Fast Train, Slow Train

Two very different traditions: Soul Music and Nostalgia, US and UK


Solomon Burke, Fast Train


Flanders and Swann - The Slow Train

Preparing for Bloomsday (16 June); James Joyce

I keep trying to get into the works of James Joyce.

Every time I give up in despair.

I found this documentary compelling - The World of James Joyce: His Life & Work documentary (1986), YouTube.

It's inspired me to try once again.

I'm going to start with "The Dead" from Dubliners, with Barry McGovern (YouTube).

Update on Bloomsday, The Times Diary, June 16th, by Patrick Kidd:

"Today is Bloomsday, when people pretend to have read James Joyce".

I've always loved his poem Goldenhair.

https://corfublues.blogspot.com/2019/12/goldenhair.html



Peter Pears or Syd Barrett?


Bridge: Goldenhair

Syd Barrett Goldenhair


Bloomsday Festival


Two more favourite Irish songs:


Down by the Sally Gardens- Maura O'Connell with Karen Matheson


Anna CASE ~ Believe me if all those endearing young charms (Th.Moore) - 1912 Edison Cylinder


John McCormack - Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms/Killarney

Women at Oxford and Cambridge, 100 years ago

In 1920:

From These Tremendous Years, 1938

Corfu, 1958: Prickly Pears (Pavlosika)

A photograph posted on Facebook,
captioned as one of a series of slides "found in a secondhand shop".
Unknown photographer, Corfu, 1958

See article from LiFo.gr:

https://www.lifo.gr/articles/greece_articles/283768/spanies-fotografies-apo-tin-kerkyra-toy-1958-59

The photograph reminded me of these lines from my "Corfu Blues" and "Reading the signs":

Pavlosiko

(Open market, Corfu)

I love to stop

for a prickly pear

peeled by the man christened "Cactus".

Holidays in Greece? The Greek Tourism Minister on the prospects for British Tourists, Summer 2020

Listen to Harry Theoharis, Minister of Tourism, Greece, on the BBC 4 Today programme, from the 1 hour and 10 minutes point:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000jn8r

Greece: Plane Trees at Risk. Η αρρώστια των πλατάνων - Concerns in Epirus

Plane Tree Wilt (forestresearch.gov.uk)


Alexis Papachristos writes (on FB, Βίτσα- Vitsa group)): " Imagine the squares of our villages without plane trees" - ttps://www.facebook.com/groups/8752659279/permalink/10158181575424280/


Video posted by Costas Zissis: Με το σοβαρότατο αυτό πλήγμα για το δέντρο-σύμβολο, το περιβάλλον και το τοπίο της Πίνδου και της χώρας φτωχαίνουν ανεπανόρθωτα... Εκτός αν όλοι μας αναλάβουμε δράση!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2394140243961768


Michael Vakaros posted on FB on 2 June about yet another plane tree affected by the disease:

Photo Michael Vakaros (FB) : Ένας ακόμη πλάτανος διαπιστώθηκε ότι είχε προσβληθεί από την ασθένεια κι αφού κόπηκε σήμερα στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του μεταφέρθηκε για να θαφτεί.

https://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/19/greek-platanus-tree-faces-extinction/ (2013)


Η αρρώστια των πλατάνων (2016)


Canker Stain Disease


SOS για τα πλατάνια, Avgi


Plane trees in Epirus

Update, 25 March, 2021: the tree on the right by the Voidomatis (below Aristi) is at risk.