With earth as our only reference point who's to say we would recognize alien life even if it were right in front of us? Such entities might employ strange asymmetries that render them utterly inscrutable to us, like this upended & weathered tree stump

Always impressed walking by this home adjacent Old Mill Elementary, that was likely built in the 1900 to 1929 period.

 

Reminds me of browned butter cake with vanilla frosting.

 

A lovely mix of trees surround the porch for what must make for excellent early AM birdwatching.

 

In the gable, you have textured stucco cladding w/ faux half-timber in the Tudor Revival style. The midsection (which just kisses twin-set east facing windows) is undoubtedly redwood shingle, below that, shiplap of unknown origin.

 

The roof is pitched somewhat dramatically at maybe 105 degrees. For a four-year old looking up, I'm sure the throwback cosmonaut energy is in full effect. These aspirational angles contrast with a wide, open, first floor. Outside the lemon trees are in bloom and with fruit, che carino!

 

The actual corporeality of a home, living past and present, a compendium of all its former selves––is largely inscrutable from the exterior. However, certain details emerge in the routine passing and one begins to even have a compassion for the home's specific point of view.

 

The hierarchy of its inhabitants one can only guess, and surely that evolves through the years, but one does hope that whoever lives in such a place destabilizes the narrative to some degree and doesn't live solely to acquiesce to bourgeois conventions.

 

Finally, the low slung craftsman style fence elevates the whole. If you were to ride by it spinning at a 21 mph clip, you would pass through its signature fragrance: flapjacks in the oven, rose geranium, Giant sequoia.

“May God guide our every word and thought, He the only sense of those who think or of the objects of their thought, the sole reason for speakers and their subjects, the life of the living and of those who receive life, who is and will become all to all, for the sake of things present or yet to be; on His own account, He neither is nor will become anything in any sense whatever of all things presently existing or still to come, as His nature is not of the same order at all as the things we say exist. For this reason it could be rather more suitable to say He does not exist, because His mode of existence is so superior. It is very important to perceive the true difference between God and creatures; the mode of existing of the Supreme Being must be denied of existing things; and the mode of existence of existing things is not that of transcendent being; the real meaning of both “existence” and “non-existence” must be considered in relation to the Supreme Being, and then neither can be affirmed. Both can be said validly: the term “existing” is opposite to God as the cause of existence; but the term “existence” as it applies to the transcendent cause of being, is totally to be denied of all creatures. But then, neither term is precisely applicable to God, as neither expresses the really essential mode of existence natural to the essence in question. Nothing existent or non-existent, no existing thing that we know of, or non-existent thing unknown to us, can come reasonably close to that to which nothing at all is linked of its nature as a cause (for He is uncaused, absolutely free and independent). His existence is simple, unknowable, and inaccessible to all, completely inscrutable, beyond description by any of our affirmative or negative language."

 

from the Mystagogy of St. Maximus the Confessor [Μάξιμος ο Ομολογητής]

 

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Apophatic theology

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology

orthodoxwiki.org/Apophatic_theology

 

Maximus the Confessor

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_the_Confessor

 

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photo:

coutyard of Potlogi Palace Complex

St. Demetrius - St. Nicholas Church [finished in 1683]

Biserica "Sf. Dumitru", "Sf. Nicolae"

www.monumenteromania.ro/index.php/monumente/detalii/en/Bi...

 

John Bell at home by Loribelle Spirovski. Oil on canvas. Archibald Prize finalist.

 

Loribelle Spirovski met distinguished actor and director John Bell earlier this year when he and her partner, classical pianist Simon Tedeschi, were performing Enoch Arden (Tennyson's epic poem set to music by Richard Strauss).

 

It should come as no surprise that painting a man such as John Bell was a daunting experience. He's renowned for his work with Bell Shakespeare (the company he founded the year I was born) and I was immediately drawn to that powerful, chiselled face with its deep-set features and inscrutable personality.

 

When he sat on his antique chair in the home he shares with his wife and fellow actor Anna Volska, he occupied the space with a contented regality and it was clear that any costume or prop would be superfluous, says Spirovski.

 

Spirovski opted for a minimal background to draw the viewer to that intense gaze, while the flesh colours are heightened by the distinctive gleam of the Australian sun.

 

Archibald Prize Exhibition, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney, Australia (Monday 31 July 2017)

Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, known for its natural acoustics. The National Trust for Scotland owns the cave as part of a national nature reserve. It became known as Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th-century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson.

 

Fingal's Cave is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow and is similar in structure to both the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and Ulva.

 

In these locations, cooling on the upper and lower surfaces of the solidified lava resulted in contraction and fracturing, starting in a blocky tetragonal pattern and transitioning to a regular hexagonal fracture pattern with fractures perpendicular to the cooling surfaces. As cooling continued these cracks gradually extended toward the centre of the flow, forming the long hexagonal columns we see in the wave-eroded cross-section today. Similar hexagonal fracture patterns are found in desiccation cracks in mud where contraction is due to loss of water instead of cooling.

 

Fingal's Cave was originally part of the Ulva estate of the Clan MacQuarrie from an early date until 1777. The cave was brought to the attention of the English-speaking world by 18th-century naturalist Sir Joseph Banks in 1772.

 

It became known as Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson. It formed part of his Ossian cycle of poems claimed to have been based on old Scottish Gaelic poems. In Irish mythology, the hero Fingal is known as Fionn mac Cumhaill, and it is suggested that Macpherson rendered the name as Fingal (meaning "white stranger") through a misunderstanding of the name which in old Gaelic would appear as "Finn". The legend of the Giant's Causeway has Finn (or Fionn) building the causeway between Ireland and Scotland.

 

The cave has a large arched entrance and is filled by the sea. Several sightseeing cruises organised from April to September by local companies pass the entrance to the cave. In calm conditions, one can land at the island's landing place (as some of these cruises permit) and walk the short distance to the cave, where a row of fractured columns forms a walkway just above high-water level permitting exploration on foot. From the inside, the entrance seems to frame the island of Iona across the water.

 

Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn visited in 1829 and wrote an overture, The Hebrides, Op. 26, (also known as Fingal's Cave Overture), and was said to be inspired by the weird echoes in the cave. Mendelssohn's overture popularized the cave as a tourist destination. Other famous 19th-century visitors included author Jules Verne, who used it in his book Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray), and mentions it in the novels Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Mysterious Island. Poets William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner, who painted Staffa, Fingal's Cave in 1832 also made the trip. In 1860 the German novelist Theodor Fontane visited the cave and described it in his travel report Jenseit des Tweed (Beyond the Tweed, Pictures and Letters from Scotland), Queen Victoria also made the trip.

 

The 19th century Austro-Hungarian guitarist and composer Johann Kaspar Mertz included a piece entitled Fingals-Höhle in his set of character pieces for guitar Bardenklänge.

 

The playwright August Strindberg also set scenes from his play A Dream Play in a place called "Fingal's Grotta". Scots novelist Sir Walter Scott described Fingal's Cave as "one of the most extraordinary places I ever beheld. It exceeded, in my mind, every description I had heard of it… composed entirely of basaltic pillars as high as the roof of a cathedral, and running deep into the rock, eternally swept by a deep and swelling sea, and paved, as it were, with ruddy marble, [it] baffles all description."

 

Artist Matthew Barney used the cave along with the Giant's Causeway for the opening and closing scenes of his art film, Cremaster 3. In 2008, the video artist Richard Ashrowan spent several days recording the interior of Fingal's Cave for an exhibition at the Foksal Gallery in Poland.

 

One of Pink Floyd's early songs bears this location's name. This instrumental was written for the film Zabriskie Point, but not used.

 

Lloyd House at Caltech has a mural representing Fingal's Cave.

 

The Alistair MacLean novel-based movie, When Eight Bells Toll, starring Anthony Hopkins, was filmed there.

 

It is possible that the township of Fingal, Tasmania was named after the cave in MacPherson's honour.

 

Staffa (Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.

 

Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 miles) west of the Isle of Mull; its area is 33 hectares (82 acres) and the highest point is 42 metres (138 feet) above sea level.

 

The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter's Hebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

 

In prehistoric times (Pleistocene) Staffa was covered by the ice sheets which spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 125 metres (410 ft) lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, around 14,000 years ago it is likely that Staffa was part of a larger island, just off the coast of mainland Scotland, which would have included what are now Mull, Iona and the Treshnish Isles.

 

Steadily rising sea levels then further isolated this little island, which is entirely of volcanic origin. It consists of a basement of tuff, underneath colonnades of a black fine-grained Tertiary basalt, overlying which is a third layer of basaltic lava without a crystalline structure. By contrast, slow cooling of the second layer of basalt resulted in an extraordinary pattern of predominantly hexagonal columns which form the faces and walls of the principal caves. The lava contracted towards each of a series of equally spaced centres as it cooled and solidified into prismatic columns, a process known as columnar jointing. The columns typically have three to eight sides, six being most common. The columns are also divided horizontally by cross joints. These columnar jointed sections represent the tops and bottoms of individual lava flows. Between these sections lie regions of much more chaotic jointing, known as the entablature. The origin of the entablature is unknown, but could be due to flooding of the lava flow, causing much more rapid cooling, or the interaction of stress fields from the two regions of columnar jointing as they approach one another.

 

Similar formations are found at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, on the island of Ulva and at Ardmeanach on the Isle of Mull. Grooves in the roof of MacKinnon's cave indicate either a pyroclastic flow or a series of eroded ash falls in the rock above the columnar basalt. The 'Staffa Group' is the name given to the series of olivine tholeiite basalts found in the vicinity of Mull which erupted 55–58 million years ago.

 

Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of Mull, and 9 km northeast of Iona. It is longitudinally oriented north–south, and is a kilometre long by about half a kilometre wide. The circumference is about 3.8 km in extent. In the northeast the isle shelves to a shore, but otherwise the coast is rugged and much indented; numerous caves have been carved out by rain, streams and sea. There is enough grass to feed a few cattle, and the island has a spring.

 

On the east coast are Goat Cave and Clamshell Cave. The latter is 10 m high, about 6 m wide at the entrance, and some 45 m long, and on one side of it the ridges of basalt stand out like the ribs of a ship. Near this cave is the pyramidal rock islet of Am Buachaille ('The Herdsman'), a pile of basalt columns seen fully only at low tide. Other outlying rocks include Eilean Dubh to the north-west and a series of skerries stretching for half a kilometre to the south-west. On the southwest shore are Boat Cave and Mackinnon's Cave (named after a 15th-century abbot of Iona), which has a tunnel connecting it to Cormorant Cave. These caves lie to the south-west and can be accessed from the bay of Port an Fhasgaidh at low tide. In 1945 a mine exploded near Boat Cave, causing damage to the cliff face which is still visible. Mackinnon's Cave is 107 metres long.

 

Staffa's most famous feature is Fingal's Cave, a large sea cave located near the southern tip of the island some 20 m high and 75 m long formed in cliffs of hexagonal basalt columns. This cliff face is called the Colonnade or The Great Face and it was these cliffs and their caves that inspired Felix Mendelssohn's Die Hebriden (English: Hebrides Overture opus 26), which was premiered in London in 1832. The original Gaelic name for Fingal's Cave is An Uamh Bhin – "the melodious cave" – but it was subsequently renamed after the 3rd-century Irish warrior Fionn MacCool. Mendelssohn was nonetheless inspired by the sound of the waves in the cave and waxed lyrical about his visit, claiming that he arrived in Scotland "with a rake for folk-songs, an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives."

 

Little is known of the early history of Staffa, although the Swiss town of Stäfa on Lake Zurich was named after the island by a monk from nearby Iona. Part of the Ulva estate of the MacQuarries from an early date until 1777, it was brought to the English-speaking world's attention after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks in August 1772. En route to Iceland in the company of the painter Johann Zoffany, the Bishop of Linköping, and the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander, Banks (later a president of the Royal Society) was entertained by Maclean of Drummen, on the Isle of Mull. Hearing about Staffa he resolved to visit and set out from Tobermory the next day. The winds were light and they did not arrive until darkness had fallen. Banks wrote: It was too dark to see anything, so we carried our tent and baggage near the only house on the island, and began to cook our suppers, in order to be prepared for the earliest dawn, and to enjoy that which, from the conversation of the gentlemen we had, now raised the highest expectations of.

 

They were not disappointed. Despite becoming infested with lice during his short stay on the island, he provided glowing reports of his visit. He confessed that he was: forced to acknowledge that this piece of architecture, formed by nature, far surpasses that of the Louvre, that of St. Peter at Rome, all that remains of Palmyra and Paestum, and all that the genius, the taste and the luxury of the Greeks were capable of inventing.

 

Samuel Johnson and his protege James Boswell visited clan MacQuarrie on Ulva in 1773, the year after Banks' visit. Perhaps aware that Banks considered that the columnar basalt cliff formations on Ulva called "The Castles" rivalled Staffa's Johnson wrote:

 

When the islanders were reproached with their ignorance or insensibility of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder otherwise than by novelty.

 

Amongst the first eminent overseas visitors to Staffa were Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, a wealthy French zoologist and mineralogist and the American architect and naturalist William Thornton. Visiting in 1784, they were suitably impressed, Faujus writing: "this superb monument of nature, which in regard to its form bears so strong a resemblance to a work of art, though art can certainly claim no share in it."

19th and 20th centuries

 

Subsequently, a stream of famous visitors came to view Staffa's wonders including Robert Adam, Sir Walter Scott (1810), John Keats (1818), J. M. W. Turner, whose 1830 visit yielded an oil painting exhibited in 1832, William Wordsworth (1833), Jules Verne (1839), Alice Liddell (the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) in 1878, David Livingstone (1864), Robert Louis Stevenson (1870) and Mendelssohn himself in 1829. Wordsworth, however, found the volume of tourism disappointing.

 

Writing more than a century later the writer W. H. Murray agreed, complaining that the visitors spoiled the "character and atmosphere", and rather stand-offishly suggesting that "to know Staffa one must go alone".

 

Others were more enthusiastic, despite the presence of numerous others. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were rowed into the cave in the royal barge in 1847, and The Times correspondent recorded:

 

As the Royal Squadron cleared out of the Sound of Mull, and round the northern extremity of the island, a noble prospect lay before it, the steep and barren headlands of Ardnamurchan stretching away into the Atlantic on the right, on the left the precipitous cliffs of the Mull coast, and far away and embosomed in the ocean, the fantastic and varied forms of the adjacent islands. The horizon toward the north was a good deal obscured by haze, but, notwithstanding, Skye was distinctly visible... The deserted and solitary aspect of the island was brought out with a strange and startling effect by the presence of so many steamers; and as Her Majesty's barge with the Royal Standard floated into the cave, the crew dipping their oars with the greatest precision, nothing could be more animated and grand than the appearance which the vast basaltic entrance, so solemn in its proportions, presented.

 

Keats complained about the expense of the ferry, but was captivated by what he saw nonetheless. Displeased with his first efforts to describe this "cathedral of the sea" he finally settled on:

 

Not Aladdin magian/Ever such a work began, Not the wizard of the Dee, Ever such a dream could see; Not St John, in Patmos Isle, In the passion of his toil, When he saw the churches seven, Golden Aisl'd, built up in heaven, Gazed at such a rugged wonder.

 

--John Keats, Staffa

 

However inspiring the scenery, it was not an easy place in which to live. In 1772 there was only a single family, living on a diet of barley, oats, and potatoes, and whatever their grazing animals could provide, and growing flax. By the end of the 18th century they had deserted Staffa, apparently terrified by the severity of winter storms. Signs of "rig and furrow" agriculture can still be seen on the island but the only surviving building is the ruin of a 19th-century shelter for travellers.

 

By 1800 the island was under the ownership of Colin MacDonald of Lochboisdale. In 1816 his son Ranald MacDonald sold Staffa into the care of trustees. In 1821 these trustees sold the island to Alexander Forman as trustee, the purchase money being paid by his brother John Forman WS. It remained in the Forman family until sold by Bernard Gilpin Vincent "Pat" Forman in 1968. There were several private owners after that, including Alastair de Watteville, a descendant of Colin MacDonald who wrote a book about the island, until finally Jock Elliott Jr. of New York gifted it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1986 to honour the 60th birthday of his wife, Eleanor. A grateful National Trust bestowed upon her the honorific "Steward of Staffa". In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, Staffa was named as the eighth-greatest natural wonder in Britain.

 

During the 20th century there were issues of bogus postage stamps bearing Staffa's name.

 

In 1800 there were three red deer on the island, later replaced by goats and then by a small herd of black cattle. Subsequently, the summer grazing was used for sheep by crofters from Iona, but in 1997 all livestock was removed. This has led to a regeneration of the island's vegetation. The island supports a diverse range of plants, with species such as common heather, kidney vetch, common-bird's-foot trefoil, wild thyme and tormentil all found. The clifftop grassland supports species such as red fescue, yorkshire fog, thrift, sea campion, sea plantain and ribwort plantain.

 

Staffa is nationally important for breeding fulmars, common shags and puffins, and great skuas and gulls also nest on the island. The surrounding waters provide a livelihood for numerous seabirds, grey seals, dolphins, basking sharks, minke, and pilot whales.

 

The island has been designated as a national nature reserve since 2001. The national nature reserve is classified as a Category II protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Staffa is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), whilst the seas surrounding the island are designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) due to the presence of harbour porpoises. Staffa is part of the Loch Na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.

 

Boat trips from Tiree, Tobermory, Oban, Ulva Ferry and Fionnphort on Mull, and Iona allow visitors to view the caves and the puffins that nest on the island between May and September. There is a landing place used by the tourist boats just north of Am Buachaille, but disembarkation is only possible in calm conditions. The island lacks a genuine anchorage.

 

The Hebrides is a concert overture that was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830, revised in 1832, and published the next year as Mendelssohn's Op. 26. Some consider it an early tone poem.

 

It was inspired by one of Mendelssohn's trips to the British Isles, specifically an 1829 excursion to the Scottish island of Staffa, with its basalt sea cave known as Fingal's Cave. It was reported that the composer immediately jotted down the opening theme for his composition after seeing the island. He at first called the work To the Lonely Island or Zur einsamen Insel, but then settled on the present title. However, in 1834, the year after the first publication, Breitkopf & Härtel issued an edition with the name Fingalshöhle (Fingal's Cave) and this title stuck, causing some confusion.

 

Fingal's cave is a spot on the Hebridan Isle of Staffa, some fifty miles off the Scottish coast. According to legend the cave is the site of what was once the royal castle of Fion na Gael (anglicized to "Fingal"), ruler of the kingdom of Morven and father of the celebrated third-century warrior and bard known as Ossian. Every trace of the structure of the supposed castle has vanished and its floor has given way to the sea.

 

Being a concert overture, The Hebrides does not precede a play or opera, but is instead a standalone composition in a form common for the Romantic period. Dedicated to Frederick William IV of Prussia, then Crown Prince of Prussia, the B minor work became part of the standard orchestral repertoire and retains this position to the present day. The original handwritten score for the overture was purchased by the Bodleian Library on the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2002 for £600k.

 

As an indication of the esteem in which it is held by musicians, Johannes Brahms once said "I would gladly give all I have written, to have composed something like the Hebrides Overture".

 

Mendelssohn's first visited England in 1829 following invitations from Sir George Smart and the Philharmonic Society. Following his tour of England, Mendelssohn proceeded to Scotland, where he began work on his Symphony No. 3, Scottish. He was engaged on a tour of Scotland with his travelling companion Karl Klingemann when he sent a letter to his family with the opening phrase of the overture written on it. In a note to his sister Fanny, he said: "In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there." The cave at that time was approximately 35 feet (11 m) high and over 200 feet (61 m) deep, and contained black basalt pillars.

 

The work was completed on 16 December 1830 and was originally entitled Die einsame Insel (The Lonely Island). However, Mendelssohn later revised the score and renamed the piece Die Hebriden (The Hebrides). Despite this, the title of Fingal's Cave was also used: on the orchestral parts he labelled the music The Hebrides, but on the score Mendelssohn labelled the music Fingal's Cave. This revision of the overture was premiered on 14 May 1832 in London in a concert conducted by Thomas Attwood, that also featured Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The final revision was completed by 20 June 1832. and premiered on 10 January 1833 in Berlin under the composer's own baton.

 

The music, though labelled as an overture, is intended to stand as a complete work. Although programme music, it does not tell a specific story and is not "about" anything; instead, the piece depicts a mood and "sets a scene", making it an early example of such musical tone poems. The overture consists of two primary themes; the opening notes of the overture state the theme Mendelssohn wrote while visiting the cave, and is played initially by the violas, cellos, and bassoons. This lyrical theme, suggestive of the power and stunning beauty of the cave, is intended to develop feelings of loneliness and solitude. The second theme, meanwhile, depicts movement at sea and "rolling waves".

 

The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

 

Performances of the overture typically last between 10½ and 11 minutes. The autograph manuscript of the work is held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

 

The overture can be heard in Luis Buñuel's film L'Age d'Or (1930).

The full work provides the soundtrack for the 1941 experimental film Moods of the Sea by Slavko Vorkapić and John Hoffman.

An extract served as a leitmotif for the inscrutable, omnipotent mynah bird who featured in the Inki cartoon series produced by Warner Bros., inevitably hopping along with the music.

An a cappella arrangement can be heard in Crash Twinsanity.

Heard in the 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by Michael Powell.

The overture is used in a 1949 CSIRO video "Division of radiophysics" .

Can be heard in the 1954 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon short From A to Z-Z-Z-Z.

The opening 2 minutes of the piece featured in the PlayStation video game Colony Wars: Vengeance during selected cutscenes.

The passages after the second theme, leading to the end of the exposition, were used for great dramatic effect on the "Lone Ranger" radio broadcasts.

Norman, the inscrutable, erudite Mr. mallory who has inspired us all. The first flickr friend I met in person. Ball point pen

Gratuitous pet photo. She's contemplating her ineffable, effable, effanineffable, deep, and inscrutable singular Name.

==========================

 

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,

It isn't just one of your holiday games;

You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,

Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,

Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--

All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,

Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:

Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--

But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,

Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-

Names that never belong to more than one cat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,

And that is the name that you never will guess;

The name that no human research can discover--

But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

 

- T.S. Eliot, The Naming of Cats

I like the cat high on the brickwork, a safe spot to observe me and MacDuff as we walk on by. I edited this photo, but cannot remember WHAT APP....just a wee bit of editing, mostly a crop for the wrought iron and the black door and the black wrought iron rocker...waiting for our neighbor Miss Patty to come sit in the sunshine.

 

This picture is all about WAITING....the cat waits...the chair waits, the door waits....and the morning light waits....for the day to begin. Anticipation, poised for action

Samsung 16-45m close focus lens test.

Queen Amber, totally ignored the lens which was around 12 inches from her face.

 

The APS-C format zoom lens used is a rebadged version of the smc Pentax-DA 16-45mm F4 EDAL( zoom lens. It was marketed for Samsungs line of K-mount DSLRs. This lens was also made available by Samsung under the Schneider-Kreuznach brand name.

  

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas French, 1834 – 1917

  

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen 1879 Cast 1919-21

Bronze with gauze tutu and silk ribbon, on wooden base.

 

When Dega’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen was first exhibited at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition—modeled in wax, with a real tutu and real hair—reaction was mixed. The figure’s awkward limbs and inscrutable expression seemed at odds with the traditional image of the elegant ballerina. Some critics called the sculpture “hideously ugly,” while others applauded its realism. This bronze was cast from the wax original after Dega’s death.

Acquired by Robert Sterling Clark (Probalby in the 1920s-1955)

 

1955.45

 

From the Website: The Clark

www.clarkart.edu/

www.clarkart.edu/artpiece/detail/Little-Dancer-Aged-Fourteen

   

Yuri: *casts speculative looks at the pair* “Georgie, I forgot to place napkins at the cookie bar. Would you mind fetching some from the storage room? Kumi, please go along and show her which ones are still sanitary after your unseemly romp with Simon earlier.”

 

Kumi: “Eh, the napkins are fine. The cups, however, may have been knocked to the floor in our, uh, exuberance.”

 

Hawk: *makes a face at his cousin* “Gross, Kums!”

 

Georgie (perplexed): “Romp?”

 

Kumi: *tucks her arm through Georgie’s, leading her away* “Tell the truth, have you ever had sex in the workplace, George? It’s pretty hot. Of course, sex with Simon would be hot on an iceberg.”

 

Georgie: “Uh, I think Lukas might have something to say about sex in the workplace, since the only other employee here is Yuri. And feel free to expound on the sex with Simon. In great detail.”

 

Yuri: *turns to Hawk, intently* “What was that all about, hmm? Are you and Georgie having a disagreement?”

 

Hawk: “No, we are not, and even if we were, it’d be none of your business, Yuri.”

 

Yuri: “Of course it is my business. You met Georgie here, in my gallery. Also, she is my employee, as well as my friend. If you are not having a disagreement, what was the tension I felt between you two just now?”

 

Hawk: “We are working through some things, like any couple in a serious relationship.”

 

Yuri: “So, you deem the relationship ‘serious,’ then?”

 

Hawk: *enigmatic look*

 

Yuri: *huffs, clearly annoyed by Hawk’s reticence* “These girls are having a very trying day thus far, and it seems a bit insensitive for you to be spending all your time on the phone, instead of lending your emotional support. Frankly, I am surprised at you. It is out of character for you to be this unsolicitous. You should be ashamed for treating them so shabbily.”

 

Hawk: *smirks* “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that, Yuri.”

 

Yuri: *inhales through her nose, frostily* “Explain that insouciant, yet inscrutable, statement at once.”

 

Hawk: “It means I’m about to experience a phenomenon that seldom occurs in the Callaghan family—especially to me.”

 

Yuri: “Do enlighten me.”

 

Hawk: “A sincere apology from you for being wrong. Really wrong. Like ‘I feel so bad lemme make you a couple dozen of your favorite cookies’ wrong.”

 

Yuri: *drawls* “If you think that a likelihood, you have clearly lost your senses along with your sensitivity this evening, Hawk.”

 

Fashion Credits

**Any doll enhancements (i.e. freckles, piercings, eye color changes) were done by me unless otherwise stated.**

 

Yuri

Skirt & Belt: Randall Craig RTW – April in Paris

Top: IT – Monogram – Discreet

Shoes: IT – ITBE – FR Convention 2014 – Erin Welcome Doll

Necklace: Mattel – Wedgewood Barbie

Earrings: IT – Fashion Royalty – Femme du Monde Natalia

 

Doll is a NuFantasy Little Red Riding Hood Yuri.

 

Hawk

Slacks: Kelsie of Mutant Goldfish Designs

Shirt: Gwen of Gwendolyn’s Treasures

Sweater: IT – Homme – Lady Thrilled Pierre

Tie: IT – Homme – Power Couple Francisco

Shoes: Volks – WTG? – Selfish

 

Doll is a Modern Citizen Lukas.

 

I found this wonderful portrait online some time ago. it gave no details, apart from being vintage, so I don't even know whether it's a man or woman, young or old. But it fascinated me,

What do you think? Is it a man or a woman?

Thank you for looking. xx

Shot with a Pentax MX

SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8 lens

Kodak Portra 800 film

Shot at EI 800, developed normally

[ http://www.pavelhorak.com/ ]

Anna waging her war raging constantly within, perhaps now about to surrender, with time running out, short of ammunition but soon back to her relentless determination to fight to the last.

 

//These words suggested by the inscrutable links of friendship serve to add Janos Kepes’s personal verbal articulation to Richard Wohlfart’s photographs, a single if relevant item of an infinite set of possible resonances.//

  

The U-Wing was produced by Koensayr Manufacturing (also of BTL Y-Wing fame) as a light, superluminal space interceptor. It was the first small starfighter to be Class 1 hyperdrive-capable without having to rely on a hyperdrive ring, thanks to a new design of paired micro-quantum motivators hooked up to a highly experimental new NavCom that took all the programming out of the pilot's hands, supposedly minimising all chance for error.

 

But with experimental NavComs come risks, of course. When the time came for the Jedi Order to test the new fighter, they decided to use their most expendable Jedi 'Knight', as it were. Master Yoda himself said, "Test-fly the U-Wing, Pokludix Zaa will. A pilot of, ahem, tremendous good fortune he is. Herrr, herrr, herrr."

 

Pokludix had a beloved pet mynock at that time, named Rofo, and they went everywhere together, including on test flights. Predictably, shortly before the programmed hyperdrive entry point, the mynock, as is their wont, indulged in some light snacktime cable chewing. Just as the U-Wing was about to enter hyperspace the chewed cable led to a massive malfunction in the null quantum field generator.

 

So instead of arriving at the programmed recovery point in the next system, the U-Wing, Zaa, and Rofo the mynock arrived in a very low and rapidly decaying orbit around the uninhabited planet Xyth in the remote Cyprix system, 21 parsecs beyond the Outer Rim. Fearing for its own safety (with a suddenly button-mashing (but still mysteriously smiling) Pokludix at the helm) the mynock took over the starfighter's controls and managed to land the U-Wing safely on the planetary surface.

 

A Jedi rescue party arrived soon after. The mynock was obviously delighted, flapping around like billy-o at the prospect of heading back to a power cable-rich Coruscant. Was Pokludix happy too? We never knew for sure. He just continued to smile his fixed, inscrutable smile.

 

Built for the 2nd round of the Alphabet Fighter Contest at FBTB.

 

"The world moves on a woman's hips

The world moves and it swivels and bops

The world moves on a woman's hips

The world moves and it bounces and hops

 

A world of light, she's gonna open our eyes up

A world of light, she's gonna open our eyes up

She's gonna hold it, move it, hold it, move it

Hold it, move it, hold it, move it

A world of light, she's gonna open our eyes up"

 

The Great Curve by Talking Heads

  

Antonis Mor (Utrecht, 1512 – Antwerp, before 1576)

 

Sir Thomas Gresham (1519–1579) was the leading English merchant in Antwerp and also the English king’s financial agent in the Low Countries. He and his wife, Anne Fernely, are expensively, yet soberly dressed. Their status is also evident in their choice of painter: Anthonis Mor was one of the pre-eminent portraitists of his day and court painter to the Spanish king.

------------------------------------

Realism or Artifice?

 

To a modern viewer accustomed to the precision of photography, this portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham, painted by Anthonis Mor around 1560–65, seems startlingly lifelike. The sharpness of the gaze, the finely textured beard, the subtle gradations of flesh, and the liquid sheen of black satin all contribute to an effect that reads almost as a 16th-century photograph. But this resemblance to photographic realism is, in fact, the result of extraordinary painterly artifice.

 

Mor was one of the leading portraitists in Habsburg Europe and court painter to Philip II of Spain. His work exemplifies the height of Renaissance court portraiture, not just in its finish but in the way it encodes social rank, intellect, and restraint. Gresham is shown in sumptuously sober attire—black satin with a fine ruff and velvet cap—conveying immense wealth and self-discipline, virtues prized in a merchant-banker who served the English crown abroad.

 

What may look today like realism is actually a careful construction of authority and presence. The lifelike rendering of Gresham’s skin, particularly around the eyes and cheeks, is balanced by the nearly abstract perfection of his garments—broad, glossy planes of black with minimal visible brushwork. The gleam of fabric and crisp edge of the ruff are not merely decorative but emblematic: they speak of control, hierarchy, and Protestant sobriety.

 

In Mor’s hands, portraiture becomes a theater of social identity. While modern photorealism might capture a fleeting moment, this painting offers something else entirely: a carefully composed illusion of timeless gravitas, engineered not by a lens but by a painter trained to capture the aspirations of Europe's ruling and mercantile elite.

 

Anthonis Mor (also known as Antonio Moro) was precisely admired in his own time for what we might now call a hyper-realistic style, though in the 16th century it was seen through the lens of lifelikeness, presence, and majesty, not “photorealism” per se.

 

Compared with lesser or more provincial artists of the time—whose portraits might flatten features, muddle anatomy, or lack psychological engagement—Mor’s work stood out as startlingly vivid, even uncanny. His patrons valued this not just as a feat of craftsmanship but as a tool of status, diplomacy, and display.

 

What distinguished Mor was not just technical virtuosity, but the illusion of animation in his sitters:

 

The wetness of the eye,

 

The subtle movement in the mouth or beard,

 

The luminosity of flesh beneath skin,

 

And the finely observed materiality of textiles—especially black silk, a notoriously difficult surface to paint convincingly.

 

These weren’t simply signs of manual dexterity. They suggested that the subject was alive, powerful, and psychologically present—crucial qualities for royal and diplomatic portraits in an age when a painting might stand in for the sitter in international negotiations.

 

Philip II of Spain retained him as a court painter—testimony to how essential his brand of realism was to imperial image-making.

 

He was sent across Europe to paint proxy portraits of marriage candidates and diplomats, where capturing a faithful likeness was not just aesthetic—it was political.

 

Merchants like Thomas Gresham commissioned him to display not only their wealth but their worldliness—sitting for Mor signaled participation in the elite visual culture of Habsburg Europe.

 

Compared to Lesser Artists:

 

Where lesser artists might produce stiffer, more symbolic, or less technically integrated portraits, Mor’s approach fused:

 

Italianate anatomical modeling,

 

Netherlandish detail and texture, and

 

A cool psychological detachment that gave his sitters dignity and inscrutability.

 

This combination is what made his portraits seem so real—and so admired. His realism wasn’t photographic in the modern sense, but it was the highest form of visual truth available to his age, and elite patrons sought it out precisely because it distinguished them from the merely wealthy or provincial.

 

So yes: Mor was very much a celebrity artist of realism in his day, and rightly seen as a master of visual credibility, centuries before photography redefined what realism meant.

 

The text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.

=====================

 

About Panel-to-Canvas Transfers

While no precise global count exists, thousands of Renaissance and earlier panel paintings were irreversibly altered or lost due to 18th- and especially 19th-century panel-to-canvas transfers—a practice once considered state-of-the-art but now viewed as damaging and often tragic.

 

️ Known Numbers and Patterns

 

In Russia, Alexander Sidorov alone reportedly transferred at least 51 panel paintings between 1860 and 1865, and many more afterward. His brothers Nicolai and Mikhail also performed numerous such transfers.

 

In Italy and France, hundreds of paintings underwent this process, particularly during the Napoleonic era and later institutional reforms, as museums sought to stabilize or standardize formats.

 

The Hermitage, Louvre, and even private collectors in Britain and Germany commissioned this type of work throughout the 19th century.

 

In some major European collections (e.g., the Uffizi, the Prado, or German princely collections), curators today still deal with the consequences of 19th-century transfers—many of which were unrecorded at the time.

 

⚠️ Destruction Rates and Risks

 

Hundreds of works were lost entirely in failed transfers: if the ground layer didn't separate cleanly, or the paint cracked during wood removal, the image could be severely damaged or obliterated.

 

Even "successful" transfers often lost original surface texture, subtle brushwork, and structural integrity. The wood panel—part of the original artifact—was usually discarded.

 

Gilded backgrounds, incised halos, and tooling (common in early Italian panels) were often flattened or destroyed in the process.

 

In many cases, facings were poorly removed, pulling off original paint.

 

🔄 Changing Attitudes

 

By the early 20th century, institutions like the National Gallery in London and the Louvre had begun to abandon the practice, recognizing the long-term harm. Today, conservation ethics prioritize:

 

Preserving original supports

 

Minimally invasive stabilization

 

Full documentation

 

Reversibility of treatments

 

In Summary:

 

It is not hyperbole to say that the panel-to-canvas transfer craze of the 19th century permanently altered the history of Renaissance art, with thousands of paintings affected, hundreds lost or disfigured, and countless more stripped of their original material integrity. It was a historic act of preservation that, with modern hindsight, reads more like sanctioned destruction—driven by good intentions and bad methods.

 

The text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.

 

Praise and Worship the Return of God | "Gospel Choir 19th Performance"

 

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/chinese-choir-episode-19-1/

 

Praise and Worship the Return of God | " gospel Choir 19th Performance"

 

Under a starry, quiet and peaceful night sky, a group of Christians earnestly awaiting the return of the Savior sing and dance to cheerful music. When they hear the joyful news "God has returned" and "God has uttered new words", they are surprised and excited. They think: "God has returned? He has already appeared?" With curiosity and uncertainty, one after another, they step into the journey of seeking God's new words. In their arduous seeking, some people are questioning while others simply accept it. Some people look on without comment, while others make suggestions and search for answers in the Bible—they look but in the end it is fruitless…. Just when they become discouraged, a witness brings them a copy of the Age of Kingdom Bible, and they are deeply attracted to the words in the book. What kind of book is this really? Have they actually found the new words that God has uttered in that book? Have they welcomed the appearance of God?

  

Every Nation Worships the Practical God

 

1. "This time, God comes to do work not in a spiritual body but in a very ordinary one. Not only is it the body of God’s second incarnation, but also the body in which God returns. It is a very ordinary flesh. In Him, you cannot see anything that is different from others, but you can receive from Him the truths you have never heard before, receive from Him the truths you have never heard before. This insignificant flesh is the embodiment of all the words of truth from God, that which undertakes God’s work in the last days, and an expression of the whole of God’s disposition for man to come to know. Did you not desire greatly to see the God in heaven? Did you not desire greatly to understand the God in heaven? Did you not desire greatly to see the destination of mankind? He will tell you all these secrets that no one can ever tell you, and He will even tell you of the truths that you do not understand. He is your gate into the kingdom, and your guide into the new age.

 

2. Such an ordinary flesh holds many unfathomable mysteries. His deeds may be inscrutable to you, but the goal of all the work He does is sufficient for you to see that He is not a simple flesh as man believes. For He represents the will of God as well as the care shown by God toward mankind in the last days........."

 

Terms of Use en.godfootsteps.org/disclaimer.html

   

Percy with his inscrutable gaze !! (11 weeks old) see Cats-Set for his sisters

Brachiopods

 

I picked one out of the Ridgeway chalk,

its muppet-gape clogged with calcium

straight out of the Palaeozoic.

 

It fitted snugly in my hand, a little white

talisman connecting me to ancient seas

where my ancestors lived in slime,

 

a chink in time. And now, here’s another

that was living last week, ripped

from its pedicle by a summer storm,

 

empty of flesh, a fossil freshly dead,

whose descendants, still whitely identical,

will outlive us all, inscrutable on the ocean bed.

 

Poem by Giles Watson, 2017.

 

[ http://www.pavelhorak.com/ ]

A variation of the Inscrutable Cube.

 

Taught the Inscrutable Cube at the OrigaMIT convention on Saturday, a class that did not go particularly well, for a variety of reasons. Afterwards, one of the students suggested that the side-flaps would be better put inside the model. I agreed and said I'd tried several times, without success, and invited him to try it, himself. He probably already has.

 

But I tried again, too, and it can be done. And the process gives you the option of a color-change on the knot. I'd like to say it makes the construction easier, but that would be untrue -- it makes it a whole lot more complicated. A fair trade-off, I think.

View of the Pyrenees from the air.

(iPhone pic)

 

Published in the magazine "Landscape Photography Magazine" in section Phoneography. Nº49. (p.73)

Photography: Pyrenees.

 

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Today, Lettice is entertaining the world famous British concert pianist, Sylvia Fordyce in her well appointed her Cavendish Mews drawing room. Lettice met Sylvia at a private audience after a performance at the Royal Albert Hall*. Sylvia is the long-time friend of Lettice’s fiancée, Sir John Nettleford-Hughes and his widowed sister Clementine (known preferably now by the more cosmopolitan Clemance) Pontefract, the latter of whom Sylvia has known since they were both eighteen. Lettice, Sir John and Clemance were invited to join Sylvia in her dressing room after her Schumann and Brahms concert. After a brief chat with Sir John (whom she refers to as Nettie, using the nickname only his closest friends use) and Clemance, Sylvia had her personal secretary, Atlanta, show them out so that she could discuss “business” with Lettice. Anxious that like so many others, Sylvia would try to talk Lettice out of marrying Sir John, who is old enough to be her father and known for his philandering and not so discreet dalliances with pretty chorus girls of Lettice’s age and younger, Lettice was surprised when Sylvia admitted that when she said that she wanted to discuss business, that was what she genuinely meant. Sylvia owns a small country property just outside of Belchamp St Paul** on which she had a secluded little house she calls ‘The Nest’ built not so long ago by architect Sydney Castle***: a house she had decorated by society interior designer Syrie Maugham****. However, unhappy with Mrs. Maugham’s passion for shades of white, Sylvia wanted Lettice to inject some colour into the drawing room of her country retreat by painting a feature wall for her. Thus, she invited Lettice to motor up to Essex with her for an overnight stay at the conclusion of her concert series at The Hall to see the room for herself, and perhaps get some ideas as to what and how she might paint it. Lettice agreed to Sylvia’s commission, and originally had the idea of painting flowers on the wall, reflecting the newly planted cottage garden outside the large drawing room windows of ‘The Nest’. However, after hearing the story of Sylvia’s life – a sad story throughout which, up until more recent years, she had felt like a bird trapped in a cage, Lettice has opted to paint the wall with stylised feathers, expressing the freedom to fly and soar that Sylvia’s later life has given her the ability to do. Delighted with the outcome of her new feature wall, Sylvia has come to Cavendish Mews today to pay the remainder of her bill in full, a result not always so easily come by, by some of Lettice’s previous wealthy clients.

 

Just as Edith, Lettice’s maid, is arranging one of her light and fluffy sponge onto a white gilt edged plate in the kitchen to serve to Lettice and her guest, she hears the mechanical buzz of the Cavendish Mews servant’s call bell. Glancing up she notices the circle for the front door has changed from black to red, indicating that it is the front door bell that has rung.

 

“Oh blast.” she mutters. “Just as I’m about to serve cake too.”

 

Quickly whipping off the stained apron she is wearing which has splashes of cream and strawberry juice from decorating the cake, she hurries from the kitchen into the public area of the flat via a door in the scullery adjoining the kitchen, snatching up a clean apron from a hook by the door as she goes. Quickly fastening the freshly laundered apron over her blue and white striped calico print morning uniform as she walks into the entrance hall.

 

The front door buzzer goes again, sounding noisily, filling the atmosphere with a jarring echo.

 

“Edith?” Lettice’s voice calls from the drawing room where she is sitting with Sylvia.

 

“On my way, Miss!” Edith assures her mistress in a harried tone as she hurries across the think Chinese silk carpet to the front door. “I’m coming, alright. I’m coming.” mutters Edith irritably to herself as she makes her way toward the front door with rushed footsteps. “Keep your hair on****.”

 

She pats her cap and the hairpins holding her blonde waves neatly in place as she goes, hoping that she looks presentable as she opens the front door.

 

“It’s only little me, dear Lettice.” Gerald simpers as he walks into the drawing room where Lettice sits in her usual black japanned, rounded back, while upholstered tup armchair next to the telephone, whilst Sylvia Fordyce lounges languidly in the one opposite.

 

“Oh Gerald! What a lovely surprise!” Lettice says, standing up, the lilt in her voice cheerful, but the look in her sparkling blue eyes murderous as she glances at Gerald. “I… I thought I told you I was entertaining Miss Fordyce is afternoon.”

 

“Oh, you may well have,” he answers, lightly tapping the side of his head beneath the brim of his straw boater absently. “But silly me, it must have completely slipped my mind. I’m so sorry!” His words are apologetic, and his behaviour contrite, but there is a mischievous hazel tinted glint in his own dark brown eyes, and a cheeky curl upturning the corner of his mouth as she speaks that betrays his true thoughts. “It’s only a fleeting visit. I merely came by to drop off a little something for you.” He holds out a small parcel wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine towards Lettice.

 

For the moment, Gerald politely ignores Sylvia’s dark sloe eyed stare as she remains draped languidly in her armchair, her long fingers steepled in front of her chest. He can feel her silently appraising his well-cut navy blue blazer with glinting gold buttons, his pressed white trousers with a crisp crease down the middle at both the front and back, his natty yet at the same time slightly foppish blue and white striped tie with a matching pocket square*****, his bold red carnation boutonnière****** and his stylish straw boater.

 

“Oh Gerald! Lettice says, accepting the gift. “You shouldn’t have.”

 

“Oh,” Gerald retorts, waving his hand dismissively. “It’s nothing really, just a new scarf in silk I had printed with one of my designs in Lyon. I had a few made up, but I wanted you to the be first to have one, of course. They are very much your colours, my dear Lettice.”

 

“Ahh!” exclaims Sylvia, suddenly breaking her languid pose and leaning forward in her seat, looking up at Gerald with great interest as her red painted mouth hangs open in anticipation, her tongue pressed to the base of her mouth behind her slightly discoloured teeth. “So, this is the wunderkind******* Gerald Bruton, of whom I have read so much about in The Lady******** as he takes the London fashion scene by storm.”

 

“Oh! Where are my matters!” Lettice remarks, quickly putting Gerald’s unopened parcel aside. “Sylvia darling, may I introduce Mr. Gerald Bruton, Grosvenor Street couturier, and my oldest, dearest and sometimes,” She pauses for effect. “My most frustrating chum from childhood. Gerald darling, may I introduce Miss Sylvia Fordyce, the world famous British concert pianist.”

 

“And you latest client… and hopefully new friend.” Sylvia adds with a smile.

 

It is only then that Gerald allows himself to truly take his attention away from Lettice and focus upon her guest. Wearing an over-sized chocolate brown velvet cloche, Sylvia’s black dyed sharp bob pokes out from beneath it, framing her striking, angular face which is caked with a thick layer of white makeup. Her lips are painted a bright red, which appears even more garish against the white of her face paint, just as the darkness of her glittering eyes are intensified by her white, almost ethereal, pallor. She wears no necklace, nor any earrings that Gerald can discern beneath the bottom of her cloche. In fact, her only piece of jewellery is a large aquamarine and diamond cluster ring on the left middle finger on her elegant pianist’s right hand. However, being the only piece of ornamentation she wears, it makes the ring, already a striking piece in its own right, even more so as it sparkles and winks beneath the electric light of Lettice’s chandelier overhead. Her outfit is simple and stripped back: a white satin blouse accessorised with a black and white cheque silk scarf tied in a loose and artistic style, and a long column like skirt in black, beneath the hem of which poke the pointed toes of a pair of high heeled black patent leather boots. Far from being conventionally beautiful, the pianist has captured the power of dressing to make her presence unignorable, and she wears her cultivated look with unabashed pride.

 

“Miss Fordyce needs no introduction.” Gerald enthuses as he bends down and raises Sylvia’s elegant hand, kissing it gently just above the sparkling cluster ring. “Enchanté.” he breathes in French.

 

“Charmante,” Sylvia replies with an enigmatic smile, bowing her head slightly as she slowly withdraws her hand from Gerald’s, enjoying the attention her is lavishing upon her. “I could say the same about you, Mr. Bruton, for Lettice speaks of you fondly, and often. I believe that it is you I have to thank for our clever Lettice finishing my feature wall. She has just been telling me that when her inspiration or energy was flagging whilst she was painting it, you spurned her on to complete it. I’m most grateful.”

 

“I did my best, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald replies, his cheeks flushing red at Sylvia’s compliment. “Lettice is,” He turns his head away from Sylvia and focuses upon his best friend. “A remarkable artist, and highly skilled.”

 

“Oh Gerald!” Lettice gasps.

 

“It sounds like you are also her biggest champion, my dear Mr. Bruton.” Sylvia opines.

 

“But,” Gerald goes on. “She doesn’t have the faith in her own abilities that she should.” He returns his attentions to Sylvia. “I’m sure you agree, Miss Fordyce.”

 

“Indeed I do, Mr. Bruton. Your friend is highly accomplished, and I was just telling our clever Lettice how delighted I am with my new feature wall.”

 

“I think it is very beautiful too, Miss Fordyce. You are most fortunate.” Gerald replies.

 

Without saying anything, Lettice gently puts her hand on Gerald’s forearm.

 

“Well!” Gerald says, clearing his throat a little awkwardly, taking Lettice’s silent hint in his stride. “I did say that this was only a fleeting visit. I really should be off.” He looks at Lettice with a meaningful look. “I’ve been here enough times to show myself out, whilst you entertain your guest. I do hope you like the scarf.”

 

“Oh really?” Sylvia interjects rising elegantly from her seat, the fabric of her outfit draping down over her slender frame like shivering water. “Must you go?” She turns her head to Lettice. “Must he go, Lettice darling? Your maid was fetching us cake wasn’t she? Surely there is enough for three?” She turns back to Gerald. “Please, Mr. Bruton. I’d so love you to stay! Darling Lettice and I have finished up the tedious part of my visit, settling my account, and we were just prattling away idly, weren’t we Lettice darling? Besides, I would value your opinion, since you are an arbiter of fashion, Mr. Bruton. Please?” She pouts her scarlet painted lips, which even in a plumped up form still have a slender look about them. “Please!”

 

“Well I…” Gerald looks between Sylvia and Lettice. “I suppose I could tarry for a short while. I don’t have to be at my next appointment just yet, and I do so love Edith’s sponges, which she has told me she has made for you, Miss Fordyce.”

 

“Oh Gerald!” Lettice laughs. “Please drop the pretence and save yourself the embarrassment. Bring that chair over and join us.” She indicates with a sweeping gesture to the black japanned Chippendale chair, upholstered in silver and blue Art Deco fabric, which whilst unorthodox with such clashing styles , works under Lettice’s clever eye for design. “I’ll tell Edith we’re a trio now.” She steps over and depresses the servants’ call button by the fireplace, the buzzer echoing in the service area of the flat.

 

“Thank you, Lettice.” Gerald says gratefully as he takes off his straw boater and places it on one of Lettice’s black japanned side tables before drawing up the chair she has indicated to the coffee table and takes a seat.

 

“Did Cyril put you up to this?” Lettice asks him, mentioning Gerald’s young, fey and more overtly homosexual lover who lives in a boarding house for theatrical types in Putney with Gerald’s friend Harriet Milford, who designs hats in addition to running her rather dramatic boarding house. “Turning up on my doorstep, knowing that Miss Fordyce would be here?”

 

“Well...” Gerald says, blushing red as he speaks.

 

“I knew you hadn’t forgotten that I told you Miss Fordyce was visiting today!” Lettice wags a finger at Gerald. “It isn’t like you to forget a date, even if it isn’t one of your own.”

 

“Who is Cyril, Mr. Bruton?” Sylvia asks, intrigued as she resumes her languid stance in her tub chair again.

 

“Cyril is my… my friend, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald pipes up quickly. “He’s… he’s an oboist who plays in the West End theatres, and like me,” He bushes even deeper. “He is a very big fan of yours, Miss Fordyce.”

 

“A friend.” Sylvia muses, looking Gerald up and down knowingly, but keeping her impressions to herself behind her heavily painted face, only smiling politely in acknowledgement of Gerald.

 

“When I told him that I was going with Lettice to stay at your very lovely little country retreat in Essex, he was more than a little jealous.”

 

“Was he indeed?” Sylvia chuckles indulgently.

 

Just at that moment, Edith walks into the drawing room.

 

“You rang, Miss?” Edith says, bobbing a polite curtsey.

 

“Yes Edith.” Lettice replies. “Mr. Bruton is staying now, so it will be tea for three now, if you can manage it.”

 

“Of course Miss.” Edith replies. “May I take your hat, Mr. Bruton.”

 

“Thank you Edith.” he says, passing her his straw boater. “I do like your delicious sponge cake, Edith.” Gerald compliments the young girl.

 

“Thank you, Sir.” Edith replies, blushing as she basks momentarily in Gerald’s compliment before bobbing another quick curtsey to the assembled company and retreating back into the dining room and through the green baize door, back into the service area of the flat.

 

“Even if my figure suffers for it.” Gerald adds, turning his attentions back to Sylvia.

 

“Such high praise for your cook, Lettice darling.” Sylvia says with her expertly plucked black eyebrows arching high over her eyes. “I am in for a treat!”

 

“Edith is an excellent cook when it comes to cakes, Sylvia darling, so I asked her to bake her speciality today, a cream filled strawberry sponge cake.”

 

“Goodness!” Sylvia gasps. “No wonder your figure suffers, Mr. Bruton, at the sound of such extravagance. I myself,” She raises a hand to her throat. “Do not suffer the same problem. As a performer, I have far too much frenetic energy to burn.”

 

“And you do it with such theatricality,” Gerald enthuses.

 

“Why thank you, Mr. Bruton.” Sylvia says, smiling indulgently as she does. “Such a lovely compliment.”

 

“Oh Gerald!” Lettice giggles. “I do believe you are quite smitten with Sylvia.”

 

“Don’t be cheeky…” Gerald goes to call Lettice by her most hated childhood pet name, ‘Lettuce Leaf’, but being the presence of the pianist he so admires, and wanting to maintain a good impression, he swallows awkwardly and finishes a little lamely, “Lettice.”

 

Sylvia laughs heartily. “You two do know each other well, don’t you, Lettice darling? You have a way between you that seems very comfortable. Have you known Mr. Bruton all your life?”

 

“Yes.” Lettice replies.

 

“I’m just a little older than Lettice, and we grew up on neighbouring estates in Wiltshire,” Gerald goes on. “And all of Lettice’s siblings, with the exception of her beast of a brother Lionel, are much older that we are, and my own brother Roland is a few years my senior and never had time for me.”

 

“So we just ended up playing together, didn’t we Gerald?”

 

“We did, Lettice.”

 

“And so, we became the best of chums and have stayed as such ever since.”

 

“How utterly delightful!” Sylvia opines with a clap of her hands. “But please, do go on about your friend, Cyril, Mr. Bruton. I love the West End theatre scene, and attend whenever my schedule allows. We theatrical types must support one another and stick together. Perhaps I’ve seen, or rather heard, your young oboist friend in a show?”

 

“Well, Cyril was performing in Julian Wylie’s********* revue, ‘Better Days’********** at the Hippodrome***********, but it’s just finished, so he is between engagements at the moment.”

 

“I see.” Sylvia replies, nodding and staring deeply into Gerald’s eyes.

 

“You… err, you wanted to ask me something about fashion, I believe, Miss Fordyce?” Gerald asks, feeling uncomfortable under Sylvia’s inscrutable stare.

 

“I did, Mr. Bruton!” Sylvia replies animatedly, releasing Gerald from her scrutiny. “Thank you for reminding me. Being the arbiter and setter of current London fashion trends that you are…”

 

“Oh, I don’t know if I’d go quite that far, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald chuckles, blushing yet again.

 

“Nonsense! Mr. Bruton!” Sylvia scoffs. “False modesty doesn’t suit you any more than it does darling Lettice, and,” She wags her index finger admonishingly at him, the cluster of diamonds and aquamarines on the finger next to it glinting and gleaming in the light. “It’s no good for business. Did you not design this divine frock for Lettice?”

 

Gerald turns to face Lettice, although he has no need to, as he recognised the rose and marone silk georgette knife pleated frock, the same one she wore when she first arrived at ‘The Nest’ with Sylvia when she went to look at the wall her hostess wanted redecorated, as being one of his own designs for Lettice the moment he laid eyes on her upon walking into the drawing room. “Indeed it is, Miss Fordyce.”

 

“Then I stand by what I say, Mr. Bruton. You have an eye for colour and cut, style and panache, and you create things that flatter your customers.”

 

“Well, Lettice is a special case, Miss Fordyce. As you’ve heard, she is my best friend, and she has always been so supportive of my frock making, ever since I first began. She’s something of a muse to me.”

 

“Muse or not, if you couldn’t design frocks, had no style or awareness of colour, poor Lettice might be wearing something that makes her look perfectly hideous at the moment. Although,” She turns and ponders over Lettice sitting comfortably in her armchair. “I do think that would be very hard to do, since she is so lithe and lovely.”

 

“We concur in that opinion, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald agrees.

 

“However, I stand by what I said before, you are an arbiter of fashion, and your creations are influencing what London women are wearing. So, I wanted to ask you, what is your opinion on,” She stands up suddenly, and spreads her legs slightly, the movement causing the black fabric of what Gerald had thought was a dress to reveal itself as being a pair of roomy Oxford bags************. “Women wearing trousers?”

 

Lettice immediately sees this as being a test for Gerald, as to whether Sylvia, who doesn’t suffer fools or people who don’t tend to share her opinion, will want to invite him to join her exclusive coterie of friends, as she has Lettice. Lettice sits forward slightly in her seat, causing an almost imperceptible widening of her guest’s eyes opposite her, the change, and slight flash in her eyes as she stares at Gerald causing Lettice to sit back in her seat.

 

Without batting an eyelid, Gerald replies firmly. “I always admired Paul Poiret************* for introducing wide legged trousers for women in 1910. I thought it a pity that they only caught on amongst the most avant-garde and daring of his clients.”

 

Lettice releases the pent-up breath she has silently been holding, sighing with relief, knowing by the subtle curl in Sylvia’s red streak of a mouth that she is pleased with Gerald’s response.

 

“And when do you think it will be commonplace to see trousers for women in London shops, Mr. Bruton?” Sylvia goes on, placing her hands in a stance of defiance on her hips. “Currently I have to travel to Berlin to get mine.” She kicks up her right heel a little, making her slacks billow for a moment before falling back down elegantly against her legs.

 

“Ahh, that is a very good question, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald replies. “If I had my way, they would be readily available for all women to wear. However…”

 

“However?” Sylvia asks.

 

“However, the English are conservative by nature, Miss Fordyce, and women wearing trousers would be too shocking for their taste, at least currently. London is not Paris, or Berlin, madam.”

 

At that moment, the conversation is broken by the sound of china rattling against silver, as Edith pushes open the green baize door leading from the scullery to the dining room carrying a large silver tray laden with Lettice’s best Art Deco Royal Doulton ‘Falling Leaves’ tea set, cups, saucers and plates to match, and one of her beautiful strawberry sponge cakes. The trio watch, transfixed as she slowly walks across the dining room and into the drawing room carrying the tray, which looks far to heavy for a girl as dainty as Edith. They observe in silence as she lowers the tray onto the low, black japanned coffee table, before rising and bobbing a curtsy to her mistress.

 

“Will there be anything else, Miss?” Edith asks, aware of the attention and curiosity she has created with her presence, but determined not to let it impact her polite and calm manner.

 

“No, thank you, Edith.” Lettice replies politely. “However, I’ll be sure to call if we need anything else.”

 

“Very good, Miss.” She bobs another curtsey and quickly retreats back to the kitchen.

 

“Yes,” Sylvia says quietly with a sigh as she watches Edith’s retreating figure disappear back through the green baize door. “The idea of women wearing trousers does seem to be too unpalatable for so much of the British population. Take your maid, for example, Lettice darling. Both times I have visited you here at Cavendish Mews, she cannot help but look aghast at my outlandish roomy trousers, her horror as plain as the nose on her face!”

 

“Oh Sylvia, darling!” Lettice protests, as she begins to unpack the tray and set up the teacups onto saucers. “That isn’t fair to poor Edith!”

 

“Whyever not, Lettice darling?” Sylvia retorts. “Surely it would be more practical for her to do her job, were she to wear trousers than some calico frock like she is wearing now. She should find the idea of me wearing trousers exciting, not abhorrent!”

 

“That may well be, Miss Fordyce, but she’ll never wear them.” Gerald replies.

 

“How ridiculous! I ask again, whyever not?” Sylvia asks again, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation.

 

“Because Edith is what is known as a good girl.” Lettice elucidates. “She was brought up by her parents: a factory worker and a laundress I believe, to have moral scruples.”

 

“Moral scruples!” Sylvia scoffs dismissively.

 

“Where she comes from, Sylvia darling, women are servants, wives or mothers. They don’t rune businesses. They aren’t concert pianists. And they certainly don’t wear trousers.”

 

“She’ll never wear them, Miss Fordyce,” Gerald agrees. “Never!”

 

“And you, Mr. Bruton?” Sylvia asks with a cunning smile.

 

“Me, Miss Fordyce?”

 

“Would you be willing to make trousers for women, even if it would shock some parts of London society?”

 

“Well, as a matter-of-fact, Miss Fordyce,” Gerald says with a conspiratorial smile and a twinkle in his eyes. “I happen to be in the process of designing a range of beach pyjamas************* at the moment.”

 

“Beach pyjamas?” Sylvia asks, licking her lips with excitement. “What are they?”

 

“Well, rather like the name suggests, it’s a pair of wide-legged trousers with a matching blouse, made from colourful, brightly patterned cotton fabrics, similar to what you might wear to bed.”

 

“I don’t wear anything to bed, Mr. Bruton.” Sylvia replies with a throaty chuckle.

 

“Sylvia!” Lettice admonishes her guest as Gerald blushes red.

 

“Please pardon my lack of moral scruples, Mr. Bruton.” Sylvia says teasingly. “Perhaps I should take a leaf from your maid, Lettice darling.” She then continues, “Do go on about your beach pyjamas, Mr. Bruton! They sound positively delicious!” Sylvia murmurs.

 

“They are all the rage in Deauville.” Gerald goes on.

 

“Deauville is hardly Bournemouth, Brighton or Lyme Regis.” Lettice counters as she removes Edith’s cake from the tray.

 

“I just need an exponent of them who would be brave enough and willing to wear them.” Gerald defends.

 

“Maybe.” Lettice mutters doubtfully.

 

“Could they be made of silk or satin, Mr. Bruton?” Sylvia asks, sitting up, her eyes twinkling darkly.

 

“Of course, Miss Fordyce. In fact, they lend themselves to being made of something so deliciously extravagant.”

 

“Surely you aren’t suggesting you’d be Gerald’s proponent and wear beach pyjamas, Sylvia darling?” Lettice asks.

 

“Well why not, Lettice darling?” Sylvia counters her friend. “You know me well enough by now to know I don’t give a fig what people think! I am my own woman.” She pats her chest proudly. “Besides,” she adds with a throaty chuckle. “I’d enjoy nothing more than shocking those ghastly prudish Edwardian matrons sitting in their deckchairs along the pier at Bognor Regis*************** as I parade before them in a pair of Mr. Bruton’s beach pyjamas!” She pauses. “Made of satin, of course!”

 

“Of course, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald agrees, quickly getting swept up in the promise of the idea.

 

“Excellent!” Sylvia laughs. “What jolly fun!”

 

“Rather!” Gerald agrees, growing excited at the thought. “Jolly good show, Miss Fordyce!”

 

“Do you know what, Mr. Bruton?” Sylvia asks, as she accepts a cup of freshly poured tea from her hostess. “I’ve just had the most marvellous idea! I was saying to Lettice here, just before you arrived, how I was thinking of throwing a small soirée at ‘The Nest’ with a few like-minded friends: musicians, artists and the like,” She gesticulates about her as if demonstrating who the people’s professions might be. “To celebrate the completion of my fabulous Lettice Chetwynd original feature wall, and for me to be able to show it off to a few of my dearest friends.”

 

“That sounds splendid, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald says.

 

“Well I was just thinking, why don’t you join us? Lettice will have a familiar face beyond mine and Nettie’s to look at.”

 

“Nettie?” Gerald queries.

 

“It’s John’s pet name given him by Clemance and a select group of close friends.” Lettice pipes up as she hands Gerald his teacup. “But please don’t you call him that, Gerald darling!” she implores. “I don’t think I could take it seriously, coming from you.”

 

“Have no fear, Lettice darling!” Gerald chuckles. “I don’t think I could come at calling Sir John that, even if you wanted me too.” He screws up his nose in a mixture of perplexity and distaste. “Nettie…. Nettie.” He shakes his head.

 

“You could bring your… friend,” Sylvia goes on, her eyebrows arching over her eyes before she gives Gerald a cheeky and conspiratorial wink. “Cyril. Playing the oboe, he’s a musician after all, so he’d be in good company, and you did say just before that he was a trifle jealous of you getting to visit ‘The Nest’ without him.”

 

“That really is most generous of you, Miss Fordyce!” Gerald exclaims.

 

“Oh, my offer doesn’t come for free.” Sylvia’s dark eyes widen and sparkle in the light of the room. “There are strings attached to my invitation. I’m an artist, Mr. Bruton. I can’t afford to be that altruistic. No. I’d do you a trade. You and Cyril may come for a weekend at ‘The Nest’ and enjoy my company, and my largess, in return for a pair of your delicious sounding beach pyjamas, in satin! Deal?” she holds out her right hand, rather like an American businessman.

 

Gerald feels awkward as he mimics Sylvia, but he reaches out and shakes her hand. “Deal.”

 

*The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington in London, built in the style of an ancient amphitheatre. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the BBC Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941.

 

**Belchamp St Paul is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England. The village is five miles west of Sudbury, Suffolk, and 23 miles northeast of the county town, Chelmsford.

 

***Sydney Ernest Castle was born in Battersea in July 1883. He trained with H. W. Edwards, a surveyor and worked as chief assistant to Arthur Jessop Hardwick (1867 - 1948) before establishing his own practice in London in 1908. From 1908 to 1918 he was in partnership with Gerald Warren (1881-1936) as Castle & Warren. He worked on St. George's Hill Estate in Weybridge, Surrey with Walter George Tarrant (1875-1942). Castle was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1925. He designed many buildings, including the Christian Association building in Clapham, a school in Balham and a private hotel in the Old Brompton Road, as well as many private residences throughout Britain. His firm’s address in 1926, when this story is set was 40, Albemarle Street, Piccadilly. He died in Wandsworth in March 1955.

 

****Syrie Maugham was a leading British interior decorator of the 1920s and 1930s and best known for popularizing rooms decorated entirely in shades of white. She was the wife of English playwright and novelist William Somerset Maugham.

 

****Meaning to keep calm and be patient, the earliest occurrence of the phrase “to keep your hair on” is recorded in The Entr’acte magazine in London in 1873, which mentioned that at the Winchester, a London music hall, an artist named Ted Callingham sang “Roving Joe” and “Keep Your Hair On”, two very laughable comic songs. A year later in 1874, it was being used commonly amongst the working classes. It is generally said that the phrase is based on the image of pulling one’s hair out in exasperation, anger or frustration, however some connect it to an earlier phrase from the Eighteenth Century “pulling off one’s wig” which refers to irascible and aged gentlemen, “when mad with passion,” have been known not only to curse and swear, but to tear their wigs from their heads, and to trample them under their feet, or to throw them into the fire.

 

*****A pocket square is a decorative square of fabric, typically silk or linen, that is displayed in the breast pocket of a jacket or suit. It serves as a fashion accessory to add a touch of style and visual interest to an outfit. Pocket squares can be folded in various ways, and the fabric is often chosen to complement or contrast with the rest of the attire. The exact origins of the pocket square are open to debate, but many believe they began in Ancient Egypt and Greece. These white fabric squares originally served practical purposes, such as maintaining cleanliness or deterring smells. Men would store them out of sight, only pulling them out when needed. Over time, pocket squares became a fashion statement and status symbol. Wealthy men would purchase brightly coloured fabrics, especially in bold red hues, to stand out from the crowd. They also often had infused scents to block unwanted smells. Throughout the Eighteenth Century, the popularity of pocket squares spread across Europe, even making their way into royal outfits. Pocket squares remained popular throughout the Eighteenth Century, but they truly evolved into the modern accessory we know today in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

 

******A boutonnière is a floral decoration, typically a single flower or bud, worn on the lapel of a tuxedo or suit jacket. While worn frequently in the past to distinguish a gentleman from a common labourer, boutonnières are now usually reserved for special occasions for which formal wear is standard, such as at balls and weddings.

 

*******The term "wunderkind," meaning a child prodigy or someone who achieves exceptional success at a young age, was invented in the late Nineteenth Century. Specifically, the first documented use in English dates back to 1891, with the term being borrowed from German, where it had been in use earlier.

 

********The Lady was a British women's magazine. It published its first issue on 19 February 1885 and was in continuous publication until its last issue in April 2025, at which time it was the longest-running women's magazine in Britain. Based in London, it was particularly notable for its classified advertisements for domestic service and child care; it also has extensive listings of holiday properties. It still has an online presence which offers a classified advertisements, jobs board and recruitment service.

 

*********Julian Wylie (1878 – 1934), originally Julian Ulrich Samuelson Metzenberg, was a British theatrical agent and producer. He began as an accountant and took an interest in entertainment through his brothers, Lauri Wylie and G. B. Samuelson. About 1910, he became the business manager and agent of David Devant, an illusionist, then took on other clients, and formed a partnership with James W. Tate. By the end of his life, he was known as the 'King of Pantomime'.

 

**********Julian Wylie’s last revue at the London Hippodrome was ‘Better Days’ in 1925. Comprising 19 scenes, Better Days had a try-out at the Liverpool Empire from 9th March 1925 before its debut at the London Hippodrome on 19th March 1925. The stars of the first edition of Better Days were Maisie Gay, Stanley Lupino, Madge Elliott, Connie Emerald with Ruth French and Anatole Wiltzak. The production had the usual Wylie flourish and touch with the dances and ensembles arranged by Edward Dolly and all the gowns and costumes designed by Dolly Tree. The modern gowns were created by Peron and Florence Henry and the costumes by Alias, Clarkson and Betty S. Roberts. ‘Better Days’, only ran for 135 performances and closed in early June, proving to be the last of Wylie’s run of productions at the London Hippodrome.

 

***********The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survivors. Hippodrome is an archaic word referring to places that host horse races and other forms of equestrian entertainment. The London Hippodrome was opened in 1900. It was designed by Frank Matcham for Moss Empires chaired by Edward Moss and built for £250,000.00 as a hippodrome for circus and variety performances. The venue gave its first show on 15 January 1900, a music hall revue entitled "Giddy Ostend" with Little Tich. The conductor was Georges Jacobi. In 1909, it was reconstructed by Matcham as a music-hall and variety theatre with 1340 seats in stalls, mezzanine, gallery and upper gallery levels. It was here that in 1910 Tchaikovsky's ‘Swan Lake’ received its English première in the form of Act 2 with Olga Preobajinska as the Swan Queen. The Hippodrome hosted the first official jazz gig in the United Kingdom, by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, in 1919.

 

************Oxford bags were a loose-fitting baggy form of trousers favoured by members of the University of Oxford, especially undergraduates, in England from the mid-1920s to around the 1950s. The style had a more general influence outside the university, including in America, but has been somewhat out of fashion since then. It is sometimes said that the style originated from a ban in 1924 on the wearing of plus fours by Oxford (and Cambridge) undergraduates at lectures. The bagginess allegedly allowed plus fours to be hidden underneath – but the argument is undermined by the fact that the trousers (especially in the early years) were not sufficiently voluminous for this to be done with any success. The original trousers were 22–23 inches (56–58 cm) in circumference at the bottoms but became increasingly larger to 44 inches (110 cm) or more, possibly due to a misunderstanding of the measurement as the width rather than circumference.

 

*************Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer, a master couturier during the first two decades of the 20th century. He was the founder of his namesake haute couture house. Poiret established his own house in 1903. In his first years as an independent couturier, he broke with established conventions of dressmaking and subverted other ones. In 1903, he dismissed the petticoat, and later, in 1906, he did the same with the corset. Poiret made his name with his controversial kimono coat and similar, loose-fitting designs created specifically for an uncorseted, slim figure. Poiret designed flamboyant window displays and threw sensational parties to draw attention to his work. His instinct for marketing and branding was unmatched by any other Parisian designer, although the pioneering fashion shows of the British-based Lucile (Lady Lucy Duff Gordon) had already attracted tremendous publicity. In 1909, he was so famous, Margot Asquith, wife of British prime minister H. H. Asquith, invited him to show his designs at 10 Downing Street. The cheapest garment at the exhibition was thirty guineas, double the annual salary of a scullery maid. Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix presented wide-legged trousers for women in 1910, some months before Poiret, who took credit for being the first to introduce the style.

 

*************Beach pyjamas, which generally consisted of a pair of wide-legged trousers and a jacket of matching fabric, first gained popularity in the years immediately following the Great War, with evidence pointing to the early 1920s, specifically at European seaside resorts like Deauville in France. It is thought that French fashion designer, Coco Chanel, was also an early proponent of this style.

 

**************Deauville is a seaside resort on the Côte Fleurie of France’s Normandy region. An upper-class holiday destination since the 1800s, it’s known for its grand casino, golf courses, horse races and American Film Festival. Its wide, sandy beach is backed by Les Planches, a 1920s boardwalk with bathing cabins. The town has chic boutiques, elegant belle epoque villas and half-timbered buildings. As the closest seaside resort to Paris, Deauville is one of the most notable seaside resorts in France. The city and its region of the Côte Fleurie (Flowery Coast) have long been home to the French upper class's seaside houses and is often referred to as the Parisian Riviera.

 

***************Bognor Regis, also known as Bognor, is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, fifty-six miles south-west of London, twenty-four miles west of Brighton, six miles south-east of Chichester and sixteen miles east of Portsmouth. A seaside resort was developed by Sir Richard Hotham in the late Eighteenth Century on what was a sand and gravel, undeveloped coastline. It has been claimed that Hotham and his new resort are portrayed in Jane Austen's unfinished novel ‘Sanditon’. The resort grew slowly in the first half of the Nineteenth Century but grew rapidly following the coming of the railway in 1864.

 

This 1920s upper-class domestic scene is different to what you may think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures including items from my own childhood.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:

 

Lettice’s tea set sitting on the coffee table is a beautiful artisan set featuring a rather avant-garde Art Deco Royal Doulton design from the Edwardian era. The very realistic looking chocolate sponge cake topped with creamy icing and strawberries has been made from polymer clay and was made by Karen Ladybug Miniatures in the United Kingdom. The green tinged bowl behind the tea set is made of glass and has been made by hand by Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. Made by the Little Green Workshop who specialise in high-end artisan miniatures, the black leather diary with the silver clasp is actually bound and has pages inside. The silver pen with the pearl end is also from the Little Green Workshop.

 

The black Bakelite and silver telephone is a 1:12 miniature of a model introduced around 1919. It is two centimetres wide and two centimetres high. The receiver can be removed from the cradle, and the curling chord does stretch out. The vase of yellow tiger lilies and daisies on the Art Deco occasional table is beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium. The vase of roses and lilies in the tall white vase on the table to the right of the photo was also made by hand, by Falcon Miniatures who are renowned for their realistic 1:12 size miniatures.

 

Lettice’s drawing room is furnished with beautiful J.B.M. miniatures. The black japanned wooden chair is a Chippendale design and has been upholstered with modern and stylish Art Deco fabric. The mirror backed back japanned china cabinet is Chippendale too. On its glass shelves sit pieces of miniature Limoges porcelain including jugs, teacups and saucers, many of which I have had since I was a child.

 

To the left of the Chippendale chair stands a blanc de chine Chinese porcelain vase, and next to it, a Chinese screen. The Chinese folding screen I bought at an antiques and junk market when I was about ten. I was with my grandparents and a friend of the family and their three children, who were around my age. They all bought toys to bring home and play with, and I bought a Chinese folding screen to add to my miniatures collection in my curio cabinet at home! It shows you what a unique child I was.

 

The painting in the gilt frame is made by Amber’s Miniatures in America. The carpet beneath the furniture is a copy of a popular 1920s style Chinese silk rug. The geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.

"Chauve-souris" measures 9.5 x 5.5 x 4.25". The main image is of a bat engraving from a old french book. When the light is on bat skeletons appear underneath. The sides have parts of poems about bats and some pieces from a vintage book of calligraphia latina.

Alfred Tennyson - And Bats flew round in fragrant skys and wheel'd or lit the flimsy shapes that haunt the dusk; with ermine capes and wooly breasts, and beaded eyes.

Emily Dickenson - The bat is dun with wrinkled wings like fallow article, and not a song pervades his lips, or none perceptible. His small umbrella, quaintly halved, describing in the air an arc alike inscrutable, - Elate philosopher!

William Blake - The bat that flits at close of eve has left the brain that won't believe.

Robert Frost - And on the bat's mute antics, who would seem dimly to have made out my secret place, only to lose it when he pirouettes, and seek it endlessly with purblind haste.

Elizabeth Coatsworth - Wing through the darkness of the breast until with day they take their rest.

For more zee blog www.tartx.com/blog

 

Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, known for its natural acoustics. The National Trust for Scotland owns the cave as part of a national nature reserve. It became known as Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th-century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson.

 

Fingal's Cave is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow and is similar in structure to both the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and Ulva.

 

In these locations, cooling on the upper and lower surfaces of the solidified lava resulted in contraction and fracturing, starting in a blocky tetragonal pattern and transitioning to a regular hexagonal fracture pattern with fractures perpendicular to the cooling surfaces. As cooling continued these cracks gradually extended toward the centre of the flow, forming the long hexagonal columns we see in the wave-eroded cross-section today. Similar hexagonal fracture patterns are found in desiccation cracks in mud where contraction is due to loss of water instead of cooling.

 

Fingal's Cave was originally part of the Ulva estate of the Clan MacQuarrie from an early date until 1777. The cave was brought to the attention of the English-speaking world by 18th-century naturalist Sir Joseph Banks in 1772.

 

It became known as Fingal's Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson. It formed part of his Ossian cycle of poems claimed to have been based on old Scottish Gaelic poems. In Irish mythology, the hero Fingal is known as Fionn mac Cumhaill, and it is suggested that Macpherson rendered the name as Fingal (meaning "white stranger") through a misunderstanding of the name which in old Gaelic would appear as "Finn". The legend of the Giant's Causeway has Finn (or Fionn) building the causeway between Ireland and Scotland.

 

The cave has a large arched entrance and is filled by the sea. Several sightseeing cruises organised from April to September by local companies pass the entrance to the cave. In calm conditions, one can land at the island's landing place (as some of these cruises permit) and walk the short distance to the cave, where a row of fractured columns forms a walkway just above high-water level permitting exploration on foot. From the inside, the entrance seems to frame the island of Iona across the water.

 

Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn visited in 1829 and wrote an overture, The Hebrides, Op. 26, (also known as Fingal's Cave Overture), and was said to be inspired by the weird echoes in the cave. Mendelssohn's overture popularized the cave as a tourist destination. Other famous 19th-century visitors included author Jules Verne, who used it in his book Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray), and mentions it in the novels Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Mysterious Island. Poets William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner, who painted Staffa, Fingal's Cave in 1832 also made the trip. In 1860 the German novelist Theodor Fontane visited the cave and described it in his travel report Jenseit des Tweed (Beyond the Tweed, Pictures and Letters from Scotland), Queen Victoria also made the trip.

 

The 19th century Austro-Hungarian guitarist and composer Johann Kaspar Mertz included a piece entitled Fingals-Höhle in his set of character pieces for guitar Bardenklänge.

 

The playwright August Strindberg also set scenes from his play A Dream Play in a place called "Fingal's Grotta". Scots novelist Sir Walter Scott described Fingal's Cave as "one of the most extraordinary places I ever beheld. It exceeded, in my mind, every description I had heard of it… composed entirely of basaltic pillars as high as the roof of a cathedral, and running deep into the rock, eternally swept by a deep and swelling sea, and paved, as it were, with ruddy marble, [it] baffles all description."

 

Artist Matthew Barney used the cave along with the Giant's Causeway for the opening and closing scenes of his art film, Cremaster 3. In 2008, the video artist Richard Ashrowan spent several days recording the interior of Fingal's Cave for an exhibition at the Foksal Gallery in Poland.

 

One of Pink Floyd's early songs bears this location's name. This instrumental was written for the film Zabriskie Point, but not used.

 

Lloyd House at Caltech has a mural representing Fingal's Cave.

 

The Alistair MacLean novel-based movie, When Eight Bells Toll, starring Anthony Hopkins, was filmed there.

 

It is possible that the township of Fingal, Tasmania was named after the cave in MacPherson's honour.

 

Staffa (Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.

 

Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 miles) west of the Isle of Mull; its area is 33 hectares (82 acres) and the highest point is 42 metres (138 feet) above sea level.

 

The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter's Hebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

 

In prehistoric times (Pleistocene) Staffa was covered by the ice sheets which spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 125 metres (410 ft) lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, around 14,000 years ago it is likely that Staffa was part of a larger island, just off the coast of mainland Scotland, which would have included what are now Mull, Iona and the Treshnish Isles.

 

Steadily rising sea levels then further isolated this little island, which is entirely of volcanic origin. It consists of a basement of tuff, underneath colonnades of a black fine-grained Tertiary basalt, overlying which is a third layer of basaltic lava without a crystalline structure. By contrast, slow cooling of the second layer of basalt resulted in an extraordinary pattern of predominantly hexagonal columns which form the faces and walls of the principal caves. The lava contracted towards each of a series of equally spaced centres as it cooled and solidified into prismatic columns, a process known as columnar jointing. The columns typically have three to eight sides, six being most common. The columns are also divided horizontally by cross joints. These columnar jointed sections represent the tops and bottoms of individual lava flows. Between these sections lie regions of much more chaotic jointing, known as the entablature. The origin of the entablature is unknown, but could be due to flooding of the lava flow, causing much more rapid cooling, or the interaction of stress fields from the two regions of columnar jointing as they approach one another.

 

Similar formations are found at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, on the island of Ulva and at Ardmeanach on the Isle of Mull. Grooves in the roof of MacKinnon's cave indicate either a pyroclastic flow or a series of eroded ash falls in the rock above the columnar basalt. The 'Staffa Group' is the name given to the series of olivine tholeiite basalts found in the vicinity of Mull which erupted 55–58 million years ago.

 

Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of Mull, and 9 km northeast of Iona. It is longitudinally oriented north–south, and is a kilometre long by about half a kilometre wide. The circumference is about 3.8 km in extent. In the northeast the isle shelves to a shore, but otherwise the coast is rugged and much indented; numerous caves have been carved out by rain, streams and sea. There is enough grass to feed a few cattle, and the island has a spring.

 

On the east coast are Goat Cave and Clamshell Cave. The latter is 10 m high, about 6 m wide at the entrance, and some 45 m long, and on one side of it the ridges of basalt stand out like the ribs of a ship. Near this cave is the pyramidal rock islet of Am Buachaille ('The Herdsman'), a pile of basalt columns seen fully only at low tide. Other outlying rocks include Eilean Dubh to the north-west and a series of skerries stretching for half a kilometre to the south-west. On the southwest shore are Boat Cave and Mackinnon's Cave (named after a 15th-century abbot of Iona), which has a tunnel connecting it to Cormorant Cave. These caves lie to the south-west and can be accessed from the bay of Port an Fhasgaidh at low tide. In 1945 a mine exploded near Boat Cave, causing damage to the cliff face which is still visible. Mackinnon's Cave is 107 metres long.

 

Staffa's most famous feature is Fingal's Cave, a large sea cave located near the southern tip of the island some 20 m high and 75 m long formed in cliffs of hexagonal basalt columns. This cliff face is called the Colonnade or The Great Face and it was these cliffs and their caves that inspired Felix Mendelssohn's Die Hebriden (English: Hebrides Overture opus 26), which was premiered in London in 1832. The original Gaelic name for Fingal's Cave is An Uamh Bhin – "the melodious cave" – but it was subsequently renamed after the 3rd-century Irish warrior Fionn MacCool. Mendelssohn was nonetheless inspired by the sound of the waves in the cave and waxed lyrical about his visit, claiming that he arrived in Scotland "with a rake for folk-songs, an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives."

 

Little is known of the early history of Staffa, although the Swiss town of Stäfa on Lake Zurich was named after the island by a monk from nearby Iona. Part of the Ulva estate of the MacQuarries from an early date until 1777, it was brought to the English-speaking world's attention after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks in August 1772. En route to Iceland in the company of the painter Johann Zoffany, the Bishop of Linköping, and the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander, Banks (later a president of the Royal Society) was entertained by Maclean of Drummen, on the Isle of Mull. Hearing about Staffa he resolved to visit and set out from Tobermory the next day. The winds were light and they did not arrive until darkness had fallen. Banks wrote: It was too dark to see anything, so we carried our tent and baggage near the only house on the island, and began to cook our suppers, in order to be prepared for the earliest dawn, and to enjoy that which, from the conversation of the gentlemen we had, now raised the highest expectations of.

 

They were not disappointed. Despite becoming infested with lice during his short stay on the island, he provided glowing reports of his visit. He confessed that he was: forced to acknowledge that this piece of architecture, formed by nature, far surpasses that of the Louvre, that of St. Peter at Rome, all that remains of Palmyra and Paestum, and all that the genius, the taste and the luxury of the Greeks were capable of inventing.

 

Samuel Johnson and his protege James Boswell visited clan MacQuarrie on Ulva in 1773, the year after Banks' visit. Perhaps aware that Banks considered that the columnar basalt cliff formations on Ulva called "The Castles" rivalled Staffa's Johnson wrote:

 

When the islanders were reproached with their ignorance or insensibility of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder otherwise than by novelty.

 

Amongst the first eminent overseas visitors to Staffa were Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, a wealthy French zoologist and mineralogist and the American architect and naturalist William Thornton. Visiting in 1784, they were suitably impressed, Faujus writing: "this superb monument of nature, which in regard to its form bears so strong a resemblance to a work of art, though art can certainly claim no share in it."

19th and 20th centuries

 

Subsequently, a stream of famous visitors came to view Staffa's wonders including Robert Adam, Sir Walter Scott (1810), John Keats (1818), J. M. W. Turner, whose 1830 visit yielded an oil painting exhibited in 1832, William Wordsworth (1833), Jules Verne (1839), Alice Liddell (the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) in 1878, David Livingstone (1864), Robert Louis Stevenson (1870) and Mendelssohn himself in 1829. Wordsworth, however, found the volume of tourism disappointing.

 

Writing more than a century later the writer W. H. Murray agreed, complaining that the visitors spoiled the "character and atmosphere", and rather stand-offishly suggesting that "to know Staffa one must go alone".

 

Others were more enthusiastic, despite the presence of numerous others. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were rowed into the cave in the royal barge in 1847, and The Times correspondent recorded:

 

As the Royal Squadron cleared out of the Sound of Mull, and round the northern extremity of the island, a noble prospect lay before it, the steep and barren headlands of Ardnamurchan stretching away into the Atlantic on the right, on the left the precipitous cliffs of the Mull coast, and far away and embosomed in the ocean, the fantastic and varied forms of the adjacent islands. The horizon toward the north was a good deal obscured by haze, but, notwithstanding, Skye was distinctly visible... The deserted and solitary aspect of the island was brought out with a strange and startling effect by the presence of so many steamers; and as Her Majesty's barge with the Royal Standard floated into the cave, the crew dipping their oars with the greatest precision, nothing could be more animated and grand than the appearance which the vast basaltic entrance, so solemn in its proportions, presented.

 

Keats complained about the expense of the ferry, but was captivated by what he saw nonetheless. Displeased with his first efforts to describe this "cathedral of the sea" he finally settled on:

 

Not Aladdin magian/Ever such a work began, Not the wizard of the Dee, Ever such a dream could see; Not St John, in Patmos Isle, In the passion of his toil, When he saw the churches seven, Golden Aisl'd, built up in heaven, Gazed at such a rugged wonder.

 

--John Keats, Staffa

 

However inspiring the scenery, it was not an easy place in which to live. In 1772 there was only a single family, living on a diet of barley, oats, and potatoes, and whatever their grazing animals could provide, and growing flax. By the end of the 18th century they had deserted Staffa, apparently terrified by the severity of winter storms. Signs of "rig and furrow" agriculture can still be seen on the island but the only surviving building is the ruin of a 19th-century shelter for travellers.

 

By 1800 the island was under the ownership of Colin MacDonald of Lochboisdale. In 1816 his son Ranald MacDonald sold Staffa into the care of trustees. In 1821 these trustees sold the island to Alexander Forman as trustee, the purchase money being paid by his brother John Forman WS. It remained in the Forman family until sold by Bernard Gilpin Vincent "Pat" Forman in 1968. There were several private owners after that, including Alastair de Watteville, a descendant of Colin MacDonald who wrote a book about the island, until finally Jock Elliott Jr. of New York gifted it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1986 to honour the 60th birthday of his wife, Eleanor. A grateful National Trust bestowed upon her the honorific "Steward of Staffa". In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, Staffa was named as the eighth-greatest natural wonder in Britain.

 

During the 20th century there were issues of bogus postage stamps bearing Staffa's name.

 

In 1800 there were three red deer on the island, later replaced by goats and then by a small herd of black cattle. Subsequently, the summer grazing was used for sheep by crofters from Iona, but in 1997 all livestock was removed. This has led to a regeneration of the island's vegetation. The island supports a diverse range of plants, with species such as common heather, kidney vetch, common-bird's-foot trefoil, wild thyme and tormentil all found. The clifftop grassland supports species such as red fescue, yorkshire fog, thrift, sea campion, sea plantain and ribwort plantain.

 

Staffa is nationally important for breeding fulmars, common shags and puffins, and great skuas and gulls also nest on the island. The surrounding waters provide a livelihood for numerous seabirds, grey seals, dolphins, basking sharks, minke, and pilot whales.

 

The island has been designated as a national nature reserve since 2001. The national nature reserve is classified as a Category II protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Staffa is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), whilst the seas surrounding the island are designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) due to the presence of harbour porpoises. Staffa is part of the Loch Na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.

 

Boat trips from Tiree, Tobermory, Oban, Ulva Ferry and Fionnphort on Mull, and Iona allow visitors to view the caves and the puffins that nest on the island between May and September. There is a landing place used by the tourist boats just north of Am Buachaille, but disembarkation is only possible in calm conditions. The island lacks a genuine anchorage.

 

The Hebrides is a concert overture that was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830, revised in 1832, and published the next year as Mendelssohn's Op. 26. Some consider it an early tone poem.

 

It was inspired by one of Mendelssohn's trips to the British Isles, specifically an 1829 excursion to the Scottish island of Staffa, with its basalt sea cave known as Fingal's Cave. It was reported that the composer immediately jotted down the opening theme for his composition after seeing the island. He at first called the work To the Lonely Island or Zur einsamen Insel, but then settled on the present title. However, in 1834, the year after the first publication, Breitkopf & Härtel issued an edition with the name Fingalshöhle (Fingal's Cave) and this title stuck, causing some confusion.

 

Fingal's cave is a spot on the Hebridan Isle of Staffa, some fifty miles off the Scottish coast. According to legend the cave is the site of what was once the royal castle of Fion na Gael (anglicized to "Fingal"), ruler of the kingdom of Morven and father of the celebrated third-century warrior and bard known as Ossian. Every trace of the structure of the supposed castle has vanished and its floor has given way to the sea.

 

Being a concert overture, The Hebrides does not precede a play or opera, but is instead a standalone composition in a form common for the Romantic period. Dedicated to Frederick William IV of Prussia, then Crown Prince of Prussia, the B minor work became part of the standard orchestral repertoire and retains this position to the present day. The original handwritten score for the overture was purchased by the Bodleian Library on the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2002 for £600k.

 

As an indication of the esteem in which it is held by musicians, Johannes Brahms once said "I would gladly give all I have written, to have composed something like the Hebrides Overture".

 

Mendelssohn's first visited England in 1829 following invitations from Sir George Smart and the Philharmonic Society. Following his tour of England, Mendelssohn proceeded to Scotland, where he began work on his Symphony No. 3, Scottish. He was engaged on a tour of Scotland with his travelling companion Karl Klingemann when he sent a letter to his family with the opening phrase of the overture written on it. In a note to his sister Fanny, he said: "In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there." The cave at that time was approximately 35 feet (11 m) high and over 200 feet (61 m) deep, and contained black basalt pillars.

 

The work was completed on 16 December 1830 and was originally entitled Die einsame Insel (The Lonely Island). However, Mendelssohn later revised the score and renamed the piece Die Hebriden (The Hebrides). Despite this, the title of Fingal's Cave was also used: on the orchestral parts he labelled the music The Hebrides, but on the score Mendelssohn labelled the music Fingal's Cave. This revision of the overture was premiered on 14 May 1832 in London in a concert conducted by Thomas Attwood, that also featured Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The final revision was completed by 20 June 1832. and premiered on 10 January 1833 in Berlin under the composer's own baton.

 

The music, though labelled as an overture, is intended to stand as a complete work. Although programme music, it does not tell a specific story and is not "about" anything; instead, the piece depicts a mood and "sets a scene", making it an early example of such musical tone poems. The overture consists of two primary themes; the opening notes of the overture state the theme Mendelssohn wrote while visiting the cave, and is played initially by the violas, cellos, and bassoons. This lyrical theme, suggestive of the power and stunning beauty of the cave, is intended to develop feelings of loneliness and solitude. The second theme, meanwhile, depicts movement at sea and "rolling waves".

 

The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

 

Performances of the overture typically last between 10½ and 11 minutes. The autograph manuscript of the work is held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

 

The overture can be heard in Luis Buñuel's film L'Age d'Or (1930).

The full work provides the soundtrack for the 1941 experimental film Moods of the Sea by Slavko Vorkapić and John Hoffman.

An extract served as a leitmotif for the inscrutable, omnipotent mynah bird who featured in the Inki cartoon series produced by Warner Bros., inevitably hopping along with the music.

An a cappella arrangement can be heard in Crash Twinsanity.

Heard in the 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by Michael Powell.

The overture is used in a 1949 CSIRO video "Division of radiophysics" .

Can be heard in the 1954 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon short From A to Z-Z-Z-Z.

The opening 2 minutes of the piece featured in the PlayStation video game Colony Wars: Vengeance during selected cutscenes.

The passages after the second theme, leading to the end of the exposition, were used for great dramatic effect on the "Lone Ranger" radio broadcasts.

Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's most isolated settlements, with some 23,000 people. It is one of the seven oases of Egypt's Western Desert (part of the Libyan Desert).

 

Its fame lies primarily in its ancient role as the home to an oracle of Amon, the ruins which gave the oasis its ancient name Ammonium. Historically, it is part of Ancient Libya.

 

Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of connection with ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BC), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek: Zeus Ammon), who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. Herodotus knew of a "fountain of the Sun" that ran coldest in the noontide heat.

 

During his campaign to conquer the [Persian Empire], Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The oracle, Alexander's court historians alleged, confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt, though Alexander's motives in making the excursion, following his founding of Alexandria, remain to some extent inscrutable and contested. The Romans later used Siwa as a place of banishment. Evidence of Christianity at Siwa is uncertain, but in 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army, and probably did not convert until the 12th century.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis

GLORIA SWANSON Over time, this Edward Steichen portrait has taken on masterpiece status. Created in 1924, just as the first feature-length sound movies were emerging—effectively truncating the actress’s brilliant silent-film career—this image caught the essential Gloria Swanson: haunting and inscrutable, forever veiled in the whisper of a distant era. Steichen’s photograph has elements of turn-of-the-century pictorialism (moody and delicate, the subject seeming to peer from the darkness, as if from jungle foliage), yet it also projects modernist boldness, with its pin-sharp precision and graphic severity. By Edward Steichen, 1924; Vanity Fair, February 1928; © Condé Nast Publications Inc./courtesy of Condé Nast Archive.

Back in the day when I had my first full-time job and was not only the new guy in the office, but the youngest, I attended a party for a retiring secretary. White-haired and known as something of a pistol, she had worked in the office her entire career, but, having lost her husband a few years earlier, had decided it was time to, as she put it, “Look for a little adventure in life.”

 

As I approached her and a group of her closest friends to wish her well, I overheard one of them ask, “But why would you even consider getting married again?”. With a sly wink to the others, and a subtle nod in my direction, she answered, “There may be snow on the roof, but there’s fire in the stove.” Certainly there was fire in my cheeks as I quickly stammered my best wishes and beat a hasty retreat.

 

In the inscrutable way in which the past intersects with the present, this ancient bristlecone root somehow reminds me of that encounter.

 

Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.

 

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

 

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.

 

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).

 

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).

 

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".

 

In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.

 

In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

 

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.

 

The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.

 

Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.

 

VAHANAS

The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

 

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.

 

The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."

 

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".

 

AUM

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

 

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).

 

Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.

 

FIRST CHAKRA

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.

 

The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.

 

Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.

 

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.

 

Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).

 

Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.

 

Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."

 

GANESH CHATURTI

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.

 

TEMPLES

In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.

 

There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

 

T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

 

What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

 

In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.

 

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."

 

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.

 

A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.

 

First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .

 

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".

 

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.

 

PURANIC PERIOD

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.

 

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

 

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.

 

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

 

SCRIPTURES

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.

 

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.

 

R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.

 

Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.

 

Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.

 

Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.

 

Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.

 

The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

WIKIPEDIA

'We come in peace, shoot to kill!'. Lines immortalised by 'Captain Kirk' in the Firm's 1987 hit 'Startrekkin'. Now, whilst that song has thankfully been swallowed by the sands of time the sentiment expressed in those lines is still very much alive and well. It's cats. They think like that.

 

Cats are inscrutable little suckers. Even at the best of times there's just no telling what they're thinking. When you think they're being friendly they're probably just demanding food or threatening to kill you. And if ever they do get opposable thumbs then we're probably in for some serious trouble. I, for one, welcome our new cat overlords...

 

Cheers

 

id-iom

 

Title: We come in peace...

Materials: Spray paint, stencils, paint pen and watercolour paint on a section of map

Size: 50 x 45cm

Please email if interested

He was a neighborhood fixture back in the days before "keep Portland weird" was a bumper sticker motto.

 

Ragged clothes, pushing a shopping cart filled with garbage bags, he looked homeless--but wasn't. He was right at home, being and doing just what he wanted.

 

He seemed mute, but only because he didn't feel much like talking. Everwhere he went, he swept up. In his wake was cleanliness. Once, I saw a motorcyclist take a fall in the rain, and The Sweeper (the only name we had for him) was the first to jump in to help the biker get his Harley up again.

 

The cigarette butts he'd sweep off the sidewalk, he'd smoke those down to the filter. I offered him a pack of Marlboros once, and he shuffled by wordlessly. The guy who ran a coffee cart near the Art Museum earned his trust, and said he enjoyed his conversation. He called him "The Professor", and said he'd retired from teaching at the Colorado College of Mines. He warned me not to take his picture, or pay him too much interest--he was a bone fide "recluse", had a pension, and was happy just to be ignored and left to sweeping the streets he lived on.

 

The newspaper staff in the 80s--we all saw him a lot. My kids' St. James Day Care played at "Peace Park", where he'd often sit on a park bench and watch--they knew him, too. I got on his wrong side after a late night encounter where I noticed he had a huge .45 automatic pistol in his cart, and mentioned it to a cop friend. It turned out to be a pellet gun. Later, I tried to apologize to him, and he tossed his coffee on me. Yeh, good intentions aside, I'd earned a spot on his shit list.

 

Eventually Portland got too aware of him, his cloak of invisiblility frayed, and he left. I tried to keep tabs on him, and learned he'd relocated to Seattle, and then eventually I read an obituary. He'd remained inscrutable to the end. I thought about him the other day, when I saw a video about a high school kid who had found his place with his schoolmates, simply by holding doors open for everyone. He became "The Doorman", and was elected Prom King. It got me thinking about "right livelihood", the ease and value of picking out the little things that help and are appreciated. It made me think of "The Sweeper" and his broom. thedigitalnest.com/the-doorman-josh-yandt-how-he-overcame...

 

It resonated with me, and called to mind a passage I'd just read from Clyde Rice's "Night Freight" a conversation with an old man hobo (former Wyoming sheriff) who was hiding from his family, and enjoying life riding the rails: "They want me to quit living as I want to and live as they do. But I don't and by God I won't...Success seems to make men petulant about the founding things. Yeah, and I've found that there's more fire and eagerness in the eyes of transients and petty thieves and even killers than there is in the eyes of the successful middle class. I've come to it that when men cease to be savage and impulsive they soon convert even their integrity to suet."

 

So--it struck me, thinking on The Sweeper, and what he taught everyday. And how maybe that other name, "The Professor", suited him better. I tried to find some record of him on the internet, but without any luck, until I found a little-viewed locally written folksong eulogy to the man--it's worth a listen: Mr Sweeper Man (original)

enigmatic

impenetrable

incomprehensible

unfathomable

unintelligible

 

Please Listen : Right Click and select "Open link in new tab"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTco5rmYMVQ

 

woman - etta james

''So Curious''

written by David Whalen

  

Why faces in portraits seem

To follow one about…

While visages in old photographs

Seem to beg

for remembrance

Why some expressions

In their open emotions

Leave no doubt…

And others plainly proffer

Neither pain

nor penance

Why do we find life

So inscrutably curious…

  

Created using Mandelbulb 3D, best viewed at the full original size

The shadows suggest all is not as it seems despite the young woman’s obvious delight with her new gift. There’s an inscrutable look on the face of her male companion. From Saturday Evening Post , illustrator is Robert G Harris.

 

Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.

 

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

 

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.

 

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).

 

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).

 

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".

 

In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.

 

In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

 

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.

 

The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.

 

Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.

 

VAHANAS

The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

 

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.

 

The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."

 

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".

 

AUM

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

 

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).

 

Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.

 

FIRST CHAKRA

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.

 

The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.

 

Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.

 

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.

 

Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).

 

Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.

 

Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."

 

GANESH CHATURTI

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.

 

TEMPLES

In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.

 

There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

 

T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

 

What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

 

In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.

 

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."

 

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.

 

A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.

 

First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .

 

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".

 

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.

 

PURANIC PERIOD

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.

 

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

 

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.

 

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

 

SCRIPTURES

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.

 

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.

 

R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.

 

Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.

 

Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.

 

Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.

 

Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.

 

The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Dear Neighbor's Cat,

 

Every morning you greet me at this window with your inscrutable gaze. What are you trying to tell me? Are you up here because you hear me coming, or is this simply your morning spot? Are we friends???

 

Alas, my lease ends in just over a month, and I don't think we have the time to fully answer any of these burning questions.

 

See you tomorrow morning,

Brian

See in large size : farm3.static.flickr.com/2704/4192134796_42b3c597f6_o.jpg

 

Model : Shaheen Al-Rshaid

 

يـــــــــــــــــــوم غـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــامض !

 

Photographer Khalid Almasoud © All rights reserved

Dutch postcard by Young Media Group. Image: Walden Media / Independent Films. Poster for Around the World in 80 Days (Frank Coraci, 2004) with Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Cécile de France was based on the novel by Jules Verne.

 

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a French author of adventurous travel stories using new technologies, to go to many parts of the earth and to unknown regions such as the deep sea, the bowels of the earth, and the moon. Verne is often seen as the father of Science Fiction. This is probably due to the fantastic nature of his stories, which, however, were usually inspired by the knowledge that existed at the time. Many of his books have been filmed.

 

Jules Gabriel Verne was born in 1929 in Nantes, France. He was the eldest of five children of Pierre Verne, a Parisian lawyer from a family of lawyers, and Sophie Allotte de la Fuÿe. His father wanted Jules to succeed him, but Jules' heart was set on the sea. The story that Verne only travelled in his stories is untrue. He made a train journey to Scotland and crossed the ocean in the first large steam-sailed passenger ship, the Great Eastern, to visit North America, including Niagara Falls. When he had earned a lot of money with his books, he bought a luxury yacht, Saint Michel III, with a crew of ten, and sailed the Mediterranean with it, making trips to England, Ireland, Holland, and Scandinavia. In 1847, he went to Paris to study law. In 1857, he married Honorine de Viane, a widow who already had two daughters. In 1861 they had a son, Michel Jules Verne. Although Verne had finished his law studies, he wanted to become a writer. He wrote comedies in verse and prose, some of which were performed. In Paris, he met famous authors such as Alexandre Dumas père and his son, Alexandre fils, who gave him writing advice. In 1862, he came into contact with the publisher Jules Hetzel. He had the plan to publish a popular scientific magazine. Verne had already published short stories in the illustrated family magazine, Musée de Familles. Hetzel's magazine Magasin d'Éducation et Récreation would publish most of Verne's novels in instalments and would subsequently publish his travel descriptions in the new series 'Voyages Extraordinaires', for which he entered into a contract with Verne for two to three books a year. The first published scientific novel, as Verne called his work himself, was 'Cinq semaines en ballon' (Five Weeks in a Balloon). That novel was his breakthrough in 1863 and was published in several languages. Verne was already happy that he had reached his ideal and a steady income. Therefore, he did not negotiate too much with the publisher, who would earn much more from Verne's novels than the author himself. The Verne family settled in Amiens in 1871. Verne became a famous man. But at home, there were worries. His marriage was not happy and his difficult son Michel gave him many worries. Due to tensions in his early years, he suffered from stomach and facial pain. One evening an overworked cousin, whom he supported financially, fired at him with a revolver at low range. The wound on his left leg did not heal sufficiently. He had to walk with a stick. From 1888 onwards, Jules Verne served for sixteen years in the Amiens town council for the Republican party, where he devoted himself to education and the theatre. In 1905, Jules Verne died in Amiens at the age of 77, his grave is in Amiens.

 

Jules Verne had a Spartan way of working. He got up at five o'clock and worked on a book afterwards. In the afternoon, he could be found in a library documenting himself through books and magazines. In this way, he built up a collection of 20,000 fiche cards, from which he derived information for his stories. Verne had a technical interest, but his love was mainly for geography. In 'Les enfants du capitaine Grant' (1867-1968; The Children of Captain Grant'), the geographer Jacques Paganel is the somewhat absent-minded but all-knowing companion of the travelling party that is searching for the lost captain through South America, Australia, and New Zealand. The interest in science and the belief in technical progress were great in the nineteenth century. There were plenty of travel journals, also from the century before. 'Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours' (1973; Voyage around the world in 80 days) has been Verne's most successful novel, later also through film adaptations. By the time of his life, half a million copies had been sold. It first appeared as a serial in Le temps. Verne derived the itinerary from a magazine article and from a book about a trip around the world, published shortly before by William Perry Fogg, whom we know as the enterprising traveller Phileas Fogg from the story. Even more lucrative than the fame he achieved with this were the revenues from putting the story on stage in a grand spectacle with real elephants on the stage, which became an enormous success. France began to become familiar with the concept of submarines. At the 1867 World's Fair in Paris, a model of Le Plongeur (the diver) was on display, on which the illustrator of '20,000 Miles Under the Sea' based his work. The vessel operated on compressed air and proved very impractical. The nature of the deep sea could be studied in books and articles. While writing, Verne discovered a follow-up story in the newspaper Le Petit Journal about a journey in a small submarine powered by electricity. It had been written by a member of the Amiens Scientific Academy, Verne's hometown. That Verne did not always test his imagination against reality is shown in the description of the submarine Nautilus. In the illustrations, the vessel appears narrow and closed, while inside there appear to be large spaces for a library, a dining room, and a large round window offering a view of the deep sea. Scientists, mostly stubborn and described with humour, are part of the crew and travelling companions. On the other hand, there is the engineer, a know-it-all, but often an inscrutable and fearsome man. Like Captain Nemo, inventor and pilot of the Nautilus, and Robur, skipper of the electricity-powered aeroplane the Albatross. This streamlined zeppelin-like airship has rows of propeller masts on its upper deck, powered by an electric motor.

 

Not all Jules Verne books have a geographical exploration as their subject. A well-known type of novel is the so-called Robinsonade. Adults or boys end up on an island, where they try to build an existence with the available resources and their knowledge like Robinson Crusoe did. Examples are 'L'Île mystérieuse' (1873-1875: The mysterious island) and 'Deux ans de vacances' (1886-1887; Two Years' Vacation). The latter is a story written for children. Also 'Un capitaine de quinze ans' (1877-1878; A Captain of Fifteen), in which the young hero embarks on an adventurous journey on a twisted compass, can be counted among these. In other stories by Verne, the events take place against the background of a historical event, a ghost story or a love story. A novel with a political meaning is 'Les cinq cents millions de la Bégum' (1879; Eldorado and the Monster Cannon of Steel City). In it, the inhabitants of a peaceful new French town are confronted with the threat of a new German town, entirely devoted to steel production. The enormous cannon, a predecessor of the Dicke Bertha from World War I, is both the symbol and the open danger. The Franco-German conflict after the war of 1870-1871 is clearly the background to this story. A book with a patriotic slant and with a warning is 'Face au drapeau' (1896; Facing the Flag) The story focuses on a new enormous explosive mélinite, invented by the French Eugène Turpin. The latter figures here as the mad inventor Thomas Roch. The publisher and writer were sued by Turpin, which they won, assisted by the well-known French lawyer and statesman Raymond Poincaré. The work Paris in the 20th century, from Verne's early years, also contains a sharp critique of an over-engineered technical society. However, the melodramatic and satirical story was unbalanced. Publisher Hetzel, therefore, did not wish to publish the manuscript, a decision to which Verne agreed. It was not until the 1990s that the text was found again and published. Verne is best known as the writer who "predicted the future". In his books, he described many things that were considered fantasy at the time, but later became reality in an impressive number of cases. He foresaw a journey to the moon that was first realised just over 100 years later during the Apollo programme. But there are also essential differences between this book and space travel. Jules Verne's moon travellers, for example, are shot with a giant cannon and not launched with a rocket. The moon travellers do not land on the moon either but fly around it and then return, something that would happen later in the Apollo programme with Apollo 8 (1968, planned) and Apollo 13 (1970, unplanned, after an explosion onboard). It is noteworthy that the launch site was also at Cape Canaveral and the place where Apollo 11 came down to earth was only a few kilometres different from the bullet in Verne's book.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

One of various close-up portraits of Wrangler looking very enigmatic.

Her methods are inscrutable

The proof is irrefutable, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

She's so completely kissable, huh

Our lives are indivisible...

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stumbled upon this cool wall while exploring backroads in Reedsport, Oregon...

This comes from a conversation with Don McLagan of Compete. Compete is in the business of tracking (anonymized) consumer behavior on the Web, and thinking about how to move (with permission!) towards direct communication with identified customers. We started with the concept of “customer intimacy.” But who wants to be intimate with a vendor? or vice versa?

 

Yet, true story, last Sunday I earned 6000 status miles from United Airlines for faxing them three statements from my other frequent flyer programs (British Airways, American and Delta). I would have done that for free; I *want* United to know how much I travel with the other guys. Maybe they would treat me better if they knew.

 

As it happens, I have a long, close, data-filled - but not intimate! – relationship with American. Let me explore it to make a few points. I have earned more than 7 million miles from American over the years, and I have a lifetime AAdmirals’ Club membership. (I bought it in 1985, just before I was planning to sell my business for the first time, and expected that the new owners wouldn’t pay for such a thing. It cost about as much as a single year’s membership costs now. Not that I was that smart; I bought a similar lifetime membership with Eastern Airlines – but their life was short!)

 

American knows a lot about me… both travel patterns, and, over the years, a number of complaints and a few compliments that I sent in and which are probably on file somewhere. But what’s more interesting to me is that I know American. I know not just their prices and routes, but also their seat maps and upgrade policies. I can go to American’s site and check seat availabilities on the flights I’m considering. If there are two and one’s full and the other empty(ish), I’ll go for the empty one – better chance of an upgrade, or at least of an empty seat beside me.

 

Doesn’t this transparency hurt American’s ability to control its inventory? Not at all. They *want* me and people like me to fill up their empty flights and reduce bumping on the full ones. It’s in their interest for me to be happy, and for me to benefit from upgrades to seats that would otherwise have gone empty.

 

Rather than a mysterious enemy engaging in inscrutable countermeasures, we are partners, trying to get me the best seat possible given American’s rules. I don’t expect American to be altruistic or to give me more than I deserve, but I trust them – business trust! – to do what’s in their own best long-term interest, which is to keep me as a satisfied customer.

 

How concscious is American of all this? probably not very, or they would make it slightly easier! I would love a software package that would help me to navigate American’s site and grab the seat maps of the different flights I’m considering (and perhaps those of a few competitive airlines) into a single page. In fact, I’d be happy to have a software package that would represent *me* in my dealings with a variety of vendors.

 

That brings me to the business proposition of Sidestep or, as it happens, WhenU, a company that I just wrote about in the Release 1.0 issue on adware. Their original (and perhaps born-again) proposition is a shopping assistant (as in WhenU shop) that would do precisely this kind of thing.

 

This is all part of a slow, mostly unnoticed shift in the balance of power towards consumers. Once we got into mass production, we moved into an economy where producers made things (trying hard to divine and influence customer tastes, of course) and consumers could choose from what was on offer. Then we got feedback, 800 numbers and the like, and companies started to “listen” – some of them seriously, some only in their marketing pitches.

 

But it’s mostly still the vendors who have all the firepower. The user tools I mentioned above are beginning to redress the blance. And Priceline allows the user to set his own price, but its business model basically depends on price obfuscation – because the vendors don’t want to expose their below-market pricing to competitors or to less price-sensitive customers.

 

But there’s another, better example out there of what’s coming in – of all places – the on-demand air-taxi business. In this business – most notably Dayjet - consumers enter their requirements and constraints, which are matched with other customers’ data *and* with what Dayjet has on offer in terms of aircraft and personnel to fly and service them. It’s in everyone’s interest to use the resources most effectively and to make trade-offs based on customers’ preferences (and their willingness to back them with money). To course, Dayjet takes a cut, but there’s not the feeling of Dayjet benefiting at the customers’ expense that you so often feel with traditional business models.

 

Of course, that’s a slightly idealistic view of things, but it’s where we’re heading. The customers become – in realtime – partners in designing and allocating the offering.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

 

---The Naming Of Cats by T.S.Eliot---

“to become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words...the tangent to the curve of human experience lies beyond the limits of language. the world of things we perceive is but a veil. It’s flutter is music, its ornament science, but what it conceals is inscrutable. It’s silence remains unbroken; no words can carry it away. Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear--filling grandeur.

Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder."

 

- Abraham Joshua Heschel