09:00 Lois and I drive over to
Bishops Cleeve to go shopping for food at the local Tesco supermarket. First we
pop into the Longfield Charity Shop to donate two boxes of unwanted board games
and jigsaw puzzles, thus marking the end of the 2nd phase of our current
downsizing mini-project (board games and jigsaw puzzles ha ha!). The remaining
board games and puzzles we will take with us when we visit Alison, our eldest
daughter, and her family in Haslemere, Surrey – they have said they would like
them.
Finally, we swing by the local
hardware store to look for a new washing-up bowl, because our current one tends
to leak, but we have no luck getting one the right size - our kitchen sink must
be slightly smaller than the modern ones. Damn!
We have decided not to have our
current bowl repaired after reading reports on our go-to local news site, Onion
News, about the problems some of our neighbours have experienced.
Expressing concern that the
octogenarian mark seemed too feeble to get the job done, sources confirmed on
Monday that the apartment management company had apparently sent a senior
citizen to repair the washing-up bowl.
"I first thought he was a
resident who had wandered away from his nursing home, but then he said he was
here to repair the washing-up bowl and asked me to carry his toolbox up the
stairs for him," said local resident Tyler Porter about the elderly
repairman, who had let out a quiet groan as he lowered his fragile body onto a
chair to examine the leak in the bowl.
"He stopped moving for a
long time while he was resting on the chair and I was worried that he had died.
I kept peeping into the kitchen occasionally to make sure his chest was still
rising and falling. Honestly, this dude looks like he may be kicking it any second.
"
At press time, Porter announced
plans to fix the still-leaking bowl himself, as he couldn't bear to watch the
old man struggle any more.
My goodness, what a crazy world
we live in! Lois and myself are now just a couple of old crows, and we cannot handle
as many tasks in the house and in the garden as before. We depend on being able
to hire healthy young repair-guys to fix all our many broken and damaged
appliances and fittings. Prospects are gloomy if we are going to have to pitch
in and help them, or give them artificial respiration or mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation as required, and suchlike. Yikes!
A woman gives an elderly repairman
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
10:30 We come home and relax with
a cup of coffee on the sofa. Afterwards, I go up the loft ladder and collect
all the unwanted cassette tapes and LP records I can see, thus marking the
beginning of the 3rd phase of our downsizing mini-project - music. In fact,
most cassette tapes I come across are
not music at all - they are recordings of my late father-in-law Dennis's old
sermons: he was a lay preacher.
I collect all the cassette tapes and LP
discs I can see in the attic
and put them down in the
well-documented zone surrounding the entrance hatch
Later I drag all the cassette tapes and
LP records down the loft ladder
and put them on the beds in our
daughter Alison's old room
I'm exhausted - I feel like I've
come through a very strenuous workout. I am getting old, no doubt about that.
12:30 We have lunch and
afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and
go out into the garden. I mow the lawn in the front yard also the lawn immediately
behind the house. I'll leave the remaining lawns till tomorrow.
16:00 I come back into the house.
Lois has been doing more genealogical research on my behalf. Yesterday she
found a photo taken in the early 1890s, of my maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother,
Jane Howells (1814-1893), standing in front of the Marine Hotel that she owned
in Southerndown, South Wales. Jane's son-in-law, Richard Davies, the hotel's
manager, was standing at the entrance, with something in his hand - some
document perhaps, that could have been the reason why the photo was taken ????
We shall never know now!
My maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother,
Jane Howells (born Jane Jenkins)
1814-1893, no 2 from the right, dressed
in black, in front of the Marine Hotel,
which she owned. Jane's son-in-law,
Richard Davies, the hotel manager,
is standing at the entrance with
something mysterious in his hand
Today, Lois has found an advertisement
that announced the sale of the hotel in 1909: Richard Davies must have
inherited the hotel when Jane died in 1893, but decided to sell it 16 years
later.
In 1909 Richard Davies
decided to sell the hotel at an auction
18:00 We have dinner and watch
some television, an interesting documentary (part 1 of 5) about the young
Picasso, starting from his childhood in Malaga in southern Spain. The host of
the program is the charming Phil Grabsky (crazy name, crazy guy).
Interestingly, at the beginning
of his career as an artist, Picasso painted completely normal images - it was
only in 1900 that we got the first clue that he was ready to challenge norms.
In Barcelona He painted his sister Lola with an "empty" face - Lois
and I wonder whether he could perhaps have forgotten to include her eyes etc,
simply out of absent-mindedness. However one of the programme's experts
commented that if you are in a dark room where the sun is shining very strongly
from outside, some details, such as eyes, noses, mouths, etc. may seem unclear.
But that’s something the jury is still out on, as far as Lois and I are
concerned.
It is a bit of a shame, that
Picasso did not make more of an effort to clear up and clean up in the studio before he
finished painting his sister's portrait - there are some awful-looking used
tubes of paint everywhere on the floor, but I’m going to let that one slide
- that studio is a real pigsty, and no mistake!
A little later, Picasso moved to
Paris, where by his own admission he spent as much time "fondling" women as painting them,
but at least he decided to go to bed at 10 pm, like Lois and me, so he would be
refreshed and ready to fondle and paint more women the following day, which
makes sense.
Lois and I are very eager to find
out when his "blue period" started and why, and we get the answer
now. Picasso still painted "normally" at this time, but a tragedy
involving his best friend, Casagemas, made him paint everything blue for a
period as his colour of choice. The two friends fell in love with the same
woman, Germaine, but because of Casagema's impotence, "Fernande"
preferred to go to bed with Picasso, because with him she had more action
between the sheets, but that was a decision by her that Casagema was not too
happy about, to put it mildly.
Casagemas eventually tried to
shoot Germaine at a cafe - he missed, but he didn't realize he’d missed,
because she fainted and fell to the floor. Then he pointed the gun at himself, and
this time he didn’t miss.
Picasso became a little depressed
for a period after his friend's death, and that’s why he started his "blue
period", which makes sense in a kind of way.
He recovered from his depression
a little later, after he met the lovely married but available "Fernande Olivier", real
name, Amelie Lang, and then Picasso started on his so-called "pink
period", although there is actually not that much pink in the pictures
during this period which seems surprising.
In fact, the programme's experts
do not give a very good explanation as to why his blue period stopped – and Lois
and I speculate that he might just have got sick of the colour blue, or maybe
the local Wilkinson’s arts and crafts department store might have run out of
blue paint tubes, but that’s something we are not entirely sure about.
Picasso had always been a big fan
of circuses, so he started painting acrobats and other circus artists, although
he always used to sneak himself and "Fernande" into the pictures -
Lois and I suspect it was a kind of "In-joke" between the two lovers,
but we are not entirely sure.
Picasso on the left, as Harlequin, Fernande on the right
Finally he painted one of his
masterpieces, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). He had seen some nude pictures
that Ingres had painted, e.g. the Turkish Bath, and he was inspired to paint his
own nude models:
Ingres' "Turkish Bath" (1852-1862)
Picasso's "Harem" (1906)
and "Nude with a Pitcher" (1906)
"Les Demoiselles
d'Avignon" marked the beginning of what later became his "cubist
period" - five naked prostitutes with cubist faces - the idea was that he
tried to paint multi-dimensional figures on a flat surface that the viewer
should interpret to reproduce the original multi-dimensional images.
Interestingly, Picasso's original
idea for the painting was to include two of the 5 prostitutes' customers in the
picture: a sailor and a medical student, but he changed his mind for some
reason. Perhaps the two men threatened to sue him perhaps?
Or perhaps nature had already
given them cubist faces, so it didn't seem worthwhile to include them in
particular, but who knows ?! Many men are born with different types of ugly traits
that resemble cubism, Lois and I have noticed. Is it the case that nature
imitates art, or vice versa? Perhaps the programme's experts will discuss this
issue in the series’s 4 remaining episodes, or that’s what we hope at least!
Lois and I are initially
impressed by all the programme's distinguished experts and their explanations
of cubism, but after the end of the programme, we realise that we cannot
remember exactly what the explanations were - damn! Well, there’s sure to be
another series like this next year – no doubt about that!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!
Danish translation
09:00 Lois og jeg kører over til Bishops Cleeve for at gå madindkøb i
det lokale Tesco-supermarked. Først smutter vi ind i
Longfield-velgørenhedsbutik for at donere to kasser med uønskede brætspil og
puslespil, hvilket markerer enden på den 2. fase af vores nuværende downsize
mini-projekt (brætspil og puslespil ha ha!). De resterende brætspil og
puslespil skal vi tage med når vi besøger Alison, vores ældste datter, og
hendes familie i Haslemere, Surrey.
Til sidst smutter vi ind i den lokale isenkræmmer for at lede efter en
ny opvaskebalje, fordi vores nuværende har tendens til at lække, men uden held
– vores køkkenvask er lidt mindre, end de moderne. Pokkers!
Vi har besluttet ikke at få vores nuværende balje repareret efter at
have læst rapporter på vores go-to lokale nyhedswebsted, Onion News, om de
problemer, vores naboer har oplevet.
For at udtrykke bekymring for, at den
octogenærke syntes for svag for at få arbejdet gjort, bekræftede kilder mandag,
at lejlighedsstyringsselskabet tilsyneladende havde sendt en seniorborger til
at reparere opvaskebaljen.
"Jeg troede først, at han var en beboer,
som havde vandret væk fra hans plejehjem, men da sagde han, at han var her for
at reparere opvaskebaljen og bad mig om at bære sin værktøjskasse op ad trappen
for ham", sagde den lokale indbygger Tyler Porter om den ældre reparatør,
der udstødte et stille støn, da han sænkede sin skrøbelige krop på en stol for
at undersøge lækken i baljen.
"Han holdt op med at bevæge sig i rigtig
lang tid, mens han sad og hvilede sig på stolen, så jeg var så bekymret over,
at han døde. Jeg fortsatte med at kigge af og til ind i køkkenet for at sikre, at hans bryst stadig stiger og
falder. Helt ærligt ser denne fyr ud som on, han måske kan kradse af når som
helst. "
På pressetid meddelte Porter planer om at fikse
den stadig lække balje selv, da han ikke kunne udholde at se den gamle mand
kæmpe mere.
Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i ! Lois og jeg selv er nu
gamle krager, og vi kan ikke klare så mange opgaver i huset og i haven, som
før. Vi afhænger af at kunne ansætte raske unge reparatører til at fikse alle
vores mange apparater og monteringer, der er gået i stykker, og den slags.
Udsigterne er dystre, hvis vi bliver nødt til at hjælpe dem til, og give dem
kunstig åndedræt eller mund-til-mund genoplivning som krævet og den slags. Yikes!
en kvinde
giver en ældre reparationsmand mund-til-mund genoplivning
10:30 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Bagefter
går jeg op ad loftstigen og samle alle de uønskede kassettebånd og lp-plader,
jeg kan se, hvilket marker begyndelsen på den 3. fase af vores downsize
mini-projekt – musik. Faktisk er de fleste kassettebånd jeg falder over slet
ikke musik – de er optagelser af min afdøde svigerfar Dennis’ gamle prædikener:
han var lægprædikant.
jeg samler
alle de kassettebånd og lp-plader jeg kan se i loftet
og lægger
dem i den veldokumenterede zone, der omkranser selve loftlemmen
senere
slæber jeg alle de kassettebånd og lp-plader ned ad loftstigen
og lægger
dem på sengene i vores datter Alisons gamle værelse
Jeg er udmattet – jeg føler som om, jeg er kommet igennem en meget
anstrængende workout. Jeg bliver gammel, ingen tvivl om det.
12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en
gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og går ud i haven. Jeg slår
græsplænen i forhaven også den græsplæne, der ligger umiddelbart bag huset. Jeg
overlader de resterende græsplæner til i morgen.
16:00 Jeg kommer tilbage ind i huset. Lois har været i gang med at gøre
mere genealogisk forskning på min vegne. I går fandt hun et foto, taget først i
1890’erne, af min mormors farmor, Jane Howells (1814-1893), der stod foran det Marine
Hotel, hun ejede i Southerndown,
Syd-Wales. Janes svigersøn, Richard Davies, hotellets manager, stod ved
indgangen, med noget i hånden - et eller andet dokument måske, der var grunden
af, at fotoet blev taget????
Min mormors
farmor, Jane Howells (født Jane Jenkins) 1814-1893, nr 2 fra højre,
klædt i
sort, foran Marine Hotel, Southerndown, som hun ejede.
Janes
svigersøn, Richard Davies, hotellets manager, står ved indgangen med noget i
hånden
I dag har Lois fundet en reklame, der offentliggjorde salget af hotellet
i 1909: Richard Davies må have arvet hotellet, da Jane døde i 1893, men
besluttede at sælge det 16 år senere.
auction ad:
Richard Davies besluttede i 1909 at sælge hotellet på en auktion
18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og ser lidt fjernsyn, en interessant
dokumentarfilm (1. del af 5) der handler om den unge Picasso, startende fra sin
barndom i Malaga i det sydlige Spanien. Programmets vært er den charmerende Phil
Grabsky (skørt navn, skør fyr).
Det er interessant, at Picasso i begyndelsen af sin karriere som
kunstner, malede helt normale billeder – det var kun i 1900, at vi får den første anelse om, at han var klar
til at udfordre normer. I Barcelona Han malede sin søster Lola med et
"tomt"ansigt – Lois og jeg undrer os om, at han måske glemte at
inkludere hendes øjne osv ud af åndsfraværelse, men én af programmets eksperter
kommenterer, at hvis man er inde i et mørkt rum, hvor solen skinner meget
udefra, kan nogle detaljer, øjen, næser, munder osv synes at være uklare. Men
det er juryen stadig ude om, det må jeg nok sige.
Lola i Picassos studie (1900)
Det er lidt af skam i øvrigt, han ikke lagde en lidt større indsats i at
rydde op i studiet, før han malede færdig sin søsters portræt – der er brugte
tuber maling overalt på gulvet, men det springer jeg over.
Lidt senere, flyttede han til Paris, hvor han brugte en masse tid på at
kærtegne kvinder udover at male, men i det mindste besluttede sig for at gå i
seng kl 22, ligesom Lois og mig, så han ville være forfrisket og klar til at
male mere og kærtegne mere den følgende dag, hvilket virker fornuftigt.
Lois og jeg er meget ivrig efter at finde ud af, hvornår hans ”blå
periode” startede og hvorfor, og vi får svaret nu. Picasso malede stadig ”normalt” på dette
tidspunkt, men en tragedie involverende hans bedste ven, Casagemas, gjorde ham
til at male alt blåt i en periode. De to venner forelskede sig i samme kvinde, Germaine,
men på grund af Casagemas’ impotens, foretrak ”Fernande” at gå i seng med
Picasso, fordi med ham havde hun mere rigtig gang i lagnerne, men det var
Casagemas ikke ret glad for, for at sige mildt.
Casagemas prøvede til sidst at skyde Germaine på en café – det
mislykkedes ham at ramme hende, men det
indså han ikke, fordi hun besvimede, og så skød han sig selv, et
succesfuldt skød denne gang.
Picasso blev lidt deprimeret i en periode efter sin vens død, og derfor
startede han sin ”blå periode”, hvilket giver mening.
Han kom sig ovenpå sin depression lidt senere, efter han mødte den
dejlige ”Fernande Olivier”, ægte navn, Amelie Lang, og så startede Picasso på
sin såkaldte ”pink periode”, selvom der faktisk er ikke ret meget pink i
billederne i denne periode, hvilket virker overraskende. Faktisk giver
programmets eksperter ikke en meget god forklaring på, hvorfor hans blå periode
stoppede – Lois og jeg spekulerer på, at han måtte have blevet godt trætte af
farven blå, eller måske det
lokale Wilkinsons-stormagasin kunne have løbet tør for blå malingtuber, men
det er vi ikke helt sikre på.
Picasso havde i hvert fald altid været en stor fan af circusser, så han
begyndte at male akrobater og andre cirkusartister, men han havde for vane at
snige sig selv og ”Fernande” ind i billederne – Lois og jeg mistænker, at det
var en slags ”in-joke” (indvendig vittighed eller privat joke) blandt de to
kærester, men det er vi ikke helt sikre på.
Picasso
til venstre, som Harlequin, Fernande til højre
Til sidst malede han et af sine mesterværker, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
(1907). Han havde set nogle nøgenbilleder, som Ingres har malet, fx den
Turkiske bad, og han blev inspireret til at male sine egne nøgne modeller:
Picassos ”Harem” (1906) og ”Nude with a Pitcher”
(1906)
“Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon” markede indledningen til hvad blev senere til hans ”kubistiske
periode” – fem nøgne prostituerede med
kubistiske ansigter – idéen var, at han forsøgte at male
multi-dimensionale figurer på en flad overflade, som seeren skulle fortolke for
at reproducere den oprindelige multi-dimensionale images.
”Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”
(1907)
Lois og jeg er i
begyndelsen imponeret af programmets eksperter og deres forklaringer, men efter
endt programmet, indser vi, at vi ikke kan huske præcis, hvad forklaringen var –
pokkers!
Det er
interessant, at Picassos oprindlige idé for maleriet var at inkludere to af de
5 prostitueredes kunder i billedet: en sømand og en medicinsk studerende, men
han skiftede mening. Måske truede de to mænd om at sagsøge ham måske? Eller
måske naturen havde allerede givet dem kubistiske ansigter, så det virkede ikke
det værd at inkludere dem i særdeleshed, men hvem ved?! Mange mænd er født med
forskellige typer af grimme træk, der ligner kubismen, har Lois og jeg
bemærket. Er det tilfældet at natur imiterer kunst, eller omvendt? Måske vil
programmets eksperter diskutere dette spørgsmål i seriens 4 resterende
episoder, eller det håber vi i hvert fald!
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