tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69932876307388493712024-03-07T18:55:44.148-05:00Larry Muffin at homeThe whole world is a small town.Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.comBlogger871125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-37716751407338734852015-08-30T12:20:00.001-04:002015-08-30T12:20:34.575-04:00Wordpress.com<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At the beginning of 2015 I decided to move my blog to Wordpress.com and I am quite happy I did.<br />
I recently added quite a few entries on our trip to Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.<br />
You can find all the details at <a href="http://larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com/">larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com</a><br />
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So the blog lives on and on in on another website. See you there and happy reading.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-65176411622143303802015-02-12T11:23:00.001-05:002015-02-12T11:23:50.870-05:00Have you seen the NEW BLOG?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Please visit my new blog at <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com/">larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com</a></span><br />
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A new blog, a new format. </div>
Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-50573424286307422902014-12-31T13:38:00.000-05:002015-02-12T11:15:28.332-05:00migrating, please note<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
To all my readers and followers on this blogger please note that I have move to Wordpress<br />
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My new and improved blog is now called<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com/">larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com</a></span><br />
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Please click on it and you will be re-directed to it. Hope to see you there in the New Year.<br />
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Happy New Year 2015 to all and thank you for reading me.</div>
Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-78011677798240388902014-12-29T12:44:00.003-05:002014-12-29T21:12:48.031-05:00troubles and solutions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well this was an anxious few days, after receiving a new iPhone I was installing apps and thought I knew my password for my gmail account. I had forgotten I had changed it a few months back. Suddenly I was out of gmail and out of Blogger, could not get back in and could not remember a thing. The more I tried to get back in the more things got complicated. So I created a new gmail account which I will now use and keep the original account since it is well known by many people.<br />
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I also started a new blog on WordPress and I like the new format. So I will persevere and learn WordPress, you can find me there now at <a href="http://larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com/">larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com</a><br />
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Luckily I have smart friends like David in AZ who very helpfully suggested a google site with solutions to such problems as loosing one's password.<br />
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Well we are in the final week of 2014, a very good and interesting year, with travels and much fun all around.<br />
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Best wishes to all my readers for a very Happy New Year 2015, health, happiness, success!<br />
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Satyr, garden architectural detail, Zwinger Palace, Dresden, Saxony</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-16778222624130456332014-12-25T12:03:00.000-05:002014-12-26T00:05:25.501-05:00Christmas and Santa and gypsies and dachshunds and Rome<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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On this Christmas Eve the little Santa's Dachshunds <i>Nicky</i> and <i>Nora</i> spoke to Santa and I got an iPhone 5, so finally after 25 years of Nokia simple cel phone graduating to the big league and I can now like everyone else constantly look at my phone and just ignore the world as it hurls itself into whatever.<br />
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Clever little puppies they are, so many times we have said we would give them away to the Gypsies of the Via Nomentana in Rome. So they surprised me, I did not have the heart to put them on the Alitalia flight Ottawa Rome. A little bribe goes a long way as they say, I suppose I will keep them for a while longer. They will be 6 years old in February 2015. I am just KIDDING. I would never send them out on the street.<br />
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Wonderful dinner on this Xmas Eve with some nice wines, the weather is very mild almost Spring like, very strange for a 24 December, this is the sort of weather we are use to in Rome in Winter at night. <br />
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Another gift which was a nice surprise was my Italian Police cap which can only be had if you are in the Carabinieri which is the equivalent of the RCMP in Canada. The yellow colour of the insignia is for Officers, I got it through our friends in Rome, Gail and Mariano. The insignia of the Corps is a flaming grenade. it is a para-military corps of Police. <a href="http://www.carabinieri.it/" target="_blank">http://www.carabinieri.it</a><br />
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Carabinieri on patrol in Rome</div>
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for the bicentennial of the Carabinieri in 2014 their new Highway car a Lotus Evora S. Very stylish!<br />
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We also had a wonderful dinner at home nice smoke Salmon from the Pacific and roast Lamb with roast potatoes. Our dessert was a Bûche de Noël.<br />
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The weather being dreadful, rain, +3C and wind prefer to stay at home and enjoy our home comforts.<br />
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Some photos of our Christmas Eve table 2014.<br />
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The Hunting Scene Dishes, hand painted by Crown Staffordshire that we have used for such occasions for the last 38 years. Must be all washed by hand.<br />
We also used the Holme Gaard Copenhagen glasses bought decades ago in Denmark.<br />
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Chateau PuyFromage, a bordeaux and Tantinel a Prosecco bought are new to the LCBO and very good. We also had a bottle of dessert wine Chateau La Croix Poulvère.</div>
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Now I have to play with my new iPhone and program it. Learn out to use it. A quiet Christmas day and tonight dinner with friends at Le Café on the Canal.</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-532708462077443012014-12-23T21:55:00.000-05:002014-12-24T13:18:44.361-05:00Photos from my favourite places.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some places I always enjoyed at Christmas, of course Rome, Belleza Aeterna, Palermo, Sicily such charm and faded elegance, Berlin a re-born Capital. What did I enjoy, well the food, the atmosphere, often quiet in the city and neighbourhoods, the parks and the wintery flowers, the brisk air, the weather and the pleasure of walking in a city with beautiful sights. The people and the little courtesies of the Season and all the traditions which makes Europe special.<br />
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Fireworks seen from the Tiber River, Rome. The Fireworks are on top of the Janiculum Hill. </div>
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Pariser Platz, Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate</div>
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Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Sicily, one of the largest Opera house in the world</div>
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Warsaw old Town at the Royal Palace.</div>
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Ottawa Christmas lights by the Rideau Canal<br />
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The Old Teacher's College on Elgin Street</div>
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Our Mayor Jim Watson, serving lunch at the Ottawa Mission, a great guy!</div>
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Garibaldi Memorial on the Janiculum Hill in Rome in the snow</div>
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For those of you who think it never snows in the Eternal City.</div>
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May you all have a wonderful Christmas wherever you may be.</div>
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The final hymn '' Puer Nobis Nascitur'' of the Lutheran Christmas Morning Mass of 1620 in Germany, by Michael Praetorius </div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-35041756163237002972014-12-22T23:46:00.000-05:002014-12-24T13:26:40.775-05:00Pet Peeve and dinner menu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The one thing I hate about any holiday in Canada is how the politicians and the media always turn it into a way to infantilize the population. Politicians make a point to wish everyone a <i><b>safe and secure </b></i>holiday. <i><b>Enjoy yourself but do it responsibly.</b></i> Why do we need them to say that? As for the media same approach with a message along the lines of what to do and not to do, as if the population was 9 years old. In fact you would not say that to a teenager knowing they would just ignore you or think you are an old fart. So according to our elected officials or the media we are irresponsible and behave like idiots so we need to be told. The other one is the news bulletin telling us that their will be police road blocks and the police is out in force to make sure everyone is behaving themselves, make sure you have a designated driver or take the bus and return safely home before midnight. All these messages may well be done with good intentions but in the end are very disrespectful and coming from politicians who are nothing more than our servants is a big no no.<br />
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Another hipster website in Ottaw, is name is Dwayne is promoting a non-alcohol Holiday Season with 12 fruit juice cocktails, again maybe intended to be useful but so offensive, I think he is confusing a Caribbean Cruise with the Christmas Season. Ottawa is known as the town that Fun forgot or the cemetery with lights, such campaigns are sure to make things just as boring as boring can be. I think it can be safely assume that most adults know how to behave and act in a responsible manner, we certainly do not need the sanctimonious messages from the media nor the politicians.<br />
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This is truly the hallmark of Canada, giving lessons to others and lecturing others how to live their lives, treating adults as if they were mere children. It's petit bourgeois mentality gone bezerk. I say get with the program, it's the Festive Season, a good ole Saturnalia is in order with lots of Merriment.<br />
Do what I do, if the weather is bad and you want to enjoy your evening with friends, just take a taxi, so easy, let someone else do the driving, I do it and have no worries.<br />
My resolution is to just tune out the PC crowd and wish everyone a Happy Christmas!<br />
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<i>ADDENDUM</i>: after writing this ditty, got an email from LoveOttawa, Dwayne's site, instead of answering my question on his philosophy of lecturing people, he showed his colour, his reply was smarmy and he obviously thinks highly of himself, thus the lecture of the evils of alcohol. He belongs in the Age of Temperance and all those rallies of 90 years ago.<br />
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Now the dinner menu for this Christmas Eve. I was reading about a typical meal in Rome which is very different from what one might imagine. In North America in the Immigrant Italian community there is a tradition of having 7 different fish dishes but not so in Italy. Here are some idea for either Christmas Eve or Day for a menu. The most traditional dish for a family in Rome is for Mamma or Nonna to prepare a Roast of Lamb, other dishes would be Spaghetti with shrimp tartare, bottarga and clams, Bacala e ceci which is steamed cod with a purée of chick peas, Steamed cod as an appetizer, Rigatoni alla carbonara, Bacala Manteca which is a small torte of buttered cod topped with chicory salad or Jewish Style (Fried) Artichokes, the Jewish community in Rome as been there for 3000 years, so they have a historical influence on the dishes of the City. For dessert being Christmas you have a choice of Panettone or Pan D'Oro. Panettone is a bread like cake filled with raisins or chocolate or orange. Pan D'Oro is a spongecake topped with powered sugar.<br />
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We are having roasted lamb and roast potatoes with rosemary and to start Smoked Salmon with sour cream and caviar. In Italy you would have a Tartare of Salmon in lemon juice which is quite good.<br />
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Roast Lamb and potatoes</div>
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So far our Christmas Season has been quiet, I have not been inside one shop and stayed clear of the crowds.<br />
The weather promises to be really awful in the next few days, freezing rain, hot and cold weather, so we will stay at home. Tonight the wind is raw and there is a cold humidity in the air. So I say time to open a nice bottle of wine, we do have that special bottle of Marsala which cannot be bought in North America nor for love nor money, small production and high vintage, BUFFA Marsala Vergine 5, not to be used for cooking but for enjoyable sip. It is the last of a case we brought back from Marsala in Sicily from that little Enoteca The drunken Mermaid and its charming owner Salvatore. Please see the web site for the wines I would love to buy from them, <a href="mailto:lasirenaubriaca@live.it" target="_blank">lasirenaubriaca@live.it</a><br />
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But if all else fails like in Rome most families go out to the restaurant for lunch or dinner. Who wants to cook and clean on Christmas day!<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-50770984130365980552014-12-21T00:37:00.001-05:002014-12-21T15:36:13.953-05:00to visit or not to visit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the past year there has been a lot of talk, discussion and thinking about how to bring more visitors to the National Gallery of Canada. This conversation has hit a certain high note this year with the on-going and numerous, I should say countless cuts to various budgets ordered by our dear Leader Stephen Harper has slowly but surely destroyed many areas of service to Canadians. Many agree that we have entered an age of Corporatist politics, where Corporations are people and their voices count whereas the average taxpayer does not. This means a slow but certain degradation of anything and everything the Federal government does.<br />
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In the case of all our National Museums they are Crown Corporations, meaning that they receive a lump sum each year and the rest of their financing must come from the public through sales of tickets and other items such as memberships or donations. It has to be understood that for decades the main source of funding came from the Federal government who financed almost everything. Including building infrastructure and maintaining existing building, renovations, landscaping etc... the public was used to the Providential State stepping in at every turn to maintain these national institutions. Not understanding that they did not pay anywhere near enough taxes to support it all.<br />
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In other countries depending on their national history either the King or Emperor maintained private museums of their own collection, i.e. the Hermitage, the Prussian Royal Collections, the Saxon Royal Collection or the collections of the Bavarian Royal House or the Vatican Museums which until not so long ago where not open to the public. <br />
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In the USA it was Andrew W. Mellon who was the creator and founder/builder of the National Gallery in Washington DC. Mellon bought the main European art works from the Bolchevics in Russia after 1919 who were selling off treasures of the Tsars and the Hermitage to finance their endeavours. In turn upon his death he donated to the American Nation all of it for the enjoyment of future generations. In the USA the Spirit with a capital S of endowment and gifts is well and alive, in Canada not so.<br />
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In Canada our National Museums were a government creation, unlike the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal which was a private sector creation. In 1905 our first Canadian Museum in Ottawa was the Geological Society of Canada located in a castle like structure named the Victoria Memorial Museum on Metcalfe Street, it is the very popular Museum of Nature today.<br />
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The National Gallery had one small room in the basement of that building. Ottawa was a very small town at the time and the development of the museums in general was overseen by Civil Servants. There were some wealthy donors but they were few, unlike cities like Montreal where a well established group of British and Scottish well to do families had their Clubs and Art Circles.<br />
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The situation only began to change in our National Museums with the Trudeau (father) era 1968-1982. He had a personal interest in seeing new National Museums built and started a dialogue with the public to get them to involve themselves in the development and enhancement of the collections.<br />
He saw a program similar to the USA where endowment funds and donations would drive museum expansion and not government funds.<br />
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The old Lorne building (1959-2012) former seat of the National Gallery until 1987, named after Governor General Sir John Douglas Sutherland, Marquess of Lorne. </div>
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The main idea was that donors would form circles of friends and actively support all the activities of a Museum in particular. This happened with the building of the new Canadian War Museum in 2005, an idea which came about with Barnie Danson (1921-2011), a veteran, member of Parliament and Minister of Veterans Affairs who gathered supporters and to this day continues to thrive on that idea.<br />
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The New National Gallery of Canada building opened in 1988, the design alone created a buzz and people where fascinated with it. On the opening year close to one million visitors came to see it.<br />
However this was not a sign that the public was more interested in art in general because suddenly there was a new building dedicated for the first time to our National Art Collections.<br />
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National Gallery of Canada (1988)</div>
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Whereas in the case of the Canadian War Museum where every Canadian, Veteran or active military is sought after and welcomed, the National Gallery had an image problem very often based on false assumptions and opinions. The public had and has to this day the overall impression that it is a place for the elite and the wealthy. Amongst our French speaking population it is seen as an English institution not open to others. Nothing could be further from the truth but it is a tough perception which will not die easily. Thus an empty museum with the lowest attendance record of all our National Museums including the currently closed under renovation Science and Technology Museum.<br />
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The Alarm bell has been ringing and the Board of Directors of the National Gallery have decided that something must be done. I remember prior to 1988 when the National Gallery was located in the old Lorne Building on Elgin Street, a converted office building, the museum was empty then. It was a small dark crammed display area. Not really enticing to promoting the arts and it had that academic approach in the display of the art collection.<br />
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This academic approach to the collections is still very present and that is a big turn off for a lot of people in this day and age, when education and intellectual pursuit is ridiculed and seen as worthless in Canada by a clear percentage of the population which includes our Prime Minister who was often quoted in the last 10 years with negative comments towards Arts and Culture. The Media in general has not helped either, a certain popular press is quick to pounce on any type of art which is not appealing to the masses, this includes contemporary, modern and lesser painters of any era.<br />
The tone of the articles is always the same, ''Your tax dollars bought that thing your 5 year old kid can paint'' This type of populist attack which appeals to the lowest common denominator is very popular and sells well.<br />
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The other problem, and this is one of society in general, the lack of conversation in Canada about what kind of society do we want to live in. Everything in the last 10 years has come down to the notion of not wanting to pay taxes, having lots of rights and no responsibilities for anything or anyone, the promotion of excessive consumerism, not needing education, i.e. traditional schools, we need more babysitting services instead, not needing arts or culture which is seen as too expensive as long as we have big name sports team and stadiums and prioritizing shopping malls and highways.<br />
As one of our Conservative politician put it so succinctly, ''We are not in Europe here, we don't need that stuff'' meaning arts and culture. A good example of this current political way of thinking is the sudden announcement two weeks ago of the renovations and rejuvenation of the National Arts Centre of Canada on Elgin Street. This is a much needed project however if you look at the details you will quickly notice that we are renovating all the public areas, bar, restaurant, lobby, parking and toilets, nothing is done to the concert halls themselves. This does not mean that more people will be coming to the performances.<br />
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The same is true with block buster Art exhibits, one quick solutions to bring people in. Two years ago we had a Summer exhibit of works by Van Gogh, which gave the National Gallery the highest attendance records in decades. However other Summer shows by equally great names like Monet and Renoir have failed miserably to attract record numbers. We did have a show organized with the Tate Modern London in 2010 entitled Pop Life with artists like Andy Wharhol, Jeff Koons and many others, it was a flop despite being a North American exclusive. The cost also of mounting theses big name exhibits has become exorbitant, one cost is the insurance, transport and logistics. Such exhibits need a minimum work of 5 years in planning.<br />
It would appear that Ottawa, the region and as a tourist destination fails to promote/market its museums or maybe the interest is just not there in the Ottawa Valley.<br />
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The National Gallery could for starters become more visitor friendly, while retaining a certain academic approach could vulgarise and popularize exhibit space, market the museum as open to the public and at the same time tell the public at large of what we have in our collections. Many Canadians are not aware of the vast richness and diversity of our collections making the National Gallery of Canada one of the truly great world museum. Maybe the public in general should be asked to support financially the NGC and make a donation upon entry or at any other time. Why rely only on big name donors who are a few hundred at most.<br />
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Given that our public often has no information or knowledge on art and may not know artists beyond a famous name and is unable to recognize a work of art by any artists it is crucial to bring things down to a level that is inviting and inspire the imagination. Before we jump to the conclusion that our National Gallery is not at the level of museums in Europe like the National Gallery London or the Louvre in Paris or any other museum in Italy or Germany, we should remember that Europe suffers from the same problem. The Louvre director was saying recently that if it was not for 5 works of art everyone wants to see, the museum would be empty, same phenomenon in Rome, St-Petersburg, Vienna, London or Berlin. Because we live in an anti-education age, the dawn of a new Middle-Age perhaps, the attention span of the public is extremely short, they must be brought to climax quickly because they have other things to do.<br />
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The secret of our success in Ottawa depends on how far we are willing to go to reach<br />
a public who is difficult to please or simply unaware of the beauty around them.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-60640486799842023322014-12-19T22:55:00.000-05:002014-12-19T22:55:32.566-05:00Delia Smith, an icon of the BBC Cooking shows.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
During the year there are lots of Holidays and the food offered is usually the same. The dishes go with the idea or spirit of that holiday. It seems that turkey is always coming back and if not turkey then its burgers or hot dogs. I am thinking here of Victoria Day in May, that is the start of the Summer Season and Cottage opening time, so a Bar-B-Q is de rigueur. Then Canada Day again being Summer and July more Bar-B-Q meats of all kinds. At Thanksgiving in October it's roast Turkey or ham and the same at Christmas and or New Year. At Easter it can be a ham though I one point Lamb was a favourite, though Canadian Lamb is becoming quite expensive, New Zealand lamb is quite cheap but full of chemicals and so lately people have been cooking other dishes. In Canada Tourtière is popular, the famous meat pie of French-Canada, though how it is prepared is important and what quality ingredients you use makes a difference. For some reason the Lac St-Jean version of the tourtière seems a favourite with some people or at least in popular mindset.<br />
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Personally, I am not a fan of turkey nor tourtière meat pie, so come any major holiday and I will not think of having either dishes on the table. As for ham at Easter, I like ham in a sandwich but not at a main dish for a feast, I am also horrified by the tradition of sticking pineapple and cherries on it.<br />
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So I am always looking for new ideas for Holiday meals, even if it is just for a simple Bar-B-Q in the Summer, I want something different. Instead of turkey, why not Goose or Cornish Hens, instead of beef burgers why not veal and beef or mixed with some pork burger stuffed with soft cheese and mixed with herbs and a strong dry mustard. Of course you can also get dishes of Seafood, lobster meat (shelled) in a cream sauce or a mix of seafood served in timbale.<br />
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Delia Smith with her CBE</div>
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Here comes Delia Smith, who through the years has perfected Holiday cooking. I always liked her because her recipes are A, easy to follow, B, there are no mystery ingredients and C, anyone even someone with little experience can prepare her recipes. She proposes menus, from what type of hors d'oeuvres to prepare for a pre-Xmas party, to a dinner party during the Season to the Christmas day lunch menu timed in such a way as to leave cook with time to spare to relax and enjoy the day. By lunch time around 1:30pm all is ready. Of course Delia is an organized person and you have to be too. She will prepare her vegetables the day before, her desserts are also prepared a day or more in advance, so on the actual day only the bird and stuffing is left to be done. I liked her stuffing, a good mix of pork with fine bread crumbs and celery and herb mix. She also tells you to get a bird around 14 lbs no more, and shop around for a black turkey which is gamier and better tasting instead of the supermarket white one which is often very bland tasting. In her preparation of the bird she will smother it in butter and then place bacon strips on top. Placing it in a roasting pan builds a cover for it which allows for a cavity around the bird instead of having the foil wrap itself close and tight on the bird. This way while cooking air circulates all around and in the last 40 minutes of cooking you remove the foil and let it roast to get that golden skin colour not forgetting to baste it.<br />
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She also cooks chipolatas and bacon separately this will accompany the bird and it is a very Bristish tradition. I do not know if you can get chipolatas in Canada.<br />
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This year for Christmas dinner I will cook Canadian Lamb filet (12 minutes cooking time) do some roasted vegetables and voilà. I have ordered my desserts and we also have the most wonderful home made Fruit Cake known as a John H. Special. Uncle Johnny has been making them for us for the last 40 years. I am not one to eat fruit cake usually but his Fruit Cake is really something to behold, it is home made and it is his recipe and a very nice recipe it is indeed. I also got a Stollen and we have nice cheeses, a firm cheddar Goat cheese, some Stilton blue, and other cheeses with nice crackers and fruits like the big Clementines and a nice variety of apples.<br />
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Do have a look at Delia website, the one recipe I want to try because it looks so amazing ''Venison Braised in BlackFriars Porter ale and Port with Pickled Walnuts.'' If you do not like venison no problem substitute for beef instead. At any time in Winter this would make a fantastic dish.<br />
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<a href="http://www.deliaonline.com/" target="_blank">http://www.deliaonline.com</a><br />
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Then there is one very light and wonderful dessert she makes which is perfect when your main dish is rich and heavy. This dessert is called, Champagne Jellies with Syllabub Cream and Frosted Grapes.<br />
You do not have to use champagne instead use a Prosecco or a bubbly wine, much cheaper and perfect for this recipe.<br />
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Well my shopping is done for this Xmas so the next few days should be quiet, going to dinner at friends and cocktail parties.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-61510931018425403032014-12-17T18:04:00.000-05:002014-12-17T21:38:04.048-05:00Preparations and Shopping for Xmas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is funny how until yesterday I thought we were 2 weeks away from Christmas and today by looking at the date I realize we were 7 days away. Time to get busy with getting menus and food.<br />
I always like going to the Liquor store to see what they might have. There is not the variety we found in Europe, say London or Rome but there was quite a few wines I thought interesting. The sales lady was most helpful and in a very good mood, she was even wishing people a Merry Christmas, how very nice and old fashion at the same time.<br />
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So I got a good variety of Prosecco, white and red wines and a bottle of Zinfandel to make pears in wine which is always a nice Festive dessert and is served chilled.<br />
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As for food, I also want to make small Tarts with blue cheese and pears which are served warm, they are easy to assemble and you simply put in the oven at 325F for 10 minutes.<br />
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Then some puff pastry and fresh sausage meat, usually a mild Italian sausage will be used to make piggy in a blanket, always nice to have with a drink. On Christmas eve we will have Canadian Lamb<br />
roasted, easy to make and quick. I found some nice Wild Pacific Coho Smoked Salmon to start. Then for the dessert I called Michael Holland of Cake and Shake at 229 Armstrong st. in the Parkdale Market area, who makes wonderful pastries the old fashion style. I ordered 2 Bûches de Noël, one vanilla with vanilla icing and the other carrot with orange icing. <a href="http://www.cakeandshake.ca/" target="_blank">www.cakeandshake.ca</a><br />
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All our Christmas wishes have been sent electronically or by mail. The house is decorated, so we can just sit back and relax. On the statistical side of things I note that I spent about 260 hours volunteering at the National Gallery of Canada and spent 40 hours at the Canadian War Museum on the Summer exhibit this past year. Something I really enjoy a lot.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">'<i><b>' God is not dead nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. With Peace on Earth, good will to men.'' from the poem Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.</b></i></span><br />
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<i><b>Noël in Canada, les anciens Canadiens.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>In closing this picture of two little dachshunds in the snow, so very nice and makes me think of my two Nicky and Nora</b></i><br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-87476094098273867192014-12-15T22:52:00.000-05:002014-12-15T22:52:13.175-05:00More photos of Xmas preparation and Xmas puppies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well we got our menu planned out for Christmas Eve, which will be dinner at home<br />
starting with some Smoke Salmon and fixing and then Lamb filet with vegetables and<br />
I will order the mini Bûche de Noël from Michael Holland. On Christmas Day we are going<br />
to Le Café at the National Arts Centre, they have a very nice menu.<br />
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Drove by Parliament and the Christmas lights are amazing the National Capital Commission did a<br />
very good job this year. It is spectacular to see.<br />
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This evening we watch on BBC Player on the Internet Chef Delia Smith who lives in Suffolk. She is 73 yrs old now and the programs are about 20 years old but nonetheless very well made and very interesting. She basically shows you how to make Christmas Pudding and Cakes and all manners of<br />
other things for the Festive Season. She had one recipe for a fruit cake which can be made in minutes and takes 90 minutes to cook, very simple and perfect for anyone who has never made one. The one I really liked was the sticky toffee pudding cake and of course all those candied fruits and candied chestnuts, so very good. Now come to think of it we should have suggested to our friend Spo who wanted a recipe for Plum Pudding to watch Delia make one, very simple.<br />
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While she was mentioning the ingredients you need and even wine pairing, I felt nostalgic for those days when I would at the Holiday time fly through London on my way home to Ottawa and stop off and buy all manner of food stuffs. London prior to Christmas is a great shopping place and has so much to offer. Even Heathrow still has the real Duty Free shops not the make believe nonsense you find in most airports these days.<br />
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Such shows on the BBC really put you in the Christmas frame of mind.<br />
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Xmas puppies they sleep about 20 hours a day to prepare for the Holidays.</div>
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Holiday Table Centre</div>
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Silver snow flakes</div>
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this is such a nice Panettone, so good with a coffee.</div>
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Will's home made Ginger cookies</div>
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We also discovered on the internet radio RMF Classic 98.3 FM Warsaw, Poland. They have a </div>
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very good selection of Christmas music. Music in Polish and English.</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-3285331214999897022014-12-15T17:10:00.001-05:002014-12-15T17:10:31.186-05:00Projects in the Capitale as we prepare for 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Construction and renovations everywhere in Ottawa these days as we prepare for the 150th Anniversary of Confederation in 2017. Joanne Chianello had a article detailing all the projects in the Capital and she missed quite a few. Here are some of the numerous projects which will transform Ottawa completely by 2017 and beyond. She called it re-imagining the Capital and indeed she is right.<br />
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This year we have seen the re-furbishment of Lansdowne Park and the Stadium at a cost of $42 million dollars.<br />
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The New Arts Court building on Nicholas Street which will see the expansion of the Ottawa Art Gallery.<br />
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The new Arts Court which will complement the existing Heritage building.</div>
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The Innovative Centre at Bayview and the new City Library which is destined for that site.<br />
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The New bridge over the Rideau River at Stranheard and the new pedestrian walkway bridge on the Airport Parkway which serves as a gate to the Capital with its modern design.<br />
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New bridge over the Rideau River </div>
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Foot bridge over the Queensway at the Train Station</div>
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Ottawa Airport Parkway pedestrian bridge</div>
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Then the 2.1 Billion dollar Light Rail System under construction the largest project in the City since the building of the Rideau Canal in 1820.<br />
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The expansion of the Queensway which will continue this year, this highway crosses the City from East to West.<br />
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The total renovations of all the Parliament buildings and the creation of a Parliament precinct at a cost of 3.2 Billion dollars so far.<br />
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The 110 million dollar project to rejuvenate the National Arts Centre built in 1967 for the Centennial of Confederation.<br />
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The re-designed National Arts Centre of Canada on Elgin Street in Ottawa.</div>
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The refurbishment of the Science and Technology Museum at 88 Million dollars.<br />
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The Ceremonial Road (Confederation Blvd) on the Sussex drive area is also schedule to be completed after 2 years of total reconstruction and re-alignment.<br />
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Many other road projects, too many to name all are also in the works and then all the new condo towers being built on average 25 floors or more, which is a first for this City given that up to now 14 floors was the limit.<br />
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The Rideau Centre re-building and doubling in size should be mostly completed by March 2015.<br />
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The re-designed Rideau Centre (partial view) South-East corner</div>
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Chaudière Falls Windmill housing project and the LeBreton Flat area with a possible new large complex of National stature but details are sketchy on this one just yet. However it will connect the two city centres over the Ottawa River and the falls.<br />
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Finally 2 large monuments on Wellington Street, one to the victims of the Holocaust and the other to the victims of Communism. In both cases the Federal government is investing 3 million dollars each and the remainder must come from private donations.<br />
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The two monuments are somewhat controversial since the first one is not to all the victims of the Second World War but to just one group the Jews. Europe has had this debate where the war took place and being inclusive of all the victims appear to be the way to go. As for the monument to Communism and its victims it leaves out the victims of Fascism in Europe and it also appears to concentrate in its presentation only on the Polish victims of Communism.<br />
Commemorative monuments should be for all involved and not create category of victims.<br />
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At any rate the Capital is changing very rapidly and becoming a great City no longer a town in Ontario. We have taken a long time to shake the small town mentality considering that changes have been happening since 1955, sometimes rapidly and sometimes at snail pace.<br />
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Parliament in late Wintery afternoon seen from the West </div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-25764844544068154542014-12-14T18:39:00.000-05:002014-12-14T23:03:51.339-05:00End of the year reflections<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I went shopping yesterday for the usual groceries and in the store they were playing Christmas music from an album by Maddy Prior, it is different from the usual mindless stuff found in stores nowadays, and it certainly got my attention. In Canadian groceries stores weights are officially in Kg but you still find a lot of things in lbs and it is very confusing to say the least. I needed to buy 3 lbs of chuck beef for stewing and I knew that in Kilograms it would be 1.36 Kg. The only thing was that they had packages of 0.380 Gr. To make it simple I simply asked the butcher if he could weigh it all for me.<br />
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I was also looking for a rubber ring which is the seal for our Moka coffee machine a Bialetti model. So I went to Luciano on Preston Street in Little Italy and sure enough they had, it no problem.<br />
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While shopping I suddenly started thinking about what a good year it had been all together, we travelled to Europe and Stratford, Ontario and we met friends, had many good times, I worked on a fantastic exhibit of paintings of the First World War by Otto Dix and AY Jackson and saw another great exhibit at the National Gallery on Gustave Doré.<br />
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We did one thing this past Summer which I found enriching and that was to work at the Shepherd of Good Hope, the big homeless shelter preparing and serving lunch to the hundreds of Homeless people in Ottawa. The poverty level in the Capital is far more serious and greater than one can imagine or than the media is letting on. Like all cities Ottawa has pockets of wealth and tony neighbourhoods but there are large areas of poverty and trouble. In the Lower Town on the fringe of the ByWard Market and below the University of Ottawa Campus where many shelters are located. I am not speaking of the ghettoes in Nepean or in the West of the City or around Heron road where mostly poor immigrant communities live, in such cases, Somali gangs exist and fight each other for drugs and territory. I am speaking of the working poor, those on minimum wage and the ordinary poor people and many native and Innu people you see around the downtown core, Bank street north of the Queensway and on Elgin Street or in the Market area or near King Edward and Rideau Street. They are just people who have a story, something happened to them and they were unable to return to a routine where they could support themselves. Some suffer from a handicap which makes them unable to work or suffer from mental illness. On that topic Ottawa is a singularly harsh city and the media feels no sympathy for anyone with mental issues. Recently a column in the Ottawa Citizen was openly suggesting that people with mental illness should be simply incarcerated forever on the basis that they could be dangerous to others.<br />
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During the Summer a friend of ours Denis S. asked us to help him at Shepherd of Good Hope during one of the long weekends, as a tradition he and his family volunteer on those long weekend holidays when most people leave town. Lunch still has to be served and a crowd will show up.<br />
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We went on July 1 and on August 1 to serve lunch. Arriving around 08:30am to start preparation, cutting meat, buttering bread, making sandwiches for the after lunch afternoon crowd etc...<br />
I made 650 sandwiches one morning and then helped serve a hot lunch to 700 people, cleaning up afterwards. The manager told me that it was a slow day given that it was a holiday weekend. Usually they serve 1000 hot lunches. The food is quite good, if you wondered, and the desserts are very nice.<br />
All of it is fresh and they have 2 cooks also volunteers who have been doing it for years. It is a humbling experience and brings home certain realities about life in the big city. If you are poor and homeless life can be very harsh and you die young. They have a small chapel at Shepherd and they will have services and prayers for those who die. It is shocking to see that mid-forties is the expected length of life while for the rest of us can reasonably expect to live in our mid-eighties.<br />
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I am grateful for Denis S. and his suggestion that we participate in helping out at Shepherd of Good Hope. This is one lesson of Life that I will remember when I think of 2014.<br />
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Further to this experience I met with the director of La Soupe Populaire in Gatineau, the City across the river from Ottawa on the Quebec side. This organisation is involved like Shepherd in feeding the poor on the Quebec side of the river where the needs are just as great. He told me a terrible story of people freezing to death in the National Capital Region during our winters, some 2 dozen in 2012, shocking. Again it is a topic you rarely hear about, the Media do not cover such topics it's not sexy enough and for sure would embarrass the Hipsters, Politicians and Suburbanites.<br />
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We are thankful at Thanksgiving in October and we should also be thankful at Christmas for all our blessings.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-88344774474408535722014-12-13T20:30:00.001-05:002014-12-14T10:10:37.778-05:00What are you listening to at Christmas Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When we live in Europe at Christmas time the radio stations did not play Holiday Music and stores do not in general have music on while you shop, this includes grocery stores, it is not part of the European cultural experience. It seems that this is a North American phenomenon and a phoney way to put people into the consumer crazy frame of mind.<br />
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What is truly funny is how the CBC or Radio Canada avoids constantly to use the term Christmas, they are so politically correct at the State Broadcaster despite harbouring people like our Gian Ghomeshi, until it was discovered that their superstar lived the Fifty Shade of Grey Life style. So it is all about Holiday Season, constipation is the word at the CBC. <br />
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I avoid the shopping malls all year round and do my shopping online. Unfortunately for me, yesterday I went to COSTCO, I know hard to believe but you know they have great prices on Stilton Cheese and paper products. I was in and out of there in 15 minutes. The COSTCO experience is like living in the world of Zombies or the un-dead, truly a twilight experience, I wonder about the employees there, what sin have they committed to be condemned to such a fate. I try to go only every trimester and stay only long enough to do what I have to do and get the hell out.<br />
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I am sure my dentist has some kind of crazy music on, he seems to think that it will take your mind off the idea of being at the dentist. He is addicted to Ellen and her cohorts of hysterical females who show up in the audience of her equally moronic TV show and scream at anything she says no matter how inane. I wonder where they get audiences like that, are they the same group of Furies you see in Shopping Malls?<br />
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<i><b>Some of the many decorations for our tree</b></i></div>
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Then there is my own old friend and shrink the one I go on vacation with, Dr. Spo also known at Kontitonttu or Hustomte in Scandinavian, who is apparently haunted at work by cheesy Xmas music, you know the Chipmunks do Xmas type of thing. I wonder if this is the curse of Carl Jung unfolding as it should.<br />
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So to get back to what kind of Christmas Music do you listen to in the car or at home. Here is a selection of what I like to listen to at this time of the year.<br />
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Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704), Antiennes ''O'' de l'Avent<br />
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The Elmer Iseler Singers, Early Canadian Christmas Music from 1648 to 1907.<br />
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Michael Praetorius, Christmas Music 17th century.<br />
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Christmas Music from English Parish Churches 1740-1830<br />
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Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672) Weihnachts Historie<br />
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A Venetian Christmas music by Gabrieli and De Rore 16th century<br />
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Michael Praetorius, Christmas Vespers<br />
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Marc Antoine Charpentier, Noëls and Christmas Motets (french-english music)<br />
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Michael Praetorius, Christmette, Christmas Mass of 1620 in the Lutherian Church, a favourite of mine.<br />
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Sir Thomas Beecham arrangement of the Messiah (1959)<br />
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Polskie Koledy i pastorali by the Warsaw Chamber Opera<br />
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and of course from my childhood the famous<br />
A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi trio.<br />
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An eclectic choice but it beats the Xmas Muzak any time. I also discovered that the abbreviation of Christmas to Xmas is not a new thing at all. Apparently it started 1000 years ago, we did not invent anything and it is taken from Greek.<br />
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Venez Divin Messie, an old French-Canadian Advent carol, the composer is Ernest Gagnon, words by the abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin (1663-1745).<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-48193813242121815352014-12-10T11:18:00.002-05:002014-12-10T11:18:50.472-05:00The Renewed National Arts Centre of Canada, vision 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It was announced this morning that the National Capital Commission will go ahead with a complete renovation of the NAC. The National Arts Centre was a commissioned building in 1967 to celebrate the Centennial of Canada's Confederation, one of many projects that year. Now 50 years later the centre needs to be refreshed and renovated, acoustically the Southam Hall is wonderful but it needs to be cleaned up and the look modernized, the 1960's decor is dated. As for the public areas they also need to be opened up and look less monolithic and in some cases claustrophobic. These changes are needed and will certainly make for a new look to our National Arts Scene.<br />
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Here is the video on what is going to happen at the NAC as announced by Mayor Jim Watson.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-14159010782246548092014-12-09T23:13:00.003-05:002014-12-09T23:27:47.039-05:00Sir Thomas Beecham conducts Messiah! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are many recordings of Messiah by Georg Friedrich Haendel, a man who spoke little English being German serving a British King George II who disliked the English and England, spoke next to no English being the Prince of Hannover. They probably spoke German to each other, though the King had learned French as a first language.<br />
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King George II (1683-1760)</div>
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Georg Friedrich Haendel (1685-1759)</div>
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Sir Thomas gives us a rendition of the Messiah unlike any other, in my opinion the best one you can hear.<br />
Unless our friend and music expert David N. can point me to a better rendition, will see what he has to say.<br />
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The recording in question is from 1959 with Jennifer Vyvyan, Soprano, Monica Sinclair, Mezzo-Soprano, the great Canadian Tenor John Vickers and equally great Bass, Giorgio Tozzi. Beecham gave this recording a tempo and he feels the words of the text which he manages to translate into a<br />
dynamic recording.<br />
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I love hearing this recording while we are decorating the Christmas tree.<br />
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Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961)</div>
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Phase one is polishing all the Christmas Tree balls, we have 30 of them and then we also have to polish the medallions of various seasonal flowers. Then put up the tree and select the ornaments to go on, there is quite the collection all very different and from various parts of the world we have visited.<br />
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What is terribly nice is that each ball has the word Christmas and the year and it always brings back memories of where we were on that year starting with 1979 in Ottawa, 1986 Mexico City, 1989 Cairo, 1993 Chicago, 1999 Warsaw, 2007 Rome. <br />
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This year the tree went up on 8 December the Immaculate Conception on the Catholic Calendar, a great spectacle we attended each year in Rome at Piazza di Spagna where the column to the Virgin stands, a column taken from a temple from antiquity and the statue itself is Venus. The Pope comes from the Vatican crosses the City in a great parade escorted by the Carabinieri and all the congregations gather in the Piazza in their various uniforms and banners. The clue of the spectacle is when the Rome Firemen (Vigili) get into their cherry picker to hoist the great garland of flowers blessed by the Holy Father to the arms of the Venus turned Virgin and Mother of God.<br />
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The monument is in front of the Royal Embassy of Spain to the Holy See on the Piazza and the Ambassador of His Most Catholic Majesty the King of Spain waives from the balcony.<br />
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We have also decided this year that for Christmas day we will go to the Café at the National Arts Centre, they have a very nice set menu. Christmas Eve will be quiet at home and have a nice dinner with our Xmas Dachshunds.<br />
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Here are some pictures.<br />
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This year Will decided to put up this paper cut model of St-Nick. We got this in Dresden or Munich many years ago but never used it, very traditional and European. I cannot remember being in Dresden for the Christmas Market, the one in Munich is fantastic.</div>
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our Nutcracker from East Germany c.1979, they do not make ones like this anymore.</div>
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The tree is up now remains to decorate it.</div>
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Here are some traditional Austrian lead decoration hand painted, a decorated tree and St-Nick on his horse made by the Wilhelm Schweizer company.<br />
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More of the W. Schweizer company work, very typical of what you see in Austria and Bavaria at Christmas time.<br />
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A fraction of what has to be polished before it is put up on the tree. Neiman Marcus still sells them.</div>
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Christmas 1979 always put at the top of the tree.</div>
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A Winter Bouquet for Will's Birthday, the white flowers are called Nerine, there is some Heather and Boronia.</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-7058683783557883512014-12-08T17:10:00.001-05:002014-12-09T16:04:49.955-05:00Light Rail and Public Transit in Ottawa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
George Nelms and Charlotte Whitton, Mayors, period 1954-1964<br />
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Looking back in how the Capital-City of Ottawa was governed in that period we see many poor decisions taken at a time when the enthusiasm of the final Victory of 1945 did not support the hoped long term results in terms of urban development. There was wild hopes that the years after the war and the long economic depression would bring unparalleled prosperity and growth. Out with the old and in with the new, no matter if the ideas were not fully formed or even wise.<br />
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Ottawa saw a complete re-organisation of the infrastructure of the City, dramatic changes took place. The infamous Queensway 417 was built in what was then the Southern border of the old downtown, with further housing development south of the highway in the 1960's to 1980's this road permanently divided the City from East to West without really providing any solution to traffic congestion we know all too well today. No one really wants to cross the City from East to West or vice versa on any day after 3pm if it can be avoided. Had the City fathers and mothers thought about it and invested properly that highway would never have been built and today we know how difficult it is to remedy this problem, so it is being expanded as we speak with further lanes of traffic being added, a band-aid solution we are already regretting despite the millions spent.<br />
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The other disaster in poor decision making from City Hall we have to contend with today is the very unwise decision by City Council to remove all public transit within the City and the suburbs with the exception of very poor bus service on congested roads. The thinking back then was that in the very near future, say 1984 everyone would have a car like George Jetson and fly around town. The car was the solution of the future and everyone would have one. In the following decades this is how Ottawa developed, giant shopping malls along Hway 417 and in the 1980's the Rideau Centre in the downtown core. You have to have a car to access those malls. A suburb called Kanata, so far removed from the City that to this day it stand at 35 Km from the city centre, back then everyone was waxing poetic about it, not so much today. Or building a new City Hall on Green Island far removed from the core centre and unconnected to anything else in town. The building was finally abandoned in the 1990's and is now an annex to the Foreign Ministry.<br />
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The same was done with the Union Train Station in the heart of Ottawa, it was banished to an isolated area south of the City difficult to access. The City up to 1960 had an extensive system of Street cars and suburban trains, all was done away with by the 1960's, leaving commuters to fend for themselves or drive to work. It is strange to see photos of the time with people taking a suburban train into the City as far as Wakefield on the Quebec side of the river. One such person to do this was Prime Minister Mackenzie King, difficult to imagine today with our current PM Harper fancying himself as the Emperor of Canada with his gigantic motorcade of 15 cars.<br />
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In 1960 the population of Ottawa was still relatively small at 328,000 pop. today in 2014 the population is at 1,200,000. But little has changed since the 1960's in terms of public transit, hence the urgency to solve the problem. The current Mayor Jim Watson proposed and his now seeing the implementation of Phase I of the Light Rapid Transit (train) which will go from Tunney's Pasture to Blair Road, it is a first phase but already a great improvement and a plan with a vision. A tunnel under the city is approaching completion and there will now be stations at Rideau Centre and University of Ottawa Campus, the Train Station. It is a system for all users and not just a commuter system as detractors (mostly Conservatives and Reformers). It is hoped that the Phase two which will fan out West, South and East will also cover the Airport and the suburb by 2028.<br />
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What you realize when you see this plan is that it had been proposed in 1915 but lack of vision and money saw no action at all. We are doing today what should have been done in 1960 instead of the obtuse decision of a City Council dominated by rich and powerful merchants who did not think much of the people of Ottawa. This LRT Project is the largest and most expensive since the building of the Rideau Canal in 1820 by Colonel John By at $3.1 Billion dllrs. The project phase I of the LRT with the Stations is to be completed by 2017.<br />
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What the Station at St-Laurent shopping mall will look like.</div>
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What is to my mind the number of angry and anti-public transit voices. During the last Municipal Election a small but vocal minority of extremist supported by John Baird and other Conservative Ministers of the Harper Cabinet all directed by the Prime Minister's Office came out strongly against the project. Their candidate who was another puppet with a less than credible plan tried to discredit the rapid transit project. Mayor Watson won his re-election with a strong and clear mandate, so his vision is going ahead, we, Ottawans can only win. However the attacks against the plan are still being waged by the National Capital Commission another puppet of the Harper Regime, who will try to block the project and the Federal government has not said they will participate financially to the Phase II. By then hopefully we will have another government in Canada more inclusive and open minded.<br />
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Map of Phase I the names of the Stations have been changed since this map was first published.</div>
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Downtown East is called Parliament now, Train is now called Tremblay Rd. and LeBreton is called by an Algonquin name PIMISI. </div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-5752444335881464832014-12-06T17:33:00.001-05:002014-12-07T13:52:13.548-05:00Photo of the Christmas Season!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here are some photos of the Season.<br />
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An annual one of course is all about EggNog, though I do find it too rich and restrict myself to Prosecco or Champagne. But one glass won't hurt.<br />
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This photo of the sleepy Polar Bear quickly listening to the little child read a Christmas Story is very sweet. Yes Polar Bears are that big for those of you who might wonder.<br />
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Some lights from Parliament Hill in Ottawa during the Season, very nice indeed.<br />
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Imagine going to Christmas Mass in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, a rare inside photo of this very Bysantine Church, the mosaic decoration are borrowed from the Aga Sophia in Istanbul or what it would have looked like before the Ottoman conquest of the City.<br />
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Here is the Chritsmas tree by the Colosseum in the Roman Forum<br />
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Other pictures of the Christmas Season in Rome.<br />
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Piazza Navona Christmas Market, always a good place to get typical Roman christmas decoration and sweets and Neapolitan Presepe </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj9_WM1zcXh5cCm3Jm93g5C9oeKTOFf0zZajyqQ-Rfhyphenhyphen2rQ31WmvPJ_z5czy5V2rTazyWD7y8TXvGLnnqKMK8mDdu1nm8t7HU_yioxg6k2poEdXGxqRWgM-FwKV6cHnJiJgcs26m9Pzw/s1600/rome+XMAS+Opera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj9_WM1zcXh5cCm3Jm93g5C9oeKTOFf0zZajyqQ-Rfhyphenhyphen2rQ31WmvPJ_z5czy5V2rTazyWD7y8TXvGLnnqKMK8mDdu1nm8t7HU_yioxg6k2poEdXGxqRWgM-FwKV6cHnJiJgcs26m9Pzw/s1600/rome+XMAS+Opera.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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All in blue at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma </div>
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Christmas Shopping on Via dei Condotti near the Spanish Steps.</div>
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A delightful street for all those special elegant gifts and beautiful windows</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-63346687537685127102014-12-05T20:54:00.001-05:002014-12-05T22:03:47.746-05:00What I am showing these days <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For those of you who read this blog, you know how much I believe in our National Gallery in Ottawa on Sussex Drive. It is a 150 year old Institution and in fact it is older than that, as early as 1820 Lord Dalhousie a staunch Scottish Presbyterian who was the Governor General of Canada residing in the Chateau Saint-Louis in Quebec City, the site is now occupied by the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, a man of letters and highly cultured and a patron of early Canadian Art who gave the first 140 art works to Canada.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxe5XzRXRJobsR_EgGvxtvNmiqkeH568feztWWWqa80_cBhO9Y-nBQ1t4T2VNeKm_tusRrzxuQIcR73jzLQwJfoQQbU0MBVsXkedk5kXC9_rPppfqxT9tIYBeYNOm0OW0wn6OEMdxZZ4/s1600/George+Ramsay+Earl+Dalhousie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoxe5XzRXRJobsR_EgGvxtvNmiqkeH568feztWWWqa80_cBhO9Y-nBQ1t4T2VNeKm_tusRrzxuQIcR73jzLQwJfoQQbU0MBVsXkedk5kXC9_rPppfqxT9tIYBeYNOm0OW0wn6OEMdxZZ4/s1600/George+Ramsay+Earl+Dalhousie.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b>George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, Governor General of Canada (1820-1828)</b></div>
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Here are some of the works I have been showing in the last few weeks to the public in what is called the Docent's Choice or Le Choix du Guide, I give these 10 minute mini lectures on art to anyone who wishes to stop and listen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTUYEPfQTebEMudDjm9NgWLKMNmoov3IsBknknswsnRqPLwVvXuW6yE1YTDR0oDKiQEuC-_sob9EXQppcBzaOUbN33kyCfnJuCftK9Gy6ya3V_3O2fDc7ROwaCyweXxKA4mOL3dwKOVhA/s1600/la+danseuse+Canova.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTUYEPfQTebEMudDjm9NgWLKMNmoov3IsBknknswsnRqPLwVvXuW6yE1YTDR0oDKiQEuC-_sob9EXQppcBzaOUbN33kyCfnJuCftK9Gy6ya3V_3O2fDc7ROwaCyweXxKA4mOL3dwKOVhA/s1600/la+danseuse+Canova.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b>La danseuse by Antonio Canova (1818)</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMCJ069Oig9fqrRW32HazY0Az-dN2pUIFnKhBsVd2Y75fUHZgbIAXnXqPAWOXILiGKPxS6KGkTmstpcPxURVKkNyk572eUTYCcNN1XX00P4bfN5hyphenhyphenHiUs16KM5SOAQ38XeY3p0TaSzLXM/s1600/bronzino+pa+bandini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMCJ069Oig9fqrRW32HazY0Az-dN2pUIFnKhBsVd2Y75fUHZgbIAXnXqPAWOXILiGKPxS6KGkTmstpcPxURVKkNyk572eUTYCcNN1XX00P4bfN5hyphenhyphenHiUs16KM5SOAQ38XeY3p0TaSzLXM/s1600/bronzino+pa+bandini.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b>PierAntonio Bandini by Agnolo Bronzino (1550)</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQzfGNcxLm9g45-YMn4208kDiIHJ5PEdkv-0fdHXHuKuJCjgMpQB-PgSR1WQshFyYZG9YrS-S-3m6yxMjMUCE1y_Z6ZkZOgZLDtgTbml0hyphenhyphenjZIkWQGrZeAdpa5Ia_r3YYl0bXL-Q7E6g/s1600/daniel+barbaro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQzfGNcxLm9g45-YMn4208kDiIHJ5PEdkv-0fdHXHuKuJCjgMpQB-PgSR1WQshFyYZG9YrS-S-3m6yxMjMUCE1y_Z6ZkZOgZLDtgTbml0hyphenhyphenjZIkWQGrZeAdpa5Ia_r3YYl0bXL-Q7E6g/s1600/daniel+barbaro.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b>Daniele Barbaro by Titian (1555)</b></div>
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<b>a copy of this painting is in the Prado in Madrid.</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUGjnpFvT4eKNjV39N-863mqIS405BPre0Ue7NHH7sjhwqMXY1yCgnwb-7I0DHao7j5JI5NwUYPPrB0H8haVaNd-xNHSBU1AkxAW0_I5iZUdKkhMwWQg3zY6lSeTaN4_ZuYaaxq4qroU/s1600/general+wolfe+B+West.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUGjnpFvT4eKNjV39N-863mqIS405BPre0Ue7NHH7sjhwqMXY1yCgnwb-7I0DHao7j5JI5NwUYPPrB0H8haVaNd-xNHSBU1AkxAW0_I5iZUdKkhMwWQg3zY6lSeTaN4_ZuYaaxq4qroU/s1600/general+wolfe+B+West.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West (1770) with the new 18th century frame.</b></div>
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<b>In the coming months I will also present the following, so I prepare by reading on the works and the artist and what motivated the creation of the painting or sculpture. </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaLVCIk5Xxj1hREh-UsGCz50awCscjOgg6PDLIQQtUQaQPm12cAJiFIdUzvNCSiQQbxkFpiqZ860UfVmTYebakDIazS1CulwFqS655wr2vvAJRHR-D-WiKgVSMD1A8XCLYFFGh9rrYR60/s1600/salisbury+cathedral+by+turner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaLVCIk5Xxj1hREh-UsGCz50awCscjOgg6PDLIQQtUQaQPm12cAJiFIdUzvNCSiQQbxkFpiqZ860UfVmTYebakDIazS1CulwFqS655wr2vvAJRHR-D-WiKgVSMD1A8XCLYFFGh9rrYR60/s1600/salisbury+cathedral+by+turner.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Salisbury Cathedral seen from the Bishop's Garden by John Constable (1820)</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJZgRYwGDpUwsfBms5ZMBj0VfFnameRlJw-O7Obmf5C2hqYQD6EFK9n6MOEx3KE1eV6b1XL6ETe5WclkIwp16e8tpP9VlAUwhFe4J9Svd96SFxDeBYJLUAf1Hn61Ei8nYb4h6dsk9Vs_8/s1600/urban+VIII+Barberini+by+Bernini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJZgRYwGDpUwsfBms5ZMBj0VfFnameRlJw-O7Obmf5C2hqYQD6EFK9n6MOEx3KE1eV6b1XL6ETe5WclkIwp16e8tpP9VlAUwhFe4J9Svd96SFxDeBYJLUAf1Hn61Ei8nYb4h6dsk9Vs_8/s1600/urban+VIII+Barberini+by+Bernini.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<b>Pope Urban VIII, Barberini, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini</b></div>
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<b>Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1518)</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4JGMpoIl4AjgrP_0W1ejBvNm_4Iai4AEgYDV_QDjVPXX1dOHILQxA4z5xCWOTIhZKq_oorXIaKB8h6M5FmNE5wpv8nuByiGObbb3QqhGyN3wNH2meBsypBOyajs-GA0JWLmJWqn_ai0/s1600/rodin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4JGMpoIl4AjgrP_0W1ejBvNm_4Iai4AEgYDV_QDjVPXX1dOHILQxA4z5xCWOTIhZKq_oorXIaKB8h6M5FmNE5wpv8nuByiGObbb3QqhGyN3wNH2meBsypBOyajs-GA0JWLmJWqn_ai0/s1600/rodin.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<b>The Age of Bronze by Auguste Rodin (1877)</b><br />
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<b>If you happen to come by the National Gallery I may see you.</b></div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-91419891106778123782014-12-02T21:44:00.002-05:002014-12-02T21:44:50.622-05:00Christmas Tree at the National Gallery of Canada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was at the National Gallery of Canada this morning and in the Great Hall, the staff was decorating the Christmas Tree, it stands 45 feet high, a natural tree. It is to be inaugurated on Thursday evening at 7pm when the lights will be turned on. It will remain in the Great Hall until 5 January 2015.<br />
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Here is a preview<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqP1UEI3KysIIpaXBYOAmcJmnzip9pZOlZDAJiIZj5aeE8zNIcFMMKCgAdlKmpUigpjZX2nCBny8QOjivjF8p3wgY_U1QqbXA1UhgL_OzsMWdaQNTksMWUk2_3Z3G9scsWtXIWYmvbDkk/s1600/ngc+sapin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqP1UEI3KysIIpaXBYOAmcJmnzip9pZOlZDAJiIZj5aeE8zNIcFMMKCgAdlKmpUigpjZX2nCBny8QOjivjF8p3wgY_U1QqbXA1UhgL_OzsMWdaQNTksMWUk2_3Z3G9scsWtXIWYmvbDkk/s1600/ngc+sapin.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKDZpGR4n9C8-3f-m-FBdgVZw0UBEX9xSda8xZTwesSF6zxFDOylmvxq4daeXf0SN52p4ouFrd4gq5rIW62H9AxNiOqyFotrdt6jr3qsPRCo6vvFz3jyRHehO8ksz6IN5GS06VKXwFaA/s1600/ngc+sapin2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKDZpGR4n9C8-3f-m-FBdgVZw0UBEX9xSda8xZTwesSF6zxFDOylmvxq4daeXf0SN52p4ouFrd4gq5rIW62H9AxNiOqyFotrdt6jr3qsPRCo6vvFz3jyRHehO8ksz6IN5GS06VKXwFaA/s1600/ngc+sapin2.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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It was very sunny this morning around 11am and the great hall is all glass so it was difficult to get the light out. I would like a picture of the tree at night because it is spectacular from the street as it is from inside.</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-59959816960870166422014-12-01T16:58:00.000-05:002014-12-01T16:58:11.066-05:00re-constructions and renovations of Monuments <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
City Palace Berlin, Sagrada Familia Barcelone, FrauenKirche Dresden, Lower Town Quebec City, Ara Pacis Rome, Parthenon Athens.<br />
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In my life of travelling and living abroad I have come across many sights which have been resurrected from the past or cleaned up or re-built. Why do governments do it, in most cases to recapture shares of the mass tourist market, tourist want to see things they do not have back home. Per example see London like Mary Poppins or the Rome of the Popes or early Christians or see ancient monument reborn after centuries of neglect. We want to recapture the past and with our modern sensibilities pretend we are just like the ancient, though sometimes it makes for funny situations, per example one remark often heard when visiting a former Royal Palace now a museum, tourist no.1 will say to tourist no.2 Can you imagine living in a place like this, it must have been nice.<br />
The reality is if either of these persons had lived in the past centuries, they probably would have been peasants in the fields working hard and would never have come anywhere near such a place, this because of social barriers and strict divisions of society.<br />
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In 1962 the old City of Quebec the portion within the old Walls and the Lower town below by the St-Lawrence river dating back to 1608 was in ruins. Things were so bad the Provincial Government was considering bulldozing the whole thing and making it all modern. Luckily the Federal Government owned most of it and forbade the grand scale demolition, it also started to invest into rehabilitating the City walls, Quebec is the only city in North America with complete defensive walls and gates and dozens of stone homes from the 17th Century built in a French Norman Style. Today people from around the world come to Quebec City to see La Vieille Capitale, because Quebec was the Capital of the French Empire until 1763 and then the Royal Capital of Canada until 1820. So history is everywhere in its historic streets.<br />
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Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires, 1688</div>
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Place Royale, Ville de Quebec</div>
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Petit Séminaire de Quebec, 1664</div>
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I started to visit Athens around 1998 though I had often flown over the City in the late 1980's never had I actually visited.<br />
Athens was a small city until 1960's it is only in the last 35 years that a real estate boom has made it<br />
into a megapolis, though the total population is 800,000. Not exactly Montreal or even Rome at 3 million people. The Symbol of the City is the Acropolis and the Parthenon built originally in 480 BC and re-built in 438 BC to honour the Goddess Athena Parthénos, ( Virginal Pallas triomphant) who protects her City and its people. The Parthenon is said to be the most perfect Doric style temple ever built.<br />
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To my mind the Parthenon is the symbol of the Western World, there is no more beautiful site than to watch the Sun rise in the morning and its rays hitting the White with a golden tinge Pentelic marble of the Temple making it shine as if it was made of gold. When you look at it you are reminded that theatre, philosophy, democracy, trial by jury, all come from this ancient site.<br />
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The statue of Athena stood in her temple until the fifth century AD when a fire destroyed it. With the arrival of Christians the Acropolis and the Parthenon suffered vandalism and then the Ottoman Turks occupied the site for many centuries until that fateful day when a Venetian Captain Morosini attacking Athens from the Sea aimed his canons on the Temple which at this point was used as a gunpowder store by the occupying Ottoman Turkish army. The explosion from the direct hit in September 1687 caused the devastation we see to this day. However in the last 25 years Greek Archeologists with funds from the European Union have worked at restoring this ancient temple and others on the Acropolis, like the small temple of Athena Nike and the main entrance gate the Propylae and the Erechtyion returning them to what they were like before the attack by the Venetian fleet of 1687. It is also a function of consolidating the buildings and preventing any further degradation. Using titanium rods on the blocks instead of steel which rust and then eats away at the marble. In some cases new marble blocks have been carved to replace those to weak or degraded. In my lifetime I can say that I have seen the Parthenon and the other temples restored or reborn. Many might say why restore such an ancient site, I think that in this case given the importance of this sacred place for us Occidentals, this hill must continue to live forever.<br />
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Temple of Athena Nike, restored 2011</div>
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Propylae gate, Acropolis in restoration 2010</div>
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Parthenon under continuous restoration in June 2014.</div>
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The Capital of Saxony, Dresden was totally destroyed in a fire bombing by the British forces on the night of 14 February 1945, 600,000 civilians died burned alive in the firestorm. Dresden was not a strategic city and had no military value, it was known for its culture and art. Canaletto had made a very famous painting of the city in the 18th century. This painting was so accurate in its architectural detailing that it was used to rebuilt the city from its ashes after 1989. </div>
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The devastation of Dresden was total and after the end of the Second World War, Dresden was behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. There was no money for re-building and very little effort was made to repair the damage inflicted. Most of its civilian population had died, so the Communist authorities decided to rebuilt here and there in a haphazard way outside of the old city limits. The Lutheran Church wanted it's main temple re-built because of its association with Martin Luther who had preached there. But all this re-building had to wait German reunification in 1990, from public donations from around the world the Lutheran Church was able to rebuild the Frauen Kirche of Dresden originally built by architect George Bahr in 1726 it had survived intact other wars and invasions until that fateful night in 1945.</div>
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The plan to rebuild this one church gave the impetus to massively rebuild the old city including the other churches and the Royal Palace of the Princes of Saxony, the Semper Opera house and other palaces and museum. We first visited around 1999, the old City was a field of construction and the Frauen Kirche was only half rebuilt. When we returned in 2014 most of the work was complete and the Church itself had been re-dedicated and is now serving the Lutheran Community of Dresden. </div>
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Dresden is also famous for its porcelain and the celebrated Meissen Porcelain factory. Some 23,000 pieces of 17th and 18th century porcelain can be admired in the Zwinger Palace forming the private collection of the Royal Family of Saxony. Then the beautiful Art museums and the Residenzschloss or Royal Palace and its incredible precious jewels and other rare objects collections, requiring a minimum of 2 days to fully appreciate the wealth of the collections which can now be seen as prior to 1939 in all its glory.</div>
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Dresden and the FrauenKirche on the New Market Square, 1742 by Bernardo Bellotto</div>
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Dresden re-built in June 2014</div>
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FrauenKirche re-built in June 2014</div>
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FrauenKirche in ruin after fire bombing of 1945 with the Statue of Martin Luther. Reconstruction will start in 1996 only.</div>
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Partial view inside the FrauenKirche, Dresden, 2014 (Lutheran Baroque)</div>
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Despite the beauty of the reconstruction and how faithful to all the details to ensure accuracy, I was somewhat disappointed, difficult to explain, maybe it was the realization that I was not looking at the original Church or City but a faithful copy. I also wondered if future generations will understand what happened to this city in 1945, one could understand if they forgot all about it or disbelieved any tale of war and mayhem.<br />
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Moving on to Rome where nothing is ever changing or so it seems one could be forgiven for the fact that much of what we see today in Rome is often the case of the will of men to change the city to suit a political program. It is often said that Rome looks like a theatre set, every angle is like a theatre set design to attract the eye to a beautiful panorama.<br />
First the Popes on their return from Avignon in France decided to remake Rome.<br />
The numerous well preserved Temples of Antiquity were dismantled to be used in the rebuilding of churches and public works. Then other works of art were used to decorate palaces and gardens, often with a beautiful effect. However much was also destroyed carelessly for mercantile reasons.<br />
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Unified Italy as of 1870 embarked on a program of changing Rome to suit its new image as a Republican Monarchy opening new streets like Via Cavour and Via Nazionale in the heart of the City and building the great walls along the Tiber to prevent winter floods. Then when Mussolini came to power in 1923 he wanted Rome to reflect its imperial glory so he employed historians, archeologists and architects to find all those pieces of the puzzle that were still buried and he resurrected temples or part of them like the Temple of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Forum or the Arch of Titus or went on to build the Via dei Fori Imperiali crossing the whole of the ancient Forum area so he could have great military parades à la Hollywood.<br />
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So when you visit Rome today the ruins you see are the work of the Fascist era (1923-1943), unwittingly Mussolini helped the Italian Tourist Industry for decades to come. Tourist have something to see.<br />
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One such monument amongst many to have been resurrected and it is a magnificent one, is the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar to Augustan Peace) as the name indicates it was to celebrate world peace brought about with the pacifying of the Barbarian nations. A monument built as a testimony to the legacy of Octavian the nephew of Julius Caesar better known to us as Augustus the first Emperor of Rome (63BC to 14AD) and probably the greatest and best. His legal legacy still resonates with us today and is found carved in stone on the side of the building housing the Ara Pacis, the Res Gestae in Canada Lawyers call it the Law of Evidence.<br />
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The monument was built at the request of the Roman Senate in July of 13BC and was located in the Field of Mars an area nowadays around the Via del Corso and Via del Parlamento. The soil being quite soft in the area the weight of the monument caused it to sink into the ground and only 60 years later it was half buried. Eventually it disappeared completely only to be re-discovered by accident during excavations in 1568 under Palazzo Chigi and more fragments surfaced in 1859 and in 1903. Those fragments ended up in the Vatican Museum, the Villa Borghese, the Uffizi Museum and the Louvre in Paris. In 1937 to celebrate the 2000 Birthday of Augustus, Mussolini ordered that the whole monument be excavated and re-assembled in a new site by the Tiber and next to the Mausoleum of Augustus at Ponte Cavour and Via Tomacelli, a special building was also built to house the monument. That building was again completely re-designed in 2006 by architect Richard Meier. Nonetheless the Ara Pacis is a very important monument for the Western World.<br />
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I studied that monument in school as a kid and imagine how wonderful it was for me to see it in 2007 for the first time in person. Though the white marble stone today does not show the original colours, think of an Hindou Temple, every year on the anniversary of the birth of Augustus the monument is displayed at night with a show of light so the public can see it again as it was then, the bold colours are jarring to our modern sensibilities.<br />
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I visited the Ara Pacis numerous times and am still in awe of its magnificent grandeur.<br />
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West side </div>
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East Side</div>
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Members of the Imperial Family, all can be identified by name.</div>
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One monument which is being re-created from scratch is the City Palace of Berlin, for centuries this was the Palace of the Princes of Brandenburg, then the Official Palace of the Prussian Kings and finally the Palace of the German Emperor until 1918.</div>
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The palace was bombed and burned in 1944 but could still be restored, however with the partition of Germany in 1945 it fell in the Eastern Sector of the City and the Communist authorities decided to blow it up in 1953 to make way for a military parade ground instead, more goose stepping. </div>
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The palace was in an area of Berlin which housed a unique complex of buildings, university and museums at the end of the ceremonial road Unter den Linden (under the linden trees) which starts at the Brandenburg Gate. The palace was located on an island on the Spree River next to the Lutheran Cathedral and all the museums housing the various art and archeological collections. </div>
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As of 1990 the new united City of Berlin and the Federal Government of Germany decided to renovate all the historical buildings of the Eastern sector left derelict by the Communist government for decades. In fact in 1985 the East German government had threatened to blow up every historical building in its sector if the West German government did not pay the full price of reconstruction. Had this plan gone ahead much of the 800 years of the history of Berlin would have been lost forever. </div>
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Berlin has been one huge rebuilding project since 1990, it's infrastructure, the rail system, the U and S ban and its real estate all of it renewed or rebuilt. The Lutheran Cathedral, the various museum on the island and every other monument and palace rebuilt. Frederick II the Great is back on Unter den Linden riding into the City again a top his monument. The one missing link was the City Palace, it took years of discussion and consultation and finally the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) sitting in the rebuilt old Reichstag building voted in favour of rebuilding, the City of Berlin also supported the plan. However first the old East German Parliament building had to be demolished and that took 3 years when it was discovered the building was full of asbestos. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfT8oTnVdNuO_zblkN-k-CmdVfN03GiljulT-BxXHmtG-q0VXfKX66Y90weyZl20Krw3hQT1zeUc9JR8zPf6GX8it6QDwNryus9s-gw31GGh_urNuaq_OtM9NVf1HJYdicoE0-xmX4Zic/s1600/Palast_der_Republik_DDR_1977.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfT8oTnVdNuO_zblkN-k-CmdVfN03GiljulT-BxXHmtG-q0VXfKX66Y90weyZl20Krw3hQT1zeUc9JR8zPf6GX8it6QDwNryus9s-gw31GGh_urNuaq_OtM9NVf1HJYdicoE0-xmX4Zic/s1600/Palast_der_Republik_DDR_1977.jpg" height="206" width="400" /></a></div>
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Palast der Republik, GDR, Berlin in 1977</div>
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The idea is to rebuild the palace on the outside as it was before 1918 and make of the interior a modern University conference centre and library with museums on foreign cultures. It will be called the Humboldt Forum after the German brothers Alexander and Wilhelm Von Humboldt. With the palace rebuilt the entire area will have a homogenous architectural look recalling the 18th Century and the age of Enlightenment. </div>
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What the rebuilt City Palace or Humboldt Forum will look like in 2019.</div>
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I have been following the entire saga since the beginning in the 1990's and this December construction of the shell of the palace is complete. Though the Federal Government of Germany will pay for the entire completion of the inside of the structure the decorative Baroque elements on the outside must be paid for by private donations and at the moment some 60 Million Euros still need to be raised, completion date 2019. It should be said that a lot of controversy surrounds this project, though now it is well on its way to be completed. Though it is only to fulfil a wish to have the city centre whole that this project was put forward, many advocated that something different be built. However historically speaking for 600 years a Palace stood in this place. See the link<br />
<a href="http://berliner-schloss.de/en/humboldt-forum-new-palace" target="_blank">http://berliner-schloss.de/en/humboldt-forum-new-palace</a><br />
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You can see a photo of today 1 Dec 2014 at 21:05 Berlin Time and how advanced the construction of the Palace is at this point, they are at the roof top.<br />
<a href="http://cam01.berlinerschloss-webcam.de/?id=1417459501" target="_blank"> http://cam01.berlinerschloss-webcam.de/?id=1417459501</a><br />
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Another project this one in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain is the Church of the architect Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia under construction since 1882 it is nearing completion now due to strong tourist interest and ticket sales to visit the site. As a child I had heard of this church by Gaudi and how no one knew if it would ever be completed. Antoni Gaudi died in 1926 in Barcelona run over by a street car. After his death no one knew if the church could be completed, since it was very much his inspiration which created this masterpiece. Then the Spanish Civil War saw a great deal of chaos, the Catholic Church in Spain sided with the Fascist forces of General Franco and in Catalonia there was much repression of the population. The Church was no ones friend, the Republican lashed out and attacked the construction office where all the archives of Gaudi were kept everything was destroyed including the mock-ups of the final product. Now construction stopped completely, to add to this sad situation General Franco was victorious, he exiled the Royal Family and proclaimed himself dictator at the same time he allied himself with Nazi Germany. The Second World War saw more economic disaster befell Spain and despite being a Neutral country it was very isolated. After the war a commission of academics and other experts decided that the Sagrada Familia Church should stand as is incomplete as a monument to Gaudi. It was only in 1975 with the death of General Franco and the return to democracy and a restoration of the Monarchy that once again the construction work re-started but this time with a panel of artists and architects devoted to seeing the vision of Gaudi for his church in the completion of the project. Only having a few documents in private hands from the time of Gaudi and some of his writings to guide them, new financing was devised in organized tours of the site where tourist would pay to gawk at what was going on.<br />
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Here is the first drawing of what the Sagrada Familia would have looked like, a design by Francisco de Paula Villar y Lozano, the first architect who would be replaced by Antoni Gaudi. Of this original design only the underground crypt church was completed in 1900. Gaudi then changed everything and started on his vision.<br />
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Floor plan of the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. </div>
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The current construction schedule is going well and the Church is well on its way to be completed after 70 years of sleep. At this time though it is not clear if the main front entrance of the Basilica the Portico of Glory will be completed, the reason is that it now stands above a express train tunnel (Paris -Barcelona) and the vibration of this high speed train as it enters Barcelona may affect the front of the building. Also in 1975 the land immediately across the street was sold to a developer in what many see as a shady land deal. So the great staircase and plaza planned for the area cannot be built now since condominiums occupy this land. </div>
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Glory Portico which may never be finished.</div>
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The Passion Portico and the Nativity Portico face parks and can easily be admired. Maybe in a way given the tortuous story of the construction of this church it is better if part of it remains unfinished.</div>
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Certainly the rest 90% will be completed by 2026, sone 144 years after the beginning of the work.</div>
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What is wonderful about this construction is that all the funds came and still come from private donations and tourists buying tickets to visit the site. </div>
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Panoramic view of the ceiling vault of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona.</div>
This view is dizzying but given the high luminosity of the Church and the multitude of stain glass, the gold on the ceiling, your eyes are really seeing a marvellous feat of architecture. The columns are not painted, they are stone and they take on various shades of colour as the Sun illuminates the building, this changes as the hours pass. The most magical of effect.<br />
There are more photos at this site <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia" target="_blank">http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia</a><br />
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The basilica in 2014.</div>
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There are many more projects around the world, St-Petersburg is another one where dozens of Palaces have been meticulously restored and turned into museums or hotels. A whole generation of Russian artisan is being trained to produce furniture and other objects but also trades in refurbishing these historical buildings. This could be another entry unto itself.<br />
In Asia Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia have projects to redo sites which have been neglected or abandoned. China redid its Forbidden City in advance of the Olympics games a few years ago, though unfortunately with little care for historical accuracy. </div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-12084812537584149662014-11-24T23:29:00.000-05:002014-11-24T23:29:08.413-05:00Epicurian Pleasure <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In modern parlance Epicurian pleasure is understood to mean the exaggerated excess in all things.<br />
A contemporary of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson depicts what for many centuries Epicurean pleasure was understood to mean, I'll have all my beds blown up not stuffed, goose down is too hard. Jonson's pleasure seeker is called Sir Epicure Mammon.<br />
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However hundreds of scrolls unearthed in the Library for the Villa dei Papyri in Herculaneum which belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso gives the true ancient meaning to Epicureanism and it is vastly different than what we thought it actually meant. This is due to the fact that after his death the enemies of Epicurus ridiculed his writings and twisted the meaning of what his philosophy meant. Then after the Fourth Century we lost his writings which were only rediscovered in a Monastery in Fulda in 1407.<br />
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School of Athens (Philosophy) (1510) by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican. Epicurus appears in the left corner dressed in blue and crowned with vines leafs.<br />
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Philodemus who lived around (110-60 BC) was a true follower of Epicurus (341-270 BC), wrote ''Men suffer the worst of evils for the sake of the most alien desires. They neglect the most necessary of appetites as if they were the most alien to Nature''. What are these necessary appetites that lead to pleasure? ''It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently and honourably and justly, and also without living courageously and temperately and magnanimously, and without making friends and without being philanthropic''.<br />
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This if the true definition of Epicureanism.<br />
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The problem comes in the 4th Century when ''Pagan'' philosophies are rejected by the Jews and Christians who now wish to establish firmly their beliefs on good and evil in the Roman World. Pleasure as the highest good? Even if described in restrained terms it was a source of scandal for both Judeo-Christians belief sets. Even 2000 years later the fear that to maximize pleasure and to avoid pain are in fact appealing goals and might serve as the rational organizing principles of human life. If these goals succeeded then a whole set of time honoured principles, like sacrifice, ambition, social status, discipline and piety would be challenged with the institutions attached to them. This is why Epicureanism is presented in a grotesque and extravagant manner to this day. <br />
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We will have to wait the Renaissance (1297-1580) to see a rediscovery of Antiquity and its philosophies, in 1430 invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg which will put books at the disposal of far more people and then 1492 when Admiral Christopher Columbus lands in America. Two events which will transform world view.<br />
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Thinking of today, reading this definition of true Epicureanism, I wonder how could it apply to our post-modern world and age of technology. Is it even possible in a world like ours where Education is ridiculed and where politicians make constant cuts to the entire educational system. Where Culture is seen as worthless or is constantly assimilated to some multi-million dollar sporting event. Where the masses are easily amused by shopping mall openings as we have seen in Ottawa in the last month, or by news of professional athletes or where a dead Coach is elevated to the rank of demi-god and athletes make ridiculous tributes claiming that their lives would have been worthless otherwise.<br />
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However Philosophy was never meant for everyone's study but for those who were interested to follow one school or another. Or the art of discussion on various topics was an exchange of ideas and wit was a quality.<br />
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I suppose that if you wish to follow that path today you would have to separate or segregate yourself from the commercial world with its values based on money and power.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-89417819410039117602014-11-18T19:04:00.001-05:002014-11-18T19:12:13.920-05:00L'Hiver et la froidure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On this 18 November the weather in Ottawa has taken a decidedly wintery look, the sidewalks are icy and the snow is a light hard icy cover. Our Nicky is not happy, he hates the cold so does Nora but she is tougher and won't complain as much as him.<br />
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The air is crisp and there is a smell of wood burning in someone's fireplace. No wonder I am thinking of Christmas. My friend Dr. Spo in Arizona says it is around 14C right now and he is thinking of making hot coco, I am also thinking at -7C of hot coco. The winter night sky is dark blue and we have been having strong cold winds or <i>rafale de vent</i>. <br />
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All this to say that it feels like the Christmas Season already. Which brings to mind our annual little trip to the Christmas Market in Munich or Bologna, two different countries but each have a fun market with lots of cold weather and good food.<br />
This little video is of the Christmas Market in Munich, we were there at the time when this video was done. Love Munich at this time of year, so beautiful and so much fun.<br />
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I also downloaded my Advent Calendar and started to play with the different functions, like making snowflakes, I like this one and they are easy to make. I can then insert them into the Advent calendar scene and they flutter down.<br />
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I also decorated the Xmas tree which goes into the scene of the calendar and it changes everyday as we get closer to Christmas. The Advent Calendar has lots of items to choose from and you can decorate the tree in many various fashions. This is what I did today.<br />
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Some music by Emile Waldteufel, Les patineurs Valse. Because soon if this cold weather keeps us we will be skating on the Rideau Canal.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-86392064076209164472014-11-17T21:48:00.002-05:002014-11-17T21:48:30.972-05:00Wintery <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today was the first important snowfall after the dusting we received a few days ago. About 30 cm of heavy wet snow.<br />
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I am thinking I should try to by some hot chocolate mix it always comes handy on a cold day.<br />
I also got a nice Xmas Cactus today, I will try to find the correct instructions to take care of it.<br />
It was said on the radio morning news that this weekend people would be able to ski at Mont Cascade in the Gatineau Park. I know they got more snow than we did in the City.<br />
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So here in a few pictures today.<br />
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The Canal side, the water is not yet frozen</div>
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6993287630738849371.post-74034136573306099462014-11-16T00:10:00.000-05:002014-11-16T13:00:47.447-05:00Reading and then more reading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As you probably know by now I have very diverse taste in my reading, currently I finished a short biography on the Painter and father of German realism in painting Otto Dix, entitled Otto Dix, The art of life by Philipp Gutbrod. A fascinating man who led an incredible life in Germany, acclaimed as a great artist and condemn by others dodged by controversy and terrible dangers for himself and his family during the Nazi dictatorship to received accolades and honours after the War but was generally ignored by the Art scene. I wish I could have met him.<br />
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I am also reading Teaching in the Art Museum by Rika Burnham and Elliott Kai-Kee. This to help me in my volunteer work at the National Gallery of Canada. A very good guide to develop techniques on interpretation of art works and how to entice the public in participating and looking at pictures.<br />
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I started on a novel entitled to Wake the dead by Marina Belozerskaya, her book is the history of archeology as she follows a man Cyriacus da Pizzicolli also known as da Ancona,(1391-1455) a merchant who has a keen interest for all things antique especially the monuments of ancient Greece and Rome. He wrote but never published many manuscripts on ancient monuments and was read by many powerful people of this time, friend of Popes and Princes, he was highly respected. The story is around 1421 when the Renaissance in Italy was about 120 years old and the Popes in Rome where returning from their exile in Avignon and rebuilding Rome. There was no archeology before the Renaissance and little knowledge of what the classic Roman or Greek had been like before the start of the Middle Ages around 500 AD. It's an easy read and it is fun.<br />
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I am also reading about Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrona, daughter of Tsar Alexander III and sister to the last Tsar Nicholas II. She fled the Revolution in 1920 with her family to Canada and lived until her death in 1961 in Toronto. The family still lives in Toronto today and are active within Romanov Circles promoting the restoration of the Dynasty in Russia. This book entitled; 25 Chapters of my life: Memoirs of my life, is a diary of the Grand Duchess and her life in Russia when her father was the Tsar and then under her brother and the violent end of the Monarchy and aftermath. It is an interesting read as it gives you an idea what life was like at the Imperial Court.<br />
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I also finished reading the short stories of Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Professor and the Siren. What an incredible writer he was and it is so sad that his greatest literary success came after his death and that he wrote only in the last years of his life. Imagine what a success he could have been during his lifetime. He is the author of one of the most famous modern Italian novel The Leopard. Lampedusa is the archetype of the Sicilian nobleman, stuck in the past and unable to move forward or even wondering why he should move at all. I remember one passage where he explained that all the Nobles in Sicily and there were quite a few, did not see any reason to change after Sicily was annexed by Italy in 1870. They had lost everything but since they were Princes, they did not see why they should change just because now they were part of Italy. Many cloistered themselves in their Palaces in Palermo and continued to live as if nothing had happened, life became more and more financially precarious but it never occurred to them to find a job. This was his world, educated, erudite, well traveled, it is and was the dilemma of Sicily then and now. Not really belonging to Italy and no longer part of a greater Kingdom with ties to Spain.<br />
I find him a fascinating character and his writing is beautiful.<br />
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I have many other titles waiting for me to read and I have to be more disciplined in my reading schedule.<br />
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Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03297393116796129135noreply@blogger.com4