SONG SATURDAY - CHRISTIANNA

“We don’t have an eternity to realize our dreams, only the time we are here.” - Susan Taylor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_L._Taylor

A Saturday in Winter. Rain and a gray day. Memories of sun and a trip back in time, to a place far away.

Here is a Greek singer called Christianna who was popular in the 1970s. It is called “I Wear your Shadow as a Dress”.

I Wear your Shadow as a Dress

In the heat of mid-noon,

A naked little seashell,

I lean into the young man’s embrace

Whose lips are as if they’re painted.

I wear your shadow as a dress

In the hot south wind, in the cool zephyr,

And my body shakes

Like a water lily in the water.

The stone thirsts for water

And flesh yearns for a caress,

You become the rich warp

And I’ll become the weft around you.

I wear your shadow as a dress

In the hot south wind, in the cool zephyr,

And my body shakes

Like a water lily in the water.

FOOD FRIDAY - A SWEET TREAT

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.” - Charles M. Schulz
 

One of the common sweet treats that have traditionally been a feature of Australian cooking are the “slices”. These are small, 5cm x 5cm, squares or oblongs of sweetmeat that can be described as a cross between a biscuit and a cake. There is an enormous variety of recipes based on cream and chocolate, fruit and nut, caramel and butterscotch, oat and grains or any combination of these. They are a wonderful afternoon tea treat, although those with a sweet tooth will be tempted at other times of the day as well…
 

Here is a recipe for a chocolate mousse slice that is definitely tempting and tastes quite delicious.
 

Chocolate Mousse Slice
Ingredients - Slice
125 g butter, chopped up
160 g dark eating chocolate
1 egg
150 g caster sugar
110 g plain flour
75 g self-raising flour
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
 

Ingredients - Mousse topping
3 teaspoons boiling water
2 teaspoons drinking chocolate powder (or cocoa powder)
250 g fresh whipping cream
A few drops of vanilla essence
160 g milk chocolate melted
 

Method

• Preheat oven to 180˚C and grease a 20 cm x 30 cm rectangular baking dish, lining the bottom and side with baking paper.
• Stir butter and dark chocolate in a medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Let cool for 10minutes.
• Stir sugar and eggs into the butter/chocolate mixture and stir in the sifted flours.
• Spread the mixture evenly into the pan and bake for about 15 minutes. Let it cool in the pan.
• Meanwhile make the mousse topping by first dissolving the cocoa (or drinking chocolate) in the boiling water in a cup. Allow to cool.
• Pour the cooled cocoa liquid into the cream, add the vanilla essence and beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
• Fold in the melted chocolate and cool. Pour over the baked base and refrigerate until set (about 3 hours).
• Dust the top with powdered cocoa and cut into squares.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also par tof the Food Trip Friday meme.

NATIONAL DAY, SINGAPORE

“Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble.” Hubert H. Humphrey

Today is Singapore’s National Day. Singapore spread over a major island and 62 small ones was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles and was a British Crown Colony since 1867 until its independence in 1965. The mangrove-swamped island to the South of Malaysia was transformed in an astoundingly short time into one of the most modern and economically developed countries of Southeast Asia. With few natural resources on its 710 square km area to employ its ethnically diverse 5.2 million inhabitants, Singapore has built its economy on financial services, manufacture of precision goods and electronics, as well as free enterprise and tourism. The climate is hot and humid with much rainfall allowing the tropical vegetation free rein and making the Singapore orchids a national symbol as well as a major export. Singapore is the capital with Jurong another city to the Northwest.
 
Singapore has four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. English is the common language of the nation and is the language of business, government and medium of instruction in schools. Public bodies in Singapore conduct their businesses in English, and official documents written in a non-English official language such as Chinese, Malay or Tamil typically have to be translated into English to be accepted for submission. The Singapore Constitution and all laws are written in English, and translators are also required if one wishes to address the Singaporean Courts in a language other than English. However, English is the native tongue for only one-third of all Singaporeans, with roughly a third of all Singaporean Chinese, a quarter of all Singaporean Malays and half of all Singaporean Indians speaking it as their native tongue. Twenty percent of Singaporeans, or one out of every five, is unable to read or write in English.
 
Singapore has over 50% of its area covered by lush tropical vegetation and with over 50 major parks and 4 nature reserves, it is truly a garden city. Large self-contained residential towns have mushroomed all over the island, around the clean and modern city centre. The centre of the city located in the south of the larger island, — consisting roughly of the Orchard road shopping area, the Riverside, the new downtown Marina Bay area and also the skyscrapers-filled Shenton way, which houses the financial district known in acronym-loving Singapore as the CBD (Central Business District).
 
Singaporean food is well-known throughout the world, with bustling hawker centres and 24-hour coffee shops offering cheap food from all parts of Asia. The city is a shoppers mecca and tourists can easily go over their baggage allowances in Orchard Road and Suntec City. In recent years some social and cultural restrictions have also loosened up, and now you can bungee jump and dance on bar-tops all night long, although alcohol is still very pricy and chewing gum can only be bought from a pharmacy. Two casino complexes — or “Integrated Resorts”, to use the Singaporean euphemism — opened in 2010 in Sentosa and Marina Bay as part of Singapore’s new Fun and Entertainment drive, the aim being to double the number of tourists visiting and increasing the length of time they stay within the country.
 
Singapore holds numerous events each year. Some of its famous festivals and events include the Singapore Food Festival, the Singapore Grand Prix, the Singapore Arts Festival, the Chingay Parade, the World Gourmet Summit and ZoukOut. The Singapore Sun Festival is another popular festival in Singapore, with many international celebrities visiting the country to take part. Christmas is also widely celebrated in Singapore, a season where the city streets and shopping malls along its famous shopping belt Orchard Road are lit up and decorated in vibrant colours. In addition, the Singapore Jewel Festival attracts numerous tourists every year, and is a display of precious gems, famous jewels and masterpieces from international jewellers and designers.
 
I always enjoy visiting Singapore, having opportunity to go there for work or to stop over when we fly to Europe. It is a hospitable, clean and safe country where the people are friendly and there is a lot to see and do, with many new attractions, increasing services and huge developments being apparent each time we visit. The hotels are numerous and well appointed and places that we love to visit are the Botanic Gardens (including the National Orchid Garden), Little India, Arab Street, Sentosa Island and of course the CBD. Singapore National University is another place that I visit often and this is a premier University not only in Asia, but also worldwide.

ST MARY MACKILLOP

 “Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.” - Saint Teresa of Ávila
 
Today is the Feast Day of St Mary McKillop, Australia’s first Roman Catholic saint. Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842. Her parents, Flora and Alexander MacKillop, were Catholic immigrants from Scotland. Mary, the eldest of eight children, was raised in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. At 16, Mary went out to work, to support her younger brothers and sisters. Two years later she took a job as a governess on her uncle’s farm in the small country town of Penola in South Australia. Here Mary met the man who would change her life forever, Father Julian Tenison Woods.
 
Father Woods was a charming and eccentric priest who shared Mary’s dream of educating the poor. He became her mentor and spiritual guide. Father Woods was such a charismatic character that when he moved to Adelaide, according to Mary, many of the mothers of the town locked their doors when they saw Father Woods coming past, because they didn’t want their daughters to be running off and joining the Josephites!
 
Mary and Father Woods opened the first free Catholic school in Penola in 1866, at first in a converted stable and later in this more substantial stone building. A year later they founded a new religious order of nuns, called the Sisters of St Joseph. These nuns were devoted to teaching poor. Mary was just 25 years old when she took her vows, becoming the order’s first sister and its leader. Within four years of Mary becoming a sister there were 130 Sisters of Saint Joseph, and this was the first Catholic order founded by an Australian. They vowed to live in poverty, own no property and were committed to equality. These were central to the order’s rule.
 
As well as schools, Mary MacKillop and the sisters founded hospitals and orphanages, as well as providing shelters for the homeless, former prostitutes and unmarried mothers. And they raised all of the money themselves, mostly by begging. Other religious orders were controlled by their local bishops but the Sisters of St Joseph insisted on governing themselves, something that caused considerable friction with the church. This conflict, along with allegations of sexual abuse the sisters raised against a priest at Kapunda, north of Adelaide, led Adelaide Bishop Laurence Sheil to excommunicate Mary MacKillop for alleged insubordination in 1871. Five months later Bishop Sheil was gravely ill and dying; from his deathbed he instructed that Mary be absolved and restored to her order, allowing her to continue her work.
 
In 1873, Mary travelled to Rome for a personal audience with Pope Pius IX and obtained papal approval for the sisterhood. She also sought sign-off on their “Rule of Life”, as set down by Father Woods. However, that document was discarded and another was drawn up. That caused a divide between Sister Mary and Father Woods, and their relationship never recovered. Mary and the sisters continued to come into conflict with a number of bishops, including in Bathurst and Brisbane, over the issue of their central control. Mary was also accused of being an alcoholic (she drank brandy to relieve severe menstrual pain) and those claims drove her from Adelaide to Sydney, where she lived for the last 25 years of her life. Mary suffered a stroke in 1902 and was an invalid until her death on August 8, 1909.
 
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Moran, visited Mary just before she died to give her the last rites of the church. As he was leaving he told two of the sisters that he felt as if he had been administering at the deathbed of a saint. Mary was buried in Sydney’s historic Gore Hill Cemetery. Today a memorial marks the spot where she once lay. Five years after her death, her body was transferred to the newly built Mary MacKillop Chapel in the grounds of the North Sydney convent where she last lived.
 
In 1925, the Mother Superior of the Sisters of St Joseph, Mother Laurence, began the process to have MacKillop declared a saint and Michael Kelly, Archbishop of Sydney, established a tribunal to carry the process forward. The process for Mary MacKillop’s beatification began in 1926, was interrupted in 1931, but began again in April 1951 and was closed in September of that year. After several years of hearings, close examination of MacKillop’s writings and a 23-year delay, the initial phase of investigations was completed in 1973. Her canonisation was announced on 19 February 2010 and subsequently took place on 17 October 2010. This made her the first Australian to be recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

TEMPUS FUGIT

“Lost time is never found again.” - Benjamin Franklin
 

I am rather ignoring the Olympics, more so this time round than last time. The whole thing has become a sideshow, a thinly veiled platform for multinational company sponsorship deals, a showcase of rampant nationalism and a show riddled with corruption, doping and cheating scandals and athletes that are under extreme pressure to perform and bring back multiple gold medals on the pain of ridicule or worse… Meanwhile, the security surrounding the Games has become a major factor, just in case terrorists strike. So much for the Olympic ideal and the Holy Truce that enabled the ancient Games to be held in peace and allowed even warring city states to cease hostilities and compete in a spirit of noble rivalry.

We have had some unsettled weather for our late Winter. Cold and grey days interspersed with some bouts of sunshine and intermittent rain. Last night it was extremely windy and I woke several times listening to the whistling of the wind, the soughing of the branches and the creaks and groans of the house as it heaved, assaulted by the strong gusts. It made for an uneasy night’s sleep and this morning I woke up early but cranky. The wind kept blowing and walking to work from the train station was not very pleasant.

Nevertheless, the signs of Spring are about. The wattles have bloomed quite extravagantly, the Spring bulbs have begun to flower and the fruit trees have begun unfurling their blossom– almond, plum and cherry. The days have begun to lengthen perceptibly, so no longer do I walk to work in the dark, there is a glimmer of gold in the eastern horizon and the sky is ultramarine instead of inky black.

Another year is progressing to its close, well beyond the half-way mark now. So does 2012 march inexorably to its conclusion, day following day, each rushing by. It’s January one moment and before the cry of “Happy New Year” fades out, we blink and it is August. So much has happened and yet it is as though I have been living my life in the fast-forward mode. I look in the mirror and am surprised – who is this middle-aged man looking at me?

Time flies, moments pass by so fast, lessening the future and making the past burgeon with masses of old memories. The present only remains immutable, a succession of frozen split seconds, each lasting an eternity, each crystallising and dissolving as future becomes past. And then we die, and with our dying breath we utter, “where did my life go?”.

MOVIE MONDAY - LITTLE DORRIT

 
“A person who can’t pay gets another person who can’t pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don’t make either of them able to do a walking-match.” - Charles Dickens
 
Ever since my youth I have enjoyed reading the novels of Charles Dickens. They are full of memorable characters, intricate plots, remarkable incidents, great themes and social commentary, as well as a great story told in vivid and engaging language. I went through most of his novels while at University and since then have not revisited them, until now, having watched three excellent adaptations for TV produced by the BBC.
 
The first TV series based on a Dickens novel we watched is “Our Mutual Friend” about which I have blogged about previously, the second is “Bleak House”, which I have also reviewed, and the last one we watched is “Little Dorrit”. The production standard of all of these series is excellent and if it’s one thing that the British do well, it is period dramas of this type. The atmosphere is just so right and the care that has been put into every detail is faultless. Usually, the acting is exceptional and the adherence to the plot of the novel is very good.
 
The 2008 production of “Little Dorrit”, starring Claire Foy, Matthew Macfadyen and Tom Courtenay, and directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh and Diarmuid Lawrence was of the usual BBC excellent standard. If it is any indication the IMDB rating for this series is 8.5, based on just under 2,100 viewer votes. My rating certainly adheres to this.
 
Many nineteenth-century critics judged “Little Dorrit” to be Dickens’s worst novel. Thankfully, it has been reevaluated in the second half of the twentieth century and is today considered to be a masterpiece by many scholars, who praise its biting criticism of the modern world’s corrupt social and political institutions.

The title character of the novel, “Little Dorrit” as she prefers to be called, was born within the walls of the Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison, which became her family’s home as her father’s financial failings caused him to declare bankruptcy. Amy’s mother died shortly after her birth, but Amy and her siblings continued to live inside the prison with their father until they were grown up. Trained as a seamstress by one of the other inmates, Amy leaves the prison every day to sew for Mrs Clennam, a widowed invalid confined to her home. Mrs. Clennam’s son Arthur had spent twenty years in the Orient working with his father and when Mr Clennam died, Arthur returned to England. He refused to join his cold, miserly mother in her business, preferring to take his portion of the inheritance and go off on his own.

Impressed by Little Dorrit’s sweet nature, Arthur tries to help the girl by working to secure her father’s release from prison, by helping her to obtain more customers for her needlework, and by sending her small amounts of money. In the course of the investigation into William Dorrit’s debts, it is discovered that he is the sole surviving heir of a large estate, which he promptly claims. Dorrit pays his creditors and leaves the prison that had been his family's home for twenty years. Ungrateful for Arthur's efforts on their behalf, the Dorrits, with the exception of Amy, refuse to speak to him any longer and go off to Europe on a grand tour to make society connections.
 
The plot then follows the trials and tribulations of Arthur and the Dorrits as their paths continue to cross and several mysteries are resolved until a dramatic conclusion gives everyone  their just desserts.

This is an excellent production and we recommend it most highly.

ART SUNDAY - RAPHAEL

“Time is a vindictive bandit to steal the beauty of our former selves. We are left with sagging, rippled flesh and burning gums with empty sockets.” – Raphael
 

Raphael (Raffaelo Sanzio da Urbino), one of the foremost Italian painters and architect of the Renaissance, was born April 6, 1483 in Urbino. This is a small, but significantly artistic town in the region of Marches in central Italy. He died April 6, 1520, in Rome, the Papal States. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the great trio of High Renaissance masters. Raphael was particularly noted for the grace and beauty of his paintings, which became a model for high renaissance art.

Raphael’s father was a court painter and Raphael followed in his father’s footsteps, gaining a wide education in the arts, literature, and social skills. This enabled Raphael to move easily amongst the higher circles of court society, which helped his career in gaining commissions. As a member of Perugino’s workshop, he established his mastery by 17 years of age, and began receiving important commissions. In 1504 he moved to Florence, where he executed many of his famous Madonnas. His unity of composition and suppression of inessentials is evident in “The Madonna of the Goldfinch” of 1506.

Though influenced by Leonardo da Vinci’s chiaroscuro and sfumato technique, his figure types were his own creation, with round, gentle faces revealing human emotions, but which are raised to a sublime serenity and appear to exist on an otherworldly plane. In 1508 he was summoned to Rome to decorate a suite of papal chambers in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura are probably his greatest work; the most famous, The School of Athens (1510-11), is a complex and magnificently ordered allegory of secular knowledge showing Greek philosophers in an architectural setting.

The Madonnas he painted in Rome show him turning away from his earlier works’ serenity to emphasise movement and grandeur, partly under Michelangelo’s High Renaissance influence. “The Sistine Madonna” (1513) shows the richness of colour and new boldness of compositional invention typical of his Roman period. He became the most important portraitist in Rome, designed 10 large tapestries to hang in the Sistine Chapel, designed a church and a chapel, assumed the direction of work on St. Peter’s Basilica at the death of Donato Bramante, and took charge of virtually all the papacy’s projects in architecture, painting, and the preservation of antiquities.

Raphael had one of the largest art schools in Rome, with over 50 students. It is said Raphael was not just a genius of art but also excellent at managing and inspiring his pupils, helping the school become a famous place of art. As well as a painter, Raphael was also a noted architect, draughtsman, and with Raimondi, a printmaker of his engravings. He died in April 6 1570, aged only 37. Yet, he left behind a considerable legacy and his work was celebrated even during his lifetime. His last masterpiece, the “Transfiguration” altarpiece, was placed at the head of his bier, and thousands of people attended his funeral.

Anyone who has been to the Vatican can only marvel at the richness of the apartments and the wealth of significant artworks that one meets on every step. The Stanza della Segnatura is an amazing place and Raphael’s frescoes give the rooms a magnificence that is quite awe-inspiring. The “School of Athens” is on the right above and the fresco represents the degrees of knowledge or the truth acquired through reason. The fresco’s position as well as the philosophers’ walk in direction of the Holy Sacrament on the opposite wall suggested the interpretation of the whole room as the movement from the classical philosophy to the true religion and from the pre-Christian world to Christianity. It was meant to reside over the philosophical section of Pope Julius II’s library. It is perhaps Raphael’s most famous fresco. On the left side above, is “Mount Parnassus”, representing poetry. Ancient and Renaissance poets are centered around Apollo, who is seated in the centre, accompanied by the nine muses.

A RESTFUL DAY

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a spring day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” - John Lubbock

Each little routine of a Saturday morning at home, how delightful it is! Each blessed chore, each morning ritual, each ordinary moment, how grateful we should be for them all… The smell of cooking in the kitchen, the sun shining through the clouds, the violets blooming in the garden and the people whom we love and who love us just being around us. Days of peace, noontime rest, freshly baked bread, the small homely comforts, how beautiful they are…

As the evening falls, the lights come on, it is a night of calm and serenity. As the moon rises, and as it plays hide and seek with the clouds, how wonderful it all is. The touch of a soft hand, the kiss of the one we love, how special it is. How little do we sit and think about it all, how little do we appreciate each of these small perfect moments that we enjoy freely and which are denied to so many around the world…

A beautiful Saturday, a perfect day!

FOOD FRIDAY - RISOTTO

“Rice is born in water and must die in wine.” - Italian Proverb

It has a been a tiring few days of travel, meetings, presentations and talks in Brisbane. It was wonderful to come home on Friday night and even though it was cold and rainy in Melbourne, it is home and it felt lovely. Especially so walking in form the cold outside into a warm house where the delicious cooking smells pervaded the kitchen. Nothing like a hearty risotto on cold winter’s night to warm you up!

Risotto Milanese

Ingredients

1 litre chicken stock
Pinch saffron threads
1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 and 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup frozen peas
bunch of asparagus spears, chopped and blanched
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
30g butter, chopped
Shaved parmesan cheese, to serve

Method
Place the stock and saffron in a saucepan. Cover. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low. Simmer until needed.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add rice. Cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes. Add the wine and bring to the boil. Boil for 1 to 2 minutes or until wine is reduced by half.
Add 1/3 cup stock to rice mixture. Cook, stirring, until stock has absorbed. Repeat with remaining stock, adding 1/3 cup at a time, until all liquid has absorbed and rice is tender and creamy, adding peas and asparagus to rice mixture with final 1/3 cup stock.
Cook for 5 minutes or until the peas and asparagus are heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in cheese and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with shaved cheese.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

GREETINGS FROM GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

“Freedom of inquiry, freedom of discussion, and freedom of teaching - without these a university cannot exist” - Robert Maynard Hutchins 

The weather in Brisbane has been glorious. Sunny, warm and fine with at least some opportunity in between meetings to walk around a little and enjoy the sunshine. This is the benefit of a subtropical Brisbane winter compared to our cold, wet and gray Melbourne one. However, it is quite nice for a week or two but I still prefer the definite Winter weather and the distinction of the seasons we get in the more Southern latitudes of Melbourne.

I have been extremely busy with work and with the visits to various campuses of Universities here in Brisbane. At least, the meetings have been interesting and I have met with some very intelligent academics and have had some useful discussions. All is going very well...

Griffith University is where I am spending most of my time, and this is a public research university in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current total enrollment is approximately 43,000 with 4,000 full-time equivalent staff. Griffith University offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees across ten discipline areas including Arts, Education, Business, Health, Law, Engineering, Information Technology, Environment, Music and Visual Arts.

In 1965, 174 hectares of natural bushland at Nathan were set aside for a new University campus. Initially the site was to be part of the University of Queensland which was experiencing strong demand in humanities and social sciences. However, by 1970, a new institution was being suggested, this to be independent of the University of Queensland. The university was formally founded in 1971 and opened its doors in 1975 to 451 students in four schools: Australian Environmental Studies, Humanities, Modern Asian Studies and Science.

The University started with its Nathan campus, and several of its campuses are distinctive for their nature-based settings within large urban agglomerations. Buildings were designed to fit into the environment by following the slope of the land and by using architectural means of cooling. The library building was designed by Robin Gibson and won the first national award for library design. The clusters of buildings, sports facilities, bushland reserves and recreational areas are connected by integrated networks of walking paths.

The university was distinguished by its “problem-based” rather than disciplinary approach to course design and research. The University is named after the former Premier of Queensland, and High Court of Australia justice, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, who was also the principal author of the Australian constitution. The QS World University Rankings places Griffith in the 291st place amongst universities in the world.

TRAVELLING TO BRISBANE

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” - Marcel

I am travelling to Brisbane for the rest of the week for work and have been very busily trying to get as much done as I can before I leave. It is always difficult to fit travel into an already busy schedule, especially if it turns out to be more than a day trip, as it is in this case. The only thing that I look forward to is that Brisbane is enjoying much better weather than Melbourne at the moment, with predicted top temperatures in the low twenties, as opposed to the low to mid-teens in Melbourne! I doubt whether I will time to enjoy the weather or sunbathe, but nevertheless it may be very pleasant to try and walk in the sun for a little while if it can be managed!

MOVIE MONDAY - THE IRON LADY

“Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be: You cannot lead from the crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend.” – Margaret Thatcher
 
Old age can be a terrible thing if one’s health is compromised. More so of course if dementia sets in and one cannot enjoy one’s final years with full control of one’s mental faculties. This is particularly heart-breaking for individuals who have lived by their wits and have been an intellectual for all their lives. Not only is it confusing and exceedingly distressing for the elderly person in the process of becoming demented, but even more so is it harrowing for the friends and family who see the decline and experience the fading away of the persona of the individual they once knew, into a neutral, living, vacuous shell of the person they once were.

These and many more related thoughts were going through our mind during watching the movie we saw at the weekend, and afterwards, as we discussed it. It was the 2011 Phyllida Lloyd film “The Iron Lady”, starring Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent and Richard E. Grant with a screenplay by Abi Morgan. This is a famous and somewhat controversial film of the rise and decline of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female Prime Minister, notorious during the 1980s.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the “Iron Lady”, which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style – hence the name of the film. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as “Thatcherism”.

Thatcherism introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what Thatcher perceived as Britain’s precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher’s popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as “poll tax”) was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. Her withdrawal from politics saw her remaining active as a public figure for a number of years.

Thatcher’s husband, Sir Denis Thatcher died on 26 June 2003 and was cremated on 3 July. She had paid tribute to him in “The Downing Street Years”, writing of their life-long devotion t one another. After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests. Her daughter Carol has recounted how she was first struck by her mother's dementia when she muddled the Falklands conflict with the Yugoslav wars; she has also recalled the pain of needing to tell her mother repeatedly that Denis Thatcher was dead…

The film concentrates on the everyday life of an elderly, dementing Margaret Thatcher who talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death. All the while, scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene. Intervene is the right word as the flashback style of storytelling used is jarring, intrusive and distracting. The scenes from young adulthood and the moments of Thatcher in action are too far and few between to really make the impact they should have. One can see that this is the screenwriter’s way of getting the viewer to understand Thatcher’s mental state as she is dementing - dementia involves an immediate and profound loss of recent memory, but as the individual goes backwards in time, the more distant memories are the ones retained the longest and most vividly. However, it is an annoying device after the first few scenes. The sporadic flashbacks among the more elongated stretches of following the elderly and mentally fragile Thatcher makes for a flawed film. Some stories are so interesting and involving that they need no device to be told. A nice beginning, middle and end suffices.

The film won a slew of awards, including two Oscars, one for Meryl Streep (deservedly) as best actress in a leading role and one for best achievement in make-up. Streep’s performance is remarkable, with accent, facial expressions and appearance being utterly convincing. She once again displays the fine gamut of her acting abilities and one can be totally transported by her into the life of Thatcher. Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher also does a fine job in the supporting role, and there is a host of other excellent supporting actors.

Overall, we were glad to watch the movie, despite its flaws. It was interesting from the point of view of a portrait of a person undergoing dementia and thus it paints a rather sympathetic portrait of Margaret Thatcher as the human being, without being too controversial. Its focus is squarely on Thatcher’s later years in decline rather than her active years as Prime Minister. I guess one should watch a documentary or two, in order to see the latter. It reminded us of the other famous film of British conservatism, “The Queen” with Helen Mirren (see my review here). There may be many who object to the film, seeing it as an invasion of Thatcher’s privacy and her supporters may indicate that the snippets of Thatcher in action are not too sympathetic to “Thatcherism”. However, this is not a political film nor is it a documentary. It is a biopic about an elderly woman who had an active and intellectual mind trying to cope with the loss of her mental faculties. As such, it is a good movie.

ART SUNDAY - GERRIT DOU

“Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door, of course.” - George Bernard Shaw
 

Gerrit Dou was a Dutch artist, born in 1613 in Leiden, The Netherlands, and died in 1675 in Leiden. Dou’s father was a glass engraver and he gave his son his first painting lessons. The young Gerrit was then apprenticed to a distinguished printmaker and glass painter, receiving additional formal artistic training from the Leiden glaziers’ guild. At fifteen he was appointed to the enviable position of apprentice in Rembrandt’s studio, where he studied for six years.

After Rembrandt left Leiden in 1631, his influence on Dou waned. Dou continued to paint on wood in a small scale but adopted cooler colours and a more highly refined technique characteristic of the fijnschilders (fine painters), a group of Leiden artists who painted small, highly finished pictures. Portraits in impasto gave way to domestic genre subjects, enamel-smooth and rich in accessory details. Dou became one of the highest paid artists in the Netherlands and the founder of the Leiden painters’ guild. Royal patrons from all over Europe sought him out. King Charles II of England even offered him the post of court painter, which he refused. Despite his international reputation, Dou scarcely left his native Leiden.

Dou was greatly praised during his lifetime because of his carefully realistic portrayal of nature and the visual illusions and the common occurrence of trompe l’oeil effects in his works. Dou’s paintings expressed the “paragone debate” around his time. The paragone debate was an ongoing competition between painting, sculpture and poetry about which of them was most capable in representing nature. The discussion was especially heated in Leiden, as the painters wanted to obtain the rights of a guild from the town council, in order to have laws enacted for their economic protection.

The “Sleeping Dog” of 1650, is an oil on panel work, 16.5 cm x 21.6 cm. It is in the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection. It is typical of the work of Gerrit Dou, with a detailed, finely crafted depiction of the subject matter – in this case, a seemingly run-of-mill domestic scene. A dog sleeps besides a basket, an earthenware container, a bunch of sticks and a pair of clogs. The objects are chosen to highlight and contrast a variety of textures and colours, the soft pale fur of the dog, the glazed pottery, the rough sticks and the woven wickerwork. The artistry and skill of the painter is consummate and the composition wonderful.

However, the work can also be interpreted using the symbolism of the objects. The dog as a symbol of faithfulness and guardianship, the pot and basket as symbols of industry and domesticity, the bunch of sticks as a symbol of strength and the clogs implying intimacy. One may draw whatever conclusions one wants from this assemblage of objects and the things they symbolise, something like: If one lets one’s guard down (sleeping dog) and strays from the everyday chores of life (pot and basket) that are the basis of virtuous life giving one strength of character (sticks) one may fall victim to one’s sexual passions (a common symbol in the 17th century was the removal of slippers as evidence of succumbing to sexual passion or immorality). One may hazard all sorts of other interpretations or simply enjoy the scene for what is superficially appears – a sleeping dog, and perhaps we should just let sleeping dogs lie!

SAD SATURDAY

“Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth; and therefore to such as are discontent, in woe, fear, sorrow, or dejected, it is a most present remedy” - Robert Burton
 
A melancholy Saturday, grey, wet, cold and miserable. We went out for some shopping and to do some routine chores, but we came back home early as the weather was really foul. We watched a movie after lunch and then a quiet evening in.
 
Here is Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op. 40 (“From Holberg’s Time: Suite in the Olden Style”), and in particular the fourth movement, “Air”, which is also my favourite. This music was written for the bicentenary Year of Ludvig Holberg’s birth. Ludvig Holberg (1684 -1754) was born in Bergen, and became Professor in Metaphysics, Latin, Literature and History, at the University in Copenhagen. But he is most famous, both today and during Grieg’s time, for writing Comedy, and he is recognized as one of the most important personalities in the Danish-Norwegian joint Literature.
 
The Holberg Suite was finished in August 1884, and the 7^th of December it was performed for the very first time in Bergen. Grieg chose the French baroque dance suite as the music base. But he has put his own personal stamp on the separate movements, so there isn’t the slightest amount of doubt that this is Grieg, in French seventeenth century costume.  The Suite was originally written for the piano, and later arranged by the composer for string orchestra. Enjoy!

FOOD FRIDAY - BURFI

“Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.” - B. C. Forbes
 
I enjoy eating Indian dishes, but even more I enjoy eating some Indian sweetmeats and desserts. Barfi or burfi is a type of very popular confectionery from the Indian subcontinent. Plain burfi is made from condensed milk, cooked with sugar until it solidifies. The many varieties of burfi include besan burfi (made with gram flour), kaaju burfi (made with cashews), and pista burfi (made with ground pistachios). The name of this sweetmeat is derived from the Persian word “burf” which means “snow”, since burfi is similar to ice/snow in appearance.
 
Burfi is often flavoured with fruit or nuts and spices such as cardamom. The pieces are sometimes coated with a thin layer of edible metallic leaf known as vark. The sweets are typically cut into square, diamond, or round shapes. Different types of burfi vary greatly in their colour and texture. Here is the recipe of a typical example of burfi.
 
Fruit and Nut Burfi
Ingredients

• 500 g full cream milk powder
• 180 mL cream
• 30 mL ghee (clarified butter)
• A few cardamom pods
• Grated nutmeg
• 50 g chopped blanched toasted almonds
• Red glace cherries
• 500 mL water
• 500 mL sugar

Method 
Mix the powdered milk, cream and ghee together. Use a mortar and pestle and bash cardamom pods to release seeds. Remove pods and grind the cardamom to a fine powder. Add together with nutmeg and almonds to powdered milk mixture. Set aside.

Bring the water to the boil and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until thick and syrupy. Add the syrup to the powdered milk mixture and mix well.
Press into a 25cm x 20 cm x 2.5 cm high dish lined with waxed paper. Leave overnight to set. Cut into diamonds and garnish with cherries and almonds.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also of the Food Trip Friday meme.

A UNIVERSITY VISIT

“A human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated.” - Horace Mann
 

I visited Macquarie University for work yesterday, and as this was my first time at this University I was pleasantly surprised. Having been to other universities in Sydney it was wonderful at last to visit this large, significant university, which sits on a large, park-like campus in Sydney’s northern suburban area and is very dissimilar to the grand, historic University of Sydney or the very modern and bustling University of Technology Sydney, both in the City. I also found the staff at Macquarie extremely hospitable and approachable, intently interested in what they were at but also displaying a very collegiate attitude and willing to cooperate amongst themselves, and also with external academics.
 

Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney. Macquarie’s 126-hectare (310-acre), park-like campus belies its setting within the high-technology corridor of Sydney’s Northern suburbs.
 

The university comprises four faculties, enrolling approximately 37,000 students and having 2,468 (full-time equivalent) academic and professional staff, making it the fourth largest University in Sydney. At present, the university offers 87 undergraduate courses and 124 different postgraduate courses to students. The university is governed by a 17-member Council. Macquarie University also has the largest student exchange programme in Australia.
 

The Academic Ranking of World Universities listed Macquarie as seventh among Australian Universities in its 2009 rankings. The university is also ranked among the national top five recipients of relative research income. Also affiliated with the university are several research centres, schools and institutes including the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australian Proteome Analysis Facility, the Institute of Human Cognition and Brain Science, the Macquarie University Research Park and the Macquarie University Hospital. Macquarie University’s linguistics department developed the Macquarie Dictionary, the copyright on which it still owns.
 

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months at Macquarie, given that a new Vice Chancellor has been appointed. Professor S. Bruce Dowton is currently Clinical Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and until recently was Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Partners Harvard Medical International. Professor Dowton is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales where he was Dean of the School of Medicine between 1998 and 2005. Professor Dowton had been chosen from an exceptionally strong field of applicants from Australia and overseas, after proving himself on the international stage. Professor Dowton will take up his position later this year, becoming only the fifth Vice-Chancellor in Macquarie University’s 48-year history.

UNIVERSITIES IN AUSTRALIA

“Only the educated are free.”  Epictetus
 

I am in Sydney for work visiting a university that I have not been to before. It is always good to visit new places and I like especially seeing the various campuses of universities around the world. There are of course many things in common amongst universities in Australia (and of course similarly when one compares universities in Australia with those around the world), however, each campus has its own character and atmosphere. This says much about the institution, its ethos, its courses and the types of students it attracts.
 

Increasingly in the last few years, universities in Australia have had to change the manner in which they operate. They have had to become less dependent on government funding (although all of the public universities still receive quite sizeable commonwealth operating grants from the government) and have begun to generate varying amounts of income themselves. Several people object to this saying that it detracts from the core activities of the university that should be to educate, to do research and to act as a forum for all sorts of other academic activities.
 

While I don’t agree that universities should operate like profit-making “businesses”, I think that tertiary institutions should be accountable, they should generate some of their own funds and they should be excellent in their account-keeping, ensuring that funds (whatever their source) are well spent.
 

In some countries funding of public universities by governments is minimal and the institutions do function like a business. Private universities of course have no other choice.  This does not imply that they are not academically sound, but often the money-making aspect receives an overwhelmingly disproportionate attention simply because it is the life-blood of the institution. Issues of quality come up immediately, in terms of students being admitted and if the university has solely a “user-pays” policy, it may have to make concessions in terms of dealing with academically weak students, who nevertheless pay their fees. It is a vexed issue, however, there are many successful private universities of high academic standards, which implies that a balance may be possible.
 

In Australia we have recently had introduced by our Federal Government a national body that regulates higher education and which ensures that quality standards are met. This is the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) whose remit is to be the regulatory and quality agency for higher education. TEQSA’s primary aim is to ensure that students receive a high quality education at any Australian higher education provider. This includes public and private, self-accrediting and non-self accrediting institutions. It uses the same standards to assess all higher education programs offered by all providers and it has the legislative power to audit institutions, being able to bring about all forms of disciplinary action (including deregistration of a higher education provider!).
 

The activities of TEQSA will hopefully bring about uniformity in terms of standards, achievement of certain non-negotiable quality benchmarks and an assurance of a good university education for all students who are admitted into any Australian higher education institution. I am observing with interest the activities of this regulatory watchdog…

HAPPY NAAG PANCHAMI

“Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.” - Chanakya
 
Naag Panchami, or the Festival of Snakes, is celebrated in India on this day today. Snake worship has ancient roots and is found worldwide in many cultures. It probably owes its origin to humans’ natural fear of these reptiles. Hindu mythology is full of stories and fables about snakes, the most important being the Sheshnaga of Lord Vishnu (it is on this snake that Lord Vishnu reclines while sleeping in the sea).
 
Naag Panchami is one of the most ancient feasts in India and also finds mention in the Puranas (a class of Sanskrit sacred writings containing Hindu legends and folklore of varying date and origin, the most ancient of which dates from the 4th century AD). This feast day is believed to be one of the most auspicious days of the entire year. According to the Bhavishya Purana, when men bathe snakes with milk, on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Shravan, they ensure freedom from danger for their families.
 
There are a number of legends associated with Naag Pancahmi. One has it that on this day, while tilling his land, a farmer accidentally killed some young serpents. The mother of these serpents took revenge by biting and killing the farmer and his family, except his one daughter, who happened to be praying to the Nagas (in Indian mythology members of a semidivine race, part human and part cobra in form, associated with water and sometimes with mystical initiation). This act of devotion by the daughter resulted in the resurrection of the farmer and the rest of his family. It is understandable then, that on this day, ploughing a field is forbidden.
 
There is yet another legend related to this festival. Young Lord Krishna was playing with the other cowherds near the river Yamuna, when their ball got entangled in the high branch of a tree. Krishna volunteered to climb the tree and fetch the ball. Below the tree, by the river used to live a terrible snake called Kaliya. When Krishna fell from the tree into the water, the terrible snake came up with anger, but Krishna started jumping on its head. Finally, Kaliya said sorry to Lord Krishna and he forgave the snake and let it go free. Since then, on Nag Panchami day, the victory of Krishna over the Kaliya snake is commemorated.
 
In India, snakes are so revered that temples have also been erected in their honour. There is a particularly famous temple in Mysore, at a place called Subramania (Sheshnaga). The Naga culture was fairly widespread in India before the Aryan invasion, and continues to be an important segment of worship in certain areas. After the invasion, the Indo-Aryans incorporated the worship of snakes into Hinduism. The thousand-headed Ananta is Vishnu’s couch and also holds up the earth, while snakes play an ornamental role in the iconography of Shiva.
 
In celebrating of Naag Panchami women fast on this day and they draw images of snakes on the walls of their houses with a mixture of cowdung, milk and black powder. Offerings of milk, ghee, sweets, water and rice are also made at sites of snake holes in the countryside. Devotees consider themselves lucky if snakes drink the offered milk.
 
The festival is mainly observed in Southern India, Maharashtra and Bengal. In Jodhpur, huge cloth effigies of the serpents are displayed at major fairs. Also in West Bengal and parts of Assam and Orissa, the snake deity worshipped on Naga Panchami is the goddess Manasa. In Kerala, huge crowds throng snake temples on this day to worship stone or metal icons of the cosmic serpent Ananta or Sesha. The Serpent God or Naag Devta is worshipped in many other places in India.

BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF - MOVIE MONDAY

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death” - Robert Fulghum

We watched Christophe Gans’ 2001 movie “Le Pacte des Loups” - Brotherhood of the Wolf  at the weekend. It starred Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Émilie Dequenne, with a host of other supporting actors, well-known in French cinema. The scenario was written by Stéphane Cabel and is a curious mixture of grand guignol, martial arts, sword and sorcery, and boys’ own adventure. Although the story is ultimately run-of-the mill and nothing extraordinary, the cinematography is superb, the music wonderful and the acting very good, presenting a very entertaining package for its 142 minute run time. The film combines the perfect mix of action, adventure and excitement for a wintry Saturday afternoon, with a big bowl of popcorn on hand.

In 1765, historical records show that “something” was lurking in the richly forested mountains of central France. This “beast” tore humans and animals apart with terrible ferocity. The case became so notorious that the King of France himself dispatched envoys to find out what was happening and to capture or kill the creature. By the end, the Beast of Gevaudan had killed over 100 people and to this day, nobody is sure what it was: A wolf, a hyena, or other exotic beast, or perhaps foul play? The “beast” is a popular folk myth in France, which nevertheless, seems to be rooted firmly in real events. The movie takes this record of events in the 18th century, and with a generous mixture of the stuff of folk myths compounds them into the plot of this movie.

Taking the legend of the “beast” as its starting point the movie quickly departs from historical fact and begins an action adventure with mildly supernatural overtones. The two heroes are Gregoire de Fronsac (played with aplomb by Samuel le Bihan – and reminiscent of Jean-Paul Belmondo in his 1962 “Cartouche” character) and Mani (played with suitable mystery and restraint by Mark Dacascos), his native American “blood brother”. De Fronsac has been dispatched by the King to find the beast. De Fronsac is a rational “new man” of the world of the Enlightenment confronting the backward, superstitious France of the countryside outside of the capital. Mani, an Iroquois shaman and hunter represents the “noble savage” and brings to the role another type of wisdom but also superb martial arts skills.

Two strong female leads balance the male leads. The elegant and coldly beautiful prostitute, Sylvia (Monica Bellucci), is a dangerous adversary, whose motives are obscure and one doesn’t know whether she will help or hinder the heroes. On the other hand, is the innocent and fragile Madeleine (Emilie Dequenne), younger sister of protective but crippled Jean François. De Fronsac dallies with both women, enjoying the company of the bedchamber with Sylvia, but falling in love with Madeleine.

The “beast” is shown sparingly, but its use is very effective and the design of the animal is wonderful. The CGI sequences together with the action will keep adventure/horror film fans quite happy. However, the film is quite beautiful cinematically with luscious, slow scenes that pick out atmospheric landscapes, character-developing conversations and interactions, that are mixed judiciously with brilliant camera work for the action scenes. A wonderful dissolve from a shot of a woman’s bare breasts to a snow-covered hilly landscape is quite clever! The interior scenes have a luxurious feel and the delightful detail of a period piece, with magnificent costumes and props looking very authentic. Candlelight and firelight are used to good effect, filling the screen with warm oranges and flesh tones (there is a lot of flesh shown ;-).  The exterior shots balance the interiors with rich dark blues, greens and misty watercolours that suit the chilly tale to a tee.

This film is not your “typical” European subtitled “art movie” (there is a rash of quotations marks in today’s post!). However, it is enjoyable entertainment and arty in terms of film-making. Superb cinematography, wonderful acting, great music, a good balance between action sequences and reflective character-building sequences and even hints at a sub-text where rationalism is played against superstition and monarchy is contrasted with the burgeoning republicanism of 18th century France. Overall, a highly engaging and entertaining movie.

DEGAS FOR ART SUNDAY

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” - Edgar Degas
 

Edgar Degas was born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas on July 19, 1834, in Paris, France. His father, Auguste, was a banker, and his mother, Celestine, an American from New Orleans. Their family were members of the middle class with nobler pretensions (as is seen with the adopted affected spelling of their surname). Known to have influenced such great artists as Picasso and Matisse, Edgar Degas was an artist known as the “painter of the ballet”. However, he had an active mind and keen curiosity, working to perfect his skills in photography, lithography, oil paintings, pastels, etching and later in his life, sculpture. Degas’ numerous artistic innovations set the standards for the Impressionists. He was especially intrigued by Parisian life, and his depiction of women in the entertainment world are particularly notable.
 

Born in Paris, young Edgar was brought up in an upper, middle-class family who sent him to some of the best schools. Although his mother passed away when he was only thirteen years old, Degas dedicated his attention to his studies, books, and art. Only in 1855 did he begin attending the Ècole des Beaux-Arts where he mastered the drawing that would influence so positively his later creations. Degas soon left his formal studies and set out for Italy, where he lived in Naples and Rome supported financially by his father. He became very interested in medieval, Christian, and Renaissance art. He spent hours each day drawing, sketching, admiring art works, and learning about composition, light, colour and technique directly from the works of the great masters.
 

After spending three-years in Italy, Degas was ready to return to Paris where he would attempt to make a living from his art. Instead, he became a member of the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War. After two years, he decided to travel to the United States to visit his family who had ties in New Orleans, in the cotton growing business. During this time, he became attracted to painting horses, racetracks and cafés. He was at this stage becoming quite famous in art circles for his previous work and was actually commissioned for a few pieces that brought him enough money to live comfortably.
 

When Degas returned to Paris, he found that he was tired of displaying his work in the traditional Salon and became associated with the impressionists. However, his paintings reveal an almost innate urge not to conform completely to all the fashions and trends of the day. Degas still worked on portraits and produced some of the best works in Paris. His later works are composed of carefully planned snapshots of Parisian life in all of its breadth and depth. His paintings of “Absinthe” and “Dancers Practicing at the Bar” are typical of his mature style and enjoy wide appeal. He often worked in pastel, his favourite medium, producing series of women, bathers, ballerinas, and horse races. From 1880 he modeled wax figures, which were cast in bronze after his death. He was the first of the Impressionists to achieve recognition. He died on September 27, 1917 in Paris.
 

The painting above, “Dress Rehearsal” of 1878-9 is an oil on canvas 52.5 × 71 cm exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It is a characteristic piece of this artist’s ballet works with wonderful composition, delightful colour and light, and a great sense of place. The viewer is immersed in the scene, right there on stage with the ballerinas and the choreographers, feeling very much part of the ambience of the theatre, almost hearing the strains of music and the counting of the beat. There is an intense clarity in the colour and despite being painted in oils, the powdery feel of pure pastel tones is evident. A painting such as this with its underlying masterly drawing, great composition and delightful colour and light shows Degas’ immense talent and great workmanship.