MUSIC SATURDAY - DVORAK

“For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.” - Henry A. Kissinger
 

Antonín Leopold Dvořák (date of birth: 8 September 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia, Austria. [now Czech Republic]; date of Death: 1 May 1904, Prague, Czech Republic) was the son of a butcher, but he did not follow his father’s trade, even though he was brought up with that intent by his parents. While assisting his father part-time, he studied music, and graduated from the Prague Organ School in 1859. He also was an accomplished violinist and violist, and joined the Bohemian Theatre Orchestra, which was under the baton of Bedrich Smetana in 1860s. For financial reasons he quit the orchestra and focused on composing and teaching.
 

He fell in love with one of his students, but she married another man. Her sister was single, so Dvorak married the sister, Anna, in 1873, and they had nine children. Dvorak’s early compositions were influenced by Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms, and with their support his music was performed in European capitals and received international acclaim. His performances in 1880s of Slavonic Dances, the Sixth Symphony and the Stabat Mater were a success in England, and Dvorak received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge.
 

He made a successful concert tour in Russia in 1890, and became a professor at the Prague Conservatory. In 1892 he received an invitation to visit America from Jeannette Thurber, the founder of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Dvorak was the Director of the National Conservatory in New York for three years (1892-95), where he also taught composition and carried on his cross-cultural studies.
 

Dvorak broadened his experiences through studying the music of the Native Americans and African Americans, many of whom became his students and friends. Dvorak was inspired by the originality of indigenous American music and culture, as well as by the spirituals and by the singing of his African American students. Dvorak incorporated his new ideas, blended with his Bohemian roots, into his well-known Symphony No.9 in E minor “From the New World”. He worked on this symphony for most of the spring and summer of 1893, and made it's glorious premiere in Carnegie Hall in December, 1893.
 

In America he also wrote the remarkable Cello Concerto and two string quartets, including the Quartet in F (“The American”). Dvorak was doing very well in New York financially, but his heart was in Prague and he left America for his Czech fatherland. He had a big family with his wife and nine children in Prague. He became the Director of the Prague Conservatory in 1901 and kept the position until his death in 1904.
 

Here is his most famous work, Symphony No.9 in E minor “From the New World”, performed by the Wiener Philarmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

The painting above is Johnson Eastman's "Life in the South: My Old Kentucky Home".

FOOD FRIDAY - SPANISH OMELETTE

“Our curses on them that boil the eggs too hard! What use is an egg that is hard to any person on earth?” - Lady Gregory
 

World Egg Day is celebrated every year on the second Friday in October. The first World Egg Day in modern times was celebrated in 1996, but the egg has been celebrated since ancient times. People may make a special effort on this World Egg Day to enjoy the wonderful versatility of the egg. Eggs have a vital role to play in feeding people around the world, in both developed and developing countries.  They are an excellent, affordable source of high quality protein. To this end, here is a delicious egg recipe:
 

Spanish Omelette

Ingredients
500g waxy potatoes, such as Charlotte
50 g of butter
2 small red onions, finely sliced
1 red pepper, finely chopped
8-9 eggs
Chives (optional)
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
 

Method
Finely slice the onions and chop the red pepper, removing the seeds. Cut the potatoes into roughly ½ cm slices.
 
Heat the butter in a medium (about 24cm) frying pan over a low heat and cook gently for 10 – 15 minutes until starting to go brown, add the peppers and cook for a further 5 mins.
 
Put the potatoes in a steamer over boiling water for 10 - 12 minutes to soften. If you don’t have a steamer, put in a saucepan, cover with boiling water and simmer gently for around 8 - 10 minutes until just cooked through and drain well.
 
Break the eggs into a jug and beat with a fork, season with a generous grind of pepper, a pinch of salt and some ground nutmeg. Use scissors to snip the chives into small pieces and stir in (if using).
 
Heat the grill. Add a little more butter to the frying pan and add the potatoes. Pour over the egg mixture. Cook for 15 mins until almost set and golden brown underneath - you can use a spatula to lift the omelette up and check. Put the frying pan under the grill. Make sure the handle is outside the oven as it will become very hot and can burn. Cook for a further minute or two and serve.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

VIVA VERDI!

“I adore my art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.” - Giuseppe Verdi
 

Giuseppe Verdi (October 10, 1813 - January 27, 1901) one of the greatest opera composers that ever lived, was born in the Italian town of Le Roncole, a village in the province of Parma (Emilia-Romagna region) of Italy. Verdi and Richard Wagner (also born in 1813) are considered the two preeminent opera composers of the nineteenth century. Verdi dominated the Italian opera scene after the eras of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture, as “La donna è mobile” from Rigoletto, “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” (The Drinking Song) from La Traviata, “Va, pensiero” (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, the “Coro di zingari” from Il Trovatore and the “Grand March” from Aida.

When he was still a child, Verdi’s parents moved from Le Roncole to Busseto, where the future composer’s education was greatly facilitated by visits to the large library belonging to the local Jesuit school. When Verdi showed early talent, Antonio Barezzi, a music-loving grocer paid for his music education. Back then, Italy was not a united country, and a lot of it was under Austrian rule – in fact technically, Verdi was born a Frenchman, as Le Roncole was under French rule at the time of his birth.
 

It was in Busseto that Verdi was given his first lessons in composition. The young composer went to Milan when he was twenty to continue his studies. He took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances and concerts, often of specifically German music. Milan’s Beaumonde association convinced him that he should pursue a career as a theatre composer. During the mid-1830s, he attended the Salotto Maffei salons in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei.
 

Returning to Busseto, he became the town music master and gave his first public performance in 1830 in the home of Antonio Barezzi, the music lover who had long supported Verdi’s musical ambitions in Milan. Because he loved Verdi’s music, Barezzi invited Verdi to be his daughter Margherita’s music teacher, and the two soon fell deeply in love. They were married on 4 May 1836, and Margherita gave birth to two children, Virginia Maria Luigia (26 March 1837 – 12 August 1838) and Icilio Romano (11 July 1838 – 22 October 1839). Both died in infancy while Verdi was working on his first opera and, shortly afterwards, Margherita died of encephalitis on 18 June 1840, aged only 26. Verdi adored his wife and children and was devastated by their deaths.
 

Nabucco, one of the earliest operas that Verdi wrote, included a chorus of Hebrew slaves longing for their country “so beautiful and lost”. Italians latched onto Verdi’s “Chorus of Hebrew Slaves” as an unofficial anthem for their divided nation that was ruled by foreign occupying powers. Verdi and his music became part of the Italian struggle for independence. Even his name became a political statement. The letters V-E-R-D-I are the first letters of the phrase “Vittorio Emanuele, Rei D’Italia”, which translates to “Victor Emanuel, King of Italy”. Victor Emanuel was the man Italians wanted to be their ruler. When Italians shouted “Viva Verdi” (long live Verdi)! their Austrian rulers didn’t know that they were talking politics, not opera, because the Austrians knew how much the Italians loved opera.
 

In his late thirties, Verdi composed Rigoletto (1853), and La Traviata (1853). Although the public loved them, critics were often scandalised by their subject matter - they seemed to condone rape, suicide, and free love. But Verdi was fiercely independent and himself lived openly with his second wife for ten years before marrying her. After these operatic successes had made him wealthy, Verdi bought an estate in Busseto; and in 1861 he was elected in the first parliament that convened after Italy had become a nation. In his later years he wrote Aida (1871), Otello (1887), and at the age of seventy-nine his final opera, Falstaff (1893).
 

Verdi composed not for the musical elite but for a mass public whose main entertainment was opera. He wanted subjects that were “original, interesting and passionate; passions about all!” Almost all his mature works are serious and end unhappily; they move quickly and involve extremes of hatred, love, jealousy, and fear; and his powerful music underlines the dramatic situations. Expressive vocal melody is the soul of a Verdi opera. There are many duets, trios, and quartets; and the chorus plays an important rule. Verdi’s style became less conventional as he grew older; his later works have greater musical continuity, less difference between aria and recitative, more imaginative orchestration, and richer accompaniments. His last three operas, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff, are perhaps his greatest. Falstaff, his final work, is a comic masterpiece which ends with a carefree fugue to the words “All the world's a joke!"
 

Here are the Three Tenors (Carreras, Pavarotti and Domingo) with Verdi’s “La Donna e Mobile” (Rigoletto) and “Brindisi” (La Traviata).

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY

“Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing.” - Diane Abbott
 
This week is Mental Health Week, with World Mental Health Day tomorrow, October 10. A number of high profile Australians are supporting this health initiative this year, with celebrities, business people, politicians, sporting stars and organisations making a personal mental health promise. The purpose is to achieve three objectives:

1. Break down stigma, and convince people that mental illness is something that can be dealt with effectively, just like any other illness;
2. Bring communities together and get them talking about mental health and sharing their experiences;
3. Encourage people to seek help when they need it.

The impact of mental illness within the Australian population has become increasingly apparent. The 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that an estimated 3.2 million Australians (20% of the population aged between 16 and 85) had a mental disorder in the twelve months prior to the survey. The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003 study indicated that mental disorders constitute the leading cause of disability burden in Australia, accounting for an estimated 24% of the total years lost due to disability.
 
The onset of mental illness is typically around mid-to-late adolescence and Australian youth (18-24 years old) have the highest prevalence of mental illness than any other age group. Common mental illnesses in young Australians are: Anxiety disorders (14%), depressive disorders (6%) and substance use disorders (5%). About 65% of people with mental illness do not access any treatment. This is worsened by delayed treatment due to serious problems in detection and accurate diagnosis. The proportion of people with mental illness accessing treatment is half that of people with physical disorders.
 
According to new research by the Mental Health Council of Australia (MHCA), four out of ten Australians who use mental health services are very satisfied with them. This research shows that there is a lot of good news for those who experience mental illness in Australia. It is a particularly encouraging fact for those who may be thinking about seeking help. The MHCA is calling on people to make and share their mental health promise, to encourage more people to open up about mental health. Anyone can make a promise at this website: http://1010.org.au/promise/add

TEMPUS EDAX RERUM

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” - William Penn
 

Magpie Tales has selected this week an image by Crilleb50 to act as a stimulus for creative endeavours. Here is my offering:
 

Tempus Edax Rerum
 

Infinite Time forever rushing forth
You run, you never stop, never to die.
In, out, unendlessly you weave a cloth,
A wily web in which we fall and helpless lie.
 

Time, tireless traveller, you never tarry
Unheeding to our cries of: “Mercy, stop!”
You hurry forward and Death you carry
His sickle sharp and ready for the crop.
 

Unending Time, the one without beginning,
How weak we be, if we should try to fight!
You only can the victor be, forever winning;
Glory for you, fame light; for us an endless night.
 

Even the strong you break as forth inexorably you fly;
Time in the end only surviving, all other things to die.

MOVIE MONDAY - 3 FRENCH FILMS

“Far less envy in America than in France, and far less wit.” - Stendhal
 

We watched three French films recently and overall they were all very good. Living in Australia it is rather more difficult to find a wide variety of good international movies in most DVD shops, so when I see something that looks interesting and in a language other than English, I enthusiastically grab it. In some cases the film has disappointed, but in over 90% of cases we have generally enjoyed my choices.
 

The first, was the 2009 Catherine Corsini movie, “Leaving” (Partir), which starred Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López and Yvan Attal. This was a graphic tale of power, family, love, sex and complex relationships in a typical love triangle - shades of Madame Bovary in a modern-day setting. The film does contain some sex scenes, so be warned.
 

Scott Thomas plays Suzanne, a well-to-do married wife and mother in the south of France. Her idle, comfortable bourgeois lifestyle bores her and as her children are growing up, she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist. She begins to study as a refresher, and her doctor husband (Attal) agrees to renovate a storage building as a consulting room for her in their backyard. When Suzanne and Ivan (López), the man hired to do the building, meet the mutual attraction is as sudden as it is passionate. Suzanne has little hesitation to give up her life, her family and all her future plans in order to live this love to the fullest.
 

The film is gritty and realistic, and even though Suzanne is depicted as the faithless wife betraying her husband and family, one cannot help but sympathise with her, especially as the film develops and her husband’s attitude towards her is explored. It is difficult to fathom what Suzanne is experiencing: Is it true love, an overwhelming passion, or an attempt to reaffirm her femininity in order to experience Ivan’s tenderness towards her (something that is missing from her relationship with her husband)? The vulnerability of each of the three main characters is artfully displayed by the director, who is very restrained in the way she depicts the foibles of all three. Quite an enjoyable movie.
 

The second film was “IP5: The Island of the Pachyderms” (IP5: L'île aux pachyderms) a 1992 film by director Jean-Jacques Beineix, starring Yves Montand, Olivier Martinez and Sekkou Sall. This was part road movie, part coming-of-age tale, part quest for the ideal love movie. It is notable for being Yves Montand’s last movie (he died in 1991, before the film’s release).

Two young people, Tony (Martinez) a dysfunctional anti-social angry youth and his friend, Jockey (Sall) a black boy, live a precarious existence in the ethnic minority slums of Paris. They deface walls with graffiti and decorate billboards with art. Tony gets in serious trouble with a gang of drug pushers and in order to extricate himself, agrees to deliver a consignment of “gnomes” to Grenoble. En route, Tony decides to head for Toulouse instead, in pursuit of a girl he met briefly in Paris and with whom he has fallen in love. The two youngsters dump the truck, steal a couple of cars and in the second one, they find that Leon, a tramp and mystic (Montand), is hiding in the back seat. They form an unlikely threesome, each pursuing a dream, each finding within themselves a redeeming feature that changes their lives.
 

Beineix has made some interesting films, including “Betty Blue”, “The Moon in the Gutter” and “Diva”. Socially marginal anti-establishment characters on a quest seems to be a recurring theme with this director. This film has an engaging style, often lapses into visual lyricism and Montand’s acting shines forth like a diamond. The two young leads also do a great job acting and the cinematography, music and direction are wonderful. We were kept engaged and interested throughout this movie that looks at France’s minorities, some of their problems, but more importantly, the universality of human emotions and needs.
 

Third in the list is Claude Lelouch’s 2007 movie, “Crossed Tracks” (“Roman de Gare”) starring Fanny Ardant, Dominique Pinon and Audrey Dana. This was a quirky film that was nevertheless well made, original and kept you guessing for quite a while with its clever plot and false leads. One has to pay close attention to the story, but at the same time, this is not hard to do as the movie is interesting, the acting is good and the plot has few if any holes in it. One’s changing evaluation of the characters as one watches and learns more of them, is part of the pleasure of watching this film.
 

The plot centres on (but is not mainly about!) the successful novelist Judith Ralitzer (Ardant). We start out with Judith’s interrogation at a police station regarding the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A the same time, a serial-killer/child rapist escapes from a prison in Paris. A school teacher leaves his wife and children and goes missing, while his wife desperately tries to find him but instead falls in love with the police detective in charge of the case. Further afield, on the road, an annoying and stressed hairdresser, Huguette (Dana) is abandoned at a service station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the farm of her family in the country in order to introduce her fiancé and announce their wedding to them. A man (Pinon) offers her a ride and she pleads with him to assume the identity of her fiancé for 24 hours so as not to disappoint her mother. Who is who? What is truth and what is a lie? Who is the killer and who is the victim?
 

This is a great movie, full of incident, quirky characters, humour, pathos, intrigue, mystery and drama. We enjoyed it very much and had a laugh, identified with some situations, booed at the villain only to discover that it was a sheep in wolf’s clothing, and were surprised by the ending. The film could have easily been a mess, but Lelouch shows his mastery of the medium, while the actors pull all stops out to give fantastic performances. Pinon is really the star of the film, but is ably supported by Ardant and Dana is quite refreshing as the pathetic “airhead” hairdresser.

ART SUNDAY - HANS HEYSEN

“I love a sunburnt country, 
A land of sweeping plains, 
Of ragged mountain ranges, 
Of droughts and flooding rains. 
I love her far horizons, 
I love her jewel-sea, 
Her beauty and her terror 
The wide brown land for me!” – Dorothea Mackellar
 
Hans Heysen was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1877 and migrated to Adelaide, South Australia with his family at the age of six. As a young man in new surroundings, Heysen showed an early interest in art. He dropped out of school at 14 to work as a hardware merchant and study at art school in the evenings. Drawing and design became vital to Heysen’s art and ideology. Through his accomplishments as a draughtsman, Heysen developed a great control of line and shape and this is evident in his paintings, but also in his studies drawn in pencil, pen, chalk and charcoal.
 
Heysen was very fortunate with patrons and at only the beginning of his career as an artist, four prominent Adelaide businessmen were so impressed by his enthusiasm that they agreed to sponsor his studies in Europe, in lieu of the right to sell whatever he painted abroad. Later he sold art works to the State galleries in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and carried out commissions for prominent patrons such as Dame Nellie Melba and the Governor of Victoria.
 
After hosting his second solo exhibition in Melbourne in 1912, Heysen was able to afford to purchase a property “The Cedars”, near Hahndorf in the Adelaide hills. He lived there for the rest of his life recording the essence of the landscape and the labours of the German farmers in the fields, until his death in 1968. The property was the inspiration for many of Heysen’s famous subjects, gigantic gums, timber hauling and toilers, and is open to the public to this day.
 
Heysen’s artwork is highly traditional. Whilst he painted Australian subjects such as the Hahndorf pastorals, the Flinders Ranges and his iconic gums, they are strongly influenced European models of dark and light compositional elements, which distil the essence of the harsh Australian light. His animal and bird studies feature the cattle, sheep, pigs and ducks of his own farmyard, rather than Australian mammals. However, Heysen helped define a national identity for Australia through his original approach to the Australian landscape, light and rural life.
 
Best known for his watercolours of the bush, Heysen won the prestigious Wynne Prize for landscape painting an astonishing nine times. The first win was in 1904 with the famous large oil, “Mystic Morn” which now belongs to the Art Gallery of South Australia. Heysen produced an enormous body of work and his pictures have been enthusiastically collected across the country since the beginning of the twentieth century. Knighted in 1959, Sir Hans Heysen holds a distinctive place as one of the nation’s most honoured artists of the Federation era.
 
The Heysen Trail in South Australia was named after Sir Hans Heysen. This is a long distance walking trail in South Australia. It runs from Parachilna Gorge, in the Flinders Ranges via the Adelaide Hills to Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula and is approximately 1,200 kilometres long. Heysen’s daughter, Nora Heysen, was also a successful artist.
 
Heysen’s “Droving into the Light” (1914-21) is an iconic painting that is highly representative of this artist’s work. It is exhibited in the Art Gallery of South Australia and is a large oil on canvas, 121.9 (h) x 152.4 (w) cm. It is a gift of Mr W H Vincent, in 1922. Although it deals with the droving of sheep, the painting depicts the majesty of Australian eucalyptus trees. The combination of the gum-tree motif with a theme of end-of-day homecoming is symbolic of a new age: A unified Commonwealth of Australia had been created and was still in the process of formation. "Droving into the Light" is one of Australia’s greatest Federation pictures.
 
The gum trees set the scene, leading the eye into a sunbathed landscape beyond. Its dynamic compositional elements, rich colour, fine draughtsmanship make of this painting a successful, complex visual treat. It demonstrates Heysen’s successful use of light and is my favourite of all his gum-tree paintings in oil. The painting pivots upon the the River Red Gum right of centre. The River Red Gum was in fact an afterthought. Heysen recalled in 1954 that it was introduced to remedy a compositional disharmony:

“I realised the weakness of the composition and repainted portions, introducing the large central Red Gum. This helped to bind the two sides and made a great improvement, materially enhancing the whole conception.”

MUSIC SATURDAY - ALCINA

“No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.” - W. H. Auden
 
“Alcina” (HWV 34) is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of “L’ Isola di Alcina”, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy. The plot was originally taken from – but partly altered for better conformity – Ludovico Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” (like those of the Handel operas “Orlando” and “Ariodante”), an epic poem set in the time of Charlemagne’s wars against Islam. The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance: these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé.
 
“Alcina” was composed for Handel’s first season at the Covent Garden Theatre, London. It premiered on April 16, 1735. Like the composer's other works in the opera seria genre, it fell into obscurity; after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928.
 
Here it is in its entirety performed by the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, in 1999, conducted by Alan Hacker, with:
Catherine Nagletstad – Alcina
Alice Coote – Ruggiero
Helene Schneiderman – Bradamante
Catriona Smith – Morgana
Rolf Romei – Oronte
Michael Ebbecke – Melisso
Claudia Mahnke – Oberto
Heinz Gerger – Astolfo
 
Musically it is wonderful, but the unfortunate modern-day costumes and setting by stage directors Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito are really distracting and so out of keeping with the opera that they grate on me… Never mind, just listen to the music!

FOOD FRIDAY - APPLE MUFFINS

“Two old Bachelors were living in one house; One caught a Muffin, the other caught a Mouse.” - Edward Lear
 
With Halloween around the corner and apples associated with this holiday, here’s a recipe for apple muffins.
 
Apple Muffins
 
Ingredients - Muffins
2 and 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground mace
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 and 1/2 cups diced apples
2/3 cup brown sugar
 
Ingredients - Topping
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
 
Method
Preheat the oven to 200˚C and spray a standard 12-piece muffin pan with cooking oil. You may use paper liners for the muffins if desired.
Peel and dice the apples and mix with the brown sugar. Microwave until just tender, not cooked. Cool.
In a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder, spices.
In a medium bowl, whisk egg, add white sugar, oil, vanilla and apples.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add egg-apple mixture, stirring gently until incorporated. Divide evenly among the 12 muffin pots.
In a bowl, mix the butter, nuts, sugar and flour until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the muffins.
Bake at 200˚C until a toothpick inserted in the muffin centres comes out clean (abut (20-25 minutes).
Let cool in pan for five minutes and then remove muffins to wire rack to cool. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme. 

WORLD ANIMAL DAY 2013

“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” - Immanuel Kant
 

World Animal Day was started in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. October 4 was chosen as World Animal Day as it is the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. Since then, World Animal Day has become a day for remembering and paying tribute to all animals and the people who love and respect them. It’s celebrated in different ways in every country, with no regard to nationality, religion, faith or political ideology.

There are many things that we can do on World Animal Day in order to show our support. A simple way of helping stray animals is to donate tins of cat and dog food to local shelters, which may also of course lead to adopting a stray pet. Schools can organise trips to shelters and farms. In the sympathetic workplace, why not try a “Bring Your Dog to Work Day”? You could organise an animal related quiz night to raise money for animal charities.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Victoria is a non-government, community based charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals by actively promoting their care and protection. RSPCA Victoria was established in Melbourne in 1871. Since this time, the RSPCA has become Australia’s leading animal welfare charity.
 

Across the state, the RSPCA’s community services include the work undertaken by the Inspectorate, Animal Shelters, Clinics and Education teams. The RSPCA operates ten animal welfare shelters in Victoria, providing refuge and care and where possible, offering more than 35,000 animals each year a second chance. RSPCA Inspectors work to protect animals from cruelty, investigates 14,337 estimated reports, prosecutes offenders and rescues animals from dangerous situations.
 

The RSPCA Education team contributes to prevention strategies by influencing over 12,000 young people about the value and importance of animals in our lives. The RSPCA works tirelessly to educate the community regarding animal welfare and to advocate for improved legislation. Legislative improvements to protect animals have been achieved at both state and federal levels, thanks to the continued lobbying of the RSPCA.
 

As a not-for-profit organisation, the RSPCA relies on community support to care for “all creatures great and small”. Only 3% of the RSPCA’s operating expenses are supported by a grant from the Victorian State Government, so it is truly an organisation funded by the generous Victorian community. You can donate to the RSPCA here.

Needless to say animals affect our lives in all sorts of ways, both directly and indirectly. In our increasingly urbanised societies, most people’s experience of animal interactions come from owning a pet. Research dating from the 1980s suggested that pet ownership could have positive benefits on human health. Benefits ranged from higher survival rates from heart attacks; a significantly lower use of general practitioner services; a reduced risk of asthma and allergic rhinitis in children exposed to pet allergens during the first year of life; a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease; and better physical and psychological wellbeing in community dwelling older people.
 

While people do not own pets specifically to enhance their health, they value the relationship and the contribution their pet makes to their quality of life. Over 90% of pet owners regard their pet as a valued family member. The death of a pet may cause great distress to owners, especially when the pet has associations with a deceased spouse or former lifestyle.

HAPPY WORLD ANIMAL DAY!

CHESTNUTS FOR ANGELS

“We cannot pass our guardian angel’s bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.” - Saint Augustine
 
Today is the anniversary of the birth of:
Ferdinand Foch, soldier (1851);
Mohandas Karamchanal Gandhi, statesman (1869);
Cordell Hull, UN founder (1871);
Wallace Stevens, writer (1879);
William A. Abbott (of Costello fame), actor (1895);
Groucho Marx, comedian (1895?);
Grahame Green, writer (1904);
Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (1921);
Yuri N. Glazkov, cosmonaut (1939);
Don McLean, musician (1945);
Sting, musician/actor (1951).
 
The sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, is the birthday plant for this day.  It is named after Castanum in Thessaly, Greece, where it still grows in abundance.  Roasted chestnuts sold by street pedlars was a common sight in older times in England and many continental countries.  The chestnut seller is still to be encountered in Mediterranean countries in autumn.  The sweet chestnut signifies chastity and the triumph of virtue over temptations of the flesh.  In the language of flowers the chestnut symbolises justice and speaks the sentiment “render me justice”.  Astrologically, the chestnut is under Jupiter’s rule.
 
In 1672, Pope Clement X instituted the Guardian Saints’ Feast Day as an opportunity for people to give thanks to the guardian angel that protected them throughout their lives. Perhaps there is no other aspect of Catholic piety as comforting to parents as the belief that an angel protects their little ones from dangers real and imagined. Yet the doctrine of the Catholic Church maintains that guardian angels are not only for children. Their role is to represent individuals before God, to watch over them always, to aid their prayer and to present their souls to God at death.
 
The concept of an angel assigned to guide and nurture each human being is a development of Catholic doctrine and piety based on Scripture but not directly drawn from it. Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 best support the belief: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” Devotion to the angels began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. St. Benedict (Feast Day, July 11) gave it impetus and Bernard of Clairvaux (Feast Day, August 20), the great 12th-century reformer, was such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic devotion assumed its current form in his day.
 
The Catholic Church views devotion to the angels as an expression of faith in God’s enduring love and providential care extended to each person, day in and day out, until life’s end.

PORTUGAL

“I’ve got two places I like to be. Portugal is one.” - Cliff Richard
 
Magpie Tales has given us a Mark Haley photograph to inspire us and stimulate some writing for all those who take part in her challenge. Here is my offering, based on a detail of the image.
 
Portugal
 
Some day I’ll summon enough courage to flee.
Flee from your grey skies, grey days, grey people,
Hard, heartless land.
To Lisbon where sun shines in sky azure like satin,
Where flowers garland ancient walls,
To Portugal.
 
People still sing the fado
Dance in the streets,
In Portugal...
Guitars ring out, caressing nights of velvet
In Coimbra, Lisbon and Portó.
There’s love still to be found
In honey-coloured skin
And sparkling raven hair,
“Ay! Mi Amor!”
In Portugal!
 
Festering wound, my heart, in exile will not heal
Unless I feel Spring coming -
For Spring still comes
To Portugal!
 
Ah! But to roam the streets of Lisbon,
To drink red-wine sun,
To breathe sea-flower air,
To love warm-honey skin,
In Portugal...

MOVIE MONDAY - CHARLIE & BOOTS

“And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel: It provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.” - Dave Barry
 
At the weekend, we watched the Dean Murphy 2009 Australian film Charlie & Boots starring Paul Hogan, Shane Jacobson, Morgan Griffin and Val Lehman. This was a slow-paced, wry comedy that depended very much on the two male leads Hogan and Jacobson who carried the movie in what is essentially another road movie with a “healing-of-a-father-son-relationship” theme.
 
Charlie (Hogan) is heartbroken after the sudden death of his wife and is taken by his estranged son Boots (Jacobson), on a road trip up to far North Queensland. They hope to realise their dream of going fishing at the northernmost tip of the country in Cape York. They drive from Warrnambool in Victoria, into New South Wales and up through Queensland visiting many famous and not-so-famous locations. The movie has a relaxed pace, depending for its forward motion on the relentless drive of the 3,500 or so km. The two stars have amusing conversations interact with the locals and pick up a young, perky hitchhiker (Griffin) who wants to be a C&W singer in Tamworth.
 
Shane Jacobson known for his role as toilet cleaner Kenny, another Aussie comedy of the same name, works well with Hogan. There are some mildly amusing moments, but no laugh-out material. Some serious or sentimental family issues are dealt with superficially as the father-son relationship is repaired. The whole film is a little travelogue, a little comic sketch type material, a little sight gag, a little bit of a homespun homily.
 
All things considered, this is a pleasant and largely enjoyable film exploring male bonding, with both funny and touching aspects. Australians who have taken a multiple-day road-trip will easily relate to the movie. It is quite a picturesque tourist guide of rural Australia, with travellers encountering the Grampians, Tamworth, Forbes, Tenterfield and the Great Barrier Reef. The cinematography by Roger Lawson does justice to these locations in an understated way. Dale Cornelius’ musical score adds another pleasant dimension to the film.
 
“Charlie & Boots” may not Oscar material or art film, it may riddled with endless clichés and old jokes, but it is pleasant and will make you smile.

ART SUNDAY - CARAVAGGIO

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” - Francis of Assisi
 
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571? – 18 July 1610?), a revolutionary and unconventional naturalist painter, was born in Caravaggio near Milan, the son of a mason. He showed his talent early and at the age of sixteen, after a brief apprenticeship in Milan, he was studying with d’Arpino in Rome.
 
During the period 1592-98 Caravaggio’s work was precise in contour, brightly coloured, highly modeled and sculptured in form, like the Mannerists, but with an added social and moral consciousness. By 1600 when he had completed his first public commission the St. Matthew paintings for the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, he had established himself as an opponent of both classicism and intellectual Mannerism.
 
Caravaggio chose his models from the common people and set them in ordinary surroundings, yet managed to lose neither poetry nor deep spiritual feeling. This use of members of the lower classes (including prostitutes) as models to paint saints got him into trouble more than once with the church. His use of chiaroscuro - the contrast of light and dark to create atmosphere, drama, and emotion - was revolutionary. His light is unreal, comes from outside the painting, and creates deep relief and dark shadow.
 
Caravaggio’s paintings are as exciting in their effect upon the senses as on the intellect. Strangely enough though, his art was not popular with ordinary people who saw in it a lack of reverence. It was highly appreciated by artists of his time and has become recognised through the centuries for its profoundly religious nature as well as for the new techniques that had changed the art of painting.
 
Though Caravaggio received many commissions for religious paintings during his short life, he led a wild and bohemian existence. In 1606, after killing a man in a fight, he fled to Naples. Unfortunately, he was soon in trouble again, and so was forced to flee to Malta where, finally, after a series of precipitous adventures, died of malaria at the age of thirty-six. His influence, which was first seen in early seventeenth-century Italian art, eventually spread to France, England, Spain and the Netherlands.
 
The painting above is Caravaggio “Salome with the head of John the Baptist”, painted in 1610 the last year of the artist’s life, and it presently exhibited in the National Gallery, London. It is a characteristic work, showing Caravaggio’s mastery of chiaroscuro and exquisite characterisation of this scene from the Bible. The faces tell the whole story, with Salome’s wistful look of repugnance perhaps highlighting her role as a victim of palace intrigues and the awakening of some form of repentance.
 
The painting was discovered in a private collection in 1959. The early Caravaggio biographer Giovanni Bellori, writing in 1672, mentions a “Salome with the Head of John the Baptist” sent by the artist to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in the hope of regaining favour after having been expelled from the Order in 1608. It seems likely, however, that Bellori was referring to a different painting of the same subject. The handling and the raking light link this painting to works done in Naples during the artist’s brief stay in the city during 1606–1607, an impression confirmed by the resemblance between Salome and the “Virgin in the Madonna of the Rosary”, and between the executioner holding the head of the Baptist and one of the two torturers in “Christ at the Column and The Flagellation of Christ”.

MUSIC SATURDAY - CPE BACH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOOD FRIDAY - AUSSIE MEAT PIES

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

CHANGE - A POST REDUX

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

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

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

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

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

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

FALLING...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is my offering:
 

Falling in Love
 

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

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

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

Only to perish immobile in your birdlime.

A CONFERENCE

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

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

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

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

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

JOTTINGS FROM SYDNEY

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