In an upcoming post...

Favourite Pianists? Who is your favourite pianist? Tell me, so I can bruit it abroad on the internets. Chalk! I speak to you among others. Your too, mom. FS? My elder sister's husband? And any of my students, I look over my glasses upon thee too. And any of my other readers. I would like to do posting on this. Mostly so I can learn what people know and how they are thinking about pianists. TRH is particularly interested in pianists, so his opinion will be shared. I am also going to solicit an opinion from one my colleagues at a place where I used to work--- he has strong opinions on this topic. I am going to see him in about a week and, I don't know, tape him at dinner? Send me a name and your reasoning. I will be most grateful and I will credit you in any way you prefer (Anon., initials, first name, first name last name). How flexible is that? Quite, I should think.

And I Lituani? Well I need to get back to NZ to study the libretto a tad and then I will address this too. Let me report for the moment that I find the opera to be a really fine piece of work with any number of memorable moments. It is a cool piece.

So send in those names of pianists (click on "view my complete profile" on right of this page and then on "email" on the left of the page that comes up next)-- or add them to the comments

In Los Angeles Now

All safe and sound in the United States now. I must say that I do miss everyone from the trip. I had so much fun. It really was a nice bunch of people. Still, I am back to TRH now and we have many many plans for over the next couple of days. Happy activity removes sting of absence. I put the Xmas lights on TRH's sister's rather large tree yesterday and tomorrow we will be driving up the coast to Mendocino to visit D and J for a couple of days. One of my sisters will be there with her family. Stay tuned for Mendocino pictures (if the weather cooperates).

Last Night in Greece

Right (as SP charmingly might say)! Last night in Greece, we had a lovely dinner as a group with some very nice remarks from the students. I endeavored to be eloquent when it came to be my turn to make a remark. I did ok. To my mind, the muse gave me emotional truth but somewhat less of figure in my words. No matter. The students gave many affecting reflections. I was given a really sweet card and gift certificate to our favorite restaurant in Wellington. Sweet as. After dinner and as I packed during the evening, many of the students said the nicest things to me.

BUT the evening did not end there.

HD said that we should make an expedition to a gay bar while we were in Greece. And so last night, the last night I was Greece was the night. It was, shall we say, a moment that hearkened back to my earlier ambitious exploits into nightclub culture. The club we went to was a place called The Lambda Club. We arrived at 1:00 AM. It reminded me of the clubs I went to over twenty years ago in Rome. The music was loud and there was a lot of smoke. HD and I had a lot of fun. There was a cool drag queen who was in charge of a raffle and she lip-synched so so fine. We chatted with some Greeks and some others who were foreigners like us. There was also a backroom which HD noticed. I had not noticed it. He wanted to know what that was about. I went in to investigate, um…erk, twice. The first time for just a moment and then the second time for a couple of minutes. HD howled with laughter as he held my drink so I could button up, refasten my belt and fix my shirt. It was FRIENDLY in there (and I always endeavor to be obliging). We then danced to some pretty intense house and the latest hottest tracks from Greek dance. The boys knew all the words to one of them… and had I known the song I would have sung along too. It was very catchy. We shoved off about 3:30 and walked back to the hotel through streets that were still full of people! On a school night, people! The Christmas decorations were beautiful all over the buildings. It was not dark and weird and too late; it was magical. It was just gorgeous and the Acropolis all ablaze presided over all. HD and I took our time walking back and just chatted about this and that. It was fun. And in a shout-out to FS, HD is the same guy who persuaded me to grow my late and unlamented moustache. I took a cab to the airport at 4:30 AM. I got no sleep. I don't care. I am writing this on the plane to Frankfurt. Greece is over.

Three FInal Shots from Delphi

Last Photo Album from Greece

Ok. Here are the last postings. Another absurdly beautiful day. We have been truly blessed in our weather on this trip. We were in Delphi, the centre/navel of the world (or so the Greeks used to say). Delphi is home to a temple to Apollo in which his priestesses gave prophecies. See you in Los Angeles and with postings on different things.

Two More from Olympia

Olympia

This is the place where the Olympics were held for century after century in the ancient world. It is a stunning place full of monuments, ancient athletic facilities and religious buildings of various kinds. We were there on an absurdly beautiful day, as you can see.




Olympia.

Two More from Mystras

View from the castle up top:




Look at the pretty brickwork on the façade of the Church for the Saints Theordore. Cloisonné is what this brickwork is called. Nothing spells Byzantine quite like cloisonné, baby:

Final Pictures from Greece

I will be coming to the United States in a few short hours. Here are a few last pictures before I set off for the New World. They will be offered up in three sections and they are of three particularly nice sites—a fitting flourish for a conclusion. The first of these is from Mystras. This site in the highlands above Sparta is amazing. Originally a fortress and town founded by the Franks on territory taken from the Byzantine Empire in the 13th century AD, it was recaptured by the Byzantines and became a flourishing centre that had political, intellectual and artistic importance. This is Byzantine architecture at its finest! I bought TRH another present here too.

This is where, right here in Mystras, the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus, was crowned in 1448. He kneeled on this marble slab in the main church that has incised on it the Byzantine double eagle. He died a few years later in 1453 in the unsuccessful defense of Constantinople against the Turks.




The Pantanassa (the mistress of all things, the referent is Mary) which is a still functioning nunnery.

So sorry postings are so sparse and pictureless...

I am not in a place that is good for this kind of thing at the moment. Look for more pictures of Greece next week and more regular posting then. More sooner, of course, if conditions change (and they might, they have before!). Anyway, at the moment I am in Delphi so there will be pictures of that AND, and and and AND, we were in Olympia on a perfect day today and I have many pictures from there AND the day before that we were in Mystras which was totally awesome too. More about these later. Promise! And thanks for reading!

Happy Anniversary D and J!

Many happy returns on the day!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Amazing bridge player and cracker-jack lawn bowler! Congratulations on another year.

Mycenae (first ones) and Tiryns (last two)

Korinth Notes and Akrokorinth

A few words on Korinth (which I was not able post with the pictures in the post below):

Korinth is a complicated site full of many layers and much Roman stuff (which I of course found congenial). It is an exuberant site. The money that was spent on making this a major "kitty" place in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD boggles the mind. I will enjoy returning to it in years to come and will have much to say about it on those occasions.

And here are some pictures from Acrokorinth (which is on this PRECIPITOUS mountain that TOWERS over Korinth):

Korinth

Pictures from my Hotel Balcony in Siteia

About the same view, night and day.

I Report, You Decide

Ok. So I was looking for an Xmas present for TRH in Siteia on Friday night. I found one and it is coming back with me. Wouldn’t he like to know what it is! And it is not the first that I have found. It’s the second, truth to tell. And wouldn’t he like to know about that one too! But I digress, the following is offered for your consideration:

The man, whose store it was in which I bought the gift, was a friendly Cretan man, older than I am and nice looking (sort of like TRH). We had a nice chat about this and that as we were concluding the transaction. As I was leaving he asked me to come back for coffee on Saturday morning…which I did not do because we were off to a site and then on back to Herakleion to catch a flight back to Athens.
…
From the Rough Guide to Greece, pg. 84: “Greek men are terrible flirts, but cruising them is a semiotic minefield…”

End of offering for consideration.

And a late breaking news-flash!

On the flight to from Crete back, there was a problem with out group tickets and when it was cleared up many of us found ourselves in first class. It was total leg-room all the way across the Aegean, baby. And to add frisson to delight, a men’s soccer team was on the flight with us. As we sat in our seats, i n f i r s t c l a s s , they paraded by each more handsome than the last. It was really quite distracting in the best kind of way. The sainted BW took a picture with my camera of some fo them in baggage claim. Nice of her huh? I told the students that I wanted the picture for TRH as well as myself. One of the students asked whether TRH liked Greek men or was it soccer players. I said, “It’s all good.” Here is that picture:




Life is good.

Kato Zakro and Dead's Gorge

Kato Zakro is one of the "palaces" of Crete. Most of what you see here dates from around 1700BCE. It was burned down and abandoned in about 1450BCE in a mysterious event that took out all the palaces in Crete at the same time. We don't know precisely what happened (invasion? earthquake? both?). Anyway it is a beautiful ruin.





Dead's gorge is a huge, well, gorge that is just south of KZ. It mildly disquieting (and therefore interesting). You get a pleasant shiver.

A Menace

Names of the Cretan museums involved have been suppressed to protect the guilty (me).

Look at the picture of the nice philosopher.



Study the plaque.



BUSTamente.

Look at this fascinating shell-shaped and engraved bit of ware brought to you by those inventive Minoans. Oh how it is bathed in happy illuminating light!



No flash allowed. (Camera goes back to flash mode on its own if it is inactive long enough and WILL flash when in the inattentive hands of a gossiping and/or intellectualizing prof., it would seem. So wedged, as we used to say in the Stanford Band.)

Will try to avoid these mishaps during the rest of the trip. Yes. Must.

Souda Bay Puppy

One of the caretakers for the Souda Bay Cemetary has his house right next to the cemetary and he, a real sweetheart and friendly, takes in stray cats and dogs. He will not stand by and allow these abandoned animals to perish in want. He has over 20 cats and 8 dogs. On the day we were there he had this 6 or 7 week old puppy on hand. He is a pit-bull. I bet he looks a little frightened to you. He did to me. But you know what? He warmed right up and was licking your thumb and chewing on it a bit in no time. It was nice to play with a puppy for a little while after being in the cemetary (even though it made me miss my own dog back in NZ all the more). I do have a picture of his face but I am not able to post in any of the internet cafes right now for various reasons. In any case, I have come to think that the one picture is enough, so I am going to post with the one; this picture makes you want to comfort him, doesn't it? I am so glad the caretaker found him and that he will have dogs around him who will teach him stuff. The other dogs were really good with him, by the way. So young. So small.

Souda Bay World War II Cemetary for New Zealand and Aussie Vets

A few days ago we visited a war cemetary for the down-under Vets who died here on Crete. It was a beautiful place and it led to reflections of various kinds in me. I can't put what I was thinking into proper words for you at this time.

Here are some of the images. The cemetary is respected and revered by the Greeks who have a particular fondness for Kiwis and Aussies.





I find the quotation engraved here particularly affecting.

Two More From Azoria

Like it says.

Azoria

I hear that FS is "just crushed" that there are no more critical facial hair updates. As there is no hair left (on my face), there is no longer a hair story here. Um...erk...sometimes, it would appear, that bad things happen to good people. And so, so sorry, FS, but crushed you must be. Might I offer as but a poor poor substitute some pictures from the site we visited today? And further, I dedicate pictures from A Z O R I A [!] to FS in the fond hopes that they will buck her up.

Anyway, Azoria is a recently excavated site that is very near Agios Nikolaos. Its floruit was 1200-600BC. It therefore is younger than the Minoan sites we have been looking at. The site has not been published yet and it posed some problems for yours truly as he endeavored to get oriented and talk about some of the features of this site. Besides not being able to track the spine wall through the Andreion (which was unexpectedly HIGHLY mysterious) I did find everything I set out to find. So, like, go team!

One of the things that is really interesting about Azoria is how it is temporally inbetween the ancient Greece we all know better and the more mysterious and much older Minoans. It looks forward a lot -- e.g. the Andreion, a possible Prytaneion, a possible Agora, a possible Temple. It also looks back some. The closely built houses remind one of Gournia.

We did not know precisely where the site was [it is not on maps yet] and the walk was long and steep (with a small amount of backtracking). Some of the students were a little grumbly but they settled down later especially when we got up there. It was a beautiful day and the site is stunning! Amid such beauty and sunshine, it was hard to keep your snark on.