She has strongmarks of German expressionism in her photography. No one can denny either the intemporality suggested by Bacon in her art. A mixture of the echos of Sodoma and Gomorra and lonely desperate people in an endless, senseless passing by...
She is Justine Harari.
http://www.justineharari.com/
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The chamber of horrors: dogs pedigrees...
A documentary on the great cynicism, ignorance and disrespect for animal rights. Where is in this case the amimal right protecction society? and what is the extend of the possibility of their actions?
There are a succession of videos up to number five. here is the first one. Just double click to get into youtube.
There are a succession of videos up to number five. here is the first one. Just double click to get into youtube.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
An anatomy lesson
Since I was a little girl I just loved medicine. I used to go to the study of my father in the very early morning on Saturdays and Sundays as everybody was still asleep, and pick on his medicine books. Specially I loved one on anatomy. There were many figures of drawings of dissections. to me to see all that labyrinth of veins and tendons was not spooky but fascinating. It was then, as I was little, watching these books with my dolls on my lap, that I realized how absolutely beautiful the human body was, and that there were no parameters to compliment someone for his nice bowels or pleura...The inner beauty we could not see...
Learn more about your body.
I rally like this link.
http://home.comcast.net/~wnor/
Image by Richard Russell
Friday, April 16, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
"Curious pages" Recommended inappropriate books for kids
I want to thank Elaine C. for this information, that I am shearing with you all now.
So! What a special Blog this is!
A site for all your reading disorders.
"Looking for books about teddy bears or rainbows or feelings? You’re at the wrong place. Here we celebrate the offbeat, the abstract, the unusual, the surreal, the macabre, the inappropriate, the subversive and the funky." This is their statement.
Fascinating. Come and give it a look!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Mircea Eliade
As my parents had for diner this Romanian friend...ten years ago, I did learn how to pronounce the name of this other Romanian, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. The influence of Nae Ionescu (b.1890), then an assistant professor of logic and metaphysics and an active journalist, was keenly felt by the young Eliade and the shadow which fell on the older scholar because of his involvement with the extreme right in inter-war Romania has darkened Eliade's reputation.
Eliade's Master's thesis examined Italian Renaissance Philosophers from Marcilio Ficino to Giordano Bruno, and Renaissance.
Humanism was one of his major influences when he turned to India in order to "universalize" the "provincial" philosophy he had inherited from his European education. Finding that the Maharaja of Kassimbazar sponsored European scholars to study in India Eliade applied and was granted an allowance for four years. In 1928 he sailed for Calcutta to study Sanskrit and philosophy under Surendranath Dasgupta (1885-1952), a Cambridge educated Bengali, professor at the University of Calcutta, and author of a 5 volume, History of Indian Philosophy (Motilal Banarsidass 1922-55).
He returned to Bucharest in 1932 and successfully submitted his analysis of Yoga as his doctoral thesis at the Philosophy department in 1933. Published in French as Yoga: Essai sur les origines de la mystique Indienne this was extensively revised and republished as Yoga, Immortality, and Freedom.
Eliade contends that the perception of time as an homogenous, linear, and unrepeatable medium is a peculiarity of modern and non-religious humanity. Archaic or religious humanity (homo religiosus), in comparison, perceives time as heterogenous; that is, as divided between profane time (linear), and sacred time (cyclical and reactualizable). Eliade undermines this concept, insisting that non-religious humanity in any pure sense is a very rare phenomenon.
"The sacred" has also been the subject of considerable contention. Some have seen Eliade's "sacred" as simply corresponding to a conventional concept of deity, or to Rudolf Otto's ganz andere (the "wholly other"), whereas others have seen a closer resemblance to Emile Durkheim's socially influenced sacred. Eliade himself repeatedly identifies the sacred as the real, yet he states clearly that "the sacred is a structure of human consciousness" (1969 i; 1978, xiii). This would argue more for the latter interpretation: a social construction of both the sacred and of reality. Yet the sacred is identified as the source of significance, meaning, power and being, and its manifestations as hierophanies, cratophanies, or ontophanies accordingly (appearances of the holy, of power, or of being).
This is a necessarily brief and incomplete list of Eliade's work. For a fuller bibliography, see Bryan Rennie, Reconstructing Eliade. See the following link for a partial listing of Eliade's fictional works.
Eliade, M. (1954) Cosmos and History:The Myth of the Eternal Return, trans. W. Trask, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Probably Eliade's most crucial and approachable short work. Contains his analysis of time as heterogenous for the religious and homogenous for the non-religious and his conception of the 'terror of history' and the ability to 'reactualize' religious time.)
----- (1958a) Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, trans. W. Trask. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (First published in French as Yoga: Essai sur l'origine de la mystique Indienne in 1933, this informative and scholarly work analyses yoga as a concrete search for freedom from human limitations)
----- (1958b) Rites and Symbols of Initiation (Birth and Rebirth), trans. W. Trask, London: Harvill Press. (The publication of Eliade's 1956 Haskell Lectures at the University of Chicago, 'Patterns of Initiation'. His analysis of initiatory themes implies their ubiquity and structure as a symbolic death and rebirth.)
----- (1958c) Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. R. Sheed, London: Sheed and Ward. (An attempt to delineate the morphology of the sacred. Frequently criticized for its cross-cultural, and ahistorical approach, Patterns organizes religious phenomena by structural similarities regardless of time or place of origin. A valuable source of data despite this.)
----- (1959) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. W. Trask, London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Picking up where Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy (Das Heilige) left off, the sacred is explicated through its relation to its binary counterpart, the profane. The complex dialectic of the sacred and the profane is outlined.)
----- (1960) Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: the Encounter between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities, trans. P. Mairet, London: Harvill Press. (Eliade's understanding of myth in the modern world, the mythic prestige of origins, and his analysis of the symbolism of ascension, flight, the labyrinth, and swallowing by a monster, among others.)
----- (1961) Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, trans. P. Mairet, London: Harvill Press. (More on symbolism, particularly the symbolism of the center, knots, shells, and pearls. Symbolism and history and some remarks on method.)
----- (1963) Myth and Reality, trans. W. Trask, New York: Harper and Row. (The structure of myths. More on the prestige of origins and on the survival of myths and mythic themes in modern thought.)
----- (1964) Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, trans. W. Trask, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Long a standard work in the study of Shamanism, a detailed and valuable source of information on the phenomenon.)
----- (1965) The Two and the One, trans. J.M. Cohen, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (An important work for the analysis of the coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites, or binary oppositions in the history of religious ideas. Androgyny is explored as are cosmogony and eschatology, the birth and death of the cosmos or worldview.)
----- (1969) The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion, London: University of Chicago Press. (An attempt at a more methodological work. The Quest pulls together articles previously published on Eliade's methodological and theoretical presuppositions, including his 'new humanism', his response to the quest for the 'origins' of religion.)
----- (1978) A History of Religious Ideas, vol. I, From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries, trans. W. Trask, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Originally projected as a complete history of religion in one volume. This was an attempt to give Eliade's understanding of the entire history of religion from a unified perspective. A useful reference work, potentially readable in its entirety. Many of Eliade's categories survive in this mature work: the terror of history, the coincidentia oppositorum, the symbolism of the center, the hieros gamos or symbolic heavenly marriage.)
----- (1982) A History of Religious Ideas, vol. II, From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity, trans. W. Trask, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
----- (1985) The History of Religious Ideas, vol. III, From Muhammad to the Age of the Reforms, trans. A. Hiltebeitel and D. Apostolos-Cappadona, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
----- (1987) Encyclopedia of Religion (editor-in-chief), New York: Macmillan. (Seventeen volumes of articles on every aspect of religion by leading scholars in the field. Currently the standard reference encyclopedia on religion.)
Information from Westminster Education
Thanks Brennie,
brennie@westminster.edu
Eliade's Master's thesis examined Italian Renaissance Philosophers from Marcilio Ficino to Giordano Bruno, and Renaissance.
Humanism was one of his major influences when he turned to India in order to "universalize" the "provincial" philosophy he had inherited from his European education. Finding that the Maharaja of Kassimbazar sponsored European scholars to study in India Eliade applied and was granted an allowance for four years. In 1928 he sailed for Calcutta to study Sanskrit and philosophy under Surendranath Dasgupta (1885-1952), a Cambridge educated Bengali, professor at the University of Calcutta, and author of a 5 volume, History of Indian Philosophy (Motilal Banarsidass 1922-55).
He returned to Bucharest in 1932 and successfully submitted his analysis of Yoga as his doctoral thesis at the Philosophy department in 1933. Published in French as Yoga: Essai sur les origines de la mystique Indienne this was extensively revised and republished as Yoga, Immortality, and Freedom.
Eliade contends that the perception of time as an homogenous, linear, and unrepeatable medium is a peculiarity of modern and non-religious humanity. Archaic or religious humanity (homo religiosus), in comparison, perceives time as heterogenous; that is, as divided between profane time (linear), and sacred time (cyclical and reactualizable). Eliade undermines this concept, insisting that non-religious humanity in any pure sense is a very rare phenomenon.
"The sacred" has also been the subject of considerable contention. Some have seen Eliade's "sacred" as simply corresponding to a conventional concept of deity, or to Rudolf Otto's ganz andere (the "wholly other"), whereas others have seen a closer resemblance to Emile Durkheim's socially influenced sacred. Eliade himself repeatedly identifies the sacred as the real, yet he states clearly that "the sacred is a structure of human consciousness" (1969 i; 1978, xiii). This would argue more for the latter interpretation: a social construction of both the sacred and of reality. Yet the sacred is identified as the source of significance, meaning, power and being, and its manifestations as hierophanies, cratophanies, or ontophanies accordingly (appearances of the holy, of power, or of being).
This is a necessarily brief and incomplete list of Eliade's work. For a fuller bibliography, see Bryan Rennie, Reconstructing Eliade. See the following link for a partial listing of Eliade's fictional works.
Eliade, M. (1954) Cosmos and History:The Myth of the Eternal Return, trans. W. Trask, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Probably Eliade's most crucial and approachable short work. Contains his analysis of time as heterogenous for the religious and homogenous for the non-religious and his conception of the 'terror of history' and the ability to 'reactualize' religious time.)
----- (1958a) Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, trans. W. Trask. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (First published in French as Yoga: Essai sur l'origine de la mystique Indienne in 1933, this informative and scholarly work analyses yoga as a concrete search for freedom from human limitations)
----- (1958b) Rites and Symbols of Initiation (Birth and Rebirth), trans. W. Trask, London: Harvill Press. (The publication of Eliade's 1956 Haskell Lectures at the University of Chicago, 'Patterns of Initiation'. His analysis of initiatory themes implies their ubiquity and structure as a symbolic death and rebirth.)
----- (1958c) Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. R. Sheed, London: Sheed and Ward. (An attempt to delineate the morphology of the sacred. Frequently criticized for its cross-cultural, and ahistorical approach, Patterns organizes religious phenomena by structural similarities regardless of time or place of origin. A valuable source of data despite this.)
----- (1959) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. W. Trask, London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Picking up where Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy (Das Heilige) left off, the sacred is explicated through its relation to its binary counterpart, the profane. The complex dialectic of the sacred and the profane is outlined.)
----- (1960) Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: the Encounter between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities, trans. P. Mairet, London: Harvill Press. (Eliade's understanding of myth in the modern world, the mythic prestige of origins, and his analysis of the symbolism of ascension, flight, the labyrinth, and swallowing by a monster, among others.)
----- (1961) Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, trans. P. Mairet, London: Harvill Press. (More on symbolism, particularly the symbolism of the center, knots, shells, and pearls. Symbolism and history and some remarks on method.)
----- (1963) Myth and Reality, trans. W. Trask, New York: Harper and Row. (The structure of myths. More on the prestige of origins and on the survival of myths and mythic themes in modern thought.)
----- (1964) Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, trans. W. Trask, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Long a standard work in the study of Shamanism, a detailed and valuable source of information on the phenomenon.)
----- (1965) The Two and the One, trans. J.M. Cohen, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (An important work for the analysis of the coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites, or binary oppositions in the history of religious ideas. Androgyny is explored as are cosmogony and eschatology, the birth and death of the cosmos or worldview.)
----- (1969) The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion, London: University of Chicago Press. (An attempt at a more methodological work. The Quest pulls together articles previously published on Eliade's methodological and theoretical presuppositions, including his 'new humanism', his response to the quest for the 'origins' of religion.)
----- (1978) A History of Religious Ideas, vol. I, From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries, trans. W. Trask, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Originally projected as a complete history of religion in one volume. This was an attempt to give Eliade's understanding of the entire history of religion from a unified perspective. A useful reference work, potentially readable in its entirety. Many of Eliade's categories survive in this mature work: the terror of history, the coincidentia oppositorum, the symbolism of the center, the hieros gamos or symbolic heavenly marriage.)
----- (1982) A History of Religious Ideas, vol. II, From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity, trans. W. Trask, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
----- (1985) The History of Religious Ideas, vol. III, From Muhammad to the Age of the Reforms, trans. A. Hiltebeitel and D. Apostolos-Cappadona, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
----- (1987) Encyclopedia of Religion (editor-in-chief), New York: Macmillan. (Seventeen volumes of articles on every aspect of religion by leading scholars in the field. Currently the standard reference encyclopedia on religion.)
Information from Westminster Education
Thanks Brennie,
brennie@westminster.edu
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Chet Baker, "Let's get loss"
Chet Baker knew the jazz life in all its ugliness. Bruce Weber loved him for it. Want to understand both men? See "Let's Get Lost" at the Ken beginning tomorrow for a week.
Baker was Cool when it mattered, his music a feather on the wind. He played trumpet. And he sang, in a little voice full of romance and longing. He was James Dean before Dean was, a wild kid from Oklahoma who was a natural at playing jazz. No one seems to know why.
Charlie Parker, who hired Baker before anyone heard of Baker, told Miles Davis to watch out for that little white kid on the West Coast. He knew how to play, Bird said. Miles didn't believe him.
Someone once said Baker sounded like Miles. No way. His tone was in that soft, dark middle range like Miles', but Baker was vulnerable. Miles was in your face, even with that tone. Miles played a lilting "My Funny Valentine" that burned with tension. Baker sang it and made you cry.
Bruce Weber is a photographer, mostly fashion. You know his work for ads like Calvin Klein. Dark romantic shots of men, mostly, often in briefs. He loved dark tones and soft sensuality. No wonder he loved Chet Baker.
In the late 1980s he shot a film that looked like his photographs. He called it "Let's Get Lost" and it was a kind of documentary on Baker. It's not anything close to linear. It's scattered. The sound is all over the place. It's difficult to stay with. But it was all about Chesney Henry Baker Jr ... forever Chet.
That's another thing about Baker. He was beautiful. Women loved him. Men wanted to be him, or with him.
In the mid-1950s, Baker was the trumpet player in jazz. Not Dizzy. Not Miles. Chet. There was plenty of resentment about that. Jazz was black music. Chet was white and he forever had to live down that resentment.
In all its black-and-white beauty, "Let's Get Lost" captures that life Chet Baker lived. He cooperated in the filming. So did many of the women he lived with or married, and there were many of them, mostly unimportant things to Baker. They were just people to be with between gigs and drugs.
And those drugs killed that beauty, that outward exterior that Bruce Weber so obviously loved. To see Chet as a young man was inspiring. They made movies about him. "All the Fine Young Cannibals" with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner was one.
To see him after the drugs, and after the beatings he took from dealers who knew he was a trumpet player so they knocked out his teeth, was horrific. Weber gets all that on film, that and the pain he caused those he was closest to in life, like his kids.
Chet died in 1988 before "Let's Get Lost" was originally released. He fell, or was pushed, from the upper stories of a hotel in Amsterdam. Suicide? Not Chet, he actually loved his life. Murder? Maybe, but most people think he was probably just sitting in the window and nodded out.
"Let's Get Lost" is not an easy film to watch. A lot of that is because Weber is not really a filmmaker. It's unfocused. The sound is of little importance, the story disjointed. But it's beautiful to see. It's beautiful to watch Chet Baker . . . and to hear him play his warm trumpet and sing in the little, vulnerable voice.
Baker was Cool when it mattered, his music a feather on the wind. He played trumpet. And he sang, in a little voice full of romance and longing. He was James Dean before Dean was, a wild kid from Oklahoma who was a natural at playing jazz. No one seems to know why.
Charlie Parker, who hired Baker before anyone heard of Baker, told Miles Davis to watch out for that little white kid on the West Coast. He knew how to play, Bird said. Miles didn't believe him.
Someone once said Baker sounded like Miles. No way. His tone was in that soft, dark middle range like Miles', but Baker was vulnerable. Miles was in your face, even with that tone. Miles played a lilting "My Funny Valentine" that burned with tension. Baker sang it and made you cry.
Bruce Weber is a photographer, mostly fashion. You know his work for ads like Calvin Klein. Dark romantic shots of men, mostly, often in briefs. He loved dark tones and soft sensuality. No wonder he loved Chet Baker.
In the late 1980s he shot a film that looked like his photographs. He called it "Let's Get Lost" and it was a kind of documentary on Baker. It's not anything close to linear. It's scattered. The sound is all over the place. It's difficult to stay with. But it was all about Chesney Henry Baker Jr ... forever Chet.
That's another thing about Baker. He was beautiful. Women loved him. Men wanted to be him, or with him.
In the mid-1950s, Baker was the trumpet player in jazz. Not Dizzy. Not Miles. Chet. There was plenty of resentment about that. Jazz was black music. Chet was white and he forever had to live down that resentment.
In all its black-and-white beauty, "Let's Get Lost" captures that life Chet Baker lived. He cooperated in the filming. So did many of the women he lived with or married, and there were many of them, mostly unimportant things to Baker. They were just people to be with between gigs and drugs.
And those drugs killed that beauty, that outward exterior that Bruce Weber so obviously loved. To see Chet as a young man was inspiring. They made movies about him. "All the Fine Young Cannibals" with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner was one.
To see him after the drugs, and after the beatings he took from dealers who knew he was a trumpet player so they knocked out his teeth, was horrific. Weber gets all that on film, that and the pain he caused those he was closest to in life, like his kids.
Chet died in 1988 before "Let's Get Lost" was originally released. He fell, or was pushed, from the upper stories of a hotel in Amsterdam. Suicide? Not Chet, he actually loved his life. Murder? Maybe, but most people think he was probably just sitting in the window and nodded out.
"Let's Get Lost" is not an easy film to watch. A lot of that is because Weber is not really a filmmaker. It's unfocused. The sound is of little importance, the story disjointed. But it's beautiful to see. It's beautiful to watch Chet Baker . . . and to hear him play his warm trumpet and sing in the little, vulnerable voice.
Let's get lost, lost in each others arms
Let's get lost, let them send out alarms
And if they think we're rather rude
We'll tell the world we're in a crazy mood
Let's defrost, in a romantic mist
Let's get crossed, off everybody's list
We'll tell the world that we have found each other
Darling, let's get lost
The New York Times, article about a new edition of the movie.
...and the old edition...down below (only the first part, you can look for more on youtube). What would be of our lives without it?
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
Monday, January 4, 2010
Cucina Regionale Italiana: La Lombardia I
Even though Lombardia is less known from what we call typical "Italian", more and more it makes part of the top restaurants in the world. Just think about "risotto", and even "polenta".
People of Lombardy eat their "minestrone" (mainly vegetable soup)hot in winter and cold in summer, with just a dash of olive oil.
One of my favourite dishes besides polenta, risotto and its derivates such as "riso al salto" and "suppli al telefono" is "tortelli di zucca". This is a specialty of the city of Mantova. Tortelli di zucca are basically a "ravioli of the north" filled with mashed pumpkin, crushed amaretti, parmigiano cheese and Mostarda di Cremona (candied fruit made in a mustard syrup, that you buy in the...pharmacy!) and it is served just with butter and sage plus greated parmigiano yummy cheese. Sometimes they bathe them with lughanica sausage and a light tomato sauce. So the idea is that all these flavours sweet and salty, appear into your mouth as you slowly blend them, and to me... it tastes like paradise.
Costoletta alla Milanese is the typical Viener Schnizel, and Austrian and Italians claim it as their invention...but as I always say when I prepare something original: "I invented something already invented"! This happens because food makes parte of the national pride.
Bresaola is a cold cut like viende sache (dry beef) really delicious with a dash of olive oil, lemon juice and capers. It comes from the area of Valtellina.
Lombardy claims to have invented the Panettone, this lovely brioche bread with candied orange peel and raisins that it is eaten all year round but specially for Christmas.
And lets not forget the king of blues: The Gorgonzola cheese! The creamiest of all blues (try it on a slice of ripe pear!)
And Mascarpone! Whithout which Tiramisu could not exist...People of Lombardy eat their "minestrone" (mainly vegetable soup)hot in winter and cold in summer, with just a dash of olive oil.
One of my favourite dishes besides polenta, risotto and its derivates such as "riso al salto" and "suppli al telefono" is "tortelli di zucca". This is a specialty of the city of Mantova. Tortelli di zucca are basically a "ravioli of the north" filled with mashed pumpkin, crushed amaretti, parmigiano cheese and Mostarda di Cremona (candied fruit made in a mustard syrup, that you buy in the...pharmacy!) and it is served just with butter and sage plus greated parmigiano yummy cheese. Sometimes they bathe them with lughanica sausage and a light tomato sauce. So the idea is that all these flavours sweet and salty, appear into your mouth as you slowly blend them, and to me... it tastes like paradise.
Costoletta alla Milanese is the typical Viener Schnizel, and Austrian and Italians claim it as their invention...but as I always say when I prepare something original: "I invented something already invented"! This happens because food makes parte of the national pride.
Bresaola is a cold cut like viende sache (dry beef) really delicious with a dash of olive oil, lemon juice and capers. It comes from the area of Valtellina.
Lombardy claims to have invented the Panettone, this lovely brioche bread with candied orange peel and raisins that it is eaten all year round but specially for Christmas.
And lets not forget the king of blues: The Gorgonzola cheese! The creamiest of all blues (try it on a slice of ripe pear!)
The "Vitello Tonato"? Some claim it was born here...may be the French will not agree and still call it "Vitel Thone"!
Caotica Ana...
"Caótica Ana" is a 2007 drama movie by Spanish director Julio Médem.
I cannot say that I have only one opinion about it...but two things I loved from it: one, the camera is out of the box. Two: the music. For only these two reasons I would go to see it.
Here is some of it, interpreted by Cesarea Evora. Enjoy Monday.
I cannot say that I have only one opinion about it...but two things I loved from it: one, the camera is out of the box. Two: the music. For only these two reasons I would go to see it.
Here is some of it, interpreted by Cesarea Evora. Enjoy Monday.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Christmas
Christmas is one of the most vibrant festivities. One might like or dislike all the business around it, but the fact is that most of us love to see the Christmas lights on a dark night. Lights to compensate the darkest period of the year: December.
To me Christmas is the North and the snow, and the warm wine with cinnamon, and the candles, and I do not relate it to any other significance, but a pagan tradition which I love. Many people think otherwise and many people have their own way to celebrate. In however way you live through it, I wish you a great great holiday season! Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Mercat de la Boqueria, Barcelona
If you are a lover of fish and sea food like myself, and you happen to be around Barcelona, be ready for entering into paradise. Freshness and variety is a key word to describe the amazing stands in the Boqueria Marquet in Barcelona.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The genius of Bill Viola...
Bill Viola Awarded XXIst Catalonia International Prize
The Generalitat de Catalunya, autonomous government of Catalonia in the Framework of the Spanish State, created the Premi Internacional Catalunya in 1989, to recognise persons who made key contributions to the development of cultural, scientific or human values. The jury has decided to give this year’s prize to the North-American artist Bill Viola, for his work both artistic and technical, personal and spiritual.
Previous winners include:
- Claude Lévi-Strauss Anthropologist. France. 2005
- Doris Lessing Writer. Great Britain. 1999
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau Oceanographer. France. 1991
- Karl R. Popper Philosopher. Great Britain. 1989
Thursday, November 26, 2009
November 26th Thanksgiving...
Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general.
I love the fact that Pablo Neruda Chilean poet (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) understood the poetic dimension of regular food staples, and dedicated them "Odes", they are called, "Odas elementales". Through his poetry we come to understand the meaning and depth of gratitude in life, of recognition of the beauty in which we live submerged without even noticing.
In this blog I posted some of them, and here is another one that I like very much.
I wish everybody would find the space inside to connect to these things, because after all, this is much of what life is about...
Ode To a Chestnut on the Ground
From bristly foliage
you fell
complete, polished wood, gleaming mahogany,
as perfect
as a violin newly
born of the treetops,
that falling
offers its sealed-in gifts,
the hidden sweetness
that grew in secret
amid birds and leaves,
a model of form,
kin to wood and flour,
an oval instrument
that holds within it
intact delight, an edible rose.
In the heights you abandoned
the sea-urchin burr
that parted its spines
in the light of the chestnut tree;
through that slit
you glimpsed the world,
birds
bursting with syllables,
starry
dew
below,
the heads of boys
and girls,
grasses stirring restlessly,
smoke rising, rising.
You made your decision,
chestnut, and leaped to earth,
burnished and ready,
firm and smooth
as the small breasts
of the islands of America.
You fell,
you struck
the ground,
but
nothing happened,
the grass
still stirred, the old
chestnut sighed with the mouths
of a forest of trees,
a red leaf of autumn fell,
resolutely, the hours marched on
across the earth.
Because you are
only
a seed,
chestnut tree, autumn, earth,
water, heights, silence
prepared the germ,
the floury density,
the maternal eyelids
that buried will again
open toward the heights
the simple majesty of foliage,
the dark damp plan
of new roots,
the ancient but new dimensions
of another chestnut tree in the earth.
Pablo Neruda
Monday, November 9, 2009
Light houses for a stormy night....
As I told you before, many nights when I could not sleep, I had two things in mind that would do the trick: One of them was to imagine that I was in a lighthouse while outside was stormy. The smell of good fish soup filled the air and it was warm and cozy inside...Well...nobody is perfect! : )
So I found this internet link as I was looking for a lighthouse to buy...I still thinks I want one!
So I found this internet link as I was looking for a lighthouse to buy...I still thinks I want one!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Press Freedom: Reporters sans frontiers
I am basically a defendant of freedom of Press.
It is as a value of democracy in our so called "Western civilization".
Press, as freedom of expression is also"highlighted", because it is a shaper of public opinion.
Even if journalism claims to be "objective" it is not. Can never be. Not only because perceptions are always formed by personal "a priori" experiences, but because unfortunately journalism is a huge part of the political maneuvering.
The defence of freedom of expression should not be an absolute. As everything else in life, there is a point of rupture where what it is good can be not so good.
So...as you see, we move by "principals" and then we discuss "issues".
Many journalists have been incarcerated while they were doing their job. Basically trying to open some information to the world. This link is to make us more conscientious of this fact, so we can gather some thoughts about it, and decide whether or not we need to take action.
AO
Thursday, October 29, 2009
View Points
I am doing much more photography lately. Still writing my book...that seems to go slow...and at the same time thinking of writing a book on Japanese food.
I want to post some photographs I made two days ago...
I want to post some photographs I made two days ago...
Friday, October 16, 2009
Old Japanese Labels
I just found this site which I wanted to share with you as I find it particularly interesting...Most of the women in the adds look like transvestites and the music gives a special decadent atmosphere to it....
It is the Old Orient Museum...already the name makes me fall into a kind of "opium" dream. As you go in, turn toward your left to "Gallery" and then "Japanese"...but of course explore all you want around...and tell me!
It is the Old Orient Museum...already the name makes me fall into a kind of "opium" dream. As you go in, turn toward your left to "Gallery" and then "Japanese"...but of course explore all you want around...and tell me!
Enjoy the bizarre experience!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Writing and reading...
My dear readers! I trust that this Blog is so full of information, that even if I am not "home" for some months, you will come in and enjoy anyway!
I have been doing so much lately that I found hardly any time to write on the Blog.
We spent Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv. I was sorry to hear that there were riots in Jerusalem. I always love to go to the market over there, get some coffee with cardamom and just wonder around.
Just off road there are some great Arab restaurants in these little Arab villages, but sometimes the atmosphere is politically heavy so we avoid them.
My mind right now is in my novel, which is situated in Japan, therefore I am into deep writing and reading also.
I hope I will be able to finish by the end of this year...but it is going laboriously slow.
The weather here in Amsterdam is rainy and inviting to invent new foodies. I shall keep you posted as soon as I can.
Love
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Chis Jordan
Chris Jordan est un photographe atypique, il tente dans ses oeuvres de rendre des concepts abstraits plus facilement visualisables. Son dernière « photographie », Gyre, se base sur l’estampe d’Hokusai « La grande Vague ». Pour les couleurs, 2.4 millions de pièces plastiques sont disposées côte à côte, soit l’équivalent du nombre estimé de livres de plastique entrant dans l’océan chaque heure. Cette oeuvre s’inscrit dans une série de Jordan sur les déchets.
Voir son site. Clique ici.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The beauty of North-West Holland
Today we decided to take the car and go and have lunch somewhere.The day was kind of cloudy, but it kept on changing during the journey.
We arrived in Enkhuizen, an adorable little fishermen's town and we managed to find a viswinkel, where they sell the freshest fish and they have a tiny place where they prepare it for you. Without exaggeration we can say, that we understood the me meaning of "holly Mackerel!" Never ever we came across such a fresh tender juicier smoked mackerel. Then we had fresh fried cod, made to perfection, in new oil, with a crispy batter coating...
We brought some mackerels back home, and tonight, we will be having a huge bowl of home made somen soup and mackarel on the side. Ah! we also bought a kind of smoked herring that looks just like the one we loved in Japan! Looking forward!!!
We arrived in Enkhuizen, an adorable little fishermen's town and we managed to find a viswinkel, where they sell the freshest fish and they have a tiny place where they prepare it for you. Without exaggeration we can say, that we understood the me meaning of "holly Mackerel!" Never ever we came across such a fresh tender juicier smoked mackerel. Then we had fresh fried cod, made to perfection, in new oil, with a crispy batter coating...
We brought some mackerels back home, and tonight, we will be having a huge bowl of home made somen soup and mackarel on the side. Ah! we also bought a kind of smoked herring that looks just like the one we loved in Japan! Looking forward!!!
This is a little cemetery in Frisland, looks so peaceful, that even to die, here seems like a nice idea!
And we saw this chou-chou train! A real train that takes passengers from station to station...
Dit is een paradijs voor ons!
AO
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Best baguette 2009
On 17th March the 16th contest of the 'Grand Prix de la Baguette' for the City of Paris took place with this year’s victory going to Frank Tombarel, a young baker from the 15th arrondissement.
With 161 candidates against last year’s 143, the 2009 Award already holds a record for participation in terms of numbers. This is proof that the competition, created in 1993, has achieved its aim of creating a healthy competitive spirit among the capital’s bakers thereby increasing the quality of the average “traditional” baguette. Invented in 1830, this specifically Parisian institution is, more than ever, a symbol of France’s appreciation of good food, as attested by the healthy sales of the national jambon-beurre (ham and butter) sandwich (2.2 million of which are sold every day, or in other terms, 8 baguette sandwiches for every hamburger sold) and by the proliferation of French boulangeries in New York and Tokyo.
The jury was not standing for any nonsense with regard to the rules. Thirty-one baguettes were automatically eliminated for not complying with the criteria of size and weight peculiar to the “baguette tradition.” (The measurements must be 60 to 70cm with a weight of 250 to 300 grams.)
The jury was chaired by Madame Lyne Cohen-Solal, the deputy Mayor of Paris, and consisted of 17 members from the professions of bakery, catering and journalism. One hundred and thirty baguettes made that very morning at 7 Quai d’Anjou (on Île Saint-Louis) were thus carefully examined from 2 to 6pm, at this venue which has been the historical headquarters of master bakers since 1843.
This are the winners 2009
1st: Le Grenier de Felix, Frank TOMBAREL, 64 av Félix Faure
2nd: La Pomme Verte, Benjamin TURQUIER, 134 rue de Turenne
3rd: Stéphane EURY, 98 rue de Meaux, Paris 19ème
4th: Eran MAYER, 100 rue du Théâtre, Paris 15ème
5th: Le Grenier à Pain Abbesses, Djibril BODIAN, 38 rue des Abbesses
6th: Stéphane HENRY, 2bis bd Morland, Paris 4éme
7th: FOURMONT, Thierry RACOILLET, 50 bis rue de Douai
8th: Boulangerie Pichard, Frédéric PICHARD, 88 rue de Cambronne
9th: Jean-Marc TOUCHARD, 111 rue Saint-Dominique
10th: Le Grenier à Pain, Bertrand POUGNET, 52 av d’Italie
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Crazy for Russia...
(link)
Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent - Du 18 Mars au 30 août 2009
En collaboration avec le Musée Ethnographique de la Russie, la Fondation Pierre Bergé -Yves Saint Laurent consacre sa 10ème exposition au « Costume populaire russe ». Un ensemble de 45 silhouettes accessoirisées datant du XIX ème et du début du XX ème siècle dévoile la réalité ainsi que la création du monde rural. Ce parcours est illustré par une série inédite de photographies de la fin du XIX ème siècle issue des collections du Musée Ethnographique de la Russie.
Pour information clique sur titre.
En collaboration avec le Musée Ethnographique de la Russie, la Fondation Pierre Bergé -Yves Saint Laurent consacre sa 10ème exposition au « Costume populaire russe ». Un ensemble de 45 silhouettes accessoirisées datant du XIX ème et du début du XX ème siècle dévoile la réalité ainsi que la création du monde rural. Ce parcours est illustré par une série inédite de photographies de la fin du XIX ème siècle issue des collections du Musée Ethnographique de la Russie.
Pour information clique sur titre.
Amsterdam: Aan het Russische Hof
(link)
Inaugural exhibition At the Russian Court presents more than 1,800 treasures from St Petersburg
From June 20th 2009, 10 a.m., a major new European cultural destination, the greatly expanded Hermitage Amsterdam, will welcome visitors to its elegantly restored 17th-century building in the historic heart of Amsterdam. Founded to bring the richness and grandeur of Russia’s artistic heritage to one of the West’s most charming capitals, this independent cultural institution will inaugurate its spacious new home — ten times the size of the previous building — with the exhibition At the Russian Court, a dazzling display of more than 1,800 treasures from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
For more information click on the title!
Friday, July 3, 2009
"Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha" Mantra
TARE shows that Mother Tara liberates living beings from samsara, from true suffering, or problems. You can relate this to the particular sufferings of human beings: birth, old age, sickness and death; meeting undesirable objects and experiencing aversion; not finding desirable objects or finding them but gaining no satisfaction. No matter how much pleasure you enjoy, there is no satisfaction. No matter how much you follow desire, there is no satisfaction at all.
TUTTARE, liberates you from the eight fears. There are eight fears related to external dangers from fire, water, air, earth, and also from such things as thieves and dangerous animals. However, the main dangers come from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt and wrong views. These eight disturbing thoughts that you have in your mind are the main dangers. By taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you are liberated from these eight internal dangers, these eight disturbing thoughts. In this way, you are also liberated from external dangers, as these external dangers come from the inner disturbing thoughts.
TURE, liberates you from disease. Now, of the Four Noble Truths, TURE shows the cessation of suffering, which is the ultimate Dharma. In terms of liberating from disease, the actual disease we have is ignorance not knowing the absolute nature of the I, and all the disturbing thoughts that arise from this ignorance. These are the actual, serious diseases that we have. With cessation of all these diseases of disturbing thoughts, all the true sufferings, all the resultant problems, are also ceased. By liberating us from disease, TURE actually liberates us from the true cause, disturbing thoughts, and also the true sufferings.
The rough meaning of these three words TARE TUTTARE TURE is: "To you, embodiment of all the Buddhas' actions, I prostrate always—whether I am in happy or unhappy circumstances—with my body, speech and mind."
The final word SOHA means establishing the root of the path within your heart. In other words, by taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you receive the blessings of Tara in your own heart. This gives you space to establish the root of the path, signified by TARE TUTTARE TURE, in your heart. By establishing the path of the three capable beings within your heart, you purify all impurities of your body, speech and mind, and achieve Tara's pure vajra holy body, holy speech and holy mind, which are signified by OM. Your body, speech and mind are transformed into Tara's holy body, holy speech and holy mind. This is the rough meaning of OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA.
Peace.
A.O.J.
TUTTARE, liberates you from the eight fears. There are eight fears related to external dangers from fire, water, air, earth, and also from such things as thieves and dangerous animals. However, the main dangers come from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt and wrong views. These eight disturbing thoughts that you have in your mind are the main dangers. By taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you are liberated from these eight internal dangers, these eight disturbing thoughts. In this way, you are also liberated from external dangers, as these external dangers come from the inner disturbing thoughts.
TURE, liberates you from disease. Now, of the Four Noble Truths, TURE shows the cessation of suffering, which is the ultimate Dharma. In terms of liberating from disease, the actual disease we have is ignorance not knowing the absolute nature of the I, and all the disturbing thoughts that arise from this ignorance. These are the actual, serious diseases that we have. With cessation of all these diseases of disturbing thoughts, all the true sufferings, all the resultant problems, are also ceased. By liberating us from disease, TURE actually liberates us from the true cause, disturbing thoughts, and also the true sufferings.
The rough meaning of these three words TARE TUTTARE TURE is: "To you, embodiment of all the Buddhas' actions, I prostrate always—whether I am in happy or unhappy circumstances—with my body, speech and mind."
The final word SOHA means establishing the root of the path within your heart. In other words, by taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you receive the blessings of Tara in your own heart. This gives you space to establish the root of the path, signified by TARE TUTTARE TURE, in your heart. By establishing the path of the three capable beings within your heart, you purify all impurities of your body, speech and mind, and achieve Tara's pure vajra holy body, holy speech and holy mind, which are signified by OM. Your body, speech and mind are transformed into Tara's holy body, holy speech and holy mind. This is the rough meaning of OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA.
Peace.
A.O.J.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Venice...where time stands still
I have the pleasure and the privilege to have a talent like Axel Vervoordt close to our lives.
I believe Axel, maneged to incorporate the quality of Japanese sense of time(-less)and space, and translated into "Western elements". He has this gift. He understood something that most of the architects and interior designers don't. He adds a deeply spiritual quality to what he does.
"IN-FINITUM" is the name of the exhibition that is taken place now at Palazzo Fortuny, where he is the curator among others.
For more information click here.
I believe Axel, maneged to incorporate the quality of Japanese sense of time(-less)and space, and translated into "Western elements". He has this gift. He understood something that most of the architects and interior designers don't. He adds a deeply spiritual quality to what he does.
"IN-FINITUM" is the name of the exhibition that is taken place now at Palazzo Fortuny, where he is the curator among others.
For more information click here.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Hermann Schlegel: Vogels van Nederland
Aangezien er een studie gaande is naar Hermann Schlegel (1804-1884) en het culturele klimaat waarin hij in Leiden leefde, vul ik deze rubriek voorlopig nog niet in. Het is immers overbodig hetzelfde onderzoek dubbelop te doen. Wel citeer ik hier hoe ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie, waaraan Hermann Schlegel vanaf 1825 werkzaam was, vanaf 1828 als conservator en vanaf 1858 als directeur, voorkomt in de Camera Obscura van Hildebrand (1814-1903).
Volgens de Levensschets van Hermann Schlegel, zoals gepubliceerd in 1884, schreef Leanders vader maar liefst 134 kortere en langere studies. Hieronder de tweede herziene druk van De vogels van Nederland, in 1878 uitgegeven bij G.L. Funke in Amsterdam.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Rust...
I always loved the look of rust.
When I was a child my nanny and her loving husband used to take me for a walk. My favourite place was always the Port.
Pieces of old dismantled ships rusting by the weather were all over...
Enemy of "progress", loud laughing law of enthropy!...rust looks like the coming back of life where the metal was bind-ed up by the paint. There it is, sooner or later...blooming in the sun, the full colours of her ultimate existence!The triumph of nature over un-natured...comming back to her true self...
When I was a child my nanny and her loving husband used to take me for a walk. My favourite place was always the Port.
Pieces of old dismantled ships rusting by the weather were all over...
Enemy of "progress", loud laughing law of enthropy!...rust looks like the coming back of life where the metal was bind-ed up by the paint. There it is, sooner or later...blooming in the sun, the full colours of her ultimate existence!The triumph of nature over un-natured...comming back to her true self...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
History of stuff
Enjoy the amazing and easy explanation of Annie Leonard, about the destructive consumers cycle we are in.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Baryshnikov
I wanted to share with you this short moment of the film "White nights" performed by Michail Baryshnikov. The song is from Vladimir Vysostsky, it is called "koni priviredliviye".
The fastidious horses
Russian title: Koni priveredlivye
By the cliff, along the precipice, right over deadly ground,
With the whip, I strike my steeds; strike them hard to urge them forward.
I am getting short on air, gulp the haze, drink the wind, yet
With a fatal rapture, sensing: I am done for, I am done for!
Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!
Don't you listen to my stinging thong!
But the horses -- just my luck! -- are so hard to please!
Neither lived I so long, nor will I finish this song...
I will let horses drink, I'll complete this refrain,
Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...
I will vanish from the Earth, swept by a storm like fluffy feather;
At a gallop, in the morning by the snow they'll drag me over
Can't you please prolong my journey to the end of my tether?
Can't you ease your dash, my horses, carry on a little slower?
Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!
Don't take orders from my whip and thong!
But the horses -- just my luck! -- are so hard to please!
Neither lived I so long, nor will I finish this song...
I will let horses drink, I'll complete this refrain,
Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...
Just on time - one can't be late arriving at God's quarters!
Why do the angels over there sound like some nasty mortals?
Or, perhaps, it's just a sleigh-bell that's gone mad and burst out sobbing,
Or it's me shouting at my steeds to slow down my sled from dashing.
Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!
I am begging you, don't rush along!
But the horses -- just my luck! -- are so hard to please!
Since I haven't lived long, let me finish this song...
I will let horses drink, I'll complete this refrain,
Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...
The fastidious horses
Russian title: Koni priveredlivye
By the cliff, along the precipice, right over deadly ground,
With the whip, I strike my steeds; strike them hard to urge them forward.
I am getting short on air, gulp the haze, drink the wind, yet
With a fatal rapture, sensing: I am done for, I am done for!
Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!
Don't you listen to my stinging thong!
But the horses -- just my luck! -- are so hard to please!
Neither lived I so long, nor will I finish this song...
I will let horses drink, I'll complete this refrain,
Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...
I will vanish from the Earth, swept by a storm like fluffy feather;
At a gallop, in the morning by the snow they'll drag me over
Can't you please prolong my journey to the end of my tether?
Can't you ease your dash, my horses, carry on a little slower?
Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!
Don't take orders from my whip and thong!
But the horses -- just my luck! -- are so hard to please!
Neither lived I so long, nor will I finish this song...
I will let horses drink, I'll complete this refrain,
Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...
Just on time - one can't be late arriving at God's quarters!
Why do the angels over there sound like some nasty mortals?
Or, perhaps, it's just a sleigh-bell that's gone mad and burst out sobbing,
Or it's me shouting at my steeds to slow down my sled from dashing.
Slow down a bit my horses, slow down, please!
I am begging you, don't rush along!
But the horses -- just my luck! -- are so hard to please!
Since I haven't lived long, let me finish this song...
I will let horses drink, I'll complete this refrain,
Just a little bit more I will stay on the brink...
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Cucina Regionale Italiana: La Toscana I
The region of Tuscany includes cities like Volterra, Siena, Lucca, San Giminiano, and Florence and it opens to some islands on the Mediterranean sea.
There are many different landscapes from the sea to the cattle roaming "pratti".
Tuscany is a place to go in Autumn time, because most of its fabulouse food is Autumn comfort kind of.
When I lived in Italy Porccini and Ovali mushroom hunting was one of the great Autumn time musts. After the rain and into the forests...they would make a good part of our food staple, stewed, fried, raw in salad...
There are many different landscapes from the sea to the cattle roaming "pratti".
Tuscany is a place to go in Autumn time, because most of its fabulouse food is Autumn comfort kind of.
When I lived in Italy Porccini and Ovali mushroom hunting was one of the great Autumn time musts. After the rain and into the forests...they would make a good part of our food staple, stewed, fried, raw in salad...
Yes, definitely Tuscany is Autumn.
The Tuscans celebrate the bread more than any region, and is omnipresent in their soups and bruschette.
Pappardelle - a kind of broad cut egg pasta (they do not use dry pasta)- with boar ragu made like goulash, beans Tuscan style made in the "fiasco" with garlic, olive oil and sage, the soup of pasta and beans, and the green and golden hills where the vines grow...and the good Chianti wines.
Chestnuts grow beautifully in this area, and they are used many times to do gnocchi or cakes and bread.
Tuscans are proud of some of their sweets like the Cantuccini that they have with Vin Santo after the meal. One of my favourites Tuscan sweets is Pan Peppato which comes in two varieties.
Whenever you go, make sure that you can enjoy their great cold cuts, specially their salamis! You will understand why Tuscany calls for Autumn times...
The Tuscans celebrate the bread more than any region, and is omnipresent in their soups and bruschette.
Pappardelle - a kind of broad cut egg pasta (they do not use dry pasta)- with boar ragu made like goulash, beans Tuscan style made in the "fiasco" with garlic, olive oil and sage, the soup of pasta and beans, and the green and golden hills where the vines grow...and the good Chianti wines.
Chestnuts grow beautifully in this area, and they are used many times to do gnocchi or cakes and bread.
Tuscans are proud of some of their sweets like the Cantuccini that they have with Vin Santo after the meal. One of my favourites Tuscan sweets is Pan Peppato which comes in two varieties.
Whenever you go, make sure that you can enjoy their great cold cuts, specially their salamis! You will understand why Tuscany calls for Autumn times...
Friday, April 24, 2009
River Cottage
River Cottage is a former weekend and holiday home, that used to be a former game keepers lodge in the grounds of Slape Manor, Netherbury, Dorset. In 1998 it was used by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as a setting for three television series: Escape to River Cottage, Return to River Cottage and River Cottage Forever, in which viewers follow Hugh's adventures as a downshifted smallholder. These were supplemented by the series The View from River Cottage which was a combination clip show and retrospective of the previous series.
River Cottage brand logo
The River Cottage brand left the holiday home to follow Hugh's progress as he sets up a new business from old dairy buildings near Broadoak, Bridport, Dorset in the later series Beyond River Cottage. In September 2006, the show would leave those buildings, then known as River Cottage H.Q., to move on to the Park Farm location near to Uplyme in Devon. Here at the new River Cottage H.Q., the team would film the 2006 series The River Cottage Treatment where Hugh would attempt to convert junk food lovers' eating habits. The 2007 series, River Cottage: Gone Fishing, saw Hugh travel to fishing locations throughout the British Isles in order to promote the culinary benefits of sustainable fishing cultures.
The river Cottage team also opened a local produce store and canteen, River Cottage Stores Ltd, which is located in the centre of Axminster, Devon.
In 2008, Channel 4 began broadcasting River Cottage Spring, later followed up by River Cottage Autumn, which shows Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall using home-grown produce in recipes. The series also tracks a group of families in Bristol who attempt to convert a large bramble patch into a small-holding, now known as Bramble Farm, growing vegetables, and rearing meat.
In March/April 2009, a new River Cottage restaurant is opening in Bath.
River Cottage brand logo
The River Cottage brand left the holiday home to follow Hugh's progress as he sets up a new business from old dairy buildings near Broadoak, Bridport, Dorset in the later series Beyond River Cottage. In September 2006, the show would leave those buildings, then known as River Cottage H.Q., to move on to the Park Farm location near to Uplyme in Devon. Here at the new River Cottage H.Q., the team would film the 2006 series The River Cottage Treatment where Hugh would attempt to convert junk food lovers' eating habits. The 2007 series, River Cottage: Gone Fishing, saw Hugh travel to fishing locations throughout the British Isles in order to promote the culinary benefits of sustainable fishing cultures.
The river Cottage team also opened a local produce store and canteen, River Cottage Stores Ltd, which is located in the centre of Axminster, Devon.
In 2008, Channel 4 began broadcasting River Cottage Spring, later followed up by River Cottage Autumn, which shows Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall using home-grown produce in recipes. The series also tracks a group of families in Bristol who attempt to convert a large bramble patch into a small-holding, now known as Bramble Farm, growing vegetables, and rearing meat.
In March/April 2009, a new River Cottage restaurant is opening in Bath.
Information by Wikipedia
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Valrhona
Valrhona focuses mainly on top-quality luxury chocolate marketed for professional as well as for private consumption. Though considered one of the finest chocolate makers in the world. Valrhona produces vintage chocolate made from beans of a single year's harvest from a specific plantation, primarily the Grand Crus which is grown in South America, the Oceania and the Caribbean. Currently three brands of vintage chocolates – Ampamakia, Gran Couva and Palmira are in production with plantations on Madagascar, Trinidad and in Venezuela respectively.
They organize courses for the people intrested in patisserie and of couse chocolate!
Find out about stages and courses at Valrhona' s site.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Great voices of the Opera
One of the things I love about these recordings is the sound of the paste record.
I invite you to enjoy the most incredible voices of the past, interpreting the classics.
I invite you to enjoy the most incredible voices of the past, interpreting the classics.
Enjoy the feast!
All these files are supported by Real Player. You can download RP here .
Monday, April 13, 2009
The discovery of Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others.(Quoted from Wikipedia. His work is not what you could call light. It much rather reflects border areas that enter into a full description of human psychopathology.
The personification of the "Unmeimlich".
There are certain features always present such as the banging of doors, and small claustrophobic places, disintegration and mutations, in a world of immediateness that reverses all symbolic meaning.One of the most amazing "put into scenes" in the description of psychotic states.Not for everyone.
Here is a documentary on him. You can also refere to youtube.
DIV
The personification of the "Unmeimlich".
There are certain features always present such as the banging of doors, and small claustrophobic places, disintegration and mutations, in a world of immediateness that reverses all symbolic meaning.One of the most amazing "put into scenes" in the description of psychotic states.Not for everyone.
Here is a documentary on him. You can also refere to youtube.
DIV
Friday, April 3, 2009
Springtime
I do not know how to leave in a place where seasons don't change...
It is so amazing to feel the spring coming...spring to me is a symbolic kind of hope.
We went two days ago to the greenhouse close from home called "Tuincentrum". This is in Osdorp. The Dutch export flowers and have one of the most significant corpus of "know how". To go to Tuincentrum in spring is close to an ecstatic experience.
We got some humble examples for our kitchen...and here they are.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The past is never dead, it is not even past. William Faulkner
Remembering is a fundamental part of our identity as individuals and as a society. A treasure to be passed on from generation to generation.
There are many grand-parents that take care of that. But once the grand-parents are gone, we are the ones in charge to take over the memory, to make it alive, to handle it over our children.
One of the most sensitive places of memories is located on the beaches of Normandy, where the D-Day took place, on the 6th of June 1944.
This humble place is not made of gold like the great Buddha, nor is magnificent like the Chinese Wall...but it is situated in an area that goes between a natural monument and a pilgrimage sanctuary. Brushed by the waves, as time brushes away...
In a world mostly deprived of political heroism, we need today more than ever, to remember...
Pia and Roel Klinkhamer take care of many people that come to these beaches year by year. They want to go back where their parents or grandparent disembarked to free Europe from the Nazi tyranny. These men made possible a more free and moral world.
There are many grand-parents that take care of that. But once the grand-parents are gone, we are the ones in charge to take over the memory, to make it alive, to handle it over our children.
One of the most sensitive places of memories is located on the beaches of Normandy, where the D-Day took place, on the 6th of June 1944.
This humble place is not made of gold like the great Buddha, nor is magnificent like the Chinese Wall...but it is situated in an area that goes between a natural monument and a pilgrimage sanctuary. Brushed by the waves, as time brushes away...
In a world mostly deprived of political heroism, we need today more than ever, to remember...
Pia and Roel Klinkhamer take care of many people that come to these beaches year by year. They want to go back where their parents or grandparent disembarked to free Europe from the Nazi tyranny. These men made possible a more free and moral world.
The events that took place that day, marked a new road in the history of human kind.
Contact Pia and Roul at Victory Tours. (click on the link).May be you will also find time to be pampered at their castle, where they run a B & B, and may be you also enjoy the great sea food of Normandy and meet great people.
Contact Pia and Roul at Victory Tours. (click on the link).May be you will also find time to be pampered at their castle, where they run a B & B, and may be you also enjoy the great sea food of Normandy and meet great people.
Monday, March 9, 2009
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