer is back this weekend and we had a very hot and sunny day today. As we had another leisurely morning and a lazy breakfast, it was already 10:00 a.m. by the time we decided to go out. It was already quite warm and we didn’t want to drive far, nor spend too much time in the hot sun. It was a perfect day we decided to go to the National Gallery of Victoria. There is a wonderful sculpture garden in the back courtyard, and plenty of things see and do inside, in air conditioned comfort!

It’s always a pleasure to visit our Gallery as it is of world standard with many significant works: Paintings, sculptures, drawings, decorative art pieces, ancient artifacts and ever-changing temporary exhibitions. Add to that an excellent gallery shop that specialises in art books, several bars, cafés and a restaurant. It seems that many people had the same idea today and it was rather crowded there! It is quite civilised that entry to the gallery is free (although a donation of course is appreciated) but if one wants to see the visiting temporary exhibitions one has to pay an entrance fee.

Another wonderful thing about the Gallery is that one may take photographs inside it (without flash, of course), but only in the permanent collection areas. Temporary exhibitions are sacrosanct and one may not photograph the exhibits. However, I am very pleased that I am allowed to use my camera in the Gallery and one may take some stunning photographs not only of the exhibits but also of the wonderful architecture.

The special temporary exhibition at the present time is called “The Mad Square - Modernity in German. It covers a tumultuous time in Germany in the early twentieth century. After the First World War, the monarchy was abolished and replaced with the Weimar Republic. This was a period of political unrest, but it was also an era of optimism characterised by industrial development, innovation, and unprecedented freedom of expression. In Berlin and cities throughout Germany, avant-garde art movements flourished: Expressionism, Dada, Constructivism, Bauhaus and New Objectivity.

Artists experimented with new forms, techniques and great changes and innovations extended across all art forms, including painting, photography, design, decorative arts, film, theatre and political satire. The temporary exhibition brings together over 200 works exploring the fascinating and complex ways in which artists represented the modern world, including major works by Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad, Hannah Höch, August Sander, László Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky. The art works exhibited are drawn from renowned international and Australian collections. It certainly is a grand collection of works highlighting the broad spectrum of modern German works from this period.

Expressionism is a term that can be used to cover a huge variety of subjects and styles in which shape or colour is exaggerated or distorted so as to express the emotional essence of a subject. This often leads to creation of confronting works that elicit gut reactions in the viewers. In Germany, where Expressionism dominated the artistic circles in the first decades of the 20th century, the movement is associated with two generations of artists. The first – such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky – included the Brücke and Blaue Reiter groups, founded between 1905 and 1911, which were swept up by the idealism and optimism of the new century. The second, born ten years later – like George Grosz and Otto Dix – came to maturity on the brutal battlefields of the First World War.

In tribute of the special exhibition, I am showcasing a work by the German painter Felix Nussbaum. He was born in Osnabrück in 1904. In 1922 he studied at the Hamburg State School of Applied Arts. In 1923 he attended the private Lewin-Funcke-School in Berlin. In 1924-25 he became a student of the Berlin School of Fine and Applied Arts and a master student of Hans Meid in 1928-29. Beginning in 1929 he established a studio together with the Polish painter and later partner and wife Felka Platek.

In 1932 Nussbaum received a scholarship for the Villa Massimo in Rome. With the National Socialists taking over power in 1933, the political and cultural atmosphere in Germany underwent drastic changes. His Berlin studio was set on fire because of his Jewish heritage, and some 150 of his works went up in flames, an immense cultural and artistic loss. His scholarship at the Villa Massimo was at first extended by three months, but it was then cancelled and Nussbaum had to leave precipitously. His paintings were sent on to him in Alassio.

In 1935 Felix Nussbaum and his wife were in Paris, from where they travelled to Oostende. He changed his place of residence in Belgium several times, finally residing in Brussels in 1937. As German troops marched into Belgium in 1940, Nussbaum was arrested as a hostile foreigner and had to go to a detention camp in Saint-Cyprien, from where he managed to escape. He went back to Brussels and rescued his paintings, giving them to two of his friends in 1942 for safekeeping. He and his wife hid in the apartment of the Belgian sculptor Dolf Ledel.

Despite the hardships, Nussbaum continued working. As the smell of turpentine could reveal his hiding place, he worked in the basement of the house of an art dealer that he was friends with. In the 1940s he painted a number of extraordinary self-portraits and haunting pictures, dealing with his personal impressions, such as the “Selbstbildnis mit Judenpass” (Self Portrait with Jewish Passport) in 1943. Nussbaum and his wife were arrested on June 20, 1944 and were deported to Auschwitz where he died on July 31, 1944.

Felix Nussbaum is one of the main representatives of New Objectivity. His hometown opened the Felix-Nussbaum-House in 1998, where 170 works, some two thirds of this oeuvre, are exhibited.

Shown above is the “Masquerade” of 1939. This is a powerful and evocative work a distillation of the misery an anxiety of his time and life. Superficially, the people in masks are shown to be having a good time. The face on the right blowing the horn and the one on the left shouting (drunkenly?) that are “enjoying themselves” frame the remaining faces that show fear, disbelief, amazement, pain, impassivity. The group occupies a cramped space in the centre of the canvas. On the right tall buildings of an empty city that contributes to the claustrophobic feeling of the group. On the left, a desolate, moonlit landscape with a lone leafless tree that fails to allay the feeling of imminent danger and doom – rather it contributes greatly to it.

The painting is also a self-portrait, as Nussbaum used himself as the model for all six faces. The hats are the cultural heritage that Nussbaum is conscious of – the artist’s beret, the workman’s cap, the religious yarmulke, the mediaeval triangular cap, the top hat of the German burgher in which Nussbaum acknowledges his German Jewish roots. The artist also shows his female anima, which however, has been silenced. The closed eyes or masks worn by the figures show how everyone ignored the imminent holocaust of the war. A broken communication tower in the background contributes to the feeling of isolation, dysfunction and crumbling of civilisation shown in the painting.

The masquerade theme is also significant as it alludes to the period of latitude, wild abandon and revelry seen during the pre-Lenten carnival time. The heady pre WWII years in Berlin where a carnival-like atmosphere predominated, were followed by a period of agony and sacrifice, the holocaust being superposed on the passion of Christ. This is an amazing work where one may find much of the pain and misery that the artist experienced in the last five years of his short life.

A LEISURELY DAY

2012-01-21T03:52:00.000-08:00

“He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.” - Henry David Thoreau

It was a relaxing day today. Got up early, but stayed in bed a little and read, then a leisurely breakfast and an amble in the garden. Some chores and shopping next, then a pleasant lunch while watching a movie. In the evening a wonderful dinner and a delightful time opening some belated Christmas/New Year presents…

Now, as the night progresses, what better a lullaby than a beautiful Bach aria? Here is J.S. Bach’s “Schlafe mein Liebster” BWV 213, from “Die Wahl des Herkules”.

“Sleep, my darling, and take care that you rest,

Follow the thoughts that allurement has kindled.

Taste the contentment of sleep

On this soft breast

And let your pleasure know no bounds.”

EGGPLANT

2012-01-20T13:15:00.001-08:00

“The most lasting and pure gladness comes to me from my gardens.” - Lillie Langtry

I am certainly glad it’s the end of the working week. It has been particularly exhausting, especially yesterday when I put in 13 hours work, going in extra early in the morning and then after the normal working day was over, staying back to run a course information session until 7:30 pm. The session went very well but at the end of it I was pooped. Another busy day today but thankfully, the weekend is ahead.

Despite the vagaries of our weather – cool alternating with hot, hail with dry spells, rain with soaring temperatures – our garden is not doing too badly. The roses of course always tend to suffer with the heat, but once we have a shower or two, they spring back and new blooms sprout forth. We always have a few seasonal vegetables here and there in between the flowers and rose bushes, and we are now enjoying fresh organic tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, beans and some salad greens. Summer is a wonderful season for home-grown produce and often the garden can provide a healthful salad, side dishes of vegetables or even a complete meal – even if it’s only a couple of plants of each variety that one has planted out.

Eggplants are certainly a rewarding vegetable to grow and a single plant can be extremely prolific, providing enough fruit for 2-3 people. The best ones to plant are the grafted varieties and this year we planted one in a large pot (for lack of space in the garden), and it grows quite happily there, fruiting away. Eggplant is also called aubergine, melongene, brinjal or guinea squash while its botanical Latin name is Solanum melongena. It is a plant of the family Solanaceae (also known as the nightshades) and bears a fruit that are used in a multitude of ways in cooking. The fruit is botanically classified as a berry, and contains numerous small, soft seeds, which are edible, but have a bitter taste because they contain nicotinoid alkaloids; this is unsurprising as it is a close relative of tobacco. As a nightshade, it is also closely related to the tomato and potato. It is native to India and is extremely popular in Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries.

Here is a vegetarian eggplant recipe from Greece, variations of which may be found in other Mediterranean countries.

Eggplant Au Gratin

Ingredients

1 can of tomato purée or tomato pieces (fresh, ripe tomatoes may be used if available)

2 large eggplants (or four smaller ones)

250 g mozzarella cheese cut in slices

2/3 cup grated parmesan

Olive oil for frying

Salt, pepper, oregano, thyme

Method

Remove the stem from the eggplant and peel them. Cut in slices about 1 cm thick.

Liberally salt the eggplant slices and put in colander for about 30-40 minutes to expel fluid.

Rinse and dry the slices with kitchen paper.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the eggplant until it is golden.

Drain the fried eggplant on kitchen paper until all the excess oil has been removed.

While this is occurring, prepare the tomato sauce. Put the tomato purée in a frying pan with some olive oil and season with salt, pepper and herbs. Heat and cook, reducing it to a thick consistency.

Place the eggplant slices in a baking dish and pour the tomato sauce on top.

Cover with the mozzarella slices and sprinkle the grated parmesan on top.

Bake for 7-8 minutes until the cheese is molten and golden brown.

Serve with a fresh garden salad, crusty bread and some red wine.

ST SEBASTIAN AND ST AGNES

2012-01-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

“If you would be loved, love, and be loveable” - Benjamin Franklin

A yellow rose, Rosa spp, is today’s birthday flower. It symbolises jealousy and infidelity. In the language of flowers a yellow rose means: “Let us forget” and may be symbolic of dying love, especially if full-blown. A rose thorn is symbolic of sin, death and pain. In the last few decades, the yellow rose has lost some of its old negative meaning and is now more associated with the positive symbolism of happiness, return to the good times and joy about to be fulfilled. This is perhaps influenced by the meaning of the yellow ribbon tied around a tree. The custom of tying a yellow ribbon around a tree to symbolise waiting love seems to go back at least as far as the days of Nero. A recently unearthed villa (thought to be that of Nero’s wife) in Pompeii and covered by the Mt Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 contains a mural depicting a man standing at a tree with a yellow ribbon tied around it.

Today is St Agnes’s Eve, and on this eve, young women used to take their shoes put a sprig of rosemary in one, a sprig of thyme in the other, sprinkle them with water, place them one on each side of their bed and say:

St Agnes, that’s to lovers kind,

Come ease the trouble of my mind.

They would then dream of their future husband.

Today is also St Sebastian’s Feast Day, this saint being the patron saint of athletes. St Sebastian was born in France of Italian parents in the 3^rd century AD. So as to help his fellow Christians who were dying as martyrs he went to Rome and enlisted as an officer, becoming a great favourite of the emperor Diocletian. He converted many to Christianity until he was betrayed to the emperor by a false friend. Diocletian tried to make him change his faith but Sebastian was not to be shaken. The emperor ordered his archers to execute the Saint. Although every part of his body was pierced by arrows and the soldiers left him for dead, Sebastian was alive. A kindly widow, Irene, nursed him back to health and Sebastian went back to the emperor, urging him to stop his persecution of the Christians. Diocletian was intransigent and ordered a new martyrdom for Sebastian. The Saint was clubbed to death in the amphitheatre (hence the connection with athletes). Saint Sebastian is buried in the Roman catacombs.

St Sebastian seems to have been a firm favourite of artists over the centuries and there are numerous works of art depicting the martyrdom of the saint with arrows piercing him. In these paintings and sculptures the saint is depicted as handsome man in the prime of his youth, underlining the association with athletes.

The painting above is Gerrit van Honthorst’s (1592 – 1656) “Saint Sebastian”. This artist was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Utrecht.

feast day |ˈfis(t) ˌdeɪ| noun

A day on which a celebration, esp. an annual Christian one, is held.

ORIGIN Middle English: From Old French feste (noun), fester (verb), from Latin festa, neuter plural of festus ‘joyous.’

Old English: dæg, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch dag and German Tag .

ABANDONING SHIP

2012-01-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

“Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” – Aristotle

On the night of Friday, January 13, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, with more than 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on board, struck a reef, keeled over, and partially sank near Isola del Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany in Italy.

The news of the disastrous sinking of the Costa Concordia has left the world stunned. Not only because of the size (290 m long) of the modern cruise ship (entering service in 2006), its proximity to shore (150 m from land) and the good weather conditions, but also because of the circumstances surrounding it, in terms of the lack of responsibility shown by the master of the ship and his officers. Captain Francesco Schettino, 52 years old, a captain since 2006, is accused of “inexcusable” recklessness after it emerged that he steered too close to shore to come within sight of his head waiter’s family home on the island of Giglio. Mario Palombo, his former captain, is on the record as saying that Schettino was a braggart, too exuberant and more than once he had had to put him in his place.

The death toll has reached 11 with divers recently locating more bodies, all of them adults wearing life jackets, in the rear of the ship near an emergency evacuation point. Tens of people are still missing and amongst the survivors many are injured. The survivors have lost all of their belongings and they relate stories of panic and confusion, but also tales of courage and heroism.

Captain Schettino, who has been stripped of his command, was arrested on Saturday. Prosecutors urged at the hearing on the mainland that he be held in prison. The magistrate released Captain Schettino from jail but placed him under house arrest. He faces a possible 15 years in prison for multiple manslaughter charges and for abandoning ship while dozens of passengers were still aboard. Dramatic audio recordings on the night of the shipwreck reveal a coastguard official yelling at the captain to get back on board and coordinate the rescue efforts from the ship, as he should.

Still, tales of courage and heroism have emerged as both passengers and staff recount stories where people selflessly tried to help others, complete strangers doing their utmost to help others survive, and staff risking their lives to help passengers who were trapped or too elderly to help themselves. Aside from the persistent efforts of official rescuers, who are still scouring the Costa Concordia for survivors, there are news of a husband giving his life jacket to his wife while he perished, people creating human ladders so that passengers could climb to safety and swimmers helping the non-swimmers to reach safety.

The question is why the Captain showed such a lack of consideration for his passengers and crew, abandoning the ship in a most cowardly manner, while ordinary people showed so much more fortitude and bravery, staying behind to rescue fellow passengers and crew? I guess the answer lies in variations of human nature and differences in character. The brave conquer the fear they feel and it is only they who know how scared they are in adverse and dangerous circumstances. They retain their composure and act level-headedly, having the clearest vision of what dangers are before them, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet them. The brave person dies only once, the coward dies a thousand times, each death more painful than the one before it.

Altruism is something that human beings demonstrate in numerous situations fraught with peril and in many cases an altruist will put himself at risk to save others, often giving up his life in the attempt. Such selflessness is what we recognise as courage, bravery, heroism and stout-heartedness. It is a quality that many people will display in adverse circumstances and the most unlikely persons may step up to the challenge and surprise even themselves.

A coward is someone whose life is ruled by fear. Like the brave person he may hide that fear but unfortunately the façade is a flimsy edifice built of bluster, arrogance, swagger and ostentation. He is loud and aggressive, usually to those in positions of lesser power than himself or those who are physically weaker and smaller. An attitude of flamboyance and loudness – but only in fair weather. When the storm comes, the coward is the first to run and hide. His lack of courage is easily demonstrable in situations that demand leadership, cool-headedness, swift action and selflessness. The coward is selfish and his first thought is to preserve his own life, even if it means sacrificing tens or hundreds of others to do so. Putting such a person in a position of leadership and responsibility is disastrous.

The Costa Concordia disaster was one that was avoidable and which should not have happened. Its occurrence was the result of a profound irresponsibility, lack of judgment and thoughtlessness. Those responsible should be held accountable and steps taken to ensure that they are never again entrusted with similar responsibilities. The victims silently demand justice, the bereaved families ask for retribution. The persons responsible for the tragedy protest their innocence – this surely is adding insult to injury…

A DROWNING

2012-01-17T03:49:00.000-08:00

“Drink does not drown care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster.” - Benjamin Franklin

Magpie Tales has selected an image from the new installation in The Museum of Underwater Modern Art, Mexico by Jason de Caires Taylor. These striking installations explore the relationships between art, science and environment and while the photographs are amazing, it must be quite an experience to be able to see these sculptures in situ.

The given image prompted this response:

Drowning in the Bottom of a Glass

I’ll drink tonight,

And for an hour I’ll forget,

Sink into oblivion in an hour.

No more will moon shine

Piercingly into my empty room;

The garden scents, the flowers

For an hour I’ll forget...

I’ll drink alone tonight,

And for an hour my hand not empty,

Will be stroking the smoothness of my glass;

An hour of forgetfulness,

As songs and moonlit gardens

Sink, drown, all perish in my glass;

I will not care.

Swimming in Lethe’s cup

For only an hour’s indifference,

Sinking, falling, drowning,

In the sparkling liquid,

So I’ll not remember

How sunshine, songs and forest walks

Were made for two.

The cool glass,

Caresses, words unsaid yet understood,

Sharing a new world, blue skies,

The touch of your hand,

All lie forgotten for an hour,

All dead, drowned, dissolved

In the bottom of an empty glass...

A BEASTLY MOVIE

2012-01-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

“You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.” - Dave Barry

We watched a terrible film at the weekend, made all the more cringe-worthy as it was recommended to us by an acquaintance who said it was “ace film”. Now this acquaintance is in her early twenties and the daughter of a friend, who fortunately has better taste and knowledge than the daughter. However, it did make me think whether this was generation gap thing and made me ask myself: “Am I getting old and crusty?”

The film was based on “Beastly”, a 2007 novel by Alex Flinn (see a review here). It is a retelling of the fairytale “Beauty and the Beast”, set in modern-day New York City told from the point of view of the beast. Flinn researched many versions of the Beauty and the Beast story to write her book. Many of these are playfully alluded to in portions of the book, particularly the chat room transcripts in which the character of Kyle talks to other teens who have been transformed into creatures. Let me admit that I have not read the novel (nor do I wish to, after seeing the film), which is directed towards a young adult readership.

The 2011 film, also called “Beastly” was directed by Daniel Barnz who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens and Mary-Kate Olsen, all of whom I had not heard of before nor seen in other movies. The plot revolves around Kyle (Pettyfer) a narcissistic high school student who is obsessed by his good looks and thinks that he can get away with anything because he is popular and good looking. He abhors homely people and mocks those who are ugly or unconventional. Kendra (Olsen), a fellow student who is a goth and has rather a rather individualistic dress sense and delights in garish make-up is picked upon by Kyle as an object of a prank where he humiliates at a school dance in front of their classmates. Kendra is a witch and curses Kyle, transforming him into a “beast”, which reflects his “inner beastliness”. Well, he is sort of a scarred, bald, tattooed fellow but not too beastly. If he manages within a year to get a girl to say “I love you” to him sincerely, his curse will be lifted and he will become handsome again. The redeeming girl is Lindy (Hudgens), a fellow student with whom he has had some previous contre-temps.

The script is childish but without the elegance of a fairy tale, the transfer to modern times rather lame, the plot completely unoriginal and without any surprises, and the acting, directing and cinematography all pedestrian. There is some pop music throughout to further appeal to the teen audience. It was obvious that this novel and film are a spin off of the popular teenage vampire novels, movies and series that have inundated us of late (“New Moon” and “Twilight” and “Eclipse” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and so on - I won't go there in terms of reviewing any of those).

The movie was puerile and extremely shallow. Even the moral was delivered heavy-handedly, the characterisation was at kindergarten level and the world depicted in it, although pure fantasy, was disturbingly and disappointingly realistic in terms of attitudes and morals of the present time. Thinking a little more about the movie I found myself reflecting on what the youth of today find interesting, amusing and engaging. If this bathos represents the general taste of our youth, then God preserve us! What is the intellectual capacity of the average teenager nowadays if this bilge is what is consumed avidly by them? I know that having an intelligent conversation with many of them is quite impossible, but to what level have they sunk to? And I am talking about the “average” teenager here – I also know some highly intelligent, well-read, highly motivated and extremely mature young people who are amazing to talk to…

Perhaps, I am getting old! I do sound like an old fuddy-duddy who is mouthing the same old conservative truisms that old fuddy-duddies have been preaching forever for time immemorial! The trouble about older people is that as they age (and provided they do not become demented!), they may become wise. However, wisdom brings with it conservative attitudes, lack of spontaneity, increased caution, reticence and a general inertia. At the same time, wisdom is not always something that accompanies old age and in other cases cynicism and bitterness is seen instead. Perhaps I should watch this movie again? Well, no, perhaps I won’t!

ART SUNDAY - LILLA CABOT PERRY

2012-01-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

“A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognise it?” - Ernst Haas

Lilla Cabot Perry (born January 13, 1848, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died February 28, 1933, Hancock, New Hampshire), was an American artist who was much influenced by the innovations of French Impressionism. She was also a major promoter of Impressionism in the United States. Lilla Cabot was a descendant not only of the “Boston Brahmin” Cabot family but also of the equally distinguished Lowells. In 1874 she married Thomas Sergeant Perry, a professor of 18th-century literature at Harvard University. The couple had three daughters, who would become frequent models for their mother’s paintings. The Perry home became an intellectual salon for such writers as Henry James and William Dean Howells and for Lilla Perry’s brother-in-law, artist John La Farge. It may have been the latter who urged her to study painting.

Starting with private lessons in 1886, she attended the Cowles School of Art in Boston. She and her family traveled to Paris in June 1867. On this trip abroad Perry studied at the Académie Julian and at the Académie Colarossi with the English painter Alfred Stevens. The most important influence on her artistic development, however, came from her relationship with the Impressionist painter Claude Monet. For many years the Perry family summered in Giverny, France, near Monet’s home, and he became a friend and mentor to Perry. Monet suggested that Perry commit her first impression of a scene to canvas rather than to sketchbook. Through such lessons Perry mastered Impressionist techniques.

After returning to Boston with one of Monet’s images of Etretat, France, Perry encouraged American interest in him and the other Impressionists by lecturing and publishing essays on the movement and by urging her friends to purchase Monet’s paintings. From 1893 to 1901, Perry lived in Tokyo where her husband taught English literature. During this period she painted more than 80 pictures of Japanese scenes, incorporating Japanese and Chinese painting techniques into her work. Like other Impressionists, she found subjects for her painting both in landscapes and in ordinary daily activities. The paintings of her later period feature landscapes near Hancock, New Hampshire.

Much of her work involves portraits and in this respect some of her work is reminiscent of Mary Cassat’s portraits, although Perry’s work is a little more formal and restrained, without the fluidity of line, the immediacy and joyousness of Cassat’s work. Perry’s landscapes show the most affinity to those of the impressionists and more particularly those of her teacher and mentor, Monet.

The painting above, “A Stream Beneath Poplars” painted circa 1890-1900 (oil on canvas 25 3/4 x 32 inches signed lower left Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Feld 1973) is exhibited in the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It shows the impressionist style that Perry absorbed from Monet and the scene is reminiscent of Monet’s Giverny paintings. Lilla Cabot Perry is second only to Mary Cassatt as a recognised woman Impressionist painter and her activities in popularizing impressionist art in the USA cannot be underestimated.

SONG SATURDAY - PONGAL

2012-01-14T13:40:00.001-08:00

“You are invited to the festival of this world and your life is blessed” - Rabindranath Tagore

Today is Pongal (also Makara Sankranthi), which is the only Hindu festival that follows a solar calendar as opposed to the usual lunar one. Pongal is a predominantly rural festival that has astronomical significance, marking the beginning of Uttarayana, the Sun’s movement northward for a six-month period. In Hinduism, Uttarayana is considered auspicious, as opposed to Dakshinaayana, or the southern movement of the sun. All important events are scheduled during this period.

Makara Sankranthi refers to the event of the Sun entering the zodiac sign of Makara or Capricorn. In Hindu temples bells, drums, clarinets and conch shells herald the joyous occasion of Pongal. To symbolize a bountiful harvest, rice is cooked in new pots until they boil over. Some of the rituals performed in the temple include the preparation of rice, the chanting of prayers and the offering of vegetables, sugar cane and spices to the gods. Devotees then consume the offerings to exonerate themselves of past sins.

Pongal signals the end of the traditional farming season, giving farmers a break from their monotonous routine. Farmers also perform puja to some crops, signaling the end of the traditional farming season. It also sets the pace for a series of festivals to follow in a calendar year. In fact, four festivals are celebrated in Tamil Nadu for four consecutive days in that week. “Bogi” is celebrated on January 13, “Pongal” on Jan 14, “Maattuppongal” on Jan 15, and “Thiruvalluvar Day” on Jan 16.

ALL ABOUT GINGER

2012-01-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

“Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels.” - Faith Whittlesey

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, which consumed as a culinary delicacy, used as medicine, or functions as a spice. It is the type plat of the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Other related plants in this family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal. Ginger cultivation began in South Asia and has since spread to East Africa, Caribbean and Australia. It is sometimes called ginger root to distinguish it from other things that share the name ginger.

Ginger is a perennial plant with white and yellowish-greenish flowers, as well as its thick and long twisting rhizoid (underground stem). It is this rhizoid that is the most useful part of the plant as it has a concentrated, spicy aroma, which can be attributed to the fact that it is composed of up to 3% natural essential oils. The rhizoid is widely available for eating and for the use of flavouring foods. It is also ground up and processed into all sorts of powders, tinctures, crystals, tonics and flavourings. Crystallised ginger either sugar coated or dark chocolate encased is a firm favourite amongst confectioneries.

As well as its culinary uses, ginger has long been used in traditional medicine in the countries of origin. Modern medicine is now finding scientific evidence confirming many of the health benefits of ginger (see: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/ginger-000246.htm). Some of these are listed below:

• Ginger has carminative, antispasmodic properties and can be used to calm an upset stomach, providing relief for the feeling of bloating and expulsion of gas in the gastrointestinal tract.

• Eating ginger helps stimulate the mucus secretion, relieving coughs and soothing any throat irritation.

• Due to its promotion of mucus secretion, ginger protects against the development of ulcers, in the lining of the stomach.

• Multiple studies have shown the efficacy of ginger in relieving feelings of nausea, as seen in seasickness, morning sickness, motion sickness and as a side effect of chemotherapy.

• Ginger has antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties, and can be a useful adjunct in the treatment of all sorts of infections.

• The rhizome contains components that have antihistaminic properties, hence ginger can be used effectively in the treatment of allergies.

• Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties and can be used adjunctively in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and various musculoskeletal disorders. The chemical components of the root are instrumental in inhibiting the biosynthesis of prostaglandins, which are responsible for causing inflammation. Thus the root has proven to be a highly effective form of treatment, in some cases, even more so than the NSAID's that are traditionally prescribed.

• Ginger contains special enzymes responsible for breaking down proteins in food, thus aiding digestion and preventing gastrointestinal cramps. The ancient Greeks used to eat ginger after a large meal in order to ease the digestive process.

• Ginger is often used to settle an upset stomach or treat stomach ailments such as dyspepsia or colic. It is frequently used today in developing countries to treat diarrhoea.

• Ginger has proven to help lower cholesterol levels in the blood and prevents the formation of blood clots.

Ginger is on the FDA's “generally recognised as safe” list, although it does interact with some medications, for example warfarin. Ginger is contraindicated in people suffering from gallstones, as it promotes the production of bile. An acute overdose of ginger is usually in excess of about 2 grams of ginger per kilogram of body mass, dependent on level of ginger tolerance, and can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called ginger intoxication or colloquially the “ginger jitters”.

Allergic reactions to ginger generally result in a rash, and although generally recognised as safe, ginger can cause heartburn, bloating, gas, belching and nausea, particularly if taken in powdered form. Unchewed fresh ginger may result in intestinal blockage, and individuals who have had ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease or blocked intestines may react badly to large quantities of fresh ginger. There are also suggestions that ginger may affect blood pressure, clotting, and heart rhythms.

Besides all of these health benefits, ginger tastes terrific as well and its zing and zest can liven up not only Asian foods, but it also has proven itself invaluable in the Western kitchen! Its use in Christmas cooking has a tradition of centuries and where would we be without ginger beer, dry ginger ale and gingerbread?

Ginger, Date and Banana Cake

Ingredients

125g butter, chopped

1 cup (150g) pitted dates, roughly chopped

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground mace

1/4 tsp ground cloves

125g (3/4 cup) crystallised ginger, chopped

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 very ripe banana, mashed well

2 cups self-raising flour

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line base and sides of a 7cm deep, 18cm (base) square cake pan.

Place butter, dates, sugar, ginger, 1 cup water and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in bicarbonate of soda and allow mixture to foam.

Transfer mixture to a bowl. Set aside for 10 to 15 minutes to cool slightly.

Add spices, beaten egg and mashed banana to date mixture and mix well. Sift flour over mixture and stir gently to combine. Spoon into pan.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut into squares and serve garnished with double cream (optional).

LEMON BLOSSOM, YOUTH & A WOLF...

2012-01-11T23:52:00.000-08:00

“The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.” - Swami Vivekananda

Lemon blossom, Citrus limonia, is this day’s birthday flower. The blossom is symbolic of love’s constancy and is commonly included in bridal bouquets in Mediterranean countries. In the language of flowers, the lemon blossom conveys the sentiment: “Fidelity in love”. Lemon blossom is grown extensively in the Mediterranean countries for perfumery uses.

Some famous birthdays celebrated today:

Jean Baptiste van Helmont, chemist and scientist (1580);

Charles Perrault, French fairy tale writer (1628);

Edmund Burke, Irish politician (1729);

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss teacher and reformer (1746);

John Singer Sargent, artist (1856);

Swami Vivekananda, philosopher (1863);

Jack (John Griffith) London, writer (1876);

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer (1876);

Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Gestapo founder (1893);

Paul Hermann Müller, Nobel laureate (1948) chemist (1899);

Louise Rainer, actress (1910);

P.W. Botha, South African prime minister (1916);

Anthony Andrews, actor (1948);

Des O’Connor, comedian and singer (1932);

Long John Baldry, singer (1941);

Joe Frazier, pugilist (1947);

Howard Stern, radio personality (1954);

Kirstie Alley, actress (1955).

In India, it is National Youth Day today, which coincides with the birthday of Swami Vivekananda. In 1984, the Government of India declared and decided to observe the birthday of Swami Vivekananda as a National Youth Day every year from 1985 onwards. To quote from the Government of India's communication: “It was felt that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.”

Youth Day in India is observed at schools and colleges, with processions, speeches, recitations, music, youth conventions, seminars, Yogasanas, presentations, competitions in essay-writing, recitations and sports on 12th January every year. Swami Vivekananda's lectures and writings, deriving their inspiration from Indian spiritual tradition and the broad outlook of his Master Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, are the source of inspiration and have motivated numerous youth organisations, study circles and service projects involving youths.

Today Zanzibar Revolution Day is celebrated throughout Tanzania, and it has been designated a public holiday in Tanzania. This holiday celebrates the local African revolutionaries overthrowing the Sultan of Zanzibar and the predominately Arab government ending the two centuries of Arab rule on the island. If you want to experience the celebration of this Tanzania holiday it is best to visit Zanzibar to see the parade and festivities there!

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) was born in Venice, son of a German father and an Italian mother. He studied in Munich and taught music for many years in Venice. He won his reputation as writer of comic operas. His best known works are Il Segreto di Susanna (1909) and I Gioelli della Madonna (1911). He wrote 10 other operas, two oratorios and some chamber music.

Here is the lovely intermezzo from the opera I Gioelli della Madonna (Jewels of the Madonna - 1911)

INTERNATIONAL THANK YOU DAY 2012

2012-01-11T00:14:00.000-08:00

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls” – Aesop

January 11^th is International Thank You Day. It is the day when we should all make special efforts to thank those that deserve our gratitude. While most of us mechanically and subconsciously mouth the words “thank you” more or less regularly in our everyday interactions, the purpose of today is to get us to think actively and deliberately about the act of giving heartfelt thanks to those around us that especially deserve our appreciation.

Ingratitude is one of the basest qualities of a human being. If you show kindness to someone and help them, non-appreciation of this aid and benevolence rankles. Some ungrateful people add injury to insult by not only not appreciating kindness, but repaying it with malevolence, spite and offence. A wise person appreciates the good things that occur in their life, recognise their benefactors and are grateful to them. We should actively express our appreciation and gratitude by some return of kindness, not only to the people who have helped us, but to everyone around us. Having such an attitude certainly makes the world a better place.

Looking around us, our family should be the first recipient of our thanks. We often take for granted all the things that those closest to us do for us every day. Stopping and thinking about it and saying “thanks”, giving a hug and doing something unexpected for them drives home the point that we love them and appreciate them. You get appreciation by giving it. When you are kind and grateful to others, they are kind and grateful back. By saying thank you we acknowledge how much we value all those things that we are given as a token of love towards us and we reaffirm our love back.

Our friends are those that deserve our gratitude next, as it they whom we have chosen to bring close to us, and it they who have chosen us to be close to them. We accept their friendship, their esteem, their rapport and support, their sympathy and affection in our every interaction with them, why not acknowledge it by thanking them consciously and intentionally?

Our colleagues, our acquaintances our associates are also deserving of our thanks today. It is they perhaps who are the recipients of the most mechanical and casual of thanks under normal circumstances. Simple politesse can erode the true meaning of a word of appreciation. “Thanks” can be uttered as a verbal reflex or muttered under one’s breath; it can mark annoyance, and how often is it said ironically or even sarcastically? Considering our interactions with those people that are most peripheral to us can alert us to the little things that they do to make our life easier, better, more pleasant. For this we should thank them.

And perhaps even more so today, we should spend a little time to be grateful to a kindness that may be shown to us by a complete stranger. Rather than rush by, stop, look at the person and thank them heartily. Wish them a good day, and show them appreciation for their little kindness. We humans are social animals and most of us are basically good. We can make the world a better place by exteriorising as much as possible that goodness within us.

And lastly, you, reader of this blog I thank for reading it and allowing me to share my thoughts with you!

POETRY TUESDAY - OFF TO A SHOW

2012-01-10T00:19:00.000-08:00

“King: ...Pairs of male elephants to be released into the forests of America. There it is hoped that they will grow in number and the people can tame them and use them as beasts of burden. Anna: But your majesty, I don’t think you mean pairs of MALE elephants.” – From “The King and I”

Another Lee Friedlander image for Magpie Tales this week to stimulate the flow of creative juices of the group. This image was definitely Nostalgia with a capital “N” for me, and the black and white of the original image was sadly inadequate for the technicolour memories of the oriental extravaganza that was bigger than life in “The King and I”. Hence, with apologies to Mr Friedlander, my colourisation of this image.

Show Poster

Dreary existence

A grey life, big city blues;

The show brings rainbows.

My life’s routine drags

Lacklustre reality…

Look up, and escape.

The songs the dances,

Show has all, larger than life.

Tomorrow, all grey.

MOVIE MONDAY - NORTHANGER ABBEY

2012-01-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

“And what's romance? Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything as you like it, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose, and it's always daisy-time.” - D.H. Lawrence

Last weekend we watched a good little film that will appeal to all costume drama fans, and perhaps to those enamoured of the literature of Jane Austen. The film is a typical English production filmed in locations that are genuine and whose costumes, props, feel and look have been carefully curated so that the illusion of the period has been quite faithfully reproduced. Sure enough the film is very lightweight but quite a lot of Austen’s wit and social criticism still manages to come across and overall the whole is enjoyable and vivacious.

The film is a 2007 TV production of the Jane Austen novel “Northanger Abbey” directed by Jon Jones, starring Felicity Jones, JJ Feild, Carey Mulligan, Catherine Walker and Liam Cunningham. Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay based on Austen’s novel, and as is the case with most of these adaptations from novel to screen, (by necessity), quite a lot has been lost. However, this talented screenwriter has done much to preserve the essence of the original and translate faithfully some of the main points that Austen wishes to make. There is a lot of the humour and wry observations of the novel that have been transferred to the screen also.

For those unfamiliar with the Austen novel, the plot revolves around Catherine Morland (Jones), a young lady of quite modest means who is given the opportunity to stay in Bath with her well-off relatives, the childless Allen family. She is intent on living high adventure of the type she has been reading about in the romantic gothic novels fashionable at the time. When she is introduced to society, she meets Isabella Thorpe (Mulligan) and her brother John (Beck), a good friend of her own brother, James (O’Connor). Isabella and John are pleasant, shallow and intent on having a good time as well as finding partners with some money in the bank… Catherine also meets Henry Tilney (Feild), a handsome young man from a good family and his sister, Eleanor (Walker). Invited to visit the Tilney estate, Northanger Abbey, by General Tilney (Cunningham), who believes her to be an heiress, she has thoughts of romance but soon learns that status, class and money are all equally important when it comes to romance.

The film was fun to watch and quite amusing, although purists will object to significant portions of the book being cut, a lot of the witty dialogue disappearing and the ending being rather quickly precipitated upon the viewer, with the character of General Tilney being made thoroughly villainous, whereas in Austen’s novel he does redeem himself. The fantasy sequences were quite effective, although some of the sexual innuendoes were a little out of place, especially if one considers Austen’s refined and restrained approach to such matters.

It is different reading a book (especially one as well known and loved as this) and then watching a film of it. In such situations I find that when I watch the film, I try to divorce myself from the source novel and simply judge the film on its own merits. After watching and for the purposes of review I may then compare it to the novel, but ultimately one has to ask oneself: “Was the movie good fun to watch? Was it entertaining? Was it cinematic enough? Was it well acted? Was it well directed? Were the cinematography, music, props, settings good enough?” And if the majority of responses are affirmative, the film fulfilled its purpose, whether or not it was a faithful and slavish adaptation of the novel.

We enjoyed the film as a film and it was quite amusing and entertaining. We recommend it to anyone who enjoys such period dramas. The standard of production was high, the acting excellent, the script and direction very good. Quite a lot more detail could have been added to keep the purists happy, but if one approaches the film as an entertainment in its own right rather than see it as a mirror of the novel, one should be pleased enough with this film.

ART SUNDAY - GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

2012-01-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.” - Georgia O'Keeffe

For Art Sunday today a great American artist of the 20th-century, Georgia O’Keeffe. Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887. The second of seven children, O’Keeffe longed to be an artist from an early age. In 1905 she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and a year later went to study art in New York. Though her student work was well received she found it unfulfilling, and for a short time abandoned the fine arts. She worked briefly as a commercial artist in Chicago before moving to Texas to teach. During the summer of 1915, O’Keeffe took classes at the Teachers College of Columbia University in South Carolina, and there began her re-entry into the world of painting.

In South Carolina O’Keeffe met Arthur Dow, a specialist in Oriental Art. Dow’s interest in non-European art helped O’Keeffe move away from the forms she had found so stifling in her previous studies. Soon after O’Keeffe’s return to Texas, she made a handful of charcoal drawings, which she sent to Anna Pollitzer, a friend in New York. Pollitzer showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer and gallery owner. He was enthused with the vibrant energy of the work, and asked to show them. So, without her knowledge, Georgia O’Keeffe had her first exhibition in 1916 at Steiglitz’s “291 Gallery”.

Within two years, Steiglitz had convinced O’Keeffe to move to New York and devote all of her time to painting. His regular presentations of her work had begun to cause a buzz, and create for her a small following. Six years later the two were married, beginning one of the most fruitful and well-known collaborations of the modernist era. For the next twenty years the two would live and work together, Steiglitz creating an incredible body of photographic portraits of O’Keeffe, while O’Keeffe showed new drawings and paintings nearly every year at the gallery. Living in Lake George, New York, and in New York City, O’Keeffe painted some of her most famous work. During the 1920s, her large canvasses of lush overpowering flowers filled the still lives with dynamic energy and erotic tension, while her cityscapes were testaments to subtle beauty within the most industrial circumstances.

In 1929 O’Keeffe took a vacation with her friend Beck Strand to Taos, New Mexico. The trip would forever alter the course of her life. In love with the open skies and sun-drenched landscape, O’Keeffe returned every summer to travel and to paint. When Steiglitz in 1946 died, O’Keeffe took up permanent residence in New Mexico. More than almost any of her other works, these early New Mexico landscapes and still lifes have come to represent her unique gifts. The rich texture of the clouds and sky were similar to her earlier, more sensuous representations of flowers. But beneath these clouds one found the bleached bones of animals long gone.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, O’Keeffe’s renown continued to grow. She travelled around the world and had a number of major retrospective exhibitions in the U.S. The most important came in 1970 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, establishing her as one of the most important and influential American painters. The next year O’Keeffe’s vision deteriorated dramatically, and she withdrew from artistic life. It was not until 1973, after meeting Juan Hamilton, a young ceramic artist, that she returned to working. With his encouragement and assistance, she resumed painting and sculpting. In 1976 her illustrated autobiography, was a best seller, and the next year she received the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.

In 1985 she received the Medal of the Arts from President Ronald Reagan. In March of the next year, at the age of 98, O’Keeffe passed away at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Georgia O’Keeffe’s work remains a prominent part of major national and international museums. For many, her paintings represent the beginnings of a new American art divorced from the blasé “-isms” of the late 20th century.

The painting above is her “Jimson Weed” of 1936. The large scale of the work exemplifies O’Keeffe’s philosophy: “I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.”

SWEET REPOSE

2012-01-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

“Each morning sees some task begin, Each evening sees it close; Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A quiet day with an even quieter evening at home. Nothing better than some gorgeous Bach to cap the day off and lead into the repose of the night. Here is the second movement, Largo Ma Non Tanto, of Johann Sebastian Bach’s, Double Violin Concerto in D minor (BWV 1043).

The Concerto for Two Violins in D minor is perhaps one of the most famous works by J. S. Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Bach wrote it in Leipzig sometime between 1730 and 1731, most likely for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, of which he was the director. It also exists in an arrangement for two harpsichords, transposed into C minor (BWV 1062). The concerto comprises three movements: Vivace; Largo ma non tanto; Allegro.

In addition to the two soloists, the concerto is scored for strings and basso continuo. The concerto is characterised by the subtle yet expressive relationship between the two solo violins and the accompanying strings throughout the work. The musical structure of this piece uses fugal imitation and much counterpoint. The middle slow movement has a mood of tranquil repose and the sweet melodies are as mellifluous as a gentle lullaby. Enjoy!

THE EPIPHANY

2012-01-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

“A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril” - Winston Churchill

Today the Christian Church celebrates the Epiphany. The Epiphany (also called Theophany) celebrates three important events in the Christian calendar. The first is the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem and the adoration of the Christ Child; the second is the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist; the third the miracle at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, when there was no more wine for the guests at that same wedding that Jesus was invited to.

In the Western Christian churches, the adoration of the Magi is the most important of these celebrations while in Eastern churches, Christ’s baptism is the most important. The word epiphania in Greek means “manifestation” and refers to the appearance of the Christ child to the Magi. The winter jasmine (yellow jasmine), Jasminum nudiflorum, is a flower symbolic of the Epiphany and is also an attribute of the Virgin Mary.

In Greece, the ritual of the blessing of the waters is carried out today to commemorate Christ’s baptism. After the divine morning liturgy in church, the clergy and the people join a procession with the blessed cross to the nearest body of living water (lake, sea or river). If there is no body of open water near the church, the blessing ceremony is held outside the church in a baptismal font filled with water. At the end of the ceremony the priest will bless the waters by casting a cross into the water. If practicable, it is now the turn of volunteers – mostly young men – to participate in the ceremony. They dive into the water to recover the cross. The lucky one who returns the cross to the priest, receives a special blessing. In the past a gold cross to wear around the neck was the custom, but it is unfortunate that nowadays this is no longer done.

The church liturgy also blesses water in the church and the Greek Orthodox faith teaches that on this day a miracle happens as the blessing is performed and the nature of the blessed water changes and it becomes holy and incorrupt. People take this Holy Water at home and sprinkle their house, their fields, their animals. They also drink it, believing they derive a special blessing from these rituals. Sprinkling the waters also cleans the world of the mischievous Kalikantzaroi (the pesky goblins that trick and torment God-fearing Christians throughout the festive season).

As it is Food Friday, we should mention that in Greek Orthodox tradition the 5^th of January is a strict fast day. Not only are meat, fish, dairy products and eggs forbidden, but also oily substances (including vegetable oils). It is believed that this fast cleanses the body after the dietary indiscretions of the holiday season and prepares it for receiving the Holy Water that will be drunk on the Epiphany.

A traditional fasting food that was consumed in Crete is called “Photocóllyva” or “Pappoúdia”. This was made with boiled wheat, together with all sorts of pulses like split peas, beans, broad beans, lentils. It was served well boiled and consumed with a little bread and some chopped raw onions and parsley. The term “Photocóllyva” is derived from the name of the holiday “Phota” (=lights) and “Cóllyva” a traditional dish made for the memory of the dead with boiled wheat. A particularly touching part of the ritual was that this food was shared with the household animals, particularly the oxen, which helped to produce the wheat and the pulses through their efforts. By sharing one’s food with the animals that helped in its production acknowledges their invaluable help.

ON WORK AND TRAVELS

2012-01-05T00:04:00.000-08:00

“Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life” - Harvey Mackay

While I am still officially on holidays, I went in to work for a short time today as I was in the City and close by. We are officially open, but we are operating with a skeleton staff, the majority of people returning to work next Monday. It was quite strange going into my office with hardly anybody around and feeling a little bit like a visitor. Even as I sat down on my chair at my desk, it felt quite peculiar – mainly because of my psychological state, I guess. I was still in “holiday mood”. The main reason I went in was to water my pot-plants, which after the heat over the last few days certainly needed it.

I chatted with a colleague who has already gone back to work as part of the skeleton staff and we discussed the holiday break. Neither of us had gone away over the break and we were both bemoaning the fact that holidays pass all too soon, and before one knows it, it is time to return to work again. As he is quite a lot younger than me, I had to observe that he will certainly have to work for many years more than me still, before he considers retirement. Whereas, if I take the option of early retirement I can certainly retire by next year.

I have always enjoyed my various jobs and every morning I look forward to going into work. However, after a long haul of many months without a break and without a holiday, one’s mind and body feels the effects of accumulated stresses and anxieties, and going off on a protracted break is certainly attractive; to recharge the batteries, so to speak. In the past we used to travel quite a great deal, both locally and abroad. However, as the years pass by, we seem to travel much less. It must be a sign of increasing age, perhaps.

It may also have something to do with the world’s woes at the present time. It is quite disturbing to hear the news every morning. The continuing bad news of the global financial crisis, wars, terrorism, kidnappings, abductions, racial hatred, mass migrations, political instability, uncertainty… It seems to be the same the world over. I am wondering if all of this was happening in the past as well, but being younger we did not heed it as much. As one ages, some things become less important, while others fade into insignificance. Age changes us and it changes the way we see the world.

I am content to have travelled all over the world when I was younger. I consider myself lucky to have been in places that most people would only know from their geography book or as some hard to pronounce name only seen once on an atlas page. The great majority of people I met on my travels and the most places I visited provided me with a wealth of positive experiences and a firm belief that we humans are extremely similar no matter what our skin colour, our religion or our politics. Human culture is astounding in its variety, our customs and manners may differ, but deep down we all share a basic humanity, a sense of humour and wonder with which we view our world. We all wish to share our experiences with fellow humans and most of us are generous, friendly and hospitable with even complete strangers.

When I hear the bad news, I take heart, given my past travels and positive experiences. There are some bad apples in this barrel of our world, but fortunately they are only a minority. The trouble is that these evil people can make the world such a horrible place for the silent, ever-suffering majority of the good ones… The perennial quandary seems to be how to identify the bad apples and get rid of them before they ruin the whole barrelful!

travel |ˈtravəl| verb ( travels, traveling , traveled ; also chiefly Brit. travels, travelling, travelled)

1 [ no obj. ] Make a journey, typically of some length or abroad: The vessel had been travelling from Libya to Ireland | We travelled thousands of miles in our last journey abroad.

• [ with obj. ] Journey along (a road) or through (a region): He travelled the world with the army.

• (usu. as adj. travelling) go or be moved from place to place: A travelling exhibition.

• informal Resist motion sickness, damage, or some other impairment on a journey: He usually travels well.

• Be enjoyed or successful away from the place of origin: Accordion music travels well.

• dated go from place to place as a sales representative: He travelled for a shoe company through Mississippi.

• (of an object or radiation) Move, typically in a constant or predictable way: Light travels faster than sound.

• informal (esp. of a vehicle) Move quickly.

2 [ no obj. ] Basketball take more than the allowed number of steps (typically two) while holding the ball without dribbling it.

noun

the action of travelling, typically abroad: I have a job that involves a lot of travel.

• (travels) journeys, esp. long or exotic ones: Perhaps you'll write a book about your travels.

• [ as modifier ] (of a device) designed so as to be sufficiently compact for use on a journey: A travel iron.

• the range, rate, or mode of motion of a part of a machine.

ORIGIN Middle English: variant of travail and originally in the same sense.

EXPECTATIONS

2012-01-04T03:53:00.000-08:00

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” - Henry Van Dyke

The calendar holds a special fascination for me as does the cycle of the year with its seasons, its special occasions, its commemorative days, its celebrations and feasts, as well as all other occasions that help to make some days special in some way. We humans love to mark off time and even greater is the desire to mark some days of our existence as “red-letter-days”, which help us navigate our way through the routine of our humdrum lives.

Every year in December I spend some time compiling my own annual calendar for the year ahead, I illustrate it with my photos and for every special day there is some reference, with religious days commemorated in the Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian and Neopagan belief systems. International commemorative anniversaries are marked, phases of the moon, beginning and ends of daylight savings, the various public holidays and also an inspirational quote for the month.

This year, December was a little bit of a write-off with so much happening and quite a bit of an upheaval not letting me do things according to my usual “schedule”. The calendar was the casualty, meaning that I have been greatly delayed in its production to the disappointment of many friends who are used to receiving it as a New Year’s gift. I was quick to reassure them that yes, it was still happening, it was just slightly delayed this year…

One may reflect a little on this and think about expectations. Things that are assumed and which one may take for granted. This past year more than any other I have realised what a great effort I expend on an almost daily basis in order to do what is expected of me. Things at work and at home, things that other people expect of me and things I expect of myself. And how little it takes to unsettle that fine balance – how little a spanner needs to be if it is to disrupt the works, when it is thrown in.

Perhaps, in the end, I should resolve something this year and that is to moderate expectations of me. Clearly spell out (to myself first) that what I expect of myself need be more realistic and that my timelines need be more elastic. Also to ensure that others understand that what they expect of me need be judged by some reasonable standard and that they understand my multiple commitments, activities and responsibilities. The more we idealise others, the higher our expectations of them. I have tried too hard maybe to be the ideal, hence others’ high expectations of me… If we expect nothing, we are grateful for whatever comes to us genuinely, spontaneously and unasked for.

WATER

2012-01-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

“The cure for anything is salt water: Sweat, tears or the sea.” - Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

Magpie Tales has chosen a Marina Moevs painting as a stimulus to get our creative juices flowing this week.

“Marina Moevs' breathtaking oil paintings present the often awe inspiring beauty of powerful natural events, such as floods, fires and storms. Seductively serene, they resonate with psychologically volatile meanings and metaphors, not only personally for the artist, but as collective archetypes that speak for humanity as a whole. Indeed, just as psychoanalytic discourse equates the unconscious with nature itself (from which the idea of ‘human nature’ evolved), Moevs' paintings employ natural imagery to express the autonomy and subjectivity of human moods. They also stand as brilliantly crafted and imagined ‘shrines’ that both associate and segregate human beings’ and nature’s mysteriously linked creativity.”

Andy Brumer

The paintings of this artist turned my mind to things anatomical and pathological. For what are we but water (60% of our body weight, in fact…).

Water

Water sustains us, for we are of water;

Our humours ebbing and flowing,

Running incessantly in our subcutaneous rivers:

Blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile.

Water nourishes, for without it we die;

Our bodies desertified, our a flesh mere husk

Where lack of juices fails to vivify:

Sweat, tears, saliva and other secretions.

Water within us, for we are born of it;

Creatures of some primordial sea that

We still carry inside us – hear the waves breaking:

Amniotic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid and tissue fluid.

Water kills, for we are designed for drowning;

Our lungs so easily filled with oedema,

Or with water breathed in, to stifle us:

Exudate, insudate, transudate and inspired water.

Water flows, runs, rushes, scours, floods;

Our tears tsunami-like, can overwhelm.

Lymph bubbles and swells painfully within confined space,

Our gastric juice corrodes, digests our flesh,

And we surrender, give up the ghost to some massive internal haematoma.

Our internal waters, sometimes placid like limpid lakes;

Sometimes rough seas that swallow whole islands – like Atlantis;

Our waters: Healing, nourishing, beneficial like breast milk;

But also destructive torrential rivers, that flatten our house;

Like vomit that we breathe in, a horrible aspirated death thus delivered.

MOVIE MONDAY - FLESH AND BONE

2012-01-02T04:33:00.000-08:00

“Nothing is to be preferred before justice.” - Socrates

We watched a very good film a couple of days ago, about which we had heard nothing, but it was another of these great discoveries in the bargain bin of our video store. It was the 1993 movie “Flesh and Bone”, written and directed by Steve Kloves, and starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, James Caan and Gwyneth Paltrow. The film was first rate in all aspects and I am quite at a loss to explain the “average” rating that it has received in the IMDB “popularity meter” – however, one should not be surprised, given the drivel that attracts high ratings (e.g. “Inception”!).

The plot revolves around Arlis (Dennis Quaid) who is a vending machine owner who roams from small town to small town in West Texas. Arlis is haunted by horrific memories from his childhood, and he fails to connect emotionally with the women he meets. He has a “woman in every town” having these flings with married women where there are no strings attached. One day Arlis meets Kay (Meg Ryan), who is running away from an abusive and gambler husband. Kay begins travel with Arlis on his circuit and they fall in love. Arlis’ evil father (James Caan) comes back into the life of his son and Arlis must once again deal with the heavy burden of the ties that bind them. Complicating matters is the young drifter and petty thief Ginnie (Gwynneth Paltrow) that Arlis’ father has picked up. The film develops slowly and irrevocably into a dramatic dénouement, where each person must confront the ghosts of the pasts, especially so Arlis…

“Flesh and Bone” is possibly one of the 1990s most neglected classic films. It is subtle, understated, powerful and extremely well made and acted. The story is tight and engaging, the characters believable and tragic and the themes sombre. All actors in the leading quartet give sterling performances, with Quaid perhaps (who gives his character an understated tragic desperation that becomes quite devastating by the end) deserving the line honours. Quaid never allows Arlis to become pathetic, which perhaps would have been easily done by a lesser actor. Caan is great as always, and Ryan gives a magnificent performance, while Paltrow impresses, playing a difficult role without any of the sugary sweetness that was the ingredient of most of her roles that followed.

There is precious little about this film that isn’t of high quality. It has a good script, skillful and sensitive directing, stark cinematography that suits the plot to a tee, excellent performances, and haunting soundtrack. It is an excellent piece of film making and strorytelling. We highly recommend this movie as it is original, engaging, moving and exceedingly well-made. If you haven't seen it, it is well worth your while to hunt it down and watch it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

“If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” - Confucius

Nikiphoros Lytras (Greek: Νικηφόρος Λύτρας; 1832, Pyrgos, Tinos – June 13, 1904, Athens) was a nineteenth century Greek painter. He was born on Tinos Island, and trained in Athens at the School of Arts. In 1860 he won a scholarship to Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. After completing these studies, he became a professor at the School of Arts in 1866, a position he held for the rest of his life. He remained faithful to the precepts and principles of the academicism of Munich, while paying greatest attention both to ethographic themes and portraiture. His most famous portrait was of the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, and his most well-known landscape a depiction of the region of Lavrio.

In this well-known genre of painting of his, the “Calanda” (= carol singing) he depicts a household scene with great humour and many touching elements. The young singers could singing Christmas or New Year’s carols. Let’s pretend is the traditional Greek New Year’s carol, widely sung by children who still go a-carolling on New Year’s Day:

New Year's Carol

Start of the month and start of the year,

My tall rosemary bush!

And start of the year, a good year,

In church, in church with the holy throne!

Start of the year, when Christ came

Most holy and spiritual;

To walk on earth

And to make our heart good.

St Basil is coming

And welcomes all of us,

He comes from Caesarea,

And you milady are noble woman!

He holds an icon and writing paper,

Sugar candy and a baked cake.

The writing paper and the ink,

Look at me the young brave lad!

The ink wrote on the paper,

My fortune all it wrote,

And the paper talked to me,

My white St Basil!

This post is part of the Psalm Sunday meme.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. - Benjamin Franklin

As another year expires, we are awaiting the birth of a new one. What better music to herald its entry than some music by the “Waltz King”? Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 - June 3, 1899); also known as fully Johann Baptist Strauss, and Johann Strauss Jr. was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. He was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

Strauss was born in St. Ulrich (now a part of Neubau), the son of Johann Strauss I, another composer of dance music. His father did not wish him to become a composer, but rather a banker; however, the son defied his father’s wishes, and went on to study music with the composer Joseph Drechsler and the violin with Anton Kollmann, the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera. Strauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never as well-known as their elder brother.

Some of Johann Strauss’s most famous works include The Blue Danube Waltz, Vienna Blood Waltz, Kaiser-Walzer, Tales from the Vienna Woods, the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, and the Pizzicato Polka. Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the most well-known.

Best wishes for a New Year

full of health, happiness and prosperity!

YES, BUT IS IT KOSHER?

2011-12-30T00:43:00.000-08:00

“My soul is dark with stormy riot: Directly traced over to diet” - Samuel Hoffenstein

We have invited a Jewish couple to dinner in the New Year and we are reading up on what is permissible (“Kosher”) and what is not (“Traif”). The first source of course is the biblical passage of Leviticus, chapter 11, and Deuteronomy, Chapter 14, which list the dietary restrictions God gave to the nation of Israel. The dietary laws include prohibitions against eating pork, shrimp, shellfish and many types of seafood, most insects, scavenger birds, and various other “impure” animals.

At the time that these restrictions were put in place and given the geographic and climatic conditions prevailing, these restrictions made a great deal of sense. In a hot climate shellfish quickly spoils, for example, and can cause very severe food poisoning. Pork is notorious for the number of parasites it can contain and the horrible disease it can give rise in humans if the pigs are not kept in hygienic conditions and the animal is not slaughtered properly. Moslems have some dietary restrictions that are similar and are based on the same hygienic factors.

According to Jewish dietary laws, to be “pure” an animal must also be free from certain defects, and must be slaughtered and cleaned according to specific regulations (Shechita). Any product of an impure or improperly slaughtered animal is also non-kosher. Animal gelatin, for example, has been avoided, although recently kosher gelatin (from cows or from fish prepared according to kosher regulations) has become available. The status of shellac is still controversial. The prohibitions also extend to certain parts of pure animals, such as blood, certain fat tissues, and the sciatic nerves.

It is forbidden to cook milk or dairy product with meat. Meat and milk are not even eaten in the same meal and different pots, crockery, cutlery and washing up equipment are used to cook them. Dairy food, even a cup of tea, may not be eaten until 3 hours after the consumption of meat or fowl. Other regulations affect wine, cheese and their derivatives such as wine vinegar and grape juice. All these products must be made under strict Rabbinical supervision. Leaven is also to be avoided at prescribed times of the religious calendar and it must eradicated from the house – in many cases different sets of crockery, pots and pans, cutlery, glassware being used in a different kitchen during the period of prohibition. Fasting si also prescribed on certain religious feast days.

The short answer as to why Jews observe dietary laws is because the Torah says so. The Torah does not specify any reason for these laws, and for a Torah-observant, traditional Jew, there is no need for any other reason. Orthodox, observant Jews follow the dietary laws, in a similar way to Islam, in order to show obedience to the word of God.

It is interesting that in the New Testament, Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). God gave the apostle Peter a vision in which He declared that formerly unclean animals could be eaten: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10:15). When Jesus died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament law (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:24-26; Ephesians 2:15). This includes the laws regarding clean and unclean foods.

Romans 14:1-23 observes that not everyone accepts the fact that all foods are clean. As a result, if we are with someone who would be offended by our eating “unclean” food, we should give up our right to do so as to not offend the other person. We have the right to eat whatever we want, but we do not have the right to offend other people, who believe differently. Christians have the freedom to eat whatever they wish as long as it does not cause someone else to stumble in his/her faith.

Now in terms of our dinner party, the next place to mine of course, would be Jewish cookbooks where we can find some interesting recipes to try. Fortunately in Melbourne we have a plethora of shops that sell Kosher foods and ingredients and it should be fairly easy to obtain ingredients for the menu we decide on. Failing all, of course, we could order some Kosher food in from a Kosher restaurant! Any other suggestions welcome!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS?

2011-12-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

“I have no way of knowing how people really feel, but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year's resolution is not to bark back.” - Tucker Carlson

Many thanks to all those who commented on yesterday’s blog, I appreciate your kindness. I feel much better today and I am sure that by New Year’s Day, I shall be back to my usual cheerful self – well at least as cheerful as I am usually… It will be good to see the back of 2011 and I look forward to next year as one when I shall achieve some of my long-term goals, look seriously at my retirement options, finish a couple of my major projects and hopefully travel overseas in the second half of the year.

Are you the sort of person who makes New Year’s resolutions? I used to, but many years ago when I was younger. Now I prefer to set some goals at appropriate times throughout the year and then do my best to achieve them. Some of my colleagues come back to work in the New Year with impressive lists of resolutions (a couple of them even post them up above their desk so that they can look at them daily), however, come February, they are rather unceremoniously forgotten, taken down or covered by other bits of paper that are posted over them.

New Year’s Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. Taking a tally of all that has happened and not happened in our life and making some decisions about what we want changed in our life. It’s a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. If you are in the habit of making New Year resolutions, see how close they come to a popular “top ten list”:

1) Spend More Time with Family & Friends

2) Exercise more, get fit

3) Lose weight so as not to be obese

4) Quit smoking

5) Enjoy life more, be happier

6) Quit drinking

7) Get out debt

8) Learn something new

9) Help other more

10) Get more organised

I am sure that most people would have found a few of those that resonated with them and that were perhaps familiar from last year, or even the year before. Funny thing about these resolutions they keep recurring like clockwork, year after year…

resolution |ˌrezəˈlo͞oSHən| noun

1 A firm decision to do or not to do something: She kept her resolution not to see Anne any more | My New Year's resolution is to lose weight and get really fit.

• A formal expression of opinion or intention agreed on by a legislative body, committee, or other formal meeting, typically after taking a vote: the conference passed two resolutions.

• The quality of being determined or resolute: he handled the last French actions of the war with resolution.

2 The action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter: the peaceful resolution of all disputes | a successful resolution to the problem.

• Music the passing of a discord into a concord during the course of changing harmony.

• Medicine the disappearance of inflammation, or of any other symptom or condition.

3 chiefly Chemistry the process of reducing or separating something into its components.

• Physics the replacing of a single force or other vector quantity by two or more jointly equivalent to it.

• the conversion of something abstract into another form.

• Prosody the substitution of two short syllables for one long one.

4 the smallest interval measurable by a scientific (esp. optical) instrument; the resolving power.

• the degree of detail visible in a photographic or television image.

ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin resolutio(n-), from resolvere ‘loosen, release’

SADNESS, AGAIN

2011-12-28T00:13:00.000-08:00

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As the year draws to its close, I find myself in a melancholy mood. “Dark biliousness” – so did the ancient Greeks call this excess of negative humours that manifests itself as a feeling of glumness with a sad mien and lack of energy, propensity to tears, a depression. It is a mood that makes one particularly selfish. One stays inside and pulls the blinds down – staying in at home is optional.

With lots of thoughts. So many thoughts that one’s head threatens to burst asunder. “What if…”; “Maybe…”; “Had things been different…”; “If so-and-so had said this, done this…”; “If only…”; “All would be different now…” – so many alternative universes that my head will surely explode. Parallel realities, all unreal. How can one escape from this dark, deep pit that saps one’s life?

Another year draws to a close. Where did all that time go? What happened? How did all those days and nights rush by? Even with a few hours sleep a night every night, the year rushed by as if I were on an express train, seeing all the brightly-lit stations flit by, and only now, I am stopped still in a dark tunnel. The train has stopped, no lights, no lights at the end of the tunnel. And yet my destination awaits me – who knows how far ahead, but it’s there. That is the only certainty.

Clutching the darkness, I feel the palpable black bile that surrounds me with its glutinous, suffocating texture. Searching for something substantial to hold on to. A hand? No, it could clutch a dagger. A rope? No it could strangle me. A chain firmly fixed? No it could fetter me. A piece of wood? No, a crucifix to crucify me. Maybe just a warm embrace that I could sink into and be rescued by. Even if it stifles me…

And yet I go on, I invent my own rescue. I move on pulling myself forward with invisible threads, each strand attached to each of my cells. I follow a faint glimmer of hope in the darkness. A tiny, pale, blue little light. Hope is a lambent blue butterfly invented to rescue me from madness. So insubstantial and yet its wings strong enough to pull the invisible threads upwards and lift me out of my dark pit.

Another year waits in the wings, ready to come on stage upon hearing its cue. We shall travel together you and I. You, young and golden-haired, and I, well I am old and old enough to know better and be strong and go forward. I pull myself up and will manufacture a light at the end of the tunnel. We must hope otherwise we shall die at once. Death will come soon enough, no need to invite him before his time. This too shall pass.

POETRY TUESDAY - I AM

2011-12-27T00:22:00.000-08:00

“No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.” - William Congreve

How many times in our lives it is necessary for us to conceal what is in our mind, what is in our heart, what we really feel in our soul, and present to the world a picture that is acceptable for the circumstances… Our public mask whether a cheerful one, whether one of well-measured composure, or one of self-assured competence is one that may hide below it pain, bitterness, despair, disappointment, disillusionment…

This is my contribution to the Magpie Tales poetry meme.

I Am What I Am

You ask of me to bare myself –

Remove my public mask

Reveal my hidden side,

Shed my chameleon cloak.

You ask of me to doff an armour

I have worn so long it feels like second skin;

To cast off artifice, duplicity,

Discard my cultivated image.

You ask of me to trim my tresses,

Make you a gift of my vulnerability;

Be rid of my convenient nebulosity

Appear before you naked, like the truth.

The mask removed reveals a second mask beneath it;

My armour shed, reveals a hardened carapace below it;

Stripped of my shifting colours,

I simply show you my camouflage even better.

I am that which I am; what I am, I am not,

I am what you have made me, not what I truly am.

The image above of Marilyn Monroe is by Bert Stern

MOVIE MONDAY - INCEPTION

2011-12-26T13:27:00.000-08:00

“Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.” - Tennessee Williams

You know how sometimes you save special things for a special treat when you feel you need to have one? Just push something to the back of the closet so when the occasion demands it, ta-dah! Here it is, let’s have it out and enjoy it. I do that with some movies that we have bought and I consciously save them for a day when we are in that sort of mood to really savour them. So it was with the movie we watched yesterday. I am very partial to a good science fiction yarn, especially one where the plot involves some sort of social spin, as most good science fiction does. Science fiction, is a genre of writing that uses known scientific facts and postulates future worlds and possible new technology as an extension of today’s scientific knowledge. The purpose of such fiction is to explore possibilities and dream up new ideas, examining all the while how people in the future may cope with such technological breakthroughs that will change their lives so dramatically. Unfortunately, my “special reserve film” turned out to be a giant fizzer…

This was surprising as it received rave reviews and IMDB rates it as an 8.9/10 based on nearly half million viewer votes. Well, clearly I am not amongst the majority in this one and my rating for it would be 4.5/10 based solely on the special effects and CGI. In fact the whole film was a long series of stunts, explosions, people trying to kill one another, car chases, moderately outlandish sets, more action sequences, and more CGI and the whole thing kept going on and on and on for a long 148 minutes! The thing was endless.

It was Christopher Nolan’s 2010 “Inception” with Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page (with a cameo by Michael Caine). Nolan must have been given a carte blanche by the studio to develop this idea of his (and as he both wrote the screenplay and directed the movie) he is largely responsible for the end result. It won four Oscars, but they were largely on the look and sound of the film, which were slick. Nothing about acting, script, direction, music etc. It did win best SciFi film in the Saturn awards, but that’s different kettle of fish.

The plot concerns Dom Cobb (Di Carpio), who is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of “extraction”, stealing valuable trade secrets from deep within the subconscious of the subject during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible: “Inception”. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: Their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one in the mind of a corporate chief. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

The plot then starts to go into dream sequence within dream sequence, until the viewer loses track of what is what or who is who or what the heck they are doing where. This is a device to hide the lack of a real plot. Not that the viewer minds after the first half hour. The characters are unlikeable – I couldn’t work up enough sympathy for Cobb (or anyone else) and I viewed all of them as villains that (as far as I was concerned) didn’t matter if they lived or died or achieved their goals or were redeemed or not. I mean the movie is about one corporate giant CEO wanting to crush the competition by planting an idea in the rival CEO’s mind. We are meant to be sympathetic to this? Who cares a pip? Both CEOs should have been neutralised in the first five minutes. The thing was absolute bilge.

Unlike good science fiction, the film did not stimulate new thoughts in my mind, it did not present new problems of humanity or suggest solutions for old ones. It was uninvolving, unoriginal, with weak plot, long, boring, jumbled, with an ending that was predictable as soon as we learned what the goal was. The film left me emotionally cold, unengaged and with no curiosity about what will happen at the end. I kept hoping that there would be a redeeming ending where everything is turned around and our valuable time-investment is finally justified, but unfortunately, the ending falls flat on its face and the whole film is an insult to the intelligent viewer of film.

We do not recommend you see this film unless you are 14 years old and want to see car chases and people getting killed (again and again and again for 148 minutes). No plot, no involvement, no intellectual stimulation. Michael Caine’s pay cheque must have been huge in order for him to consent to play two senseless scenes in this rubbish.

PSALM SUNDAY - KONTAKION FOR THE NATIVITY

2011-12-25T03:58:00.000-08:00

“Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.” - Ruth Carter Stapleton

Merry Christmas!

For Psalm Sunday today, a Greek Orthodox Kontakion that celebrates the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

A Kontakion is a type of thematic hymn in the Orthodox Church and other Eastern Christian churches. Originally, the kontakion was an extended homily in verse consisting of one or two proemia (preliminary stanzas) followed by several strophes called oikoi (singular oikos), usually between 18 and 24. The kontakia were so long that the text was rolled up on a pole for use in the services - the origin of the name kontakion, which means “from the pole” in Greek.

It is typical of the form that each of the proemia and strophes end with the same refrain. Acrostics are also a hallmark of this hymnographic form. In current practice, the kontakion has been greatly abbreviated. Only the (first) proemium and first strophe are sung or read after the sixth ode of the canon at orthros. The proemium alone is sung at the Divine Liturgy, following the troparia, and most other services of the daily cycle. The kontakion is not sung at vespers.

According to tradition, Saint Romanos the Melodist wrote the first kontakion, the Kontakion for the Birth of Our Lord, by divine inspiration. Legend aside, Romanos established the kontakion in the form it retained for centuries, and he is the most famous composer of kontakia.

Kontakion for Christmas

By Romanos the Melodist

Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One,

And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One!

Angels with shepherds glorify Him,

The wise men journey with a star to guide them

For our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child!

It is illustrated by a neo-Byzantine fresco of the Nativity.

I hope your Christmas was peaceful, restful, contented and well-spent beside those you love.

CHRISTMAS EVE 2011 - CAROL OF THE BELLS

2011-12-24T00:09:00.000-08:00

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day; their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the word repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men!” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The year has just hurtled past and here we are greeting yet another Christmas Eve. The year has been a difficult one and one that will certainly be memorable to me personally as a very significant, red letter one… Still, I am forever optimistic, looking forward to the New Year, which will hopefully be a better one.

For Song Saturday today, a Christmas carol, the ever-popular “Carol of the Bells”. It was composed by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych with an English text created later by American composer Peter J. Wilhousky, who wrote lyrics entirely unrelated to the original ones. The carol is based on a folk chant known in Ukrainian as “Shchedryk”, which Leontovych has used as the basis of the carol. It is a haunting four note ostinato motif within the range of a minor third, which is thought to be of prehistoric origins.

Although the first version of the composition was composed in 1904, it first premiered in December 1916 performed by a student choral group at Kiev University. It was introduced to Western audiences by the Ukrainian National Chorus during its concert tour of Europe and the Americas, where it premiered in the United States on October 5, 1921 at Carnegie Hall. A copyrighted English text was created by Peter Wilhousky in the 1930s, and since then it has been performed and sung worldwide during the Christmas season.

*Merry Christmas to all readers of my blog,

may you have a happy, peaceful and restful day tomorrow,

close to those near and dear to you!*

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTMAS FARE

2011-12-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas in England: “For many of the islanders, this anniversary is memorable (apart from all religious significance) because it evokes a great slaughter of turkeys, geese and all kinds of game, a wholesale massacre of fat oxen, pigs and sheep; they envisage garlands of black puddings, sausages and saveloys... mountains of plum-puddings and oven-fulls of mince-pies... On that day no one in England may go hungry... This is a family gathering, and on every table the same menu is prepared. A joint of beef, a turkey or goose, which is usually the pièce de résistance, accompanied by a ham, sausages and game; then follow the inevitable plum-pudding and the famous mince pies.” - Alfred Suzanne

Christmas in Australia is a Summer Christmas, with temperatures often up in the mid- to high-30˚C mark. This seems to preclude traditional Christmas fare on the Christmas lunch/dinner menu (although there are a few die-hard traditionalists that do the full roast stuffed turkey, roast pork, ham, Christmas cake and hot steamed pudding bit with flaming brandy sauce). Christmas fare has adapted to the climate and season and there many options for cool summery salads, cuts of cold meats, cheeses, assorted seafood, barbeques, ice cream cakes, pavlovas and cool fruit salads.

Here are a few Australian Christmas menus to give you an idea of our Christmas fare:

MENU 1

Appetisers

Watermelon ice with malibu & coconut milk

Barbecued prawns with papaya & chilli relish

Mains

Fennel & coriander fish cutlets

Asian greens & tofu salad

Pink grapefruit & endive salad

Grilled vegetables with almond & wasabi dressing

Dessert

Mango & coconut slice with palm sugar cream

MENU 2

Appetisers

Oysters with ponzu, mignonette sauce and gazpacho salsa

Balmain bug and prawn salad with saffron vinaigrette

Mains

Barbecued whole salmon with cracked wheat stuffing and coriander cream

Barbecued fontina and herb polenta fingers

Green leaf salad with lime and macadamia dressing

Dessert

Soft pavlova roll with liqueur mascarpone and berry compote

MENU 3

Buffet

Barbecued lime & mint chicken skewers

Oysters with chilli and bacon

Prawns with caper tartare

Barbecued stuffed pork loin

Lemon & oregano lamb racks

Barbecued corn with chilli-herb butter

Prosciutto, green bean & pumpkin salad

Roasted capsicum salad

Cranberry & champagne granita with berries

As you can see, the accent is on informality, with the food to be prepared quickly and to be preferably consumed outdoors: At the beach, in a park, in the backyard, or in a garden. All suited to the glorious summer weather and the heat! Here is the recipe for a Christmas Cake Ice Cream:

Christmas Cake Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 L vanilla ice cream

200 g sultanas

125 g pitted prunes

125 g glace cherries

60 g mixed peel

125 mL rum

160 g toasted almonds

100 g block of dark chocolate, broken up into small pieces
300 mL cream

Method

1. Leave the ice cream out on the bench to get really soft while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Chop up the chocolate, nuts and fruit into small pieces of roughly the same size, keeping the fruit to one side.

3. Place all of the fruit into a saucepan on medium heat and add the rum.

4. Heat gently for a few minutes so that the fruit begins to soak up the alcohol, then set aside to cool down.

5. Stir the cream into the ice cream, mixing well.

6. Add in everything else and place into a bombe container to freeze overnight.

7. Unmould to serve and decorate with some molten chocolate if desired.

Merry Christmas!

ST ANASTASIA'S DAY

2011-12-22T00:34:00.000-08:00

“Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods” - C.S. Lewis

Today the Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Great Martyr Anastasia, the “Deliverer from Potions”, also Anastasia the Healer or Anastasia of Sirmium. She was martyred in Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia), and is known by the Greek term Φαρμακολύτρια (Pharmakolytria = deliverer from potions), since she has long been venerated by the church as a healer and exorcist. The name Anastasia is from Ανάστασις (Anástasis = Resurrection).

Anastasia was from Rome, daughter of a pagan father, Praepextatus and a Christian mother, Fausta and flourished around 280 AD. She was beautiful, virtuous and her family very wealthy. Her mother instructed her in the faith of Christ. After her mother’s death, her father gave her in marriage to a pagan named Publius Patricius. He subjected his wife to beatings and would keep her as a slave in the house. She only endured these torments for a short time as Publius drowned early in their marriage.

As a young widow, she never remarried and secretly dedicated her time to the poor, the sick and those in prisons by serving their needs daily. She would wash their wounds and especially console them during their anguish. Through her intercessions and prayers, she healed many from the effects of potions, poisons, spells and other harmful substances. This is how she received the honorific appellation “Deliverer from Potions”.

Words of her deeds and miracles spread throughout the area and her fame brought about her arrest under Diocletian’s persecutions. She was tortured and endured many torments and was eventually put to death by fire in the year 290. In the fifth century the relics of the saint were transferred to Constantinople, where a church was built and dedicated to her. This was the church where St. Andrew the Fool-for-Christ was brought to be cured from his foolishness. St. Anastasia appeared to him in a dream and encouraged him to continue his ascetic life. Later the saints’ head and one of her hands were transferred to the Monastery of St. Anastasia the Pharmokolytria, in Chalkidiki, Greece.

Anastasia is a well-beloved saint in the Orthodox calendar and many women are named in this saint’s honour.

SO CIVILISATION CRUMBLES

2011-12-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

“The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence, -- luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, -- are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.” - Cyril Connolly

We live in a decadent era, poised ill-balanced on the cusp of dramatic changes that will alter forever the world as we know it. We are careening towards the end of days as they were for a very long time and the huge change that will result in a relatively short time will leave many behind in disbelief as they attempt to hang onto shreds of lives familiar and comfortable old ways. This is not to be. We must move with the times and adapt to the changing environment or else be forced into extinction like some-ill-adapted organism that cannot cope in the new environment.

What is causing this? Well, a multitude of factors: The global financial crisis; the huge economies of the world finally imploding under the stress of unsustainable business practices based on greed and inequity; globalisation as a forced single solution to all the problems that it has created of itself; political systems that have become irrelevant as people move on and their lives change; people moving away from centuries-old traditions; relationships that were held dear suddenly vanishing into obscurity; loss of restraint; lack of understanding and erosion of the core elements of such concepts as honour, shame, friendship, charity, altruism, faith, community, conscience, humanity…

Money rules supreme and consumerism drives all to make more money at whatever cost. All for sale, all having a price. To have lots of money excuses a multitude of sins that is almost inevitably associated with gaining it. Fame, fortune, world recognition of people whose only claim to fame is that they are recognisable as celebrities. Parasites of society that contribute nothing to it, yet reap the benefits conferred by a population that adulates them and raises them to their positions of prominence.

The latest depravity that made headlines around the world was an affront to humanity and a complete shamelessness to assure the perpetrators fame and fortune was the gross “reality TV” spectacle from Holland . Two television presenters that consumed each other’s flesh in a effort to shock and titillate a jaded public that is forever searching for mindless cheap thrills. This was a pointless and ignoble attempt to boost the revenue of the TV channel they worked for and of course line their own pockets with the filthy lucre. That surgeons took part in this stunt, removing the flesh of the presenters under anaesthesia is all the more abhorrent and shakes our belief in the medical profession as “saviours of humanity”.

World-wide notoriety was assured as people watched on vicariously and yet another taboo was broken down. We seem to be running out of taboos, what shall we do when we have completely reduced ourselves to the level of beastliness? What new perversions must we think of in order to keep the public ever tuned in? What new sordid acts will be shown, what obscenities must we suffer in order to elevate the next performer their five minutes of fame and fortune?

Can such a civilisation survive? How can we expect to advance as a species if we assent to such acts of barbarity and condones behaviours that demolish the morals of centuries? What will be the result? The law of the jungle, complete anarchy, a world in which arbitrary strength of the moment rules: I have a gun and I make the rules. I can kill you and therefore I am above law, above society, above everything that can restrain my behaviour as a sentient human being.

Millions of small acts of dissolution, millions of little acts of decadence, millions of trifling acts of intemperance that all together add up to massive losses of our essential civilised humanity. We are regressing and we are degenerating. We shall fall and then hopefully we can rise up again. Ah, we do live in interesting times…

THE FRENCH HAT

2011-12-20T04:14:00.000-08:00

“Humor is just another defense against the universe.” - Mel Brooks

It’s been a little sad for me lately given all that has happened with my friend being diagnosed with cancer and the visits to the hospital and so on. I’ve also had a look at my recent Magpies and they have been rather melancholy and glum! I looked at the image and felt something heavy and lugubrious welling up from the cellars of inspiration. However, you’ll be relieved to know I’ve locked the cellar door and went up to the attic instead, where all the happy hoppers reside and came up with something humorous that matched the slightly altered image, with apologies to Mr Friedlander…

Here is my contribution for this week’s Magpie Tales:

The French Hat

“Imogen, dear, that hat you wear will never do

We’re going to the cinema you know!”

“Oh, yes, of course it will and don't you stew,

It’s French, so elegant, so ‘comme-il-faut’…”

“Imogen, those behind us shall grumble and complain,

We’ll never hear the end of it, I feel…”

“Oh, shush! A chic and wee chapeau, makes me feel urbane,

Besides, it’s such a delicate shade of teal!”

“Imogen, dear, I am sure you know what is best,

But I fret that we shall spoil our outing…”

“Tut-tut, Henry you are such a bore, desist and rest;

All’s well there will be no loutish shouting!”

So off they went, he short and fat, she lean and tall,

The hat balanced precariously on coiffed beehive.

They sat right up the front and in the centre of the hall,

She high, while Henry shrank and hoped all to survive.

“Down with your blasted hat, up front I cannot see!

Take off the darned contraption and let us enjoy the flick!”

“Oh, Henry an appalling place! Oh, goodness, me!

I feel as though I could get up and give that man a kick…”

“Oh Imogen, dearest love I knew it all along, that hat

Will cause much trouble, strife and discontent!”

“Henry get up and be a man! Don’t let fools treat you like a mat!

Use violence if you must, that lout’s no gent!”

“Down, down! Off with that tatty blue thing up front!”

“Henry, stop hiding, up you get we shall leave!

This is no place for people of quality; Oh, such affront!”

“Imogen, dear, indeed! The ones who go won't grieve!”

So off they went, he glum and fat, she proud and tall,

The hat still held precariously on coiffed beehive.

She killed with dagger eyes the youth, whose catcall

Forced their exit; but hat was held high, joyously alive.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE DOCTOR

2011-12-19T02:18:00.000-08:00

“I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him... The land of tears is so mysterious.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

At the weekend we watched a film we had seen several years ago, as I wanted to see it again, being quite topical in terms of my friend who was diagnosed with cancer, about whom I blogged some days ago. It was the 1991 Randa Haines drama “The Doctor”, starring William Hurt, Christine Lahti and Elizabeth Perkins. The screenplay by Robert Caswell is based on the book “A Taste of My Own Medicine” by Ed Rosenbaum, which I recommended to all of my medical students to read when I was teaching.

William Hurt plays Dr Jack McKee who is an arrogant, rich, self-satisfied surgeon on top of the world. He and his colleagues, Dr Eli Blumfield (Adam Arkin) and Dr Kaplan (Mandy Patimkin) are all successful surgeons who hold lucrative posts and perform miracles with their scalpels every day in the operating theatres of a large teaching hospital. Dr Jack’s motto is: “Get in, fix it, and get out”. He completely lacks human warmth and his empathy for the patients he treats is close to zero. He and his colleagues are hardly likeable characters even though we know their job is to save lives of patients with life-threatening disease.

When Dr Jack develops a cancer in his throat, he changes from his position of power as doctor to the very vulnerable position of patient. He all of the sudden has to face the same impersonal treatment from his colleagues that he too shortly before doled out to his own patients. An early scene in the film involves Dr Abbot (Wendy Crewson) the ENT/throat surgeon who diagnoses his cancer, and she is cold, distant and clinical, making Dr Jack angry. He tells her she is not treating her patients with any compassion or empathy. She responds by telling him her patients are basically an assembly line. Hurt is humbled as he realises that his treatment of his own patients was identical to Dr. Abbot’s, as we have seen in an opening scene where he makes a cutting remark to a breast cancer patient.

With his cancer diagnosed, Dr Jack realises that his career has alienated him from his family and he is virtually a stranger to his wife (Christine Lahti) and child. Dr Jack’s awakening as human being and the relationship he builds with another cancer patient evinces from his wife changing feelings: Sympathy vs anger, jealousy vs feeling excluded, love vs hate, and a subplot is the marital discord that further troubles Dr Jack’s conscience, as he knows he is the one responsible for it. His support in the face of fellow cancer sufferer June Ellis (Elizabeth Perkins) is a saving grace, but at the same time another challenge he has to deal with as she highlights for him the abject dependency a patient has on their treating doctor. It is often said that doctors are the worst patients, and this comes out of the fact that they can experience the ultimate fear of their disease and its consequences, considering that they have the medical knowledge and experience of it.

The film is directed faultlessly by Randa Haines, who gives the film a sense of poignancy and sensitivity where in other hands it could have easily turned into mawkish sentimentality. Haines is not afraid to deal with the emotional awkwardness faced by Dr Jack and his clique and she knows exactly where she steers this movie emotionally. She concludes it strongly and movingly.

All actors play extremely well – Hurt in the leading role especially, showing a transformation that is believable and genuine. Elizabeth Perkins is superficially fragile but one can detect within her the tower of strength that Dr Jack can depend on in order to handle his own crisis. Christine Lahti manages to carry off with aplomb a difficult role that is emotionally flighty and changeable and the film could have become even more powerful if the “marital discord” scenes had been given a little bit more depth.

Overall, this film is a powerful, accessible, realistic and believable fable that criticises not the one man – Dr Jack – but rather the whole medical fraternity who while showing professionalism, emotional restraint and self-protective behaviours when dealing with patients, also have to be human and empathetic and see sickness through the perspective of the very vulnerable, confused, frightened, alienated and despondent person that every patient becomes when facing disease and the concept of their own mortality.