ORTHOREXIA

“The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of the Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life.” - Robert MacIver

It is an obsession of our times (at least in certain parts of our communities) to eat “healthful, organic, additive-free food”. It is part of the “greening”, carbon footprint reduction, environmentally friendly revolution that is occurring world-wide. Don’t get me wrong, I too am environmentally conscious, I do my bit to reuse and recycle, we grow our vegetables and herbs in the backyard, we are water conscious and don’t waste our resources.

However, I refuse to go out of my way and search for organic, certified pesticide-free foods and do not waste my time searching in the markets for the “pure and natural” produce. Not so with some of our acquaintances. There is a woman we know who even goes and busy “organic” toothpaste (at $9.00 a tube!). The other day I saw a bottle of “organic water”. Once upon a time “organic” meant “manure” – as in “organic fertiliser” (which I love and spread liberally on our garden). Nowadays it is trendy to have organic everything. Even toothpaste!

Hence the obsession I mentioned at the beginning. Well, now it appears that the latest research into this organic craze has classified a new psychological disorder: “Orthorexia” (from Greek, orthos, “correct” and orexis “appetite”). People who suffer from this orthorectic disorder worry much about their health and the purity of their meals, they will only eat what they consider a healthful meal, organic produce and may deny themselves entire food groups. The typical person suffering from orthorexia nervosa is well-educated, middle class and over 30 years of age.

These orthorectics may eliminate sugar, caffeine, salt, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soy products, corn and dairy foods form their diet. Foods that contain pesticide traces, or have additives like MSG or preservatives may also be avoided. Nowadays, they may also go out of their way to hunt down and eschew genetically modified foods. The older term for these people was “food cranks”. Once again, don’t get me wrong, we all have our quirks about food. Even though I am of Mediterranean origin, I abhor black olives and fetta cheese (funnily enough I eat green olives and every other kind of cheese – now how cranky is that?). Also, we should exclude people with food allergies, who can have serious or even fatal reactions if they eat the allergenic food (eg, peanuts, seafood, egg, etc).

Orthorectics often have rigid (although, often completely irrational rules) about what they eat. This can lead to malnutrition and can make eating well nigh impossible, especially socially, putting a great strain on relationships and friendships. In their concern over the quality of food they put into their bodies, they reduce their quality of life and will often compromise their physical health as well as their mental health.

My great grandfather used to eat everything and anything. However, he always ate seasonal, fresh food and he ate sparingly. He used to say that when at table, you should always eat as much as would curb your hunger and no more. He said that if you left the table, you should have eaten so much that if you were compelled to sit and eat again at another table, you would be able to comfortably eat as much as you had eaten already. He lived well into his late nineties and was as healthy as an ox.

What I know is that there is a very fine line between those people who eat a healthful, balanced diet and who avoid the obvious “bad things” (too much salt, sugar, alcohol, preservatives) and those who are fully fledged orthorectics. Anything carried to excess is unhealthy, and perhaps even healthfulness being pursued to excess is unhealthy, as the studies show. Moderation in all things (and the occasional indulgence!) seems to lead to a better life all around.

Enjoy your weekend!

ON MULTI-TASKING

“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” - Eartha Kitt

Are you a person who multi-tasks? Typically, it is said, women multi-task easily and men have a very hard time doing so. I must be an exception to the male rule as I will quite happily multi-task (or at least devote time to a multitude of tasks within any one time). In any case, multi-taskers have been glorified and held up as shining examples of efficiency and competence. Up until now, that is… Clifford Nass, a Stanford University communications professor conducted a study on multitasking that has found some surprising results, contrary to popular belief.

The study showed that people who habitually multi-task are easily distracted and get bogged down by irrelevancies. The study found that those who juggle with multiple inputs, such as emails, web-searches, text chats and videos performed worse than those who concentrated their attention to one task at a time. Eyal Ophir the lead author of the research describes how the group of researchers kept trying to find something that multi-taskers did better than the group of single-taskers and they couldn’t find it. Multi-taskers were particularly bad at organising information and logically processing it. They also performed poorly when it came to remembering information and filtering out the “junk” data.

Social science has long held that people cannot process more than one string of information at a time. Concentrating on one task, one problem, one issue at a time seem to be the way that our brain is wired for maximum efficiency. Some other research appears to be in conflict with this and suggests that with some tasks the brain may be facilitated by the concurrent activity. For example it was reported several years ago that listening to Mozart’s music while studying improved memory and learning.

Alzheimer's patients exposed to music by Mozart also do better in spatial and social activities, and the famous composer's sonatas reduce electrical activity associated with seizures in epileptics. To date, no other type of music has delivered the same benefits. Experiments with rats who heard Mozart showed increased expression of genes responsible for stimulating and changing brain cell connections. "Smart" genes encouraged by the music included CREB, a learning and memory compound; BDNF, a nerve cell growth factor; and synapsin I, responsible for synapse formation. All improve function in the hippocampus, a brain area linked to learning and memory…

So if you must multi-task, then do it with Mozart playing in the background. Otherwise one thing at a time and listen to the sounds of silence!

multi-tasking |ˌməltiˈtaski ng; ˌməlˌtī-| noun Computing
The simultaneous execution of more than one program or task by a single computer processor.

DERIVATIVES
multi-task |ˈməltiˌtask; ˈməlˌtī-| verb

Human multi-tasking is the performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. The term is derived from computer multi-tasking. An example of multi-tasking is listening to a radio interview while typing an email. Some believe that multi-tasking can result in time wasted due to human context switching and apparently causing more errors due to insufficient attention. Other research illustrates our brains are capable dealing with certain 'dual multiple tasks' at the same time.

ORIGIN: From Latin multus ‘much, many.’ & Middle English: From an Old Northern French variant of Old French tasche, from medieval Latin tasca, alteration of taxa, from Latin taxare ‘censure, charge’. An early sense of the verb was [impose a tax on.]

Jacqui BB is hosting Word Thursday

MINING THE ARCHIVES

“Man loves company even if it is only that of a small burning candle.” - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Mining the archives of old notebooks, I came across this poem written aeons ago. The memory of its writing is still fresh because it is associated with the piece of music that prompted its creation. It is the instrumental piece whose title is also serving as the title of the poem. It is by Greek singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki who became famous in France in the 1960s. This short guitar piece is a perfect little miniature and encapsulated at the time my feelings, which I hoped to express by writing this poem, vocalising the emotion implicit in the music.

Rue de Fossés Saint-Jacques

My loneliness,
A silver needle in my heart,
A wreath of flames on my head.
My loneliness,
A knot caught in my throat, stifling me,
Poisoned bitter wine,
On my lips killing me
With every sip, repeatedly.

My loneliness,
A guitar ringing out,
(With the G slightly out of tune)
In an empty room.
My loneliness,
A single bed, a white sheet
Like a snow-covered frigid plain.

My loneliness,
A promise that was never kept,
Wasted words only,
Taken like dead leaves by the wind.
My loneliness,
A salty tear and brumy eyes,
Secret sighs in a dark room,
The counting of hours until dawn.



Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday.

STORM!

“Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.” - Saint Basil

A storm for Melbourne today. The weather bureau and the State Emergency Service have been warning resident of our city since yesterday about the cold front that would move through Melbourne at approximately 5:00 pm on Tuesday afternoon. There were all sorts of dire warnings, with winds predicted to reach speeds of 120 km/hr in some parts of the state. Commuters in the City (of which I am one!) were warned to leave work early in order to not have their schedule disrupted by service interruptions to trains and trams.

The temperatures were quite low today compared with the past two weeks and our building was frigidly cold this morning when I got to work just after seven. There were problems with the heating, apparently, but fortunately I have a small heater in my office and it was able to warm it up once I closed the door. I had to pop out to the bank at lunchtime and the wind was chilly. However, in the afternoon, the sky was quite blue and the sun was shining, although it was still cold. Some people began to laugh and joke about the weather bureau getting it wrong once again…

On the train this afternoon on the way home, the sky began to darken ominously, the wind began to blow (hard!) and by the time I got home it was dark and dismal, and the heavens did indeed open up and the wind blew forcefully to give us a storm the likes of which of we don’t often see. Still it wasn’t as bad as most people expected, but nevertheless, enough to make it worthy of blogging about…

The rain of course is blessed. With our perpetual drought and dwindling water supplies in Victoria, the storm with its bucketfuls of rain was a pleasure to behold. We have been told that our water in the future will be assured as it will be supplied by a desalination plant, for which tenders have been submitted and between the two finalists one was successful. This desalted water will be at a considerable cost. The taxpayers have already paid for the unsuccessful tender, the losing company given a “consolation payment” by our State Government running into several millions of dollars. The winning tender will be given generous concessions and of course the water prices and rates will increase precipitously once the water begins to flow to the consumers. After all, we shall need to maintain the executives of a private company to the life style they have been accustomed in their previous employ. Six figure salaries, share packages, generous superannuation, tax benefits and a golden handshake that runs into several millions of dollars when they finally retire.

Utilities like electricity, water, gas, telephone services, postal services, health care, etc, should be government-owned and run. Two decades ago, when this was the case in Australia, there were jobs, cheap rates, good service and government accountability for failures, poor service and rate hikes. Now that we have privatised it all, who can tell where we shall end up? Perhaps the readers of this blog in the USA can tell us?

Here is a short video I shot through the front room window while the rain was pelting down.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE SAVAGES

“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.” - Douglas MacArthur

My grandfather always used to say: “Parents can look after their ten children, but the ten children can’t look after their two parents”. I guess this is a fact of life in so many cases because just when the parents get old and decrepit and need care, their children have their own children and need to look after the next generation. However, in many cultures the extended family tradition is still alive and well and is a way that family members can all live together and support each other across the generations. In most Western countries, the nuclear family has all but made the extended family obsolete and a relic of the past. This creates numerous problems and leads to situations that are depicted in the film that we watched at the weekend.

The Tamara Jenkins 2007 film “The Savages” starring Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Philip Bosco explores the way that two children (Linney and Hoffman) cope with their dementing father (Bosco) who needs to be put into care. The situation is complicated by the preexisting relationship (or rather lack of it) that these two children had with their parents. The mother abandoned them when young and their father was anything but a caring parent. However, the blood ties are strong enough for these two scarred individuals to want to “do the right thing”.

The film works on many levels. The story is everyday and trite in many ways, but because of this, it reeks of humanity and appeals to the viewer because one can identify with characters and situations in many ways. There is subtle humour, pathos, humility and sadness in this movie and one can see it and become embarrassed because there are many venial sins depicted that could be on any one of our consciences. This wasn’t a film that moved me particularly, although I felt involved and there was a great sense of pity that I felt for all the characters.

The daughter is a thirty something relief worker who is trying to get a grant to write a play. She is having an affair with a married man fifteen years her senior, lies about unimportant things and downs pills of all sorts. Her reactions are emotional, a little unstable, motivated by the love she has been denied when growing up. The son is older, apparently more down-to-earth, ostensibly more sensible and less inclined to emotional outbursts, but nevertheless conceals a soft centre and is not coping with his relationship with a Polish woman whose visa has run out and get out of the country.

The father is perhaps the most enigmatic of the characters as he is the one who has the least to say, but is perhaps the one we wished said the most. He is played beautifully by Philip Bosco and he acts as the catalyst for the great changes that will occur in his children’s life after the interaction they have with him in the twilight of his life. The supporting role of Lenny (the daughter married lover) played by Peter Friedman is an excellent casting choice and to a certain extent this character acts as a fulcrum for the changes that happen later in the film.

Tamara Jenkins (who also wrote the script) directs form the heart and gets everything right in this film. The chemistry amongst the cast is great and the cinematography very good. The stark contrast between retirement-ville in Arizona with its manicured lawns and plastic-like shrubs, and the cold, wintry, stark New England landscape is symbolic and poignant. The music provides a good support for the action, is often a bridge or transition and a reminder of the former times that the father is regressing into. Overall, a very satisfying film, well worth seeing.

GREEK FIRES - DÉJA VU

“A spark neglected makes a mighty fire.” - Robert Herrick

The devastating fires in Attica, Greece, just to the north of Athens have been burning since Friday evening and have reduced to ash forests and gutted properties. The fire broke out late on Friday in a village about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the Greek capital and, fanned by strong winds, spread to neighbouring villages and northern suburbs of Athens. Greek authorities declared a state of emergency in eastern Attica on Saturday where the flames seared about 12,140 hectares of forest, farming fields and olive groves.

The fire brought back memories of 2007, when Greece's deadliest wildfires in living memory raged for more than 10 days on the Peloponnese peninsula and Evoia island, killing 65 people. Fortunately, until now, there have been no deaths with these fires, but authorities fear for the worst as residents are frantically trying to stop the flames from reaching their houses with garden hoses and tree branches.

A detail from Bosch’s central part of the “Triptych of The Temptation of St Anthony” (painted 1505-06), Oil on panel (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon) is apt for this fiery Sunday. A burning village illuminates the dusky background, probably a reference to the disease of ergotism or "St Anthony's Fire", whose victims invoked the name of St Anthony for relief.

Hieronymus Bosch (ca 1450-1516) was Netherlandish painter, named after the town of 's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) in northern Brabant, where he seems to have lived throughout his life. His real name was Jerome van Aken (perhaps indicating family origins in Aachen, Germany). Bosch married well and was successful in his career (although his town was fairly isolated, it was prosperous and culturally stimulating). He was an orthodox Catholic and a prominent member of a local religious brotherhood, but his most characteristic paintings are so bizarre that in the 17th century he was reputed to have been a heretic. About forty genuine examples of Bosch's work survive, but none is dated and no accurate chronology can be made.

A LECTURE, A FOOTBALL GAME AND A SONG

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” - Elwyn Brooks White

This morning I had been invited to give a presentation to the Victorian Society for Nuclear Medicine and therefore I woke up early as it was an 8:30 am start. The presentation went very well and the 150 or so attendees seemed to enjoy it quite a great deal. In fact I was asked to come back and address the meeting once again in the future. I enjoyed it also and it highlighted for me that I miss teaching and lecturing a little ever since I started my new job 18 months ago. It is quite an experience being in front of a room of people whose undivided attention you have (and you have to keep) for an hour and a quarter, while at the same time trying to teach them something.

I then went home before going out again at lunchtime as I had been invited to attend the football match between Carlton and Melbourne at Etihad Stadium in the City. Seeing football (and other spectator sports) is not my idea of having fun on a Saturday afternoon, but the football was only an excuse for more serious business. The meeting was in the corporate box of one of the Institutes that we are negotiating with about various agreements and collaborative projects and the discussions were quite successful. We had a nice lunch, we watched the game on and off, laughed a little and talked on and off about the matter at hand regarding the agreements. Quite a good way of doing business. Incidentally, Carlton thrashed Melbourne and is well on its way to being in the finals.

This evening there was another outing, but was this strictly for pleasure, and that was what made the day worthwhile…

And for Song Saturday, a French song by the very talented and sultry Patricia Kaas, “Mon Mec à Moi”.

CROQUE MENHEER IN BRISBANE

“Sandwich every bit of criticism between two thick layers of praise.” - Mary Kay Ash

I was in Brisbane for work today. A very early flight in and a late flight out. Kept busy all day, but fortunately the trip was successful and all went well. At lunchtime we had some sandwiches brought in and we continued working while we ate. It all reminded me of the origin of the word: Sandwiches were named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–92), an English nobleman said to have eaten food in this form so as not to leave the gaming table…

Here is the recipe for a very special open sandwich:

CROQUE MENHEER

• 1 slice of white bread
• 50 g butter
• 2 slices of Leidsekaas (cumin-flavoured Gouda)
• Some butter sautéed mushrooms
• Tablespoon of mayonnaise
• 1 egg
• Salt, pepper, paprika, nutmeg, (curry if desired), sprig of parsley

Melt the butter in a flat omelette skillet and heat until it is sizzling and turning brown. Fry the bread in the butter until both sides are golden. Put the cheese and mushrooms on the bread in a plate and top with the mayonnaise. Add some more butter to the pan if there is not enough there to fry the egg. Fry the egg, seasoning well and top the open sandwich with it yolk side down, adding the chopped parsley last.

Have a good weekend!

LIFE OFF EARTH

“Horatio: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, - William Shakespeare

I read in the newspaper a couple of days ago that scientists have uncovered new evidence that life may be widespread in the cosmos. It relates to the finding of a fundamental amino acid, glycine (which is a component of proteins in all forms of life), in comet dust. The material was collected in 2004 by NASA’s spacecraft “Stardust” that sampled comet dust when it passed through the tail of the comet Wild 2. Comets have long been suspected of being “buses” that contain a variety of organic compounds, which may be transported for immense distances and seeded throughout the universe on suitable host worlds.

Carl Pilcher was one of the astrobiologists who was involved in the study and he purports that the presence of glycine in comets strengthens the argument that life throughout the universe may be common rather than rare. James Elsila was the lead author in an article in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science that reported on the results of the study, and in his article he maintains that the finding of glycine in comet dust also supports the idea that perhaps life on earth was initially seeded by material carried here from deep space by a rogue comet…

For the skeptics, and in the interest of good science, experiments were carried out on the carbon isotopic composition of the glycine sampled by “Stardust”. This confirmed the extraterrestrial origin of the glycine molecules and effectively discounted the argument that the amino acid was of terrestrial origin and contaminated the sample after it arrived on earth.

Which brings to mind a Greek song sung by Manolis Lidakis and Eleni Tsaligopoulou “Υλικό Ονείρων” (Yliko Oneiron - Stuff of Dreams):

“Είμαστε πλασμένοι από υλικό
Που γίνονται τα όνειρα.
Είμαστε πλασμένοι από υλικό
Που γίνονται τα αστέρια…”

Είμαστε πλασμένοι εσύ κι εγώ απ’ το υλικό
Που κρύβεται στα όνειρα.
Είμαστε πλασμένοι εσύ κι εγώ απ’ το υλικό
Που καίγεται στα αστέρια…”

(We are made of the stuff
That dreams are made of.
We are made of the stuff
That stars are made of…

(We are made, you and I, of the stuff
That hides in dreams.
We are made, you and I, of the stuff
That burns in the stars…)

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a project that has been on-going for several decades now. It concerns itself with questions like: “How many planets exists which might support life? What is required for life to exist? How does life start? How does it evolve, and what fabulous creatures can evolution produce? How often do intelligent creatures appear in the giant tapestry of life?” Such questions are the domain of astrobiology and SETI has long tried to answer them.

A famous astrobiologist, Dr Frank Drake, has tried to answer these questions by mathematical means and his equation attempts to quantify the number of planets in the universe that harbour intelligent life. Although this equation has no generally accepted “solution”, many people have tried to “solve” it and in the great majority of cases, even with the most conservative numbers, it becomes obvious that the presence of intelligent life in our galaxy is inevitable. All it remains for us to do now is to conclusively demonstrate its existence…

And the word of the day, aptly, is:
Astrobiology |ˌastrōbīˈäləjē| noun
(Also known as exobiology, exopalaeontology, and bioastronomy) is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry, life on Mars and other bodies in our Solar System, laboratory and field research into the origins and early evolution of life on Earth, and studies of the potential for life to adapt to challenges on Earth and in outer space.
ORIGIN: from Greek astron ‘star’ and bios ‘life’ + -logia ‘denoting a subject of study or interest’.

Jacqui BB hosts Word Thursday

SPRING THOUGHTS, AUTUMN MUTTERINGS

“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

For every part of the world where a dismal Winter reigns, there is an antipodean Summer. Dreary Autumn is diametrically opposed to another part of the world where the blush of Spring colours the earth’s cheek. To every coin two sides, heads you win, tails I lose. To every story there are two versions, his and hers. For every relationship two endings, one happy and one sad…

Spring in the Antipodes

A brilliant day today, Spring!
Sky sapphire-blue,
Sun shining strong, golden-warm.
Unlike the sickly silver sunshine
Of two weeks ago in Winter.
Spring!
The buds have swelled
On plum trees,
And the wattles a riot of yellow
That I have just noticed today.
In the garden, my anemones
Have bloomed purple and red.

And I, ensconced deeply
In the dark recesses of my office,
I labour under reams of paper,
And do battle with numbers,
Trying to discipline them,
Getting them to abide by the
Budgetary constraints…
Outside my window,
Birds flutter, their twitters
A distraction as are the emerald leaves,
Newly sprung on street trees.

With afternoon tea comes sympathy,
And loneliness that lurks in the stairwell,
Also in the dimly lit corridor,
Illuminated by cold neon lights
(a special pity today!)
My pigeon hole bare of letters
Again today, you do not speak to me
Your face sullen, your eyes a cool blue.
I won’t speak either.
Where is my optimistic morning mood?

And the day marches on
And evening comes quickly
(in Spring, days are still short).
Back home,
The nagging insistence of night falling:
“The temperature will drop to 3˚C tonight…”
And then it’s dead of night,
Spring just a phantom
Once again this year…

Poetry Wednesday is hosted by Jacqui BB

MOZART vs SALIERI

“As iron is eaten by rust, so are the envious consumed by envy.” - Antisthenes

Today is the birthday of:
Virginia Dare, first American-born child of English parents (1587);
Brook Taylor, mathematician (1685);
Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (1750);
Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (1774);
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen, Antarctica circumnavigator (1778);
John Russell, British Prime Minister (1792);
Max Factor, cosmetics empire builder (1904);
Shelley Winters (Shirley Schrift), actress (1922);
Rosalynn Smith, former American first lady (1927);
Roman Polanski, director (1933);
Robert Redford, US actor (1937);
Martin Mull, actor (1943);
Patrick Swayze, actor (1952);

Vinca major, the blue periwinkle is the birthday flower for today. It symbolises early friendship. Astrologically, the plant is ruled by Venus.

Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) was Mozart’s contemporary and during their lifetimes, Salieri was infinitely more popular and more successful than Mozart. His music nowadays sounds curiously simplistic and devoid of expression of feeling, although technically competent and satisfying in form. He appreciated Mozart’s genius and may have even helped the younger composer. But was he also envious of him? Did he, as one playwright would have us believe, have a hand in Mozart’s untimely death? Peter Schaeffer’s “Amadeus” may have done irreparable harm to Salieri’s reputation and unfortunately it may all be groundless slander! Who knows for certain? He wrote over 40 operas, none of which have been revived and his instrumental output although smaller is the only part of his oeuvre that is nowadays available. Some of his works that are entertaining and possibly an illustration of “classical muzak” are his concerti: Concerto for Fortepiano and Orchestra (1773) and Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Orchestra (1774). They are rather light and have no pretensions of being deep and emotionally challenging…

Just by way of comparison, here are the first movements of piano concertos by Salieri (Concerto for fortepiano in B flat-major, composed around 1773 when Salieri was 23 years old) and by Mozart (Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K271, composed in 1777 when Mozart was 21 years old).



Now compare this to Mozart’s effort in the same genre:

KISSES AND BANGS

“Humour is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: An awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.” - Christopher Morley



We watched a strange film at the weekend, one that wasn’t quite what we expected, but which we nevertheless enjoyed in the end. It was Shane Black’s 2005 “Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang”, which certainly had a lot of kisses and a lot of bangs in it. I chose the film as I read in the back jacket of the DVD the scanty write-up of the plot which described it as an action thriller. They had left out the bit about the black comedy! This best describes the film, which was quite a funny spoof of a film noir. One word of warning: If you are likely to be offended by piquant language, this is not the film for you – the film-makers have gone out of their way to “offend the viewers of the Midwest” as they confess in the last few minutes of the film! I am not a fan of blue language in films, but I did not particularly mind it in this film, it was about the dregs of society living in L.A. after all, it was to be expected that this was the way they spoke (OK, maybe I live a sheltered life)!

In a nutshell, the film concerns itself with a petty criminal in New York who, in order to escape the police who is chasing him ends up in an audition room and gets selected to take part in a film being made in L.A. He runs across his high school sweetheart who is now an aspiring starlet in Hollywood and gets involved in murder and conspiracy quite by chance. There is also a gay detective, a jaded Hollywood director up to his dirty tricks, identity theft, murder, car chases, incest, murder, a hungry dog (oh no!), and some quite original comedic devices that are very effective (did I mention murder?)

The actors do a fantastic job, with Robert Downey Jnr giving a great performance as the idiotic, gauche Harry, the petty thief. Val Kilmer is “Gay Perry”, the detective with the faultless grammar (the recurring joke bad/badly, adjective/adverb is very funny), while Michelle Monaghan plays Harmony, the aspiring young starlet. The supporting actors were also all very good and there is great chemistry amongst the leads. Once the initial few minutes of this film were seen and digested and the caricatures of the pulp film noir are appreciated, one can sit back and enjoy the humour and clever dialogue. At the same time I should stress that it’s not slapstick, and the ludicrous situations that develop are mainly because of the ineptitude of Harry as the “detective-in-spite-of-himself”.

The director, Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Last Boy Scout, Long Kiss Goodnight) wrote the script based on an idea based on the novel by Brett Halliday “Bodies Are Where You Find Them”, but he has imbued it with his own brand of tongue in cheek humour, fast-paced dialogue and sick ideas. Incidentally, the title is from the Japanese description of James Bond movies! Good fun all round…

ARTISTS, FAMOUS OR NOT?

“Perception is a clash of mind and eye, the eye believing what it sees, the mind seeing what it believes.” - Robert Brault

And now, something different for Art Sunday. Here is the link to a cute quiz, which you can try, to see whether you have an eye for art or not. Some paintings are given to you and you simply have to guess whether they are by a famous artist or by an unknown artist (unknown for their art in any case…).

http://reverent.org/great_art_or_not.html

You may get some surprises in the end, especially where the identity of the unknown artists is revealed. The quiz is marked and scored automatically for you. I got a score of 92% right!

LOVELY EVENING

“There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man’s shoulder.” - Charles Morgan

Imagine yourself in the arms of your lover after a wonderful day (and evening!) that you have spent together. Heart and body are replete with the joy of being together and enjoying each other’s company. A caress on naked flesh, a tender kiss and the comfortable feeling of being together and watching the stars outside the window winking at you as the winds blow wildly. Inside it is warm, quiet and a sweet repose is making your limbs relaxed and heavy on each others body. You smile contentedly and the mad world outside seems far away and insignificant. Did I mention that sweet music is playing? Yes, it is, and it is this:
The Mozart Serenade No 10 In B Flat Major K 361, 3rd movement, Adagio…

Have a wonderful weekend!

RÜDESHEIMER KAFFEE

“This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.” – Honoré de Balzac, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee"

One of the pleasures of travelling is sampling some of the local food and drink specialties. I had a meeting today in one of the cafés close to work and on the spur of the moment I ordered Viennese coffee. The coffee was excellent, but rather than Viennese coffee, it reminded me more of a coffee that I had in Germany when I was visiting Rüdesheim, the local specialty, Rüdesheimer Kaffee.

Rüdesheim is a lovely little town on the Rhine, amidst hills laden with terraced vineyards and having an atmosphere that’s straight out of a fairy tale. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century Rudesheim has been an attraction for English and German poets alike, and is today, considering the modest number of residents one of the most visited towns in the country. Historical landmarks, include the Klunkhardshof, the fortified Adler Tower, the thousand-year-old Broemser castle and the ruins of the Ehrenfels Castle. The nearby extensive forests of the nature park Rhein-Taunus are an added bonus.

From the vantage points of the Niederwald, the visitor can also enjoy breathtaking views of the Rhine valley with the Nahe river estuary and the beautiful uniformity of the steep vineyards. The superb Rüdesheimer Riesling is the local alcoholic specialty and one can enjoy it, together with music and dancing, in the Drosselgasse or in the numerous inns, wine bars and taverns.

But I digress, here is the recipe for the coffee:

Rüdesheimer Kaffee
Ingredients (for 4 cups)

150 ml cream
Vanilla sugar
160 ml brandy (Asbach Uralt, if you want to be really authentic!)
12 sugar cubes
800 ml scalding hot espresso coffee
Dark chocolate flakes

Method

Whip the vanilla sugar and cream until stiff peaks form and reserve. Heat four flameproof cups (there are special Rüdesheimer coffee cups and you may want to buy some if you become addicted to this coffee!) and place three sugar cubes in each cup. Pour equal parts of the well-warmed brandy over the sugar cubes in each cup. Light the brandy-sugar mixture stir, and allow to burn for a minute. Pour in the hot coffee and fill to about two centimeters below the rim. Fill the cup with the whipped vanilla Chantilly cream. Sprinkle the cream with dark chocolate flakes.

Enjoy!

LEFT HANDERS' DAY

“I’m right-handed, whereas the fellow in my mirror is left-handed. I start shaving from the left; he starts from the right. Differences only in perception, but religious wars have been fought over such.” - Robert Brault

Today is International Left Handers’ Day! On the 13th of August 1992 the International Left Handers’ Club launched International Left-Handers Day, as an annual event that allows left-handers everywhere to celebrate their sinistrality and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed. This event is now celebrated worldwide, with many regional events to mark the day, including left-vs-right sports matches, left-handed tea parties, pubs that use left-handed corkscrews where patrons drink and play pub games with the left hand only, and nationwide "Lefty Zones" where left-handers’ creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess are celebrated, whilst right-handers are encouraged to try out everyday left-handed objects to see just how awkward it can feel using the wrong equipment!

These events have contributed more than anything else to the general awareness of the difficulties and frustrations left-handers experience in everyday life, and have successfully led to improved product design and greater consideration of our needs by the right-handed majority, although there is still a long way to go! Our language is a prime example of the prejudice that left-handers have had to deal with since the dawn of history. Left-handers have been linguistically abused for centuries! There are hundreds of (mainly abusive) terms for left-handers. There are a lot of phrases and sayings where “right” is good and “left” is bad eg, “being in your right mind”, it will be “all right in the end”, being “dexterous”, as against having “two left-feet”, “a left-handed compliment” (one that is not really meant!), a “sinister” purpose, being “gauche”, etc.

Here is an interesting test from the Club’s pages:

We all, of course, know in which hand we hold a pen, but how far does this bias extend throughout your body? Are you left-eared? Left eyed? Here is a simple test you can apply to yourself.

1. Imagine the centre of your back is itching. Which hand do you scratch it with?

2. Interlock your fingers. Which thumb is uppermost?

3. Imagine you are applauding. Start clapping your hands. Which hand is uppermost?

4. Wink at an imaginary friend straight in front of you. Which eye does the winking?

5. Put your hands behind your back, one holding the other. Which hand is doing the holding?

6. Someone in front of you is shouting but you cannot hear the words. Cup your ear to hear better. Which ear do you cup?

7. Count to three on your fingers, using the forefinger of the other hand. Which forefinger do you use?

8. Tilt your head over on to one shoulder. Which shoulder does it touch?

9. Fixate a small distant object with your eyes and point directly at it with your forefinger. Now close one eye. Now change eyes. Which eye was open when the fingertip remained in line with the small object? (When the other eye, the non-dominant one, is open and the dominant eye is closed, the finger will appear to move to one side of the object.)

10. Fold your arms. Which forearm is uppermost?

If you have always considered yourself to be right or left-handed you will probably now have discovered that your body is less than total in its devotion to its favoured side. If you are right-handed the chances are that you were not able to be 'right' 10 times.

Are you left handed or right-handed? Maybe you are ambidextrous? Tell us about it!

SPRING

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” Mark Twain


Safely home after the late night flight from Perth. It was a very long hard day’s work without break. However, it was quite successful, although another trip to Perth is on the cards in the near future. Going to the airport it was hard to ignore the signs of spring…

Query

The plum trees blossom again this year,
For whom?
The sun regains its warmth, its brilliance,
Why?

New leaves unfurl,
The trees bedeck themselves with emeralds,
The garden is fragrant once again
As bulbs wildly bloom.

The earth is springing forth
And yet again, the mornings bright.
Where are you?
Have you seen it all?

Has anybody noticed it,
Has somebody really wondered,
Become enraptured?
Or has the spring blossom
Uncurled its fragrant petals,
All in vain?

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednsesday

POSTCARD FROM PERTH

“I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine." - Caskie Stinnett

I am in Perth a couple of days for work. It has been a very long day as I got up at four in the morning, then left by taxi to get to the airport at five with my flight leaving at six. The flying time from Melbourne to Perth is four hours, and then allowing for the two hour time difference, I was going in to work at 8:30 am, Perth time. I put in a good day’s work with several meetings, resolution of a few issues and also a couple of teleconferences with our Melbourne and Brisbane campuses.

I left work at about 4:00 pm and went for a walk around the City. The weather was quite pleasant, although the people here are complaining of a cold and wet winter. The temperature was an equable 18˚C and apart from a few gray clouds on occasion across the sky, it was fine. Certainly a very mild winter by Melbourne standards. Apparently it was a dreary and gray day in Melbourne today, raining and hailing…

In the City of Perth today it was quite busy and the crowds were lively and cosmopolitan. Many tourists around and especially so, those of the young and backpacker variety. There is still an atmosphere of excitement, growth and a pioneering spirit in this westernmost state capital of Australia. New buildings are still going up and there is a buoyancy in the air despite the economic gloom that still seems to plague the rest of the world. The shops were full and people were out there buying, buying, buying!

I always like to wander down the pedestrian mall and walk through the London Arcade. This is a quaint and “olde-worlde” arcade that is housed in a wonderful pseudo-Tudor confection of a building. Very fake, very touristic and very twee. Still it manages to capture a little of the atmosphere and it is easy to imagine oneself in one of the wonderful old streets of London. Some beautiful shops are right next to the tourist traps and one can admire tacky displays of Australiana right next to elegant and refined, artisan-made merchandise.

I have another full day of work tomorrow and then straight to the airport from work for a 6:00 pm flight to Melbourne which means I won’t get home until after midnight. It’s going to be a long day…

MOVIE MONDAY - A TIME TO KILL

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

We watched the 1996 Joel Schumacher film “A Time to Kill” at the weekend. The cast included Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt and Donald Sutherland. This was a film that was in the specials bin in my local video store and it was the cast that first attracted me to it, as I had not heard anything about it prior to seeing it there. Reading the blurb on the back cover of the packaging convinced me to get it. It was a good decision as it is a very powerful, albeit very harrowing and confronting film.

The plot concerns a Mississippi black man’s struggle for justice for himself and his family in contemporary America. The black man is Carl Lee Hailey (Jackson) and the catastrophic series of events begins as his 10-year-old daughter, Tonya, is brutally raped and bashed almost fatally by two young men with previous similar convictions. Hailey is an acquaintance of upwardly mobile young white lawyer Jake Brigance (McConaughey), who had previously defended successfully his brother in court. Determined to see that the two rapists get what they deserve, but knowing that rapists are often acquitted, Carl Lee takes the law into his own hands and guns them down in cold blood inside the courthouse on the day of their arraignments.

Brigance, struggling to keep his law practice solvent, finds himself defending Carl Lee against murder charges in Canton, Mississippi, a white-dominated town. Ellen Roark (Bullock), a law student from Ole Miss, offers her services gratis to Jake just for the opportunity to help with this case about which she feels strongly about and eventually convinces him to take her on. In the meantime, the Ku Klux Klan becomes involved at the prompting of the brother of one of the rapists, and a chapter of the KKK is reconstituted in Canton to deal with the “nigger-loving” whites. The situation explodes into violence and confrontation between blacks and whites, while the court case provides opportunity for airing intolerance and the racial prejudice question in the USA today.

This film was made from the novel by John Grisham and appears to be a good adaptation (as far as I can tell, seeing I have not read the novel). Comparisons with the novel and film “To Kill a Mockingbird” are inevitable as the similarity of the main thesis of the plot is obvious. Yes, it is not as good as these classics but nevertheless, I feel that Schumacher has made a tight, suspense-filled film that engages the viewer. The issues are confronting and shocking. The rape of the young girl was not explicitly shown, but was all the more terrifying and appalling for it. The concept of the theatrical obscene (ob scaena – “off the stage”) is understood by this director in this respect. The gunning down of the rapists is another matter and the violence there is graphic and extreme.

It is very difficult not to be drawn into the core question of the movie: “Has race equality been achieved in the USA of today?” The events depicted in this movie highlight the prejudices of contemporary American society and also point out the differences between North and South, rich and poor, well-connected and less well-connected people. A particularly good point of the film is that of course not all whites are bad and not all blacks are good. The thesis that each person is an individual and should be judged on his or her merits and actions independently of race, social position, geography, wealth etc, is underpinning of the film.

A sub-plot is ambition and what people will do to achieve their goal. Four different lawyers are compared and contrasted with each other. The savvy, experienced and wildly ambitious DA (Spacey) who is prepared to do anything to achieve success and a high political position; the young idealistic lawyer (McConaughey), who dreams of being successful while still maintaining his ethical standards; a formerly successful and now alcoholic lawyer (Sutherland) who has seen the futility of success and high places; and the mercenary, shallow divorce lawyer (Platt) whose only goal seems to be an easy life, fast cars, beautiful women and a conscience that is forever asleep.

The film is good and well-worth seeing. I should like to think that the USA of 2009 is different to that portrayed in 1996. That the America of Obama has lessened a little the rift between black and white, that there is a little more tolerance and understanding in a society that has long been troubled by racism and intolerance.

Other blogs posting about films on this Movie Monday:

Dangerous Meredith

My Soul's Words

Virtually Lea

ART SUNDAY - LIQUID DESIRE

“I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence and attaches so much more importance to waking events than to those occurring in dreams... Man is above all the plaything of his memory.” - Andre Breton, "Manifesto of Surrealism," 1924

We went to the City today as it was a fine day, although a little windy and cold. Nevertheless it was good to get out of the house and see some sun. I was rather pleased as I had put some work for my book in the mail yesterday and that was the last of a whole lot of work that I had been doing for the past few weeks. A very relaxing day, therefore today with a walk in the sun, at Federation Square, and then a leisurely amble to the Southbank Sunday Market by the Yarra River and finally ending up to the National Gallery of Victoria where “Liquid Desire”, the Dalí exhibition is being held.

It is appropriate then to devote Art Sunday to the greatest of the Surrealist painters, Salvador Dalí. To give him his full name, Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol, was born at 8:45 am, May 11, 1904 in the small agricultural town of Figueres, Catalonia Spain, near the French border. The son of a prosperous notary, Dalí spent his boyhood in Figueres and at the family's summer home in the coastal fishing village of Cadaqués where his parents built his first studio. As an adult, he made his home with his wife Gala in nearby Port Lligat. Many of his paintings reflect his love of this area of Spain.

The young Dalí attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Early recognition of Dalí's talent came with his first one-man show in Barcelona in 1925. He became internationally known when three of his paintings, including The Basket of Bread (now in the Museum's collection), were shown in the third annual Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928. The following year, Dalí held his first one-man show in Paris. He also joined the surrealists, led by former Dadaist Andre Breton. That year, Dalí met Gala Eluard when she visited him in Cadaqués with her husband, poet Paul Eluard. She became Dalí's lover, muse, business manager, and chief inspiration.

Dalí soon became a leader of the Surrealist Movement. His painting, “The Persistence of Memory”, with the soft or melting watches is still one of the best-known surrealist works (see poster in the picture above). But as the war approached, the apolitical Dalí clashed with the Surrealists and was “expelled” from the surrealist group during a "trial" in 1934. He did, however, exhibit works in international surrealist exhibitions throughout the decade but by 1940, Dalí was moving into a new type of painting with a preoccupation with science and religion.

Dalí and Gala escaped from Europe during World War II, spending 1940-48 in the United States. These were very important years for the artist. The Museum of Modern Art in New York gave Dalí his first major retrospective exhibit in 1941. This was followed in 1942 by the publication of Dalí's autobiography, “The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí”. As Dalí moved away from Surrealism and into his classic period, he began his series of 19 large canvases, many concerning scientific, historical or religious themes. Among the best known of these works are “The Hallucinogenic Toreador”, “The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus”, and “The Sacrament of the Last Supper”.

In 1974, Dalí opened the Teatro Museo in Figueres, Spain. This was followed by retrospectives in Paris and London at the end of the decade. After the death of his wife, Gala in 1982, Dalí's health began to fail. It deteriorated further after he was burned in a fire in his home in Puból in 1984. Two years later, a pace-maker was implanted. Much of this part of his life was spent in seclusion, first in Puból and later in his apartments at Torre Galatea, adjacent to the Teatro Museo. Salvador Dalí died on January 23, 1989 in Figueres from heart failure with respiratory complications.

As an artist, Dalí was not limited to a particular style or media. The body of his work, from early impressionist paintings through his transitional surrealist works, and into his classical period, reveals a constantly growing and evolving artist. Dalí worked in all media, leaving behind a wealth of oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics, and sculptures, films, photographs, performance pieces, jewels and objects of all descriptions. As important, he left for posterity the permission to explore all aspects of one’s own life and to give them artistic expression.

Whether working from pure inspiration or on a commissioned illustration, Dalí's matchless insight and symbolic complexity are apparent. Above all, Dalí was a superb draughtsman. His excellence as a creative artist will always set a standard for the art of the twentieth century.