JOB INTERVIEWS

“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” - Oscar Wilde

I had a very long day at work and much of it was spent interviewing people for jobs. This is a very demanding and responsible task and one has to be extremely conscious of the way that the whole process is carried out. One has to be fair, yet exacting, careful and cautious, yet not too tense so as to put the candidates off. The process has to be completely transparent and the panel must be careful to work together in order to get the most information out of each candidate. We had a good panel collaborating well and we were able to get through the interviews without too many problems.

However, we were all quite exhausted afterwards and with some people we interviewed, getting the information out of them was like drawing teeth out of their mouth. When an applicant was rather more communicative and voluble it made such a difference in the process… The hardest was when we knew the persons interviewed and while they had all of the qualifications and abilities to do the job, some of them interviewed very badly.

Other people are so self confident and have such an inflated belief in their abilities that they spend hardly any time in preparing their interview, so when they are asked some questions (the answers of which are staring them in the face in the job description!) they make a thorough mess of the answers. Definitely ones to avoid when appointing.

What is your experience of job interviews? Either being the interviewer or the interviewee?

MOVIE MONDAY - "BELIEVERS"

“Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.” - Isaac Asimov

We watched an interesting B-grade movie yesterday, which we found for sale in the $4.99 special offers DVD basket in the video shop. It is a low budget, science fiction film, Daniel Myrick’s “Believers” of 2007. Considering the investment, the movie was well worth watching (granted its flaws) and it was rather more intelligently constructed than many big budget, sci-fi thrillers.

Dave (Johnny Messner) and Vic (Jon Huertas) are paramedics sent on an emergency call in response to little girl Libby (Saige Ryan Campbell) ringing from a remote gas station. While trying to save the life of her mother, Deborah (Elizabeth Godush), they are abducted by members of the sect Quanta Group, comprising scientists, philosophers and mathematicians. The group believes in the “formula”, which predicts the end of the world after a meteor shower. Their leader The Teacher (Daniel Benzali) converts Vic to his cult, but the reluctant Dave resists and tries desperately to escape the clutches of the mad sect who are bent on passing on to a higher level of existence through mass suicide.

The dialogue is rather lacking in depth and the characterisation is a little too cliché, but overall the simple plot is one that maintains interest, the acting is good enough and the twist at the end, although not completely unexpected is still startling. The effectiveness of the movie and its chilling confronting images come from the realistic way the sect is portrayed and the obvious parallels the film draws with real life occurrences such as the Jonestown massacre. The charismatic leader, the devoted believers, the blind faith, the sect headquarters in a remote area and the secret plans for a future that is better than any present, all were portrayed convincingly in detail.

The concept of faith and belief are explored (albeit rather superficially – at least in the dialogue), and the lengths at which people go to defend their faith are examined. Similarly, the hero, who in this case is a self-confessed atheist gains our sympathy, if only because he is striving for his freedom. The added sympathy factor is that he is a family man who befriends the waif-like Libby, wishing to rescue her from the clutches of the sect. A strange pity is felt for Vic, the good Catholic, who is easily converted to the ways of the sect and who Peter-like betrays not only his own religious convictions, but also the memory of his beloved mother symbolized by the St Christopher medal he wears and with which he feels no compunction to part in his initiation-like conversion ceremony.

The film was a pleasant surprise and although not a fantastic piece of cinematic art, was well put together, more well thought through than your average thriller and more believable than the usual science fiction saga. If you come across it have a look at it…

ART SUNDAY - TAPESTRIES

“To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.” - Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz

For Art Sunday today, The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, which are among the most beautiful art treasures of the world. They were woven in the workshops of Flanders, in the medieval style of mille fleurs, a "thousand flowers." Since 1882 the tapestries have been housed in Paris in the once medieval cloister, the Musée de Cluny.

The tapestries were discovered in 1841 by Prosper Mérimée in Château de Boussac, at the time sub-prefecture of Creuse, and entered immediately into history thanks to the writings of George Sand. The municipality of Boussac bought the château and all it contained in 1837 for about 1000 GBP. In 1882, the French Government, who, for the same sum, acquired them from the municipal authorities of Boussac, presented the tapestries to the Cluny Museum. They were woven, most likely in Tournai, about 1460 AD. The coat of arms on each of the tapestries is that of Le Viste, Lord of Fresne.

The tapestries consist of six pieces, of which the five illustrate the five human senses. They tell the legend of the unicorn, the fabled beast, pure white and having the head and legs of a horse and a long, twisted horn set in the middle of its forehead. Symbolic of holiness and chastity, the unicorn was prominent in tapestries of the Middle Ages, and has been widely used in heraldic devices. The images display the six hangings. The sixth, named "To My Sole Desire" is different from the others.

Taste: The lion and the unicorn are on either side of the lady, who with her eyes turned towards the parakeet she holds in her left hand, is taking a tidbit, handed to her by her maid. Her little dog follows attentively her movements, while eating something on the ground.

Sight: In a familiar way the unicorn has placed his front legs on the knees of the lady, looking at himself in the mirror which the lady holds up to him.

Touch: The lady, holding a squadron banner in one hand, caresses the unicorn with the other hand.

Smell: They lady is binding a crown of flowers. Behind her, it is the monkey that gives the key to this allegory. He is sniffing the perfume of a scented rose which he has taken from a basket.

Hearing: The lady plays a portable organ, placed on a table covered with a sumptuous table cloth. The lion and the unicorn surround the scene, and appear as decorative elements on the sides of the organ.

Understanding - Love: The meaning of the sixth tapestry (the 6th sense) is less easy to explain. The lady appears in front of a tent bearing the inscription "A Mon Seul Désir" (To My Sole Desire), and seems to place a necklace in a box which her servant is holding on to her. The question is whether this scene is the introduction to or the conclusion of the series of the five senses?

When I embrace her,
And her arms open wide,
I feel like a Man in Spiceland,
who is overwhelmed with perfume.
Then I kiss her; and she opens her lips.
Without a taste of beer,
I am intoxicated.

SEX

“It is not sex that gives the pleasure, but the lover.” - Marge Piercy

Passionate nights are winter’s most reliable warmers. When one has their heart’s desire beside them and skin touches skin under the bedclothes, it matters little if the wild wind is blowing outside, nor if the rain is lashing the windowpanes. Sex is OK, but if it part of a loving relationship it is fantastic…

For my someone very special, tonight:

FOOD FRIDAY - HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends!

Enjoy this most important day in your national calendar and rejoice in those best features of your country that make it special amongst all the nations. Seeing it is Food Friday, I’ll dedicate my blog today to the gastronomic delights of the USA. It’s easy to think of hot dogs and hamburgers when one thinks of the USA, but the culinary tradition of this country of 400 years or so is particularly rich and complex, drawing on its inspiration on many sources: Native Indian, English, Dutch, Irish, German, Jewish, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish…

I was amazed by the variety of food available in New York City the first time I visited this melting pot of cultures, full of imported delicacies but processed and altered in such a way as to make them uniquely American. The delicatessens of New York and their wonderful pastrami sandwiches, smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, cheesecakes and New Jersey beefsteak tomato salads. The wonderful seafood of the Mid-Atlantic states – Chincoteague oysters, cherry-stone clams and striped bass. Although New England’s seafood vies for first place, with lobsters, clams, scallops and salt-water fish. I remember with fondness the traditional New England clambake ritual and the delicious flavours I enjoyed when visiting there a couple of decades ago! And who can forget Boston’s baked beans, or the pure maple syrup poured over pancakes and toasted oven-fresh brown bread with lashings of butter?

Regional touches on the East coast are the Pennsylvania Dutch dishes of shoofly pie, ponhaus (scrapple) and chicken pot pie. And what about blueberries or wild strawberries with cream? Or maybe butternut fudge and beach-plum jelly?

Travelling down towards the south, one encounters the famous southern fried chicken, corn bread, Smithfield country ham, collard greens and black-eyed peas. The wonderful spicy tastes of Creole, Cajun cooking of New Orleans – dirty rice, Creole cream cheese, catfish dishes with piquant sauces, chicory coffee… Further towards Florida, the wonderful Key lime pies, orange cake, a cornucopia of tropical fruits in fruit salads full of pineapple, mango, guava, tamarind, kumquats, papaya, limes, oranges. The influence of Cuba and the Caribbean mix with the simple ways of fisher folk and the high class restaurants of resort cities. Shrimps, stone crabs, red snapper, all served in a mind-boggling array of ways and styles.

Texas and the Southwest are the traditional home of the barbeque, with anything and everything thrown on the grill – quails, steers, antelope, wild turkey, bear and kid. Tex-Mex cuisine with chili and fiery sauces are influenced by the neighbours across the border: Enchiladas, tacos, tortillas, tamale pie, chili con carne and chiles rellenos. Okra, piñon nuts, garbanzo beans, wildbrush honey are all often-used regional ingredients. Pecan pie, mustang-grape pie, agarita jelly, hominy bread and black-eyed peas are to be found here too.

The Plains States offer us braised pheasant from Dakota, barbequed beef in Oklahoma, beef steaks cooked to perfection in Nebraska. Old Scandinavian recipes abound in the bakeries and pastryshops and there are also Bohemian and Russian influences in the Dakotas. The Mid-West abounds with foreign influences: Chicago, Milwaukee, St Louis and Cincinatti have a strong German influence, in Detroit and Cleveland, the flavour is Polish. If one tours these states, one may sample delicacies such as fried rabbit and squirrel, navy beans with ham hocks, hot biscuits, persimmon pudding, poke greens and wilted lettuce.

The Mountain States are rich in game and fresh-water fish. Trout, bass, greyling, crappie, char and perch are often cooked on the campfire of the successful fisherman. Braised moose, venison steaks, wild turkey and ruffed grouse, partridge and pheasant will often grace the tables of the hunters. The great outdoors, simple food of the hunter, fisherman and gatherer where the bounty of nature is enjoyed in picnics and in the campsites are the specialty of these states.

Washington and Oregon are full of memories for me as I have visited there a couple of times. Lovely seafood such as salmon, halibut, trout, Dungeness crabs, razor clams, large Pacific oysters and tiny Olympia oysters are all treats. Wild berries in profusion, apples, pears, peaches, and other stone fruit. Tillamook cheese, Frango ice cream and apricot and apple candy are specialties not to be missed. The produce markets of Seattle are a pleasure to visit and are full of wonderful, luscious fresh food.

California is a blessed state where fruit and vegetables are produced all year round. Vineyards and wine-making provide 80% of wine of the USA. The food here is cosmopolitan and heavily influenced by Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese and local cuisines. The seafood bounty of the Pacific also figures prominently here.

Hawaii provides an exotic touch to the mainland states and the visitor is likely to sample all delights in a traditional Hawaiian luau. A potent Mai Tai cocktail will herald the feast, where pit-roasted pig and chickens take pride of place. Macadamia and kukui nuts, marinated raw fish, steamed crabs, poi, coconuts, bananas, pineapples, guavas, papayas and fruit punch complete the feast. If that isn’t enough, why not sample some authentic Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Portuguese dishes?

Alaskans like mooseburgers, barbequed reindeer steaks, caribou sausage, bear chops, pot roast of beaver, ptarmigan pie – seriously! If you would rather fish, how about baked king salmon, king-crab salad, butter-fried razor clams, grilled shee-fish, whale steaks and Arctic char? Berries, vegetables, fiddle-head ferns, rosehips, cranberries all complete the menu.

America is also the land of the snack, the comfort food, the gratuitous mouth candy. Frozen custard, candy floss, popcorn, candied apples, cookies, burgers, hot dogs, fries, grits, ices, pies are all there to tempt you. Unfortunately, it is also the home of the infamous frozen TV dinner, the processed glop that masquerades as cheese, the unidentifiable concoctions that are shaped as crumbed deep-fried “chicken”, “fish” or “beef” croquettes and all manner of other fast food sins. Supermarket freezers are full of ignominious manufactured garbage masquerading as food and one needs to steer of most such offerings…

One can have a feast in the USA and if one chooses carefully some remarkably good eating is to be had there. Rejoice in your bounty but remember, you are what you eat!

DOG DAYS...

“Every dog has his day” – Popular saying

I am in Brisbane again for work and this is the perfect time for being here, weather-wise. While Melbourne is in the clutches of Winter, Brisbane enjoys mild temperatures of 24-25˚C and beautiful sunny, warm days. It is just after 7:30 in the morning and I am looking out of the hotel window at the sunlit parks and gardens and listening to the dulcet tones of Yvonne Kenny singing Purcell’s “O, Let Me Weep”.
"O let me weep, for ever weep, My Eyes no more shall welcome Sleep; I'll hide me from the sight of Day, And sigh, and sigh my Soul away. He's gone, he's gone, his loss deplore; And I shall never see him more."

Here is the piece from YouTube, with an introduction about the opera, the song given by the performer, Yvonne Kenny, before the video of this aria. The aria itself begins at the 2:02 time mark.



The Dog Days begin today. These were hot and (according to the Romans) unhealthy days that were heralded by the ascent of Sirius, the Dog Star. These days lasted from today until about the 11th of August. Many cultures considered the “Dog Days” to have a baleful influence on humans. During these days it was considered wise to “abstain from the company of women”, “not let blood or take physic” and “seeth well your meals and take heed of feeding violently”. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and was very important in many ancient cultures. The Ancient Egyptians, for example, calculated the annual flooding of the Nile with the aid of the ascent of Sirius. The rising of Sirius has over the centuries come at a later and later date, presently rising in late August. Hence the “Dog Days” of the Romans no longer correspond with the rising of Sirius. The term is still strongly entrenched in the language and many people still regard the superstition of these days with some concern.

Aptly for our Word Thursday, therefore:

dog days, plural noun
the hottest period of the year (reckoned in antiquity from the heliacal rising of Sirius, the Dog Star).
• a period of inactivity or sluggishness: In August the baseball races are in the dog days.
ORIGIN: from Latin, caniculares dies (days of the dogs).

POETRY WEDNESDAY - THE WEAVER

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!” - Sir Walter Scott

I wrote this poem a very long time ago and found it by chance a few days ago.

The Old Woman Weaving

The old woman sits weaving
And weaving, and weaving…
The shuttle flies
The woven cloth lengthens.

Multicoloured yarns,
Endless designs.
And the old woman weaves,
And weaves, and weaves…

The cloth is wound up,
As the shuttle flies.
The loom sings,
The loom cries, tak, tak, tak…

And it weaves on,
Using the yarn until it ends,
Or until it’s cut,
It gets woven.

Decorations, variations,
Improvised designs, easy and difficult,
A myriad of colours
A thousand of threads.

And yet the old crone refuses to weave
Into my life’s cloth, your own yarn.

JULY

“Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.” – Ausonius

July is named after Julius Caesar. This name was given to the month after Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, in order to honour the killed leader. Before that time, the month was called Quintilius meaning the fifth month (Martius being the first month in the old Roman calendar). It is of significance that this month had 31 days, because anything less would not have been good enough for honouring the dead Caesar! In Anglo-Saxon the month is called Litha, meaning the month of the Midsummer Moon. In Gaelic it is Am Mios buidhe, the yellow month. In Welsh, July is termed Gorfennaf, meaning the “Month of Completion”.

Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.

In Australia of course, July is the midwinter month, equivalent to the Northern hemisphere January. July 1st is also the beginning of our financial year and I ma immersed in the budgeting process for this financial year, at work!

The birthstone for July is the ruby. The name of the gem is derived from the Latin rubeus, meaning red. The best rubies are said to be of a dark red colour identical to the colour of pigeons’ blood. Natural, large red rubies are the most expensive of gems. It is an aluminium oxide, a variety of corundum. India and other Eastern countries such as Burma are associated with the mining of beautiful natural stones. Nowadays, however, synthetic rubies abound and it may be difficult for a non-expert to tell a natural from a synthetic gem. The water lily symbolises July.

Lorsque vole bas l’aronde
attends alors que la pluie tombe
(When the swallow flies low
wait soon for the rain to fall)
French weather rhyme

Juillet sans orage
famine au village
(July without storm
famine in the village)
French weather rhyme

Gather up the wheat and tie it
Thresh it, bundle it up and mill it
To your health this good cup
Give a piece of bread to me to sup.
Greek folk rhyme

Today is Canada Day, so best wishes to my Canadian friends. Canada is the world’s second largest country with an area of close to 10 million square km and a population of just over 33 million people. It was created in 1867 by the British North American Act. It comprises the great barren Arctic Ocean islands in the North, through the huge grasslands in the central South and the Rocky Mountain chain in the West to fertile farmlands in the East close to the great lakes. Mineral resources, oil, gas, timber, extensive farming have contributed to Canada’s economic success, but the majority of the country remains greatly unexploited. The capital city is Ottawa and other cities include: Montréal, Québec, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg and Halifax.

MOVIE MONDAY - CALLAS FOREVER

“Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.” - Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Imagine having a wonderful talent, a divine gift that makes you special, makes you shine, a wonderful ability, which elevates you to the heights of glory. Imagine becoming rich and famous, enjoying the adulation of millions. Imagine then suddenly, at the height of your success, losing that talent and having to live day to day with the knowledge that you were once capable of true greatness but it exists now only in your memories and in the records of your success that immortalise you but at the same time torment you…

Such is the subject of the film we watched at the weekend, Franco Zeffirelli’s “Callas Forever” (2002) with Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons. The film examines the final few years of Maria Callas’ life in a highly fictionalized account, which nevertheless is appealing and gives Ardant a magnificent opportunity to pull all stops out in order to bring to life the talent of Callas. She is ably supported by Jeremy Irons and their performances feed off one another in a very sensitively portrayed duet that brings to life the “difficult” relationships that Maria Callas had in her professional life.

The film looks at Callas’ last years when she was living in her Paris apartment as a recluse, knowing full well that she had lost her voice. Her ex-manager visits her and convinces her to make a comeback through the magic of technology. He proposes that Callas act in a movie version of “Carmen”, an opera she recorded, but which she never played on stage. They will use the excellent recording from the 60s and she will mime through the action and during the playback. Callas has qualms, but she is convinced and the film is made, a successful project in every way.

Just as the film is ready to be released, thus signaling Callas’ return to the public, the great diva begins to grapple with her conscience. She regards this technologically assisted production a fake and she cannot allow herself to be a party to this fraud. Instead she wishes to make a film of “Tosca”, but this time she will sing the role anew. The producers back down…

This is a well-produced film, with great performances and the voice of the diva used throughout. There is a chance to see Carmen as it may have been acted and sung by Callas and Fanny Ardant manages to complete the illusion. Recommended for al opera buffs, but also for anyone who may enjoy a good story full of emotion and spectacle.

ART SUNDAY - PARMIGIANINO

“Style is the dress of thoughts.” - Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield

Art Sunday today is dedicated to Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, better known as Parmigianino, as he was born in Parma. He became Italy's most influential Mannerist painter in his brief twenty-year career. His father and uncles taught him the techniques of painting, and by age sixteen he had already completed an altarpiece for a local church. Beginning in 1520, the celebrated Renaissance artist Correggio became his primary inspiration. Scholars believe that the younger artist may have assisted Correggio with his frescoes at a church in Parma, where Parmigianino may also have completed his own frescoes.

In 1524 Parmigianino visited Rome to present a self-portrait to Pope Clement VII. There the young artist experienced Raphael and Michelangelo's art firsthand, and his style became more grand, elegant, and noble. Following the Sack of Rome in 1527, Parmigianino escaped to Bologna, but within three years he had returned to Parma, where he received a commission to paint frescoes in another church. At this time, according to some accounts, Parmigianino became a devotee of alchemy, transforming himself into a lunatic and completing little work at the church. He was imprisoned after nearly a decade of slow progress but escaped. Scholars believe that Parmigianino was the first Italian artist to make etchings, and his work significantly influenced the art of printmaking.

The term mannerism is derived from the Italian “maniera”, meaning simply “style,” mannerism is sometimes defined as the “stylish style” for its emphasis on self-conscious artifice over realistic depiction. The sixteenth-century artist and critic Vasari (also a mannerist himself) believed that excellence in painting demanded refinement, richness of invention, and virtuoso technique, criteria that emphasized the artist’s intellect. More important than his carefully recreated observation of nature was the artist’s mental conception and its elaboration. This intellectual bias was, in part, a natural consequence of the artist’s new status in society. No longer regarded as craftsmen, painters and sculptors took their place with scholars, poets, and humanists in a climate that fostered an appreciation for elegance, complexity, and even precocity.

Parmigianino’s “Madonna dal Collo Lungo” (Madonna with Long Neck), painted 1534-40 (Oil on panel, 216 x 132 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) is a typical mannerist work. It was painted for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi at Parma. It is the masterpiece of the culminating period in the art of Parmigianino, done almost the same time as the frescoes of the Steccata at Parma. The painter worked upon the picture for six years, but this notwithstanding, it remained unfinished. It is a work of intense if somewhat aloof poetical feeling, this effect mainly arising from the splendid abstraction of the forms, so smoothly rounded under the cool and polished colour.

The painting takes its subject from a simile in medieval hymns to the Virgin which likened her neck to a great ivory tower or column. Appropriate to the traditional understanding of the Virgin as an allegorical representation of the Church, this imagery was also exploited in poems. Thus the exaggerated length of the limbs of the Virgin and her son, as well as the presence of columns in the background of the painting, are not contrived merely for their decorative value, but clearly signal the painting's religious meaning.

LACRIMOSA

“The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.” - John Vance Cheney

Artists are a closely knit group and as such develop symbiotic relationships with one another. Birds of a feather flock together and one artist will attract another, not necessarily just physically and in space, but often, also through time and spiritually, through their art. Art is very much a derivative pursuit and an artist may be inspired through contemplation of another artist’s art. The world becomes richer through this approximation, which although derivative is no plagiarism for a new art piece is created, fresh and different.

For Song Saturday today, Austrian, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Dominican, Juan Luis Guerra (1957-). The former everyone knows, the latter not as many. Separated by centuries and both composers. Mozart has inspired Guerra, in at least one piece, and how different the original from the derived work! But there is that little matter of time and space that lies between them…

In any case, in both cases the mood is tearful, the music lovely and the emotions run deep.

Lacrimosa
(Juan Luis Guerra – Inspired by "Lacrimosa" from the Requiem of Mozart)

Sueño
es todo lo que queda de ti
una cruel ilusión
que marchita mi vida
Eres
un rosario que nunca rezó
un enredo fatal
que me arrastra sin camino
Canto
la amargura de mi corazón
hoy me queda un hilito de luz
y lo pierdo contigo
Santa
yo te hacía bendita, mujer
pero se equivocó mi querer
y me hundo en el olvido
Lacrimosa
un puñal es tu cariño
no me lo claves que aún vivo
curando las noches
de amor que te di
quiero beberme tus ojos
llorarlos sin fin
Lacrimosa
ni un pañuelo me has dejado
para secar el pasado
de besos mojados
que hoy suda mi piel
quiero beberme tu boca
besarte, mujer
Oh...
Quiero
me devuelvas el pacto de amor
que la luna celosa nos dio
sobre un papel de arena
Vete
si te dicen que pierdo razón
es que en mi corazón
la verdad miente de pena
Si te alejas, vida...

Nota: El último fragmento de música de la mano de Mozart son los ocho primeros compases de "Lacrimosa". La pieza, al igual que varias otras secciones del Réquiem, fue completada por su alumno Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

Lacrimosa (Teary-Eyed)
A dream –
All of you is a cruel illusion
That has withered my life.

You are:
A rosary that entangled me
And holds me back, making me lose my way

A song,
It’s the bitterness of my heart.
Today I have left only a single ray of light
I lose it and with it, you

A saint!
I blessed you, woman,
But I was mistaken,
And I need to sink into forgetfulness.

In tears,
Your love is a dagger
That stabs me, but still keeps me alive,
Curing the nights of love that I gave you.
I want to drink your eyes
To make them cry endlessly

Teary eyed,
Not even a handkerchief have you left me with
To dry the past passionate kisses
That even today make me swoon.
I want to drink your mouth,
Kissing you, woman.

Oh!
I want you to give me back the pact of love
That the jealous moon gave us,
Written on sand, as if on paper.

It’s forbidden…
If they tell you that I’m going crazy,
It’s because my heart lies about the pain.
If you go away, I’ll lose my life…

Note: The last fragment of music by the hand of Mozart in his “Requiem” is the eight first notes of the “Lacrimosa”. The piece, like several other sections of the Requiem, was completed by his student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

SOUP!

“A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.” - Elsa Schiaparelli

There is no doubt we are in the middle of winter in Melbourne. The nights are long and chilly, the days short and often a little wet (but still no decent rain!). And the weather is just right for soup. Here is a favourite for this time for the year, a slight variation of a French classic:

Celeriac, Onion and Potato Soup

Ingredients
30g butter
2 large (400g) brown onions, chopped coarsely
1 clove garlic, crushed
1.5kg celeriac, trimmed, chopped coarsely
1 large (300g) potato, peeled, chopped coarsely
1 litre (4 cups) salt-reduced chicken stock
2 cups (500ml) water
300ml cream
celery salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Method
Heat the butter in a large saucepan, cook onion and garlic, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add celeriac, potato, stock and water; bring to the boil.
Reduce heat; simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are very soft. Blend soup, in batches, until smooth.
Return soup to cleaned saucepan; add cream, stir until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve sprinkled with chives.

Enjoy!

MADAGASCAR

“Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress.” - John Clapham

Madagascar has always fascinated me. I remember in primary school during geography lessons looking at this huge island sitting in the ocean to the east of southern Africa and looking at the few pictures accompanying the sparse (yet intriguing) text in the geography book. Exotic names: Lemurs, baobab trees, chameleons, thorn trees… Fascinating yet alien, exotic but strangely inviting, faraway and yet seemingly so welcoming.

How did I remember it? My calendar says that today is Madagascar’s Independednce Day, celebrated since 1960. Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island with an area of 600,000 square km, a population of 12 million, and home to the Malagasy Republic. The capital city is Antananarivo with Toamasina, Fianarantsoa, Toliara, Mahajanga and Antsiranana being other major cities. It was a French colony from 1896 until 1960 when it became independent. The landscape is richly varied with a high central plateau of arid scrub and savannah with deserts in the South. The East coast is hot, humid and covered by tropical rainforest. Little of the land is cultivated although most of the population are subsistence farmers. Cloves, vanilla, coffee, sugar, rice and cassava are the major products. Deforestation by a burgeoning timber industry is threatening this island’s unique flora and fauna.

The relatively recent animated Disney movie “Madagascar” (2005) may have alerted many people to the delights of Madagascar, but in these days of environmental destruction and threatened biosphere, this movie may be a timely reminder for the wholesale environmental ruination of a unique and wildly beautiful place in the world.

And for our Word Thursday, something apt:

lemur |ˈlēmər| noun
an arboreal primate with a pointed snout and typically a long tail, found only in Madagascar. Compare with flying lemur . • Lemuridae and other families, suborder Prosimii; includes also the sifaka, indri, and aye-aye.
ORIGIN late 18th century: Modern Latin, from Latin lemures (plural) ‘spirits of the dead’ (from its spectre-like face).

POETRY WEDNESDAY - ELEUSIS

“He only lives, who living enjoys life.” – Menander

Some places draw us like magnets and make us feel a special enervating energy as we tread the ground. A sense of mystery, an awe, a deep-seated feeling of a diachronic present tense, which nevertheless is imbued with the import of centuries suffuses our soul as we walk though those unique places. One may sense it in the centre of Australia, walking amongst the Olgas or around Uluru. Or as one is walking through the Acropolis, in Delphi, in Notre Dame in Paris, or in Chartres cathedral. In Stonehenge or under millions of tons of stone in the Great Pyramid of Giza…

I felt this in my recent trip while walking through ancient sites. In Sounion, in Athens, in Salamis… Here is a poem that I wrote trying to capture something of this feeling of time and space as they relate to a special place of such a kind.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The sun, wild,
Lashes without pity
Naked bodies.
The ancient marble lolls
Strewn amongst the pine trees
And the noontime silence
Is mirrored in the
Midsummer heat.

Somewhere in the forest,
Dense and shady,
A fountain trills
Like Pan’s flute.
In the heart of the mountain,
Deep in the rocks,
Cyparissus
Sleeps lightly.

It’s enough to find a magic word,
A word both true and ancient,
And if you murmur it,
Twenty five centuries
Will shatter like glass
And crash in front of
The violet-tinged temple,
Raised from the ground anew.

LITERARY TUESDAY - PD JAMES

“Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time, But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.” – John Dryden

For our literary Tuesday today I am reviewing a book that I read while on my holiday. It is the crime novel “A Taste for Death” by British writer P. D. James. This is the pen name of Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL (born 3 August 1920) who is a life peer in the British House of Lords. She only started writing when she was 30 years old and has written abut 20 books, including an autobiography, a science fiction novel and a mainstream novel. However, her forte is crime fiction, a genre that she excels in. Her investigator extraordinaire is Adam Dalgliesh of the New Scotland Yard, who also happens to be a poet. Her first Adam Dalgliesh novel “Cover her Face” was first published in 1962.

“A Taste for Death” (seventh in the Commander Adam Dalgliesh series) is a satisfying crime novel, but also a study in human character and a wry look at the complex motivating forces in people’s lives. One can often forget the crime in a PD James novel and rather concentrate on the characters’ emotions, psychology and ideas. PD James writes beautifully and her prose often lapses into a style that is more fitting to a “serious” novel, rather than the typical crime fiction. However, in this way she resembles the other “mistresses of crime fiction”, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Ruth Rendell. This particular novel of James won the Silver Dagger in 1986, and has also been adapted for a 1988 UK television miniseries.

The plot of the novel revolves around the murder of an acquaintance of Commander Dalgliesh. In the dark and shabby vestry of St. Matthew's Church, Paddington, two bodies are found with their throats slashed with an old fashioned shaving razor. One of the victims is an alcoholic vagrant, and the other is Sir Paul Berowne, a baronet and recently resigned Minister of the Crown. Adam Dalgliesh investigates a convoluted murder case which involves both himself and his assistant, Inspector Kate Miskin in a web of intrigue and danger.

I can recommend PD James’ works and especially this one, so if you have not sampled her oeuvre, here’s my encouragement to do so. The style is relaxed, the narrative slow and deliberate, the action at sufficiently paced intervals to keep one’s interest up and the characters varied, believable, with great depth and complexity so as to keep the reader’s interest up.

Happy reading!

MOVIE MONDAY - 10,000 BC

“If ridicule were employed to laugh men out of vice and folly, it might be of some use.” - Joseph Addison

I hate watching movies on planes, but sometimes it is something that I resort to after having worked on my computer a little, having read a little more, having solved some crosswords and having run out of power on my computer after working on it more. And when that is the case, the movie I usually choose is something light and escapist that requires the least concentration, as distractions are many and varied during the flight.

On the way back from Singapore, I watched the 2008 epic “10,000 BC”, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Steven Strait and Camilla Belle. This is the perfect sort of movie to watch out of the corner of your eye while all sorts of other things are going on in the plane around you. Remember the ridiculous “One Million BC” of 1940, and the still more ridiculous “One Million Years BC” of 1966? Well, add to those two films, the sublimely ridiculous “10,000 BC” of 2008.

A group of Ice Age hunters (who we know didn't live in large groups), lives in Europe in a village (hmmm, remember your history saying they were nomads, they didn't live in permanent villages, right?), are spending winter in the mountains (that’s one of the reasons they were nomads, not to spend the winter up in the mountains!). They hunt for any mammoths that happen by chance to wander by, chasing them with spears and killing them with single spear throws! ( highly dubious). There is some supernatural mumbo-jumbo, a blue-eyed beauty who gets abducted by more civilised riders and a weakling who then decides to rescue the woman by tramping with his companions through East Asian bamboo jungles to sub-Saharan Africa and finally to what looks like ancient Egypt, over the course of a few weeks. Did I mention the mammoths were helping to build the pyramids? Or that people from Atlantis were running the show? I was expecting Santa Claus and the Martians to walk in at that stage.

The plot is weak to non-existent, the assumptions the audience is expected to make immense and the tolerance level of the viewer enormous. The acting is cheesy, the dialogue inane and the stone-age people sanitized beyond redemption. Some special effects and CGI attempt to make the movie appealing, but overall, a movie to watch while you’re not watching a movie on a long flight to while away the long hours. Otherwise, don’t bother!

ART SUNDAY - ANCIENT GREEK PAINTING

“Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?” – Pablo Picasso

The ancient Greeks were quite proficient in the art of painting. Not only vase and wall painting, but also in easel painting on panels of wood or marble. What we know of easel painting of the classical era we know from contemporary descriptions of the life of artists and their works. However, no ancient Greek easel painting of the classical era has survived. Many artists such as Zeuxis and Parrhasius, Timanthes, Pamphilus and Pausias, Apelles and Protogenes are described as masters of their art, and their paintings make many writers wax lyrical about them.

One set of examples of ancient Greek art on a wood panel we have, was discovered in the sacred grotto dedicated to the nymph of Pitsa near Corinth. This is one of the rare examples of "Archaic" Greek painting, and it can be dated about 540 BC. It represents a short procession of donors approaching a low, bare altar at the right. Offerings are being brought by garlanded women and youths: Wine by the imperious woman leading the group; a lamb by the boy behind her; flowering branches by the serene figures behind a pair of musicians. It is the best preserved of four tablets found in Pitsa, which constitute, together with the pinakes of Penteskouphia (now in Berlin), the most ancient documents of that painting which historians assure us was born in Corinth. Proof can be found in the analogous quality of the vase painting, in a similar employment of judicious, yet joyful, dramatic variations that do not disturb the outlines of the compositional cadences. The name of the artist was inserted in the writing at the top, but today this is unfortunately lost. All that remains is the eponym "Corinthian." which is, nevertheless, useful information. The small painted tablets called pinakes were suspended on the walls of little chapel-like structures in tombs.

The tablets are thin wooden boards or panels, covered with stucco (plaster) and painted with mineral pigments. Their bright colours are surprisingly well preserved. Only eight colours (black, white, blue, red, green, yellow, purple and brown) are used, with no shading or gradation of any sort. Probably, the black contour outlines were drawn first and then filled in with colours.

Those familiar with Christian church services might assume that Greek hymns were sung inside ‘god’s house’, i.e. his temple, perhaps before the cult image itself, which was (usually) placed seated in the cella. But Greek religion was conducted largely out of doors: Processions and sacrifice (both typically accompanied by hymn-singing) focussed on the spatial transition from town to temple and in particular on the altar erected outside the temple entrance. Aristophanes (in his plays “Clouds” and “Peace”) mentions ‘most holy processions to the gods’ (prosodoi makaron ierotatoi).

This precious painting and three more from the same location can be admired today in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens!

WINTER SOLSTICE

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” - Albert Camus

It is Winter Solstice today in the Southern hemisphere and suitably the day has been grey and gloomy, wet and cold. The shortest day of the year has been and gone and now for the longest night. From tomorrow, the days begin to lengthen although most of winter is still ahead of us.

For Song Saturday, a piano piece by Michele McLaughlin called Winter Solstice. Here is what the composer has to say about the piece:

“From my concert with Jennifer Thomas on November 24, 2007. The song, Winter Solstice l, is from my holiday album, Christmas - Plain & Simple. Learn more about me and my music at http://www.michelemclaughlin.com. Thank you!”


Enjoy!

FLYING AGAIN!

“Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.” - Colleen C. Barrett

No sooner am I back home and I have to travel to Brisbane for work – so it was very much a case of out of one plane and into another. Fortunately, I did get a very good night’s sleep the night before and had no jet lag, so that made the trip much easier to cope with.

Several pressing matters had waited for my return and urgent attention, which could wait no longer so I spent two days away, working quite literally without respite, from early in the day until late in the evening. However, the up side of this was that a lot got done some minor crises were resolved and the feeling of a job well done accompanied me on my return to Melbourne.

Needless to say, I shall be spending a very quiet weekend at home, relaxing and only travelling that I shall be doing will be from the bedroom to the kitchen, from the kitchen to the living room and then the same trips in reverse! Word Thursday is once again suitably apt:

aeroplane |ˈe(ə)rəˌplān| noun
British term for airplane .
ORIGIN late 19th century: From French aéroplane, from Greek aér ‘air’ + Greek -planos ‘wandering.’

BACK TO WORK!

“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.” - Pearl S. Buck

Today was my first day back at work, after getting a very good night’s sleep at home after our trip abroad. The day absolutely flew by as I was catching up with 3 weeks of accumulated backlog. The parcels of books that we had sent from Greece had already arrived and it was good to see them waiting for me in my office.

Seeing it is poetry Wednesday, I am sharing with you a suitably reflective and apt poem for a homecoming after a trip. This comes out of “The Lord of the Rings” and is quite lovely:

I Sit Beside the Fire

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who shall see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

J.R.R. Tolkien