Events and Photos

Tags

Brian Burke, Canada., CCAG, Charlottetown, figurative painting, Jazz, Music, Painters

As I said before in Charlottetown we are busier than we ever have been socially. There is always something going on.

In the last 10 days we have been to the opening of the Winter Show of the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre. A retrospective of the work and life of Brian Burke, displaying 110 paintings,  a small fraction of this life’s work from 1980 top 2016. Burke died at his home in PEI. He had lived in Lucerne, Switzerland until last year. Many of the paintings are from private collections, unseen by the public, some came from Europe. He has a style all his own and you know when you see one that this is Brian Burke.

From The Guardian (Charlottetown) eulogy:

Born in Charlottetown in 1952. “One of PEI  most significant painters, Burke pursued his long interest in expressive figurative painting with passion and commitment. Brian was an artist who inspired a generation with his body of work, and for making his way in the world as a painter and musician.

Over the years, his paintings were exhibited in private and public galleries in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. His work is in public, corporate and private collections, including the permanent collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, TD Trust, the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Canada Council Art Bank.

The Summer Cruises are coming to an end, we saw about 100 ships the biggest carrying 4500 passengers. In one day several ships arrived at once and upwards of 15,000 passengers got off for a 5 hour stop, roaming a 4 block radius of the downtown area of this small town of 36,000 people. Is Charlottetown becoming like Venice ( same square mileage area) Should be like the Mayor of Victoria BC on the Pacific coast call for a reduction in cruise ships and the enormous pollution they bring with them in terms of garbage and air pollution. Difficult to say, the Charlottetown Port Authority is a private concern and they make tons O’Money with the cruise ships and passengers.

According to the Tourism figures of the PEI Government, cruise ship traffic is up 60%, no wonder, we only had about 30 ships a year four years ago now it is close if not at 100 per year or in the Season (May to October). Tourism in other areas like visit to the National Parks is down, tourism by car or coach is also down, only special festivals still bring significant numbers to the Island but this is a one off and no repeat. So our elected officials cling to the cruise ships. However don’t try to get numbers on what this traffic really bring, it’s a big secret and must not be discussed. There is also the problem that after 1 September most businesses dedicated to the tourism traffic close only to re-open on 1 June. So yes we need to think seriously about where we are going with this tourism thingy.

With the artist Tyler Los-Jones and Gallery director Kevin Rice on opening night.

Then here are some city views around the neighbourhood.

Thursday Night Island Jazz at Baba’s Lounge and the 200th show. Every Thursday night of the year, jazz with a variety of musicians from local to international and only $5 bucks. Always fun night to meet friends.

 

 

Troldhaugen, Bergen

Tags

Bergen, cruise, Grieg, Music, Norway, ship, Stave Church, troldhaugen

The visit during our cruise of the Western Coast of Norway that made the greatest impression on me was to the home of composer Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina.

Troldhaugen is a suburb of Bergen, the hill on which the house stand was named by Grieg and it means in Old Norse, Knoll of the Troll. I would say a well to do neighbourhood with expensive homes surrounded by forests and lakes. When the house was built it was by the standard of the time an expensive house. It is wonderful to see how well preserve it is and gives the impression that the owners have just stepped away for a few minutes.

as you walk towards the house you will see this grassy mound which in fact is the roof of the small concert hall, said to be one of the best in Europe for acoustics.

Here is an old photo taken from a framed photo inside the house. It shows a gathering at the front of the house with Grieg in the middle, he is the little man in the light suit. He was about 1.5 meter talls and had one lung. He died at 61 from respiratory complications.

The house has remained as it was when Grieg and his wife Nina lived there. After his death in 1907 she moved to Denmark but the house remained in the family and both of them are buried in a rock face below the cliff by the lake.  The house became a Museum in 1928 while Nina was still alive. The house built by Grieg’s cousin Schak Bull had no electricity nor indoor plumbing. Also on the property just a few steps away is the composing chalet where Grieg worked, a simple hut really with a work table and a piano with a beautiful view of the lake.

the house toilet or out house, also preserved.

Here is Grieg in a dark coat on the walk towards the house with playwright Henrik Ibsen, today you can stand on the same spot nothing has changed.

Grieg’s piano a gift from admiring fans brought into the house one morning as a surprise, notice how the legs are short, made so to accommodate Grieg’s short stature. A beautiful instrument still in perfect working order. The house is all wood, plain wood floors, walls etc, rustic and charming.

The view from the living room of lake Nordasvannet and surrounding area.

The composer’s hut at the bottom of a short flight of stairs. It is not open to the public being quite small, but you can look through the door window.

His working table the piano not seen here is to the left of the desk.

inside the concert hall, with the window looking unto the composer’s hut and the lake. We had a wonderful concert with pianist Rune Alver who played Morgenstemning from Peer Gynt, Rigaudon from Holberg Suite, Rotnamsknut from Norwegian Peasant dances, and selected Lyric pieces that Nina Grieg, soprano would sing at recital with Grieg accompanying her on the piano. It was quite beautiful and evocative.

We walked down to the Lake to visit the tomb of Grieg and Nina, a very peaceful place.

Though you come down and it is indicated, it is somewhat hidden from view. On the funeral stele his inscribed simply Edvard and Nina.

During our visit to Bergen we also visited an old church which had to be extensively renovated and rebuilt.

The old stave church at Fantoft, originally built in Fortun in Sogn in 1150 and moved to Fantoft in 1883, burnt down on 6 June 1992. Fantoft Stave Church has been rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire.

 

The church was originally built in Fortun in Sogn, a village near inner or eastern end of Sognefjord around the year 1150. In the 19th century the church was threatened by demolition, as were hundreds of other stave churches in Norway. The church was bought by consul Fredrik Georg Gade and saved by moving it in pieces to Fantoft near (now in) Bergen in 1883. Outside the church stands a stone cross from Tjora in Sola.

On 6 June 1992, the church was destroyed by arson; the first in a string of church burnings by members of the early Norwegian black metal scene. At first, the fire was thought to have been caused by lightning or an electrical failure. In 1994, Varg Vikernes of the one-man band Burzum was found guilty of murder and of burning Åsane Church and Storetveit Church in Bergen, the burning of Skjold Church in Vindafjord, and the burning of Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo. He was also charged with the burning of Fantoft stave church.

After the fire, re-building was soon begun and was finished in 1997.

 

It is an all wood construction and the roof is covered with tar to repel the water.

The quality of the photos I took inside are not very good due to the very poor light, the little church has no electricity and no windows. The day light comes in from the open door. It is quite beautiful and gives an insight in early Christianity in Norway in the age of Vikings.

 

The Church stands in a forested grove.

 

Finally the Season begins

Tags

Canada., diplomacy, Fenice, Handel, Music, Organ, PRC

Well yesterday 4 June finally the weather warmed up to the point that restaurants could open up to diners on their terrace. Boats are finally gliding down the streets towards the launch docks in the marina. To see those monster being towed down the street is impressive, traffic has to make way for them. Still very few tourists and the cruise ships have come on days when the weather up to now was poor and cold. I do not think this will be a very good season for tourism, everything is a month late and since most things shut down after 30 August, that is not much time.

In books I am reading now one is entitled Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s campaign of influence by Jonathan Manthorpe is the story of how Canada came to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1969. The influencers were all Canadian missionaries who worked in China between 1920 to 1949 and beyond, many names were familiar to me as those of people who held great influence with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in coming to a decision to recognize the PRC. What the book reveals is how naive Canadians and our Government are and were about China. Canada believed that we could change China and make it a model of democratic governance. This belief was encourage by the influential group of Canadian Scholars on China, many of whom were the children of the Christian missionaries who had worked for decades in China prior to the victory of the Communist forces over the Nationalists in October 1949. They had lived and worked in China and spoke fluent Mandarin, their knowledge back in Ottawa was impressive and no one thought of questioning their beliefs. To this day and until fairly recently prior to the dispute with Huawei and the hostage diplomacy practice by the Government of China, many in official circles made themselves the apologists of the Communist dictatorship. Canada now understands that we will not change China nor its lack of respect for Human rights, democracy and an open society. Canada is in no position to dictate to a super power and we are under pressure from the large number of Chinese citizens in Canada to cowtow to China. A very interesting book and one which reflects my own experience in the PRC before 2007.

I have also re-read the book of John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels. It is about the terrible fire which destroyed the Fenice Opera House in Venice in January 1996. A complex story of negligence, corruption, incompetence which happens to often in Italy.

It is a story I know well since we visited Venice many times between 1996 and 2011. I do remember visiting the City months after the fire and the stench of the burnt Opera house was still very present in the air. We did go at the re-opening in 2004, it was re-built as it was in 1836, quite a beautiful place.

Berendt’s book reads like an investigation report, many of the details were well known to me and re-reading it brought back a lot of memories. If you do not know much about the history of this criminal fire and the actors, this is a good book to read.

 

Jean Victor Arthur GUILLOU, French organist of note, 1930-2019. Plays G.F. Handel concerto for organ no 10, allegro. At the organ of Montélimar. His interpretation is different and beautiful.

 

Petite Fleur

Tags

creole, France, Music, New Orleans, Radio Canada, Sidney Bechet

A great jazz piece by Sidney Bechet with Claude Luter And His Orchestra: Sidney Bechet (ss), Guy Longnon, Claude Rabanite (tp), Bernard Zacharias (tb), Claude Luter (cl), Christian Azzi or Raymond Fol (p), Roland Bianchini (b), Moustache (d) Paris, January 31 — March 12, 1952

 

Heard it last night on the radio show ”Quand le Jazz est là” with Stanley Péan on Radio-Canada from Montreal. Such lovely music, I find it very evocative.

Stanley Péan knows his audience and always plays the best of Jazz in its many forms. He knows the listeners are knowledgeable and adults and should not be treated like kids.

Bechet was born in New Orleans in 1897 to a middle-class Creole family. His older brother, Leonard Victor Bechet, was a full-time dentist and a part-time trombonist and bandleader. Bechet learned several musical instruments that were kept around the house, mostly by teaching himself; he decided to specialize in the clarinet.

In the 1940s, Bechet played in several bands, but his financial situation did not improve until the end of that decade. By the end of the 1940s, Bechet had tired of struggling to make music in the United States. His contract with Jazz Limited, a Chicago-based record label, was limiting the events at which he could perform. He believed that the jazz scene in the United States had little left to offer him and was getting stale. In 1950 he moved to France, after his performance as a soloist at the Paris Jazz Fair caused a surge in his popularity in that country, where he easily found well-paid work. In 1951, he married Elisabeth Ziegler in Antibes.

In 1953, he signed a recording contract with Disques Vogue that lasted for the rest of his life. He recorded many hit tunes, including “Les Oignons”, “Promenade aux Champs-Elysees”, and the international hit “Petite Fleur“. He also composed a classical ballet score in the late Romantic style of Tchaikovsky called La Nuit est sorcière (“The Night Is a Witch”). Some existentialists in France took to calling him le dieu (“the god”).

Signing Off

Tags

Charles Trenet, DOMO, French, Music, NHK, Song, Television, Tokyo

When I was posted to the Communist Paradise of the People’s Republic of China between 2004 and 2007, I use to watch a lot of Japanese television on NHK. I always liked the production value and watching the news no matter how dreadful the story it was always read calmly. No need to get excited it’s only the news, that’s Japan. A country I visited twice and simply loved it, so civilized. Not the case in China with its non-stop propaganda news, similar to what you could see in North Korea.

NHK, is Japan’s national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized acronym in Japanese, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers’ payments of a television license fee. It’s motto, まっすぐ、真剣。 (“Straightforward, earnest”)

At night the signing off music is the great French song of Charles Trenet, La Mer. Truly a classic song it there ever was one. The words are beautiful, it is a poem about the Sea describing its quality, a shepherdess watching over the crest of the wave which are white like sheep. Shepherdess of infinite azure. The Sea cradles my heart for life.

 

DOMO Kun, the Official Mascot of NHK television

Towards Xmas

Tags

Canada., Christmas, Food, French, life, Montreal, Music, Quebec

This week listening to Radio-Canada in the morning I heard some old Christmas favourites from my childhood. One was Mon Beau Sapin, Roi des Forêts known in English as O Tannenbaum. This was the song the second wife of my maternal grandfather, we called Tante Fernande would sing each Christmas at lunch at my grandfather’s house when all his children and spouses and us grandkids would gather for the traditional meal, gifts and benediction. It was an old, I dare say a very old tradition going back several generations, the family patriarch would bless is family for the New Year. Tante Fernande would have cooked a turkey it was always an excellent birds and very juicy, serving peas and mash potatoes and cranberries which she called Atoka, dessert would be a mix of chocolates, Bûche de Noël and other sweets. I always thought that Atoka was the real name for cranberries but it turn out that Atoka is a Quebec recipe for processing cranberries after they are harvested. It gives a much sweeter fruit and has none of the tartness found in canned cranberries. Tante Fernande was a cook who did everything from scratch including her cranberries. You could not buy canned cranberries back then or if you could it was not done on good homes.

The dishes used to serve the Christmas meal was on two dinner sets, one was white with a dark blue and gold rim, the other set was their wedding dinner set which I have now.

There were other songs and my aunts knew one each, a favourite, one was Petit Papa Noël, my Mom use to sing that one. It is not an old song, the melody is taken from an old Ukrainian song and the words written in 1944 were about a child asking Santa to bring his father home for Xmas from the POW camp in Germany. After the war the words were changed erasing any reference to the war to what we hear today. It is a song that you would learn in school and my mother knew it well.  It was part of every Christmas music recital at school in French Canada. Tino Rossi premiered this song in 1946 and it became his Christmas signature song. Radio-Canada played it today as part of their weekend Christmas show it brought back a tidal wave of memories.

On this score the French service Radio-Canada is doing a much better job with their Christmas programming than the CBC who is playing a mix of commercial music. Tomorrow 23 December, the CBC will have an all day Christmas concert as they do every year from the European Union broadcasted live starting at 9am. Radio-Canada will have its programming, vintage shows from the 1940 to 1970. Despite the fact that such programming might be speaking to an older generation, it is still enormously popular.

Maybe it speaks about a time when Christmas was not about shopping and stress. The Media today puts a heavy emphasis on how stressful and unpleasant it is, with those awful relatives. I wonder why it has to be this way, not to mention the trove of bad news. It sounds almost perverse.

Gifts use to be in my mother’s childhood an orange which was a luxury then, books, clothing like a scarf or a sweater. For us it was books, sweets or the dreaded Fentex slippers your gradma knitted for you, some small amount of money like a $5. bill new and crisp or a board game. The adults were not stressed, no one was driving around shopping in malls, it was a nice holiday with a focus in Roman Catholic Quebec on religion and midnight mass recalling the traditions of Old Canada and France.

The other popular song and remains so to this day is J’ai vu maman embrassé le Père Noël sung by Line Renaud who is 90 years old. This 1956 version is one you will hear on the radio. Renaud was and remains one of the great French singer of her time.

Well we avoided the stress of Christmas and it is something I never quite understood why so many people whipped themselves into a frenzy.  I think that a lot of the stress is made up on false notions about gifts and having to please other people, it is somewhat artificial. I hope you all have lots of fun and enjoyment out of the Holiday Season.

My Best Wishes to You!

 

Have you made your list?

Tags

Canada., Christmas, home, life, Music, Santa, Travel

Have you made your list for Santa?

What do you want for Xmas? I would like a BMW convertible or better still a Bentley Convertible, lots of Bulgari stuff and some nice cases of Bollinger Champagne. like in this photo in Lisbon.

 

Today 87 years ago, on 11 December 1931 Canada became a fully independent Country with the proclamation of the Statute of Westminster, George V was proclaimed King of the Dominion of Canada. These important changes were enshrined into our Constitution and Canada adopted its own Law on Royal Succession.  We were also able to finally make our own Foreign Policy independent from Britain and open our own Canadian Embassies around the world. The first one was in Tokyo, Japan and Sir Herbert Marler was our first Canadian Ambassador to the Empire of Japan.

 

On a rainy day

Tags

beijing, China, congress, Music

Today was a windy and rainy day typical of Autumn on PEI. I had a few things to do like going to the garage to get my oil changed and get the tire pressure checked. Do a bit of work on the campaign which is drawing to a close but much remains to be done. I found this video on YouTube, recorded by CCTV (Central China TV) it shows the dawn raising of the Chinese flag ceremony of on 1 January 2018 on Gate of Heavenly Peace Square or Tian An Men Square which is more rectangular.

There cannot be a more symbolic square in China, fronted by the outer gates of the Forbidden City with its 3 archways, the central one being higher than the other two and reserved exclusively for the Emperor, on the left side of the square is the National museum whose vocation has been changing in the last 20 years and on the right side the Great Hall of the People used for the Chinese People’s Congress and for State functions. At the Southern end of the square is another gate Qian Men (Front Southern Gate), since 2006 the City of Beijing has re-built completely the area in what it must have been liked 100 years ago under the Imperial regime with traditional architecture, opera theatres and old traditional shops, somewhat like Chinese Disneyland. In the middle of the Square is Mao Tse Tung Mausoleum which is only open a couple of days a year and is in need of restoration as it appears frozen in time since his death in 1976.

Every day the flag is raised on Tiananmen Square but New Year’s Day is seen as auspicious. While serving in China, I got to see quite a few of these ceremonies. The one which remains with me is the day I went to the People’s Congress meeting in the Great Hall of the People. Our Embassy was in the area of Dongzhimen Wai (East Straight Gate) in the Chao Yang district, I remember being taken down the third ring road during the time the People’s Congress was sitting in March. The government of China would invite Embassies to send observers.  All along the way two lanes of the four lane ring road were reserved exclusively for official cars and a police officer in full uniform was posted every 100 meters, you need a lot of manpower to do that. Our car then turned unto the avenue of Eternal Peace which leads to Tiananmen Square. Again an honour guard all along the route over several kilometres. Upon entering the square gigantic displays of flowers, honour guards to direct the official cars to the main door of the Great Hall of the People, large red carpets climbing the stairs.  Once inside all the walls are in white marble but in keeping with the Soviet Style of architecture it is all over sized dwarfing people. The walls also had large tapestry showing scenes of happy workers receiving bouquets of flowers from happy children and peasants. Other tapestries had patriotic scenes or nature scene rendered in socialist realist style, high in colour.

1920 Photo of Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City is in the background and the gate in the foreground was demolished in 1957 when the square was remodelled as we see it today.

 

In the Great Hall itself where the sessions took place thousands of delegates sat in a large theatre facing the stage where the Head of State, Premier and Ministers including other senior officials of the Chinese ruling bureau sat, each with his or her cup of tea, attendants bring tea continuously. On the large balcony above a 100 piece military orchestra would play patriotic music when signalled to do so. We sat at one end of the balcony observing the ritual of voting on laws or listening to speeches. It was all choreographed. The 56 ethnic minorities living in the People’s Republic of China are also represented in the Assembly and each one is made to wear its ethnic costume so as not to confuse them with the dominant Han Chinese delegates in dark business suits.

The day we attended the Congress a law was passed forbidding Taiwan from seceding from the motherland. Another signal that China is serious about its one China policy. I remember watching the vote, it went like this; In favour 2998 and 2 abstentions, I always wondered who abstained. However another vote was on accepting the final report from the Supreme Court of China on its activities for the year. In this case the vote went this way; 2875 in favour, 110 against and 15 abstentions. After each vote the military band would play. It was all very exciting to see.

 

Canada G7

Tags

Canada., Chabrier, G7, Music, Politics, threath, USA, World

Now that Canada has been declared a National Security Threat to the USA by none other than Prez Trump, let us look at others who have been declared such in the past by other Presidents and see if Canada fits in with this description.

Measures taken to ensure U.S. national security include:

• Using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats.
• Marshaling economic power to elicit cooperation.
• Maintaining effective armed forces.
• Implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness policies (including anti-terrorism legislation)
• Ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure.
• Using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, and to protect classified information.
• Tasking counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats.

I am sure being a retired diplomat that President Trump has already directed the US Government to take such action against Canada, it goes well beyond tariffs on steel and aluminium.

As the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, was fond of saying, US national debt has become perhaps our top national security threat. The United States has been running trillion-dollar deficits, resulting in a huge explosion in the country’s indebtedness. Publicly held debt now equals 70% of gross domestic product, a threshold many economists consider significant and highly worrisome. Making matters worse, half of our current deficit financing is being provided by foreigners.

Others threats to the security of the USA are:  unstable Middle-East with no peace in sight, Climate change, Cyber terrorism, President Putin, the energy future, South Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan), the next space challenge, unstable Africa in the face of epidemics like Ebola. With President Trump’s unpredictable behaviour he may by himself create instability for the USA and create new unnecessary crisis.

This weekend in Charlevoix, Quebec the G7 is meeting and the attitude and tweeting of President Trump and his early departure from the conference simply isolates the USA in the world and angers is most trusted and long term allies. Prime Minister Trudeau is correct is stating that the declaration of Trump is illogical and insulting for Canadians. But the President does not seem to care and believes he can bully Canada and other nations. We will have to bow to his demands, however now Canadians are more united than ever in the face of this aggression by the American administration.

So I chose to listen to music instead by Emmanuel Chabrier 1841-1894. When confronted by fools take the high road, this is what I am doing.

Just a quick one

Tags

Bach, comedy, life, Music, royal wedding

As you probably know by now there is a Royal Wedding happening in May of minor royal prince by now. In all the Official paperwork that needs to be done for this wedding, the Queen as Sovereign has to give her permission and the Great Seal must be fixed to said documents which are then kept by the Privy Council Office. In those documents you can read that the party who is to marry is called H.R.H Prince Henry and Ms. Rachel Markle. You will hear those names pronounced during the wedding service so do not be surprise.

It is quite late and I am listening to piano music on Radio-Canada.  It is J.S. Bach and I love to sit in the dark and just listen to the music. It is so relaxing and enchanting. Bach’s Partita no 4, played by Glenn Gould and recorded in 1963.

Here is a compilation tourism poster of PEI, the Season is just about to start.

It was a French comedian who said:

Speaking of oneself leads to an absolute dead end.