PEACHES AND CREAM

“I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts.” - Graham Kerr

We have had a wonderful lot of rain today and more is predicted over the next couple of days. The temperatures have dropped and Spring seems to have vanished temporarily. However, to see the water coming down form the sky is wonderful. We need much of it to break our drought!

Today was the football Grand Final parade in the city, and yes it rained on the parade... As we now have the school holidays, and with the Royal Melbourne Show in full swing (17 - 27 September 2009), and the Grand Final tomorrow, the mood in the city today was quite festive, rain notwithstanding. In any case, football is a game that is best played on a muddy ground!

The touches of Spring are still around, nevertheless, as in the bunches of Spring flowers on sale in the sidewalk stalls, the first spring fruit on sale, with even some peaches of all things! This brought to mind a favourite recipe, which I shall reproduce here, although we won’t be trying it for a couple of months yet…

Roast Peaches with Marzipan

Ingredients (for 6 people)
6 peaches, peeled, cut in half and stoned
200 g marzipan
4 tbsp Amaretto liqueur
70 g unsalted butter (molten)
12 tsp icing sugar
Double cream

Method
Halve the peaches and remove the stone carefully. Place them in a buttered baking tray. Blend the marzipan with the Amaretto. Fill the cavity in the peaches with the marzipan/liqueur mixture. Brush the peaches with the molten butter and dust each peach half with a spoonful of the icing sugar. Bake in a moderate oven until they are golden-brown. Serve with double cream on the side.

I wonder if one can make this with canned peach halves? I don’t see why not. Maybe I’ll try it soon. However, not this weekend, not the next. Travelling to Malaysia for work tomorrow and from there to Singapore.

Enjoy your weekend!

READING, 900-PROOF

“Unto those Three Things which the Ancients held impossible, there should be added this Fourth, to find a Book Printed without errata.” - Alfonso de Cartagena

These past few days I have been very busy proof-reading endless sheaves of my text. This is on top of my ordinary work and generally this proofing takes place in the evening, at night and early hours of the morning. I am up to Chapter 18 out of a total of 24 chapters and the end seems to be nearer, although the last few chapters are the longest… In any case I shall be glad to finish this task and come that one step closer to the published book. It looks as though it will have about 900 pages, so it’s not something to be scoffed at.

Predictably, my word for this Word Thursday:

proofread |ˈproōfˌrēd| (also proof-read) verb ( past and past part. -read |-ˌred|) [ trans. ]
Read (printer's proofs or other written or printed material) and mark any errors.
DERIVATIVES
proofreader noun
ORIGIN: Middle English preve, from Old French proeve, from late Latin proba, from Latin probare ‘to test, prove.’ The change of vowel in late Middle English was due to the influence of prove. Current senses of the verb date from the late 19th century + Old English rǣdan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch raden and German raten ‘advise, guess.’ Early senses included [advise] and [interpret (a riddle or dream)].

Jacqui BB hosts Word Thursday, visit her blog for more words!

GLOOMY SPRING

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” - George Santayana


Spring is supposed to be a joyful season, but still there’s many a tradition and legend that looks at Spring through a dark prism and imbues it with a mournful air. Many old civilisations celebrated Spring’s arrival with sacrifices (sometimes human!) to ensure fertility. Others held their feasts of the dead in Spring (and to marry in May’s still unlucky as the Romans considered Maius a sad and unlucky month, thus dedicated it to the dead, and celebrated no weddings in this month). The ancient Greeks honoured their dead in March with a feast of flowers. In ancient Egypt, the Spring Harvest Festival began to be celebrated on the Spring equinox. The festival honoured the goddess Isis, the mother-goddess who also protected the dead and was the patroness of sailors. Rituals were carried out in her honour and sacrifices were made. Lent is a solemn Spring festival, often lasting well into the middle of Spring…

It was a gloomy Spring day today, with grey clouds and rain. Fleeting warm sun, cold wind, rain. Certainly a day to contemplate the solemnity of Spring and to think dark thoughts and to brood…

Spring Rains

The equinox balances day and night
And sun aligns itself most carefully.
Spring showers turn to rain
And iron weeps rust.

The air is warmer, birds soar into flight
But moon wanes most mournfully.
The deep ache turns to pain
And dreams into dust.

Spring is a most melancholy season
Despite the wild burgeoning of green.
Flowers suit more the grave,
And bitter thought.

I try to find in all a rhyme, a reason,
But deep down is my vengeful spleen;
How easier if all I forgave
No longer fought…


Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday!

CAR-FREE DAY

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” - H.G. Wells

Today is International Car-Free Day, which has been instituted to celebrate an environment without cars. This important international sustainability initiative was launched in 2001 by the Division for Sustainable Development of the UN, in partnership with The Common’s long-standing World Car-Free Days collaborative program. The future organisation and details of this highly innovative and much appreciated collaborative effort is currently under discussion. However, many countries around the world have chosen September 22nd to be the day when this initiative is brought to the fore and many activities around big cities all over the world are making people aware of just how big a difference we can make by choosing not to use our car as much as we are able to.

Although it is important every September 22nd to make everyone aware that we do not have to rely so much on our cars in this car-dominated society that we have become, we do not want just one day of celebration and action and then a return to “normal” car-dependent life. We should take the opportunity for showing people that when people shed their cars, they should and can stay out of their cars. We and the people who govern us need to create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, users of public transport, and other people who do not drive cars. The Car-Free Day must be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars all year round. See this website for some great ideas and resources.

As climate change begins to alter our environment more and more, as the Antarctic ice begins to melt, as droughts and floods destroy our precious resources, World Car-free Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and do something to make a difference. I try and make every day a car-free day by using public transport to go to work. Today this gave me a special satisfaction because I knew that with this little contribution personally, I am making a difference, however small it is. It up to every one of us to do this, but also to demand from city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the car.

As the time for the December Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change approaches it is important to activate and ensure that our views are made crystal clear to our politicians. Australia’s first ever Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has just revealed that the Australian Federal Government has been working on a legal structure that could appease developing nations unwilling or unable to commit to economy-wide targets to ensure that greenhouse gas emission targets are achieved. This of course is an issue that has been hotly contested between the developed and developing countries in the face of climate change strategies.

Wong proposes a differentiated approach where nations can choose how they reduce emissions instead of having a set of economy-wide targets imposed on them. The actions that countries take to fulfil their commitments will reflect different national circumstances. For example, one nation may choose to become legally bound to generate energy via renewable sources, while another may choose to attain a certain technology standard or a third may choose to abide by a target to reduce deforestation.

Car-free days give us the opportunity to “Think Globally, Act Locally”. This is now a widely held precept which purports 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. He believed that there needed to be a creation of a World Order in which “natural and social units maintain or recapture their identity, yet interplay with each other through a rich system of communications”. In the 1980's, Dubos held to his thoughts on acting locally, and felt that issues involving the environment must be dealt with in their “unique physical, climatic, and cultural contexts.”

Happy Car-Free Day, today and every day!

LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG

“Love is the poetry of the senses.” - Honoré de Balzac

We watched the 1964 Jacques Demy film “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) at the weekend. This was quite a famous and controversial film in its time and even today manages to generate quite few comments. The story is nothing special – trite one could even call it: Geneviève, aged 17 years, lives with her widowed mother, the owner of an umbrella shop in Cherbourg (hence the title of the movie). Geneviève and Guy, a twenty-year-old auto mechanic, are secretly in love and want to marry, but when she reveals this to her mother, her mother objects on the grounds that Geneviève is too young and Guy is not mature or well-established enough, particularly since he has not yet done his compulsory military service. Shortly after this, Guy is conscripted and he is to serve in the war in Algeria.

Before he leaves, Geneviève and Guy spend the night together, which results in her becoming pregnant. While Guy is away they drift apart, and Geneviève, strongly encouraged by her mother, accepts a marriage proposal from a well-to-do gem dealer named Roland Cassard, who has fallen in love with her at first sight and has promised to bring up her child as his own. Geneviève accepts and they get married. Guy returns and finds that his Geneviève, now married, has moved away from town. The rest you’ll have to see for yourselves…

A B-grade melodrama, you might say. Well, yes it is but there is quite difference from your ordinary melodrama. Firstly because it is precisely that, literally a melodrama in its original sense of “sung play”. The whole film is sung, all lines of dialogue uttered in recitative and occasional “aria”. A musical or modern opera, call it what you like, sung it all is. Even “Change the oil in car, Guy!” The film also is beautifully directed and the colours are quite stunning (this after all was the first French musical in colour).

Demy wrote the script and dialogues, as well as directing the film and it was Michel Legrand who imbued the film with its sultry sadness by writing the very atmospheric music for it. Everyone knows the song “I Will Wait for You…” which is melodramatic and romantic to the nth degree. Here it is in context, in the scenes where Guy and Geneviève part when he is conscripted.



The film still surprises and delights, shocks and moves one. The final scene at the Esso station is a legendary one in cinematic history. The acting is superb (and one wonders sometimes how the actors manage to keep a straight face while singing about changing engine oil) and Catherine Deneuve looks beautiful and innocent immersed in the joy and sorrow of first love.

Definitely have a look at this movie, and see what you make of it. It does grow on you and there is much to discover on second viewing.

For Movie Monday, also look at Dangerous Meredith's blog with some really good reviews on three or four movies!

DAY OF PEACE

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tomorrow is the International Day of Peace. This day, established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly, was first inaugurated on the third Tuesday of September, 1982. Beginning on the 20th anniversary in 2002, the UN General Assembly set 21st September as the new permanent date for the International Day of Peace.

In establishing the International Day of Peace, the United Nations General Assembly decided that it would be appropriate
“To devote a specific time to concentrate the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States, as well as of the whole of mankind, to promoting the ideals of peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable ways… (The International Day of Peace) should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”

Petrarch has said: “Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us: Avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.” These words of the renaissance poet are as true today in times of world-wide strife, as they were then when internecine struggles between the city states destroyed lives.

Here is a poem I wrote last year on this topic of Peace:

Peace

It is the laughter of children playing outside my window,
The smell of baking in the kitchen and the larder full.
It is the hurrying steps of a returning labourer,
Content with a full day’s work, eager to come home.

It is the fields that bloom, the grain ripening in the sun,
The cows dozing as they chew their cud.
It is my love in her summer dress reading her book
Under the shade of a green-leaf tree.

It is the sound of music drifting down the empty street
As dancing couples whirl in the town hall.
It is the two adolescents that kiss beneath a full moon
While the crickets chirp in approbation.

It is the careless saunter late at night,
The lights left on inside the house, burning like beacons.
It is the sound of airplane engines in the sky, that only
Stir the thoughts of distant exotic places and carefree holidays.

It is a rusty rifle driven into the earth to support a growing vine,
An old soldier’s helmet, now home to a budding flower.
It is the surety of watching your children surviving you,
The swelling pregnant belly and the double-joy of grandchildren.

Peace: It is a quietude and a celebration of the commonplace,
An all-increasing accumulation of small delights that add up to bliss.
Peace, it is a multiplicity of contentments and a realisation
Of what humankind has the capability of being.

And the illustration above is Picasso’s “Dove of Peace”.

SISTER MOON

“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Lamartine

Saturday night and missing my special someone a lot. The time apart hones the keenness of our yearnings. The distance between us magnifies the desire to be together. The thought of you makes me smile, even though my heart languishes away from you.

Here’s hoping for safe travels and a speedy return. In the darkness of the new moon I await for your return and the resilvering of the night by the fullness of the moon.

TEA AND BISCUITS

“Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.” - Robert Fulghum

I had some very nice biscuits at afternoon tea at work today that were brought in by a colleague (no, we did not all lie down for a nap afterwards!). She was very pleased that everyone liked them and she even gave us the recipe:

Elegant Day and Night Biscuits
Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup icing sugar
7/8 cup softened unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Method
Sift flour and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed of the mixer until pale and fluffy (2 to 3 minutes), scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Mix in egg yolk and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined, about 1 minute.

Remove half of the dough; set aside. Add cocoa powder to remaining dough; mix on low speed until well combined. Turn out chocolate dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 25 cm log, about 4 cm in diameter. Repeat with reserved vanilla dough. Wrap each log in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until slightly firm, at least 30 minutes.

Press handle of a long wooden spoon into side of chocolate log, making an indentation along its length. Roll handle into and then away from log, creating an apostrophe shape. Repeat with vanilla log. Fit logs together; press lightly to seal. Gently roll into a 5 cm diameter log. Wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 175˚C. Cut log into 3/4 cm thick rounds; space 2 cm apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and if desired to give a “yin-yang” impression dab a dot of different coloured dough on each half of the biscuit. If dough becomes too soft to slice cleanly, return to freezer until firm.

Bake until firm to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; let cool. Biscuits can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days. Recipe makes about 4 dozen biscuits.

Have a good weekend!

A DAY IN ADELAIDE

“By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” - Robert Frost

I was in Adelaide for work today and the day was once again hectic and full, but once again satisfying. This morning the flight was delayed at Melbourne airport because there was heavy fog in Sydney. All of the international flights that could not land in Sydney airport were diverted to Brisbane and Melbourne. This wrought havoc with the outbound flights at Melbourne and our plane ended up sitting on the tarmac for 40 minutes. I always try to get a very early flight as those usually don’t have many disruptions, but my luck ran out today. Nevertheless, I was on time for my first early morning appointment in Adelaide, one advantage being that Adelaide is 30 minutes behind Melbourne time.

After my successful first appointment in one of the State Government Departments, I hurried off to the Hyatt Hotel, to go to the formal launch of South Australia’s “State of Ageing” report. This was an initiative of the State Government and the Minister for Ageing, the Hon Jennifer Rankine MP, officially opened the function and gave out the prizes for the best research papers and posters. Representatives of the three Universities in South Australia were there, as well as the winner of the South Australian Senior of a couple of years back who gave a very amusing talk on senescence and its joys.

The initiative and the project are extremely interesting and much needed. It is great to see a State Government in Australia take an active role in planning for the future in terms of dealing with our ageing population and the demands it will place on our social fabric. The report launched today is the first project of the South Australian Ageing Research Round Table, an initiative of the Office for the Ageing that brings together Flinders University, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. The group will monitor the implications of an ageing population and link policy into practice.

I then took one of the staff members of our Adelaide Campus to lunch and discussed with her the various issues she currently faces as the campus is beginning to teach our new degrees in South Australia. That was a very fruitful meeting also and it was good to hear “straight from the horse’s mouth” the challenges the Campus faces. I then went back to the campus and inspected some recent renovations that were made and the new clinic fit outs.

The day finished with another meeting, in another Government Department. This time the topic was growth and educational partnerships. It was refreshing to hear someone in Government coming up with some great ideas and actually being helpful. That was an extremely useful meeting and we both came out of it with sheaves of notes and lots of items to go and work on. The potential for some great work is there and the opportunities many.

Did I mention I took some proof-reading with me to do on the plane? And yes I did that too. Never a dull moment! Now I think it’s time for bed and a good night’s sleep. More to do tomorrow bright and early.

senescence |səˈnesəns| noun Biology
The condition or process of deterioration with age.
• loss of a cell's power of division and growth.
DERIVATIVES
senescent adjective
senesce verb
ORIGIN mid 17th century: From Latin senescere, from senex ‘old.’

Jacqui BB hosts Word Thursday

THE MOON ALONE

“As contraries are known by contraries, so is the delight of presence best known by the torments of absence.” - Alcibiades

A poem dedicated to someone special, far away…

The Moon Alone

The wind blows all the stars away,
Sweeps them under the carpet of the clouds.
The moon alone remains high
On her silver balcony,
And smiles.

She watches me and stifles a laugh
As I search for my lost heart;
Mislaid perhaps – or hiding in a summer’s night,
Or taken by a spring morning;
Stolen?

The clouds gather and draw the curtains
Giving the moon the privacy she wants, alone.
I too sit alone, where is my soul tonight?
Flying with the gulls,
Or sailing.

The wind whistles a lonely song tonight,
The leaves shake, the tiles rattle,
The window creaks, and I’m awake, sighing.
Are you watching the moon? You too alone,
Sleepless?


Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday.

AGGIE

“The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.” - Agatha Christie
Butcher’s broom, Ruscus aculeatus, is the birthday plant for this day. In the past butchers used to sweep their shops with branches from this bush. Another use of the sprigs of the plant bearing the characteristic red berries was that butchers decorated the Christmas meats with it. A poultice made of berries and leaves was used to treat broken bones and sprains. Astrologically, this is a plant belonging to Mars.

A famous birthday for today is Agatha Christie, English novelist (1890-1976). Her website informs me that September 13th-20th is Agatha Christie week, no doubt centering on her birthday. The annual Agatha Christie Festival on the English Riviera takes place during this week, and over 40 events will take place including plays, open-air cinema screenings, tea-dances, lectures and murder mystery dinners. Other activities are organized around the world to celebrate the “Queen of Crime’s” contribution to the mystery novel genre.

I must admit that during my salad days I was an inveterate Christie fan and had read all her novels by the time I was growing out of my teens. They were well-written and full of quirky characters, good murderous fare and of course the delightful Miss Marple and the logical M. Poirot. I still have quite a lot of her books in my library and plan to have another read of them when I retire. They were so very English all of her novels and so old-wordly…

Agatha Christie’s recently discovered notebooks are a treasure trove for any fan. John Curran’s book, Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks also contain two unpublished Christie stories. Out in stores on the 3rd September, the books provide a fascinating insight into her writing.

On this day in 7 BC, as the sun set, a bright star rose in the eastern sky. This was a rare conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, the latter being the planet of kings. Some astrologers suggest that this date marks the birth of Christ and the conjoined planets was the Star of Bethlehem observed by the Magi, or wise men of the East. The constellation of pisces or fishes is also noteworthy as ICTHYS in Greek is fish and also stands acronymically for Iesus Christos, Theou Yios, Soter (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour). The fish has been used since ancient times as symbol for Christianity.

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

“The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded.” - Edmund Burke

Well after spending all weekend proof-reading, I needed a little break and last night, for a Sunday night treat I watched Ridley Scott’s 2005 epic, “Kingdom of Heaven”. This was quite a film, especially as it was the director’s cut on Bluray disc, totalling to 192 minutes. Well, it was quite magnificent and despite its length kept me enthralled and engaged. The production was a joint European/American one and several good actors gave quite good performances: Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Liam Neelson, Marton Csokas, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Irons, being just a few.

This is a film about one of the Crusades the film’s story beginning in the year 1184 AD. Balian, (Orlando Bloom) is a peasant blacksmith in France who has just lost his wife as she has committed suicide (an interesting case of post-natal depression after she delivers a stillborn baby). Balian is visited by Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) who tells Balian that he is illegitimate son. Godfrey tries to convince Balian to join him as he is on his way to Jerusalem. Balian is reluctant, but circumstances force him to find his father and join him on the trip to Jerusalem. Godfrey dies of a wound sustained in battle, but manages to knight Balian and make him his heir to his Baronetcy of Ibelin in the Holy Land.

After various adventures, Balian finds himself in Ibelin that he makes fertile by introducing European “technology” and irrigation works. Balian also aligns himself with the leprous King of Jerusalem and with Sibylla, the king’s sister who is married and has a young son. Leprosy is depicted well in this film and there are all sorts of interesting little medical vignettes, which I enjoyed (but I am prejudiced in this respect). Balian proves himself to be more than worthy of being made a knight, while many nobles behave in a despicable way. Guy de Lusignan (Csokas), a member of the Knights Templar, is especially aggressive and intolerant, and causes a break in the good relations with the Muslims that was brokered by King Baldwin by attacking them ceaselessly. The powder keg of Jerusalem erupts when the King dies and the Muslim leader Saladin besieges the city...

The cinematography, music and direction in this film are excellent. Balian is a little bit too earnest and dour throughout, but of course he has to play the perfect knight. Jeremy Irons and Liam Neelson are very good in their roles as is the dastardly de Lusignan. The film is a very balanced view of the Christian/Muslim relationship, although the Christian clergy are the ones who are most contemptuously depicted. The true noble men whether Christian or Muslim are generous, kind, lofty of spirit and fair. The story is an allegory of sorts of the Middle East situation of the present time, as well as being a historical piece.

Saladin (Ghassan Massoud) the sultan of Egypt and Syria is shown to be a chivalrous and worthy man, who not only wins his battles but is prepared to be clement with the defeated. As such, he is respected by the Christian noblemen he ousts from the Middle East. This sympathetic depiction of the Muslim leader in this film corresponds with historical fact as Richard the Lionheart afforded Saladin, who was his nemesis, every courtesy and compliment befitting a fellow knight.

I enjoyed the film quite a lot and recommend it most highly, warning once again that there are some gory scenes of battle in it, so if you are faint-hearted then be warned.

BACCHUS BY VELAZQUEZ

“Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune.” - Giuseppe Garibaldi

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) is acknowledged as Spain's greatest painter and as one of the supreme artists of all time. A master of technique, highly individual in style, Diego Velázquez may have had a greater influence on European art than any other painter, and his canvases are always a delight to see. I remember visiting the Prado in Madrid several years ago and staring transfixed at his canvases. They combined superb composition, beautiful colour balance, marvellous technical expertise and above all a magnificent conception and understanding of the whole subject.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velázquez was born in Seville, Spain, sometime shortly before his baptism on June 6, 1599. His father was of noble Portuguese descent. In his teens he studied art with Francisco Pacheco, whose daughter he married. The young Velázquez once declared, "I would rather be the first painter of common things than second in higher art." He learned much from studying nature. After his marriage at the age of 19, Velázquez went to Madrid. When he was 24 he painted a portrait of Philip IV, who became his patron.

The artist made two visits to Italy. On his first, in 1629, he copied masterpieces in Venice and Rome. He returned to Italy 20 years later and bought many paintings (by Titian, Tintoretto, and Paolo Veronese) and statuary for the king's collection. Except for these journeys Velázquez lived in Madrid as court painter. His paintings include landscapes, mythological and religious subjects, and scenes from common life, called genre pictures. Most of them, however, are portraits of court notables that rank with the portraits painted by Titian and Anthony Van Dyck.

Duties of Velázquez' royal offices also occupied his time. He was eventually made marshal of the royal household, and as such he was responsible for the royal quarters and for planning ceremonies. In 1660 Velázquez had charge of his last and greatest ceremony, the wedding of the Infanta Maria Theresa to Louis XIV of France. This was a most elaborate affair. Worn out from these labours, Velázquez contracted a fever from which he died on August 6, 1660.

Velázquez was called the "noblest and most commanding man among the artists of his country." He was a master realist, and no painter has surpassed him in the ability to seize essential features and fix them on canvas with a few broad, sure strokes. "His men and women seem to breathe," it has been said; "his horses are full of action and his dogs of life." Because of Velázquez' great skill in merging color, light, space, rhythm of line, and mass in such a way that all have equal value, he was known as "the painter's painter."

The painting above is his “Drunkards” or “The Feast of Bacchus”. Velázquez was inspired by Ovids Metamorphoses to paint this between 1628-1629. He held a point of view toward mythology, common in the 17th century, that saw the activities of pagan divinities as less than divine and the behaviour of humans under their influence as less than Christian. Thus, his Bacchus is a callow, overweight youth with flaccid muscles; the inebriated rustics are buffoons. Velázquez points his moral at the right, where a beggar is refused with false regret by one of the bacchants. The distant gaze of the god of wine is rather a nostalgic look towards the past and a means of distancing himself from the sordidness of the scene around him.

Bacchus was he Roman equivalent of the Greek god Dionysus, a distinctly Greek invention. This was a god of merrymaking and the theatre, entertainment and sexuality. Of green things and fertility, of festivity but also one of divine justice and a protector of innocence and youth. One of the myths recounted of his early life recounts how as a youth he was captured by Tyrrhenian pirates so that he could be sold into slavery. In the middle of the ocean, the god annoyed with their presumptuousness, made the ship fill with fragrant sweet wine and as the pirates greedily started to drink he turned them into dolphins and they leapt into the sea.

ALONE

“Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need to know of hell.” - Emily Dickinson

A very busy Saturday today, which was all spent proof-reading my pathology textbook. Reading proofs of a book about to be published is a little bit of an anti-climax. Once the book has been written and it has gone to the publisher, one wants it to be off one’s hands and out there. The proofs and the jolly hard work one has to do going through them with a fine tooth comb making sure all the T’s are crossed and all the I’s are dotted is a boring but essential task. And so it was today, but I managed to get through four chapters…

Tonight was a quiet night spent all alone. And this song is dedicated to the one I wish were here, but who is travelling…



Alone
(Heart)

I hear the ticking of the clock
I'm lying here the room's pitch dark
I wonder where you are tonight
No answer on the telephone
And the night goes by so very slow
Oh I hope that it won't end though
Alone

CHORUS:
Till now I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone

You don't know how long I have wanted
To touch your lips and hold you tight
You don't know how long I have waited
You don't know how long I have waited
And I was gonna tell you tonight
But the secret is still my own
And my love for you is still unknown
Alone

CHORUS

How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
Alone, alone

AN OLD FAVOURITE

“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” - Mark Twain

A classic dish for this Food Friday. This is Shepherd’s Pie, originally cooked on the day after a lamb roast was had, but one can now cook it as first off rather than a left over meal as well, since lamb mince is readily available. However, if you have some lamb roast left over from the previous day, you can certainly chop it up and substitute that for the lamb mince.

Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
800g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
500g lamb mince (or left over lamb roast)
2 carrots, grated
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp chopped rosemary
2 tbsp plain flour
375ml beef stock
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese

Method
(Preparation Time: 20 minutes; Cooking Time: 25 minutes; Serves 4)
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place potatoes into a saucepan of boiling salted water. Cook for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain, return to saucepan, add butter and milk, mash until smooth.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add mince and carrot, cook until browned.
3. Add tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and rosemary, cook, stirring, for 2-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Stir in flour. Slowly add stock, stirring after each addition, until combined. Return to heat. Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened. Spoon into a 2 Litre (8-cup) capacity ovenproof dish. Top with mashed potato then sprinkle over cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Have a good weekend!

REFLECTING ON GANDHI

“We have failed to grasp the fact that mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide.” Havelock Ellis

Let me ask a question: Is violence ever justified? Think about it. Consider a situation where you are confronted by a series of events that leave you no other option except to react violently. What do you do? Will you resort to violence to save yourself? To save someone else? To defend family and home? To defend your country? To fight in a war that is “just”? To punish recalcitrant offenders? To execute a criminal? Human history is full of wars, killing, heinous acts of extreme brutality and cruelty of man against man. We acknowledge this and are quick to denounce these acts. And yet, we quickly justify self-defence and the defence of our loved ones who are under violent attack. We distinguish between just and unjust wars. We defend revolutions, which assume justified violence. Freedom fighters are heroes who die for just causes, wanting to liberate their country, their people, willing to die for their cause…

And it is from here on that we get into deeper water that keeps on getting hotter. When does a “freedom fighter” become a terrorist? When does a revolution become a massacre of innocents? When does a “just war” become an excuse for an economically or politically or racially or socially-driven pogrom? Who justifies it? Whose justice does the violence serve? Must we become personally involved in an evil action in order to realise that it is evil as we perform it? Is it not enough for us as logical beings to judge such actions as vicious and avoid them altogether? How can we justify the unjustifiable? Defend the indefensible?

Gandhi said “I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill”. He was the ultimate proponent of non-violence at a time when his country was embroiled in violent clashes with the occupying British. When his countrymen advocated a bloody revolution in order to liberate themselves and their country from the oppressing colonial forces, he was the champion of the non-violent revolution. Through his passive aggression and gentle strength he was able to lead his people to independence. Gandhi was careful to distinguish non-violence from cowardice:

“Nonviolence is not a cover for cowardice, but it is the supreme virtue of the brave. Exercise of nonviolence requires far greater bravery than that of swordsmanship. Cowardice is wholly inconsistent with non-violence. Translation from swordsmanship to nonviolence is possible and, at times, even an easy stage.”

Gandhi showed that non-violence was an effective means of resistance, of revolution, of passive aggression. His ideas stemmed from his deep belief in the goodness of human beings and in the spark of the divine that is within each of us. His sincere belief in a benevolent, peaceful God motivated his philosophy and he was ready to espouse other religions in which he recognised his God called by another name. Christianity was familiar to him, although Christians were not always representative of their faith: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” His philosophy is summed up by: “Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.”

Tonight, on the eve of a terrible anniversary, it is appropriate to think of Gandhi and his ideas of non-violence. Terrorism had no place in Gandhi’s universe and even a justifiable act of violence was anathema to his philosophy. That a man like him died a violent death in the hands of an assassin is the ultimate irony. Such acts of terrorism are the most despicable acts that human beings are capable of. Killing the innocent, murdering the adherents of non-violence, executing the blameless are all acts like re-crucifying Christ all over again.

Have we learned anything in these last eight years since 9/11? Has the world changed? Has the “war against terror” achieved anything? I think not. Every morning I hear on the news reports of suicide bombings, of renewed terrorism threats, of violence and more violence. Where is it leading us, when will it end? And will there be human beings left on this planet to see the end of it?

passive resistance |ˈpasiv| |riˈzistəns| noun
Nonviolent opposition to authority, esp. a refusal to cooperate with legal requirements: They called for protest in the form of passive resistance.
ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin passivus, from pass- ‘suffered,’ from the verb pati. + from Old French resister or Latin resistere, from re- (expressing opposition) + sistere ‘stop’ (reduplication of stare ‘to stand’ ).

Jacqui BB hosts Word Thursday.

MEDIOCRITY

“The first study for the man who wants to be a poet is knowledge of himself, complete: he searches for his soul, he inspects it, he puts it to the test, he learns it. As soon as he has learned it, he must cultivate it! I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet becomes a seer through a long, immense, and reasoned derangement of all the senses. All shapes of love suffering, madness. He searches himself, he exhausts all poisons in himself, to keep only the quintessences. Ineffable torture where he needs all his faith, all his superhuman strength, where he becomes among all men the great patient, the great criminal, the great accursed one--and the supreme Scholar! For he reaches the unknown! ...So the poet is actually a thief of Fire!” - Arthur Rimbaud

A poem for a thief of words – a poem that will not easily be “borrowed”. I thought that what was freely given could hardly be stolen, except by one whose joy derives from the act of kleptomania…

Mediocrity

Hail, all-bright Lady Mediocrity!
You shine on radiantly, unashamedly
Although your light is but reflected.

You utter well-turned phrases
Your ears so used to accolades,
Even if the applause you hear is for mouthing stolen wit.

Magnanimously you bend low
Giving alms to the needy all around you,
But your munificence runs on borrowed funds.

Hail bright, if slightly tarnished star,
Lord help preserve us from your indiscretions,
There is so much of your second-hand originality around us.

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday

INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY 2009

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” - Victor Hugo

The photograph above by David Seymour moves me and makes me quietly introspective. The contrast between the gnarled old hands and the childlike letters they labour to write is a confronting sight. We take it for granted that an adult can read and write. We refuse to acknowledge that there is a reason nowadays for anyone to be illiterate. Yet, even today throughout the world, one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women while 75 million children are out of school. Illiterate generations still cede their place to illiterate offspring and in developing countries, it still remains an enormous problem.

Have you ever thought what it would be like not being literate? I was immersed in such an experience when I was visiting Egypt about 30 years ago. I was in Aswan and in those days, English speakers were few and far between in Southern Egypt. I could communicate mainly with gestures and with a few elderly people in pidgin French. The most intimidating, humbling and disempowering experience that I had was being surrounded by signs, newspapers, magazines, street names, traffic signs, all written in Arabic – a script and language that I was completely unfamiliar with. It was then that I realised how an illiterate person felt, surrounded by a sea of mysterious symbols that they couldn’t understand…

Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. The most effective way to disenfranchise and render powerless a group is to deprive them of the right to literacy. Spoken language and oral communication are a characteristically human trait that distinguishes us from animals, however, being able to command the written form of language is the difference between the civilised and the uncivilised, the powerful and the weak, the influential and ineffectual, the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the prominent and the obscure.

Educational opportunities depend on literacy and without literacy even the most basic of educations is impossible. Literacy is essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy. A good quality basic education equips students with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing educational opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to meet pressing development.

This year, International Literacy Day put the spotlight on the empowering role of literacy and its importance for participation, citizenship and social development. Literacy and Empowerment is the theme for the 2009-2010 biennium of the United Nations Literacy Decade.

I look at the photograph above and I feel an immense gratitude towards my parents, my teachers, and the luck of the draw that resulted in me being born in an environment where I was assured of being amongst the four of five that were literate, rather than the one in five who isn’t. You are reading this and therefore you should celebrate with me your literacy. Happy Literacy Day 2009!

BANG BANG WEDDING

“Marriage (noun): The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.” - Ambrose Bierce


We went to the 16th Greek Film Festival here in Melbourne, last week and saw one of the Greek films on show, “Bang Bang Wedding” («Το Γαμήλιο Πάρτι» in Greek, meaning “The Wedding Reception”). This was a 2008 romantic comedy directed by Christine Crokos and starred Alex Dimitriades, Faye Xyla, Betty Maggira, Chrysa Ropa, Wilma Tsakiri and Christos Biros. There was a connection with Australia as the leading man, Alex Dimitriades is an Australian-Greek who has been in several films in Australia already. This was his first Greek film.

The film was pleasant enough, although rather thin on plot and unfortunately, some great opportunities for great comedy went unexploited. It managed to raise chuckles in us, although some members of the audience had come prepared to laugh big time and they did (even at inappropriate points, I’m afraid – but maybe I am being a snob…). We felt throughout that the potential of the cast was underutilised and the fault was mainly with the script, but also the rather pedestrian direction.

The plot revolves around a wedding taking place in Crete. The family is Cretan, but its members live all around the world and the wedding serves as an excuse to bring them all together in order celebrate and do some family bonding. The groom is a fashion photographer and the bride an ecologist –very modern and very emancipated. The parents, in-laws and extended family and friends provide some sub-plots which are rather insubstantial and to pad out the film there is also a private party in a villa that wedding guests crash into. This because the wedding invitations give wrong directions on how to get to the rather isolated country property where the wedding reception will be held. Most of the film revolves around the adventures of the guests and family as they try to get to the reception. The bride and groom argue and decide to get a divorce, each going their separate ways, only to find that they are still madly in love with each other. The bride’s stepmother gets amnesia, the groom’s mother gets drunk, the groom’s father turns up with his new English wife and throws a spanner in the works, while some wedding guests have a good time at the party, which is not the wedding party.

The scenery of Crete formed a gorgeous backdrop for some scenes and the music was interestingly quirky, although not so much Greek as one would have expected. The film was pleasant and amusing, but not one of the great comedies. If you come across it and one-and-a-half hours to spare, watch it. But certainly, don’t go out of your way to find it in order to watch it!

A CYNICAL ART SUNDAY

“True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.” - Charles Caleb Colton

For your delectation on this Art Sunday, a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (May 11, 1824 - January 10, 1904). Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.

Born at Vesoul (Haute-Saône), he went to Paris in 1840 where he studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy (1843-1844). He visited Florence, Rome, the Vatican and Pompeii, but he was more attracted to the world of nature. Taken by a fever, he was forced to return to Paris in 1844. On his return he followed, like many other students of Delaroche, into the atelier of Charles Gleyre and studied there for a brief time. He then attended the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1846 he tried to enter the prestigious Prix de Rome, but failed in the final stage because his figure drawing was inadequate.

A little before he died he wrote to Aublet, one of his students: “I begin to have enough of life. I've seen too much misery and misfortune in the lives of others. I still see it every day, and I'm getting eager to escape this theatre.” He was to live just ten more days and perhaps knew that his heart was weakening.

This painting of his is “Diogenes” (1860), the famous ancient Greek philosopher, foremost of the school of cynics (kyon/kynos – “dog” in Greek). Cynicism called for a closer imitation of nature, the repudiation of most human conventions, and complete independence of mind and spirit. Diogenes (ca. 400-ca. 325 BC) was the son of Hicesias, and was born in Sinope. He arrived in Athens after he and his father had been exiled from their native city for debasing the coinage in some way. His life in Athens was one of great poverty, but it was there that he adopted Antisthenes's teachings and became the chief exponent of Cynicism.

Diogenes was not famous for developing a strong theoretical argument for his way of life. Antisthenes, the pupil of Socrates, was his inspiration, and he put into practice his master's teachings in a way which made a striking impression upon his contemporaries. Indeed, it was Diogenes's application of Antisthenes's principles which gained for him the notoriety he enjoyed. His goals were self-sufficiency, a tough and ascetic way of life, and anaideia, or shamelessness. Diogenes held that through a rigorous denial of all but the barest necessities of life one could train the body to be free of the world and its delusions. Through anaideia one could show the rest of humanity the contempt in which their conventions were held. He is shown here to live in poverty in an old pot and be accompanied by the dogs that his philosophy took its name from.

The lamp he is lighting and which he used to hold aloft even in daylight was to aid him to find an “honest human being”. However, he used to say with disappointment that even with the aid of his lamp he found nothing but scoundrels and rascals. When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes, he stood in front of him happy to have met the famous philosopher. He introduced himself and asked him if he desired anything of him, as he was ruler of the world. Diogenes looked at him blandly and asked him to move sideways, as he was blocking the sunlight that warmed him. Alexander then asked him why he was staring at a pile of human bones so intently. Diogenes replied that he was trying to distinguish the bones of his illustrious father from the bones of a slave but could see no difference between the two. Alexander then said to him: “If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes”.