COSMIC WATCH

“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.” - Plato
 
Next week, an asteroid will approach Earth in what is being described as a historic “close shave”. Astronomers say that there’s no chance that the rock will crash into our planet on this occasion. The 45 meter long asteroid 2012 DA14 will approach earth and on February 15 will be as close as 27,700 kilometres. This is extremely close and personal on cosmic terms, coming nearer than the ring of satellites that are in geosynchronous orbit. This will be the closest distance of approach that we know of in advance for such a large asteroid, however, there is no need to predict doom.
 
NASA has a special department called the “Near-Earth Object Program Office” and this can accurately predict the asteroid’s path with the observations and measurements already obtained. It is known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. The approach, however, will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.
 
Asteroid 2012 DA 14 was discovered in February last year by astronomers with the La Sagra Sky Survey in Spain. The asteroid has been orbiting the sun once every 368 days, though next week’s close pass will reduce its orbital period to 317 days. At its closest approach on February 15, the rock will be just 1/13th as far from Earth as the moon is and will whiz by our planet at about 28,000 km/h as it makes its closest pass for at least the next 30 years.
 
The asteroid will be visible as a point of light through binoculars and small telescopes during the close encounter. The best observing will be from Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia, NASA officials said. 2012 DA 14 will have faded considerably by the time Earth’s rotation brings the object into view for people in the continental United States. Radar astronomers plan to take images of the asteroid about eight hours after closest approach using the Goldstone antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, which is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network.
 
Several other known asteroids have approached Earth even more closely than 2012 DA14 will, but those objects were all smaller. Asteroids of the size of 2012 DA14 flit past earth about once every 40 years and actually hit Earth every 1,200 years or so. Other relatively large asteroids have probably zipped very close to Earth recently without being spotted. Astronomers have identified more than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids to date, but perhaps a million or more such space rocks are thought to exist. If 2012 DA14 did strike our planet, it would likely cause serious damage on a local scale. An object of similar size flattened 2,000 square km of forest when it exploded above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in 1908.
 
The asteroid seems to have a very prosaic name, but it reflects the rule of nomenclature for minor heavenly bodies. I think I’ll call it “Valentino” given its discovery by Spanish scientists around about February 14! There is already an asteroid called “Eros”!
 
As if this cosmic even wasn’t enough, a comet is approaching our sun and some scientists say it could dazzle as a “comet of the century” later this year. Comet ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a 0.4-metre telescope of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON), near Kislovodsk. Incidentally, “ison” in Greek means a drone note, or a slow-moving lower vocal part, used in Byzantine chant and some related musical traditions to accompany the melody, thus enriching the singing, at the same time not transforming it into a harmonized or polyphonic piece. Hence the comet will enrich the music of the spheres!
 
Comet ISON will make its closest approach to the sun on November 28, when it will approach within 1.2 million km of our star’s surface. As of mid-January, the comet’s tail was more than 64,400 km. If the comet survives the approach, and does not fade or break apart, it could transform into a spectacular celestial sight, rivaling the full moon, scientists have said. The comet will make its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 26, when it will fly within 64 million km of our planet. It poses no impact threat to the Earth, NASA scientists said.

SETSUBUN

花鳥風月 (Kachou Fuugetsu) Literally: “Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon” -This means: Experience the beauties of nature, and in doing so learn about yourself.
 

Setsubun (節分) in Japan is traditionally the day before the beginning of spring. Setsubun literally means “seasonal division,” but it is most commonly in reference to the division between winter and spring, more specifically called Risshun. It is celebrated annually on February 3 as part of the Spring Festival (Haru Matsuri). In its association with the lunar new year, Setsubun was traditionally thought of as a sort of New Year’s Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This custom is called mamemaki or literally “bean-throwing.”
 

Mamemaki is still performed at most shrines and temples all over Japan. It is also enthusiastically espoused by children who go about throwing beans at one another at school, in playgrounds and at home. It is customary at home for an adult to wear an evil mask and get pelted with beans! Roasted soybeans (called “fortune beans”) are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an oni (demon) mask, while the people recite “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (Demons out! Fortune in!) and slam the door. A similar ritual in the West is the throwing of rice at weddings – banish evil attract good fortune for the newlyweds.
 

The beans are thought to drive away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them, so the custom of mamemaki is a purification ritual. Another part of ensuring good luck is to eat roasted soybeans, one for each year of one’s life, and in some areas, one for each year of one’s life plus one more for bringing good luck for the year to come. Stores sell a long uncut makizushi (sushi) roll called eho-maki (literally, “lucky direction roll”). It’s to be eaten in silence on Setsubun while facing the yearly lucky compass direction, determined by the zodiac symbol of that year.
 

At Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines all over Japan, there are celebrations for Setsubun. Priests and invited guests will throw roasted soy beans (some wrapped in gold or silver foil), small envelopes with money, sweets, candies and other prizes. In some bigger shrines, even celebrities and sumo wrestlers will be invited; these events are televised nationally. Many people come, and the event turns wild, with everyone pushing and shoving to get the gifts tossed from above. Monday, 11 February 2013 has been designated as the official Setsubun holiday when the temple celebrations will be carried out. It is not a national holiday.

THE DAY AFTER

“Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play! No sense have they of ills to come, nor care beyond today.” - Thomas Gray

The image supplied this week by Magpie Tales was a photograph of the Central Library, Manchester, U.K., taken by Robin Gosnall. As is my usual habit, I have rather changed the image (with apologies to Robin G). The original was one of rather melancholy atmosphere and what I started out as a colourisation that would make it cheerier, instead turned it into one of utter doom… No wonder the resultant poem is also tinged by grimness and desperation!
 
The Day After
 
The day after
Only a few cannibal carrion birds
Will fly above deserted streets
Shrieking in dismay
As all the dead have been vaporised.
 
As night falls
The silence profound and absolute,
As the last wild beast
Retreats limping weakly to its lair,
With empty stomach to expire.
 
The city empty
Dark, taciturn, but still imposing –
Like a stern emperor
Who even bereft of subjects
Will still pronounce hollow decrees.
 
The day after
Dawns as even the vermin die out:
Rats turning into decomposing, foul-smelling mush
And cockroaches into empty shells,
Leaving the world now completely lifeless.
 
As noonday sun shines and burns
And sterilises the putrescence,
Only the proud and tall edifices will proclaim
The short reign of Homo sapiens
Who came, conquered and destroyed
All that lived, even himself…

MOVIE MONDAY - LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

“Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.” - Benjamin Disraeli

We watched the 2008 Tomas Alfredson film “Let the Right One In” yesterday. This is a Swedish film based on the John Ajvide Lindqvist novel, and stars Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson and Per Ragnar. It is an unconventional vampire tale, but the vampirism is not the main theme, it’s almost incidental. There is subtle horror and tragedy, however, the film is about mainly friendship, loyalty. love and schoolyard bullying.

The film is set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982 and concerns Oskar (Hedebrant), a bullied 12-year old boy. He is quite powerless to face up to the bullies as he lacks courage, only being able to dream of revenge. He meets Eli (Leandersson), a peculiar girl who lives in the flat next door. She is really strange: She doesn’t seem to feel the bitter winter cold, can’t stand the sun, is unable to eat food and in order enter a room she must to be invited in. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realises that Eli needs to drink other people’s blood to survive he is faced with a tough choice. How much can Oskar forgive once he becomes aware that as well being repelled by Eli, he also loves her…

The young lead actors are remarkable, giving performances that are restrained, subtly nuanced and displaying perfect chemistry between them. Similarly, production values are wonderful, with excellent technical care throughout. Lighting is fantastic, the original music by Johan Soderqvist quite appropriate, and Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography is remarkable. This is not a cheap thrills horror movie, but a carefully crafted Hitchcockian tale with a tense psychological underpinning.

Although there is considerable violence in the film, it is not of the gratuitous type and one feels that it is absolutely necessary for the telling of the tale. The use of children to convey the gristliness of the tale is quite a masterstroke and one is reminded constantly of how cruel childhood can be. But there is also the yearning for friendship and acceptance and love that children (as well as adults!) need. The film is quite masterful cinematically, and thematically one almost rues the fact that a vampire has to be involved in the story – it somehow cheapens it, and yet it absolves the heroine in a wayward manner.

The film begs comparison with other vampire tales and movies. However, it would be doing it an injustice to be compared with the likes of the popular and quite dreadful “Twilight” series or the old and now rather caricature-like Hammer horror battle-axes. The 2010 remake “Let me In” by Matt Reeves is the one film that one should compare it with, however, I have not seen this one. If one gives credit to IMDB scores, the original Swedish film is scored at 8.0, while the remake is scored at 7.2. Perhaps I shall have a look at the new version in a few months time…

Do have a look at the original Swedish version, it is quite good and represents excellent film-making, although it is slow and it does deal with a strange mixture of themes and myths. It goes to show, I guess, that one can make an engaging and wonderful film about anything at all. Rather like Mozart setting his laundry list to exquisite music.

ART SUNDAY - ALBERT BLOCH

“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” - John F. Kennedy
 
Albert Bloch (1882-1961) was an American artist, born in St. Louis, Missouri, of Czechoslovakian and German-Jewish ancestry. He spent his early life in the Midwest, first He initially earned a living from commercial art, working between 1905 and 1908 as a caricaturist and illustrator for William Marion Reedy’s literary and political weekly “The Mirror”. Reedy noticed Bloch’s talent, and provided him with a monthly stipend to study abroad.
 
At the beginning of 1909, Bloch sailed for Europe and between 1909 and 1921, Bloch lived and worked mainly in Germany, making brief visits to other countries in Europe and to America. As he spoke German, he decides to settle in Munich, which was then a thriving art center. Reedy pressed Bloch to attend classes at the Royal Bavarian Academy in Munich, however, Bloch never enrolled, preferring instead to take lessons from painters working in the academic style outside the academy.
 
Initially Bloch displayed little interest in the modern art revolution that was sweeping through Europe around the turn of the century, but a 1910 trip to Paris exposed him to the work of Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Odilon Redon. The following year, he saw a catalogue of the second exhibition of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (the New Arts’ Union of Munich), which included reproductions of works by, among others, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault, and Wassily Kandinsky. Bloch identified with these artists.
 
He soon met Kandinsky and Franz Marc, both of whom invited him to participate in the first exhibition of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group of modernist artists who broke away from Neue Künstlervereinigung. With his contribution of six canvases, Bloch was the only American represented in the show, which was held in December 1911 at Munich’s Thannhauser Gallery. The Blaue Reiter artists had no formal manifesto, but they shared a desire to express emotional and spiritual truth through painting and, in particular, through symbolic use of color. The group, active from 1911 to 1914, represents one current in the broader expressionist impulse that spread through Germany and beyond in the first half of the twentieth century.
 
Bloch established a successful career in Germany and remained there, exhibiting his work through World War I. In 1912, he showed at the second Blaue Reiter exhibition, and he was included in the 1912 Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne, the most famous exhibition of modernism in Europe at that time. The only painting by Bloch accepted for this show was “The Duel”, a 1912 painting that recalls Edvard Munch’s work. That same year, Bloch showed at Herwarth Walden’s Der Sturm Gallery in Berlin, participating in a small exhibition that featured paintings rejected from the Sonderbund exhibit. Walden, one of the foremost proponents of modernism in Europe, fashioned this 1912 exhibition as a protest against the Sonderbund show that, he believed, had not adequately represented members of the Blaue Reiter group.

Bloch’s fame now reached America. Arthur Jerome Eddy, the Chicago collector and tireless promoter of modernism, began buying Bloch’s paintings at Kandinsky’s recommendation, and eventually added more than 25 of Bloch’s works to his collection. In 1915, Eddy’s collection of paintings by Bloch was the basis of a one-man show at the Art Institute of Chicago; the exhibition traveled to the St. Louis Art Museum.
 
In 1921, Bloch returned to the United States, greatly disappointed with what Germany had become. He lived in the USA until his death in 1961. To support himself, as he had little money, Bloch decided to become an art teacher. His first position began in 1922 at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, but lasted only one year. From 1923 until his retirement in 1947, Bloch was Professor and Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Bloch frequently chose biblical subject matter or sweeping emotional themes of anguish or exaltation. Wishing to remain behind the American art scene and unwilling to trade on his European connections, Bloch and his work faded from public view. Over time, Bloch’s reticence about discussing his former affiliation with the Blaue Reiter artists obscured his early contributions to an important passage in the history of art. Throughout his career, Bloch destroyed any paintings that, from his point of view, were unsuccessful. Regrettably, many more early works in German collections were destroyed in the bombings of World War II, while others were banished to Switzerland by the Nazis as “degenerate art.” Extant examples of his work from this early period are rare and valuable artistic documents.

The painting above is his “Three Pierrots and Harlequin” of 1914. While the characters of Commedia dell’ Arte are clearly identifiable, the darkness of the first World War can be discerned in the battleground-like setting which the figures populate. Exploding spheres of colour illuminate the environs eerily and Harlequin is in full flight, seemingly running to escape the sinister trio of Pierrots. This is a powerful and disturbing work making us privy to the artist’s state of mind in the historic context of his life at the time it was painted.

BACH SERENITY

“Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.” Martin Luther
 

A restful Saturday, much needed even after the four-day work week, which was quite exhausting.
 

A lovely piece of music by Johann Sebastian Bach tonight. It is the Trio Sonata No.3 in D minor, BWV527. I. Andante & II. Allegro played by London Baroque: Ingrid Seifert~Violin, Richard Gwilt~Violin, Charles Medlam~Cello, Terence Charlston~Harpsichord.
 

FOOD FRIDAY - BABA GHANOUSH

“Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.” - Bobby Flay
 
Baba ghanoush is a Middle Eastern dish of eggplant (aubergine) mashed and mixed with virgin olive oil and various seasonings. The Arabic term means “father of coquetry”, which has been interpreted to suggest that it was invented by a member of a harem. It is eaten as a dip with khubz or pita bread, and is sometimes added to other dishes. It is usually of an earthy light-brown color. It is popular in the Levant (area covering Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Kurdistan, Egypt, and Israel), as well Turkey, Greece and other Mediterranean countries.
 
Baba Ghanoush
Ingredients
 
1 large eggplant
1/4 to 1/3 cup tahini, as needed
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, as needed
1 pinch ground cumin
1 tsp sumac powder
salt, to taste
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
 
Method
Prepare a medium-hot fire in a grill.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Prick the eggplant with a fork in several places and place on the grill rack 12-15 cm from the fire.
Grill, turning frequently, until the skin blackens and blisters and the flesh just begins to feel soft, 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer the eggplant to a baking sheet and bake until very soft, 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and peel off and discard the skin.
Place the eggplant flesh in a bowl and using a fork, mash the eggplant to a paste.
Add the 1/4 cup tahini, the garlic, the 1/4 cup lemon juice and the cumin and mix well.
Season with salt, add the spices and then taste and add more tahini and/or lemon juice, if needed.
Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl and spread with the back of a spoon to form a shallow well.
Drizzle the olive oil over the top and sprinkle with the parsley.
Serve with toasted pita bread triangles and vegetable crudités.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

A PERIWINKLE FOR SCHUBERT

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” - Robert Frost
 
Today is the anniversary of the birth of:
Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of NSW (1762);
Franz (Peter) Schubert, composer (1797);
Zane Grey, writer (1875);
Irving Langmuir, scientist (1881);
Anna Pavlova, ballerina (1882);
Eddie Cantor (Edward Israel Iskowitz), Broadway entertainer (1892);
Freya Stark, traveller/writer (1893);
Tallulah Bankhead, actress (1903);
Lord (Donald) Soper, Methodist minister/pacifist (1903);
John Henry O’ Hara, writer (1905);
(Elaine) Carol channing, actress (1921);
Mario Lanza (Alfredo Arnold Cocozza), singer (1921);
Norman Mailer, US writer (1923);
Jean Simmons, actress (1929);
Christopher Chataway, athlete (1931);
Philip Glass, US composer (1937);
Suzanne Pleshette, actress (1937);
Beatrix, Dutch queen (1938);
Phil Collins, singer (1951).
 
Catharanthus roseus (Vinca major), the white periwinkle is the birthday flower for today. It symbolises tender recollections and pleasant memories. Astrologically, the plant is ruled by Venus.  The vinca has yielded two important cancer-fighting drugs, vincristine and vinblastine, that are useful in many forms of cancer chemotherapy.
 
St John Bosco (1815-1888) is the patron saint of young boys, apprentices and editors. St John  Bosco was only two years old when his father died. His early life was full of poverty and it was at the age of 16 when he was able to enter the seminary in Turin to become a priest. Early in his career he established a boarding house for 40 neglected boys in Turin, with workshops in tailoring and shoemaking. In 1859 he established the Salesian Order which specialised in education and pastoral work.
 
Franz Peter Schubert (1797–1828) was an Austrian romantic composer. German lieder reached their greatest expression in his beautiful lyrical songs, especially in the great cycles Die Schöne Müllerin [Fair Maid of the Mill] (1823) and Die Winterreise [The Winter’s Journey] (1827). His symphonies are the final flowering of the classical sonata forms, and the Fifth (1816), Eighth (the Unfinished, 1822), and Ninth (1828) rank with the best orchestral music. His chamber works include the well-loved Quartet in D Minor (Death and the Maiden, 1824) and the Quintet in A Major (The Trout, 1819). Schubert also wrote stage music, choral music, Masses, and much piano music.

Here is Franz Schubert’s “Der Hirt auf dem Falsen”, D965 (The Shepherd On The Rock) with Helen Donath, soprano, Dieter Kloecker, clarinet and Klaus Donath, piano.

MACHU PICCHU'S SECRET

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” - Marcus Garvey
 
Shades of Indiana Jones! The news item yesterday regarding the discovery of a secret underground burial chamber of many rooms in Machu Picchu certainly fired up my imagination. This discovery was made possible thanks to a French engineer, David Crespy, who in 2010 noticed the presence of a strange “shelter” located in the heart of the city, at the bottom of one of the main buildings. For him, there was no doubt about it, he was looking at a “door”, an entrance sealed by the Incas.
 
Thierry Jamin, a French archaeologist, who has investigated several burial sites in the North of Cusco, listened carefully to the story of David Crespy. He was keen to confirm the facts behind the story. Accompanied by archaeologists of the Regional Office of the Culture in Cusco, he was able to visit the site several times. His preliminary findings were unequivocal: There is indeed an entrance, blocked by the Incas at an undetermined moment of history.
 
The site is strangely similar to burial sites, such as the ones Thierry Jamin and his companions often find in the valleys of Lacco and Chunchusmayo. In order to confirm the existence of cavities in the basement of the building, in December 2011 Thierry and his team submitted and official request to the Ministry of Culture in Lima, to perform a geophysical survey with the help of electromagnetic conductivity instruments. This license was granted a few months later. Realised between April 9th and April 12th 2012, the electromagnetic survey not only confirmed the presence of an underground room, but several.
 
Just behind the entrance, a staircase was discovered. The two main paths seem to lead to specific chambers, including to the main square one. Different techniques (such as the Molecular Frequencies Discriminator), used by the French researchers allowed them to highlight the presence of important archaeological material, including deposits of metal and a large quantity of gold and silver. Thierry Jamin is now preparing the next step: The opening of the entrance sealed by the Incas more than five centuries ago. On May 22nd 2012, he officially submitted a request for authorisation to the Peruvian authorities, which would allow his team to proceed with the opening of the burial chambers.
 
Various Peruvian archaeologists specialising in the study of metals and burial places will join the group on site, but also anthropologists, geologists, petrologists, curators, surveyors, civil engineers, etc. It is also worth mentioning all Thierry Jamin’s partners are based in France and work with him on his usual research as well as this special operation in Machu Picchu. It will be very interesting to hear more about this story, and I am sure that most people would be fascinated by the discoveries, whether treasure is involved or not!

SOUNDLESS MUSICS

“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.” - Benjamin Britten
 
A Charlotte Gainsbourg image is what Magpie Tales has selected for us this week in order to inspire us and get the creative juices flowing. The connection with music is inescapable. Here is what I came up with:
 

Echoes of Soundless Musics
 
When you left, you know,
You took the record player with you
But left me all the records;
They silently proclaim
Words and music
That used to be the food of love.
 
In the long stilnesses of empty rooms
I can still hear clearly each track,
Complete with crackles,
Each scratch remembered
Amidst the echoes of our laughter
And the basset tones of your voice.
 
I touch the record covers,
Caressing the smoothness
Of the multicoloured glazed card;
A memory of your skin perhaps,
Cool, smooth and promising much,
Just as any cover should do.
 
When you left, you know,
You took all with you
That was easily portable;
The record player useless
Without the records,
While they still play for me:
 
Each image a trigger,
Each touch a memory
Each silent playback,
A sumptuous dish –
Sustaining my love,
For music is its food…

MOVIE MONDAY - UNSTOPPABLE

“Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.” - Charles de Gaulle
 
Every now and then we like watching a good action/thriller, especially the believable kind where the situations depicted are not too far-fetched but still make for engaging, nail-biting viewing. The bonus is when such movies are based on or have been inspired by true stories. Such was the case with a film we watched yesterday. It was Tony Scott’s 2010 movie, “Unstoppable” starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson. It is a solid, action/thriller that is inspired by true events, the real-life CSX8888 incident in which a runaway train travelled for 66 miles on a track through northwest Ohio with nobody at the controls. The screenplay for “Unstoppable” was written by American screenwriter Mark Bomback.
 
The movie centres on a runaway freight train loaded with thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, eight carriages of molten phenol, a highly toxic and explosive chemical, and way ahead it, in the midst of a city, a curvy track that requires all trains to slow down to 15 mph to negotiate it safely. The train travels at 70 mph and the track ahead it must be cleared to avert disaster, while everything must be done to stop the train before it gets to the curved track. Two train operatives, a veteran (Washington) and a rookie (Pine), attempt to stop the train armed with little in the way of stopping impending disaster except a one-car locomotive and their wits.
 
The movie does have its faults, however, it is a quickly moving (pun intended!), solidly entertaining thriller from beginning to end. Although there are two minor subplots involving the family situation of the two leads, the director cannot afford to spend too much time on characterisation or back story, launching straight into the story with two incompetent railyard employees who are responsible for setting the disaster in train (pun intended again ;-).
 
Both Washingtom and Pine give great performances with some depth added to the heroics, mainly through glimpses of their private lives interspersed within the action sequences. There is a lot of coverage of the trains as they move backwards and forward on the tracks, and the runaway train 777 assumes an active antagonistic role, almost an animated incarnation of evil as it hurtles down the track. There is good supporting work from Dawson who plays a rail traffic control officer who tracks the progress of the rescue operation. Minor supporting roles also add a little depth to the movie and provide relief from the constant background action.
 
We enjoyed the movie and recommend it as a bit of mindless entertainment, which is quite well done. It is a typical “dick-flick” so be prepared for lots of heroics, action and tough man stunts exploring the (basically shallow, but quite straightforward) male psyche. This is a “we have a problem – lets solve it” movie with little emotional depth, yet quite engaging.

ART SUNDAY - MANET

“No one can be a painter unless he cares for painting above all else.” - Édouard Manet
 
Édouard Manet was born in Paris, France, on January 23, 1832, to Auguste Édouard Manet and Eugénie Désirée Manet. Manet’s mother was an artistic woman who made sure that Édouard and his two brothers took piano lessons. His father, an official at the Ministry of Justice, expected his son to study law and was opposed to the idea of him becoming a painter. It was decided that Édouard would join the navy, and at the age of sixteen he sailed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a training vessel. Upon his return he failed to pass the navy’s entrance examination. His father finally gave in, and in 1850 Manet began studying figure painting in the studio of Thomas Couture, where he remained until 1856. Manet travelled abroad and made many copies of classic paintings for both foreign and French public collections.
 
Manet’s entry for the Salon of 1859, “The Absinthe Drinker”, a romantic but daring work, was rejected. At the Salon of 1861, his “Spanish Singer”, one of a number of works of Spanish character painted in this period, not only was admitted to the Salon but won an honourable mention and the praise of the poet Théophile Gautier. This was to be Manet’s last success for many years.
 
In 1863 Manet married Suzanne Leenhoff, his piano teacher. That year he showed fourteen paintings at the Martinet Gallery; one of them, “Music in the Tuileries”, caused a hostile reaction. Also in 1863 the Salon rejected Manet’s large painting “Luncheon on the Grass”; its combination of clothed men and a nude woman was considered offensive. Manet elected to have it shown at the now famous Salon des Refusés, created by the Emperor to quiet complaints from the large number of painters whose work had been turned away by the official Salon. In 1865 Manet’s “Olympia” produced an even more violent reaction at the official Salon, and his reputation as a rebel became widespread.
 
In 1866, after the Salon jury had rejected two of Manet’s works, novelist Émile Zola (1840–1902) came to his defence with a series of articles filled with strongly expressed praise. In 1867 Zola published a book that predicted, “Manet’s place is destined to be in the Louvre”. In May 1868 Manet, at his own expense, exhibited fifty of his works at the Paris World’s Fair; he felt that his paintings had to be seen together in order to be fully understood. Although the painters of the impressionist movement were influenced by Manet during the 1860s, later it appeared that he had also learned from them. His colours became lighter, and his strokes became shorter and quicker. Still, Manet remained mainly a figure and studio painter and refused to show his works with the impressionists at their private exhibitions.
 
Toward the end of the 1870s Manet returned to the figures of the early years. Perhaps his greatest work was his last major one, “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”. In 1881 Manet was admitted to membership in the Legion of Honour, an award he had long dreamed of. By then he was seriously ill, his constitution weakened by advancing syphilis, and walking became increasingly difficult for him. In his weakened condition he found it easier to handle pastels than oils, and he produced a great many flower pieces and portraits in that medium. In early 1883 his left leg was amputated, but this did not prolong his life. He died peacefully in Paris on April 30, 1883.
 
Manet was short, quite handsome, and witty. He was remembered as kind and generous toward his friends. Still, many elements of his personality were in conflict. Although he was a revolutionary artist, he craved official honours; while he dressed fashionably, he spoke a type of slang that was at odds with his appearance and manners; and although his style of life was that of a member of the conservative classes, his political beliefs were liberal.
 
“The Old Musician” of 1862 is characteristic of Manet’s early “finished” style. The three portraits in the centre of the painting are expressive and beautifully modeled, however, the two people on the extreme right are quickly executed and almost caricatured. The little girl on the left is flat, almost a cut-out. The stiff formality of the poses and the ill-defined background could mislead the viewer to think that this is an assembly of people in front of the backdrop of a photographer’s studio. Yet, Manet’s work is vivid and full of energy, the colours although muted, very agreeable and the composition, based on intersecting triangles, brings the viewer’s eyes back to the three faces in the centre. It is quite an intriguing work and one that could be interpreted allegorically. Time, art, music, gender, and death can all be seen here. The old man with the turban on the extreme right is especially enigmatic.

AUSTRALIA DAY 2013

“Oh, my ways are strange ways and new ways and old ways, And deep ways and steep ways and high ways and low, I’m at home and at ease on a track that I know not, And restless and lost on a road that I know.” - Henry Lawson

Today is Australia Day. Australia is a continent-country, in area the sixth largest country in the world, about 7.6 million square km in area.  It gained its independence from UK in 1901 and its population of only about 23 million people has accrued through colonisation and large immigration programmes. The capital city is Canberra, but this is an artificial city, a created small administrative centre, with under 400,000 people population.

The largest urban centres are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Darwin.  The North is subtropical and the South-eastern coast has temperate, almost Mediterranean climate, of greater variability of weather, however.  The majority of the continent is arid desert and scrub, making Australia one of the driest, if not the driest place on earth.

Vast mineral, oil, coal and natural gas resources exist and the fertile plains around the coast make this a bountiful land.  Immense open spaces make Australia one of the least density populated nations with only 2 people per square km. It is a country of largely underdeveloped rich resources, great natural beauty and relative isolation, which ensures Australia’s growing importance as a local and world power in the future.

Happy Australia Day!

Here is Australian composer Nigel Westlake’s Antarctica Suite for Guitar and Orchestra – 3rd Movement, “Penguin Ballet”.

FOOD FRIDAY - QUINOTTO

“Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better.” - Nicholas Stern
 
Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is from a South American plant, Chenopodium quinoa. It contains more protein than any other grain, and is lower in carbohydrates than most other grains. It can be substituted for rice and couscous for more dietary variety. Here is a recipe for a vegetarian quinoa risotto, or “quinotto”.

Vegetable Quinotto 
Ingredients
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups quinoa
Olive oil – about 3 tbsp
2 medium red capsicums, chopped
1 medium eggplant, chopped
2 medium yellow zucchini, finely chopped
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
1/3 cup lemon juice (optional)
Fresh oregano leaves, to serve (can substitute with chopped parsley)
 
Method
Place stock and quinoa in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, bringing to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until just tender. Remove from heat and mix through a tablespoon of the olive oil. Set aside, covered for 10 minutes.
Cover the base of a heavy-based saucepan with a thin layer of olive oil. Heat over medium-high heat. Add capsicum and eggplant. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes or until beginning to soften. Add zucchini, onion and oregano, and stir for 2 to 4 minutes. Cook, covered, for 15 minutes or until softened. Toss to combine. Cook, covered, until zucchini is tender.
Add zucchini mixture and lemon juice (if using) to quinoa. Toss to combine. Season with pepper. Sprinkle with oregano (or chopped parsley).
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

WORK, WORK, WORK

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” - Theodore Roosevelt
 
I am snowed under with work these days. Since January 2, when I returned to work I have been doing the work of three people, as two of my colleagues resigned just before Christmas. I am in acting position to cover one of them, continuing doing my own job, as well as picking up urgent matters from the other colleague’s job. It leaves me little time to do much else, however, Last year I had also promised to do a short series of lectures on video for a free online course, and these past two weeks this has been another imposition on my time. Add to that some editing work I am doing on a dictionary – my days (and nights) are full!
 
I have been getting about 4 hours sleep a night, which even for me is not quite enough. The weekend is welcomed with great expectancy every week, and I can use the blessed two days to catch up. I am not grumbling, don’t get me wrong, being kept busy stimulates and enlivens me. However, what is not good is that I don’t have as much time as I would like to have in order to unwind and spend some time in relaxation and doing some of the things that take my mind off work. As much as one enjoys one’s job, there is always the need for tuning off work and enjoying one’s personal interests and hobbies and leisure activities.
 
Keeping up my daily blog posts has been difficult, but at least that commitment is a safety valve that lets off some steam and allows my mind to wander in areas that are not related to my work. However, I am not spending much time at all surfing the web, or visiting the blogs that I enjoy reading. I have neglected keeping up with friends, face to face as well as online… Even family is complaining that I am not as accessible as I used to be in the past.
 
I hope that we replace the two colleagues who have departed the office, very soon! This will allow some semblance of sanity to come back into my life and hopefully I can go back to my very busy lifestyle from my current hectic one!

CLEMENTI'S NIGHTSHADE

“The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.” - Stendhal
 
Today is the anniversary of the birth of:
John Hancock, American patriot (1737);
Muzio Clementi, Italian composer (1752);
Marie Henri Beyle (Stendhal), writer (1783);
Édouard Manet, French artist (1832);
Humphrey Bogart, actor (1899);
Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (1907);
Django Reinhardt, Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist (1910);
Bob Paisley, footballer/trainer (1919);
Jeanne Moreau, French actress (1928);
John C. Polanyi, Canadian chemist (1929);
Bill (William Elphinstone) Gibb, fashion designer (1943);
Princess Caroline of Monaco (1958).
 

The black nightshade, Solanum nigrum, is the birthday flower for this day.  The plant symbolises sorcery and witchcraft, scepticism, obscurity and death. The language of flowers ascribes the meaning “your thoughts are dark” to the black nightshade.  The berries of the plant are most poisonous when green and their black colour when ripe is the nigrum reference of the specific name. The young shoots of the plant may be boiled with other wild greens (especially Amaranthus blitum), potatoes and zucchini, and eaten as a vegetable dish, dressed with a simple vinaigrette sauce.  Astrologically, the black nightshade is under the dominion of Saturn.
 
Muzio Clementi (1752–1832) was an Italian composer, pianist, and conductor. His more than 100 piano sonatas set the definitive form for this genre of music, and he had a great influence on all aspects of piano music. He is remembered for his series of études, Gradus ad Parnassum (1817). He lived most of his life in England and did much to advance English music. He longed to write powerful symphonies and attempted to emulate Beethoven’s style. Latest editions of his works include four reconstructed symphonies, but these are minor works compared to those of his idol.

Many artists died on this day: Gustave Doré, the French illustrator in 1883; Edvard Munch, the Norwegian painter and lithographer (of The Scream fame) in 1944; Pierre Bonnard, the French painter in 1947; (Felipe Jacinto) Salvador Dalí (y Pubol), the most famous of the surrealist painters in 1989. The American composer, Samuel Barber, died in 1981 on this day.

A CHILD'S WORLD

Magpie Tales image prompt this week was rather stressful for me as I had recently heard the story of the attempted abduction of a friend of a friend's child. Fortunately that ended well, however, how many of these occurrences do we hear of that end in great pain or tragedy? We live in a wondrous world that is populated by many good people. But it’s enough for a single evil person to cause havoc and destruction - a devastation of lives that are unfortunate enough to interact with that evil...
 

A Child’s World
 

A child’s hand, so small:
A microcosm modelled
On that of its parents’ wide world.
 

A child’s hand, so soft,
As vulnerable as a flower,
As beautiful as a butterfly.
 

A child’s hand, so curious;
A world of rhymes and songs,
Of games and drawings.
 

A parent’s guiding hand,
Protective, loving, caressing;
A child safe, happy, content
Allowed to grow and flourish.
 

A world of possibilities,
Of endless potential and growth;
A child’s hand, so wondrous…
 

A world so fragile, easily upset,
As frangible as crystal;
A child’s hand, so easily led astray.
 

A lamb, easily led to slaughter,
Innocence lost, a life interrupted.
A child’s hand, so trusting.
 

A stranger’s rapacious hand,
The talon of a bird of prey;
A child abducted, molested,
Its life stopped, a growth arrested.

MOVIE MONDAY - LIOUBI

“A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.” - Max Müller
 
We watched an interesting Greek film at the weekend. It was not very special or very original and the plot could even be described as quite ordinary or even simple. The movie-making was straightforward and traditional, very slow in its development and the actors capable but to exceptional. However, looking at the whole package, it worked and overall ended up being quite engaging despite all of the cons that seemed to outnumber the cons. It was the 2005 Laya Yourgou movie “Lioubi”, starring Alexis Georgoulis, Eugenia Kaplan, Nikos Georgakis, Lena Kitsopoulou and Olga Damani.
 
The plot is very much a social comment on the Greek reality of the early 21^st century. A country beset by economic and social problems, a place where racism and prejudice have come to the fore and where the battle for survival (at any price) becomes a primary consideration in a society that is in a state of disequilibrium and destabilisation. The film is very much a reflective piece and it describes the journey of a young Russian woman who comes to Greece to work and to perhaps build a better life for herself.
 
Liubi (whose name means “love” in Russian) is the young Russian woman, played sensitively by Eugenia Kaplan, who is the central character of the movie. She comes into the lives of a typical middle-class Greek family in Athens, engaged as the carer for the elderly matriarch of the family Mrs Eleni (Olga Damani) who suffered a stroke and is unable to speak or move, but who understands everything happening around her. Liubi is happy that she has been offered this small but important opportunity to try and build a life for herself. Dimitris, Mrs Eleni’s son (Alexis Georgoulis), is engaged to Penny but he is unhappy with his relationship and Penny’s demands. Anna, his sister (Lena Kitsopoulou) is on the verge of hysteria as she is desperately trying to not to have continual miscarriages. Anna’s husband (Nikos Georgakis) is a lazy good-for-nothing who is more of a burden than a help to the family. Liubi and Dimitris find themselves attracted to one another and they try to reach out to each other, but things get complicated as several critical situations put inordinate pressure on an already fragile set of relationships…
 
The film was sensitively and candidly shot and the director Laya Yourgou, who also wrote the script touches on several sensitive topics dealing with the characters and situations in an objective manner. The movie had some poignant moments, some of them relating to the special relationship that Liubi develops with Mrs Eleni. The two women seem to understand one another without being able to fully communicate. However, the final scenes of the movie bring out this touching connection and the seemingly powerless old woman manages to reward Liubi for the love she has shown her and give her the opportunity that she has been searching for in Greece.
 
A well-made and acted movie, definitely a B feature, but one that is warm and sensitively made, highlighting some flaws in the dysfunctional household in a country that is going through some tough times and is having to cope with numerous stressors and destabilisers of its social fabric.

ART SUNDAY - CEZANNE

“The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself.” - Paul Cezanne
 
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was a French painter who is often called the father of modern art. He strove to develop an ideal combination of naturalistic representation, personal expression, and abstract pictorial order. Among the artists of his time, Cezanne perhaps has had the most profound effect on the art of the 20th century. He was the greatest single influence on both the French artist Henri Matisse, who admired his use of colour, and the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, who developed Cezanne’s planar compositional structure into the cubist style. During the greater part of his own lifetime, however, Cezanne was largely ignored, and he worked in isolation. He mistrusted critics, had few friends, and, until 1895, exhibited only occasionally. He was alienated even from his family, who found his behavior peculiar and failed to appreciate his revolutionary art.
 
Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence in the South of France, on January 19, 1839. His family was well-to-do and his father was a successful banker. His boyhood companion was Émile Zola, who later gained fame as a novelist and man of letters. As did Zola, Cezanne developed artistic interests at an early age, much to the dismay of his father. In 1862, after a number of bitter family disputes, the aspiring artist was given a small allowance and sent to study art in Paris, where Zola had already gone. From the start he was drawn to the more radical elements of the Parisian art world. He especially admired the romantic painter Eugène Delacroix and, among the younger masters, Gustave Courbet and the notorious Édouard Manet, who exhibited realist paintings that were shocking in both style and subject matter to most of their contemporaries.
 
Many of Cezanne's early works were painted in dark tones applied with heavy, fluid pigment, suggesting the moody, romantic expressionism of previous generations. Just as Zola pursued his interest in the realist novel, however, Cezanne also gradually developed a commitment to the representation of contemporary life, painting the world he observed without concern for thematic idealisation or stylistic affectation. The most significant influence on the work of his early maturity proved to be Camille Pissarro, an older but as yet unrecognised painter who lived with his large family in a rural area outside Paris.
 
Pissarro not only provided the moral encouragement that the insecure Cezanne required, but he also introduced him to the new impressionist technique for rendering outdoor light. Along with the painters Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and a few others, Pissarro had developed a painting style that involved working outdoors (en plein air) rapidly and on a reduced scale, employing small touches of pure colour, generally without the use of preparatory sketches or linear outlines. In such a manner Pissarro and the others hoped to capture the most transient natural effects as well as their own passing emotional states as the artists stood before nature. Under Pissarro’s tutelage, and within a very short time during 1872-1873, Cezanne shifted from dark tones to bright hues and began to concentrate on scenes of farmland and rural villages.
 
Although he seemed less technically accomplished than the other impressionists, Cezanne was accepted by the group and exhibited with them in 1874 and 1877. In general, the impressionists did not have much commercial success, and Cezanne’s works received the harshest critical commentary. He drifted away from many of his Parisian contacts during the late 1870s and ‘80s and spent much of his time in his native Aix-en-Provence. After 1882, he did not work closely again with Pissarro. In 1886, Cezanne became embittered over what he took to be thinly disguised references to his own failures in one of Zola’s novels. As a result he broke off relations with his oldest supporter. In the same year, he inherited his father’s wealth and finally, at the age of 47, became financially independent, but socially he remained quite isolated.
 
This isolation and Cezanne’s concentration and singleness of purpose may account for the remarkable development he sustained during the 1880s and ‘90s. In this period he continued to paint studies from nature in brilliant impressionist colors, but he gradually simplified his application of the paint to the point where he seemed able to define volumetric forms with juxtaposed strokes of pure color. Critics eventually argued that Cezanne had discovered a means of rendering both nature’s light and nature’s form with a single application of colour.
 
He seemed to be reintroducing a formal structure that the impressionists had abandoned, without sacrificing the sense of brilliant illumination they had achieved. Cezanne himself spoke of “modulating” with colour rather than “modelling” with dark and light. By this he meant that he would replace an artificial convention of representation (modelling) with a more expressive system (modulating) that was closer still to nature, or, as the artist himself said, “parallel to nature”. For Cezanne, the answer to all the technical problems of impressionism lay in a use of colour both more orderly and more expressive than that of his fellow impressionists.
 
Cezanne's goal was, in his own mind, never fully attained. He left most of his works unfinished and destroyed many others. He complained of his failure at rendering the human figure, and indeed the great figural works of his last years—such as the “Large Bathers” (circa 1899-1906, Museum of Art, Philadelphia)—reveal curious distortions that seem to have been dictated by the rigour of the system of colour modulation he imposed on his own representations. The succeeding generation of painters, however, eventually came to be receptive to nearly all of Cezanne’s idiosyncrasies. Cezanne’s heirs felt that the naturalistic painting of impressionism had become formularised, and a new and original style, however difficult it might be, was needed to return a sense of sincerity and commitment to modern art.
 
For many years Cezanne was known only to his old impressionist colleagues and to a few younger radical post-impressionist artists, including the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and the French painter Paul Gauguin. In 1895, however, Ambroise Vollard, an ambitious Paris art dealer, arranged a show of Cezanne’s works and over the next few years promoted them successfully. By 1904, Cezanne was featured in a major official exhibition, and by the time of his death (in Aix-en-Provence on October 22, 1906) he had attained the status of a legendary figure. During his last years many younger artists traveled to Aix-en-Provence to observe him at work and to receive any words of wisdom he might offer. Both his style and his theory remained mysterious and cryptic; he seemed to some a naive primitive, while to others he was a sophisticated master of technical procedure. The intensity of his colour, coupled with the apparent strictness of his compositional organisation, signalled to most that, despite the artist’s own frequent despair, he had synthesised the basic expressive and representational elements of painting in a highly original manner.
 
In the painting above, “Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine” (ca 1887), at the Courtauld Institute of Art, we have a favourite theme of Cezanne’s The Montagne Sainte-Victoire is a mountain in southern France, overlooking Aix-en-Provence. It became the subject of a number of many of Cézanne’s paintings. In these paintings, Cézanne often sketched the railway bridge on the Aix-Marseille line at the Arc River Valley in the center on the right side of the picture. Especially, in Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley (1885–1887), he depicted a moving train on this bridge. Only half a year after the opening of the Aix-Marseille line on October 15, 1877, in a letter to Émile Zola dated April 14, 1878, Cézanne praised the Mont Sainte-Victoire, which he viewed from the train while passing through the railway bridge at Arc River Valley, as a “beau motif (beautiful motif)”, and, in about that same year, he began the series wherein he topicalised this mountain.

SERENE SATURDAY

“I am very willing to share whatever I know or feel I know about finding some serenity in this lifetime.” - Dirk Benedict
 

A wonderful Saturday! Lovely weather making it perfect for some early morning gardening and then out to watch a matinée performance , in the Arts Centre Melbourne of “Oh, Suivant!”. This is from Belgium and it is a two person show of Europe’s favourite street, circus and physical theatre performers, D’Irque and Fien. Oh Suivant! is a family-friendly show jam-packed with juggling and circus tricks, jaw-dropping acrobatics and playful audience interaction. Inspired by the slapstick and physical comedy of silent movies, Oh Suivant! is a modern-day clowning farce reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin. After years of intense training in circus arts and twelve years of experience in street theatre in over twenty countries, D’Irque and Fien present the Australian premiere of their street-wise blend of circus, physical theatre and live music in a Melbourne exclusive season. We enjoyed that, as did the many children who were present in the audience.
 

Then a lovely walk along the Yarra and a light lunch at Southbank, followed by wonderful afternoon and evening. Here is a marvellous piece by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), his “Messa a quattro voci da cappella”: 1.Kyrie; 2.Gloria; 3.Credo/ Sanctus 07:06; 4.Benedictus; 5.Agnus Dei. It is performed by the Ensemble Elyma directed by Gabriel Garrido.