Antigone Tonight!

BBC TV

"Cameras exclusively capture the Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche playing the title role in Sophocles's tale of family loyalty, courage and tragedy. The Barbican's visionary new English language translation by TS Eliot Prize-winning poet and classicist Anne Carson is directed by renowned Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove".

BBC 4, 8pm (BBC iPlayer immediately after broadcast- available for 28 days)

Approaching Poundbury (Dorchester, Dorset)

A tree with both pink and white blossom, today

An older view:

More recent:

Discover Poundbury, map to download

On Poundbury Buildings, A Balanced View?

ANZAC Day; Slim Dusty; Eric Bogle; Gallipoli; Didgeridoo; Centenary

A past posting

Slim Dusty

Eric Bogle

Dawn Service (Euronews)

A didgeridoo was played at the service

In Canberra: "An Indigenous sailor broke the silence and begun the service playing the didgeridoo in commemoration of the Anzac sacrifice. The sound of Able Seaman Boatswains Mate Alan Paterson's didgeridoo split the dawn and echoed across the parade ground on a mild Canberra morning"

 (ABC News).

The Guardian Report

Dorset families

Bathing at Glymenopoulou, Andrew Motion (excerpt)

The concluding section:

Military History Monthly article

Patrick Leigh Fermor: Archival Programme in French

Listen to the programme

Link: thanks to the Patrick Leigh Fermor blog

John Craxton Exhibition in Dorchester, Dorset; Dorset and Greece; Cranborne Chase and Crete

A truly inspiring exhibition, especially if you love the landscapes of Dorset and Greece. Craxton captured the movements, posture and stances of Greek dancers, bouzouki players, fishermen and goatherds.

Dorset Country Museum: A Poetic Eye (A Poetic Eye: John Craxton on Cranborne Chase and Crete)

David Attenborough on John Craxton, BBC video

Dorset Magazine article (also features Alderholt Mill)

BBC Your Paintings, 33 John Craxton works

Four Figures in a Mountain Landscape

Hotel By The Sea

Pastoral for P.W.

The Dancer

Three Dancers

Knowlton Church (Bonhams)

Knowlton Church, Dorset (Christie's)

Artnet image

“The Dorset landscape is not an obvious physiognomy but, like a person, has many hidden aspects – the mysterious enigmatic earthworks, tumuli and barrows, the atmosphere of conspiracy from the great days of smuggling still lingers, the deep, impenetrable forests with King John’s hunting lodge to prove that time is ever relative. Nearby Knowlton Church could have been a set from an M.R. James ghost story, and had me in awe from the first - a ruin in the middle of a double prehistoric earthwork, the pagan temple and the Christian church each crumbling away back to earth.” John Craxton

Ian Collins' book (outstanding - essential)

A pity the book doesn't contain a reproduction of the 1946 British Council Athens exhibition photograph of John Craxton with Nico Ghika and Rex Warner. It's on display in the Dorchester exhibition.

A book that inspired David Attenborough:

Greece On The Edge - no cash until full economic reform deal agreed; Eurozone Finance Ministers categorical; «Χρειάζεται μια ολοκληρωμένη και λεπτομερής λίστα μεταρρυθμίσεων»

From The Economist

"Unless Syriza suddenly capitulates—and a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers on April 24th is one of its last chances to do so—Greece will fail to pay its creditors. If that happens, its exit from the euro will be just a step away".

From Reuters

Reuters 2 - Some (partial) concessions - "The current disagreements with our partners are not unbridgeable," Varoufakis wrote in the blog. "Our government is eager to rationalize the pension system (for example, by limiting early retirement), proceed with partial privatization of public assets, ...create a fully independent tax commission," he said.

From RTE News

EU Observer - Tsipras asks for quick deal with lenders

EU Observer Update - Eurozone slams door on Greek hopes

Reuters - Euro zone warns Greece no cash till full reform deal

Bloomberg -  Varoufakis Chided as EU Shuts Down Shortcut Bid for Aid:

"Euro-area finance ministers hurled abuse at Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis behind closed doors as they shut down his bid to find a shortcut to releasing financial aid. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the euro-zone finance chiefs’ group, categorically ruled out making a partial aid payment in exchange for a narrower program of reforms after a stormy meeting in Riga, Latvia, in which Varoufakis was heavily criticized by his euro-area colleagues over his failure to deliver economic reforms. Euro-area finance chiefs said Varoufakis’s handling of the talks was irresponsible and accused him of being a time-waster, a gambler and an amateur, a person familiar with the conversations said, asking not to be named because the discussions were private".
“It was a very critical discussion and it showed a great sense of urgency around the room,” Dijsselbloem said at a press conference after the meeting. Asked if there was any chance of a partial disbursement, he said, “The answer can be very short: No.”

Bloomberg, The Rumble in Riga - Varoufakis: 'They are unanimous in their hate for me; and I welcome their hatred,” Varoufakis said on his Twitter account on Sunday. The quotation is “close to my heart (and reality) these days," '

Reuters - Varoufakis isolated?

Financial Times -  EU frustration over Greece hits boiling point at eurogroup meeting: "Months of mounting tensions between Greece and its creditors boiled over at a high-level EU meeting on Friday with eurozone finance ministers angrily accusing their Greek counterpart of backtracking on commitments and failing to grasp the deep differences that still divide them".

Kathimerini/Bloomberg - EU frustration mounts as Greeks try to sidestep aid process

Mignatiou - «Χρειάζεται μια ολοκληρωμένη και λεπτομερής λίστα μεταρρυθμίσεων», είπε. «Είναι απαραίτητη μια ολοκληρωμένη συμφωνία προτού υπάρξει οποιαδήποτε καταβολή (χρημάτων). Όλοι γνωρίζουμε ότι ο χρόνος τελειώνει»

Greece's "Grand Plan" - The Telegraph

More from The Telegraph

Plan B? (Kathimerini)

Reluctant Municipalities, Mayors and Nomarchs- Governors to accept decree forcing handover of spare cash as temporary move

Huffington Post  - "Athens is a troubled city, tortured from the festering debt crisis that is squeezing its citizens, forcing them towards the penultimate stage prior to suffocation, as the country's lenders insist on a new austerity deal while its government plays up the trump card of a possible bankruptcy.
In most places, the roads are dirty with overloaded garbage containers strewn around like a bad joke. It looks like it's been years since the city has had a good cleaning, both inside and out. It appears as if it is hiding the deep pain of its residents who prospered until 2010 when, suddenly, the economic crisis hit..."  Justine Frangouli-Argyris

EU Observer