TEXTS AND TUNES

The pick of what I have been reading (and re-reading) , and listening to lately:

The House of Kanooru; Kuvempu
Istanbul; Orhan Pamuk ... again and again.
Tristes Tropiques; Claude Levi Strauss
Observer Food monthly; 28 May 2006
Lost in Translation; in The Guardian 23 May 2006

Balaji Pancharatnamalas; M S Subbulakshmi
Il Postino - the soundtrack; Luis Bacalov
Dasara Pada; Vidyabhushana Theertharu
Symphony 29; Mozart

SOLITARY SPENDOUR

The Star

Edgar Degas, 1876 - 77

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

(This is a personal favourite)

AN EQUAL MUSIC

And into that gate they shall enter,
and in that house they shall dwell,
where there shall be no cloud nor sun,
no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light,
no noise nor silence,
but one equal music,
no fears nor hopes,
but one equal possession,
no foes nor friends,
but one equal communion and identity,
no ends nor beginnings,
but one equal eternity.

JOHN DONNE

EXTRA VIRGIN OR OTHERWISE

And among the good things of the earth
I set apart
Olive oil,
Your ever-flowing peace, your green essence
Your heaped-up treasure which descends
In streams from the olive tree.

(An extract from Pablo Neruda's Ode to Olive Oil)

RITES OF PASSAGE

THE REGENT'S PARK, LONDON

AUTUMN 2004