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Today in History
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894)One of the most important female writers of the 19th century, Christina Rossetti is remembered for her acerbic love poetry, vivacious ballads and nursery rhymes. She is probably best-known today for writing the carol In the Bleak Mid-Winter. Rossetti was born in London in 1830 into a remarkable family of artists, scholars and writers. Her father was an exiled Italian revolutionary and poet and her brothers William and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were founding members of art movement the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Christina had her own first book of poetry privately printed by her grandfather when she was 12 years old. Aged 19 she contributed poems to Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyn.
The women in her family were committed High Church Anglicans and as a teenager, Christina suffered a nervous breakdown that was diagnosed at the time as 'religious mania'. Rossetti fell in love with several suitors, but rejected them all because they failed to share her precise religious convictions. In 1862, at the age of 32, she published her first full collection, Goblin Market and Other Poems. A sensuous fairy story, Goblin Market is a heady tale of repressed sexuality and sisterhood. Her concern with female fellowship was played out in real life as Rossetti devoted ten years as a volunteer at St Mary Magdalene's penitentiary for prostitutes and unmarried mothers in Highgate.
Religious themes dominate her work but Rossetti never preaches, instead exploring the tensions between earthly passions and divine love. Graves Disease took its toll on Rossetti in later years, and the loss of beauty was a recurrent theme: "Youth gone and beauty gone, what doth remain?/ The longing of a heart pent up forlorn" (Youth Gone, And Beauty Gone). She died in 1894.
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Source: BBC (https://bbc.in/2BP5bNg)
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI: Learning Not to Be First
The first volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica was published on this date December 6 in 1768. It is the oldest general-knowledge encyclopedia written in the English language, and it grew out of the Scottish Enlightenment. It was co-founded by Colin Macfarquhar, a printer and bookseller, and an engraver called Andrew Bell. Its first editor was a printer named James Smellie. Smellie wrote new content, but he also compiled many previously printed articles on his subjects, and used to joke that he “had made a dictionary of arts and sciences with a pair of scissors.”
A new section was published each week, and the whole thing was finished in 1771. It was several thousand pages long, and it differed from its predecessors in that it was useful both to people who were already familiar with a topic and wanted to read an in-depth treatise on the subject, and to people who were just looking for a brief overview. It was a “how-to” book as much as a reference; the seven-page entry on “Smoke” included instructions for building a chimney so that smoke would not back up into the room. In 2012, Britannica’s president announced that they would no longer produce a print edition. The 2010 15th edition marks the last printing, although the resource itself lives on, on the Internet.
Source: www.writersalmanac.org
Encyclopedia BritannicaAntonio Gallo's review ( https://bit.ly/2AV4Kzp ) in Italian
December 7 is the birthday of the sculptor Bernini, born Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini in Naples in 1598. He was one of the most popular sculptors of his day. He was inspired by ancient sculpture, and his subjects varied from classical gods to biblical figures to busts of prominent Italians. He’s most famous for his sculptures like David, Apollo and Daphne, and The Ecstasy of St. Theresa; for the many fountains he sculpted around Rome; and for his work as an architect and artist on St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was said to have been only 8 when he carved a stone head that "was the marvel of everyone" who saw it, according to a contemporary biographer. He was not much older when he dazzled Pope Paul V, who reportedly declared, "We hope that this youth will become the Michelangelo of his century." Prophetic words: over a long lifetime, Bernini undertook commissions for eight popes, transforming the look of 17th-century Rome as Michelangelo had helped shape Florence and Rome a century before. Much of the Baroque grandeur of the Eternal City, its churches, fountains, piazzas and monuments, can be credited to Bernini and his followers …
Indeed, he was a highly original thinker, not merely a consummate craftsman. In the many different arts he pursued—sculpture, architecture, painting, even playwriting, his works expressed ideas. Behind every Bernini masterpiece there lies a concetto, its governing concept or conceit. One concetto that fascinated the sculptor throughout his career was the attempt to overcome the limitations of his materials. When he was carving white marble, for example, he tried to suggest color: fashioning the eyes in his portrait busts, he would incise the irises deeply so that they lay in shadow and appeared dark. Even more ambitiously, he sought to imbue cold, inanimate stone with warmth, movement and life.
Instead of positioning the subject of his busts straight on, he might have the head turning to the side or the fabric of the garment askew. In a number of his best sculptures, he pioneered what has been called a "speaking likeness," capturing a person in action or at the point of uttering words. He explained to an associate that "to make a successful portrait, one should choose an action and attempt to represent it well; that the best time to render the mouth is when [the subject] has just spoken or is just about to begin speaking; that one should try to catch this moment."
Source: www.smithsonianmag.com
Bernini: His Life and His Rome
Mod
He was one of the most popular sculptors of his day. He was inspired by ancient sculpture, and..."
Great were his statues! Give a look at his "Estasi of Santa Teresa!!!
https://goo.gl/images/S61BXc
Or think of the Colonnato of San Pietro or his Barcaccia at piazza di Spagna. Marble is whippes cream under his hands
There are two significant events to remember today, December 8 in History.8th December, 2018 will be a Time Traveler Day. Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day with me. I have been such a traveller for many months now in this thread on GoodReads. Today in History gives me the chance to travel in time. Share with me this full experience today.
Learn about Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day. Being able to travel through time to a different age or era is the dream of many scientists, sci-fi enthusiasts, and even historians. After all, we spend so much of our lives hearing about what happened in the past, be it one hundred, one thousand, or one million years ago, that many of us would give anything to see the things that were happening then with our own eyes. But have you ever thought that one day there will be people who will look back and wish they could travel to our times? Or how many people there were living in the 18th century that would have loved to see what life would look like in 2015? If you’ve never thought about it that way, it’s time you did, as that attitude will allow you to see the world in a whole new light and enjoy Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day to the fullest.
The History of Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day. Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day was created in 2007 by the Koala Wallop online community, but the dream of the human race one day being able to travel through time is much older than that. The first known mention of such a concept is in ancient Hindu mythology. In one of the stories, the King Revaita travels far away to met the creator, Brahma. Upon his return to his kingdom, he is shocked to find that many ages have passed during his relatively short absence. Time travel has also been brought up in the Talmud and early Japanese tales. A bit more recently, Charles Diskens’ “A Christmas Carol” tells us about how the main character, Ebeneezer Scrooge, is transported back and forth through time to witness various events, leading to his eventual change of heart towards mankind. And even more recently, the cult classic Back to the Future Trilogy depicts the adventures of American teen Marty McFly, as he travels both into the future and the past to right wrongs. As you can see, time travel has fascinated mankind for millennia.
How to celebrate Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day. This day is an annual event which combines elements of performance art, humour and plain old fun to give an overall unforgettable experience. As the name itself suggests, the basic premise of the day is to pretend to be a time traveler, either from the past or from the future, who has somehow ended up in the present day. For maximum effect, this role play should involve group of friends and should take place in public places and should involve conversations complete strangers. So get a group of friends together, and hit the town! Be sure to do everything a time traveler from the past or future might do: ask strangers what year it is and respond in horror, regard everything you see with curious fascination and a touch of skittishness for good measure. The possibilities are almost endless, so take this day to allow yourself to be astonished anew by all of the things you presently take for granted every day. Besides being great fun, Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day will help you appreciate what you have in life. What more could a weary time traveler want?
Source: www.daysoftheyear.com
Time Travel: A History----------
The second item to remember is the remembrance of PAVEL FLORENSKIJ (1882 - 1937), a profoundly thoughtful philosopher killed for his personal expression. On the 8th of December 1937 he is shot down with other 500 people in the woods around Leningrad.
He was born in Evlach, in Azerbaijan, in 1882. He then lived in Georgia. In 1904 he graduated in maths and physics at the Moscow University and attended the Academy of Theology. He published many papers and took an active part in the cultural life of the pre-revolutionary Moscow. He started teaching History of Philosophy and he was appreciated for his original way of teaching and for the deepness of his philosophical and scientific reflections. He was consecrated Orthodox Presbyterian and was director, form 1911 to 1917, of the important review "The Theological Messenger", of which he renewed the contents and the structure.
In 1914 he published "The Pillar and Ground of the Truth" that is considered today the "orthodox theological summa" and a masterpiece of the contemporary philosophical and theological thought. After the 1917 Revolution, he decided not to abandon the country, but to carry out a strong interior opposition with the persecuted people. In 1928 he was imprisoned for the first time with the accusation of "obscurantism" and was sent into forced residence. The sentence is then repealed. Florenskij refused the exile to Paris in order to share the destiny of his fellows.
In 1933 he was again accused, arrested and condemned to a ten-years reclusion in a lager. First he was taken to Skovorodino, in the Western Siberia, and from September 1934 he is imprisoned on the Solovki Islands. On the 8th of December 1937 he is shot down with other 500 people in the woods around Leningrad. "Nothing is completely lost, nothing fades away", he wrote in a letter "but it's preserved somewhere and sometime, even if we stop perceiving it".
Florenskij's literary production is enormous and ranges in every field, from the theological one, to the scientific, literary, linguistic, artistic and musical. For example: "Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Artistic and Figurative Works" ; "Iconostasis"; "The meaning of Idealism"; "Do not Forget me"; "To my children. Memories of the Past Days"; "The magic Value of the Word".
Source: GARIWO (https://bit.ly/2QMbzxr)
The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "December 7 is the birthday of the sculptor Bernini, born Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini in Naples in 1598. He was one of the most popular sculptors of his day. He was inspired by ancien..."
Great LauraT!
December 9 is the birthday of one of the people who helped invent the modern computer: Grace Hopper, born in New York City (1906). She began tinkering around with machines when she was seven years old, dismantling several alarm clocks around the house to see how they worked. She was especially good at math in school.
She studied math and physics in college, and eventually got a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale. Then World War II broke out, and Hopper wanted to serve her country. Her father had been an admiral in the Navy, so she applied to a division of the Navy called WAVES, which stood for Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service. She was assigned to work on a machine that might help calculate the trajectory of bombs and rockets.
She learned how to program that early computing machine, and wrote the first instruction manual for its use. She went on to work on several more versions of the same machine. In 1952, Hopper noticed that most computer errors were the result of humans making mistakes in writing programs. So she attempted to solve that problem by writing a new computer language that used ordinary words instead of just numbers. It was one of the first computer languages, and the first designed to help ordinary people write computer programs, and she went on to help develop it into the computer language known as COBOL, or "Common Business-Oriented Language."
Source: https://cpsc.yale.edu/
Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea
From the First Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, 1901On 10 December 1975 the 75th Nobel banquet was held. On that day, Folke Henschen told radio listeners his personal memories of the very first Nobel Prize awards, which he experienced as a student marshal. What follows here is a more detailed version.
After long protracted negotiations, partly with the French government (which sought to impose a very hefty tax on the Nobel estate) and partly with the Nobel family, the first awarding of five Nobel Prizes could finally take place on 10 December 1901 – four of them given out in Stockholm and one, the Peace Prize, in Christiania, as Oslo was then called. Five years had passed since Alfred Nobel had died in San Remo, on 10 December 1896. In the days leading up to the awarding of prizes, there was certain tension in the air. The Nobel Laureates’ names had been kept secret – they were not, as now, revealed months in advance. When three distinguished German – speaking gentlemen arrived by train from the south and were taken to the Grand Hotel, it was clear that they must be the Nobel Laureates. International traffic was not as commonplace then as now.
The Nobel Prizes were presented in the large hall of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music at Nybroviken. The unpretentious, rather boring hall had been richly decorated under the supervision of the much sought-after royal architect, Agi Lindegren. As one of the so-called student marshals, decked out in student cap and a broad silk blue-and-gold band over my left shoulder, I had an excellent view of everything from my seat in the gallery to the right of the podium. The large bandstand where the royal orchestra was to play was completely decorated with plants and pine boughs. Centered at the back of the stage, beneath a giant laurel wreath tied with blue-and-gold ribbon, was a large broad obelisk with a white bust of Alfred Nobel. At the front there was a lectern and four more obelisks with the inscriptions PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, MEDICINE, LITERATURE. Just in front of the stage were three armchairs for royalty, and behind these was a semicircle of chairs for the prize winners, the presenters, and attendants. Back of the semicircle there were places for all the intellectuals, distinguished officials, and military officers from Stockholm and around the country.
The hall filled gradually with people dressed in festive attire. Then, the three current prize winners entered and sat down, without music or fanfare as now is customary. First came the stately German, Wilhelm Conrad von Röntgen, with his large dark professor’s beard, then the smiling, blond, clean-shaven Dutchman, Jakobus Hendricus van t’Hoff, followed by the elegant German Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Emil Adolf von Behring. Last came the French minister, who was to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature for his countryman, the poet, Sully Prudhomme, who was ill. Finally, the royal family entered: in the middle, Crown Prince Gustaf–later to become King Gustaf V–standing in for King Oscar who had been forced to travel to Christiania because of the threatening break-up of the Swedish Norwegian union. With him, came the 19-year old Prince Gustaf Adolf (much later our Gustaf VI Adolf) together with Prince Eugen. The seating arrangement meant that the royalty sat more or less with their backs to the Nobel Laureates and presenters …(cont.)
Source: www.nobelprize.org
Great Stories by Nobel Prize Winners
Something hot and spicy for “Today in History” - “December 11th” a short poem by Anne SextonThen I think of you in bed,
your tongue half chocolate, half ocean,
of the houses that you swing into,
of the steel wool hair on your head,
of your persistent hands and then
how we gnaw at the barrier because we are two.
How you come and take my blood cup
and link me together and take my brine.
We are bare. We are stripped to the bone
and we swim in tandem and go up and up
the river, the identical river called Mine
and we enter together. No one's alone.
From: "The Best American Erotic Poems", page 95
Anne Sexton (November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die. Her poetry details her long battle with depression, suicidal tendencies, and various intimate details from her private life, including relationships with her husband and children whom it was later revealed she physically and sexually assaulted.
The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present
12th December, 2018 will be Poinsettia DayLearn about Poinsettia Day
“Conversely, the red plant itself burns a brighter red when set off by the green than when it grows among its peers. In the bed I always reserved for poinsettia seedlings, there was little to distinguish one plant from its neighbors. My poinsettia did not turn scarlet until I planted it in new surroundings. Color is not something one has, color is bestowed on one by others.” (Arthur Japin)
Poinsettia Day, a day to celebrate the ever popular red flower used around the Christmas holiday season. When looking at a Poinsettia, all we can think of is “The Poinsettia is to Christmas like a pumpkin is to Halloween” But where is the Poinsettia from, and how did it become a Christmas staple? That’s why we’re here to find out what Poinsettia Day is all about!
History of Poinsettia Day
To find out where the Poinsettia flower originated from, we have to take a look in the past. In 1480 to his death, Aztec King Montezuma adorned his palace with Poinsettia or Cuetlaxochitl as it was known by the Aztecs, having his people cultivate the flower as a gift from the Gods. Poinsettia was served as a reminder of the sacrifice that the Aztec gods had made to create the universe and that the debt would be repaid in human sacrifices. The Aztecs used the Poinsettia’s sap to cure fevers and the leaves make a dye.
Then, in the 17th century after the Conquistadors invaded Mexico, the blood red wild flower became a part of Christian ceremony for the first time when it was used in the nativity procession, the Fiesta of Santa Pesebre. It’s around this time that many legends originated, attempting to explain why the plant, beginning to be called “La flor de Nochebuena,” or Holy Night had acquired its bright and beautiful red color.
After being discovered in 1828 by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the poinsettia became a popular specimen among botanists. One Botanist in particular by the name of Wilenow, in 1833 he named the Poinsettia “Euporbia pulcherrima.” But after only four years another botanist by the name of William Hickling Prescott renamed the flower to “Poinsettia pulcherrima” in honor of the man who brought the flower back to be studied, Joel Poinsett.
How To Celebrate Poinsettia Day
To celebrate Poinsettia Day, the Poinsettia is displayed on the Dia de le Virgen, or Virgin’s Day on December 12th in Mexico. In the United States, there are parades that include Poinsettias to commemorate Joel Poinsett’s discovery of the plant in the month of December.
Source: www.daysoftheyear.com
The Gift of the Poinsettia/El Regalo de La Flor de NochebuenaPOINSETTIA (https://bit.ly/2Lbt2Kq) (https://bit.ly/1IDujGb)
Mod
Beside this terrible toll, it is also famous because, even if it was quite clear that it had a Black Terrorism signature - it is now ascertained that it was organized by Ordine Nuovo, a neo nazi group operating in Italy in the 70s and 80s - but the police decided to incriminate an anarchist, Pietro Valpreda. He has suffered almost 20 years of trials before being absolved. And he can consider himself somehow lucky: his companion Giuseppe Pinelli was thrown out of a window while being interrogated by the police. From this many more sorrows have aroused: the commissar responsible for the interrogation - even if it is now doubtful he was the one who actually thrown him out of the window – Luigi Calabresi, suffered a press campaign of condemnation and was assassinated in 1972. No one know still who actually did it: a famous journalist, Adriano Sofri, and three persons more, have been convicted after a repentant confessed the murder, saying he was only the driver of the car. But many - myself included - think that he was not at all involved, for so many inconsistencies on the testimony of the repentant.
So, from Piazza Fontana Italy entered in what we call the black years - and we're not out them still
LauraT wrote: "In Italy the 12th of December is, alas, remembered for the "Strage di Piazza fontana" Massacre of Piazza Fontana: on the 12th Dec 1969 a bomb was placed inside the Banca dell'Agricoltura, and explo..."It's correct to remember. Unfortunately, since Dante's days Italy seems to be living many coloured lives: the days of "ghibellini", the black and white "guelfi", the red and black "brigades" ... The colours of our national flag have been often stained with blood ... Let us be the country of rainbow colours ...
Mod
LauraT wrote: "I'm afraid this is not a good period either ..."If you want to cheer up about our beloved Country, may I advise you and GR friends to read this book about Italian "sprezzatura". A fascinating and important read for all those who love or hate Italy.
Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the WorldThere's also my review there (in Italian) ...
LauraT wrote: "LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!"I don't think there is much to Laugh Out Loudly, se vuoi ridi pure a crepapelle, ma dopo di aver letto il libro ...
Antonio wrote: "LauraT wrote: "LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!"I don't think there is much to Laugh Out Loudly, se vuoi ridi pure a crepapelle, ma dopo di aver letto il libro ..."
Sprezzatura italiana
Funzionalità e bellezza sono la vera essenza della civiltà italiana, almeno così come la stessa è vista ed apprezzata all’estero, e non sempre ricordata qui da noi. Sin dal principio il “genio” italiano ha mirato ad essere pratico, con i piedi per terra, cercando sopratutto di “fare” le cose, senza tralasciare per questo l’idea di armonia, bellezza e splendore. Un acquedotto romano non deve essere soltanto funzionale ma deve anche essere pieno di curve e ben proporzionato. Uomini come Dante, Giotto, Donatello, Masaccio riuscirono a portare il realismo nella loro arte in maniera piacevole e aggraziante. Il merito maggiore del genio degli Italiani del Rinascimento, è quello di essere riusciti a creare cose utili per la vita nel campo delle leggi, della filosofia politica, nella conduzione degli affari, nelle scienze applicate, nelle esplorazioni, nella poesia, nella musica, nelle arti visive, nella moda, nel cinema e in innumerevoli altre arti della vita e di lasciarne l’eredità agli Italiani di oggi. Checchè se ne dica.
Quando Baldassarre Castiglione consiglia al suo cortigiano ideale di fare ogni cosa con una certa “sprezzatura” non intende il termine nel senso con il quale lo ritrovate in un dizionario moderno. Egli, al contrario, sta avanzando dei consigli su come fare le cose pratiche (anche la stesura di un sonetto per lui è una cosa pratica!), che siano fatte con stile ed eleganza in modo da farle apparire facili. Questa specie di “pragmatismo estetico” trova le sue radici nella grande tradizione italiana dell’artigianato, il quale in tutti i tempi ha dato prova ed evidenza di sapere fare nei campi del disegno, delle costruzioni, dello stile. Nulla di metafisico, astratto, ponderoso, ciò non di meno superficiale o inconsistente. Anzi, qualcosa di profondo e reale, com’è il caso di personaggi della misura di San Francesco, Galileo, Michelangelo, San Tommaso.
Un recente libro pubblicato negli USA che porta il titolo di “Sprezzatura: 50 modi in cui il Genio italiano ha forgiato il mondo” è una accurata e precisa disamina delle caratteristiche fondanti del genio italiano nel tempo. Si va dalla creazione del calendario romano alla Repubblica Romana, passando per il genio di Giulio Cesare e della porpora dell’Impero. La rivoluzione del verso di Catullo si incrocia con i grandi costruttori edili del mondo antico romano. L’invenzione della satira aiuta a vivere insieme ai miti e alla poesia di Ovidio. La Legge Romana apre la via al fondatore del monachesimo benedettino occidentale, custode della eredità di Roma. Le prime Scuole mediche di Salerno e Bologna segnano l’inizio dell’era moderna insieme alla comparsa dell’ “alter Christus” San Francesco d’Assisi e allo “stupor mundi” che fu l’Imperatore Federico II re di Sicilia e di Gerusalemme.
San Tommaso d’Acquino è il titano della teologia seguito da Dante e dalla sua Comedia. Seguono banchieri, contabili e capitalisti fiorentini i quali ebbero anche modo di ascoltare e leggere non solo le liriche dell’inventore di questo genere poetico che fu Petrarca, ma anche i primi racconti del realismo letterario occidentale del Boccaccio. L’attivismo religioso e mistico di Santa Caterina da Siena fa da contrappunto all’uso della lingua visiva rinascimentale impiegata da artisti quali il Brunelleschi, Donatello e Masaccio. Lorenzo Ghiberti apre le “Porte del Paradiso” mentre Cosimo e Lorenzo de’ Medici diventano i patroni delle arti e della cultura del loro tempo. Sigismondo Malatesta è il primo condottiero ad avere una visione mentre con Leonardo da Vinci appare l’uomo del Rinascimento e dell’eterno enigma. Appaiono quindi all’orizzonte del mondo conosciuto Colombo, Caboto, Vespucci e Verrazzano mentre Machiavelli fa sorgere l’alba della scienza politica moderna e Michelangelo è il rappresentante sommo dell’ingegno umano.
In Castiglione il termine “sprezzatura” caratterizza il perfetto gentiluomo del tempo mentre Pietro l’Aretino, scrittore indipendente e pornografo si proclama “segretario del mondo”. Giovanni della Casa e il suo “Galateo” anticipano forme, contenuti e comportamenti moderni alla stessa maniera di come il Palladio dà forma ai suoi edifici. Caterina de’ Medici diventa gran madre della cucina francese e l’Euridice di Jacopo Peri dà vita all’opera lirica facendola nascere dalla tragedia. Galileo getta le fondamenta della scienza moderna al suono di due nuovi strumenti che nascono dal genio italiano: il violino ed il piano. Questi suonano le note del padre della musica moderna che va sotto il nome di Claudio Monteverdi. Che dire poi degli splendori del Barocco del Bernini che si incrociano con i pionieri della moderna anatomia: Eustachio, Falloppio, Malpighi, Morgagni ed altri? Il diritto penale trova il suo inventore in Cesare Beccaria, l’elettricità in Galvani e Volta, mentre Venezia diventa una sinfonia di pietre, acqua, colori e musica. Appare all’orizzonte il primo vero pessimista europeo, il grande Giacomo Leopardi, mentre Giuseppe Garibaldi fa nascere un’Italia mai unita prima. Appare e scompare l’ultimo Principe rinascimentale, Gabriele d’Annunzio, mentre Maria Montessori con “La Dottoressa” fonda la scienza dell’educazione infantile, Marconi inventa la radio, Enrico Fermi è il padre della bomba atomica. Roberto Rossellini e il suo cinema neorealista si affiancano in questa carrellata di geni italici a Tommasi di Lampedusa col suo “Gattopardo” che sembra misurarsi con la Ferrari sulla strada della perfezione tracciata con “sprezzatura” dal genio italiano.
December 13, in 1797: Heinrich Heine is born. This German poet once observed that wherever books are burned, people are burned, too, in the end. His words turned out to be prophetic, as his own books would be burnt by the Nazis during the 1930s.Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. He was known as Harry until he converted to Christianity when he was in his 20s. His father was a successful textile merchant and Heine followed in his father's footsteps by studying business. However, he soon realized he did not have much aptitude for business and switched over to law. While at the university, he became known for his poetry. His first book was a collection of his travel memoirs called "Reisebilder" ("Travel Pictures") in 1826. Heine was one of the most influential German poets in the 19th century, and German authorities tried to suppress him because of his radical political views. He was also known for his lyrical prose, which was set to music by classical greats, such as Schumann, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
"The Lorelei"
One of Heine's famous poems, "Die Lorelei," is based on a German legend of an enchanting, seducing mermaid who lures seamen to their death. It has been set to music by numerous composers, such as Friedrich Silcher and Franz Liszt. Here is Heine's poem:
Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
Dass ich so traurig bin;
Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,
Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.
Die Luft ist kühl, und es dunkelt,
Und ruhig fliesst der Rhein;
Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt
Im Abendsonnenschein.
Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet
Dort oben wunderbar,
Ihr goldenes Geschmeide blitzet, Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar.
Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme
Und singt ein Lied dabei;
Das hat eine wundersame,
Gewaltige Melodei.
Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe
Ergreift es mit wildem Weh;
Er schaut nicht die Felsenriffe,
Er schat nur hinauf in die Höh.
Ich glaube, die Welllen verschlingen
Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn;
Und das hat mit ihrem Singen
Die Lorelei getan.
English translation (not always translated literally):
I don't know what it means
That I am so sad
A legend of bygone days
That I cannot keep out of my mind.
The air is cool and night is coming.
The calm Rhine courses its way.
The peak of the mountain dazzles
With evening's final ray.
The fairest of maidens is sitting
Up there, a beautiful delight,
Her golden jewels are shining,
She's combing her golden hair.
She holds a golden comb,
Singing along, as well
An enthralling
And spellbinding melody.
In his little boat, the boatman
Is seized by it with a savage woe.
He does not look upon the rocky ledge
But rather high up into the heavens.
I think that the waves will devour
The boatman and boat in the end
And this by her song's sheer power
Fair Loreley has done.
Source: www.thoughtco.com
Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine
14th December, 2018 will be Monkey DayLearn about Monkey Day
Monkeys are interesting creatures – cute, mischievous, and sometimes downright obnoxious (anyone who disagrees has obviously never had their laundry torn down by a family of primates when it’s hanging to dry). Many species of primates are also endangered, and then there are questions of animal rights and the usage of primates in medical research. That’s why there’s Monkey Day, a day that’s been dedicated to raising awareness about non-human primates.
History of Monkey Day
Back in 2000, Casey Sorrow was an art student at Michigan State University, and he ended up writing “Monkey Day” on his friend’s calendar as a prank. But then they actually celebrated the occasion with other art students at MSU, and Sorrow later started collaborating with fellow MSU student on the Fetus-X comic strip, where the holiday was mentioned and popularized. Since then, Monkey Day has been observed internationally as a day to celebrate primates (including monkeys, but also apes, lemurs, and tarsiers).
Sorrow himself still does much to promote the holiday and the cause of primate welfare, and in addition to the Monkey Day website, he also maintains a “Monkeys in the News” blog which discusses primate-related news around the world and comes out with a list of the top ten primate-related news stories from the past year every Monkey Day.
How to celebrate Monkey Day
You could simply dress up in a monkey costume and play the part, because there are some people who do just that for Monkey Day and even hold competitions for it. Or you could spend the day at the zoo, because many zoos around the world do hold special celebrations for Monkey Day. Some of these events focus on educational events about monkeys, while others do things like auction off artwork created by chimps and performing intelligence tests on primates.
Even if you don’t have a monkey at your house, you might consider throwing a monkey day party, inviting all of your friends over (keep in mind that humans are in fact primates too, even without gorilla costumes), and common activities at such celebrations involve films such as King Kong, Planet of the Apes, and Lady Iron Monkey, as well as monkey-themed music (The Monkees, anyone?).
Often, celebrations involve fundraising for primate-related causes and charities, and many organizations around the world dedicated to primates hold Monkey Day events of various sorts. So when Monkey Day comes around, get out there and do it proper, by monkeying around!
Source: www.daysoftheyear.com
Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea
December 15 is “International Tea Day”The tea industry provides millions of people around the world with cups of tea in the morning. One of the biggest producers of tea, India, recognizes the importance of tea in its communities and as a commodity for commerce. However, much of the working conditions for those within the tea industry still need much improvement. If you think this holiday was about drinking tea, well think again! International Tea Day is all about the tea workers and bringing civil rights into action. Let’s see how this holiday came to pass.
History of International Tea Day
The International Tea Day campaign was launched in 2005 by the trade unions, small tea growers and civil society organizations in Asia and Africa to address the issues of living wages for workers and fair prices for small tea producers. The International Tea Conference in New Delhi came out with an International Declaration on the rights of workers and small growers to help regulate uneven competition, land ownership, safety regulations, rights of women, social security and living wages. Another organization, The Tea Board of India, proposed International Tea Day in hopes of it becoming an official holiday to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
This was proposed by chairman Santosh Kumar Sarangi in 2015. According to the chairman, the proposal of India was supported by countries such as Canada, the United States, European Union, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Kenya, and Malawi. While the holiday doesn’t have official status, the goal of this holiday is to recognize the vulnerable situations that tea producers in India have with current living conditions and worker-related policies. The day also focuses on deliberating on urgent issues such as residues, climate change, technology and trends on production and consumption in the tea industry. To observe this day, over 150 representatives from tea organizations gather and conduct a seminar to discuss the pervading problems the tea industry has as well as problems faced within their own country.
How to Celebrate International Tea Day
If you’re a lover of tea, then do some research about some of your favorite companies. Try looking up tea brands that support fair trade, and possibly switch to those brands to make a difference in the way you buy products such as tea. Use the hashtag #internationalteaday to help recognize it as an official holiday and educate others about the tea industry if you’re interested.
Source: www.daysoftheyear.com
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Literary Teas
Here are some facts about writers and tea: Dr Johnson was known to drink up to 25 cups of tea in one sitting. ‘Scandal-broth’ was eighteenth-century slang for tea. As well as denoting a believer in God, ‘theist’ (from the French thé) is a jocular word for someone addicted to drinking tea; it was first used by Percy Shelley. The first recorded reference to anyone in England having a cup of tea is in Samuel Pepys’ diary on 25 September 1660. Herman Melville’s paternal grandfather led the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Lewis Carroll always brewed his tea for exactly ten minutes.
The word ‘cuppa’, as in ‘cup of tea’, is first recorded in a 1925 novel by P. G. Wodehouse.
Source: www.interestingliterature.com
A Social History of Tea
At nine o’clock on the night of 16th December 1773 ...... a group of angry Bostonians disguised as Mohawk Indians and armed with tomahawks boarded three British ships anchored at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston harbour. Urged on by thousands of cheering townspeople, the 70-odd colonists – including some of Boston’s most distinguished citizens – proceeded to axe open 342 chests of tea valued at $18,000 and heaved the lot into the Boston harbour in protest of heavy taxes placed by the British on American exports. Outraged and determined not to let this act of rebellion go unpunished, British Parliament retaliated immediately by passing a series of Coercive Acts (known by the colonists as the “Intolerable Acts”) against Massachusetts: the port of Boston was closed, the powers of self-government drastically reduced, and the colony was placed under rigid British military control. The severity of the Coercive Acts led to even greater resentment and resistance throughout all thirteen colonies, which in turn convened the First Continental Congress in order to petition King George III to repeal the acts. The king refused. And so it was that the audacious rebellion against imperialism and Draconian taxation, which famously came to be known as the Boston Tea Party, set in motion the chain of events that would lead directly to the American Revolution.
As a historical and iconic act, the Boston Tea Party is to modern Americans synonymous with the spirit of independence – being the very embodiment of the New World’s rejection of Old World tyranny. It is also significant as one of the first examples of mass civil disobedience; resistance to taxation had never before resulted in the large-scale and deliberate destruction of property. But it is worth noting that, were the Boston Tea Party to take place today, then every one of those so-called great patriots who participated would – under the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s current guidelines – be classified as “terrorists”. Hence, when casting our judgement on current dissenters and freedom fighters, it is wise to remember that political acts of dissent are always measured solely by their success or failure – for, as Winston Churchill said, “history is written by the victors.”
Source: www.onthisdeity.com
What Was the Boston Tea Party?
It all happened on December 171273: Rumi dies. Rumi (1207-1273), born Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, was a Sufi mystic poet from Persia. Rumi was a Muslim follower of the Sufi faith, and he wrote numerous works of Sufi philosophy as well as his poetry. A special service involving whirling dervishes is held at his tomb in Turkey on 17 December every year.
The Life and Work of Maulana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi1685: Thomas Tickell is born. Born near Cockermouth (where William Wordsworth would be born 85 years later), Tickell was a minor poet who brought out an English translation of Homer’s Iliad in the same year as Alexander Pope’s more famous translation.
The Poetical Works of Thomas Tickell1807: John Greenleaf Whittier is born. This American Quaker poet was a vocal opponent of slavery in the United States, and wrote the poem ‘The Brewing of Soma’, which has been turned into the hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’.
Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier1873: Ford Madox Ford is born Ford Hermann Hueffer. He was briefly an associate of Ezra Pound and the poetry clubs that led to the formation of Imagism in the early years of the twentieth century, though he’s best remembered for his novels: The Good Soldier (1915; actually nothing to do with soldiers) and the Parade’s End quartet (1924-28; a lot to do with soldiers). He also co-wrote several novels with Joseph Conrad.
Ford Madox Ford and Englishness (International Ford Madox Ford Series 5)1957: Dorothy L. Sayers dies. One of the queens of detective fiction in the genre’s golden age, Sayers created Lord Peter Wimsey and also worked as an advertising copywriter.
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories
Ford’s The Good Soldier is one of the best novels I have ever read. Deeply moving, and also extremely impressive in its narrative technique
December 18, 2011 Vaclav Havel died.For Vaclav Havel, and for his people, everything changed in 1989, the year of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, when he led the extraordinary display of people power which toppled the ruling communist regime. The world watched with astonishment as, within weeks, the dissident playwright became president. Vaclav Havel was born in 1936. His father was a successful engineer and, by his own admission, young Vaclav was a pampered child from a wealthy family.
But when the communists came to power he saw his family lose everything.The new government decided the young Havel was "too bourgeois" to be allowed a secondary education. He organised one for himself, studying at night school, while working as a laboratory technician during the day. The year 1968 brought the Prague Spring led by Alexander Dubcek, the first flowering of reform and of hope for Czechoslovakia. Havel, now a successful playwright, could openly criticise old guard Stalinists, satirising them in drama, which won instant worldwide acclaim. But the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia crushed the dreams of Havel and his generation. Suddenly, his work was banned in his homeland.
He produced a series of one-act plays, which had to be performed in private homes. His underground theatre was steeped in politics, and yet Havel denied he was anything other than an artist. "I never wanted to be a political writer," he once said. "I think that good writers and good art and particularly, good theatre, is always political, not because writers and directors want to be political, but because it is something which is in the substance of theatre."
A few years later he helped found the Charter 77 movement for democratic change. By now, Vaclav Havel had become Czechoslovakia's most famous dissident. Jailed for the alleged crime of "anti-state activity", he was kept under constant surveillance by the secret police, even when he was out of prison. But by the end of 1989, Havel found himself discussing the future of the nation with the very people who had sent him to jail. The Communist Party was disintegrating, and democracy was taking its place.
After the 18 days of peaceful demonstrations and strikes that became known as the Velvet Revolution, the communist government was brought down. In a solemn service at Prague's Roman Catholic cathedral in December 1989, Havel was duly installed as head of state. The prisoner-turned-president said afterwards that he had never felt so absurd. Unlike previous eastern European leaders, he was refreshingly open, some would say eccentric, on occasions travelling around his vast palace on a child's scooter. A fan of rock music, he made the American musician Frank Zappa an honorary cultural ambassador.
But the fairy tale soon went sour. Slovakian nationalists campaigned for, and won, independence. Havel's beloved country was divided into two and he was shouted down by demonstrators. Commenting that "after every party there's a hangover", Havel resigned the presidency, only to be re-elected leader of the new Czech Republic a few months later, in January 1993.
He presided over the painful transition from communism to capitalism. Industry was privatised en masse. Foreign firms like Volkswagen started taking over and Havel criticised the corruption that accompanied the sale of huge state assets. In his later years, Vaclav Havel was beset by bad health. He had part of a lung removed during surgery for cancer and had a number of serious bouts of pneumonia. After stepping down at the end of his second term as president in 2003, he devoted time to supporting human rights activists around the world. Havel also returned to writing and published a new play, Leaving, which premiered in 2008. He then, at the age of 74, made his debut as a film director, adapting Leaving for the cinema earlier this year.
And while he was shut out of day-to-day politics by shrewder Czech politicians, Vaclav Havel was still feted around the world as a much-admired, if rather nervous, ambassador for his country and never a natural professional politician. Havel was uncomfortable with the pomp and ceremony which surrounded him. He longed to return to full-time writing which was, perhaps, why his people so loved and respected him. This, after all, was the man who had not only helped destroy communist rule, but who had managed to do so without bloodshed.
Source: www.bbc.com/news
Reading Vaclav Havel
December 19 it’s the birthday of French chanteuse Édith Piaf (1915). Piaf was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother was a café singer and a drug addict, and her father was a street performer who specialized in acrobatics and contortionism. Neither of them particularly cared for Piaf, so she mostly grew up with her grandmother, who ran a brothel. Piaf was looked after by prostitutes and later claimed that she was blind from the ages of three to seven because of keratitis, or malnutrition, though this was never proved.
Her father reclaimed her when she was nine and Piaf began singing with him on street corners until he abandoned her again. She lived in shoddy hotel rooms in the red-light district of Paris and sang in a seedy café called Lulu’s, making friends with pimps, hookers, lowlifes, and gamblers, until she was discovered by an older man named Louis Leplée. Leplée ran a nightclub off the Champs-Élysées. He renamed Piaf La Môme Piaf, “The Little Sparrow,” dressed her entirely in black, and set her loose on the stage. Piaf was a hit, and recorded two albums in one year, becoming one of the most popular performers in France during World War II.
Édith Piaf died on the French Riviera at the age of 47. More than 40,000 people came to her funeral procession. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina named a small planet after Piaf; it’s called 3772 Piaf. Her songs have been covered by Madonna, Grace Jones, and even Donna Summer. Édith Piaf’s last words were, “Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.”
Source: www.writersalmanac.org
No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf
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LauraT wrote: "How I love her voice! Even if I'm not keen on French language, when she sings I shiver..."Shivering is the proper word for her voice ...
December 20, 1865 it's the birthday of the Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, the lifelong muse of poet W.B. Yeats, born in Surrey, England. She and Yeats first met when they were both 25 years old. He fell in love with her immediately and remained in love for the rest of his life.Maud Gonne played a public role in the struggle for Irish independence, but her life also included private tragedy. Her grief over a child who died at the age of two inspired an unpublished poem by W B Yeats - and she was so desperate to reincarnate the boy that she had sex in his tomb.
Actress, activist, feminist, mystic, Maud Gonne was also the muse and inspiration for the poet W B Yeats, who immortalised her in some of his most famous verses. After the Free State was established in 1922, Maud Gonne remained a vocal figure in Irish politics and civil rights. Born in 1866, she died in Dublin in 1953.
Maud Gonne was tall and beautiful. Yeats wrote: "I had never thought to see in a living woman such great beauty. A complexion like the blossom of apples. Her movements were worthy of her form."
Yeats asked her to marry him in 1891, but she refused. It was the first of many times that she rejected his marriage proposals. But they remained close to each other throughout their lives, and agreed that they had a "spiritual union."
In response to one of Yeats' many marriage proposals, Maud Gonne told him: "You would not be happy with me. ... You make beautiful poetry out of what you call your unhappiness and you are happy in that. Marriage would be such a dull affair. Poets should never marry."
In 1911, she wrote a letter to him and said, "Our children were your poems of which I was the father sowing the unrest & storm which made them possible & you the mother who brought them forth in suffering & in the highest beauty."
Maud Gonne campaigned for land reform, helped tenants fight eviction, advocated for political prisoners, began a program that fed lunch to Dublin schoolkids, and founded the Daughters of Erin. Yeats wrote many poems for her, including "When You are Old" and "Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven."
Sources: www.writersalmanac.org -www.bbc.com/news/magazine
Love Story of Yeats & Maud Gonne
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1375 - Boccaccio dies on December 21 at his home in Certaldo. Giovanni will close his eyes for ever in the quiet of Certaldo, on December 21, 1375, a year after his worshipped magister, the second crown of Florence, Francesco Petrarca.Before William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer, there was the man who both inspired and influenced much of their work: Giovanni Boccaccio. Boccaccio composed ground-breaking literary works during his lifetime that built the foundation for literature today. His poems and epics written in Italian and Latin became classics that would endure for hundreds of years and influence the path that literature would take in the years following his life.
Giovanni Boccaccio was born in midsummer in 1313. There are discrepancies concerning the exact place of his birth, but most historians believe Boccaccio’s birthplace was either Certaldo or Florence. Boccaccio was the illegitimate son of a wealthy Italian merchant, Boccaccino di Chellino, and was largely raised by his father. When Boccaccio was still young, his father married a noblewoman named Margherita de’ Mardoli and subsequently, Boccaccio’s half-brother, Francesco, was born. By the time Boccaccio reached his teen years, he was traveling regularly with his father on business, and in 1327, he followed his father to Naples. There he studied accounting and then canon law, and then finally decided to focus on classical and scientific studies.
From there, his interest in writing and poetry flourished, and Boccaccio became an active participant in the court of Robert d’Anjou, the king of Naples. It is believed that the king had an illegitimate daughter by the name of Maria de Conti d’Aquino, and that she became the mistress of Boccaccio. Perhaps it is Maria that became Boccaccio’s muse and inspired some of his most famed romantic lyrics in Filocolo and Filostrato, in which he spoke of a beautiful and desirable Fiammetta.
By 1340 Boccaccio felt it was time to return to Florence, and there he served the city by performing numerous diplomatic services for the local government. During this time, Boccaccio continued to compose works of literature, including Comedia Ninfe, Amorosa Visione, and Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta. In 1348, the plague spread to Florence and claimed the lives of Boccaccio’s father, step-mother, and many of his close friends. At this time, Florence and much of Europe was filled with agony over the tragedies caused by the plague, and Boccaccio found inspiration during this difficult time for one of his most famous works, Decameron.
This masterpiece transcended much of the literature of the time, combining levels of comedy and drama for a very realistic and touching effect. Decameron tells the story of ten individuals who fled the plague in Florence and traveled into the countryside. There, the group exchanged various stories from their lives to help pass the time. Decameron is said to be the primary influence for Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales .
Boccaccio met one of his most admired influences in 1350, Francesco Petrarca, or Francis Petrarch. The two found that they had much in common and over their lifetimes became close friends, meeting often throughout Italy. Over the next few years, Boccaccio traveled through the major cities in Italy performing diplomatic services and composing more literary works. In 1359 in Milan, Boccaccio was named ambassador to Lombardy, possibly at the court of Bernabo` Visconti.
Boccaccio became popular both in literary and diplomatic accomplishments, and he was noticed by even the most esteemed Italians. In 1360, Pope Innocent VI inducted Boccaccio into the clergy. Soon after the induction, Florence suffered much political turmoil, and many of Boccaccio’s friends were implicated and some were charged so far as to be executed.
Following these controversial events, Boccaccio retreated to Certaldo and Ravenna, where he focused once again on writing. After several somewhat seclusive years, Boccaccio finally returned to the diplomatic scene in 1365 when he traveled to the papal court of Urban V in Avignon as Florentine ambassador. He continued to travel throughout Italy performing diplomatic services until 1372, when Boccaccio finally retired to Certaldo due to his weakening state of health. Obesity and frequent illnesses had greatly affected Boccaccio, and once again he put his focus into literary fields. He continued to compose new works and revise his previous ones. He proceeded to conduct a series of readings and lectures in Florence on the Divina Commedia . Learning of Petrarch’s death in 1374 led Boccaccio to compose a last sonnet of poetry. Boccaccio died on December 21, 1375 in his home in Certaldo (the house is open to public).
Giovanni Boccaccio’s literary work was quite enlightened for his time. His portrayal of women was advanced compared to that of many other writers in that age. In Decameron, seven of the ten characters were women, and Boccaccio also wrote a series of biographies devoted entirely to women, Famous Women . These works paved the way for more enlightened portrayals of women in literature. His romantic prose would continue to inspire future writers for years to come. The profound influence of the work Boccaccio can be seen in many of the famous works composed in the centuries after his lifetime.
Source: www.lifeinitaly.com
The Decameron
LauraT wrote: "Didn't know her and her story ... interesting"I am deep in Gonne-land right now because I am reading Francis Stuart’s autobiographical novel Black List, Section H, which recounts the story of Stuart’s marriage to Maud Gonne’s daughter Iseult. Yeats is a character, under his real name.
It’s kind of a strange book. “My Life as an Irish Nazi”.
December 22 is the birthday of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, born in Lucca, Tuscany, in 1858. His full name was Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini. Music was the family business: the Puccinis had served as musical directors to the Cathedral of San Martino for 200 years by the time young Giacomo came along. His first job, when he came of age, was as the cathedral organist. When he was 18, he attended a performance of Verdi’s opera Aida, and he was captivated. He began his operatic studies in 1880. His friends helped him produce his first one-act opera, Le villi, in Milan four years later.
Puccini began an affair with a married woman, Elvira Gemignani, and eventually the lovers fled Lucca for Milan. They had a son, Antonio, and married in 1904, after Gemignani’s husband died. Elvira was a passionate woman and prone to jealous rages. She suspected Puccini of sleeping with their young housemaid, and she ran the girl out of the house, threatening to kill her. The girl committed suicide; an autopsy revealed that she was still a virgin, and her family sued the Puccinis for calumny, causing a scandal of operatic proportions.
Puccini’s most famous operas — Madama Butterfly (1904), Tosca (1900), and La Bohème (1896) — all feature a common theme, namely “He who has lived for love, has died for love.” He writes of women who are devoted to their lovers to the point of their own destruction. He never finished his last opera, Turandot; Puccini died of complications from the treatment of throat cancer in 1924. Another composer, Franco Alfano, later wrote the last two scenes based on Puccini’s sketches. When Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere of Turandot in 1926, he stopped the orchestra at Puccini’s final notes, saying, “Here the opera finishes, because at this point the Maestro died.”
Source: www.writersalmanac.org
Giacomo Puccini and his World
I have always loved opera and classical music, and when I lived in San Francisco and Chicago, I had subscriptions to all the opera companies and symphony orchestras. Now I have to rely on CDs, YouTube, and Internet radio. The latter option is very good; pretty much every classical radio station in the world streams, and some archive, too. For example, BBC Radio 3 offerings are available for a month after broadcast. And if you need a Puccini fix, I’ve got just the ticket: a Metropolitan Opera presentation of Il Trittico, his set of three one-acts.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
I plan to listen to this tonight.
I didn't like opera very much when I was young. Nowadays I discover this classic pleasure day after day though sometimes I prefer only music to words in music. I find that music is a language in itself ...
Opera, like cinema at its best, is a comprehensive, totalizing art form; and heightened in its intensity of expression. I like it very much for those qualities!
On this day December 23 in 1888 in Arles in southern France, Vincent van Gogh performed the most infamous act of self-mutilation in art history. He cut off part of his left ear lobe. From that point on, the world pointed, laughed and called him mad. The ear-slashing episode followed his most frantic period of creative activity. For during 1888 he made some of his most celebrated paintings; paintings which would change the way subsequent artists used colour. These paintings of sunflowers, irises, harvest landscapes, his bedroom, his yellow house, and dozens of portraits, portraits, portraits would become iconic and command many of the highest prices ever paid. Making them earned him not a franc, but cost him his life. Vincent had a history of self-harm, suffered from bipolar disorder and probably had epilepsy, too, just for good measure. Bipolar disorder is characterised by periods of intense mania, followed by crushing, often self-destructive lows. And one hundred and twenty-two years ago today, Vincent hit rock bottom.
Two months earlier, in October 1888, artist Paul Gauguin went to Arles to join Vincent. Vincent was thrilled. They could paint together, and talk about big important artistic ideas. In reality, Gauguin didn’t want to go; but he had nothing better to do and Vincent’s brother Theo – a successful art dealer – had promised to buy any canvases from him of whatever he produced in Arles. Gauguin could hardly refuse.
Vincent was a sexually frustrated, stubborn, smelly, dirty, artistically unrecognised, lonely alcoholic; a dirt-poor rebel, shunned by practically everyone but Theo. Gauguin was a confident, already successful artist, attractive to women and with a huge ego. Such different people. It was never going to end well.
On the evening of 23rd December, the two artists had been out drinking and whoring. They had a row, over what we don’t know, but it may well have been a woman. Vincent came at Gauguin with an open razor. Gauguin stared him down. Vincent ran away. Frustrated, he turned the razor on himself, cutting off part of his ear lobe.
He wrapped the ear fragment and gave it to Rachel, his favourite woman at the brothel. Why? Because in the old Roman arena in the town, Vincent had seen matadors cut off the ear of the bull they had killed, which they later gave to their sweethearts as a symbol of their bravery and manhood. In Arles that’s what you do. The ear-hacking was the logical act of a desperate, frustrated man. Vincent later returned to the yellow house and collapsed, bleeding profusely from the artery he’d severed. The rest of the story is well-known: the asylum and finally suicide.
On this day, though, let us not dwell on the madness but consider instead Vincent’s single-minded vision to pursue his art in spite of a world that didn’t give a toss about him, and find inspiration in the exquisite emotionally charged paintings he left us. Vincent is the personification of suffering for one’s art.
Source: www.onthisdaity.com
Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence
Did you know that there is an atoll called Christmas?Kiritimati Atoll was sighted on December 24 in 1777. Kiritimati Atoll, also called Christmas Atoll, coral island in the Northern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. It is the largest island of purely coral formation in the world, having a circumference of about 100 miles (160 km).
Kiritimati Atoll was sighted on Christmas Eve in 1777 by the English navigator Captain James Cook. (Kiritimati is the Gilbertese spelling of Christmas.) Although claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856, the atoll was incorporated into the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony by Great Britain in 1919. Kiritimati played a role during World War II for Allied forces, who used it as an important refueling station for military aircraft en route from Hawaii to the South Pacific. Its ownership remained in dispute until 1979, when Kiritimati became a part of independent Kiribati.
The atoll has port facilities and a large government-owned copra plantation. A small international airport is located near London, the main settlement, on the northwest coast of the island. Kiritimati was an operations base for nuclear weapons tests by the British in 1957–58 and by the United States in 1962. Its position near the Equator made its surrounding waters a favoured site for sea launches of Earth satellites beginning in the late 1990s. Kiritimati was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1975. Area 150 square miles (388 square km). Pop. (2010) 5,586.
Source: www.britannica.com
The Coral Island
There is also a Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It is an external territory of Australia.
Patrick wrote: "There is also a Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It is an external territory of Australia."Yes, thank you Patrick. Merry Christmas!
December 26Today marks the annual celebration of Kwanzaa, the seven-day pan-African and African-American holiday that celebrates community, family, and culture. It’s celebrated by millions of African peoples across the globe. Its name is derived from “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits” in Swahili, the most widely spoken African language. The extra “a” on the end of “kwanza” was added because there were seven children present at the first celebration in 1966, and each child wanted to be represented by a letter.
In 1966, a graduate student named Maulana Karenga found himself disillusioned after the infamous Watts Riots (1965) in Los Angeles. He was already involved in community organizing and the Black Power movement as a way to bring African-Americans together, but he was also looking for something to honor the heritage that had been erased by the slave trade. He wanted, he said, “to give blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.”
Karenga began combining aspects of several African harvest celebrations, like those of the Ashanti and Zulu. He incorporated songs, dance, poetry, storytelling, and a traditional meal.
There are seven principles of Kwanzaa, known as Nguzo Saba:
Umoja (unity)
Kujichagulia (self-determination)
Ujima (collective work and responsibility)
Ujamaa (cooperative economics)
Nia (purpose)
Kuumba (creativity)
Imani (faith)
Source: www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org
Kwanzaa: African-American Celebration
December 27, 1621 John Donne is elected Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, with a big house to go with it. Using his remarkable facility with language to reach the people of London, Donne preached against lust, fornication, and other sins – everything that the young Donne had embraced wholeheartedly! By all accounts he was a terrifying figure in the pulpit: he would use an hourglass to time his sermons, often reminding the congregation that time was running out – as the sand fell in the glass – for them to be saved.
From: “Holy Sonnets” - “Death, be not proud”
BY JOHN DONNE
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
----
Morte, non essere orgogliosa, anche se
qualcuno ti chiama terribile e possente
Tu non lo sei affatto: perché
quelli che pensi di travolgere
non muoiono in realtà, povera morte, né puoi uccidere me.
Se dal riposo e dal sonno, come tu appari,
deriva molto piacere, molto più dovrebbe provenire da Te,
con essi i nostri migliori se ne vanno,
per primi, tu che metti a riposo le loro ossa e ne liberi l’anima.
Schiava del caso e del destino, di re e disperati,
Tu che vivi tra guerra e veleni, con ogni infermità,
l’oppio e l’incantesimo ci fanno dormire ugualmente,
e molto meglio del colpo che ci sferri.
Perché tanta superbia?
Perché tanta superbia? Dopo un breve sonno,
eternamente, resteremo svegli, e la morte
non ci sarà più, sarai Tu a morire.
The Complete English Poems
On the evening of December 29 in 1940 ...... during World War II, German forces began firebombing the city of London with such intensity that the fires that erupted became known as “The Second Great Fire of London.” On that night, a London fireman sat down to write a letter to his wife. George Britchford had just come through one of the worst nights of the London Blitz, when devastating fires had ravaged the city and destroyed an area larger than the Great Fire of 1666. His letter, recently added to the Museum of London collection, is a fascinating glimpse into the darkest days of the Second World War and one Londoner's experience of it.
My darling,
I expect you have received my P.C [postcard] by now and so looking for this letter. How long did it take you to write your jolly fine letter I was ever so pleased to get it when I got back home from London. I’m sorry to hear that David was not well, how is he now, I hope he is OK. I’m jolly glad that the children had good Christmas, oh yes my darling I also listen to the children on the wireless and I was thinking of you all the same as you but its no good crying my darling we’ve got to grin and bear it. I had a fairly good time at Christmas but as I say its not the same without you ...
Darling, it’s impossible to describe the scene that was there when we got there just after 9 [o'clock] it seemed as if the whole of London was on fire the great fire of London was nothing like it, we pumped water up from the Thames about 2 miles away... we fought the fires till we could hardly hold the hose and then we had a rest for a while and back at it we went ...
It was terrible to look at in the daylight they were such high buildings and all that was left was one or two walls standing up. I think we all said a prayer when we heard the all clear go at 11 o'clock we knew that at least we were not going to be bombed as well, but I’m afraid that there are quite a few firemen that never came back there were so many buildings that crashed down and the poor devils didn’t have a chance, but there we have got to take risks and hope for the best, if we were in the army we should have more than that to face ...
We got back 3 o'clock Monday afternoon and so you can understand why I overslept, best of it was I was supposed to be on week end leave. Well my darling such is life but I shall never forget that Sunday night as long as I live …
Well my sweetheart I’ve done my best with this letter and I think I’ve told you everything, I’ve sat and seen the new year in my Darling everything is quiet no siren tonight, I think I must pack up now and go to bed I’m still tired so cheerio my own darling and God Bless you all in the new year, I will write again soon,
Ever your loving hubby,
George"
Source: www.museumoflondon.org.uk
World War II London Blitz Diary, Volume 1
Astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the discovery of other galaxies beyond the Milky Way on this date Decenber 30 in 1924. Before he made his discovery, everyone thought that our Milky Way galaxy was the only galaxy in the universe, and that there wasn’t much outside it besides the Magellanic Clouds, which are visible by the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere, and which were thought to be clouds of gas or dust. We know now that the Magellanic Clouds are really dwarf galaxies. Hubble first published his discovery in a paper called “Extragalactic Nature of Spiral Nebulae,” which was presented on this date, in his absence, at a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Hubble was born in Missouri in 1889, and moved to Chicago when he was nine. He was a handsome man and a star athlete: he played a lot of sports in high school, and ran track and played basketball for the University of Chicago. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study law at Oxford, and when he returned to the States, he earned a Ph.D. in astronomy. He had a hard time choosing between the two career paths at first and practiced law in Kentucky for a while. After he served in World War II, he returned to astronomy and took a job at the Mount Wilson observatory in California. About the same time, the observatory unveiled the new 100-inch Hooker Telescope.
Hubble had written his doctoral dissertation on “Photographic Investigations of Faint Nebulae.” With older or smaller telescopes, nebulae just looked like clouds of glowing gas, but with the Hooker telescope — the most powerful telescope in the world at that time — Hubble was able to see that there were actually stars within the nebula. One of the stars in the Andromeda Nebula turned out to be a Cepheid variable: a particular type of star that pulsates and is very bright. A Harvard computationist named Henrietta Leavitt had figured out a decade earlier that, by observing a Cepheid variable and measuring its brightness and the length of time it takes to go from bright to dim and back again, they could calculate the star’s distance from the Earth.
Hubble did the math and realized, to his amazement, that the star he was observing — which he called V1, or “variable number 1” — was almost 900,000 light years away. That’s more than eight times the distance of the farthest star in the Milky Way. It was then that he realized that the cloud of gas he’d been observing was really another vast galaxy that was very far away. He renamed the Andromeda Nebula the “Andromeda galaxy,” and he went on to discover 23 more separate galaxies.
Within a few years of Hubble’s discovery, most astronomers came to agree that our galaxy is just one of millions. Methods to measure astronomical distance have gotten more precise, and it’s now estimated that the Andromeda galaxy is 2 million light years from Earth.
In spite of this world-changing discovery, Hubble never received the Nobel Prize. At that time, there was no award category for astronomy. Hubble campaigned for many years to have the work of astronomers considered as a branch of physics, and eventually the Nobel committee agreed. Unfortunately, it was too late for Edwin Hubble, who died in 1953. But his name has been given to an asteroid, a moon crater, and — most famously — NASA’s orbiting space telescope, which launched in 1990. A few years ago, the Hubble telescope was trained on V1, that Cepheid variable star that led to Edwin Hubble’s breakthrough. NASA pointed it at the star to commemorate its namesake’s contribution to astronomy. Calling V1 “the most important star in the history of cosmology,” astronomer Dave Soderblom said: “It's a landmark discovery that proved the universe is bigger and chock-full of galaxies. I thought it would be nice for the Hubble telescope to look at this special star discovered by Hubble, the man.” The Hubble telescope tracked V1 for about six months.
Source: www.spacetelescope.org
Edwin Hubble: Genius Discoverer of Galaxies
December 31.It’s New Year’s Eve, which means people across the world will celebrate the passing of another year and toast to hopes for the new year ahead. The idea of celebrating a new year dates back 4,000 years to the Babylonians, who held a massive 12-day festival called Akitu, which was the Sumerian word for “barley.”
New Year Poem
by May Sarton
Let us step outside for a moment
As the sun breaks through clouds
And shines on wet new fallen snow,
And breathe the new air.
So much has died that had to die this year.
We are dying away from things.
It is a necessity—we have to do it
Or we shall be buried under the magazines,
The too many clothes, the too much food.
We have dragged it all around
Like dung beetles
Who drag piles of dung
Behind them on which to feed,
In which to lay their eggs.
Let us step outside for a moment
Among ocean, clouds, a white field,
Islands floating in the distance.
They have always been there.
But we have not been there.
We are going to drive slowly
And see the small poor farms,
The lovely shapes of leafless trees
Their shadows blue on the snow.
We are going to learn the sharp edge
Of perception after a day’s fast.
There is nothing to fear.
About this revolution…
Though it will change our minds.
Aggression, violence, machismo
Are fading from us
Like old photographs
Faintly ridiculous
(Did a man actually step like a goose
To instill fear?
Does a boy have to kill
To become a man?)
Already there are signs.
Young people plant gardens.
Fathers change their babies’ diapers
And are learning to cook.
Let us step outside for a moment.
It is all there
Only we have been slow to arrive
At a way of seeing it.
Unless the gentle inherit the earth
There will be no earth.
“New Year Poem” by May Sarton from Collected Poems. © Norton, 1993.
Collected Poems, 1930-1993
January 1, 2019January is, famously, a month of new beginnings, named after the Roman goddess Janus, that literally two-faced (or two-headed) deity who faced both backwards and forwards, recalling the past even while she looked ahead to the future. January is also – at least if you’re in the upper end of the northern hemisphere – pretty cold and wintry.
Today is New Year's Day. If you are suffering from a hangover today, you aren't alone. The chief culprit is dehydration caused by the diuretic effect of ethanol, which can lead to shrinkage of brain tissue, and that causes headache. Alcohol irritates the lining of the stomach, causing queasiness. Other symptoms are caused by the toxic by-products of the liver's detoxification process. For something so common, hangover is poorly understood by the medical community, and quack remedies abound.
Hangover remedies probably evolved hand in hand with alcohol consumption. Pliny the Elder counseled Romans to eat fried canaries or raw owl's eggs. Ancient Assyrians tried to assuage their anguish by consuming a concoction of ground bird beaks and myrrh. Medieval Europeans consumed raw eels with bitter almonds. The Chinese drank green tea, which seems benign enough, but their neighbors the Mongolians ate pickled sheep's eyes. The Japanese ate pickled plums. Then there's the Prairie Oyster, introduced at the 1878 Paris World Expo: it's a raw egg (with the yolk intact), mixed with Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Puerto Ricans took a preventative tack: they rubbed sliced lemons in their armpits before drinking; In India, they drank coconut water, and there's some merit to that, because coconut water is rich in electrolytes and it helps with the dehydration.
Then there's the "hair of the dog" approach. In the 19th century, an Italian named Bernardino Branca developed a potion called Fernet: rhubarb, aloe, peppermint oil, and opiates. As a bonus, Fernet also cured cholera, or so Branca claimed. It's still available today, minus the opiates. Some people swear by the Bloody Mary: tomato juice mixed with vodka and a variety of spices; Hemingway's variant was tomato juice and beer.
A literature review in the British Medical Journal concludes that there is no reliable way to treat or prevent hangover after over-imbibing. The Algonquin Round Table writer Robert Benchley came to a similar conclusion: "A real hangover is nothing to try out family remedies on. The only cure for a real hangover is death."
Source: www.writersalmanac.org
One Hundred Years of Solitude
January 2It’s the birthday of Isaac Asimov (1920). He was born in Petrovichi, Russia, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old. He grew up in Brooklyn, where his family ran a candy store. Most people think of him as a science fiction author, and he is considered one of the “Big Three” in that genre (along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke), but his books are found in all 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System. He wrote or edited over 500 books, many of them works of popular science, making him one of the most prolific writers of all time.
35 years ago, Isaac Asimov was asked by the Star to predict the world of 2019. Here is what he wrote. lf we look into the world as it may be at the end of another generation, let’s say 2019, that’s 35 years from now, the same number of years since 1949 when George Orwell’s 1984 was first published, three considerations must dominate our thoughts:
1. Nuclear war. 2. Computerization. 3. Space utilization.
If the United States and the Soviet Union flail away at each other at any time between now and 2019, there is absolutely no use to discussing what life will be like in that year. Too few of us, or of our children and grand·children, will be alive then for there to be any point in describing the precise condition of global misery at that time.
Let us, therefore, assume there will be no nuclear war, not necessarily a safe assumption, and carry on from there. Computerization will undoubtedly continue onward inevitably. Computers have already made themselves essential to the governments of the industrial nations, and to world industry: and it is now beginning to make itself comfortable in the home. An essential side product, the mobile computerized object, or robot, is already flooding into industry and will, in the course of the next generation, penetrate the home.
There is bound to be resistance to the march of the computers, but barring a successful Luddite revolution, which does not seem in the cards, the march will continue. The growing complexity of society will make it impossible to do without them, except by courting chaos; and those parts of the world that fall behind in this respect will suffer so obviously as a result that their ruling bodies will clamour for computerization as they now clamour for weapons.
Source: www.thestar.com - ( https://bit.ly/2s13IOr)
Conversations with Isaac Asimov
January 3, 1892 is the birthday of J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien, born to English parents in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where his father was working in a bank. Tolkien was always fascinated with languages, he went to school at Oxford, first studying Classics, and later, English Language and Literature. He came across an Old English poem by Cynewulf, which contained a couplet that fascinated him: "Hail Earendel brightest of angels / Over Middle Earth sent to men." The couplet found new life in the universe of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1955), which takes place in Middle Earth and includes a half-Elven character named Earendil the Mariner, who eventually becomes a star.
In 1925, Tolkien returned to Oxford University as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and, later, English Language and Literature. One day, while grading exams, he discovered that a student had left one whole page in his examination booklet blank. Tolkien, for reasons unknown even to him, wrote on the page, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." This single line turned into a bedtime story that he told his children, and from there, a book: The Hobbit (1937) …
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill - The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it - and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river ….."
The Hobbit
All About Books
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According to the 17th-century historian and gossip John Aubrey, Thomas Hobbes “was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men, he should have known no more than other men.” As a great thinker, Hobbes epitomises English common sense and the amateur spirit, and is all the more appealing for deriving his philosophy from his experience as a scholar and man of letters, a contemporary and occasional associate of Galileo, Descartes and the young Charles Stuart, prince of Wales, before the Restoration. Hobbes himself was born an Elizabethan, and liked to say that his premature birth in 1588 was caused by his mother’s anxiety at the threat of the Spanish Armada: “… it was my mother dear, Did bring forth twins at once, both me, and fear.”
Throughout his long life, Hobbes was never far either from the jeopardy of the times (notably the thirty years’ war and the English civil war) or the jeopardy sponsored by the brooding realism and pragmatic clarity of his philosophy. What, asked Hobbes, was the form of politics that would provide the security that he and his contemporaries longed for, but were always denied? Subtitled “The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil”, Leviathan first appeared in 1651, during the Cromwell years, with perhaps the most famous title page in the English canon, an engraving of an omnipotent giant, composed of myriad tiny human figures, looming above a pastoral landscape with sword and crosier erect. …. (cont.)
Source: www.theguardian.com (https://bit.ly/2zEwh8q)