I overslept, not you would think the best way to start a day but there it is. I decided to do something I'd been neglecting but which fills me with happiness, take a stroll around the garden and take photos. I started off in the far corner to admire my handiwork on the winter jasmin… Continue reading An almost perfect day (or the art of making the most of what you’ve got)
Category: My Diary
Bach Bliss
dav Tuesday: Bach's magnificent, monumental Christmas Oratorio, one of the recurring joys of the musical year. This one was particularly special because it was performed by the Amsterdam Baroque orchestra and choir directed by none other than Ton Koopman. A quick walk through Brera to the Basilica di San Marco, long queues in the pouring… Continue reading Bach Bliss
Chili con carne
How difficult can it be to eat? In Italy, very difficult indeed. It's a cult, it's a religion, it's an obsession. They have the same maniacal attitude to food as they do their clothes . You can tell an Italian at a hundred paces anywhere in the world because how he wears his jeans is… Continue reading Chili con carne
Traumatic concert,continued..
So we listened to a Chopin piano concerto performed by Boris Petrushansky Rusian-born but naturalized Italian; after the Chopin, Prokoviev's Cinderella suite, composed for ballet. After the concert, back to the tram stop.There's a certain ferment there, what's up? A notice telling us rather tersely that there is no tram but a SUBSTITUTE. The very… Continue reading Traumatic concert,continued..
Traumatic concert
Well actually it wasn't really the concert which was traumatic: it was the journey. I started off in very thick fog and I nearly gave up and came home, thinking about the return journey, which would be late and made amongst mad drivers fuelled by god-knows-what, going out to rave.!! Then I decided to risk… Continue reading Traumatic concert
Flippant Philosophy.
I've read 'em all. The Greeks, the great mystics, the Hindu gurus, the Buddhists, the Existentialists, but the other day I came to the conclusion that the best I can do is Piglet."What day is it ?" asked Pooh. "It's today", squeaked Piglet, "my favourite day".
Funny day: continued.
This evening, still raining. One of my favourite directors, Claus Peter Flor, directing one of my favourite pieces, Beethoven's Concerto for violin in Re maggiore op.61.This is a mind -blowing classical music experience, one of those which made me decide classical music was my scene. Certain parts of it cause me the Stendhal syndrome, I… Continue reading Funny day: continued.
Funny Day
Now you're probably asking: funny/ strange or funny /haha .Well maybe a bit of both. I decided to have a totally me- day after a very hard week's work. So hairdresser in the morning, rain, and the yearly Christmas visit to Agribrianza for their mega seasonal spectacular! I don't know how those poor people stand… Continue reading Funny Day
Time to kill.
Today I had to kill time in a rather squallid part of Sesto San Giovanni. An area seemingly lacking in everything except mechanics ,funeral homes and Chinese emporia full of tacky Christmas plastic. I found a spartan bar manned by two ladies (then maybe womanned ?) from Eastern Europe. One of them was having fun… Continue reading Time to kill.
From the Darkness to the Light
mde An interesting title, an interesting concert. Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", who doesn't remember the Witches Sabbath in Walt Disney's Fantasia? Probably based on Slavic folk legends concerning the summer solstice on St John's Eve...or was it? Some believe that it relates to the composer's stay in Italy. Mussorgsky was inspired by the folk… Continue reading From the Darkness to the Light
English that grows 