MUSIC SATURDAY - CPE BACH

“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?” - Khalil Gibran
 

For Music Saturday, music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 - 1788), one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous composer sons. Born to Johann Sebastian and his first wife Maria Barbara, Emanuel followed the example of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann by qualifying as a lawyer before pursuing a musical career. He moved from Leipzig to Berlin in 1740 to be a harpsichordist in the court of Frederick the Great.
 

Despite the fact that his appointment seems to have been made directly by Frederick (he was chosen to accompany the newly crowned monarch and musician for his first solo flute concert) Bach didn’t appear to make much headway in the Prussian court, never becoming credited as an official composer. Even the visit of his father to Frederick’s court in 1747 (the now legendary meeting that led to the composition of the Musical Offering) did nothing to advance the son’s career, dogged by quarrels and criticism of his unorthodox and “affected” playing style.
 

CPE Bach left Frederick’s service in 1767 after the death of his godfather Telemann, whom he succeeded as director of music of the five city churches of Hamburg. He was greatly respected both as a composer and as a friend of some of the most distinguished writers and thinkers of his time. In 1755 he published his influential “Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments”.
 

From his very considerable output his sonatas for flute and harpsichord remain an attractive part of chamber-music repertoire, and his symphonies written for Baron van Swieten, arbiter elegantiarum in Vienna, a man whose taste was generally trusted in artistic matters, are similarly notable. Music by CPE Bach is often listed with a reference number from the catalogue of his works by Wotquenne (Wq).Orchestral Music.
 

CPE Bach wrote a set of six String Symphonies, Wq. 182 for Baron van Swieten (diplomat, Court Librarian in Vienna and patron of Haydn and Mozart) as well as a set of four Orchestral Symphonies, Wq. 183 that include wind instruments. Four flute concertos, Wq. 166–9, are arranged from the composer’s own harpsichord concertos, as are the three cello concertos, Wq. 170–2 and the oboe concertos, Wq. 164–5.
 

The varied chamber music of CPE Bach includes five sonatas for flute and harpsichord, Wq. 83–7, five trio sonatas for flute, violin and basso continuo, Wq. 143–7, and an unusual Sonata for solo flute, Wq. 132.
 

CPE Bach wrote a great deal of music for the instruments on which he was acknowledged to be pre-eminent as a performer: The harpsichord and the gentler clavichord. These include Six Sonatas, Wq. 49 and Twelve Variations on the best known of contemporary themes for variations, “La Folie d’Espagne”, Wq.118.9.
 

Here are the transverse flute concertos, music which is elegant and inventive as well as pleasantly surprising and full of wonderful contrasts.

FOOD FRIDAY - AUSSIE MEAT PIES

“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” - Vince Lombardi
 
As tomorrow is the Australian Rules Football Grand Final in Melbourne, with the Western Australia side, Fremantle playing against the Victorian side, Hawthorn, the recipe today is for traditional Aussie meat pies. This is the standard fare during the game, served with lots of tomato sauce. I guess you can always make it vegetarian by substituting stewed lentils for the minced meat, but the sportspeople would consider it sacrilegious!
 
Aussie Meat Pies
Ingredients
 
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
500g lean beef mince
1 tablespoon cornflour
3/4 cup beef stock
3/4 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
1 tsp salt
Finely ground pepper, mace, cumin to taste
2 sheets frozen, ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, thawed
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten
 
Method
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion. Cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add mince. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, or until browned.
 
Mix cornflour and 1 tablespoon of stock to form a paste. Add remaining stock. Add stock, sauces and spices to mince. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 8 minutes or until thick. Cool.
 
Preheat oven to 220°C. Place a baking tray into oven. Grease 4 x 8cm base measurement pie pans.
 
Cut 4 x 15cm circles from shortcrust pastry. Use to line bases and sides of pans. Fill with mince. Brush rims with water. Cut 4 x 15cm circles from puff pastry. Place over meat. Press to seal. Trim. Brush with egg. Season.
 
Place pies onto hot tray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. Serve.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

CHANGE - A POST REDUX

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” - Anatole France
 

Another big change is about to happen in my life, and this one I have brought upon myself, so I am looking forward to it. Many people struggle with change and they feel more comfortable with the security of routine. Stability and predictability seem easier to deal with and most people given a choice would opt for this sedate existence where things change as little as possible. The quiet waters of a lake are less challenging than the changeable ocean where its serenity can become a tempestuous maelstrom from one minute to the next. Although I enjoy serene waters as much as the next person, I do desire some variety and yearn for new challenges with ripples and waves in the sea of my life.
 

Our modern urban existence is a constantly changing environment and the pace of change seems to be increasing with enormous rapidity year by year. Technology is making our lives more complex, and more dependent on it, and it seems even the simplest of our activities relies more and more on technology every day. Even our lifestyle and morals are changing rapidly. People are more likely to change jobs more often, change partners, change hairstyle, change the place where they live. People change attitudes, change their minds and the way they live more easily and more readily than they used to, say 50 years ago. Some may interpret this as an increased stressor in today’s lifestyle. Others welcome the freedom that such changes may bring with them.
 

If change is looked upon with a positive attitude, people will find it easier to deal with. If one accepts the change, then dealing with it becomes simpler. This is especially true if the change is from an external source that one has no control over. What one must do is analyse the change, look for new opportunities brought about by the change and then act so as to make the most of those new opportunities within the context of the new changes. It is quite important to stay flexible and relaxed about the change, which will allow rapid response to obstacles that may appear ahead.
 

Stubborn resistance to change is a negative response and many people may hang onto the old status quo, denying that change is taking place. This means that one cannot respond to the new state of affairs, there is inflexibility, reduced ability to react in appropriate ways and one is more likely to be dismissed as one that clings to the past and is unable to keep up with the new ways.
 

I like change and welcome it when it happens. Sometimes I bring it on myself as I see the opportunities that the change brings with it. However, when one moves on and commits to the change, there is some sadness that accompanies the end of an era and the commencement of a new one. This needs to be acknowledged, and accepted and sufficient time need be given to the grieving process that will inevitably occur. Once one has dealt with this, the changed environment can be embraced and its opportunities exploited.

FALLING...

“Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what's in a name?” - Helen Hunt Jackson
 

“The Moth and the Lamp” by Cesar Santos (detail above) is this week’s visual stimulus for Magpie Tales’ followers who take the challenge to verbally create a suitable response.

The artist, Cesar Santos, (b. 1982) is a  Cuban-American. His art education is worldly, and his work has been seen around the globe, from the Annigoni Museum in Italy, the Beijing museum in China to Chelsea NY. Santos studied at Miami Dade College, where he earned his associate in arts degree in 2003. He then attended the New World School of the Arts before travelling to Florence, Italy. In 2006, he completed the “Fundamental Program in Drawing and Painting” at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, studying under Michael John Angel, who was a student of artist Pietro Annigoni.
 

Santos’ work reflects both classical and modern interpretations juxtaposed within one painting. His influences range from the Renaissance to the masters of the nineteenth century to Modernism. With superb technique, he infuses a harmony between the natural and the conceptual to create works that are provocative and dramatic.
 

Among Santos’ solo shows are “Paisajes y Retratos” in the National Gallery in San Jose, Costa Rica; “Syncretism” in the Eleanor Ettinger Chelsea Gallery in New York; “Beyond Realism” with Oxenberg Fine Arts in Miami and “New Impressions” in the Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio, among many others>

The artist has received numerous accolades, including first place in a Metropolitan Museum of Art competition. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America, including the Frost Art Museum in Miami, the Villa Bardini Museum in Florence and the National Gallery in Costa Rica (from his website).
 

Here is my offering:
 

Falling in Love
 

Your mouth, a flower,
A sweet flower full of nectar.
Your mouth a trap, a spider sitting on its web.
A spider waiting for a victim –
And I, a weak incautious butterfly
That flies, hovers and falls
Into your fatal mesh.
 

Your eyes, as double suns shine,
Transmitting rays of light effulgent,
Attracting me to their deadly fires.
The suns hot and indifferent,
And I, a moth, helpless, impotent
Who flies there itself to immolate,
Without alternative or choice.
 

Your arms, fresh branches
Of the greenwood tree;
They seem benign, innocent.
Your hands offer caresses
But in the end mete out death.
A little sparrow I, fly into the darkness,

Only to perish immobile in your birdlime.

A CONFERENCE

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” - Albert Einstein
 

I attended a conference in Sydney these past two days and it has left me quite excited and brimming full of ideas. I participated both as a speaker and as a chair of a day's sessions. The two roles are different, yet related, in both cases acting as the agent that stimulates all-inclusive discussions with the attendees. However, I also enjoyed my function as an engaged audience member, who contributed to the general discussion.
 

The group attending was relatively small, but this perhaps contributed to the success of the conference as there was active engagement of all participants. The conference was an excellent opportunity for networking, for contributing to an ideas fest and for also being made aware of developments in the higher education sector across Australia and the rest of the world. Overall, if chosen well, such conference activities can revitalise an academic's stagnant mental marshes and will serve as a powerful creator of currents of intellectual activity.
 

The reason conferences are such a good scholarly activity is that they bring under the one roof people that share similar ideas, interests, jobs, contacts. Attendees are in a receptive frame of mind and at the right time and place. The bringing together of so many people under the same roof where they actively engage with one another and exchange ideas is conducive to active thinking, generation of new ideas, learning and exploration of brave new territory. Conferences  are safe environments for discourse, for thinking out loud and provoking people with some left field concepts and intellectual challenges. It is a good environment for oneself to be challenged and provoked!
 

The theme of the conference was using big data in driving strategic direction at universities. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much good work is being done in Australia at the present time by some very passionate and dedicated academics, administrators, executives and support personnel. The speakers were Australian and knowledgeable, experienced and engaging.

JOTTINGS FROM SYDNEY

“The party is a true art form in Sydney and people practise it a great deal. You can really get quite lost in it.” - Baz Luhrmann
 
I am in Sydney for work again and have been going flat out with little time to spend on the computer. As well as attending a conference, presenting and chairing a whole day’s proceedings, I have had meetings with some people and working dinners. At least the whole thing is close to Darling Harbour and I did manage to have a stroll there after the long day was over…
 
Darling Harbour is intended to be one of Sydney’s trendy places, although some visitors find it lacking in character (and greenery). It used to be a former dockside area, but now the small functional harbor of yore has been transformed into a major tourist site and a leading convention and exhibition centre.
 
A monorail service used to run from the Central Business District to Darling Harbour and skirted the harbour, making stops at points around the harbour. However, this year the monorail is being dismantled and its skeletal remains are to be seen in various parts of the city. Until now, Darling Harbour has been a place that has appealed more to kids, due to the number of children’s attractions, but the advent of the Cockle Wharf restaurant and cafe complex has added a new dimension to Darling Harbour.

ART SUNDAY - THOMAS HART BENTON

“A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires.” - Hedy Lamarr
 

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) is one of the best-known muralists associated with the American Scene Painting movement of the 1930s. Benton’s portrayals of pre-industrial agrarian life and his later emphasis on the plight of the working class in the post-Depression era earned him a reputation as a social activist, and he gained publicity through public works projects. Benton’s Regionalism gained him recognition through public art works in highly visible locations such as banks, post offices, and political buildings. The Indiana Murals, Benton’s most well-known and most controversial work, is exemplary of both the Regionalist style of painting and his focus on social commentary. As part of the state of Indiana’s contribution to the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, the Indiana Murals depict the oppressed farmers, Ku Klux Klan members, and big business as negative actors in society. After Benton’s success with the Indiana Murals, he took a teaching position at the Kansas City Art Institute. For the rest of his career, Benton remained in the Midwest and focused on public murals, leaving a legacy that captured the character of the collision between agrarian life and industrialisation in 1930s America.
 

Though Benton gained fame as an artist in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Paris, he was born in rural Neosho, Missouri. Despite his strong political background and the encouragement of his congressman father, Benton shunned politics in favour of art school. After a short stint as a cartoonist, Benton enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907 and later transferred to the Academie Julian in Paris. In Paris, Benton met renowned Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, whose use of vivid colours and portrayal of social realities would heavily influence Benton’s style during the formative years of Regionalism.
 

After returning from Paris in 1913, Benton took up a job as a draughtsman for the Navy and switched from painting landscapes to sketching scenes from shipyard life. These early years as an artist, characterised by migration between disparate environments like the rural American Southeast, the Paris art scene, and the Naval shipyards, played an integral role in crystallising Benton’s view of the tension between cosmopolitan and agrarian life.
 

Back in the New York art scene during the 1920s, Benton taught at the Art Students League and began to gain acclaim for his works that addressed the social realities of the city. Benton also became more directly involved in leftist politics, an association that may have directly spawned the works known today as part of the Regionalist movement. In many ways, Regionalism thrived in the wake of the American art renaissance at the turn of the century. The success of the Ashcan School (1910) demonstrated a uniquely American movement away from dependence on European art aesthetic and sought to claim a legitimacy for a strictly American art at the international level.
 

American Scene Painting during the 1930s took up the challenge of the Ashcan School by depicting everyday life in America in a representational, easily accessible style. Modern art historians generally consider Regionalism to be the subset of American Scene Painting, which deals more directly with the incorporation of art into the public hemisphere in order to evoke nostalgia for pre-industrial America. Social Realism, the other subset of American Scene Painting, places a heavier emphasis on art as a vehicle for political and social critique. Noted Regionalists include Grant Wood and Ben Curry, both contemporaries of Benton. These painters primarily gained publicity through federal art projects funded as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, and their works reflect the desire to appeal to a public aesthetic.
 

Benton eventually moved to Kansas City, where he painted some of his most well-known works such as the Independence Murals and the Truman Library, and where he lived for until his death in 1975. Benton’s works during his years in Kansas City reflected his new environment: The beauty of the rural Midwest and the life of small farmers. At the same time, the relentless forces of American industrialisation and capitalism made their way into Benton’s works, and American icons of progress, railroads, city culture, and cars, begin to encroach on the Benton’s idyllic pastoral scenes. Towards the end of Benton’s life, he turned away from the role of social critic and produced more portraits and works for decorative purposes. Benton died in 1975, in his studio, but left a rich history of American culture and society during the 1930s and 40s in his wake.
 

Benton began the mural above, “Independence and the Opening of the West” at the Truman Library and Museum in 1960. The artist documents the Plains Indians’ struggle against the hunter, trapper, the French and the permanent settlers. Independence was known as the last city before the frontier. While Benton was painting this mural Truman and he became friends and Truman was even known to climb up on the scaffolding with the artist and occasionally daub a bit of paint on the sky. Although Truman did not want to be immortalised as a subject in a mural, he viewed Benton’s work favourably.

ORFEO ED EURIDICE

“Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.” - Plato
 
For Music Saturday, “Orfeo ed Euridice”, an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck (2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the “azione teatrale”, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing. The piece was first performed at Vienna on 5 October 1762. “Orfeo ed Euridice” is the first of Gluck's “reform” operas, in which he attempted to replace the abstruse plots and overly complex music of opera seria with a “noble simplicity” in both the music and the drama.
 
The opera is the most popular of Gluck's works, and one of the most influential on subsequent German opera. Variations on its plot – the underground rescue-mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions – include Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Beethoven’s Fidelio and Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
 
Though originally set to an Italian libretto, “Orfeo ed Euridice” owes much to the genre of French opera, particularly in its use of accompanied recitative and a general absence of vocal virtuosity. Indeed, twelve years after the 1762 premiere, Gluck re-adapted the opera to suit the tastes of a Parisian audience at the Académie Royale de Musique with a libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline. This reworking was given the title "Orphée et Eurydice", and several alterations were made in vocal casting and orchestration to suit French tastes.
 
This 1982 performance is with the London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Festival de Opera, conducted by Raymond Leppard, With Janet Baker and Elisabeth Speiser in the title roles.

FOOD FRIDAY - VEGETARIAN FRITTATA

“Asparagus inspires gentle thoughts.” - Charles Lamb
 

Asparagus is in season at the moment and it is delicious! This vegetarian frittata is a dish that is very popular with us and according to the season, we vary the vegetables that are included in it.
 

Vegetarian Frittata
Ingredients
 

50 g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
250 g asparagus tips
1 leek, sliced white part
6 medium mushrooms, sliced
2/3 cup grated parmesan
1/3 cup grated tasty cheese
6 eggs
1/2 cup cream
Salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste
1 zucchini, parsley and a few button mushrooms to decorate, if desired
 

Method
Blanch asparagus tips until tender. Shred the broccoli florets and blanch for a short time. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the olive oil and cook leek for a few minutes stirring all the while until soft. Add the thinly sliced mushrooms, cook for a little until tender. Add the broccoli and asparagus and cook until well coated in fat. Remove from heat and leave aside.
When cool, add the  grated cheeses to the vegetables and put in a greased flan dish.
Beat eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a bowl. Pour over the vegetable and cheese mixture. Sprinkle a little extra grated parmesan over the top.
If you wish to decorate with zucchini and mushrooms, slice the zucchini and mushrooms finely and sauté until tender. Arrange over the frittata.
Bake in a moderate oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden-brown. Sprinkle some chopped parsley on top.
Tastes very good the next day also.
 

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

MID-AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL

“And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin’ brown and golden under a sinkin’ sun.” - Roy Bean
 
Falling on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second grandest festival after the Spring Festival in China. It takes its name from the fact that it is always celebrated in the middle of the autumn season. The day is also known as the Moon Festival, as at that time of the year the moon is at its roundest and brightest. In 2013, this falls on September 19.
 
People in mainland China enjoy one day off on the festival which is usually connected with the weekend. In Hong Kong and Macau, people also enjoy one day off. However, it is not scheduled on the festival day, but the following day and it is usually not connected with the weekend. In Taiwan, the one-day holiday falls on the festival day.
 
Mooncakes (月饼; yuè bĭng) are a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiujie). Mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy at this time. They are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4–5 cm thick. This is the Cantonese mooncake, eaten in Southern China in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau. A rich thick filling usually made from red bean or lotus seed paste is surrounded by a thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea. Today, it is customary for businessmen and families to present them to their clients or relatives as presents, helping to fuel a demand for high-end mooncake styles.
 
Australia has a high proportion of Chinese-Australians who hold on to their culture and traditions. Organised by the Melbourne Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, the Melbourne Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, now in its 23rd year, is an annual multicultural celebration for all ages and is one of the most highly anticipated events in Melbourne.
 
The Festival showcases Asian culture, traditions and cuisines, as well as encouraging communities from all across Melbourne to join in celebrating the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, traditionally a time for family and friends to gather and admire the mid-autumn harvest moon. It also promotes community harmony, strengthening the understanding of Asian - Australian culture.
 
The event will be celebrated this weekend in many Melbourne locales. In Boxhill, with its high numbers of Chinese Australians, the event will be celebrated with many varied activities. With over 60 marquees, the event will include various international cuisines, arts and crafts, lantern decorating, as well as a full entertainment program - including the Opening Ceremony, lion dancing, live performances, games, competitions and SBS broadcasting van.

THE VOYAGE

“A ship is safe in harbour, but that's not what ships are for.” - William Shedd
 
Magpie Tales has selected this week a fragment of a map showing St Ninian’s isle. This is a small tied island connected by the largest active tombolo (a bar of sand or shingle joining an island to the mainland) in the UK to the south-western coast of the Mainland, Shetland, in Scotland. The tombolo, known locally as an ayre, from the Old Norse for ‘gravel bank’, is 500 metres long. Except at extremely high tides, the sand is above sea level and accessible to walkers.
 
Depending on the definition used St. Ninian’s is thus either an island, or a peninsula; it has an area of about 72 hectares. The nearest settlement is Bigton on South Mainland. The important Early medieval St Ninian’s Isle Treasure of metalwork, mostly in silver, was discovered under the church floor in 1958. Many seabirds, including puffin visit the island, with several species nesting there.
 
Magpie’s followers who take up the creative challenge will pen a suitable response. Here is my offering:
 
The Voyage
 
I am readying myself for a long voyage
On an ocean of tears wept long ago.
Dry-eyed now I fashion out of the fragments of my heart
A new, sea-faring ship with sails unfurling.
 
I am readying all that I shall take with me
Wrapping it in a cloth woven of old sorrows -
Would any other contain loss, despair, defeat?
Would any other wrap bitterness, pain, regret?
 
I am readying myself for the stormy seas ahead
By burning my remembrances, tearing my maps,
Scraping my tablet’s wax, denying all that I have learnt
Effacing dearly paid for past experience.
 
I am readying flesh and soul that they endure
New hardships, new sufferings, new betrayals.
I take with me the same knife that wounded me before
Resigned to let it test my scars for yet new pain.
 
And then what if before my voyage ends,
Even as I set my eyes on distant and welcoming new shores,
What if it should come to pass
That my feeble craft fail and sink?
That would not stop me boarding it,
I am ready for the shipwreck,
For after all I have survived a shipwreck once before...

POSTCARD FROM SYDNEY

“Travel and change of place impart new vigour to the mind.” - Seneca

Sydney is Australia’s largest city, and capital of the state of New South Wales. Located on Australia’s southeastern coast, Sydney has a magnificent harbour and a strategic position, making it one of the most important ports in the South Pacific. In the early 19th century, when it was still a small convict settlement and the first settlers had barely penetrated the interior, it had already established trade with the Pacific Islands, India, China, South Africa, and the Americas.

The first sight of Sydney, whether from the sea or the air, is always spectacular. Built on low hills surrounding a huge harbour with innumerable bays and inlets, the city is dominated by the bulk of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the longest steel-arch bridges in the world, and the Opera House, with its glittering white shell-shaped roofs that seem to echo the sails of the many yachts in the adjacent harbour. The intricate confusion of water and buildings makes a striking impression either by day or by night.

Because of its history as a great port and its status as the site of the country’s main international air terminal, Sydney is perhaps the only city in Australia with a genuinely international atmosphere. Yet it remains a very Australian city, with a nice compromise between the Anglo-Saxon efficiency of its British heritage and the South Seas attractions of its climate and environment. The area of the City of Sydney is 26.2 square km; while the Sydney Statistical Division is 12,406 square km. The population of greater Sydney is nearly five million people.

ART SUNDAY - IL BRONZINO

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
 
For Art Sunday, “Il Bronzino”, whose original name was Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano Tori Agnolo (also spelled  Agniolo). Il Bronzino was born November 17, 1503, Florence and died November 23, 1572, in Florence and his polished and elegant portraits are outstanding examples of the Mannerist style. These works are classic embodiments of the courtly ideal under the Medici dukes of the mid-16th century. The artist was well-known and successful during his lifetime and he influenced European court portraiture for the next century.
 
Particularly in his early work, Bronzino was greatly influenced by the work of his teacher, the Florentine painter Jacopo da Pontormo. Bronzino adapted his master’s eccentric, expressive style (early Mannerism) to create a brilliant, precisely linear style of his own that was also partly influenced by Michelangelo and the late works of Raphael. Bronzino served as the court painter to Cosimo I, duke of Florence, from 1539 until his death.
 
His portraits, such as “Eleanor of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni” (a detail of which is shown above), are preeminent examples of Mannerist portraiture: Emotionally inexpressive, reserved, and noncommittal, yet arrestingly elegant and decorative. Bronzino’s great technical proficiency and his stylised rounding of sinuous anatomical forms are also notable. He also painted sacred and allegorical works of distinction, such as “The Allegory of Luxury, or Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time” (c. 1544–45), which reveals his love of complex symbolism, contrived poses, and clear, brilliant colours.
 
Mannerism (from maniera, “manner,” or “style”), is an artistic style that predominated in Italy from the end of the High Renaissance in the 1520s to the beginnings of the Baroque style around 1590. The Mannerist style originated in Florence and Rome and spread to northern Italy and, ultimately, to much of central and northern Europe. The term was first used around the end of the 18th century by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Lanzi to define 16th-century artists who were the followers of major Renaissance masters.
 
Mannerism originated as a reaction to the harmonious classicism and the idealised naturalism of High Renaissance art as practiced by Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael in the first two decades of the 16th century. In the portrayal of the human nude, the standards of formal complexity had been set by Michelangelo, and the norm of idealised beauty by Raphael. But in the work of these artists’ Mannerist successors, an obsession with style and technique in figural composition often outweighed the importance and meaning of the subject matter. The highest value was instead placed upon the apparently effortless solution of intricate artistic problems, such as the portrayal of the nude in complex and artificial poses.
 
Mannerist artists evolved a style that is characterised by artificiality and artfulness, by a thoroughly self-conscious cultivation of elegance and technical facility, and by a sophisticated indulgence in the bizarre. The figures in Mannerist works frequently have graceful but queerly elongated limbs, small heads, and stylised facial features, while their poses seem difficult or contrived. The deep, linear perspectival space of High Renaissance painting is flattened and obscured so that the figures appear as a decorative arrangement of forms in front of a flat background of indeterminate dimensions.
 
Mannerists sought a continuous refinement of form and concept, pushing exaggeration and contrast to great limits. The results included strange and constricting spatial relationships, jarring juxtapositions of intense and unnatural colours, an emphasis on abnormalities of scale, a sometimes totally irrational mix of classical motifs and other visual references to the antique, and inventive and grotesque pictorial fantasies.

MUSIC SATURDAY - RAMEAU

“For a gallant spirit there can never be defeat.” - Wallis Simpson
 

For Music Saturday, here is Jean Philippe Rameau’s 1735 complete opera, “Les Indes Galantes”, performed by Les Arts Florissants and directed by W Christie.
 

Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764) was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin.
 

Little is known about Rameau’s early years, and it was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his ‘Treatise on Harmony’ (1722). He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests. His debut, ‘Hippolyte et Aricie’ (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked for its revolutionary use of harmony by the supporters of Lully’s style of music. Nevertheless, Rameau’s pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, and he was later attacked as an “establishment” composer by those who favoured Italian opera during the controversy known as the ‘Querelle des Bouffons’ in the 1750s.
 

Rameau’s music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent.

EASY FRUIT LOAF

“Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, a box where sweets compacted lie.” - George Herbert
 

To tempt the sweet-toothed, and be in keeping with the sweetness of the season, here is an easy recipe for a cake that is relatively healthful and not overly sweet, but at the same time easy to make. The yoghurt topping is optional, but it does give an extra hint of sweetness and is quite creamy, if you really do like your cakes sweeter.
 

Easy Fruit Loaf
Ingredients
 

1 cup toasted rolled oats
1 cup chopped mixed fruit (apricots, dates, sultanas, citrus peel)
1 packed cup brown sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup of milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground cloves
1/3 tsp ground nutmeg
 

Method
Preheat oven to 160-170˚C.
Mix together the dry ingredients and spices.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk.
Mix well and pour into a lined and greased loaf tin.
Bake 45 minutes to an hour, until a skewer driven into the cake comes out clean.
The cake mixture is wet and the slower you cook it, the moister it remains.
You may ice the cake with a yoghurt topping:
 

Topping
3 cups icing sugar
¼ cup softened butter
170 ml plain low fat yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
Crushed walnuts
Mix butter and sugar, stirring in yoghurt and vanilla essence until smooth. Decorate with crushed walnuts.
 

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

HERBAL MEDICINE

“We have finally started to notice that there is real curative value in local herbs and remedies. In fact, we are also becoming aware that there are little or no side effects to most natural remedies, and that they are often more effective than Western medicine.” - Anne Wilson Schaef
 

Every year, in the third week of September in Australia, National Herbal Medicine Week is observed. This is a time that the public is made aware of the importance of herbs (and plants in general), as sources of medicinal preparations. Herbal medicine practitioners promote herbal medicine to the general public, they correct misinformation and myths surrounding herbal medicine, and they share their knowledge and show people the strength, potential and value of herbal medicine. In both the West and the East, herbal medicine has a strong tradition that goes back for thousands of years.
 

Nearly a quarter of all modern medicines are derived from natural products, many of which were first used in traditional remedies. In Africa and Asia, 80% of the population still uses traditional remedies rather than modern medicine for primary healthcare. Even in developed nations, traditional medicine is gaining appeal. Up to 80% of the population in Western countries has tried an alternative therapy such as traditional Chinese medicine or herbal medicine. A survey conducted in 2010, found that 74% of US medical students believe that Western medicine would benefit by integrating traditional or alternative therapies and practices.
 

The industry is worth big money. In 2005, traditional medicines worth US$14 billion were sold in China. And in 2007, Brazil saw revenues of US$160 million from traditional therapies, part of a global market of more than US$60 billion. It is no wonder that many multinational drug companies are now devoting many resources to making and marketing natural medicines and supplements.
 

Modern medicine is desperately short of new treatments. It takes many years for a new drug to get through the research and development pipeline to manufacture and the cost is enormous. Dependable remedies in the modern doctor’s armamentarium may also become obsolete as growing drug resistance evolves. This is especially associated with the misuse of antibiotics and has rendered several such medications and other life-saving drugs useless. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning their eyes to traditional medicine and herbal compounds.
 

Making traditional medicine mainstream and incorporating age-old substances and treatments into modern healthcare is difficult. Ensuring that traditional medicines meet modern safety and efficacy standards is not easy. There is also concern among conservationists that a growing traditional medicine market threatens biodiversity through overharvesting of wild medicinal plants. Beyond the sustainability of natural resources, combining traditional and modern medicines faces challenges that are the result of key differences in how each is practiced, evaluated and managed. One the one hand there is the empirical, ad-hoc, individualised approach of traditional medicine, while on the other hand, the Western medical approach is rigorously regulated and prescriptive, rigid and formulaic, as well as being supported by evidence through experimental and clinical trials.
 

There is no doubt that traditional medicine has much to offer global health, especially as new drugs are urgently needed. If both developed and developing countries joined research capacities in collaboration, new scientific techniques could spark a revival in global health research and development and many of the age-old herbal treatments and traditional lore could be incorporated usefully into modern medicine practice. Integrating traditional medicine into modern healthcare is certainly being taken seriously by some of the biggest research bodies worldwide. In 2007, 62 countries had national institutes for traditional medicine — up from 12 in 1970.

9/11 A SAD ANNIVERSARY

“Terrorism has once again shown it is prepared deliberately to stop at nothing in creating human victims. An end must be put to this. As never before, it is vital to unite forces of the entire world community against terror.” - Vladimir Putin
 

On September 11, 2001 the USA came under terrorist attacks, which are also called the 9/11 attacks. These were a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda (whose name in Arabic means “the base”) against targets in the USA, the deadliest ever terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history.
 

The attacks against New York City and Washington, DC, caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous USA effort to combat terrorism. Some 2,750 people were killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania (where one of the hijacked planes crashed after the passengers attempted to retake the plane); all 19 terrorists died. Police and fire departments in New York were especially hard-hit: Hundreds had rushed to the scene of the attacks, and more than 400 police officers and firefighters were killed.
 

The worldwide distress caused by the attacks was overwhelming. Unlike the relatively isolated site of the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941, to which the September 11 events were soon compared, the World Trade Center lay at the heart of one of the world’s largest cities. Hundreds of thousands of people witnessed the attacks firsthand (many onlookers photographed events or recorded them with video cameras), and millions watched the tragedy unfold live on television. In the days that followed September 11, the footage of the attacks was replayed in the media countless times, as were the scenes of throngs of people, stricken with grief, gathering at “Ground Zero” (as the site where the towers once stood came to be commonly known) some with photos of missing loved ones, seeking some hint of their fate.
 

Despite their success in causing widespread destruction and death, the September 11 attacks were a strategic failure for al-Qaeda. Following September 11, al-Qaeda lost the best base it ever had in Afghanistan. The succession of events and the retaliatory strikes by the USA and its allies subsequent to 9/11 culminated in the death of Osama Bin Laden, several years after the attacks. On both sides, the number of innocent victims was immense.
 

As these attacks are remembered and commemorated, their significance in 21st century world history assumes a greater role, considering that terrorism is far from over and that the “war on terror” initiated by George W Bush is far from over and certainly not victorious. The recent events in Syria are but one example of how innocent civilians are victims in internecine struggles where a regime does not hesitate to use weapons that are heinous and will kill non-discriminately all in their range. This is the basis of terrorism – all manner of violent acts, which are intended to create fear and which are perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of civilians.
 

Are we ever likely to mature as a civilised species and be able to coexist peacefully with one another? Are we ever likely to respect others and tolerate differences in ideology, religion or politics? Shall we ever unite in universally condemning acts of terrorism or indeed war? Are we even close to a universal brotherhood of man, where the world is a place of peace and where nations help each individual on earth of battling with each other for reasons that are at best described as ludicrous? Current affairs and the despairing news one hears every day seems to indicate that this is still a dream, unfortunately…

THE MUSES

“Sing, O Muse, of the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another…” – Homer, Iliad
 
The Muses of Greek mythology are the daughters of Zeus and the titaness Mnemosyne, who personified memory. The nine Muses are the nymphs of the arts and sciences, and as such inspire all artists, poets, philosophers, and musicians. They are the companions of Apollo, the god of the sun, light, the arts, music, poetry and healing. In his role, as leader of the Muses, Apollo is given the name Musagetes – ‘Muse Leader’. Each Muse presides over a particular form of literature, art or science.
 
To begin with, the Muses were probably a vague collections of deities, undifferentiated within the group, which are characteristic of certain, probably early, strata of Greek religion. Differentiation is a matter of mythological systematisation rather than of cult, and began with the 8th-century-BC poet Hesiod, who mentioned by names all nine muses, as well as their tutelary attributes.

Muse	Name Meaning	Domain	Emblem
Calliope	Beautiful-voiced	Epic Poetry	Writing tablet
Clio	Glorious	History	Scrolls
Erato	Passionate	Love Poetry	Cithara
Euterpe	Delightful	Song and Elegiac Poetry	Aulos (flute)
Melpomene	Songstress	Tragedy	Tragic Mask
Polyhymnia	Of many hymns	Hymns	Veil
Terpsichore	Delights in dance	Dance	Lyre
Thalia	Burgeoning	Comedy	Comic Mask
Urania	Celestial	Astronomy	Celestial globe

According to the Greek Myths, in his usual philandering manner, Olympian Zeus lusted after the young titaness Mnemosyne, the daughter of Gaia and Uranus. He overcame her and slept with her for nine consecutive nights. The result of their encounter was the Nine Muses, who were endowed with beauty, intellect and enormous talent in literature, the arts and the sciences.
 
Mnemosyne gave the babies to the nymph Eupheme to nurture, while Apollo was entrusted with their education. Apollo took them to beautiful Mount Helicon, where an old Temple of Zeus used to be. The Muses dedicated their lives to their arts. Ever since then, the Muses have supported and encouraged creation, enhancing the imagination and providing inspiration of artists.
 
According to Greek Mythology, two of the Muses invented the theory and practice of learning, three of the Muses invented the musical vibrations of the lyre, four of the Muses invented the four known dialects of the Greek language (Attic, Ionian, Aeolian and Dorian), and five of the muses the five human senses. Seven of the muses invented the seven chords of the lyre, the seven celestial zones, the seven planets and the seven vowels of the Greek Alphabet.
 
Very little is known of the cult of the muses, but they had a festival every four years at Thespiae, near Helicon, and a contest (Múseia), presumably in singing and playing. They probably were originally the patron goddesses of poets (who in early times were also musicians, providing their own accompaniments), although later their range was extended to include all liberal arts and sciences—hence, their connection with such institutions as the Museum (Mouseíon, seat of the Muses) at Alexandria, Egypt.

MOVIE MONDAY - JOHN CARTER

“It’s not going to do any good to land on Mars if we’re stupid.” - Ray Bradbury
 

Last weekend we watched a sci-fi film that reminded me of the good, old-fashioned space sagas, with lots of adventure and lush visual effects. It was Andrew Stanton’s 2012 film “John Carter”, starring Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and Willem Dafoe. The movie was based on Edgar Rice Burroughs “A Princess of Mars” (the first in a series of 11 novels), which I had read in my youth and which I had enjoyed. The screenplay was written by the director, in collaboration with Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon.
 

John Carter is a US Civil War veteran who in 1868 is trying to live a normal life. He is approached by the Army and asked to rejoin as he is needed to quell an Indian uprising. As he has had enough of war, he refuses and is thus locked up. He escapes and is pursued by soldiers, who are confronted by Indians. Carter escapes into a cave, which turns out to be the legendary cave of gold he has been searching for. While in the cave he meets someone who is holding a strange medallion. When Carter touches it, he finds himself in another world, “Barsoom”; a place where he can leap incredible heights and has prodigious strength. He encounters strange tall, green-skinned beings he has never seen before. Later, he meets a woman who helps him to discover that he is on Mars. To his chagrin he discovers he is caught in the made of a war and he needs to pick sides in order to survive.
 

The film reminded me of Avatar in some ways, however, it was a really good, original one with its 132 minutes being well-spent and never along its length did we feel it was too long. The CGI are outstanding and this is what one would expect from the Disney studios. We watched in on Bluray and the colour, clarity and interweaving of live action with CGI were breathtaking. Overall the cinematography, costumes, sets, look and feel of the film was fantastic. It appears the film suffered greatly from bad criticism, but I found that this was unfair.
 

The two leads were relatively unknown and this was one of the critics’ beefs. Taylor Kitsch is convincing and natural, while Lynn Collins is beautiful and dashing, a good foil to the heroics of the leading man. Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkas and Samantha Morton as Sola, Mark Strong as the evil Matai Shang all the cast is without exception excellent. The music by Michael Giachinno is remarkably well suited to the action, and the editing by Eric Zumbrunnen supports the narrative greatly.
 

This is a film I would happily watch again in the near future and this is a good enough recommendation for it. The plot is satisfying and has enough twists and turns to keep one amused. The production values are high, the acting is good and at over two hours long if it leave you wanting more at the end, I think it has ticked all of the entertainment boxes.
 

Here is a trailer made by fans as opposed to the official one. I think this one is superior…

ART SUNDAY - GRANDMA MOSES

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” - Tom Stoppard
 

Anna Mary Robertson was born in Greenwich, New York, on September 7, 1860, but she is more well-known as Grandma Moses. She was the third of ten children born to Russell King Robertson, a farmer, and Margaret Shannahan. She had a happy childhood and worked hard on their family farm. Her father enjoyed seeing the children’s drawings and would buy them large sheets of blank newsprint upon which they could draw. The young Anna Mary loved to draw happy, colourful scenes. She only attended school in the summer due to the cold and her lack of warm clothing. At twelve she began earning her living as a hired girl at homes near the family farm.
 

In 1887 Anna Mary married a farm worker, Thomas S. Moses, and the couple settled on a farm in Virginia. They had ten children, five of whom died at birth. In 1907 the family moved to Eagle Bridge, New York, where Grandma Moses spent the rest of her life. It was on this farm in Eagle Ridge that Anna Mary painted her first painting. She was wallpapering her parlour and ran out of paper. To finish the room she put up white paper and painted a scene. It is known as the “Fireboard”, and it hangs today in the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. Her husband died in 1927, and her son and daughter-in-law took over the farm. As she aged and found farm work too difficult, Grandma Moses took up embroidering pictures in yarn to fill her spare time. At the age of seventy-six, because of arthritis, she gave up embroidery and began to paint. Her early work was usually based on scenes she found in illustrated books and on Currier and Ives prints (prints made during the 1800s, showing American lives, historical events, and celebrities).
 

In 1938 Grandma Moses’s paintings were discovered by an art collector and engineer, Louis Caldor. He saw a few of her paintings displayed in the window of a drug store in Hoosick Falls, New York, while on vacation. He purchased these, and the next day he bought all the paintings Grandma Moses had at her farm. In October of 1939, three of these paintings were exhibited at the “Contemporary Unknown Painters” show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Her first one-woman show was held in New York City in 1940 and immediately she became famous. Her second one-woman show, also in New York City, came two years later. By 1943 there was an overwhelming demand for her pictures, partially because her homespun, country scenes brought about wonderful feelings and memories for many people.
 

Most of Grandma Moses’s paintings were done on pieces of strong cardboard, 24 by 30 inches or less. She regularly portrayed happy scenes of rural home life, sometimes picturing herself as a child. She also painted a number of historical pictures, usually about her ancestors, one of whom built the first wagon to run on the Cambridge Pike. In some works figures are dressed in eighteenth-century costumes, as people might have dressed in the country. Certain colour schemes correspond to the various seasons: White for winter, light green for spring, deep green for summer, and brown for autumn. Among her most popular paintings are “The Old Oaken Bucket” (1943, shown above), “Over the River to Grandma’s House”, “Sugaring Off”, and “Catching the Turkey”.
 

Grandma Moses worked from memory, portraying a way of life she knew from experience. The people in her paintings are actively engaged in farm tasks, and, although separated, are part of the established order of seasonal patterns. In most paintings the landscape is shown as a large, scenic view and would be completed before the tiny figures were put in. Grandma Moses died on December 13, 1961.
 

Technically, the work of naive painters is distinguished by a conceptual (a general and broad view) rather than a visual or realistic and accurate approach to painting. This involves an innocent picture using a linear format (flat, one dimensional space) that portrays scenes and people with an absence of weather in the skies and shadows around shapes. Some of the strengths of primitive painting lie in the feeling for pattern that is painted into the picture and the charm of the mood that is projected from the work. In Grandma Moses’s paintings the viewer often feels the joy of life illustrated in the scenes. “In McDonnel’s Farm” (1943), for example, a group of children are shown in a circular dance at the right, while all the other figures are busily engaged in farm tasks: One man loads the hay wagon, another harvests, another cuts the grass with a hooked tool called a scythe. In her paintings there is no despair, unhappiness, or aging, yet this unrealistic view of life is presented with remarkable power.