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Florem effleure un genre, une époque

Jolie Mome est absolument merveilleuse. Merci!

Julien-James Vachon's avatarDirect-Actu.fr le blogzine de la culture pop et alternative

Un article particulier, pour une chanson particulière.

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J’suis snob (Boris Vian) – Tatiana Eva-Marie

Baudelaire was interested in the concept of “The Dandy” as a correction to and standing above the faults of democracy. Leaving aside, for a moment, the differences between dandies and snobs, this song sounds rather cuckoo and is definitely not meant to be taken seriously. It is also curiously sweet and mignon.

The lyrics in French and with English translation are at https://lyricstranslate.com/en/jsuis-snob-im-snob.html

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Line(s) of the Day #YesMinister (RIP Derek Fawlds)

Such a great programme and sad news of Fawld’s passing.

alexraphael's avatarAlex Raphael

Derek FawldsBernard Woolley: “I’ll just say, ‘The Minister has asked me to thank you for your letter’ and something like ‘The matter is under consideration’, or even ‘under active consideration’.”
Jim Hacker: “What’s the difference?”
Bernard Woolley: “Well, ‘under consideration’ means we’ve lost the file, ‘under active consideration’ means we’re trying to find it.”

Jim Hacker: I’d like a new chair. I hate swivel chairs.
Bernard Woolley: It used to be said there were two kinds of chairs to go with two kinds of Minister: one sort folds up instantly; the other sort goes round and round in circles.

Bernard Woolley: Well, take the Foreign Office. First you get the CMG, then the KCMG, then the GCMG; the Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, Knight Commander of St Michael and St George, Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George. Of course, in the Service…

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Elizabeth Jennings’s Poem – Answers

I kept my answers small and kept them near;
Big questions bruised my mind but still I let
Small answers be a bulwark to my fear.

The huge abstractions I kept from the light;
Small things I handled and caressed and loved.
I let the stars assume the whole of night.

But the big answers clamoured to be moved
Into my life. Their great audacity
Shouted to be acknowledged and believed.

Even when all small answers build up to
Protection of my spirit, still I hear:
Big answers striving for their overthrow

And all the great conclusions coming near.

Jennings was a devout Catholic and it seems that religious themes are present in her work and in this poem in particular.

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German Expressionism: taking inspiration from Leicester

Fascinating stuff! There always seems more to discover on this topic including Polish and Scandinavian artists drawn into the ambit of German art in this fertile period.

europeancollections's avatarLanguages across Borders

Expressionism in Germany is particularly associated with two major groups which emerged before World War One: Der Blaue Reiter in Munich and Die Brücke in Dresden, artistic communities which reacted against the bourgeois culture and wanted to change art and society. For those interested in seeing German Expressionist works now, obvious destinations are the Lenbachhaus in Munich or the Brücke Museum in Berlin. But closer to home, Leicester has a large collection of German Expressionist works which grew out of an exhibition of “Mid-European art” held there in February 1944. The exhibition was instigated by the then director of Leicester museums, Trevor Thomas (his is a fascinating life story – dismissed from his role in Leicester after the war following a court appearance for public indecency at a time when homosexuality was illegal, the last person to see Sylvia Plath alive…) and featured works belonging to a German emigré collector…

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#Non-Fiction The Churchill Factor

Thanks for this Nancy.It saves me from having to read it. Have you read Michael Todd’s great novels about Churchill? Andrew Roberts writes well too- his book on Salisbury was very enjoyable.

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Colette – Claudine at School

Lady Fancifull's avatarLady Fancifull

Wicked, vicious and enchanting – girl power in France, circa 1900

Claudine at SchoolA major effect of my sequential twentieth century challenge is that reading in this way will inevitably take me outside the book itself as an isolated reading experience, and focus some attention on the time, culture and geography of its arising – and, I suspect, I shall happily be drawn into ‘biographical fallacy’ as there is always a life being lived (the author’s) in that time, culture and geography. And sat within the twenty-first century, it will no doubt be interesting to see how much we consider to be modern and new is of course, merely a spiral: specific manifestations may change, but the form remains the same

So, turning to Colette’s first novel, Claudine at School, the story of a racy minx of a fifteen year old in a perhaps unusual school in Burgundy, which was published in…

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Ink and watercolour

Alan Skyrme's avatar

Bell tower of the Sanctuary of the Madonna of Trapani

This sketch was one of over 50 paintings that I completed last month while in Erice, Sicily. I have just arrived home after a two-day journey from Erice, via Palermo, Rome and Lisbon (overnight in Lisbon as is my normal practice), and have not done any painting since just before Christmas.

I will need a couple of days to get settled before setting up my easel, paints and brushes but I do have a long list of subjects to keep me occupied for the foreseeable future including a couple of commissioned paintings. These do not have short deadlines so I can plan to my own agenda.

The first thing for me to do is journal work to get my coordination and mixing skills back up to speed. I prefer to paint every day, even just a simple sketch is enough…

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Margot White – The Letter

Julien-James Vachon's avatarDirect-Actu.fr le blogzine de la culture pop et alternative

Les paroles de Margot White plongent l’auditeur dans un autre monde, composé d’un art du discours à partir de l’art conversationnel de Vashti Bunyan et Joni Mitchell,  mélangé à une pincée d’images démoniaques de Rimbaud, et même un peu de la conscience sociale de Yevtushenko.

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Thoughts on “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond

I enjoyed reading this too- interesting approach but I put it down having been distracted by some other tome. I think people who enjoyed this might be interested in the French historian, Fernand Braudel who also takes a broad approach to historical themes. Thanks for posting.