Forgotten July

Like some of my fellow bloggers, posts have been few and far between. There is simply too much going on.

Jeffy and I are still setting up house because we can only make progress on weekends. People who accomplish things on weekday evenings after work must be superhuman.

Yesterday I scrubbed the kitchen from top to bottom while Jeffy assembled our fantastic bamboo kitchen cart. Yes, it is made of bamboo! It's quite heavy and substantial, a really nice piece of furniture - the top is half bamboo board and half granite slab.

It looks like we will have to go to London in early September. Some of you may remember that my mother has been suffering for over a year now with an undiagnosed degenerative nerve condition and has been undergoing a series of tests at Whittington Hospital. Her neurologist there had referred her to a leading research specialist in the field at University College Hospital's Institute of Neurology, which has the best neurologists in the country. She was finally diagnosed on Thursday with Motor Neurone Disease, which is progressive and incurable. The outlook could be a few months, or a few years, but unless she is lucky and hits a plateau (like Stephen Hawking), there's likely not that much time. There are 4 types, and after further testing, and just seeing how it progresses, they will know which type it is. Mum herself suspects ALS (Lou Gehrig's). Most of the family has been notified that if they want to see her they must go to London, and soon, just in case she loses the ability to speak.

Essentially, MND is the worst diagnosis possible. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) would have been infinitely preferable. Imagine saying about a parent: "I wish she had MS"...

You may think I sound matter-of-fact, and yes I am - but I have had my moments this week, especially at my desk at work, and I am sure they will continue. In the face of it all, Jeffy has been a godsend. I don't know anyone else who is so full of peace, positive energy, internal strength, and pure goodness. Without him I would probably have been in pieces.

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In order to end this on a lighter note, I must share something lovely. One of my most faithful and longtime readers, Moody Minstrel, has composed a delightful acoustic ballad for J and me. Those of you who know of my odyssey will see that the lyrics are perfect. It's called Matching Smiles and was inspired by the photo of us on the tall ship in Old Town Alexandria. I am sure MM won't mind me sharing this with you all, since you are also in the faithful reader circle, and I thank you for that.

Thank you a thousand times, Minstrel-san!

Matching Smiles

What flow of karma, blessed winds of fate
From Heaven's gate
Led our paths to cross?
A scene no artist's brush or author's pen
Determined how and when we came together.
Like an angel dropping from the sky,
You came, and I
Didn't see you coming.
Now I almost fear that I'll
Open my eyes and see
It's all a fantasy.
Nobody pinch me!

A breath ago I fled a grayer place
And turned my face
Toward the setting sun.
I only hoped to sate my wanderlust,
Do what I must to find some warmth and color.
But instead I found a deeper truth
Of rhyme and rhythm
And a brighter promise.
Now the words are dancing
On your lips and on the page
While language sets the stage,
A whole, new age!

We look upon the world with matching smiles
And go in style
Where even words don't go.
We'll hear the music on the 18th Street,
A swinging beat to kiss the week goodbye now.
Turn the darkness to a brighter day,
A place to stay
That is a house, a home.
The candlesticks are red,
The smell of cookies fills the air.
Between us not a care,
As long as we share!

Papou Panos

I know I posted a rather frustrated entry yesterday.  Today I shall try to remedy this.

It's very rainy and English outside, so much so that the White House has turned grey!

However, tomorrow promises to be glorious and warm and sunny.

Now, on to the meat of this post.  It's kind of especially for Tea N Crumpets because she's Eastern Orthodox, and my Cypriot Papou (grandpa) was a Greek Orthodox priest for a while, so it is in my blood even though I was brought up Anglican.

Here is Panayiotis (or Panos for short).  Love the bow tie.  On the right, he looks very young (the other fellow is his cousin Nick). 

Panos was a little man, fiesty and affectionate - he stood only up to my father's shoulder, and my Dad is not much taller than me (I'm 5'3" / 63 cm).  He had olive skin and blue eyes.  I have just noticed, he looks like a dreamer.

I never met him, for he died of a heart attack following a house fire, the year before I was born.  I would have loved to hear his accent, and maybe hear him sing.  

He trained to be a priest in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus in the early 1900s, and his pure voice was famous in the area.  However, he did not stay.  As Cyprus was a British protectorate, he immigrated and found a new life in London running two restaurants.  He was a good cook at home and could whip up a feast from nothing, all the while singing his sacred music and chasing everyone out of the kitchen.

When I was a toddler, I scared my mother when I would sit under the dining table and sing my heart out, something sounding very much like Papou.

This video is from 2006, but I still talk like this - because Tea N Crumpets rightfully imagines me with an English accent.  (There is sometimes a slight mix of Texan in there though.)

Today I can still sing my heart out, in both Greek and English and a couple of other languages, but it took many many years for me to discover Greek Orthodox chants for myself.  I too have a pure voice, like a choirboy, with no vibrato - I know this from singing Handel's Messiah every year at home.  

Panos Kavarnos is Greece's current angelic voice.  If you can wear headphones while listening to this, or listen in HD, even better. It gives me goosebumps all over.  Surely this must be what heaven sounds like.  Or if not, I hope one day Kavarnos is appointed God's Choir Director!

Algerian Evening

The sun has been hiding behind clouds and mist for the past few days - very English, which is a novelty for the locals but I'm drumming my fingers waiting for it to go.  Fortunately, the sun wil return on Tuesday.  

I was heading towards hibernation after going out on Friday, but I was taken out on Sunday too.

We went to the Kennedy Center - a cavernous 1960s style venue not far from the infamous Watergate Hotel.

Pic taken nearly halfway down the endless length of the hall - a stage at either end and a giant bronze bust of JFK in the center

For approximately a week, there were free concerts on the Millennium Stage, and art, jewelry and costume exhibits as part of the Center's Arabesque:  Arts of the Arab World series.

Unbelievably, it was announced that there is a free concert on the Millennium Stage 360 days of the year!!!  I should live there then!  And, you can watch the webcasts!

Anyway, Sunday's treat was Djamel Laroussi, an Algerian musician with his band of four playing for the first time in America (probably the first time for most of the other bands/ensembles this week).  Very lively, enriching, and fun.  Alors, c'etait super!

They kept us clapping in time, middle eastern women ululated, and there was a small knot of people at the front who wouldn't stop dancing, which annoyed the elderly ushers but on the last number, everyone got up so it was a lost cause.

Afterwards, in the mood for mideastern cuisine we drove into Maryland to eat a hearty Greek and Turkish dinner.

NMNH

On we go to the National Museum of Natural History!

But first, I had a great evening on Friday.  I was taken out to U Street, the home of Washington's jazz scene.  We checked out a couple of places, but ended up at Cafe Nema, a cozy, relaxed little place with friendly staff.  There was a good selection of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Somali food.  Most importantly, the band was ablaze - so much energy - they played from the heart.  They're called the Young Lions and have played with Branford Marsalis.  It turns out we were sitting next to the previous mayor (Williams) and his friend, and they dedicated a song to him.

On Sunday, we're going to a desert music concert, so I'll tell you about that too.

Also, I now have my DC driver's license, and was able to use it mere hours later to get into a bar.  They shredded my NYC license in front of me and I said bye bye.  Back home, my roommate said, "Great, now you can drive the car you don't have!"

Actually, I plan to join Zipcars eventually.  Every neighborhood has a fair selection of cars, pickups, SUVs, cabriolets, or station wagons which you can find on a map.  You pay a small yearly fee ($50), receive a proximity card which opens the car you have booked online, and then pay a low hourly ($9-11) fee and can extend your booking via SMS text if needed.  Sounds awesome.  You can rent a Mini Cooper or even a BMW.

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OK, are y'all ready to go to the museum now?  I think we can do this in one post.

The National Museum of Natural History

Ooh look, another rotunda!

There was the usual T rex skeleton in the great hall, and so on.  This little bird fossil was captivating.

There was a temporary exhibition on Africa.  Here two things from Ghana:  a front door, and a fancy coffin, which is like a status symbol.  This one is a KLM jumbo jet.

A plesiosaur and a giant turtle from the Pleistocene Era



Which natural history museum does not have a whale hall?  Here is an ugly bugger, called the Right Whale - because it really is the one that the Inuit whalers meant to catch.

Also, which whale hall does not have an outstanding feature?  This one was that all the wall friezes were video screens of underwater footage.

An amazing show, like that touchable flag display at the American History museum, here is the Story of Earth - projected onto a rotating globe.

Clockwise:  intro > earth's fiery gaseous volcanic birth > the names of the continental plates > following the minor ocean currents using rubber duckies, which as they continued became as tumultuous and water-swept as a van Gogh painting.  The narrator told the story of the development of life on earth, the effect of the water on climate, earthquakes and tsunamis, lightning strikes, hurricanes, volcanoes, the underwater canyons currently being mapped, Pangaea and Panthalassa...

Did you know it takes some of the deepest slowest currents nearly 1,000 years to circle the globe?

Emperor penguins sort of have fur

And a sealion gives a cheeky glance

The stuffed animals at the museum, not being 100 years old, all looked alive to me because their fur and feathers were so fresh.

In the Exploration and Discovery hall, a new species discovered at the Geothermal Vents in the deep sea:  the Yeti Crab, named after the abominable snowman.

The benches lining one wall were inset with nautical knots, a neat detail.



A special exhibition of hundreds of FRESH ORCHIDS detailing Darwin's study of orchid evolution.

North American Plains - a hare, a bison, and by the bison's back foot, a screaming rodent



I have always thought the South African Dik Dik was adorable.  It's hardly bigger than a jack russell terrier and it's teeny weeny hoofs are unreal.

The giraffe becomes one of the most graceless animals when drinking water.

A nectar sipping bat


The gorgeous Arctic Fox in camouflage

It's a good thing my phonecam battery ran out before the Gems and Minerals hall because I would have tried to show you those too.  Had a look at the Hope Diamond and lots of touchable rocks.

Listen to the planets

There is a great interactive solar system at Spacesounds.com where you can listen to the "music of the spheres".

You can also hear flight recordings from space missions here, including Apollo 13.
(I watched it again for the nth time on Sunday - anyone else see it? - and appreciate it even more, hence this post.)

Thanks to their years of intensive military and mission training, the astronauts would have remained extremely calm. Lovell's famed "Houston, we have a problem" sounds surprisingly matter-of-fact, compared to the panic portrayed in the movie. (If you can hang on until 14 minutes in, out of a total of 38.) Throughout the crisis, from troubleshooting to resolution, you may perceive that the crew have snapped into a familiar military operation mode.

Those were the days of heroes...

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And now to the point of this post:

Join me on a tour of our universe...!

You will hear radio and gamma waves and elecromagnetic pulses converted into frequencies audible to humans.


Turn up the volume and listen to Jupiter (and enjoy the video):

Personally, I can't get enough of it.



Now turn the volume down a bit (tis scary) and listen to Saturn - with lots of info:

More here:
NASA's SSE Galileo site


And here is the sound of our Earth:

Planetary Multi-Pack: Here are a Uranian moon (Miranda), a Jovian moon (Io), Neptune, Uranus, our melodic Earth, and a very eerie Saturn:

You've got to love the universe even more now, for you have heard it.

Give me

Muse again...

BLISS - Origin of Symmetry, 2001



Or Watch Here


Everything about you is how I wanna be

Your freedom comes naturally

Everything about you resonates happiness

Now I won't settle for less



Give me all the peace and joy in your mind



Everything about you pains my envying

Your soul can't hate anything

Everything about you is so easy to love

They're watching you from above



Give me all the peace and joy in your mind

I want the peace and joy in your mind

Give me the peace and joy in your mind



Everything about you resonates happiness

Now I won't settle for less



Give me all the peace and joy in your mind

I want the peace and joy in your mind

Give me the peace and joy in your mind

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Since hearing this song some weeks ago, I now have the whole collection and my list of favourites has grown longer. Thing I hate about being a girl is that when you share music with someone special, the memory of them lingers with the sound for too long after they are gone. You know?

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HYPER MUSIC - Origin of Symmetry, 2001





Or Watch Here



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SUNBURN - Showbiz, 1999





Or Watch Here

Song of My Heart

Another tag from Selba:

This tag is a nostalgic one which really does bring back the old memories.

Here are the rules:
1. Go to http://www.popculturemadness.com/Music/Number-One-Songs-90s.html
2. Pick the year you turned 18
3. Get yourself nostalgic over the songs of the year
4. Write something about how the song affected you
5. Pass it on to 5 more friends

I turned 18 in 1995.
Back then, I paid no attention to current music, preferring to flop on the couch on Friday after school and immerse myself in Beethoven.

However...a few years later, I heard the following song of 1995 (the only one I recognised from the list provided on the website), and thought it touchingly beautiful.

Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman - Bryan Adams

To really love a woman
To understand her - you gotta know her deep inside
Hear every thought - see every dream
And give her wings - when she wants to fly
Then when you find yourself lying helpless in her arms
You know you really love a woman

When you love a woman you tell her
that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that it's gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really
- really really ever loved a woman?

To really love a woman
Let her hold you -
till you know how she needs to be touched
You've gotta breathe her - really taste her
Till you can feel her in your blood
And when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
You know you really love a woman

When you love a woman
you tell her that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that you'll always be together
So tell me have you ever really -
really really ever loved a woman?

You got to give her some faith - hold her tight
A little tenderness - gotta treat her right
She will be there for you, taking good care of you
You really gotta love your woman...

Then when you find yourself lying helpless in her arms
You know you really love a woman
When you love a woman you tell her
that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that it's gonna last together
So tell me have you ever really
- really really ever loved a woman?

interlude

Just tell me have you ever really,
really, really, ever loved a woman? You got to tell me
Just tell me have you ever really,
really, really, ever loved a woman?

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That is really and truly a song for women, and it has a beautiful and seductive Spanish touch.
When I first heard it, the lines that really stood out for me were:

You've gotta breathe her - really taste her
Till you can feel her in your blood
And when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
You know you really love a woman

(I mean....wow...)

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I tag...
1) Anyone
2) Who
3) Has
4) The
5) Time

Assign Me

I don't know what to blog! I am having a week in limbo. I didn't get the job at the arts council, but I have two applications to send in this week.

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After a promising start to the spring (remember my London walk last week?), winter is back. The south of France and London were both cold as each other, about 5 degrees C (upper 40s F). The heating is back on, plus my little space heater is back in service, and it was even too chilly to have my window open a crack as it usually is in winter - I guess I had acclimatised to milder weather.

It is supposed to snow somewhere this week too.

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I had an idea whilst I was washing dishes this weekend. I shall open the comments to anonymous voting - on any point of art history that you would like me to research and write about. (But please nothing after the 20th century.)

Go on, get your thinking caps on! But remember, make your vote anonymous so that I can't be accused of favouritism.

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And finally for the listening (not necessarily viewing) pleasure of you old-timers out there.