Millais was one of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood’s founding fathers. Ophelia is his most famous painting. Through Charlotte, I have come to love the Pre Raphs’ paintings, style and unique voice. The below is no exception. I was particularly moved by the below when I was doing research into the brotherhood for a series of upcoming posts.
Later on in life, Millais turned more towards landscape painting, creating breathtakingly beautiful artworks depicting the Scottish scenery. One such painting is Dew-Drenched Furze of 1889-1890, which is a picturesque view of the woods in Perthshire. While this dense landscape of muted greens and golden, soft yellows, devoid of any figures, is very detailed, there is an almost fogginess to it, giving it a slight abstract feel – breaking away from his usual clear, crisp artworks. Culture Trip
There are many reasons why I love this painting. The rendering is exquisite. The lighting and the way it interacts with the dew on the furze has an inherently magical quality. The depth of the painting is also quite impressive. The tall furze at the front, with the brambles all covered in morning dew, topped by a serene scene and a deep wood. The light coming through in the central part is hopeful. The height of the trees and their variety is also lovely and contributes to an overall air of peace.
One of the reasons I love this painting is that it reminded me of a scene from my last trip to France with Charlotte. At the time of writing we have planned our next trip and I can only hope it contains the same magic as our first trip. The below is a photograph my mother took of a clearing near the house, where we went on a walk one day.
Suffice to say, there will be more Millais magic to come!
Martin of Tours, also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours in 371 AD. He has been heralded as the patron saint of the Third Republic of France. The basilica itself was consecrated some 100 years after his appointment, in 471 AD. It began as a monastery under the Abbot of Saint Martin, then becoming a collegiate church under the control of cannons. Regrettably this initial iteration of the church was destroyed during the revolution, but the present church was built between 1886 and 1924 by French architect Victor Laloux. The style in which it is built is neo-Byzantine.
Charlotte tells me that Dominicans are referred to as ‘Dominicanes’ ie: God’s dogs / hounds of the Lord. I have asked her whether I may call myself a Rosary Hound and I think she has given her assent. In any case, being so inclined to pray the rosary, I was of course drawn to the beautiful Mary statue in the back left corner of the basilica. You can see it above. Charlotte and I prayed for a few minutes here before descending into the tomb of St Martin.
The tomb was a restful place, beautifully adorned with marble and a small sepulchre, which I found quite exquisite. Charlotte noted how peaceful the tomb was. What is missing from this photograph is the beautiful stone arches surrounding the tomb itself. The Crypt was beautiful. French families and patrons of the church have paid to have their names put on bricks around the sepulchre. I do not know how I feel about this practice. There was something in the Bible about a den of thieves but one must not be too literal.
I highly recommend you visit this church if you have the time. Tours is a beautiful city, clean and consistent. The basilica was one of our highlights of the trip.
Sabotage was Brummie band Black Sabbath’s sixth studio album, released in 1975. This was written at a difficult time for the band, who were fighting a legal battle with their former management who were keeping their earnings from them. The album follows some of the technical developments and movements towards synthesizers as the album’s predecessor, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. However, this iconic landmark album takes the band to new heights. Interestingly, Bill Ward forgot his trousers for the shoot for the album cover and had to borrow his wife’s red tights.
The album kick’s off with Hole in the Sky which picks up on the band’s earlier success in that it chooses a catchy riff and goes with it. The force of the track is stopped abruptly with the second track, Don’t Start (Too Late) which is an acoustic track. The juxtaposition is said to remind the listener that Sabbath is not to be confined to metal. The overarching theme of this album is insanity and loneliness. These are particularly covered in the epic Megalomania and Symptom of the Universe.
I’m not sure Google gets the picture
Symptom of the Universe is a six and a half minute epic. This is one of the two standout tracks of the album and contains some of its most striking lyrics:
Take my hand, my child of love come step inside my tears
Swim the magic ocean I’ve been crying all these years
With our love we’ll ride away into eternal skies
A symptom of the universe, a love that never dies
Listen to the drumming especially and Ozzy’s evocative vocals.
It is like being dragged, screaming, through Ozzy’s nightmare.
Paul Conboy, in the car with me as his captive audience.
Supertzar is an unexpected track, no lyrics, simply a choir harmonizing a harrowing eery tune. Ozzy said he could not think of any improvement to Tony Iommi’s riffs in the track so he added only harmonisation. The end result is somewhat apocalyptic.
A choir’s vocalizations dominated “Supertzar,”—no lyrics, just dark and fantastical vocal harmonies. In his memoir I Am Ozzy, Osbourne described the day it was recorded: “I walked into Morgan Studios and there was an entire forty-member choir in there along with an eighty-six-year-old harpist. They were making a noise like God conducting the soundtrack to the end of the world.” Classic Rock History
Megalomania is by far the most thrilling track on the album. It is an 10 minute epic which shows us the heights to which Sabbath could go. The word itself is a person who is obsessed with power. Osbourne captures the despairing loneliness with some choice lyrics throughout the track. The varying musical styles within the track’s passages are a testament to the diversity of talent within the band. Fortunately, a third of the way through Iommi interrupted the dread with an energetic riff on an unexpected piano. The listener was abruptly brought out of the dark and back to Earth, a transition mirrored by the lyrics, “Well I feel something’s taken me, I don’t know where. It’s like a trip inside a separate mind.” From there the song became a bold, hard-rocking tale of the narrator’s journey back from madness. (Classic Rock History)
I’m really digging schizophrenia the best of the earth
I’ll chase my soul in the fires of hell?
Peace of mind eluded me, but now it’s all mine
I simply try, but he wants me to fail
Feel it slipping away, slipping in tomorrow
Now I’ve found my happiness, providence of sorrow
More by accident than design, Sabotage ends Black Sabbath’s peerless first six-album run by being a bit of everything that got them there. Where the ambition and expansion of Vol. 4 had about it a glamorous sheen, the golden tint of perfect LA sunshine, here that same artistry is served by the grubbier fists and middle fingers of the four blokes from Aston that made their first three records.
…
The beginning of the end for the classic era? Almost certainly. But while they were on their hot streak, even as cracks started to show, Sabbath remained absolutely untouchable.
Kerrang
This album quite changed my perception of Sabbath. I knew Paranoid, of course, and some of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath but this was on a different level. It did mark the beginning of the end of the era but I quite agree with Kerrang, Sabbath were untouchable.
One of Keats’ last poems tells the tale of his doomed love for Fanny Brawne.
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
Through Charlotte’s love of Keats, I have become a fan of the great man. Watching the film Bright Star with her and hearing her wide knowledge and infectious passion for the poet is something which will stay with me. The cover photo for this post is taken from the film. One of the memorable scenes for us was Ben Whishaw looking up having climbed a tree barefooted. Reading Keats is very much, for me, like this photograph. Floating atop a tree and letting the words wash over me. This poem is no different.
The poem starts on a melancholy note, as thought he speaker is longing to be someone else. The star is the object of the poem and represents both eternity and transience. The star is of course Fanny Brawne, his neighbour and companion through the later years of Keats’ short life. Keats wishes to remain with his fair love, with his head on her chest looking up, forever. I imagine given the year this was written (1818 or 1819), Keats may have been aware of the illness which was to take his life in 1821. The main themes of the poem are love, life and death, purity, steadfastness and sensuality.
The last four lines are particularly evocative. We can see the depth of moving passion he has for his bright star. He takes special pleasure in listening to her breathe and indeed breathing with her while looking up. He is so profoundly and purely in love that this moment will suffice for him eternally. Would that we could have a love as steadfast as this. How lucky is the man who can love purely in this age of relentless and aggressive secular rhetoric.
I would like to thank my own bright star, as I do daily, for her own steadfastness and for introducing me to one of the immortals in Keats.
Charlotte and I discovered a few weeks ago that there are very few reasonably priced restaurants in Birmingham city centre which are not either deafeningly loud, or bard which happen to sell food. We set out the other day, after church, to go to lunch. We were headed towards a known restaurant to us in Chinatown but we decided to stop en route and look at the menu of Mount Fuji. We were soon convinced. The rest as they say, is history.
We started our journey up the mountain by ordering some sushi. We ordered Nigri Sushi Set B. This included tuna, salmon, prawn and eel. There was one other fish but I do not remember it. The totality was beautifully presented, the rice was perfectly sticky and the portion was correct for two people. There was some pickled ginger to go with it which was searingly flavourful. My favourite, I think, was the eel, otherwise known as Unagi Nigiri. This was made with BBQ or grilled freshwater eel on top of hand-formed sushi rice. It had a sweet and salty flavour with a rich, meaty texture.
Chicken Katsu Curry
Tender Chicken breast coated in breadcrumbs, rice, curry sauce & Salad
My dearest Charlotte in her inestimable wisdom ordered the chicken Katsu curry. This is nothing like an Indian curry, they are more sweet and richer flavour thanks to the variety of spices used and the soft onion and garlic flavours. The sweet flavours are enhanced by using soy sauce. This was a divinely delicious dish. The chicken was tender and enriched by the sauce and sticky rice. A true delight.
Chicken Teriyaki Bento
Marinated Chicken thigh lightly fried with Mount Fuji Teriyaki sauce poured over.
The bento box was beautiful itself and contained some really rather delicious food. The Japanese omelette was squishy and firm. The chicken itself was so very tender and complemented nicely by the teriyaki sauce, a simple marinade made from a base of soy sauce and mirin, a low-alcohol, sweeter version of sake. Sake is Japanese rice wine. The rice was, again, perfect. A great, fulsome and balanced meal.
Finally we decided to have some delicious drinks. Charlotte had the matcha smoothie, which tasted like grass but that is okay. I had the ramune, an odd and very sweet drink which you consume by forcing down a plastic knob to push a glass bead through the opening.
A magnificent, central Birmingham find, which is affordable, high quality and delicious.
