THE SECRET MARRIAGE

“There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” - Martin Luther
 

A very special Saturday today with brilliant sunshine, Spring fragrances, unfurling buds and a perfect setting for a very special celebration. The first day of Spring, a blue moon and the coming together with friends and family to mark together a major landmark in two lives is always guaranteed to generate a mixture of feelings. Smiles and laughter, a few tears, good fellowship and the sharing of a meal…
 

Here is a special song, one of my favourites from the pen of Sting: “The Secret Marriage”. Sting explains in the insert of the album that the song is based on a melody from Hans Eisler - a colleague of Bertold Brecht. Eisler fled to America from the Nazis who apparently hounded him for rest of his life in various disguises.
 

Sting says of this song: “The song is about the inner joining of two people without the official sanction of the church or state. The Secret Marriage is my way of trying to justify or rationalize why I wasn’t married to the woman I had lived with for 10 years. My justification was that we were already married in a way that we expressed our vows to each other every day, but not in a big public ceremony. It was until our kids got to around the age of 9 or 10 that they needed to have some sort of public demonstration that we were married, and it was their idea that we got married in a public way. Our marriage is a secret no longer.”

FOOD FRIDAY - SPRING RISOTTO

“In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.” - William Shakespeare
 
Spring is arriving and the garden is beginning to be filled with the flowers and bright greens of the season. As the air is warming and the days are lengthening, our food is beginning to reflect the new season as well. Here is a perfect recipe for Spring.
 

Spring Risotto

Ingredients

500g baby spinach, chard hearts and spring greens roughly chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

1 large onion finely chopped

1 garlic clove finely chopped

400g Arborio rice for risotto

150ml white wine

600ml chicken stock, heated

4 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

150g parmesan cheese shaved

25 g pine nuts toasted
 
Method

Boil 600ml water with half a teaspoon of salt and cook the greens for 2 minute. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Heat a large pan and add the oil and the butter. Heat until the butter is foaming then add the onion and gently cook for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Stir in the rice and heat through for a few minutes until the grains are shiny and coated.

Pour in the wine and cook over a high heat for 1 minute to allow the alcohol to evaporate, stirring constantly.

Turn down the heat to medium and begin to add the liquid from the spring greens, a ladleful at a time, allowing it to be absorbed into the rice before adding more. When the liquid is used up, continue the process with the stock. This should take about 20 minutes.

When the texture is creamy, but each grain is still firm to the bite in the centre, the risotto is ready.

Take it off the heat and stir in the greens, parsley, pine nuts. Season. Leave to rest with the lid on for a few minutes then sprinkle with the parmesan, stir through and  serve immediately.

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

POSTCARD FROM FREMANTLE 2

“A civilisation is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
 
My last day in Fremantle today began with an early morning stroll in the historic centre. Fremantle is renowned for its well-preserved architectural heritage, including convict-built colonial-era buildings, an old jetty and port, and prisons; all these buildings presenting a variety and unity of historic architecture and streetscapes. These edifices were often built in limestone with ornate façades in a succession of architectural styles. Rapid development following the harbour works gave rise to an Edwardian precinct as merchant and shipping companies built in the west end and on reclaimed land.
 
The Round House (shown above) is the oldest remaining intact building in Western Australia, and was built as a gaol between 1830 - 1831. The Round House had eight cells and a gaoler’s residence, which all opened up into a central courtyard. In the 1800s, bay whaling was carried out from Bathers Beach below the Round House. As part of the whaling operations, a tunnel was constructed under the Round House to provide whalers with access to the town from the jetty and beach. The Round House is located in what is now known as Fremantle’s West End: A collection of streets characterised by late Georgian and Victorian-style architecture at the southern end of the port. A process of gentrification in the early 1990s was accelerated by the establishment of the University of Notre Dame Australia, which occupies, and has restored, many of the buildings in the West End.
 
When the first 75 convicts arrived from Britain in 1850 to support the colony’s dwindling population, it became apparent that the Round House was inadequate to house them. The convicts built a new gaol, Fremantle Prison, which was completed in the 1850s and continued to be used as Fremantle’s prison until 1991. Fremantle Prison was once one of the most notorious prisons in the British Empire. It housed British convicts, local prisoners, military prisoners, enemy aliens and prisoners of war. On 1 August 2010, a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Brazil placed Fremantle Prison and 10 other “Australian Convict Sites” on the World Heritage List - making it the first built environment in Western Australia to be bestowed this honour. It continues to be accessible to the public for guided tours and as a venue for artistic and cultural activities.

POSTCARD FROM FREMANTLE

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G. K. Chesterton
 
I am in Perth and Fremantle for work for a few days for work and it has been a very, very busy time for me. However, it was most enjoyable as the work has been going very well, but also the weather has been marvellous! I’ve spent most of my time in Fremantle, which is a very beautiful part of Western Australia.
 
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829. It was declared a city in 1929, and has a population of approximately 25,000. The city is named after Captain Charles Howe Fremantle, the English naval officer who had pronounced possession of Western Australia and who established a camp at the site. The city contains well-preserved 19th-century buildings and other heritage features. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for Fremantle is Freo.
 
The native Australian Noongar people inhabited the area that is now Fremantle, which was known as Walyalup. The area was considered as a site for possible British settlement in 1827, when Captain James Stirling, in HMS Success, explored the coastal areas near the Swan River. As a result of Stirling's report, Captain Charles Howe Fremantle of HMS Challenger, a 603 ton, 28-gun frigate, was instructed to sail to the west coast of Australia to establish a settlement there. On 2 May 1829, Fremantle hoisted the Union Flag in a bay near what is now known as Arthur Head, and in accordance with his instructions, took formal possession “of the whole of the West Coast of New Holland” in the name of George IV of the United Kingdom.

MOVIE MONDAY - IMMORTALS

“Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.” - Max Beerbohm
 
Last weekend we watched an absolute lemon of a movie. I must admit that I tend to like historical dramas, ancient epics, mythological fantasies and adventure thrillers, so when I saw a movie on special at our video store, which seemed to combine some of these genres I picked it up. Unfortunately, it was a wrong move. The film was a disaster zone and fit for consumption only by kids who know no better. No wonder it was on special…
 
It was Tarsem Singh’s 2011 “Immortals” starring Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto and John Hurt. The plot was supposedly based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur of the labyrinth fame. However, it had as much resemblance to this myth as does chalk to cheese. There was someone called Theseus and it was set in mythical Greece (I think, although the soldiers’ uniforms looked like they were Romans) and there was a sort of labyrinth and a sort of a bull-headed thing, but largely it was all bull.
 
The plot in fact was a strange amalgam of many things that would not amalgamate. It was supposedly a recreation of an ancient Greek myth, with lots of blood and gore and special effects and scenes designed to show the 3D effect and more blood and more gore, and more CGIs… The film was a mixture of grade B epic movie, a shoot-‘em-up video game, adventure dick flick, mythofantasy hodge-podge. Charlie and Vlas Parlapanides the screenwriters deserve an anti-medal for this dog’s breakfast of a script.
 
If you are familiar with and like Greek mythology, this movie is not for you. It is full of inconsistencies, misrepresentations, inaccuracies and inept renderings of the classics. Theseus was not a “bastard” and a peasant, the Olympian gods were 12 not six (and they constantly interfered with humans, unlike the “rule” of free will as in this movie). The titans were not as represented and Phaedra was a princess not a priestess. Did I mention Hyperion was a titan and not an evil king as shown in the movie? And Stavros (one of the heroes) is a Christian name, which has no place in myths set in pre-Christian times. And the Monks shown in quasi-Byzantine monasteries are definitely out of place too.
 
The acting was predictably mediocre, but given the bathos of the script, perhaps the actors are not to blame too much. And there was so much fighting and blood and gore. I think you can tell we did not enjoy this film. I did not expect Tarsem Singh to be part of such bilge, especially after directing “The Fall”, which was quite an amazing film (see my review here).

ART SUNDAY - RESTORATION

“Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions; it's walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too.” - Aldous Huxley
 
A well-meaning retiree in Spain, Cecilia Jimenez, 81, has achieved worldwide notoriety after attempting to restore a 19^th century fresco by herself. Without appropriate authorization, the woman initiated her own restoration project by painting a crude rendition of Christ’s face over a crumbling fresco on the wall of the church. She maintains that the church priest knew about it, and because the parishioners repaired everything in the church themselves, this project was not to be an exception…
 
Thus, with the best of intentions, Señora Jimenez took out her oil paints and palette and began to overpaint the fresco. She managed to turn the 120-year-old fresco, “Ecce Homo” (Behold the Man) by Elijah Garcia Martinez, into a rather grotesque figure that resembles more a zombie than a saint. To add to the embarrassment, a local Catholic cultural foundation, the Centre for Borjanos, had received a donation from the granddaughter of the artist which it was about to spend on returning the fresco to its former glory.
 
As result, the publicity surrounding the “restoration” has brought hundreds of visitors to the Sanctuary of Mercy Church. Internet wits have also turned their hand at transposing the mangled Spanish Jesus face onto some of the world’s most revered masterpieces - from Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” to Edvard Munch’s “Scream”.
 
Here is an NBC video report of the amateur’s botched restoration attempt.

VALE NEIL ARMSTRONG

“From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It's not a miracle; we just decided to go.” - Tom Hanks
 
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first human to set foot upon the Moon. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he flew over 900 flights in a variety of aircraft. He graduated from Purdue University and the University of Southern California.
 
A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man In Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. His first spaceflight was the NASA Gemini 8 mission in 1966, for which he was the command pilot, becoming one of the first U.S. civilians to fly in space. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft with pilot David Scott. Armstrong’s second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2½ hours exploring while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module.
 
Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon along with Collins and Aldrin, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.
 
Here is Glenn Gould in the 1981 Studio Video recording playing Bach’s “ Goldberg Variations”. A fitting memorial for the man who made a small step, but achieved a giant leap for mankind.

BAKEWELL SLICE

“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” - Richard M. Sherman
 

Spring is definitely in the air and the lengthening days are putting everyone in a better mood. What better way to celebrate the approach of Spring and the coming weekend than with a delicious Bakewell Slice?
 

Bakewell Slice
Ingredients
90 g softened unsalted butter
110 g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
50 g plain flour
50 g almond meal (ground blanched, toasted almonds)
50 g self-raising flour
340 g apricot jam
60 g chopped dried apricots
1 egg, lightly beaten, extra
120 g flaked almonds (shaved, blanched toasted almonds)
60 g almond meal (ground blanched, toasted almonds), extra
1 tablespoon icing sugar
 

Method

• Mix jam and finely chopped apricots heat in the microwave for a couple of minutes and let it cool.
• Preheat oven to 160˚C and grease a 20 x30 cm baking pan, lining it with baking paper.
• Beat butter, caster sugar, vanilla essence and egg in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• Stir in the flours and first lot of almond meal, mixing lightly.
• Spread dough into pan, levelling it out.
• Spoon jam mixture gently over the dough, covering it evenly.
• Combine the extra egg, 80 g of the flaked almonds and second lot of almond meal in a bowl. Mix well and spread evenly over the jam. Sprinkle the remaining flaked almonds over the top evenly.
• Bake for about 40 minutes in a fan forced oven.
• Cool slice in the pan and dust with sifted icing sugar before cutting into small rectangular pieces.

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

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

“Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals love them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.” - Edwin Way Teale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Way_Teale
 
Anthropomorphism is an attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to other animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organisations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s. Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos), “human” and μορφή (morphē), “shape” or “form”.
 

This device is often used in literature (for example, Aesop’s fables are full of examples of anthropomorphism) or in art (for example, Britain is anthropomorphosed as the warrior Britannia, a helmeted woman with shield and trident). As humans we tend to regard ourselves (perhaps hubristically…) as the peak of creation and the most evolved of life forms. We personify the inanimate and anthropomorphose animals in order to imbue them with characteristics that show off the best (or worse!) of human nature. Our motivation may be magnanimity, humour, criticism, amusement, pride, propaganda or sheer whimsy.
 
Anthropomorphism is often seen to excess in popular culture where aided by modern marketing, this tendency has spawned a host of human-like creatures derived from non-human animate and inanimate things. Watch any animated film and you are bound to come across anthropomorphism in almost every scene. Japan has numerous examples in its popular culture and the soft toy industry lives richly on our propensity to make humans of animal totems that are cuddly and extremely human-like: The teddy bear is a case in point…
 
I came across the photograph that illustrates this article online recently. Photographer Suzi Eszterhas spent three months on the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya while she was living in Africa for three years.  This particular series of photos was captured in 2008 or 2009. The article accompanying the photos shows a degree of anthropomorphism in its prose, talking about a “family” of lions, the “Dad” playing with the cub, prattles on about “infancy” and “adulthood”, “rites of passage” and uses other anthropological jargon… And even Eszterhas embellishes with her explanation:

“That was literally the moment the cub first saw his dad ever. He kind of walked up shyly and then the dad immediately tried to play with him and the mom is watching the whole time to make sure the dad behaves.  The whole moment is really special.”
 
Why, looking at the photograph one can see the proud “Dad” smiling as the cub plays with him – even though we know animals really don't smile... It is tempting to anthropomorphose and one’s view of wild animals can be irrevocably altered by this approach. Eszterhas’ photos were taken after she very cautiously and patiently “infiltrated” the pride of lions and with infinite care managed to get the lions to tolerate her presence. If you or I approached the lions and wanted to cuddle the adorable cub and congratulate the “Dad” lion on the new arrival to the “Family”, I am sure the male, or more probably the lioness, would very quickly eliminate us from the equation.
 
It is fun to anthropomorphose and history tells us that humans have done it for millennia. But it’s also wise to remember where fantasy ends and where reality begins. I am sure that many kids (or for that matter quite a few adults!) have been mauled or killed by wild animals because they viewed as adorable anthropomorphic people-like creatures. Wild animals are primarily wild and secondarily animals…

CLAUDE DEBUSSY 150 YEARS

“I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.” - Claude Debussy
 

Today is the 150th anniversary of Debussy’s birth. Claude Achille Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a composer of impressionistic, post-romantic music. He was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France. His father was a salesman and kept a china shop. His mother was a seamstress. Some traumatising events in his childhood caused him to become depressed and he never spoke about his early years. Later, he could not compose without having his favourite porcelain frog by his side! Debussy’s piano teacher, Mme. Maute, had been a student of Frédéric Chopin. She sent Debussy to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied from 1872-84 with César Franck, Ernest Guiraud and others. As an 1884 Prix de Rome winner, he went to Rome, Italy (1885–7), though more important impressions came from his visits to Bayreuth to hear Wagner (1888, 1889) and from hearing Javanese gamelan music in Paris (1889).
 

Debussy became influenced by the impressionist poets and artists in the circle of Stephane Mallarmé. In 1890 he wrote his most famous music collection for piano, “Suite Bergamasque”, containing “Clair de Lune”. His “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” (1892) continued the most productive 20-year period in his life. He composed the orchestral “Nocturnes”, “La Mer”, “Images” (1899-1909), and the intricate ballet “Jeux” (1912) for the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev.
 

He was fascinated with Maurice Maeterlinck’s play “Pelleas et Melisande”, which inspired him to compose the eponymous symbolist opera which was praised by Paul Dukas and Maurice Ravel. In 1908 Debussy married singer Emma Bardac after they had had a daughter, Claude-Emma. Debussy called her Chou-Chou and composed for her the collection of piano pieces “Children’s Corner Suite” (1909). His piano masterpiece “Preludes” was composed in 1910-1913. The twelve preludes of the first book allude to Frédéric Chopin, although they are peppered with more provocative harmonies, especially the “La Cathedrale Engloutie”. In the second book of twelve preludes Debussy explored the avant-garde, with deliciously dissonant harmonies evoking mysterious images.
 

The beginning of WW I as well as the onset of cancer depressed Debussy. He left unfinished an opera, ballets and two pieces after stories by Edgar Allan Poe that later were completed by his assistants. Claude Debussy died from rectal cancer in Paris on March 25, 1918 during World War I and a siege by the Prussian army that pounded Paris from the ‘Big Bertha’ gun not far from the capital city. He was interred in Paris in the Cimetière de Passy. Debussy’s death as well as the World War I coincided with the sad end of the Belle Epoque era, which witnessed Paris blooming with sophistication and modernity as never seen before in Europe.
 

Rudolph Réti points out the features of Debussy’s music which ‘established a new concept of tonality in European music’:

• Frequent use of long pedal points;
• Glittering passages and webs of figurations which distract from occasional absence of harmony;
• Frequent use of parallel chords which are in essence not harmonies at all, but rather chordal melodies;
• Bitonality, or at least bitonal chords;
• Use of the whole-tone scale;
• Unprepared modulations, without any harmonic bridge.

He concludes that Debussy’s achievement was the synthesis of monophonic-based melodic tonality with harmonies, albeit different from those of harmonic tonality.
 

Here is his "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun"...

A POEM FOR TUESDAY

“To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.” - Federico García Lorca
 

Magpie Tales has stimulated the grey cells once again this week, adding fuel to the fire of our imagination with a beautiful painting: “Under Windsor Bridge”, 1912, by Adolphe Valette. Pierre Adolphe Valette (1876 – 1942) was a French Impressionist painter who was active for a great part of his life painting the urban landscapes of Manchester. Many of his works are now in the collection of the Manchester Art Gallery. Born in St Etienne in 1876, he trained at the École Municipale de Beaux-Arts et des Arts Decoratifs in Bordeaux.
 

Valette arrived in England for unknown reasons in 1904 and studied at the Birbeck Institute, now part of the University of London. In 1905 he travelled to the Northwest of England where he began a short career designing greeting cards and calendars for a Manchester printing company. He attended evening classes at Manchester Municipal School of Art and in 1907 he was invited to join the staff as a teacher. His French teaching style, painting by demonstration, was new to the United Kingdom.
 

L.S. Lowry expressed great admiration for Valette, who taught him new techniques and showed him the potential of the urban landscape as a subject. He called him “a real teacher … a dedicated teacher”. In 1920 Valette resigned from the Institute due to ill health. He stayed in Lancashire for a further eight years, teaching privately and painting in Manchester and Bolton. In 1928 he returned to Paris, and later moved to Blacé en Beaujolais where he died in 1942. His paintings are Impressionist, a style that suited the damp fogginess of Manchester. Manchester Art Gallery has a room devoted to him, where the viewer may compare some of his paintings with some of Lowry’s, and judge to what extent Lowry’s own style was influenced by Valette and by French Impressionism generally.
 

Here is a poem suiting the image that I wrote a couple of decades ago while living in Europe.

Amsterdam V

How melancholy this city

When love has died.

How tiresome the narrow houses

When I know none there awaits my return.

How slowly the canal waters flow

When I know all is over.

The sun sets and violet evenings

Envelop countless bridges,

The amber lamps endlessly reflecting

Their shimmering images,

As distant laughter mocks my waterless tears.

How crushingly the night falls around my heart tonight

As resignation points the way clearly toward my duty.

How hopelessly I must await the morning

As new-found resolutions crystallise in the falling temperature.

How dreamless the drug-filled sleep that I must partake of

As all expectations, hopes, illusions drown in the still canals.

MOVIE MONDAY - ANONYMOUS

“What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.” E. M. Forster
 
I was in secondary school when I first heard about the Shakespeare authorship debate. Until that time I was happy with the idea that the Shakespearean corpus of writings were written by Shakespeare! The Shakespeare authorship debate is about whether someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. The Anti-Stratfordians (adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories) maintain that Shakespeare of Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason did not want, or could not accept, public credit.
 
This idea has attracted much public interest (and who doesn't love a juicy conspiracy theory?). However, all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe belief and for the most part disregard it except to rebut or disparage the claims.  Shakespeare’s authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century, when adulation of Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time had become widespread. Shakespeare’s biography, particularly his humble origins and obscure life, seemed incompatible with his reputation for genius, arousing suspicion that Shakespeare might not have written the works attributed to him.
 
The controversy has since spawned a vast body of literature, and more than 70 authorship candidates have been proposed, including Francis Bacon, the 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward De Vere the 17th Earl of Oxford. Supporters of alternative candidates argue that theirs is the more plausible author, and that William Shakespeare lacked the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is apparent in the works.
 
Shakespeare scholars say that biographical interpretations of literature are unreliable in attributing authorship, and that the convergence of documentary evidence used to support Shakespeare’s authorship (title pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official records) is the same used for all other authorial attributions of his era. No such supporting evidence exists for any other candidate, and Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.
 
In the book “Shakespeare Identified”, published in 1920, J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolteacher, proposed Edward De Vere the 17th Earl of Oxford as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. His theory was based on perceived analogies between Oxford’s life and poetic techniques in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. It supplanted an earlier popular theory involving Francis Bacon. Academic consensus rejects all alternative candidates for authorship, including the Earl of Oxford.

At the weekend we saw a film that is based on this idea that Edward De Vere the 17th Earl of Oxford was the “real” Shakespeare. That is, the film takes it as a given that he was the true author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. This was the 2011 Roland Emmerich film, “Anonymous”, starring Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Rafe Spall and David Thewlis. It is obviously a film that capitalizes on the Shakespeare authorship debate and is a worthy counterfoil to the older “Shakespeare in Love” that was more sympathetic to the Bard of Avon.
 
The film is entertainment and fiction rather than a historically accurate documentary that probes the truth. Having made that quite clear at the outset, it doesn’t matter one iota who really was the author of Shakespeare’s works. The film tends to make short shrift of the real Shakespeare’s literary talents (non-existent) and attributes all the works of Shakespeare to the Earl of Oxford. This backbone of the story is enriched by plenty of detail and subplot, as well as plotting and intrigue in the court of Elizabeth I.
 

We enjoyed the film, although the flashbacks/flash-forwards tended to be annoying at times. It is an amusing conceit and if one completely forgets the historical inconsistencies and accepts the thesis of the plot, one can be entertained for a couple of hours. Just don't expect a learned documentary…

A NEW LEONARDO PAINTING?

“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.” - Marcus Aurelius

How many art works of the past have been lost, destroyed or otherwise vanished without a trace! Many of them of course would have perished inadvertently in fires, floods or other natural disasters. Others may have been the victims of warfare or other civil disturbances. Some paintings would have been lost as they were over-painted, their panels or stretched canvas supports re-used by more recent artists. Some metal sculptures would have been broken down and melted so that their material could be re-used for more mundane requirements. Other art works still may languish forgotten in some dusty attic or locked up room, overlooked or simply forgotten about. A couple of years ago I blogged about the discovery, finally recovered in a Paris apartment…
 
It seems that history may repeat itself, with another long-lost work of an Old Master being rediscovered, in this case a painting by Leonardo da Vinci in a Scottish farmhouse. 59-year-old Fiona McLaren had kept an old painting in her home for a long time. It appears she didn’t think much of the painting. Recently facing financial difficulties, she decided to have the painting appraised and she was pleasantly surprised when some experts are speculating that it may in fact be a 500-year-old painting by Leonardo da Vinci and potentially worth more than $150 million.
 
If this painting is a genuine Leonardo, how did it manage to end up in a Scottish farmhouse? The provenance of the work is obscure, but in the twentieth-century it resurfaced when George McLaren, a physician working in London, received the work as a gift from a patient in the 1960s. The painting has remained in the family and resided on a landing and in a bedroom in George McLaren’s house. In 1979 George McLaren passed away and the painting then transferred to his wife who subsequently gave the work to her daughter Fiona McLaren on her fortieth birthday.
 
When art auctioneer Harry Robertson saw the painting he was staggered, speechless and finally gave a long sigh of exclamation! The painting is undergoing further analysis by experts at the Cambridge University and the Hamilton Kerr Institute, who will attempt to uncover its exact age and origins. Even if the painting is not a da Vinci original, it is believed to at least be from the da Vinci school, created by one of the Master’s pupils during the 16th century.
 
A papal bull was found attached to the back of the painting and is believed to have originated from the era of Pope Paul V, head of the Catholic Church in the early 17th century. The word “Magdalene” is visible on the faded paper. McLaren says that she will sell the painting to a museum, and she plans to donate to charity a percentage of the painting’s sale value after it is auctioned off.
 
The late George McLaren always referred to this painting as “Madonna and Child with John the Baptist”. Contemporary art experts say it is more likely to be a portrait of Mary Magdalene with her son. Shades of Dan Brown’s “The da Vinci Code”... The woman in the painting wears red, the colour declared by Papal decree for representing Mary Magdalene as opposed to the traditional blue used for the Virgin Mary.  The note from Pope Paul V (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621) dates from the early 17th century, significantly later than Leonardo’s lifetime, and contains the word Magdalene, despite the majority of the text being illegible. Magdalene’s position in religious orthodoxy has been controversial and this may explain the disappearance of the work for centuries.
 
The composition of this small (58 x 71 cm) work resembles the Louvre’s “Madonna of the Rocks” though this sort of grouping was a common composition of figure during the Renaissance. Leonardesque details such as the v-shaped hairline, part and the child's elongated second toe point to the workshop of the Master. The background by the woman’s left shoulder is left unfinished, also characteristic of the multi-tasking Leonardo.
 

Alternatively of course, this could be a well-conceived fake!

VIVALDI FOR SATURDAY

“Music is the universal language of mankind” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow
 
A wintry Saturday today, with rain, cold and grey skies all day. We stayed in and enjoyed the warmth of the house, doing the household chores, having a leisurely lunch and watching a movie. The evening was lovely as usual…
 
Here is a delightful concerto by Vivaldi. It is the Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 450, played by Benoît Laurent, oboe and the Concerto Köln.

FOOD FRIDAY - FRITTATA

“Asparagus inspires gentle thoughts…” - Charles Lamb
 

A breath of Spring is stirring in the air. The blossom has started to bedeck the fruit trees, first the almonds and the plums, then more slowly the rest of them. Magnolias are dressed in pink and white and the freesias, jonquils, hyacinths and daffodils are all blooming. The days are longer now and the garden is beginning to grow ever more green. The first Spring vegetables are out and what better than to use some of them in a delicious and easy dish? Here is a frittata using the artichokes, asparagus and Spring onions that are characteristic of the season.
 

Artichoke and Asparagus Frittata
Ingredients
 

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup chopped spring onions
1 teaspoon salt
400 g asparagus, tough ends snapped off, spears cut diagonally into 2 cm lengths
3 artichokes
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/2 tsp chopped dried thyme
Pinch of ground sage
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Gruyére cheese
 

Method
Prepare the artichokes by taking the leaves off, until you reach the tender heart. Quarter and remove the choke. Put into water that has had a lemon juiced into it (to prevent browning). Cut each quarter into half.
Blanch the artichokes for a few minutes and then drain.
Blanch the asparagus pieces for a few minutes and drain.
Heat butter into a 30 cm oven-proof frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they soften and cook, about 3 minutes. Add artichokes, stir well and cook for a few minutes. Add the asparagus, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, for 3 minutes.
Pour in the beaten eggs into which you have stirred the herbs and spices, and cook until almost set, but still runny on top, about 2 minutes. While cooking, pre-heat the oven grill.
Sprinkle cheese over eggs and put in oven to grill until cheese is melted and browned, about 4-6 minutes. Remove from oven and slide frittata onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges to serve.

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

THE MOST LIVEABLE CITY IN THE WORLD

“A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.” - Aristotle
 
Melbourne has once again been voted by the Economist Intelligence Unit “The Most Liveable City” in the world for the second year in succession. On and off it has been up there with the best of them for several years now and it has been declared the best to live in several times in the past. The concept of liveability assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. One can perhaps understand it if one compares Melbourne to some of the cities that did not do so well in the list: Karachi, Algiers, Harare, Lagos, Port Moresby and Dhaka.
 
Liveability relates to standards of living, facilities available, personal safety, crime rate, resources and services, cost of living, housing, public transport, health care, cultural events, open spaces and parks, sporting facilities, etc. The top ten most liveable cities in the world are: 1. Melbourne, Australia;
2. Vienna, Austria;
3. Vancouver, Canada;
4. Toronto, Canada;
5. Calgary, Canada;
5. Adelaide, Australia;
7. Sydney, Australia;
8. Helsinki, Finland; 9. Perth, Australia;
10. Auckland, New Zealand.
 
Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses. The survey originated as a means of testing whether Human Resource Departments needed to assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. While this function is still a central potential use of the survey, it has also evolved as a broad means of benchmarking cities. This means that liveability is increasingly used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test their locations against others to see general areas where liveability can differ.
 
To gain top spot, Melbourne outperformed 140 rivals to top the Global Liveability Survey with a score of 97.5 per cent, losing points for climate, culture and petty crime. Infrastructural development has been important in over the last few years, with improvements to infrastructure in key cities in Australia, where the federal government initiated an ambitious long-term road-building program in 2010. For cities in general, these measures will no doubt have a long-term benefit, but in the short term they can be disruptive.
 
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle said continuing to drive down crime and an underground rail line linking North Melbourne to Domain on St Kilda Rd were crucial to retain liveability status. University of Melbourne architectural design chair Professor Donald Bates, a Federation Square co-designer, said increasing capacity on the tram and train networks and more moderate-density housing were needed to deal with the unprecedented growth rate that is occurring.
 
As a Melbournian I can certainly vouch for the high liveability score of my home city. However, having lived here for most of my life, several decades now, I can also see that things are not all rosy. Liveability doesn’t simply mean nice restaurants, good sports venues and a wealth of entertainment to choose from. It also means low pollution, managed traffic, good parking options, lots of green space and not so many high density housing density developments. It means a reliable and safe water supply, green energy and renewable resources. If Melbourne is to continue being the most liveable city in the world, our city planners have a mammoth task in front of them, especially so with ever-increasing population…

DORMITION OF THE VIRGIN MARY

“A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.” - Victor Hugo

Many Christians today celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and her Ascension into Heaven. It is the principal feast day of the Virgin Mother. It is celebrated annually on August 15 in many countries, particularly in parts of Europe and South America. Some countries celebrate the day at other times of the year. This day is also known as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God (in the eastern countries), or the Feast of the Assumption. Assumption Day is a public holiday in countries such as Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, France, parts of Germany, Guatemala, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and parts of Switzerland. However, Assumption Day is not a public holiday in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
 
Central to the celebration is the belief that when Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, her body was not subjected to the usual process of burial and decomposition, but ascended into heaven and reunited there with her soul. This holiday, which has been celebrated since the fourth century AD, is a Christianisation of an earlier harvest festival and, in many parts of Europe, is known as the “Feast of Our Lady of the Harvest”. For centuries prior to the Christian era, celebrations were held in the honour of the goddess Isis of the Sea, who was born on this day according to mythology. With the coming of Christianity, church leaders decided that the easiest way to handle this widespread and popular pagan ritual was to simply change it into a Christian holiday, hence the introduction of Assumption Day.
 
The day is marked by special celebratory liturgies, and masses, colourful processions through the streets, fairs and other popular celebratory practices, and firework displays. In Sicily and rural areas outside Rome, a bowing procession is the day’s main event. A statue of the Virgin Mary is carried through the town to a ceremonial arch of flowers, where a group of people holding a statue of Christ awaits her arrival. Both statues are inclined toward each other three times, and then the Christ figure precedes the figure of Mary back to the parish church for a special benediction.
 
In the past, some Italian plazas were flooded. Citizens would ride through the temporary “lakes” in carriages and it was common for people to carry bowls of rose-scented water, which they sprinkled on themselves – possibly a carryover from a pagan ritual in which the gods were petitioned to provide adequate rainfall for the crops, or as a tribute to the pagan goddess Isis of the Sea. Assumption Day is also an important holiday in France where the Virgin Mary has been the patron saint since 1638.
 
In Sao Paulo and other parts of southern Brazil, the feast is called Nosa Senhora dos Navegantes, or “Our Lady of the Navigators”. Pageants are held on decorated canoes, each carrying a captain, a purser, three musicians, and two rowers. They travel to small villages to entertain and feast. Towns may have small church processions with musicians whose costumes and demeanour depict the “Three Wise Men” who are mentioned in the Bible.
 
In the Greek Orthodox faith, the Feast of the Dormition is preceded by a two-week fast, referred to as the Dormition Fast. From August 1 to August 14 (inclusive) no red meat, poultry, meat products, dairy products (eggs and milk products), fish, oil, and wine are consumed. The Dormition Fast is a stricter fast than either the Nativity Fast (Advent) or the Apostles’ Fast, with only wine and oil (but no fish) allowed on weekends.
 
In some places, the services on weekdays during the Fast are similar to the services during Great Lent (with some variations). Many churches and monasteries in the Russian tradition will perform the Lenten services on at least the first day of the Dormition Fast. During the Fast, either the Great Paraklesis (Supplicatory Canon) or the Small Paraklesis are celebrated every evening except Saturday evening and the Eves of the Transfiguration and the Dormition. The first day of the Dormition Fast is a feast day called the Procession of the Cross (August 1), on which day it is customary to have a crucession and perform the Lesser Sanctification of Water.

ET EGO IN ARCADIA SUM...

“A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.” - Gloria Stuart
 

Magpie Tales has chosen a beautiful photograph by Francesca Woodman for this week’s prompt. Francesca Woodman (USA, April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) was a photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself and female models. Many of her photographs show young women who are nude, who are blurred (due to movement and long exposure times), who are merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured. Her work continues to be the subject of much attention, years after she committed suicide by jumping out a loft window in New York.
 
This post is also part of Imaginary Garden with Real Toad meme.
 
Arcadia

Et ego in Arcadia sum, 
Amidst a forest made of paper

Beneath a spectre of a sun,

Holding a shell long since mute…

Ave Venus pulcherissima!

You know full well your wiles,

My voice alone dares not sing;

For how long must I await you?

Tempus est volucre.

Yet, I condemned to plod along

And death expect tomorrow.

Life, tarry not behind me,

Catch up with me today!

MOVIE MONDAY - NIAGARA

“Every murder turns on a bright hot light, and a lot of people... have to walk out of the shadows.” - Albert Maltz
 
Niagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. They form the southern end of the Niagara Gorge. The three waterfalls are the Horseshoe Falls (largest), the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls (smallest). The Horseshoe Falls lie on the Canadian side and the American Falls on the American side, separated by Goat Island. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island.
 
Located on the Niagara River which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 50 metres. The Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by vertical height and also by flow rate. The falls are located 27 km north-northwest of Buffalo, New York and 121 km south-southeast of Toronto, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. More than 168,000 cubic metres of water falls over the crest line every minute in high flow. Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Managing the balance between recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century.
 
We visited the Falls many years ago when we were on a road trip from New York City to Toronto via Buffalo. We loved our time there and were amazed by this spectacular wonder of nature, finally understanding why their fame is so well-deserved after seeing them with our own eyes. That Niagara Falls has a long and rich history and tradition in both  native American and white North American culture is not surprising.
 
We watched the Henry Hathaway classic 1953 film noir “Niagara” at the weekend as I got the DVD on special from our DVD store. It starred Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Max Showalter and Richard Allan, and was based on a classic love triangle story, co-written by another triangle of writers Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L. Breen. The film was shot in glorious technicolour, no doubt because of the scenic beauty of the setting (the director lost opportunity of showing us several rainbows as a consequence!).
 
The story centres on Rose and George Loomis (Monroe and Cotten) who are going through a rough patch in their marriage and are holidaying on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Arriving at the holiday spot are Polly and Ray Cutler (Peters and Showalter), who are a young couple who have come to Niagara for a delayed honeymoon. Upon their arrival, they meet Rose and George, who are over-staying in their time in the Cutlers’ reserved cabin. Shortly after they arrive, Polly sees Rose passionately kissing another man (Richard Allan). Rose angers her husband by playing a love song (“Kiss”) on a record player a few other couples are dancing to, pushing George to destroying the record in his hands. The dysfunctional Loomises have arrow and it become apparent that something serious is amiss. Murder ensues and the ones left behind have to battle for their own survival.
 
The film is a nostalgic look at the 1950s and without being over-sentimental it highlights Marilyn Monroe in what has become an iconic typecast role for her: The sultry temptress of questionable morals who will stop at nothing to get her own way. She nevertheless plays this role with great gusto, supported well by Cotten who plays the psychologically disturbed husband with aplomb. An excellent performance is given by Jean Peters who manages to devote her considerable acting resources as the supporting female lead, not at all overshadowed by Monroe. The performance of Showalter is quite pedestrian, although his role is quite an annoying one to begin with. Richard Breen as the lover has a very minor role providing the beefcake factor in the love triangle. Overall the movie is competently made and despite its age stands up relatively well to scrutiny nearly 60 years after its production. One can still watch it and be entertained, although it is obviously dated in many ways.

ART SUNDAY - WILLIAM BLAKE

“Fun I love, but too much fun is of all things the most loathsome. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth.” - William Blake
 

William Blake (1757 - 1827) was born at 28 Broad Street, Golden Square, Soho, where his father had a hosiery business. In 1767 he began to study at Henry Pars’ Drawing Class in the Strand, and in 1771 he was apprenticed to James Basire of Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, who was engraver to the Society of Antiquaries of London. In 1779 he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools as a student.
 

He married Catherine Boucher, the illiterate daughter of a market gardener, in 1782 and moved to Green Street, near Leicester Square. He returned to Broad Street, this time at number 27, when his father died in 1784, to set up in business as a print seller with James Parker, a friend and former fellow apprentice. The partnership ended in 1787 and Blake moved to nearby Poland Street. In the same year Blake’s brother Robert died. Blake claimed that the spirit of Robert came to him in a vision in the night, and revealed the technique of combining text and pictures on one engraved plate.
 

He turned his vision into reality by hand producing the “Songs of Innocence”, using this new method in 1789 with the help of his wife, whom he had by now taught to read and write. The text and illustrations of the “Songs of Innocence” were printed from copper plates, and the illustrations then finished by hand with watercolours. Blake and his wife moved to No 13 Hercules Buildings in Lambeth in 1791 and it was in this period that he produced many of his ‘prophetic’ books: “The Visions of the Daughters of Albion”, “America a Prophecy”, “The Songs of Experience” and “The First Book of Urizen”.
 

In September 1800 he left London for Felpham, Sussex (about 50 miles south west of London on the south coast), to live near William Hayley, an eccentric gentleman poet who had written biographies of Milton and Cowper, and through whom he hoped to get commissions for engraving. However, by the beginning of 1803 he had tired of the trivial nature of these commissions and believed that only in London could he carry on his visionary studies.  He moved back to the capital, to 17 South Moulton Street, near Tyburn (now Marble Arch).
 

He began work on his illuminated books “Milton” and “Jerusalem”, but struggled to find other commercial work. In May 1809 he held an exhibition on the first floor of his brother’s hosiery shop in Broad Street, but few people attended, and he was dismissed by Robert Hunt in a review in The Examiner as “an unfortunate lunatic whose personal inoffensiveness secures him from confinement”.
 

After 1818 his work was rediscovered by the water-colourists of the next generation, particularly John Linnell and John Varley, who encouraged him and commissioned works. Blake died in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the dissenter’s graveyard in Bunhill Fields.
 

Blake was a visionary artist and poet whose personal and very individual universe was motivated by a very strong faith and feelings of justice and equality of all human beings. He abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality. Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: “As all men are alike (tho’ infinitely various)”. In one poem, narrated by a black child, white and black bodies alike are described as shaded groves or clouds, which exist only until one learns “to bear the beams of love”. His mystical symbolism was paramount in his creative process and his rejection of the Old Testament God for the New Testament one was instrumental in creating much of his oeuvre, which is based on the concept of brotherly love.
 

His paintings are remarkably modern for the time he lived in and his originality no doubt confounded many of his contemporaries. Blake claimed to experience visions throughout his life. They were often associated with beautiful religious themes and imagery, and therefore may have inspired him further with spiritual works and pursuits. Certainly, religious concepts and imagery figure centrally in Blake's works. God and Christianity constituted the intellectual centre of his writings, from which he drew inspiration. In addition, Blake believed that he was personally instructed and encouraged by Archangels to create his artistic works, which he claimed were actively read and enjoyed by those same Archangels.
 

The watercolour above is an illustration to "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri (Inferno I, 1-90), which Blake created in 1824-1827 (37.0 x 52.8 cm, Felton Bequest, 1920, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia). It shows Dante running away from the three hellish beasts towards the safety embodied by his cicerone, Virgil. The painting displays an amazing composition, sense of movement and delicate, yet ominous colour for the most part. The figure of Virgil is ensheathed by light and the rising sun is symbolic of the safety and hope that the poet offers Dante. The painting is an excellent representation of Dante’s vision of Hell and one can imagine Blake attacking this project of illustrating Dante with great enthusiasm, given that while on the surface, the poem describes Dante’s travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; at a deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul’s journey towards God.