Corfu Blues

I Mean Well

2012-01-25T15:14:00.002Z

Some coats of arms

Theo Angelopoulos accident

2012-01-25T06:38:00.011Z

The Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos has died following an accident. He was hit by a motorcyclist.

See an older posting on Angelopoulos

It was only a few weeks ago that I was watching his great film "The Weeping Meadow".

I have followed his work since his first feature, "Reconstruction", but I haven't always enjoyed his films. I remember walking out of the overlong "Megalexandros", in spite of the superb compositions and cinematography, and his perspectives on modern Greek history. Viewers are not always in the right mood for the slow pace of his films.

A tragic end to a unique cinematic talent.

Don't miss the film extract in this posting from Keep Talking Greece.

I know the feeling.

Luteolin: eat more of the flavonoid in fruit and vegetables

2012-01-23T10:04:00.005Z

Research paper from BMC Gastroenterology

Popularisation in the tabloids (spotted while waiting for my car to be serviced this morning).

What I found interesting was the list of foods containing the cancer-slowing flavonoid luteolin, which include

Thyme, oregano, rosemary, camomile tea, peppermint, olive oil, carrots and navel oranges.

Sounds like the typical Greek diet in most respects.

Another item that caught my eye at the garage, some research on the evolutionary differences between males and females regarding warfare!

Never on Sunday

2012-01-22T10:53:00.008Z

Don't look back: sorry, Melina, not quite a paidi tou Pirea!

I want my marbles back!

Song, The Mediterranean
Different images:
The Mediterranean (2)

The Rehearsal, I Epistoli, Dassin, Theodorakis, Mercouri

Duet with Mikis

Rime Improvvisate, Solomos' improvised poems in Italian

2012-01-21T15:25:00.009Z

Letter (Zante, 1822) from Lodovico Strani(s) to Ugo Foscolo, published as the introduction to Solomos' first collection of poetry (Rime Improvvisate, 30 sonnets in Italian), published by Strani(s) in Corfu, 1822.

Solomos

The Greek National Anthem

From the poem:

Δυστυχής! Παρηγορία

μόνη σοῦ ἔμενε, νὰ λὲς

περασμένα μεγαλεῖα,

καὶ διηγῶντάς τα νὰ κλαῖς.

Two passports issued to Lodovico Stranis by the British Lord High Commissioner in the 1840s:

The Hill of Strani, Zakynthos

Panoramic View

The Hill of Strani, by Aglaia Papa

Jungmannová Cultural Resource Centre Ceiling, Prague, Milan Ressel

2012-01-21T13:32:00.024Z

Milan Ressel, Ceiling Dome Artwork, Prague Cultural Section Resource Centre, c. 1987,
on the theme of free and unfettered cultural exchange
between Britain and Czechoslovakia.

On Lute, Jim; Bagpipes, Milan; guitar, John Lennon!
(Milan's little joke: the three British cultural representatives were intended to be Shakespeare (or an Elizabethan lutenist), a Scottish bagpiper and John Lennon -with a nod to the significance of The Beatles and the John Lennon Wall in Prague; the less visible Czechoslovak cultural figures were Dvořák, Smetana and Janaček)

"Olga described how, every Friday, her husband would take the tram to the Cultural Section of the British Embassy, an unbelievably dingy first-floor office in the Jungmannova, to read the reviews in the English newspapers."
Robert McCrum, The Fabulous Englishman, 1984

The ceiling painting aroused the interest of the StB (Secret Police) of course.

We tried to liven things up.

It's probably been whitewashed since then...

from Riot Police by the Statue of Jungmann:

Let's be proud of our office

In Jungmannova Street,

Though British books have been long suppressed.

Just repeat after John:

"What though the field is lost ?

All is not lost......."

"Cot', ze pole ztraceno ?

po vsem veta neni......"

Josef Jungmann, defiant Czech,

By translating John Milton revived his own tongue;

In spite of the Austrian censors' office,

In spite of censors still to come:

Courage; th' unconquerable will !
***

NOT ALL IN VAIN!

Reading, 24 October, 1989

Closely Observed Hrabal (Bohumil Hrabal)

2012-01-21T13:29:00.007Z

Bohumil Hrabal (right), at my Prague Apartment, c. 1987
Bohumil Hrabal, 1914-1997

On Hrabal (Wikipedia)
Essay on Hrabal
Closely Observed Trains, J. Menzel, 1966
Another scene from this influential film (also known as Closely Watched Trains)

Hungarian Blues

2012-01-21T13:26:00.001Z

K. Escher, 1933

Images of the Ethiopian Revolution

2012-01-21T07:19:00.004Z

My journalist daughter found the following old slides of interest, when I projected a selection on the wall.
She snapped them with her smart phone for her Twitter posts. There must be better ways to convert them to digital! Click on links below.

Early Days of the Revolution.
Two images of Ethiopian students about to be sent to the countryside by the Derg (Dergue):
"A drop of sweat for development". Indeed.

http://a.yfrog.com/img878/2755/iqshc.jpg

http://a.yfrog.com/img877/4104/qa1ib.jpg

The Late Johnny Otis, Greek King of Rock 'n' Roll...and Etta James, Queen of Soul

2012-01-20T12:34:00.019Z

Johnny Otis has died, aged 90.

Johnny Otis Show 1950s episode, link courtesy of Mojo Magazine

Johnny Otis profile

See my posting of March 2010, on Johnny Otis, the Greek King of Rock 'n' Roll

Just heard that Etta James has died too, aged 73. Update

Etta James with Dr John

And the original I'd rather go blind

Out of the Rain

I've got dreams to remember

BBC Obituary

English Law, Greek Law?

2012-01-20T07:45:00.002Z

Athens News reports

Edward Lear lived here...Corfu 2012

2012-01-19T15:25:00.002Z

Edward Lear lived here (well, near here)...

Condi Terrace (destroyed WWII):

photo reproduced from Edward Lear, The Corfu Years

and here...

Bicentenary Reading List

Between Two Worlds Conference, Athens

2012-01-19T08:09:00.001Z

Between Two Worlds

Conference Programme

Bath Time

2012-01-18T21:11:00.001Z

Parlourmaid Preparing a Bath Before Dinner, Bill Brandt, 1938

From the V&A Collection

Alex Salmond, Bagehot Interview

2012-01-18T08:39:00.004Z

Alex Salmond , Bagehot (The Economist).

Follow-up piece

See also my posting on Scotland and Scandinavia/the Nordics

Alexander the Great (and his War Horse)

2012-01-18T07:15:00.001Z

It's a pity the fella from Pella

Didn't listen to Aristotle,

He would have conquered the rest of the world,

If he hadn't kept hitting the bottle.

From Corfu Blues, the book

From Bucephalos, for Alex:

Heroic war-horse
Brave survivor
Alex says that he's a dragon

Afterword, Gjirokastër, Albania (Ismail Kadaré's family home)

2012-01-17T16:20:00.000Z

Kadaré’s old house

Now a burned-out ruin.

Just a postscript in stone.

Ismail Kadaré's family home (right), Gjirokastër, Albania.

From Corfu Blues, the book

Greek Islands: Family Feuds

2012-01-17T16:13:00.003Z

When families quarrel

Over children or trees

The bitterness lasts

For generations:

The feuds outlast roofs.

No one gives way

Before the walls fall in.

From Corfu Blues, the book

(NB No connection bewteen the houses depicted and the subject of the poem)

Paxos, Tethering Ring, Vassilatika

2012-01-17T15:56:00.000Z

Now that no-one rides mules,

There's nothing to tether

To the tethering rings.

(Abandoned Venetian house,Vassilatika, Paxos)

Haiku from Corfu Blues, the book

A rare scene in Corfu these days.

On Caps, Cups and Badges

2012-01-17T08:14:00.003Z

Still sorting out boxes of old photographs in an attempt to make more space. I came across the top two photographs, which I'd never seen before. My grandmother had kept them them, they're photos of a cup I was awarded at the age of seven, at the XIV School in Bristol. The cup was given for the "Best All-Rounder", I must have been proud, because I still remember the sense of achievement.

Not many years later, at around the age of twelve, I won my First Eleven Cricket Colours, a cap with a dolphin badge, at my school in Somerset. Again I felt proud: like a little hero for a day.

Educationists are divided about the encouragement of competition and achievement. The giving of stars, colours and badges, let alone the ranking of children in 'form orders', can have a negative effect on other children, it is sometimes argued.

It seems we are stuck with examinations, with honours, gongs, medals and other badges of achievement (ie in the Boy Scouts). In this year of the London Olympics there will be endless discussion of gold, silver and bronze medals.

We would all do well to remember our failures as well as our successes. I haven't kept any photos of the failures. Have you?

The Parthenon (Nashville)

2012-01-17T07:31:00.001Z

After Roy Acuff

"It's nothing!

-The Parthenon in Athens.

It's falling apart!

The new one in Nashville

Is better.

Behold!"

(from Corfu Blues, the book)

A Good Dinner in Stockholm

2012-01-16T07:46:00.000Z

Jamie and Jim!

The Game of Bau

2012-01-15T09:39:00.005Z

Playing Bau in Kenya

Playing Bau in rock-hewn board:

Article on rules of similar game (1913)

Portraits in Blues (Fading Images from Ethiopia)

2012-01-15T09:36:00.004Z

Sacred Rocks: Kit Mikayi, Luo Sacred Shrine, Kenya

2012-01-15T08:32:00.001Z

Kit Mikayi (Stone of the First Wife), a rock shrine of the Luo people, which has sacred status.

If you happen to see the giant snake as it goes to drink in the lake, you will die, it is said.

Is Kit Mikayi comparable to Stonehenge or Uluru?

Tewodros II (Theodore II; Kassa; Ethiopia; Battle of Magdala

2012-01-14T15:03:00.014Z

One of the most fascinating African heroes is Theodore II (Tewodros II), formerly known as Kassa.

There have been many books written about the Battle of Magdala, and I once produced educational TV and radio programmes telling Theodore's story, the events leading up to the Battle of Magdala and his suicide on April 13, 1868 (Theodore had imprisoned a group of missionaries and some of Queen Victoria's envoys, so the British marched against the fortress of Magdala). The military campaign, or punitive expedition, lead by Napier, took place in 1866-1868.

My two treatments were produced around 1973. For the TV programme we persuaded the Ambassador to lend us his ceremonial hat, to be worn by the actor (Gerald Mosback) who played the part of Napier.

Producing the radio play:

The poster at the top is from an Ethiopian play which was staged in Addis at the beginning of the Ethiopian revolution. Tewodros II became a great hero and symbol to Ethiopian students. His lowly origins stood in strong contrast to the feudal aristocratic lineage of Emperor Haile Selassie. The diabolic and violent imagery of the poster speaks for itself.

Here are the last two verses of "The Ballad of Kassa", which I wrote to open my own documentary radio play:

'The Queen sent an army to set the prisoners free,
Such cannons and soldiers you never did see;
They captured the fortress, the battle was won,
But Kassa just stood there, and took out his gun.

He would never surrender, he was a brave man and proud,
"I am still King of Kings!" he shouted out loud.
"Have you ever seen a lion just lay down and die?"
He blew out his brains without even a sigh.'

East London: Olympic Benefits?

2012-01-14T09:37:00.000Z

Nina-Maria reports

Finding Peace On Cogden Beach

2012-01-13T17:07:00.002Z

A great walk today, on Cogden Beach.

No dogs, no rubbish, no people

Well, some.

(NB I like dogs and people)

The Mind Has Mountains (Milton, Hopkins, Shakespeare)

2012-01-13T08:16:00.013Z

John Milton, Paradise Lost:

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.

(1:254-255)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, No Worst, There is None:

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall

Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap

May who ne'er hung there

William Shakespeare, King Lear

The tempest in my mind

Doth from my senses take all feeling else

Save what beats there...

(Act III, sc. IV)

"I got a tempest in my mind" (starts at 1.08)

"Mind Games"

"Got You On My Mind"

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible".

T. E. Lawrence, Introductory Chapter, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"

Greece: The Pressure Mounts

2012-01-13T07:58:00.000Z

Bloomberg report: a manageable exit?

Swedish Documentary on Greece

2012-01-12T18:55:00.001Z

Strong documentary film on Greece, Swedish Television. Find link and view film via this blog posting.

You will need to speak Greek or read Swedish to get the most out of it.

Hail, Liberty! Hail!

2012-01-10T19:54:00.002Z

On top of the Hill of Strani

A woman wields her sword.

She's a freedom-loving islander

Leading men, who fight with words.

The Hill of Strani, Zakynthos, where Solomos wrote The Hymn to Liberty (which became the Greek National Anthem, in the setting by Nikolaos Mantzaros)

From Kipling's translation:

We knew thee of old,

Oh, divinely restored,

By the light of thine eyes

And the light of thy Sword.

From the graves of our slain

Shall thy valour prevail

As we greet thee again-

Hail, Liberty! Hail!

But:

NO ENTRY AFTER SUNSET!
IT'S FORBIDDEN!

Paxos: Manessatika and Yeovil, What's the Link?

2012-01-10T19:39:00.000Z

The derelict engine

Imported from England,

Made by Petters of Yeovil,

Once powered the village olive press,

Faithfully turned

The grinding stone

Up in Manessatika.

Stamatis wants to sell it now,

His precious but rusting antique,

"From the time of Capodistrias!"

(From Corfu Blues, the book. Written many years ago)

Blues Pilgrimages, Stateside

2012-01-10T18:43:00.020Z

Sorting out old photos:

From San Francisco to Clarksdale, Tutwiler, Memphis, Lowell and Walls

Stanford, California
'Where's that Good Samaritan Gone?'
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poetry and Jazz, San Francisco, 1957

Clarksdale, Mississippi (video still)
"Five Long Years" Live, Juke Joint, Clarksdale (Jim)
"Whisky and Women" (John Lee Hooker)

Grave of Sonny Boy Williamson, Tutwiler, Mississippi

"Your Funeral and My Trial" (Watch and Listen)
"Help Me"

Memphis, Tennessee
Don't Answer the Door
Taking Care of Business (That's What Elvis Said)

Kerouac Commemorative, Lowell, Mass.
Jack Kerouac reads 'Charlie Parker'
and from 'On the Road'

Memphis Minnie, Walls, Mississippi
I'd rather see him dead
Me and My Chauffeur
When the Levee Breaks

John Updike in Prague (Bech in Czech)

2012-01-10T16:14:00.006Z

I don't know how I missed John Updike's visit to Prague in 1986 or his short story Bech in Czech. His visit to Prague occurred in April 1986, the same month I arrived. Maybe I missed him by a few days. I had heard Updike talk during a cultural relations visit to Addis Ababa in the early 1970s.

I had greatly enjoyed the two earlier Bech volumes, Bech: A Book and Bech is Back, but I wasn't aware of the third volume, Bech at Bay, with the superb story Bech in Czech. I've just obtained a copy.

It's as indispensable as Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange.

Here's a blog posting from Bill Kiehl (January 2009), with a photo of Updike in Prague.

Days of Liberation, 1944-1945

2012-01-10T14:48:00.001Z

Where was this shot taken? It's of a British cameraman from the Army Film and Photographic Unit.

Not in Athens in December 1944.

In Copenhagen (Kgs.Nytorv) around 7 May 1945 (Frihedsmuseet), from "When the British came/Da Engaenderne Kom", 1995.

On PhDs: Uncompleted Doctorates

2012-01-10T09:36:00.012Z

On two or three occasions I registered to do a PhD (long distance), the first time with the University of London Institute of Education, the second time with the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. I carried out extensive research for the chosen topics, but my peripatetic and pressured way of life made it impossible to complete what I had started (with the most serious academic aspirations and intentions).

The first developed from my interest in cross-cultural film-training, film-making and technology, and explorations of the concepts of an international film language and cultural identity, with special reference to Africa.

My ideas changed significantly between 1971 and 1978.

This is part of what I said at a workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, in October 1974 (Film-making in developing countries, ed. Andreas Fuglesang, The Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, 1975):

By 1978, my thinking was fundamentally different, and I explored the issue in much more depth in an eight-page article in Sight and Sound (British Film Institute, Spring 1979), first two pages below:

The second PhD topic related to Greece, and was concerned with Perceptions of Greece in twentieth century Anglophone literature (British, American, Canadian, Australian), focusing on four key political turning points (Occupation, Civil War, Cyprus Crisis, Military Junta). It could be more relevant today, if I extended it to cover the twenty-first century economic crisis.

Postings overseas made it almost impossible to have adequate access to supervisors or relevant libraries. In the end I did manage to make use of some of the research and material in various publications, including The Ionian Islands and Epirus, A Cultural History.

I wonder what the next topic should be? At one point, when I thought I was going to be posted to Scotland, I started on an alternative film-related PhD topic on Film and the Projection of Scottish Identity (also at London University Institute of Education). At very short notice, having leased a house in West Linton, near Edinburgh, I was asked to transfer to Thessaloniki, Greece. That was that; but the research proved helpful in Stockholm many years later when I worked on the Scotland in Sweden campaign, and I could be instrumental in supporting publications like The Pocket Scottish Movie Book, by Brian Pendreigh (2002).

I also developed an informed interest in issues related to devolution and governance (below, 2002 Uppsala Seminar lead to this 2004 publication, still highly relevant!).

Most of the time, everything was out of sync- in terms of more formal academic pursuits.
Nothing is ever wasted, it seems. Things can be recycled. I still have a folder of material for I book I once planned on Film and National Identity.
The world is none the worse for the lack of another bound PhD thesis...
but maybe you should call me "Doc"!

Reuters, Greece and the IMF

2012-01-09T07:54:00.002Z

Reuters on Greece and the IMF, and structural adjustment problems.

Keep Talking Greece blog

Talkin' Moscow Blues, the late Josef Skvorecký

2012-01-09T07:35:00.011Z

Josef Škvorecký

The Czech writer and publisher Josef Skvorecky has died, aged 87, on January 3, 2012.

Obituary (Telegraph) and BBC

On Jazz in totalitarian states

Ethiopian Culture and Folk Art

2012-01-08T11:25:00.004Z

Some shots from circa 1972-1973:

Pottery, injera baskets in the market, Debteras at Timket celebration

The Dance of the Debteras

Kenya, All Smiles

2012-01-08T11:22:00.002Z

These photos from c. 1976 have lost some of their original colour

Fifty Years of Dylan in the UK (from the Madhouse)

2012-01-07T22:09:00.012Z

Hard to believe that next January (2013) marks the fiftieth anniversary of my first encounter with the music of Bob Dylan.

How many others remember the BBC play "Madhouse on Castle Street", in which Dylan sang The Ballad of the Gliding Swan , Blowin' in the Wind (sung at the beginning and end of the play) and two other songs?
It was broadcast in January 1963. Dylan made a lasting impression as a hobo singer/guitar-player.

Another song from the period: Only a Hobo

From the BBC's Arena website:

DYLAN IN THE MADHOUSE

Remarkably, Bob Dylan first visited Britain to take part in a BBC play.

It was the coldest winter on record: Britain was frosty and grey.

Millions of milk bottles were buried in snow drifts, Cliff was number one, and there were two TV channels and three radio stations (all BBC). This was the world a 21-year-old Bob Dylan entered when he visited London for the first time in December 1962, having never left America before.

Dylan had been spotted playing in a Greenwich Village club by enfant-terrible TV director Philip Saville. Saville felt he'd be perfect for the part of Lennie, the rebellious young lead in a high-profile BBC drama Madhouse on Castle Street.

Despite his total lack of acting experience, Dylan was hired for a substantial fee, brought over to the UK and put up at one of London's poshest hotels, The Mayfair. He was in London for three weeks. He introduced himself to the folk scene, which was a direct parallel of the one he'd left behind in New York. Both were leftish, vibrant, cultish affairs that would provide Dylan with the springboard to transform popular music.

As for the play, it exposed Dylan to Britain's disturbing and surreal new genre of so-called 'boarding house drama'. Madhouse on Castle Street is set in a boarding house somewhere in England. One of the tenants, Walter Tompkins, has retired to his room and vows never to come out again. Dylan sang four songs including the first ever broadcast of Blowin' in the Wind.

The BBC wiped the play in 1968 and it's since become the Holy Grail of missing Dylan archive. Arena goes in search of that lost treasure, finding the rarest ever Dylan tracks along the way and exploring the bizarre, magical, not to say hilarious story of the first time Bob Dylan was let loose in London.

The Arena programme had contributions from director Philip Saville, Evan Jones who wrote the play, folk legends Martin Carthy and Peggy Seeger and supreme Dylan collector, Ian Woodward.

Thessaloniki: 100 Years of Freedom

2012-01-07T10:45:00.003Z

2012 marks the centenary of the liberation of Thessaloniki. 100 years as a free city, as part of Greek territory.

I will be discussing some poems and a novel about Thessaloniki at a conference (Between Two Worlds) in Athens later this month.

Here's one of the poems, from the beginning of World War II, "Salonica June 1940", by Bernard Spencer:

And a Civil War novel, "My Son is in the Mountains", by Daniel Nash (1955):

" A World Within a Crystal Turning", Lawrence Durrell on Greece

2012-01-07T09:07:00.002Z

An exciting new publication has just been announced, and it includes unseen paintings of Greece made by Lawrence Durrell/Oscar Epfs.

With both the Lear Bicentenary and the Durrell Centenary this year, there is bound to be heightened interest in their art as well as in their writings.

See also Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World, ed. Anna Lillios (2004).

Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bruce Chatwin

2012-01-06T08:08:00.001Z

A useful link to a blog with some video excerpts (BBC 4, In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin)

EU Financial Transaction Tax

2012-01-05T18:00:00.004Z

Telegraph report on the EU Transaction Tax and update
Reuters' update

It seems that the City of London has never been popular with our neighbours in Europe:

Published in Germany and Britain, 1939.

Excerpt from Chapter 5, Great Britain, the World's Banker:

etc..

Cycladic Harpist

2012-01-05T16:44:00.002Z

Hear how the harp-lyre may have sounded

The oldest written melody in history?

Rock Art at Kakadu

2012-01-05T16:39:00.000Z

It must be obvious that I am dreaming about Australia.

Maybe it's the weather, or something like that.

Cedric Talbot, Didgeridoo

2012-01-05T16:36:00.005Z

Cedric Talbot at Government House, Sydney

Cedric Talbot is a very talented Australian didgeridoo player. I once performed my poems "The Apocalyptic Blues" and "Jindyworobak 1997" at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney, arranged for his expressive didj accompaniment. The occasion was the Sydney Poetry Olympics (for three consecutive years, 1995-1997, I was invited to be one of the judges/adjudicators; in '97 they asked the judges to perform too, the others being Chin Woon Ping and Jill Jones).

I wish I had arranged for it to be recorded.

The photograph was taken at a much more formal occasion at Government House, Sydney in 1997.

Cedric is a Bundjalung artist, a performer since the age of eleven, first with Awabakal Dance Troupe and then with Bahtabah Aboriginal Dance Troupe. He used to tour extensively in schools throughout Australia, raising awareness and introducing children to the richness of Aboriginal culture, using didgeridoo, language, body painting, dance, song and artefacts, as well as Dreamtime and personal stories.

In 1995, at the launch of the first Sydney Poetry Olympics, my fellow judge was Yusef Komunyakaa. That year the Sydney Writers' Festival organised the opening event at the Opera House (Northern Foyer). In 1996 the Nuyorican poets, including Dale Orlandersmith and Emily XYZ , took part in a poetry slam at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Together we attempted to judge the best poems and performances for the Poetry Olympics. Never an easy matter.

I can't find performances by Cedric Talbot on YouTube, so here's an alternative

Something more traditional

Blues for Ali Pasha Tepeleni

2012-01-05T16:27:00.003Z

I once heard a snatch of an old Albanian folksong; the sound carried from the valley below Berat Castle.

Where's Ali the Lion?
"Body in Jannina,
Head in Istanbul".

(from "Corfu Blues", the book).

Filming in Africa (Arriflex and Bolex)

2012-01-05T16:20:00.013Z

I hadn't realised that these old film cameras were of such interest to the digital generation.

Photos from my "film decade" (Bristol Drama Department; CEDO; Ethiopia and Kenya).

See also my postings on Filming in Kenya

and on Ethiopian Educational Television

Greece, the situation in January 2012

2012-01-05T11:40:00.002Z

According to Kathimerini

The Big Clear-Out Blues

2012-01-05T10:57:00.008Z

January is a good time for a big clear-out. The trouble is, you start going through all the old files, papers and photos stored away in a succession of different attics and garages, and you come across things like these old programmes from 1969-1970. It makes me think: still playing the same three chords as I did back then! Or, "I was so much older then..."

Practising "Honey Just Allow Me One more Chance" and "John Wesley Harding"

for Ethiopian TV performance

Still, I must have blown a mean blues harp...

Six Poems in Swedish

2012-01-05T09:03:00.000Z

"Sex dikter", translated by Boel Schenlaer, Lyrikvännen, Stockholm, April, 2004.

'Je est un autre' (Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh!)

2012-01-04T19:12:00.006Z

Kookaburra sits on my balcony,

Merry merry king of the bay is he...

(Elizabeth Bay, Sydney)

Ioana Petrescu, Australian Poet

2012-01-04T09:29:00.011Z

I recommend these moving new poems just published in the distinguished online literary journal Asiatic, December 2011, by the brilliant Romanian-born Australian poet Ioana Petrescu

Three more of her poems, on Friendly Street Poets . Readers enjoy "Dracula".

Ioana once translated a selection of my own poems into Romanian:

Poems by James Potts, translated into Romanian by Ioana Petrescu, in Calende, No 1-2, 2000.

I particularly admire her collection, Fumigated, Ginnninderra Press, 2001.

See also two poems, different reactions to Munch's The Scream

This is one of my own poems that Ioana translated into Romanian. It was written in Bucharest in June 1990:

The revolution's not over
(Bucharest, National Gallery, 12.6.1990)

The revolution's not over,
Not in the gallery, at least.
The paintings, stacked in storerooms,
Gather dust in sticky heat.
Armed guards stand watch amidst the rubble,
Indifferent to Art's untreated wounds,
To bullets through breast, through brain and heart;
To vandalised canvases, peppered with holes;
To shattered frames, to splintered icons.
I'm shown a Brueghel, and then El Greco.
Both safe, but needing expert care.
Which priceless works went up in smoke ?
And the restoration studio ? Lost.
I'll never invest in works of art.
Slashed and defaced; such shredded flesh.
Did trigger-happy snipers
Do their target-practice here ?
They couldn't have done much worse,
If they'd ushered in a gang of thugs
To poke out/pluck out each painted eye.

Oil near Ioannina?

2012-01-03T11:40:00.002Z

I'm surprised that there is oil in the Ioannina area.

I remember only too clearly the chaos and consternation when AGIP started prospecting and planning to drill for oil on the island of Paxos.

Walter Lassally, Cinematographer in Crete

2012-01-03T10:49:00.010Z

Walter Lassally (centre), my favourite Director of Photography

Photograph taken in Sydney, June,1997, with Ruth Carr, Justine Kerrigan, Jim and Nina-Maria.

Walter Lassally now lives in Stavros, near Chania, Crete. Just look at his credits, from Free Cinema documentaries, to Tom Jones and Zorba the Greek (Oscar) and other classics of British and world cinema.

Wish I were back in Watson's Bay! Here the storm is raging outside.

God is an Englishman (sorry??)

2012-01-03T09:14:00.008Z

This 1970 book by Donald Horne has been sitting unread on my shelves since I bought it in Sydney, Australia.

I wonder if the contents are as provocative as the cover? On first glance, he clearly had it against the conceited, self-assured "Upper English", as he calls the type.

I'll just take the advice of Bo Diddley

Maybe it was intended as a spoof, like this...

A test now, for the linguists:

When do you think the following book about England was published? These are the last two pages of the book:

Byron in Greece (just one more time)

2012-01-03T07:55:00.014Z

The final episode in a drama

Poem 1

Poem 2

Song (Leonard Cohen)

Song (Joan Baez)

Lord Byron, Celebrity Dieter

Tony Harrison relocating the faded, inscribed signatures of Byron and Hobhouse, Delphi

Greek Cash in London (Prospect Magazine)

2012-01-02T10:39:00.001Z

Prospect magazine article on this Greek phenomenon

and Athens News on farm subsidies in Greece

Jacques Prévert: Words for Austerity

2012-01-02T07:39:00.014Z

Time to read Jacques Prévert again.

La grasse matinée

Interpreted by Marianne Oswald

Oh vous qui connaissez l'Angleterre (Cosy Corner)

Interpreted by Béatrice Arnac

Je suis comme je suis, Wende Snijders

Je suis comme je suis, Juliette Greco

Two very different interpretations.

Dimitris Tsaloumas, Australian Poet

2012-01-01T08:37:00.003Z

Dimitris Tsaloumas is probably Australia's greatest contemporary poet. He is often described as Greek-Australian, because he writes in both languages, Greek and English.

In the year of Greece's accession to the EU (1981) I was living and working in Thessaloniki. It was also the year that Tsaloumas's "The Book of Epigrams" was published by Nea Poreia in Thessaloniki, in the original Greek.

One poem in particular stands out now as particularly prophetic, Prodigal II, although I do not know when the poem was written or to which period the poem refers.

A pity no one paid attention!

The English translation was made by Philip Grundy and appeared in The Observatory, University of Queensland Press, 1983 (enlarged edition 1991). I met Dimitri Tsaloumas in Australia and we became friends. One cannot exaggerate the importance of his work.

Another great poem is Autumn Supper.

Happy New Year!

George Seferis, Greek Website

2011-12-30T11:24:00.008Z

Just discovered an invaluable website, which has many of George Seferis' poems in Greek, as well as a number of his key statements and speeches:

http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/arts/tributes/george_seferis/

There are also good sections for other Greek poets and writers, such as Sikelianos, Papadiamantis, Solomos, Ritsos, Karyotakis, Dimoula, Palamas, Kavvadias, Elytis etc

Soft Power at its best!

Thomas Hardy, New Year's Eve, 1900

2011-12-30T10:34:00.009Z

The Darkling Thrush, from the Hardy Society blog

Last verse:

"So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through

His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware."

A cheerful prognosis for 2012 from 27 economists! The return of recession. Thanks for the good news. I think I'll consult the oracles at Delphi and Dodoni.

The answer will be...

One note of optimism!

But I've just discovered the grim concept of "managed decline" which has apparently been in use for a very long time.

Catching Up on the Greek Gossip

2011-12-27T14:49:00.005Z

Keep Talking Greece is back from holiday

Kathimerini comments on the Mt. Athos (Vatopedi) issue, and on the forest fires ...

The Ghost of the Colonels, Adam Curtis

Soft Power, Hard Concept

2011-12-26T13:02:00.009Z

Boxing Day, and I have restarted work on a paper I will be giving in Athens at the end of January.

As part of this work, I am thinking about the concept of "Soft Power", a term coined by Prof. Joseph Nye of Harvard University.

There's an interesting contribution to the debate here, by John Glen, in the UK edition of the Huffington Post.

Professor Nye, Q and A (watch)

His 2010 London lecture (watch)

His 2010 London lecture. Listen

The Wikipedia entry on Soft Power

It's the word 'power' that bothers me in this context. The term may be ok if confined to the idea that most countries have a cultural allure, or attraction for foreigners, important assets which shouldn't be undervalued.

Plastic Money and VAT Collection in Greece

2011-12-26T10:21:00.002Z

Pay your VAT!

Hardy's Christmas

2011-12-26T10:12:00.003Z

Another good link, to Hardy's House of Hospitalities.

Much as I like Hardy, his use of language can be very odd:

"Since the viands were outset here"

The Siege of Corfu, Vivaldi, 1716

2011-12-26T10:08:00.000Z

Thanks to Spyros Kurtis, I have discovered a fascinating piece of music by Vivaldi.

"The Siege of Corfu".

Something to include in the next edition of "The Ionian Islands and Epirus"!

Bob Dylan in Greece, 1964

2011-12-25T17:19:00.065Z

I hadn't realised that Dylan's "I'll keep it with mine" was probably written in Greece, at the time when Bob was also working on a number of songs for his fourth album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Songs included "It Ain't Me Babe" (he'd also worked on this on an earlier occasion in Italy) and the lovely demo, "Mama you been on my mind" (if you prefer it, this is the Joan Baez version)

Apparently "I'll keep it with mine" was written for Nico (Christa Paffgen), who died in July 1988; she recorded a version of the song.

Commentators seem to be unable to identify the village near Athens where she and Bob are said to have stayed for a short period in May/June,1964.

Nobody can find the village near Athens called Vernilya, the location of so much creativity. It remains a mystery.

Robert Shelton calls it Vermilya in "No Direction Home, The Life and Music of Bob Dylan":

"After an appearance in London in May 1964, Dylan made a lightning trip to Paris and then Greece, where, with his road manager, Victor Maimudes, he visited the small village of Vermilya."

Victor died in 2001. The late Suze Rotola does not have good words for Bob's "buddy-bodyguard" in "A Freewheelin' Time", page 285. Wherever Vermilya/Vernilia may be, it deserves a plaque.

David Hajdu, in "Positively 4th Street", writes that "Bob wrote nearly all the songs for his next record in about a week at the end of May, while vacationing in Greece between engagements in a one-month tour of Europe."

I once suspected that some of the verses in "Mr Tambourine Man" were also written in Greece that May. Then for a while I thought they could also have been inspired six months later by the Cacoyannis film "Zorba the Greek" (eg the lines about dancing beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands...Let me forget about today until tomorrow- remember the reaction of Zorba after the collapse of the cable railway?). But Dylan had written the first version of the song around February 1964, or maybe as early as 1962. He recorded a version in the Columbia Studio on 9 June, 1964 (with Rambling Jack Elliott on back-up vocals). He performed it at the Newport Folk Festival (with that verse) in the summer of 1964. Zorba the Greek didn't open until December 1964 (first reviews, 18 December, 1964).

The Zorba link seemed a plausible idea, given the acknowledged influence on Dylan of Fellini's La Strada and Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player. When Nat Hentoff conducted an interview with Dylan (January 1966) for Playboy Magazine (February 1966), he asked him if he had any unfulfilled ambitions. Dylan replied:

"Well, I guess I've always wanted to be Anthony Quinn in La Strada. Not always-only for about six years now; it's not one of those childhood-dream things."

The fact is that Dylan worked on many of his songs at many different times and places. I'm certainly not a Dylanologist, and we'll probably never know the answers to many questions, unless Dylan chooses to write about them in some future volume of Chronicles.

Judy Collins also recorded the song I'll Keep It with Mine. She has said that Bob told her that the song was written for her.

Some other notable songs with a stronger Greek connection:

Leonard Cohen, Bird on a Wire

Donovan, Writer in the Sun

Cat Stevens, Rubylove

Pulp, Common People

Someone helpfully posted a Greek translation of the first line:

Ήρθε από την Ελλάδα, είχε μια δίψα για γνώση. Εκεινη σπούδασε γλυπτική στο St.Martin 's College...

African Sanctus, David Fanshawe

2011-12-24T16:10:00.023Z

Listen again to the first section of David Fanshawe's unforgettable work, African Sanctus, with recorded music of the Acholi people (Bwala Dance) mixed with his composed choral Latin Sanctus. This recording starts by bringing together Dorset voices and East African musicians- and presents other excerpts from the work.

Culturally inappropriate? Musically eccentric? For me African Sanctus still works, magnificently. It conveys a powerful message of unity. Although not the most obvious choice of music for Christmas Eve, it illuminates my own cross-cultural experiences and a life of travelling and international bridge-building. I share his love of indigenous folk-music.

David Fanshawe, Devon-born musical visionary, composer and explorer, died on 5 July 2010.

We met in Stockholm in October 2003. Maybe he would have enjoyed my film about Ethiopia. It includes a sequence on the Ethiopian Christmas ceremony at Lalibela.

Good Title for a Topical Christmas Book

2011-12-24T09:46:00.001Z

This book cover caught my eye at the local library. It was not what I thought. In fact it's a popular children's story by Anthony Horowitz.

I was beginning to speculate as to the identity of "the Greek who stole Christmas". Any nominations?

To What Strange Place, Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929

2011-12-23T20:05:00.004Z

This is a 3 CD set for the stocking. See trailer

Background from Ian Nagoski

Russell Hoban, One Less Octopus at Paxos

2011-12-23T16:40:00.006Z

Russell Hoban, the writer, died on 13 December 2011.

His very short story One Less Octopus at Paxos, a model of flash fiction (although it's probably a true story), appeared in Granta Magazine in 1983. It's the second story in this Granta Travel Issue link.

Richard Pine, on the outlook for Greece

2011-12-23T11:27:00.002Z

Richard Pine, The Irish Times.

The Nights are Drawing In- Soul Song from 'Corfu Blues'

2011-12-23T10:05:00.005Z

I've been meaning to post a link to this song, The Nights are Drawing In, for quite a few months, even though it hasn't been through the full remix and other post-production adjustments.

I wrote the lyric many years ago (the situation is entirely imaginary), but Raul Scacchi has given the tune an excellent arrangement, and Stefania Kaloudis (Stefanie) has given it a deep, sad, heart-felt rendering .

I always found it difficult to sing this song myself- for technical reasons. Corina Hamilton also did a great job on it, but her version was never recorded.

The song lyric appears in my book "Corfu Blues" (pp93-94), Ars Interpres, Stockholm, 2006.

Getting in the Party Mood, Fifties Style, with Wanda

2011-12-22T18:55:00.005Z

Hard Headed Woman, Wanda Jackson

Let's Have a Party, Wanda Jackson

Mean Mean Man, Wanda Jackson

Singing the Blues, Wanda Kackson

A little nostalgia, why not.

The Fujiyama Mama really knew how to rock...

and the Queen of Rockabilly is still going strong: Merry Christmas, Baby

An Unexpected Review of The Ionian Islands and Epirus

2011-12-22T09:36:00.000Z

Just received the 2011 edition of the Wadham College (Oxford) Gazette. I was pleased to find the following book review. Fran Woodcock, the reviewer, calls my "The Ionian Islands and Epirus" "a dynamic, compelling narrative". Most welcome at the winter solstice!

The same issue features two satirical poems by Maurice Bowra on Patrick Leigh Fermor, printed for the first time.

Long Live Havel! (Prague Christmas Card, 1988)

2011-12-21T17:17:00.029Z

My Last Christmas in Prague,
Kaprová Koleda, Christmas Eve, 1988

I’d like to write a Christmas poem,

Or, better still, a carol.

Dujdaj, dujdaj, dujdaj, da!

“The carp in the tanks,

The tanks in the squares,

The squares in the cities,

The cities in chains”.

Veselme se? Radujme se?

A dying fall of Ryba.

***

A few months later, a thousand brave people signed their names in support of Havel, at the time of his trial, on 21 February 1989. I noted then:

“The Czechs don’t want a new Mandela

Within the heart of Europe.”

***

October 1989:

24 October, 1989:

Prague, Academy of Sciences, 23 November, 1989, the roars and chants of the crowds outside:

At’ žíji herci!

Pravda vitĕze!

Long live Havel!

Farewell, Václav.
Funeral on Friday

One minute's silence at noon, Czech time (11 am UK time)

Not the same as being present in St. Vitus' Cathedral:

From Dvořàk's Requiem

More from the Requiem

Havel, Rolling Stones

Havel's Journey and the StB

Stoppard on Havel

Havel at the BC, Prague, 14. 4.1992:

pf 2012 At’ žíji herci!

European Central Bank Report

2011-12-20T09:25:00.003Z

ECB Press Release, 19 December

Financial Stability Review, Summary

Corfu: Laiki Agora

2011-12-18T16:06:00.004Z

John's Corfu World features the popular market in Corfu Town, finally in operation. What an extraordinary saga it has been!

I won't be able to offer my own verdict until February. Someone should write the full story of what really happened over the last five years.

Greek announcement

Another fascinating posting from John's Corfu World, on the Paleo-Christian Basilica near Mon Repos

End of an Era: Vaclav Havel has died

2011-12-18T12:07:00.008Z

BBC reports death of Vaclav Havel, aged 75

Happier days

BBC Obituary

In pictures

Czechs honour Havel

So much sad news these days...Cesaria Evora

Sings Petit Pays

Cape Verde Music Lives On

And Billie Jo Spears...Blanket on the Ground

Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-16T09:50:00.003Z

Following the sad passing of Christopher Hitchens, the BBC has posted this recorded conversation with Jeremy Paxman (from 29 November, 2010).

+ audio, talking to Nina-Maria

Simon Marks reports for FSN

Britain and the EU

2011-12-16T09:42:00.001Z

Another think piece from Bagehot, The Economist.

On "Benefit Tourists", from Russia Today

El Pais, " Page Not Found" (ratings war & the French 'war of words')

2011-12-16T09:32:00.009Z

Eurointelligence linked to a page in El Pais. I tried it. Page Not Found!
This message appeared instead. Second thoughts about this French attack on the UK? Something lost in translation?
Page Not Found
Reason: File "Paris seems to have assumed that the loss of its AAA credit rating maximum is a matter of days or perhaps hours. All day yesterday circulated reports that the indigestible Standard & Poor's was to communicate the reduction of the note assesses the credit risk of sovereign debt at nightfall. The denial of the Elysee only prolonged the agony, and did not mitigate the resounding echo of the statements of the Bank of France governor and chief executive of the ECB, Christian Noyer, who launched harsh criticism of the agencies, and in an undiplomatic gesture, fired United Kingdom: "Agencies should start to degrade Britain's triple A," Noyer said, "they have higher deficits, more debt, more inflation, less growth than we and credit is shrinking."" was not found (2)!

Never fear, The Telegraph has it.

BBC update

BBC on Fitch ratings

FT: On the "Anglo-French spat"

Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, Memorial Service

2011-12-15T10:43:00.003Z

I had hoped to be in London today, for the Memorial Service for Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, and to meet friends (writers about Greece and the Balkans) at the Frontline Club this evening. My regrets.

Order of Service

Sound recording

An online celebration

Austerity Greece: The IMF Fifth Review

2011-12-14T13:20:00.005Z

Pdf file here

Athens News

Fading pensions

On catching tax evaders

Lorentzos Mavilis, 2012 Centenary

2011-12-13T12:42:00.004Z

2012 marks the centenary of the death of the great Greek poet Lorentzoz Mavilis.

From his sonnet on the Temple and Spring of Kardaki, Corfu:

"Whatever foreigner wets his lips there
Will never return to his home again".

Για τα 100 χρόνια από τον θάνατό του

ΣΕΙΡΑ ΕΚΔΗΛΩΣΕΩΝ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΛΟΡΕΝΤΖΟ ΜΑΒΙΛΗ

Από την Εταιρεία Κερκυραϊκών Σπουδών

Σειρά εκδηλώσεων για τον Λορέντζο Μαβίλη ετοιμάζει για το έτος 2012 η Εταιρεία Κερκυραϊκών Σπουδών (Μουσείο Σολωμού), καθώς το έτος αυτό συμπληρώνονται εκατό χρόνια από τον ηρωικό θάνατο του Ποιητή στο Δρίσκο στους απελευθερωτικούς αγώνες της Ηπείρου.

Οι εκδηλώσεις θα ξεκινήσουν την 11^η Ιανουαρίου 2012 με ομιλία του συγγραφέα Νάσου Μαρτίνου και θα ακολουθήσουν κι άλλες συναφείς ομιλίες, ενώ θα επιδιωχθεί και μια κοινή εκδήλωση με την Εταιρεία Ηπειρωτικών Μελετών, στον χώρο της θυσίας του.

Στις εκδηλώσεις εντάσσεται Επιστημονική Ημερίδα για το έργο του Ποιητή με πανεπιστημιακούς νεοελληνιστές, η οποία προγραμματίζεται για τα τέλη Μαρτίου 2012. Την επιμέλεια της ημερίδας έχει ο αντιπρόεδρος της Εταιρείας Κερκυραϊκών Σπουδών καθηγητής Θεοδόσης Πυλαρινός.

Για όλες τις εκδηλώσεις θα υπάρξει λεπτομερής ενημέρωση από την Εταιρεία Κερκυραϊκών Σπουδών.

Here's a setting of his poem, Lethe (Blessed are the Dead)- although I much prefer the Manolis Kalomiris setting.

The poem in Greek and English

Field Report from Epirus, Greece

2011-12-09T21:05:00.000Z

Nina-Maria reporting from the Zagori and Ioannina

Scotland and Scandinavia/the Nordics

2011-12-09T19:21:00.010Z

This BBC Report takes me back to "Scotland in Sweden", a year-long project - more than 30 events (2002-2003)- with which I was closely involved when working in Stockholm.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh carried out an inquiry and formulated a response to the question below concerning impact and sustainability:

What are the benefits of the ‘Scotland in’ series of events (such as ‘Scotland in Sweden’, ‘Scotland in Brussels’ and ‘Scotland with Catalonia’), the coherency of the programme and the sustainability of this promotional tool?

"When a number of agencies work together to put together a series of promotional events under a single banner, such as "Scotland in Sweden", the whole can be much bigger than the sum of the parts in that the audience assembled by one organisation can easily be reached by others, thereby multiplying the impact.

The resources for these events do not allow the campaign to continue indefinitely. However, it raises the energy level of engagement of existing relationships and also initiates new relationships. Some of these relationships will generate further activity, some of which may be self-sustaining. For example, the RSE participation in Scotland in Sweden generated a lot of mutual interest in the work going on in stem cell research in each country. This led to Swedish participation in an RSE event held in Brussels a year later. It has also fed into a networking meeting for young scientists which the British Council in Stockholm is planning to run in March 2004. That meeting, in turn, is likely to lead to further scientific joint work, possibly funded from the EU Framework 6 programme."

For a more comprehensive academic evaluation of the Scotland in Sweden campaign, see James Pamment's "The Limits of the New Public Diplomacy" (Stockholm University, 2011).

James Pamment expresses some concern about the short-termism of Scotland's cultural relations campaigns and promotions, but the BBC news item seems to point to a longer term strategy and much-needed follow-up activity (regardless of the issue of Scottish Independence?).

The British Design Season had considerable impact.

The Outer Hebrides (translated poem from the anthology)

26:1 (and the wisdom of Cameron's "veto")

2011-12-09T15:51:00.013Z

Bagehot on what really happened in Brussels.

All in all, a diplomatic failure? Kosmopolito blog.

An interesting perspective on European issues by Giscard d'Estaing (Athens News):

Here is an excerpt:

He said that European leaders at their summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, widely seen as a final chance to get on top of the eurozone debt crisis, should forget about trying to revise European treaties.

"Reforming treaties that have to be modified by unanimous vote is impossible. Choosing the path of treaty revision with 27 (EU members) would make the crisis last and would give the impression that it is intractable," he said.

Instead, the 17 eurozone states should consider drafting a simple agreement among members of the single currency, similar to the Schengen agreement that introduced passport-free travel within 22 EU and non-EU states.

"It must be done very quickly, in the first quarter of 2012, a Schengen-type agreement driven by France and Germany and including other countries like Belgium and Italy. But it should only be open to eurozone countries, otherwise it will be a mess," he said.

The possibility of a smaller and more integrated core eurozone has been discussed by senior French and German civil servants, officials told Reuters last month. "I think that in the end that is how it will happen," Giscard said.

On Friday, EU leaders will review Franco-German proposals to reform eurozone governance via an amendment to the EU treaty to bring about more fiscal discipline. Giscard said leaders must agree quickly on debt and deficit limits and on sanctions for those countries that do not respect the agreement.

If some countries found the debt and deficit requirements under the new treaty too severe, they should return to their national currency, he said. "It is necessary to allow for the possibility of eurozone exit. This must be done under conditions that are correct, and not punitive," he said.

Giscard said Europe needed to fight speculators against the euro, whom he suspected were mainly American.
"Europe is like a city under siege. A big city, with a large population, and a strong economy. If its leaders do what needs to be done, this city will be free again," he said.

(Athens News, 7 December 2011)

Bagehot again

William Hague, in The Telegraph, 11 December

On the implications of the split

Charlemagne

Kathimerini

The Czechs and Hungarians on EU Tax Harmonisation and Control

The Oxbridge Interview, some tips from Fielding

2011-12-09T15:43:00.001Z

Nice one, Fielding. I didn't meet Mr Amis, but I know what you mean.

When I sat the entrance exams for King's College, Cambridge, at around the same time and year, I got alphas for all the literature papers, but I did woefully on the Biblical Knowledge exam. I can't even remember the interview.

Discrimination? Scripture lessons were never my strong point.

I always imagine I won a place at Oxford, soon afterwards, largely because of an original essay on the treatment of disabled people, with reference to Kafka's short story 'Metamorphosis'.

Where the education system failed a lot of talented people who may have lacked something in self-confidence in their teens was the failure to provide training in interview technique and CV writing.

The Best of Boston

2011-12-09T15:32:00.004Z

Trinity Church (above)

Boston Public Library, decorative paintings (details) by Puvis de Chavannes, from the mural composition 'The Muses of Inspiration Hail the Spirit, the Harbinger of Light'.

If I only had a couple of hours to spend in Boston, I would head to the Boston Public Library and to Trinity Church across the square.

Alternatively, I'd head for the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) for the current Dance/Draw exhibition - and to experience the building itself.

Works I enjoyed included the crocheted environment by Faith Wilding; Isaac Julien's video installation, Ten Thousand Waves, and the marble table (artist?) inscribed on top with the words "PROTECT US FROM WHAT WE WANT".

Boston is a great place for children too: they enjoyed running around the ICA, but even more the Children's Museum and the Science Museum.

To get betimes in Boston town, I rose this morning early... (Whitman)

Greece and the use of EU Funds

2011-12-09T12:52:00.002Z

A radio report for America Abroad, by Nina-Maria in Epirus.

Boston, The Athens of America; Boston and its Poets

2011-12-09T07:19:00.028Z

Just returned from Boston, only now fully conscious of the extent of the city's literary heritage and landmarks associated with Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, James, Longfellow...and Dickens.

This wasn't primarily a visit for tourism and sight-seeing.

Strange that I should have chosen to go to Lowell, Jack Kerouac's hometown, formerly an industrial cotton mill town, rather than explore in greater detail the Boston and Cambridge/Harvard of some of my favourite twentieth century American writers, poets Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, e.e.cummings, Robert Frost and T. S. Eliot, or novelist John Updike. One has to imagine the Boston of Eliot's "Prufrock" ('I have measured out my life with coffee spoons'; 'In the rooms the women come and go') and "Preludes", ie the first Prelude which was originally entitled "Prelude in Dorchester (Houses)"

"The winter evening settles down
With smells of steaks in passage ways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days..."

Information about Dorchester (Boston), named after Dorchester, Dorset. Eliot's descriptions of urban landscapes are as much St. Louis as Boston and London.

It would be interesting to try to recreate or imagine a seminar from the 1959 writing course given by Robert Lowell at Boston University, which was attended by Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and George Starbuck. See Peter Orr's British Council interview with Sylvia Plath, 30 October 1962, in which she mentions Lowell and Sexton.

Some lines by Lowell:

"Joy to idle through Boston" (Bright Day in Boston)

"I've come a third time
to live in your dour, luxurious Boston..." (To Mother)

"Parking spaces luxuriate like civic
sandpiles in the heart of Boston." (For the Union Dead)

An e.e.cummings poem ('the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls')

Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost's The Gift Outright :

"The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed."

And, from the early poem "Clear and Colder- Boston Common"

"As I went down through the common,
It was bright with the light of day,
For the wind and the rain had swept the leaves
And the shadow of summer away...

As I went down through the common,
Then felt I first delight
Of the city's thronging winter days
And dazzling winter night..."

"What was New England? It was the first little nation that bade fair to be an English-speaking nation on this continent. In the first hundred years it had pushed off from England (it had drawn off and been pushed off, both,) into almost a nation, with its capital at Boston...There was Boston. There was much beautiful architecture, art." (from Frost's address, 'What became of New England', 1937).

Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath lived at 9 Willow Street, Boston in 1958-1959.

Bob Dylan poem (1964):

"Jim Jim
where is our party?
where is the party that's one
where all members 're held equal....
a Boston tea party dont mean the
same thing...as it did in the new-born
years before...
and I'm still on that road, Jim
I'm still sleepin' at nite by its side..
an I look t you, Jim
where is the party for those kind of feelings?"

(sleeve insert, The Times They Are a -Changin' LP)

And, from the song "Highlands":

I’m in Boston town, in some restaurant
I got no idea what I want
Well, maybe I do but I’m just really not sure...

"New England" really begins here, with John Smith's Description of New England.
For Eliot, Frost, Lowell and Plath, England itself became a kind of new New England.

Not, perhaps, for John Updike?

"My beloved land,
here I sit in London
overlooking Regent's Park...
exiled by success of sorts...

But it is you,
really you I think of:
your nothing streetcorners
your ugly eateries
your dear barbarities
and vacant lots...
Don't read your reviews,
A*M*E*R*I*C*A:
you are the only land."

(from Minority Report, Seventy Poems)

On the Road with Jack Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts

2011-12-04T11:28:00.029Z

On the mystery train, in truth, from Boston to Lowell, home town of Jack Kerouac, to explore the sights and sounds that inspired five of his novels.

Sweet Lowell by the river, O dark Lowell, O My Lowell

Jack Kerouac, October 12, 1955, Letter to Stella Sampas (from The Sea is My Brother, The Lost Novel).

Lonesome travellers- three generations on the road:

We visited Lowell High School (where Jack graduated in 1939, aged 17), the Boott Cotton Mills, the Kerouac Commemorative, the Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit.

Why there? There's a display case with his backpack, camping gear, typewriter and a pair of his hiking socks!

This small display is in the Immigrants' section (French Canadian), alongside items from the Greek community- a bouzouki, a record of Tsitsanis, and items from the Orthodox Church.

Kerouac had many close connections to the Lowell Greek community.

No time to visit his birthplace at 9 Lupine Road, or his grave site at Edson Cemetery (remember when Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg went there to pay homage?).

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, The Canticle of Jack Kerouac

O tall red chimneys of the Cotton Mills of Lowell, tall redbrick goof of Boott, swaying in the terminus clouds of the wild hooray day and dreambell afternoon--, The usually blue windows of the Boott Mills in the night are piercing, heartbreaking with a blue that's never been seen before-- terrible how that blue shines like a lost star in the blue city lights of Lowell...(Doctor Sax, 1959).

The extracts from his novels inscribed on the granite columns at the Commemorative, and his backpack and typewriter, seemed a lot more relevant and meaningful. Not sure about the socks.

Some of the inscriptions are beginning to fade. If I were asked to select a quotation from Mexico City Blues to inscribe on a stone column, I'd choose these lines from the 231st Chorus:

When rock becomes air

I will be there.

A great day out (thanks Alex). Now back in Boston, listening to Hey Jack Kerouac, by 10,000 Maniacs, Cleaning Windows by Van Morrison, Home I'll Never Be by Tom Waits, and Jack and Neal by Tom Waits- followed by a cassette copy, an amazing private recording from Allen Ginsberg's library, given to me by a dissident Czech professor of American Literature and Beat specialist (before the Velvet Revolution) of Kerouac reading from his Lowell novel Doctor Sax, with a Sinatra ballad playing in the background. Thanks Professor Josef Jarab!

1952 article by John Clellon Holmes, "This is the Beat Generation".

Here's a suitable song for Jack: The Vagabond (Bryn Terfel, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Robert Louis Stevenson)

AAA: The Super-Europeans' Club

2011-11-28T07:58:00.000Z

Le Figaro reports

Dick Gaughan Concert, 26 November

2011-11-27T08:45:00.007Z

Dick Gaughan was on magnificent form last night. One of the world's great singer-songwriters and guitarists, his passionate interpretations of a variety of powerful songs and lyrics gripped the audience, whatever the political persuasions of those who'd come to hear him.

We were lucky to see him in the intimate setting of a small Arts Centre. He could control a large stadium, not that he would want to.

I first discovered his music (the LP No More Forever) in the 1970s, in the Record Library of the Voice of Kenya, Nairobi. The next time was in Czechoslovakia, where I bought an imported East German LP (apparently some songs were considered by the authorities "too political" to be included).

I particularly like the quality of his voice, his guitar style and his interpretations of Scottish ballads.

I had the chance to talk to him about his popularity in (former) Eastern Europe and the political situation before 1989, about his guitar tunings (DADGAD on acoustic), his influences (Doc Watson and Davy Graham in terms of guitar) and about travelling people (one of his grandmothers was a traveller).

An unforgettable concert. He makes people think about how they've spent their lives; about failed expectations. He's committed to his beliefs, and he's uncompromising. It can be uncomfortable. He remains a rebel who hasn't "sold out".

Explore his songs on YouTube:

"What you do with what you've got"

"Now Westlin' Winds"

"Bonnie Jeannie o' Bethelnie"

"Song for Ireland"

John Peel described him as "one of the five or six great voices of our time". He's up there with Dylan, but he's stayed closer to the Scottish, and Irish traveller, musical and protest traditions. Dick Gaughan's website.

A Royal Visitor

2011-11-27T08:21:00.001Z

Prince Charles visits Little Waitrose