MOVIE MONDAY - SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS

“Act well your part, there all the honour lies.” - Alexander Pope

We watched a very good 1999 film on DVD, “SnowFalling on Cedars” by Scott Hicks. It explores the theme of love and hate relationships, prejudice, the concept of honour and justice and how far we are prepared to go in order to possess what we want. The cast was excellent, with Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max von Sydow, Rick Yune, James Rebhorn, James Cromwell, Richard Jenkins. The film may have been lacking in some aspects of character development and may have slipped into some clichés, but the cinematography was absolutely stunning. The images of the Washington state winter are magnificent and the scenes of sea and forest, town and country, past and present are juxtaposed beautifully, contributing much to the plot.

The film is set in a small town in the State of Washington. It is the ninth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a young man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), a much decorated American soldier during the war, is on trial for the murder of local fisherman Carl Heine (Eric Thal). Covering the trial is reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke), whose father, Arthur (Sam Shepard), had been a respected newspaperman locally for many years, known as a man who was not afraid to speak from his conscience when writing an editorial, and who took a stand for the Japanese locals during the emotionally exasperating years encompassing World War II.

Ishmael is trying desperately to cover fairly Kazuo’s trial, but finds himself troubled by a conflict of interests; he has a history with Kazuo's wife, Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), a former relationship reaching back to their childhood, but which ended with the onset of the war. And Ishmael still is grappling with the bitterness he has felt since that time, born of his experiences in the military, as well as Hatsue’s rejection of him. He is now forced to objectively observe this pivotal point in her life, watching from the sidelines and seeing first hand the effects of the prejudice that is very much alive among the local citizens, and which threatens the assurance of an impartial judgment in Kazuo’s case; a judgment that will determine the future of not only Kazuo, but of Hatsue, the woman Ishmael once loved, and still does.

Seeing that I have mentioned the word, cinematography is the art and technology of motion-picture photography. It involves such techniques as the composition of a scene; lighting of the set or location; the choice of cameras, lenses, filters, and filmstock; the camera angle and movements; and the integration of any special effects. All these concerns may involve a sizeable crew on a feature film, headed by a person variously known as the cinematographer, first cameraman, lighting cameraman, or director of photography, whose responsibility is to achieve the photographic images and effects desired by the director.

Differences between photography and cinematography are many. A single photograph may be a complete work in itself, but a cinematographer deals with relations between shots and between groups of shots. A main character, for instance, may initially come on screen unrecognizable in shadows and near-darkness. This as a single shot, may be poor photography, but cinematographically it leads into other shots that reveal the man and give the movie style and integration. Cinematography is also far more collaborative than photography. The cinematographer must plan his work with the producer, the director, the designer, the sound technicians, and each of the actors.

The camera crew itself may be very complex, especially in a feature film with a big budget. The chief cinematographer supervises a second cameraman who handles the camera; an assistant operator whose main function is to adjust the focussing; an assistant known as the clapper-loader, or clapper boy, who holds up the slate at the beginning of the shot, loads the magazines with film, and keeps a record of the footage and other details; and the “grips,” who carry or push around equipment and lay tracks for the camera dolly. The cinematographer may also be in charge of the gaffer, or chief electrician (a lighting technician), who is assisted by one or more “best boys.” A big-budget film may also have additionally a special-effects crew and sometimes a whole second unit of cinematographer and assistants.

ART SUNDAY - JAKUB SCHIKANEDER

“Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe.” - JK Rowling

Jakub (or Jakob) Schikaneder (February 27, 1855, Prague – November 15, 1924, Prague) was a Bohemian painter who was born into a German family. He was the second son of Karel and Leokadie Schikaneder. His father Karel Fridrich (1811–1871) worked as a military clerk. He received a military discharge for disability in 1836 and then worked as a customs office clerk and was later promoted to the post of deputy at the Imperial and Royal Customs Office headquarters in Prague. His mother Leokadie (1819–1881), née Běhavá, came from the family of a teacher at the St Giles’ Church school. Despite the family’s poor background, Jakub was able to pursue his studies, thanks in part to his family’s love of art; an ancestor was Urban Schikaneder, the elder brother of the impresario and librettist Emanuel Schikaneder (the librettist of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”).

After having completed his studies in Prague and Munich (1871–1879), Schikaneder, alongside Emanuel Krescenc Liška, was involved in the furnishing of the royal box in the National Theatre in Prague; however, this work was lost in a fire in 1881. On July 5, 1884, Schikaneder married Emilie Nevolová (1859–1931), daughter of Josef Nevole, a railway clerk in Prague, in the St Nicholas Church in Prague’s Vršovice quarter. The newlyweds moved into the wife’s apartment in house No. 640 at the corner of Rubešova and Jungmannova (today’s Vinohradská) streets in Prague-Vinohrady, where Schikaneder lived until his death (the house was torn down in the 1980s). The Schikaneders’ son Lev Jan was born in May 1885, but died several days later of congenital weakness.

In 1885, Schikaneder was named assistant to František Ženíšek at the School of Decorative Arts in Prague. Later, he became director of a special school of flower painting, and when Ženíšek left the school for the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1896, Schikaneder took over his decorative painting studio. The professorship enabled him to undertake several study trips in Europe in the 1890s. He repeatedly visited Paris and went as far as Sicily. He travelled across England and Scotland with Josef Thomayer in 1895. Interestingly, Schikaneder spoke English. He also participated in decorating the exhibitions of the School of Decorative Arts at the World Fair in Paris in 1900 and St. Louis, Missouri in 1904.

Schikaneder withdrew from public life at the end of the first decade of the 20th century and no longer exhibited his paintings. He continued teaching at the School of Decorative Arts, even during World War I. His studio was only open to a small group of friends and collectors, such as physician and author Josef Thomayer, lawyer Leopold Katz, pharmacist Karel Vostřebal, Prague mayor Josef Rotnágl and lawyer Josef Šafařík. Schikaneder died suddenly on November 15, 1924, aged 69. He is buried in Vinohrady Cemetery in Prague.

Schikaneder is known for his muted paintings of the outdoors, often melancholy and lonely in mood. His paintings often feature poor and outcast figures, these genre paintings making some social or emotional comment. Other motifs favoured by this artist were autumn and winter, corners and alleyways in the city of Prague and the banks of the Vltava – often in the early evening light, or cloaked in mist. His first well-known work was the monumental painting “Repentance of the Lollards” (2.5m × 4m), now lost. The National Gallery in Prague held an exhibition of his paintings from May 1998 until January 1999.

The painting above, “Murder in the House” Národní Galerie v Praze (1890; Oil on canvas, 203 × 321 cm) is typical of Schikaneder’s oeuvre. Dark, muted tones, a lugubrious subject and an image that tells a tragic story. There is an air of mystery and intrigue in the painting, amplified by the young woman’s bloody corpse on one side, counterbalanced by the group of people on the left. Each figure standing is displaying a different emotion and different depth of involvement with the crime and dead woman. There is tension and apprehension in the piece, amplified by the composition and the realist manner in which the artist has portrayed the event.

Schikaneder presented this work in 1890 at the international exhibition in Berlin, Germany. The painting was a sensation in Prague one year later at the Jubilee Exhibition’s Czech art display. Reportedly, however, the crowds of visitors mostly wondered if the painting depicted the young girl’s murder or suicide.

Recent research identified the specific place that inspired Schikaneder. The dark courtyard was actually the opening of the dead-end Špitálská street leading from Rabínská street in the Jewish Quarter. Schikaneder was very familiar with the Prague Ghetto before its clearance, as he had lived in house No. 186 at the corner of Dušní and Masařská streets in Josefov at the ghetto’s periphery since 1872. In the late 19th century, the Jewish Ghetto was a social ghetto, too, where the poorest of Prague’s inhabitants lived. In this context, Schikaneder’s painting can be seen as social criticism.

In Schikaneder’s oeuvre, “Murder in the House” closes a continuous series of artworks with the theme of the tragic fate of women. In Czech art of the last third of the 19th century, it represents a rare attempt to express both realist and naturalist tendencies in painting.

MUSIC SATURDAY - DVORAK'S REQUIEM

“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” - George Eliot

Antonín Leopold Dvořák (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer. Following the nationalist example of Bedřich Smetana, Dvořák frequently employed features of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia (then parts of the Austrian Empire and now constituting the Czech Republic). Dvořák’s own style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them.”

Born in Nelahozeves, Dvořák displayed his musical gifts at an early age. His first surviving work, Forget-Me-Not Polka in C (Polka pomněnka) was written possibly as early as 1855. He graduated from the organ school in Prague in 1859. In the 1860s, he played as a violist in the Bohemian Provisional Theatre Orchestra and gave piano lessons. In 1873, he married Anna Čermáková, and left the orchestra to pursue another career as a church organist. He wrote several compositions during this period.

Dvořák’s music attracted the interest of Johannes Brahms, who assisted his career; he was also supported by the critics Eduard Hanslick and Louis Ehlert. After the premiere of his cantata “Stabat Mater” (1880), Dvořák visited the United Kingdom and became popular there; his Seventh Symphony was written for London. After a brief conducting period in Russia in 1890, Dvořák was appointed as a professor at the Prague Conservatory in 1891. In 1892, Dvořák moved to the United States and became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City, where he also composed. However, shortfalls in payment of his salary, along with increasing recognition in Europe and an onset of homesickness made him decide to return to Bohemia.

From 1895 until his death, he composed mainly operatic and chamber music. At his death, he left several unfinished works. Among Dvořák’s best known works are his “From The New World Symphony”, the “American String Quartet”, the opera “Rusalka” and his “Cello Concerto in B minor”. Among his smaller works, the seventh “Humoresque” and the song “Songs my mother taught me” are also widely performed and recorded. He composed operas, choral music, a wide variety of chamber music, concerti and many other orchestral and vocal and instrumental pieces. He has been described as “…arguably the most versatile composer of his time.

Here is his “Requiem in B flat Minor” Op. 89, B 165, a funeral mass for soloists, choir and orchestra, composed in 1890. Dvořák composed the Requiem at the beginning of his peak creative period. The construction of the mass is not typical: The composition is divided in two basic parts, each of which begins with the original interconnection of several liturgical sequences. Dvořák inserted between the “Sanctus” and “Agnus Dei” a lyrical “Pie Jesu” movement based on the final text of the “Dies Irae” sequence.

The Requiem's basic melodic motif is created by two ascending half-tones with an incorporated very sorrowful diminished third, which begins the piece and continues in many variations as the main motif throughout the whole work. Dvořák’s Requiem is a supreme opus of classicist-romantic synthesis. This composition inspired many other Czech composers, such as Josef Suk and Bohuslav Martinů. This composition was performed for the first time on 9 October 1891, in Birmingham, England, with the composer conducting.

FOOD FRIDAY - QUINOA TABOULI

“No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” - Samuel Johnson

Quinoa is a superfood that is very healthful and contains a large variety of nutrients. It looks and cooks like grain, but quinoa is actually a seed with high levels of antioxidant phytonutrients. It’s higher in fat than grains like wheat, and provides heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, in the form of oleic acid. It’s also much higher in protein than most grains.

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), which is a crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudo-cereal rather than a true cereal, as it is not a member of the true grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beetroots, spinach and tumbleweeds. After harvest, the seeds must be processed to remove the coating containing the bitter-tasting saponins. The seeds should always be rinsed very well to remove any traces of the bitterness remaining.

Quinoa seeds are in general cooked the same way as rice and can be used in a wide range of dishes. Also, unlike many grains, quinoa is quick and easy to cook, and quite tasty. It cooks faster than rice and has lots more nutrients (essential amino acids like lysine, fibre and acceptable quantities of calcium, phosphorus, and iron, as well as being gluten-free). Mild-flavoured, it complements well any vegetable, cheese, meat or seafood that you can cook with. It comes in a variety of colours including white, red and black and can be served hot or cold. Quinoa leaves are also eaten as a leaf vegetable, much like amaranth, but the commercial availability of quinoa greens is limited.

QUINOA TABOULI
Ingredients
1 and 3/4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup coarsely chopped seeded tomato
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped seeded cucumber
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons minced fresh onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Method
Combine stock and quinoa in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat; fluff with a fork. Stir in tomato and remaining ingredients. Cover; let stand 1 hour. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

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

A GREEK ISLAND

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back whence we came.” - John F. Kennedy

The island of Poros is situated off the East coast of the Peloponnesus, a stone’s throw away from the little coastal town of Galatas.  Less than an hour’s journey from Athens' port, Piraeus, on the Flying Dolphin hovercraft, it is a magical place to visit, exemplifying in many ways the picture of a Greek island most people have in their imagination.

It is a small place, in reality two islands that are joined together by a short isthmus. The smaller of the two, Sphaeria, and the larger Calavria. Ancient settlements on both islands are known from references in ancient authors, but little now remains in the form of ruins. A few slabs of marble from a temple of Poseidon on a wind-blown hill surrounded by pine trees, schinum bushes and yellow stubbly summer-dried grass is enough to evoke ancient mysteries while one gazes at the deepest azure of the sea stretching out to the horizon.

What a magical place those few ruins become in the searing shimmering heat of Greek midsummer!  The drone of the cicadas is made more intense by the heat and the sparkle of the sea while the far-off susurration of the waves breaking gently on the shore is enough to transport one to another age.  How easy it is to imagine the centuries past crumble into insignificance while one is watching the crystal waters of the Aegean lap the embroidered scalloped shores...

Bathing in those same waters while the heat is at its most intense is easily accomplished at any of a hundred or more suitable places all around the coast.  A little to the North of the Neorion bay about 100 meters from the main road joining the two islands is an enchanting little cove, “Love Bay”.  The water is an aqueous greenish blue, crystal clear, reflecting the overhanging pine boughs from the trees that grow almost to the water’s edge.

Look on the smooth rocks that dot the shore on either side of the rocky beach and you will see the black spiny sea urchins that threaten your naked feet.  Limpets hold tightly fast on those same rocks and through the magnifying lenses of the clear sea a hundred little fishes dart around in packed shoals.  The common black urchin of the Mediterranean is easily that day’s lunch by the same shore that invites you back from your swim.

The way that these sea urchins are prepared is simplicity itself, provided one takes care to wear sturdy gloves as the spines are sharp and very pointy. A sharp knife is used to cut open the urchins so that the middle cavity is exposed.  The orange roe is the only edible tasty part.  Wash the roe with sea-water and squeeze ample fresh lemon juice onto the roe.  Eat from the shells with freshly baked crusty bread.

POETRY JAM - THE OWL

“The wailing owl screams solitary to the mournful moon.” - David Mallet

Poetry Jam this week is devoted to owls. We are enjoined to: “So this week think and write about this mysterious of birds. This wonderful, beautiful free spirit of the night sky.”

Here is my contribution:

The Owl and the Moon

Tu-whit tu-whoo...
The owl cries and the crickets chirp
As full moon rises,
Tonight.

Who calls? Who walks?
When all would sleep,
As clouds part,
Tonight?

Tu-whit tu-whoo,
With eyes wide-open,
Mirroring owl-moon,
Tonight!

A ghost? A sprite?
Unquiet graves haunting,
As moon spellbinds,
Tonight…

Tu-whit tu-whoo -
Fear not, walk slow,
True wisdom’s always silent,
Stay calm, and banish demons
Tonight and every night.

My hand is cold,
My heart beats quick,
As owl hoots, tu-whoo,
And nightjar warbles,
Tonight.

An owlet screeches,
A nighthawk cries:
My love wanes cold,
My bed lies empty
Tonight and every night…

APOLLO AND DAPHNE

“Force may subdue, but love gains, and he that forgives first wins the laurel.” - William Penn

Apollo was the ancient Greek god of the sun, light, music, medicine and art. He was the twin brother of Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt and nature. Daphne was Apollo’s first love and this was not brought about by accident, but by the malice of Eros (Cupid), the mischievous son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Apollo saw the boy Eros playing with his bow and arrows, and being proud of his recent victory over Python, the evil snake that had pursued his pregnant mother, he said to Eros: “Why do you play with warlike weapons, boy?  Leave them for hands worthy of them. Look at my worthy bow and arrows with which I won my battle with Python, who stretched his poisonous body over acres of the plain!”

Aphrodite’s son heard these words, and replied: “Your arrows may strike all things and kill without error, Apollo, but mine shall strike you, and make you regret your words!” He stood on a rock of Mount Parnassus, and drew from his quiver two arrows of different effect, one to excite love, the other to repel it.  The former was of gold and sharp-pointed, the latter blunt and tipped with lead. With the lead shaft he struck the nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, and with the golden one Apollo, through the heart. Immediately, the god passionately fell in love with Daphne, and at the same time, she abhorred even the thought of loving. She delighted in woodland sports and the hunt. When her father asked her to relent and marry to give him a grandson, she said: “Dearest father, grant me this favour, that I may always remain unmarried, like Artemis.”  He consented.

Apollo loved Daphne, and longed to make her his own. He followed her; she fled, swifter than the wind, and would not be swayed by his sweet words.  “Don’t run,” he said, “I am not an enemy, but someone who loves you. I am the god of song and the lyre.  My arrows fly true to the mark; but an arrow more fatal than mine has pierced my heart!  I am the god of medicine, and know the virtues of all healing plants.  But, now I suffer an illness that no balm can cure!”

The nymph continued to run, and would not hear of his entreaties. The god grew impatient to find his wooing rejected, and, sped by Eros, was about to reach her. As her strength failed and saw that she was about to be caught, she called upon her father, the river god: “Help me, my father, Peneus!  Open the earth to swallow me up, or change my form so that I may not be caught and raped!”

Her father heard her and he granted her request. A stiffness seized Daphne’s limbs; her bosom began to be enclosed in a bark; her hair became leaves; her arms became branches; her feet drove in the ground, as roots; her face became a tree-top, retaining nothing of its former self but its beauty.  Apollo stood amazed.  He touched the stem, and felt the flesh tremble under the new bark. He embraced the branches, and lavished kisses on the wood.  The branches shrank from his lips. “Since you cannot be my wife,” he said, “you shall assuredly be my tree.  I will wear you for my crown.  With you I will decorate my harp and my quiver; and when the great Roman conquerors lead up the triumphal pomp to the Capitol, you shall be woven into wreaths for their brows.  And, as eternal youth is mine, you also shall be evergreen, and your leaf know no decay.”  The nymph, now changed into a laurel tree, bowed its head in grateful acknowledgment and the god since then wore a garland of laurel.

The painting above is Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s “Apollo Pursuing Daphne”, c. 1755.

MOVIE MONDAY - AL OTRO LADO

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” - PopeJohn XXIII

A very good Mexican film for Movie Monday today. It is Gustavo Loza’s 2004 film “Al OtroLado” starring Carmen Maura, Héctor Suárez, Vanessa Bauche. Loza also wrote the screenplay for this movie, and it was selected by the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the Official Entry for Mexico in the 78th Annual Academy Awards in the Foreign Language Film category. Although the film did not win an Oscar, it was awarded the prize of the Jury at the 4th Latin America Film Festival in Bremen in 2006. The film also won awards at the Lleida Latin-American Film Festival 2006 and the Newport Beach Film Festival 2006.

The film is a drama featuring three stories on a similar theme about the bonds between children and absent fathers. A Mexican boy, Prisciliano, experiences the absence of his father who decides to go and work in USA as an illegal immigrant. A Cuban boy, Ángel, who lives in poverty with his mother and grandfather, longs to visit his father who lives in USA. A Moroccan girl, Fatima, attempts to reunite with her father, who is working in Spain. The stories are interwoven and the themes are explored in each case with the dangers facing the children who seek their fathers highlighted as the film progresses.

The Mexican story is the most extensively covered and is strengthened by the quasi-fantasy inset of an ill-fated Pre-Columbian princess who haunts a lagoon. The Cuban story was quite tragic and the Moroccan tale had us squirming with its realism, and we were very concerned about poor little Fatima’s fate. As the tales mingle, the pathos of the three children who all wish to be reunited with their absent fathers makes for compelling viewing.

The acting was extremely good and the three children played admirably. After all it is their film, with the adults having supporting roles. The cinematography was very good and the music outstanding – sympathetic to the action, appropriate and never intrusive, but always noticeable. I guess that is what good film music is all about.

“Al Otro Lado” is a modest movie, 90 minutes long, but nevertheless contains great storytelling and avoids cheap sentimentalism, which it could easily have descended into. Telling the story from the viewpoint of the children, reduces it to its most essential and human component, with emigration seen as terrible thing that separates families. The stories are told sincerely, with some funny moments and some poignant ones.  We enjoyed it very much and recommend it most highly.

ART SUNDAY - WILLIAM GLACKENS

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” - Jonathan Swift

William James Glackens (born March 13, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died May 22, 1938, Westport, Conn.), was an American artist whose paintings of street scenes and middle-class urban life rejected the dictates of 19th-century academic art and introduced a matter-of-fact realism into the art of the United States. He was a member of the artists group, The Eight, who favoured cheerful subjects of leisure activities over the dark manner and social realism of others in that circle.

Born in Philadelphia, Glackens attended Central High School along with John Sloan and the collector Albert C. Barnes. In 1891 he began a career as an artist-reporter for various Philadelphia newspapers and in the evenings, attended classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. That same year Sloan introduced him to Robert Henri, with whom Glackens shared a studio for a year and a half. After travelling to France and The Netherlands in 1895, Glackens moved to New York, where he continued working as an artist-reporter, magazine illustrator, and painter. In 1898 he accompanied the U.S. Army to Cuba to record the Spanish-American War for McClure’s magazine.

In 1904, Glackens gave up illustration in order to devote himself to painting. He made a second trip to Europe in 1906, returning to New York to prepare for an exhibition of paintings by The Eight held in 1908. In the same year, one of Glackens’s paintings was shown at the National Academy of Design, where the New York public was surprised at the change in the artist’s palette. After nearly a decade and a half of producing paintings that reflected the influence of Robert Henri in their muted colours and gestural brushstrokes, Glackens, inspired by his visits to France and the Netherlands, had turned to depicting outdoor scenes, using bright, lively colours.

His change in style was reinforced by frequent trips to France, including a 1912 journey sponsored by his friend Albert Barnes, who sent Glackens to France as his agent to purchase contemporary French paintings, including works by Cézanne, Matisse, and Renoir. Glackens served as chairman of the committee that selected American art for the Armory Show in 1913, and later, in 1917, was first president of the Society of Independent Artists.

Glackens’s mature style suggests Monet’s paintings of the 1860s in the broad and direct treatment of colour, quick touch, and jewel-like dashes of colour that denote foliage and the sun’s shimmering reflections on the water. Glackens distinguished himself from impressionism, however, by not allowing light to dissolve the contour of his forms. From about 1925 to 1932 he divided his time between New York and France, but he continued his involvement in the New York art world and his friendship with other artists associated with The Eight until his death in 1938.

Glackens is sometimes criticised for his similarity to Renoir. The critics branded him as an imitator. The charge was made that during the 1920s and 1930s “his once vigorous artistic personality had been blunted by too close an imitation of Renoir’s late style.” Glackens himself seems not to have been affected by any doubts about his own purpose and originality. His art did not reflect the social crises of the day, such as the Great Depression; rather, it offered a refuge from that darkness.

Collector Albert C. Barnes bought many of Glackens’ best paintings, some of which are exhibited by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Juliana Force were admirers and purchased works for the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Duncan Phillips purchased a Glackens oil for the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The largest collection of Glackens’ art has been housed since 2001 at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, where an entire wing is dedicated to his work; the museum holds approximately 500 Glackens paintings in its permanent collection.

The painting from ca 1905 above, “Central Park in Winter” (63.5 x 76.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City) is a favourite of mine. Glackens often favoured the almost square format shown here and this particular painting shows his style well. A nicely composed canvas, with rich colours, despite the wintry scene and fluid lines with strategically placed figures that show him to be a master of observation.

MUSIC SATURDAY - RACHMANINOFF

“Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” - Tom Lehrer

For Music Saturday, Sergei Rachmaninoff playing his own Concerto No 2 for Piano and Orchestra.  The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900. The complete work was premiered, again with the composer as soloist, on 9 November 1901, with his cousin Alexander Siloti conducting. This piece is one of Rachmaninoff's most enduringly popular pieces, and established his fame as a concerto composer.

The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat(I mov.) and A (II & III mov.), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in B flat, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, solo piano and strings. It is written in three-movement concerto form.

FOOD FRIDAY - PASTELI

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” - Laura Ingalls Wilder

For Food Friday today, a Byzantine recipe. The Byzantine Empire was the Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally known as Byzantium. Initially it was the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the Eastern Roman Empire in this context), and it survived the 5th century fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire, continuing to exist for an additional thousand years until Byzantium fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.

We know the Byzantines ate three meals a day - breakfast, midday meal and supper. They had many fast days, corresponding with the Greek Orthodox Christian tradition. While the lower classes made do with what they could get, the upper classes were served three courses at their midday and supper meals consisting of hors d’oeuvres, a main course of fish or meat and a sweet course.

They ate all kinds of meats including pork, and numerous types of fowl. Large amounts of fresh fish and seafood were very popular given the proximity of the sea. There were many types of soups and stews and salads were popular. They liked a variety of cheeses and fruits, the latter being eaten both fresh and cooked. Fruits included apples, melons, dates, figs, grapes and pomegranates. Almonds, walnuts, and pistachios were used in many dishes as well as being eaten by themselves. Sugar was not known in Europe at the time, so the sweetening agent used was honey.

PASTÉLI (Sesame-Honey Diamonds)

Ingredients
Honey
Toasted sesame seeds (put into the oven and roast until golden – do not over-cook!)
Orange flower water

Method

Use equal weights of honey and sesame seeds. In a heavy skillet bring the honey to a very firm ball stage (120° to 125° C). Stir in the sesame seeds and continue cooking until the mixture comes to a bubbling boil. Spread the mixture 1 cm thick on a marble slab or tray moistened with orange flower water. Cool and cut into small diamonds. Garnish each diamond with a blanched, toasted almond if desired.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part fo the Food Trip Friday meme.

APHRODITE AND ADONIS

“Love is powerful. It can bring the gods to their knees.” ― Rick Riordan

Aphrodite (Venus) was the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty and her son was Eros (Cupid). Eros was a playful and mischievous child who had a toy bow and arrow, whose points however, were sharp and dangerous. When he shot his arrows into the breast of both mortals and gods, they fell in love with whomever they saw first. When Aphrodite was playing with her son one day, she inadvertently wounded her bosom with one of his arrows.  She pushed the child away in pain, and saw that the wound was deeper than she thought. 

Before the goddess’s wound healed she saw a handsome mortal youth, Adonis, and instantly fell in love with him. She no longer took any interest in her favourite resorts, Paphos, and Cnidos, and Amathos. She even kept away from Olympus and the company of other gods, as Adonis was dearer to her than heaven. She followed him everywhere and kept him company. She who used to lie in the shade, with no care but to cultivate her charms, now rambled through the woods and over the hills, dressed like the huntress Artemis, accompanying the young Adonis while he hunted.  She called her dogs, and chased hares and stags, or other game that it is safe to hunt, but kept clear of the wolves and bears, reeking with the slaughter of the herd.

She told Adonis to beware of dangerous animals in the hunt. “Take care how you expose yourself to danger, and put my happiness to risk. Don’t attack the beasts that Nature has armed with weapons. Think of the terrible claws and strength of lions and bears and boars!  I hate the whole race of them.” She said. Having given him this warning, she mounted her chariot drawn by swans, and drove away through the air.

Adonis was too noble and brave to heed Aphrodite’s warnings. The dogs had roused a wild boar from his lair, and the youth threw his spear and wounded the animal with a sidelong stroke.  The beast drew out the weapon with his jaws, and rushed after Adonis, who turned and ran; but the boar overtook him, and buried his tusks in his side, and he stretched out, dying on the plain.

Aphrodite, in her chariot, had not yet reached Cyprus, when she heard coming up through midair the dying groans of her beloved, and turned her chariot back to earth. As she drew near and saw from on high his lifeless body bathed in blood, she alighted, and bending over it beat her breast and tore her hair.  Reproaching the Fates, she said, “Yet you shall have but a partial triumph; memorials of my grief shall endure, and the spectacle of your death, my Adonis, and of my lamentation shall be annually renewed.  Your blood shall be changed into a flower; that consolation none can envy me.”

She sprinkled nectar, the drink of the gods, on Adonis’s blood; and as the two mingled, bubbles rose, and forthwith there sprang up a flower of bloody hue like that of pomegranate seeds.  But it is short-lived.  It is called Adonis flower (Adonis annua), or Pheasant’s Eye, and it blooms in Autumn in North Africa, Western Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe.

POETRY JAM - SAVOUR THE FOOD

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” - T. S. Eliot
 
Poetry Jam this week has asked participants to: “Write a culinary poem. Write about your favorite food, a special meal you remember, a family recipe that has been passed over the years. Your poem can be literal or metaphorical, simple or complex…”
Here is my offering:
 

Drinking Bitter Coffee at the Café of Broken Promises
 
Quite by chance, I went by the Café
Where once – a lifetime ago – we had sought
Shelter from Autumn rain.
I wandered in, half expecting to see you smiling,
Beckoning me from that same booth
That we had shared, while grey afternoon wore on,
And rain, thankfully, kept falling...
 

We shook the rain off our hair – I remember –
And how we laughed, as the tabletop was spread
With hundreds of diamonds: Raindrops that caught
The pale yellow light of the bare bulb above,
Shattering its puny glow into a million sunrays
That illumined richly for that moment
The deepest cellars of our souls.
 

We sipped the steaming coffee and it was sweet nectar,
Although we clean forgot to sugar it.
Our legs brushed under the table
And your eyes promised me a hundred happinesses;
“Tomorrow...” you had whispered and I only smiled,
My silence more eloquent than a thousand pictures...
 

I order coffee yet again this Spring morning
And though the sun shines brightly outside,
I am sure I can hear the drumming of rain on the tin roof.
I lose count of the lumps of sugar
I am drowning in my cup, but each sip of coffee
Is more bitter than the one before it.
 

I stretch my legs beneath the table
Encountering a bottomless abyss,
While from the neighbouring booth, someone laughs,
And says quite loudly: “It was yesterday!”
 

By chance, I find myself once again
Drinking bitter coffee in some city Café;
A tawdry, cheap, noisy, smoky place,
Where one would never go to more than once...

JOHNNY APPLESEED IN LITHUANIA

“Every solution of a problem is a new problem.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

Today is the National Day of Lithuania (Day of Restoration of Independence of Lithuania - from the Soviet Union in 1990); and Johnny Appleseed Day in the USA. The Orthodox Church today celebrates the Venerable Theodora of Arta, Queen of Arta, wife of Despot Michael II of Epirus (ca 1275) and Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem, Patriarch of Jerusalem (638). The Catholic Church celebrates Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Gobnait.
 

In 1858 the immaculate Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, near Lourdes in France, in the cavern called “de Massabielle.” Through this poor, fourteen-year-old girl, Mary calls on sinners to change their lives. She has inspired in the Church a great love of prayer and good works, especially in the service of the poor and the sick.
 

St Gobnait is a fifth-century Irish saint. Although there are many legends and traditions associated with her, there are few if any historical facts. This commonly happens to people whose memory is kept alive by tradition rather than written records, and it casts no doubt on her existence or her merits.
 

Today is also the anniversary of the birth of:
Torquato Tasso, Italian poet (1544);
Urbain Le Verrier, astronomer (1811);
Henry Tate, Tate gallery founder (1819?);
Marius Petipa, choreographer (1822);
Raoul Walsh, actor/film-maker (1887);
Henry Dixon Cowell, composer (1897);
Dorothy Gish (Dorothy de Guiche), actress (1898);
Frederick IX, king of Denmark (1899);
Lawrence Welk, US bandleader (1903);
Harold Wilson, UK politician (1916);
Nicolaas Bloembergen, Nobel Laureate (1981) physicist (1920);
Althea Louise Brough, tennis player (1928);
David Gentleman, painter (1930);
(Keith) Rupert Murdoch, media magnate (1931);
Douglas Noel Adams, author (1952).
 

The bee orchid, Ophrys apifera, is the birthday flower for this day.  The generic name is derived from the Greek word for eyebrow, ophrys, according to Pliny in reference to the use of the plant for darkening ladies’ eyebrows.  Apifera in Latin signifies bee-bearing reflecting the flower’s resemblance to a bee.  The flower symbolises error.
 

Dying on this day: In 1602, Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Italian composer of one of the first operas; 1820, Benjamin West, US painter who became President of the Royal Academy in London; in 1820, Sir Alexander McKenzie, Scottish explorer of Canada; in 1955, Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist and discoverer of penicillin; in 1957, Earle Stanley Gardner, US lawyer and crime writer who created Perry Mason; in 1957, Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, US aviator and explorer.
 

John Chapman (September 26, 1774 – March 11, 1845), often called Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present day West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples. He was also a missionary for The New Church (Swedenborgian) and the inspiration for many museums and historical sights such as the Johnny Appleseed Museum in Urbana, Ohio and the Johnny Appleseed Heritage Center in between Lucas, Ohio and Mifflin, Ohio.
 

The popular image is of Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seeds randomly, everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbour who sold trees on shares, and returned every year or two to tend the nursery. Although apples grown from seed are rarely sweet or tasty, apple orchards with sour apples were popular among the American settlers because apples were mainly used for producing hard cider and apple jack. In some periods of the settlement of the Midwest, settlers were required by law to plant orchards of apples and pears in order to uphold the right to the claimed land. So Johnny Appleseed planted orchards that made for popular real estate on the frontier.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE MASTER

“Defined in psychological terms, a fanatic is a man who consciously over-compensates a secret doubt.” - Aldous Huxley
 
We watched a curious film recently, one which I can’t really say whether I liked or not. It was a little tedious, but at the same time one wanted to see what was going to happen, if anything. It reminded of many other films and novels and one could see the inspiration for it must have come from a range of other pieces. It was Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 film, “The Master” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Amy Adams. At 144 minutes it was a very long, long film – or so it seemed. The film was written and directed by Anderson.
 
Anderson has several successful movies under his belt, and I have seen and enjoyed some of them: “Magnolia” (perhaps my favourite), “Punch-Drunk Love”, and “There Will Be Blood” (another very good film). So this film of his rather disappointed us. I suspect that in a few weeks time, I shall have quite forgotten it. Don’t take me wrong, it is a highly polished piece of film-making, with good acting, great cinematography (70 mm print), good music, great period sets, but it lacked a certain something and failed to fully engage me. On reflection, the most serious defect was the weakness of the script.
 
In a nutshell, the plot concerns Freddie Quell (Phoenix) who is a troubled alcoholic and self-destructive drifter. Quell unwittingly becomes the right-hand man of Lancaster Dodd (Seymour Hoffman), ‘The Master’ of a cult named ‘The Cause’ in post-WWII USA. Their curious relationship is the centrepiece of the film. The film explores cult fanaticism and exposes the lies that are peddled as religion. It is a thinly veiled swipe at Scientology, and it did cause ripples amongst Scientologists even before its release. Anderson has not mentioned Scientology, of course, and has thus broadened the scope of his film.
 
Hoffman was an accomplished actor and plays this role with great gusto, with almost caricature vehemence, and Amy Adams is highly effective as the Master’s wife. This is Joaquin Phoenix’s film and he gives a great performance, even though it was difficult for him to do more with the material given the weakness of the story line.
 
The film fails because it ignores simple story-telling rules. The script provides no opportunity for crisis, resolution and strong dénouement. It undulates weakly over two hours about a straight line. Although the actors perform very well and the scenes are constructed well, the movie just continues to plod along, seemingly going nowhere - there is no strong development. Is the film about an alcoholic misfit who has been scarred by war? Is it about a cult leader who has psychological issues? Is it about the development of characters so that they become better/worse? No, to all of these. It is a film made of random interactions between the characters, scenes that don’t add to a good story.
 
We really wanted to like this film but ultimately when it finished, we thought: “Oh, is that it?” and probably felt relief. Perhaps another of its weak points was the lack of any character that was truly likeable, I don’t know… One may hope that Anderson’s next film “Inherent Vice”, now in post-production, is a much better one.

ART SUNDAY - WINSTON CHURCHILL

“Experiments with a child’s paint-box led me the next morning to produce a complete outfit in oils.” – Winston Churchill
 

For Art Sunday today, art by a non-artist. Rather, art by a man better known for his achievements as a writer, statesman and politician. Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) was one of the great world leaders of the 20th century. His leadership helped Britain to stand strong against Hitler and the Nazis, even when they were the last country left fighting. He is also famous for his inspiring speeches and quotes.
 

Churchill was born on November 30th, 1874 in Oxfordshire, England. He was actually born in a room in Blenheim Palace. His parents were wealthy aristocrats. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a politician who held many high offices in the British government. Young Winston attended the Royal Military College and joined the British cavalry upon graduation. He travelled to many places while with the military and worked as a newspaper correspondent, writing stories about battles and being a soldier. While in South Africa during the Second Boer War, Winston Churchill was captured and became a prisoner of war. He managed to escape from prison and traveled 300 miles to be rescued. As a result, he became something of a hero in Britain for a while.
 

In 1900 Churchill was elected to Parliament. Over the next 30 years he would hold a number of different offices in the government including a cabinet post in 1908. Churchill married Clementine Hozier in 1908. They had five children including four daughters and one son. His career had many ups and downs during this time, but he also became famous for many of his writings. At the outbreak of World War II, Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty in command of the Royal Navy. At the same time the current Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, wanted to appease Germany and Hitler. Churchill knew this would not work and warned the government that they needed to help fight Hitler or Hitler would soon take over all of Europe. As Germany continued to advance, the country lost confidence in Chamberlain. Finally, Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill was chosen to be his successor as Prime Minister on May 10, 1940.
 

Soon after Churchill became Prime Minister, Germany invaded France and Britain was alone in Europe fighting Hitler. Churchill inspired his country to keep fighting despite the bad circumstances. He also helped to forge an alliance of Allied Powers with the Soviet Union and the United States. Even though he did not like Joseph Stalin and the communists of the Soviet Union, he knew the Allies needed their help to fight Germany. With the Allies help, and Churchill’s leadership, the British were able to hold off Hitler. After a long and brutal war they were able to defeat Hitler and the Germans.
 

After the war, Churchill’s party lost the election and he was no longer Prime Minister. He was still a major leader in the government, however. He was again elected Prime Minister in 1951. He served his country for many years and then retired. He died on January 24, 1965. Churchill was concerned about the Soviet Union and the Red Army. He felt they were just as dangerous as Hitler now that the Germans were defeated. He was right as soon after World War II ended, the Cold War between the Western nations of NATO (such as Britain, France, USA) and communist Soviet Union began.
 

Some interesting facts about Churchill:

• He wrote a number of historical books and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
• He was named an honorary citizen of the United States.
• Winston did not do well in school as a child. He also had trouble getting into the Royal Military College. Although, once in, he finished near the top of his class.
• He was not healthy during World War II. He had a heart attack in 1941 and pneumonia in 1943.

Churchill was forty before he discovered the pleasures of painting. The compositional challenge of depicting a landscape gave the heroic rebel in him temporary repose. He possessed the heightened perception of the genuine artist to whom no scene is commonplace. Over a period of forty-eight years his creativity yielded more than 500 pictures. His art quickly became half passion, half philosophy. He enjoyed holding forth in speech and print on the aesthetic rewards for amateur devotees. To him it was the greatest of hobbies. He had found his other world: A respite from crowding events and pulsating politics.
 

Winston Churchill took great pleasure in painting, especially after his resignation as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915. He found a haven in art to overcome the spells of depression which he suffered throughout his life. Churchill was persuaded and taught to paint by his artist friend, Paul Maze, whom he met during the First World War. Maze was a great influence on Churchill’s painting and became a lifelong painting companion.
 

Churchill is best known for his impressionist scenes of landscape, many of which were painted while on holiday in the South of France, Egypt or Morocco. Using the pseudonym “Charles Morin” he continued his hobby throughout his life and painted hundreds of paintings, many of which are on show in the studio at Chartwell as well as private collections.
 

Most of his paintings are oil-based and feature landscapes, but he also did a number of interior scenes and portraits. In 1925 Lord Duveen, Kenneth Clark, and Oswald Birley selected his Winter Sunshine as the prize winner in a contest for anonymous amateur artists. Due to obvious time constraints, Churchill attempted only one painting during the Second World War. He completed the painting from the tower of the Villa Taylor in Marrakesh.
 

Some of his paintings can today be seen in the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. Emery Reves was Churchill’s American publisher, as well as a close friend and Churchill often visited Emery and his wife at their villa, ‘La Pausa’, in the South of France, which had originally been built in 1927 for Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel by her lover Bendor, 2nd Duke of Westminster. The villa was rebuilt within the museum in 1985 with a gallery of Churchill paintings and memorabilia.
 

The painting above is “The Harbour at St. Jean Cap Ferrat” (1921). Here you can find a site where many of Churchill’s paintings may be accessed and admired.