Crime on Paddington Bear

'A Bear Called Paddington' by Michael Bond was one of my favourite childhood books. I was interested to see the trailer for the movie to enter the cinemas in a month. Gosh! What did they do to the lovely cuddly bear. The puppet looks like a monster and the film is made in a manner suitable for poor taste cartoons and not a charming story I remember.  Poor children who will watch the production. To me it simply is in poor taste, sorry.

Spooky time

Happy Halloween!

Windy City versus window scenes and Garden Cities

What a surprise! My anti-picture-taking offspring sent me a huge number of snaps from over the pond: The Windy City, The Lake, Petrified Forest... Nice!

The other pictures include family members so I am not publishing them in case they object.;-)
...
Well, I can only share the scenes watched through my windows these days, until I am well again:

1. What disturbed the cat? Watch carefully!
 

  
Such a big cat and got scared of a tiny ladybird! Hang on! I know why! Halloween is on the doorstep! That's why!

2. A view from above the kitchen sink, no drama:

  

3. Symmetry:
   

I've heard of a nice and easy bike ride that takes in two famous garden suburbs: Bedford Park and Brentham Village. It's very tempting... I very much prefer Brentham Estate with its tiny fairy-tale cottages among trees, shrubs and flowers. Anyway, both are very picturesque and historically interesting, especially if you are into architecture.
You may like to read this little excerpt from The Bredford Park Society Website:

'Bedford Park’s buildings and community spirit were an inspiration and model for the creators of later garden suburbs and cities. It may have lacked their planned social structure, but Carr provided a church, adjoining parish hall, stores, a pub called The Tabard (in contrast, the founders of Hampstead built tea rooms as they disapproved of alcohol), not to mention a Club with a stage for theatricals and where the progressive residents even allowed ladies to join in debates – not exactly the usual Victorian behaviour.
Judging from contemporary accounts, there were also frequent fancy dress balls and ladies cycled around in bloomers. Early residents included painters and illustrators – quite a few houses had studios – writers, actors, poets (the Yeats family rented various houses over the years), general free-thinkers and even the odd Russian anarchist.'

I found it rather amusing. From the society website I went on to read about the Garden Cities and their architect which led my to.... Chicago from where my today's post started! How come? Because of The World's Columbian Exposition! And this led me to a meeting (virtual only) with a remarkable woman (a bow towards G. I. Gudjieff who wrote 'Meetings with Remarkable Men' and a dear friend of mine, the one who travelled in the footsteps of these men, inspired by the author). The woman in question, Sophia Hayden-Bennett was one of the first female architects. Being in her early twenties, she won the competition to design the Women's Building for The 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition which was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arrival in America in 1492. You can read about Sophie at the exposition if you click here. It's a pity the majority of the edifices didn't survive as they were not built to last.
...

To Basel stopping at Poitier

Here is yet another invitation from my friend Beni in Basel:

 -PIB- THE PATAPHYSICAL INSTITUT BASEL

presents

Patapysische Topologien II

from Friday Oktober 31th - Saturday November 15th,
the exhibition will feature a selection of works an stories about the
first tour with UMO(UbuMObil), which took us from Basel over Stockholm to
Berlin and Amsterdam this summer. Associated artists and friends will
show their artworks, performances, theater, music and more out of the
world of pataphysical discoveries.

The exciting program will vary daily, for daily program and more
details, please visit our website pataphysical.net
or facebookgroup Patapysical Institute Basel
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pataphysical-Institute-Basel-PIB-/361972100615779?fref=ts>

we are delighted to welcome you!

Roi Ubus followers

SCH/neider/mid

Ursle Schneider, photographer, designer, bike messenger, pataphysic, UMOdriver
Beni Schmid, mechanical constructor, processdesigner, bike messenger, all&nothing, UMOdriver

Vernissage/Opening: Freitag 31. Oktober, 18:07 bis 21:59
Vogesenstrasse 23, Hinterhof, St. Johann, 4056 Basel

Ursle and Beni, one day I will arrive in Basel, be sure of it!:-)

...

A few days later I am back here to share my discovery of an artist - pataphysician: Thomas Chimes! The opening of the linked above article may tempt you to read it, I daresay:

'Despite his early success in New York, Chimes chose to heed the advice of Marcel Duchamp, who predicted that the "great artist of tomorrow" would need to go

"underground" to avoid the insidious influence of the commercial art world. Inspired by Duchamp's famous statement, Chimes has continued to live and work in Philadelphia, always in search of his next big idea rather than commercial success.'

Not seeking commercial success? That makes me think of Yousif Naser, an Iraqi painter and a good friend who is about to have yet another exhibition in France. 

 This picture features in the poster for Yousif's exhibition. You know? If I was free as a bird, I'd go to the opening and enjoy the company of his many friends, some of whom I was privileged to meet here in London. From there I would travel to Basel to attend Beni and Ursle's event: Patapysische Topologien II. Then I would make it to Berlin to see my friend who keeps inviting me... I'd stay a few days in each of these places soaking in the atmosphere and capturing the sights... If I were in Berlin, it would be just a leap to Wroclaw where I could pay a surprise visit to my relations and enjoy this beautiful historic city.

A quick look into The Adams' building

One day recently I managed to sneak in to The RSA building, which was much easier as it is in London (no borders to cross) ...

It wasn't the right time to take pictures really, hence only a few and not brilliant ones can I share:

And not being in a 'writing' mood, I'll commit a little sin by adding a few Wikipedia words about the RSA building:

The House, situated in John Adam Street, near the Strand in central London, had been purpose-designed by the Adam Brothers (James Adam and Robert Adam) as part of their innovative Adelphi scheme. The original building (6-8 John Adam Street) includes the Great Room, which features a magnificent sequence of paintings by Irish artist James Barry titled The progress of human knowledge and culture and portraits of the Society's first and second presidents, painted by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds respectively.

The RSA has expanded into adjacent buildings in the intervening years, and now also includes 2 and 4 John Adam Street and 18 Adam Street.The first occupant of 18 Adam Street was the Adelphi Tavern, which is mentioned in Dickens's The Pickwick Papers. The former private dining room of the Tavern contains a magnificent Adam ceiling with painted roundels by the school of Kauffman and Zucchi.

The RSA devised a scheme for commemorating the links between famous people and buildings, by placing plaques on the walls — these continue today as "blue plaques" which have been administered by a range of government bodies. The first of these plaques was, in fact, of red terracotta erected outside a former residence of Lord Byron (since demolished). The Society erected 36 plaques until, in 1901, responsibility for them was transferred to the London County Council (which changed the colour of the plaques to the current blue) and, later, the Greater London Council (the G.L.C.) and, most recently, English Heritage. Similar schemes are now operated in all the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.

Autumnal joy for the eyes!

 

Stuck at home and speechless, not much can I do, but look out of the window:

Poets and a sculptor

There is a pub in Swansea that has on its door the sign: "Please don't drop cigarettes on the floor as they burn the hands and knees of customers as they leave". Dylan Thomas may have been a frequent guest to the premises (he was to many, common knowledge) and, as the media pointed out, he (or his bust, to be precise) looks as if he were leaving the very pub sculpted by his friend Oloff de Wet only two years before the poet's premature death brought about by severe overindulgence in spirits. The sculpture is thought to be the only one of him made when he was still alive and can be seen at The Saison Poetry Library in The Southbank Centre.  Mr Google provided me with a better picture of the bust so you can see how neatly the sculptor balanced the poets head on the unkempt tie:
 

Robert Gurney shared a few interesting facts regarding the making of the sculpture:

'Dylan used to  stay with my first wife's parents. (Tony Van den Berg was a big noise in the BBC). They watched Oloff de Wet create Dylan's bust in their living room. Dylan used to chase Ursula, Tony's wife, around the kitchen table. She had been a  beautiful model.'

Thank you, Robert. It is fascinating to learnt these little details first-hand!

Poets, artists... Do they really have to drink and indulge otherwise in order to create? Maybe they do. I'm not the one so it's not up to me to give the verdict. However, nowadays we are told that everyone is an artist. Are we?

There are so many talented people who died young having created so much. You may want to watch a film about the short but rather disturbed life of a Polish poet. I am talking about Rafal Wojaczek and here is a link to the film with subtitles. I have a young and very well-read bilingual friend who is a big fun of Wojaczek's poetry. Should I be concerned about him?

'Fun free' or 'Fun and free'?

I'm battling a dreadful cold and it's no fun... Talking about fun, I've just checked out some news on 'Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia' pages and spotted this:

• FAMILY FESTIVITIES! FUN FREE AND AFFORDABLE ACTIVITIES
• 

  DRINK, DINE & DISCOVER: OUR DYLAN GUIDE TO FITZROVIA
• 
  

What a good example of syntactic ambiguity: 'Fun free and affordable activities'! Free from fun or free and fun? If free from fun, then ideal for the puritans! Just as well they are not expensive.  Who needs fun and pleasure after all? But jokes aside, it is so easy to make a mistake. And punctuation is a minefield. Even in the famous book: 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves:The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation': quite a few punctuation mistakes can be found.

There are so many events celebrating Dylan Thomas at the moment. And I am home with a cold...

A hermit and a poet

Everyone has a story to tell, at least one. Can you believe there is a man in Poland who chose the hermit's life when he was 24? He left university and ordinary life behind, and went to live in the wilderness of The Bieszczady Mountains in the most south-eastern part of Poland. He wanted to live a homeless person's life in extreme poverty, away from civilisation in order to find a living God and a mystical connection with Christ. Jano (Pustelnik z Bieszczad) is almost sixty years old and he doesn't regret his life choices. His parents were both teachers. His father spoke many languages fluently and read books in the original languages, not translations. This talent makes me think of another linguist I happened to cross paths with. I am talking about a poet who writes both in English and Spanish and whose interest in Dylan Thomas resulted in publishing 'To Dylan', a book of poems inspired by the Welsh bard. Robert is working on the next book related to Dylan Thomas' poetry, I gathered. Why don't you visit Robert Gurney's website here and discover the poet for yourself?
...
I've just received an email from Robert and am sharing it with you here:

Hi Joanna

Struggled for ages to get this on your blog without success:

Dylan's Gower by Robert Edward Gurney,  Cambria Books, 1 November 2014

Talking to Dylan Thomas's lovely granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, and to the inspiring Olivier Award-winning actor Guy Masterson last night at the RSA in John Street, London on the occasion of their brilliant British Council seminar "Dylan Thomas: A Life in Words", I was particularly struck by Hannah's reference to Dylan's notebooks which he wrote between the ages of fifteen and twenty. She mentioned how these had been lying mouldering  in a box in Boulder, America, but are now available to the public in Swansea. Hannah argued that everything was there, in embryo, in those notebooks,  that that period of poetic creativity, those five years of “cosseted” (Hannah’s word)  creative activity, a veritable  explosion that occurred within the young genius relieved to drop out early, at sixteen, from a school in which he was bored,  were the foundations of his work to come.  Dylan lived in Swansea, on the edge of Gower, during those years.  Hannah referred to a text in which  he wrote that he "often" went down to Gower. The gist of this book, Dylan's Gower, is that it is clearly time to re-evaluate the influence of the spectacular and quirky Gower Peninsula on his work. Hannah maintained that Newquay and Laugharne were key periods in the gestation of Under Milk Wood. I agreed but argued that to them must be added the beautiful bays and villages of his early ‘backyard’, the place to which he would escape during his formative years and to which he was tempted to ‘retire’  in the final year of his life. This book points, perhaps, to the need to re-evaluate the role Gower played in the formation of the creatures of the mysterious entity of Dylan’s literary imagination.

Bob, Thank you for sharing that. It will be interesting to read what you discovered about the place so important in Dylan Thomas' life and literary pursuit.

As to adding comments on the blog, I have mentioned before that I am not an IT geek and cannot explain why so often people cannot add them below my post. Maybe they expect to see them straightaway which doesn't happen.
...
This evening I would like to add a poem I came across when reading about the Voluntary Simplicity (VS) movement:

The Secret of Life

By Joe Dominguez

The secret of life is simply you…

your magnificence, your divinity.

Love is the medium through which

the divinity manifests.

The medium is the message.

Love is the message.

When you love, you are carrying the message…

You are manifesting your magnificence,

your divinity.

When you feel love, you feel good.

When you feel good, you feel love.

When you feel good, you feel god.

When you feel god, you feel good.

Love is your creation.

Your natural state is

the ecstatic experience of Love.

It is simply the conscious experience

of our aliveness, made manifest…shared.

Love does not “happen” to us.

We happen it.

We happen it by removing that which blocks it.

Living a life is simply the process of removing

those barriers to experiencing Love.

What others write

From Ania's blog: 'Swietokrzyskie Wloczegi', I jumped to another interesting blog about travels around Poland: 'Ruszaj w droge. 'A couple from the Polish seaside run it. It is very informative. You are welcome to check it out here.

Versatile Barnes. Valldemossa revisited.

Three buses drove me to work this morning.
Here are pictures from Bus 65, the first one:
South Ealing   

 

Between Richmond and East Sheen, Bus 33:



In Barnes, Bus 209 
...
It was hard work and hostile conditions: bad smell from the basement which hadn't been cleared for a good few years creating perfect mold habitat, and which someone from the headquarters turned up to sort out just today. Hence, both the front and the back door had to be open wide exposing us to constant draft. Enough complaining though...
Finally a lunch break came and I stormed out into the fresh air heading for the best bench (with armrests) by the Barnes Pond. As soon as I sat down and even before I took out my homemade sandwich, all the birds headed towards me. To their disappointment, I had not a crumb to offer them and they soon walked or rather waddled away.

 

Badly needing coffee, I headed for the OSO (The Old Sorting office Arts Centre) by the aforementioned pond. (Inconveniently, the establishment next to the shop was closed.) In the OSO window I noticed an interesting invitation:


It brought back memories of a visit to a village of Valldemossa in Majorca in the footsteps of Fryderyk Chopin and George Sand with her two children who went there in search of a better climate: 'In the 1830s the Spanish government confiscated monasteries, and the historic estate was sold to private owners, who have since hosted some prominent guests. These have included the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin and his lover the pioneering French writer George Sand,^[1] who wrote a notable account of A Winter in Majorca, describing their 1838–39 visit and praising the island's natural beauty, but criticizing what she perceived as the prejudice and vices of the natives.' (Wikipedia).

Valldemossa... A beautiful place... Forced to stay in, I reached for some old pictures to share here. I'm glad we went at the beginning of May when it's not so hot.

Look! Frederic Chopin and George Sand are here!

Then you get distracted by a view and...

 the couple has disappeared...

Now back to Barnes:
With a cup of coffee I looked around to find a seat. There was a choice between a table with many chairs or a coffee table with a leather-like settee. Chair appealed to me more. As soon as I sat by the table, a large group arrived to occupy the settee. One man approached me asking if I needed the other chairs. I didn't. Soon it turned out that the group were not just hanging around there. They were making a film!
 

The twelve minutes allocated to my coffee drinking was soon over, but I may find some more information about the Barnes film-makers in my mailbox! I shall share it with you, that's a promise.

What else will I mention about the day in Barnes?

The best Halloween shop window I've seen so far this year:

Mr Pickwick arrived at the above shop today:

A picture of Warsaw Old Town is waiting for a new owner there:

There is yet another Polish reference among today's pictures: a book cover:

The book author, Isaac Bashewis Singer, was a Polish-born  Jewish-American writer who wrote in Yiddish. Look at a few illustrations:
    

This object looks intriguing, doesn't it?
 

French version of a book about my ever-favourite bear:



And yet another book: a guide to... beards!


Two books about cats:
 

And a dog hoping to share a pizza with his owner:



I had to dash back to work and thus cannot tell you who ate the pizza!