“In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Carl Sagan
For Food Friday today a classic dessert that the Americans especially have taken to the hearts and is one of the iconic foods of the USA.
APPLE PIE
Ingredients for the pastry 500 g flour 250 g butter cut in small pieces 2 whole eggs 2 egg yolks 250 g caster sugar 1/2 teaspoonful ground nutmeg and mace zest of one lemon, pinch of salt.
Ingredients for the filling 5 apples (Granny Smith are good) 2 tablespoonfuls apricot jam 5 tablespoonfuls caster sugar 1 cupful of sultanas 1 teaspoonful ground cloves/cinnamon
Method Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add to the butter/sugar mixture the eggs and yolks beaten together, but little by little so that they are incorporated without curdling. Sprinkle the spice and zest into the mixture and work well. Add the sifted flour little by little until a soft dough is formed. Cover with greaseproof paper and let the dough rest for half an hour in a cool place. Peel and core the apples, cutting them into slices. Stew them with the sugar and spices until they soften. Roll out q of the dough to about 4 mm thickness and line a buttered 25 cm flan tin with it. Spread the jam on the top of the pastry and layer the stewed apples mixed with the sultanas over it. Roll out the remaining dough and cover the pie, securing the edges by pressing the layers of pastry together and scalloping it. Cut out a small heart shape in the centre of the crust and sprinkle the top of the pie with coarse sugar. Bake the tart in a hot oven (210˚ C) for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown in colour. Eat hot or cold with lashings of fresh, whipped cream.
The poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, is the birthday plant for today. The generic name may be related to the Greek euphoreo = “bring forth abundantly” and/or phorbe = “pasture, fodder, forage”. The latter is more unlikely as most plants in this genus bear a poisonous sap. The plant is long associated with the festivities of Christmas and the bright red “flowers” are the bracts (highly coloured leaves) that surround the small and rather insignificant flowers. The plant signifies in the language of flowers: “All that shines is not gold”.
Today is the birthday of: Henry VI, king of England (1421); John Eberhard, pencil maker/industrialist (1822); Joyce Kilmer, poet (1886); Lynn Fontanne, actress (1887); Ira Gershwin, US lyricist (1896); Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish sociologist (1898); Agnes Moorehead, US actress (1906); Dave Brubeck, pianist (1920); Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, Polish composer (1933); Chelsea Brown, actress (1947).
It is St Nicholas’s Feast Day today. St Nicholas was a bishop of Myra in Asia Minor in the 4th century. Even as a baby, legend recounts, he was so pious that he would not suckle milk on Wednesdays and Fridays, the Days of Penance. He is reputed to have saved three maidens from prostitution one night by throwing to them through their window three golden balls, which they used as dowry. He also revived three murdered boys that were thrown in a brine tub. He is thus considered the patron saint of children. The connection with the brine may also account for his patronage of sailors in some countries (e.g. Greece). Pawnbrokers also claim the saint as their own, using the three golden balls recounted in the saint’s story as an emblem.
Today is also Finland’s Independence Day (since 1917). Finland is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden to the west, Norway to the north and Russia to the east, while Estonia lies to the south across the eponymous Gulf of Finland. An estimated 5.4 million people live in Finland, with the majority concentrated in its southern regions. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Politically, it is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki, local governments in 336 municipalities and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. From the 12th until the start of the 19th century, Finland was a part of Sweden. It then became an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution and Russia’s withdrawal from World War I in 1917. This prompted the Finnish Declaration of Independence, which was followed by a civil war where the pro-Bolshevik “Reds” were defeated by the pro-conservative “Whites” with support from the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a monarchy in the country, Finland became the republic that it remains today. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1969, the European Union in 1995 and the eurozone at its inception in 1999. During this time, it built an extensive welfare state. Finland presents both eastern and western European attitudes to global politics and economics.[citation needed] According to some measures, it has the best educational system in Europe and has recently been ranked as one of the world's most peaceful and economically competitive countries. It has also been ranked as one of the world’s countries with the highest quality of life.
And if you want to prepare for tomorrow, it will be International Civil Aviation Day which is annually observed December 7 to raise awareness of the importance of international civil aviation and the role that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) plays in international air transport. The organization is a United Nations (UN) body responsible for developing international standards for aviation safety. ICAO, with support from governments, organisations, businesses and individuals, actively promotes International Civil Aviation Day through various activities and events. This day is celebrated globally, especially in countries such as South Africa, through various activities such as seminars, published material, educational lectures, classroom activities, and news announcements on international civil aviation topics related to the day.
“Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.” - Dave Barry
Tomorrow is St Nicholas’s Feast Day. In Dutch the saint is known as “Sinterklaas”, the corruption of which is the English “Santa Claus”. He is reputed to have saved three maidens from prostitution one night by throwing to them through their window three golden balls, which they used as dowry. His nocturnal gifts are remembered by the Dutch tradition of gift-giving to children on the Eve of his Feast Day. It is customary for children’s parties to be organised on December 5th and the Saint arrives dressed in Bishop’s garb, accompanied by two “Swarze Peters”, his black servants. He reputedly comes from Spain bringing oranges, gifts and “spekulaas” a rich spicy sweet biscuit. In English-speaking countries, Santa Claus has been absorbed into the Christmas tradition, so he arrives at a much later date!
SPEKULAAS (Dutch Spice Biscuits)
Ingredients 255 g plain flour 1 pinch bicarbonate of soda 1 pinch salt 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom Grated peel of an orange and a lemon 170 g unsalted butter 140 g light, soft brown sugar 4 drops almond essence 55 g flaked almonds 1.5 tablespoons milk A few whole blanched almonds
Method Sieve dry ingredients together and add the peel, mixing well. Chop butter into small pieces and add to the mixture, gradually working in all other ingredients to form a thick dough. Leave it overnight in a cool place. The next morning roll out onto a floured board to a thickness of 0.5 cm and cut into fancy shapes with biscuit cutters or special patterned spekulaas moulds. Put on buttered baking tray, trim with whole almonds and cook in moderate oven (180˚C) for 20-30 minutes.
Man Ray, (born
Philadelphia, PA, 25 Aug 1890; died Paris, 18 Nov 1976) was an American
photographer and painter. He was brought up in New York, and he adopted the
pseudonym Man Ray as early as 1909. He was one of the leading spirits of Dada
and Surrealism, and the only American artist to play a prominent role in the
launching of those two influential movements. Throughout the 1910s he was
involved with avant-garde activities that prefigured the Dada movement. After
attending drawing classes supervised by Robert Henri and George Bellows at the
Francisco Ferrer Social Center, or Modern School, he lived for a time in the
art colony of Ridgefield, NJ, where he designed, illustrated and produced
several small press pamphlets, such as the Ridgefield
Gazook, published in 1915, and A Book
of Diverse Writings.
Magpie Taleshas chosen a photograph of his for a prompt this week. It is his “Object to be
Destroyed” of 1923. The work, that was
destroyed in 1957, consisted of a metronome with a photograph of an eye
attached to its swinging arm. It was remade in multiple copies in later years,
and renamed “Indestructible Object”. It is considered to be a “readymade”,
following in the relatively new tradition established by Marcel Duchamp of
employing ordinary manufactured objects that usually were modified very little,
if at all, in works of art. I have used
poetic licence (ahem!) to reimagine this image. Here is what I came up with in
response to the prompt:
Song
How easy it is
for you to sing! Playing the lyre
like an angel; Skipping through
trills – rejoicing, All happy
intervals, major scales…
Yet these black
notes, how mournful on the page, What agony they
hide, what pain, what effort – They’re black
crows, portents of death Sitting, as they
do, on five stretched wires.
Each note’s a
wound made with sharp knife, And you run
through them without concern, Lightly skipping
up the arpeggios, Descending
effortlessly the glissandos.
As the
relentless metronome soul-lessly marks time You pause not to
think for a moment Of the poor
composer’s torment And the shrill
cries of his tortured soul.
“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” - James Herriot
At the weekend we were in the mood for something extremely light and breezy to watch after a particularly exhausting couple of days of shopping, chores, gardening and odd jobs around the house. I had bought a DVD on sale some time ago and it looked as though it would be ideal. Sure enough, it was just we needed and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was Cameron Crowe’s 2011 “We Bought a Zoo” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389137/), starring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Elle Fanning and Colin Ford.
Although the film is a typical Hollywood froth and bubble affair, very lightweight and formulaic, it is also a little whimsical and has the occasional poignant moment. The story centres on Benjamin (Damon), who is suffering the loss of his beloved, young wife. In a bid to start his life over and to help his kids get over their isses, he purchases a large house that has a zoo attached. Or rather a zoo that has a house attached! This is very welcome news for his daughter (Jones) who is delighted, but his son (Ford) is not happy about it as it will mean moving out of the City and losing all his friends. The zoo is need of drastic maintenance and extensive renovations and Benjamin sets about the work with the head keeper, Kelly (Johansson), and the rest of the zoo staff. Very soon, Benjamin is facing huge economic hardship as the zoo consumes all of his savings. Benjamin must decide on whether he and the staff can get the zoo back to its former glory and open it to the paying public. Add to that a very strict zoo inspector and interpersonal problems and you have the basis of the old stock romantic comedy potboiler with quirky touches.
Much of the film’s success is due to the exceptional performance of Maggie Elizabeth Jones who plays Benjamin’s daughter. The little girl is delightful and steals every scene she is in. Colin Ford as Benjamin’s son plays well, but unfortunately he has landed the role of a surly, bitter and twisted child who has been psychologically scarred by the loss of his mother and his perception of a father who doesn’t care about him. Damon and Johansson play well, although the chemistry between them is rather lacklustre. By the same token, I should hasten to add that both of them deliver solid performances, especially Damon who shows rises tot eh demands of the director in terms of his acting repertoire.
The film is well photographed and the music score is delightful. Unobtrusive but very sympathetic to the action. The flashback vignettes showing the special relationship between Benjamin and his dead wife are quite special. For what it is (a feel-good family movie), the film is good and its light-weight material will please most people who do not set their expectations too high. Yes there are flaws, but if you don’t expect “high art” it is a good film to veg out on. We enjoyed it as we were in that sort of mood…
“You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.” - Milan Kundera
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, original name Karl Schmidt (born December 1, 1884, Rottluff, near Chemnitz, Germany - died August 9, 1976, West Berlin), was a German painter and printmaker who was noted for his Expressionist landscapes and nudes. His father was a miller and his childhood unremarkable. In 1905 Schmidt-Rottluff began to study architecture in at Dresden Technical University, where he and his friend Erich Heckel met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Fritz Bleyl, two other architecture students who shared their passion for painting. Together they formed the organisation of Expressionist artists known as Die Brücke (“The Bridge”), united by the goal of creating a modern, intensely emotional style.
The artists of Die Brücke typically preferred to portray scenes of urban life, but Schmidt-Rottluff is particularly known for his rural landscapes. He initially painted in an Impressionist style, but his painting Windy Day (1907) shows the artist’s transition to his mature style, which is characterised by flat areas of boldly dissonant colours. A representative example of this mature work is “Self-Portrait with Monocle” (1910). Like the other Brücke artists, Schmidt-Rottluff had also begun to explore the expressive potential of the woodcut medium.
In 1911 Schmidt-Rottluff, with his fellow Die Brücke members, moved to Berlin, where he painted works with more angular, geometric forms and distorted space, revealing his new interest in Cubism and African sculpture. While serving on the Eastern Front, he did a cycle of religious woodcuts in which he tried to come to terms with the horrors of war. It is regarded as his graphic masterpiece. In 1918 he returned to Berlin. During the 1920s he reverted to the work rhythm of travelling to paint during the summers and working in his studio during the winters.
During the 1920s Schmidt-Rottluff’s work became more subdued and harmonious, losing much of its former vigour and integrity. Stays in Pomerania, at Lake Leba in Ticino and in the Taunus Mountains as well as a stint in Rome to study at the German Academy in the Villa Massimo (1930) inspired his mature still lifes and landscapes. When the Nazis gained power in Germany, he was forbidden to paint. After World War II he taught art and resumed painting, although he never regained the power of his early works.
Schmidt-Rottluff outdid his colleagues in insisting on pure primary colours and his Expressionist paintings were dominated by forceful handling of the medium to achieve intensity and brilliance. His work is striking with powerful brushstrokes and determined, almost brutal outlining of his subject and broad expanses of colour that seem to do battle on the canvas. His landscapes and still lifes are vibrant and display an almost violent depiction of movement and action. The “Lakeshore” of 1937 seen above is a case in point.
In 1956 this renewer of art, who had been an arch revolutionary in his youth, was awarded the highest (West) German distinction, the “Pour le Mérite” order, and was honoured as a classic. The Brücke Museum, which he had endowed with a collection of his works, was inaugurated in 1967. Numerous retrospectives in the Federal Republic paid tribute to this artist, who, as art historians unanimously agree, was one of the most important German Expressionists.
“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly coloured than the day.” - Vincent Van Gogh
The first day of Summer here in Melbourne was at first warm and sunny, with a change coming through in the afternoon that brought some rain. The night will be cooler and at least we shall sleep easier than the last couple of nights, which were very hot. As I look out the window, I can see the moon peeking between the clouds now and then. A piece of music immediately springs to mind…
Here it is: Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from the Symphony No. 5, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti.
“Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.” - Bobby Flay
For Food Friday, a favourite soup that can be adjusted according to what season it is and what vegetables you have available at the time. Feel free to mix and match vegetables and to experiment! Serve with crusty, toasted bread.
Mixed Vegetable Soup Ingredients
2 onions, finely chopped 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cloves crushed garlic 2 carrots 2 zucchini A handful of green string beans 1 leek 1 potato 1 tomato 6 small mushrooms Black pepper Salt to taste Pinch of nutmeg Pinch of ground coriander seeds Pinch of ground cardamon Chicken stock (can substitute with water if vegetarian) Roasted pine nuts and parsley (optional)
Method Boil a chicken carcasse in two litres of water for a couple of hours, topping water as required. Sauté onions in the hot oil in large saucepan until soft. Add garlic and after a few seconds add the finely chopped mushrooms. Then, toss in all the vegetables. Sauté for a further 10 minutes. Add pepper, spices and enough stock (or water) to just cover vegetables. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are cooked. Garnish with parsley and pine nuts, if desired.
“The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.” - Deepak Chopra
With “Movember” almost over, it is perhaps appropriate to take stock of this initiative and evaluate its goals. Movember (a portmanteau word from moustache and November) is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health problems and to raise funds for associated charities. The Movember Foundation runs the Movember charity event, housed at www.movember.com.
The goal of Movember is to “change the face of men’s health.” By encouraging men (“Mo Bros”) to get involved, Movember aims to increase early cancer detection, diagnosis and effective treatments, and ultimately reduce the number of preventable deaths. Besides getting an annual check-up, the Movember Foundation encourages men to be aware of any family history of cancer, and to adopt a more healthful lifestyle.
Since 2004, the Movember Foundation charity has run Movember events to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer and depression, in Australia and New Zealand. In 2007, events were launched in Ireland, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States. The event has spread from Australia to South Africa, Europe and North America. As of 2011 Canadians were the largest contributors to the Movember charities of any nation. In 2010, Movember merged with the testicular cancer event Tacheback. In 2012 the Global Journal listed Movember as one of the top 100 non government organisations in the world.
The immense popularity of the event cannot be denied and there is a great buy-in from the community. The emphasis on prostate cancer, while understandable (this is after all “the” male cancer par excellence to counterbalance the women’s own breast cancer), is a little unfortunate. There is quite a controversy raging in terms of screening for prostate cancer. The advocates for screening (typically specialist doctors who treat prostate cancer) and those who do not believe in its efficacy (typically public health practitioners and GPs) quote studies and research that support their divergent opinions.
The extensive prostate cancer screening trials (similar to the ones for breast cancer 30 years ago), have only been published recently, and the results are ambiguous. Some studies show a small benefit, while others show no benefit of screening. It is something that statisticians are still arguing over and it supplies each side of the debate with enough ammunition to further its own different opinion. As far as the general public is concerned, there is confusion (as man may get conflicting advice from equally respectable men’s heath experts) and there is the touting of prostate screening by some organisations as the “magic bullet” that will reduce prostate death rates in a similar way that breast cancer screening has (breast cancer screening certainly works!).
Unfortunately, prostate cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment is a minefield. Not only is screening equivocal, but once the disease is definitively diagnosed, the treatment is damaging too. Despite real advances in surgical removal of cancerous prostates (“radical prostatectomy”), the chances are that most men will be rendered impotent by the operation and most will develop urinary incontinence. So, there may even be harm in prostate cancer detection! Detecting cancer in men for whom treatment will confer no benefit is very damaging. Even the diagnosis of this cancer is with ridden problems: Men diagnosed with prostate cancer are nearly ten times more likely to commit suicide than before...
So what is the answer? Everyone agrees (and the research evidence is quite strong) that cancer prevention works. Diet and lifestyle are the by far the most effective measures in protecting against a range of cancers, including prostate cancer. Eating a wide variety of good food with lots of fresh, seasonal vegetables and fruit less dairy and meat, reducing fats especially saturated fat, keeping physically active, stopping smoking and making sure you greatly reduce alcohol consumption are very real, effective ways of lessening the incidence of cancer (and many other diseases!). Movember would be a better advocate for men’s health if it highlighted these self-help steps.
We are fast becoming a society of instant gratification, hedonistic pleasures, immediate solutions, technological fixes and “magic bullet” cures. Taking personal responsibility for one’s health, while advocated in many quarters does not have the uptake that it needs to have to make a difference. We would much rather swallow a miraculous tablet, have a wonderful life-saving operation that will rid us of disease, and in the meantime enjoy ourselves with physical pleasures. Movember can make a difference, but it does need a shift in its emphasis to be even more effective.
“Although the future of religion is bleak but yet one hope is there in the form of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji which teaches us all God’s message of love and gives direction to life.” – Arnold Toynbee
On November 28, Gurunanak Jayanti is celebrated. This is the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism and among the Sikhs it is a most important feast and an occasion for great rejoicing. Guru Nanak was born near Lahore, and his birth anniversary is celebrated with much pomp and religious fervour across the Sikh community.
Guru Nanak (1469 AD – 1539 AD) was born in a village named Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, presently popular as Nankana Sahib, near Lahore, Pakistan. Biographical sources state that from childhood he showed deep interest in matters pertaining to divinity and spirituality. Later in his life he completely engrossed himself in preaching the importance and power of spirituality in one’s life and his teachings ultimately gave birth to Sikhism.
The festivities for the day begin with early morning processions known as the “prabhat pheri”. The procession starts at a local Gurudwara (Gateway to the Guru, is the place of worship for Sikhs) and makes its way around the neighbourhood, with everyone chanting verses and singing hymns. Prabhat pheris are held on the days prior to Gurunanak Jayanti; and for the three days too, there is a continuous reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, from beginning to end, without a break.
The Guru Granth Sahib is the principal sacred scripture of Sikhism. Originally compiled under the direction of Arjan Dev (1563–1606), the fifth Sikh guru, it contains hymns and religious poetry as well as the teachings of the first five gurus. Also called Adi Granth, Granth, and Granth Sahib.
The day of the festival is marked by a special procession in which pride of place is reserved for the Guru Granth Sahib, carried on a beautifully decorated float and accompanied by musicians and five armed guards (who represent the panj piaras). Prayers and kirtans at Gurudwaras are followed by community meals (langar), where everyone (irrespective of religious conviction) are welcome.
The Harmandir Sahib also Darbar Sahib and informally referred to as the Golden Temple is a prominent Sikh Gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab, India. It was built by the fifth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Arjan Dev, in the 16th Century. In 1604, Guru Arjan Dev ji completed the Adi Granth, the holy scripture of Sikhism, and installed it in the Gurdwara. There are four doors to get into the Harmandir Sahib, which symbolise the openness of the Sikhs towards all people and religions. The present day Gurdwara was rebuilt in 1764 by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia with the help of other Sikh Misl’s. In the early nineteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh secured the Punjab region from outside attack and covered the upper floors of the Gurdwara with gold, which gives it its distinctive appearance and English name the Golden Temple.
“And every
occasion when a mask was torn off, an ideal broken, was preceded by this
hateful vacancy and stillness, this deathly constriction and loneliness and
unrelatedness, this waste and empty hell of lovelenessness and despair, such as
I had now.” - Hermann Hesse
Magpie Tales has
provided a photo prompt for this week’s creative challenge. Here is my contribution:
Orbit
Bare walls and empty rooms Resound with the redundancy Of the echoes of your thoughts.
Cold nights and winter gardens Engulf the shuffle of your footsteps Treading the same paths.
Impassive moon, the stars cold, indifferent Gaze emptily on your well-worn orbit Eclipsing constantly an ever elusive, Never glimpsed at sun.
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death” - Albert Einstein
Sometimes one watches a movie and it ticks all the boxes: Good story, good acting, good scenario, well made, well produced. It is very much an example of entertainment, education, emotional lift and a case of 100 or so minutes of time well spent. Such was a film we recently watched, Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader” of 2010, starring Oliver Litondo, Naomie Harris, Emily Njoki and Alfred Munyua. Even though this is not a “feel-good” movie “especially suitable for children” as it is touted, it is a very good film for all ages and good for children at school who can watch it under supervision and can be guided through the debriefing that should follow it.
The plot is Ann Peacock’s version of the true story of Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge (Litondo), an 84-year-old Kenyan man who, following a Kenyan Government pronouncement that “Free Education is Available for Everyone”, successfully enrolled in first grade. Maruge is a former Mau-Mau revolutionary and prisoner of war. After being tortured by the British army in the 1950s, and having his family killed, he was interred in concentration camps. His spirit, however, was never broken. The film highlights the neglect of former revolutionaries by newly installed bureaucrats – a common enough occurrence in many countries, and as depicted in the film, in Kenya as well. The dedicated teacher (Harris) who accepts Maruge in her class comes to understand Maruge and his motivation and is willing to risk her job and her life and limb in order to give Maruge the chance to an education she feels he deserves.
It is a somewhat simplified story, but its sketched out and highlighted episodes serve to bring to the fore the terrible treatment that Africans were subjected to during colonial rule. The scenes of torture and the war atrocities shown only scratch the surface, but they are powerful and necessarily violent scenes that serve as important reminders of historical facts and they underpin the viewers’ understanding of Maruge’s motivation.
In terms of the actors, all the school children and most of the players were not professional actors but ordinary Kenyan people. The exception was Naomie Harris, an excellent English screen actress, who played Jane Obinchu, the first grade teacher, impeccably. The performance by Oliver Litondo as Maruge is quite amazing, and he is perfect for the role. Litondo is a native Kenyan who used to be a news anchor with no previous acting experience. Chadwick and their crew spent several weeks in Kenya working with locals while preparing to shoot this movie and the result is an extremely sensitive and poignant film. While there are some lighter moments of humour, most of the time this film touches the heart and makes the viewer deplore the very worst that is shown in human nature.
The cinematography and direction of the film are very good and the sweeping landscapes of Kenya are used to great effect as the backdrop to the story. The thriving metropolis of Nairobi as the setting for the “New Africa for Africans” is also very effective and shows off well the battle of the “little guy” against the “government bureaucracy”. A highly appropriate soundtrack underscores the action perfectly without being obtrusive.
As an educator I especially enjoyed the film, seeing how I concurred with the Kenyan wise saying: “Keep on learning until you have soil in your ears”. We recommend the film most highly, but be prepared for some highly charged themes and violent scenes and if this film is shown to schoolchildren, they should be suitably prepared and debriefed afterwards.
“Art is not what
you see, but what you make others see.” - Edgar Degas
For Art Sunday
today, the life and art of Diego María Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de
la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez (born December 8, 1886, Guanajuato,
Mexico died November 25, 1957, Mexico City), more familiarly know simply as
Diego Rivera. He was a Mexican painter whose bold, large-scale murals
stimulated a revival of fresco painting in Latin America.
A government
scholarship enabled the talented child Rivera to study art at the Academy of
San Carlos in Mexico City from the age of 10 years. A grant from the governor
of Veracruz enabled him to continue his studies in Europe in 1907. He studied
in Spain and in 1909 settled in Paris, where he became a friend of Pablo
Picasso, Georges Braque, and other leading modern painters. At about 1917 he
abandoned the Cubist style in his own work and moved closer to the
Post-Impressionism of Paul Cézanne, adopting a visual language of simplified
forms and bold areas of colour.
Rivera returned
to Mexico in 1921 after meeting with fellow Mexican painter David Alfaro
Siqueiros. Both sought to create a new national art on revolutionary themes
that would decorate public buildings in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. On
returning to Mexico, Rivera painted his first important mural, “Creation”, for
the Bolívar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School in Mexico City (see
above). In 1923 he began painting the walls of the Ministry of Public Education
building in Mexico City, working in fresco and completing the commission in
1930. These huge frescoes, depicting Mexican agriculture, industry, and
culture, reflect a genuinely native subject matter and mark the emergence of
Rivera’s mature style. Rivera defines his solid, somewhat stylised human
figures by precise outlines rather than by internal modelling. The flattened,
simplified figures are set in crowded, shallow spaces and are enlivened with
bright, bold colours. The Indians, peasants, conquistadores, and factory
workers depicted combine monumentality of form with a mood that is lyrical and
at times elegiac.
Rivera’s next
major work was a fresco cycle in a former chapel at what is now the National
School of Agriculture at Chapingo (1926–27). His frescoes there contrast scenes
of natural fertility and harmony among the pre-Columbian Indians with scenes of
their enslavement and brutalisation by the Spanish conquerors. Rivera’s murals
in the Cortés Palace in Cuernavaca (1930) and the National Palace in Mexico
City (1930–35) depict various aspects of Mexican history in a more didactic
narrative style.
Rivera was in
the United States from 1930 to 1934, where he painted murals for the California
School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (1931), the Detroit Institute of Arts
(1932), and Rockefeller Center in New York City (1933). His “Man at the
Crossroads” fresco in Rockefeller Center offended the sponsors because the
figure of Vladimir Lenin was in the picture; the work was destroyed by the
centre but was later reproduced by Rivera at the Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico
City. After returning to Mexico, Rivera continued to paint murals of gradually
declining quality. His most ambitious and gigantic mural, an epic on the
history of Mexico for the National Palace, Mexico City, was unfinished when he
died. Frida Kahlo, who married Rivera twice, was also an accomplished painter
of iconic and highly individualistic works. Their stormy liaison and marriages
punctuated and marked both their work and personal lives. Rivera’s
autobiography, “My Art, My Life”, was published posthumously in 1960.
Rivera’s murals
are overwhelming and arresting when one sees them, f nothing else for their
boldness of execution and gigantic scale. On closer inspection, however, one is
struck by the rich iconography, beautiful colours, sureness of design and
composition and the accomplished drawing. The mastery of the technique of
fresco is a difficult undertaking but Rivera manages to subdue this medium and
handles it with ease and aplomb. Having seen some of his work with my own eyes
I can fully appreciate Rivera’s inspired art and expert technique, and the
vastness of its scale.
“Better eat beans in peace than cakes and ale in fear.” – Aesop
The Greeks consider beans an inexpensive, nourishing meal that is most often served on its own with a crusty bread, tomato salad and cheese. It is considered a peasant food and replaces the more expensive meat dishes. Beans are rich in protein, fibre, B vitamins, folic acid and biotin. Beans retain about 70 percent of their B vitamins (after preparation) as well as high levels of folate, which helps form red blood cells. Minerals such as iron, magnesium, phosphate, manganese, calcium, copper, zinc and potassium are also all found in beans. In addition, beans are rich in phyto-oestrogens, important in prevention of breast and prostate cancers.
GREEK WHITE BEAN STEW (FASOLÁDHA) Ingredients 1 cup dried haricot beans 2 cups chicken stock 2 tbsp. olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 2 carrots, finely chopped 1 celery heart (stalks and leaves), chopped 1 can of whole tomatoes, chopped 1 tbsp. tomato paste salt and pepper to taste Freshly chopped parsley for garnish (optional)
Method 1) Place beans in a medium bowl and cover with water and let them soak for a few hours. Drain and rinse beans. 2) Meanwhile in a medium pot, heat olive oil over medium setting. 3) Add the onion, celery, carrots and salt and stir for about 5 minutes or until soft. 4) Add the tomatoes, stock, tomato paste and beans. 5) Simmer uncovered for about one and a half hours or until beans are tender. 6) Season with salt and pepper and you may add chopped parsley before serving.
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices and gives thanks for those things which he has.” – Epictetus
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists (in what was to subsequently become the USA), and the indigenous Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first celebrations in the colonies that was the antecedent of Thanksgiving. These celebrations were a continuation of the tradition of harvest festivals that were imported from the “old country”, but more importantly for the colonists it was a way of marking their survival for yet another year in what was often a harsh and inimical land.
Unfortunately, the peace between the Native Americans and the European settlers lasted for only a generation. The Wampanoag people do not share in the popular reverence for the traditional New England Thanksgiving. For them, the holiday is a reminder of betrayal and bloodshed. Since 1970, many native people have gathered at the statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, Massachusetts each Thanksgiving Day to remember their ancestors and the strength of the Wampanoag.
For more than two centuries, days of Thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1846, Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a magazine called Godley’s Lady’s Book, campaigned for an annual national thanksgiving holiday after a passage about the harvest gathering of 1621 was discovered and incorrectly labeled as the first Thanksgiving. In her 74th year, Hale wrote to President Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the “…day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” She explained: “You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.”
President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale’s request immediately, unlike several of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In her letter to Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national thanksgiving date for 15 years as the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. Thus advised, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November in 1863.
The original proclamation is set out below, which is well worth reading. According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln’s secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln William H. Seward, Secretary of State
To all my American readers, best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving. It is a wonderful holiday and it is a grand thing to be able to have day formally set aside to give thanks for all the things that we usually take for granted. It should be a day of rest and for family get-togethers, a day for bountiful feasts and joy in the home where all the family members gather, but also it should be a day of reflection and gratitude. A day of giving thanks where thanks are due.
“No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
It’s always exciting to go to a conference that is in one’s discipline, in one’s area of interest. It is not only a pleasant break from the routine of one’s job, but also an opportunity to catch up with one’s peers, acquaintances and friends that are attending the same conference. Being exposed to new and challenging ideas, engaging with the experts that are presenting their latest work, having a chance to present one’s own work are all great opportunities for professional development and serve as great stimuli for innovative ideas.
The conference I am attending is centring on e-Learning and ways in which new technologies are expanding the horizons of education in the tertiary environment. This is very germane in today’s rapidly evolving world where new technology is expanding and renewing itself on a daily basis. Academics have traditionally been quite conservative, but the pressure is on nowadays and one can be left behind very quickly.
The latest destabilising influence in e-Learning around the world is the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This is a relatively new initiative that was first discussed in 2008 but really wasn’t taken up to any great extent until the last couple of years. 2012 has already been described as the “Year of the MOOC”.
The basic idea behind a MOOC is that it is a fully open course (i.e. anyone can do it) that could be followed online (no face-to-face attendance necessary) and for free (gratis, zilch, nada!). The idea behind the title of this course is important as it derives from the Connectivism theory which (paraphrasing heavily here) says that learning/training in this era will be successful if we learn how to connect and build relevant networks. This idea of connecting to each other to construct knowledge is one of the key dynamics of a MOOC.
Deconstruction of the monopolised tertiary education landscape is underway. Probably in a couple of years the traditional university will have all but died out. The academics living in their ivory towers are a thing of the past – ivory is out in case… Free knowledge is the thing of the future. The “Sage on the Stage” has given way to the “Guide on the Side”. People who are amateurs in a field of learning are deciding to teach a subject that they are passionate about and they are showing dyed in the wool academics a thing or two. Academics must change with the times or they will become extinct. Soon…
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” - Frederick Douglass
Universal Children’s Day is celebrated annually on November 20th. It was first proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1954, and was established to encourage all countries to institute a day, to firstly promote friendship and understanding among children all over the world, and secondly to initiate policy, strategy and action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world’s children. It is also an occasion to rejoice in the beauty and innocence of childhood.
Universal Children’s Day is immediately preceded by International Men’s Day on November 19 creating a 48 hour celebration of men and children respectively during which time the positive roles men play in children’s lives are recognised. It is a 48-hour period in which father and their children can celebrate the special bond that unites them. Events and activities focus on language and literacy, health, sport and recreation, the arts and science, as well as children’s cultural, social and emotional needs.
In 2000 world leaders outlined the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. Although the Goals are for all humankind, they are primarily about children. UNICEF notes that six of the eight goals relate directly to children and meeting the last two will also make critical improvements in their lives.
In 2012, the Secretary-General of the UN launched a new initiative “Education First”. The Initiative aims to raise the political profile of education, strengthen the global movement to achieve quality education and generate additional and sufficient funding through sustained advocacy efforts. Achieving gains in education will have an impact on all the Millennium Development Goals, from lower child and maternal mortality, to better health, higher income and more environmentally-friendly societies.
“Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” - Jean-Luc Godard
Georges Méliès was born on December 8, 1861, Paris, France and died January 21, 1938, Paris. He was an early French experimenter with motion pictures, the first to film fictional narratives. When the first genuine movies, made by the Lumière brothers, were shown in Paris in 1895, Méliès, a professional magician and manager-director of the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, was among the spectators. The films were scenes from real life having the novelty of motion, but Méliès saw at once their further possibilities. He acquired a camera, built a glass-enclosed studio near Paris, wrote scripts, designed ingenious sets, and used actors to film stories. With a magician's intuition, he discovered and exploited the basic camera tricks: Stop motion, slow motion, dissolve, fade-out, superimposition, and double exposure.
From 1899 to 1912 Méliès made more than 400 films, the best of which combine illusion, comic burlesque, and pantomime to treat themes of fantasy in a playful and absurd fashion. He specialised in depicting extreme physical transformations of the human body (such as the dismemberment of heads and limbs) for comic effect. His films included pictures as diverse as Cléopâtre (1899; “Cleopatra”), Le Christ Marchant sur les Eaux (1899; “Christ Walking on the Waters”), Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902; “A Trip to the Moon”), Le Voyage à Travers l’ Impossible (1904; “The Voyage Across the Impossible”); and Hamlet (1908). He also filmed studio reconstructions of news events as an early kind of newsreel. It never occurred to him to move the camera for close-ups or long shots. The commercial growth of the industry forced him out of business in 1913, and he died in poverty.
I start Movie Monday with Méliès’ biography as the film that I will review revolves around his life. We watched Martin Scorsese’s 2011 “Hugo” at the weekend, starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen and Christopher Lee. The screenplay was by John Logan based on the novel by Brian Selznick.
The film has generated quite a controversial response from movie-goers giving rise to as much negative criticism as to passionate plaudits. This may have much to do with the way that it was marketed and the way in which people’s expectations were fanned before viewing it. The film’s tagline is: “One of the most legendary directors of our time takes you on an extraordinary adventure.” The marketing hype centred on the word adventure and many of the viewers went to the theatre expecting to see a film like one of the Harry Potter series or one of the Narnia films. However, the film is an adventure on a more cerebral level and is the tribute of a great director to one of movie-making’s great pioneers, Méliès.
There is a story of course, to dress the film up, and a very good story it is too, appealing to adults as much as it does to children: Hugo (Butterfield) is an orphan boy living in the secret passages and rooms behind the walls of a central train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo’s father (Jude Law, in a cameo role) was a clockmaker who taught his son to fix clocks and other gadgets. Once his father dies, Hugo’s uncle takes him to the train station and after his uncle disappears Hugo keeps the train station clocks running and stealing food to survive. The only thing Hugo has left that connects him to his dead father is an automaton that doesn’t work without a special key which Hugo needs to find to unlock the secret he believes it contains. On his adventures, he meets with a shopkeeper, Georges Méliès (Kingsley), who works in the train station and his adventure-seeking god-daughter (Moretz). Hugo finds that he and Isabelle have a surprising connection to his father and the automaton, and he discovers the automaton brings some painful memories the old man has buried deep inside him.
The film is beautifully shot and the cinematography, special effects and CGI are used extremely well to propel the story. As one would expect, the film is directed with panache and one can feel the love that has gone into this movie. Scorsese supposedly made this movie for his 12-year-old daughter and as he also pays tribute to one of his great cinematic forebears one can imagine that a lot of heart went into this film. The acting is wonderful, with young Asa Butterfield truly starring in the action, with Chloë Moretz providing good support, although she does tend to over-enthuse in some of the scenes looking like an over-eager puppy. Kinglsey does a great job as Méliès and Christopher Lee has an interesting little cameo as a bookshop owner. Jude Law is also perfect as young Hugo’s father. Sacha Baron Cohen is perfect as the film’s villain – the Train Station’s overenthusiastic security guard – who wishes to capture Hugo and send him to the orphanage. Dante Ferreti’s production design is quite astounding with costumes, sets and a sympathetic Howard Shore score giving the film authentic atmosphere and ambience.
A bonus of the film is the interpolation, at key points, of scenes from old movies. Méliès’s, of course, but also some of the other silent era greats, including the iconic scene of Harold Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in “Safety Last!” (1923). This scene is recreated as Hugo scales the clock-tower of the train station to escape from the clutches of the Train Inspector (Cohen). One should not fail to add that a constant theme running through the movie is the comment on “man versus machine”. The clockwork, the mechanical man and Hugo’s search for love and a family play on this theme and needless to say are a comment on Méliès’ art having been superseded by the professional and “modern” film studios.
We loved this film and were totally enthralled by it, its two hours duration passing easily and pleasantly. There are many layers in the film and numerous beautiful moments. It is a great tribute to the art of movie-making made by a master director. The interweaving stories of the plot serve as a perfect foil for Scorsese to showcase his art and at the same time give homage to Méliès. Don’t expect a swash-buckling adventure, but rather and adventure of the heart and soul.
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” - Henry Ford
François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840, Paris, France to 17 November 1917, Meudon, France) was a prominent French sculptor best known for his iconic sculpture “The Thinker”. His father, Jean-Baptiste Rodin, was a detective in the Paris police department. His mother, Marie Cheffer, was a former seamstress. Rodin was somewhat shy and nearsighted from an early age. Young Rodin started serious drawing lessons at the age of 10. From the age of 14 he studied art at the École Impériale de Dessin, a government school for craft and design in Paris. There he discovered sculpture and acquired a thorough grounding in the tradition of French 18th-century art. Rodin also studied anatomy under the tutelage of sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye.
In 1858 he left the École Impériale de Dessin and sought admission to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. Although he applied three times he was rejected each time. So, instead of a formal education, Rodin served a long and difficult apprenticeship under Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, a highly successful sculptor, for whom Rodin started as a modeller, then became an assistant. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 he followed his teacher to Belgium. There he became a partner of Antoine Van Raspbourgh and worked on monumental allegorical sculptures for the Brussels Bourse. Rodin considered “Man with the Broken Nose” to be his earliest major work. Much to his disappointment, the Salon rejected the work twice, in 1864 and 1865.
While in Brussels Rodin sculpted a number of decorative female figures in terra cotta, beginning to sign his name. In 1875 he went to Italy where he studied the works of Michelangelo. In 1876 the artist created “The Bronze Age”, which was exhibited in Brussels and at the Salon des artistes Français in Paris. He was falsely accused by critics of having cast the entire statue from a live model. The French government bought “The Bronze Age” and a bronze model of St. John the Baptist.
From 1879-1882 Rodin worked at the Manufacture de Sevres. In 1884 the city council of Calais commissioned a sculpture that became the monumental sculpture group “The Burghers of Calais” (illustrated above). In 1888 the French government commissioned “The Kiss” in marble for the Universal exhibition of 1889. Rodin became the founding member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. At that time he exhibited with Claude Monet. In the 1890s he created monuments to Claude Le Lorrain, Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac, and also worked on other commissions.
In 1892 Rodin was promoted to Officer of the Légion d’ Honneur. In 1899 the large-scale “Eve” was shown at the Salon. In 1903 Rodin was appointed Commander of the Légion d’ Honneur. In 1864 Rodin met a seamstress, Rose Beuret. They had a son, named Auguste-Eugene Beuret, who was born in 1866. Rose became the model for many of his works. She and Rodin remained lifetime companions and formally married in 1917, the year they both died.
Rodin had another relationship with a student named Camille Claudel, who was 25 years younger than him. She became his mistress at the age of 18, and inspired Rodin as a model for several sculptures of passionate love couples. Camille was also a talented pupil; she worked for Rodin and assisted him during his four-year work on the bronze group “Les Bourgeois de Calais” (1884-1888). Unfortunately, her mental problems brought tragic complexity in Rodin’s life (she was eventually committed to a mental asylum). He remained attached to Rose, who patiently endured his other affairs.
In 1903 he met an English painter, Gwendolen Mary John, and she became his mistress and was his model for “The Whistler Muse”. In 1904 Rodin met the American-born Duchess Claire de Choiseul, who dominated his life until 1912. His complex relationships found reflection in his works: “Eternal Spring”, “The Poet and Love”, “The Genius and Pity”, “The Sculptor and his Muse”. Rodin preferred to sketch the natural spontaneity of amateur models, street acrobats, athletes and dancers. From these quick sketches he modelled works in clay, which he later reworked and fine-tuned, then cast in plaster and forged into bronze. A large staff of pupils, craftsmen and stonecutters were working for him, including Bourdelle.
Rodin’s method of evolutionary development of his initial idea into a masterpiece was demonstrated by creation of “The Kiss” and “The Thinker”, which were derived from smaller reliefs within “The Gates of Hell”, a work he was commissioned to create in 1880 for a museum in Paris. For that project he made a palm-size sketch of “The Kiss” and a first small plaster version of “The Thinker” as a figure of the poet Dante Alighieri. “The Kiss” was completed in marble in 1889. By that time he had exhibited a mid-size version of “The Thinker”, which was cast in bronze in the 1890s. Meanwhile, Rodin made countless variations of “The Thinker” by subtle alterations to its pose and expression until he achieved the desired result with one of the bigger versions.
Rodin’s works are distinguished by their energy and realism that create an illusion of a living, breathing form. His art embraced all aspects of humanity, ranging from distress and moral weakness to the heights of passion and beauty. “The Thinker” was an achievement of a special harmony in showing a trio of human qualities that appealed to the art lover: The heroic, poetic and intellectual. It was recast in over 20 copies for major museums, and was also reproduced in millions of smaller versions and became one of the most recognizable icons of art.
From 1908-1917 Rodin lived at the Hotel Biron in Paris. There his neighbours included artist Henri Matisse, writer Jean Cocteau and dancer Isadora Duncan. In 1912 the French government scheduled the Hotel Biron for demolition and ordered the tenants to vacate. Rodin persuaded the government to allow him to stay. As an exchange, in 1916 Rodin gave his entire collection of art to France on the condition that the state maintain the Musée Rodin. The collection contains Rodin’s most significant works, including “The Thinker”, “The Kiss”, “The Gates of Hell” and “The Burghers of Calais” in the front garden. Rodin's living rooms are decorated with paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Auguste Renoir that he had acquired. Rodin's own works and other art objects are still placed as Rodin set them.
Auguste Rodin enjoyed friendships with some of the most important writers and artists of the day, such as Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Émile Zola, Robert Louis Stevenson and George Bernard Shaw. Rodin died on November 17, 1917, in Mendon, France, and was laid to rest beside Rose Beuret in the Cemetery of Mendon, Ile-de-France. A bronze cast of “The Thinker” was placed at the base of his tomb.
This short video takes us on a tour of the Musée Rodin.
I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.
I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome.
