EUROVISION 2013

“Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end.” - H. P. Lovecraft
 
Well, another Eurovision contest is over with Denmark gaining the first prize. The song is typical Eurovision material, with Emmelie De Forest performing “Only Teardrops”, singing in English, of course. English has become the “official” world language and Europe has adopted it with a vengeance, especially where Eurovision is concerned. The lure of international success in the big markets of the Anglophone countries is too great to ignore. A country has to be very brave to sing a song in Eurovision in its own language – and bravo to all of those do sing thus. The singer, who looks very beautiful, struggles to sing, I think, especially in the lower register.
 
The only concession to a differentiation from the standard “pop” material is the accompaniment, which contains the fife and drums of battle, in reference to the spat between lovers described in the song. The song could have been deeper if there was a pointed reference to a war, contrasting it with the first part, giving it much more relevance to current world situations (and justifying more the fife and drums):
 
“The sky is red tonight
We’re on the edge tonight
No shooting star to guide us.
 
Eye for an eye, why tear each other apart?
Please tell me why, why do we make it so hard?
Look at us now, we only got ourselves to blame
It’s such a shame.
 
How many times can we win and lose?
How many times can we break the rules between us?
Only teardrops…”
 
In any case, here is the winning song:

Compare that to the 1983 Eurovision winner for Luxembourg, “Si La Vie Est Cadeau” sung in French by Corinne Hermés, one of my favourites. It concerns the precious gift of life.

VEGETARIAN BAKE

“When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and there’s something about that that can never be made by a company that has three million employees.” - Mario Batali
 
It has been a rather busy week, as one that involves travel away from home always is. Nevertheless, it is good to be home now and be able to enjoy some home cooking. Travel is a welcome change sometimes, but one does get tired of eating at hotels and restaurants day after day. What better than a Vegetarian Eggplant and Zucchini Bake?
 
Vegetarian Eggplant and Zucchini Bake

Ingredients
 
Olive oil
3 small eggplants, thinly sliced
2 zucchini, thinly sliced
700 g jar Italian tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped
170g parmesan cheese, grated
180g cherry bocconcini cheese, torn in half
1 cup white breadcrumbs

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly brush a 5.5cm-deep, 20cm x 28cm (base) baking dish with olive oil. Heat a barbecue grill or chargrill pan over high heat.
 
Brush both sides of eggplant and zucchini slices generously with oil. Grill eggplant and zucchini, in batches, for 2 minutes each side or until charred and tender. Remove to a plate. Brush with oil.
 
Place one-third of the eggplant over base of dish. Top with one-third of the pasta sauce, basil, parmesan and bocconcini. Repeat layers twice with remaining zucchini alternately with eggplant, sauce, basil, parmesan and bocconcini.
 
Top with breadcrumbs mixed with grated parmesan. Spray with oil. Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbling around the edges and golden. Stand for 10 minutes. Serve.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

ANOTHER POSTCARD FROM PERTH

“A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.” – Aristotle
 

The central business district of Perth is bounded by the Swan River to the south and east, with Kings Park on the western end, while the railway reserve formed a northern border. A state and federally funded project named Perth City Link involves the sinking of a section of the railway line, in addition to the sinking of an existing above-ground bus terminal as well as riverside development, known as Elizabeth Quay.
 

St Georges Terrace is the prominent street of the area with 1.3 million m² of office space in the CBD. Hay Street and Murray Street have most of the retail and entertainment facilities. The tallest building in the city is Central Park, which is the seventh tallest building in Australia. The CBD has recently been the centre of a mining-induced boom, with several commercial and residential projects due for completion, including a 244 m office building for Australian/British mining company BHP Billiton.
 

Perth’s growth and relative prosperity, especially since the mid-1960s, has resulted from its role as the main service centre for the state’s resource industries, which produce gold, iron ore, nickel, alumina, diamonds, mineral sands, coal, oil, and natural gas. Whilst most mineral and petroleum production takes place elsewhere in the state, the non-base services provide most of the employment and income to the people of Perth.

POSTCARD FROM FREMANTLE

“If a man knows not what harbour he seeks, any wind is the right wind.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
 

Fremantle, in Western Australia, is a remarkable city. In the past decade, especially, Fremantle has become one of the great tourist attractions in the Perth area, boasting many interesting historic buildings, gracious hotels, extensive seaside parks and enough tourist attractions to make it the ideal day-out destination. It is a perfect place for having a picnic in a park by the seaside, or a meal in one of Fremantle’s excellent restaurants. One may visit the museums, gaze at the conspicuous wealth of the Fremantle Yacht Club, explore the five heritage trails, investigate the Fremantle markets or go fishing at North Mole.
 

The city is located at the mouth of the Swan River and 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".

POSTCARD FROM PERTH

“No one realises how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” Lin Yutang
 
I am in Perth for a few days for work and things are going quite well. All is complemented by some splendid autumn weather – brilliant, sun-filled days with the temperature hovering around the mid 20s Celsius, while the nights are cool and perfect for a comfortable sleep. Nevertheless, it will be good to return home…
 
Perth is the capital of Western Australia, which is the nation’s largest state. Its superb position on the banks of the beautiful Swan River and nearby hectares of natural bushland in Kings Park make for a city centred on the great outdoors. The magnificent Swan River that winds its way through the City, is lined by grassy parklands. One can enjoy a picnic or a barbeque and watch the sunset and city come alive with light. Many visitors hire a kayak, bike or sailboat to explore the river’s quiet reaches.
 
A Swan River cruise can be booked from Barrack Square which will take the visitor to the bustling port city of Fremantle or east to the Swan Valley Wine Region. One can also jump on a ferry for a short trip across the river to South Perth. The Swan River also provides for action lovers, with water sports available right in the heart of the city. Such activities are especially glorious in Perth city, with the shining brilliance of towering city buildings set as a stunning backdrop to the dazzling waters of the Swan.
 
The jewel in the city’s crown is Kings Park, one of the largest inner city parks in the world. Located within a short walk of the city, it is a major draw-card for both visitors to Perth and locals alike. This stunning location overlooks the city and the bright blue waters of the Swan River. From high above, you can see the brilliantly coloured sails of boats on the river, the twinkling lights of the city, the distant Perth Hills and the endless blue skies for which Perth is so renowned.
 
Views from the DNA Tower in Forrest Drive are similarly breathtaking - on a clear day you can see all the way to the Indian Ocean. The park features both cultivated gardens and untamed bushland and you can picnic on grassy lawns, take a jog through the bushland or attend one of the summer outdoor concerts under the stars. Children are also catered for with a number of excellent playgrounds suitable for children of all ages.

MOVIE MONDAY - DELI DELI OLMA

“Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.” Henri Frederic Amiel
 
At the weekend we watched an interesting film from Turkey. One of the advantages of living in a multicultural city like Melbourne is that one may easily find products from many distant homelands, and that includes the stuff of entertainment and culture: DVDs, CDs, magazines, books, art, etc. Brunswick, an inner suburb of Melbourne, has a high proportion of Turkish-Australians, and there are many Turkish shops in this suburb. We bought a few Turkish movies with English subtitles at the Brunswick Market and the film we watched at the weekend was a very good one.
 
It was Director Murat Saraçoglu’s 2009 film “Deli Deli Olma” (“Crazy Occurrences” - English title given as “Piano Girl”), with a screenplay by Hazel Sevim Unsal, and starring Tarik Akan, Şerif Sezer, Çagla Acar, Deniz Arna. The movie combines humour and pathos, history and tradition, old and new, and weaves several stories together, giving a picture of life in Eşme Yazı, a small village close to the Eastern Anatolian city of Kars in Northeastern Turkey.
 
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Molokans (a Christian sect) were forced into exile by Czarist Russia. Molokans were regarded as heretics by the Russian Orthodox Church and were named Molokans (milk-drinkers) because they drank milk on most of the fasting days in the church year in Eastern Christianity, something that Orthodox people eschew. The film traces the final years of Mishka (Tarık Akan), the last Russian Molokan in the village. Although the film is set in modern times, the village is so poor and remote that it seems as though we are looking back in time, with all of the old traditions, way of life and prejudices still at large.
 
The village people call the Molokan “yeke kişi” (i.e. “big man”), and certainly with his imposing height, long, white beard and hair, he looks like a patriarch and is well-liked by almost everyone in the village. Papuç (Şerif Sezer) is a short-tempered and cantankerous old woman who seems to terrify everyone. She alone seems to hate Mishka and wants him to leave, even after being there all his life. Papuç lives with her son Şemistan (Levent Tülek) the village grocer, his wife Figan (Zuhal Topal) and her three grandchildren. The youngest grandchild Alma (Cemile Nihan Turhan) is a plucky but tender-hearted girl who spends a lot of her time with Mishka, even though it is against her grandmother’s wishes.
 
One day Şemistan gives Mishka some flour and tea on credit. When Popuç discovers this, she makes life hell for her son, demanding that he make Mishka pay his debt. Mishka, although penniless decides to pay his debt to Şemistan by giving him his piano, an heirloom inherited from his father, who brought it from Russia. Part of the reason Mishka gives the piano to Şemistan is that Alma is musically talented and she wants to learn to play it. Alma is encouraged by the village teacher Metin (Korel Cezayirli) who has noticed that Alma has an ear for music and he want to convince her family to allow her to take the conservatory exam.
 
The villagers, however, are a little scared of the piano (“the devil’s machine”!) and use the instrument as a means to pay debts - whoever owes some money to someone else gives the piano as payment. Ultimately the piano ends up with Mishka again… However, there is also a lot of mystery and some unfinished stories from the past that eventually are uncovered and bring the film to its moving conclusion.
 
The acting in the movie is excellent and the two leads, Şerif Sezer and Tarık Akan, make the movie. The two children actors Cemile Nihan and Ozan Erdoğan consistently steal scenes and it certainly looks as though they shall have a career in movies. The direction and cinematography are well executed and the music running throughout the film almost as a counter-plot, is appropriate and suits the mood admirably. The vignettes of village life and the trials and tribulations of the Molokan refugees are intriguing, but the story is mainly about human relationships and the coming of age tale of Alma. The film is poignant and funny, touching and entertaining. It involved us from beginning to end and we can recommend it most highly.

ART SUNDAY - SALVADOR DALÍ

“Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Søren_Kierkegaard
 
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí Y Domenech (born May 11, 1904, Figueras, Spain - died Jan. 23, 1989, Figueras), or Salvador Dalí as he is commonly known, was a Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker, influential for his innovative explorations of subconscious imagery in art. His father, Salvador Dalí i Cusí, was a middle-class lawyer and notary whose strict disciplinary approach was countered by his wife, Felipa Domenech Ferrés, who encouraged her son's artistic endeavours. When he was five, Dalí was taken to his brother's grave and told by his parents that he was his brother's reincarnation, a concept which he came to believe.
 
Of his brother, Dalí said, “...we resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections. He was probably a first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute.” Images of his long-dead brother would reappear embedded in his later works, including “Portrait of My Dead Brother” (1963). Dalí also had a sister, Ana María, who was three years younger. In 1949, she published a book about her brother, “Dalí As Seen By His Sister”. Dalí attended drawing school. In 1916, Dalí also discovered modern painting on a summer vacation trip to Cadaqués with the family of Ramon Pichot, a local artist who made regular trips to Paris. The next year, Dalí’s father organised an exhibition of his charcoal drawings in their family home. He had his first public exhibition at the Municipal Theater in Figueras in 1919.
 
As an art student in Madrid and Barcelona, Dalí assimilated a vast number of artistic styles and displayed unusual technical facility as a painter. It was not until the late 1920s, however, that two events brought about the development of his mature artistic style: His discovery of Sigmund Freud’s writings on the erotic significance of subconscious imagery, and his affiliation with the Paris Surrealists, a group of artists and writers who sought to establish the “greater reality” of man’s subconscious over his reason. To bring up images from his subconscious mind, Dalí began to induce hallucinatory states in himself by a process he described as “paranoiac critical”.
 
Once Dalí hit on this method, his painting style matured with extraordinary rapidity, and from 1929 to 1937 he produced the paintings which made him the world’s best-known Surrealist artist. He depicted a dream world in which commonplace objects are juxtaposed, deformed, or otherwise metamorphosed in a bizarre and irrational fashion. Dalí portrayed these objects in meticulous, almost painfully realistic detail and usually placed them within bleak, sunlit landscapes that were reminiscent of his Catalonian homeland. Perhaps the most famous of these enigmatic images is “The Persistence of Memory” (1931), in which limp, melting watches rest in an eerily calm landscape. With the Spanish director Luis Buñuel, Dalí also made two Surrealistic films – “Un Chien andalou” (1928; An Andalusian Dog) and “L’ Âge d’ or” (1930; The Golden Age) - that are similarly filled with grotesque but highly suggestive images.
 
In the late 1930s Dalí switched to painting in a more academic style under the influence of the Renaissance painter Raphael, and as a consequence he was expelled from the Surrealist movement. Thereafter he spent much of his time designing theatre sets, interiors of fashionable shops, and jewellery, as well as exhibiting his genius for flamboyant self-promotional stunts in the United States, where he lived from 1940 to 1955. In the period from 1950 to 1970 Dalí painted many works with religious themes, though he continued to explore erotic subjects, to represent childhood memories, and to use themes centring on his wife, Gala. Notwithstanding their technical accomplishments, these later paintings are not as highly regarded as the artist's earlier works. The most interesting and revealing of Dalí's books is “The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí” (1942–44).
 
Since its purchase in 1956 by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, “The Sacrament of the Last Supper” (167-268 cm - 1955) shown above, it has become the museum’s most popular work. The popularity of Dalí’s image has persisted despite critical hostility toward the painting and the gallery’s own ambivalence. It hangs in a corner by the elevators. Theologians, like the Protestants Francis Schaeffer and Paul Tillich, have also weighed in. For Schaeffer, Dalí’s image was a clear example of Christian meaning being lost to a vague existentialism: “This intangible Christ which Dalí painted is in sharp contrast to the bodies of the apostles who are physically solid in the picture. Dalí explained in his interviews that he had found a mystical meaning for life in the fact that things are made up of energy rather than solid mass. Because of this, for him there was a reason for a vault into an area of non-reason to give him the hope of meaning.”
 
Dalí was excited by the possibilities of expressing mystical ideas in light of new visions of reality made possible by nuclear physics. He dismissed the “science versus religion” dichotomy, noting “not a single philosophic, moral, aesthetic or biological discovery allows the denial of God.” His Surrealist art had been dominated by Freudian motifs, but from then on, his art would take on the Christian heritage in its content and depth. Dalí began to explore a mystical edge of Christianity that had been particularly challenged by a sterile view of modern science.

SONG SATURDAY - MAMMY BLUE

Mammy Blue
 

Oh mammy,
Oh mammy, mammy blue...
Mammy blue.
Oh mammy,

Oh mammy, mammy blue...
My mammy blue.
 

Now maybe our forgotten son,
Who wandered off at twenty one.
It's sad to find myself at home,
Why don't you come on around, now?
 

If I could only hold your hand,
And say I'm sorry, Yes I am.
I'm sure you'd really understand,
Oh! Where are you now?
 

The house we set up on the hill,
Its life is standing still.
And memories of my childhood,
Left in my mind.
 

I've been through all walks of life,

I've seen tired, deserted, lonely nights.

And now without you by my side,

How will I survive?

FOOD FRIDAY - LENTIL BURGERS

“A healthy outside starts from the inside.” – Robert Urich
 
For Food Friday, a classic vegetarian treat that packs quite a bit of taste, but also wholesome goodness!
 
Lentil Burgers
Ingredients
 
2 cups dried lentils (cleaned, rinsed and drained)
4 cups water
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 zucchini, finely chopped
1 large carrot, grated
2 tender stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp ground flax seed
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp chickpea flour
2 tbs water
Olive oil for frying
 
Method
Bring 4 cups of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the olive oil, lentils and a pinch of salt and return to the boil. Lower the heat, cover and cook for about 20 minutes until the water is absorbed, stirring now and then. Let cool and move the lentils to a large mixing bowl. Mash the lentils with a potato masher until they are completely mashed.
 
Heat a large skillet and add some olive oil. Sauté the onions for about 4 minutes until translucent. Add the zucchini, carrot, celery, garlic, salt and pepper. Sauté about 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the hot vegetables to the lentils in the bowl. Add the parsley, bread crumbs, flaxseed, Worcestershire sauce and the herbs and spices. In a separate little bowl put the chickpea flour and add two tablespoons of water and mix into a loose paste, which works as a binder. Add this flour and water mixture to the bowl. Mix everything well with your hands. If the mixture seems too loose, add more bread crumbs, while if it feels too dry and tight, add water. Form the lentil mixture into patties. Let them rest for a while in the refrigerator so they will hold their shape better.
 
Heat the large skillet again with some olive oil. Put the lentil patties into the skillet and fry on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Turn them carefully with tongs or a thin spatula so that they brown on both sides. Cook them long enough to be sure they get cooked all the way through. Remove from the pan and serve in wholemeal buns with a fresh green salad, tomatoes and Middle Eastern beetroot pickle.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

LEMURES, LEMURS & LEMURIA

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.” - Adam Smith
 
The ancient Romans believed that on May 9^th, 11^th and 13^th the gates between Earth and Hell opened allowing the Lemures (restless spirits) to come into this world. The term larvae was sometimes used synonymously with term Lemures. The male head of each household had to get up at midnight on each of these nights of May and exorcise the Lemures with a special ritual. He washed his hands three times, strode through the house, spitting and tossing black beans behind him that the ghosts were tempted to gather up and consume. Black was the appropriate colour for offerings to chthonic deities. This was repeated nine times. He would wash his hands anew and strike a brass gong, calling out nine times: “Shades of my fathers, depart!”  Because of this and other reasons, May was considered an unlucky month to celebrate marriages in.
 
Lemures represented the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living. Ovid considers the Lemures as vagrant, unsatiated and potentially vengeful ancestral gods or spirits of the underworld. To him, the rites of their cult suggest an incomprehensibly archaic, quasi-magical and probably very ancient rural tradition. Four centuries later, St. Augustine describes both the Lemures and the larvae as evil and restless manes that torment and terrify the living: Lares, on the other hand, are good manes.
 
Lemures were formless and liminal, associated with darkness and its dread. William Warde Fowler interprets the gift of beans as an offer of life, and points out that they were a ritual pollution for priests of Jupiter. The Lemures themselves were both fearsome and fearful: Any malevolent shades dissatisfied with the offering of the paterfamilias could be startled into flight by the loud banging of bronze pots.
 
The Lemures inspired Linnaeus’ Modern Latin backformation of “Lemur”. According to Linnaeus’ own explanation, the name was selected because of the nocturnal activity and slow movements of these slender monkeys. Lemurs are a clade of primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. Although lemurs often are confused with ancestral primates, the anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans) did not evolve from them; instead, lemurs merely share morphological and behavioural traits with basal primates.
 
Lemurs arrived in Madagascar around 62 to 65 million years ago by rafting on mats of vegetation at a time when ocean currents favoured oceanic dispersal to the island. Since that time, lemurs have evolved to cope with an extremely seasonal environment and their adaptations give them a level of diversity that rivals that of all other primate groups. Until shortly after humans arrived on the island around 2,000 years ago, there were lemurs as large as a male gorilla. Today, there are nearly 100 species of lemurs, and most of those species have been discovered or promoted to full species status since the 1990s; however, lemur taxonomic classification is controversial and depends on which species concept is used. Even the higher-level taxonomy is disputed.
 
Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical “lost land” variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept arising in the 19th century, is an attempt to account for discontinuities in biogeography; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories of plate tectonics. Philip Sclater wrote an article on “The Mammals of Madagascar” in The Quarterly Journal of Science. Using a classification he referred to as lemurs but which included related primate groups, and puzzled by the presence of their fossils in both Madagascar and India but not in Africa or the Middle East, Sclater proposed that Madagascar and India had once been part of a larger continent. He wrote:
 
“The anomalies of the Mammal fauna of Madagascar can best be explained by supposing that ... a large continent occupied parts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans ... that this continent was broken up into islands, of which some have become amalgamated with ... Africa, some ... with what is now Asia; and that in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of this great continent, for which ... I should propose the name Lemuria!”
 
Although sunken continents do exist – like Zealandia in the Pacific as well as Mauritia and the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean, there is no known geological formation under the Indian or Pacific Oceans that corresponds to the hypothetical Lemuria. Though Lemuria is no longer considered a valid scientific hypothesis, it has been adopted by writers involved in the occult, as well as some Tamil writers of India. Accounts of Lemuria differ, but all share a common belief that a continent existed in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as a result of a geological, often cataclysmic, change, such as pole shift.

RED CROSS, RED CRESCENT, RED CRYSTAL

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” - Mahatma Gandhi
 

World Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal Day is an annual celebration of the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. World Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal Day is celebrated on the 8th of May each year. This date is the anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant (born 8 May 1828), the founder of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize.
 

In 1922, soon after World War I, throughout the world there was a great yearning for peace. In Czechoslovakia, the National Society proclaimed a three-day truce at Easter to promote peace. An eminent government leader of the time summed up the underlying aspirations of that initiative as follows: “Our Red Cross wants to prevent disease so that it will not be obliged to give care; it also wants to encourage our society to prevent wars rather than having to bear the serious consequences involved. We all know the importance of the moral potential it brings into being and extends to all sections of the community. If its annual action could take hold in the whole world, this would certainly be a major contribution to peace.”
 

This was a presage of what was to become World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. The Czechoslovak initiative, known as the “Red Cross Truce”, had a big impact on the public, but met with some scepticism among National Society leaders. As a result the 14th International Conference of the Red Cross set up an International Commission to study the Red Cross Truce. Its report, presented to the 15th International Conference in Tokyo in 1934, stated that it approved the principle of the Truce and considered it advisable that its application be made more general, from the point of view of methodology, taking into account the various cultural and social characteristics of different regions of the world.
 

It was only after World War II, in 1946, that the Tokyo proposal was put into effect. During the XIVth Session of the Board of Governors of the League of Red Cross Societies, later called the General Assembly of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies, the League was requested to study the possibility of adopting an international Red Cross Day, to be celebrated on the same date by all National Societies. Two years later, following approval by the Federation’s Executive Committee, Red Cross Day was celebrated for the first time throughout the world on 8 May 1948, the anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. It subsequently changed names several times and in 1984 became “World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day”.
 

Despite the red cross and red crescent being intended only as neutral humanitarian emblems, on occasion, over decades, they were wrongly perceived as having religious, cultural and political connotations. Sadly this diminished the protection they offered to vulnerable people in conflict zones. The solution, endorsed by governments and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, was the creation of a third emblem, known as the red crystal. In December 2005, at a Diplomatic Conference, the nations party to the Geneva Conventions adopted a Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, establishing the red crystal as an emblem of protection equal in status to the cross and crescent. This resolution of the issue offers enhanced protection in regions where neither the red cross nor the red crescent emblem is accepted - and allows all nations to choose the emblem with which they are comfortable.
 

The Australian Red Cross harnesses the power of humanity, providing relief in times of crisis, care when it’s needed most and commitment when others turn away. Red Cross is there for people in need, no matter who these people are, no matter where they live. Tens of millions of people around the world each year and care for local communities in Australia and Asia Pacific are cared for by the Australian Red Cross. Much of the valuable work of the Red Cross is carried out by millions of volunteers worldwide and thousands of members, volunteers and supporters across Australia we can reach people and places like nobody else.

LILITH AND EVE

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” - George Bernard Shaw
 

Magpie Tales has presented us with a painting by Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926), the American impressionist painter, to stimulate our literary creativity. The painting is “Young Woman Picking the Fruit of Knowledge” of 1892. Here is my poem that was inspired by this painting.
 

Lilith
 

Eve reaches out to pluck the fruit;
Forbidden – yet so tempting.
She hesitates and thinks
Of Lilith’s fate:
Wild-spirited and wilful,
Free, yet doomed to be alone…
 

The blush of ripeness
The fragrance of maturity;
Low-hanging, inviting,
Ready to be plucked.
Lilith would not have hesitated,
But look at her fate, damned…
 

Eve touches the swollen ovary
And feels a burst of power.
Even its touch is forceful,
How can one not taste its flesh?
Lilith surely bit into the fruit
And tasted its juice…
 

She picks it and her head explodes
With inrushing knowledge.
Her breast swells as her heart beats fast,
And she is struck dumb by the guilt.
Lilith would have not minded
The realisation of her nakedness…
 

Eve bites the fruit, and the sap
Tastes sweet, but has a bitter aftertaste.
Knowledge is useless
Without the company of wisdom.
Unlike Lilith, Eve harvests foolishness
But her wiles will trap Adam,
Who willingly must share her iniquity.
Eve, more cunning, more guilty,
Than the emancipated, wiser, more genuine Lilith.
 

(Lilith is a female demon of Jewish folklore; her name and personality are derived from the class of Mesopotamian demons called lilû (feminine: lilītu). In rabbinic literature Lilith is variously depicted as the first wife and mother of Adam’s demonic offspring, who left him because of their incompatibility. Three angels tried in vain to force her return; the evil she threatened, especially against children, was said to be counteracted by the wearing of an amulet bearing the names of the angels. A cult associated with Lilith survived among some Jews as late as the 7th century AD).

MOVIE MONDAY - ADÈLE BLANC-SEC

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.” - Carl Jung
 

We watched a rather delightful French, fantasy/adventure film at the weekend, which is based on a French comic book heroine. It was the 2010 Luc Besson movie, “The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec”, starring Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric and Gilles Lellouche. The screenplay was by Luc Besson and was based on the Jacques Tardi comic book series. The film was reminiscent of the Tin-Tin film or even the Indiana Jones series. Bresson uses live actors aided by suitable CGI, when required, to create a rollicking adventure full of humour and action. As one would expect in a fantasy film, the plot is quite unbelievable and over the top, however, if one has enjoyed films of the likes of Harry Potter, the why not dive into this film and savour its acidic sweetness reminiscent of a soft, sugary, little French dragée?
 

The plot centres on Mlle Adèle Blanc-Sec, a popular novelist and daring adventuress, who is fearless in her pursuit of knowledge, thrills and setting right wrongs in the name of good causes. Her latest mission is prompted by her desperation to cure her comatose sister. Adèle braves ancient Egyptian tombs and modern Egyptian lowlife to locate a renowned mummified doctor who has the ability to cure all manner of ills, and get him back to Paris. Her hope is that the magician-like Professor Espérandieu will then use his unusual powers to bring the doctor back to life so he, in turn, can use his centuries-old skills to cure Adèle’s unfortunate sister. Back in Paris, however, Professor Espérandieu is causing mayhem, having brought to life what was a safe fossilised museum egg, but is now a very active and predatory pterodactyl (thanks to CGI!).
 

When watching the film, one is struck by some great positive features that make it very enjoyable: Great, rollicking pace, wonderful editing, fantastic sets and costumes, sympathetic music, and a marvellous leading actress. This is in fact Louise Bourgoin’s film from beginning to end and she carries the movie with no apparent effort, slipping into the essence of the character of Mlle Adèle Blanc-Sec.
 

The rapid pace and exemplary editing is reminiscent of the shift from from panel to panel in a comic book. However, readers of the Tardi comics may be a trifle disappointed as Adéle in the movie has been “scrubbed clean” and has lost some of her sarcasm, her grungy charm and her characteristic bohemian lifestyle. In fact, the whole of Paris has been cleaned up, as the comics are darker and more menacing, full of lowlifes, incompetent policemen, rabid lunatics and sorry invalids of the war roaming the dirty streets. Nevertheless, the film works well and one must allow the poetic licence of the director deliver his own vision of Adèle.
 

Luc Besson has made some very memorable and enduring contemporary films such as action thrillers like “Nikita” and “Leon the Professional”, and wonderful science fiction cult films such as “The Fifth Element”. If you enjoyed the last mentioned film, you will no doubt love “Adèle”. Besson must have had great fun making this movie and his direction is snappy and delightful. The actors seem to be having great fun also and in addition to Ms Bourgoin’s great efforts, all supporting actors do a marvellous job to propel the action forward.
 

Unfortunately this film didn’t do too well in France and with a budget of 25 million euros, the worldwide box-office sum of $34 million on 6 May 2011, indicates that the film did not live up to the profit-making expectations of the producers. Although there is a hint of a sequel in the closing scenes, I don’t foresee one coming up in the near future… Watch this one and enjoy it.

BELATED ART SUNDAY - MANET

“I’m a girl from a good family who was very well brought up. One day I turned my back on it all and became a bohemian.” - Brigitte Bardot
 
Édouard Manet was born into a wealthy family on the 23 January 1832, in Paris, France. His father was a civil servant who wanted Manet to enter into the French navy. However, after Édouard visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, twice on training missions and failing the course, his father accepted that the navy was not the right career for his son. Consequently Manet entered into the atelier of Thomas Couture alongside his good friend Antonio Proust.
 
Manet worked in Couture’s studio until 1856 at which time he opened his own. Manet then went on to reject the teachings of Couture and worked in his own personal style. Manet did not like to layer his paints and preferred to work from subject matter that was directly in front of him and it was this painting style that went onto influence the Impressionists’ work.
 
By 1860 Manet was living with his mistress, Suzanne Leenhoff (his family’s piano teacher), who had previously had a relationship with Manet’s father. Manet’s private life was controversial. He finally married Suzanne who had her own child. It is unknown whether Manet was the father or brother of the child; however, he treated the boy as his own.
 
In the early 1860s Manet submitted a number of paintings, such as “Olympia” and “The Luncheon on the Grass” to the Salon jury. These were unfortunately rejected and the artist was left despondent, due to his belief that an artist had to have their work accepted into the Salon in order to be deemed successful.
 
In 1868 Manet was introduced to the artist Berthe Morisot and the two quickly became firm friends. Through Morisot, Manet was introduced to the other Impressionists, who he was soon considered to be a leader of although he never joined their art shows.
 
With the Prussian war approaching Manet joined the army and evacuated his family from the city. During this period his art production came to a standstill. Manet became ill in 1879 and eventually passed away in 1883.
 
Édouard Manet was an artist who bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism. During his time Manet considered himself to be a Realist artist and he classed his work as sincere. However, his radical painting style and modern subject matter highly influenced the work of the Impressionists, which has led to him being perceived as the father of Impressionism.
 
The vast majority of Manet’s paintings depict scenes from daily life, observed on the streets of Paris. His café scenes serve as fascinating windows into the actuality of Parisian social life at the end of the nineteenth century, showing common people waiting, reading, listening to music, drinking, or talking amongst themselves. His paintings were often based on hastily executed sketches of scenes he stumbled upon on the street. The immediacy of Manet’s “alla prima” style was quickly embraced by the younger generation, who later became the Impressionists. The alla prima style meant that a painting did not have to take months to create and allowed artists to paint from difficult to reach viewpoints. This was advantageous for Manet because he preferred to paint from reality rather than his imagination or dozens of pre-worked sketches and study paintings.
 
In the 1920s many critics were considering Manet’s work to be “pure painting”, fitting in with the Realist ideology. However in 1954 the Swede art critic Nils Gosta Sandblad began to look at Manet’s work as highly modern and having been indicative of future art trends (beyond Impressionism). This idea has carried on until modern times and today Manet is considered by many to have been an artist genius.
 
The painting above,  “Chez le père Lathuille”, of 1879, in Musée des Beaux-Arts Tournai, shows Manet’s mature style to advantage. The alla prima technique, allowing great immediacy takes us into this intimate scene of a lovers’ assignation in one of the cafés of Paris. The tender moment is observed from the distance by the waiter, who seems to be more interested in the artist rather than the young lovers. The painting is similar to a candid snapshot in this manner. The colours coruscate and the composition is masterly with the strong green vertical beam acting as the fulcrum for the strong horizontal of the white tablecloth. The figures are in perfect harmony, the artist having chosen to keep the formally dressed woman’s face rather obscure (does her stiff pose suggest that she is married? Is this an illicit meeting?), while the casual dress and pose of the man (an artist?) and his relaxed grasp of the full wine glass make one equate him with temptation personified. This is quite the illustration of La vie bohémienne!

HAPPY EASTER!

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” - Psalm 118:24
 
Easter Saturday and the day was devoted to going to church. We visited two Orthodox churches, one Russian and one Greek. Orthodox Easter is full of traditions and the liturgies of the Holy Week are quite moving.
 
Here is the Resurrection troparion (hymn), “Christos Anesti” – Christ is Risen. The troparion is first sung during the Paschal Vigil at the end of the procession around the church, which takes place at the beginning of Matins. When all are gathered before the church’s closed front door, the clergy and faithful take turns chanting the troparion.

The troparion in the original Greek:
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν,
θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας,
καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι,
ζωὴν χαρισάμενος!
 
Transliteration:
Christós anésti ek nekrón,
thanáto thánaton patísas,
ké tís en tís mnímasi,
zoín charisámenos!
 
A typical translation in English runs:
Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life!

Happy Easter! Καλή Ανάσταση!

GREEK EASTER COOKIES

“My mom used to say that Greek Easter was later because then you get stuff cheaper.” - Amy Sedaris
 
Great Thursday of the Holy Week in the Orthodox Church calendar is devoted to kitchen duties in the home, in order to prepare for Easter. Eggs are dyed blood red to signify Christ’s resurrection, sweet Easter bread is baked and Easter cookies are prepared for Easter Sunday. Both bread and cookies are full of eggs, butter and milk, all of which were forbidden foods during the period of fasting of the Great Lent. Here is a recipe for Greek Easter Cookies:
 
GREEK EASTER COOKIES (KOULOURAKIA)

Ingredients

            • 2 eggs (+1 for glazing)

            • 550 g of self raising flour

            • 125 g unsalted butter

            • 1/2 cup of milk

            • 1 cup sugar

            • 1/2 tsp baking powder

            • 1/2 tsp vanillin sugar
 
Method
Cream the butter and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the whole two eggs, beating continuously. Add the milk a little at a time, whilst continuing to beat the mixture. Mix the baking powder and vanillin sugar with the flour and add to the mixture while stirring. Knead into a soft dough. Roll into long cylinders slightly thicker than a pencil (they rise a lot). Shape into small plaits and put into a greased baking tray. Brush with beaten egg and bake in a pre-heated oven at 175˚C until golden brown.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

GREEK EASTER

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.” - Khalil Gibran
 
In 2013, Greek Orthodox Easter falls on Sunday May 5th. This is much later than both Western Easter (in 2013 31st March, in case you’ve forgotten) and the Jewish feast of Passover (the latter is significant as according to the scriptures, the Passion of Christ occurred in connection with Passover). Colleagues always ask me why is Greek Easter on a different date? Well, not always! Some years it is actually on the same date (e.g. 2014, 2017). How is Greek Easter calculated? Well, it’s complicated!
 
Calculation of Orthodox Easter is governed by these three main conditions:

1. It must be based on the Julian (as in Julius Caesar) calendar, not the Gregorian (as in Pope Gregory) calendar

2. It must be after the Jewish holiday of Passover

3. It must be on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, which for this purpose is fixed as March 21st.
 
The basic reason for the difference between the two Easters is that the Western Easter uses a different set of calculations based on the current Gregorian calendar created by Pope Gregory instead of the ancient Julian one, first used under the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. Under the Gregorian system, Easter can actually be in March, something that will not happen with the Julian-based method of calculating Easter.
 
For a full (and fascinating!) explanation on the intricacies of calculating Easter dates, please see Claus Tøndering’s Calendar FAQ excellent site, which one can find other fascinating facts about the various world calendars.
 
Both Orthodox and Western Christian churches celebrate Easter for the same reason, of course: The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter Sunday or Resurrection Day is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for all Christian churches. Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life in Christ Jesus.
 
Because of Easter’s pagan origins (named after the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring and fertility, Eostre, or Ôstara), and also because of the commercialisation of Easter, many Christian churches choose to refer to the holiday as Resurrection Day. In Greek, Easter is termed “Pascha”, derived from the Jewish “Pesach” – Passover.

IT'S ALL ACADEMIC

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” - Dr. Seuss
 

Magpie Tales has provided an illustration British illustrator Helen Ward as a visual prompt for today’s literary offerings. Helen Ward has illustrated many children’s books, and an excellent interview can be found here, which describes her life and work. With apologies to Ms Ward for my alteration of her illustration, here is my offering:
 
An Academic Discourse
 
Two rabbits, some hares,
Were splitting their hairs:
Their intent to argue creation,
Rain, and such condensation.
 
A rat, a gnat and two moles
Were digging four holes,
Deep in which to inter
Bread, butter, liqueur.
 
A frog from a bog and a hen
Constructed a large pen
To herd mewling cats,
All wearing elegant hats.
 
A badger, a toad, carrying a load
Conversed in Morse code,
While giving great pain
To everyone’s brain.
 
A stoat and a goat, quick to emote,
Cried long in their boat,
Their tears enough, no surprise,
To make it capsize.
 
And there were you, I,
And a blue-bottle fly,
Singing in tune under full moon,
Sometime in late June,
While pigs flew overhead
And our theories misled.

MOVIE MONDAY - WHAT I WON'T WATCH

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” - Albert Einstein
 
I must confess that like any one of us I have my faults. One always tries of course to better oneself and expunge parts of one’s character or disposition that are unwholesome or irritating or annoying, even (or especially!) to oneself. However, there is a batch of niggling traits, ideas, misconceptions, petty prejudices and irrational little bêtes noires that seem to stick and pepper one’s life with their absurdity. One example of such a dislike of mine is the antipathy I have towards Facebook. Even though I consider myself technology savvy (even geeky to a certain extent), even though I blog, tweet, pin things on Pinterest, subscribe to LinkedIn, etc, etc, I took an instant dislike to Facebook as soon as it appeared on the horizon and have never fallen to the temptation to even try it out. As I said, it may be quite irrational, but there it is, it’s just me…
 
Now how does this relate to Movie Monday? I was thinking about films I had seen to review for today and then the thought struck me, what about the movies I haven’t seen – or worse still, the films I refuse to see… “The Social Network” (2010) is an obvious example. Friends who have seen it and recommend it, are mystified when I inform them that I won’t watch it. I have absolutely no interest at all in this film or its bunch of geeky heroes, that are one of the real life success stories of the 21st century “.com bubble”. My antipathy to Facebook has been transferred to the film – sight unseen.
 
Another film I would not see is “Sex and the City” (2008).  Once again, I am showing my prejudices here, as I have not watched a single episode of the TV series. Just reading the description of the series and plot outline of the first episode was enough to put me off. Watching the film trailer out the cherry on top of the cake and confirmed my dislike. Something about the concept, something about the leading actresses, something about the setting and the whole conceit of the thing was quite distasteful for me.
 
Another set of movies that are do not appeal is the recent clutch of reprocessed and transmogrified fairy tales of the ilk of “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” (2013) and “Jack the Giant Slayer” (2013). From the publicity material that is being splattered across the internet, I have been completely put off the Hollywoodised CGI-rich, updated and modernised tales that to me reek of the ludicrous – a modern version of “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” (1964). Not that fairy tales are not fantasy, but there is good fantasy and bad fantasy…
 
Then there is another group of “contemporary” comedies which seem to rely on the scatological, grubby, slimy, profane humour, and in which is a cast of unlikeable antiheroes that give me the willies even when I see the movie poster or DVD cover. “Get Him to the Greek” (2010) is an example, as is “Wayne’s World” (1992) or “The Campaign” (2012).
 
As I am not a spectator sportsman nor a couch potato sports fan, so movies about sports, sportspeople, teams and struggles of sportspeople to get to the top of the pecking order in sportsdom leave me quite cold. “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) seems quite distasteful to me from the plot description and the trailer, although some friends have recommended it highly to me. “Coach Carter” (2005), “Resurrecting the Champ" (2007) and a multitude of movies about baseball and football (e.g. “Remember the Titans" [2000]), also leave extremely cold.
 
There are many others, of course, but that’s enough of my ranting for today. If you think you have a good reason that will make me shed my prejudices about any one of these films, please tell me. I’m always willing to reform, if I am shown the error of my ways…

ART SUNDAY - ARTHUR STREETON

“Any landscape is a condition of the spirit.” – Henri-Frédéric Amiel
 

The Australian landscape painter Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (1867-1943) was a leading member of the Heidelberg school, the Australian version of impressionism, which became widespread in Australia in the last quarter of the 19th century. The artist, nicknamed, “Smike” was born at Mt. Duneed, near Geelong in Victoria on 8th April 1867. He showed a leaning towards art and an early aptitude for sketching. Moving to Melbourne, he became a lithographer’s apprentice, and while still in his teens he began studying at the National Gallery Art School.
 

When the painter Tom Roberts returned to Melbourne in 1885, the impressionist principles he brought back inspired a group of young artists. These artists became the Heidelberg School (named from the locale of the group’s principal painting camp, overlooking the river Yarra, near Melbourne – Heidelberg is now a Melbourne suburb). Streeton joined the group in 1886 and was deeply influenced by impressionism. But he saw the need to stress high-key tonal values in order to translate into paint “the blue of the Australian skies and the clear transparency of Australian distances”. His ideas took him on a brand new course and his canvasses inspired many an artist that worked in the Heidelberg School.
 

After the sale of one of his landscapes in 1888, Streeton decided to abandon lithography. His artistic skill matured quickly, and “Golden Summer” and “Still Glides the Stream” (both painted in 1888) are among his most notable paintings. In 1889 he and the Heidelberg group exhibited “9 × 5 Impressions” (paintings on the 9”x5” cigar-box lids) and the proceeds of the sales enabled Streeton to pursue his career. Much of his finest work was done in the next few years, such as the “Purple Noon’s Transparent Might” (1896) – an iconic Australian art work. This painting clearly shows the harsh light and brilliant colours that Streeton had to adapt the impressionist technique to in Australia.
 

In 1898 Streeton went to London. On his return to Melbourne in 1907 he had a successful exhibition with good sales. His “Australia Felix” dates from this year. A one-man show in Sydney and a second in Melbourne followed. Back in London, he had little difficulty in securing commissions. Nevertheless, the Paris Salon awarded him its Gold Medal in 1909.
 

Streeton joined the British army as a private in 1914. After being invalided out, early in 1918 he was commissioned by the Australian government as a war artist. After spending 2 years in Melbourne and then revisiting London, Streeton decided in 1923 to return permanently to Victoria. From his home in the picturesque hill country east of Melbourne, he continued to paint in his established manner. He was knighted in 1937 and died at Olinda, Victoria, on September 1, 1943.
 

Streeton was a pioneer of the heroic impressionism, the style which dominated the nation’s art for half a century, beginning in the 1880s. In settings of well-clothed rolling countryside, his paintings invested the continent’s fertile pastoral lands with a truly Arcadian grandeur. His contemporaries saw him as a true product of “the sun and soil of his land”, and he was acknowledged to be “a natural technician, with virtuosity and technical perfection including correct drawing and balanced design”.
 

The painting above from 1888 is “Early Summer - Gorse in Bloom” painted when the artist was 21 years old. It is presently exhibited in the Art Gallery of South Australia, and is a work in oils on canvas, 56.2 cm by 100.6 cm. It is typical of Streeton’s Australian impressionist landscapes, with the brilliance of the blue sky complemented by the yellow blooms of the gorse bushes. Common gorse is the most widely familiar species (Ulex europaeus) of this genus, and is the only species native to much of Western Europe. In many areas of North America (notably California and Oregon), southern South America, Australia, New Zealand and Hawai’i, the Common Gorse, introduced as an ornamental plant or hedge, has become naturalised and is a weed and invasive species due to its aggressive seed dispersal; it has proved very difficult to eradicate and detrimental in native habitats.
 

That gorse is a central part of this canvas is perhaps ironic, given Streeton’s commitment to creating an “Australian” art, seeing how the species is an introduced invasive plant. Perhaps, this is symbolic of the transplantation of French impressionism on Australian soil and its immense influence for many decades in the Australian art scene…