WINGÉD THOUGHTS

“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I must say that for the person who needs to travel often, airline frequent flyer lounges are a great boon. One does have to pay an annual membership fee, but it is well worth it even if one uses the lounge on 5 or 6 occasions in the year. I am a member of the Qantas Club and get to frequently use the club lounge wherever I travel as there are lounges at all Australian airports. Some international airports are also part of the Qantas Club and when one travels a lot it is gratifying to have a place where one find refuge in away from the usual mad rush of an air terminal.

I am in Sydney today for work and it has been a day of meetings, which overall went very well. However, there was not time for lunch and one can only have so many coffees during the course of a day full of discussions. The lounge at the airport at the end of the day has been quite a blessing. There different areas and one may choose a lounge where one can relax on easy chairs sipping a cool drink or coffee from the café and read a paper or a magazine; a couple of bars where complimentary alcoholic drinks are served; some snack and food counters where one may help oneself to food appropriate for the time of day; as well as airline service counters where one may get one’s boarding pass or book another flight. Needless to say that a business centre is always available with computers, printers, faxes, meeting rooms, free wireless internet and of course toilet, shower facilities where one can freshen up.

The food in these lounges is not a true, substantial meal, but one may eat very well and enjoy some delicacies that are representative of the better side of airline food. Most of the day there is soup available that one may help oneself to, with croutons or fresh rolls to accompany it. Creamy roast pumpkin soup is a favourite of mine, although as the year progresses towards summer one may enjoy spring vegetable, cream of asparagus or tomato soup. The cheeses on offer are usually very good, with tasty cheddar alternating with brie or camembert, or an excellent Australian blue. At lunchtime or evening there are various hot tidbits including mini quiches, sausage rolls, fried morsels of fish, chicken nuggets, bacon and tomato tartlets, sandwiches, a range of sliced meats, ham, smoked salmon, some vegetarian tidbits. There are always a couple of salad selections and various bits and pieces like nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, water crackers, rice crackers, etc, etc.

Once again it’s a case of being able to eat all sorts of things, without eating a plate full of a “proper meal” and in fact reach a level of satiety very quickly. I would much rather have this smorgasbord to choose from rather than a tray of rather uninspiring airline food on the plane. In fact when I on the plane, I decline the offer of food on board, having eaten to satiety in the lounge.

Watching the people in the lounge is a very interesting occupation. Mostly it is business travellers, but what a variety of them. The sleek well dressed executives with not a hair out of place, the middle management types, rather more casually dressed, the progressive creative types with that daggy, careless look that has cost a fortune, and occasionally the tradesmen with shorts and T-shirts, who nevertheless probably earn more than all the previous types mentioned. There occasional exceptions: The young families, the elderly couples, the solo young travellers, the “hangers-on” (one may bring one guest along with one’s membership).

The range of activity and inactivity is also quite vast. From the exhausted sleeping toddler in his mother’s arms, to the very relaxed businesswoman reading a magazine while sipping a glass of champagne in an armchair, to the group of executives watching the giant screen TV over a beer in a good mood because of a business deal success, to the young couple sipping coffee while gazing at each other’s eyes, to the frantic manager trying to get his computer to print a vital report, to the blasé creative department type chatting idly on her i-phone, to the rather overwhelmed elderly man who is obviously a hanger on, watching with incredulity at the busy goings on…

And the best thing of course knowing that it’s Friday afternoon and very soon there will be a call over the PA system informing you that your flight is boarding at Gate 23 and that in 70 minutes you will be home…

Have a good weekend, everyone!

KARMA, TRAINS, PLANES AND DEATH ROW

“Lovers of air travel find it exhilarating to hang poised between the illusion of immortality and the fact of death.” - Alexander Chase

Another trip to Sydney looms ahead tomorrow. I have an early flight to catch just after 6:30 am and then after a day of meetings, back to Melbourne at 6:00 pm. Commuting with an airplane rather than a train can be rather tiresome, but yesterday it took me 90 minutes to get home rather than the usual 15-minute train journey. The inconvenience and delay in getting home would have greatly irritated me and my fellow travelers, but once I learned the reason, I was very grateful that I was experiencing the delay and that I did get home at all.

As soon as I went down to the underground train station yesterday evening, where I usually catch my train home, I saw big signs advising passengers that the normal train schedules were disrupted and my line was closed until further notice. The attendants were not very helpful and only said that if I went down to the Flinders Street station I could get a bus that was replacing my train service. As this station is several blocks down, I decided to take the tram instead, a decision that seemed to be shared by many others, as the trams were packed like sardine cans. Add to that congested peak hour city traffic and a couple of delayed trams ahead of us.

I got off at Blyth St and caught the (also crowded) bus home. At home the explanation was awaiting for me on the TV news. Here is the gist of the story from the Herald Sun:

STEALING LINK TO TRAIN DEATH
Aaron Langmaid
November 06, 2008 12:00am POLICE believe a man who died yesterday afternoon when he was hit by a train had stolen items from a car only minutes earlier. The 51-year-old Reservoir man was struck by the train at North Richmond station about 4.45pm. Police investigating the circumstances of the incident later revealed the man had broken into a car on Regent St before climbing an embankment close to the train lines. "Items stolen from the car were found with the man at the scene," police spokeswoman Julie-Ann Newman said. The man was taken to the Alfred hospital but died two hours later.

I was grateful to be home, grateful to not have to steal, grateful to be alive. Some may say “karma”. But is not death too severe a penalty for such a petty crime as stealing from a car? Who knows what drove this man to steal, what need, what despair or what compulsion? He may have been a hardened criminal, he may have not been. It may have been his 100th car break-in, it may have been his first. He may have been a loner, he may have had a family. What I know is he did not go home last night. Someone must have missed him. I was 90 minutes late home and someone was worrying over me, was relieved to see me home. What of his home? Who waited and waited and waited only to be called by the police later that night…

My mind now turns to the Bali bombers awaiting execution for their crimes. Rather than trivial, their crimes are gross and heinous and made even more ghastly and detestable by the rabid hatred that inspired them under the guise of religious zeal. Amrozi, Mukhlas and Iman Samudr were recently sentenced to death by firing squad for their role in the Bali bomb attacks in October 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. As the Bali bombers approach the end of their lives their angry rhetoric has increased with a letter from all three urging their Muslim brotherhood to “claim war and kill” everyone involved in their executions, including the Indonesian President. They say they welcome their death as this will ensure their entry into paradise. As they wait to face the firing squad they are happy because they will die martyrs for their faith…

What does a civilised society do in cases like this? In most Western countries the death penalty and corporal punishment have been abolished. I am a believer in this. Conviction of criminals should be followed by incarceration and rehabilitation. Correction rather than punishment. Education and awakening of feelings of social awareness, guilt and remorse. Yet in such cases as these of the Bali bombers I am at a loss. How does one rehabilitate such monsters? Is a change of heart possible in this instance? At what point does one give up on rehabilitation and opt for punishment? What punishment is meet for such crimes?

If karma is indeed at play here, one would argue that these criminals have had it coming. But our civilisation recoils at the thought of the primitive sentiments of “an eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth”. After all, the testament of old has been superseded by a newer one. Our society argues that a civilised person cannot stoop to the level of the murderer and commit murder itself as punishment for such a crime. It’s a vexed issue.

karma |ˈkärmə| noun
(in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.
• informal destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.
DERIVATIVES
karmic |-mik| |ˈkɑrmɪk| adjective
karmically |-mik(ə)lē| adverb
ORIGIN from Sanskrit karman ‘action, effect, fate.’

CHANGE

“It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.” - Francis Bacon

The US rejoices as Barack Obama is elected its 44th President. A historic victory that carries with it the euphoria of success and the defeat of pessimism. Scenes reminiscent f the election of JFK all those decades ago. A nation’s hopes are renewed as what had seemed an impossibility becomes reality. Is this a new age dawning in the US? Can this really be the signal of a new maturity, a nation that has come to terms with its internal conflicts? A new-found tolerance and an end to centuries of prejudice?

My cynicism of yesterday is momentarily forgotten as I let my optimism take over in order to compose a villanelle honouring this historic win:

The Time of Change

The time of change is here
Awake, renew, revise,
I feel the freshness near.

There is no need to fear,
Look up with cloudless eyes
The time of change is here.

Smile brightly then, my dear,
Gone are the endless sighs
I feel the freshness near.

Sweet songs again you hear,
The truth defeats all lies –
The time of change is here,

Wipe clean the frown and tear.
As darkness ebbs and dies,
I feel the freshness near…

As we defeat night drear,
Our hope will climb and rise;
The time of change is here
I feel the freshness near.

I do not envy Barack Obama as he is inheriting not only a nation in disarray, but also a world that has been damaged to a point almost beyond repair. There is much work ahead of him and many obstacles in his way. He already has many enemies and his position is tenuous. He has promised much and in order to deliver his promises he has to do much in such a short time. He will have power within his reach, but will he be allowed to use it for the good of his country and the world?

RACES - HORSE AND OTHERS

“What luck for leaders, that people do not think.” - Adolph Hitler

Today the nation stops for the horse race of the year: The Melbourne Cup. The first Tuesday in November marks this occasion, which has been celebrated since the nineteenth century all over Australia. Melbourne’s good fortunes built on the nearby goldfields ensured that the Melbourne Cup was a rich prize and soon its prestige and attraction went far beyond the shores of Australia. It is now well-known throughout the world and many a bet are made on the outcome of this race which is part of the Spring Racing Carnival here in Melbourne. I am not a betting man and even though most Australians “have a flutter” on the Cup, I rarely if ever do. Occasionally at work a sweep is organised, but I think everyone was too busy this year and I did not even enter into one of those today.

So now the Cup has been run and won and the Flemington Racecourse here in Melbourne must have been packed today as the weather was perfect: Warm, sunny with blue skies. I still have not checked to see which horse won or whether there were any “episodes” noted. I always feel rather sorry for the poor horses whenever I catch glimpse of a horse race. They are such magnificent looking animals that to get them to race and whip them into a galloping frenzy seems utterly uncivilised to me. But never mind, I am not a person to pontificate on such matters nor is my opinion worth much. The billions of dollars wagered today is proof enough of that.

Another race has been more on my mind than the Melbourne Cup. Two different kinds of candidates are in the race for the White House and the whole world is watching the neck to neck running of Obama and McCain. The prize is the presidential office and ostensibly the chair of the most powerful leader in the whole world. The President of the United States of America is truly the world leader par excellence as the decisions made in the oval office not only will determine the fate of the citizens of the USA, but through a web of intricate connections, the fate of every human being on the planet. Great power, even perhaps in this case, political omnipotence requires great responsibility. Government is a trust placed by the people on a few elected individuals and these individuals must be its trustees.

Is the President of the USA nowadays a person suited to this role of planet leader? The whole world has watched the last few presidents with disappointment as mistake upon mistake has been made by each of them and not only has their own country suffered as a consequence, but the whole world has felt the effects. Economic mismanagement, scandals, internal turmoil, social policy inequity, health system failure, foreign policy blunders, wars, trade bungles, industrial unrest, and now finally the economy meltdown. This is the time of decadence, when the whole world is crumbling and the people are worrying over the trifles they have been brought up to think as important. Is one man responsible for all of this?

I am personally rather indifferent to the outcome of the US presidential poll. It mirrors to a certain extent our recently run Melbourne Cup, except of course it’s a two-horse race. It hardly matters which horse wins, the gross majority of punters are big losers. The organisers of the race are the big winners. The horses will run as they are goaded by their jockeys. They have their blinkers on and the sweat runs off their sleek, beautifully trained, muscular bodies. The most they can hope for is for a good feed after the race, and perhaps a roll in the sand. The race organisers have the race planned and their bets are safe.

Whether Obama or McCain is in the White House next year, the USA will continue to be run by the organisers of the race. That is the nature of the capitalistic system. The people must have their race and their festival. They will shout themselves hoarse as they back their favourite. Most will lose, some will win but the race is rigged. The organisers can never lose, whichever horse wins.

The process of democracy will have been served. The President elect will be invested with the powers of his office and ostensibly he will be the most powerful person on the planet. Ostensibly. It’s funny how that word keeps coming up whenever I talk about politics. Ostensibly: “Apparently or purportedly, but perhaps not actually”… Who runs the USA? Who runs the world? Not the Democrats, not the Republicans (six of one, half a dozen of the other), not the congress, not the senate. It’s big business and the multinationals, it’s money. After all it is a capitalistic system. Ostensibly, there is democracy. But if you had to choose between the devil and deep blue sea, what would you choose?

Have you noticed that after the threat of communism blew over with the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the USSR, we have had to find a new threat to keep us living in fear? After the big Red Bogeyman died, we were kept ever on the alert by the big Muslim Terrorist Bogeyman. After the Cold War we had the War against Terror. We must always a have a Bogeyman, we must always have our champion to fight him and to preserve us from his clutches.

Watching the campaigning, I am amazed by the rhetoric of both sides. These people have been groomed, put through their paces, trained, just like the Melbourne Cup horses (but being humans they’ve been brain-washed also). They talk as if they really believe that they will save their country and the world from the current version of the Bogeyman. They have been given the chrism by their democratic process and their belief in their moral rectitude will install them as the world’s policemen. The US President, the world’s guardian will preserve us. And who will guard us from the guardian, that’s what I’d like to know…

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” -C.S. Lewis

MOVIE MONDAY - AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION!

“Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.” - Hunter S. Thompson

When I was young, I used to enjoy watching the 1960s TV series “Mission Impossible”. Just the sort of thing for a boy growing up in interesting times, where technology was beginning to impinge very seriously into our lives, where rockets were being fired into space, men walked on the moon, electronics was beginning to come into its own and where this particular TV series stimulated the imagination in a real hi-tech boys own adventure way. Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) as the head of a super-secret government agency (“Impossible Missions”) is given secret anonymous covert missions to complete. He and his team unmask criminals, rescue hostages and preserve the security of the nation. The vital ingredient on any Impossible Mission is that the mission must be carried out in top secrecy, often relying on high-tech equipment and elaborate deceptions…

Well, seeing how much I originally enjoyed the TV series I was more than a little suspicious when the Tom Cruise “Mission: Impossible” film came out in 1996 and did not want to see it in case it ruined my boyhood memories. However, the film must have been successful enough as it spawned a sequel “Mission: Impossible II” in 2000 and another one in 2006, “Mission: Impossible III”. However, this weekend just past was a “Mission: Impossible” Marathon as I bought the trilogy on Blu-ray disc, on special.

As far as the movies were concerned, they were typical action-packed thrillers with loads of special effects, blood and gore, chases, fisticuffs, stylized violence, and high tech stories. However, that special (almost cerebral) thrill which was in evidence in the original TV series was lacking from these movies. Tom Cruise gave his usual pedestrian performance complete with stock set of facial expressions and the supporting cast was up to the thrill-seeker audience standard. The second in the series was interesting as most of it was shot in Sydney.

Finally, about the technology: An LCD screen, some decent speakers, an HDMI lead and a Blu-ray player can give you a superior movie viewing experience at home. Both LCD screens and Blu-ray players have come down sufficiently in price to be affordable. When I first saw a Blu-ray disc playing on a high quality LCD screen I was blown away by the picture and audio quality! The sound quality and picture detail were superb and the motion was rendered without pixelisation and jerkiness. Definitely worth the investment if you do a lot of movie watching at home. The Blu-ray discs are still expensive compared to DVDs, but they will come down in price as more and more people demand them. However, I must warn you, once you have watched a Blu-ray disc, it’s hard to go back to the old DVDs…

OK, OK, I know, I’m a technology junkie!

ART SUNDAY - EDEN FOLWELL

“Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?” – Pablo Picasso

A young painter whose canvases are full of brilliant bold colour, for Art Sunday this week. Her name is Eden Folwell. Although she paints portraits and nudes, her signature work is the expressionistic abstract, which is reminiscent of the fauves (e.g. Derain). The colours are jewel-like and intense and within the interlocking lines of geometrical shapes one may discern representational themes or maybe not.

This canvas is called “The Butterfly Effect”. More of Eden’s paintings may be found here.

Enjoy the week ahead!

CHRONONAUT

“Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go.” - Henry Austin Dobson

For Song Saturday today a beautiful Greek song sung by the seasoned performer, Vasilis Papakonstantinou.



Χρονοναύτης

Μάγοι λυγίσαν στο δρόμο
Τ’ άστρο είχε χαθεί.
Στο ταξίδι σου στο χρόνο
Αλμυρό νησί.
Πήρες γεύση από χώμα
Γεύση από νερό,
Χαμογέλασες στον κόσμο ένα πρωινό
Πήρες γεύση από χώμα
Γεύση από νερό.

Στη Φαιστό ο ήλιος,
Στην Κνωσσό το χρώμα,
Άκου οι σειρήνες τραγουδούν.

Χνούδεψε το πρόσωπο σου
Στο μυαλό φυγή.
Πέρα εκέι τα κέντρα γνώσης
Χάσκουν σαν πληγή.
Μια πληγή που στάζει αίμα
Κι έχεις προδοθεί.
Νεκροζώντανη εικόνα
Που έχεις ξεχαστεί.
Μια πληγή που στάζει αίμα
Κι έχεις προδοθεί.

Στης ελπίδας το λιμάνι κάτι ναυαγοί
Είναι οι γλάροι λερωμένοι
Θάλασσα νεκρή
Πόλη που σε καταπίνει
Σαν παραδοθείς
Μια σοφία θα σε σπρώχνει
Να αντισταθείς.
Μια σοφία που ουρλιάζει
Να αντισταθείς,
Και στη πόλη που βουλιάζει
Μην παραδοθείς.

Στη Φαιστό ο ήλιος,
Στην Κνωσσό το χρώμα,
Άκου οι σειρήνες τραγουδούν.

Έρωτας θανάτου γνώση ήρθε με φιλί
Το κορμί της το κορμί σου
Κι έπειτα σιωπή.
Μια σιωπή που λευτερώνει,
Τέλος και αρχή,
Σε διάσταση που λιώνει
Τώρα επιστροφή.
Σε διάσταση που λιώνει.
Τέλος και αρχή,
Μια σιγή που λευτερώνει,
Τώρα επιστροφή.

Chrononaut (Time Traveller)

The wise men lost heart mid-travel
The star was lost.
In your time travels
Only a salty island.
You tasted earth
You tasted water,
As you smiled upon the world a morning.
You tasted earth
You tasted water.

In Phaestos the sun,
In Knossos colour,
Listen to the sirens singing.

Your face has become downy
In your mind only flight.
There, the centres of knowledge
Gape open like a wound.
A wound that drips blood –
You have been betrayed.
A living-dead picture
You have been forgotten.
A wound that drips blood –
You have been betrayed.

In the harbour of hope some castaways;
The gulls are sullied,
The sea is dead.
A city that swallows you up
If you give up.
A wisdom will push you to resist,
A wisdom that screams at you to resist.
And to the sinking city
Do not give yourself up.

In Phaestos the sun,
In Knossos colour,
Listen to the sirens singing.

Love and death’s knowledge came with a kiss
Her body, your body
And then silence.
A silence that liberates
A beginning and an end.
A return to a dimension that melts,
A beginning and an end
A silence that liberates,
Now a return…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.” - George Carlin

Halloween, celebrated today on the 31st of October, is often thought of as an American tradition, but it’s actually an ancient Celtic pagan celebration, called Samhain. This festival originated as a pagan ritual among the Celts in Ireland and Britain, who regarded 31st of October as the last day of summer, November being associated with the death and slaughter of animals that provided meat for winter. In the old Norse religion, sacrifices were made to the elves, and food was blessed and stored for winter. Establishment of the Christian religion syncretised some of the pagan tradition with the new religion’s heortology. The term Halloween comes from “All-hallow-even” or “All Hallows' Eve”: The evening before All Hallows' Day, or All Saints' Day on November 1st. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried Halloween festivities to America in the 19th century. As Halloween was all but forgotten in Europe, it developed into a very popular and widely celebrated festival in the USA, where it was adapted somewhat.

Traditionally Halloween was thought to be a day (and especially night!) on which boundaries between the dead and the living become blurred, and the world of magic and supernatural touches the ordinary world. As part of the tradition, the lighting of fires and discharge of fireworks were used to ward off evil spirits. Fire was regarded as a “living” thing and a great purifier with which ghoulies and ghosties could be exorcised.

In parts of Latin America (e.g. Mexico) and Asia (e.g. The Philippines) the Halloween traditions coincide with local “day of the dead” festivities. The festival was reintroduced worldwide in the 1980s, primarily due to the influence of American pop culture and the all-pervasive power of Hollywood. In the US, children dress up as ghosts, ghouls, witches, goblins and zombies on Halloween night and go from door to door crying 'trick or treat', collecting bags of sweets, fruits and nuts. One of the recurring Halloween motifs is the grinning carved pumpkins, lit with a candle from within and known as “jack-o'-lanterns”. In the US, these were symbolic of harvest festivities that pre-date Halloween, as were carved turnips and swedes in Ireland and Scotland, and carved beetroot in England.

Flesh from large carved pumpkins is not always eaten as it can be very insipid and watery, but smaller, sweeter varieties are used in cooking. Pumpkin of course, is particularly good for making soup, bread or pie and roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious. In Ireland, Halloween was in the past a day of fast when no meat was eaten. Dishes based on potatoes were eaten, such as colcannon (mash with milk or cream, kale, and leeks or spring onions), champ (mash with milk and onions or chives) and boxty pancakes - fried potato cakes that are sometimes served savoury, sometimes sprinkled with sugar. Other dishes include potato farls baked on a griddle; apple and potato “fadge” (= upside-down cake made by layering apples and potatoes inside pastry) and barm brack, a spiced bread made with dried fruit.

In England there was a tradition of eating “soul cakes” (which are flat round or oval cakes flavoured with saffron, mixed spices, and currants) as well as apple tarts. Many of these Irish and English dishes contained coins, rings and other items with symbolic meanings. They were left out for wandering spirits and fairies overnight. Toffee apples (called candy apples in the US) are enormously popular children's treats at this time of year. Variations include apples coated with caramel or chocolate. Roasted or barbecued corn-on-the-cob and popcorn are also eaten. In the US, candy corn (sweetcorn-shaped sweets made from honey, sugar fondant and corn syrup) is consumed in large quantities. Novelty confectionery, decorated in festive shapes and designs such as skulls and worms, is also popular with children.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, parties featuring “scary” foods coloured black, purple or red, have been a hit with the young and the young at heart. Dishes are often given names like “witches cauldron” (red pepper and tomato soup), and “fried imps’ brain” (walnut halves sautéed in paprika). Sandwiches are cut into spooky shapes like witches' hats and eyeballs, and drinks may contain “squashed bugs” (flattened raisins or grapes).

Here is a Halloween children's party menu: Hot blood soup (tomato and chilli soup)
OK, go easy on the chilli, or try the next soup for the faint-hearted:
Lantern soup (pumpkin and haricot bean soup)
Served in a hollowed out pumpkin
Pumpkin cauldron (chicken and pumpkin stew)
Served in a hollowed out pumpkin
Spooky spuds and scary toppings
Cut the sliced potatoes with cutters in the shape of skulls, witches’ hats, etc
Devilish red cabbage
Shredded finely to resemble bloody tendrils
Marshmallow brownies
Well, use your imagination…
Toffee apple ice scream
For which, here is the recipe:

TOFFEE APPLE ICE CREAM
Ingredients
290ml (/½ pint) full cream milk
300ml (10 fl oz) double cream
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
6 medium free range egg yolks
175g (6 oz) caster sugar
450g (1 lb) dessert apples, peeled cored and chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon and cloves (or mixed spice)
75g (3 oz) soft caramel toffees, cut into pieces
Chopped walnuts, cinnamon sticks and brown sugar to garnish

Method
1. Put the milk, cream and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave the flavours to infuse for 15 minutes.
2. Strain and discard the vanilla pod and seeds.
3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Then whisk in the vanilla cream and pour the mixture into a clean saucepan.
4. Cook over a very low heat, stirring all the time, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
6. Place the prepared apples in a saucepan with the lemon juice and cook over a low heat until soft. Mash and leave to cool. Stir in the spices.
7. Stir the toffee pieces and apples into the custard and pour into a shallow polythene container. Freeze for 30 minutes, then beat with a fork. Repeat this process then freeze until hard. (Alternatively use an ice cream making machine, following the manufacturer's instructions).
8. Take out of the freezer for 30 minutes before serving. Scoop into sundae dishes and decorate with crushed nuts, cinnamon sticks and brown sugar.

Happy Halloween!

LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU...

“I would not exchange my leisure hours for all the wealth in the world.” - Comte de Mirabeau

One of the universal characteristics of the human race everywhere on the planet is its need to be entertained. We seek diversion in order to take a break from our daily work, a respite from our struggle to survive in an inimical world. Wherever we may care to look, from downtown Manhattan, to the remote mountain tribes of New Guinea, there is entertainment to be found. It varies of course, according to the culture under consideration, the nationality, the climate, the available time, the disposable income, and more importantly, what is on offer.

In ancient Greece, it was said: “Ο άνθρωπος ουκ επ’ άρτω μόνο ζήσεται”, that is, “man does not live by bread alone”. Athenians, in particular where rather spoilt and demanded “άρτον και θεάματα” (“bread and circuses”) from their politicians, and this led to the development of lyric poetry, theatre, sporting contests, amongst other things. The Romans went even further and in imperial times the entertainment was disproportionately more in its extent than the work that was carried out by the Roman citizens. Slaves and taxes from the provinces paid the piper.

With the advent of the Dark Ages, Western Europe descended into a rather drab existence, with most of the population subsisting on a hand-to-mouth existence with sparse and rather simple entertainments. The pageantry of church holy days and feasts, nevertheless provided for that human need for diversion. The rich could afford more sumptuous entertainments including mumming, fêtes, masques, jousts, fools to laugh at, minstrels, music and dances. The Byzantine Empire in the East was another matter and the lavish public entertainments that continued the Graeco-Roman tradition supplemented the pageantry of the church and kept the population well-entertained until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD.

From the Renaissance onwards until our days, entertainment has been developing and becoming more varied and rich in its diversity, until nowadays, there seems to be an infinite variety of entertainments and too little time to enjoy them all! We have a plethora of amusements for every age, every taste and every budget. Pubs, taverns, restaurants, cafés, bars, discos, function halls, exhibition halls, concert halls, opera houses, circuses, museums, galleries, libraries, theatres, cinemas, television, internet, stadiums, sportsgrounds, picnic grounds, parks, etc, etc, all attract their adherents and the multiplicity of diversions that one may enjoy therein.

We are entertained for our pleasure, we divert ourselves in order to relax, to enjoy our spare time, to fill our leisure hours with fun, to pursue our interests, hobbies and to amuse ourselves. Often, entertainment provides an outlet for our creativity and if one considers the related term “recreation”, the entertainment may have an important active component that goes beyond mere leisure.

It seems that more and more of our time is being devoted to recreation and more of our money is being spent on entertainment. Once upon a time, entertainment often was home-grown and cost little, if anything at all. One would amuse oneself or members of one’s family and friends. Gatherings of family and friends, singing around the piano, the playing of games, charades, cards, chess, reading, corresponding with pen-friends, drawing… Nowadays, simple pleasures are harder to come across and entertainment is a billion dollar industry worldwide. Talk of a recession, economic downturn, loss of jobs and scarcity of money does not seem to deter the pleasure seekers and restaurants are still full, bars congested, movie houses, sportsgrounds and arenas filled to capacity. We may be going down fast, but we shall have a good time of it!
Aptly, the word of the day for Word thursday is:

entertain |ˌentərˈtān| verb [ trans. ]
1 Provide (someone) with amusement or enjoyment: A tremendous game that thoroughly entertained the crowd.
• Receive (someone) as a guest and provide them with food and drink: A private dining room where members could entertain groups of friends.
2 Give attention or consideration to (an idea, suggestion, or feeling): Washington entertained little hope of an early improvement in relations.
ORIGIN late Middle English: from French entretenir, based on Latin inter ‘among’ + tenere ‘to hold.’ The word originally meant [maintain, continue,] later [maintain in a certain condition, treat in a certain way,] also [show hospitality] (late 15th cent.).

entertainment |ˌentərˈtānmənt| noun
The action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment: Everyone just sits in front of the TV for entertainment.
• An event, performance, or activity designed to entertain others: A theatrical entertainment.
• The action of receiving a guest or guests and providing them with food and drink.

What is your favourite entertainment?

EARTHQUAKE AND ENCELADUS

"We rely on technology and we end up thinking as human beings that we're totally safe, and we're not, ... The bottom line is we have a very unsafe planet." - Dennis S. Miletti

“QUETTA, Pakistan – A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 150 people, injuring scores more and leaving an estimated 15,000 homeless, officials said.
The death toll was expected to rise as reports arrived from remote areas of Baluchistan, the impoverished province bordering Afghanistan where the magnitude 6.4 quake struck.
The worst-hit area appeared to be Ziarat, where hundreds of mostly mud and timber houses had been destroyed in five villages, Mayor Dilawar Kakar said. Some homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the quake, he said.
"There is great destruction. Not a single house is intact," Kakar told Express News television.
Maulana Abdul Samad, the minister for forests in Baluchistan, said at least 150 people were confirmed to have died. Kakar said hundreds of people have been injured and some 15,000 were homeless.
"I would like to appeal to the whole world for help. We need food, we need medicine. People need warm clothes, blankets because it is cold here," Kakar said.
In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave in which to bury them.
"We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble" of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.
Other survivors sat stunned in the open, with little more than the clothes in which they had been sleeping…”
By SATTAR KAKAR, Associated Press

Yet another natural disaster claiming lives, spreading destruction and distress in an area ill affording it. My mind goes back to the terror of earthquakes experienced as a child and the mythology of my ancestors generates this poem:

Enceladus

Enceladus’ sleep is sound –
His usual slumber underground
Untroubled by dark horses,
His languor soothing mighty forces.

The frightful giant sleeps
And his vengeful, hand he keeps
Relaxed, at ease, unmoving;
His mother, Earth, looks on approving.

His eye starts to move and roll;
A muscle twitches, then his body whole.
He turns, he tosses – quite disturbed
A nightmare gallops in, fury uncurbed.

The titan wakes, his tail uncurls
His mane of wild hair shakes and swirls.
He roars, and arms he stretches
The rocks above him crack, ground retches.

The earth is split
Ground quakes.
A deep dark pit
Opens, soil shakes.

The houses crumble,
Walls are rent and break –
His roar a mighty rumble,
Destruction in its wake.

His sleep disturbed, his pain
Anew awakened, goads him
And his rage in frustrated strain
He exhausts. His injured limb
He extends, and Gaia above
Him shudders; her mother’s love
In sympathy making her shudder
Like ship without a rudder.

Up, down and side to side
The ground is turned to jelly;
As Enceladus tries to hide
Deeper in his mother’s belly.

Ruin complete and utter devastation
Above him death and trepidation –
(Athena victory forswore)
All this, revenge enough for
Enceladus…

In Greek mythology, Enceladus (or Enkelados, Ἐγκέλαδος/"Trumpeter to Arms") was one of the Gigantes, the enormous children of Gaia (Earth) fertilized by the blood of castrated Ouranos. With the other Gigantes, Enceladus appeared in one particular region—either Phlegra, the "burning plain" in Thrace, or Pallene. Like the other Gigantes, Enceladus had serpent-like lower limbs, "with the scales of dragons for feet" as Bibliotheke states, though this convention was not invariably followed in pictorial representations. During the battle between the Gigantes and the Olympian gods, Enceladus was disabled by a spear thrown by the goddess Athena. He was buried on the island of Sicily, under Mount Etna. The volcanic fires of Etna were said to be the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors to be caused by him rolling his injured side beneath the mountain (similar myths are told about Typhon and Vulcan). In Greece, an earthquake is still often called a "strike of Enceladus".
At Versailles, Louis XIV's consistent iconographic theme of the triumphs of Apollo and the Olympians against all adversaries included the fountain of Enceladus in its own cabinet de verdure, which was cut into the surrounding woodland and outlined by trelliswork,; the ensemble has recently been restored (illustration). According to an engraving of the fountain by Le Pautre (1677), the sculptor of the gilt-bronze Enceladus was Gaspar Mercy of Cambrai.

ST JUDE, BERGAMOT & OKHI

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” – Confucius

The Seville bergamot orange, Citrus aurantia bergamia, is the birthday plant for the 28th of October. Bergamot oil is extracted from the peel of these inedible oranges. The precious oil is used in perfumery and in cooking. Perhaps the most familiar use of the oil is in flavouring Earl Grey tea. The bergamot orange signifies nobility and self-sacrifice.

Famous birthday boys and girls for today include:
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (1017);
Cornelius Otto Jansen, religious reformer (1585);
Harvard College - now University (1636);
Auguste Escoffier, French chef (1846);
Elsa Lanchester, actress (1902);
Evelyn Waugh, writer (1903);
Edith Head, fashion designer (1907);
Jonas Salk, virologist (1914);
Joan Plowright, actress (1929);
Charlie Daniels, singer (1936);
Jane Alexander, actress (1939);
Gennadi M. Strekalov, Russian cosmonaut (1940);
Coluche, French comedian (1944);
Thelma Hopkins, singer (1948);
Bruce Jenner, athlete (1949).

It is Sts Simon and Jude’s Feast Day today. Sts Simon and Jude were two of Christ’s apostles. In some traditional accounts, they were two of the shepherds who first heard the Angels’ announcement of Christ’s nativity. St Simon was martyred by being sawn in half whilst alive. He is therefore the patron saint of millers, woodcutters and woodworkers. St Jude is invoked by those in dire straits to intercede on behalf of their lost cause. The reason why this particular saint was singled out for this is unclear, but it is suspected it is because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them. Chestnuts were traditionally eaten on this day. Also, tradition says it is almost certain that it will be raining on this day.

A love oracle used to be performed on this day with an apple. A young, unmarried woman carefully peeled an apple so that the peel was obtained in one, continuous, unbroken thin strip. The peel was taken in the right hand, turned thrice while reciting:
St Simon and Jude, on you I intrude
By this paring I hold to discover
Without any delay, to tell me this day
The first letter of my own true lover.

The peel was then dropped over her left shoulder and when she turned she would find that the peel had formed the shape of the initial letter of her future husband. If the peel broke into many pieces, it was a sign that the woman would remain a spinster.

In Greece, today is “Okhi” Day (“No” Day). It commemorates the anniversary of the day in 1940 when Italy, backed by Hitler, sought to occupy Greece. This ultimatum, which was presented to dictator Ioannis Metaxas by the Italian ambassador in Greece, Emanuele Grazzi, on October 28, 1940, at dawn (04:00 a.m.), after a party in the German embassy in Athens, demanded that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified “strategic locations” or otherwise face war. The ultimatum was allegedly answered with a single word: “Okhi” or no. Most scholars dismiss the use of the word “Okhi” as an urban legend, claiming that the actual reply was the French phrase “Alors, c’est la guerre” (Then it is war). In response to Metaxas’s refusal, Italian troops stationed in Albania, then an Italian protectorate, attacked the Greek border at 05:30 a.m. Metaxas's reply marked the beginning of Greece’s participation in World War II. Those of you who have read “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” by Luis de Bernières will recognize this historical event by the author’s account of the meeting between Metaxas and Grazzi, written from Grazzi's point of view.

The Greeks put up a valiant fight in the snow-covered mountains of northern Epirus and Albania and managed to drive back the Italian forces. The Greek victory over the initial Italian offensive of October 1940 was the first Allied land victory of the Second World War, and helped raise morale in occupied Europe. Some historians argue that it may have influenced the course of the entire war by forcing Germany to postpone the invasion of the Soviet Union in order to assist Italy against Greece. This led to a delayed attack and subjected the German forces to the conditions of the harsh Russian winter, leading to their defeat at the Battle of Moscow.

The day is a public holiday in Greece and many celebrations and parades are organized. Shops, offices, schools etc are closed, and all major towns will have a military parade. Television is dominated by coverage of the parades, special programs on the history of the Greco-Italian war and screening of Greek war movies, commemorating heroic acts during the wartime years.

MOVIE MONDAY - THREE BURIALS

“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.” - Abraham Lincoln

At the weekend we saw a film on DVD that I had not heard about, but which we found very good. It was another of these films that was relegated to the bargain bin of our local video shop, but which I picked out as I admire the work of Tommy Lee Jones. It was the 2005 “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” (or simply “Three Burials”). Jones directs and stars in this film, both very ably done.

The film is set in Texas near the border of Mexico and concerns several people, all somehow connected with the USA Border Patrol. Mike Norton (played very well by Barry Pepper) is an arrogant border patrolman who comes to town with his young wife. Norton mistakenly kills the Mexican cowboy Melquiades Estrada and buries him in a shallow grave in the desert. When Melquiades’s body is accidentally found, a hasty and perfunctory autopsy is carried out and the body is buried in a pauper’s grave. His best friend, the ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) discovers his friend has been killed and buried and recovers the body unlawfully to fulfill his promise and bury Melquiades in his hometown, Jimenez, in Mexico. Perkins kidnaps Norton and forces him to come to terms with his actions.

The film is powerful and gut-wrenching, as it explores themes of social injustice, the plight of the Mexican border runners, prejudice, friendship, love, marriage, adultery, crime and punishment, redemption. It is a road movie with a difference and builds to an awesome climax as Perkins and Norton end up in Mexico, looking for Jimenez. It is a moving film and one with several puzzling features that become resolved if one thinks about the film after its end. There are certainly many obscure elements that will appear crystal clear on second viewing.

As is the case with many films nowadays, the editing is haphazard, interrupting the linearity of the story with many flashbacks and flash-forwards, especially at the beginning of the film. In the second half of the movie, the story assumes a linearity that leads inexorably to the climax. Estrada’s character (played by Julio Cedillo) is the most puzzling, but the key to his secret is the photograph that he holds so dear and which Perkins keeps till the end.

The cinematography is excellent and all of the performances very good. The music understated and appropriate and the whole film wonderfully put together. It won two prizes at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival (Best Actor – Tommy Lee Jones, and Best Screenplay – Guillermo Arriaga) and the Grand Prix at the Flanders International Film Festival in 2005. It also won the 2006 Bronze Wrangler award in the Western Heritage Awards.

Have a look around for it and watch it, well worth it!

ART SUNDAY - VAN GOGH

“The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.” – Claude Monet

For Art Sunday today a vase full of Spring irises as painted by the incomparable Vincent van Gogh. We have had Spring weather today, showers and sunshine, some wind and some calm. We walked to the Darebin Parklands in the morning and enjoyed the flowers on show everywhere. Irises certainly are at their best now, with roses and jasmine, azaleas and rhododendrons, bottlebrushes and lilies putting on a good show.

Enjoy the week ahead!

MISERERE

“Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.” – Blaise Pascal

An absolute gem for Song Saturday today, the “Miserere” by Allegri. Allegri's masterpiece was written sometime before 1638 for the annual celebration of the matins during Holy Week (the Easter celebration). Twice during that week, on Wednesday and Friday, the service would start at 3 a.m. when 27 candles were extinguished one at a time until but one remained burning. According to reports, the pope would participate in these services. Allegri composed his setting of the Miserere for the very end of the first lesson of these Tenebrae services. At the final candle, the pope would kneel before the altar and pray while the Miserere was sung, culminating the service. It is a setting of Psalm 50 in Latin.

I.
Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.
Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquiatatem meam.
Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea: et peccatto meo munda me.
Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco: et peccatum meum contra me est semper.
Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci: ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris.
Ecce enim in inquitatibus conceptus sum: et in peccatis concepit me mater mea.
Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti: incerta et occulta sapientiae tuae manifesti mihi.
Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

II.
Auditui meo dabis gaudium st laetitiam: et exsultabunt ossa humiliata.
Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis: et omnes iniquitates meas dele.
Cor mundum crea in me, Deus: et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis.
Ne projicias me a facie tua: et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me.
Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui: et spiritu principali confirma me.
Docebo iniquos vias tuas: et implii ad te convertentur.
Libera me de sanguinibus, Deus, Deus salutis meae: et exsultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam.

I.
Have mercy upon me, O God: according to your great mercy.
Wash my sin completely from me: and cleanse me of my wickedness.
And according to the number of your mercies: wipe out my sin.
Since I know my iniquity: and my sin is always before me.
Against you only have I sinned and I have done wrong before you: that you may be
justified in your charge and be right in your judgment.
For behold I was conceived in wickedness: in sin my mother conceived me.
For behold, you loved the truth: and you made clear to me the hidden secrets of your wisdom.
You will purge me with hyssop and I will be clean: you will wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

II.
Make me hear joy and gladness: and the bones you have cast down will rejoice.
Turn your face from my sins: and wipe out all my iniquities.
Make a clean heart in me, O God: and renew an upright spirit in me.
Do not send me from your face: and do not remove your holy spirit from me.
Give back to me the joy of your salvation: and strengthen your spirit in me.
I will teach the wicked your way: and the sinners will turn to you.
Free me from bloodshed O God, the God of my salvation: and my tongue will acclaim your justice.



Ruth Holton (Soprano).
Susan Hamilton (Soprano).
Jean Louis Comoretto (Countertenor).
Raoul le Chenadec (Countertenor).
Thierry Brehu (Tenor).
Jean François Chiama (Tenor).
Edmond Hurtrait (Tenor).
James Gowings (Baritone).
Bernard Fabre Garrus (Bass).

Director: Bernard Fabre Garrus.

It was not long before Allegri's Miserere was the only such work sung at these services. With its soaring soprano parts (sung for centuries by castrati) and compelling melodic style, the work enjoyed almost immediate popularity. So impressed was some subsequent pope that the work thereafter was protected and a prohibition was placed on its use outside the Sistine Chapel at the appointed time. Chapel regulations forbid its transcription; indeed, the prohibition called for excommunication for anyone who sought to copy the work.

Leopold Mozart, visiting Rome with his 12-year-old son heard the work. The young Mozart heard the piece and wrote it down form memory. Leopold told of Wolfgang's accomplishment in a letter to his wife dated April 14, 1770 (Rome):

"…You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, copy it or to give it to anyone. But we have it already. Wolfgang has written it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition itself. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands…"

CHOCOLATE CAKE

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." - Charles M. Schulz

Chocolate cake is always good and home-made is even better. Trouble is many of the recipes are quite involved. This is fairly simple and you don’t even have to take the mixer out of the cupboard. No eggs are needed, either!

Lazy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
Cake:
1 cup sugar
1 ½ cups flour
3 tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1 tsp. vinegar
5 tbsp. molten unsalted butter
1 cup warm water

Syrup (optional):
Glassful of sugar
Glassful of water
Juice of a quarter lemon

Icing:
2 cups icing sugar
sprinkle of vanillin sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
1/3 cup unsalted butter
Enough milk to moisten
½ cup molten chocolate

Method
Cake:
Preheat oven to 180˚C.
Grease 20 cm cake tin.
Mix in a wide bowl, by sifting together all of the dry ingredients (sugar through salt).
Make three holes in the dry ingredients.
Add the vanilla, vinegar and melted butter, separately, into each of the three holes.
Pour the water over top of the ingredients in the pan and stir well, until well mixed.
Pour into the tin and bake 30 – 35 minutes at 180˚ C in the oven with the tin on top of a biscuit sheet.

Syrup:
If desired, boil the sugar and water for 3-4 minutes and squeeze the juice in as you turn the heat off.
Drench the cold cake with hot syrup, allowing it to be absorbed.

Icing:
Mix together the icing sugar, vanillin sugar and butter into a paste.
Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time to make a smooth icing.
Add the molten chocolate (reserving a spoonful), stirring well.
Put icing on the cake once it has cooled.
Use the reserved chocolate to drizzle on parallel straight lines, making the chevron patterns by dragging a skewer across the lines.

Enjoy your weekend!

HAPPY PILLS

“We need not destroy the past. It is gone.” - John Cage

Oblivion is the word of the day today.

oblivion |əˈblivēən| noun
1 The state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening: They drank themselves into oblivion.
• The state of being forgotten, esp. by the public: His name will fade into oblivion.
• figurative Extinction: Only our armed forces stood between us and oblivion.
2 historical Law Amnesty or pardon.
ORIGIN late Middle English : via Old French from Latin oblivio(n-), from oblivisci ‘forget.’

A news item today reports that neurobiologist researchers at the Brain and Behaviour Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine claim to have selectively erased memories from mice in the laboratory.

Our memory works in four stages: Acquisition, consolidation, storage and retrieval. Earlier research identified that different chemicals help nerve cells in our brain deal with these four processes. Communication between brain cells, connections between neurons and the way that different chemicals interact with receptor molecules on the surface of brain cells determine what we learn, how we store it and how easily retrievable it is.

The research team at the Medical College of Georgia is headed by Joe Tsien, who together with his team found a way to quickly manipulate the activity of a memory molecule, a protein called αCaMKII. This plays a key role in brain cell communication. The researchers found that as they changed the levels of this protein in the brain, they could manipulate the level of recall of a stimulation, of a memory.

They applied electric shocks to mice and this stimulated a memory in them, which associated the electric shock with a certain place in their cages. The mice then avoided that place. By manipulating the levels of αCaMKII in the mice’s brain, the memory was erased and the mice no longer avoided the cage part where they had received the electric shock. Other experiments confirmed the selective loss of memory.

The logic of this research is that eventually its results could be applied to humans. Goodbye to phobias and painful memories, no more anguish over broken relationships, post-traumatic stress syndrome no longer a problem. In fact it could be a wonderful dream come true! Think of it, eternal bliss… Whatever hurts us and causes us pain erased away. Happiness on tap. Bliss pills, joy injections! Shades of the Aldous Huxley book “Brave New World” and its mind-numbing “soma”. A sad reflection of the 2004 Michael Gondry film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.

What are we turning into, we humans? On the one hand we dread Alzheimer’s disease and the devastation it causes by robbing us of memory, and on the other hand we look to find these magic drugs that promise us oblivion and a “safe” erasure of our “bad” memories. We wish to live an existence that is free of all pain, a life packed in cotton wool, where our every experience is a cushioned, pleasant one. We want nothing but pleasure, joy, happiness, bliss, contentment, ecstasy, perfection. We cannot stand a challenge, buckle under stress and strain, succumb to depression over trifles, become demented because of experiences that caused us distress. Our tolerance levels are decreasing and we are more likely to fly off the handle over irritating matters than something of truly mind-shattering proportions.

Here is the perfect solution! Dr Tsien’s wonderful “happy pills”. We ask someone to think of an unpleasant memory, we administer the drug and whiz, bang, kazam, blowie! We “cure” them. The “patients” become a wonderful vegetable, as happy as a pumpkin basking in the sunshine of a safely guarded garden. The mind police has patrolled brains, eliminated the “bad guys” of the memory store and has established a wonderful new existence for the “patient”. Think of it, there would be no more “bad jobs” – you go and do what you have to do, take your “happy pills” as soon as you finish working and zap! Memory erased! Think of how cheerfully you would go back to work in the morning!

You could become a very efficient killer. But then, zap! All memory erased! You could be abducted, degraded, made to do whatever your captors wanted. They then inject you with a little “happy drug”, memories erased! No problem! You could be grieving for a loved one, you could be suffering and hurting and crying and living a miserable life – “happy pills” to the rescue. You take the pill and forget that person ever existed! Problem solved – or is it?

My memories define who I am. Both good and bad. The pain of experience moulds the shape of my conscience. The anguish that painful memories cause me is only there because beneath the anguish lies the pleasure of the experience that pre-existed or co-existed with the pain. Life is a mixture of pain and pleasure. Good memories balance the bad. Good memories are no longer “good” if we have nothing to compare to them It is not the lot of a human to be perpetually happy. Happiness non-stop is the ultimate of boredoms. As Wendell Berry says: “The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.”

MADWOMAN MOON

“It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.” - Heraclitus

I was in Sydney for the day for work today and spent nearly the whole of the day indoors. This proved to be a good thing as the weather was wild and unseasonable. Wind, rain and cool temperatures with leaden gray skies that was more like the midst of a Sydney winter, rather than a mid-Spring day.

The poem I give you today was written just recently as the full moon filled the sky with its glowing orb.

Madwoman Moon

The moon struts across the sky
Like a madwoman tonight.
She holds aloft her bright light
Looking down with a glassy eye.

The moon watches me, still,
But her tapping long fingers
Drum a tattoo, and it lingers,
Echoing, my empty room to fill.

She glares at me and spits
The stars, like orange pips;
Her furrowed sweaty brow drips
And in the garden as she sits,

She mutters senseless words.
Cackling, now and then –
Scaring even brave men,
Silencing crying night birds.

The moon is on the rampage
Like Mad Meg, she rants;
Angry, she sighs and pants,
Unable to assuage her rage.

I hate the moon tonight,
Her silvery, bright light,
Her mad ways, her loud
Screeching, her crowd
Of dark, night creatures.
Her shining, dead features,
And her madwoman hair
Entangling me in her lair,
As once again I succumb
To her magic. Struck dumb,
I follow, and like a fool
Again drown in her dark pool.

THE NEW DARK AGES

“In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference.” - Augusto Roa Bastos

The more I look at the news every day, the more disheartened I get. We seem to be living in decadent times and each news item is evidence enough of this. I am reminded of the days preceding the fall of the Roman Empire. The Romans became the most civilised and most powerful people of the ancient world but the more territory they accrued, the greater their wealth, the more their power, then the greater their decadence became and they ended up easy prey of the barbarian hordes that overran their heartland and defeated them ignominiously in the late 5th century AD.

The Roman Empire became “decadent” because immorality and excesses corrupted law-makers. Its emperors became weak through their dependence on army legions whose allegiance was questionable and whose soldierly talents grew degenerate. The Roman aristocrats of the capital were so busy at their orgies (often with their siblings), throwing dissenters to the lions, poisoning their spouses, parents, and children, and eating exotic foods (in between visits to the vomitorium so they could eat more), that they didn't notice all the Vandals, Goths, Gauls and other “barbarians” gathering on their frontiers.

The ruthless, warlike, proud and pagan Germans rode in, trampled under their horses' hooves the few poor debauched legionnaires who remained, still foolishly fighting on foot, sacked Rome, destroyed civilisation, overthrew the last emperor in 476 AD, and ushered in the Dark Ages, from which Europe only emerged with the Renaissance, a thousand years later. Christianity eventually built a new civilisation on the ruins of the old, but only through the mediation of the Classical ideals of the Renaissance.

We are living at an age where our civilisation is once again threatened by a new Dark Age. The world domination of the world by the USA seems to be on the verge of collapse and no amount of largesse will rescue the dying behemoth of its economy. Our selfish, pleasure-centred existence with its emphasis on the here and now is inviting a degeneracy that is reminiscent of the dying days of Rome. We seem as a civilisation to have lost our sense of values, the significance of our self-respect, the importance of shame in a public context, our feeling of social justice, the value of religious observance. We have lost touch with what family really means, we have sold love to the highest bidder, we have betrayed the meaning of true friendship, we have reduced our personal relationships to the most superficial level.

We live on the surface of a soap bubble, recklessly prodding it constantly to test its fragile surface. All the while, the soap bubble is growing larger and drifting towards oblivion. Our politicians have become traitors, our countries have degenerated into people markets, money reigns supreme and human dignity is insulted non-stop. Can such a civilisation survive?

A survey of the last few days news items has left me stunned:
• The world economic crisis, with no improvement in sight

• The looming US presidential election that has become a running joke

• A New Zealand toddler put in a tumble dryer, spun on a clothesline and kicked in the head as part of ongoing abuse before she died

• The final year students of one of the most prestigious and exclusive of Melbourne high schools going on a destructive rampage

• A UK man convicted of killing his lover and eating his flesh

• A US man convicted of murdering three people, including a couple who were tied to an anchor and thrown from their yacht off the California coast

• 21 prisoners died in a jail riot in Mexico near the U.S. border on Monday, some in a fire after a gun battle between rival gangs

• Nazi flag flown in a suburban house in Adelaide

• Families with children becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures

• Alarming news of rising disease tolls, new epidemics and threats of plagues to come

• Continuing gloomy news on climate change

• Inane reports of inane celebrities doing inane things, over and over again, ignoring the world on the brink of the apocalypse…

O tempora, o mores!

MOVIE MONDAY - THE GOLDEN COMPASS

“I believe in the absolute preciousness of the here and now. Here is where we are and now is where we live.” - Philip Pullman

We watched Chris Weitz’s 2007 film “The Golden Compass” at the weekend. You may remember this caused quite a great deal of controversy when it first came out as it was thought to be quite irreverent and blasphemous, based on books with “anti-religious themes”. The books are written by Philip Pullman, a self-professed atheist and member of a number of humanist societies. “His Dark Materials” children’s book trilogy comprises “Northern Lights” (1995 = The Golden Compass), “The Subtle Knife” (1997) and “The Amber Spyglass” (2000). Pullman is a typical Oxford scholar and his children’s books correspond with C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books in that they are concerned with children plagued by difficult adult moral dilemmas, the struggle between good and evil, parallel universes, anthropomorphic animals and the quest for the meaning of existence. It is rather surprising that the controversy arose as in Pullman’s books there is no attack on religion as such, but perhaps there may be a strong criticism of dogmaticism, organised religious bureaucracy and religious intolerance.

In any case, the film shows no evidence of any atheistic doctrine and it may be enjoyed as pure and simple escapist fluff. In fact, the subtlety of the books is lost and the heavy-handed way in which the film starts with an explanation (thus stripping the plot of any mystery or wonder) does not presage well. Significant cuts in the plot are further hampered by poor character development and one feels that the whole thing is rushed with a lot of good material left on the cutting room floor. It is clear that the film is trying to ride on the crest of the success of the “Lord of the Rings”, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, the “Harry Potter” films, and “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. However, despite the excellent special effects and overall exceptional technical quality of the film, it does not rate as highly.

The plot in a nutshell is as follows: Lyra, a young orphan girl, lives among scholars at Oxford's Jordan College, in a parallel Universe to our own, in which every human is joined to a physical manifestation of an animal (called a daemon), which is the human’s soul. One day Lyra eavesdrops a secret conversation in which an extraordinary dust is mentioned and which is rumoured to possess profound properties that could unite whole universes. But there are those who fear the dust and would stop at nothing to destroy it. Central to the plot is the Magisterium, a totalitarian government that seeks to control the population’s thoughts as well as its actions. Children are also being kidnapped left, right and centre, and Lyra's best friend, Roger, is among them. Lyra is taken from Oxford by the sinister Mrs Coulter and is thrown into the midst of a desperate struggle of good and against evil. Lyra is forced to seek aid from witches, Gyptians, and formidable armoured bears, to help her save her friends from these evil experiments. She also has the aid of a magic golden compass, which is an alethiometer (truth meter) capable of answering any question put to it, provided one can understand its cryptic symbol answers, which are always true.

On thing about the movie that stands out are the good casting and equally good performances. Nicole Kidman is the delicious villainess Mrs Coulter, while Dakota Blue Richards does a good job as Lyra Bellacqua. Eva Green is a fetching witch and Daniel Craig a suitably aloof Lord Asriel. The music is understated and suitable, the sets exceptional and the special effects wonderful. Overall, a good film if you have not read the books, but if you have read the books it is a disappointing effort.

As far as the political or religious implications of the film are concerned, it is a satire of totaliarinism (which should keep the conservatives happy), but I could find no evidence of atheism (unless one considers the favourable view of witches portrayed, as irreligious). Perhaps I may let Pullman justify his religious convictions for himself:

“The religious impulse – which includes the sense of awe and mystery we feel when we look at the universe, the urge to find a meaning and a purpose in our lives, our sense of moral kinship with other human beings – is part of being human, and I value it. I'd be a damn fool not to. But organised religion is quite another thing. The trouble is that all too often in human history, churches and priesthoods have set themselves up to rule people's lives in the name of some invisible god (and they're all invisible, because they don't exist) – and done terrible damage. In the name of their god, they have burned, hanged, tortured, maimed, robbed, violated, and enslaved millions of their fellow-creatures, and done so with the happy conviction that they were doing the will of God, and they would go to Heaven for it. That is the religion I hate, and I'm happy to be known as its enemy.” Philip Pullman

ART SUNDAY - MAX ERNST

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.” – Marcel Proust

The last couple of Sundays I have been choosing surrealistic paintings, and today I am continuing the trend with a painting by Max Ernst (1891-1976). He was a German painter-poet who was a member of the Dada movement and a founder of surrealism. A self-taught artist, he formed a Dada group in Cologne, Germany, with other avant-garde artists. He pioneered a method called frottage, in which a sheet of paper is placed on the surface of an object and then penciled over until the texture of the surface is transferred. In 1925, he showed his work at the first surrealist painting exhibition in Paris.

This painting from 1944 is called “The Eye of Silence” and is characteristic of Ernst’s style. Vibrant colour, irrelevant, painstaking detail, writhing forms, organic evolving rocks and hidden enigmatic figures that contribute to the dream-like state depicted in the painting.