EQUINOCTIAL EARTH DAY

“The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one: To fight for survival.” - Morris K. Udall

Tomorrow is the Equinoctial Earth Day as designated by the United Nations. This is celebrated on the March equinox (around 20th of March) and marks the moment of astronomical mid-spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and of astronomical mid-autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. An equinox in astronomy is the moment in time when the centre of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year. In most cultures the equinoxes and solstices are considered to separate the seasons.

The idea of a worldwide holiday to be called “Earth Day” was first introduced by John McConnell, a peace activist at a UNESCO Conference on the Environment in 1969. This was adopted by the United Nations and at the moment of the equinox, it is traditional to observe Earth Day by ringing the Japanese Peace Bell (donated by Japan to the United Nations). Over the years celebrations have occurred in various cities globally at the same time as the celebration at the United Nations.

Amidst cries of increasing shrillness and alarm about our changing climate, our dwindling water resources, pollution of our environment and a runaway greenhouse effect, we still have time to actively seek innovative solutions for the future. Earth Day is a means of raising awareness of environmental issues and doing something globally to diminish the destruction of this very fragile planet we are living on. It is certainly a day for taking the message of “Think Globally, Act Locally” to everyone. This adage refers to the argument that global environmental problems can turn into action only by considering ecological, economic, and cultural differences of our local surroundings. This phrase was originated by René Dubos as an advisor to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. In 1979, Dubos suggested that ecological consciousness should begin at home.

Here are some suggestions for reducing your environmental footprint:

1. Become Carbon Neutral, purchase carbon credits (which are used to fund offset activities such as planting trees, or various energy conservation activities).

2. Convert to Green Power through your electricity provider (the electricity provider must produce your electricity needs through the use of clean, renewable energy sourced from the sun, the wind, water and waste, instead of burning coal).

3. Drive as small and fuel efficient car as is suitable to your needs. No status symbols or “Toorak tractors” (Australians are big drivers: Per capita we own more cars than any other nation except the USA. With average use, an Australian family car will travel about 15,000 km a year, generate about six tonnes of greenhouse pollution and cost its owners $7,700).

4. Be aware of the meat you eat. Don't eat Feedlot beef, or even become a vegetarian (animal products make up the biggest part of our Eco Footprint - 34% to be exact. Meat, particularly beef, has a very high environmental impact, using much water and land to produce it, and creating significant greenhouse pollution. In fact if you reduce your intake by one 150 g serve of red meat each week, you'll save 10,000 litres of water and 300 kg of greenhouse pollution in a year. Most conventional meats are resource intensive, but feedlot beef is particularly wasteful. Producing 1 kg of feedlot beef, on average, requires 4.8 kg of grain and over 19800 liters of water. It also results in the erosion of over 2 kg of topsoil).

5. Reduce the electricity consumption of your house and office by switching off lights and computers when not in use and installing energy efficient appliances and fixtures (eg: Replace existing incandescent bulbs with Compact Fluorescent bulbs or the newer LED bulbs. Turn off “power vampires” – ie, appliances on “sleep mode”. Such “power vampires” can cost a typical household up to 11% of the electric bill. Switch to a Solar hot water System if you have an electric hot water system. Switch from electric to gas appliances whenever possible. If you are buying new appliances, choose the product with the best Energy Star Rating that you can afford).

6. Communicate your views to people in power (encourage change by: Contacting your elected member of parliament; Emailing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; Having face-to-face meetings with your elected officials, which can move them from having a passive stance to taking an active interest).

7. Pressure industry to change its ways (reward a company with your business for doing the right thing by the environment. Abandon them for doing wrong, but make it known to them why they have lost your custom with a letter or email).

8. Eat less fish and be aware of the types of fish that you do consume (the global wild fish harvest has begun a sharp decline since 2000 despite progress in seagoing technologies and intensified fishing. Long-lining, in which a single boat sets line across sixty or more miles of ocean, each baited with up to 10,000 hooks, captures at least 25 percent unwanted catch).

9. Join or support an action group or Green Project that you are interested in (larger groups like the WWF and Greenpeace, are aware of the most pressing issues and have the resources to keep on top of things, however, groups like these often get a bad wrap, but the truth is that most of them highlight and study important issues that governments and companies would otherwise ignore or cover up). See the following links:

http://www1.bushheritage.org/

http://www.australianwildlife.org/index.asp

http://www.paradigmexpeditions.com/big_picture.htm

10. Communicate with other people (family, friends, acquaintances, work colleagues, blog readers!).

Have a great Earth Day tomorrow!

sustainable |səˈstānəbəl| adjective
able to be maintained at a certain rate or level: Sustainable fusion reactions.
• Ecology (esp. of development, exploitation, or agriculture) conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.
• Able to be upheld or defended : Sustainable definitions of good educational practice.
DERIVATIVES
sustainability |səˌstānəˈbilitē| |səˈsteɪnəˈbɪlədi| |-ˈbɪlɪti| noun
sustainably |-blē| |səˈsteɪnəbli| adverb
ORIGIN Middle English: From Old French soustenir, from Latin sustinere, from sub- ‘from below’ + tenere ‘hold.’

SHIPS IN THE NIGHT

“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.” - Omar N. Bradley

Railway stations and harbours have always struck me as rather sad places where many partings find a melancholy, albeit temporary, home. Unlike, say, airports or bus stations that seem strangely more utilitarian and associated more with business or pleasure; short-term shelters for people seeking to be conveyed to their destination as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The train and ship convey an image of a time past, of sad days of old (who said the old days were all so good?).

Perhaps, this attitude of mine is highly coloured by my own past experiences of trains, planes, buses and ships, but nevertheless, that may explain the fact that I still have to accustom myself to cruises and cruise ships as being for pleasure…

Ships

Every time a ship unfurls her sails and leaves the harbour,
Each evening when a ship begins her voyage,
A little part of me, deep inside, dies.

Every lonely, twilit evening when the sea birds cry,
Each night when the lighthouse beacon flashes,
A little part of me expires.

Every time the foghorn announces warnings, mournfully,
Each night as the mist covers all like a black pall,
A little part of me inside my heart dies.

Every grey twilit dawn as old sailors drink the last of the grog,
Each lonely, wintry morning when sickly sun is reborn,
A little part of my soul perishes.

Every time a ship sails away, as her image vanishes,
Each evening when a ship is swallowed by the horizon,
A little part of me dies;
And is it not a wonder that I carry within me
So much death?

ST PATRICK'S DAY

“May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.” Irish blessing
Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Saint Patrick’s Day is a predominantly Irish holiday honouring the missionary credited with converting the Irish to Christianity in the 5th century AD. He was born around 387 AD in either Scotland (near the town of Dumbarton) or in Roman Britain (the Romans left Britain in 410 AD). His real name is believed to be Maewyn Succat. He was kidnapped at the age of 16 by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. During his 6-year captivity, while he worked as a shepherd, he began to have religious visions, and found strength in his faith. He finally escaped, going to France, where he became a priest, taking on the name of Patrick. When he was about 60 years old, St. Patrick travelled to Ireland to spread the Christian word. Reputedly, Patrick had a winning personality, which helped him to convert the fun-loving Irish to Christianity. He used the shamrock, which resembles a three-leafed clover, as a metaphor to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity. He died at 461 AD.

St Patrick is also credited with ridding Ireland of snakes (there are no native snakes on the island). When Norse invaders came to Ireland in the 9th century they noticed that the island also had no toads. The Norse word for toad is “paud”. When they heard the saint referred to as Patrick, they interpreted it as “Paudrig”, meaning “Toad-Expeller” in Norse. Toads became snakes, no doubt aided and abetted by the Old Testament symbolism of the snake as a reification of evil. Furthermore, the snake was revered pagan totem and the victory was two-fold. Thus a legend was born.

St Patrick’s day is celebrated in Ireland and in all parts of the world where the Irish have made their home. The St Patrick’s Day parade is a tradition that perhaps started in Ireland where during the holy day, the pubs were closed to locals but could serve travellers. Many inveterate drinkers got around this by walking in groups to the next town and as “travellers” could be served in the pub. In the USA the first St Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in 1737 and then the event caught on in New York in 1762 when Irish military units were recruited to serve in the American colonies.

In Ireland the traditional parade did not start to be widespread until the 19th century, introduced from the USA, but its nature was rather more religious and family oriented. The Parade outside Ireland can often degenerate into a carnival-like celebration, lubricated by gallons of green beer and backed by local businesses that see it as a means of advertising their wares.

“Beannachtaí na Féile Páraic oraibh!” St. Patrick's Day blessing upon you!

MOVIE MONDAY - MISS POTTER

“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.” - George Eliot

Yesterday we watched a delightful film that we enjoyed and recommend. It was Chris Noonan’s 2006 “Miss Potter”, with Renée Zellweger, Ewn Mcgregor and Emily Watson. It is a biographical film of the children’s book author, Beatrix Potter, of “Peter Rabbit” fame. Miss Beatrix Potter (1866-1942) was born into an upper middle class, family with aristocratic pretensions. Beatrix becomes a 32-year-old unmarried “Miss” who still lives with her parents, under her mother’s watchful eye. She refuses offers of marriage, preferring to write and illustrate children’s books, an occupation that is looked down upon by her mother.

The film is a story of a repressed woman’s liberation and journey to true independence so that she could follow her dreams. We become part of Beatrix’s journey through the publication of her books and the relationship that develops between her and her publisher, Norman Warne (another young person living at home and having to prove himself as capable in the family’s business – the Warne Publishing House). Norman’s sister, Millie, is another solitary female that helps Beatrix discover her wings, and who supports her throughout her first steps of independent life.

The film is very well made, the acting, direction, costumes, sets, music and cinematography excellent. I would have to be churlish to find fault with something, however, the animation used (albeit sparingly) to bring some of Beatrix’s drawings “to life” I wasn’t particularly impressed with. Her drawings are so eloquent, that the animations are unnecessary. Nevertheless, the gimmick is not too intrusive and it is easy to overlook it.

The genuineness of the settings and the authenticity of the costumes and sets is quite amazing and contributes to the engaging nature of the film. Add to that the stunning Lake Country, Cumbria, and Isle of Man scenery with touches of period mores (Miss Potter’s elderly chaperone accompanies her everywhere!) and the film is a winner. Besides which there is not a single scene of violence, sex or gratuitous slapstick in it – quite a rare thing in movies nowadays. The film makes a strong point about the environment and conservation, but it manages to do so almost subliminally. It is certainly no militant homily and Miss Potter demonstrates her views on the matter by actions, not words. If only all of the proselytisers were as gently persuasive as she was!

I recommend this movie to everyone who still has a child in their heart, to those who love a well made period movie, to those who wish to enjoy a movie where peace and delight are what matter and where the gratuitous violence, sex, expletives and special effects of most movies nowadays do not make one appearance and where they are missed at all.

ART SUNDAY - LE LORRAIN

“To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.” – Robert Schumann

For Art Sunday today, an iconic French Baroque painter, Claude Gellée (1604-1682) who was better known as Lorrain after his place of birth in France. He was a very influential and successful artist in the seventeenth century, who became famous as a landscape painter in Italy. His paintings were picturesque but also full of the rough textures of wild nature with romantic old castles or classical ruins. The paintings, drawings and prints by Claude Lorrain were very popular and widely collected. His style set the standards for what was worthy of appreciation.

Claude created landscapes that were expansive, dramatic and always eye-catching. In full color paintings or sepia toned washes, Claude used the scale of values to express near to far. Claude often gave the foreground strong contrasts of light and shadow while the middle distance had less contrast. The far background was rendered even lighter and with less contrast between shadow and highlight to give a sense of great distance.

While the subjects of his paintings and drawings were often from the Bible or classical mythology, the mood and atmosphere of the landscape was the real subject. His figures were were usually only a minor part of a scene to help set the scale and perspective. The dramatic lighting of his painting often relied on sunrise or sunset and the golden glow of his canvases seems to have inspired Turner.

Here is an archetypal Lorrain canvas of 1648: “Ulysses returns Chryseis to her father”.

SONG SATURDAY - DVORAk

“Where we love is home. Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr

What kind of music would you write, if you were able to, to express the pain of a great loss? A loss of a loved one, a loss of a home, of a country? A loss of an ideal, of a dream, of an idea? For me, it is the following piece: Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, and in particular the second movement…

Dvořák composed the Quartet in 1893 during a summer retreat from his teaching post in New York. He spent his holiday in the village of Spillville, Iowa, which was home to a Czech immigrant community. The quartet was written around the same time as the New World Symphony, the masterpiece of Dvořák's years in the United States. Of his time in Spillville, Dvořák said "As for my new Symphony, the F major String Quartet and the Quintet (composed here in Spillville) - I should never have written these works 'just so' if I hadn't seen America." In the second movement, a listener may detect the melancholic longing of an African American spiritual, a sentiment with which the homesick Dvořák sympathised.



Enjoy your weekend!

ON ALCOHOL (AGAIN)...

“Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.” – Seneca

Remember once upon a time when cigarette smoking used to be widespread and nobody would even think of not smoking in public places (well, if not, maybe I am showing my age…)? Before my time, smoking was even recommended as healthful for some disorders! Some definitive epidemiological studies in the 1960s started to link smoking with some deadly diseases including emphysema, cancers of the mouth, throat, lungs, pancreas, cervix, bladder, it increases the risk of dying from a heart attack or from a stroke and increases the risk of getting gangrene. It interferes with normal functioning of almost every organ of the body, decreases libido and increases the ageing processes and wrinkling of the skin.

We are now aware of all of these adverse and often fatal effects and we have legislated to protect as many people as possible. Cigarette smoking in public places is now strictly regulated, tobacco advertising is banned in most countries, warning signs are printed on cigarette packets and smoking is on the point of becoming socially unacceptable.

Alcohol is responsible for almost as many adverse effects and yet it has been resistant to becoming quite so unacceptable as smoking is. “Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent.” This quote from Genesis 9:20-21, describes graphically alcohol production, its consumption and after-effects! Records of wine and beer making go back 5,000-6,000 years with the Mesopotamians and Egyptians both being well versed in the art of making alcohol in the form of beer and wine. Alcohol or ethanol is produced by the fermentation of carbohydrates by yeasts. It is one of most widely used of recreational drugs and is taken in alcoholic drinks to relax, reduce inhibitions and increase sociability. Taken just before food alcohol will increase gastric secretion and hence enhance the gastric phase of digestion. Alcohol in moderate doses is believed to be safe, and recent research suggests that moderate alcohol consumption will reduce high blood pressure and protect against atheroma.

However, the problem with alcohol is described by the maxim: “Too much of a good thing becomes a very bad thing”. In Australia currently, over 80% of the population report that they consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months, with 11% of males and 6% of females drinking daily. In terms of risk of harm in the long term, 10% of males and 9% of females drank alcohol in a pattern that was risky or high risk. In terms of short-term risk, 24% of males and 17% of females drank at least once a month in a manner that was risky or high risk for short-term harm. Around one-quarter of teenagers put themselves at risk of short-term alcohol-related harm at least once a month. The proportion was higher among females (28.3%) than males (24.5%).

Alcohol is the second largest cause of drug-related deaths and hospitalisations in Australia, after tobacco. Alcohol is the main cause of deaths on Australian roads. In 1998, over 2,000 deaths of the total 7,000 deaths of persons under 65 years, were related to alcohol. In 2004, the age standardised rate for male deaths due to alcoholic liver disease as the underlying cause was 5.5 per 100,000, compared with 1.5 per 100,000 for females. In 2004, the age standardised rate for male deaths with mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol as the underlying cause was 1.9 per 100,000, compared with 0.4 per 100,000 for females.

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and disturbs both mental and physical functioning. Alcohol intoxication causes muddled thinking, slurred speech, drowsiness, poor co-ordination, dulled reactions, erectile dysfunction and amnesia. Disinhibition will lead to feelings of euphoria or misery, irritability and aggression, moodiness or extreme loquacity and sociability, depending on the underlying mood at the start of drinking. Severe intoxication may lead to coma and respiratory failure. Driving under the influence of alcohol or operating machinery is outlawed in most countries because of the extreme dangers associated.

Persistent alcohol abuse leads to physical, mental, social and occupational problems. Misuse of alcohol may take several guises: Regular but controlled heavy intake, binge drinking and dependence (alcoholism). The first pattern is the one that most often leads to severe physical diseases such as cancers of the oesophagus and throat, peptic ulcers, cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, cancer of the pancreas, nervous system degenerations, heart and muscle damage and harmful effects on the unborn baby in pregnant women who drink. The second pattern is most common amongst young people, especially men, and leads mostly to social and occupational problems. The third problem of addiction is the most serious and leads to the most pronounced effects, physical and social. There has been some evidence to suggest that alcohol dependence has a genetic component, however, it is very difficult to disentangle genetic, environmental, psychological and social factors in the families where this propensity is apparent. Prolonged alcohol abuse often will lead to dementia.

In Australia, we may soon have health warning labels on alcoholic drinks, similar to what we see on tobacco products. Our Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has proposed this means of trying to curb the diseases and deaths due to alcohol abuse. However, the experience with cigarette smoking has shown that although a deterrent, legislation hardly curbs widespread use of these recreational drugs. The problem with young people abusing alcohol is extremely widespread and perhaps a more effective way of dealing with it would be with education programs and responsible drinking under supervision in the family. I was allowed to drink a little watered down wine with meals ever since I was about 10 years old. Subsequently, I have remained a moderate drinker, do not consume alcohol daily and when I drink I usually do it with my meal. I can only recall being drunk only once in my life (when I was in my early twenties) after which I resolved that I would never allow myself to ever again descend into that state, and it was a promise that I have kept. As Shakespeare says: “O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!”

MURDER MOST FOUL

“Murder itself is past all expiation, the greatest crime that nature doth abhor.” – William Goffe

The Alabama tragedy last Tuesday where Michael McLendon killed 10 people and then shot himself still has the small towns of Geneva and Samson reeling in the shocking aftermath of his crime. Some details are beginning to emerge about this “polite and ordinary” man’s life but the people who knew him are still trying to understand what drove him over the edge. The victims were identified as McLendon’s mother, Lisa McLendon, 52; his uncle, James Alford White, 55; his cousin, Tracy Michelle Wise, 34; a second cousin, Dean James Wise, 15; and his grandmother, Virginia E. White, 74. Also killed were James Irvin Starling, 24; Sonja Smith, 43; and Bruce Wilson Malloy, 51.

McLendon was briefly employed by the police department in Samson in 2003 and spent about a week and a half at the police academy, dropping out before he received firearms training. He then worked in various places including a metal factory, the place where he took his own life in the end. The people who may have helped us to understand the actions of the murderer are all dead. His family were all but destroyed, but also some strangers paid the price of being at the wrong place at the time and suffered the fatal outcomes of McLendon’s random shootings. The members of the terrified community are still considering the fact that any of one of them may have been victims seeing he shot more than two hundred rounds as he was driving through the town.

In the wake of this rampage, another meek killer, a 17-year-old boy dressed in black opened fire inside his former high school in southwestern Germany yesterday killing 15 people before he turned the gun on himself. His name was Tim Kretschmer and authorities have no idea why he did it. Some students died with pens still in their hands. Most were shot in the head. Most of the victims were women and girls. The father of the murderer was a member of a gun club and had numerous weapons at home, not all of them securely locked away.

It is suspected that perhaps, that the boy was influenced by the 2002 German shooting, when 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany. Or maybe he was even influenced by the McLendon murders. In all cases some secret grudges worked over unbalanced minds may have been enough to make these people totter over the edge of reason and commit these heinous crimes.

Is it our society that is to blame for these random acts of extreme violence where people seem to lose control of their reason, their faculties, their normal patterns of behaviour? What is it in our society that cause these people to crack under the strain and become executioners of some crazed plan of punishment and retribution for perceived wrongs that have been done them? What can cloud someone’s mind so completely and utterly, what can make someone go berserk and open fire on people that until then he loved, or knew, or interacted with daily? In the case of the random killings, what madness possesses someone to kill utter and complete strangers, against whom he cannot have a grudge?

I am trying to rationalise the irrational. Surely these must be the works of madmen, it cannot be otherwise. What is it in our society that is driving these young men to murder and kill themselves in these copy-cat crimes? We are surrounded by violence and murder daily, but most of us are not as affected by it as these three examples of mass murderers were. We see violence and murder in our films, in our documentaries in our news reports. We read of it in our novels, our newspapers. Our children see it on TV, we are confronted by violence every day. Some people snap. How do we prevent it?

berserk |bərˈzərk; -ˈsərk| adjective
• (Of a person or animal) out of control with anger or excitement; wild or frenzied: After she left him, he went berserk, throwing things about the apartment.
• (Of a mechanical device or system) operating in a wild or erratic way; out of control: The climate control went berserk and either roasted or froze us.
• (Of a procedure, program, or activity) fluctuating wildly: The stock market's gone berserk, with sugar at 15.27 cents a pound.
ORIGIN early 19th century (originally as a noun denoting a wild Norse warrior who fought with frenzy): From Old Norse berserkr (noun), probably from birn-, bjҩrn (bear) + serkr ‘coat,’ but also possibly from berr ‘bare’ (i.e., without armor).

FULL MOON IN ADELAIDE

“Night is the blotting paper for many sorrows.”

I am in Adelaide for a couple of days for work and it has been a very hectic day with rather a lot going on and also a function on this evening which went on until late. Coming back to the Hotel, the moon was up in the sky and the city was rather quiet and seemed quite forlorn – it is a midweek night after all. While walking back, my mind worked over some words: Woolen shrouds, liquid graves, scrawny branches and the passage of time as the moon described its endless circles across the skies…

So for this poem blame the moon and my late night walk…

The Moon

The moon with face of bronze and full
Ascends so slow from the horizon low;
Peeks through the wispy clouds of greyish wool
It climbs, it rises and assumes a silver glow.

The trees attempt to grasp the satellite
They stretch bare branches to the sky.
The wind that blows will usher in the night
While boughs turn into claws up high.

The moon impassive in the heavens reigns
And looks upon the city’s ghastly sprawl.
It reaches zenith and then beams it rains
To drown in river, wrapped in liquid pall.

Silver is now the swarthy face of clouds
The sparkling stars shine coldly down.
Streets empty, houses are enclosed in shrouds;
Cold earth, dead trees, a silent, ghostly town.

The hours flee, the minutes quickly fly
Bodies and loves, all passions will wear thin.
Only the moon forever turns her eye
As people die and lives anew begin.

READING ORWELL

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” - Mark Twain

In the aeroplane back on my way home from Brisbane I saw a young man engrossed in a copy of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. His face was quite a picture of concentration and engagement and it brought to mind the first time I had read that classic. I could easily imagine myself in his place, devouring the book, absorbing each word of the cautionary fable and being quite removed from the world surrounding me. Even the picture on cover of his book was the same as the cover on my copy.

It took me back, made me feel old but at the same time was also quite an uplifting experience. It made feel part of the human river’s flow, part of the ever-turning wheel, a small grain in the sands of time. Like me, the young man would age, would move on, lay aside his copy of “Animal Farm”, overcome his rightful indignation and slowly lose his youthful enthusiasm to change the world, settle down into a job, a career, a routine, and like me would some time in the future see another young man reading the same book, quite possibly with the same cover picture…

Time sometimes flows like a rapid mountain stream, bounding and leaping over rocks, sometimes slowly like a river nearing the sea amidst its broad banks. Time may rush torrentially and fall over precipices in a maddening powerful cataract or it may languish in some backwater, hardly moving in the cul-de-sac, but passing by nevertheless in all cases. We may behave as if we are immortal, but look at the hourglass and watch the sand grains falling down inexorably and we our end approaching.

We look in the mirror each day and we are oblivious to the marks of time on our face. Line by line on our face, white hair by white hair we become older and we accommodate ourselves to the ravages of time on our reflection. It only takes an old photograph to fall not our hands and as we look at ourselves as we were in the past, the realisation hits home that we have changed. And then we think back of how we were, how we thought, how we loved, how we believed and we realise that the change goes beyond our grey hairs and deeper than the lines on our face. We have changed inside as well…

MOVIE MONDAY - FEAST OF LOVE

“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half 
shut afterwards.” - Benjamin Franklin

I have been travelling for work today and Brisbane was the destination. The day there was rainy and warm, with the muggy weather being a good enough reason for staying inside, as if the meetings scheduled weren’t reason enough. We have been trying to limit travel as much as possible at work, to economise on our expenses. The financial crisis is an ever-present concern at the moment everywhere. However, sometimes travelling is unavoidable and today was one of these occasions. Fortunately, the trip went well and there were some favourable outcomes from the travel, justifying the expense.

At the weekend we watched a couple of films as there was nothing on TV and we really needed to relax and veg out for a while. Last week was certainly a packed week so watching a couple of films was a good way of trying to get our mind off things and rest the weary bones. That’s not to say we didn’t work in the garden for a while and get a few chores done out and about.

The film I’ll review for Movie Monday is an interesting little film, which was pleasant enough to watch, but not exceptional. I could see it working better as a novel, although it was OK to watch while relaxing and not wanting to tax the neurons too much. It was Robert Benton’s 2007 “Feast of Love”. Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Billy Burke, Selma Blair, Alexa Davalos, Toby Hemingway and Stana Katic were an able enough cast and could cope well with the predictable plot and rather stolid direction. As a B-grade movie it was well made and maintained interest. However, as a work of art or ground-breaking challenging cinema, it was not amongst my list of great films of all time. There was a genuine attempt by the film-maker to try to make it a little more than it was, but frankly, it felt short of being an emotionally involving experience or a memorable, “must-see” film.

The plot takes place over an 18-month period in Portland, Oregon, and looks at several couples during the course of coupling and uncoupling, recoupling and becoming otherwise intermeshed in all sorts of relationships. The eight couples involved explore modern relationships and deal with some unconventional ones, or portray some problems that may be all too common in our society. There are themes of infidelity, lesbianism, romanticism, true love, sex, death, drugs, grief, parenthood, marriage, companionship, and the conflicting views of the perception of love, as either a mystical experience full of emotional fulfilment and the sole redeeming force of our human existence, or alternatively, the concept of love as a genetically programmed incitement to sex and procreation, in order to perpetuate the species.

Morgan Freeman, a good actor, has some difficulty with his rag-bag role and some of his lines full of homespun wisdom, often sounded somewhat corny and trite. Depends on your mood at the time, I guess. Greg Kinnear is cast as a great romantic, one whose ideal woman shares his idealistic view of relationships, love and marriage, but one who unfortunately chooses the wrong woman again and again. The young couple played by Alexa Davalos and Toby Hemingway were my favourite characters, the ones who were the most believable in all their frailty, innocence and vulnerability. They managed to elicit the greatest feeling of sympathy and interest in me and they were pivotal in the film’s plot.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to search for and find this film to watch it, but if it chances to be on TV or on cable and you have a spare 97 minutes, then by all means settle down, relax and let it wash past you. There are some redeeming features and as a B-grade feature, it has a good enough mix of comedy, drama, romance and action to keep you interested, but don’t expect a life-changing experience or an emotional tour-de-force.

(Just in case you are wondering what the other film we watched was, it was the 2002 action thriller, “The Bourne Identity”. Great boys’ own adventure, cloak and dagger stuff with a whole lot of mindless action, great car chases and special effects. Nevertheless quite watchable and engaging escapist nonsense with some great locations to boot! Told you this weekend was one for unwinding and relaxation…)
Enjoy your week!

ART SUNDAY - WOMEN ARTISTS

“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.” - Charlotte Whitton

Today is International Women’s Day (IWD). IWD is a day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women all around the world. In some countries like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD was in 1911. It followed unanimous agreement at an International Conference of Working Women the previous year. Clara Zetkin (leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) proposed that every year in every country there should be one day when around the globe women's solidarity presses for equality.

Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as 'International Women's Year' by the United Nations. Women's organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

For Art Sunday, some women artists:

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), one of the first women to achieve artistic recognition in the male-dominated renaissance world of Italian art.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) a significant impressionist painter, undervalued for many years because of her sex.

Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) a painter of exquisite still life paintings in Baroque Italy.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) the Mexican painter who glorified in the bright colours an highly decorative effects of her native country and whose symbolic self portraits express her life of pain.

Georgia O’ Keeffe (1887-1986) an American artist whose flower paintings verging on the abstract changed the face of American art in 1920s onwards.

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), a German expressionist painter whose tortured drawings and etchings bring out the pain of poverty, war and destruction.

“Grandma Moses” (1860-1961) the American naïve artist whose canvases enchant with their simple depictions of everyday life.

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) a French painter of portraits and historical scenes.

Judith Leyster (1609-1660) a Dutch painter of portraits, genre scenes and still life.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) an American photojournalist and documentary photographer. A famous photograph by Lange “Migrant Mother” illustrates today’s blog and pays tribute to women artists and women the world over on this, their special day.
Happy Women’s Day!

AIMEZ-VOUS, BRAHMS?

“Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices.” - George Bernard Shaw

German pianist and composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was celebrated during his life as a worthy successor to Beethoven. He is famous for his symphonies and chamber music, but also for his monumental “German Requiem”. He is ranked among the masters of the Romantic era. Although he showed talent at the piano at an early age, he spent much of his young life performing rather than composing. Brahms's career was given a boost by composer Robert Schumann (1810-56) and his pianist wife Clara (1819-96).

His close relationship with Clara Schumann, especially after she was widowed, has been the source of much speculation ever since. The pair exchanged passionate letters and went on holiday together, but Brahms opted to leave her behind to pursue his career and a life of bachelorhood. By the end of the 1860s he'd settled in Vienna, where he lived until his death from cancer in 1897. Musically he maintained the Romantic tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven, in opposition to the rise of composers such as Richard Wagner and Brahms's friend, Franz Liszt.

His most famous composition is the lullaby, "Lied Wiegenlied" ("Cradle Song"), popularly known as simply "Brahms' Lullaby." His compositions include German Requiem (1866), Violin Concerto in D (1878) and Piano Concertos in B Flat (1878-81). Here is the 3rd movement, Poco allegretto, from his Symphony No. 3 in F Major. It is an absolutely delicious piece. Poignant and melodic, imbued with a wistfulness and nostalgia that is immensely winsome. The movement has been thought to reflect Brahms’ love for Clara Schumann.


Enjoy the weekend!

TWO STANDARD DRINKS

“Drink the first. Sip the second slowly. Skip the third.” - Knute Rockne

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is a very powerful body in Australian medical and research circles. It carries a great deal of clout and is the body that has funded most of Australia’s greatest medical research projects. The NHMRC released today its latest version of the National Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol.

In Australia, alcohol consumption is calculated in terms of the “standard drink”, which is defined as any drink containing 10 grams of alcohol. One standard drink always contains the same amount of alcohol regardless of container size or alcohol type (i.e., beer, wine, or spirit). For example, a “nip” of spirits (30 mL of 40% Alc/vol) is a standard drink, a 285 mL glass of full strength beer (4.5% alcohol) is 1.1 standard drinks, while the same glass of light beer (2.7% alcohol) is 0.6 standard drinks.

The NHMRC advises drinkers not to consume more than 4 standard drinks on a big night out (keep in mind that a normal bottle of wine, that is, 750 mL at 12% alc/vol is 7.5 standard drinks!). The preferred “dose” of alcohol per day, if you are to drink it at all, is recommended at two standard drinks. This will reduce your risk of dying from alcohol-related disease at below 1 in 100. This is slightly less than your risk of dying in a car accident one day. If you decide to drink six standard drink per day, your chances of dying from alcohol-related diseases increases to 10 in 100.

Now all of that was for the men! Women are recommended to drink 2/3 less for the same risks as those mentioned above. That is, women should have 1.3 standard drinks per day to reduce their risk of dying from alcohol-related disease to below 1 in 100. This is because of hormonal and metabolic differences between the sexes, which mean that women can cope less efficiently with detoxifying the alcohol in their body. There are also important genetic differences in terms of the enzymes in the liver and how efficiently they can cope with alcohol detoxification. Some people have a very efficient inducible enzyme system so the more they drink the better they cope with alcohol detoxification (within reason!). Others, unfortunately do not have these genes that “turn on” the appropriate enzymes, so even a small amount of alcohol will have dire effects. These genetic effects are valid in both sexes.

In Australia we have a saying for the person who cannot hold their drink too well and is affected adversely with even a small glass of alcohol. They are called a “one pot screamer” (a pot is a large glass of beer – 425 mL which at 4.5% alc/vol is 1.6 standard drinks!). The ancient Greeks of course knew all of this and would not think of drinking wine neat – they always diluted it with water, using a large vessel called a “krater” (from the verb “kerannymi” – I mix). The modern Greek word for (undiluted!) wine is “krasí”, which is derived from the krater of old. And yes, in case you are wondering, a volcano’s crater is from the same word, seeing how a volcanic crater resembles a wine mixing vessel!

The Greeks were very a very moderate people, if you believe Cleobulus (one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece) who said: “The mean is best in all things”, presumably this applied to wine bibbing as well! Besides, which the Greeks had other methods for becoming inebriated:

A Kiss within the Cup

I am no wine-bibber; but if thou wilt make me drunk,
Taste thou first and bring it me, and I take it.
For if thou wilt touch it with thy lips,
No longer is it easy to keep sober or to escape the sweet cup- bearer;
For the cup ferries me over a kiss from thee,
And tells me of the grace that it had.

Agathias (ca AD 536-582/594, Byzantine poet and historian).
Enjoy your weekend, I need to go and have my standard 2 drinks!

MOTHERHOOD

“With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood…” - Isadora Duncan

“OVUM DONORS: Healthy women between 18 and 35 years are required for ovum donations in our fertility clinic. The procedure is perfectly safe and you will have the satisfaction of helping a childless family experience the joy of parenthood. You will be rewarded for your efforts.”

On a Greek TV program on Satellite TV there was a story about ovum donors in Greece. As well as the “official” fertility clinics associated with the major state-administered hospitals, there is also a whole industry of small, private fertility clinics that supply infertile women with “donated” ova, at the price of about €6,000 each. The donated ova are bought from the “donors” for €600. This industry is illegal and both the ovum “seller” and the “purchaser” of the ova can be prosecuted by the legal system. However, this is not the case and the industry is burgeoning as fertility decreases and many more women find themselves in the position of needing IVF procedures in order to conceive.

On the other hand, many a desperate young woman who needs money is forced to resort to “donating” her ova and thus go through many such procedures in a relatively short period of time. One woman was relating how she had “donated” seven times recently, as she had financial difficulties and she was unemployed. Another related how she had lied about her age (she was over 40) in order to sell her ova. A third woman said that she did it because she felt sorry for the childless couple, but unless she were “paid for her trouble” she would not have donated her ova.

This is a vexed question. The joys of parenthood, the wonder of pregnancy and birth, motherhood and the creation of a family are surely the right of any woman. In the past, more often than not there was the problem of multiple births and many women having too many babies (that often cost the woman her life). Nowadays we are finding that fertility is decreasing in both men and women and the average couple can have rather a hard time in conceiving. Many women, who have deferred becoming pregnant until their 30s are finding that they are infertile and their only hope is IVF. This is coupled with the problem of ageing societies and a decreased birth rate in most Western countries. We are populations in decline, unlike the developing countries where the population is increasing.

Adopting used to be a solution in the past and although this potentially had many problems, it was a strategy that made many a happy family. The raising of a child and the creation of a happy home environment has nothing to do with the genetic make-up of the child or its genetic relationships with the people it calls mother and father. However, adopting is much harder nowadays than it was in the past. The reasons are another big topic for discussion, but let’s say that the state bureaucracy can sometimes hinder more than it can help in its efforts to make our society better.

We are in a position nowadays where science and technology performs miracles. Life is created in a test tube and the barren are made fertile. A woman can carry her own baby, whether it is her husband’s or not. She can carry her husband’s baby, the ovum having come from another woman. The baby can be completely different genetically, created with donated ova and donated sperm. A surrogate mother can carry the couple’s baby for them. Two women can become a couple and have a baby with donated sperm. We are reaching a stage where soon, Huxley’s science fiction “Brave New World” will become a reality.

The question remains. Do we pay for this ovum donation? Is it an ethical thing for someone to sell bits of their body? People peddle their kidneys to rich tourists in need of a transplant in some countries. This “transplantation tourism” has become a massive problem. What is next? Legalising execution of criminals and auctioning off their vital organs to the highest bidder? A black market trading of organs following abduction and murder? Is everything for sale nowadays? Has money become such a vital force in our culture that people are prepared to anything for it?

And aptly the word of the day:

In vitro fertilisation (noun)
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside of the womb, in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. The process involves hormonally controlling the ovulatory process, removing ova (eggs) from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium. The fertilized egg (zygote) is then transferred to the patient's uterus with the intent to establish a successful pregnancy. The first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978.
ORIGIN: Latin, literally ‘in glass.’ + late Middle English: via French from Latin fertilis, from ferre ‘to bear.’

MEMENTO MORI...

“This is the spot where I am mortal…” - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Memento mori! This, in Latin, means “be mindful of dying” or “remember you are mortal”. In the not too distant past it was a potent and ever timely reminder of human frailty, as most people had several blood relatives succumbing to death’s imperious invitation all too soon and with amazing frequency. Disease, wars, infant mortality, accidents, all carried away large numbers of the population so people were surrounded by death and each day that they personally survived was a triumph, but ever-present in their mind was the stern warning: “Memento mori!”

This omnipresent idea of death and of human mortality in the past spawned a whole genre of literally and artistic works, all of which drove home this point and these artworks were a constant reminder of the transience of our life. The preoccupation with death was balanced by the intense religious feelings that people had and the reassurance that everlasting life, life after death, heaven (for the righteous!) would be recompense enough for a short earthly existence. The agnostics and epicureans of course, would use this as an excuse for making the most of our earthly existence, as Callimachus affirms: “O Charidas, what of the underworld?” “Great darkness.” “And what of the resurrection?” “A lie.” “And Pluto?” “A fable; we perish utterly.”

We have become unused to the idea of physical, actual death. Sure enough we see it all the time on television screen, in the movie theatre, in video games, in our literature, in our news bulletins. However, most of us have not experienced it first hand and when we do, the machinery of the death industry insulates our experience of it in a sanitised, expurgated, censored version that protects our sensibilities. Our culture is youth, life and present-oriented. Memento mori has gone out of fashion. Our idea of ourselves centres on invincible youthfulness and immortal self-assurance. Here is my memento mori for today:

Fog on the River

The fog hangs heavy above the river;
Skeleton trees only just discernible,
Sparse, silent, frozen, dead.

The grey water flows slow
And the river travels, to far away lands
Between banks that never change.

A dewdrop hangs and sparkles on a twig
Before it drops delayed by a spider’s web
On its trip to sodden earth.

Deep in the silent cloud that hangs above the river
I shall venture, losing myself,
Enclosed in a soft cotton shroud.

Abducted by the mist,
I’ll forget and be forgotten, fading
In the oblivion of downy foggy clouds.

And the waters of the river will flow on silent,
And the fog will each skeletal branch embrace,
And the banks immutable, impassive,
Will stare, will understand, will witness all,
But oh, so silently…

LENT

“Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue.” - Adam Clarke

Yesterday was “Clean Monday” for Greek Orthodox people, marking the beginning of the great fast of Lent. Lent is the period of fasting before Easter, in commemoration of Christ’s 40-day fast in the desert. Interestingly, the 40-day period is one that recurs in the Bible: Moses spent 40 days on Mt Sinai, Elijah spent 40 days travelling to the Mount of God. In most Western churches (including the Roman Catholic faith), Sundays are not included in the period of fasting and the fast begins on Ash Wednesday. In the Greek Orthodox faith, the period of Lenten fasting begins on “Clean Monday” and continues until midnight on Easter Saturday, a period of 48 days. The Greek term for Lent is Μεγάλη Σαρακοστή (Meghale Saracosté), meaning the “great 40th day”, fast being implied, and the “great” including the extra 8 days of fasting. The “lesser 40th day fast” of the Greek Orthodox Church is the one preceding Christmas and lasts 40 days. It was traditional for children to cut out a paper figure of an old lady with seven feet showing beneath her long skirt. This figure was dubbed “Mrs Lent”. She had no mouth as she was fasting, her hands are crossed in an attitude of prayer and contrition and she has 7 feet, one for each week of the Great Lent. As Lent progressed, one of the feet was cut off on the Saturday, the last one on Holy Saturday before Easter. In the days before calendars, Mrs Lent was an easy way to keep track of the progress of the fasting and the advent of Easter.

The term “Clean Monday” also refers to the Spring cleaning which was traditionally done on this day. Everything was taken out of the house, furniture dusted, floors mopped, walls were whitewashed, houses aired, and the rubbish taken out of the village and burnt. This represented a purification of the house, readying it for the Lenten period ahead. In Greece, Clean Monday is a time when children go out and fly kites, a practice known as koúlouma, which usually combines this kite-flying with a picnic in the countryside. It is customary to eat a special unleavened bread on this day, called a laghána. The baking of this special bread may be related to the Roman Feast of Ovens, the Fornacalia at around this time. During this feast, it was customary to eat wheaten flat cakes resembling the laghána. The Fornacalia cakes may also be linked to the tradition of baking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

The Great Carnival is gone and o’er Masquerading, feasting, alas no more. Lent is here, Clean Monday dear - Eat your olives and almighty God fear!
Greek Folk Rhyme

The term Lent is derived from the Anglo-Saxon lenctene, meaning the time when days lengthen. The Scottish term for Lent is “Fasterns” while the Gaelic and Welsh terms also allude to the period of fasting. In Latin the term carnesprivium is given to Lent and means “the time of abstinence from meat”. Before the fast, all foods forbidden during Lent had to be consumed and generally this was a time for merry-making and feasting. Carnival is derived from the Latin carnelevarium, meaning “taking away of meat”. Other sources link carnival with carnevale, literally, “goodbye to meat”. No eggs, milk, cheese, meat or fish are partaken during the period of fasting, a largely vegetarian diet being followed. The Roman Catholic faith has relaxed the requirements of Lenten fasting whereas the Greek Orthodox church still applies the same stringent requirements to the faithful.

Shrovetide is the period just before Lent when people made their “shrifts”, or they were “shriven” i.e. made their confessions. Lent is a period of meditation, fasting, doing penance, preparing spiritually for Easter and giving money to charity. No weddings should be performed during Lent, couples usually waiting until Easter Sunday, a very popular day to celebrate a wedding in many countries. Traditionally, the 40-day period of Lent was also a time that new candidates for admission into the Christian faith prepared for their baptism, which occurred on Easter Sunday.

This year, Greek Easter falls one week after Western Christian Easter, and hence the beginning of Lent is one week later than the Western Church Lent, which started last week.

Spend some time over Lent trying to help others, think a little less of yourself and try to reflect a little on your good fortune. Pray for those things that you always take for granted, not for personal gain nor for useless luxuries. There are millions of people out there who are much worse off than you and who have to battle each day for the continued privilege of simple existence. Reflect a little and reconsider your actions, repent if you need to, ask for the forgiveness of those you love, they are the one whom you often hurt most deeply. Shed a tear for another’s pain, lend a helping hand, be kind to a stranger. And who knows, once Lent is over, you may decide to do all of those things all year round.
Have a Good Lent!

MOVIE MONDAY - COMEDY

“Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.” - Peter Ustinov

The weekend was very busy, as I was working away on my two special projects that are taking up my spare time: Editing a medical dictionary and writing a pathology textbook. In amongst the many hours spent over poring proofs and typing away on the computer, I had a break and we watched a movie. It was good to get away from the intellectual stuff and just veg. out in front of the TV screen, with something not too taxing for the brain.

We watched Marc Lawrence’s 2007 film “Music and Lyrics” which he not only directed but also wrote. The leads are the unlikely coupling of Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, which couple somehow manages to work with quite a bit of chemistry. There is energy and sympathy there and the repartee seems spontaneous and fresh. This is a typical romantic comedy with a predictable plot, but in an interesting context – the pop music industry.

The plot centres around Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant), a pop-star has-been now playing the nostalgia circuit for middle-aged housewives (the big gig is a Berry Farm!). He meets young and vivacious Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) who waters the plants in his apartment but has an undiscovered knack for writing lyrics. Sophie saves his day when the current pop megastar Cora (Haley Bennett) asks him to write and record a duet with her. There is an amusing satirical contrast between the pop scene of the 80s and 00s and Cora’s character is particularly delicious – a mix of Britney Spears/Madonna/Shakira.

The musical score of the movie has some pleasing numbers of Wham-like or George Michael-type of numbers as well as the weird-and-wonderful ethno-pop of Cora, the mistress of the Buddha and Booty show. The horrific mix of Alex’s ballad with Cora’s Hindu fantasy is very amusing. Grant’s one liners are delivered with aplomb and provide a constant source of mirth in the movie. Barrymore plays the ingénue convincingly and her lines are replete with the lyrics that inspire Alex, my favourite being the “Love Autopsy”…

This is a movie that amuses and gives one plenty of smiles and chuckles, even though there are no belly laughs. A pleasant, easy to watch movie that would appeal to most people. Only fluff, but quite amusing and easy enough to watch for a little relaxation. Why am I beginning to sound apologetic? Watch it, it’s not pretending to be Bergman nor is it the wittiest thing ever written or filmed. It’s modest and cute and fun.

ART SUNDAY - KUSH

“Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.” - Zhuangzi

For Art Sunday today, a Russian artist who paints in the surrealist idiom, reminiscent a little of Magritte, a little of Dalí and with a turn of the brush that’s quite his own – he prefers to call his style a “metaphorical realism”. It is Vladimir Kush, who has become quite well-known, with his quirky, yet very accessible art. He was born in 1965 in Moscow, and even as a child of 4, Vladimir would sit on his father’s lap drawing. His father, a huge influence on him, was a mathematician.

Growing, Vladimir attended art school after his regular high school until 9 p.m. Art school was a world of a new inspiration. The art school Vladimir Kush attended was focusing on a Cezanne style of painting, which Kush began to emulate at the age of 14. Soon bored with it, he painted his first surreal picture. When Vladimir was 17, he entered the Moscow Art Institute. At age 18, he entered into the mandatory two-year stint of military service where Kush was allowed to paint murals and big canvases. Of course, Vladimir Kush had to include military elements in these romantic or even fantastic landscapes. Kush's free time was spent painting surrealistic pictures, which he had to hide from his commanders.

In 1987, Vladimir began exhibiting with the Union of Artists where his paintings began to sell. The artist drew political caricatures for a newspaper (using Uncle Sam as a main character), and painted portraits on the streets in the heart of Moscow. At that time, Kush was invited to paint a series of portraits for the U.S. Embassy staff. Vladimir eventually had to curtail his work on these portraits after the KGB became suspicious of his involvement with Americans. At that time, Vladimir Kush first saw a book with Salvador Dali works.

In 1990 Vladimir Kush had a successful show in Germany with two other Russian artists. Kush then flew to Los Angeles, where he had sent 20 of his recent works for a showing. This was a beginning of his American odyssey, and Kush finally settled in the USA. Kush has two galleries, one in Hawaii and one in California, where he exhibits his works – paintings and sculptures.

The painting here is called: “Departure of the Winged Ship”.

MUSICAL MEMORY

“The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.” - Aristotle

Has it happened to you that you haven’t heard a song for years and years and then suddenly quite by chance you get to hear it again, not once, but twice a day? The song in question is “Popcorn” and it takes me back to my youth when it was “so cool”… The version I had was on an old 45 rpm vinyl record, in the 1972 version recorded by the dance group “Hot Butter”. It got quite a few plays until a scratch across the surface ruined it.

Here is the one I wore out, courtesy of the ever reliable YouTube:



The original was recorded by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 when the moog synthesizer was just about the coolest thing around. This “electro” sound with its hypnotic rhythm and mesmerizing melody captivated the imagination of people and spawned a myriad of versions.



Here is a techno dance mix by Koruption



A Gwen Stefani Yummy?Hot Butter Popcorn mashup mix?!



And to finish off with some pathos, here is the composer himself in 2007 playing the same tune on a grand piano as if it were a requiem…



Enjoy your weekend!