The Risen Christ

Some Paintings of  Railways:

I'm not sure who's the artist of the first painting, but I don't like it: it's too figurative for me and thus leaves me unmoved.

Gare de L'Est, Paris

The next painting is wonderful and moves me in every way. It's by Monet, of course, a keen painter of the French railways.

The next painting by the American artist Edward Hopper has a similar effect on me to the Monet.

Finally, three examples of the early 20th Century art movement,  futurism, which went under various names eg rayonism, cubism and vorticism

Speeding Train by Ivo Pannaggi

Suburban Train Arriving in Paris, by Gino Severini

Plane over the Train by Natalia Goncharova - an example of Russian rayonism.

And finally, one of my favourite paintings of all time:

Here Comes the Diesel by Leon Kossoff

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Currently listening to:

A Radio 1 remix by veteran DJ Annie Nightingale born 1940.

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Last night's dinner:

The remainder of a home made chicken curry from the freezer.

Approx cost per head: £1.80

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The Risen Christ:

Still transformed by the constant presence of Christ in my life - literally by my side at all times.

I suppose that, technically, this presence of Christ is what is usually referred to as the Risen Christ.

Let me quote from an article in this month's edition of the missionary magazine "Africa" by Sister Ethna Egan.

"I am challenged. How can I make others aware of the presence of God? The answer I think is by becoming more aware myself.

"Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, has written: We must learn to rest in that peace which comes when God touches our hearts. We must know that this peace is the presence of God, that this is how God speaks to us, through this love which touches us at the core and flows through all our being and plunges us into silence. We must be open to this peace.

"Sister Joyce Rupp has written of the meeting of the disciples with Jesus on the road to Emmaus: As we remember the presence of the Risen Christ this week, we, too, can beg him to stay with us. It is a good time to reflect on where we most need the love, the guidance, the encouragement of Jesus now .... After prayer, do we invite him to 'stay with us', it reminds us of how near the Risen Christ is to us and it affirms our deep belief that we need this presence in our life."

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It is with great pleasure and trust and relief that I do indeed invite Christ to stay with me every moment of my day and night.

The Risen Christ, Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina

I think this is a tremendous evocation of Jesus.

Parisian Main Line Stations

Found this very clear map showing the locations of the main and most famous stations in Paris.

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Currently listening to:

This afternoon went with my niece and her daughter to Glasgow's Tramway Theatre which is an ex-tram depot and a huge performance area.

We saw a Glasgow based dance group called Indepen-dance perform two pieces of modern dance. The first to a soundtrack of electronic music. The second accompanied by a live 5 piece band.

Excellent visually and musically.

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Last night's dinner:

A bit of an extravaganza.  Decided to replicate a fantastic dish served in Lisbon two weeks ago.

Black pudding, thinly sliced; soft brie-like cheese;  and slices of orange.

Augmenting, in this case, a fillet of hake.

Washed down with Rabo, a red wine purchased from the barrel in an Italian wine shop off Byres Road, Glasgow.

Approx cost of meal per head: a ridiculous £10.50 excluding wine.

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The dangers of prose style:

I was administered a mild chiding yesterday regarding my choice of reading material.

I had expressed the view that Alan Clark, the late Conservative politician  was a brilliant diarist who was honest about what most folk would be too embarrassed to reveal in a diary; that the diaries were brilliantly written and a sheer pleasure to read.

Other diarists, I opined, were not worth reading because they were not that honest and their prose style was crap (crap in my eyes, that is).

The administrator of the chastisement quietly said that all politicians are good communicators.

That was it. That was the extent of the chiding.

But the implication was clear: it was not that Alan Clark was being honest, it was that his brilliant prose style (my phrase) was simply a way of duping the reader into believing his lies - presumably dressed up as 'refreshing honesty'.

Prose style was just one of the tools of the good communicator AKA the slick operator.

I was quite stung by this interchange because I hold prose style to be the Holy Grail of what makes a book worth reading. But maybe all I have been doing over the last several decades is confining my reading to what I find easy to digest ie what is written with the prose style of my choice.

Armed with this thought, I went straight home and picked off the shelf a diary that is much esteemed but which I had given up on because I found its prose style wanting.

I have to say, I still found it tedious and un-illuminating. But, Rorem is a Pulitzer Prize winning composer and once was president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

It must be me.

Heki card models

Heki appear to be a German company which manufactures HO scale buildings made from card. They come in kit form and are reasonably priced.

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Currently listening to:

Afrobeats:

Basically, the urban music of young Africans as broadcast on Radio 1 Extra.

Apparently, the 's' is crucial. Afrobeats is not to be confused with Afrobeat. So there!

Apparently, there was an Afrobeats element involved in the opening ceremony to the London Olympic Games.

See this link from the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/19/the-rise-of-afrobeats

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Last night's dinner:

A kind of homemade chicken curry and boiled rice. Whole chicken cut into pieces cost about £5. A jar of tomato based sauce, 2 onions and the leftover sauce from a previous take-away curry that had been put in the freezer. Used half and froze the rest.

Cost per head: approx. £1.80

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The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand:

Because I have so enjoyed the novel, decided to buy the DVD of the film version of the Fountainhead starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. The DVD is in Region 1 format ie for US machines only. But it can be viewed on any laptop with Windows Media Player.

One film critic wrote that it was the 'dottiest' film he had ever seen. But that did not surprise him since The Fountainhead is one of the 'dottiest' books ever written. I would agree with that.

Cardboard models

Not sure what scale these cardboard models are but they look absolutely brilliant.

One of them is based on the Renault Galion from 1951.

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Currently listening to:

The Alexander Quartet playing Beethoven's final string quartet No 16

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Last night's dinner:

Scallops, and mashed up sprouts cooked in cream with chopped courgettes.

Approx cost per head: £5

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And just for the hell of it:

Today's lunch:

Roll mop herring, a gherkin and tomatoes

Afternoon coffee and pain aux raisins, Byres Rd, Glasgow

HO scale street lights

Over the next week or so, I want to make a start on installing the platform lampposts.

I'll need to buy two or three more.

Thereafter, the street lighting of the townscape around the station will have to be attended to.

There is quite a selection of HO scale street lights on the market.

eg

What was 1950s/60s Parisian street lighting actually like?

It was surprisingly difficult to find photographs of Parisian street lights from the 1950s/60s. Some streets at night seemed to be illuminated but there were no signs of any street lights!

The following images pre-date or are later than the 1950s/60s.

1976

1946-ish

1944

Will have to do more research.

However, did come across this atmospheric image from inside the Gare du Nord in 1957.

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Currently listening to:

Orbital's Blue Album from 2004.

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Last night's dinner:

Scotch pie, baked beans and frozen peas
 

Cost per head: £2.15

Some Updates

Another image of the Sous Marin or CC65000

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Last night's dinner:

Smoked salmon, prawns in mayonnaise and some tomatoes

Approx cost per head: a ridiculous £5.

Last weeks statistics are as follows - heavily weighted by 4 restaurant meals.

Saturday  £8.50
Friday      £15.00
Thursday   £4.50
Wednesday  £25.00
Tuesday   £23.00
Monday   £4.00
Sunday   £0.00

Average cost per head: £11.43

This compares with the previous 4 weeks averages of £2.33; £5.48; £4.11 and £3.69

Just shows you what going on a short holiday and eating in restaurants cost.

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Currently listening to:

Felt a bit dozy today so watched a concert on TV by the German electronic group Kraftwerk.

It was part of their Maximum-Minimum tour.

The set up was very striking. Basically, the four men standing at their laptops whilst behind them was shown a really arty series of split-screen videos, each video relevant to the song being performed.

Some of the images were as good as the most profound paintings that one can find in an art gallery.

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Jesus Loves me update:

A couple of weeks ago I reported a wonderful experience/realisation that had happened to me in church one morning.

Basically, Jesus told me that he loved me. God told me that he loved me.

I decided that I wouldn't give a daily update on the consequences of this event. Rather, I would occasionally make a comment.

All I can say is that my life has completely changed.

Technically speaking, it is my attitude to that life which has completely changed.

I'm too tired to detail the nature of this change other than to say that I have been waiting  over 45 years for it to happen. In that time I carried out all sorts of activities in the hope of achieving that change but to absolutely no avail whatsoever.

eg
praying, praying and more praying
attending church services, prayer groups and religious discussions and conferences
going on retreats
attempts at meditation
exploring other religions and philosophies
studying psychology at University
doing good works
doing voluntary work
exposing myself to various dangerous situations
fasting
giving alms

That is not to belittle any of those activities; they probably achieved much good in their own right. But they did not achieve the particular end I was looking for.

At the end of the day it was God who deigned to come to me. He came despite my numerous failings and regardless of my many misguided efforts to persuade (bribe) him to come .

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Tango update:

Although classes have finished, I have still been trying to get to grips with the nature of Tango; admittedly at its most basic level.

Last night I made a little discovery which I think might be one of the building blocks of dancing with a partner.

Basically, it is to do with what's called 'the cross'. The 'cross' is simply when the female stops and crosses her feet.

I could never perceive the antecedents of the cross: I could see no connection between what the man did and the woman's decision to stop and cross her feet.

But basically what happens is this (don't quote me on this or sue me if you fall head over heels).

The man moves forwards 1) right foot, 2) left foot, and then 3) brings his right foot besides his left foot and thus stops, feet together.

The woman does a mirror image of this going backwards ie backwards 1) left foot and then 2) right foot.

But at the point when the man brings his right foot next to his left and thus stops feet together she brings her left foot back NOT to be next to her right foot but to cross over it.

Her cross is the equivalent of the man's standing feet together.