SATURDAY RESPITE

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” - Mother Teresa

A lovely day, full of the little pleasures of routine and rest. No better way to end it than the Larghetto from Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K 581.

FOOD FRIDAY - SMOKED SALMON PIZZA

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.” - Yogi Berra

I first tasted this pizza at a friend’s house and then have tried it at a couple of restaurants. It is nice change from the usual capricciosas and napolitanas. It is easy to prepare and a couple of slices make for a tasty entrée.

Smoked Salmon Pizza

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups plain Flour


1 tsp Salt


1 tsp Sugar


2 tsp fast-rising Yeast

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

3/4 cup warm Water

Topping

1 small red Spanish Onion, sliced thinly


freshly ground Pepper


2 Tsp chopped fresh Dill


2 cups grated fresh Asiago Cheese


110 g smoked salmon cut into bite-size pieces


1 Tbsp Capers, drained

Homemade mayonnaise (no sugar in it)

Salmon roe for decoration (optional)

Method

For the dough, mix 1 cup of the flour with the salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl.

Pour the oil into the water, stir and add to yeast mixture. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well mixed.

Add remaining flour and knead for 3 to 5 minutes on a floured surface.

Put in a greased bowl, cover and place in a warm spot for 40 minutes to rise or until needed.

Spread the dough out on a medium pizza pan just before you are ready to assemble the pizza.

Preheat oven to 240˚C.

Brush dough with olive oil. Sprinkle Asiago cheese on pizza crust.

Spread the onion slices evenly on the cheese.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes on lower rack of oven.

Remove from oven. Spread smoked salmon and capers on top; return to oven for 3 minutes.

Drizzle mayonnaise on top, sprinkle with chopped dill and decorate with salmon roe if desired.

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

MARCUS AURELIUS

“Do not act as if you shall live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.” - Marcus Aurelius
 

April 26th is the birthday of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (April 26, A.D. 121 - March 17, A.D. 180). His parents were Annius Verus and Domitia Lucilla, although he was adopted by Emperor Antoninus Pius when at the age of 17 or 18 as part of an agreement Antoninus Pius had made with Emperor Hadrian. Marcus Aurelius' wife was Faustina, daughter of Hadrian, and they had 13 children, including Commodus Marcus Aurelius.

I have rather a lot of time for this Roman Emperor, as firstly he was a Stoic philosopher and secondly one of the “five good Roman emperors”, reigning as Caesar between A.D. 161 and A.D. 180. His Stoic philosophical writings are known as the “Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”. He was considered the last of the five good emperors and was succeeded by his son the infamous Roman emperor Commodus. It was during the reign of Marcus Aurelius that the Marcomannic War broke out at the northern frontier of the empire. It was also the time of the important physician Galen who wrote about a particularly virulent pandemic that was given Marcus Aurelius' family name.

The Augustan History says that it was when Marcus was adopted as heir that he was first called “Aurelius” instead of “Annius', which was his birth name. Antoninus Pius made Marcus consul and Caesar in A.D. 139. In 145, Aurelius married his sister by adoption, Faustina, daughter of Pius. After they had a daughter, he was granted tribunical power and imperium outside Rome. When Antoninus Pius died in 161, the Senate awarded the imperial power to Marcus Aurelius, however, Marcus Aurelius gave joint power to his brother (by adoption) and called him Lucius Aurelius Verus Commodus. The two co-ruling brothers are referred to as Antonines (as in the Antonine plague of 165-180).

As Marcus Aurelius was preparing for the Marcommanic War (along the Danube, between Germanic tribes and Rome), a plague broke out killing thousands. The Antonini (Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor/brother-by adoption) helped with burial expenses. Marcus Aurelius also aided the Romans in time of famine and so is thought of as a particularly benevolent ruler.

Marcus Aurelius died in March A.D. 180. Before his funeral he had already been declared a god. When his wife, Faustina, had died in 176, Marcus Aurelius asked the Senate to deify her and built her a temple. The Augustan History (always a good read as it is gossipy and entertaining) states that Faustina had not been a chaste wife and that it was considered a stain on Marcus Aurelius' reputation that he promoted her lovers. Marcus Aurelius' ashes were put in Hadrian's mausoleum. Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by his biological heir, in contradistinction to the previous four good emperors.

"Meditations" (“Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν”, - Ta eis heauton, literally “[thoughts/writings] addressed to oneself”) is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy. They are written in a highly educated and elegant form of Koiné Greek, current at the time and spoken/read by educated Romans. The “Meditations” is divided into twelve books that chronicle different periods of Marcus' life. Each book is not in chronological order and was written for no one but the emperor himself. The style of writing that permeates the text is one that is simplified, straightforward, and perhaps reflecting Marcus' Stoic perspective on the text itself.

Marcus' style is not viewed as anything regal, but rather a style a man adopts when among other men, which allows the reader to relate to the wisdom divulged. A central theme to the “Meditations” is to analyse one's judgement of self and others and to thus develop a cosmic perspective. He states: “You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgement, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite.”

His central thesis is to find one's place in the universe and as he states that everything came from nature, he concludes that everything shall return to it in due time. Another strong theme is of being focussed and being without distraction, all the while maintaining strong ethical principles such as “Being a good man”. His Stoic ideas often involve avoiding indulgence in sensory affections, a skill he says, will free a man from the pains and pleasures of the material world. He claims that the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. An order or logos permeates existence. Rationality and clear-mindedness allow one to live in harmony with the world. This allows one to rise above faulty perceptions of “good” and “bad”.

ANZAC DAY 2012

“All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.” - François Fénelon

ANZAC Day, celebrated on the 25 April is probably Australia’s most important national occasion. The day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.

In 1914, when WW1 broke out, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25^th of April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

The End

After the blast of lightning from the east,

The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot throne,

After the drums of time have rolled and ceased

And from the bronze west long retreat is blown,

Shall Life renew these bodies? Of a truth

All death will he annul, all tears assuage?

Or fill these void veins full again with youth

And wash with an immortal water age?

When I do ask white Age, he saith not so, -

“My head hangs weighed with snow.”

And when I hearken to the Earth she saith

“My fiery heart sinks aching. It is death.

Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified

Nor my titanic tears the seas be dried.”

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen, the son of a railway worker, was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, on 18th March, 1893. He was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical School, and worked as a pupil-teacher at Wyle Cop School while preparing for his matriculation exam for the University of London. After failing to win a scholarship he found work as a teacher of English in the Berlitz School in Bordeaux. Although he had previously thought of himself as a pacifist, in October 1915 he enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, he joined the Manchester Regiment in France in January, 1917.

While in France Wilfred Owen began writing poems about his war experiences. In the summer of 1917 Owen was badly concussed at the Somme after a shell landed just two yards away. After several days in a bomb crater with the mangled corpse of a fellow officer, Owen was diagnosed as suffering from shell-shock. While recovering at Craiglockhart War Hospital he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon. Owen showed Sassoon his poetry who advised and encouraged him. So also did another writer at the hospital, Robert Graves. Sassoon suggested that Owen should write in a more direct, colloquial style.

Over the next few months Owen wrote a series of poems, including Anthem for Doomed Youth, Disabled, Dulce et Decorum Est and Strange Meeting. Sassoon introduced Owen to H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett and helped him get some of his poems published in The Nation. Owen also had talks with William Heinemann about the publication of a collection of his poems. In August 1918 Owen was declared fit to return to the Western Front. He fought at Beaurevoir-Fonsomme, where he was awarded the Military Cross. Wilfred Owen was killed by machine-gun fire while leading his men across the Sambre Canal on 4th November 1918. A week later the Armistice was signed. Only five of Owen’s poems were published while he was alive. After Owen's death his friend, Siegfried Sassoon, arranged for the publication of his Collected Poems (1920). He is considered to be one of the greatest English war poets.

GRRRRRRRR!

“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.” - Robert Anton Wilson

Do you ever get in a crotchety mood where everything seems to vex and irritate you? I was in such a mood today so I felt crabby and went around muttering to myself and growling at the irritants and irritators. Maybe the weather had something to do with it as it was cold and rainy and grey all day long. Maybe I got out of the wrong side of the bed. Maybe I just tripped up against too many irritating things.

What are some of the tings that irritate me? Well let me make a list:
1)    Bottled water which sells at exorbitant prices (more expensive than petrol per litre) and is peddled in a country like Australia that has excellent tap water
2)    Imported bottled water from some far-flung corner of the earth sold at even more exorbitant process than the local bottled stuff and has snob value
3)    Non-recyclable packaging – no excuse nowadays
4)    Too much packaging – bags within bags within packets within boxes…
5)    People who use their cars even when there is no need to – i.e. a pleasant walk down the street to the local shops to busy milk and bread, or using the car to get to work when a good public transport system will get them there sooner and with less stress
6)    Advertising material that is put into letter boxes that have “No Junk Mail” clearly marked on them
7)    People that talk at you all the time and don’t want to listen to anyone else
8)    People that talk loudly all the time
9)    Impolite people in general
10)    Commercial advertisements on subscriber-paid TV (I make a point of never buying their products or using their services)
11)    DVDs and BR discs that don’t have subtitles for the hearing impaired – no excuse nowadays
12)    DVDs and BR discs that will not allow fast navigation or skipping through the trailers and all the guff before the main menu or feature film, wasting one’s valuable time
13)    New products that are faulty a soon as they come of their box (where, oh where did quality control go?)
14)    Check-out people who say: “Is that all?” to you even if you have bought a trolley full of stuff
15)    Supermarkets that put stock that has expired past its use-by date on their shelves.
16)    And lots, lots, lots more…

I think I must be getting seriously old if these things make me crabby. Or maybe it is the stress of modern life? In any case, what the remedy for me seems to be is humour. Joking about these things that irritate me takes the edge off my vexation and laughing about them with someone else (who is equally annoyed by them) seems to dissipate my bad mood, until the next time…

Well, that’s me, what gets your goat up?

MOVIE MONDAY - BEFORE THE RAINS

“No adultery is bloodless.” - Natalia Ginzburg

We watched an excellent film at the weekend, Santosh Sivan’s 2007 movie, “Before the Rains”. It starred Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das and Jennifer Ehle, with some more excellent actors in supporting roles. It was an excellent Anglo-Indian production, which treated of some social issues with sensitivity and poignancy.

The plot centres on an English plantation family, the Moores, who live in Kalpetta Township in Kerala, India, during the British Raj, in 1937. Henry Moore (Roache), who lives there with his wife, Laura (Ehle), and their son, Peter, wishes to expand his tea plantation venture by branching out into spices. To this end he embarks on making a private road up the mountains in order to make fertile land accessible. He gets a bank loan and enlists the local villagers to build the road. His faithful right hand man is the local TK Neelan (Bose) who is English-educated, but very much a local, whose family is amongst the elders of the village. Sajani (Das) is a local married woman who works as a maidservant in the Moores’ household. An illicit affair develops between Henry Moore and Sajani, which is discovered first by TK Neelan, who keeps silent about it, but also by two village children who alert the village that Sajani was seen in the forest with a man who wasn’t her husband. The plot involves also the rising “Quit India” movement and plays upon TK’s divided loyalty – to his country and countrymen and to his employer and English friend, Henry Moore. The story builds to a tragic climax in which a bitter choice must be made.

This was a beautifully photographed movie with excellent cinematography also by Santosh Sivan (who directed the movie). The music by Mark Kilian was supportive of and sympathetic to the action and locale, while the costumes and props were also very authentic. The story itself was simple, superficially, but the plot is only an analogy for the imperialistic era and its consequences in the countries colonised and exploited by the imperialistic powers.

Henry Moore symbolises Western civilisation, bending the world to his will through his might and superior technology. Moore’s know-how is manifested in the film by the building of a road impregnable to the monsoon rains, and his technology symbolised by his pistol, which Moore gives to TK, for his complicity in Moore’s affair with Sajani. Moore has seduced Sajani, who sees in him a perfect lover, a liberator who will free her from her brutal, tradition-bound husband whom she was forced to marry. TK is the most complex character, who is played to perfection by Rahul Bose. He finds himself acknowledging the West’s superior technology, know-how and admires the ways of the British, but at the same time is bound by the ancient traditions and codes of his village. Add to that his awakening nationalism, fanned by his former teacher and mentor, who now spearheads the “Quit India” movement in the area.

The film somehow felt a little too short for the magnitude of themes that it explored and I felt that the exposition of the motives and ideals of some of the lesser characters could have been expanded. Sajani’s role, for example, could have more meat in it and her character’s motivations could have been more explicitly shown, although she did wonders with what little she had in the movie. Village life and a more extended depiction and explanation of the customs and rituals would have added to the movie. At the same time, Jennifer Ehle, as Moore’s wife plays here role excellently and her concise, precise and understated acting tell us a great deal about her character and her motivations.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed this film and would recommend it most highly. It is an excellent introduction to Indian movies, although the film itself is not 100% Indian. It does, however, possess many of the qualities of good modern, Indian moviemaking. This is due to the talent and skill of the director and the excellent Indian actors who make of this screenplay by Cathy Rabin a memorable and poignant film.

ART SUNDAY - GRACE COSSINGTON-SMITH

“It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.”-  Albert Camus

 For Art Sunday today, Grace Cossington-Smith, an Australian artist. Grace Cossington Smith (22 April 1892 – 10 December 1984) was an Australian artist and pioneer of modernist painting in Australia and was instrumental in introducing Post-Impressionism to Australia. Examples of her work are held by every major gallery in Australia.

She is best known for her light-filled still life paintings, landscapes, and home interiors, celebrating the wondrous beauty of creation. In summarising her approach, she said, ‘All form – landscape, interiors, still life, flowers, animals, people – has an articulate grace and beauty, painting to me is expressing this form in colour; colour vibrant with life – but containing this other, silent quality which is unconscious, and belongs to all things created.’

She was born Grace Smith, in Neutral Bay, Sydney, second of five children of London-born solicitor Ernest Smith and his wife Grace, née Fisher, who was the daughter of the rector of Cossington in Leicestershire. The family moved to Thornleigh, New South Wales around 1890. Grace attended Abbotsleigh School for Girls in Wahroonga 1905–09 where Albert Collins and Alfred Coffey took art classes. From 1910–11 she studied drawing with Antonio Dattilo Rubbo.

From 1912–14 she and her sister lived in England, staying with an aunt at Winchester where she attended drawing classes as well as classes at Speck in Germany, and was exposed to paintings by Watteau in Berlin. After returning to Sydney in 1914 she attended Dattilo Rubbo’s painting classes and took an interest in modernist theories.

Her ‘The Sock Knitter’ (1915) was arguably Australia’s first post-Impressionist painting. She adopted the middle name ‘Cossington’ in 1920. Her work was greatly respected by fellow-artists Roland Wakelin and Roy de Maistre. She exhibited with the Royal Art Society of New South Wales from 1915, the Society of Artists from 1919 and Thea Proctor’s Contemporary Group at Adrian Feint’s Grosvenor Gallery from 1926–28, and from 1932 to 1971, at the Macquarie Galleries. Her painting is characterised by individual, square brush strokes with bright unblended colours. Her many paintings of Sydney landscapes, still lifes, and interiors include ‘Kuringai Avenue’ (1943), ‘Fruit in the Window’ (1957), and, arguably her most famous painting, ‘The Lacquer Room’ (1935 - see above). She received acclaim late in her career, and in 1973 a major retrospective exhibition of her work toured Australia.

SCHUBERT FOR SATURDAY

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” - Epicurus
 
We had a typical Melbourne autumn day today, starting out grey, misty and overcast with a cool bite to the air. However, as the day progressed, the clouds parted and a yellow sun appeared that blossomed into the most wonderful afternoon – mellow, warm, sweet like a ripe fragrant melon. It was a day that lent itself to some gardening efforts and at autumn there many things to tidy up in the garden. The weather helped, of course.

Then a very nice evening celebrating a special anniversary, with a wonderful dinner and then dessert… A contented day, one that makes me grateful for being alive, for all the bounties that I enjoy, for the people around me that I love and love me.

Here is the Adagio of the Grand Quintet in C, opus 163 D956, by Franz Schubert. It is scored for two violins, viola, and two violoncellos. It is played by the Festetics Ensemble, comprising Wieland Kuijken, Istavan Kertesz, Erika Petöfi, Péter Ligeti, Rezsö Pertorini.

CAVIAR CANAPÉS

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Every now and then we like to indulge ourselves and have a very special dinner, just like a dinner party but only for two. We have a beautifully decorated table, the best china and the cut crystal, sparkling silverware and some delightful classical music playing. There is chilled champagne, and for the comestibles: Hors d’oeuvres, an elaborate main course with all the trimmings, with dessert of course following the meal and afterwards coffee and a praline. It’s nice to do this periodically (usually at weekends) and enjoy a leisurely, civilised dinner where good food, good wine, pleasant conversation make of eating a cultural and social event, even though only two partake of this intimate tête-a-tête.

It is important to realise that quality is more important than quantity in these meals, and as Socrates said, “Worthy people eat to live, worthless ones live to eat.” This is especially true at a dinner party for two, when one can be tempted to over-provide with an excess of delicacies. A variety of food, each served in small delicate portions is preferable to the quantity of food that one eats on a winter’s evening where a single large course will have to satisfy one’s hunger.

One of the hors d’ oeuvres we frequently enjoy at our dinner parties (not only those for two but also for more guests) is Caviar Canapés à l’ Harlequin. These are simple to prepare and look quite wonderful on the serving platter. They are also very tasty.

Caviar Canapés à l’ Harlequin
Ingredients

50 g of red caviar
50 g of black caviar
1 lemon, peeled, thinly sliced and each slice quartered
Melba toast squares
Softened, good quality butter for spreading (French unsalted butter is nice)
Lemon peel and herb sprigs for decoration

Method
Spread each small Melba toast square liberally with the softened butter.
Lay a quarter of the lemon slice on one corner of each buttered toast square.
Spread a liberal amount of caviar on the rest of the toast square, not getting any of the caviar on the lemon.
Use red caviar for half the squares and black caviar for the other half.
Serve with chilled champagne.

Bon Appétit!
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

WABI-SABI

“Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.” - Thomas de Quincey

As I was looking through some of my old photos yesterday I came upon the one that I have illustrated this post with. I looked at it for a while and a Japanese term came to mind, something that I had heard from one of my art lecturers a long time ago, when I was studying art (part-time, while I was working!). The term is wabi-sabi (侘寂) and represents a comprehensive Japanese world-view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience.

This quintessential Japanese aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin), specifically: Impermanence (無常 mujō), suffering (dukkha) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (sunyata).  Characteristics of wabi-sabi include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.

The words wabi and sabi do not translate easily. Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society; sabi meant “chill”, “lean” or “withered”. Around the 14th century these meanings began to change, taking on more positive connotations. Wabi now connotes “rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness”, and can be applied to both natural and human-made objects, or it can imply “understated elegance”. It can also refer to quirks and anomalies arising from the process of construction, which add uniqueness and elegance to the object. Sabi is “beauty or serenity that comes with age”, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs. In other words an appreciation of the imperfections and transience of everything in this world, something that becomes apparent as time passes.

Wabi-sabi as a feature of traditional Japanese art and perception of beauty is quite different to the classical aesthetic values of Greek ideals of beauty and perfection that are admired in the West and from which Western art has evolved. Greek art stresses symmetry, idealisation of form, perfectly finished surfaces, beautiful subjects and a view of the ideal, perfect, divine nature of things. Greek art aspires to become god-like and wishes to imitate the perfect world of Olympus and the gods that reside there. Wabi-sabi is the complete opposite, and stresses the humanity of the world, with all of its imperfections, asymmetry, confoundedness, transience, corruption and inability to reach the ideal state. If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi accepts the authenticity of our existence by acknowledging three simple realities: Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.

Coming from a thoroughly Western background and having Greek origins, I can understand completely the Western aesthetic and the beauty expressed by classical Greek art, architecture, pottery and sculpture. However, my schooling, reading, travels, experiences and interactions with others have made me able to also appreciate the simplicity and innate humanity of the wabi-sabi aesthetic. I find Japanese art, architecture, cultural institutions, gardens and music particularly attractive and even though my roots are in Western classicism, I can embrace wabi-sabi and find it immensely beautiful and serene.

Western classicism strives for perfection and symmetry, attempts to approximate the divine by demonstrating all that is best in human nature, leaving the viewer uplifted and ready to strive for the divine ideal himself. Wabi-sabi and Japanese art acknowledges the innate imperfection of the human state and through the exaggerated demonstration of the imperfect, the incomplete and the transient, assures us that only the divine is perfect and that we as imperfect humans need to accept this and appreciate the beauty of the things that we can touch and experience first-hand.

CHANGE, YET AGAIN

“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.

DAISIES FOR CAVAFY

“There is no art without Eros.” - Max Frisch

The field daisy, Bellis perennis, is today’s birthday flower.  It is the symbol of purity and virginity, adoration and innocence. In the language of flowers, the daisy speaks the words: “I share your sentiments”.  It is under the dominion of Venus and in the past bruised leaves were applied to the testes to reduce swellings there!  It used to be said, that Spring had not truly arrived until one could step over 12 daisy blooms under one foot on a lawn where they were growing. For the Northern Hemisphere, this is quite an apt birthday flower for this day, as Spring has truly sprung there.

The first cuckoos of Spring should be heard around this time in Europe. It is very lucky to be walking around when you hear the first cuckoo.  On the other hand, one should be sitting when one sees the first swallow of the year:

            Gang and hear the gowk yell

            Sit and see the swallow flee

            ‘Twill be a happy year with thee.

                                                                          Folk saying

If you hear the first cuckoo from your bed, you or someone in your family will die that year.  If you have no money in your pocket or if you fail to jingle the coins in your pocket when you hear the first cuckoo call, then you will be poor all year.  If you take some earth from under your right foot where you were standing when you heard the first cuckoo, scatter it where you do not want fleas to breed.

            The cuckoo is a merry bird, she sings us as she flies

            She brings us good tidings, she tells us no lies.

            She dries up the dirt in the Spring of the year

            And sucks little birds’ eggs to keep her voice clear.

                                                                          Sussex rhyme

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933) was a Greek Alexandrian poet whose family was one of the oldest and most renowned of the Greek diaspora.  He lived in Alexandria, Constantinople and London and just as he was coming to the end of adolescence, his family’s fortunes changed and his poetry is tinged with the colours of decadence and remembrances of past glories.  His intense eroticism and “art for art’s sake” puts him on a parallel course with Oscar Wilde.  Although embracing the European decadence he never denies his Hellenism and often his poems mine deeply into the past in order to gain inspiration and comment cuttingly on the present and future.  His poetry influenced not only his compatriots but through his involvement with the English made him one of the better known of the modern Greek poets.  The recurrent theme of Eros as viewed by the ancient Greeks often revolves around his own homosexuality and with implicit and tacit understanding transcends the fleshly Eros as described and attempts to capture the spiritualism of love.

Walls

Without thought, without pity, without shame

They built around me tall, forbidding walls.

And as I sit here now, in hopelessness,

I think of nothing else, my mind corroded by this lucklessness;

Because I had so much to do outside the walls.

How careless I must have been, not to have seen them building walls…

And yet I never heard the sound of builders or of construction.

They isolated me from the world around me quite imperceptibly.

                                                Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933)

MISS MARPLE MOVIES

“Fear follows crime and is its punishment.” – Voltaire

We have been watching some episodes of the Miss Marple telemovies starring Geraldine McEwan and some of them we have been enjoying. I was always a fan of Agatha Christie and have read just under 90 of her books, so whenever there is a transfer of these to screen, I look at the finished product with interest. There have been numerous Miss Marples in the movies and I have seen several films. Geraldine McEwan does a good job as the woolly but astute sleuth.

Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, appears in twelve of Agatha Christie’s crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. Alongside Hercule Poirot, she is one of the most famous of Christie’s characters. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Sketch magazine in 1926, “The Tuesday Night Club”, which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The “Murder at the Vicarage” in 1930.

Margaret Rutherford was a memorable Miss Marple in the 1960s films. “Murder, She Said” (1961, directed by George Pollock) was the first of four British MGM productions starring Rutherford. Most viewers of the films agree that Rutherford was a delightful Miss Marple exemplifying the innocent, wide-eyed exterior that hides the astute and highly intelligent brain that keeps on working underneath the sweetness.

In 1980, Angela Lansbury played Miss Marple in “The Mirror Crack’d” (EMI, directed by Guy Hamilton), based on Christie’s 1962 novel. The film featured an all-star cast that included Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis, and Kim Novak. Edward Fox appeared as Inspector Craddock, who did Miss Marple’s legwork. Lansbury’s Marple was a crisp, intelligent woman who moved stiffly and spoke in clipped tones. Unlike most incarnations of Miss Marple, this one smoked cigarettes.

American TV was the setting for the first dramatic portrayal of Miss Marple with Gracie Fields, the legendary British actress, playing her in a 1956 episode of Goodyear TV Playhouse based on “A Murder Is Announced”, the 1950 Christie novel.

American stage and screen legend Helen Hayes portrayed Miss Marple in two American made-for-TV movies, both for CBS: “A Caribbean Mystery” (1983) and “Murder with Mirrors” (1984). Sue Grafton contributed to the screenplay of the former. Hayes’s Marple was benign and chirpy. From 1984 to 1992, the BBC adapted all of the original Miss Marple novels as a series titled Miss Marple. Joan Hickson played the lead role. (Coincidentally, Hickson had played a housekeeper in the first film in which Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple).

Beginning in 2004, ITV broadcast a series of adaptations of Agatha Christie’s books under the title “Agatha Christie’s Marple”, usually referred to as “Marple”. Geraldine McEwan starred in the first three series. One other TV movie called “At Bertram’s Hotel” (2007). Julia McKenzie took over the role in the fourth season. The adaptions are notable for changing the plots and characters of the original books (e.g., incorporating lesbian affairs, changing killer identities, renaming or removing significant characters, and even using stories from other books in which Miss Marple did not originally feature). The purists would shudder, but once again, if one sees the finished products as cinema and judges them as that, they are fine.

And just for the quirkiness of it, from 2004 to 2005, Japanese TV network NHK produced a 39 episode animé series titled “Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple”, which features both Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple’s voice is provided by Kaoru Yachigusa. I haven’t seen these but I would dearly love to cast a critical eye over an episode as I cannot imagine Miss Marple as an animé heroine!

The most recent film we saw was Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2007 “Nemesis” starring Geraldine McEwan, Laura Michelle Kelly and Dan Stevens. The novel is a classic Christie whodunit full of memorable characters, twists and turns of plot and some poignant moments. Unfortunately, this version is sadly mangled and the production is a little scratchy with an overpowering soundtrack and jerky camera work. The screenplay has also been “tampered with” due to no good reason! The 1987 Joan Hickson version stayed much closer to the book and was much better.

Having said all of that, I still prefer reading the Christie books, as they are the original and the best and a reader with an imagination will certainly construct in their mind the “perfect” Miss Marple and any actress that portrays her will disappoint compared to the one in one’s mind!

GREEK EASTER 2012

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” - Martin Luther

Today Orthodox Easter is celebrated. The term Easter commemorates the feast of the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostra, the goddess of the dawn. Her sacred animal was a hare.  This may have been the origin of the “Easter Bunny”.   In the Christian tradition Easter is one of the most important holidays of the year, the Orthodox faith in particular assigning to it the most importance amongst the Feast Days.  It is a commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ, which took place during the Jewish Passover, the Pesach.  The Greek and Latin terms for Easter, Pascha, are derived from the Jewish term.  The adjective “Paschal” is used in English, relating often to the “Paschal Lamb” and the “Paschal Candles”.

    Herrings, herrings white and red
    Ten a penny, Lent is dead.
    Rise Dame and give an Egg
    Or else a piece of bacon.
    One for Peter one for Paul
    Three for Jack-a-Lent’s all:
    Away, Lent, away!

A tradition in many countries (including Greece) is the wearing of some new article of clothing on Easter Day.  If this is not carried out, bad luck will be yours all year.  The wearing of a new Easter Bonnet to church is linked to this tradition.  Incidentally, any new item of clothing should first be worn to church.  Whenever that article of clothing that was first worn on Easter Day is worn again, the wearer will experience good luck.
    At Easter let your clothes be new
    Or else be sure you will it rue.

Greek Easter is celebrated joyously, beginning with the evening liturgy, which extends well into h morning hours and the most joyous part being the resurrection, which is announced on the stroke of midnight. The faithful light their candles as the priest chants the good news:

Χριστός Ανέστη εκ νεκρών,
θανάτω θάνατον πατήσας
και τοις εν τοις μνήμασιν,
ζωήν χαρισάμενος.

Christ is risen from dead,
On death treading victorious,
And to those in the grave
Giving the gift of life.

Many Orthodox Christians in Australia celebrate Easter (Pascha) according to the Easter date in the Julian calendar, usually later than the Western Church Easter, which is calculated according to the Gregorian calendar. Easter is the most important event in the Orthodox church calendar. As most Orthodox Christians in Australia fast during Lent prior to Easter, Easter Sunday is a time for families and friends to get together for a festive meal, where meat and dairy products can be eaten again. Lamb and tsourekia (or tsoureki), which is a type of Easter bread, are popular Easter dishes in many Greek Orthodox communities in Australia. Many people leave the city and go in the countryside to celebrate Easter and spit roast the lamb over an open bed of charcoal.

In the afternoon, the “Agápee Liturgy” is celebrated, which is dedicated to loving our neighbor and forgiving wrongs that people ay have done one. The congregation at the conclusion of this liturgy shake hands and exchange symbolic kisses, denoting forgiveness and reflecting divine love.

The mosaic above is a detail of the “Anastasis” (Resurrection), from the west vault of Cathedral of St. Mark, Venice, ca 1180 AD.

CALMNESS ON SATURDAY

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” - James Allen

After a difficult week, what better than some Bach to revive the spirit and rest the body? Here is the second movement, 2nd movement, Largo Ma Non Tanto, of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D minor (BWV 1043). The Concerto for Two Violins in D minor is perhaps one of the most famous works by J. S. Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Bach wrote it in Leipzig sometime between 1730 and 1731, most likely for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, of which he was the director. It also exists in an arrangement for two harpsichords, transposed into C minor (BWV 1062). In addition to the two soloists, the concerto is scored for strings and basso continuo.

GOOD FRIDAY - 2012

“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” – Buddha

Today is the Orthodox Good Friday and the liturgy is dedicated to the climax of Christ’s passion, death and burial. The liturgy follows the gospels as they describe Jesus’ capture, trial, Pilate’s judgment, the crucifixion, and Christ’s six hours of agony on the cross. Jesus died at 3:00 pm and Joseph of Arimathaea obtained special permission from Pilate to bury the Lord on Friday afternoon as funerals and burials were forbidden on the Sabbath. The body of Jesus was wrapped in a winding sheet and he was buried in a tomb that was carved out of living rock. The opening of the tomb was covered with a heavy tombstone.

The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates a requiem mass for Christ on this day, re-enacting Jesus’ deposition from the cross, His preparation for burial and placement on a bier to be buried in the tomb. Some of the most dramatic, moving and heart-rendingly sweet chants are sung in church on this day.

The Epitaphios (Greek: Ἐπιτάφιος, epitáphios, or Ἐπιτάφιον, epitáphion) is an icon, today most often found as a large cloth, embroidered and often richly adorned, which is used during the liturgies of Good Friday and Holy Saturday in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. It also exists in painted or mosaic form, on wall or panel. The Epitaphios is also a common short form of the Epitáphios Thrēnos, the “Lamentation upon the Grave” in Greek, which is the main part of the service of the Matins of Holy Saturday, served in Good Friday evening.

In Greek churches, an elaborately carved canopy, called a “kouvouklion”, stands over the Epitaphios. This bier or catafalque represents the Tomb of Christ, and is made of wood. On Good Friday morning, the bier is decorated with spring flowers, mostly white, red, and purple, until it is covered by the flowers in its entirety. The Tomb is often sprinkled with flower petals and rosewater, decorated with candles, and ceremonially censed as a mark of respect. The bells of the church are tolled mournfully, and in traditionally Orthodox countries, flags are lowered to half-mast. Then the priest and faithful adore the Epitaphios as the choir chants hymns.

The faithful continue to visit the tomb and venerate the Epitaphios throughout the afternoon and evening, until Matins—which is usually served in the evening during Holy Week, so that the largest number of people can attend. The form which the veneration of the epitaphios takes will vary between ethnic traditions. Some will make three prostrations, then kiss the image of Christ on the Epitaphios and the Gospel Book, and then make three more prostrations. Sometimes, the faithful will crawl under the table on which the Epitaphios has been placed, as though entering into death with Christ. Others may simply light a candle and/or say a short prayer with bowed head.

In the evening, the Kouvouklion carrying the Epitaphion is carried in procession along the neighbourhood streets by the chanting priest and deacons, while the faithful follow it with lit candles. In many towns where more than one parish exists, the processions often converge to a central square, where they temporarily stop and a common Triságion psalm is sung before they resume their routes. On the island of Hydra, the Epitaphios from the Kamíni parish is brought into the sea until the bier bearers are waist-high in the water, as a special blessing for those who have perished at sea. In larger towns the procession is led by a local marching band playing funeral marches; in some cities the Epitaphios is escorted by military detachments, their arms in the mourning (muzzle towards the ground) position.

At the end of the procession, the Epitaphios is brought back to the church. Sometimes, after the clergy carry the Epitaphios in, they will stop just inside the entrance to the church, and hold the Epitaphios above the door, so that all who enter the church will pass under it (symbolically entering into the grave with Christ) and then kiss the Gospel Book. The flowers that decorated the Kouvouklion will be distributed to the faithful who will place them near the holy icons.

Fasting on Good Friday in the Orthodox tradition is the strictest on this day, with all meat and dairy products forbidden as they are in Lent, but also on Good Friday, even the consumption of oil of any kind is prohibited. The faithful may eat bread, vegetables, nuts and fruit, but they also traditionally must consume a little vinegar in memory of the vinegar Christ was made to drink on the cross, instead of the water he thirsted for. No work at all should be done on this day, but especially so handling of iron tools is expressly forbidden as their use may be seen to be a re-enactment of Christ’s crucifixion.

On Good Friday it is also customary for people to visit cemeteries and take flowers to their relatives and friends’ graves, light a lamp or candle on the graveside and cense the air with burning aromatic resins.

The Encomia of Good Friday are chants where Christ’s death is reflected upon by the psalmist and the faithful are encouraged to take heed of Christ’s sacrifice. They are quite moving and beautiful in their lyrics and the music is some of the saddest in the Church’s hymnology. Here is Petros Gaitanos singing three of these encomia: ‘I Zoi en Tafo” (Life is in the Grave); “Axion Esti” (It is Truly Meet) and “Ai Geneai Pasai” (All of the Generations).
 
This post is part of the Spiritual Sunday meme hosted by Charlotte.