My memories of Oslo are fleeting. We only had a day there - investigating the countrys maritime history - the Fram and Kon Tiki museums and the Viking Ship and the Folk Museum.
Its a city of the north - not given to show - austere even - I get the idea that the Norwegians take their fun seriously its not something to be done lightly. But I enjoyed our brief intro to the country. I guess the word progressive is the one that comes to mind. And I guess this led to Fridays horrific evennts. Terrifying though it might be the recent EDL march in Cambridge was a reminder that for some a forward-looking integrated multicultural nation is one that is to be feared. Have to say that the press coverage - the assumption that the attack was carried out by Islamists showed a really scary development - that the only nutters out there are beard wearing middle easterners. So what happens to airport profiling now?
I think that we can safely say that violence is the step taken by those who cant carry an argument through debate. Backed by a 1500 page manifesto or not.
Peace and hair grease
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Saturday, 2 July 2011
T.E.Lawrence (1888-1935)
Tucked behind the ancient precincts of Westminster Abbey and the very nearly as ancient surrounds of Westminster School lies Barton Street home to a couple of blue plaques. At No. 14 is the plaque to T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia.Where he rewrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom his not quite 100% accurate account of his exploits in the dying embers of the Ottoman empire after he left the original draft on Reading Station.Its an extraordinary tale and one which certainly resonates today.
His pre-war career began with a first at Oxford during which time he travelled to both France and Syria (a trip that involved tramping for a thousand or so miles around the country) to research military architecture, his thesis was on The influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture – to the end of the 12th century. After graduating he started a postgraduate career at oxford before being offered work as a field archaeologist with among others Leonard Woolley and Flinders Petrie.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was coopted into the intellegence services in Cairo as a result of his knowledge of the near and middle east. Hed been in contact with many in the ottoman administration of mesopotamia and their technical advisors when given the prevalent political alliances happened to be german. The Arab Bureau of the Foreign Office esxploited the Arab feelings of discontent under the Ottoman yoke to raise a revolt - the British realised that an uprising would tie up vast amounts of resources that the Turks would otherwise utilise against the allied powers - what would these days be called assymetric warfare.
Lawrence fought alongside the arabs under Emir Faisal councilling avoiding set piece battles instead favouring guerilla tactics - particularly attacking the Hejaz railway and then fading away before the turks could counterattack. In proximity to the arabs, fighting alongside them he came to believe in the importance of Arab independence. Ive been
In 1917 Lawrences troops with assistance from Auda ibn Tayis forces captured Aqaba now Jordans only port. Ive been fortunate enough to travel a little in Jordan - Ive overnighted at Wadi Rum that David Lean used to represent a little patch of Lawrences world in his 1962 film and that Lawrence did accually use as a base.Indeed one of the local mountains is called the seven pillars of Wisdom.
Before the end of teh war Lawrence was involved with the capture of Damascus and the setting up of a provisional arab government. It was shortlived the british and the french carving up the middle east in the Sykes-Picot agreement which also mandated Iraq as under british rule (how times change) Lawrences dream of a united arab nation stretching from Syria to Yemen died at that point.
Would the rise of radical islam have happened if the allied powers had been a little less fixated on their own self-interest? I dont know - hindsight is always 20/20 after all but the manipulation of the arabian peninsula has certainly made us no friends
His pre-war career began with a first at Oxford during which time he travelled to both France and Syria (a trip that involved tramping for a thousand or so miles around the country) to research military architecture, his thesis was on The influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture – to the end of the 12th century. After graduating he started a postgraduate career at oxford before being offered work as a field archaeologist with among others Leonard Woolley and Flinders Petrie.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was coopted into the intellegence services in Cairo as a result of his knowledge of the near and middle east. Hed been in contact with many in the ottoman administration of mesopotamia and their technical advisors when given the prevalent political alliances happened to be german. The Arab Bureau of the Foreign Office esxploited the Arab feelings of discontent under the Ottoman yoke to raise a revolt - the British realised that an uprising would tie up vast amounts of resources that the Turks would otherwise utilise against the allied powers - what would these days be called assymetric warfare.
Lawrence fought alongside the arabs under Emir Faisal councilling avoiding set piece battles instead favouring guerilla tactics - particularly attacking the Hejaz railway and then fading away before the turks could counterattack. In proximity to the arabs, fighting alongside them he came to believe in the importance of Arab independence. Ive been
In 1917 Lawrences troops with assistance from Auda ibn Tayis forces captured Aqaba now Jordans only port. Ive been fortunate enough to travel a little in Jordan - Ive overnighted at Wadi Rum that David Lean used to represent a little patch of Lawrences world in his 1962 film and that Lawrence did accually use as a base.Indeed one of the local mountains is called the seven pillars of Wisdom.
Before the end of teh war Lawrence was involved with the capture of Damascus and the setting up of a provisional arab government. It was shortlived the british and the french carving up the middle east in the Sykes-Picot agreement which also mandated Iraq as under british rule (how times change) Lawrences dream of a united arab nation stretching from Syria to Yemen died at that point.
Would the rise of radical islam have happened if the allied powers had been a little less fixated on their own self-interest? I dont know - hindsight is always 20/20 after all but the manipulation of the arabian peninsula has certainly made us no friends
Monday, 20 June 2011
Brian Haw (1949-2011)
A sad choice to make this week. I was going to talk about Clarence Clemons stalwart of the E Street Band a giant with a giant sound backing Bruce through some of his greatest moments - but there are a lot of people missing the big guy tonight so I thought Id write aboot another hero, one rather less well known certinly away from these shores...
Reading his obit in the Indie today he was called "Britain's conscience" and I certainly think that that the guy probably had more basic human decency in his little finger than the yes men careerists in the House who decided that ingratiating their way into Blairs good books was rather more important than the lives of both Afghan and Iraqi civilians not to mention the lives of British service personnel.
He actually started his protest bfore 9/11 to protest the embargo of medical supplies into Saddams Iraq and continued until receently until he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment in Berlin. As a very public and sometimes lone figure of protest he bore the brunt of some spectacularly odious comment from such delightful cretins as Boris Johnson and David Cameron who announced that he "believed in demonstrations but there are limits" not to mention the numerous attempts by those brave boys in blue to move him along.
He was voted most inspiring political figure in the Channel 4 political awards not that there was a whole lot of competition - identikit suits both a delightful shade of blue labour.
Another nail in the coffin of dissent in this country
Reading his obit in the Indie today he was called "Britain's conscience" and I certainly think that that the guy probably had more basic human decency in his little finger than the yes men careerists in the House who decided that ingratiating their way into Blairs good books was rather more important than the lives of both Afghan and Iraqi civilians not to mention the lives of British service personnel.
He actually started his protest bfore 9/11 to protest the embargo of medical supplies into Saddams Iraq and continued until receently until he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment in Berlin. As a very public and sometimes lone figure of protest he bore the brunt of some spectacularly odious comment from such delightful cretins as Boris Johnson and David Cameron who announced that he "believed in demonstrations but there are limits" not to mention the numerous attempts by those brave boys in blue to move him along.
He was voted most inspiring political figure in the Channel 4 political awards not that there was a whole lot of competition - identikit suits both a delightful shade of blue labour.
Another nail in the coffin of dissent in this country
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Ill met by moonlight
Well it had to come I guess. Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor was after all 96 years old. And they were 96 years well lived.
I suspect that he'll be best remembered for his wartime exploits on the German occupied island of Crete, events that he never wrote about although they are the stuff of a Boys Own annual. The Powell and Pressburger film of his adventures show their trademark love of location, a love shared by Pat. The tale of the abduction and evacuation of a nazi general is barely credible but happen it did and bizarrely the events were very much in character.
His was an educated mind but an academic failiure culminating in an assignation with a greengrocers daughter that got him expelled from Kings College Canturbury. His family believed the army would be a fitting career but a peacetime army wasnt for him and so he decided that he would tramp from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople across a continent overshadowed by the upcoming war. A Europe now long vanished, noble families, relics of the Austro-Hungarian Empire swept away in the flood of post-war communism.
His two volumes of travel memoirs A time of gifts and Between the woods and the water are extraordinary - dense, lyrical, erudite and utterly bewitching. He set off in 1932 with an allowance of £5 a month and via - hostels and monasteries, sheep byres and castles reached Constantinople on New Years Day 1935. Unfortunately the final leg of his journey will now never be detailed. He spent his 20th birthday in a monastery on Mount Athos and a month later took part in a cavalry charge suppressing a rebellion in Greece. He fell in love both with Greece where he spent many years and also a Romanian princess. On the outbreak of war he returned and joined the Intellegence Corps were he was employed as a liasion officer with the greeks fighting the Italians to a standstill and then once the Germans invaded being evacuated to Crete where he fought a guerilla war.
He published his first book The Travellers Tree in 1950 a recital of his travels in the Caribbean after the war but his love was on the Mediterranean and Greence in particular and he lived the rest of his life in the sun - soaking up all he could of life. He wrote in long hand only very recently adopting a manual typewriter which mirrored a lengthy writing process where each word was measured before use.
He married in 1968 but leaves no children.
I suspect that he'll be best remembered for his wartime exploits on the German occupied island of Crete, events that he never wrote about although they are the stuff of a Boys Own annual. The Powell and Pressburger film of his adventures show their trademark love of location, a love shared by Pat. The tale of the abduction and evacuation of a nazi general is barely credible but happen it did and bizarrely the events were very much in character.
His was an educated mind but an academic failiure culminating in an assignation with a greengrocers daughter that got him expelled from Kings College Canturbury. His family believed the army would be a fitting career but a peacetime army wasnt for him and so he decided that he would tramp from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople across a continent overshadowed by the upcoming war. A Europe now long vanished, noble families, relics of the Austro-Hungarian Empire swept away in the flood of post-war communism.
His two volumes of travel memoirs A time of gifts and Between the woods and the water are extraordinary - dense, lyrical, erudite and utterly bewitching. He set off in 1932 with an allowance of £5 a month and via - hostels and monasteries, sheep byres and castles reached Constantinople on New Years Day 1935. Unfortunately the final leg of his journey will now never be detailed. He spent his 20th birthday in a monastery on Mount Athos and a month later took part in a cavalry charge suppressing a rebellion in Greece. He fell in love both with Greece where he spent many years and also a Romanian princess. On the outbreak of war he returned and joined the Intellegence Corps were he was employed as a liasion officer with the greeks fighting the Italians to a standstill and then once the Germans invaded being evacuated to Crete where he fought a guerilla war.
He published his first book The Travellers Tree in 1950 a recital of his travels in the Caribbean after the war but his love was on the Mediterranean and Greence in particular and he lived the rest of his life in the sun - soaking up all he could of life. He wrote in long hand only very recently adopting a manual typewriter which mirrored a lengthy writing process where each word was measured before use.
He married in 1968 but leaves no children.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Sir Henry Cole (1808-1882)
So back to our London trip - M had expressed a wish to visit the V&A which due to its being on the wrong side of town tends to lose out to the British Museum on our cultural wanderings - but we thought that wed stretch our legs and visit as there was an exhibition of contemporary South African photography which was taken in after a brief wander around the lovely South Asian and Middle Eastern rooms and a cuppa in the rather lovely tiled dining hall. Its a really interesting glimpse of a society in flux. Whenever I look at some of the abuses of power going on around he world I think of the fact that nothing lasts forever and that in my lifetime Ive seen the fall of the wall and the end of apartheid in South Africa.
Opposite the V&A is the Kazakh embassy on which is the plaque for Sir Henry Cole. Cole was a member of the Society of Arts and an early proponent of memorial plaques. He was a civil servant who began his working live at the age of 15 in the National Records Office where he rose to the position of Assistant Keeper. From 1837 to 1840 he worked under Sir Roland Hill and helped introduce the penny Post - hes even credited with designing the worlds first christmas card. He visited the 1849 11th Quinquennial in Paris and inspired by it secured Queen Victorias backing of the Great Exhibition of 1851 which championed British industrial supremacy. The financial success of the exhibition meant thata significant surplus would fund the development of the South Kensington / Albertopolis development which he to a large extend supervised. He was the first direector of the V&A or at least the Museum of Ornmental Art as was and so was responsible for one of the great treasure houses of the world. at some point Ill have sort out some listing of museums but the V&A is certainly something...
Opposite the V&A is the Kazakh embassy on which is the plaque for Sir Henry Cole. Cole was a member of the Society of Arts and an early proponent of memorial plaques. He was a civil servant who began his working live at the age of 15 in the National Records Office where he rose to the position of Assistant Keeper. From 1837 to 1840 he worked under Sir Roland Hill and helped introduce the penny Post - hes even credited with designing the worlds first christmas card. He visited the 1849 11th Quinquennial in Paris and inspired by it secured Queen Victorias backing of the Great Exhibition of 1851 which championed British industrial supremacy. The financial success of the exhibition meant thata significant surplus would fund the development of the South Kensington / Albertopolis development which he to a large extend supervised. He was the first direector of the V&A or at least the Museum of Ornmental Art as was and so was responsible for one of the great treasure houses of the world. at some point Ill have sort out some listing of museums but the V&A is certainly something...
Monday, 30 May 2011
Mes que un club
Congratulations to Barcelona. There are plenty of op eds around weighing in on the whole greatest club team in the world debate and of course its a non argument changes in the game, in the way its played, in technology measn that the whole debate is redundant.
All I'll say is that I watching the final with a huge smile on my face. Watching football being played the way it should be - with a smile - a fierce joy.
We went into town on saturday and "enjoyed" the spectacle of the pissed up obnoxious Man Utd fans in Covent Garden which added an additional sweetness to the evenings events.
Todays plaque is again on the wall of the Hobbs Pavilion on Parkers Piece commemorating the first game of codified game of football played on that hallowed ground in 1863. And from there well it is the worlds game - wherever you go there a bunch of kids kicking a ball around - its a touchstone which is why I always try to take a footie shirt on hols with me. Yes its been misused - a thinly veiled excuse from division, hate, racism, sectarianism and nationalism but then a team like Barca come along and blow that negativity away. Bravo Barca!
All I'll say is that I watching the final with a huge smile on my face. Watching football being played the way it should be - with a smile - a fierce joy.
We went into town on saturday and "enjoyed" the spectacle of the pissed up obnoxious Man Utd fans in Covent Garden which added an additional sweetness to the evenings events.
Todays plaque is again on the wall of the Hobbs Pavilion on Parkers Piece commemorating the first game of codified game of football played on that hallowed ground in 1863. And from there well it is the worlds game - wherever you go there a bunch of kids kicking a ball around - its a touchstone which is why I always try to take a footie shirt on hols with me. Yes its been misused - a thinly veiled excuse from division, hate, racism, sectarianism and nationalism but then a team like Barca come along and blow that negativity away. Bravo Barca!
Monday, 23 May 2011
Edward Hardwicke (1932-2011)
Very happy to see that Martin Freeman won Supporting Actor in this years BAFTAs. Sherlock was a real highlight of last years viewing.
Wittyand intellegent with enough little nods to Conan Doyle while providing enough smiles with the introduction of technology and morals to make it relevent to a modern audience. But what of course makes it click is the chemistry between Holmes and Watson.
Rathbone and Bruce had it, Breet and Hardwicke (and Burke) had it, Cumberbatch and Freeman have it, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law....I dont think so.
A purist was wittering on about the fact that this modern retelling wasnt up to much in comparison with the older period stories (although it should be said that the Rathbone movies have very little to do with the Conan Doyler originals) and referred to Edward hardwicke in the past tense.
Sadly he was correct at least on that point. Edward Hardwicke died on 16th May. The Brett/Hardwicke/Burke series I think is pretty much seminal as a faithful recounting of the original Conan Doyle stories. I think I prefer Hardwicke's Watson - theres a warmth there to complment Holmes' cold intellect but theres also a resoluteness a grit there without which Holmes would be a hopeless dilletente.
:o(
Wittyand intellegent with enough little nods to Conan Doyle while providing enough smiles with the introduction of technology and morals to make it relevent to a modern audience. But what of course makes it click is the chemistry between Holmes and Watson.
Rathbone and Bruce had it, Breet and Hardwicke (and Burke) had it, Cumberbatch and Freeman have it, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law....I dont think so.
A purist was wittering on about the fact that this modern retelling wasnt up to much in comparison with the older period stories (although it should be said that the Rathbone movies have very little to do with the Conan Doyler originals) and referred to Edward hardwicke in the past tense.
Sadly he was correct at least on that point. Edward Hardwicke died on 16th May. The Brett/Hardwicke/Burke series I think is pretty much seminal as a faithful recounting of the original Conan Doyle stories. I think I prefer Hardwicke's Watson - theres a warmth there to complment Holmes' cold intellect but theres also a resoluteness a grit there without which Holmes would be a hopeless dilletente.
:o(
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