HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.” - Rabindranath Tagore

Today is Universal Children’s Day, as deemed by UNICEF and the General Assembly of the UN. By resolution 836(IX) of the 14th of December 1954, the General Assembly recommended that all countries institute a Universal Children’s Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children. It recommended that the Day was to be observed also as a day of various activities devoted to promoting the ideals and objectives of the Charter and to promote the welfare of children of the world. The Assembly suggested to governments that the Day be observed on the date and in the way which each considers appropriate. The date of 20th November, marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, in 1989.

While it may seem impossible to us nowadays not to recognise those years of youth when one was free to play with friends, be mischievous without any real adult culpability, and eat sweets and drink soft drinks until we became sick, the concept of childhood is relatively new. Before the 17th century, there was no real concept of childhood as such. Children were regarded as “little versions of adults” and were at the very bottom of the social pecking order (and therefore were unworthy of consideration). As the concept of childhood emerged, children developed distinctive dress, music, games and entertainment, slang, and behaviours. Today some believe that the boundaries of childhood culture have once again become blurred. Neil Postman, for example, argues in “The Disappearance of Childhood” that the media has broken down most of the distinctions between children and adults. This may to a certain extent be true, but we have not regressed to the point of sending children back down mine shafts because they are small and nimble, nor do we consider children as the lowest of the low in the social scale.

Seeing that it is Universal Children’s Day today but also Food Friday, what better choice of topic than confectionery? Confectionery is a processed food based on a sweetener (typically sugar or honey), to which are added other ingredients such as flavourings and spices, nuts, fruits, fats and oils, gelatine, emulsifiers, colourings, eggs, milk products, and chocolate or cocoa. Confectionery, usually called candy in the U.S., or sweets in Great Britain, can be divided into two kinds according to their preparation and based on the fact that sugar, when boiled, goes through different stages from soft to hard in the crystallisation process. Typical of soft (that is, crystalline candy) is a smooth, creamy, and easily chewed texture, examples of which are fondants (the basis of chocolate creams) and fudge. Typical of the hard, non-crystalline candies are toffees and caramels. Other favourite confections include nougats, marshmallows, the various forms of chocolate (bars or moulded pieces, sometimes filled), pastes and marzipan, fairy floss (spun sugar, cotton candy), sugar-coated popcorn, liquorice, and chewing gum.

Sugar cane and sugar probably originated in India and the first sugar-based sweets developed in that country. Sugar as a sweetener spread to the West via the Middle East and Arabia. The Arabic word for confectionery was qandi, from qand, a lump of cane sugar. It came down to us, virtually intact, through successive European languages: Old Italian (zucchero candi), Old French (sucre candi), Middle English (sugre candi). In the 1800s, Americans called it “sugar candy”. Now, it’s just candy, completing the journey back to its linguistic origins…

History tells us that confectionery was always considered a delectable food item, worthy enough to be used as an offering to the gods of ancient Egypt. Ancient Greeks had a sweet tooth and good honey being readily available, was widely used in making all sorts of confections. Honey remained as the only readily available sweetener in Europe until the introduction of sugar in medieval times. Among the oldest types of candies are liquorice and ginger from the Far East and marzipan from Europe. Candy-making did not begin on a large scale until the early 19th century, when with the development of special confectionery machinery it became a British specialty. In the U.S. the candy industry began to grow rapidly during the mid-19th century with the invention of improved machinery and a cheaper process for powdering sugar. In 1911 the first candy bars were sold in baseball parks; by 1960 candy bars made up almost half of U.S. confectionery production. By the 1980s annual world production of confectionery totalled many millions of kilograms.

Confectionery in general is deemed children’s food par excellence, just as toys in general are labelled for child’s play. However, adults lead the way in candy consumption, according to the National Confectioners Association, adults over age 18 consume 65 percent of all candy produced and marketed (it should be noted that considerable proportion of adults play children’s games too!). Candy, nevertheless, spans a wide variety of sugary, gooey, fruity, chewy, crystalline, and chocolaty confections, and different categories and types of candy are more suited for, and prone to either adult or childhood consumption. Obviously, there is common ground also and some confections are equally enjoyed by children and adults.

I am reading an excellent book by Tim Richardson called “Sweets – A History of Temptation”, which is great reading if you are interested in confectionery and how it developed from a ancient times to the present day. And to round the blog off, here is a recipe for some candy:

NO-COOKING FONDANT CHOCOLATES
Ingredients

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
8 cups of pure icing sugar
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
A few drops of different flavourings (e.g. cherry, orange, apricot, coconut, etc)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Various nuts, coconut, glacé cherries, candied peel, dried apricots, etc
Food colouring
Enough dark cooking chocolate to cover the fondants (about 800 g)

Method
Line a couple of baking trays with waxed paper.
Combine the butter with 4 cups of sugar and the milk in a large bowl. Mix well, adding the vanilla extract and the salt.
Add the remaining sugar gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon and eventually kneading until the mixture is well blended.
Divide the mixture into as many parts as flavour you wish to have and mix into each batch a little of the appropriate colour, flavour and additive (e.g. red food colouring, cherry flavour and glacé cherries in the cherry fondants).
With clean, buttered hands form the mixture into small balls and place on the prepared baking tray. Allow to set for several hours (you may place in the refrigerator to hasten the process).
Melt the chocolate in a bain Marie. Using a dipping spoon, dip the prepared balls in the chocolate and allow to set at room temperature on the baking trays.
Enjoy!

ROBOT RAPE

“A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. [The Zeroth Law of Robotics]”
“A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. [The First Law of Robotics]”
“A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. [The Second Law of Robotics]”
“A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. [The Third Law of Robotics]” – Isaac Asimov

The pace at which technology is advancing is phenomenal. If I think of the latest developments in the last thirty years, it is quite mind-boggling when  consider what has been developed. Think about it: CDs, DVDs, LCD TVs, mobile phones, smart phones, portable computers, biotechnology, molecular biology, the human genome project, advances in cancer therapy, leaps forward in immunology, optical fibre technology, nanotechnology, robotics, advances in solar energy, the emergence of the internet, virtual reality, telemedicine, digital cameras, laser eye surgery, GPS, digital media, cloning of mammals, IVF, WiFi, iPods, the large hadron collider, commercial space flights, etc, etc, etc…

It appears that the pace of technological and scientific development is ever-increasing. In ten years time the number of new developments will have greatly surpassed all that was developed in the past 50 years. New technology gives us the technology to advance even further into the realms of what we now consider science fiction.

The subject of robots has fascinated humans from ancient times. The ancient Greeks had many myths and legends about robots, one of the most famous being that of the guardian robot of Crete, Talos. Talos was a giant, bronze automaton made by the divine smith Hephaistos. Zeus the king of the gods, presented Talos to his lover Europa, as her personal protector, after delivering her to the island of Crete. Talos was given the task of patrolling the island, circling it three times in a day, and driving pirates from the shore with volleys of rocks or a fiery death-embrace. He was eventually destroyed by the Dioskouroi with the aid of the magic of the witch Medea, when he tried to prevent the Argonauts from the landing on the island. Indian mythology also refers to robots, as do other cultures around the world.

We already have robots that we use in our factories and the toy stores offer our children very sophisticated little machines that seem almost sentient. In the next ten years robotic technology will become so advanced and humanoid that we shall soon have them walking amongst us, looking so very life-life that we may have difficulty in distinguishing them from biological organisms. Cyborgs or electronically and mechanically enhanced humans may also be within the realm of the rapidly achievable.

While we may think that this technology will liberate humans and make our lives easier, it may also create a host of other issues. We may be grateful for an uncomplaining robot at our beck and call doing those all those tiresome, boring chores and coping with the endless drudgery without complaint. We may become dependent on the robot who looks after an elderly or sick relative with the knowledge and care of an accomplished doctor. We may even see robots that are manufactured to specification so that we find in them the ideal sexual partner who will satisfy our every desire and whim. An army of robots slaves to serve humanity…

However, as robots become more sophisticated and the circuitry that controls their actions and behaviour becomes increasingly complex through the use of neural networks and “learning” self-correcting circuits, we may see the development of robots that can “think” and “feel”. The concept of a robot that is indistinguishable from humans, then begs the question, does this robot have human rights? Especially so if the robot has developed consciousness and may be in a position to demand human rights!

Anna Russel at the University of San Diego has considered this topic and writes in an article titled “Blurring the love lines”: “While this humanoid is a giant leap forward technologically, if a self-aware, super-intelligent, thinking, feeling humanoid is developed, the legal system will be hard-pressed to distinguish this creature legally from human actors on grounds not stemming from a religious or moral prejudice.”

Once again, in the very near future we shall be faced with huge moral and ethical dilemma. We are still struggling to come to terms with unresolved issues surrounding IVF technology, the fate of human fertilised ova and embryos, human cloning, and we are still ambivalent over issues such as abortion, many human rights questions and unresolved issues over race, religion and sexuality. We are now poised to add to this burden another potential mine-field, about to open another ethical, moral and legal can of worms…

You’d better watch out, your sex robot could sue you for rape, represent themselves faultlessly in court and win the case, throwing you in gaol and taking all your property in damages!

robot |ˈrōˌbät; ˈrōbət| noun
A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.
• (Especially in science fiction) a machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions automatically.
• Used to refer to a person who behaves in a mechanical or unemotional manner: Terminally bored tour guides chattering like robots.
ORIGIN from Czech, from robota ‘forced labor.’ The term was coined in K. Čapek's play R.U.R. ‘Rossum's Universal Robots’ (1920).

THE SWEETNESS OF HONEY, AND THE STING OF BEES

“At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.” – Plato

For Poetry Wednesday I continue Sunday’s theme of Eros, the ancient Greek god of love (the Cupid of the Romans) and his misadventures. Theocritus (born ca 300, Syracuse, Sicily - died 260 BC) the Greek poet supplies us today’s poem, it being his 19th Idyll. Little is known of his life and his surviving poems consist of bucolics and mimes, set in the country, and epics, lyrics, and epigrams, set in towns. The bucolics, his most characteristic and influential works, introduced the pastoral convention into poetry and were the sources of Virgil’s Eclogues and much Renaissance poetry and drama. Theocritus’s best-known idylls include “Thyrsis”, a lament for Daphnis, the shepherd poet of mythology, and “Thalysia” (Harvest Festival), which presents the poet's friends and rivals in the guise of rustics.

The 19th Idyll below is a charming vignette that looks at love and the pain it causes, but introduces the contrasting theme of the sweetness of honey. Love as both the sweetness of honey and the sting of the bee is an image well-beloved of the poets.

The Honey Thief
(Theocritus - 19th Idyll)

A wicked bee once filching Eros stung,
As from hive unto hive the sly god flew.
Looting the flower-sweet honeycombs among;
With finger-tips all pierced he cried and blew

His hand, and stamped upon the ground with pain,
And vaulted in the air; to Aphrodite
Sadly he came commencing to complain,
“Although the bee is small his wound is mighty.”

Then said his mother smiling, “Are you not
A creature small just like the bee, I pray?
But ne'ertheless it must not be forgot—
The cruel wounds you deal—how great are they!”

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday

O TEMPORA, O MORES!

“Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.” The Bible, Matthew, 19:13-15.

I am becoming increasingly appalled by the stories from all around the world that relate to little children being abused, mistreated, abducted, killed or otherwise going missing. What is happening to us as a society when we are allowing all of this to happen, where we read about such horrors with increasing complacency and inaction? Have we become so rotten to the core that we allow such things to occur? What we do is not enough, what laws we have in place are not deterring the offenders and the families into which these children are born are in many cases incapable of raising children, do not deserve to have children. We need a licence to own a dog, but any idiot can have a child…

The last outrageous incident that is currently in the media involves Shaniya, a 5-year-old girl in the USA who was sold by her 25-year-old mother for sex. The girl was found dead off a heavily wooded road in North Carolina by police, although it was not obvious how the girl had died. The horrors that the little girl endured in her last hours can only be conjectured and it makes me sick to even think about it. The police charged the girl’s mother with human trafficking and felony child abuse as it has become clear that little Shaniya was sold for prostitution.

The father of the little girl, who had raised her for several years, had decided to allow her to spend some time with her mother. This turn of events where the mother becomes worse than Medea, is shocking and horrifying. Medea killed her beloved children to exact her terrible revenge on the children’s father, the faithless Jason. This modern mother has committed a crime more terrible than killing her child. To sell her own child into prostitution is a crime more heinous than Medea’s.

We have become more tolerant of all manner of behaviour that in the past were considered crimes. Homosexuality is a case in point. Infidelity is another. Drug use is illicit but many a blind eye is turned on it, and how many countries around the world have discovered their police force or politicians trafficking drugs? White collar crime is more widespread and through special “deals” its perpetrators come off remarkably lightly. However, surely some things are non-negotiable! Cold-blooded extortion, blackmail, murder, slavery, child abuse, are things that every human being must naturally abhor, aren’t they? Is our society becoming remiss in its watchfulness over such crimes is our morality becoming more elastic? Are “human rights” being misinterpreted to such an extent that we are looking after the interests of the perpetrators of the crimes more so than those of the victims?

What can we do? What must we do? Harsher penalties have been suggested, and some people have even advocated that the death penalty be reintroduced. Evidence suggests that these more stringent measures are not effective deterrents. The change has to be more radical and involve society and the way that we live, the way that we are educated, the way that we are brought up. Values, morals and the ethic fabric of our society are said to have deteriorated to such an extent that the damage done to them is irreparable. A complete overhaul of the way that we live with each other, what are priorities are and what we believe in, seems to be in order.

The extreme fundamentalist religious groups, of course, will speak up and exclaim that this is what they have been clamouring about for decades now. Whether a Christian or a Moslem, a fundamentalist will find solutions to all problems in the Bible or in the Koran. God or Allah will solve all issues. However, it is often forgotten that many social problems stem from radical fundamentalism. Gross intolerance of other faiths, discrimination against other ways of life, persecution of the minorities, are all responsible for many social crimes. Needless to also remind people that in many cases, the criminal we wish to pursue, hides behind the mask of religiosity. How many born-again evangelists brimming with piety and goodwill have been revealed to be paedophiles and are thoroughly depraved? How many imams and proclaimers of Islam are guilty of crimes against women and children?

Most religions in their essence are similar in what they teach their adherents. Whether Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Hinduist, Zoroastrian or Baha’i, the basic message is the same: Respect other people; treat them the way you want them to treat you; make this world a better place not only for yourself, but for your fellow human beings; show compassion, mercy and charity. Surely, if we live according to what our religion recommends, then society would be a better place. But this is not the only answer. It is said that “God helps those who help themselves”. It is this maxim that we have to turn to in order to resolve our social problems.

The root of the evil is deeper than we think. When one speaks of the mores of a society, then one needs to look at the whole way in which a society functions, the way it views justice, morality, what it values and what it proscribes. How a society deals with the law and the law-breakers. What and how it rewards what it regards as meritorious, what a society regards as worthy and unworthy. What can be bought for money and what is priceless. Who it elevates to positions of power and influence, who its role models are, who its children aspire to imitate. What it values as worth preserving for posterity, what it regards as emblems of civilisation. What it views as “good” and what as “bad”, what as “ethical” and what “unethical”, what as “legal” and what as “illegal”, what as “moral” and what as “immoral”. What is an individual’s right and what is his obligation. Where the limits of liberty are and where the good of the whole has to become more important than the good of any individual component of the whole.

We have lost track of what is “good” and what is “bad”. As a society we have degenerated and we have misplaced our values. Is it a wonder that we are observing an increase in crimes against children, the most vulnerable and the most innocent in our midst?

What do you think?

WHAT A DISASTER!

“He who doesn't fear death dies only once.” - Giovanni Falcone

When I was young I used to draw pictures of townscapes with skyscrapers, intricate buildings, freeways, cars, people everywhere. Then as I was drawing I would make a comet appear in the sky, or a bomb, or fiery rain and I would start destroying the city. I drew bright orange flames that licked the buildings, great billows of black smoke that went up to the sky and then ensured that everything on the page was quite obliterated. All of this was accompanied by the appropriate sound effects that only a five-year-old can produce. I grew out of that phase fairly quickly, but I still remember the fun I used to have wreaking havoc in my worlds that I drew and destroyed – creator and destroyer at the same time.

We humans are a strange sort of animal. We can make something out of nothing, build enduring works of architecture, create works of art, plant gardens in the deserts. In the twinkling of an eye we can destroy all of that by pushing a button that drops a bomb, slash and burn in an act of vindictive vandalism or annihilate all in a spiteful act of rage or envy. Our dual nature exalts our spirit to heaven or damns it to eternal hellfire. What has taken our fellow human beings hundreds of years to raise up, we can unflinchingly obliterate within the blinking of an eye…

Destruction fascinates us, demolition may send waves of pleasure down our spine, extirpation may scare us, annihilation awes us. It is no surprise then that Hollywood panders to this side of our nature and regularly produces disaster movies that have as their theme death and destruction, the more massive the scale, the better. And I start listing some of the more famous ones (in no particular order, I’m just remembering some):
“On the Beach” (1959)
“The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (1961)
“The Apocalypse” (2007)
“Tornado” (2004)
“Volcano” (1997)
“Earthquake” (1974)
“Magma: Volcanic Disaster” (2006)
“10.5 Apocalypse” (2006)
“10.5 Apocalypse” (2004)
“Supernova” (2005)
“When Worlds Collide” (1951)
“Supervolcano” (2005)
“Earthstorm” (2006)
“The Day the Sky Exploded’ (1958)
“The Towering Inferno” (1974)
“The Poseidon Adventure” (1972)
“Virus” (1980)
“Testament” (1983)
“Airport” (1970) and all its numerous sequels!
“The Day After” (1983)
“Avalanche” (2004)
“Aftershock: Earthquake in New York” (1999)
“Pandemic” (2007)
“The Quiet Earth” (1985)
“Night of the Comet” (1984)
“28 Days Later” (2002)
“28 Weeks Later” (2007)
“The Mist” (2007)
“Disaster Movie” (2008)
“Armageddon” (1998)
“Doomsday” (2008)… etc, etc, etc…

I think I have made my point. All I can say is that there must have been an awful lot of kids out there drawing cities and then blowing them up when they were five. What made me remember all of this is a film we saw at the weekend and one which was just released and which we haven’t seen yet.

We watched Alex Proyas’ 2009 “Knowing” yesterday and this is a death and destruction disaster movie where the earth ends. It stars Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, and Lara Robinson, who do a fairly good job in a film that has a better first half than second half (strange thing to happen in a disaster movie where all the fireworks happen in the end). In this respect one may say that “Knowing” is a little atypical as far as disaster movies go, with a great deal of time spent in setting the scene, exploring the characters and making a moral point. The weakness of the second part relates to the explanations of why the destruction is occurring and in the “deus-ex-machina” (literally) solution to the survival of the human race.

It was enjoyable in a Sunday matinee type of way and for all the moralistic and philosophical pretensions of the film, it is a disaster movie in the final reckoning and is rather deficient in its catastrophic sequences in the end. One somehow expects more fireworks in a disaster movie, but what fireworks there were, were good enough.

The other film of course that everyone is talking about now is the 2009 Roland Emmerich move, “2012”. This sounds like a turkey of immense proportions, but I admit that I haven’t even seen the trailer. A lot of people were curious enough o go and see it, with a $65 million box-office bang in the USA, as per estimates, beating projections and the weekend competition.

It all goes to prove that as humans we love death and destruction. We are overwhelmed and awed by it and from the horrific news stories of real-life disasters to unlikely scenarios made into ridiculous movies, we watch…

What’s your favourite disaster movie?

ANACREON AND GEROME

When Love beholds my beard that flows
White as the ocean's snowy spray,
He flies me swift as the eagle's flight
On rustling wings of golden light,
And seems to murmur as he goes,
" Old fellow, you have had your day."
Anacreon

For Art Sunday today, a painting by Frenchman Jean-Léon Gérôme (May 11, 1824 – January 10, 1904).  He painted and sculpted in the style now known as Academicism. The range of themes in his art included historical painting, Greek mythology, oriental subjects, portraits and various others. Gérôme was very influential in his heyday and brought Academicism to an artistic climax. Here is his painting Anacreon (one of three he painted of the famous ancient Greek poet). The theme here is “Eros takes flight”.

Anacreon lived in the sixth century B.C. His poems are about wine, love and getting old. They are easy to read thanks to his humour, vivid expressions and originality. For hundreds of years after the death of Anacreon there were many anonymous imitators who wrote poems called the “Anacreontea”. They also had a lot of success in their time, which was about 400 years after Anacreon lived.

One of the best poems from the Anacreontea tells how one night, when a storm raged outside, Eros knocks at the door of Anacreon, saying he's only a poor child lost in the tempest. Anacreon who feels pity for Eros, lets him in. They sit down at the fireplace. After a while Eros feels better again, takes his bow, saying he wants to check it, and shoots an arrow in the heart of Anacreon. Eros laughs and says: “Have courage! My bow is fine but I fear you will be in love again soon!”

Here is the poem in its entirety:

Eros Benighted

'Twas on the midnight dreary,
When north stars faintly peep,
And man with toil grown weary
Seeks the soft breast of sleep—
The god of love surprising
Me, knocked at my barred door.

" Who is it ?" said I, rising,
" That lets me dream no more ?"
But Eros says, "I only
Am a belated child,
I have wandered cold and lonely
In moonless night and wild."

Hearing these words, with pity
My heart beat for his woes;
I ope the door—a pretty
Winged boy my lamplight shows.
Cold shiver after shiver
Ran through his body fair;

A tiny bow and quiver
The little fellow bare.
I soothed him with caresses,
Him by the fire I placed;
The water from his tresses
I wrung; his hands embraced.

But when he had grown warm, he
Says, "I will try my bow;
I fear by weather stormy
The string is injured now."
He bends it then and through my
Liver a shaft he wings,
He little cares although my
Wound like a gadfly stings.

Up leaps he laughing loudly,
A mocking laugh laughs he,
And flushed with triumph proudly
Says, "Host, wish joy to me !
My bow indeed intact is:
Good-by, for we must part;
But as for you the fact is
You'll feel pain in your heart."

SERENE SATURDAY

“Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

A serene Saturday, starting with breakfast in the garden where the temperature was just right as the sun was rising. A crisp, clear morning promising a warm day ahead. We went out for some shopping in Camberwell and then back home before the heat of the afternoon. The house remained cool and we sat down and watched a movie, nibbling on home-made popcorn. I then cleaned up my study a little as it was as though a bomb had hit it. These last few weeks with the proof-reading for the book, my study was very much a working room and the accumulated debris of several months had to be cleared.

This evening a special dinner and an even more special dessert. The night should finish with some perfect sounds. This is Patrick Cassidy’s “Vide Cor Tuum”, which is based on Dante's "La Vita Nuova", specifically on the sonnet "A ciascun'alma presa", in chapter 3 of the Vita Nuova. The song was produced by Patrick Cassidy and Hans Zimmer and was performed by Libera/Lyndhurst Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Artists are Danielle de Niese and Bruno Lazzaretti, who sing Beatrice and Dante, respectively.

The song first appeared in the movie “Hannibal”, while Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Inspector Pazzi see an outdoor opera in Florence, and was especially composed for the movie. This aria was chosen to be performed at the Oscars in 2002 during the presentation of a lifetime achievement award to producer Dino De Laurentiis and at the 53rd Annual Emmy awards. It was used later in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, during King Baldwin IV's funeral.



ITALIAN/LATIN

Chorus: E pensando di lei
Mi sopragiunse uno soave sonno

Ego dominus tuus
Vide cor tuum
E d'esto core ardendo
Cor tuum
(Chorus: Lei paventosa)
Umilmente pascea
Appresso gir lo ne vedea piangendo

La letizia si convertia
In amarissimo pianto

Io sono in pace
Cor meum
Io sono in pace
Vide cor meum.

ENGLISH TEXT

Chorus: And thinking of her
Sweet sleep overcame me

I am your master
See your heart
And of this burning heart
Your heart
(Chorus: She trembling)
Obediently eats
Weeping, I saw him then depart from me

Joy is converted
To bitterest tears

I am in peace
My heart
I am in peace
See my heart.

Illustration above from the painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti “Beata Beatrix” 1864 - 1870 Oil on canvas 87.5 x 69.3 cm, Tate Gallery, London, England.

ON EXOTIC DISHES

“Edible, (adjective): Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.” - Ambrose Bierce

Another very busy week comes to a close and tonight has me feeling rather sleepy and tired. We watched a program on Greek Satellite TV tonight called “Love Bites”. It is an inane show, but occasionally there was a gem or two of one-liners volunteered by the participants. The show is a blind date type of program where four young people each on a consecutive night have to cook for a member of the opposite sex, who then has to choose whom to take away on a trip. I was amazed by the lack of cooking skills shown and also the gaucheness and shallowness of these young people in their mid-twenties. The young woman who was the “guest of honour” in tonight’s show had meals cooked for her and the last fellow who had to prepare the dinner decided to cook an exotic Hawaiian meal, which unfortunately did not turn out too well. The young woman sampling it was disgusted by it and couldn’t eat it as the tastes were too “foreign for her.

I was wondering how I would have fared in a similar situation in my mid-twenties, but from what I remember, I think I would have done much better. It is interesting how we associate food with love, the old proverb must have an element of truth in it: “The way to a man’s heart is though his stomach” (well a woman’s too!).

On the subject of “foreign” and exotic tastes, living here in Melbourne, we are lucky to have a huge variety of cuisines to sample, in many cases prepared better here than in their country of origin. I was thinking what would constitute something really foreign and bizarre for me and I thought that instead of having to eat something from a distant geography and it tasting “strange”, I would rather have to go to a distant place in time. Most ancient and medieval dishes we would feel tasted bizarre. One factor in this would be the lack of many modern ingredients we take for granted, while another factor would be the propensity to mix very incongruously any number of ingredients to produce a melange of questionable appetising appeal.

Here is an example:

Puddyng of purpaysse
PERIOD: England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian MS 279 | CLASS: Authentic
DESCRIPTION: Stuffed porpoise stomach

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:
.xl. Puddyng of purpaysse. Take þe Blode of hym, & þe grece of hym self, & Ote-mele, & Salt, & Pepir, & Gyngere, & melle þese to-gederys wel, & þan putte þis in þe Gutte of þe purays, & þan lat it seþe esyli, & not hard, a good whylys; & þan take hym vppe, & broyle hym a lytil, & þan serue forth.
- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279 & Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1429, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS 55. London: for The Early English Text Society by N. Trübner & Co., 1888.

TRANSLATION:
Pudding of porpoise. Take the Blood of him, & the grease of him self, & Oatmeal, & Salt, & Pepper, & Ginger, & mix these together well, & then put this in the Gut of the porpoise, & then let it boil easily, & not hard, a good while; & then take him up, & broil him a little, & then serve forth.

INGREDIENTS:
Porpoise blood
Porpoise grease
Oatmeal
Salt
Pepper
Ginger
One porpoise stomach

METHOD:
Combine the porpoise blood, porpoise grease, and oatmeal, and season it with salt, pepper, and ginger. This should be a thick and moist stuffing-like mixture. Stuff the porpoise stomach about half full with this, as the stuffing will swell during cooking. Sew up the stomach tightly or secure each end with string, and prick it all over with a large needle to avoid bursting. Put an upturned plate in the base of a pot of boiling water, stand the stomach on this and bring back to the boil; boil steadily for 3 to 4 hours. Cook until done; remove from water and drain well. Place in a broiler and cook for several minutes on both sides to slightly crisp the skin, then serve.

This recipe is essentially a porpoise haggis, as it uses all the elements found in the traditional Scottish haggis of a boiled sheep stomach with an oatmeal stuffing.

Bon appétit!

DREAMS OF CHILDHOOD LOST

“Instruction in sex is as important as instruction in food; yet not only are our adolescents not taught the physiology of sex, but never warned that the strongest sexual attraction may exist between persons so incompatible in tastes and capacities that they could not endure living together for a week much less a lifetime.” - George Bernard Shaw

A 12-year-old girl in Dubbo, NSW has given birth to a baby boy. The girl had shared a bed with the father of the unborn child from the age of 11 after her mother allowed him to move into their home. The girl’s father, who is separated from the mother, repeatedly pleaded with staff at the Department of Community Services (DOCS) helpline, but they did nothing about the situation. The department admitted it failed to act earlier because staff were working on more urgent cases. The police said they were also unable to intervene because both children were under the age of consent. If the boy was 18, police would have immediately begun a criminal investigation. When the girl’s father finally took custody of her in March, he discovered she was pregnant.

Reports say that the girl was “petrified” when she went into labour and had to have an emergency caesarean section. Three weeks after the birth, the girl was still struggling to cope with being a mother despite receiving constant counselling and parental training. The father of the girl is providing her with all the help and support he can. Everyone around the girl and her family was advising her to have an abortion, but the father who is a Christian was against it. However after speaking to counsellors and representatives from DOCS, he said that he changed his mind and advised his daughter to have an abortion. However, the girl spoke to her boyfriend at the time, who dissuaded her from having an abortion. The girl and the baby’s father are no longer together and the girl is living together with her mother again, and they will raise the baby together. The girl has decided to continue her schooling, although it will have to be (at least initially) by distance education.

In NSW between 2005 and 2009 there were six registered births to girls aged 11 to 13, according to the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. More than 3000 girls and women aged between 13 and 19 gave birth each year between 2005 and 2008, which is about 3.5 per cent of all registered births in NSW.

The story is sad and highlights irresponsibility on several levels. On the part of the family of the girl, the state, the police. A young girl’s life has been irretrievably disrupted by events that are beyond her capacity to cope with. Our eroding social mores and the pernicious influence of the media, consumerism, sexual revolution, inappropriate exposure of the young to feelings, situations and relationships beyond their understanding are all contributing to problems like this faced by this young girl and the people around her.

Add to that the increasing number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Australian society lately, compounds the problem of the sexually active child. However, the problem of STDs is not confined to the young. Almost all sexually active Australians say they have had unprotected sex, and yet more than half of them report that they have never had a test for an STD. A poll of more than 1000 people between 18 an 40 years found that “unsafe sex” was prevalent throughout the group, not just amongst the younger participants, to the tune of more than 90%. The message of “safer sex” seemed to be losing strength and hence the increase in teen pregnancies and rise in STD rates. Sexual health experts Marie Stopes International have begun a campaign to raise awareness and will send mobile phone users two free condoms in a plain envelope when they text their name and address to 19SEXTXT (1973 9898)…

The story is a complex one and it has multiple angles with many different aspects to it. Whatever the girl and her family would have done, new problems would be encountered. Had the girl aborted the baby, the trauma and psychological duress of the procedure would have haunted the rest of her life. Now that she has had the baby, any semblance to a normal childhood has been abandoned. The splitting up of the girl and the father of the baby has created other problems as well. The solution? Not easy, but goes back to fundamental changes in the way that our society operates. Likely to happen? Probably not. My guess is that things will get worse, much worse before they get better. What do you think?

sex |seks| noun
1 (chiefly with reference to people) sexual activity, including specifically sexual intercourse: He enjoyed talking about sex | She didn't want to have sex with him.
• [in sing. ] a person's genitals (used in novels to avoid more vulgar or anatomically explicit terms).
2 either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions: Adults of both sexes.
• the fact of belonging to one of these categories: Direct discrimination involves treating someone less favorably on the grounds of their sex.
• the group of all members of either of these categories: She was well known for her efforts to improve the social condition of her sex.
verb [ trans. ]
1 determine the sex of: Sexing chickens.
2 ( sex someone up) informal arouse or attempt to arouse someone sexually.
DERIVATIVES
sexer noun
ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting the two categories, male and female): from Old French sexe or Latin sexus.

LEST WE FORGET...

“What a cruel thing is war: To separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.” - Robert E. Lee

At 11 am on 11 November in 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent. This was a momentous occasion after more than four years of continuous warfare and many million deaths. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for an armistice in order to secure a peace settlement. The Germans accepted the terms of the allies with an unconditional surrender. This was the end of World War I, the “Great War”, one whose viciousness and brutality astounded even hardened soldiers. Remembrance Day is an anniversary that is observed in most Commonwealth countries around the world and The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month has attained a special significance. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war, but as the years have passed the remembrance of the fallen in all wars of the past is a solemn occasion to observe this day.

The bright red Flanders poppy has long been a part of Remembrance Day. After the First World War, red poppies were among the first plants to spring up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium. In soldiers’ folklore, the vivid red of the poppy was thought to come from the shed blood of their fallen comrades that had soaked the ground. The sight of poppies on the battlefield at Ypres in 1915 moved Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae to write the poem “In Flanders Fields”. In English literature of the nineteenth century, poppies had symbolised sleep or a state of oblivion; in the literature of the First World War a new, more powerful symbolism was attached to the poppy – the sacrifice of the shed blood of fallen soldiers.

Lest we forget:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

COMPUTER WOES...

"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three." - Alice Kahn

The keyboard card of my computer decided to die today. Without it the computer won;t function so I am not using my own computer to write this, which of necessity will be a very short blog.
We are experiencing a heat wave at the moment, with temperatures hovering in the mid 30s. The garden is taking a beating and the poor roses in full bloom are getting roasted.
Hope my computer will be fixed tomorrow...

A CURIOUS FILM

“Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.” - George Bernard Shaw

If you frequent the Gutenberg site you will know that there are a huge number of e-books to be downloaded for free. One of these is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tales of the Jazz Age”. In this collection of stories you will find the very interesting “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. This short story was first published in Colliers Magazine during 1921 and was subsequently anthologised in the book, which you have downloaded from Gutenberg already, haven’t you? The story is an interesting proposition, where a baby is born already very aged (“three score years and ten”) and then gradually becomes younger as he grows “older”. The story is well worth reading as it has originality and is well written.

Now, flash-forward to the film we saw at the weekend. It is the film adaptation of this short story made in 2008, directed by David Fincher and has the same title as the short story: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. That’s just about where the similarity ends. Well, there is a baby that is born old and grows younger as he ages, but the screenplay has become infinitely richer and extended, with many subplots and greater depth than the short story (sorry, F. Scott!). Eric Roth and Robin Swicord have done an extremely good job of adapting the short story into a powerful, engaging and moving screenplay. It works well on many levels and one is not only fascinated by the quirkiness of the plot, but at the same time one is made to think and ponder about the personal, social and moral implications of the story. I believe it is best if one reads the story first and then watches the film. The two work at different levels, but I believe it is one of those exceptional circumstances where the film works much better than the short story.

The baby is born aged, but the mother dies at childbirth. The distraught father, button manufacturer Mr Button, takes the monstrous child and abandons it at the steps of an old people’s home. A kindly black carer adopts the child and brings it up as her own. The relationship between mother and adopted son is poignant and touching and raises some important issues about race (nothing heavy-handed, it is a very subtle, very well-written sub-plot). As Benjamin grows, he is surrounded by elderly people so he doesn’t find his appearance or surroundings unusual (sub-plot number two). However, as he grows and as he encounters some younger individuals he begins to become aware of his curious circumstances and his personal drama begins. I won’t spoil it for the readers here who haven’t seen it, but I am telling you right now to try and see it, it’s well worth the effort of finding it and watching it.

Brad Pitt is very good in the title role and the make-up artists who worked on his face, headed by Greg Cannom, deserved very much the Oscar they got. The film also got two other Oscars, one in Art Direction and the other in Visual Effects, both also well-deserved. The feeling of time past that is evoked is marvellous, helped by the excellent music score by Alexandre Desplat. The film also won the Saturn Award of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films (USA), as well as several other awards and a multiplicity of nominations. Cate Blanchett is a worthy leading lady and Tilda Swanson makes a dashing appearance as a supporting guest star. Taraji P. Henson who plays Benjamin’s foster mother gives a fantastic performance and the remaining cast is excellent, every role having been carefully thought out and beautifully cast.

Fincher directs the film with aplomb and every scene is beautifully set and unfolds without effort. It is very much a director’s achievement that makes this very long film (166 minutes) so enjoyable and one in which the viewer loses the sense of time (pun intended!). It is a magical confection of fantasy and reality, truth and falsehood, humour and pathos. The film looks at death and old age, but it celebrates life and every wonderful moment of our life, which we should enjoy whatever our age is. Benjamin’s life played in reverse is a parody of the normal life that we all live from youth to old age. However, it is through Benjamin’s curious predicament that we come to examine our own life and what it means to live it fully. We are immersed in the glory of love and how it can transcend time, but at the same moment we have to acknowledge that some things are not meant to be and we have to be our age and to associate with our peers in terms of relationships.

I found the film interesting, engaging, funny, sad, poignant, confronting and one that made me think. I think that is quite rare in a “mainstream” Hollywood production and hence my accolades for this particular movie. If you haven’t seen it, make sure that you do, if you have seen it, I would appreciate your comments.

Enjoy your week!

A MYSTERY

“Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.” - Julia Cameron

For Art Sunday today something different. In these days of the internet and high technology, the readiness with which we can lay our hands on information is quite astounding. Billions of facts and figures are only a click away and we can find some of the most obscure and recondite information in the blink of an eye. We can find people interested in similar things we are interested in, halfway around the world. We can listen to voices of friends in distant places, exchange almost immediate messages, send information instantaneously even to the Antipodes.

And yet there are still some things that remain difficult. For example, the painting you see above was sent to me several years ago by a friend as an attachment to an email. I had liked it then and saved it on my computer. Cleaning up my archived files, I came across it and to my irritation I had found that I had not kept any details of the painting, artist, where it was from. Having found it after all these years, I am glad to say I still like the painting, but now I am at a loss as to how to identify the artist who painted it.

I thought, how wonderful it would be if I could go somewhere on the internet and find an image search engine, where I simply upload an image and it does a search, comparing it to other images and it comes up with a possible ID. Wouldn’t you find that useful? I daresay, it may exist before not too long, if it doesn’t already exist.

I like the painting because primarily its colours and composition are pleasing to me. The blues, greens and turquoises shine out of the gloomy dark navy of the background, which even in itself is quite interesting visually. The interweaving of the pattern of the chaise longue with the real flowers is playful but sombre at the same time. The framing of the recumbent figure in flowers makes me think of death, funerals and the grave. Ophelia comes to mind, but so does Titania, or even Miranda to keep it all Shakespearean. The setting yellow moon in the distant sky and the dark blue poppies with the red centres are suggestive of sleep and oblivion. The face is interesting, but ever so sad. Betrayal is written on it, as is “Nevermore”, the eyes infinitely sad but devoid of tears, as if there were none left to cry.

I guess I can appeal to the readers of this blog! Firstly, do you like the painting? Secondly, do you know who painted it, and when? Who the sitter is? What the title of the painting is? Any other information about the painting?

A LOVELY DAY

“Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.”  - Kahlil Gibran

After a relaxing day of shopping, a little gardening and watching a movie in the afternoon, we had a wonderful dinner out tonight. The restaurant was “Silks” at Southbank in the Casino complex. It was a lovely night with very good Chinese food and delightful company. What a better way to finish it than with this beautiful aria:

Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel/J. S. Bach: "Bist du bei mir" BWV 508 - Andreas Scholl



Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden
Zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh.
Ach, wie vergnügt wär so mein Ende,
Es drückten deine lieben Hände
Mir die getreuen Augen zu.

If you are with me, I go with gladness
To death and to my rest.
Ah, how pleasant would my end be,
Were it your loving hands
That closed my faithful eyes!

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

“No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.” - George Bernard Shaw

Despite this being a short week due to the holiday on Monday and Tuesday, this evening I feel exhausted. I guess it was because of all the work that I had to catch up on, which had banked up while I was away. Nevertheless, it feels good to be home tonight with the weekend to recover. I have nothing on my plate in regards to my book, having returned all the proofs to the publisher. I am now awaiting the arrival of the textbook, which should be published before Christmas. I have received the first copy of the Dictionary and it looks wonderful. It is such a buzz to finally hold in one’s hands the product of such a lot of long hard work and see the fruit of one’s labours.

Seeing how a celebration is in order tonight, how about a cake? This is a wonderful cake for autumn and winter as it is rich and spicy and fruity and a delight to eat, as well as being fairly easy to make and fairly robust in terms of a success rate.

APPLE AND CARROT FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients - cake
1 large cup finely diced dried fruit (eg: apricots, dates, cherries, sultanas, mixed crystallised peel)
1 crisp apple, grated
1 medium sized carrot, finely grated
1 large cup caster sugar
100 g butter
1/4 teaspoonful mixed spice (more or less to taste)
1/4 teaspoonful cinnamon (ditto)
1/4 teaspoonful mace (ditto)
1/4 teaspoonful ginger powder (ditto)
A little vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 large cup milk
1 teaspoonful baking soda (dissolved in milk)
2 large cups of self-raising flour

Ingredients - icing
1 and 1/2 large cups of icing sugar
Juice of a lime
1-2 drops of orange essence
Orange food colouring (optional)

Method
Prepare the dried fruit and mix with the grated apple and carrot, laying aside until needed.  Beat the sugar with the softened butter in a mixer bowl until smooth and add the spices and vanilla essence. Lightly beat the eggs and add slowly and alternately with the milk, flour and fruit mixture, beating the cake mixture all the time until the batter is of a smooth consistency. Add some more milk if the mixture is too stiff. Put into a greased bundt cake tin ensuring there is enough room for rising. Bake in a pre-warmed oven at 150-160˚C for about 50-60 minutes, or until baked through (test with a skewer).
While the cake is baking prepare the icing. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until smooth and glossy. Add more or less sugar/juice until a fairly stiff mixture is achieved. When the cake is baked, turn out onto a serving plate and spoon the icing over the top so that it melts all over the cake.


Have a good weekend!

GUY FAWKES DAY

“Treason and murder ever kept together, As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose, Working so grossly in a natural cause That admiration did not whoop at them; But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in Wonder to wait on treason and on murder; And whatsoever cunning fiend it was That wrought upon thee so preposterously Hath got the voice in hell for excellence.” – William Shakespeare


    Please to remember
    The Fifth of November,
    Gunpowder treason and plot;
    I see no reason
    Why gunpowder treason
    Should ever be forgot.
   
    ‘Twas God’s mercy to be sent
    To save our King and Parliament
    Three score barrels laid below,
    For old England’s overthrow
    With a lighted candle, with a lighted match
    Boom, boom to let him in.
        Anonymous Hertfordshire Rhyme

November 5th is the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, which was a conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I in 1605, the day set for the king to officially open Parliament. This act of treason was intended to be the beginning of a great uprising of English Catholics, who were distressed by the increased severity of penal laws against the practice of their religion. The conspirators, who began plotting early in 1604, expanded their number to a point where secrecy was impossible.

The conspirators included Robert Catesby, John Wright, and Thomas Winter (the originators), Christopher Wright, Robert Winter, Robert Keyes, Guy Fawkes (a soldier who had been serving in Flanders), Thomas Percy, John Grant, Sir Everard Digby, Francis Tresham, Ambrose Rookwood, and Thomas Bates. The anniversary was named after Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) the most famous of the conspirators.

Thomas Percy hired a cellar under the House of Lords, in which 36 barrels of gunpowder, overlaid with iron bars and firewood, were secretly stored. The conspiracy was brought to light through a mysterious letter received by Lord Monteagle, a brother-in-law of Tresham, on October 26, urging him not to attend Parliament on the opening day. This anonymous letter read:

“My lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care for your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance of this Parliament, for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow, the Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned, because it may do you good and can do you know harm, for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the latter: and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.”

The 1st earl of Salisbury and others, to whom the plot was made known, took steps leading to the discovery of the materials and the arrest of Fawkes as he entered the cellar. Other conspirators, overtaken in flight or seized afterward, were killed outright, imprisoned, or executed.

Among those executed was Henry Garnett, the superior of the English Jesuits, who had known of the conspiracy. While the plot was the work of a small number of men, it provoked hostility against all English Catholics and led to an increase in the harshness of laws against them. Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, is still celebrated in England with fireworks and bonfires, on which effigies of the conspirator, called “guys”, are burned. The word came to mean any strange-looking person and later came to be applied in a derogatory sense to any man (some American lexicographers, however, derive ‘guy’ from a Spanish word).

treason |ˈtrēzən| noun (also high treason)
the crime of betraying one's country, esp. by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government : they were convicted of treason.
• the action of betraying someone or something : doubt is the ultimate treason against faith.
• ( petty treason) historical the crime of murdering someone to whom the murderer owed allegiance, such as a master or husband.
 
DERIVATIVES
treasonous |ˈtrēzənəs| adjective
 
ORIGIN Middle English : from Anglo-Norman French treisoun, from Latin traditio(n-) ‘handing over,’ from the verb tradere.

THE GRAMMAR OF POETRY

“Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression.” – Amos Bronson Alcott


Back at work today, and after the break, there was ever so much to catch up on. The emails alone took a few hours to take care of, while several meetings despatched most of the rest of the time. Add to that some correspondence, phone calls and some issues from last week, where did the day go? I came back, still tired from yesterday’s exertions, to which more were added today. Hence the blog will be brief and my poem mined from the archives of my old notebooks.

This poem was written many years ago, after I had read some literary article or other about grammar and how its rules were often broken, especially so by the poet. The challenge faced by the poet was to create a mood, evoke emotion, plant ideas in people’s heads, confront and perplex, annoy and needle. Language is there to be used in any which way that will achieve those aims. I wrote the poem in the wake of reading that article and mindful of the grammarian’s injunction that “every sentence must have a verb to be complete”. I set out to write a poem without verbs. Here it is!

Dictionary

Asbestos, inferno, flame, smoke,
Deep lake, marsh, pool, puddle.
Sun, star, moon, dawn’s blush;
Steel, iron, cold hard metal,
Sweet sandalwood and violets.
Desire, passion, sweat, twin pleasures,
Death, decay, oblivion.

Incinerator, burning, conflagration;
Sea, torrent, stream, rill.
Comets, planets, foolish astrologers;
Beryllium, boron and carbon.
Dank smell of earth and rain.
Antipathy, hate, enmity,
War, destruction, annihilation.

Ebony, coals, embers, ashes,
Well, spring, cooling draughts.
Plasma, hydrogen, helium, lithium,
Copper, silver, gold, bright gems,
Opulent frankincense and rose attar.
Love, affection, caring, devotion,
Life, tender memory.

Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday

READING ON CUP DAY

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” - Pearl S. Buck

Today was the Melbourne Cup, and hence a public holiday in Melbourne. Our neighbours had a party last night, which kept us awake until after midnight and then it was a stop-and-start fitful sleep for the rest of the night. I did a great deal of work in the garden and house, and did not even bother to turn the TV on for the “Big Race”, as gambling a horses are not our thing. However, in the afternoon I had a little self-indulgence and read a little bit.

I have just finished reading Tom Standage’s book “A History of the World in Six Glasses”. This is a delightful book written in a way that is engaging and examines 10,000 years of human history in six representative drinks that have marked great historical changes:

1) Beer – Marked the change from hunting/gathering existence to a farming/civilised existence
2) Wine - The drink of civilised Greece and Rome
4) Tea - The import from the East, the life sustainer and improver
3) Hard liquor – Slavery and the American Revolution
5) Coffee - The drink that marked the Enlightenment and made possible the coffehouses
6) Cola - Especially Coca Cola and the expression of cultural dominance of the USA.

Interestingly, all of the above drinks made water safe to drink in times when the water supply was often tainted. The epilogue is worthy of being included as the seventh drink and a return to our origins, as it is water. Future wars will not be fought over land and territory, but rather over a ready supply of fresh water. Already people are paying large sums of money for water in first world countries, an in the developing world a supply of safe, clean water is often lacking.

Standage makes history entertaining and fascinating, and by concentrating on events surrounding his “six glasses” (a pun on six classes, I guess) he manages to give us the big picture of history, with interesting vignettes of the “small bits” here and there. Standage does not pretend to be all-inclusive in his world history and he omits some important “glasses” (for example gin in England and Holland in the early 18th century) because they are out of his orderly and logical timeline and interfere with the way he has laid out his premise.

I enjoyed the book quite a lot, not as a history book, but almost like a thriller. It’s a documentary and a biographical drama rolled into one. It is written in a style that is easy to read without being condescending or stooping to the lowest common denominator. It is a good introduction to the way that society shapes history and vice versa. I recommend it as it informative, entertaining and enjoyable reading. It will also serve as a good springboard for further reading (and Standage does provide an extensive list of further reading!).

CHANGELING - MOVIE MONDAY

"The desolation and terror of, for the first time, realising that the mother can lose you, or you her, and your own abysmal loneliness and helplessness without her. " - Francis Thompson


Yesterday we watched the 2008 Clint Eastwood film, “Changeling”. It starred Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Frank Wood, Colm Feore and Michael Kelly. The film was based on a true story, upon which J. Michael Straczynski, based his screenplay (and a fine one it was). Eastwood directs well, although in some cases too heavy-handedly, with Jolie pumping out the emotion almost non-stop. However, overall the film is well-shot, well-acted and well-directed.

The movie is set in Los Angeles in the 1920s. Christine Collins (Jolie) is a telephone operator supervisor who must work on a Saturday as an emergency has arisen at the office. She leaves her young son Walter alone at home, only for a shot while as her friends and neighbours will pop in and see to him. When she returns in the afternoon, she discovers him missing. The police to whom she turns are corrupt and ineffectual. For months, Christine is trying to find her son, while the police finally return a child to her, who they say is Walter. Christine knows he is not, but the police department needing good publicity force the child on her.

The remainder of the film deals with Christine’s battle with the LAPD personified by Captain JJ Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), a corrupt and unscrupulous cop on the take. She is put into a mental asylum and has to deal with the horrific discovery that a psychopath may have abducted her son. Her only ally in her battle against the LAPD is the Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich), who is also a crusader for honesty and good morals.

The sets and costumes are perfect, with the beautiful Model T Fords, the red electric street cars, the telephones, the switchboard station with roller-skating supervisors, the house appliances, and the authentically styled clothing, from dresses to hats to police uniforms, hairdressing, everything is detailed and accurate. The music is appropriate and once again in tune with the theme and period. What surprised me even more was that the talented Mr Eastwood composed it!

The film has similar themes to others directed by Eastwood. It concerns itself with truth and lies, and exposing the hypocrisy of people whose duty is to protect truth, honour and justice. “Unforgiven” and “Flags of our Fathers” come to mind as films that Eastwood directed and have a similar set of themes. Jolie and Malkovich carry the film. Jolie acts with fervour and emotional intensity and proves that she can do “serious” acting. Malkovich, whom I often find annoying, was surprisingly good in this uncharacteristic “good guy” role.

The film is challenging to watch and has some very confronting and poignant scenes, as well as dealing with some complex themes. It was a long and at times harrowing film, but nevertheless one well worth seeing.

ART SUNDAY - PICASSO

“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” - Pablo Picasso

A painting by Pablo Picasso for this Art Sunday. “Interior with Girl Drawing” (1935). Picasso still manages to excite some controversy, especially where his later, cubist works are concerned. As one of my friends said: “If you can paint angels, why would you choose to devote your life to painting devils?” The answer to that of course, is because we are devils living in hell and the artist more than anybody else realises this and wants to depict the reality of our existence, the “truth” as Picasso himself says, above. The truth of cubism is highlighted by another quote from the same artist, one of the most famous for it:

“Cubism is no different from any other school of painting. The same principles and the same elements are common to all. The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it, means nothing. I do not read English, and an English book is a blank to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist, and why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?”

Enjoy your Sunday!