If anyone anywhere ever forgets the title of this story in the John Weir collection Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me, it is “Katherine Mansfield”:
“And your Mom ingeniously seated me next to your twelve-year-old cousin, who’s blonde and sulky as the kid in Death in Venice.”
— “”katherine mansfield”, story # 6 in Your nostalgia is killing me
London is beautiful at any time of year, but this is self’s first time to visit it in the Fall. She had some misgivings, but all of that were thrown out the window when she saw the lovely weather, and the familiar old buildings, and the fewer crowds.
So here, in honor of her first full day in London, three pictures of where she spent the day:
The Science Museum
The Serpentine Pavilion 2017, by Francis Kéré, in Hyde Park
The Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Hyde Park
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is FRIENDS.
Which is a very fun theme!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
The reading matter became more absorbing last night, when Gibbon stated that it only took eighty years for Christianity to move from being a persecuted religion to becoming the main religion of the Roman Empire. This latter development happened when Constantine, a Christian, became Emperor and swore to rule according to the dictates of his Christian faith.
Gibbon (whose faith is obviously important to him) then starts enumerating early monasteries around the Roman Empire, and these include not only monasteries in Syria, Egypt, etc but also monasteries in Ireland. Which leads self to look up names on the internet, and she stumbles on:
Self would love to visit some of these places, if she has time.
She remembers that one of the most exciting things about visiting Venice, a few years ago, wasn’t Venice itself, but her exploration of outlying islands, especially Torcello.
Torcello has a very old stone church, with a very high tower. When you ascend to the very top, you can see all over the Venetian lagoon. This was a watchtower. As Torcello is farther out from the mainland, small bands of Christians took shelter here, away from the barbarian hordes. Gradually, as Italy became more stable, settlement moved inwards, closer and closer to Venice. The culmination of the growing power of the Venetian state was the building of Saint Mark’s.
Self has always loved history.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
To transmogrify is to “change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.” (Michelle W., The Daily Post)
Self has three different examples of transmogrification: sculpture by Pablo Picasso and Fernando Botero, and shoes by Prada.
From the Picasso sculpture exhibit last year at the NY MOMA: A harlequin.
For something a little different: A (really on fleek!) pair of shoes, seen in the Prada store in Venice, November 2015
Final picture: A Fernando Botero sculpture can be glimpsed through an open door. Botero’s sculptures were on exhibit in Palo, Italy, November 2015.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
More from the watershed trip self took with Margarita Donnelly (founder and managing editor of Calyx Press) in April/May 2013, less than two years before she succumbed to cancer. We rented a small two-bedroom apartment in Ca’ San Toma, Venice. Margarita’s adventurous spirit far exceeded self’s.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
— Jeff Golenski, The Daily Post
Self went with Margarita Donnelly to Venice in April 2013. Margarita was battling breast cancer. She passed away in December 2014.
What self remembers of that trip was that she was always getting lost. The streets of Venice are labyrinthine.
These pictures have a melancholy feel. Her Venice is more the Don’t Look Now Venice instead of the hectic, tourist-packed place it really is.
This was self’s second trip. The first time was when she was 11:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Candide and Martin took a gondola onto the Brenta and arrived at the Palace of the noble Pococurante. The gardens were well conceived and adorned with handsome marble statues; the architecture of the Palace was fine. The Master of the House, a man of sixty, very rich, received the two sightseers very politely but with very little enthusiasm, which disconcerted Candie and did not displease Martin.
First two pretty neatly dressed girls served chocolate, well prepared with whipped cream
“They are pretty good creatures,” said Senator Pococurante. “I sometimes take them to bed with me, for I am very very tired of the town ladies, their coquetries, their quarrels, their pettiness, their pride, their follies and the sonnets one must compose on order for them; but after all, these two girls are beginning to bore me a lot.”
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
The Daily Post Photo Challenge this week: LANDSCAPE.
Here are shots of two of self’s favorite cities: New York and Venice.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
The Daily Post Photo Challenge for the week is HARMONY.
My take: “A blissful state of contentment. Only achieved when mind/body/emotions are in a state of peaceful awareness.”
First Photo: Venice, November 2015
Second and Third Photos: Tuscany, November 2015
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 